'walk all over me'

reliving the my bloody valentine show right now- i think i've gotten my recording to sound as good as it's ever going to sound. it captures the cavernous sound at the aragon very perfectly. ironically it sounds better and is more listenable than a lot of bootlegs i have- certainly mbv ones.
not too much to report- i am busy, busy busy. so many shows. i'm still not sure if i want to go to the sunny day in glasgow show or not. i'm feeling quite burned about being strung along and not given the opening slot. also not sure if i've gone into my long and maddening relationship with schuba's and their talent booking guy- over the past four years plus i've sent him no less than four cds- 'blue-eyed' in 2005, 'petals' and 'learning how to crawl' in 2007 and 'down to sleep' in 2008. i kind of figure that if 'down to sleep' doesn't catch his ears then nothing i send him is going to. emailing him every once in a while, asking to be added to bills, blah blah blah. the final time was when i emailed him asking to be added to the sunny day in glasgow show and he finally emailed me back saying that it might work and that he would check. wait a week or two, no response. finally i email him again to see and he emails me another semi-positive response that he's still not sure yet and then the next day i check their concert calendar to find that they've filled both slots. why didn't he just tell me that he was going to go with someone else? that sort of shit is so typical of what booking people do and i can't for the life of me figure out why they do that shit. i could see if i'd never contacted him before and had just sent him a cd six months prior, but i've sent him four of our cds and been in sporadic contact with him for over four fucking years! to me this is like when i spent two years applying and calling trying to get a job at borders in kansas city and when i interviewed they have a single question that basically makes or breaks you and i didn't give them the answer they wanted on that one so i didn't get the job. you've got to love that irony- apply to a place for two years, call trying to get an interview, majoring in the field that they specialize in and then all of that suddenly doesn't matter when you don't give them the exact answer that they're looking for on one question. it's one of those examples of how i wished that people placed more stock in what individuals actually DID over what they SAID because the two aren't the same. most people talk a great game but deliver nothing. other people aren't as big on the talk but deliver the goods with their actions. it seems to me that 'all talk and no action' is the way to go, really. so that said i'm not so sure i want to go to the show- it's coming up pretty soon, but does fall on a night i have off. i'd only have to pay for myself.
chapterhouse are playing at lincoln hall in may. sort of weird- someone on the my bloody valentine board was taking suggestions for venues to recommend to them for their little reunion tour and i was the one who recommended that place for chicago. i think it's a good choice for them- i don't think they're well-known enough to sell out a place like the metro, but it's possible that a place as small as the empty bottle wouldn't be big enough. i'm not 100% certain of their notoriety, though. lincoln hall's a nice middle ground- it could go either way. the guy who asked for the potential venues ended up telling me that he also recommended my band as possible openers for the show and that if we're asked we would know who to thank. i had kind of forgotten about it as this was quite a long time ago. so now that they've been booked i'm hoping that they contact us but in a stance that's typical of my world view i'm not expecting it.
i'm not real sure what's going to go down in the future. i would like to play some out of town shows this year but nothing really seems to be panning out so much- no response from the guy who booked us at MSU, no confirmation on the proposed record release show at the empty bottle. i've tried to get booked at smaller loft sort of places, but to no avail so far. i'm not sure what the deal is with that- i guess it comes back to the not being able to talk that good of a game. why is this? i don't really know. i'm trying not to be upset by it and just keep busy. whatever happens i'm probably just going to keep at it. i see no reason for stopping. everything else is pretty much out of my control.

'days were long and the living was fine'

