nurses

2011-06-22T14:50:00.001-07:00

2011-05-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

gary's in the attic with me

2011-04-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

when we lived in san diego around the millenium gary wilson did too. and he was playing weird ass shows throwing powder on dolls and losing his mind singing his basement creep-outs from the 70s and making me stoked. gary, if you're reading this, i wanna make a song with you real bad.

oops the record is almost done

2011-02-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

the record is nearing finish and it's sounding oily! few more things to do, and then we'll have more news about it. we're stoked.
for now, portland is colder than it should be, so i'm listening to this jam to keep me warm.

herms vanity fair

2010-09-22T09:49:00.001-07:00

super into all of ians new paintings! the explanations are crucial as well.

"Recent depiction of multi-cultural golden globe-nomination inspired Herms. They are gathering around backstage in the dressing room. They are getting ready for the big broadway show. The black clouds seeping through the vents in the ceiling, billowing black seaman into the Herms vanity fair dresser droors. It looks like nasty black oil, all over their hands, dipping them in and again, Dairy Queen style. Loving those apple dippers.. gettin’ em real sticky. Everyone was enjoying their wine, it was a belligerent night, stressed and loney, some were moody and envious of others beauty, and gritters of course. Everyone kept powdering and applying aveda institute inspired face creme. This can been seen by the black herms face turned filthy peach colored in the left vanity, as her secret admiror gazes into her eyes, getting teary and emotional, easily noticed by her drippy blue eye shadow."

http://www.hydeonart.com/

3voor12 baptism performance

2010-09-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

we played an awesome festival on an island in the netherlands called 'into the great wide open festival'. we took a roily ferry ride to the island and when we arrived we were greeted by a DJ and 6 people in purple onesies doing the macarena. super weird. we hurried over to this pond and did a couple songs before our set. the second one is a new song that we've been playing called extra fast.

holland un-sleep fun!

2010-09-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

it's sunrise here in holland, and i can't sleep a wink, so here i am on the www! we're staying with our friend/booking agent/tour manager/awesome fella Bob, and trying to get back in the correct headspace after the flight. turns out we're all super sensitive to jetlag, and it's been a real emotional whirlwind since we landed. yahooooooooo!
the city we're staying in is beautiful- 20 mins outside amsterdam, 1000 year old buildings, canals and bikes with interesting/beautiful people ridin em everywhere. this city has managed to make bikes by far the most popular way of getting around, and i think everyone in holland has like 2.2 bikes (maybe an official number?). all you chunks in portland would be super psyched on the bike use, but maybe not so much on the bikes. all are old rusty cruisers- which i think are rad!- but some of you more bike nerdy oiloids might have the urge to fix all 500,000 bikes up, and it might drive you nuts.
we played a show with the tallest man on earth last night. it's real great to hang out with kristian again, and he tugged on everyone watching's heartstrings as usual. tomorrow (today?) we take a ferry to an island where no cars are allowed and play a festival! if i wasn't so durned sleepy, i'd click my heels.
maybe next post i'll be fluent in dutch.

gulls

2010-08-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

i just finished a video for my friend's project Gulls. check it out!
i think about it as the inner-workings of clyde drexler's psyche during a game. he has all the world's pressure on him and has to overcome some personal issues like self doubt etc.

Gulls - "Vetted" from BOOMARM NATION on Vimeo.

september fun tine!

2010-07-28T16:23:00.001-07:00

hey oiloids!
real psyched to say that i just bought our airplane tickets to europe! yippee! if you see me there, say hello. i'll be the guy freaking out at how old all the buildings are.
this has been a weird indoor summer for me, and i'm glad the other two oiloins have gotten out and snapped some super rad photos of the outdoors for me to look at so i don't forget about the sun. i got a head transplant (throat surgery) two weeks ago but that was surprisingly a breeze, and i'm back in action now doing everything as normally as if nothing had happened, except with a memory of an eternity in Tube Land, which was where my "spirit" was when i was drugged for the surgery. there weren't literal tubes, but everything was made of tubes, and i knew it, felt it, lived it, saw it. if you're familiar with superstring theory, think of this in terms of that, but instead it's tube theory- and when you're in tube land you even feel like a tube. Tube Land, everyone should visit at least once.

before we go to europe, we're going to play a show at holocene in portland with some of the oiliest musicians in town. i'm seriously so stoked to play with these guys. this show has been sort of a fantasy for me for a long time, and there's going to be some real neat installations there to boot.

-john

here's our shows for the next bit!

08/26/10 Portland, OR- Holocene w/ dragging an ox through water and operative! so oily!
09/02/10 Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg w/ tallest man on earth! yeah!
09/03/10 Vlieland, NL - Great Wide Open Festival with a hundred rule bands
09/06/10 Utrecht, NL - Tivoli
09/07/10 Venlo, NL - Perron 55
09/08/10 Tilburg, NL - 013
09/09/10 Paris, France - Cafe de la Danse w/ women! alright!
09/10/10 Lille, France - Radar Festival
09/11/10 Dorset, UK - End of the Road Festival with a hundred more ule ule bands
09/12/10 Dorset, UK - End of the Road Festival
09/14/10 London, UK - Lexington

beach days.

2010-07-23T18:43:00.001-07:00

haven't been in summer hangout mode much lately, but we had a giant beach party posse recently. the sun and beach hangout fried my brains like the eggs in those "this is your brain on drugs" commercials.

dark summer

2010-07-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

a few black and white /// fever dream summer photos. lurkoids. creeplers. watching from outside your window. lurkoids creeping on lurkoids.

!

2010-07-14T14:21:00.001-07:00

funny

we'll be in europe in sept///

2010-07-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

here are the dates, there may be a few more added soon. where it says tbc

02-SEPT MELKWEG, AMSTERDAM (NL)
03-SEPT GREAT WIDE OPEN FESTIVAL, VLIELAND
04-SEPT tbc
05-SEPT tbc
06-SEPT TIVOLI, UTRECHT (NL)
07-SEPT PERRON 55, VENLO (NL)
08-SEPT 013, TILBURG (NL)
09-SEPT CAFE DE LA DANSE, PARIS (FR)
10-SEPT GRAND MIX, LILLE (FR) (radar festival)
11-SEPT END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL, DORSET (UK)
12-SEPT tbc
13-SEPT tbc
14-SEPT LEXINGTON, LONDON (UK)

bike tour!

