Alright, so it’s been almost five months since I updated. Ooooops. In the meantime, I played lead guitar in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar (with fellow Drum Pug Ky Fifer starring as Judas), me and my Pugs played a couple shows and I’ve been writing and recording all sorts of terrible terrible music (only if you are Big Foot or The Yeti that is). Also, I have made Real Nights into a real boy so actual physical CDs will be available soon.

I have a few other projects in the works that I probably shouldn’t mention until they actually become worth mentioning. But yeah things, they happen.

Here are a few videos that can more or less sum up the past few months:

More rad stuff coming soon! As always!

Real Nights is now available for download and streaming on Band Camp! The download is pay-what-you-want (aka free) so you have no excuse for not getting your filthy paws on this record! Do it!

Real Nights by me and my Pugs (Mayhaw Hoons and Ky Fifer) is now 100% done, and we are working on all the various little release details and artwork and whatnot. I’m hoping to have the online-only release ready in May, with the physical CD release in June or July. Yesss. While all that happens, here is another SNEEK PREEVIEW! This song is called “I Don’t Mind If The Sun Shines.” (click link to dl)

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Recording Real Nights, October 2010.

With the album 99% done at this point, it is time for another SNEEK PREEVIEW of Real Nights featuring my Pugs, Mayhaw Hoons and Ky Fifer. This song features not only Ky’s usual drumming and backing voxing, but also saxing! His horn is all over this track. It’s called “Draw Me Out“:

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The full album will be out in May probably! I can’t wait. Y’all are gonna love it. EAT YOUR HEART OUT, THE BAND TOOL.

The Alex Arrowsmith and His Pugs album Real Nights is almost done, so I think the time is also ripe now for a SNEEK PREEVIEW. It’s called “Window Made Of Diamonds.” Download here or listen here:

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Credits:

Alex Arrowsmith – vocals, guitar, keys
Mayhaw Hoons – bass, backing vocals
Ky Fifer – drums, backing vocals

And “Window Made Of Diamonds” live from the Banana Stand last summer:

The album will be out so sooooooon!

Progress reports: The Pugs album Real Nights is almost done. Ky only has a couple more songs to do and then it’s mostly just down to mixing! I don’t know what is happening as far as an actual CD release, but it will most likely be available online first in any case.

I’ve also started working on an ambient album, in the style of dudes like Brian Eno and Steve Roach. I’ve always liked that stuff, and it’s so fun to make because it’s the exact opposite of a pop album—no melody, no real rhythm, completely impressionistic. I’ve never really made a serious attempt at making anything to actually release though, so I’m doing LOTS of demos and experiments to see what works and what doesn’t. That album won’t take long to make though. I sense it’ll be out before summer.

Now for the fun stuff:

A clip from the UK TV show Skins featuring “Wharfless“:

“Wharfless” in its entirety, to make searching for and hearing the song easier than having to listen to samples on online stores:

And finally, “Space Elevator” live from last week’s solo show at the White Eagle. Video taken by Ken Scott Euker!

Upcoming Pugs show: January 3 at the White Eagle with Tiger House. They’re doing a residency there that month on Mondays and they invited us to play. It will be our first show since freaking August! But we’ve been super productive in that time; we recorded an album. Ky is still working on his overdubs, but it is 90% done! I hope to have it out by spring or so.

It has been said that Twitter is the death of many websites and blogs. I update that thing all the time, but so not this much better-equipped website (yet, do I need a “fail manatee”?). Adding posts longer than 160 characters is hard!

Today, Nick Delffs came over and we recorded the final two overdubs for the next Shaky Hands album (tentatively titled—last I heard anyway—Realms Out Of Reach). It involved vocoder, possibly the last thing anyone would expect to hear in a Shaky Hands song, yet it works perfectly (it IS in the background, not part of some Daft Punkian dance break). And apart from Rafter adding those two overdubs down in San Diego, all the mixing is done too. Now we just gotta release the thing!

I should also mention that I’m going to be playing bass in The Shaky Hands exclusively now that Mayhaw has left. There will be a couple other new people added to the fold as well, but Nick will still be playing drums! That has really worked out well, so there is no reason to change that.

The past month myself, Mayhaw and Ky have been tracking a set of 14 songs for the Alex Arrowsmith & His Pugs album (tentatively titled Real Nights). Like always, I’m engineering/producing/mixing/bluhbluh everything myself but this time with My Pugs in our comfy practice space at Ky’s house in SE Pertland. It is a major departure from all my previous albums, because everything is based around a real band tracking live with no click tracks and no tomfoolery. No ballyhoo. Of course there will be added production, but it all revolves around the basic three-piece takes and it sounds RAD. That should be coming out earlyish 2011. After that, I’ll probably do another Modernity Leave-style album recorded on my four-track. And then another Pugs album. And then the ten-year anniversary reissue of A Bunch Of Songs in November 2012 (with new art by Joe Keatinge!).

We have no Pugs shows coming up at the moment. We wanted to have as few distractions for recording as we could, since we can only get together once or twice a week and if we were playing shows, those would have to be devoted to practicing for a show instead of recording. Also, Mayhaw wants to take a bit of a break from live shows (kind of going back to him leaving the Shakies). But hopefully Ky and I can threaten him inappropriately or something to get him to play some more shows once the album is done.

Also, I play with my friend Nate Birkholz in an on-again-off-again band called Redcoat Turncoat. We recorded an album a year ago (I freaking got to play a real Wurlitzer electric piano) and it just came out last week! We played a release show at Slabtown and it ruled. Lots and lots of funs. Listen and buy!