Matthew J Barnhart

The usual SXSW madness

For a variety of reasons I’ll not go into here, I was planning on sitting SXSW 2008 out. I was kinda looking forward to staying at home for once and forgoing the insanity/inanity of the whole spectacle, but at the last minute a friend passed a gig on to me and so there ya go — tacos and sweat and beer and annoying haircuts for the weekend for me!

I’m heading down Friday morning in order to catch a bunch of shows here in Denton. We Shot JR has a good overview of what’s going on in DDFW, but these are my picks for the week:

• Tuesday: Times New Viking @ Strawberry Fields, Neptune @ Fra House
• Wednesday: Human Bell @ Good Records
• Thursday: STNNG @ Wisconsin (formerly The 8th Continent), Harvey Milk @ Andy’s

(The Human Bell LP, I cannot recommend her highly enough. My fave of the year so far.)

Stuff I hope to catch while in Austin: Fucked Up/No Age under the bridge, My Dad Is Dead, and Chris Brokaw. Anything else is just gravy.

Recent work-related stuff: my 3rd sinus infection of the winter has postponed things, but I’m currently mixing an LP for Valencian band Individual, mastering another Esopus Magazine compilation, and continuing work on the new American Werewolf Academy and The New Year LP’s. Tre Orsi has started fine-tuning some older songs in preparation for an April session. Also mixing the tracks I recorded for Last Men (formerly Douche), plus mixing a Notes From Underground LP and recording a new Shiny Around The Edges LP.

Big disappointments of late: no more episodes of The Wire (though Simon tied it up nicely enough), not being able to do the upcoming Destroyer tour, sinus infections.

Post-tour round-up: The New Year, Shearwater, dogs, and food

Flew back to Dallas from Seattle last night, exhausted and happy with the past week of shows with Shearwater (Denton – LA) and The New Year/David Bazan (LA – Seattle). Made great friends with both the Minus Story and David, all of whom are wonderful, gracious, hilarious people.

Much fun lounging at the Hotel Congress after a 15-hour drive from Austin. No so much fun driving around LA to buy strings and cables. Great turnouts for the shows, lovely, if long drives. Late, late nights catching up with the amazing Chris Weber & family. Introduced the New Year to the glories of the GPS. Bubba bought a cellphone. Hell froze over.

Too tired to type any more, but I flipped a pretty impressive amount of vinyl and CDs on this trip, with more stuff waiting for me at home from Aquarius and Forced Exposure. Itemized, geeked-out lists to come. Some photos after the “more” thingy.

How not to write lyrics

Last night, Tre Orsi was in the studio tracking vocals and additional overdubs for the two songs that will be our first single. Howard was first up, doing his vocals for “The Illustrator”. He got in a few takes before Bubba (our producer) showed up and began tweaking things for the better.

After they were settled in, I ran off to the lounge to re-work the lyrics to “Faulkner’s Blues”. I had such a clear idea in my head of what I wanted to say when I first wrote the thing, but over time the lyrics became a jumbled mess of imagery that stopped making sense. I did what I could with them, swapping a few cringe-worthy phrases for more innocuous ones, but before I knew it, t’was time to sing. I did three takes and will comp them together when I mix the thing tonight or tomorrow. Bubba and Bryan also worked out a tiny little chimey guitar thing for the 2nd verse, which I think is really nice.

When on a bit of a buying spree these past two weeks, picking up the new Shellac, Dan Higgs, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw @ Good Records. Have a couple of good-sized orders on hold at Aquarius and Forced Exposure, including the Ex/Getachew record (finally!).

The new Shellac is really doing it for me — funny, rocking, weird, all in the right doses. “Be Prepared” might be my favorite Shellac song ever.

Had my first real assignments and quizzes for my art class, my first college course in a decade. Very, very nerve-wracking, I must say. Studying is such an unfamiliar process to me now, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Honestly, the writing is the hardest part, because I’m used to short, descriptive bursts of writing, rather than longer, well-formed and composed essays.

Leaving for the Shearwater/TNY dates on Saturday. Hell drive to Tucson on Sunday, but it’s better than stopping in New Mexico for the night. Meeting up w/ my New Year brothers in LA, and leaving Shearwater to fend for themselves the rest of the way up the coast. I will meet back up with them in New York on July 5th for the big ol’ Castle Clinton show.

Step Across The Border, TFUL282

Spent most of yesterday listening to Thinking Fellers Union Local 282′s Admonishing the Bishops EP. “Hurricane”, dude. “Hurricane”.

Tre Orsi should be finishing up the 7″ in the next couple of weeks. Howard is finishing up his own solo 7″ with a couple of older songs. Do we have a new label in the works? Maybe!

The New Year and Shearwater both hit the west coast in a couple of weeks. I may well meet Meriln Mann in SF. Excitement abounds.

From the excellent Fred Frith & pals film, Step Across The Border:

JV tour: wrap-up

Final show was at Largo in Los Angeles, a sit-down dinner club that regularly hosts Jon Brion, Aimee Mann, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, and other L.A.-types. Lovely staff, and quite an intimate, uhh, “vibe”.

Despite the show itself being very fun, it was kind of anti-climactic — I usually expect the last show of a tour to be chaotic, go-out-with-guns-a-blazin’, but this was more like JV At The Copa Cabana or something. Quite a nice change of pace I admit, just a little disorienting.

