my fate is sealed

i totally intercepted a fax to human resources.

looks like i'm negative for:

• cocaine
• opiates
• phencyclidine
• marijuana (a little surprising)
• amphetamines

it's really funny to me that they're testing for the angel dust.

cd release show photos!

the mighty handsome bobby


the "i just smelled my own fart" guitar face.


note the extremely dry skin on my elbow. colorado rocks! I look really round--must start working out.


ross sings!


what would a red cloud show be without a few broken strings?


jason's ass, banjo bob, andrew's arm, ross freaking out, the electric grandmother with a budweiser, and me looking really large.


ross is in his special place.


red cloud's mighty rockstick wranglers.


whoa, bro! that was some great acid!


die die da die die!


i like this one--i totally look like i'm in a jam band. wait, maybe i am. the electric grandmother watches over me.


gary lee meets a real, live cloudette!


flashback.


mo' better singin'


why does this character always hide behind a cymbal?


look! there's actual motion! i'm like the flash or something.


this one rocks! the cloud gettin' down. look at the length of that ash, man!


acting like a maniac...whiplash!


what's with this plaid-o-rama?


thanks for the photos, rachel!!!


dude! i think that i see the alien!

too much shit to do

and i totally can't sleep.

oh well.

this fuckin' rental car thing is making me lose my mind. i think that i have a plan that'll work, and will leave the volvo at home, where i'd rather it sit.

tommy's got a 60 cycle hum. i'm perplexed by that, but hopefully, the house is to blame. andrew's house is totally quiet now that i have a filter thingy.

i know that i'm going to leave town and forget something important. i hate that.

i'm dashing off to work super-early to get some shit done and maybe scan those sweet photos. i'm not sure if i'll be able to get them all scanned.

this must be translated by the rabbi

kerry! contribute, bitch!

denim man rides again

today, i had a startlingly productive day. 5 SPCC plans signed, sealed and delivered. baby, i'm UPRR's.

i told my boss that i might not come back to work after the vacation.

tomorrow is my drug test. it's likely that i'll fail and have to go to therapy.

therapy! whoo hoo!

like galzatron pointed out, i know how to work, and someone will hire me, even if i have to take a pay cut. it's a damn good thing that i don't have a so-called family to support.

if i pass this mother-fucker....i want to lurk at the job and move to the city, or more in town. this rural beauty is starting to get to me. i really ought to buy a fucking house. economic man thinks that this would be smart.

or, become a hermit, and live in a VW. just max the new cards, and be totally transient. maybe if the tour flops. i hate to think that maybe we're only groovy with the denver crew that loves us.

i haven't heard mention of this recently

where's galzatron when you need someone to comment on this?



hopefully, y'all internet exploder users are enjoying a background song. it's a recently discovered NMH release that's neither dated, nor named. maybe someone knows more than i can find.

this also rocks

i couldn't resist this

from here.

S a t u r n a l i a

this is late, but my excuse is that i've been distracted.

y'all shall enjoy it.

They seem oblivious they seem oblivious, to a soft spring rain

i decided to opt out of the tv tonight, despite the satan-o-rama on the history channel.

rocking the moving pictures lp tonight. cranked on the hi-fi, it rocks.

yeah, i totally listened to side 2 first. tom sawyer is too andrew warner to listen to at once. maybe mike ricketts. this record is truly great. i still credit permanent waves with tuning me in, but moving pictures is pretty fucking good.

nice crunchy jazz bass (yeah...this album is rick free, dudes). oh, how i love the crunchy j-bass!

after several drinks, i feel much better than that last post.

self medication is a double edged deal. at least i'm not limited by the man, but jesus, it's gotten me to a point where i'm totally edgy as fuck after a couple of drink-free days.

my goal for tour is to not drink excessively, not get high too much, and not smoke. i figure that it won't be too bad with what amounts to zero stress. hopefully, my pals will be helpful with these goals. if i always drive, that ought to help. i'll get cashed, i figure, since i can only drive about twelve hours before i start communicating with aliens, devils, and start having precognition about speed traps. that's another post, altogether.

i talked to ross about stuff tonight. i busted out my goals for next year, as far as the clown goes. i really want us to get out in-state to see what the colorado has to offer the clown. playing outside of the metro area, i suppose. nederland, lyons, whoever will hook us up. with the decent local press that we've got recently, that ought to be doable. at least ross is on board. with 2/2, we'll be playing weird non-metro venues. thanks for being flexible, ross. i think that it'll do us good to get out of town a little, even if it's only fucking boulder (pack a ham sandwich). there has to be a cloud-friendly biker bar up there somewhere.

so, i might be doing some recon missions when we get back from the southwest coast. there's no need to involve the rest of the band.

jesus. side one is fuckeed. too warped? this record used to play great. something must be wrong with the evil $5 turntable.

switched to 2112. not as bad. looks like i'm living in a dust-o-rama. not peachy for the first spin on anything. except maybe those sealed queen records, or stones records.

nothing that i live to listen to.

2112. such a great record. it's actually the only side of an lp that i committed to memory. i had to be in this cover band bad in the day, and we wanted 2112 to essentially be our set. i decided that was cool, even though i'd only played bass for a couple of months. 2112 taught me how to rock the bass, i suppose. my version sucked. i'd love to do it for real now. it really does take a semi-mighty bass player to pull off some of that stuff. nevermind that gary lee (funny, ain't it?) played a rick on this record. i can pull that off on a precision with heavy string-age, currently.

that doesn't diminish those songs to me, though. 32" scale ricks with big ol' ampegs sound great. geddy and the boys got that. thank you, chris squire.

i wish that my band understood the rush records. they're totally not into them, and, unfortunately(?), i don't really try to share them. nevermind that my boys don't groove on larks' tongues, or those 60s records. i love my guys, because they bring something else to the mix. red cloud is mostly an amalgamation of stuff.

i hate blogging about music. when i'm not obsessing about a woman, or the nitwit, music seems like a natural thing to fall back upon.

at least i've spared everyone the d & d stuff.

truely wizardly, dudes.

seasonal affective disorder---or chronic depression?

i've been quite bummed out the last few days. it seems like my pals have been spending time with relatives, and mine are like spending time with automatons. thus, the blog grows.

the season totally crept up on me this time around. i didn't flip out until christmas afternoon. ditching my nitwit totally freaked me out. i keep seeing her out of the corner of my eye. i realized that i was alone after calling a bunch of people and leaving messages. i went to pieces.

i hate being alone. even the stupid ass cat makes a big difference to me.

i've had several seriously sexually-charged dreams during the four day weekend. they only make me think that i might want a relationship, after all.

a good friend told me that she'd rather be free and live my life as it is, than to have something else. i don't know what to think. this sort of sucks, but is sort of groovy.

Still Images

drop acid, and go here.

this gave me a chuckle.

from this page.

the further adventures of denim man

i need to set the alarm clock. no nitwit means i'm not getting up at 3am. i did the laundry, had a dishwashing accident (like totally spaced out, man).

then, i went to the rock stick mega house for a rack power supply. i figure that it's about time, since i'm somewhat paranoid about bar electrical, and shared rack space will be far more simple with one ac line to plug in. i scored a later, greater model than i really needed (i wanted the one with all the cool leds--racks are only cool if there's lots of leds). i found a led db meter that i was tempted by--maybe when i have empty spaces--but it was cool as hell anyway.

so i dashed home, and installed that device.

then, i cruised down to boulder (i found some change and a ham sandwich).

there, i ate some chinese food to curb my several month long chinese food jones. i wandered around the campus--it's always so nice when classes aren't in session. that's why i took most of my classes during the summer. i had to take weird classes like "american female nature writers" to satisfy some requirements, but it was more groovy.

i milled down to the radio station, jeremy'd the door to give jeff a real copy of the record, since it's on his list. as it turns out, this super cute girl with glasses is filling in for jeff and loki this week. i was to poster boy for ill communication. really. i got like three words out. eek. denim man will be single forever if he keeps this up. i think that her name is steph.

denim man sucks at dealing with the chicks.

it is what it is

i've decided that "fixing" this audio is stupid. if it's a soundboard recording, sure, it'll mostly be everything but guitars. i wish those damn tuning fairies had visited. everything is included, even the dead air, and wonderful commentary courtesy of the "guitar section." i think that the tracks are best with no equalization, but y'all be the judge of that. andrew's a little monster--it's really no wonder that we broke him. i bounced it down to mono, because stereo seemed stupid. it's sort of murky at points, oh fucking well.

happy festivus and shit. (broadband is a good idea on these)

• town without a name
• the ballad of mark allen rodgers
• a roomful of folks
• coonskin cap
• 4 a.m.
• our last night on earth
• two fiery eyes

jay niemoth did the original recording using a creative nomad recorder. i welcome further commentary on this jazz...or rock, as the case may be.

hey...and this is my original commentary about those two nights' shows.

a cat free zone

i'm sort of bummed out, because i had to dump the nitwit for a couple of weeks. today is really the last easy day to run her up to the folks. she was not happy at all.

mom said that she's a really pretty cat, and the nitwit let mom pick her up without struggling. i know that she'll be groovy with all the other pets, but i'm going to miss her.

how the hell am i going to get up in the morning? i might have to set my clock.

the feel good hit of the holiday season

asteroid has 1-in-60ish chance of earth hit

i was a nervous wreck when i was a kid because of shit like this. i was convinced that the secret soviet threat would materialize and vaporize us all. i was also concerned that the fucking sun would go red giant on our asses and vaporize us all.

and now, i'm going to lose sleep about the asteroids. maybe this will turn out to be some sort of last starfighter deal. some geek that figured out the confounding, no-joystick-having controls on asteroids will save us all.

time warp

for some reason, the pitch gets increased when i paste into a new wav file. looks like i'll have to deal with it while sober.

the bottom of the barrel

i finished the bourbon.

watching nick and jessica's family christmas.

fucking horrible.

dreamin'

this afternoon, the bourbon got the best of me, and i took a nap. a 4 hour nap, but just a nap.

i had a totally dirty dream (this never happens) about a girl that i'm really into. even though we're good friends, i can't even tell her about this dream. it was hard-core.

like, ouch. . . seriously not an alt-country band.

DIRT: Red Cloud celebrates record release 18 months in the making: "anne gomez said: Maybe the album sounds different, but from the music that's up on their website, this has to be a joke. If their music is a joke, a parody of alt-country, then I think they are brilliant. If on the other hand they are serious, then this is some of the most unintentionally funny music I've heard in a while. They've taken every cliche that makes people roll their eyes when they hear an 'alt-country' band (lyrics about working in the fields, over wrought southern twang, etc.) and mashed them all together. Oh well, just one woman's opinion, and judging from the shows they've played and will play, I'm clearly in the minority."

i am your cornfield crow

ross' voice is so torn up on this bootleg, that he's singing fucking chords (well, really just intervals, i suppose).

there's a bass solo on two fiery eyes, when i start playing the chords. actually, most of the song is really bassy.

so, i've become a better player since that song was written. i pull off shit that i couldn't back in the day. i noticed that while recording with Chris Adolph too. i'm a way better player than i used to be.

it really sucks that the sound dude cut us off on the two fiery feedback.

black mass

i've decided to not "fix" the bootleg. that's dishonest, to me. if it sounds like shit, oh well. it is what it is.

funny that jason plays a few sabbath riffs throughout the set.

today, i'll cut it into bite sized pieces.

hee hee hee

today, i'm chillin' and getting trasheed. i picked up some decent bourbon which will do the trick nicely.

i also must re-rack for tour. tommy and i are sharing a rack case, and dragging the grandmother along. i'd really like to pick up a rack power supply sometime next week. it'll be nice having a backup amp just in case.

i picked up a movie to watch today as i get trasheed.

jolie holland is on like donkey kong (and i think that she's attractive, too). hopefully, this silly band will continue to play more decent shows. i love the warehouse/drunk kid shows, though.

strategizing with galzatron today on the phone. looks like we're on the same page. it's wonderful not really having responsibility like a family or some shit.

the holly daze blues

this year has been outstanding! i've managed to be distracted enough that i'm totally not feeling lonely this holiday season.

this little band of mine has me really stokeed. i think that we're totally going to lose money on the disc, though, because there's been zero accounting thus far. i'm doing the online sales crap tonight. i wish that someone would get back to me about the redesign. turns out that it looks bizarre on IE. i can fix that, though. easy. linux man rides again. i need a merch page, though. i figure that the news page can hold the press clippings.

nitwit is the strangest dog i've ever owned. today was another attempt to get in a pizza box. saturday, she goes to the 4q ranch for a couple of weeks. poor nitiwt.

the briny deep got re-arranged. back to the big room. yay! some jerk set a bunch of equipment on a shelf, and i promptly killed the mixer when everything lept off. i might have to break down and get a new mixer for the briny deep if the spirit didn't survive. that mixer sucks anyway. might get one of those little cheap ones. the pa amp was saved by my ankle. that hurt like a sonofabitch.

priceless

and...i totally laughed my ass off.

roldar galzatron left me a comment on my activebass.com address.

roldar is the man.

unreal--we've hit a nerve

westword.com | Music | Moovers and Shakers | 2004-12-23: "Red Cloud, Red Cloud (Not Bad World Industries). Nebraskan Ross Etherton fronts this slow-loping four-piece (which also includes Westword scribe Jason Heller on guitar) with a soft baritone drawl that approximates Mike Watt dragging Crazy Horse through a town with no name. At once desolate and scorching, this is dry-gulch roots rock that creaks the floorboards, cuts to the bone and leaves an ache in the heart. -- La Briola"

at last!

the tbas are all filled in. that's a relief!

damn it!

You are a Hippie. Wow.

What kind of Sixties Person are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

death takes no holidays, a cancer study suggests

is this really a common perception? who thinks this crap up?

uncle jeff's 2004 top ten

unbelievable.

i got a really nice email from jeff, too. they want us to come up to the show to rock. maybe once andrew gets his act together? we'll have to have a tribal council on that.

the white buffalo rides again

i finally got in touch with marie and josh. they totally cancelled that show. the CB are a bunch of idiots. i talked to josh very briefly, and then talked to marie for like 15 minutes. i feel like i'm in high school talking to my sweety or something...not really, though. that was much more 'i love you so much' bullshit. mostly, talking with marie is like talking to my grandparents. listening to health problems and shit. i worry about her a lot. it's not often that i connect with a straight woman about anything.

listening to this bootleg...ross really sings his ass off! lots of rage on the ballad. i hope that gets captured on record. the soundboard mix really brings the drums and vocals up like devo. andrew is a really unique drummer. he's really playing bass on drums or something. that, or i'm playing drums on bass. i'm glad that i talked about stuff with him on friday.

white buffalo?

i thought that it was some sort of bad joke because tito is in chicago. no, it's a high cocaine blues employee.

it is truly great that tito has picked up that lingo too. i need to ask the bad tom (totally kidding) who originated the CB.

i'm actually feeling really happy. that i now have a couple new cards so that i can float has really de-stressed me. credit is a fucked up thing. i used to have superior credit, until my nervous breakdown. then, i quit my job and played didgeridoo for a while. and i temped (is that a word?). basically, i told the creditors to fuck off, and that i'll pay them when i feel like it. so i ruined my credit. since i've been not temping (is that a word?), i've been able to eek out payments to the man. sometimes, not really regularly, because of crises, but eek them out.

the drunken applications were a little funny. i totally answered shit wrong. like the death/disability thing...who gets that? if i'm dead, i don't give a fuck about my bills, seriously.

at least now i can smooth consumption due to travel (for work) expenditures. that two-week lag for the check (fucking cameron-cool) made me bounce shit. motherfuckers.

i must admit, though, that a new bass is fucking tempting. i need to sell a couple first.

an apt comparison

whoever compared the cloud to the replacements understood what was up with our live "performances."

i got the larimer lounge cd today, and ross was right--it's sort of bad. the drumming is good, the singing is supurb, the bass doesn't appear to have huge problems (the tone is great! very appetite for destruction on the rockers!), the guitars weren't visited by the tuning fairies. or, at least for one measure per song. it's crazy. there's this horrible sound as the guitars come in on the rockers. like someone's too excited to rock, and hitting their rockstick too hard.

