Crocodile

It’s been a long time but we’re having a full-band graze gig next week, on Tuesday, at the Crocodile Cafe. Tuesday is also the 4th of July, which means we’ll be competing against BBQs and fireworks and car alarms and drunks going “whooooo!!!!! U-S-A!!!!!” but just so you know, there will be time for those things and more before and after the show. Except the fireworks.. I’m pretty sure you’ll miss those. To make it worth your while, we should be debuting two songs to the band lineup. In other almost unrelated news, the debut Rosyvelt album is starting to see light at the end of a nearly two-year tunnel of basement recording time, which means that a. there will be a Rosyvelt CD to buy and love soon, and b. I’ll have more time to mic el grazo. So there you have it. News. See you next week!

the graze @ the crocodile, Seattle WA

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Demo release!

Two things: the tour went well, and was a lot of fun. Many thanks to everyone who booked me, played with me, and/or came to the shows. I hope to visit again soon.

Second, since I still have a few copies of the May 2006 demo left, I decided to make my show tomorrow into a demo release party of sorts. What with everyone who wrote to reserve a copy, and the folks who say they’re going to the show tomorrow, I think I’ll be sold out pretty quickly. So that’s good, it’s time to plan a real release.

Ok, that’s all. PS: The show tomorrow is at Cafe Venus, 609 Eastlake E. in Seattle, and it starts at 9. Brent Amaker and the Rodeo and Wil-Ru are playing as well, which I’m really excited about. See you there.

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May 2006 Demo

I finished a demo yesterday, which is exciting for me as it’s been two years since Iowa Anvil came out. It’s also just in time for my tour which starts today. There are seven songs: two of them have appeared on Ball of Wax compilations (“Conditions” on Volume 2, “Here Comes the Revolution” on Volume 4). Among the rest, two are pretty much done, one is halfway there, and two are just demos. Here’s the track listing:

1. Conditions
2. Price
3. Bastards
4. Cheap Wine
5. Bet (the Jesus song)
6. Rust
7. Here Comes the Revolution (Andrea Maxand)

Here’s what it looks like:

May 2006 demo

 

 

I’ve only made 50 of these, burned on CDR, individually stamped and numbered. They’ll be available at shows for $4, or for free if I like ya!

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Ball of Wax Vol. 4, and Tour

A week ago yesterday, Ball of Wax Volume 4 was released, featuring 16 songs by local artists all of whom covered each other. I covered Andrea Maxand‘s “Here Comes the Revolution,” and Smile Brigade covered my song “Devices.” Rosyvelt is on it too (featuring your’s truly moonlighting as a rock drummer), as is Seth Howard, and a bunch of our local faves. It’s a great comp, and it’s cheap — click here to see it on the J-Shirt Records homepage with links to buy it via PayPal. It’s $4! And that includes shipping! As always, many thanks to Levi Fuller for putting it all together.

In other news, in two weeks I’m going on a short Northwest tour. Check out the schedule, and come see me if you’ll be in Portland, OR, Kennewick, WA, Pullman, WA, Spokane, WA, or Missoula, MT.

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State of the Graze

I sometimes get asked when my next record is coming out. It’s true I’m taking a long time at it, to the extent that I don’t want to make predictions. And yet, a lot of music-related activity is going on. Two weekends ago I visited Portland to help out on Daniel G. Harmann‘s next album, which is pretty far along already and sounding very good. The next day I helped engineer on Brent Amaker and the Rodeo‘s upcoming recordings. The Rodeo’s Tim Harmon (of Troop 237 fame) is employing a “one-mic” technique for these songs, using vintage equipment, so we got to pretend we were at Sun in the 50s. I got to hit some “record” and “rewind” buttons. And then three days later Rosyvelt came over to the basement to continue work on our upcoming first album. Then, on Saturday, I figured out what was causing a parasitic humming noise in my studio (a ground loop), and made some progress on an Andrea Maxand cover I’m doing for Ball of Wax. And then in the last couple of days I recorded a drum track that may or may not make it into the song Dan and I were working on the other weekend.

So you can see why things are taking a while.

I have time for dumb things too: I created a photos page since we have a lot of them now.

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