Is This Art?

Well, that was 2011....our touring has come to an end for the year and now we're hunkering down for the winter to write and hopefully record a new record. We've recently, and secretly, been moving things into our new top secret classified as-yet-unnamed rehearsal space/studio in order to get started. It's a fantastic little spot, that suits us very well. Preliminary work has already begun on some new material and we're starting to get excited. I can't really say what the new record is going to be like, because it just isn't clear yet, but it's shaping up to be a very different kind of record than any we have made before.

Perhaps this blog will morph for a time into a recording blog, rather than a tour blog? Either way, we'll keep the interested parties well informed about what's going on with us.

For the time being, it's the holiday season, i'm laid up with a mysteriously broken foot, Bryant's Poland-bound and my son is due to arrive in just a few weeks. Things are probably going to be somewhat quiet around here for at least a little while, so I thought i'd share something with you that came up in the van on our recent trip to Michigan...

CONCERNING THE PROUD FLESH ALBUM ARTWORK :

For each of our previous records (Operation:Surgery, and Dark Dark Woods) we felt it very important to do something kind of crafty for the album art. Something that we made with our own hands, that no one else had ever made or put together before. The whole approach to those records was kind of like that on all levels; capturing moments unique to us on tape, on film, whatever, that had never happened before. Proud Flesh was very different than that for us, because we wanted to make a high-energy record, very quickly. In order to do that, we had to borrow a lot of things...equipment, ideas, lyrics, and even artwork.

Believe this or not, but during the day all four of us have to hold down steady jobs in order to pay our bills and stay alive. Not because husband&wife doesn't bring in boat loads of money, it does, but because we live very extravagant lifestyles. It's not easy to keep up with the Joneses on the meager few millions that this rock n roll dream brings in every couple of weeks. So, we each go off to our favorite little day jobs everyday in order to supplement...you know how it goes.

Anyway, my job is at a local television station. Every third Thursday of each month we tape an event at the county history center called, "Third Thursday Event". Typically, a TTE is a powerpoint-style slideshow accompanied by a guest lecturer who happens to be an expert on the subject of the day. One such event happened to be led by a former professor of mine (I dropped his class in order to work in a warehouse...) from Indiana University, Dr. Eric Sandweiss. And, his subject was the Kodachrome slide collection of Charles W. Cushman, recently donated to IU.

Dr. Sandweiss is a great, personable speaker and there's no way I can do his lecture justice here, so I'm just going to give you some of the information from his presentation that stood out to me. If you're interested, or if you want to fact check me (I could use the editing...) Dr. S has a book coming out in March that i'm eager to check out about this very subject.

The main point of the lecture was about color. Through the 1930's and 40's professional photography was apparently limited to black & white. Color was new and novel and reserved for advertisements, cartoons, and cheap hobby photographers. And that's precisely what Charles Cushman was, a hobby photographer. He was also a world traveler. He and his wife loved to travel around the States, and the world, and he loved taking photos of ordinary, everyday things he encountered. He also kept a strict catalog of every photo that he took, where it was taken, and the slides' subject matter. All in all, after his death, over 14,000 color kodachrome slides were donated to his alma mater, IU, along with his detailed catalogs, and his photo equipment. One of the most fascinating things about his collection, aside from the detailed record, is that it gives us a rare, full-color, view of the US in the late 30's and 40's that we're simply not used to experiencing.

The photo on the cover of Proud Flesh was taken in 1938, in Posey County, Indiana.


I was really intrigued and interested in this stuff after that lecture, so I came home and told the other dudes about it and showed them the unbelievable online archive of Cushman's stuff. We agreed that this would make great album art, if we could get permission to use it, so we started combing through the photos, looking for the ones that suited us and went loosely with the themes from Proud Flesh. Like I mentioned before, there are over 14,000 of these images, so we intentionally limited ourselves to only choosing from photos taken in Indiana.

Even with our self-imposed limitations, narrowing down the field was very difficult. There were many runners-up that, for one reason or another, ruled themselves out. As you know, these were the results :







Another interesting thing about Cushman's life that I haven't mentioned yet has to do with his wife, Jean. Jean accompanied Charles on most of his travels and can be seen in many of the photos (including seated in the car, on our album cover).

At some point Jean began suffering from some sort of mental illness, i don't really know what it was, or to what extent. But, the story goes, one evening after Charles heard some commotion downstairs he came out of his office to find Jean waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase. She said something to the effect of, "I'm going to Hell, and you're coming with me". She then fired a shot at Charles, turned the gun on herself and fired one shot into her own head. Remarkably, both Cushmans (Cushmen?) survived!

Subsequently, Jean was hospitalized for a time, treated and medicated. Once her illness was addressed and she was properly taken care of, she continued to travel with Charles. She pops up less frequently in the pictures, and when she does there's a marked difference in her demeanor.