i'll see what sort of studio magic i can work and maybe post an mp3 or two here. i wish that i had a couple of 1176 compressors. i'll see what i can do in the digital domain. andrew is wizardly. i think that i can do okay, though. shit...the radio hit almost got thrown out. it's still weird because it's too dynamic.

damn the dynamics!

drunk credit

apparently, last night i applied for some credit cards. so, today, i'm haggling over what design is on the card?

unbelievable.

the drug test

is confirmed for the 29th! at least it's before tour. i plan on behaving on tour, though. letting the laser wolf wizard out to play for an entire week doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

david bowie look a like

so, apparently my dish crashed during texas justice, and i've got a dude stuck on my screen that looks like david bowie.

you gotta love digital.

i don't want to change channels, though.

david bowie with king crimson on repeat seems apt.

turns out that side one of lizard is a pretty good record. i still think that larks' tongues wins. but there's huge bass. i still don't think that erich was honest when he said that i was loud enough.

the bass ought to be thunderous. that's what aguilar taught me.

blow through the horn!!!!!!!!!!!

i require reader participation

comment with y'alls favorite floyd record.

....yeah, i'm totally on a pink binge.

i swear that i'll just quit if i don't get some comments.

kings of the stage

i think that tito is insane. it was like a dali painting for me, so i don't know WTF.

i have to thank mr. murphy for coping with the embarassment, and the compliment. i was truly into it, which doesn't happen much. last time was in junction (i need a witness, please!).

i'm feeling good about my so-called playing for the time being, even if i think that i need a fix fast.

this rock mania sucks, sort of. i just want to hang myself in maquire's barn if i'm not rocking.

i really want to expand the four track studio so that i can record some of my friends. i figure that i'll require a couple more decent mics, and that's it.

if you dig the format. please please visit me.

'tis mighty

to have a feline companion that digs dark side of the moon more than hanging out with you. the nitwit apparently likes the pink floyd.

who would've guessed that?

she's certainly not the brightest animal, but lately she's been really nice. i think that she knows that i'm cruising on tour soon.

mom has offered to look after her while i'm away. poor niti. i hope that she likes other cats. i hope that ambermatic and my other cats (all 6 of them--a lot of coyote carnage) like weirdo indoor fat girls.

she's being skiddish tonight.

and, rocking out to the pink floyd.

getting it

these cats got it, no matter what i think about their lameness these days.

today, i finished up the re-design in between episodes of illness. i have no clue what it'll look like on a windows browser. looks beautiful on both my linux browsers, though.

i did some cleaning and excericising, too.

the mania ends

and i'm feeling like i was jumped by a gang of vampires.

but instead of letting lethargy win, i must make a deliberate effort to do stuff like excercising. i did put on piper at the gates of dawn and do some at dawn dancing with myself.

that was fun.

the bootlegs

last night, we tracked down the dude that recorded us at pancho's villa on october 22nd. i want to get a copy of that, even if it sounds like shit.

this morning, i got an email from the guy that recorded us at cocaine blues on october 23rd. he's sending a cd.

fuck. those are the other two cd release parties. i wonder if anyone recorded last night? probably not.

music has saved my life

fucking unbelievable, really.

this post could've had a bunch of different titles. it's apt at this time to be a bit reflective.

these last 28 months have really been "stellar." last night's rock really was overwhelming to me. not too many superfans have been there since the beginning, but they were there last night--the reverend, mr. murphy, the bc, bobby, damien, greg. those people were there when we were playing to like 6 people at the climax--i'm glad that we have such great friends that have attention spans long enough to "get it." last night, it sunk in that people were actually there to see us. all this time, i've thought that people were mostly there to see whatever bands we were playing with. it's a little overwhelming (and if i had a decent vocabulary, i'd find another word for it).

i'm really lucky to have such a great band made up of such great friends...really lucky.

i think that the set itself was right up there with the junction set. everyone was on like donkey kong. my "don't fuck up" pep talk seems like it was a little paranoid now. chaos is something inherent in any red cloud set. however, handsome boby pulled off his debut with precision. i think that we must've broken 18 strings last night. it wouldn't be a red cloud show without someone's amp/cables cutting out, but the band played on. i was somewhere else for most of the show. at one point, i saw ross switching guitars while singing, which was pretty cool. jeff suthers playing guitar tech was great. jason played some unbelievable solos.

andrew, goddamn, playing with that guy just makes my life so easy. it's totally natural. there's no thinking involved. it's really a stream of collective rhythm section consciousness. we talked last night until we were totally incoherent. it turns out that he hurt himself playing. afterwards, he thought that it was a mistake, health-wise. he told me that he couldn't not play the show, though. i'm glad that he did, though. i like to think that we've worked our asses off up to this point.

thanks, jason, ross, andrew, bob, for such a great set. i love you guys.

we've certainly made a few mistakes along the way, though. i don't think that turning down the cocaine blues' bribe is one of them, though. i really feel like the free show was retaliation against the band. maybe i'm over-thinking it, and it's really just a slimy venue that's doing slimy things. i don't think that i want to play there.

holy smokes!

what is wrong with people?

this media blitz is too much

band of the week? for kripe's sake, man.

i want a close up

on the morning news this morning, they had a nice one. instead of a manger, there was a rolled up dollar bill.

any press is good press, especially timely press

DIRT: Red Cloud celebrates record release 18 months in the making
Twangy disc at home on the open highway
Eric Schmidt

Thursday December 16, 2004

Rarely has a band's self-applied catch phrase provided a better description of its music than Red Cloud's "soundscapes for long rides on western roads."