Afterward, we commiserated with Rob Douglas and his girlfriend across the street at Canter’s Deli, where we did it up with matzoh ball soup, blintzes, hot pastrami on rye, etc, etc. Finally started making our way to the over-priced motel in Glendale, then split by Noon to get me to the Burbank airport so’s I could fly home.

So yeah, no big Hollywood ending, but good times nonetheless. Thanks to JV, DD, Adam, Annie, Doug, and everyone else for memorable tour.

JV tour: One Night In Springfield

DD and I went out on the town with some nice folks in Springfield, MO after the show at the Randy Bacon Gallery. This is what ensued.

JV tour: “There’s Only One Al”

Modified, Phoenix, AZ, 8 May 2007

JV tour: Update from San Diego, CA

(A trailer full of metal wildlife, on I-10 outside of Tucson, AZ, 8 May 2007)

Such a lovely time at the Casbah last night, and lovely time at Modified in Phoenix the night before! Thanks, you two! We should seriously hang out again. Get in touch with my secretary and we’ll hook something up.

Tonight is the final show of the tour, @ Largo in L.A., after which Ms. Clark must spirit away for a red-eye flight to meet up with some Canadians. Canadians, is there anything they can’t do?

Words are failing me, just like I failed college by failing out of it so many years ago. In their stead, have sum mur pics after the (more…) thingy.

Oh, and remind me to forget what “The Svengali” is. *shudder*

JV tour: Update from Tucson, AZ

(JV and DD, Ft. Stockton, TX, 7 May 2007)

A few days ago, a nice fellow who was helping us load the van asked, “Have you ever been on tour before? It’s a lot of fun, huh?”

I can be lots of fun. It’s definitely a lot of work, hence the lack of updates on this here blogernet.

Anyhoo! Here I sit in a lovely room in the lovely Congress Hotel in lovely Tucson, AZ, where we arrived late last night after a 13-hour drive from Austin. Woooooooooooo! After checking in and side-stepping the drunken ruffians (more Wooooooo!) still raving it up downstairs, I performed the new touring ritual: get to the room, plug in the laptop, iPod, and mobile phone, then crash. (Topic of conversation in the van: did people actually tour before laptops, WiFi and mobile phones? Were the 80′s and early 90′s just a dream?)

The shows so far: pretty great, very fun. As one young Daniel Folmer said of her Denton show (which is true of every show I’ve seen), Ms. St. Vincent has had the crowd eating out of her hand every night. Me? I’m 30 and I can’t hear music anymore, but she sure as hell impresses me. JV and DD too, they have the goods, they bring the goods, and they make the kids happy using said goods. Quite a great bunch of people to be traveling with.

Brief re-cap of the shows thusfar:

• Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree: ladies and gentlemen, this is how you setup and run a rock club! Obviously put together by people who have slogged it out in vans at least once, the Bottletree sounds great, is staffed by friendly and lovely people, has excellent food, and has a large, comfy, and clean band chill-out area. I love you I love you I love you, oh Bottletree.
• St. Louis, MO @ Billiken Club (St. Louis University): located a mile up the road from my old house on S. Grand Blvd. Ladies and gentlemen, this is how you setup and run a college gig! The staff were totally pro and on-the-ball, the sound was very good, and there was no food-court vibe at all. Very nice. Chris from Undertow/Magnolia Summer, btfl man. Thank you!
• Springfield, MO @ Randy Bacon Gallery: excellent, excellent venue. Great staff, excellent sound, wonderful venue all-around. Randy Bacon and his crew are doing a wonderful thing: hosting an alternative to dirty, scuzzy rock clubs, and treating their local audience to some music that would otherwise pass through Springfield. Thanks, people! (Afterward, DD and I hung with some nice people at a scuzzy rock club just to create some equillibrium.)
• Denton, TX @ Dan’s Silverleaf: I was married here, so of course I had a great time.
• Austin, TX @ Emo’s: Bryan Schmitz (former Dentonite and Baboon/Baptist General) was our house sound guy tonight. He took several volts for the team while trying to diagnose the source of some wicked shocks Annie was receiving. I love this guy.

Tonight is Phoenix (preceded by a 1 PM taco call), then San Diego, then L.A., then home. Wooooo!

More photos below!

JV tour: Athens, 30 April

My original flight to Atlanta left from DFW at 8:20 AM without me, but I was automatically bumped to a later flight. Met JV, DD, and DB (who I am tagging-in for on this tour) at the airport, exchanged hugs, bought some coffee, and headed for the van.

First stop: Weaver D’s, for fried chicken, broccoli casserole, collards, and sweet tea. Quite delicious.

Athens show: at the 40 Watt, and large, very well-known venue with a great staff and a big ol’, modern, futuristic  FOH console. Nightmare flashbacks of the ‘Lab’s old Yamaha O3D filled my head, but after a while moving around on the thing was quite comfy. I can see liking these things!

Also met Annie of St. Vincent, who is a quite pleasant person and an awe-inspring musician.

Coffee and key-lime pie with Josh McKay, then after the show, late-night beers and tales of being picked up by Fred Schneider and over-the-top PDA at local Athens watering holes.

So far: good times. Great hotel. Lots of comfy.

Birmingham tonight, which I’m actually looking forward to.