last wednesday’s power day was so righteous. blister pack was great, kpars’ first band playing guitar, and they had a song quoting jonny houston– “i like it, it tastes good, i have one.”. also they played “where are they now?” and i lost my mind yelling the names of people that moved out of worcester. bone zone and terribles are a classic one two, nothing surprising but everyone was playing as hard as they could. the terribles had fresnel lenses hanging in front of their microphones, so their screaming faces dwarfed their miserable bodies. genesis climber was two basses and drums, and one of the bass players knows old friends by their old old names, a nice surprise. very prog, ripping for days. at one point someone called out for rise above, but they didn’t know the words so dominic jumped up perfect and in a pinch. i realized only later that all their songs are about ascension. black rainbow killed it. lots of fun, lots of moving around, everyone going nuts all night. i even went swimming afterwards (and possibly caught a pond infection in my throat). in the morning, breakfast in the fashion.

today (ssaturday) at HBML we’re doing another silk screen day. the image is a geisha applying make up to her tense face, but i blanked out all the patterns on her clothing, so you can color it in with the pattern of your choice post hoc. i will have some fabric markers there for this purpose, although i don’t know about drying times. hustling all day yesterday to prepare a zine for the event, or at least a little one-sheet, about different patterns and their meanings, japanese and otherwise, but my nice, perfect for this applictation, “japanese patterns” book is MIA. i even tore apart my room, in a way that made it more orderly even, to no avail. very frustrating. i tried to not do everything super last minute this time, but here it is, nigh-on to the last minute…

i cut my hair and now i look like brainiac 5.

every morning for three days now it’s strawberry rhubarb pie with yogurt, and hot coffee. then 2 hours later i eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich. pure champ!

tonight’s all that stuff then tomorrow shakespeare in the park, just a stone’s throw from my house.

bears repeating:

this hump day, HUMP IT.

starting at 6pm at the firehouse, it’s the return of the missoula oblangata theatre troupe, performing their new play “last hurrah of the clementines”. this theatre troupe is just two people –two best friends– and recently me and ML had the honor of appearing in a play written by one of them, and it was really really fun. the last play they did here in town had a lot of boxing, kaleidoscopes, detectives, and moody behaviour. what this new play holds in store for us, ALAS I KNOW NOT. but it’ll ripp. i said on the flyer that the night would start precisely at 6pm with a short movie, which is true, but the flyer intuited that it would be a new movie, and i didn’t really have the time to put this together, so instead the movie will be a short by my friend xander marro (who recently had a show at HBML). the movie will be about ducks, bonnets, and ghoulish monsters, and as i said, will start at 6pm S.H.A.R.P. with free pupcorn and also coffee. again, the play will start immediately following the movie, which is not long, and is quite enjoyable.

THEN immediately following the play, or anyway, some brief spell afterwards, at distant castle (which isn’t a far walk), there’s ANOTHER AWESOME SHOW, of the roque varieté. bands include (and are limited to):

TERRIBLES (courtly rogues of times long present)
BONEZONE (hardcore that left hardcore)
BLISTER PACK (first show! featuring kp, pkp, kindy prennan, and k-matt pkoe)
BLACK RAINBOW (joplinesque vox over excited rhythms, featuring erick lyle of scam magazine. this is your favorite band!)
GENESIS CLIMBER (previously REGGIE JACKSON BASEBALL)

epic show for a weeknight, which will start very soon after the end of the play.

these are two independent shows, and we humbly ask you to chip in some moneys for both, as gasoline is NUTS and people break their backs to bring incredible works to your hometown.

ALSO: karaoke afterwards at ralph’s until last call, then running naked through institute park, then falling asleep in the parking lot of the antiquarian society, then working out next morning at the WPI gym, then eating raw eggs at price chopper when no one’s looking, then staring into the sun, then drilling into the center of the earth and pooping, then waiting 40 years, then the poop has become a diamond, then you give the diamond to your granddaughter, your granddaughter hawks the diamond, buys a guitar. A SPACE GUITAR.

the email:

hey you fucks

the INCISOR show with TINSEL TEETH is actually tomorrow, thursday.
NADIR is also playing.

so again, that’s
INCISOR: ululating world-haters vomit live scorpion eggs
TINSEL TEETH: strutting glass-breakers flaunt bodily transgressions
NADIR: quiet guys that are 100% twitch muscle unpent their aggressions with technical finesse

as before, this show is at distinct hassle.

and it’s on thursday, which is tomorrow.

tonight you can go wherever you want to go to discuss the weather.

i don’t know what’s happening with my life

july 30th (wednesday) at the firehouse, 6pm. i think the movie thing is not going to happen, but we’ll have some other attraction.

there’s another show this nite (alluded to in the flyer), which is black rainbow, genesis climber, terribles, bonezone, and blister pack, at distant castle. blister pack is kpars, macoe, the countess cindy b, and PKPKPKPKPKP, it’s their first show.

