Archive for June, 2011
And now we have an official poster for the July 8th show (9pm, Mars Bar, Seattle, with Natalie Quist and Gimme A Pigfoot; $6 cover). Yay! Check it:
Click for sparkly, high-resolution PDF
Download, print, post. Please! And let us know if you do. It’s the first time any of us with played with each other and it’s kind of a weird assemblage, so we’re really hoping people turn out!
I have no idea what the other bands think of this and strictly speaking I don’t have to care! But I do care, because I’m a sap. XD Here, a sneak poster preview, for people on the blog and RSS feed directly:
Click to embiggen
Whaddya think?
The only problem with DIY instrument cases is that if you don’t have a zillion clamps, when you get to the gluing part, you get to do one thing a day and then wait for the glue to dry overnight before you move the clamps. Here’s the top of the mandolin travel case I’m building out of reclaimed wood; I’ve put on the primary clamps here, but taken a photo before putting on the others.
In band news, I’m prepping for the big Mars Bars show on the 8th with Natalie Quist and Gimmie a Pigfoot. (That’s 609 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle, WA; $6 cover, shows start 9pm.) I have some new hardware that I’ll be trying out, which means I’ll be doing songs I don’t normally do live! Pencil it in to your calendars, it’ll be fun. ^_^
OMG! <3
Fuck yeah, Mudkips!
Red McWilliams, who runs the stage there, made a point of making sure I knew. Thank you so much! <3 Walking onto the grounds today and seeing that on the official plaque? Awesome.
(Annie Henry won in 2008! Hi Annie! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! <3)
I just wish I could’ve played there this weekend, too, but, well, conflicts and bah humbug. Next year, I hope!
More DIY gear! A bodhran is a kind of Irish drum, you see them around a bit more than you probably realise. They’re played with a kind of drumstick called a tipper. I saw Alec playing a bodhran with a tipper made out of bamboo skewers last year, at a fair. I liked the sound, took a couple of pics, and figured out how to make one myself! And I’ve posted a video on how.
Mine looks fairly different to his, but it has the sound. Mine looks like this:
Bamboo Tipper
Nub detail
Other detail shots here and here. And enjoy a how-to video! It’s a single-day project and very easy. The video did not take longer to make, however – it’s not that easy. XD
I have a plan for the Trad O’ th’ Month. Going to try to record it next week. It’ll be fun. ^_^
Let’s talk about gear! Gear is important! Gear that protects your instruments is extremely important.
So I’m working on a mandolin travel case. It’s a companion case to the zouk case I made out of an old keyboard travel case, but built from scratch out of reclaimed wood. Here’s the top frame, made from trimmed down bits of wood from a bunch of different old sources, including some roof joist elements:
And here’s the panel that’ll slide in to this frame:
The panel is made of biscuit-joined slats salvaged from… I don’t even remember at this point, actually. XD Some sort of furniture, maybe they were bedslats? I don’t think so, tho’. They’re finish-grade seven-layer plywood. The bottom panel (not photographed) is made of leftover oak planks from a flooring project, and boards recovered from another set of sources. Both are backed by quarter-inch ply, to which they’re glued.
The network move is going pretty well. But there’s still more to go, so CD shipping from the official band site remains free, worldwide. Clickie!
Other than that, I’m mostly getting ready for the show at Seattle’s Mars Bar on July 8th. It’s a triple bill with us, Natalie Quist, and Gimmie a Pigfoot. That’s a Friday, so c’mon out!
Hi, mobsters and gunsels! It’s been a busy week.
I had fun playing a half-set at the Mandolin Cafe open mic last night – they’re under new management! But not with our, aheh, assistance. I hope it goes well for them, it’s a nice place. I went down expecting to play two and be off, but they do a base set of three, and I got to go back on again later. People seemed to like it; that was cool.
Most of my time the last week or so, though, has been hauling murkworks.net out of, oh, 2000ish?, and into 2011. We were l33t, once – we’re giving up a Class C we’ve had since 1993, thank you very much
Domain Name: MURKWORKS.NETIt was murkworks.seattle.wa.us before that, and lorbit.UUCP before that
Created on: 03-DEC-96
Expires on: 02-DEC-12
…and while we’re not going to go back to that particular kind of awesome, our new pipes throw us back into the top 7%, which I gotta tell you, does not suck.
We’ve also gone through cleaning out a lot of cruft (some of that even physical goods), thrown Frontier (damn them to hell) out on its decrepit aluminium ass, ditched Sprint entirely, deleted one landline (keeping one for 911 calls), pulled the DirecTV dish off the roof, and basically have been putting the starch back into all our infrastructure shirts. Spring is finally here. It’s time for some cleaning.
