Your Happy Makes Me Go Oldies

Doubles

2011-07-28T13:43:00.003-05:00

Danny Bracken - What You Can See From the Light

2010-05-24T18:30:00.003-05:00

Danny Bracken - What You Can See From the Light
Originally uploaded by Mattress Factory

EIGHTEENFORTY

2010-04-01T13:30:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone. Just thought I'd give the heads up, I think I'll be writing over at eighteenforty from now on. I know it's been forever since I've put a word down but figured it'd be fun to give it a try.

Later!

Strange but true

2010-03-08T12:39:00.004-06:00

Geoffrey Canada is the man, I heard him speak last year, learn more about him and what he does here.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-24T17:41:00.004-06:00

Here's a song Erica and I worked on together a couple years back, thought a few out there might want to hear it. Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas.

Looking for some fun?

2009-08-26T22:33:00.005-05:00

That fine fellow to the far left is none other than your old friend and mine, Andrew Dost. As previously mentioned, Andrew joined forces with Nate Ruess (from The Format) and Jack Antonoff (from Steel Train), formed this new project, and called it fun. They're new record, Aim and Ignite, came out Tuesday and they're currently zigzagging all over the country on tour (including a few Michigan dates). Check it out!

Return to the West

2009-08-03T22:22:00.007-05:00

We've returned from the Far East and what wonderful time we had! We traveled to many familiar places but a few new ones as well. Some of the first-time highlights were: Kinkakuji, The Kamakura Daibutsu, Hachimangu Temple, a Tokyo Giants game, playing with Qurage and Sistertail.

It was also great to see some old friends. We were able to play with Buddhistson the first night of the tour. Our goods friends, who play in the band aie, were nice enough to pick us up at the airport and take us directly to our favorite ramen shop 角ふじ. I recommend this place if you ever find yourself just east of Tokyo. We were able to visit Stiff Slack record store and Tak helped put on a memorable show at KD Japon in Nagoya.

The trip couldn't have gone any better (unless it lasted for another month) and it's all thanks to Moor Works. Wonderful people, running a wonderful label. We're indebted to them for giving Anathallo an experience we won't forget for the rest of our lives. Getting back won't happen soon enough!

For some blogging about the tour by a few of our very close Japanese friends check out the links below.

aie blog
ebi's blog
gori's blog

This past tour was in support of a DVD documenting our December 2008 tour in Japan. If anyone thinks they would like to purchase a copy of the DVD I think we can get a few shipped over here. If you are interested please send an email to contact@anathallo.com.

Merce Cunningham

2009-07-27T17:25:00.003-05:00

April 16, 1919 - July 26, 2009

“You have to love dancing to stick to it,” he once wrote. “It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”

It's real

2009-05-27T10:22:00.004-05:00

Get it here from anticon or here from amazon (although it's cheaper direct from anticon).
And in the UK here.

Europe - Mountains of Swizterland

2009-05-18T02:10:00.001-05:00

This "tour" is starting to feel a little too much like "vacation"...

Europe - update 6

2009-05-18T02:07:00.001-05:00

Europe - Italia

2009-05-12T12:31:00.001-05:00

Two in one day! As you might be able to tell internet access has been scarce.

Europe - Randomness from France

2009-05-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Europe - locked out in Paris

2009-05-07T08:35:00.001-05:00

Internet has been scarce the last few days, sorry.

Europe - day two - Ville de Lille

2009-05-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

Europe - day one

2009-05-03T14:53:00.007-05:00

Day one included: Flying to Frankfurt, driving to Belgium, getting a flat tire (the first since the summer of 2004?), playing a festival, watching metal bands, eating meatballs, and wandering around Mons Belgium late at night looking for our place to stay.

Happy birthday to this guy.

(couldn't upload the video until now)

Tuesday news

2009-04-21T13:53:00.003-05:00

If you didn't know already, our old friends in Manchester Orchestra have made another record and today, April 21st 2009 you can find it in record stores across the globe. As you might be able to tell from the image above it's called, Mean Everything to Nothing, and it features Anathallo's very own superstar singer Erica Froman (pictured below at her recent photoshoot for the cover of Time Magazine).

They are currently on tour coast to coast, catch them while you can. Dates here.

I should also point out that the aforementioned Manchester Orchestra tour also includes one of the first chances for many of you to see Andrew's new band Fun. They'll have a record coming out in the future with a single (from the image above) finding its way into your ears early next month. And just in case this slipped past your radar, Andrew released a collection of songs that started with his Columbus musical last December. Check it out.

Mammoth Caves National Park

2009-04-17T20:32:00.004-05:00

Highlights from today's adventures:

This is what it looked like when Bobby Beams turned off the lights.

Matt climbing out of the cave back towards the light.

Erica and Seth take a view from the top of ~~Makeout~~ Sunset Point.

Ten second timed group shot.

Bummer

2009-04-08T16:54:00.003-05:00

Due to circumstances beyond our control our upcoming shows in Bowling Green Kentucky and at Taylor University have been canceled. We were looking forward to returning to both of these places and apologize if you were planning on making it out. The good news? The other shows are still on and promise to be a really wonderful time. Here are a couple of fliers for these shows!

Anathallo on NPR 848

2009-03-23T12:08:00.002-05:00

Hi! It has been a while. We've been busy doing all sorts of whatnot. Bret and I did a lengthy interview with the noble Althea from NPR's 848 a little while back. It's airing this Wednesday from 9 to 10 AM - check it if you want - 91.5 FM. It will be interesting to see what made the cut. If you miss the show, it will be posted online here

Just wanted to drop a little note before our show this Friday with friends Sybris and Cains and Abels at the Bottom Lounge. Hope to see you there.

At the beach

2009-03-23T00:17:00.005-05:00

Sorry we've been so absent from yhmmgo, our van decided to spring break this year at South Padre Island (as seen from above). We had a hell of a time tracking it down but were able to rescue it from crazy college coeds before things got out of hand.

Three years ago today...

2009-02-25T23:38:00.006-06:00

While the record wasn't officially released until June 6th 2006, we sold our first copies of Floating World at the Temple Club in Lansing Michigan three years ago today. The show was really something special, we were joined by Page France and Those Transatlantics, both of whom I really love. It was also one of the first times I felt like Anathallo had this enormous support from our community pushing us forward into new territory, there was such an amazing mass of friends there, I felt so lucky to be part of the band. Poster below from the four release shows we had designed by the amazingly talented Eric Mortensen.

Image of the day

2009-02-16T23:06:00.002-06:00

From Rune Generiussen's "Singles" series.

Black History Month - Harold Washington

2009-02-06T16:38:00.005-06:00

In case you forgot (I did), February is black history month and to help celebrate I wanted to share with you a little information about this guy Harold Washington. The first time I came across Mr. Washington was below ground, while walking out of a CTA stop. As I walked, I came across a mural of Chicago's past mayors. There were the obvious lot of old white dudes, the old Mayor Daley, a woman (!), and this African American guy. I said to myself, "What? When did Chicago have an African American mayor?" I later realized his name was Harold Washington, which this building is named after.

I didn't really put it all together until I heard this incredible story on This American Life a while back during the run up to the 2008 elections. Fortunately for us they archive all of their episodes for FREE. Go listen to it when you have an hour, it will be one of the best hours you've spent in a long time (and if you have two hours, listen to any other episode you find, this show has the potential to change your life). Seeing Obama win came as somewhat of a surprise to me, but in many ways it makes sense after the past eight years. Washington on the other hand was a fireball, he was single (have you ever heard of a single politician?), was up against the mayoral incumbent as well as former mayor Richard J. Daley's son (and later to become mayor himself), and ran for office in a extremely racially divided 1984 Chicago. I cannot do him justice here, so go listen to the story here you'll believe in life so much more.

Thank You for Sound

2009-02-03T10:54:00.003-06:00

Hi. I can't say enough how grateful that I am to all of you who have sent us sounds. I know this requires many kinds of trust. To name one, the trust that we won't publicly humiliate/embarrass you. If any of these sounds should end up in anything, we'll definitely let you know and ask before presenting them to the public.

A number of emails have mentioned wanting to know what this project is about before sending submissions. Unfortunately - I won't say just yet. It would put too much pressure on the outcome (which already feels a little heavy to me for a number of reasons). Besides - secrets and suspense are wonderful!

Most of the submissions have been in the form of songs. This is great! It is also challenging, because it requires an extreme familiarity with your music in order to hear it as sounds vs. the whole composition.

Now I'm in the search of raw sounds and sound fields. This doesn't exclude the use of instruments... just maybe play a few of your favorite notes. Again - don't worry about traditional ideas about sound quality. In the best sense, everything has a perfect sound quality right? It is being what it is. Just feel free to mess around.

John Cage:

There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

There is no such thing as an empty space or empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make silence, we cannot.

PLZ SEND US YOUR SOUNDS.

2009-01-29T08:38:00.005-06:00

I can't give all of the details (or any really) just yet, since online gossip spins faster than a Kansas twister, but I have a request to make in your trust: PLZ SEND US YOUR SOUNDS.

We want anything that you record or find that is audible and can be sent via the internet. Noises from the spaces that you occupy during the everyday, field recordings, the sound of rice rushing out of a bag into a porcelain bowl (I love that sound!), the most annoying sound, beautiful sound, you singing, you playing an instrument, someone else singing, someone else playing an instrument, you and someone else singing together, you and someone else playing instruments, natural, digital, 2 seconds, 4 minutes... something that you have sitting around from your childhood, your first band, edit them however you like, or don't edit them at all... whatever you think. Crummy recordings are not only welcome, they are encouraged! Singing/Playing out of tune and time are also highly encouraged.

Also - please feel free to send this on to anyone that might be interested. If you want to participate but don't know much about sending things online, or transferring sounds from your phone/mind/recording device, please write to me at the email address below and maybe I can help.

SEND ALL SOUNDS TO:

SOUNDSOFOURLIVES [at] GMAIL.COM

2009-01-22T23:52:00.002-06:00

Please Read This.

Please.

Thank You.

The Glittering Sunlight of Life's July

2009-01-20T11:25:00.003-06:00

There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July, and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. There comes a time. -MLK Jr.

branding music culture

2009-01-16T10:25:00.005-06:00

Over the holidays I got into some of the stuff on the Hipster Runoff blog... they just posted this article about Animal Collective ( or "AnCo" - fan-adopted name personalization is sure to produce lasting memes for this brand, er band. kidding. kidding?).

