one week away.

time is flying. things have been really good lately, happy, content, excited. it's a bit unnerving knowing that when i return from europe i will no longer have steady work, just found that out. it is all a very good thing, i can't do the service thing anymore. it's too easy and ultimately dull and wasteful for me. i love the folks i work with, but it's not worth all the time i spend wishing i could be creating art or find meaning in my work.
the tour schedule is coming together nicely, enough space between shows that i'll be able to enjoy the landscape and cities we're visiting. most of our shows are in italy. in fact, it seems there may be no french shows at all at this point. i can't do much from over here, and haven't the slightest idea who to contact. eric's done and fantastic job so far as i can tell.
i haven't been abroad in three years. i love the foreigner feeling. feigning local awareness, looking out of place. it is europe though, not like on a bus in southern peru, kicking chicken shit and whiffing all sorts of acrid dreg. people will be well dressed and polite, or impolite and well dressed. really, i couldn't be more excited. it hasn't hit me yet that i'm leaving in a week. i'm going to put up the dates we've secured so far and if you're friends with anyone in italy or barcelona, please pass it along.

nov. 18th barcelona --- tba
nov. 24th sen benedetto del tronto, ancona --- pao
nov. 30th roma --- fanfulla 101
dec. 3rd caserta --- jarmusch
dec. 4th fano, pesaro --- boomker
dec. 5th faenza --- clandestino
dec. 6th preganziol, treviso --- macaco house

olympia and these last few days...

what a murky skyline this morning. turgid grey and wet like cold pea soup. i'm headed to olympia today with ohioan for a couple shows. last night we played a house party with some friends whom are all leaving portland today, it's kind of a bummer actually. we'll have fun in washington i'm sure.
thursday we opened for ah holly fam'ly. i really do love those kids. we played well, except when my guitar cable got unplugged during the ONLY solo i play in any aan song. that was some bullshit.... seemed we got a very positive response. gotta keep the dream alive.
getting super psyched on europe. can't wait to cross the sea and be in barcelona one again. someday i'll live there. trying to tie up the loose end shows in france, marsielle, and lyon.
i've been really into this guy flying lotus lately. it's super stoney, dirty sounding. well, judge for yourself. in good spirits and not too hung over, even with a handle of maker's being passed around last night.... shit.

i.r. meatcleavaa

it's monday again.
seems the loose ends fray more and more, hold up in my room and sift through internet nothings. last night i sketched up this meat cleaver idaho for a friend of mine. it's not that cleaver. we've been on the roommate hunt these last few days and narrowed to two wonderful and (very) different folks. not sure how it's gonna turn out. i'm one month away from europe and getting nervous a bit. killed the n.y. times crossword today. got my run in. i guess everything is alright.
what a beautiful fall day!

Famous

I got an audition today for the new Gus Van Zant flick shooting next month. It's just one line and I can't imagine really getting paid but if I get it I'll be FAMOUS! Can you imagine? Me neither. It's gonna rule.
I'd be "Nurse 1"....Shitchaya.
This week is a wild card. No obligations, well, recording a track Saturday with Ohioan but the rest is up in the air. I missed my marathon yesterday. Not sure who I was kidding. I don't think you're supposed to just sign up and run a marathon. Maybe next year. No shows i've caught wind of either that smell so sweet I can't resist. I'm sure there's some good stuff, I haven't poked around yet.
I've been listening to Bob Drake's "Skull Mailbox" this morning. The record is genius, deft musicianship and vivid images of scary stories- style macabre. Shrunken heads, impossible shapes, crepuscular vestibules. What?
I love this record.

Free album

I just put up a link via mediafire to last year's record, "....nice things". Feel free to pick it up, share it with everyone and tell us you're into it. There's much more Aan stuff on the way, it's just a bitch sometimes....

Planning For Italy

Hello Folks.
So I'm firing up this blog in preparation for my excursion over seas. I'm drumming with Eric Crespo in Ghost to Falco and we've got several shows planned throughout France, one (hopefully) in Spain and a slew in Italy.
Work and music have been hectic lately so I'm feeling at ease finally today to sit down and hammer out a few important tasks and not have time and structure stiffening my demeanor. The gray of PNW has returned this morning.
The day stretched before me lazily, I guess I plan on augmenting some old recordings that have long sat untouched, I plan on a good run in Forest Park and try to track a drum line for a new song. Both my roomates are out for the day so the drums are going up in the living room. I only have two mics right now, a solid Russian condenser and my general go-to sm-57. I sometimes can't decide on placement for the 57, i like having it on the snare so I can eq and pan heavily, but it gets good enough low end that sometimes it sounds better stuck inside the kick drum. I haven't decided yet and since I've got nobody to help me out, I'll probably just F+++ around until I get sick of it and go with what seems like the nominal choice.
The track I'm recording is one a promised a friend I'd never perform for her live, a promise I've since broken several times. Sometimes the most brutal is the most beautiful. I like the lyrics very much, however dark or incongruent to our current relational state it might be. Here are the lyrics:

Rip rip men up!
howl the green loose in them
and stand atop your toes,
Curse!
Fuck!
Make bones sound out wet.
Shutter the south or your waist
for you are a burning thing
and I know WHO YOU ARE:
-A pillow.
-Silk.
-Ambrosia.
-Silver Pooling.
Still I would rage on you.
Tear at you to soak myself in blood,
South and North

Until I'm
-wet and dripping with the life-
that is killing me
I am
-wet and dripping with the life-
that is killing you
because
If you meant everything........
then nothing...................
could mean anything............
anymore........................

I know it's quite violent but I don't mean it to be so. It was written in haste and without censorship.
I don't think this way anymore but it's provocative enough that it's here and a part of me somehow.
Let today be a great day!