...

What have we done?
What have we done?
Fostered sickness, avarice, greed, resentment, humiliation, Degradation, enslavement, ignorance, rapaciousness, and murder.
What have we done?
What have we done?
Created art, science, language, worth, liberty, and communication.
What have we sacrificed?
And what for?
What do you want?
To be validated?
Are the festering sores gouged in our planet not enough?
Must you write your name across the landscape so indelibly?
What have we forgotten?
Community, responsibility, affection, pride, respect, and most important,
Most important of all,
Justice.
Not justice for those who participate in wanton hedonism and Destruction.
Justice for life itself.
We are becoming anti-self.
Anti-mind.
Anti-life.
What do you want?
To be venerated?
At the cost of justice?
Is it so important to be heard?
Listen then.
Shut up and listen.
You will hear yourself.
The ultimate judgment.
Look around you.
What have we done that is so just?
What makes the difference?
You want to be a rock star?
Fuck your rock stars.
The music doesn't come from them.
It was always here.
You want to be a businessman?
Fuck your businessmen.
The value doesn't come from them.
It was always here.
You want to be a prophet?
Fuck your prophets.
The idea doesn't come from them.
It was always here.
Why is it so important to have the masses hear your words?
Do you think they have not been said before?
You want change?
Ha.
No you don't.
Change comes from within?
Ha.
Tell that to a bullet perforated body.
Tell that to a herd of cows.
Tell that to your so-called god.
Tell that to a slave.
You want people to listen to you?
Say something relevant.
Better yet.
Act different.
You can proselytize all day and night.
You will be ignored.
Just as this is being ignored.
You say this is too serious?
Life is serious business.
If you don't take it seriously.
If you don't act responsibly.
If you don't thirst for justice until you die.
You are wasting the one thing given.
Your mind.
Find justice now.
Look hard.
And realize that the replication and mass distribution of your voice Only adds to the chorus of wastrels that sing day and night to the Unconcerned.
Willful ignorance is no excuse.
Gurus will not save you.
Religion will not save you.
Science will not save you.
A few moments of fleeting pleasure will not sate you.
If you are not taking steps to move forward.
To take responsibility for your life and actions.
Then you are but a stumbling block.
Impeding true moral progress.
These atrocities are in your name.
When you do nothing you are an accomplice.
Complicit in the very actions you rage against.
You can't vote for change.
Or we would have voted ourselves out of the briny depths millenia Ago.
We are out of balance.
Anti-life.
And there shall be a reckoning for us.
And it shall be just.
But you won't see it as such.
You will wonder:
What happened to my CD's
My DVD's
My PC
My AC
My happiness
My cheesebuger
Where did my Sunday drive go
My pets
My food
My life?
A life that you have been careless and wasteful with.
People are asking these questions now.
And bemoaning the fact that life is not fair.
Yes it is.
It is just.
It is a swift and brutal justice.
And all your constructs of plastic and metal
Your houses of chipboard and Tyvek
Your bank accounts
All your lies will fall around you like ashes
Once the fiery, stifled mouth of justice
Opens
And consumes you.

Band break

I have to write. And take care of other shit. So the band side is on hiatus for now. New LP around Feb. or so. Different direction. New shows to follow. Should be fun.

Will figure out what to do with the now 3(!) unreleased live recordings.

Thanks to all who support.

Doug

Live

Played a few great shows since I last posted:

ACOUSTIC
09/13/2008 9:00 AM - Right after Ike.
Back porch of the crib
Me and Eddie Parsec from Together We are Instruments.

Setlist:

FMB II
Idrink
Whattanight
Redshift

AWAKE : Acoustic guitar, Vocals
Eddie Parsec : Djembe, Modified Keyboard, Mini Kaoss Pad
Recorded live into two unmodified Barbie Karaoke tape recorders.
I have a recording of this. I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.


ACOUSTIC
08/31/2008 05:30 PM - Potluck house party
Lineup :
Robt. Ellis
AWAKE
Corey Derden
Airon Paul Dugas

I have a recording of the whole show. It's fucking amazing. The other acts basically humbled me with their prowess. And the band brought it hard again as usual, so we sound great too. Thanks to Trey who developed this horrid huge blister on his left finger from the Upright. JD recorded this. JD and Stacey are wonderful people and great hosts.