2010-07-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

i recently just rode my bike from portland, oregon to arcata, california with a bunch of awesome people. we were trying to make it to san francisco but funds ran low. anyhow, it was amazing . . . beyond description. i took a bunch of photos. here's some, and there's more at my flickr page:

2010-07-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

via japanprobe

Buffy Sainte-Marie Qu'appelle Valley Saskatchewan

2010-07-12T16:48:00.001-07:00

i like this record

2010-06-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

beyond the valley of ultrahits- by richard youngs

i've been into richard youngs for a while, but hadn't heard this record until i found out about it via jagjaguwar rereleasing it.
this is what they say about it:

"Make a proper pop album."

Thus was the simple dare handed to Richard Youngs from his friend Andrew "Paz" Paine during their weekly Sunday meet-up. Ever the modest master, Youngs said in accepting this friendly challenge that he merely endeavored to capture the "beats and hooks" of contemporary pop. He's never attempted to disguise his gift for catchy musical phrases, though they may have come by way of careening, pleading, soothing or challenging multi-tracked voices.

here's the first track off the record
http://www.mediafire.com/?tyykmttuomj

i really like the idea of marrying interesting experimentation with a pop format. i've been in love with arthur russell's record "love is overtaking me" for the last while. from what i gather he took a similar approach musically. started out making experimental pieces and later decided pop and experimentation are not necessarily mutually exclusive. i think most of my artists are people that do this well.

your truly
buttleroidchundunkoid

rule photos (maybe not safe for work?)

2010-06-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

our friend meg has some awesome photos up on her new photo blog

especially the bodies made of space.

dark oins

sasquatch

2010-06-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

our friend tyler kohlhoff put posted some photos from sasquatch
http://dancingwillsaveyou.tumblr.com/

tallest man on earth tour = best vibes

2010-04-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

got a few minutes in a mofe shop, got a few words to say! 2 shows into the tour with the tallest man on earth, and we're all smiles. kristian (sp?) aka the tallest man on earth is as nice as he is talented, and i'm really looking forward to this next month! kristian is already making 99 percent of the girls in the room swoon, blush, and fall apart, and performing the heckoutta real good folk songs.
this rules!

man at arms chopped n screwed

2010-04-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

man at arms chopped and screwed by kyle parker

my tooth

2010-04-11T18:40:00.001-07:00

quit our banmd

winter video by hans lo!

2010-04-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

Nurses "Winter" from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

as soon as we saw hans lo's work he was instantly one of our collective favorites. we were super stoked to work with him on this, and plan on collaborating on some really exciting things with him in the future.
coooooool.

bad timing/my face got funny

2010-04-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

my face got really infected over easter weekend. it was due to a botched root canal i had done a few years ago. apparently it's been infected this whole time, but the bacteria just won the battle and they're running amuck. looting stores, peeing off balconies, swearing at children.
i had to have my tooth pulled and my face is really big and swollen- both from the infection and the tooth being pulled out of my head.
sorry we had to cancel the spokane/minneapolis shows. i'm resting in bed trying to get better so we don't have to cancel anymore in the future.

this is normal me and me with infection- before i went to the dentist. at least it's kind of funny. i'm in good spirits, just can't sing for a couple days. wish me well. hopefully you will see normal me real soon!

the people have spoken, toothpain!

things we want to do on tour

2010-04-03T20:42:00.001-07:00

usually on tour we don't see a lot of the cities we're in. maybe you can show us around. we want to do some of these things-

pool party/watering holes
yoga class
eat good/healthy food. maybe you work at an awesome restaurant?
rad lectures
nba games!
book club meetings?
haunted houses
secret society meetings. (or you can just tell us your secrets.)
local landmarks

anything you think is awesome?

chatroulette video!

2010-03-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

Nurses Play Chatroulette from Into The Woods on Vimeo.

thanks a lot to everyone at intothewoods.tv!

JEFFREY JERUSALEM MANATARMS REMIX

2010-03-11T14:25:00.000-08:00

JEFFREY JERUSALEM MANATARMS REMIX DOWNLOAD

http://www.myspace.com/jeffreyjerusalem

Out In A Desert, With The Vultures

2010-02-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

our daytrotter session just went up today

fun, etc

2010-02-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

here's a list of our shows in the next bit, in an easier to look at way than myspace.high-octane-movie-in-your-face.mcdonalds ad.

we'll be adding to these in the future.

04/06/10 Spokane, WA - Empyrean Coffee House
04/09/10 Minneapolis, MN - Turf Club w/ Tyvek, Love is All
04/10/10 Chicago, IL - Schubas w/ Acrylics, The Smith Westerns
04/12/10 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop
04/14/10 Buffalo, NY - The Ninth Ward w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/15/10 Winooski, VT - The Monkey House w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/16/10 Montreal, QC - Petit Campus w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/17/10 Toronto, ON - El Mocambo w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/20/10 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/21/10 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/22/10 Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live Upstairs w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/23/10 Washington, DC - Black Cat w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/24/10 Greensboro, NC - Guilford College w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/26/10 Chapel Hill, NC - Gerrard Hall w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/27/10 Asheville, NC - Forsythia Hall w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/28/10 Atlanta, GA - The Earl w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
04/29/10 Birmingham, AL - The Bottletree w/ The Tallest Man on Earth 05/01/10 Denton, TX Haileys w/ the tallest man on earth, white hinterland, dosh
05/02/10 Austin, TX - Stubb's BBBQ w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/04/10 Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/05/10 La Jolla, CA - UCSD - The Loft w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/08/10 Brookdale, CA - Historic Brookdale Lodge w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/09/10 San Francisco, CA - The Independent w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/11/10 Portland, OR - The Mission Theater w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/12/10 Vancouver, BC - St. James Hall w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/14/10 Edmonton, AB - Brixx w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/15/10 Calgary, AB - Local 522 w/ The Tallest Man on Earth
05/29/10 George, WA - Sasquatch Music Festival, Yeti Stage
09/10/10 Dorset, UK - End of the Road Festival
09/11/10 Dorset, UK - End of the Road Festival
09/12/10 Dorset, UK - End of the Road Festival

this image

2010-02-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

this image is strangely pleasing. like putting your toes in jelly, or like when you chew gum until it's almost sand, but instead of swallowing it or spitting it out, you put it in your upper lip above your teeth and just let it sit there for a long time- or when you tape two of your fingers together for a the day.