the records arrived. i've been finding some warped ones, which is a bit of a concern. i think for the most part they're going to be okay, it's just a bit of a concern. not sure what it's from- probably from ordering them in the jackets. yay! lessons! however i've found shelf space for all six boxes of 50- don't know how i did that...
have to go buy some printer cartridges after i get my paycheck today- possibly at least start on the printing of the promos and i was going to try printing out the cover image straight from the computer since the print i ordered through snapfish kind of sucks. i'm also going to print out a copy of the back cover image to take to kinkos to print onto some transparency film and burn the screen for the back cover. i think i'll print up about twenty zines while i'm there as well. after getting my paycheck i'm going to have to stop at staples to get a few things- most notably cdr envelopes for the promos and a stapler that i can use to staple the zines together without fucking them up. it's time to mail out the promos. it's been time for a while. hop to, son. as if all of that weren't enough to do chris is coming over tonight to record and we're going out to dinner afterwards at one of the many nearby ethiopian restaurants in the neighborhood that we never bothered to go to during the four years we've lived here. all part of the bucket list we're trying to make and get through before we move in april. yikes, it's coming up!
still waiting on the confirmation of the record release show at the empty bottle. come through come through come through. once that's all done and finished i'm going to mail take some of the warped records and make them into promos to mail out to a few choice places. bill smith also sent us a box of an extra 15 records- six of which were warped, the other nine of which i'm going to use to distribute to band members/helper bees/family/etc. i guess that's a word to the wise, kids- don't have your records shipped inside the jackets. no good!
at some point i need to go by gramaphone on clark st. to get some black jackets for the test pressings, which i'm giving out to band members as well. not sure what to do with the final one. i was thinking we should sell them for $15 each, but i'm beginning to think that we should sell them at shows for a nice, round $10. i forgot to factor into the cost the fact that the mastering is a one-time fee. mail-order ones will be $15, though. probably going to sell them on consignment for that price as well.
i'm very excited at the proposition of this and i hope that it works out well. i'm just going to send them all over hell and hades and hope for the best. i have 100 promos after all. i'm going to send those around to student radio stations regardless of whether or not we go on tour, i think. i think there's a good chance things'll work out well.

'i counted every grain of sand...'

i'm back at metropolis today. haven't updated in a really long time. this has mainly because i've been incredibly busy- making preparations for when the records will arrive. i got the phone call on tuesday that they were ready to go and we needed to settle up the rest of our balance. so they are now in the mail most likely! very excited, but also a bit nervous as there is still so much to do. i've started printing the promos- the zines for those didn't turn out as nicely as i'd hoped- the layout is kind of all over the place... i spent $60 at kinko's and nearly finished the insides of them and they look alright. most of them will be sent to radio stations and places like that, anyway. sending some out to places for review as well. i guess i should start printing the covers for those. fairly simple i guess, just kind of dreading it a bit. i really wish they looked better. fortunately, though, the zines that come with the actual vinyl will look much nicer plus there is some room in those to re-insert some more of stefanie's artwork. she was bummed about this until i went through it with her and showed here that i'd used copies of her handwritten lyrics on several pages as well as the fact that several of the pictures were taken by her.
i also have to get a screen burned for the back cover of the record. i think as long as those are done by the time of the record release show then it'll be alright. still haven't heard the final word on that one... hope it's still on.
started putting the feelers out for a proposed west coast tour in september. by this i mainly mean that i emailed the guy who gave us a show at the montana state university in bozeman. it kind of all hinges on whether or not we can get a show there. i suppose we could do another flier mailing.
we were going to go on tour in april, but i got zero responses to any of the many emails i sent out. i got a good one from someone in new york at piano's that i sadly ended up having to tell him we weren't going to be able to make it- which is quite a bummer for me to do since we are offered so few shows and i hate to reject any offer.
i've also started a new job, which is a work from home kind of deal. it's pretty much the type of thing i've always wanted- a bit frustrating at the moment because i'm still learning the ropes and it's going to take a while to get the hang of it. it's video transcribing- right now i'm transcribing old episodes of the johnny carson show. i'm mainly hoping that it'll provide me with enough extra money to help accelerate the payment of my credit card debt, as well as the money that i owe stefanie. i'm hoping that these things will help allow me save more of my tip money for other things- saving up to buy a vox guitar, a roland space echo and a colorsound wah, for example. saving for going on tour as well, of course.
we're also moving into a 3-bedroom apartment that a friend owns in old irving park. we are getting it for a steal because stefanie is bartering some of her massage skills with her. it's going to be $60 more a month in rent for me to come up with every month, which i'm a bit nervous about. as long as i can get my debt paid down i will be able to easily afford it. as long as i can get my debt paid down. my current attitude is basically that i'd like to go on tour in september, but if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out. touring doesn't seem to necessarily be that doable for most people these days. i was talking to mike the other night and this is something we talked about for an extended period of time. if the college show works out, though, we'll be able to go. i think it might be a little easier for us to fill in the gaps this time around- there were really only three or so. i wanted to play a show in kansas city this time around on the way back as well so it would kill two birds with one stone.
i think i'm going to sign off now for today before this entry gets too mad-crazy off the charts.