But though the rootsy Denver quartet has appeared on a compilation or two and had a full-length album in the works for a year and a half, getting that music on tape and out onto the deserted two-lane highways where it belongs hasn't been easy. Begun in July 2003, the disc ran into some snags — studio sessions gone awry, a record-label contact thrown in jail and a last-minute mixup with album artwork — that pushed its release back several months.

The wait is over tonight, when Red Cloud celebrates its self-titled debut on Denver-based label Not Bad Records with a Wild-Turkey-and-PBR-fueled CD release show at the Hi-Dive.

It feels "stellar" knowing the album is finally finished, says singer and guitarist Ross Etherton. "I'm ready to have it out and let people hear it. It's a relief, too, because we've got so much new material. Now we can get started on the next record."

The completed disc will also help the band embark on a January tour of the West Coast and Southwest with Denver country rockers Ghost Buffalo, Etherton says.

The record itself is 10 songs of twangy, unpretentious Americana, most of which was recorded live in drummer Andrew Warner's home studio. Shimmering electric guitars and mellow drums and bass hang back on early tracks before opening up for some full-on crunch later in the album. Etherton's deep voice relates bittersweet stories of love, loneliness and family relations, drawing on memories of his childhood in Nebraska as well as unexpected allusions to science fiction and German literary figure Gunter Grass.

Red Cloud formed in 2002 when Etherton, Warner and guitarist Jason Heller — old friends who cut their musical teeth in the 90's Denver punk scene — got together with Texas transplant Jeremy Ziehe on bass.

Simply put, it's folk music — or whatever you call songs based on shared experience that give voice to other people's feelings of pain, anger and joy, Etherton says. But the band's rock-and-roll roots are clear on stage.

"When we play out, it's definitely cathartic for every one of us, and the songs are able to have a lot more ferocity," he says. "There's an underlying theme in a lot of the songs — there's an anger there — and that definitely comes out on stage."

good news, but not like the bible

looks like the amp's malfunction was the power outlet.

we've over-rehearsed now, so practice had lots of alternate lyrics. it was alright, though. looks like tomorrow is the big night. i'm still a little stunned that we actually completed the project.

chris adolph has mixed down the completed songs for the mighty rime split, and he's re-invigorated about those recordings. i think that the rough playback mixes were some of the most beautiful music i've heard. it's funny how you record something, and walk away from it for a week, come back to mix, and it's like "who is this band?!?" i hope that it still sounds as good now. we have a harmonica and one little vocal that was forgotten about. probably another couple of hours is all.

total time = 10 hours, with a lot of that being fucking around setting up mics. and conducting the goth chick chorale parts.

robots!

it sounds like he's wearing corduroy pants.

incredible!

westword-the beatdown 2004-12-16

the mania

has set in now. it'll be nice to be able to operate for a couple of days. sleep is optional. i dig that.

maybe there's hope for life after the cloud

rocket queens

i particularly like the queer aspect.

high noise rockouts?

whatever.

i like that i'm the new drummer. jason did apologize.

also of note, because of our new sponsorship deal:

the apparently re-arranged kitchen, the sickness

i did some operating last night. i'll have to put everything back tonight. the sleeping mind does weird shit when laying out a kitchen. most notably, using floor space for storage of cookware/tableware/silverware. the silverware is a pain clean up because i have too much.

i also have some sort of sinus headache. whoo hoo! i knew that this was coming, though. cheyenne water levels must've pushed me back over the edge. give me pills!

today is the big radio program. i likely won't say anything, since i'm the quiet one. i think that they have more to say. we could draw straws. in which case, i'd have to step up and speak. i am prepared.

amplifier carnage, a t-bone, and the end of the experiment

practice was great--nice and loud. that is, until my power amp went on the fritz. seriously, i'm a little pissed. seems to be a intermittant power problem. i'm totally going to risk the release show on it--if it fails, it'll be replaced. i'd better use a different DI, though, just in case it does. that's not a big deal. i don't want to play a rock show with no amp, but i might have to if it eats shit mid-set.

i don't think that i could've fuckeed it by using a fuzz box. oh well--maybe ampegs aren't the shit after all.

so, i left practice after the others, and cruised to the GB house. well 3/5 GB house, unless you count the other members like me. anyhow, i was quite angry. i think that ross saw me pissed once (oddly, at an amplifier) and maybe another time (mostly at myself--and i said something really mean about someone that i shouldn't have). really pissed--like rage. i totally just drove down alameda from broadway to washington with no regard for red lights. i was too busy thinking about all the amps i've loved before to drive effectively.

i was almost t-boned by a cherokee. whoo hoo!

oddly, that didn't really rattle me. it was somewhat exciting, and got the heart beating. today, i decided that i'm basically on bonus time now since i figured that i would've od'ed by now when i was younger. so, this is bonus time from here out. i can live la vida loca.

i decided against a beer at the sputnik with jason and handsome boby, so that if i continued conduzca el coche loco, at least i wouldn't get a dui.

my feline problem-solving experiment has ended because i'm simply too annoyed to have nitwit screaming incessantly. she's simply too stupid to coax the food down the hopper. oh well, she's only a cat.

fairies wear boots

you gotta believe me.

sabbath is the best. i think that if i had to list influences, geezer would probably be right up there.