ACOUSTIC
08/29/2008 08:00 PM - Avant Garden
Lineup:
Together we Are Instruments
AWAKE
Thomas Ayersol
J. Thelonious

J's first show and he did very well. Thomas Ayersol I had never seen live and it was a bang up job on his part. He parties in a way I really enjoy, listen or fuck off. Speaking of that, Together were the most together I've seen them yet. They get better every single time. And they were great when they started, so... We did good.


ACOUSTIC
08/03/2008 01:00 PM - Shady Tavern
Secret Saturday Showcase.
Mucho bands.
They ruled. Highlights were Corey D, Robt. Ellis, And the Mathletes. Oh and it was No surprise that Nosaprise killed it. Thank you again veggie chili dog man, you're my hero.

Also, this marked the first of the acoustic sets.

06/15/2008 09:00 PM - Rudyards
Lineup:
Act of God
AWAKE
Dysrhythmia

Intimidated? A bit. Really qualified musicians and hella nice guys.


06/09/2008 08:00 PM - Boondock’s
Description:
AWAKE
Wicked Poseur

They are intense. My brain is getting fuzzy going so far back.

05/31/2008 09:00 PM - Mink Backroom
Lineup:
The Mckenzies
The Gold Sounds
AWAKE

The Mckenzies always bring the party. This was no exception. And The Gold Sounds rocked it pretty damn hard too. I broke my own glasses.


05/10/2008 08:00 PM - The Mink Backroom
Lineup:
Golden Axe
AWAKE
The Jonx

Was this a good lineup? Gee, whadda you think?

04/19/2008 02:00 PM - Secret Saturday Show
Shit I can't remember now...
Judas Bear came back from tour and played.
Was there anyone else?

WHAT?????

I was poking around the net and happened across a review of an album. I won't mention the band as it is irrelevant(and besides...I don't like 'em anyway...). But the reviewer(who will also remain namless...no free publicity for this.) had this to say in summing up the LP.

"They set out to make a musical equivalent of a work of art — and succeeded."

Let's see. Hmmm...

ART:

1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

2. the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection.

3. a field, genre, or category of art: Dance is an art.

4. the fine arts collectively, often excluding architecture: art and architecture.

5. any field using the skills or techniques of art: advertising art; industrial art.

6. (in printed matter) illustrative or decorative material: Is there any art with the copy for this story?

7. the principles or methods governing any craft or branch of learning: the art of baking; the art of selling.

8. the craft or trade using these principles or methods.

9. skill in conducting any human activity: a master at the art of conversation.

10. a branch of learning or university study, esp. one of the fine arts or the humanities, as music, philosophy, or literature.

11. arts,
a. (used with a singular verb) the humanities: a college of arts and sciences.
b. (used with a plural verb) liberal arts.

12. skilled workmanship, execution, or agency, as distinguished from nature.

13. trickery; cunning: glib and devious art.

14. studied action; artificiality in behavior.

15. an artifice or artful device: the innumerable arts and wiles of politics.

16. Archaic. science, learning, or scholarship.

Sorry. Just the dumbest thing I have read in a minute. Pretty idiotic statement. And it's from a 'professional' writer... Am I supposed to know what they meant? I do, it means you're lazy. The review was as pointless as most, not much in the way of actual assessing of the work, mostly just frivolous trivia about the band and their lives. Whatever. I know it's common. But damn that is an asinine thing to say.

Pics of the studio/workspace.

Now I have shelves, so there is a bit more organization. I'll post more later.

What's the difference?

Been having discussions with various friends about art(shock!). Some thoughts that circulated:

- Why is it common for people to equate art that they do not like with the personality, intelligence, etc... of the artists themselves? Just because you may dislike someone's film, or painting, etc... doesn't seem to give reason to judge the person on a fundamental level. I see/hear this happening often enough that it bugs me I guess. Yet we can overlook Miles Davis being a dick BECAUSE of his music, so the opposite isn't always in effect.

- "I don't like it so it isn't art!" mentality. Another extremely common mentality it would seem amongst appreciators of art. I guess it's obvious how lame that sentiment is, but it seems to be another VERY common attitude. And tragic. Sure it's good to know what you like and don't like, but leave some room to grow. I used to hate tomatoes, now I love them. I didn't force it, but I didn't refuse to try them. I only disliked the raw fruit anyway, so I knew that I was reacting to a specific perspective and therefore allowed for the possibility of eventually liking tomatoes. This is being open to growth.