http://antongerasimenko.com/pietaballare/

rhubarb jackson

2010-01-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

this is a song by my brother rhubarb.
http://www.mediafire.com/?y4lnjj2zqjx
photo by jordan chark

2010-01-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

this blog is neat! cut up re-arranged mexican billboards = interestin' oin cool

http://cutupmx.wordpress.com

2010-01-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

happy nye

2010-01-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

we made this, and a bunch of other videos, for holocene's nye party- the theme was 100,000 years in the future. zone out/in.

it's nice that it's sincere

2009-12-31T13:49:00.000-08:00

if only music sites/blogs were run like this:
http://www.itsnicethat.com/

maybe you know of one i don't?
this is my favorite destination on the whirl wide web. they're rad and super enthusiastic.

this site is also how we were introduced to our new pal hans lo who is one of our favs and is working on a video for us that should be done in the next couple weeks.

here's one of his videos- yeah!

happy new years chucklers!

dec. is the year's sunday.

2009-12-21T16:25:00.000-08:00

hey dudes and dudettes!
this year has been super crazy and fun and also the most exhausting ever!
i'm so beat. the good kind of beat where it feels good to give in to being tired and just hang out and watch a movie you don't even like just to prove to yourself that you can be unproductive and feel good about it.
we really went for it this year. i don't think we took more than a couple days off from doing something band related. we're going to take the rest of the year off but i'm already looking forward to getting back to work in the new year. we're working on new songs and plan on recording some of them really soon. hopefully we'll finish a new record this coming year.

i don't usually think in terms of best of year/decade lists, but we were asked by a site called ragged words to do a decade end list and this is what we came up with:
http://www.raggedwords.com/content/nurses-albums-decade

i'm excited for 2010. i'm expecting tons of rad new music in the world. i'm really excited about this group in portland called operative
i've only seen them play once but it was awesome!
also hoping for a full length from explode into colors in 2010. they're one of my fav. bands and some of my fav. people for sure!

tired.
see you in the future!
aaarrrroooonnnn

clibty

2009-10-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

here's some totally fun videos we did in the city of brotherly love at Art in the Age. it was totally fun!

a couple a new chucklers!

Art In The Age Presents... Nurses "Caterpillar Playground" In-Store Performance from Art In The Age on Vimeo.

Art In The Age Presents... Nurses "So Sweet" In-Store Performance from Art In The Age on Vimeo.

Art In The Age Presents... Nurses "Manatarms" In-Store Performance from Art In The Age on Vimeo.

Art In The Age Presents... Nurses "Disney" In-Store Performance from Art In The Age on Vimeo.

space/van madness!

2009-09-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

2009-09-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

cool feature on james' art in juxtapoz

2009-08-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

juxtapoz

touring forever

2009-08-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

more dates to come:
check our myspace page for additional dates.

Aug 6 2009

9:00P

Holocene Record Release W/ Inside Voices, The Slaves

portland, Oregon

Aug 23 2009

8:00P

Empyrean Coffee House w/ Kaylee Cole, The Globes, Throw Me The Statue

spokane, Washington

Aug 26 2009

8:00P

7th Street Entry w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

minneapolis, Minnesota

Aug 27 2009

8:00P

Courtyard Cafe w/ World’s First Flying Machine, Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

