My Ever Changing Friends. . .

I took a few shots of my friends band "The Ever Changing Sky" a couple of weekends back, and for some reason feel compelled to share them here. Not bad quality for a phone. If you haven't checked them out, you can listen to some of their tunes here:

http://www.myspace.com/everchangingsky

Please note, if you listen to their live recordings you can occasionally hear me heckling and yelling dumb shit like, "play an instrumental!," "Yeah Niko, play that keyboard!," or directed at fairly short Steve, "That's a huge bass for a little fella!!!" Oh man, I'm an ass sometimes.

Their stuff has been compared to Mogwai, and funny enough "Explosions in the Sky," probably mostly because they're instrumental. I met them through a band from Portland called "The Friendly Skies." Hmmmm, I think we're starting to see a pattern here between "epic, instrumental" bands and "Sky" names. Anyway, they use elements of subtlety not unlike Mogwai, but can also get kind of math-rocky and rip like Botch. I haven't seen a bad show of theirs yet. They're four individual solid-ass musicians playing as a cohesive whole. Now do yourself a friggin' favor and give them a listen.

Other Stuff I've Been Listening To

I know that you reading this have a burning question, "what has Ben been listening to lately?" You continue, "he has such good taste in music, and I'd really like to know what's been getting heavy rotation from him lately."

Well, my friend you are in luck, here are the covers from some more albums I've been listening to. These are mostly older albums (with the exception of The Grand Archives) I'm "revisiting" after "giving them a break" for a while. In no particular order:

Good New Music

These albums have both come out in the last couple of weeks, and have been on "heavy rotation" on my iPod:



The cover doesn't well represent the awesome musical ambition of the record. I thought 2006's "Return to Cookie Mountain" was hard to categorize. . .and then I heard this. TV on the Radio is a "rated" band as Chuck Klosterman would say. Most critics absolutely love them, and they should as they are an incredible band. Definitely worth a listen.



And then there's new Kings of Leon record, "Only By The Night." Somehow these guys have never "broke" in the U.S. They've sold roughly around 200,000 copies of each of their records domestically and 6 million worldwide. In England they are huge. They headlined one of the Glastonbury Festival's nights this year - playing to 100,000 people. These guys are definitely "high fashion" dudes with "edgy" haircuts, way too tight pants and that general "retro thrift store" look. Maybe that's why people here don't take them seriously. It seemed like too much of a gimmick - three brothers and their cousin raised by a traveling preacher father playing southern-friend classic rock. Without any preconceptions though, "Only By The Night" is a damn good record.

Living Room Players Video Darlings

This is a fantastic video shot by Descie last weekend during our party. It features the tail end of the hit "Ballad of the Beaver Bong," and "The Funk Soul Brother" in its entirety. Descie only stopped filming as I forced her to play violin on "Me So Horny." Please watch and enjoy:

Stout Family Fun Day

Saturday 9/21 I had the pleasure of hanging out with the Stout family. "Victor," Janette, Drake and Lotus. They came over to the house around 4. Drake had the "Robo Raptor" with him which is a seriously bad ass remote control dinosaur. We decided to go for food and appropriately enough went to "Family" Mexican Restaurant over in Crown Hill. We then decided to go music shopping and went over to Silver Platters. Here is Lotus "listening before she buys."



Apparently she is repping the number seven. Sesame Street?

Here's Lotus going for the old "bunny ears" on Drake:




I had proposed the idea of a laser show earlier in the day and everyone had seemed into it. As chance would have it, "Laser Queen" was playing at 8 PM and Drake had just got a Queen album the week before for his 10th birthday. On the way down, we passed a huge white limo. Lotus pointed it out and said, "maybe Gwen Stefani is in there. . .or the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs." Pretty good taste for a 6 year old. We found what I thought was an excellent parking spot in lower Queen Anne, but actually ended up having to walk about 8 blocks over to the Pacific Science Center.