It's a particularly meaningful moment in the development of my personal brand as I read this:

And this:

Anathallo climbs the charts...

2009-01-12T15:55:00.004-06:00

We jumped from 31 to 19 this week, just edging out The Killers. All my dreams come true...

So apparently, if there's a college radio station around you there a decent chance they'll play you a song if you ask. Thank you to those who have been playing us on your stations!

Oh yeah, a tour

2009-01-12T08:42:00.008-06:00

With some combination of these people:

Maybe you've heard about this, maybe not?

Tickets:

Magic Stick

The Drake Hotel

Le Divan Orange

Middle East

Mercury Lounge

Johnny Brenda's

Ottobar

Cat's Cradle

New Brookland

The Social

40 Watt Club

Exit/In

Proud Larry's

Spanish Moon

Still a few more to come, woo!

Live in England last February

2009-01-11T20:31:00.000-06:00

Thanks Ryan!

Mmmmm, book

2009-01-06T22:57:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone! I was going to post some sweet pictures from the European or Japanese tour and remembered that I didn't bring my phone, which is my camera. But I can sum up what any picture would be of: great times. Both tours were absolutely amazing and all the people we met were fantastic. Every time I sit down on the toilet I long for the Japanese heated seat- conclusive proof that Japan has its priorities straight especially when it comes to energy consumption.

Anyway, I suppose I'll plug a couple of really great books that I've been reading. The first is called Nixonland, by Rick Perlstein. This is the best history book I've read in a really long time. It reads like a novel in a lot of ways, and its actually made me laugh and tear up at different points. Very entertaining and informative. The other is The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century, by Alex Ross. It's a really well-written book about 20th century music with a focus on classical stuff. There's also a website with listening excerpts to go along with it. It's already made me appreciate a few composers a lot more than I had before, and I haven't even read that much of it yet. I apologize if the second half is terrible. But, as LeVar Burton said a bunch of times, you don't have to take my word for it. If you trust Bjork more than me, you'll be interested to know that she's quoted inside the front jacket, where she calls the book "incredibly nourishing." Mmmmm, book.

Some people see themselves as victims of life

2009-01-06T10:01:00.003-06:00

others own it. This girl for example - she's done being had...

2009 - Done being had.

And a Happy New Year

2008-12-31T17:48:00.003-06:00

To 2009 - May we all live in the light of a reawakened belief in the possibility of possibility.

Love to all from all - Anathallo

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

2008-12-25T00:13:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I elfed myself!!!

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough

2008-12-24T21:18:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas.
Love to all.

Three Pictures - thank you Japan

2008-12-13T23:29:00.004-06:00

We made a short afternoon sightseeing trip to Kyoto on Thursday.

Matt got "the crazy eyes"

Last night's show in Tokyo at MarbleTron, Anathallo's "one man show" (?).

Thank you!

Two pictures

2008-12-07T11:34:00.006-06:00

In Sendai's Tower Records they had a big display for us.

In Shinjuku Tokyo (taken from Natsco's flickr)

Spin's most Jet-lagged Band of the Day

2008-12-02T05:37:00.005-06:00

Hello Friends - Its around 5:30 in the morning. We got home from the European leg of the tour last night at around 8:00. I'm up, jet-lagged and doing my laundry while Seth, Erica and Danny are already on their way back to the airport to catch the first batch of flights to Japan. The rest of us will take off shortly. So wild.

Thanks to Spin for making us band of the day... yesterday (might have known if we weren't in an airplane suffering through National Treasure Two: Quest for the Ridiculous Plot Line).

Does anyone have Holiday plans cooking? I talked with my family over Thanksgiving and we're cooking up some sweet stuff. Excited to be homey.

Backstage with Anathallo in Bavaria

2008-11-30T17:01:00.003-06:00

A little video we did before our set at on3radio festival in Munich the other night (click on the image for the clip). More to come!

Anathallo Live Stream / on3Radio Festival!

2008-11-28T10:49:00.002-06:00

Well well well, our European tour is coming to an end, but the good news is that we're leaving with a...

The bang will occur in the form of the on3radio Festival in Munich, where we will play a set between Santagold and Tv on the Radio! What's even better is that you can watch it streaming online right here

I think our set starts at 00:40 am, which translates to 6:40 PM eastern time on Saturday night. Check it out if you're interested.

STORES

2008-11-24T12:05:00.002-06:00

Some people have mentioned that they haven't been able to find our record in their local record shop. Here's a list of stores by state where the record is (should be) available.

ALABAMA
Vinyl Solution , 1207 University Blvd., Tuscaloosa, AL 35401

ARIZONA
Eastside Records, 217 W. University, Tempe, AZ 85281
Stinkweeds, 12 W. Camelback, Phoenix, AZ 85013
Stinkweeds, 1250 E Apache Blvd, Ste 122, Tempe, AZ 82581

ARKANSAS
Anthro-Pop , 1007A West 7th St., Little Rock, AR 72201
Clunk Records , 423 North College, Fayetteville, AR 72701

CALIFORNIA
Access Music, 1537 Garnet Ave., San Diego, CA 92109
Affiliates, 3985 Harney St. Ste B, San Diego,CA 92110
Amoeba , 2455 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
Amoeba, 6400 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
Amoeba, 1855 Haight St., San Francisco, CA 94117
Aquarius Records , 1055 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110
The Basement, 14506 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, 91403
Bionic, Cypress, CA 90630
Boo Boo Records, 978 Monterety St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Dimple Records, 2433 Arden Way, Sacramento, CA 95825
Dimple Records, 313 E Bidwell St, Folsom, CA 95630
Dimple Records, 6099 San Juan Ave, Citrus Heights, CA 95610
Dimple Records, 9692 Elk Grove-Florin Rd, Elk Grove, CA 95624
Fingerprints CD , 4612 E. 2nd St. Suite B,Long Beach, CA 90803
Headstone Records, 35 W Colton Ave, Redlands, CA 92374
Last Record Store, 1899 A Mendocino, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Lou's ,434 N. Highway 101, Encinitas, CA 92024
M-Theory , 3004 Juniper St., San Diego, CA 92104
Mad Platter, 1223 University Ave, Ste 160, Riverside, CA 92507
Metamusic, 11240 Lompico Rd, Felton, CA 95018
Mod Lang, 6328 Fairmount Ave (rear), El Cerrito, CA 94530
Off the Record, 3849 5th Ave., San Diego, CA 92103
Off the Record #3, 2912 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92104
Poo Bah , 1101 E. Walnut Ave, Pasadena, CA 91106
Radio Futura, 178 W 3rd St, Pomona, CA 91766 909-620-2774
Rasputin, 1035 Contra Costa Blvd, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
Rasputin, 17715 Hesperian Blvd, San Lorenzo, CA 94580
Rasputin, 1820 S Bascom Ave, Campbell, CA 95008
Rasputin, 2401 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
Rasputin, 5777 Mowry Ave, Newark, CA 94560
Rasputin, 69 Powell St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Rasputin, 920 Admiral Callahan Lane, Vallejo, CA 94591
Rhino Records, 235 Yale Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Salzer's Records, 5777 Valentine Rd., Ventura, CA 93003
Streetlight Records , 3979 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94114
Streetlight Records , 2350 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94114
Streetlight Records , 980 S. Bascom Ave, San Jose, CA 95128
Streetlight Records , 939 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, CA 95060

COLORADO
Angelo's CD, 16711 E Iliff Ave, Aurora, CO 80013
Bart's CD Cellar , 1015 Pearl St., Boulder, CO, 80302
Finest CD's, 1103 West Elizabeth St, Ft Collins, CO 80524
Independent Records, 123 E Bijou St, Colorado Springs, CO 80903
Independent Records, 3030 E Platte Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Independent Records, W Colorado Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80904
Independent Records, 420 W 4th St, Pueblo, CO 81003
Independent Records, 937 E Colfax, Denver, CO 80218
Twist and Shout , 300 E. Alameda Ave., Denver, CO 80209
Wax Trax, 1143 13th Street, Boulder, CO 80302
Wax Trax , 638 E. 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80203

CONNECTICUT
Brass City Records , 489 Meadow St, Waterbury, CT 06702
Trash American Style , 12 Mill Plane Rd., Danbury, CT 06811
Volt Music ,28 Backus Ave., Danbury, CT 06810

DELAWARE
Bert's Newark , 90 E. Main St., Newark, DE 19711

FLORIDA
East Hill CD , 2509 N. 12th Ave, Pensacola, FL 32503
Hyde and Zeke, 402 NW 10th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601
No Future Records, 107 N Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601
Park Avenue CDs , 528 Park Ave South, Winter Park, FL 32789
Park Avenue CDs , 2000 Gulf Bay Blvd, Clearwater, FL 33765
Park Avenue CDs Jr., Pegasus Cir., Bldg. 52, Rm. 102A, Orlando, FL 32816
Vinyl Fever, 2256-2 W. Pensacola, Tallahassee, FL 32304

GEORGIA
Criminal, 466 Moreland Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30307
Low Yo Yo Stuff, 285 West Washington St., Athens, GA 30601
Wax-n-Facts , 432 Moreland Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307
Wuxtry, 197 E. Clayton St., Athens, GA 30601
Wuxtry, 2096 N. Decatur Rd., Decatur, GA 30033

IDAHO
Record Exchange , 1105 West Idaho St., Boise, ID 83702

ILLINOIS
Choke Records, 3107 N Rockwell St, Chicago, IL 60618
Dr. Wax , 1615 Sherman, Evanston, IL 60201
Gramaphone, 2663 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614
Old School Records, 7446 W Madison St, 1st Floor, Forest Park, IL 60130
Reckless , 3157 N. Broadway, Chicago, IL 60657
Reckless , 606 Davis Street, Evanston, IL 60201
Reckless , 1532 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622

INDIANA
Indy CD & Vinyl, 808 Broad Ripple Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46220
Luna Music, 1315 West 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260
Von's Records , 319 W. State St, West Lafayette, IN 47906

IOWA
Record Collector, 125 E. Washington St., Iowa City, IA 52240

KANSAS
Love Garden , 936 1/2 Mass Ave, Lawrence, KS 66044

KENTUCKY
CD Central, 377 S Limestone St, Lexington, KY 40508
Ear X-tacy ,1534 Bardstown Rd., Louisville, KY 40205