urbana, Illinois

Aug 28 2009

8:00P

Annex w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

madison

Aug 29 2009

8:00P

Subterranean w/ Throw Me The Statue, the

chicargo, Illinois

Sep 1 2009

8:00P

Middle East Upstairs w/ Throw Me The Statue, The Brunettes

cambridge, Massachusetts

Sep 2 2009

8:00P

Mercury Lounge w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

new york, New York

Sep 3 2009

8:00P

Johnny Brenda’s w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Sep 4 2009

8:00P

Rock and Roll Hotel w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

washington DC, Washington DC

Sep 5 2009

8:00P

Duke Coffeehouse w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

durham, North Carolina

Sep 7 2009

8:00P

Drunken Unicorn w/Throw Me The Statue and The Brunettes

Atlanta, Georgia

Sep 8 2009

8:00P

club downunder w/Throw Me the Statue and The Brunettes

Tallahassee, Florida

Sep 10 2009

8:00P

the mohawk w/Throw Me the Statue and The Brunettes

Austin, Texas

Sep 12 2009

8:00P

cavern ale house w/ Throw Me the Statue and The Brunettes

dallas, Texas

Sep 14 2009

8:00P

Modified w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

phoenix, Arizona

Sep 16 2009

8:00P

UCSD - The Loft w/ Throw Me The Statue, the Brunettes

la jolla, California

Sep 18 2009

8:00P

Doug Fir Lounge w/ The Old Believers, Pink Mountaintops

portland, Oregon

Sep 22 2009

8:00P

vera project w/the brunettes

seattle, Washington

Sep 23 2009

8:00P

media club w/the brunettes

vancouver, British Columbia

Oct 9 2009

8:00P

Ottobar w/Le Loup

Baltimore, Maryland

Oct 10 2009

8:00P

KFN w/Le Loup

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Oct 13 2009

8:00P

TT the bears w/Le Loup

boston, Massachusetts

Oct 14 2009

8:00P

II Motore w/Le Loup

Montreal, Quebec

Oct 15 2009

8:00P

drake hotel w/Le Loup

Toronto, Ontario

Oct 16 2009

8:00P

Schubas w/Le Loup

chicago, Illinois

Oct 17 2009

8:00P

7th st entry w/Le Loup

Minneapollis, Minnesota

Oct 18 2009

8:00P

slowdown w/Le Loup

omaha, Nebraska

Oct 19 2009

8:00P

hi dive w/Le Loup

denver, Colorado

Oct 20 2009

8:00P

kilby court w/Le Loup

salt lake city, Utah

Oct 22 2009

8:00P

tbd

vancouver, British Columbia

Oct 23 2009

8:00P

chop suey w/Le Loup

seattle, Washington

Oct 24 2009

8:00P

tbd w/Le Loup

bellingham, Washington

Oct 25 2009

8:00P

doug fir w/Le Loup

portland, Oregon

Oct 27 2009

8:00P

bottom of the hill w/le loup

san francisco, California

Oct 28 2009

8:00P

the echo w/le loup

los angeles, California

Oct 29 2009

8:00P

detroit bar w/ le loup

costa mesa, California

Oct 30 2009

8:00P

casbah w/le loup

san diego, California

Oct 31 2009

8:00P

the plush w/le loup

tucson, Arizona

Nov 2 2009

8:00P

mohawk w/le loup

austin, Texas

Nov 3 2009

8:00P

the cavern w/le loup

dallas, Texas

Nov 5 2009

8:00P

drunken unicorn w/le loup

atlanta, Georgia

Nov 6 2009

8:00P

local 506 w/le loup

chapel hill, North Carolina

Nov 7 2009

8:00P

black cat w/le loup

washington dc, Washington DC

Record release in one week!

2009-07-30T12:14:00.001-07:00

2009-07-18T20:51:00.000-07:00

also, since i'm spending all day indoors listening to music that cools me off, here's a video i found of us playing a song that was written after we finished our record. it's new! it's from the show we played in may with stephen malkmus and the jicks, who rule and are super duper nice.

did you wake up today in a dense forest covered in a thick, friendly fog?

2009-07-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

it's a hot sticky pickle in portland today. if you're a sticky pickle, you should get on a raft made of twigs and moss and float down a cool river covered in a thick fog and listen to the slaves come through the trees.
really though, pretend that's happening while you listen and your body temperature will lower 10 degrees.

goooooooooooooglez.

2009-06-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

gooooooooooo.....gle.com (with 53 o's actually). try it! this is an awesome site i stumbled upon a while back. don't ask why or how i found a cool google site with 53 o's. it must have been a low point in my late night internet explorations. its some real inter-dimensional lo-fi madness.

slurf song!

2009-06-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

on repeat!
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=396718159899295ed9d5c56d04dfa8b0e04e75f6e8ebb871
michael hurley!

i must be sleeping. CRULE!!!

2009-05-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

wow! double thanks y'all!

Willamette Week

Best New Band 2009

Portland’s music scene insiders pick their favorite breakthrough acts of the past year.

Who: Aaron Chapman, John Bowers, James Mitchell
Formed: 2006
Sounds Like: A long-lost psychedelic Elephant 6 band who stole Animal Collective’s gear and tripped out on The Wizard of Oz one too many times.

Last fall, psychedelic-poppers Nurses were in the middle of a grueling, monthlong national tour in Indiana when they realized something: They had forgotten to get directions to the next show. “I don’t think we’re very organized when we tour,” multi-instrumentalist John Bowers says. “It was so bad we had to [text] ChaCha everything—‘Where is the band Nurses playing tomorrow?’ Just go south and it will tell us!”

The band’s three members—Bowers, singer and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Chapman, and drummer James Mitchell, all 25—are so close it’s easy to assume they’re related. On a warm April afternoon in Alberta Park, all three sit cross-legged, nearly finishing each other’s sentences while sharing stories from the road. It’s a togetherness that has come from constant life on the move, living in confined quarters.

Bowers and Chapman, best friends from Idaho Falls who met in junior high school, have been roommates for five years. They started the group in Idaho and went through stints in Southern California and Chicago before taking to Portland and meeting Mitchell on a whim in late 2007. Until last month, they lived together in a decaying attic in Northeast Portland—a house with nine other residents and numerous couch-surfers. That’s where they refined their sound, one mouse click at a time, and recorded much of Nurses’ forthcoming full-length debut, Apple’s Acre (set for release in late July on respected indie label Dead Oceans).

After years spent as self-described Luddites, the band members’ Portland move and embrace of technology have infused their songs with a new sense of purpose. Much of Apple’s Acre—including the buoyant, echoing standout “Manatarms”—was written over three years ago, but not laid down until Chapman started experimenting with entry-level Mac recording program GarageBand on his laptop last summer. Despite the software limitations, Apple’s Acre sounds fresh and professional, brimming with clever songwriting and tinkly melodies straight out of The Wizard of Oz.

Chapman describes the band’s writing process as serendipitous: It was discovering GarageBand and experimenting with tape loops—often forged out of long, sporadic jam sessions—that led the band in its latest direction. “Even though we have electronics, fundamentally [our songs are] not that different than a folk song or a pop song,” he says. “We got in the habit of making lots of tapes where we just hit ‘record’ and see what happens.”

Nurses’ best songs take melodic ideas written on an acoustic guitar or piano, then dress the tunes up in psychedelic garb (much like the guys themselves, who favor pink tights, sun hats and, in Chapman’s case, his blue-and-red-striped summer “onesie”), padding the songs with a bright, colorful bed of electronics, weird noises and vocal harmonies. The effect often sounds like a 21st-century take on the Beach Boys—if they’d discovered Animal Collective’s bed of electronics and lived to tweet about it. The fun part of the process is in trying to create “sounds where you couldn’t really say what it is,” Chapman says. It’s an often exhausting exercise that effectively forces keyboards and sequencers to act out roles that a guitar or bass might play in a more traditional setting.

While there’s plenty unusual about Nurses, the band members’ interactions with one another are timelessly rock ’n’ roll—it’s evident the minute the trio takes the stage and locks into one continuous, pulsing groove. “We hang out almost every day,” Chapman says, pausing slightly for dramatic effect. “I think the longest we’ve gone without seeing each other is, like, a day. But on that day we definitely called or emailed or something,” Mitchell says, laughing, before chiming in with maybe a little too much information. “I barely talk to anyone on the phone except for them and my mom. I don’t even call my girlfriend [laughs again].” MICHAEL MANNHEIMER.