We were finally let into the premises around 8:15. Drake, being a huge dinosaur fan, was stoked on the full size Triceratops and Stegosaurus near the entrance. From the opening stomps of "We Will Rock You," Lotus got heavily into air drumming and continued for about the first 5 or 6 songs. It was a little loud for Drake, and he ended up covering his ears for a lot of the show. I took this photo of a spaceship before "Xena" the "Laser Host" came over and said, "put it away or I'll confiscate it."



I replied, "fuck you, you nasty bitch this is a $500 iPhone and I'm sure as hell not going to let you take it!" I didn't really say that, but you can imagine what it would be like if I did.



It was definitely a far out, heavy experience. On the way out I filled out a survey and chose "The Flaming Lips" as the next featured artist. Now that would be fucking epically psychedelic. Walking back to the car, Lotus was nuts. I kept grabbing her and trying to hold her hand, but she kept escaping and running away. She was jumping in large puddles (thank god she had her pink "Hello Kitty" rain boots on) opening newspaper boxes, yelling, etc. Then it struck me - I had given her about 8 pieces of licorice and 16 "Dots" during the Laser Show. No wonder she was so wound up! Fun times!

Last Night

Although I had around 25 people at my house, an acoustic jam session of epic proportions, and tons of drinks, the highlight of my evening was most definitely seeing this poster:



Steve, Adam, Niko, Jon, Joey, Chaps, Brian Boyle and I tore through hot covers such as "Material Girl," "Winds of Change," "Saved By The Bell's Theme," and always popular sing-a-long favorites "Funk Soul Brother," "Me So Horny," "Thong Song," and of course "No Scrubs." During the "No Scrubs" finale, we had the whole house singing along and drunken girls dancing like hell in the living room. . .what a night!

Note how much Adam is "feeling it" during the sing-a-long:



See how Descie is holding the camera in the photo above? She was taking the following two shots. Isn't that wild?





Here's a frightened looking pic of Brian Boyle. Damn, is he ever ambient!



Slutdam, the gay left-handed drummer!



An "earlier in the evening" photo of myself and "Chaps Blue Ribbon." Botch Rules! MICHIGAN!!!!!!!!



Here's a "later in the evening" photo of (L to R) Joey, Jon "Sir Ass-a-Lot" and Brian Chapel "Chaps" AKA "Lambo."



And one of Chaps with Beer Helmet and little, tiny Steve with the infamous "turkey hat." The incredible thing about this photo is it (almost) accurately reflects the level of blur in my vision at that point in the night. Actually now that I think about it, this was about 3:45 AM and my vision was much blurrier than this photo. Thanks camera!



Here's about 1/16th of the "recycling" I picked up today:

Going Away for Who?

So, a couple months back my friends Halophile played a going away potluck/party for a girl named Breanna, who I had only met in a passing a couple of times. Someone was passing around a book to write goodbye messages in, and mine went something like, "I don't really know you, and you have no idea who I am, but damn I sure am going to miss you. Imagine how much better we could have got to know each other," etc.

My little friend Timmy Stiles was also performing "hip hop" music for the first time in quite a while. Yes he was, yes he was (in a wussy voice). The little fella did a damn good job, especially on his second set when the sauce had him a little "loose," if you know what I mean.

Anyway, the only reason I'm writing this is so I can post this righteous photo. I love that Rhonda and Julie both have very pretty, sweet smiles on their faces and I'm lurking in the background like a fucking schizophrenic pedophile.



Here's a photo of my roomate "Tom from Eel River," AKA "Count Assula" playing bass with Halophile that day.



And finally, a shot of Tim Stiles "rocking the mic" like a big boy all by himself. Yes he was, yes he was.

"I have a dream. . .and it's weird."

Last night I had an oddly comforting dream. I was best friends with a somewhat attractive albino girl. We had a strictly plutonic relationship, but she could swear like a pirate and drink like and Irishmen. . .my kind of lady. We would mostly just hang out, drink and talk about "stuff," which I'm a huge fan of. Her name was Rebecca.

