Our friend Chris Whitman is trying to raise some $$ to put out a 5" (!) record on his label, Folktale Records. While we're not connected to Folktale in any way (and we're not on this record--it's a Whitman/No Babies split), I have a bunch of stuff that Chris has put out on Folktale and it's ALWAYS good, and I feel like it's a project that deserves yr support. He's put out records & tapes by people like Nicole Kidman, Splinter Cake, Anni Rossi, as well as his own music under the Whitman moniker. In fact one of our favorite releases from last year was this, a Whitman/Anni Rossi collaborative 10" recorded on 4-track cassette, which you can pick up thru Chris's online store or Amazon or iTunes. Highly recommended.
Anyway, you can pretty much donate any amount of $$ to the 5" record project that you want, from $3 up, in exchange (of course) for a copy of the record if he's able to raise the needed $700. If he can't get up to 700 bux then everyone's donation is refunded. But I would really prefer that the $$ is raised. I think he's up to something like $150 with 50-odd days left to raise the remaining $550. Please do give a little something if you can and pass the link around!
Amusingly if you have deep pockets and can spare a bit more than the $10 I was able to pony up, the rewards get more substantial--a $40 donation will get you a custom-written song by Whitman on whatever subject you want, and a $50 donation earns you "an original painting based on a theme of your choice."
Our pals Pizza! are in the running for the Deli Los Angeles Artist of the Month prize, which is that they can have a pair of songs mastered for a 7" record...which we all want to hear! So please vote for them! VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!
FUN PIZZA FACTS:
Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna of Savoy(20 November 1851, Turin, Piedmont – 4 January 1926, Bordighera), was the Queen consort of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign (1878-1900) of her husband, Umberto I.
In 1889, the Margherita pizza, whose red tomatoes, green basil, and white cheese represent the Italian flag, was named after her. Her name means "daisy" in Italian. In 1906, the Queen mother’s nephew Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi made the first ascent of the highest summit of Mount Stanley (the third highest mountain in Africa) and named it Margherita Peak in her honour.
Politically she leant towards Fascism—in October 1922 the quadrumvirs (Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo, Michele Bianchi and Cesare Maria de Vecchi) visited her at Bordighera to pay their respects prior to the March on Rome.
A reminder that this Sunday is Bjorn Ulvaeus's birthday and we are playing a show at Spaceland in observance. $5. Sean Bones, Allah Lahs, Ancient Crux play too. Fun!!
Thanks very much to Sean Carnage for having Monolators last week, and thanks to him for hosting the first (and so far only) live Os Waffles set ever. Jorin corrected my OW history slightly--he was more like 12-13 when we first started recording tapes together, so it would've been more like 16-17 years ago. BUT WHATEVER.
Some pictures (and a very nice review) of Os Waffles and Monolators from Sean Carnage's blog:
Also--I want to say that Nuexpe, a solo pedal-rock fellow from Japan totally ruled. I was only sad that there was a bunch of drunk people talking really loud over his quiet-ish, dreamy, lovely ambient electronic instrumentals. Why do people have to be so loud and dumb (answer: because they're drunk)? But yeah, Nuexpe: if you get a chance to see him, please do. Highly highly recommended.
Note: I just learned that there appears to be another band in the world called Os Waffles. I think I can say with close to 100% certainty that we were called Os Waffles before they were. Perhaps we were called Os Waffles before they were born. That would not surprise me.
My friend Jorin is in town for a few days. I have been in a band with Jorin since the early 1990's (I think) called Os Waffles. Os Waffles started when I used to babysit Jorin when he was about 10 years old and I was about 16-17. He had an old acoustic guitar in his room and I would entertain him by writing songs together--later we would use an old radio shack tape deck to record these songs, and I still have some of the tapes. After we both moved away from East Lansing we would visit each other periodically and write more songs--some of which later became early Monolators songs (Radio's On, In My Dreams, Spandex Hitman) and Cobra Lilies songs (Lonesome Kitty Cat On The Range).
Despite existing for approximately 20 years Os Waffles has never actually played a live show, except that we will tonight at Sean Carnage's. Monolators play third, but Os Waffles will play a (very) brief set at the beginning of the night--9:45 sharp. This may be the one and only Os Waffles show, so please do come early.
Os Waffles was not my first band, but it was the first one for which I ever wrote songs, and some of these are definitely my first attempts to (co-)write music. They are all pretty embarrassing/awesome little snapshots of time, some have aged better than others, but there you have it.
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the show on Friday, and many thanks to the members Avokubo, P.K. 14, Carsick Cars, and the Maybe Mars staff who were so friendly and gracious. I was told that Friday had the best turnout of the entire West Coast leg of the Chinese Invasion tour, and we were delighted to be part of it.
And don't forget--this is tonight! All ages! We have a surprise medley that we're extreeeeemely excited about--come on out!
I wanted to mention that we're playing this on Friday at the Highland Park American Legion Hall. Carsick Cars, PK 14, Av-Okubu, plus Signals and ourselves. I expect we'll go on somewhere between 10:30-11:00. Be there. It will be good.
There's a very nice interview with Eli Monolator in this week's Covers Magazine, which happens to be Buddy Holly-themed--it covers, naturally, our Holly fixation, as well as a couple of other things, such as the origins of CA-3A-569 from Don't Dance...please take a look:
