Thursday, June 30, 2005 The Dallas Observer had some nice things to say about the Bosque Brown album. Saxon Shore should be finishing the last track today and beginning the mastering session. Hopefully, everything should be done late tonight or in the wee hours of the morning. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 01:41 PM CST Wednesday, June 29, 2005 I updated the btv splash page intro with a special link to a Bosque Brown mp3. Go download. Saxon Shore continue to mix songs for The Exquisite Death and I'm rocking out with excitement and glee. Rich is stopping by tonight to be a last minute savior and deliver Starflyer 59 vinyl to them on tour. For some reason, the LPs never made it to Jason's house. But rest assured, you will soon be able to pick up Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice LPs in person. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 04:53 PM CST Tuesday, June 28, 2005 Bosque Brown : Plays Mara Lee Miller was #18 most added on the CMJ Top 200 and Saxon Shore : Luck Will Not Save Us from a Jackpot of Nothing was #156 on the CMJ Top 200 this week. Thanks to everyone who is supporting these releases at college radio. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 11:45 PM CST ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Five songs are now complete for The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore. Everything is really sounding amazing. The songs should all be added to the myspace site eventually, so keep visiting. Ben, Willis, Ethan, and I met last night to work on the booklet design for the cd and should have everything ready for the factory by the weekend. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:49 AM CST Monday, June 27, 2005 I'm back from the recording studio. We played a bunch of badminton on Sunday while Dave was fixing a track for the Flaming Lips. Three tracks have been completed. You can stream two of the completed tracks on their myspace page and also see the hott new badminton team shot of all 5 Saxon Shore members. This weekend was the first time that all 5 met each other and were together in the same place. After dinner, Matthew, Willis, Carrie, and I started the long drive home, dropping Matthew off at his car so he could go to New England to sell fireworks for the 4th of July. Matt and Oliver are staying at the studio for the duration of the mixing and Steve is there for a little while longer. We should have a completed record on Thursday sometime. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 12:56 PM CST Sunday, June 26, 2005 The third mix was almost finished and we broke for the night since it was getting late. The Fridmanns got a babysitter and met up with us at the infamous BJs for wings, Mr. K fries, and drinks. We ended up back at their house after BJs closed and a few people thought it was a good idea to go swimming. Someone borrowed the "rockstar trunks" that had been worn by many band members who were at Dave's studio in the warmer months. After they were taken, Steve borrowed a spare woman's bathing suit on a dare from Matt and jumped into the Fridmann pool at 3am or so. I haven't decided if the reason I came to the studio was for the mixing or the fun after the sessions are done for the day. Side note: Matthew ate 3/4 of a frozen pizza for breakfast, for some reason; Saxon Shore are connoisseurs of frozen pizza varieties. It's interesting to watch Dave work on a mix. He's very methodical and listens to all of the tracks at a very low level, something I've never seen in a mixing session. He's very careful to keep his ears ready for the session, making sure he didn't get water in his ears last night in the pool, for example. The results have been exciting for everyone as we listen for the first time after Dave is done and has left the room. There will be small changes in some of the sounds and reverb, the way the electronic parts come in and out, the placement of the instrumentation. It's like Christmas morning when the presents are unwrapped. Three songs are now complete. Unwed Sailor still have a few dates left on their tour, go see them. Apparently they've been touring with three keyboardists and no guitars, so the sound is very different, but still Unwed Sailor. Word has it that the Chicago show was amazing. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:50 PM CST Saturday, June 25, 2005 Last night, Scott, Rich, Carrie, Cake, and I were all at The New Pornographers in Lancaster for the 6pm show. Stars started the show super early to make way for a lame local act who played way too long before the pornographers. The band was great, even without Neko Case and Dan Bejar with them, Carl's niece handled the female vocals well and the drummer did Dan's part successfully. They played all of their hits, except for one of my favorites "The Mary Martin Show," in a really long set. Scott, Carrie, and I rushed back to make a train for Scott and Carrie and I picked up Willis to get up to Fredonia. We got to the studio about 7am, in time to get some sleep and watch some of the mixing happen. Things are going well so far. One song has been mixed and two more are underway at the moment. I met Oliver for the first time and he's able to be here after relocating from DC to Brooklyn. It's a pretty crowded house, but a lot of fun. Mary Fridmann stopped by the studio with their two sons and we're planning for a bit of a bbq/badminton break in a few minutes. Carrie is whipping up some vegan friendly goodness to share and Matthew will be manning the grill. Ben Volta is working on the Saxon Shore artwork and we've been talking a lot about plans for the record and touring. It's been pretty busy and we're all getting pretty excited about everything. Over the next few days, there will be streaming songs on the Saxon Shore myspace page Saxon Shore myspace page. The final master should be done by the end of the week, right before I head off to Amsterdam for a few days of vacation to visit all of my friends there. It's been almost a year since I was last in Europe and I've missed it. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 05:38 PM CST Friday, June 24, 2005 Here's a special Friday afternoon treat to make the rest of your work week more tolerable...two new mp3s from Bosque Brown. Mara finished these last night, so go and download Went Walking and You Said. Happy Friday, you are loved. Tonight, off to see The New Pornographers for a 6pm show in Lancaster. Who books a 6pm show on a Friday night with a band like The New Pornographers? After, the all night drive to Fredonia to get Willis involved in the Saxon Shore mixes. Carrie and I will be along for moral support. Maybe I'll whip up a batch of cookies. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:08 PM CST Thursday, June 23, 2005 I watched the documentary In the Realms of the Unreal about reclusive folk artist Henry Darger whose lifelong work was a 15,000 page illustrated epic novel of the same name that was found after his death. Fascinating and amazing. Thanks to Krister for sending me the new Isolation Years LP Cover the Distance. One of the guys lives down the street from him in Umea and he's been getting me the records for a few years now. Tomorrow, Willis, Carrie, Rich, and I are going to see The New Pornographers in Lancaster. Hopefully Cakeater will be out for the rock. After the show, we're going up to Fredonia to meet up with the rest of Saxon Shore for the final mixing sessions with Dave Fridmann. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:51 PM CST Wednesday, June 22, 2005 Saxon Shore's Luck Will Not Save Us from a Jackpot of Nothing is #126 on the CMJ top 200 this week, their first week on the chart. Thanks to everyone who is playing their cd. June Panic has artwork ready for his one-sided LP and the audio is going to be finished early next week. There was a little bit of re-mixing going on for a while, but it's getting closer to completion. The repress of Woven Hand Consider the Birds should be ready shortly for all of those waiting on a copy. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 12:11 AM CST Sunday, June 19, 2005 My good friend Brian left after several days of adventure. We spent Wednesday and Thursday in DC exploring the city. We saw the President's motorcade leave the White House just as we showed up. He waved to us from the back of his limo. Thursday's ride home stretched into Friday as we made the turn to go to the Borgata in Atlantic City. We were primed for the road trip adventure and weren't ready to go home. It was like we we were 17 again for a couple of days. We met up with Dave and Kate later in the day (congratulations on your engagement!) and wasted the night away in Philadelphia and NJ. It was a great visit. I was at the beach yesterday with Michael, Fran, and Orn at Fran's house in Wildwood. We've become addicted to playing bocce ball. I'm a little bit sunburned from walking on the boardwalk. I've been getting caught up on btv business and orders while watching the documentaries Dogtown and Z-boys about the beginnings of skateboards in Southern California and The Weather Underground about a '60s revolutionary group who wanted to overthrow the government. Definitely both really good. Don't forget that Unwed Sailor and Saxon Shore are still on tour. Be sure to go out and support them. I just posted two more dates for Bosque Brown, too. My good friend Mikael from Washington Inc. is opening a little music section in our friend Mai's new boutique in Copenhagen this July. You'll be able to get several of the btv releases, as well as select releases that are carried by Washington Inc. normally. I am getting a big box of records together to send over to him this week. More details about the shop once I have them. It would be great to be over for the opening party. We'll see... "you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows" :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 08:25 PM CST Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Saxon Shore's ep is #11 most added on the CMJ charts this week. Thanks to everyone in college radio who is playing it. We're going to have a little bbq at Michael's house tonight. He's an important part of the btv family and helped get the Unwed Sailor hardbound books published. Tomorrow, I'm going down to DC to hang with Brian. We're going to go to the Brickskeller and Ben's Chili Bowl if our plan goes well. I'm listening to an album from Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice that's really blowing me away. Josh, one of the btv publicist folks, always had good things to say about them. Ethan will be a fan momentarily. He hooked me up with a couple of Brian Jonestown Massacre albums, so thanks. Also got the new Animal Collective ep with Vashti Bunyan. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 06:13 PM CST Sunday, June 12, 2005 I'm back from hanging out with my old friend Brian with some of his friends in NJ. It's always a great and interesting experience to meet your friend's friends when you realize that you can all be friends together, that whatever that connection is, it exists between everyone. Thanks to Dave, Kate, Mike, and Denise for making it a great visit. There was barbequeing, tiki torches, and darts shot from blow pipes. As I was leaving, I realized that one of my tires was low and had to be changed. I was off to a party, so Brian pretty much did all of the work so I wouldn't be too dirty. I have the donut and a nail in my regular tire to get fixed. Our posse of Mike, Will, Lauren, and Ben headed north to Nicole's party until the wee hours, sampling home brew and meeting Jersey punk rockers. Thanks for