17.6.09

How now, a rat!

What have I been up to, eh? Well, not much. Just hanging out with friends and working, mostly. Lots of band practice. Big plans though. I guess this'll be an art post.

Planning a variety of projects for this summer. First, hello blacksmith will be recording and releasing our EP, which will be good, since then we can give those with t-shirts their cds, and sell both at once! Anyways, we played a show last Friday at The Basement, and it was probably the best show we've done so far, and we think we're ready to record. The settings have been difficult to ... set ... but otherwise, we have a rough take of all our songs (minus the one without a drum track). We started writing new material this week, and we're looking to get an opening set at Eclipse sometime this summer.

On the subject of shirts, it's my hope that we can restart the "production shop" to get some more, and new, shirts out there. The gangsta penguin shirt is a fan favorite, but we have some other ideas we'd like to see put out there. Look for the other half of our 'record label' name, for example, and don't be surprised at other animals appearing as well...

As for my personal projects, I'm writing more acoustic music. I'm considering fooling around with recording, we'll see where that goes. I've discovered that I get rather impatient with the recording process -- I'm that guy that just wants to play the guitar. Now. Please. Still, it'd be fun to try. I'm also wary of what I sound like when I'm not singing punk music. I don't have a lot of confidence in that respect.

But life goes on. We've got a can of spray paint that I plan on using in conjunction with some stencils on my new water bottle and my pickguard. Should be cool. Also, poetry. Slam poetry, regular poetry, lyrics, whatever.

I'd like to collaborate with people more this summer, too. I got a few responses, but one of them is in Maine and another is always wary of doing things with me (running, for example). I do have a joint poem to revise though, with this gal. Oh, and apparently I'm getting skyped for some team slam poetry. Although... he's sort of dropped off the flats of Texas, so we'll see.