MAINE
Bullmoose, 50 Monument Square, Ste 302, Portland, ME 04101
Bull Moose, 151 Main St, Brunswick, ME 04011
Bull Moose, 771 Roosevelt Trail, N Windham, ME 04062
Bull Moose, 151 Middle St, Portland, ME 04101
Bull Moose, Lewiston Mall, 20 East Ave, Lewiston, ME 04240
Bull Moose, 1364 Main St, Sanford, ME 04073
Bull Moose, 14 Elm Plaza, Waterville, ME 04901
Bull Moose, Main Square Mall, 665 Hogan Rd, Bangor, ME 04401
Bull Moose, 465 Payne Rd, Scarborough, ME 04074
Newbury Comics , 220 Maine Mall Rd., South Portland, ME 04106

MASSACHUSETTS
Above Ground Records , 8 Great Harbor Triangle, Edgartown, MA 02539
Dynamite Records, 150 Main St., Northampton, MA 01060
Mars Records, 299 Newbury St., Boston 02115
Newbury Comics, 50 Main St., Amherst, MA 01002
Newbury Comics, Charles River Center 257 Hartford Ave. Unit J, Bellingham, MA 02019
Newbury Comics, 332 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02115
Newbury Comics, 1 Washington Mall, Government Ctr., Boston, MA 02108
Newbury Comics, 400 Franklin St., Braintree, MA 02184
Newbury Comics, 112Mall Rd. Ste. 8, Burlington, MA 01803
Newbury Comics, 36 JFK St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA 02139
Newbury Comics, 211 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge, MA 02140
Newbury Comics, 1070 Iyanough Rd., Rte. 132, Hyannis, MA 02601
Newbury Comics, 101 Independence Mall Way, Kingston, MA 02364
Newbury Comics, 31 Sack Blvd., Leominster, MA 01453
Newbury Comics, 1298b Worcester Rd., Natick, MA, 01760
Newbury Comics, 130 Needham St., Newton, MA, 02164
Newbury Comics, 40 Cumberland Ave.., Rte. 1, North Attleboro, MA 02760
Newbury Comics, 240 Andover St., Rte. 115, Peabody, MA 01960
Newbury Comics, 180 Main St., Rte. 1, Saugus, MA 01906
Newbury Comic , 551 Boston Turnpike Ste. 110, Rte., 9, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
Newbury Comics, 425 Washington St., Woburn, MA 01801
Rhythm and Muse, 470 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, MA, 02130

MARYLAND
CDepot #1 , 9039 Baltimore Ave., College Park, MD 20740
Morpfhius, 100 E 23rd St, Baltimore, MD 21218
Olsson's Books & Records, 7647 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda,
MD 20814
Olsson1s Books & Records , 12350 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, MD 20852
Record and Tape Traders, Inc., 10435 Reistertown Rd. Bldg. #3, Owings Mills, MD 21117
The Sound Garden, 1616 Thames Street, Baltimore, MD 21231
Vinyl and Plastic, 45 West Earleigh Hgts, 2nd Fl, Severna Park, MD 21146

MICHIGAN
Desirable Discs, 1116 N. Telgraph Rd., Dearborn, MI 48128
Flat Black Circular , 541 E. Grand River, East Lansing, MI 48823
Music Express , 5049 W. Main St., Kalamazoo, MI 49009
Neptune Records, 503 S. Main St., Royal Oak, MI 48067
Stormy Records, 22079 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI 48124
Underground Sounds, 255 East Liberty, Ann Arbor MI 48104
Vertigo Music 1, 71 South Division Ave., Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Wazoo Records, 366 1/2 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Wendells, 511 S.Washington, Royal Oak, MI 48067

MINNESOTA
Electric Fetus, 28 S. 5th Ave. S., Saint Cloud, MN 56301
Electric Fetus , 12 E. Superior St., Duluth, MN 55802
Electric Fetus, 2010 4th Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Fifth Element, 2411 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, NN 55405
Roadrunner Records , 4304 Nicollet Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55409
Treehouse Records , 2557 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55405

MISSOURI
Vintage Vinyl, 6610 Delmar, St. Louis, MO, 63130

MONTANA
Cactus Records, 29 W Main, Bozeman, MT 59715
Ear Candy, 624 S Higgins Ave, Missoula, MT 59801
Rockin' Rudy's , 237 Blaine St, Missoula, MT, 59810

NEBRASKA
Antiquarium , 1215 Harney Street, Omaha, NE 68102
Homer's, 1015 Galvin Rd S, Bellevue, NE 68005

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Bull Moose, 82-86 Congress St, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Bull Moose, 356-366 S Broadway, Salem, NH 03079
Newbury Comics , 777 S. Willow Plaza, Manchester, NH 03103
Newbury Comics , 293 Daniel Webster Highway, Nashua, NH 03061
Newbury Comics , 435 S. Broadway Street, Rte. 28, Salem, NH 03079

NEW JERSEY
Princeton Record Exchange , 20 Tulane St., Princeton, NJ 08542

NEW YORK
Cheap Thrills, 1320 Route 9, Champlain, NY 12919
Ear Wax, 218 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Insound, 401 Broadway, 26th Floor, NY, NY 10013
Kim's Mediapolis, 2906 Broadway, NY, NY 10079
Lakeshore Record Exchange, 370 Park Ave, Rochester, NY 14607
Mondo Kim's, 6 St. Mark1s Place, New York, NY 10003
Other Music, 15 E. 4th St., New York, NY 10003

NORTH CAROLINA
CD Alley, 405-C W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516
CD Alley, 8 Market St., Wilmington, NC 28401
East Coast Music & Video, 1109 Charles Blvd, Greenville, NC 27858
Fat Cats, 965 Rivers St, Boone, NC 28607
Gravity, 125-1 S Kerr Ave, Wilmington, NC 28403
Harvest, 415B Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC 28806
Manifest Disc and Tape, 6239 S. Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28217
Manifest Disc and Tape, 4314 Market St., Wilmington, NC 28403
Schoolkids, 144 E. Franklin, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514

OHIO
Allied Record Exchange, 1710 S Reynolds Rd, Toledo, OH 43614
Bent Crayon, 11600 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, OH 44102
Everybody's, 6106 Montgomery Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45213
Haffa's Records, 115 West Union St., Athens, OH 45701
Johnny Go's House O Music, 1900 N High St, Columbus, OH 43201
Shake It Records, 4156 Hamilton Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45223
Square Records, 824 W. Market St., Akron, OH 44303
Used Kids, 1980 N. High St., Columbus, OH 43201

OKLAHOMA
Guestroom Records, 119 N Crawford Ave, Norman, OK 73069

OREGON
360 Vinyl.Cd.Gear, 214 NW Couch St, Portland, OR, 97209
Anthem Records, 828 SE 34th Ave. Suite C (@Belmont), Portland, OR 97214
Every Day Music, 1313 W Burnside, Portland, OR 97209
Jackpot Records, 3736 S.E. Hawthorne, Portland, OR 97214
Jackpot Records, 203 SW 9th Ave., Portland, OR 97205
Music Millennium, 801 NW 23rd, Portland, OR 97210

PENNSYLVANIA
A.K.A. Music, 7 N. 2nd St., Philadelphia, PA 19106
Brave New World, 406 S. Craig St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213
City Lights, 316 E. College Ave., State College, PA 16801
Compact Disc Center, 1365 Easton Ave., Bethlehem, PA 18018
Double Decker Records, 803 St. John St., Allentown, PA 18103
Gallery of Sound, 180 Munday Street, Wilkes Barre, PA 18702
Gotham Records, 60 Portland Rd, Conshohocken, PA 19428
Paul's CDs, 4526 Liberty Ave.,Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Philadelphia Record Exchange, 608 S. 5th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
Repo Records, 538 South St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
Repo Records, 1047 Lancaster Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Siren Records, 25 W. State St., Doylestown, PA 18901
Spaceboy Records, 407 South St.,Philadelphia, PA,19147
The Attic Records, 513 Grant Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15209

RHODE ISLAND
In Your Ear, 286 Thayer St., Providence, RI 02906
Newbury Comics, 74 Providence Place, Providence, RI 02903
Newbury Comics, 1500 Bald Hill Rd., Warwick, RI 02886
Tom's Tracks, 281 Thayer St., Providence, RI 02906

SOUTH CAROLINA
52.5 Records, 75 Wentworth St., Charleston, SC 29401
Manifest Disc and Tape, 946 Orleans Rd., Charleston, SC 29407
Manifest Disc and Tape, 362 College Ave., Clemson, SC 29631
Manifest Disc and Tape, 1563-A Broad River Road., Columbia, SC 29210
Manifest Disc and Tape, 1932 Main St., Columbia, SC 29201
Manifest Disc and Tape, 2805 David McLeod Blvd., Florence, SC 29501
Manifest Disc and Tape, 1418 Laurens Rd., Greenville, SC 29607

TENNESSEE
Grimey's, 1604 8th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203
Last Chance Records, 2072 Walker Ave, Memphis, TN 38104

TEXAS
180 Grams, 2120 San Pedro Ave, Ste 1, San Antonio, TX 78212
End of an Ear, 2209 S 1st Unit C, Austin, TX 78704
Good Records, 617 N. Good Latimer, Dallas, TX 75204
Hogwild Records, 1824 N. Main Ave, San Antonio, TX 78212
Seasick Records, 1031 W. Prairie St., Denton, TX 76201
Sound Exchange, 1846 Richmond, Houston, TX 77098
Sundance 202-B University Drive San Marcos, TX 78666
Waterloo, 600 A N.Lamar Blvd., Austin TX 78703

UTAH
Orion's, 2110 S 1100 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84106
Uprok, S 342 State St, Salt Lake City, UT 84111

VERMONT
Pure Pop, 115 S. Winooski Ave, Burlington, VT 05401

VIRGINIA
Crossroads #4, 239 North Main St., Blacksburg, VA 24060
Now! Music and Fashion, 615-A King St., Alexandria, VA 22314
Olsson's Books & Records, 106 South Union St., Alexandria, VA
22314
Plan 9, 10410 Midlothian Turnpike, Richmond, VA 23235
Plan 9, 3012 W. Carey, Richmond, VA 23221
Plan 9, 141 Monticello Ave., Williamsburg, VA 23185
Plan 9, 1325 W. Main St., Charlottesville, VA 22903
Plan 9, 1675 Seminole Trail, Charlottesville, VA 22901
Blue Dog, 1019 Caroline, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
Plan 9, 1790-96 E. Market St., Harrisonburg, VA 22801
Relative Theory Records, 271 Granby St, 2nd Floor, Norfolk, VA 23510
Town and Campus Records, 20 W. Water St., Harrisonburg, VA 22801

