The end of 2009 will be a sad one, due to the death of Vic Chesnutt. I had the pleasure of working his epic show at Hailey’s in Denton on Dec 4th. (Here’s his performance of “Flirted With You All My Life” from that show, courtesy of Kerm Rivas.) I hope he’s finally found relief.

Those wishing to help his family with his remaining debts can donate at Kristin Hersh’ site.

So, The New Year European tour: mostly wonderful experiences. The Tanned Tin Festival in Castellon, Spain was unbelievable, as should be expected. I had the honor of running sound for a reunited Come (their first show since 2001), which was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. Other highlights, as best I can remember: Simmo, et al in Nottingham; the regal hospitality of Grainne in Glasgow; driving perilous mountain passes with 50 mph winds in Spain and France; most things about Duedingen, CH; Giovanna of Bellini and Uzeda; our gracious tour guide in Vienna, Ani; Jann and Kai in Hamburg; Earl Harvin in Berlin; Wim in Antwerp; and Steven Thomasson.

Before The New Year’s European tour, Tre Orsi did 8 shows with Magnolia Electric Company. Such an incredible band, playing a really well-honed set of songs. The final three shows of the run were with Bottomless Pit, who I can’t say enough great things about.

Now that I’m home, I’m settling into studio mode, preparing for sessions with Sean Kirkpatrick’s new band, Nervous Curtains, another Deep Snapper LP, and a few other things here and there. These days I’m mostly trying to squeeze in some studio management work, repairing equipment, catching up on bills and invoices, etc.

I don’t hit the road again until February, when I’ll be mixing and tour managing the A.C. Newman North American tours. I hear he’s an incredibly nice guy, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m especially looking forward to avoiding SXSW for the first time in years, though I’m sad to be missing the inaugural NX35.

Tre Orsi plans are being made — we’ll hopefully finish our LP and play some regional shows before I take off with A.C. Newman. We have more plans for the Spring, but I’m not going to jinx anything.

Finally, my top whatever records of 2008 that I’ve loaded into iTunes or can otherwise remember, in alphabetical order:

• Allroh Nym EP (Graumann)
• Ancestors s/t LP (Youth Attack)
• Bone Awl Not For Our Feet (re-issue) (Klaxon)
• Bottomless Pit Congress EP
• Chris Brokaw Canaris CD (Capitan)
• The Dead C Secret Earth CD (Ba-da-bing!) 
• Future of the Left Curses! (Too Pure)
• Harvey Milk Life… The Best Game in Town (Hydrahead)
• Human Bell Human Bell (Thrill Jockey) 
• The New Year The New Year (Touch and Go)
• Pierced Arrows Straight to the Heart (Tombstone)
• Pyramids Pyramids (Hyrdrahead)
• Washington Phillips What Are They Doing In Heaven Today? (Mississippi)

• Washington Phillips What Are They Doing In Heaven Today? LP (Mississippi Records)
  Other-worldly Christian blues, recorded between 1927 and 1929, played on what sounds like a toy piano.
• Bone Awl Not For Our Feet LP (Klaxon Records)
  Really powerful, not gimmicky, American black metal. (A Chris Brokaw recommendation.)
• Kylesa Time Will Fuse Its Worth LP (Prosthetic/Havoc) 
  Missed them opening for Pinback, twice!
• The Wax Museums s/t LP (Douche-master Records)
  For a lot of bands like this, singles seem to be a better format, but fuck me if a whole LP of these guys isn’t entertaining through and through.
• Vivian Girls s/t CD (In The Red) 
  The opposite of the Wax Museums, for me anyway — I think I prefer Vivian Girls in 45 rpm doses. Really great, idiosyncratic recording.

It seems like every band in the world was on tour this Fall. We constantly joked about a festival of all the bands who played across town from the New Year. A few: Future of the Left (w/ Ted Leo), Kylesa (w/ Pinback), The Dead C, Mission of Burma, Les Savy Fav, the Residents, Deerhoof. Yikes.

Highlights of the tour (for me):

• Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia and their excellent beer selection
• The Pike Room in Pontiac, MI and their great hospitality
• Priceline.com
• Kuma’s Korner, Irazu, and Chris Manfrin’s café in Chicago (Hot Doug’s was closed for vacation)
• Hanging out with the Donofrio, Midgett, and Andrews families
• Dinner with Bill Barbot in D.C.

Since I’ve been home, I’ve been furiously planning and organizing The New Year’s European tour. So much left to do — ferry booking, gear rental, work permits, blah blah blah — but so it goes. I have a couple of mastering jobs to complete before heading out again on Monday for a month.

