the shit factory

i got posted on kotaku today and got my first negative comments on the web! I have truly arrived.

but then… negative comments be damned - I sold 7 fire flowers (pretty much all i had!) plus a set of ghosts and some shrinky dinky stuff. all while i did things like eat pizza, played my guitar, and even went to the bathroom (this is the shit factory after all)

then, joey lubitsch (who i’ve known since birth but just ran in to after 6 years of not seeing him) and josh cantor (who i went to freakin HEBREW SCHOOL with and haven’t seen since 4th grade!) came over and we had some beers and played some music. i had a blast.

i’m too happy to sleep. i don’t know what to do with myself (hence the quarterly blog post)

well, someone found my space invaders mobile on etsy and liked it enough to blog about it! let’s hope that someone who reads that blog likes it enough to buy it now.

also, the first automata (maybe last? see below) show was last night at the note. it went quite well. we won’t be playing alpine valley anytime soon, but we didn’t scare anyone away either…

the general consensus about automata is that people don’t get the name… so we’re trying to come up with a new name. a free pixelparty gift will go to anyone who comes up with our new name. the name needs to be short, available on myspace, not the name of a signed band or a working band in chicago, and preferably something geeky… any takers?

UPDATE: the fine folks at geek alerts picked up the first link and posted with more pictures. someone’s just gotta buy something. the pinky ring ain’t gonna give itself away…

pssst. that thing I mentioned in class is here. to use it open the zip (sorry if you have a mac.) and copy the files to your drive somewhere. open the file index.htm. it has a link to install the software and links to all of the files… once you’ve installed, you may have to reboot before clicking on the file opens the application.

so the kiss ensemble is back. we’ll be playing october 29th

i said in class today that I’d post a few songs, they’re here…

wow, real wordy. I gotta post again soon. it’s been a month again.

some (not very) new music. I went to reckless and lauries (months ago and saved this draft), and picked up a huge stack of stuff… here’s my 2 favorites

Curumin - Achados E Perdidos: this wasn’t on my list, but the review that reckless put on the cover intrigued me. they compared it to early beck mixed with a bit of latin soul… simply amazing. he’s coming to hothouse next month. got to go.

catfish haven - please come back: a local band, another great review from laurie’s staff. the review made it sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread. I wouldn’t go that far. acoustic pop songs that don’t sound like acoustic pop songs. reminiscent of, but not too much like springsteen, dylan, etc. 4 months later, I just put it down because I played it too much. truly awesome record, can’t wait to hear more from them.

i went to the empty bottle to check out the buffalo killers yesterday. it’s the new band from 3 members of thee shams. i gotta say, i was impressed. i guess they’re going for a more psychedelic feel, as evidenced by the oil light projected behind them. more slower songs, but still very bluesy, and very good. some cool slide work on a couple of songs… i’ll miss a lot of shams songs, but since the 2 main songwriters from thee shams are in buffalo killers, maybe they’ll pull out some of those tunes once they’ve established themselves.

but it’s less of a lag than the last time…

anyway, I’ve decided to dive back into the jazz thing. I took a lesson with alfonso ponticelli which was helpful, but as with all other jazz lessons I’ve taken, my head starts to spin after 2-3 new chords. at the end of the lesson though, he said what I guess i knew all along - the way to learn jazz is to just start learning tunes… the more songs you play, the more chords and changes you come across, and the more you’ll start to reckognize those patterns in other songs… So I’m telling myself that I’m going to pracitce every day (along with practicing my drums every day) and start working on songs. I’m also trying to get a weekly jazz practice going with some people I met in alfonso’s class at the old town school.

so anyway, if you see me on the street, ask me if I practiced my jazz and drums yesterday. if I didn’t, then insult me. it’s for my own good.

well, the only way to keep from going 4 months without posting is to post more, right? well here I go…

I recently discovered a band called Wolfmother, and boy howdy do they rock! Like taking a glass of Thee Shams, pouring in a shot of Black Sabbath, and then the small enough dash of prog (a sweet organ break, and a 2112 style buildup) so that you don’t get sick to make one of those drinks that tastes so good you don’t know is getting you shitfaced until it’s too late…

I managed to miss them in chicago this past thursday, and found out I missed them because friday morning when I was walking into the airport i saw this group of people unloading instruments from a van. I walked by, and spied the name on all of the cases was “WOLFMOTHER”. I asked them when and where they played: “last night at the empty bottle”, proceeded to curse myself for missing it, and walked away…

oh well.. I’ll catch them next time. their full length comes out in the states in may (they’re from australia)

also, I’ll hopefully be posting some more music reviews as I just sold off 100+ cds to reckless and lauries and got a nice stack of shiny used cds and some cash…

hey fellow kiss people. here is the track listing from the cd I handed out today:

2000 man
Deuce
Strutter
She
Black diamond
Strange ways
Detroit rock city
Beth
Let me know
Love theme from KISS
100,000 years
Got to choose
Firehouse
Nothin to lose
C’mon and love me
Let me go rock and roll
Calling dr love
Shout it out loud
Rocket ride
God of thunder

they’re all tuned to E so that you can tune your guitar to standard tuning… also, some of us are thinking about getting together outside of class to practice more. if anyone else is interested, send me mail: shawn at nwahs dot com…

some things to check out from the cd - listen to the end of “she” and “let me know” they have this end jam thing that I think would be cool to do. everyone that wants to could take a solo during that part.

oh poor blog. I neglect you, yet you sit there and continue to exist… weezer is friday. I’m nervous. captain bob’s other site launched a few days ago… ctix launches this weekend, hope my phone don’t ring…