WASHINGTON
Easy Street Records, 4559 California Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98116
Easy Street Records, 20 Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98109
Phantom City, 117 NE Washington, Olympia, WA 98501
Rainy Day Records, 2008 West Harrison Ave, Olympia, WA 98502
Rec the Place, 211 E Fourth Ave, Olympia, WA 98501
Silver Platters, 2299 140th Ave NE, Ste B, Bellevue, WA 98005
Sonic Boom, 3414 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103
Sonic Boom, 2209 NW Market St., Seattle, WA 98107
Sonic Boom #3, 514 15th Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98112
Super Happy Wax, 1915 D St, Vancouver, WA 98663
Unified Groove Merchants, 2607 N Monroe, Spokane, WA 99205
Wall of Sound, 315 East Pine St., Seattle, WA, 98122

WASHINGTON D.C.
DC CD, 2423 18th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20009
Olsson's Books & Records , 1239 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington,
DC 20007
Olsson's Books & Records, 1307 19th ST. N.W., Washington, DC
20036
Olsson's Books & Records, 418 7th ST. N.W., Washington, DC 20004
Olsson's Books & Records, 1200 F. ST. N.W., Washington, DC 20004

WISCONSIN
Atomic, 1813 E. Locust, Milwaukee, WI 53211
B-Side 1, 436 State St., Madison, WI 53703
Radio Kaos, 968 Main St, Steven's Point, WI 54481
The Exclusive Company, 770 W Northland Ave, Appleton, WI 54914
The Exclusive Company, 16750-A W Bluemound, Brookfield, WI 53005
The Exclusive Company, 9180 Green Bay Rd, Brown Deer, WI 53209
The Exclusive Company, 5026 S 74th St, Greenfield, WI 53220
The Exclusive Company, 423 Dousman, Green Bay, WI 54303
The Exclusive Company, 1259 Milton Ave, Janesville, WI 53545
The Exclusive Company, 508 State St, Madison, WI 53703
The Exclusive Company, 7475 Mineral Point Rd, Madison, WI 53717
The Exclusive Company, 1669 N Farwell, Milwaukee, WI 53202
The Exclusive Company, 416 N Main St, Oshkosh, WI 54901
The Exclusive Company, 144 N Main St, West Bend, WI 53095

CANADA
L'Oblique, 4333 Rivard St., Montreal, QC, H2J 2M7
Rotate This, 620 Queen St. West, Toronto, ON, M6J 1E4
Zulu Records, 1869 W. 4th Ave., Vancouver, BC, V6J 1M4

After party London

2008-11-23T15:05:00.005-06:00

Well if there's one thing that's true it's that Anathallo really knows how to get down and party. Here's a little clip from our wild and crazy after party in London.

Here's a few places to get Canopy Glow while we are away from the warehouse:
Amazon
Anticon
Insound
And of course you can find it on all the the usual digital distributors.

Also here's a few places to find it if you are in Japan (with a few bonus tracks too):
Tower
HMV
Amazon

Besides the very friendly review from Paste last week, there was a little article online of "Anathallo's top 5 most serendipitous Canopy Glow moments" which you can find here.

Today in beautiful Luzern and tomorrow we have a long drive (55km) to play with Wolf Parade in Zurich (!?!?).

Canopy Glow is out in Japan and America!

2008-11-20T12:16:00.003-06:00

Bonjour de France! Notre record a été libéré il ya deux jours, en Amérique, mais on ne s'en rend pas compte parce que nous sommes en Europe. (copy and paste it into google translator).

Tonight we're playing at a really rad performance space/artist in residency building/modern dance mecca in Lille called La Malterie. While we've been away, Canopy Glow has been picking up some critical steam and we're really excited that people are enjoying it! Check out Andy Whitman's review in the new issue of Paste if you're loitering around a magazine rack or click here.

Anathallo hits new high

2008-11-16T15:56:00.002-06:00

One of the best shows I've ever played happened last night in Hannover, something really special, something that reminds me of why I play with this band. Just look at these faces! Thank you to our new friends at Feinkostlampe, thank you.

Tasty treats

2008-11-13T10:32:00.003-06:00

Maybe not the most nutritious breakfast in the world but boy is it fun to eat all these strange treats.

Venus Zine, Berlin, and Admiralspalast

2008-11-12T18:08:00.002-06:00

I've been trying all day to get the pronunciation of Admiralspalast down... it's not easy for an imperialistically English speaking American such as myself. The stats:

1 - First show of the tour
2 - Only band on the bill
3 - Playing a German cultural institution that housed the Stage Theory mastery of Brecht
4 - Scared out of our minds

Considering the elements, the show was fantastic, and we were shocked that so many people came out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Also - I wanted to drop a little shout out to Venus Zine for coming to the Schubas show in Chicago and leaving such a kind review. Read it here if you'd like.

Off to Prague tomorrow to play with Why? at a venue called 007. Hoot hoot!

Landed in Germany

2008-11-11T15:05:00.003-06:00

Tour gets started off on the right foot. Our host Felix took us to this Lebanese place in Köln amidst the madness of carnival. I think this tour is going to be great.

My Long Winding Thoughts

2008-11-08T10:00:00.008-06:00

The U.S. jaunt of our celebratory release tour has been incredible so far. I know sometimes I tend to get a little misty and dramatic when it comes to the gratitude that we have for all of those who support us... but I can't help myself, and here I go again. This will be completely unmeasured, uncool, and unclassy. Un- Un- Un-.

It has been a strange few months getting ready for the release of Canopy Glow. There has been overwhelming amount of growth, love, loss and change on all sides of our lives. I'll leave that vague for the most part. Going into the private things would be a little intense and out of context. After the Aloha and Dosh tours, we remixed the entire record with Tony Espinoza and Eli Crews with help from Yoni. They slaved away with us, sometimes working long nights after full work days, sacrificing family time, sleep, food, friends... One night Tony and I were sending things back and forth until 4 am, when I literally passed out on my computer, accidentally sending him hundreds of aaaasdffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff messages on IM. You get the picture. I just want to thank these people for all of their help in the process of bringing the record into a new light. There were times when I literally began to go nuts and needed to be brought back to earth. Erica came over one day and, noting my state, left me a chocolate bar and some hand sanitizing spray... to give you a picture of my mental state, I unknowingly sprayed the sanitizer in my mouth... thinking it was some sort of chloraseptic throat remedy. Point being, I was not in a functional mental space at the time to say the least. We got some mixes of "The River" from Tony and I was so exhausted that I began to flip a little bit, getting really neurotic about things for no reason. Yoni sent me a gentle, "You're going nuts, this mix is great" email. I realized that my perspective on the whole thing was totally shot, but that we were in great hands. To Eli, Tony, Yoni - we are really grateful! Thanks for putting up with us.

I'm saying this all to give a small snapshot of a year long road that lead to the release of this record. I wasn't sure that we'd be able to post something like this closer to the actual release on the 18th since we'll be out of the country, so I thought I would jot some thought down now while there is time.

The last week has been remarkable. We were really surprised and grateful to see so many people at all the shows. To be honest, we imagined a sort of silence around the record release, half full rooms, a general sense that we already had our 15 minutes. But this week will be remembered in high regard - everyone in the room singing. It brings the whole thing into an appropriate perspective - that this band and the community of people outside of the music are part of an indecipherable whole wherein there are no necessary divisions within the hopeful notion that the band is just a conduit for something else. Fan/Friend, Band/Other, You/Me, Republican/Democrat. In a lot of ways, the spirit of the tour enabled a deeper understanding and excitement concerning the election. Thanks so much to all of you who bit torrented the record and sang along. Thanks for the pumpkin pie. The hand-bound book. Hearing about Camp-Thallo. Etc. Etc. Etc. The ongoing correspondence.

Tonight we're playing at home in Chicago at one of our favorite venues, then off to Europe on Monday and Japan before Christmas.

We're planning a really extensive U.S. tour which will begin in late February. Can't wait to see everyone again. Family. Thank you.

Yes, that's a giant chicken

2008-11-04T17:10:00.005-06:00

View Larger Map

YOU CAN VOTE HOWEVER YOU LIKE

2008-10-31T01:12:00.002-05:00

I know I did!

OH BOY!

2008-10-27T12:49:00.008-05:00

We've got a quick break from practice this morning (our first in months!) - Matt's working on the theme for Miss Illinois, Jer's watching Georgia/LSU highlights, Seth and Erica are eating sharp cheddar, Danny's still in a daze from his overnight Pittsburgh-Chicago train adventure, Jamie's at an interview, and me? Well, it turns out I'm blogging.

We have a cd! (you know this)
We're making our way down south next week! (you probably know this)
And then Europe and Japan to round out the next month and a half. (ditto)

But! If your home happens to not be the aforementioned "Southern Half of the United States," vaguely put "Continent of Europe" or excitedly typed "Land of the Rising Sun," boy do we have a deal for you.

Pre-order? IT STARTS NOW.

Thirteen bucks in the US, seventeen bucks for our international friends. Shipping included. We'll be sending out orders on November 10th, so!...

If that sounds great, click here.
If you plan on catching us before November 10th (that's you Chicago, Calvin College, and most places that serve sweet tea), we'll have Canopy Glow with us!
And if you live in 日本, the cd comes out November 5th and can be ordered here.

I think that's it! Hope your Monday has been as fun... over here, it's been good to be back.

A Music Video of "Bells"

2008-10-26T08:33:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that pitchfork posted a video, made by Danny Bracken of the-post-below-this fame. It accompanies the song "Bells" off of Canopy Glow. Hope you like it!

Richard Sarson

2008-10-24T14:41:00.004-05:00

(via formfiftyfive)
Richard Sarson

Stay Gold Ponyboy...Stay Gold

2008-10-20T21:20:00.004-05:00

So I got an email from an old friend of mine the other day. Contained was simply a link to a youtube video and the comment: "a little weird...but still unbelievable".

The linked video is the one embedded above and stars Japanese pop sensation Chara. Born in 1968 Chara was a pioneer of the J-Pop phenomenon and a film star (or so wikipedia tells me). The video also showcases the talents of a certain Maxwell Olson.

Now, Maxwell Olson might not fall into the "household name" category but he is close to my heart. Max and I have known each other since 1988 and I can assure you that not once during our years at Christian Academy in Japan did I anticipate stumbling onto a music video of him necking with a 40 year old pop star.