SEE IT: Nurses play WW’s Best New Band show Saturday, May 9, at Berbati’s Pan. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FUN!

rainy dream snackspeare

2009-04-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

it's a wet one in portland today! a good day for snacking, if i do say so myself. the first 3 months of 2009 i was living with various friends for various times, and i survived almost solely on snacks, and when i moved into a new place recently, i still had snacks on the mind... so when my friends came over on a sunday afternoon, i made them a three-course snack feast! it turned out so well i decided to share it with whoever might also want to enjoy a (very cheap) 3 course snack. it's real cheap, and real good. here's a picture of it if you wanna eat it too. and a picture of the inside of my head.

also, aaron and i wore dreamy clothes today that our friends aidan and paul made. we turned into fantasy characters and walked around slowly with straight faces and wide eyes! aidan is a multitalented artistic powerhouse. i suggest you take a look at her stuff if you haven't already. i hope there are pictures of us wearing the fantasy costumes somewhere... i really don't know yet- i was in fantasy land. yeep!

i found a copy of shakespeare's henry IV while i was on a walk today and i'magonna read it starting tonight. i bet it's good. i betcha.

moondog/helmo sandwich!

2009-04-07T00:26:00.000-07:00

i was listening to moondog today and stumbled on this photo.
moondog is totally the p and b to helmo's j

02 Down Is Up.m4a
( the photo is from helmo.fr not sure exactly who to credit-either thomas couderc or clement vauchez?)

obsessive drumpulsive.

2009-03-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

i have been completely infatuated with heavily percussive and strangely melodic sounds lately - the "you're-deep-in-the-woods-and-the-night-is-going-to-steal-your-soul" kind of sound that the liars pulled off really well with "they were wrong so we drowned" and "drum's not dead". mike hilger introduced me to this heat, who were doing some really awesome, way-ahead-of-their-time stuff decades ago. they are all over the place, but the albums "deceit" and "repeat" have got me hooked lately. their recordings are also strangely timeless. without knowing when they were made, it would be hard for me to place them in any time period.

silver apples have also been on the playlist non-stop - similarly heavy on the percussion in combination with sparse pop melodies and oscillators. they must have been a huge influence on caribou / manitoba.

my gal pal showed me tall dwarfs who are pretty rad.

konono no. 1 are a group from the congo region who lay down some awesome traditional african rythms and melodies with an extremely awesome lo-fi / non-traditional approach. the "congotronics" albums are great.

the possibility of smush/fantasia

2009-03-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i was giving a friend a ride in our giant van, which by the way is the least convenient/fun way to get around town.
as i was about to turn right through an intersection i saw a guy on his bike in the crosswalk. i stopped with plenty of time, but we were both a lil shaken by the possibility of smush. he looked me right in the eye and hissed "you f**king b**ch!" (censor in case my mom or sisters read this)
right afterwards i turned the radio on and this piece was playing-
the most epic 'just almost smushed a dude on his bike' piece ever written.
anyway i found this video, which pretty much sums up the feeling of the experience

tickle tickle

2009-03-03T12:45:00.000-08:00

NBA Player Paul Shirley Says Merriweather Post Pavilion "Is a Fun Album, But the Songs Are Too Long"

jandek!

2009-03-02T22:34:00.001-08:00

backwater/i aint writ in forever

2009-02-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

the other night i was listening to the avey tare/kria brekken record before bed and it gave me neat dreams.
i started wondering what our songs would be like backwaters.

here's one now just fer fun.
thanks grag

i promise we're not lying about apple's acre.
we did make a record.
and it will be released in the future.

time capsule?
time travel?

....................................................................

in other news:

i'm way excited about this fellow in town that plays under the name 'dragging an ox through water'

i saw him a couple weeks back with href="http://www.nlazer.com/valet">valet(who was also awesome) it was one of my favorite shows i've seen in a long while.

his music made so many idea bubbles form

it also tugged the heart skinnies.

if he were a grill i'd be his

george foreman.

we're playing with he and jamie stuart (of xiu xiu) soon.

i'm way excited!

talk demonic

super nice new friends of ours.

they make equally pretty/epic music.

makes me imagine colorful strings on nails in nice patterns.

and as always

inside voices

they're some of our best pallies in the world.

they're recording a full length album right now.

john g has been in the woods a lot lately, i think he's going crazy.... which of course should make for an awesome record!

oh oh oh also-

remember the house w/ the attic john and i recorded/lived in for several months.

we moved out and another band called morning teleportation moved in.

i know that's probably not that uncommon in portland, but to me it's kind of like having the same first and last name or being from idaho falls- i immediately assume we're already friends.

another reason to be fond before hearing a band...

anyway i really liked their set at holocene the other night. i'm not typically into a band that leads with their collective krautch, but they were interesting and energetic and overall perdy great live.

portland band mania!!!!!!!

............................................................................................................................

sleep time

but first

my galpal's cat Žižek.....

he wears a reverse megaphone cause he licks himself til he bleeds...

caterpillar playground

2009-01-21T20:57:00.000-08:00

valentines 12/08/08

2009-01-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

our friend greg snuck a tape recorder and taped our show, we'll show you a tape, show, greg

(parenthetical post script-technology has turned and left me here.)

2009-01-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

mombie zansions & pooper sours.

2008-10-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

Two crucial questions for every aspiring zombie fighter / super hero to ask one's self:

1) Would you enter a mansion and fight a bunch of flesh-eating zombies, solely for the sake of doing so?
2) If you were given the opportunity to choose a single basic super power, which you could greatly control and use for any purpose you see fit, what super power would you choose, and what would you do with it?

sleepy rainy brain stew.

2008-10-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

Tour is over, and we are home . . . sleepy & rainy home! Lately I've been fearing that I've slowly been transforming into a zombie on our big adventure. Maybe its our obsession over the end of the world & zombie-ism, two constantly recurring themes in the van, but I feel that my fears are possibly being slightly validated. I've had a hard time walking faster than an average of two feet per minute and holding my balance. I've been incoherently muttering sounds to strangers and friends alike as my social skills have rotted into nothing. Yesterday my big toenail that turned all blue and black from an injury just cracked in half and is now falling off. It's like when you're playing Resident Evil and reading the journals of the lab workers written as they slowly transform into festering, flesh-craving zombies, only this time it's myself transforming. Awesome! If you don't here from me in the next few weeks, consider me a worm food.

PS If anyone can recommend any awesome zombie and/or post-apocalyptic movies, books, comics etc. for the winter, please do so!

ambien, sarag, pancakes!!!

