shows i’m not playing but rather psyched about: nautical almanac tonight at as220 (even though i can’t go); july 23rd- kayo dot (nick kyte’s awesome band on tzadik), max noi mach (rob francisco from monster attacks!), urdog (nice providence guys), tiny hawks (gus + art = best pummeling band since fiesel) at the HOSS; august 9th- orthrealm and mr brinkman at the HOSS. yeeeeeeeeaaaahhh!!!!!!!!!!!

ok, two shows to recap here. first was in alston at morgan coe’s house, in his backyard. i took the train in and with no wrong turns or anything i took the right train and walked to his house no problem. peter sibley and charles shubert were there, which i was happy about. this is charlie who only a day before arrived at my house from chicago by bike and immediately notified me that the translation of “critique of pure reason” i put in the outhouse was “out of date”, then twisted his ankle something fierce in a long-jump competition with little andrew. after the show we went looking for pizza and he was walking like a frankenstein’s monster, eliciting sympathy from the pizza place who gave us two free “we’re closed and this is left over” slices. but that was after the show. the during the show was good too. dan shea played some great funny songs and worked the crowd, i played my set, including a special song i wrote for playing with morgan coe (it’s about working in a factory), 9 billion names of god played nice and kept it holy, then bread and roses did their second backyard hoedown in two days. really fun show. matt coe was there too, drinking swampwater and getting real mean. lots of my friends were there, in fact, but they stayed nice. in the morning we had kevin play some good wake up records (reggae tone and crunk, mostly) then i took the train back to worcester.

that day (tuesday) i got ready for the puzzled panther show at the flywheel, and just by the skin of my teeth organized rides out there for everyone in the band. the show was a full-on noise show, then us playing last. i’m pretty happy we played last, because that meant that tim and rich had to wait the whole show to play, and watch and form opinions on it all. univark started started it off doing consumer keyboard – effects processor stuff, wearing a fur costume under a black light. my favorite part was when things got fucked up, but not in the way he expected– long, nearly-quiet patch-cord switching parts as his costume became visibly uncomfotable. i tend to view noise performances through a cageian filter– that the most important thing about noise performance is that it can get one to reconsider what is and is not music, and pin the tag “creative” on the listener. so, my delight when all goes mysteriously quiet and no disrespect to the performer. massacre of the dead was next, that’s a devilish duo from the schoolhouse in hadley. they set up drums and bass and effects, and the first minute (said mike leslie, who is also back in town for a good while) sounded like lightening bolt doing “anthrax” by gang of four. but maybe that was the sound check. the show proper was when they immediately turned into cavemen, hopping and hooting and throwing the drums around. yeah, it was good. king darves played next with boxes with lots of knobs, and a mic. it was like a casual blend of live noise nomads and kites, but without the mystery, animality, and soul-searching, and attendant spiritual highs. will soderberg was next, with guitar fed through a laptop and other pedals and stuff. at this point i just didn’t have the attention span to watch a guy move a mouse around. the flywheel must have a video projector, since they do movies and stuff. there should be a laptop show where they project the screen. i think that kind of “looking behind the curtain” could do a lot for the otherwise hard-to-watch laptop set. we went on last and it was fun. people sang along, it was a good time. on sunday’s show i forgot to bring drum sticks so i have to rummage around in the woods looking for other sticks i could use. all through the set i was shredding bark and breaking sticks, and it went so well i decided to try it tuesday too, and yes, it worked out, and no, i didn’t break a drum head. the guys from extreme animals were there and asked us if we’d play a show in august, so maybe we will and if so it’ll probably be a ton of fun!!! i think we’re going to record next week.

tonight’s show was awesome! it was puzzled panther’s first show, and mary, tim, and rich’s first show as well, and they all did great, especially since mary and rich both had equipment failure, and i forgot to bring the words to “my dad throws rocks at cars” but tim already had it memorized! it was really great. i’d say the only problem was that, since it was soda day, we were drinking a lot of soda, and right before we went on, tim sugar-crashed. but now that can’t happen for a month, as soda day is a strictly once-a-month occasion. bread and roses and 9 billion names of god also played and were great. bread and roses switched up their line-up and now has fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, drums, and upright bass. and they changed “streams of whiskey” to “streams of moxie”, which made me, and i’m quite sure little andrew and two drinks, very happy.

tomorrow (monday) i’m playing in alston, at morgan coe’s house, but it’s just me solo. tuesday puzzled panther is playing at the flywheel, and i really think you should go.

we’ve got a cat at the house now, for the mouse problem you know. he’s real lean, and orange– he goes well. plus, he stays inside at night, meaning he’ll live longer (coyotes, foxes, fishers oh my). the downside is that he came with the name “felix”. knowing my predeliction for naming things, you could well imagine my initial feelings on the matter. but now i’m at ease with it, as i’ve been enforcing the notion that his full name is “felix da housecat” and he is in fact named after a second-wave chicago house dj

in a related topic, peter knows what i like, and sent me this link to an interesting article about mongolians being forced to choose their own last names.