One thing I worry about blogging this is that I'll give you reader a sense that while I'm typing I'm also shaking my head saying,

"max, max, max...when are you ever going to learn"

It's quite the contray! While it may be weird to watch an old friend make-out with a cougar by the glow of a computer screen it also makes me a little proud. Instead of that tsk-ing image I mentioned try to imagine me slightly squinting my eyes and pursing my lips (in a George W. Bush way, but emotional). I'm also nodding my head and whispering (not in a creepy way, but in the way they do in the movies to let you know that the actor doesn't care if anyone hears them...that's how close it is to their heart),

"That's it Max...kiss her good!"

I feel like an older brother in some movie watching his younger sibling rise above and succeed...

"You show 'em Max. They're no better than you"

Anyway, this is turning into a script for a 1960's coming of age movie instead of me telling you reader about my friends newly found fame. So I'll wrap it up by showing you where Max started on his road to glory. That's him right down there...he's got the that black turtleneck underneath what can only be a Gotcha or Ocean Pacific shirt.

I also included a picture of myself around the same area so that if Max drifts by this blog (in much the same way I drifted by his video) there won't be any hard feelings (I'm sure I'm wearing some horribly offensive Christian t-shirt).

ahhh...look how far we've come.

I'm proud of you Max!

max

me

Fully Engaged

2008-10-20T10:58:00.004-05:00

Sorry I was absent from posting my usual mystical musings on Thursday (I'm sure you've all been grieving ever since, right?). I want to let you all know something really incredible that is/has been/and will be happening in my life: I got engaged! Heidi and I mutually proposed to one another on Ruby Beach in the Hoh National Rain forest! It feels wonderful, engrossing, and surreal. I contemplated whether or not it was appropriate to post these photos, but for those of you that are interested - you're my friends and I want to share life with you! Share yours with me too, ok?

Here's a link to my photo documents

THE ALFRED E. SMITH DINNER

2008-10-17T09:45:00.009-05:00

Before you click away from this page!... I promise promise promise these will make you laugh. Both candidates at their best (to be honest, John McCain is FANTASTIC here), alternating between actual comedy and bouts of sincerity. I really liked these. An altogether different approach from what we'll be hearing the next two and a half weeks:

See! Who is this guy? And where has he been the last six months?

And there's your Senator from Illinois.

We'll be in Atlanta on election night so maybe our friends in O'Brother can sell their van and bring some flat screen goodness to the show. An electoral count without high definition is barely an electoral count at all.

Vote early! Vote often!

TWO YEARS LATER

2008-10-15T16:30:00.003-05:00

A pretty great/strange feeling, for sure.

Pictures!

2008-10-14T20:39:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure how interesting this is to anyone, but we just had a bunch of pictures taken of us on Saturday. It was a bit strange for me since I'm not usually very good with the whole picture thing, and I blink pretty much every time a camera goes off. That said, it was an enjoyable day.

We just got some of the pictures back from the first shoot of the day, and I like 'em. They were taken in Berry UMC, where we practice, and a garden a few blocks away. A friend from Berry named Sarah took them. We have to pick some to potentially use later on, but I figured I'd leak the link to this unedited set of pictures! So, maybe I need to find some more exciting things to announce. If it adds to the excitement at all, in the first shot you see me with what would eventually become 10 books that I bought at the annual Berry book sale for a total of only $12! I know I was excited.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sierraromeo/sets/72157607966084625/show/

Sedaris

2008-10-13T23:42:00.003-05:00

I just returned from a trip downtown to listen to David Sedaris. Maybe after I let the experience sink-in I'll have something insightful to say, but until then I'll just leave you with some video clippings of this truly funny and endearing man.

Canopy Preorder

2008-10-10T17:08:00.005-05:00

A bit of Anathallo news to share with you all. We'll be doing a little preorder for Canopy Glow beginning October 27th and ending November 8th (as we won't be able to send out any orders from the Anathallo warehouse after we leave for Europe). Hopefully we'll be able to ship them out on November 10 (or a little sooner). The record will be in stores and downloadable November 18th. I know, about freaking time right?

Locked out with Studs Terkel

2008-10-09T15:39:00.006-05:00

I got into our apartment building in Uptown, but there's no one in my place. My house keys mysteriously disappeared from my chain. Not sure. Hoping they're inside somewhere.

Where is my home? Or maybe even better, when am I home? I'm wondering what your answer might be. I'm reading Studs Terkel's memoir, Touch and Go, and it's giving me a very particular sense of imagination that I remember holding when I first moved here. There is a sense in the middle of my stomach like I'm eternally stuck 5 minutes before a first date.

[this just in... @#(*#($*%&&%^_ the neighbor started blasting "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel. Unbelievable!]

One thing that I know: I'm sort of in love with Chicago. We have a relationship like that of a parent who constantly excuses his child's erratic behavior, stained clothing, and constant need. No - maybe that's not right because I'm not wholly, or even partially capable of controlling this place outside of the weak parameters of internal narrative/perceptions.

I feel something akin to Nelson Algen, "Yet once you've come to be part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real." - Chicago: City on the Make

Last night when I got home (home?) I watched out the window for a few minutes as a cut-up sir gave a 'how I got mugged' play-by-play to the police. It's sad and ugly. This is happening in the world (on my block) and for unknown and unnamable reasons, I have an inclination to live shoulder to shoulder with it. For unknown/unnamable reasons, this is my home.

I'm curious to know, when are you home? How do you know?

Oh - also this:

I haven't listened to anything else for days:

Losing My Taste For The Night Life - Arthur Russell

Well I'm driving to town
But I'm on the same road that took me back home
Put me on the road
Now I'm heading to nothing 'cause its no more fun
Going down through the pines, what I'm doing I did before
And that's all I see
Driving, driving sixteen miles
I'm looking for something I don't want to do
Because my coming to town it took me from you
Now I'm losing my taste for the night life
Losing my taste for the night life
Losing my taste for the night life

Now I feel like an island
A man in a whorehouse
And I'm back again
I go back to the highway, I go back to the farmhouse
And the hills of grain
And I wonder at all
Where I would be
If I can't go and find you there
Well I wondered so long
Where to find you and how
I go standing in where I am right now
Losing my taste for the night life
Losing my taste for the night life

Try it once if you need to
Come back and then you can
Take it out on me
It's the same it could lead you
But all that is what two can do
and still be free
You've been gone such a long time
Now I know it's for real
And how sad or how good
And how I feel
Losing my taste for the night life

ENGINE GLOW

2008-10-07T22:51:00.004-05:00

Well! Where to start? FIRST, this leaked today. And go ahead and click! Why not? But the next part is tricky because I don't want it to sound like a gimmick. I received both an e-mail (thanks Marah) and a facebook message (thanks Grant) letting me know that the record had found an internet home. I will admit - I was pretty excited by the news. I'm past ready for everyone to hear the thing. But! I also have to be honest. What you've been excitedly listening to is "Engine Glow." The first version of the final thing, masterfully mixed by Neil Strauch of Engine Studios. At least if you have your copy of the cd from the link above... well, first! We were planning on leaking it anyways. Matt and I talked about this tonight and we both agreed - Neil is too smart and too talented for his version of things not to have seen the light of day. We were thinking of it as a Christmas present. So consider this an early Christmas? And secondly - fortunately or unfortunately - what you have isn't the cd that will be coming out on Anticon.

Same tracks, different sound.

I promise promise promise we didn't plan it like this. And I'll also say, I fully expect the real "Canopy Glow" to leak between now and November 18th. That's how these things work, right? And when it does, I hope you listen to it! And that you pass it on to your friends. And hopefully you like it and they like it and you all decide to come see us between now and next spring. That's a fair deal, right?

I'd write more but I am sleepy. And not playfully sleepy but the "my eyes keep closing and reopening as I type this and it feels like college when I was writing papers at four in the morning except it is only eleven at night and I feel OLD" incoherent sleepy. Hopefully it doesn't show up in this post? Maybe I'll make an edit or two during my lunch break.

Goodnight all!

Lionel Loueke

2008-10-07T21:49:00.002-05:00

There aren't many good videos of this guy online, but I figured I'd do a little post on Lionel Loueke, a sweet guitarist that I first heard playing with Herbie Hancock a few years ago. This guy is really great, and he writes some darn good songs. The video below is a bit too much in the freakyweirdtalent-solo-youtube genre for my tastes, but this guy has a great band, too. I just recently picked up his new album "Karibu," which has a full-band version of this song. Absolutely amazing.

Meaty!

2008-10-06T21:33:00.004-05:00

I don't eat a whole lot of meat. Now this doesn't mean I'm a vegetarian, it just means that I don't eat a whole lot of meat. Mainly I cut down on the flesh intake for health reasons (I've pounded my stomach with so much red meat over the past 25 years I thought I could give it a break). Now, just because I don't eat meat very often doesn't mean I have lost my love for the taste of steak. I envy the people who don't like meat...it's probably a healthier way to live. But I love steak!

Anyway, all this back story and I haven't gotten to my point yet.

Yesterday I broke down and chomped down on a juicy London Broil from a new favorite place...Gibson's. When you sit down at this place they show you some of their cuts (uncooked) and give you a rundown...once I saw the London Broil I fell in love (it's the one right next to the lobster tail...and yes, we did get a lobster tail too).

They told me this particular steak was the leanest cut they had and was perfect for patrons who enjoy steak prepared rare or medium/rare. Good gracious were they right! I was glad I had gone so long without so my body's senses could be overwhelmed by this familiar but absent experience. I left satisfied and filled with enough steak to last me for at least a little while longer.

Sea of Love

2008-10-04T08:04:00.002-05:00

I recently went to the Georgia Aquarium with my brother Justin. We found a small viewing window that sat at the bottom of an aquarium roughly the size of a football field and planted ourselves there for at least an hour watching the underwater world with our mouths open. Six Whale Sharks (the largest fish on earth... can get up to 40ft in length...no big deal) circled the top of the tank feeding on krill, a 13 ft. Manna Ray dove into schools of fish sucking them into it's mouth, small neon fish rested in the rocks below us, and we sat behind the child smudged glass making simultaneous awes. When I was a kid I loved animal facts and it was nice to see that not a lot has changed.

This was also the first time I had ever seen a Beluga Whale. It liked to catch it's own air bubbles.

Much Love

2008-10-03T11:27:00.003-05:00

Thank You Biden. I wasn't sure about you, but now I see that you're the best version of a good-ol-boy. You put a smile upon my face.