Speaking of which, Tre Orsi is doing 8 shows with Magnolia Electric Company, from Texas to Chicago. Dates are at treorsi.org, of course. Some shows are with David Vandervelde, Will Johnson, and Bottomless Pit as well. We’re going to eat enough BBQ to stop a train or something.

I’m spending Election Day off in Chicago with Howard and the Midgetts. The day after, Howard and I fly to Frankfurt to start The New Year’s European tour. We’ll either be hammered in happiness or drunk in depression. I’ll finally be home on Dec 1st, at which point I’ll probably sleep for a day, then start back at the studio non-stop until I finally collapse. Yay!

The band for this tour was Matt and Bubba Kadane, Mike Donofrio, Chris Brokaw, and Will Johnson (filling in for Peter Schmidt). Jeff Ryan filled in on drums for the Texas shows, as Brokaw was playing with Thurston Moore at ATP that weekend. Jeff and Will did an admirable job, stepping in on short-ish notice, making relatively complex music seem nearly effortless.

Everyone’s spirits were high despite the ass-whip that is a Western US tour, including the cancellation of the Houston show due to the hurricane. Matt Taylor and Linda Dreeland in Albuquerque, Keven McAlister in L.A., and Chris Weber, Kathy Lindenmayer, and Joshua Lindenmayer in Seattle provided much-needed hospitality and camaraderie. A Weather were wonderful touring companions and tight bros — I look forward to seeing them again soon.

A few highlights:

• Stacked enchiladas at Garcia’s in Albquerque
• Kilt-lifter Scottish Ale, provided by the fine folks of Stateside Presents in Phoenix
• Aquarius Records in SF, and a surprise run-in with Ian Bjornstad (Denton ex-pat, member of John Vanderslice’s band).
• Dinner at the Doug Fir in Portland
• The fine folks of KEXP and Sonic Boom Records in Seattle (including Dallas ex-pat Rick Brooks)
• Every single second of time spent with Chris, Kathy, and Joshua in Seattle
• Marco of Marco’s Pizza in Denver filling up parking meters in Denver to thwart the fascist meter maids
• Bro-down, Ladybro, Internal Bro, Rainbros, etc.

Time for record shopping was tight, but I did pick up the new Wax Museums LP, a Pink Fairies LP, a couple of Mississippi Records releases, Vlad Tepes, Vivian Girls, the new Prisonshake, Pyramids, and a few other things I’ll someday get around to cataloging.

Today will be spent mixing the Tre Orsi tour EP and prepping for our shows next week with The New Year in Philly, NYC, and Boston. Studio time this week, finishing up Les Americains and the Naptime Shake as well. Ok!

Also Wednesday nights @ Dan’s, Joe Cripps hosts Old Timey Drink Night. Gimlets, Old Fashioneds, Sea Breezes, Perfect Manhattans, Sidecars, and just about any other grandma/grandpa drink you can think of that takes an unbelievable amount of work to prepare. He made me a stellar Old Fashioned, which I had in honor of my dad.

While I’m at it, might as well mention that Bookish Coffee’s new Nicaragua Aldea has been pretty stellar for me. I just ordered a bag of the Brazil Camocim 3C to compare.

Our current mayor, Perry McNeill, has shown absolutely ZERO leadership and is unqualified to govern a growing, diverse, dynamic city. I believe a vote for Mark Burroughs will help make Denton toward a more livable and enjoyable place to call home.

Already, more than 2400 early votes have been cast in this run-off. (There were about 1900 early votes in the main election.) Especially in local elections, every vote counts — please vote on Saturday, and encourage everyone you know to do the same.

Mike Cochran’s message is included below, along with voting information.

Thanks,
mb.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Mike Cochran
Date: Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Subject: Save Fry St.- Vote Reminder
To:

Save Fry Street
Mayoral Run-off Election Reminder
Saturday, June 14th
7:00 AM to 7:00 PM

Dear Friends of Fry St.,

I am writing to remind you of the upcoming run-off election for the Mayor’s race here in Denton and urge you to vote for Mark Burroughs. The election run-off will be tomorrow, June 14th and the outcome could well have an impact on future development on Fry St.

As many of you will recall, Mayor Perry McNeil was a strong supporter of United Equities and Buster Freedman. He met with them on numerous occasions and assured them that their ill-conceived plan would be a “slam dunk” at City Council. He set the tone that caused the city staff to be so supportive of the developers. He set the tone that subtly let the developers know they did not need to make concessions to the community. He set the tone that allowed this issue to become so divisive in the community, and I lay the responsibility for that debacle at his feet.

