For a variety of reasons I’ll not go into here, I was planning on sitting SXSW 2008 out. I was kinda looking forward to staying at home for once and forgoing the insanity/inanity of the whole spectacle, but at the last minute a friend passed a gig on to me and so there ya go — tacos and sweat and beer and annoying haircuts for the weekend for me!

I’m heading down Friday morning in order to catch a bunch of shows here in Denton. We Shot JR has a good overview of what’s going on in DDFW, but these are my picks for the week:

• Tuesday: Times New Viking @ Strawberry Fields, Neptune @ Fra House
• Wednesday: Human Bell @ Good Records
• Thursday: STNNG @ Wisconsin (formerly The 8th Continent), Harvey Milk @ Andy’s

(The Human Bell LP, I cannot recommend her highly enough. My fave of the year so far.)

Stuff I hope to catch while in Austin: Fucked Up/No Age under the bridge, My Dad Is Dead, and Chris Brokaw. Anything else is just gravy.

Recent work-related stuff: my 3rd sinus infection of the winter has postponed things, but I’m currently mixing an LP for Valencian band Individual, mastering another Esopus Magazine compilation, and continuing work on the new American Werewolf Academy and The New Year LP’s. Tre Orsi has started fine-tuning some older songs in preparation for an April session. Also mixing the tracks I recorded for Last Men (formerly Douche), plus mixing a Notes From Underground LP and recording a new Shiny Around The Edges LP.

Big disappointments of late: no more episodes of The Wire (though Simon tied it up nicely enough), not being able to do the upcoming Destroyer tour, sinus infections.

Tre Orsi (my band with Howard Draper and Bryan VanDivier) has a 7″ single out now. You can pick up a copy at Works Progress.

Our dear friends, The Bottomless Pit have finally released their first album, an 8-song double 12″ 45 rpm + CD. I’m waiting anxiously by my mailbox for its arrival!

Flew back home from Baltimore last night, where we spent a long weekend attending our friends’ wedding and catching up with lots of people. Lots of food, lots of drink, a nice walk around Ft. McHenry, lots of of new babies running around, and no work whatsoever. I’m finally starting to get used to taking actual vacations, not working vacations. ’tis a good feeling.

We visited the Sound Garden record store on Sunday — man, I miss record stores (just not enough to start up my own) — and picked up some great things:

• Angels of Light We Are Him CD
• Goodbye, Babylon box set of early 20th-century gospel
  Incredible packaging! A cedar box holding 6 discs, a book, and small balls of cotton.
• Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol. 2
  Another amazing, essential Sublime Frequencies release. Even better than Vol. 1.
• Fucked Up Year Of The Pig 12″
• The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of comp

More to come…

Yes, I’ve been locked up in the house listening to Dub Housing and The Day The Earth Met The Rocket From The Tombs for the past week. David Thomas on the MySpace experience:

Any artist who seeks approval and/or validation is onto a loser. Any scheme which encourages this way of thinking is damaging. This is the Oprah Winfrey Effect foisted on a generation of men who, consequently, have no spine. Screw the audience. Ars Longa, audience brevis. If you create a product they want, they buy it. That’s the end of the transaction. It’s not friendship. It’s not family. It’s the marketplace - which is one of the few places left where a man can stand stand free and upright in the light.

and

Making independent music means saying Screw You! to everyone who is NOT in your band. If there had been a REAL punk movement that would have been the enduring message. But the avatar of the punk movement, as you know I’ve said endlessly and fruitlessly, is Oprah Winfrey. Everyone is creative. Everyone has a (valid) opinion. Let’s all be cozy together and respect each other. “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…” Blah-blah-blah. Well, harmony makes my flesh crawl.

but shit, I just had to post this: Pere Ubu w/ Debbie Harry, David Sanborn, and Phillip Fucking Glass performing “Waiting For Mary” on network TV.

Rare video of classic Ft. Worth psych-metal band Complete:

From March 2007, found by Howrad.