i've been rocking the sabbath at work to bother the girl that sits in the cubicle adjacent to mine. apparently, she's keen on jeebus. when she tried to save me, i told her that i didn't have a soul, and that conversation ended. it's really really sad to me when someone that seems perfectly intelligent believes in such nonsense. why not go whole-hog, and believe in fairies and the alien? or, like my family, that the jews (or the bilderburgers, or the masons, or niggers with funny haircuts, or the tri-lateral commision) are running everything? it's the planned destruction of america, i tell you!

utter nonsense.

i'd rather just drop acid and go for a drive in 5pm traffic on i-25, then to five points to walk around and trip out. that's not the same now, though. when i used to do that, five points was way more interesting. i'd really like to track down rob loesch to see what his crazy ass is up to these days. when i 'got sober' (so to speak) i pretty much lost touch with him. he's the only person that can confirm the consumption of the 300 hits that one day. damn, with s.o.d. on the tape deck in the thunder lizard (69 chevy pickup). those were the days.

Quite amusing, really

Music - Colorado
Red Cloud
Undeniably the most anticipated release from a Denver alt-country band. After multiple delays Red Cloud will finally finally debut the CD Dec. 17th @ The Hi-Dive. Be there, pilgrim"

turned into tiny gnomes by the passing of the years?

totally outrageous.

that made my day. that a song with such a lyric could ever get airplay is amazing.

the milkman has redeemed himself.

cheyenne again and the non-skinner cat

i spent yesterday in cheyenne, again. i'm water level man. it's cold, tedious work. at least i was out of the office. the telemetry on the water plant is messed up. luckily, lisa is going to deal with that.

problem solving with the cat is my new goal. she's sort of stupid. the cat feeder is gravity-fed, and often full of cat food, but she'll eat the contents of the food dish and scream when it doesn't feed down more food. old bozzer was smarter, and would slap the side of the feeder. either she's going to get skinny or smart. this new experiment isn't going to make sense to anyone. it's sort of like my "vocabulary for two-year-olds" experiment. just fun and not ethical or anything.

practice on sunday was awesome. andrew played a couple songs with us, and it felt great! afterwards, i got a bite to eat with jason (grilled cheese at swifts), and then went to see handsome boby and the country doughnuts. absolutely great stuff. tommy was there, and we got to talk a little. bars are such a horrible place to talk.

i've messed up my arm playing too much.

wednesday, we get to do a radio interview. i have to escape my captors at 9, and get to the station around 9:30-ish. the guitar players are much more articulate and less shy than me, so i imagine that i won't have much to say.

why am i waking up at 2:30 every morning?

it's really quite amazing

how good i'm feeling. i think that the generous amount of sleep that i've been allowing myself is helping.

and the vitamins.

and the reading.

and the vodka.

and the writing.

and the meditation.

and maybe the lack of carbon monoxide?

seriously, it's time to re-invent myself. i had a meaningful conversation about that yesterday with bob. we both agree that you must do that from time to time for progress to occur. it sucks to get outside the comfort zone, though.

i spoke with my mother about the festivus plans for this year. erich and vera are going to grand junction. mom is pissed because, "the jews want to ruin festivus." whatever, right? this is one of the reasons that i don't date anyone. the scrutiny of the parental units is really too much to deal with. hell, if it's not ethnicity or religion, it's weight, jewelry, makeup, or even breast size.

practice this afternoon! i'm lugging the electric grandmother back to andrew's. i'd really like to tour with it, but that's pretty silly, especially since then we'll be lugging two oversized rigs all over creation.

ukrainian presidential hopeful viktor yushchenko poisoned

dioxin is some nasty shit, to be sure. this would make good training material for hazmat.

bob....ross

i had a meaningful conversation with bob (bob bonding time, if you will) today at gay paris. liza jane was there, too, and we all talked about lucid dreaming (the bounce, especially), and acid trips, and precognition. bob busted out the mayan calendar for an analysis of our show dates, which was wild. some art bell shit, man.

so, liza is cool, bob is cool. i don't feel so alone about some shit that i can't really talk about with most folks.

i told bob the story about the deer. his retort was about some taoist snake shit.

ross called me about the logistics of tour. i'm glad that i'm not the only person thinking about this stuff. also, a chat about the a string. strings seem to be on the brain today. oh well. something that i know something about, right?

at work, i'm at war with the state of washington. these jokers are telling people that they don't need to be in compliance with the federal regs (40 cfr 112), which means that sales dudes aren't able to score. since i'm the expert, i need to convince people that their state is full of it? it's a hard sell, to say the least.

i'm thinking that i'll just call epa region 10 and say, "look, dudes, the state regulators are morons in spokane." maybe i can even cause some fines and shit. it's not like me to be a narc, though. i need to encourage compliance (and thus, sales), though. seriously, though, the state of washington only gives a fuck about 36 facilities, as far as oil pollution prevention goes. that's wrong.

don't get me wrong, i'm not into regulating people. but...their definition of "aboveground storage tank" is fuckeed. what about a 9,000 gallon tank? not a tank, in washington's opinion, unless it's sitting on the beach. totally lame, man.

usepa's definition for "bulk oil storage" is anything greater than 55-gallons. it used to be even more harsh, and included all oil storage, like gas tanks on equipment. that was really unreasonable, in my opinion.

no one really cares about this shit, do you?

i'm sorry to unload about the jobby here.

the suicide machine

i spent more than i was comfortable with fixing the thunder wagon. turns out that it basically didn't have an exhaust (not a huge surprise, really). it was gassing me everytime i went anywhere. maybe i'll start feeling better.