2008-09-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

oh baby! just had my first shower in maybe three days? ...so clean!
we just finished playin a bucket-fulla-shows with our friends maps and atlases and now we're headed west.
the shows were real fun! thanks to everyone that came out and if you missed us- i'm sure we'll post recaps, analysis, and bar-graphs later.
but as for now i'm way too sleepy- cartoon zzz's floating outta my head- sleepy.
speaking of which, i got some ambien which totally helped me sleep last night but served up a healthy dose of the 'sads' today. not worth taking at all... unless you like the idea of DRIVING IN YOUR SLEEP!!!! absolutely horrifying!
and that's not the only thing you'll do in your sleep without any recollection- eat, call people, have sex? one side effect that seemed a lil on the funny side was "uncontrolled crying" but the others are reeeaaaal bad.

anyway, we've made some great friends on this trip. one great friend goes by the name of sarag. (<-typo turned funny)
sarag lives in boston and she let us sleep on her floor. i really liked her and her house-mates. they made us awesome blueberry pancakes from scratch. she wrote this for us.
cool, cool, cruel!

“My friends are playing at The Great Scott. They’re called ‘Nurses’. You’re on the guest list. You should go, and you should let them stay at your house tonight. They’re good guys.” It’s 9 o’clock on a Thursday night in Boston. I’m eating ice cream out of the carton when my friend Veronica calls me from Portland, Oregon.
I’m hesitant, but going to a free show sounds a lot better than my current Neapolitan company. I throw on my sweater and take the 10-minute bike ride to Allston from my pad in Jamaica Plain. Allston is an area of Boston infamous for being overrun by loud, party-going college students – making it a less-than-desirable place to live, but an amazing place to let loose. In addition to the social scene, entailing house shows, parties, lots of bars and music venues, thrift stores, and tattoo shops, Allston is also home to T.J. Scallywaggles House of Vegan Pizza, which I would find out later is a personal favorite of Maps and Atlases .
So, here I am, standing outside the Great Scott, non-chalantly smoking my American Spirit, as any good hipster should, wondering how I’m going to find this band, and whether or not I’m actually getting in free. A huge white van pulls up, and out steps a scraggly looking dude, who with his white and black striped shirt and bird feather-ed hair, looks something like a Native-American pirate (is that racist?). Cell phone in hand, he walks dangerously close to me.
“Are you Sarah?” he asks, while simultaneously handing me the phone, so I hear Veronica coo-ing and giggling in my ear. We exchange names, words, and cosmic vibrations until the friend gods have been pleased, so we head inside.
Nurses set-up is something to wonder at. Synthesizers, drum kit, a Rhodes piano – which lead-singer Aaron Chapman tells me is nothing to carry around since they used to have a real piano. “I was supposed to be a basketball player,” he tells me, standing shy of 5’7”, “but I shrunk like six inches from carrying the piano around.” He is not without wit. A bro standing next to me asks of the Rhodes, “What is that? It’s awesome.” Later during the set, with characteristic Bostonian good cheer, the same bro starts the mantra “Fuckin’ Nurses” as a cry of enthusiasm.
Playing after a loud, screaming, band with heavy guitar riffs – something like Incubus meets every other early nineties alternative rock band – the Nurses set feels like the mist rising off of a frozen lake after an early winter snowfall. By the end of the set, the once self-conscious and static audience is moving and vibing with the music. At one point someone throws up an inflatable beach-ball, and people start a free-form volleyball game.
Most people at the show were there to see the up and coming Chicago based band Maps and Atlases. Majority of the time, opening acts are bands that you sit through, eagerly and impatiently, half-listening, but mostly wishing that you were listening to the headlining act. The critical ear of the audience did not fall deaf to the musings of Nurses and most people seemed enthusiastically surprised that they were actually enjoying the set.
The dudes crash at my pad for the night, and in the morning we give them showers and a pancake breakfast and send them on their way to finish out the rest of their tour. In return, they give us many thanks and a copy of their new EP. I call Veronica and told her that her friends trashed my place in a drunken ego-fuelled rock star rage.

big happs in the big apps.

2008-09-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm so sticky from this brooklyn summer heat, I could probably climb walls if I wanted. But other than having to swim through the air to fetch a glass of water across the room, New York has been great to us, and so has the tour in general. After a day of walking the streets of brooklyn for the first time in my life and getting to see old friends in their new habitats, we ended up in a Foot Clan-like version of a warehouse skatepark party / punk show. Altough the Shredder was nowhere to be seen, his influence on the youth of New York was undeniable. Oour good friend geordy showed us a great time. We had some rooftop hanging out, some first hand experiences of concrete gentrification, mid-day park lounging, shitty late-night Mexican food and pastries, an emberrassing Moby run-in, chance run-ins with old friends, and some hands-down fun. The east coast has been awesome in general. Our new friend Sarah in Boston took real good care of us and made us feel at home, and I'm sure we've got more friends yet to be made.

We've played about six or seven shows with Maps & Atlases so far around the northeast. Being around them is great. They are awesome people, and absolutely great musicians. I haven't sat out for a single live show yet of theirs through the tour, and the more I watch them the more I fall in love with what they're doing. Aside from the somewhat lazy & genre-fying terms like "prog" or "mathy" that may be thrown their way, they are so much more, and I can't wait to see them do more and more awesome things with their music and traveling. They will be touring Europe with Foals in about a week and a half.

We are in D.C. tonight, and it's so hot that I might melt at any moment. The computer is burning a hole through my crotch so I must depart, with more updates soon. Until next time.

P.S. You can see photos from the last tour at my flickr page - www.flickr.com/photos/jamsandwich/sets - with photos from this tour to come soon. See ya!

2008-09-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

it's beanawhile!

2008-09-13T16:38:00.001-07:00

it's been a while since we've said anything on this blog, hasn't it? we've been extremely busy finishing up our record, rehearsing, meeting great people, and in general being distracted by all of the great things in our lives. so distracted, in fact, that i'm now 10 years behind on sleep. james takes awesome photos all of the time, and i swear i'll put them here for anyone to see. we have some from the last tour that i'll put up right now!

we're halfway through the pool party of a tour with maps and atlases! we've been wanting to tour with them since they were letting us sleep in their bathrooms last summer when we were homeless in their town of chicago, and now we're reunited!

we're in brooklyn right now, spending the day off on rooftops and walking around being real excited to be in such a big apple. you see, we're small town folk, and this is a real big apple to us. tomorrow we'll be in washington dc lobbying for big oil, and we're going to play a show too. here's the first installment of pictures... which are from the last tour. new ones to come!

