Got some new AC/DC reissues today…“Let There Be Rock” and “Powerage”, both probably the heaviest of their catalog.  You can’t play them loud enough.

I’m off to wait tables.  That’s all.

Work from 9 to 6
go to Kinkos and cut up some shit for the new 3″
package em up with Cooley at our cold white table
write this
go to job #2 until just about 4am.

Yeah Mom. This is why you did it. Good to see that Christmas has always been your favorite holiday.

May is going to be a busy month around here.  Finishing up the School Bus ”Blue Button” CD, mixing some Kochalka tracks, finishing up the Kochalka album, preparing for the very first School Bus live performance (May 17, w/ Swale at Radio Bean), Kochalka gig opening for Mike Watt (May 3, Higher Ground), tooth extraction (May 16), and finally, picking up Led LO/CO at the airport (always a fun job) and driving them to their marathon gigs at Red Square (May 9) and Nectar’s (May 24).

James Kochalka depicts me in his comics as a dog with a robot brain.  When we went to Oklahoma last year (which has become the subject of a tune on ”Blue Button”) we were presented by a girlie named Heather Peanut with sculptures of our characters.  Thanks, Heather.

The next School Bus CD will either be called “Blue Button” or “Drinking Games”.  Which do you like better?

I had a lot of weird dreams last night, one of them was sort of about me phasing out some of my old friends.  I’m definitely guilty of this.  Why did I do it?  Who do I think I am?  I just let it happen.  I’ve been phased out by a few recently.  Fuck it.

Here’s the first thing I found tonight. My mother is in the lower left corner, 16 some-odd years old. Today, at 63, she’s in a nursing home in Ohio, blind, deaf, divorced, and beautiful.

Anyway, today’s the day that we finish the release of Renaldoh, March’s 3 inch (yeah, I know, but it’s been real hectic and busy around here, so fuck all). Very excited for Ryan Power’s May release. Hmmm…are we missing a month in there? Shit …

So the picture: not my tooth, but it is my hand. Poor little friend Autumn fell drunk and hit her mouth against a pool table and this is what we have to show for it (not to mention the ER doctor that now slinks around the bar we work at and keeps asking her out … fucking doctors).

So don’t stare at the sun, ok? But if you must, for Christsakes, keep your damned mouth closed.

This new Manitoba “Up In Flames” CD is both inspiring me and making me want to abandon everything musically.  It’s that good.  Mmm.

Okay, here I go.

Here’s a review from this week’s Seven Days:

E_O, LACUNA
(Icebox Records, 3-inch CD)

Burlington’s Icebox Records continues its monthly 3-inch CD series with another dreamy, beautiful collection of understated art-pop. At the plate this time is label co-founder Eric Olsen, masquerading as E_O, who uses his 20 minutes to craft a solid, albeit bleak, string of tunes.

Shifting away from the extended drones and ethereal feedback exercises of the first 3-inch, School Bus’ Painless, Olsen focuses on his quiet, poetic songs. Yet, instead of simply plopping down a few mopey pop tunes, he uses recurring themes and finely crafted instrumental passages to weave the pieces into a glorious, unified whole.

“31” gets things going with plucked acoustic guitars, lazy keys and a soft mechanical drum beat. Olsen’s warm vocals lull the listener into the tune, revealing the layers of finely crafted instrumentation.

After two minutes, the song dissolves into the humid electric guitars and light-handed drumming of “Filling the Space.” “You stay up with the T.V.,” Olsen sings, “You hear me in the drive/You calculate the time I wait outside.” Reciting the lines, Olsen’s plaintive vocals are filled with a desperate melancholy.

“Come in Three” is a 4-minute instrumental passage built upon a simple electric guitar lick and repetitive bass line. Into the mix fly a mass of sampled conversations and found sounds, creating a deep, headphone-ready interlude.

The centerpiece of the album is the 5-and-a-half-minute “Ludlow.” A haunting drug anthem, it is the album’s strongest point, an immensely powerful piece of pop.

“I followed you into the bedroom with a ceiling of stars,” Olsen sings tenderly over sustained organ chords. “You traced a line along my arm/Cartography of arteries/A subway map that no one reads.” As the tune rises, humming cello notes enter, echoing the growing emotion of Olsen’s tale. “I didn’t come this far, just to see her face on the bowl of my spoon,” he dryly recites. “It’s hard to con her face, when I see it on every mark under the moon.”

Like any 3-inch, the disc is unsettlingly brief, but the simple power of Olsen’s songs is nothing short of stunning. Lacuna is a record that should not be missed, and is another leap forward for Icebox Records.

It rains as we bomb. What a glorious morning, I’m happy again. (Ah, Debbie Reynolds coming back to mind … it’s been a week, lovely.) So we started playing again, this formation once known as POW, soon to be known as … something else. Any ideas? How does Wood Pussy sound to you (it’s archaic for skunk)? Or Black Beauty? Let us know what you think.

No matter. I really have nothing to say. Just wanted to put up this picture of Jason blowing a dusty trombone. What a setta …