hosting us, Nicole and Sal. I was surprised to find my friend Rich was hanging out nearby when I got home, so cut my sleep short to have brunch with him and Matt. It's been an eventful weekend. I'm listening to some Neutral Milk Hotel bootlegs that I'd collected a while ago. There's one live song called "Ferris Wheel on Fire" that hasn't been released, as far as I know, that is entirely amazing. I remember going to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam just to make the connection between her and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Go to shredzone (one of the top returns when you enter "how to shred" into google) and learn how to master your guitar licks like Matthew "Sir Wanks a Lot" Stone from Saxon Shore. Don't forget, Saxon Shore and Unwed Sailor are both on tour. Right now, as I type this. Hope you're feeling better, Dad. Get well soon... DiG, the documentary about the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols is one of the best rock documentaries I've seen in a long time. Forget the Wilco documentary, this has real tension, excitement, and insanity. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 05:38 PM CST Friday, June 10, 2005 Saxon Shore was really loud last night. At one point, the hairs on my arm stood on end from the excitement, I guess that's a good sign. I'd never been to the Mill Creek Tavern, but it was a really nice venue. I hope to see more things happen there in the future. The mighty El should have landed by now. Hello weekend. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:14 PM CST Thursday, June 9, 2005 Tonight, I'll be going to see Saxon Shore start off their tour in Philadelphia at the Mill Creek Tavern. It was a weird day at my work. A longtime friend in Virginia lost his job along with a lot of others. If you're reading this and I can help at all, send an e-mail. I just got Denison's new album in the mail. I'm trying to decide how to best do the vinyl for it. I'll announce the details once they are known. I'm wearing my Vrankrijk shirt and hoping for a reunion of the BDFC sometime in the not too distant future. I hope you're well Lodewijk. My longtime pal Brian lands in a few hours and will be out here for a week. I'm super excited. AC here we come. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 05:57 PM CST Wednesday, June 8, 2005 The repressing are underway for Woven Hand : Consider the Birds LPs. Hopefully they will b available in time for their July tour. I guess if you didn't know, Woven Hand is David Eugene Edwards from 16 Horsepower and 16 Horsepower have recently broke up. The inserts for the LP arrived with the Bosque Brown cd repress. Tomorrow night, Saxon Shore kick off their June touring with a date in Philadelphia at the Mill Creek Tavern. See you there! Unwed Sailor are also gearing up to leave for tour. Their friend Jaret will be traveling with them to document the touring in photographs to be used for an upcoming retrospective album. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 04:24 PM CST Sunday, June 5, 2005 I've been shuffling through Ben's lomo gallery and am jealous of him traveling through southeast asia with Tom and his sister Heidi. Hello to all of you, I miss hanging out. Gockley and I explored the magic of the Allentown area last night, though maybe magic isn't the right word. I'm off to meet up with Matthew, Carrie, and Willis this afternoon. The great El Cid is landing on Friday for a week or so. We went to high school together back in the day and it's always good to see him, it's been way too long. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 01:34 PM CST Saturday, June 4, 2005 It's still overcast and I made a big trip to the post office again this morning. I had to get cds out to folks who are getting ready to tour and finish off the last of the Starflyer 59 vinyl orders. I'm catching up on a bunch of things today, listening to a lot of the records that Cloud sent me that he's put out recently on Velvet Blue Music. I'm eating Mashmallow Froot Loops and listening to the pair of new sharp sounding Richard Swift 7" that he recorded with Frank Lenz. I also got the hott new Frank Lenz 7" with two of his AM radio pop songs on ABC Group Documentation a few weeks ago, but haven't added it to the online store yet. I need to get caught up on that soon, too. The new LN releases and LaMonica on Velvet Blue are also pretty good, but I listened to them a little while back. I also listened to a bunch of 7" from Spirit of Orr that I bought a while ago, including the Black Mountain/Destroyer split 7" with the new Destroyer song "Jackie Dressed in Cobras" that looks like it will also be on the next New Pornographers album. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 12:27 PM CST Friday, June 3, 2005 Starflyer LPs are officially on their way. Here's some hometown news to thrill you. Too bad I'm not there. Unwed Sailor is playing two shows this weekend, tonight and tomorrow night. Go see them if you're in the area. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 11:26 AM CST Thursday, June 2, 2005 Starflyer 59 LPs have arrived. Gockley and I just put them into jackets and LP mailers. They're going out in tomorrow's mail. The delay is no longer. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 11:04 PM CST Wednesday, June 1, 2005 Last night, Denison, Willis, Ethan, Gockley and I descended on Ludwig's. We were like old men talking about how great it used to be, but it still is pretty good, it's just been a while. Denison is out on tour on Thursday with Copeland and Rainer Maria for a month. Seriously. A repress of Bosque Brown Plays Mara Lee Miller is in customs waiting for someone to rescue it. Any backlogged orders for this will be filled shortly. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:40 AM CST [ Archives ]