so, it's really quiet now, and runs much better. the only downside is that the power to weight ratio of old volvo wagons sucks, and that's much more evident. that's why they're such safe cars, i think. you can't accelerate fast enough to kill yourself.

i typed a storm up about strings. i still think that the greatest key to bass playing is to have enormous amps. i think that a 'real' amp was the single item that improved my playing the most (outside of practice). it took me a while to actually like the way my basses sound, though. i'm so happy with my current sound(s)--on the rockers, i open up the tone a bit and it really snarls. on the more mellow ones, i close the tone a little (very little), and be more cognizant about wtf my right hand is doing. right hand technique is paramont.

this is the cloud, though, and it's really easy, man.

laptops — threat to male fertility

traditionally drug use, alcohol, smoking and obesity have been credited with lowering male sperm counts and increasing the risk of infertility.
nice.

blog, it ain't working

fuck it.

i've decided to bury the old blog. really, it's time to move on with more inane shit. i have exposed myself way too much. now, at least any new readers won't know.

no capital letters. i ought to move towards a punctuationless, space-free format, but that might entail relearning to type too much.

ABC News: Five Dead Include Gunman in Ohio Shooting

ABC News: Five Dead Include Gunman in Ohio Shooting

RIP Dimebag Darrell

1983 Volvo DL

this is quite funny to me, really. there's lots of shit on the internet to fix my Thunder Wagon. I really should record the loudness, though.

The Elephant 6 letters in the glove box are priceless. That's a major selling point--a car with history. Still, it's probably the best deal that I've gotten, outside of the electric grandmother.

The Lion Roars

I've been rocking a lot of VLF lately. Interesting stuff. Check out the dope here. I might have to do up some aleatoric rock based on some cool sounds. I've been playing with filters and shit again, and using the earth and sun as oscilators is pretty cool.

I swear that I hear a men's choir in the Inspire stream.

THE ZOOMQUILT | a collaborative art project

Check this shit out! It's cool as fuck, even if it requires flash.

The Thunder Wagon will die

I broke down and made an appointment to get a new exhaust. It's totally illegal and I'm losing hearing. I've been putting it off, and "fixing it," temporarily, constantly (chewing gum, duct tape, sealing wax) for about a month. I do like that the entire neighborhood knows when I start her up, though. Perhaps I just need to fire off a gun at 6:30 every morning. Or "Reveille."

Very much like "The Black Hole" (my 1973 GMC shortbed), I think that I might as well put a little money into the thunder wagon. I have been looking at getting another cruiser--probably a thunder wagon II. Seriously, though, the Volvo 240s are pretty cool cars.

I do covet Matt's 1800, though.

Jive Talkin'

I totally just made up shit in a reply to Bambi. At least she replies to my spam--SOMEONE'S reading it.

She's a hell of a character, really.

Mileage

I drove yesterday's death march route. It was only 5.95 miles. I beat mapquest for "shortest distance," and they would've had me on the "partially paved" roads.

Still, though, a fat man has no business taking six mile walks.

I think that I got a cold walking and sweating in the cold.

Dream analysis

Last night's wasn't that interesting, or maybe it was. There was the "no shoes, no shirt, no problem" guy; a rusty saw that was falling apart; and a pretty, brown-eyed (shut up, Ross) blonde. Really a beautiful woman. I was at a mall for this whole deal.

My analysis:

1) I've been watching too much Country Music Television;
2) I'm still totally jazzed to hear back from Julian;
3) I need one of them girls myself;
4) I hung out at the mall too much when I was younger.

A FUCKING AWESOME EMAIL!

Jeremy

Hello! Yes, yes, the secret of encouraging a saw to
compete in sonic girth and stature with electric
guitars, drums, and other loud beasts is to mic it from
underneath, with the mic pointing directly upward
beneath the bend of the saw. Almost as if you are
bending it around the mic. You will find you can get
the saw quite close to the mic ( I always prefered a
Sure 58) and the saw should blast through. you will
need a mic stand that bends, or a short stand for kick
drums to do this . A good monitor sure helps a lot
too.

I hope this is of some help. I feel for you. We were
LOUD. The best of luck to you.

happy holidays

julian

My Psychedelimacized Soul; More Proof that I'm an Idiot; The Death March; Erich's Goldfish Hypothesis

To paraphrase Jason, we nailed the Chamber Brothers' song in like 30 minutes. This band is mighty, and we can play what we want. This contest has proved my hypothesis to my satisfaction.

Today, I set out from home later than I would've liked. I've become quite desensitized to both the alarm clock at the alarm cat. I called to let the boss know that I'd overslept (I always do that--a throwback to my retail days, I think). All seemed well.

Until, I started up the overpass on 160th. The batmobile just started sputtering (more than usual), and making this bad bad bad BANG sound. So, I'm driving along on one intermittant cylinder. Bummer. I'll see how long I can tolerate this. This is loud as fuck. BANG BANG sputter BANG.

I pulled over. At 168th (Hwy 7) and Huron. No go. This suckeeed. And by suckeed, I mean I wish that I'd had some weed. I called the boss (again), and came unglued. "I don't know what's wrong with this fucking car. Don't count on me getting to the office." I had a smoke to calm down. A careful analysis of the gauge/warning light panel indicated that I had no fuel.

So, I abandoned the spacecraft. I walked. And, I walked some more. The taxi people wouldn't be able to rescue me for an hour and a half. So, I walked even more. I talked Ross out of getting me. And, I tracked the Math Professor down. So, Erich had to teach at 9, and then had office hours until 11. He said that he'd call me when he was done.