Being Open to our Current Current

2008-10-02T14:12:00.004-05:00

"Be open to the real forces that are around, instead of the images and the hype. It's such a lessening of the human being to go through winter hating winter and to go through summer hating summer." - Ken Dunn, Hyde Park Resident.

Ken was sited as Chicago's "resident with the smallest carbon emissions foot print" in the Trib last week. This quote is in response to being asked about riding his bike throughout the winter. This guy is pretty old (though obviously, not at heart), and he sees interactions with natural forces as an exciting meeting, not an opportunity to play victim. I've been carrying around a little yellow sticky note with this quote ever since. It's so fierce - the power of human perception. I get the sense that I'm scrubbing all of the film off of my thoughts when I start looking through this frame (it can pretty much apply to anything, right?). I've started thinking about this like current in the water, which is largely what comprises the content of our song "The River." It's not a new thought by any means... If you go against current and fight it, your muscles become tired, knotted, and worn. What happens if you hop? It takes you. You can loosen your tensions as it carries you down. It's giving in to the complete unknowns which we generally feel uncomfortable about because they take more constant attentiveness and mindfulness. Well, anyway, I won't go into a Buddhist diatribe (is that even possible?) but I wanted to post it here because I found it meaningful and encouraging.

Funny how the adjective and noun forms of current speak to one another.

Here are the lyrics for "The River." Erica and I wrote them after hearing about an experience that her mom had while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. She was crossing a river and the current swept her away. Due to the weight of her pack, she couldn't get to a bank and was certain that she was going to die. Upon that realization, she leaned back, calmed her senses and enjoyed what she thought would be her last living moments... she observed everything with a concentrated mindfulness as she passed underneath the glow of light pouring through the canopy of leaves. This is a half fictional retelling. (She was saved - just so you know)

The River

High water carried her down stream.
She watched the water’s living things.
She thought, it’s not a mound with six planks of wood,
The cardinal points to hold you up,
Or a mountain where a shed self could

Feed the roots and honor the tongues of the animals.
Drift into the moss and bloat where the pete bog pulls.

Rolled like a felled tree
With arms as useless as such.
Death’s panic came, a calmness stayed.
You couldn’t do much.

Just watch the water chip away
At the bank eroding.
Cut and crumbling through the spate.

It took a father.
It covered a daughter,
Took her down, down, down.
With the glass bottles, books, a tire,
Collected hair tufts
In the weeds
Snagged and wrapped,
In the petes
Dammed and trapped.

You said, is this the ceremony?
I don’t know, well I don’t mind.
The way we all fall in and roll down
Pushed through the veins and trafficked bi-s.

And when your ears sit under,
Head is half submerged down below,
Pooling all accounts of peace while passed beneath
The canopy glow.

A bit more internet tv.

2008-09-30T23:09:00.003-05:00

A friend recently sent me a link to the video that I link below. It's an interesting lecture by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia. He talks about the moral foundations of differing political ideologies, and he's a much better speaker than the rambly videos I posted from bloggingheads.tv. That said, his talk has some hokey moments. Also, unfortunately for a format like this where people (myself included) tend to just watch a few minutes of a video, his talk looks like it's heading in some bad directions at times and you have to stick with it to see that he's not smarmy or really relativistic. That said, I recommend it.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Rainbow

2008-09-30T11:16:00.003-05:00

All this talk of economic depression, world leaders "rearing their ugly heads", and death (see post below) I thought it might be nice to bring up the mood here. Below is a short video showing a installation by an the artist Mark Garry. If you are anywhere near western Pennsylvania you must visit and see this in person, it is simple beauty. The video doesn't do the piece justice but provides some interesting background information.

Death

2008-09-26T16:07:00.007-05:00

I've been slacking on my blogging day recently (although Bret's been doing a good job of pick up that slack) and feel like it's high time I help carry the weight of yhmmgo (wow, I don't think anyone has made that acronym yet).

I've always thought about if and how I'd like to be buried but I've always had problems with the usual ways of doing it. First of all burials can be insanely expensive, the casket alone can be thousands of dollars and then the burial spot and all the other cost involved can easily reach $10,000. Seems like a burden to your family to me. The other problem I've had with being buried is with the land use issues. Here in the U.S. cemeteries are for all intensive purposes off limits and usually take up huge amounts of land. I offer this as an example:

This is right in the middle of Chicago and there are eight cemeteries, and just look at the size of Rosehill! Imagine if all that land was filled with parks, or wetlands, or gardens, but no, it's filled with dead people and really expensive exotic wood caskets. I do concede that this land is usually open and you can walk around freely, but how often do you go there? And how usable is the land with all those mausoleums? Thinking about kicking around the soccer ball? Forget it, it will puncture! Also watch out for security! In addition to all this there's a huge environmental impact. Here are some facts courtesy of our friends at wikipedia:

Each year, 22,500 cemeteries across the United States bury approximately:
30 million board feet (70,000 m³) of hardwoods (caskets)
90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
827,060 US gallons (3,130 m³) of embalming fluid, which most commonly includes formaldehyde.

I've told myself that I'd be buried in the ground if one day I owned some wild wooded tract of land were I could be put there without being a disruption to others. Lately there's been a larger movement to change some common practices in how we are buried. People are calling it "natural" or "green" burial, I like the direction this is going.

How about this for an idea?

When you're buried, you just go straight in the ground, no metal or fancy wood casket. Above you they plant a tree and as your body returns to dust it feeds the tree above you. Instead of cemeteries we have forests and thanks to legislation, they'll be protected forever. Sounds awesome to me. Let it become public knowledge, when I Daniel John Bracken Jr. die, this is the way I'd like to be laid to rest, with a tree growing above me surrounded by other trees.

a) how to think - rest peacefully DFW b) Jitka Hanzlova's perception of time-scale in forest photography as seen by John (non-ham) Berger

2008-09-25T10:46:00.009-05:00

A
The adult content and language of David Foster Wallace:

1995 commencement speech at Kenyon College... this is completely worth reading! Thanks to Michael and Laura for telling me about this.

B

'I went to the forest-hills early in the morning when the forest awakes. Standing there I breathed in the wind. the unruffled voices of the birds and the silence which I love. And then when I was concentrating on a picture, I stopped hearing the silence around me. It was as if I was somewhere else, like in a film. The forest started to move and, as I looked through the camera, I experienced fear. Maybe it was just the framing and the stillness of the evening. As if the birds and the crickets had stopped their singing, as if the wind had come to a stop in the valley. Nothing but nothing to hear. No birds, no wind, no people, no crickets. The darkness of the light and this other silence made my hair stand on end... I could not exactly place the fear, but it was coming from the inside. It was the first time I felt this so intensely, but not the last. I escaped! What's the basis of this fear of mine? Why? I'm not afraid of animals or of the forest. The place is safe.

Throughout history and prehistory forests have offered shelter, a hiding-place, whilst also being places in which a wanderer can be ultimately lost. They oblige us to recognize how much is hidden.

[...]

What is intangible and within touching distance in a forest may be the presence of a kind of timelessness. Not the abstract timelessness of metaphysical speculation, nor the metaphysical timelessness of cyclic, seasonal repetition. Forests exist in time, they are, God knows, subjects of history; and today many are catastrophically being obliterated for the quick pursuit of profit.

Yet in a forest there are 'events' which have not found their place in any of the forest's numberless time-scales, and which exist between those scales. What events? you ask. They are what remains in photographs after we have made an inventory of everything this is recognizable. The ancient Greeks named events like these dryads.

[...]

To make sense of what I'm suggesting it is necessary to reject the notion of time that began in Europe during the eighteenth century and is closely linked with the positivism and linear accountability of modern capitalism: the notion that a single time, which is unilinear, regular, abstract and irreversible, carries everything. All other cultures have proposed a coexistence of various times surrounded in some way by the timeless.

Return to the forest that belongs to history. There is often a sense of waiting, yet what is it that is waiting? And is waiting the right word? A patience. A patience practiced by what? A forest incident. An incident we can neither name, describe, nor place. And yet is there.

The intricacy of the crossing paths and crossing energies in a forest - the paths of birds, insects, mammals, spores, seeds, reptiles, ferns, lichens, worms, trees, etc - is unique; perhaps in certain areas on the seabed there exists a comparable intricacy. but there man is a recent intruder, whereas, with all his sense perceptions, he came from the forest. Man is the only creature who lives within at least two time-scales: the biological one of his body and the one of his consciousness. Every one of the crossing energies operating in a forest has its own time-scale. From the ant to the oak tree. From the process of photosynthesis to the process of fermentation. In this intricate conglomeration of times, energies and exchanges there occur 'incidents' that are recalcitrant incidents, unaccommodated in any time-scale and therefore (temporarily?) waiting between. These are what Jitka photographs.

The longer one looks at Jitka Hanzlova's pictures of a forest, the clearer it becomes that a break-out from the prison of modern time is possible.

The dryads beckon. You may slip in between - but unaccompanied.

-John Berger in Hold Everything Dear

Rock, Rock, Rock?

2008-09-23T22:01:00.003-05:00

Above is a picture of Danny, Jer, and me getting ready to get some beauty rest on our last tour. But this was not just any night. This was, if I'm remembering right, the second of three consecutive nights in which Danny beat me at Rock, Paper, Scissors for who got to sleep in a bed. It's no wonder that, if you look closely at the picture blown up, Danny looks like an evil genius who's driven me crazy.

I'm not sure how these successive losses happened, and I'm starting to get concerned about my prospects for this next tour. After all, just the other day I lost to a fellow Starbucks worker (more on that in a later post) who I thought I had accurately psychoanalyzed as a paper-thrower. Boy was I wrong! As a result, I didn't get to throw out the trash, which involves being outside for a few moments and is therefore actually a sought-after task where I work.

After he laughed all the way to the dumpster and back, this co-worker informed me that the internet had some sage wisdom about how to win at this confounding game. I just checked out a few sites, with http://www.worldrps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=256&Itemid=37 being the most comprehensive I've found. I'm a bit bummed at the level of luck that still seems to be involved. Still, my searching was not in vain. I ran into an interesting tidbit on the competitive mating habits of the side-botched lizard, which, according to Wikipedia, resemble Rock, Paper, Scissors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors). Thankfully, what's at stake in my case is only taking out the trash or making an evil genius sleep on the floor.

Party...Pizza Party!

