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great women in music: betty davis

probably the most undeniably powerful women to ever play music. so raw. so emotional. so saucy. and so incredibly sexy. if anything else she needs to be applauded for how unapologetically honest she was. victimized by thre NAACP as being a 'disgrace to her race' and being banned from radio for her provocative lyrics. She hustled hard and didn't let anyone's opinion sway her from doing what she wanted. i still get chills when i listen to her voice. so raw! she growled! snarled! I am influenced by her endlessly.

Game is my Middle Name


If I'm Lucky I Might Get Picked Up
Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him

great women in music: pj harvey

i've had this weird obsession with pj harvey since i was in high school. i never really talked about it to anyone. if you would ask any of my friends they would be surprised to know how obsessed i am with pj harvey. im coming out of the closet with it: i fucking love pj harvey. you all should love her too. she's brilliant.

rid of me


big exit


the life and death of mr. badmouth

the hangman

my friend greg and i have this ongoing conversation about art. he recently sent me this youtube, the poem "the hangman" illustrated by Les Goldman and Paul Julian. Herschel Bernardi is the narrator. the poem was written by Maurice Ogden. it's a children's poem which is why i think i enjoy it so much.

The Hangman
by Maurice Ogden


Into our town the Hangman came, smelling of gold and blood and flame. And he paced our bricks with a diffident air. And built his frame on the courthouse square.

The scaffold stood by the courthouse side, only as wide as the door was wide; a frame as tall, or little more, than the capping sill of the courthouse door.

And we wondered, whenever we had the time, who the criminal, what the crime, that Hangman judged with the yellow twist of knotted hemp in his busy fist.

And innocent though we were, with dread we passed those eyes of buckshot lead; till one cried: "Hangman, who is he for whom you raise the gallows-tree."

Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye, and he gave us a riddle instead of reply: "He who serves me best," said he, "Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."

And he stepped down, and laid his hand on a man who came from another land and we breathed again, for another's grief at the Hangman's hand was our relief.

And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn by tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone. So we gave him way, and no one spoke, out of respect for his hangman's cloak.


The next day's sun looked mildly down on roof and street in our quiet town and, stark and black in the morning air, the gallows-tree on the courthouse square.

And the Hangman stood at his usual stand with the yellow hemp in his busy hand; with his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike and his air so knowing and businesslike.

And we cried: "Hangman, have you not done, yesterday, with the alien one?" Then we fell silent, and stood amazed: "Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."

He laughed a laugh as he looked at us: "Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss to hang one man? That's a thing I do to stretch the rope when the rope is new."

Then one cried, "Murderer!" One cried, "Shame!" And into our midst the Hangman came to that man's place. "Do you hold," said he, "With him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"

And he laid his hand on that one's arm, and we shrank back in quick alarm, and we gave him way, and no one spoke out of fear of his hangman's cloak.

That night we saw with dread surprise the Hangman's scaffold had grown in size. Fed by the blood beneath the chute the gallows-tree had taken root;

Now as wide, or a little more, than the steps that led to the courthouse door, as tall as the writing, or nearly as tall, halfway up on the courthouse wall.


The third he took — we had all heard tell — was a usurer and infidel, And: "What," said the Hangman, "have you to do with the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"

And we cried out: "Is this one he who has served you well and faithfully?" The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme to try the strength of the gallows-beam."

The fourth man's dark, accusing song had scratched out comfort hard and long; and "What concern," he gave us back, "Have you for the doomed - the doomed and black?"

The fifth.The sixth. And we cried again: "Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?" "It's a trick," he said, "that we hangmen know for easing the trap when the trap springs slow."

And so we ceased, and asked no more, as the Hangman tallied his bloody score; and sun by sun, and night by night, the gallows grew to monstrous height.

The wings of the scaffold opened wide till they covered the square from side to side; and the monster cross-beam, looking down, cast its shadow across the town.


Then through the town the Hangman came and called in the empty streets my name - and I looked at the gallows soaring tall and thought: "There is no one left at all for hanging, and so he calls to me to help pull down the gallows-tree." And I went out with right good hope to the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.

He smiled at me as I came down to the courthouse square through the silent town, and supple and stretched in his busy hand was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.

And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap and it sprang down with a ready snap— and then with a smile of awful command he laid his hand upon my hand.

"You tricked me, Hangman!" I shouted then. "That your scaffold was built for other men. And I no henchman of yours," I cried, "You lied to me, Hangman, foully lied!"

Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye: "Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said, "Not I. For I answered straight and I told you true: The scaffold was raised for none but you.

"For who has served me more faithfully than you with your coward's hope?" said he, "And where are the others that might have stood side by your side in the common good?"

"Dead," I whispered; and amiably "Murdered," the Hangman corrected me; "First the alien, then the Jew... I did no more than you let me do."

Beneath the beam that blocked the sky, none had stood so alone as I - and the Hangman strapped me, and no voice there cried "Stay" for me in the empty square.

studio shots

i swear im not this fat in real life.

Spin magazine, future plans, et al

"Autobahn" is featured #3 of the top 15 songs to download in july's issue of Spin magazine! You can download a digital version of the magazine or go to any fine retailer to purchase a hard copy of your own.

There are no shows scheduled in the near future but rest assured that I will be peaking back up this fall. In August I will be meeting up with of Montreal to start rehearsal with them for their next tour. I am very excited to say that I will be joining Kevin, James, Dottie, Davey and Bryan as one of their drummers for the upcoming tour.

In the mean time I will be recording a new record that is set to be released sometime next year! I will keep everyone posted on my musical adventures through this blog and myspace.

summer!

it's been too long since i've updated this blog. sorry. i am now back from the caribou tour. i needed a couple of weeks to settle down from the whole thing before i felt the need to be productive again. all i can say is that it was an incredible time and i am so happy to have been apart of my favorite band even for as brief of a time as i had with them. thank you dan, ryan, andy, notman, stephen, cristos, born ruffians, fuck buttons for everything! it was a great time!

im really excited for this summer. i am the most inspired during this time of year. some shows will be popping in here and there and i am working on some ideas that i can't quite talk about yet (i think you all will like what's to come!)

i feel like this summer has already let out the inner hippie in me. i've been listening to a lot of 'the notorious byrds brothers,' neil young, free jazz and african music from the 60s. lots of unwound too. it's pretty awesome.