I listened to Syd Barrett interviews and tormented the cat when I stumbled in the door. Fat men like me have no business walking several miles.

Erich called and then showed up shortly thereafter. He laughed at the obese cat. Then, we went to the store for a gas can. He commented on the size of the strip malls up here, because there's no retail in Boulder anymore.

He hypothesizes that people are like goldfish--if give give them space, they will 1) get fat; and 2) build huge gas stations and strip malls. All of this commentary while he got full at the taco bell.

The batmobile started up (loudly) with the addition of fuel. I was six and a half hours late to work.

Rock and roll, man.

The Chambers Brothers and compact discs and the Rock

Tom won the contest. Un-fucking-believable. There's no one as deserving, in my opinion. It seems that Tom selected a song that I was totally unfamiliar with, and is non-prog psychedelia. We might need to get out the delay pedals for this one. I wish that I still had the backwards reverb on the DSP-5. I hope that Xandy is working that night and can trip us out. Maybe I ought to drop. Or not. I'm so much into the percussive aspects of bass on acid, that it wouldn't be pretty. Lots and lots of distortion.

That's a fucking 11 minute song!!

That reminds me of a spiritual experience that I had when I was 16 with a bass (my beloved white jazz bass that I sold). Deer...Acid...Ticks...the Foothills....another post.

I think that there's a major malfunction with the discs. Maybe the first two tracks.

Damn. Iann distracted me, and now I'm trashed. I love her.

I still think that this is funny.

Welcome to the home of RED CLOUD! RED CLOUD is a MN/IA/FL based Ambient hard rock band that mixes trance/synth style samples with Ambient hard rock, all on top of Lakota Sioux tribal drummers.
Currently the tribe is in the studio writing and recording their new album, which should be out sometime in 2005. There will be updates, studio photos, sound clips, news from each tribal member, and much much more as we wait for the brand new album!
So in the meantime, come hang out with RED CLOUD here in their new camp at www.RedCloudMusic.com! Make sure to watch for your chance to join the tribe and join the Red Cloud warriors! Also watch for studio updates and online fun with each tribe member! Hang on ya'll, and get ready to journey into a new realm of rock n roll! Mitakuye oyasin- Red Cloud.


Latest Tribe News

4/7/04 The band would like to send a early Happy Easter greeting to all our Christian friends and fans! If your not Christian and/or not celebrating Easter, then we welcome Spring with you, and are glad to see Mr. Winter head on home! Currently the guys are working on new tunes for the brand new album. Some sound clips from the scrapped project have been posted for your listening pleasure on the Music page. Enjoy! Stay safe everyone, until next time....

A List to Check Twice

So, one of my profiles out there is for bass geeks, so to speak. Erich turned me onto this site, and I infrequently check out the lessons if I'm feeling stagnant. Anyway, this is one of the sections on the profile, and I think that it's a pretty good mix, even if it's really "noisy" music. It's really hard to nail down a top 3, but I think that I did it.

Favorite Recordings
List your favorite recordings.
Name: Angels of Light - How I Loved You
Name: Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Name: King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic

I must admit, though, that I was quite torn about that.

I'm all "turning over in my mind" (in animo volvit) about that deponent latin verb question. Goddamn Ross and fucking Bob. I can't remember WTF it was.

Illegitimati non carborundum, and all that.

I forgot to purchase the eggs at the king soopers (so super, so incredible--am I the only person that thinks that super markets are fucking amazing?).

Semper ubi sub ubi.

Public Embarassment Blues

First thing this morning, I put the volvo in a ditch, trying to get out of the driveway.

What a horrible beginning to the day!

I got to work late, although I had wanted to get there early and do some autocad work before the draftsmen materialized. that didn't happen.

Jason didn't hate my revised one sheet. I need to move the text and embellish it somehow.

I'm about two days behind schedule on SPCC plans. Lisa was visiting her "boyfriend," so I didn't have to answer to her.

I heard Car Wreck on the radio today. That's not a great version of the song, I've decided.

Rock practice tonight. I'll post about that tomorrow, because I'm starving and getting drunk.

I got talked to at work about my workload and priorities and SHIT. I'm supposed to "push back"?!? Like, WTF, dude?!? I'm still the low man on the totem pole, really. Fuck 'em. I'm just hanging out until my hermitdom kicks in.

Good News!

Banjo Bob is on board.

Red Cloud rides again!

More photo phun

I thought that it was funny.

Beaten down

I feel like Janette hit me with a shovel all day.

The water treatment plant is still working. Whoo hoo!

"Breezy at times" means fucking miserable if you're interpreting Cheyenne-DJ-speak to railyard-worker-speak.

Amputee dreamin'

I had the weirdest dream that got me up too early. Not like a nightmare, though. It was rather comforting. Both of my legs had been amputated at the knees, so I was stuck in a wheelchair. I don't know why this had happened. I was being discharged from the hospital. Marie was pushing me around in the wheelchair, which is sort of funny when you picture it. I was slightly shaken up by the new leg-less me. She was very comforting, and made me feel better.

On the way out, I ran into Mary, and asked her what she was in for. She said, "Cancer." I exclaimed, "Outstanding!" She wasn't amused at all and looked like hell.

That was sort of rude.

I remember getting to the parking lot, and waiting for Marie to pull the car (van?!?) up. That's when I woke up.

I think that I'll swing by the amputee albertson's this morning for some nose pills, in rememberance of my legs.