2008-09-22T21:23:00.002-05:00

Erica and I decided to chomp on some pizza tonight. We were on the internet looking for some local pizza places and stumbled across Domino Pizza's online ordering center. Now...we would usually go with the local pizza slinger but the glow of screen, the novelty of ordering a pie in cyberspace and having that pie miraculously showing up at our door was too tempting for us. The whole process was unbelievable! I think I remember Bret telling me about doing this a while ago, but I guess I needed to see it to believe it! They had real-time updates about when our pie went into oven and when it hit the road. And they were FAST. They were so fast that Erica and I were still at Walgreens when they showed up. My roommate James was kind enough to pay for our 'za with his credit card since we were slow to the draw. He was able to use this card because THE DELIVERY DRIVER LET HIM PUNCH IT IN ON HIS IPHONE! Talk about Domino's keeping up with the times.

Anyway, pizza is pretty synonymous with parties and we're planning a party. As some of you may know the Anathallo crew is headed to Japan this winter to play some shows set up by our new, good friends Yuya and Yuki at the wonderful label Moor Works. Yuya and Yuki have tacked on another show to the end of our tour and it's going to be a show/party. The one thing we need to do is come up with decorations for this little end-of-tour. I was thinking the boar pictured above would be a good touch. But I'm going to keep up the google-image-searching. I welcome anything that can top the swine on the table. Maybe a Bar Mitzvah theme.

One last thing...after we stuffed our faces with pizza, Erica and I watched a little of that Heroes show. The highlight of the whole show is below!

I AM BEHIND ON THE TIMES

2008-09-22T11:51:00.014-05:00

My apologies if you've already seen this bit of magic before... but VOILA! Just-Woke-Up-In-The-Morning-Me has now been taken to:

1952---

1964---

1970---

1976---

1982---

And a couple years that might be a little more familiar:

1994---

1996---

Take your own! Astound your friends!

Tour sounds 2008

2008-09-20T09:12:00.003-05:00

In Japan we play seven shows with Aie...

We'll have Cale Parks with us for the record release shows...

FORGET ALL THAT

2008-09-19T13:04:00.008-05:00

It looks like Anticon has posted a new song from Canopy Glow. I think a few of you even found this before I did? Either way, take a listen if you'd like!

Have great weekends everyone.

NOW HOW ABOUT YOU TELL ME WHAT THIS MEANS?

2008-09-19T10:42:00.007-05:00

I'm not sure an official champion has emerged yet from Wednesday's voting... Blackstreet, Coolio, and Seal all seem to have at least captured a few of your hearts. I really can't explain Gotham City's appeal to me... but well, it's there. Even if R. and Puffy have been left behind in the voting.

Okay, NEXT!

Which one of you smart ones in the comments can tell me what the last couple weeks on Wall Street mean. Or, to clarify, what does all this mean practically to me and probably the generally assumed "whoever" that reads this blog? I'll give an example:

I mean clearly, a few banks have failed. I know that can't be good but my life really hasn't changed yet... how could it? Am I going to be eating potatoes half a year from now? Or when I read the headline "WASHINGTON MUTUAL NEXT TO FALL!" - well - that's my bank. I have no idea what "about to fall!" means. Like, there goes my money Jimmy Stewart style? All four hundred of my dollars?? None of you will be able to afford Canopy Glow on our CD release tour? We're going to get stuck in Europe this November because no plane will fly back to the States? Because looters will have taken over the streets and smoke will be pouring out of the National City near my house?

Or if the government really is going forward with this rumored mega-bailout (what?)... well, what does THAT mean? I just read the headline "We're All Socialists Now" and well, that's surprising. And good news for Obama, right? (HA HA HA.) No no, but really - what does it mean that the government could own a nice chunk of the economy? Higher taxes? New logos? Patriotic color schemes?

Change we might have to believe in.

I'll be honest - these are a few of questions I have. They aren't smart, impressive ones. It's much more fun to ask about things that you're familiar with - ask the "ah ha!" question or two that allows the audience in on the fact that you know what you're talking about. The above questions aren't it. I don't know what I'm talking about and besides the overexaggerated fear or two... well, if anyone knows a good financial blog or two to pass on that would be much appreciated. Because right now I know "markets down is bad" and "the 'whatever' that is happening right now is REALLY BAD."

Or is the "REALLY BAD" - is that just for folks with money? Because if that's the case, I am sittin' pretty!

A late entrant.

They don't make 'em how they used to.

***update: I thought this article was pretty helpful... scroll down to numbers one and four if you don't feel like reading the entire thing.

HOW ABOUT WE TAKE A VOTE?

2008-09-17T23:23:00.009-05:00

Seal - Kiss From a Rose

R. Kelly - Gotham City

Blackstreet - No Diggity

Coolio - C U When U Get There

Puff Daddy featuring Jimmy Page - Come With Me

An old roommate of mine moved to Chicago this month... this pretty much sums up how great it is to have him back.
Have your say in the comments? PLEASE?

2008-09-16T22:45:00.007-05:00

I ran around a track for about 45 minutes yesterday. I do this pretty regularly. The only thing that makes it somewhat tolerable is that I concentrate as hard as I can on the music or podcast I'm listening to. Or I watch the guy with the nunchucks do his thing in the park where I run, but even when he's there I can only see him half the time because of the logistics of running in circles. So I need some pretty engaging stuff to listen to, and I've already listened to Why's recent record pretty much every time for the last three months. Yesterday, I chose Canopy Glow, our new record. It's engaging for me because not only do I like the music, but I'm also constantly frightened of hearing something new that I don't like. Plus, it brings back great memories of recording. I happened to be looking at the pictures on my phone today, where I ran into a few pics of those good ol' days at the studio:

I also found this picture interspersed with the others. I thought a bird shat on my head while I was riding my bike on the way to the studio, and, naturally, I didn't want to touch it to find out.

As you can see, I managed to dodge the bird stool and think of an ingenious solution to my problem.

Puppet of the Master

2008-09-15T19:24:00.008-05:00

You'd think with the millions of dollars this guy saved forcing people to buy his records he would spring for a better backdrop than the stairs down to his basement (the bit torrents are probably sucking him dry...so if that's the case...maybe they're his parents stairs). Oh well...at least the laugh we get from his mocumentary like subject matter and delivery is free.

In other, less cynical, news...I'm onto the third season of The Wire. I'm taking a short break between episodes two and three to post on here and request something. I was talking with my pal Jamie and he was telling me that some of the storyline in The Wire finds its inspiration in real life events. After hearing this I've decided to do a little online investigation and find out where truth and fiction meet. My request is for help tracking any of these article down. If anyone is sitting on some juicy real-life-turned-hit-HBO-series accounts let me know.

Indeed!

tasty treats 2008

2008-09-13T19:21:00.003-05:00

I'm going to tell you a secret... I love baking. I love it so much that someday I want to open up my own dream bakery. This is important information because I might be posting some of my favorite recipes from time to time. Fall is almost here and with it comes the harvest of one of my favorite vegetables to bake/cook with... pumpkin!

1 1/2 cup flour (I like to use ww pastry flour but feel free to use all purpose, barley, spelt, ect.)
2 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon cardamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons softened butter
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup milk or water
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup raisins or cranberries or dates or chocolate chips

step 1)small bowl- stir all dry ingredients together (except raisins and walnuts)
step 2)large bowl - mix all wet ingredients together (make sure butter is softened at
room temp not nuked in microwave)
step 3)mix them together until just blended, over mixing is bad, add in walnuts and raisins or whatever
step 4)pour into greased 9x5 pan at 350 for about an hour (it's done when tooth pick/fork comes out clean)

Hope you like it... If you like to bake... ha.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

2008-09-12T16:17:00.002-05:00

Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life

Apparently The Onion is.

Tribute to Wendell Berry

2008-09-11T10:03:00.004-05:00

Wendell Berry is one of my favorite authors. It's always pleasant to read concerned critique when surrounded by a culture running forward while nodding in agreement with all sorts of presumptions about what progress really means. Maybe part of my love for his work is a love for his biography:
- Born in rural farmlands to a farming family (check)
- Got all learned at the Uni (check)
- Taught at the Uni of Kentucky, then moved to NYC to teach in the Bronx at NYUni (double check for street cred.)
- Received tons of prestigious fellowships and learned from smarties in EU (check)
- Came back to the place that he started to live on the land and appreciate the essence of existence (check)

Ok - yeah. That's a guide that I would like to follow. Though sometimes Berry gets a little stubborn to the point of seeming antagonistic and downright cranky (see: "Life is a Miracle" an essay against Edward Wilson's propositions) in general, the man isn't out to become one of those polar-philosophers... you know, the ones that receive attention in the academic world because they are great reference points to spell out a vague/harsh spectrum of thought in PHL 101. Meanwhile, the Berry's of the world sit in the grass knoll of the in-between. I think most of the truth resides in that knoll.

Speaking of polars... how about we reduce his thoughts, just for fun.

the good life includes:
sustainable agriculture
appropriate technologies (doesn't own a computer)
healthy rural communities
connection to place
the pleasure of good food
husbandry
good work
local economies
the miracle of life
fidelity
frugality
reverence
the interconnectedness of life

threats to the good life:
industrial farming
industrialization of life
ignorance
hubris
greed
violence against others and against the natural world
eroding topsoils in the United States
global economics

That sounds good to me. Definitely a far different way of seeing than the one that we're accustomed to...

Here are some of my favorite poem excepts:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows for me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests,
in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things,
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief,
I come into the presence of still water,
and I feel above me the dayblind stars,
waiting with their light,
for a time, I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.

Except from The Mad Farmer's Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Also read "Thoughts in the Presence of Fear"

... oh, and I guess we're going on an insanely awesome European tour too... err whatever. (yawning) Look Here

FRINGE

2008-09-10T22:44:00.004-05:00

Did anyone watch last night? Or catch it on HULU since? (yes, that's another Hulu plug)

THOUGHTS?

(I would share mine but they're a sleepy jumble - I'll say this, the block letters for every location were in all ways annoying, the soundtrack kept catching my attention in ways I'm guessing that a soundtrack isn't supposed to... and up until the last half an hour, I thought "I like these characters, I'll probably check back in next week." And then bam - BAM! - the show got going. It's still flawed, noticeably flawed... but the strengths were pretty strong, too. The good, my blog friends, outweighed the bad.)

That was less of a sleepy jumble and rather a parenthetical one. Anyways, did anyone else see it?!

