Update the damn thing already!

I know, I know, no updates in a while. Here's the scoop:

Melissa and I left Annabel with Grandma D on Saturday so that we could go out with Doris and Chris. We took in a showing of Iron Man (AWESOME!) and then went off to the most unfortunately-named place in America (well, besides Bunghole Liquors in Boston,)the Beveridge Place Pub. Try explaining where you are going to someone over the phone. They will frantically be googling "beverage place pub", and ending up with nada. Anywho, it was a blast to get out of the house without the little one in tow.

Speaking of the little one, Annabel is just shy of 8 months, and she is displaying super-genius powers already. She's been crawling for a long while now, pulling herself up on furniture, and has identified me repeatedly as "Da Da". Next week, she's probably going to balance my checkbook. Here is a shot of her conducting static experiments while smartly wearing protective gear.


Other than that, I heard the demos from Brian Wilson's next song-cycle, That Lucky Old Sun. It is quite good. It reminds me of Orange Crate Art, which was a great song, but a terrible album (thanks Van Dyke!) It should be released in September, and will no doubt be compared to sMiLe for its content and style.

The Curtains record is moving along. We are hoping to drop it sometime around the end of July.

Man, I'll get over Brian Wilson one of these days...

So, as the title suggests, I'm stuck in Wilson land yet again. I picked up Sunflower/Surf's Up used at Easy St. Records and proceeded to bash the two of them without mercy on the ride home. WRONG! Well, at least half-wrong. I am seriously starting to put Sunflower upon the pedestal of Beach Boys awesomeness. Serously, I'm starting to think that "This Whole World" is one of Brian's best songs EVER! Admittedly, I'm a total music dork, but the man can pack more musical development in two minutes of song than anyone I've ever heard. Go and iTunes that sucker right now... I dare you! Anywhen, the rest of the album is very solid. The only hitches are that "Add Some Music to Your Day" (the single) is really poor, and that "Forever" was sung by Uncle Jesse on Full House not once, but twice. Does anyone want to help me beat up Mike Love yet? It's sad really, because "Forever" is so goll-darn beautiful. I'm poised to steal the whole na-na-na background vocals for my next tune.

Speaking of next tunes, I've got a new one rolling around my brain. I'll post it up as soon as I demo it. In other music news, Curtains will be heading into the studio to record the next record this weekend. I'll post some pictures and/or snippets next week.

Oh, Annabel has a new tooth to be celebrated. Huzzah! You should head on over to Melissa's blog to see a cute picture of Annabel with her hearing gear on. 'Nuff said for now...

Paging Peter?

Where have I been lately? Sheesh, every time I start a blog the promise of frequent updates seems to evaporate rather quickly. Let's play catch-up, shall we?

- I went paintballing for the first time last weekend, and I have a bruise the size of Miami on my left thigh. It's moving from purple to yellow, so that's a good thing... I think. Ryan (the birthday boy and impetus for paintball) was driven there blindfolded, and was really quite pleased. Fun!

- In a sleep-deprived stupor, I nearly sliced a finger on my left hand off while doing dishes. Today is day 2 without a bandage on it, and I'm glad that my healing ability (while not quite Wolverine level) is pretty darn fast.

- Melissa, Annabel, and I went to the beach with the Hales a couple of weekends ago when it was 80 degrees here in Seattle. One week later, it was snowing. Yes, snowing.

-Speaking of snow, Curtains For You had a snowball fight before taking the stage at The Comet last Friday. We played a frantic short set before giving the stage over to the boys in Apple War. They were quite good, and had a 300 pound organ in tow which had a Leslie speaker and a Moog built in. Wow...

- Speaking of Curtains, we had a hilarious photo shoot last night. It involved costume changes and meat. Melissa and Annabel also attended, and little baby Annabel made it into a few of the band shots.

That's mostly what has been happening as of late. A few things that have been stealing brain power away from me as of late are Jim Noir's excellent new album, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and finally getting around to finishing Dies the Fire. It's not a great book, but is has some fun moments. And now for a random picture of Dr. Strange, because I just got around to watching that new movie about him, and just got volume three of essential Dr. Strange form Amazon the other day.

All the news that's fit to print...

Howdy loyal readers (all two of you - myself included.)

Life has been busy as usual, so here's the scoop:

My sister visited Seattle this last weekend, and we had a very low-key weekend, which consisted of watching the baby and... well, watching the baby. It was great to see her, as I hardly ever get the chance to spend time with her. On a funny note, I experienced "silence in stereo", as there were two people silently glued to their laptops in the apartment at once. Usually, I'm used to "silence in mono", as Melissa is the sole lap-topper. Not that I mind people soaking up the wifi when I'm around, it's just that us desk-toppers can't get away with sitting at our computers for hours on end, as we look like we are shutting out the world. Granted, my back is to the room when I'm computering, but lap-toppers still get that vacant computer brain when they are computering. You know what I mean, right? It's those conversations that go like this:

You: Hey there, I'm having a crisis about this or that, can you help? Oh, by the way, the meaning of life is _____ . Um, the house is on fire and shit, we should get out. Would you like a snack?

Computerizer: Silence.