Why? Because It's Fucking Amazing, That's Why!

This is my favorite album of 2008 so far.

LESSER GALAGO

A few months ago while my brother Andy was visting, we made a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. I absolutely love the zoo, and this was my 7th time going since living in Seattle. This time around I was especially struck by a small, strange looking nocturnal creature named "Lesser Galago." I mostly became obsessed with the name, as the word "Lesser" seems strange for a small mammal. Who is "more" than this Galago? Is there a "Larger Galago" that is constantly kicking the "Lesser Galago's" ass? I sure hope not. Anyway, a few weeks later after a long, hard night of hitting the sauce, Roach, Jon, Chuck and I woke up and decided to do some basement recording. I was still obsessed with the name "Lesser Galago" and decided to name the aforementioned project after the delightful little fella. As far as the music goes, it was pretty experimental - chanting/throat singing, banging on beer bottles and cans, de-tuned lap guitars and all sorts of weird shit. We just went with it though, and "put it on wax," first take. I liked it so much, I decided to make a myspace page. Note - this is not the first time this has happened. I now have 9 myspace projects I've been involved with. Check it out: http://www.myspace.com/lessergalago

Vegas Vegas Vegas

I went to Vegas with 6 of my closest friends for my 30th birthday, September 7, 2008. Sometime around 4 AM at "Treasures Gentleman's Club," this photo was taken on my phone. I'll post a bunch more photos and stories soon. In the meantime enjoy this "teaser."




For some reason, every time I stare at the photo above, it makes me think of Princess Leia when she was Jabba The Hut's captive sex slave. Maybe it's just the lack of clothing, but damnit if I can't stop thinking of Jabba's big, nasty tongue gyrating in front of Leia's scantily clad ass. Yummy.

"Getting A Little Trim"

Here's a photo from my last hair cut. Damn, that was an extreme moustache. It was "Moustache May," however. Thanks Sara for "giving me some trim." Wink, wink, wink.

My Friend Nick

As most of my loyal readers know, my roomate, bandmate and dear friend Nick Johnson passed away back in May. While vacationing in Costa Rica, Nick was found floating in Lake Arenal after embarking on a solo kayaking adventure. At first, it was assumed that he drowned, but recently we received the results of his autopsy and it ends up he had an aneurysm, and most likely died fairly instantaneously. You forget how fragile life is until something like this happens. Everyone has to go out sometime, and Nick did while he was in the warm, beautiful sun in an exotic country having the time of his life. I miss him something fierce sometimes. Then I think of all the good times, I watch this slide show, I listen to the incredible music we made together and I find comfort in those memories.

Bumbershoot 2008

I went to one day of Bumbershoot a few weeks back, and wrote a blog/article on nadamucho.com You can see it here:

http://www.nadamucho.com/live/music/dont_fear_the_bumber_nadamucho.com_kisses__makes_nice_w/bumbershoot.html

If you don't know about Nada, let me explain. Nada Mucho is a Seattle collective of musically minded folk who book and promote shows, run an "online magazine" and pump juice into the dying heart of Seattle's music scene. No one profits, except for the artists, the people behind the scenes are doing it out of passion for the music. Nada books regularly at The Mars Bar, The High Dive, The Sunset, Neumo's and other venues all over Seattle. Do yourself a frickin' favor and check out their site!

Testing, Testing, Testing

Alright, so I've started a "blog." Honestly, the idea never really appealed to me before as it seemed more like a vehicle for angsty, 15 year old emo girls. However, having recently read some "blogs" by artists I admire, I thought I'd give it a whirl. The intention here is to have a central source, or "command center" if you will, for all of my rants, photos, video, song ideas, music criticism, and profound thoughts on daily life. Hopefully people will read it and it will change their lives. . .