Meditations on Internet TV

2008-09-09T22:57:00.003-05:00

We get about 5 TV channels at our apartment. I really don't mind, but I'm not a militant anti-TV person, and I do enjoy the occasional show. So, given that The Wire is the best show ever, and given that it is so intense and fascinating that it deserves undivided attention, what am I to do when I just want a little something to watch during snack-time- say, while eating a delicious quesadilla? The answer*, for nerds like me without access to CSPAN, is bloggingheads.tv.

Now, this site is not for those who want information fast- although there is an option of playing the "diavlogs" at 1.4x speed, which can be nice, though also pretty hilarious. Nor is it for people who want well-produced TV, as it's just two people talking with frequent technological screw-ups. But if you want some company with your quesadilla, it can be interesting. Here are a couple of clips with some human-nature-themed tidbits:

And...

On the more political side, they do a great job of pairing up people of very different perspectives, and they get a lot of really well-known scholars to participate.

*On a broader note, the answer to the snack-time entertainment dilemma may be best stated by Thich Nhat Hanh, a buddhist author that Matt and I are quite fond of. He writes about eating a tangerine, quoting a Buddhist sutra: "When you children peel a tangerine, you can eat it with awareness or without awareness. What does it mean to eat a tangerine in awareness? When you are eating the tangerine, you are aware that you are eating the tangerine. You fully experience its lovely fragrance and sweet taste. When you peel the tangerine, you know that you are peeling the tangerine; when you remove a slice and put it in your mouth, you know that you are removing a slice and putting it in your mouth; when you experience the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine, you are aware that you are experiencing the lovely fragrance and sweet taste of the tangerine."

Maybe I should be concentrating more on my delicious quesadilla. At least I give undivided attention to The Wire...

IF YOU'RE READING THIS TOMORROW, THE WORLD DIDN'T END

2008-09-09T21:59:00.003-05:00

But if it did, the apocalypse probably went down something like this:

Fortunately, it didn't. I hope. If it's September 10th, 2008 and you're bored at work checking to see if we updated the blog (surprise! WE DID!) then - well - the hadron collider is up and running and life as we know it is still humming along. As a bonus, the above link is pretty great.

Or if you prefer your physics knowledge in rap form:

Science is all sorts of terrifying.

I've found my Calling!

2008-09-08T20:09:00.002-05:00

I've started a job. It's a great job. I scan comic books. I have a lot of comic books to scan. Approx. 33,000 of them. Let me spin you a yarn of how I serendipitously fell into such lucrative employment.

I was on the fast track to my first million working freelance at warehouses around the Chicagoland area. This particular season I was working at Zeus and Co showing the boys a thing or two how to give a 30# bag of dog chow the ol' heave-hoe. I was at the warehouse wiping the beads of sweat from my brow when I looked up to find three pallets stacked high. A lesser man may have seen simple comics books on those pallets, but I saw opportunity. Faster than the shift whistle could blow I was on the horn with my boss. I struck up a deal with that smooth talk that got me into this business in the first place. And before you know it the wheels of progress were turning. And that, my friends, is how you find me here. So just remember a quick wit and some elbow grease is all it takes to succeed in this world.

Sommer des Flugs

2008-09-06T15:52:00.003-05:00

Today Seth, Nathan, and I watched people launch themselves off a 30 foot high dock while holding on to poorly made paper mache contraptions (all poorly made with the exception of the Crustacean Avengers I should say... they made theirs fly about 120 feet and had very elaborate costumes)

The holders of the 2007 record made a special guest appearance this afternoon. Here is a their victory and an explanation of what I'm talking about....

Most clever name goes to team Iowa:Go shuck yourself, who flew off the dock with surprising results on a gigantic piece of corn without wings.

2008-09-06T12:08:00.000-05:00

Walk along with Anathallo on tour!

2008-09-05T13:41:00.003-05:00

Some of you may have noticed that we've added a few shows to our myspace. We're pretty excited about getting back down to a few parts in the south, it hasn't been since 2006 that we've played a show in a couple of these places. Also, there's a decent chance you can pick up one of those CD's below on this little tour (we'll let you know for sure a little later).

Not sure if anyone has noticed this amazing and extremely useful feature on google maps yet. But along with getting public transit and driving directions you can now calculate the best walking route. I've saved you the trouble and already mapped out our tour dates for you. There are a mere 1819 directions to follow and should take you only about 43 days and 15 hours (obviously, depending on how fast a walker you are).

Click here for the turn by turn directions.

Lot's more to come!

"EDEN IS A HELL OF A PLACE"

2008-09-05T13:31:00.008-05:00

Colour Revolt on Daytrotter today. Four songs to download, you lucky ducks. That includes a cover of Why?'s "These Few Presidents."

If you were worried, I'm feeling much calmer post-convention. I also slept for eleven hours last night.

2008-09-04T14:28:00.005-05:00

Surprise.

This is the cover of Canopy Glow. The record will be released November 18th on Anticon. Some of you got really really close when filling in the blanks on our mysterious madlib a few months back... nice work Columbo.

PUMPED INDEED.

The featured painting is called Temma on Earth. It is the loving work of our dear friend Tim Lowly. We've known Tim for quite some time now, and he is largely responsible for our residency at Berry. He is also a fellow musician, professor, curator, runner, and great person to be around. Outside of the obvious aesthetic perfection of this insane meticulously crafted painting, and the capacious interpretation possibilities (directly and indirectly interacting with the lyrical content of the record), using this piece holds a really special reminder of the community and support that Berry has extended our way. It is truly otherworldly and we feel honored that Tim allowed us to use his work.

The piece is in the private collection at the Frye Museum in Seattle. Coincidentally, it will be showing this fall in an exhibition entitled Gaze: Vision, Desire, and Difference in the Frye Collection. For info, click here.

Oh yeah! We've got TONS more news to announce, but I'll let others sort out the rest in their posts.

Deal with it.

I'M WORKING ON SOMETHING MORE THOUGHTFUL...

2008-09-04T13:18:00.006-05:00

...but this will have to do for now.

I'm sorry, I know it's snarky. I honestly wish it was less biting, that the tone was less juvenile. Those would be trees, however, getting in the way of the forest.

I mean really.

CULTURE WAR

2008-09-04T02:38:00.008-05:00

Wait, what's wrong with community organizers?

It's 3:21 and I still can't fall asleep. I've started three drafts and scrapped them all. So. Goodnight.

The Wire

2008-09-02T23:20:00.004-05:00

So I know I might be a little behind the curve when it comes to good television, but I started watching "The Wire" about a week ago. The reason I decided to step out of the boob-tube shadows and come clean with my entertainment tardiness was because it was only after hearing rave reviews of this show from 3 or 4 completely unrelated people during 3 or 4 completely unrelated conversations that got me watching. And so I thought maybe if I could be that 3rd or 4th unrelated person to someone out there...it would all be worth it. The hours of downloading...worth it. The desire to stay up just another hour to watch just one more episode...worth it.

I'm just finishing the first season and episode 11 got me a little emotional. Now I'm no snitch so I won't give anything away, but when Rawls says his bit to McNulty in the hospital...the brass-balls tenderness he showed got the water-works going a bit.

Anyway, watch it if you haven't.

2008-09-02T20:42:00.002-05:00

Jer is in Georgia for a little while, and I miss him dearly. Along with Matt, Seth, and James (of recent stolen-bike-related fame), Jer completes the apartment, and without him here, I have no one stopping by my room to talk about crazy youtube drumming videos. In honor of Jer, here are a couple of videos of drummers who make a frequent appearance in these gawking sessions:

And...

Those are a couple of my favs, Brian Blade and Keith Carlock. Here's a video of one of Jer's recent drum-crushes, Bill Stewart:

I had plans to maybe post an embarrassing recording of me playing drums in a funk band I was in a few years ago, but I just listened to about 10 seconds of it and decided it's far too lame to put after those videos. Maybe in a future post. Later gators...

A POST A DAY

2008-09-01T11:49:00.002-05:00

We're trying something new out here starting today... hope you enjoy!

Different Ways of Seeing

2008-08-28T09:56:00.008-05:00

Sam Amidon paying tribute to Papa Jo Jones.

Summer has been really fantastic so far, and it just doesn't stop. A really special show is going to take place tonight at the Lakeshore Theatre, and I'm so excited that I'm financially and physically able to attend. I can't really remember how Sam Amidon's All is Well record made its new-appropriation-of-TRAD-tunes-in-a-digital-world way into our van during the Dosh tour, but it certainly hasn't made its way out of my thoughts ever since. On top of that...

Nico Muhly! What I've heard of Mothertongue is nothing short of incredible and compelling.

Also in show going news... probably don't need to beat this into the ground again but:

LUCKY DRAGONS AT BERRY UMC 8/31

Here's what ArtForum had to say:

"Lucky Dragons... create ecstatic music that completely transcends genres. My attempts to describe what their music actually sounds like always fall short of the magic they are making. I guess you could say it sounds like—ecstatic magic. Challenging stereotypes that electronic music is cold and sterile, Lucky Dragons' live show, though conducted via computers, is a truly great celebration of the human spirit, giving real hope for the techno-future our society is racing toward."

Here's what Lucky Dragons say:

"Lucky dragons shows are about the birthing of new and temporary creatures--creating equal-power situations in which audience members cooperate amongst themselves, to build a fragile network of digital signals connected by touching on the skin. There have been hundreds of these simple yet shifting and unpredictable instances--with audiences ranging from the intense intimacy of one person to the public spectacle of over one thousand people. At the heart of it all is playing together--building up social collectivities, re-engaging the wonder and impossibility of technology and live performance. It sounds--and looks--like simple and ancient patterns coming together and falling apart in a sincere attempt to let wires and screens and words become clear and crystal."

Imagine touching your neighbor and creating a chord via sound transmitted through skin contact. Yes. I'm totally serious. A huddle of humans being thoroughly human. Laughing gently and being entirely curious.

Also performing will be:

1 - Hecuba (fellow L.A. avant-electro-Tom and Jerry enthusiast duo)

2 - Nick Butcher (Chicago's native answering machine manipulator, tape looping mastermind, sound source specialist)

3 - Think/Dance and Younger (Liz Joynt-Sandberg, Megan Cotrell, Ryan Hammer and Matt Joynt constructing a 15-minute movement and sound improvisation).

The details:

Sunday August 31st
Berry UMC 4754 N. Leavitt - Chicago IL
7 PM and 7 dollars

Hope to see many of you there. Please tell your friends and spread the news!