You: I was wondering if you noticed that elephants were trampling the grass outside. I think the carpet just grew teeth and bit me. Have you seen our flamethrower?

Computerizer: (spoken slowly) Uh huh, what was that?

You: Man, I just ate a whole jar of mayo. Have you seen my galeptigizoink?

Computerizer: (spoken even more slowly) Uh huh.


So, I experienced that in stereo. I recognize that everyone needs to be online these days, but laptops are just unfair about it. The convenience of it all is amazing, but the down-side is that when I'm on the computer, I look like I'm "doing something" and I don't want to be disturbed. While this should be true for lap-toppers, they are just lounging about and somehow my brain thinks that they are still "available" mentally. Okay, all this comes down to is that I'm jealous of laptops. I've always wanted one, but have never had one. There, I said it.

Anywhen, we caucused this weekend (as did all of the boys from Obama For You nee Curtains For You.) They moved our precinct place from one school to another, and neglected to tell us until we were at the old school place (whoa... a double entendre!) The whole affair lasted over two hours, and Annabel was PERFECT! She was stepping out in her "President Poopyhead" outfit, complete with an Obama sticker. Needless to say, the delegate split was 4 Obama and 1 Clinton. I was a bit torn before the vote, and had an issues prep-talk with Melissa on the way over to the caucus. We are both a bit miffed at Obama's civil unions but no gay-marriage stance, but we both chose Obama for other issues. Melissa was concerned that I might go McCain, as I have total and utter respect for the man, but I did my duty to the Dems and stayed in line with my party. Truth be told, I was this close to voting for McCain in 2000. Shhh, don't let that cat out of the bag. Wowzers, a West Coast Democrat who is ballsy enough to say that he almost voted Republican once. I can hear the marching hiking boots and the soft swish of fleece from the lynch mob already...

Doo-be-doo, here's a picture of Annabel that was posted on the West Seattle Blog . Photo (per usual) credited to Melissa of fine-photo fame.




Isn't she cute?

In music news, RPM was on hold due to my sister's visit, but 7 out of 10 ain't bad. I'll get it done. Curtains had a rehearsal last night where we recorded roughs of the new album. We also worked on a new song of Matt's, where I get to play bass. BASS! Huzzah, I finally get to play another instrument on stage. I've never played bass live, and I'm going to make sure to make the most of my stand-up time on stage. I move around a ton when I'm playing guitar on stage (and yes, it's been a LONG time since doing that,) but I refuse to stand up while playing piano. Nothing says "never-been-laid-mouth-breather" more than standing up to play keyboards.

Case in point, pick out the keyboard player in this line-up


Oh yeah, he's the not-so-badass one on the left. And yes, he stands the whole time he is playing on screen. GRRRRRR...

After Christmas Ramble

Howdy all! I trust that your December festivities went well. My Christmas was nice and relaxed. Melissa, Annabel, and I went to grandma's house to bury the baby in presents. First and foremost, the baby ended up with a beautiful red-lacquer toy piano. Sure, she's three months old, but one has to start somewhere. Something tells me that pops will be recording with it very soon... wait, he already has been recording with it. Musically, I ended up getting "Can't Buy Me Love : The Beatles, Britain, and America" along with "Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius". Both look great, and the Wilson book looks technical. Very technical. Since I enjoy that sort of thing (instead of the fluff pieces that most music related books are,) I am really excited to rip into that one. Also of note was the HD DVD add-on for my Xbox 360. I've yet to make it home to set it up, but it will soon be happily married to our HDTV.


Life has been very busy of late, but Melissa and I soldiered through the holidays and are looking toward having some downtime soon. I snuck in a some pre-Christmas music by doing some session work at Avast! 2, here in Seattle. They have a beautiful grand piano up there, and the cavernous studio-B is... well... cavernously huge. It's mind-blowingly fun playing on the piano that was used on the Shin's second record. It was my first time in that studio, and it is a beautiful, spacious, and relaxing place to record music.

Speaking of recording music, I promise that I will actually get out some demos of my newer material one of these days. I am trying to find the time to record the bevy of tunes rolling around in my head before I forget them. Here's a list of what's coming up soon (hopefully!)

- "Roadtrip to Disaster" Kind of a distillation of everything that I love about 60s music in one song. Curtains is working on this one for live use as we speak.

- "Selling the Future" A very simple folk-style song (possibly corrupted with synth drums... shudder) involving the parallel stories of (lonely) Sylvia and (broken businessman) Tim.

- "Dumb Angel" A pretty little song full of community-based hatred and such. Fun!

- "The Ballad of Molly McGinty" As it sounds from the title, it is a traditional shanty. It concerns a woman who supports the forgotten street children of her town by stripping! It involves such splendid topics as murder, homelessness, and pneumonia! Fun!

- "Sal & Ramona" Yes, I will finish this one this year, I promise. It involves the named old couple. It now has the addition of another song being stapled to the front of it, called, "Sal's Wild Years". The transition between the two is "The Man On the Flying Trapeze", as it fits well and is public domain. All in all, it will be around 10 minutes or so.

Other than that, not much is happening musically. We are on a nice vacation from practicing right now, but will be playing a show at the Seattle Art Museum on the 3rd of January. Come on down!