But what a living testament to what it means to be husband&wife! AMIRIGHT!

and in the end...

i don't remember where we left off before, but at some point while we were driving to grand rapids we passed through this very interesting, dense fog that covered the entire road. it had a weird smell to it, and it was very hard to see where we were going. by the time we came out the other side...wouldn't you know it....we landed smack-dab in the middle of ANOTHER alternate reality. thems the breaks, i guess. here's burke, from the past, trying to comprehend a metavari soundcheck from the future at the Max.


unfortunately, it took me so long to get the framing just right on this picture that i didn't have time to warn bryant before the gigantic monster licking it's chops right behind him bit his head off.....AGAIN...


there were no indian heads around this time, so we just jammed this crummy old box on his shoulders until the show was over and we could figure out something better.


then we suddenly realized that bryant's head wasn't gone at all, but that when he was eaten by the monster his soul got trapped in this elaborate ghost-busters style trap. we tried every 4-digit combination we could think of to set him free, from our bank pin numbers, to our birthdates. wouldn't you know, it was 1-2-3-4...last thing we tried!


once we released him, though, we realized he wasn't alone in there. sad to say, my own body was temporarily possessed by the souls of the giant monsters past victims. they compelled me to build the machine you see here in the picture, which served as a holding cell for the monster and rendered it powerless. no. big. deal.


Charles the Osprey at the Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids, Michigan


a meeting of the minds. i'm sure something awfully important is being discussed in this photograph. it was probably hard to tell what it was though, because everyone was probably talking very loudly and all at the same time.



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mexican brunch with jen and laura.



stranded.....

Weekend at E.J.'s II : Lil Burkey's Day out

we got the day started by snapping these glamour shots of ty for his lady. he's been missing her on the road since we left, and he wanted to do something nice. of course, by "his lady" i mean "hotornot.com".


here's me telling the other dudes about a sword fight i had gotten into earlier in the day. see, i got up early to go do some pilates and fencing at the gym on the roof of the hotel complex we were staying in, as is my usual routine. after the workout, when i came out of the shower, i got jumped by three dudes. they wanted my wallet, and i was like "are you CRAZY?!? i'm stark naked, and who would ever take their WALLET into the shower!?". luckily though, i never travel anywhere without my fencing sword, so i whipped that sucker out and showed those crooks who was boss.


we thought we had a leak in the tire, but we couldn't see any visible punctures or tears in the tread. nate had heard once that blind people's other senses become like super powers when they lose their sight. so, here he is closing his eyes and listening for the leak, thinking that his hearing would immediately improve. it didn't, but bryant did sneak up on him and fart right in his face and shout "did you hear THAT!". it was way immature.


not only was nate confused about the blind and their senses, but he also had a weird impression of what Canada was like. the first thing he wanted to do was infiltrate the parliament and plant an american flag in the middle of some official proceeding. here he is doing is best "impression of a Canadian" before he scaled the capital building wall. he did forget the flag though, so once he got into the building, he didn't know what to do, so he just ate some poutine at the parliament food court, came back outside, and we left.




Canada has the best malls. here we are killing time in an abandoned one, waiting for the zombies to come out and terrorize us. lucky for us, the same number of zombies came out at the mall as did people to the show that night, so we were totally safe.



also, before the show, time showed us this game he invented where you stand on one leg and slap at each other. very sissy.


the best shawarma we ever had?


casbah green room. casbah freaky scary terrifying weirdo green room.




after we played at the show, the crowd was really restless and screaming for more. so, when metavari came out for the encore we joined them on stage and ran through a set of improvisations and collaborations the likes of which have never been seen or heard. it was incredible. the place was electric and we sold out of all of our t shirts and cds and posters. then we all died and went to heaven.


here's nate's corpse right after he died.


detail of nate's rotten, bloated corpse.

you can't take that stuff to canada

so far this whole tour has consisted of almost exclusively driving, which doesn't make for much of a tour blog. it does, however, lend itself to a lot of inside-joking and delirious free association. And, a lot of funny made-up names like E.J. Turnbuckle, Chuck E. Jesus, and Dick Nail.

here is some stuff, though...mostly lies


Weird Owl Yankovic


what's there to say about this picture? brook has had this mustache in his bag since we left bloomington, and it was only when we were halfway across vermont in the rain that he decided to unveil it. at first, i did think he was nate, though.


nothing new here. moving right along...


here's tim sweet talking the border patrol. it was a VERY close call, but thanks to tim's unmatched charm and way with words we got trough the border with all of ty's k2 spice and bath salts in tact.


welcome to canada. have a seat.



after the show in montreal, a few of the guys in our crew kept insisting that you could get the best bagel in the world right around the corner from the venue. the next time someone says that to you, especially if you're very tired, just toss a baseball mitt in the microwave and chow down. it's virtually the same experience.


as is usual on any husband&wife tour, someone sat in gum...this time it was bryant.


world's biggest burger king playplace...