saturday, june 26th at the WAG, 38 Harlow St, Worcester Ma, see Tigersaw,
Liz Kelly, Rachel Spicuglia, Good Time John. All Ages. Cost: $5/$4 with canned food. Doors: 7:00p, Bands: 7:30p. this is a dc-fiy event. tigersaw played at my house a handful of times. real nice w/ cello.

people get ready. Puzzled Panther – Soda Day

wake up in the morning
drink a couple liters of soda
no sprite remix - that sucks!
get on your bikes and ride
     soda day! soda day!
     s. o. d. a. day!

woken up by mullet kids
go to kelley square flea market
candy guy sees us coming
he says "oh crap!"
     soda day! soda day!
     s. o. d. a. day!

it's two o'clock time to get sick
push down trees in the woods
dan wars sad look on his face
firecrackers go off at a rapid pace
     soda day! soda day!
     s. o. d. a. day!

dr pepper!
birch beer!
orange soda!
grape soda!
peach soda!
ginger beer!
moxie!
root beer!
lots of soda!!!!!!

i’m pretty pumped for the shows next week- sunday at semloh nosliw’s house, it’s puzzled panther with bread and roses and nine billion names of god, monday it’s me, jacob berendes, in boston somewhere with bread and roses and nine billion names of god and dan shea, and tuesday it’s puzzled panther with will soderberg, univark, and massacre of the dead at the flywheel in easthampton. we had another puzzled panther practice today and it just keeps getting better. we recorded some songs so that we could remember exactly how they go, maybe tomorrow i’ll get andrew to help me mix them down and finally have some new mp3s up. shit, man, if you’re not pumped to see this band, who are you and why are you here? oh yeah, sunday’s show is on soda day! and after the show we’re gonna play ultimate frisbee!

melissa number one’s new chicago roomates came out to visit / pick her up and what drives me crazy is that her roomates are named jake and nick. now, i’ve never met another person named jake who i’ve liked at all (with the exception of jake benjamin who proved a comical contrast to yours truly). i’ve tried to remain diplomatic about this other jake, but for weeks melissa mel and kara keep bringing up our differences and our similarities though i’ve asked them numerous times to stop making a big deal out of it, as it really makes me uncomfortable for reasons left basically unexplored but (i feel) pretty obvious. last night the other nick jokingly referred to the other jake as “the better jake” and i literally dragged him outside and assaulted him (the other nick). i feel pretty stupid about it but ultimately unapologetic. “jacob” is the most popular baby name for boys, and has been for four years, and it’s been in the top ten since 1996, so i guess i have a lot more of these experiences on the way. or maybe this just means i just have to go the way of lew alcindor and cassius clay.

as anyone monitoring the guestbook (inlcuding the fbi) could tell you, there was a party over the weekend and it was fun and indeed, i drank swampwater. swampwater is when you drink a 40 down to the label and fill the rest with “something blue”. i further innovated by adding spirulina and rice milk and having a “beerulina” which proved to be quite healthy. there was dancing and bonfires and some very nice hanging out and when the stereo shat the bed bread and roses played a fireside set while spin the bottle went on inside. at dinner steve gave a speech and cried (as is the custom) and i sang a song (the worcester theme song). next morning 28 of us crowded tina’s worcester diner for some good morning and how do you do that really sent my tummy rumbling and i had to lie down.

would whoever guestbooked me a few weeks ago about the PUZZLE PUNKS cd please email me as i would really like a copy and have other boredomsiana to trade. it is worth both of our whiles.

man, yesterday was some fucked-up day. if you, casual reader, had a fucked-up day on tuesday june 15th, i don’t want to necissarily hear about it, but you should know that you were not alone, as a number of people around me, and even me, so even keeled as to be rendered unsteerable, were in your boat. it was mixed-boat metaphor fucked. i guess the main reason i’m bringing this up is that the number of people and the quality of fucked-upedness exceeds (in my opinion) reasonable distribution models, and i’m concerned about non-lethal energy weapons, waves of dark matter, sun storm activity, pink slime under the city etc. that would disrupt sensitive individuals in a crowd while affecting no measurable physical change. true story. matt carroll, any phenomina of note?

UPDATE: friend-of-a-friend 1 was fired, in a hurricane, and in a car crash yesterday. FOAF2 was in a train that plowed through an active construction site, killing a worker on a people mover.

“Worcester businesses and police are on alert for possible action by eco-terrorists who may be re-emerging after lowering their profile in the wake of the 9/11 attacks… FBI officials would not say yesterday why Worcester was included on a national list of cities warning of possible action by affiliates of the Earth Liberation Front…  The cities on the FBI list are the same as those listed on the Web for events to support jailed eco-activist Jeff Luers. The Worcester event is a dinner and dance party next weekend. ” FBI warns of eco-terror: Worcester businesses go on alert.

mom- this is why my phone is tapped– a dance party.