Ho Etsu taiko came by for a creative retreat, to work on their new live set outside the confines of their sonically superior but sporadically available practice space, the MidWest Buddhist temple. They brought extra rope lights for the barn and generally made the place their own, chasing chickens around the yard with Okedo and giving the residents of Antioch an unforgettable spectacle. And even better, unlike most of the bands that stay over, instead of ordering pizza, they cooked up a storm and even did the dishes afterwards. 10/10 would host again.

Derek (of Whipped fame) came by to record some acoustic covers, his main musical outlet since he moved to the PNdubs (Pacific North West, all the kids are saying it). His choice of songs is as unique as his delivery of them. Yell Dezza yell!

These kids again…

The ten track album I bashed out with Damn Champion last summer is out on cassette! Defunct audio format for the win! I’d love to tell you about the analog warmth and saturation of the medium, but my tape player has a heinous hum on the right channel, so in the meantime I’ll be listening to it here.

Vying for the longest EP title ever, Down I Go’s “All Down the Church in Midst of Fire the Hellish Monster Flew, and Passing Onward to the Quire, He Many People Slew” hits the bandcamps today. It’s our poppiest yet, and mainly a stop gap to remind everyone that we exist, in preparation for our next full length. More on that later. The artwork was done by my wife’s ex boyfriend’s older brother and the ridiculous guitar tone is mostly GamechangerAudio’s plasma pedal which if you haven’t seen (yes, seen) then prepare to have your eyes blown. It sounds insane too. Next royalty cheque is going on the rack version which has an even bigger xenon tube!

Chewie is stoked for the latest piece of gear I bought – a combination electric heat and cool wall unit by Frigidaire. It may not be vintage, point to point hand wired or even entirely analog, but at least it puts an end to the ‘bring your own AC’ policy of last summer’s tracking sessions. With just one teensy weensy task left (making all the cables and wiring up the ‘desk’) we’ll be open for the summer. They said build it and they will come. I’m doing my best here.

At long last, the Big Night In LP, Super Dualism, is available on bandcamp, and notably in various record stores in the Chicago area, including (but not limited to) Reckless, Bric a Brac and Record Breakers. And even more notably, at our local record store here in Antioch, Reef Records, who have already sold two copies to total strangers based on it playing on the store stereo, and having a display copy available so everyone can check out the 3D gatefold. I’m proud of it sonically, I think it’s a good compromise between a throw back sound that lends itself to the band’s Rock n Roll elements and the modern edge that the heavier tracks demand. But I’m also proud of it as a physical product thanks to the artwork by Jeremy Mlodik and the thankless task of graphic design and layout by Dave. I know vinyl is a delicate medium (I’ve been perfecting my LP unsleeving skills from a young age) but when the internet breaks forever and all those servers are scavenged for parts to fight the rising robot hoards, Super Dualism will survive well into the 22nd century, 3D glasses included.

Just got back from spending a month in the UK, writing for Extreme Music Library. My contact at Extreme, Dan, bought the Park Studios last year and is running it as library music production house, with monthly residencies of sorts. The studio’s main live room has a high angled ceiling so drums sound huge. They also have a bunch of fun hardware and instruments and insist on doing stuff out of the box whenever possible. I had a great time, but being forced to try and mix in unfamiliar rooms with unfamiliar monitors was a real wake up call.
Now I’m back at the vegetable stand, I have some work to do before I can open up the studio for the summer. I’m keen to dispense with last year’s ‘bring your own air conditioning’ policy.

Me and Alan went on Loyola Public Radio to talk about Down I Go, and we previewed a couple tracks (right in the middle of the interview once you can see the waveform) from our new EP, All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and passing onward to the quire, he many people slew. Yup, that’s what we’re calling it. The tracks suffered less from radio compression than I feared, but I’m definitely going to turn the guitars up. I like how everyone had their own RE20 even though most of the headphones were broken and Alan refused to get within two feet of his mic. It felt like an episode of Frasier.

As a sweet side gig to recording real bands, I also write songs for Extreme Music, the self professed ‘bad boys of the music industry’. Extreme is the go to music library for a lot of video editors and producers in TV and commercials, simply because their music isn’t as horrendously awful as the rest of the library music out there. They’re responsible for the theme on It’s Always Sunny… and their in house team of writers in the LA office wrote all the stuff for Blue Planet, but so far the most prestigious shows one of my tunes has aired on is American Pickers, Geordie Shore and something called America’s Worst Tattoos. Hey, you gotta start somewhere. This month one of their new releases, the pictured ‘Psychedelic Indie’ realised a lifelong ambition of mine to write a song about a fictitious dance craze. ‘You Shake it Up’ is a little hazy on the specifics, but it involves a lot of pushing it in and around. I also got the top spot with ‘Impossible Sounds’ which marks the first time I’ve ever used a stereo delay on a snare drum.