tonight at the wheelchair, st jude, nadir, and some other bands. st jude is vegan life mike riley’s band. nadir has a new split 7″ out now, gotta grab it…

tomorrow at distant castle, deer tick, jana hunter, jjb buckmaster. jana hunter played in town last year and it was awesome– way echoey, with the words just crawling out of her mouth like a snake from a skull on a cool tattoo. JJBB will be playing some songs off his upcoming solo cd “MEDIEVAL LIFE CRISIS”. deer tick will be quizzed on the politics of the california raisins, by me, during the set. i would bet dollars to donuts there will be some sserious candlelight in effect at this show.

this weekend is BRATFEST at the tinderbox, in brattleboro VT. it’s a three day affair but the terribles will be playing with opie and king tuff’s band “phased out” on sunday, so that day is crucial. duh.

july 23rd at distant castle, the return of INCISOR, plus tinsel teeth and more TBA. incisor now has kpars on guitar- SSSIKK!!!!!

july 30th at firehouse, the return of the missoula oblongata, plus a short movie premiere the details of which have yet to be worked out. anyway the MO will be performing their new play “the last hurrah of the clementines”. movie starts at 6pm sharp so the whole thing can be over in time for:

BLACK RAINBOW, with TERRIBLES, BONE ZONE, and BLISTER PACK (matt coe, cindy, kpars, and PKP; first show). at the DCU center. which is to ssay, distant castle. also on july 30th, but workable.

see you shids there! maybe…

playing again today with yoni gordon, at distant castle, 8pm. almost forgot about this one…

playing a show tomorrow (tuesday) in providence, at the stairwell gallery at i know not precisely when and with i know not exactly who. but i know this: theh bands are friends of natalja (of the good good) and one or more are jazz-cabaret-y and feature drums matched with singing. and there is me.

this weekend was the big anniversary party at collective a go go, 14 years old now. it was fun with dinner and dancing and lots of the character-rich faces of old friends. GT (of Phone Book fame) was in town and the next day i hitched my wagon to his train and we puttered around all day, walking to ML’s in the miserable sun, drinking fountain sodas, and telling fine stories. worcester’s most ballinest player 2007.

i’m playing a show this thursday, the 26th, at distant castle.
also
DIEGO PEREZ
ID M THEFTABLE
ANIKKI DAWN

that’s right, it’s FOLK MUSTACHE v NOISE BEARD. swayers and players (featuring sayers and brayers).

let’s say 8:30 pm.

i’ll have some new songs, and a new collectible one sheet.

lion darwing by JJB Buckmaster

oh, diego is a fun guy from providence, and is the holy ghost to father deer tick and son chris paddock. annikki dawn is a whippoorwill in a peaceable kingdom. id m theftable is a mystery beast from deep maine, that sits at a table with devices and makes throat clearing noises in a noise mode. josh tumble cat ranks him high, and that goes a long way for me. this is going to be great!

tonight and seemingly every wednesday night until the end of summer, our pal HO P WI will be hosting a karaoke nite at ralph’s. if you know holmes, you know that this is a dream come true for him, he’s carzy about karaoke. when he was traveling around south america he would use karaoke as a funny icebreaker, as a way to get to know fun people in any place he was. he also has a lot of cool karaoke styles– his interest in dancehall led to the idea “karaoke mashup” where you sing one song over another, or blend two songs together on the fly. but to quote the email:

…don’t be intimidated. This is like youth soccer, everybody gets a medal.

OKEKARAOKEKARAOKEKARAOKEKARAOKEKARAOKEKARAOKEKARA

this is going to be super fun!

ALSO
tomorrow (thursday the 5th) 7pm at the go go,

• good luck (bloomington, in) (feel good, up beat punk rock. matty pop chart’s rock band)

• grass widow (san francisco, ca) (magical, harmonious pop music)
• bold slug (athens, ga) (sloppy pop punk)
• hot new mexicans (athens, ga) (rock n rollers)

again, no local draw? get some bands together, dudes!

THEN
saturday 2pm - 5 it’s t-shirt tailor with my mom, louise berendes, at HBML.

FOLLOWED BY
4pm - ?, billy blue blues band beer blast barbeque backyard birthday blowout! it’s billy’s 50th birthday, come rock out to his awesome band in his own backyard. this is also the terribles cd release party for the new epic, “in congrefs”.

damn, stack it up!

more last minute show stuff-
tonight
Pak (electronics freakout)
Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase (guitar freakout)
Schurt Kwitters (vocal freakout)
Grey Skull (freakout freakout)

Saturday, May 31st at the Firehouse, 8PM bring some money

also tonight
Bone Zone @ “love during wartime” dance party at the paradise lounge in boston. bone zone is the only band playing in a famously arm-folding town, they are bringing an enormous paper mache cop head that talkss and the eyes move. $10, bone zone plays at midnight

also tonight
art show at the ship room, not much to go on here but it’s 8 to close.

make your time. stack it up.