- The LCD factor. What is this? Mass appeal. Lowest common denominator shit. This is tricky. So what if your art has mass appeal? In other words most everyone enjoys it. What does that mean/translate into? A few different ideas surrounding this have come up. And these are obviously not the only way to view the issue, this is just some of what came up:

1) If a majority enjoys the work it may be a sign that the art is extremely non-threatening or conservative in message or medium. I believe it is quite possible to couch a difficult message in a easy to swallow medium. The inverse is true, but harder to create mass appeal with as the medium itself would be off putting.

2) The cheeseburger effect. Ok, so when you go to a fast food place, no one is fooling anyone. You know and they know that the meal you will eat is not great. It's not fresh, not very sanitary, not very tasty, etc... When one goes to, for example, Taco Hut, one does not expect authentic mexican food. It is a shallow representation of the idea that is also cheaper, faster, and more 'regulated' in terms of taste(won't taste different from one location to the next). So how can one expect depth or variety from fast food art? IE. the shit has been processed and quality controlled, group approved and force fed. There's no democracy on the radio(am/fm) so it is a medium that, at this point, forces people to accept the output as listen-able and 'good'. But of course everything has it's place...

3) Zeitgeist. Right place, right time, right sound. Is this luck? Sometimes, but some artists(the really perceptive ones) seem to be out there at the front lines of experience feeding us the right thing at the right time. Seeing and anticipating.

4) Eventuality. Take the Flaming Lips as an example(there have been others to be sure...). They plugged away at what they wanted to hear for a LONG time. It seems pretty inevitable that anyone that does this with dedication will cover some ground that is enjoyable on a widespread level. The Boredoms are another great example. Compare "Doo Ya Tari" with "Vision Creation Newsun". Definitely NOT speaking of the whole monkeys and typewriters thing here. I am speaking of INTENT, not random chance.

- "It's experimental, I don't have to be responsible for what it means/says to anyone" Ok. But why participate in art then? It would SEEM the major impetus behind art is, at base, communication. Sure, one can communicate the idea of indifference to the audience, but even that becomes a pose. It would seem that an artist then has a RESPONSIBILITY to the art, the audience, and themselves. An artists job ultimately is to output for others to input. But yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre is not covered under free speech, it's just irresponsible. This idea applies to art then. And most especially to experimental material.

Thoughts. Just thinking. Love to do it.

Dave does what he does SECOND best...ordering a drink.


Derek is so bad ass he bursts into flames at the shows!


Trey's split personality


Dave doing what he does best...getting at it!


I'll shred now.

Bending/creating

Lately I have been doing a good deal of research into modification of existing instruments/toys and building instruments (electronic for the most part). This is beginning to meet with a modicum of success. I hope to have a few examples up here soon. I have a pretty fine stockpile of gear waiting to be modded. So I expect I will begin selling some stuff as I finish it. More about this later. Meanwhile, here are some links for more info to maybe get you started on this too.


This dude is the jam!

Great site for modding

Reed Ghazala, the Godfather of Bending

Nicolas Collins, a bad mother...

Show

March 9th 2008
Walter's

AWAKE
Estradasphere
Secret Chiefs 3


Wonderful show. Man, talk about skilled musicians! Everyone was damn good! And Trey Spruance is great and accommodating to people with questions.

Oh yeah. Did I mention we killed it? Fuck yes we did. We set up in front of the stage as Estradasphere/SC3 had a TON of stuff on stage. Easily our best show yet.

Pictures will be forthcoming as well as some video clips. Merch coming someday.

2 Shows

Rudyard's
Feb 22nd.

Great show!

Potbelly were on their 1st show at a venue, and you couldn't tell. Quite together. Nice job guys!

Kvalla. Kvalla kills. Great band, great sound, and gotta love that bassist! I don't think I've seen a person smile on stage that much ever!

We did well. Once again I'm lucky to play with guys this good.


Walter's on Washington
Feb 16th

What a great show!

Lineup:

AWAKE
Ringo Deathstarr
For That Day
Co-pilot

If you missed this, you blew it. It was awesome! All the bands rocked. 'Ringo Deathstarr' from Austin had some great, loud, shit that made me have to stare at some shoes for a bit. 'For That Day' from Toronto. What can I say? Wow, that's what. Totally pro and they weren't even playing on their own gear. Great songs and intense! 'Co-pilot' are from Houston, but I never knew these guys. How could I not though? They are fucking awesome! A great way to end the night. Fucking symphonic. Don't miss these guys next time. Seriously

It was an honor to share the stage with musicians of so great a calibre as these guys. And a privilege to have such perfect musicians as Trey, Dave, and Derek playing alongside me(holding it down).