2008-07-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

huzzaahhh!!!!!!!
we're back in the third dimension- aka back from teaching rock n roll camp in seattle. it was craaaaazy! john will have more on that later.

right now i'm stoke city, usa 'cause we just got a sneak peak at our album artwork.

i couldnt' be happier.

we're working with our new friend aidan koch. she's definitely one of my favorite new artists, and she's from right here in portland! squeee-103!

speaking of aidan, there was this kid named aidan frye in gradeschool that rode the same bus as my brother ryan and i. he was totally bad to the bone. ryan and aidain used to get in fights on the bus and aidan would always scratch ryan's face real bad. i'm pretty sure he's got some scars from that...aidan looked like scut farkus from a christmas story.

also!!!!!

we just played pdx pop now- it was number one-fun fun fun!!!!

we literally drove straight from 2D camp to portland, rehearsed our set once, headed over to rotture, set up and played. it was a crazy day but it was aaaawesome!

here's some pics n stuff.

i look super mad, but i'm just meanin it! aka gettin 2008. i got that flower ring from one of my students at the camp, she was way sweet and sang real perdy.

all of us

james

johhhhhhhhhhn

3, 2, 1, NOGGIN!

2008-07-01T11:51:00.001-07:00

After 2 of the most eventful and exciting weeks I could have asked for, including tourism at the Grand Canyon (majestic!), Mount Rushmore (small! very very funny!), and so much more, we were welcomed home by all our friends in the best possible way. We spent all of yesterday BBQ'n the best durn veggie burgers in all the land, hand prepared by John o' Inside Voices, and celebrated being True Americans by lighting off the most hilarious possible firework: The Exploding Bin Laden Noggin. Yes, you read correctly. A firework effigy of Mr. Infamous with skulls in his eyes and dagger in hand, and when lit, he screams for 3 seconds and then his head explodes! Thank you, Wyoming!

Our show at Valentines in Portland last night with Inside Voices and The Dead Trees was squbbady squeen, and it was nice to see all of our friends again. Ready, Set, Noggin!

tomorrow!

2008-06-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Yaowzers

2008-06-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

Cool Ranch Dorritos. Check. Java Monster Energy Drink. Check. Passport and Wallet. Whoops. Losing the most crucial travel items possible fifteen minutes before tour departure is not a good way to start a trip. The inability to buy a decent spirit as any 24 year old man should able to is a pretty heavy harsh on the mellow, but I've somehow found comfort in the company of awesome people, awesome shows, and frighteningly synthetic gas station snacks. Seattle was a perfect beginning point. Aside from a show that I was pretty stoked on, we got to chill with my buddy and inspiration Ian Furgeson, who's music, art, and general presence are a huge breath of fresh air. Seattle was a lot more welcoming and appealing than any previous trip. It really is an awesome city and I can't wait to stay for a decent amount of time and explore it.

Thus far we've also played Salem, Portland, Reno, San Francisco, and Modesto, with the SF show undoubtedly being the best. Bottom of The Hill is a great venue, the familiar faces were refreshing, and the show felt genuinely awesome in general. We were lucky enough to stay in the company of my good friend Eric Eischer, who's story and influence are much the same as Ian's in Seattle. His daily delivery of Eric-style motivational text messages are some of the highlights of each day. "You are capable of anything and everything. Always believe in yourself. I do. Blessings" is just one example.

We ended up in Dolores Park the next day, lying in the grass and taking in ample amounts of sun and stray exhales of sneak-a-tokes from the park-goers. The scene was surreal, like a setting from some utopian dream. People lay freely in the grass, being young, being healthy and happy, and taking the time to simply be, and be stoked on being. There was a couple there rolling around and kissing in the grass. I wanted to tell them how beautiful they were, or maybe take a snap shot of them so as not to forget that moment of theirs, but I realized that was moment was theirs and not mine and I simply let them be. By an hour into our indulgence in the sun, John had a beard stuffed full of flowers, we were enjoying some coconut popsicles, and my good friend Kelsey from Portland had somehow managed to coincidentally cross our path in the park and join. As much as that city has changed in the last few decades, there are still heavy traces of undeniable benevolent energy that permeate that place as they likely existed in the sixties. That place is still magical.

Reno, A.K.A. Captain Unexpected. We had absolutely no clue of what to expect from the biggest little city in the world, but it somehow ended being completely awesome. My friends Alisa and Marcus who I met in London a while back made a detour on their trip to Portland and took the time to fly out to Reno and come hang out for the night and we had a blast. A friend of Jonathan's somehow managed to get us a free suite at some ridiculously lavish Reno hotel. We must have cracked up for the first twenty minutes about how ridiculous the place was, and I could never accurately describe how over the top the room was. John, Aaron, and Jonathan jumped back and forth from the two king size beds, like Tom Hanks in that trampoline scene from Big. John and Aaron put on the two robes awaiting us. I attempted to indulge in every way possible, taking a shower with not one, but two shower heads pouring down on me from two different directions, and watching the plasma screen TV placed in view across the bathroom. At one point as I was drying off, I stood there, center of the bathroom, naked in my blinding white Portland glow, staring at this place in bewilderment, and most likely must have mumbled to myself, "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me."

Back to the reality of driving countless hours in a baking van, we're on our way to Los Angeles tonight. We are super stoked on L.A. and San Diego in particular, which are, for all intensive purposes, our "home" areas. All in all, this trip has been and will most likely continue to be an amazing one. Being able to play music that I truly enjoy with some of my closest friends, and being able to play every single night for people all around is seriously an incredible opportunity in my life.

Slyd & Clime

2008-06-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

TWO WORDS: RENO, NEVADA. Who wouldda thunk that a town which is known to the world as one which contains the most inept police force that which is could be so awesome is?

The inhabiting humans brought their hospitality with a massive abundance. However this didn't come without trial and error (mostly error)!

We left Portland on June 16th around 9:00 o'clock, and our original intention was to crash at a cheap motel that John's dad comped for us in Medford, OR. We figured if we knocked some driving out of the way prior to the Reno show, we'd avoid losing insurmountable amounts of sleep and having to be rushed. Two hours into the drive, though, we realized that we left an incredibly important bag full of electronic goodies at the house in Portland.

