@richard__edge was one of the last fools to take a ride in the vette before it began its extended nap. damn it looks good in the rain. It'll run again one day!! Richard's got an amazing new album coming out in a month on @crutchofmemory . At the time of the pictures featured above, we were tracking this thing at our studio. It took some slightly unorthodox trickery to get a 12 string, finger-picked acoustic guitar to sound as deep and sparkly as it does on this record and I'm proud of our work and of Richard for grinding the shit out of their fingers for the cause. Our payoff was a ride in a junky little car to eat crappy bar food at Basils at like midnight
Preview/preorder Vespers, their first full length album and exactly COM-005, on the C.O.M. bandcamp. Preorder it at to spend a little less money
I made a (@crutchofmemory ) dancing hand man outta my own hands for this truly fabulous show happenin tonight in Appleton. I picture dancing hand man as doing the Tequila dance, although I could also imagine a few other steps that I don't quite know what to call (I'm not a choreographer per se)
One of the rare gigs @dusk_on_instaglam plays in our hometown each year. If you're in town, join us tonight at @commodoreclub22 !
A few days ago, @crutchofmemory dropped an album that's been in the works for a long time. @itsallyoucowboy 's 'I Can't Eat'.
In late 2020, Frankie got in touch with me to put together some artwork for a project of his that I hadn't heard of. He and I didn't know each other well; I knew him from the Madison power violence/grind band The Central. He sent me a folder of rough mixes for this new album to take a listen to. I took a quick listen and said 'I'd love to'.
When I work on album art for people, I typically give the album a listen or two and put it down. Then I get down to work with something completely unrelated playing. Something that'll fill the air but I'm also not distracted by. (if there's rhythm, I'm playing drums on my drafting table) This instance was no different. But by the time I started really getting to work on it, it was early spring of 2021 and I found myself throwing it on in the car with the windows down. Again and again and again. I was realizing this music checked most of the boxes of what I'm wanting out of a band. Infectious hooks. Hard hitting and solid rhythm. And it was funny! I started remembering lyrics cuz they made me laugh. In this way, it reminded me of some of my favorite hip hop albums. There was a relatable cynicism. But it was a POP album. Keys-driven in the tradition of Michael McDonald. And there was an urgency that I was totally locked into. I listened to it more than anything else that spring.
And so as I finished up the art (pic #1), I proposed to Frankie that perhaps the label I run release it. But maybe we mix it at our studio? He was hesitant to let the mix go, and as I kept listening I thought: you know what? It's perfect the way it is. It's got a lot of love in it and you can hear it.
Some years passed as it got placed on the back burner repeatedly until last year we really got grinding on putting it out into the world. We shot a music vid w/ our guy @finnbjornerud and shot some photos for the tape shells at @the.photo_opp w/ @emmalieengle (pics #2,4).
In my heart I hope enough people hear this to drive demand for a vinyl release. It deserves it.
📸 #2,4: @hotspider
📸 #3: @billyhintzz
21 years on this Earth Lily, we love you.
And on account of it also being my birthday, I declare that I'm entitled to a little birthday rage on this horrific day:
What I can say is we've got to remember that our humanity exists. That humanity nurtures our love for one another and our desire to cultivate family in so many forms. We realized how fragile family is the last time this nugget was in office.
There's no humanity in public servants using their incredible power to manipulate neighbors against one another. When I say neighbors I suppose I'm speaking today of Americans, but in a general sense it should mean people. There's no humanity in our public servants employing tragedy to further political vendetta. There's no humanity in our law enforcement repressing our sense of empathy for each other through violence. There's no humanity in corporately curated news; crafted to push ideology in pursuit of profit.
There is no humanity in capitalism and there is surely no humanity at the intersection of capitalism and politics.
And if there's no humanity in any of this drivel (and for the faithful among us, read that back and tell me if you think it's serving God either), then what good is any of it to any of us humans?
And yeah, he's a fucking pedophile too. At the very least, he hangs with em. Which is pretty fuckin weird and if you wanna defend him in spite of THAT shit, go ahead and make yourself look like a sad lil sweatpants boner. That's your own business.
Still inspired by Alex Jordan, all these years on. I wonder: if he were still living today, what would The House On The Rock look like?
There are aspects of it that seem starved by the passing years. Neglected simply because no one else's mind could possibly nurture the dream that lived in his head like he could. I would so love to see what he would do with it now. What he would change or add to it in the modern age.
Also, the nostalgia that he was exploiting while building the place is so old at this point, I fear that people will begin to lose their connection with his dream. I hope it survives. I know people mostly just think it's weird, and it is. But it's also utterly human: imperfect; clunky; dirty; dusty; broken; and despite its flaws, alluring.
It still influences everything I do.
About nine years ago a lil label from Minneapolis commissioned me to make a seasonal album. It was kind of a dream come true honestly. A couple of the songs were old super rough demos and the rest of them I wrote and recorded in about a week (that's my favorite way to make an album). It's got its highs and lows, things I would change or leave off if I could do it all over again and stuff that I listen to and think.. despite the flaws, it represents winter in Northeast Wisconsin the way I want it to.
I forget to mention it as the years pass. It's been out of print for a long time now. I'm always daydreaming of a creative way to reprise this material though- maybe not a reissue per se, but a reimagining in some form or another. A few years ago a country star from my youth reached out to tell me they were a fan of the album, that it was a source of warmth for them. We traded our respective Xmas records through the mail that year. It made me realize that maybe people outside of WI could connect with its theme more than I intended.
Home from tour for 7 days:
1) my poor humpty. anyone wanna help me get this thing on the road again this coming year? I don't think it'll be super hard, life's just been constant hustle since I opened the shop. Needs new starter, interior work, a lil body work. And I gotta siphon the old gas out cuz I filled it up just before it stopped running.
2) Black Bear Family Restaurant restroom report: + (loud music, cabaret symmetry) - (grey n white, giant cracks in the stall seams) ---- 3/5
3) pretty good until you palette cleanse with a pizza that's actually good
4) Chef Bill's --> Marks East Side IYKYK
5) John's spooky house
Raspberry Moon, Japan Edition
I recruited the legend @franklloydanderson
to play pedal steel guitar on the alt mix flexi
This is one high fashion item baby
We are the unruly weeds in this era of enforced manicure. In this fucking world that's so afraid of its own; so numb to the tragedy of malice; so desperate to attach a boogeyman to its symptoms of rot, and eager to cage the imaginary monster under the bed. Our love for one another doesn't begin or end with the status quo. It exists in spite of every human being who has made power, money and obedience their angry God.
@dusk_on_instaglam on tour now:
10/3 Milwaukee at Sabbatic
10/4 Chicago at Not Not
10/5 Springfield at Dumb Records
10/6 Indianapolis at Dear Mom
10/7 Harrisonburg at Sage Bird
10/8 Washington DC at Quarry House
10/9 Baltimore at Ottobar
10/10 New York City at Le Poisson Rouge
10/11 New Haven at Yale University
10/12 Philadelphia at Johnny Brenda's
10/13 Columbus at Spacebar
10/14 Bloomington at Blockhouse
10/15 Highland at Grindhouse
