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.

It just hit me. Considering my long-term affair w/ the man’s records and his place in Texas music history, this was a monumental event for me.

The band was fantastic: a lot of drone with solid rhythms, and Ralph White and Susan Alcorn winding their way between each other in a most magnificent way. The man himself was engaged and seemed to really enjoy himself. Except the monitors arriving three hours late and me having to do some re-wiring and tracing, things went smoothly. I think it sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself.

All involved were wonderful people who were a pleasure to work with. I hope to do it again some time.

3:10 AM. I can’t sleep, even though I’ve put in over 60 hours at work this week, on top of school, band practice, and the usual day-to-day. I’ve barely looked at my email for the past week, which is sort of a relief.

Running sound for Jandek in about 10 hours. Yes, I’m nervous. Very exciting, too. Will Johnson and Ryan Williams are playing with him, so it should be a hoot.

Tre Orsi 1/2″ tapes are on their way to Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. The lacquers should be at United on July 24th. Hopefully we’ll have 7″s by the end of August.