Five minutes before this realization, our conversation went as follows: "Dude what if we forgot something? There's no way we'd turn around, that'd be such a bummer."

Wakka wakka wakka!

We then drove two hours back to Portland, picked up our abandoned utensils and made the trip back to Medford. We didn't arrive until 7 o'clock in the morning, and our check out was at 12, so we were all proprietors of notenoughsleep.com.

Our nap was short lived and was immediately followed with a 5 hour car drive to Reno, Nevada. On top of our bodies and minds being drenched in the fog of a sleepless confusion we were pretty unsure about what a show in Reno, Nevada would even be like. There was a point in my life where I imagined Reno to be completely void of any music scene.

Oh boy oberto was I wrong!

The show went awesomely awesomely well and we made a ton of new friends. It surpassed our expectations 10,000 fold and I feel proper in saying that we all can't wait to return again.

A fantastic lady (and fantastic friend of mine) by the name of Alyse helped us get this ridiculous hotel room in a nearby casino for absolutely free! I'm talkin' flat screen TV in the bathroom, huge king size beds, spa-bath, walk in double-headed shower, etc. We are forever in debt to her kindness!

Right now we're on the road to San Francisco, where we'll be playing at Bottom Of The Hill. Not too long ago we made a stop in a town called Truckee, and literally 200 yards away was the spot where the Donner Party had quite a peculiar feast. And our homies Idiot Pilot just zoomed past us! Race to the bay! Vamos vamos!

Love love love,
Jonathan M

2008-06-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

blog
seattle/mate/portishead/awesome!

we played our first show of our west coast tour last night in seattle.
seattle is great- hung out with my brother, and met up with a bunch of pals. excellent!
we're playing a string of dates with a group called idiot pilot. they're a pretty rockin band so, we get to play to a different crowd than usual which is pretty fun!

speaking of rockin- we just got the new portishead record and its amazing! we're fully juiced on yerba mate playing it so loud in the van right now- (you see, i've got these delicate earpedals and i usually cant listen at top awesome, but this record fully warrants it.) this song ;machine gun' is so VHS. awesome- check it oot.

much more to say later, must hang out with friends. passing this off to one of the other boyzzzz.
-aaron

i've been meaning to tell a story that happened the other night, and now that i have the time, i just have to get it off my chest......
our friends Russian Circles were in town and we went to see their show. for those who don't know of them, they're a very epic instrumental metal band who have no problem filling the room with Loud. In the middle of the Loud, i noticed a man probably in his late thirties with long grey wizard hair and a long-yet-tasteful grey goatee/soul patch, calmly reading a book with his legs crossed! So I says to him, i says "What on earth could you possibly be reading?" He says to me, he says "It's a mystery!"
"A mystery?!" I ask/exclaim.
"Yes, a mystery." He was getting nervous.
"Can I see what it's called?" He had hid the book at this point, and he pulled it out, showed it to me quickly, then put it away. "The Monster Squad" he says.
"Is this the best atmosphere to read The Monster Squad?"
Then he said the best thing he could have said as a late thirties professor-type at a metal show- "I find the music to be soooooothing."
Nuff said? I think so.

-John

james, jonathon, join jorces. + tour begins today

2008-06-13T12:13:00.001-07:00

Recently, we've been having a lot of people ask questions like "I get nervous when I get around your drummer and I forget what to say, is that normal?" and "your bass player is dreamy, but he's definitely out of my league. What should I do?" Well, dear reader, we'll introduce you to them and you can see if you hit it off....
You see, our extremely talented friends James and Jonathan have been playing with us since we moved to Portland, and boy has it been fun! James, who is a sensitive and understanding Taurus and a fantastic visual artist, is playing percussion n' things and singing with us. We met him in California but had no idea we'd meet back up in Portland. Jonathan, a sprightly young Aquarius (I think) and multi-instrumentalist, is playing bass n' things and singing. We met him in California too... eerie! They were the first people to offer us a floor to sleep on when we got here, and then, serendipity-do-da, they started playing shows with us and it was a blast. Now we're going on tour together and we couldn't be more excited.
We're playing in Salem, OR tonight and we'll be making our way around the Wild West over the next couple of weeks. Yip Yip Yoo!

John and Aaron

are you this person?

2008-06-11T12:21:00.001-07:00

are you a bald man who paints giant, surreal paintings that you refer to as "goth pops?"
we just spoke a moment ago in a dream and your artwork was rad.
i couldn't pin-point our location but something told me we were in post-apocalyptic san fransisco. (i'm talking 'the sky is orange' apocalyptic.)
are you out there?
would you like to make art for my group?
thanes!

portland june 15th

2008-05-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

hey all our portland friends, we'd love to make our june 15th show a rompin fun time, and the nice folks at satyricon are helping us by having doin' some presale tickets for $5! follow this link!http://www. brownpapertickets. com/event/35044

a light in the attic

2008-05-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

It's 7am, and we're both still wide awake because we drank our combined body weight in yerba mate last night while recording music. We wanted to go to sleep, but the strange bug named Ayule that lives in the attic with us insisted that we press on. He's highly critical, a bit too critical for a bug if you ask me. Nevertheless, we're debating whether or not to make Ayule a member of our band. He seems dedicated to the music, and his influence is being felt more and more every day. We don't have a camera, so this cell phone picture of Ayule will have to do for now, unflattering as it may be.
The attic we live in is quite the place, I wish you all could see it. In fact, we're going to have a new friend of ours help us take a few pictures of us while we crawl around on the floor and mess with all of the doo-dads we've brought up here with us to record- You might even get to meet Ayule!
Oh yeah, did I mention that the reason we're in the attic recording is because we're going to release a collection of homemade songs? Well that's what we're doin, sure as heck! And we're mighty excited about it. We'll be writing regularly about the experience and hopefully have some photos real soon. We also have some shows and a west coast tour happening in june. The dates are all getting filled in and are poppin' up on our myspace music profile every ten seconds, or am I just saying that so our internet profile gets tons of visits and we can start selling ads on our page to Marlboro and Applebees? You decide.

John, Aaron, and Ayule