Everything I write lately is another Mary Kaye and the Cosmetics song, which if you’re new – meet our alternate band manifestation, the four-chord all-girl hardcore punk band Mary Kaye and the Cosmetics, who play exclusively Hello Kitty-branded instruments.
I guess I should just get them all written down and then maybe I can write other kinds of music. I like the Mary Kaye stuff, but there’s more to life than hardcore mandolin. OR IS THERE? XD
Hate Your Day Job
(C) 2011 Dara Korra’ti/CRIME and the Forces of Evil
CHORUS:
Hate, Hate, Hate your day job
Hate, Hate, Hate your day job
Hate, Hate, Hate your day job
Hate, Hate, Hate your day job
I hate your day job
I think it’s driving you nuts
I hate your day job
We all know that it sucks
I hate your day job
So come in from the rain
I hate your day job
It’s driving you insane so
[CHORUS]
You hate your day job
You say it all the time
You hate your day job
They treat you like you’re slime
You hate your day job
It’s cruel and antithetic
You hate your day job
Staying makes you feel pathetic and you
[CHORUS]
They hate your day job
It doesn’t pay the rent
They hate your day job
They wish you’d go get bent
They hate your day job
They’d outsource it if they could
They hate your day job
Please don’t be misunderstood because
BRIDGE:
It’s not that I’ve been listening to all those stupid Marxists
It’s not that I’ve been sewing sickles onto scarlet sheet
But it’s pretty fucking obvious they took you to the cleaners
And I’m trying to determine how they got you quite so beat
It’s not like there’s redemption in adhering to the masses but
Nothing’s gonna happen ’till you riot in the street so
Maybe take a tip or two from Portugal or Iceland and go
Party down the boulevard just like you were a Greek! and
Quit, Quit, Quit your Day Job!
Quit, Quit, Quit your Day Job!
Quit, Quit, Quit your Day Job!
Go! Do! Something else!
Quit, Quit, Quit your Day Job!
Quit, Quit, Quit your Day Job!
Quit, Quit, Quit your Day Job!
Stop! Wasting! Your! Life!
A lot of creative people follow music and art blogs, so with not much going on online right now as we work on swapping out our internet providers – what do you do? What’s your creative project right now?
(Don’t forget: CDs bought from the bandsite ship anywhere for free while we move t00bs around. That URL won’t be affected by the move, so it’s safe even if the rest of the site is b0rk b0rk b0rked. o/ )
Our net connection has been particularly wretched recently, due to Verizon/Frontier’s utter lack of willingness to maintain their hardware in our area. It’s so phenomenally bad, that we’re giving up and moving. This means prying our ancien régime Class C out of my own cold, dead hands, but it’s so bad that I don’t care anymore.
Things may be weird for a little while on the website as a result of the move. Access may be spotty. To make up for it, we’ve dropped shipping charges to zero! Shipping is now free, anywhere in the world. And of course you get the immediate download included. So now is a good time to buy that physical disc you’ve been wanting!
Plus I just bought this bitchin’ harmonics sound pedal for live shows and I’d like to pay for that. XD:
It’s mine, all mine! Muah ah ha ha!
So buy while it’s cheap, OK!
Also, if you’re on Facebook, please like the Facebook page! We need more likes on Facebook. (If you’re already reading this on Facebook; thanks!) You guys pushed us to the top of the front page on singersongwriter.com, after that last post, which is really great and hopefully will get us more iTunes hits. Thanks so much, this stuff does add up and you guys do matter. o/
(And talking of iTunes – on iPhone, we’ve got enough ratings and it shows the average – five stars, fuck yeah! But on the website and OSX, it still says MORE RATINGS NEEDED. If you get a chance, give us some stars! We need the stars. ALL OF THEM. ALLLLLLLLLL THE STARS MUST BELONG TO UUUUSSSSSSSSSSS MUWAH HA HA HA HAA! )
Um. Yeah, sorry about the maniacal laughter. That happens sometimes. Maybe it was the Heather Dale/SJ Tucker/Wendy Rule show last night. Maybe it’s the bitchin’ new babydoll band T that Heather and Ben brought all the way from Toronto for me. (<3!) (Heather, Ben, and S00j are playing again on Monday, at Soul Food Books in Redmond. Hie thee the hell over!)
Or, on the other hand, maybe I should adjust my dosage. But where’s the fun in that?
THE NEW SINGLE
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