It’s official, my furry crustaceans: Modernity Leave is coming out NEXT MONTH! In just the past couple of weeks, I finished up the recording of a record total 40 songs on my shabby old Fostex XR-7 four-track contraption. Then just two days ago I mixed and mastered it in a day. Today I designed the cover. I love this album. It’s totally different from anything I’ve done so far. Not that it’s all crazy and innovative or anything. It’s just unpolished and rough as a rasp, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. And I figured, to make it worth your while, I’d fill up an entire CD. While I recorded 40 songs, not all of them will fit, so there’s “only” going to be 36 songs. I’ll have the final running order up here soon!

PREPARE.

Also, don’t forget about my show on Sept. 3 at the Ash St.! Shove it into your temporal lobe!

Alyssa has been working a ton on the website the past few days. Doesn’t it look so pretty? It’s going to the senior prom with The Drudge Report, and I don’t approve of this. He didn’t even bring a corsage.

There isn’t a whole lot of news to report for the time being, except for the two shows I have coming up in the next couple months. August 16 at the Hawthorne Theater Lounge and Sept 3 at the Ash St. Saloon. The latter will be an electric set and the former will be acoustic. I may try to get a special guest or two.

Public Domain Rainbow report: I have been working on three songs lately: “Nuke Song II,” “Breathe In The Air” (with Alyssa on vocals) and “The Act Of Living.” They’re mostly done, except there is more singing to be sung. I haven’t been able to record vocals lately though because 1) Alyssa has had a cold and 2) IT’S TOO RAGING WARM. Recording vocals when it’s hot is the worst thing ever, because I have to turn off all the fans, close the windows and doors AND have a computer heating up this small space. For some reason, I always end up recording albums in the summer. It’s never a good idea. I think I’m going to build a studio on Antarctica and only record in the middle of the night in July (remember, the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere).

Here’s what the track listing is looking like at the moment:

1. Bad Vibrations
2. A Different Story
3. Sexual Taxi
4. Step Inside
5. Saving Up The World
6. Painted Over
7. Breathe In The Air
8. Nuke Song II
9. 2012
10. My Minimum
11. Not Salman Rushdie
12. YouTube Celebrity
13. The Act Of Living
14. We All Abide

Of course, that will surely change by the time I release the album. It always does. Oh, and when is this album coming out, you whisper? Probably not before the end of the year, unless Ed McMahon comes to my door soon, in which case I’d have bigger issues than an album release to deal with.

Stay apprehensive, my friends.

Alex

Two shows coming up! July 2 at the Twilight and an acoustic set at August 16 at the Hawthorne Theater Lounge. I might have another coming up soon as well. Please come to all of them. You probably haven’t seen me play since last year, because I haven’t played since last year (except for that last-minute Fantasia 26 show).

Modernity Leave is fairly close to being done (29 songs!), but I’m not sure what I want to do with it. My opinion of it changes every day. It’s a heart breaker. Just like Mike Campbell.

I have also been working on two new Public Domain Rainbow songs. One is “Nuke Song II,” which was originally written and recorded for Modernity Leave. I decided it was too good to merely languish in lo-fi land, so I started recording it properly for PDR. It features a LinnDrum and gated reverb. You do the math.

I’m also working on a song for Alyssa to sing the lead vocals on. The song came from a dream I had and I didn’t want to disobey my subconscious, so I wrote it for real the next day. It’s called “Breathe In The Air,” which is a boring title and sounds like a Bette Midler song, but that’s what it was called in my dream, so I’m keeping it. Alyssa also sang it in my dream, which is why I’ve been bugging her to learn it for the past couple weeks. She actually doesn’t even like it that much. She says it’s boring and not a very good song. But she’s wrong you know! When y’all hear the finished version, y’all will be blazed.

I’ve also been working on finishing up the Tiger House album, Geodyssey. I’m very proud of how it turned out. It’s a great little indie pop/rock truffle. You’ll been hearing more of it very soon.

Also, this website is still very much under construction. It’s a big mess right now. But that will change pretty soon. The buffet is still being prepped.

Last night, Alyssa’s Dad (Pumaman, genius creator of the Pumaboard pedalboard) gave me an unclaimed Pumaboard he had around. It’s slightly bigger than the one I’ve been using, and now I can incorporate a flanger pedal that I will probably never use (but doesn’t it look cool on there??) as well as many other future pedals. And everything is much roomier and cleaner in general. It looks lovely doesn’t it? Thanks Pumaman! </guitargeek>

Also, in Tiger House news, KINK will be playing our single “Air Traffic” tomorrow night at 9:15 pm on their Local Music Spotlight. Listen to it then if you’re one of the 2 people in the world who hasn’t heard it yet! We’re also playing at Plan B on Valentine’s Day. 21+ and stuff.

Jaggedly,
Alex