Those of you (11,000 of you) who signed the Save Fry St. Petition may appreciate that McNeil was seen (by 2 sources) laughing with Buster Freedman at the petitions, discounting the hard work and deep feelings of the community that supported sensitive development. We don’t need a Mayor that represents the interests of Houston developers over those of our citizens. We need a Mayor who is better than that.

It is a fact that the Fry St. zoning case will return. I have heard that the developers were waiting to see who would be on the new City Council before trying the same plan again. We need a Mayor that understands the issues and will represent the people.
I have talked with Mark Burroughs throughout the Fry St. zoning process and know he has a deep understanding of the issues. I served with Mark for 2 years on the City Council and found him to be a thoughtful, decent, man of character who really did look at the issues carefully and voted with the whole city in mind. I know him well enough to know that with Mark as Mayor, our side will get a fair hearing and that he’ll come to the table with an open mind and offer no “slam dunks” poorly planned development.

Typically, turnout at run-off elections is poor. Therefore it is really important that you go vote tomorrow and let’s have our own little “slam dunk” for Fry St., for Mark Burroughs.

regards,
Mike Cochran
Save Fry Street
Please pass this on to interested friends.
To determine your precinct #, just reference your voter card, if you
don’t have it, call
Denton County Elections Administration office at (940) 349-3200

District One -
1300 Wilson St
Denton, TX 76205
District Two -
3020 N. Locust
Denton, TX 76209
District Three -
2001 W. Windsor Dr
Denton, TX 76207
District Four -
1001 Parvin
Denton, TX 76205

• Tre Orsi played our first-ever out-of-state shows, a 5-day mini-tour with our friends Minus Story. (The Coke Dares played the first three shows with us and destroyed everything they came into contact with.) We’re taking a break to work on new songs before playing out and starting work on an LP. Also have some touring planned for the Fall, but details will have to wait.
• Finally finished The New Year’s new LP. Take it with a grain of salt, but I think this is the Kadane brother’s best work to date. John Golden has mastered it, I’m just waiting to hear the reference copy. It comes out in September on Touch and Go, with ACTUAL U.S. and European tours to follow. The last New Year tour longer than 4 days was the summer of 2004. 2004!
• Still have a bunch of half-finished projects waiting for studio time: American Werewolf Academy, The Great Tyrant, and a great new Shiny Around The Edges LP. I’m starting a new record for Austin band, The Distant Seconds in May, too.
• Relating to a lack of studio time, we’re planning on building a B room at The Echo Lab. No ETA yet. Will be a much smaller place, suitable for overdubs, mixing, and smaller sessions, but with the same attention to slapdick quality as the big room.
• My brother and I are heading off to London, Amsterdam, The Hague, and Paris this Thursday. It’s his first time ever outside the U.S, and really my first time in Europe solely as a tourist. Looking forward to sight-seeing with Jason Molina in London, Dirt Music w/ Chris Brokaw in the Hague, and meat comas in Paris.
• Been on an amazingly huge Trumans Water kick lately. Anyone have a good quality vinyl copy of Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox and Ass they want to sell for cheap?

• Turned 31 on Feb 5
• Tre Orsi played two shows with Nina Nastasia, which were really really great experiences
• Worked with The Great Tyrant, American Werewolf Academy, Drink To Victory, Notes from Underground, and Douche
• Started ramping up for the next Works Progress release

Tre Orsi is playing at Rubber Gloves this Saturday with Joe Lally and Edie Sedgewick. March is mostly devoted to finish The New Year’s new LP. April is a quick Tre Orsi tour, then recording.

Ok!

• Happy birthday Bean!
• Tre Orsi is playing Austin @ Club Deville next Thurs, 25 Oct.
• Our 26 Oct show @ SHQ is obviously canceled. Tentatively moving to 27 Oct @ Rubber Gloves
• Starting work on the New Year record again today!
• Shearwater record starts in a week and a half. 3 non-stop weeks of Talk Talk-level indulgence. Thanks, Matador!
• Tons of Rock Lottery videos now up at Wolf-Stone’s YouTube page. Relive the good times and total embarassment.
• Record-buying has been a little slow due to self-imposed financial restraints, but I just got copies of The Dead C’s Trapdoor Fucking Exit and Harvey Milk’s Courtesy And Goodwill Toward Men from Aquarius today. Very exciting.
• Crown GLM-200’s arrived yesterday as well. I’m hoping these will make quick work of recording the grand piano & drums in the same room.