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01 20 07. I have severely failed my plan to update this site more regularly. the best way to find out what I’m up to at any given time is via MySpace or LiveJournal, which are easier for me to update since I don’t have to remind myself how to do html every time I want to try.
But you’re here now, so here’s some current, accurate information: I am no longer living in Chicago and have returned to the warm and comfortable environs of Austin, Texas. There are a few scattered copies of sometimes you gotta fight the bear available for order, however I’m not currently set up to take PayPal so you have to send a check or well-concealed cash or whatever. They are $10ppd anywhere within the United States.
Look for a short tour of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana sometime around March, hopefully, and scattered Austin dates through the end of April on top of that. No significant amount of time will be spent on the road until May, as I’m pretty busy getting married till then.
Shotgun Honey Press, which was an imaginary publishing company I made up to release sometimes you gotta fight the bear, is now more or less a real publishing company set to put out real books by other people. The first half of 2007 should see releases from Katherine Craft, Tony Presley, Kevin Elliott of consumatron.com, and a collection of Erin Parr’s comic strip cokebottle spectacles. I couldn’t be more excited to be putting these books into print.
There’ll be some new recorded material online soon, from the final Chicago show. It’ll probably debut as a MySpace exclusive, but I haven’t fully decided what to do with it yet.
See y’all in three months, when I remember that I have a website again.
09 26 06. I am in Pittsburgh, a few short days away from the end of the first leg of the sometimes you gotta fight the bear fall tour. The shows so far have been a lot of fun and an interesting mix of poetry slams, music shows, and even more random and fascinating venues (The Main Street Museum in White River Junction, Vermont, for one...)- it’s been very exciting to play with Summermilk and A Drum and An Open Window and Annie Palmer again, and great to meet so many new people. The rest of the shows this month are with old friends, Tinyfolk and the Generix and some others.
Dates for leg two of this tour are being finalized now. Expect at least six(!) Texas dates, as well as shows in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Indiana. West Coast, I’m coming your way eventually.
The response to the book so far has been pretty overwhelming. I have sold more than I thought I would by year’s end after two weeks of shows. In the three weeks between tours I’ll be retooling my set and playing with some old material, so it’ll be fresh for the Midwest. Check the shows section for dates.
08 08 06. sometimes you gotta fight the bear, my first full-length collection of poetry, comes back from the printer in less than three weeks. the book is 106 pages and contains all the poetry worth not-throwing-away from 2003-2006. it will be available through mail-order and at shows and is published by shotgun honey press.
i’m playing a chicago show as part of midwest nest fest (sans spent shells, unfortunately) on august 19th. the nest fest lineup is pretty awesome; the show i’m playing is at elastic on n. milwaukee at 1pm and is with the quiet bears, shadowhappy, real live tigers, and mitre. should be rad, seriously.
tour dates are up and almost entirely confirmed for september. you should come, there’ll be books and i’m doing a different set from the last time you saw me, i promise. dates are starting to trickle in for october and november, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves- september! east coast!
06 18 06. poplife is delayed! indefinitely, it seems, but i’m working on that. in the meantime, it’s still available as a free download where it says ‘poplife’ to your left.
couple shows in may went very well and were lots of fun. currently assembling and beginning rehearsals with a chicago-based lineup for the spent shells. so far there’s only one spent shells show on the horizon, as part of the midwest nest fest, but we’ll see where we stand as a band once we’ve played a bit more together.
we’re hosting our first house show at kat’s and mine’s apartment in chicago on july 12, as well. the lineup is terrific- dustin + the furniture (from atlanta), a drum and an open window (from boston), and blanketarms (from champaign), plus a short set from me. i’ve played with dustin and blanketarms a number of times and i can’t wait to have them play in my house. the show is a potluck and free, but bring donations for the touring acts.
booking is underway for a poetry slam-based tour of these united states for september. so far the first show is booked- september 12 at the kalamazoo poetry slam- but there is much more on the way soon. there’ll be music venues and house shows and me-plus-dudes-with-guitars, as per tradition, but the aim on this tour is to be in front of poetry-specific audiences as much as possible. expect both the east coast and the dirty south, but probably not the west.
current confirmed shows available here.
04 13 06. poplife has a publisher and a release date. august 15 from shotgun honey press. the book will be published as a trade paperback original at 230 pages with a cover by someone very very cool and at this very moment, top-secret. as soon as it is safe to say, i will.
the may tour with james eric fell apart, but if you lined up to see the titanic sinking, instead it will rise from the ashes like a phoenix. everything is still a bit tentative, but by this time next week it should be rock-solid and ironclad. here are the cities and the dates, without the venues until everything is confirmed:
5-17 indianapolis, in
5-18 bloomington, in
5-19 lexington, ky
5-20 bowling green, ky
5-21 jackson, tn
5-22 little rock, ar
5-23 ft. worth, tx
5-24 austin, tx
5-26 denton, tx
5-27 tulsa, ok
5-28 st. louis, mo
5-29 champaign, il
It is possible that there may be copies of poplife to be had at these shows, far in advance of the actual release date. they will all be signed and numbered, because they are very special.
03 20 06. march tour is finished; last show was last night at the bremen cafe in milwaukee with partisan and real live tigers. thanks to everyone who came out and everyone who played. i made a lot of new friends and had a great time on this tour; expect to see a lot more touring this summer. 2006 is not a year off.
in the works right now is a may tour with james eric out to the east coast. this’ll be another short tour, probably eleven dates, working out a lot of new material that i didn’t do on the real live tigers tour. after that there may be a handful of june dates in illinois and iowa with the quiet bears. i’m looking into doing a two-week tour of the dakotas in july- if you have any contacts out there or are interested in seeing me perform in the part of the country that banned abortion, get in touch with me.
03 04 06. final tour dates for march are up. it’s a brief excursion with real live tigers, eight dates over two weeks in the midwest. it has been over a year since i was on tour, and i am out to prove that i’ve not forgotten anything.
03 03 06. i’m on thelatest talk hard podcast talking about touring and some music that i’m into right now. there’s also a live acoustic version of “annie says” from alamo. check it out.
2 02 06. new picture on the main page taken by katherine craft. one new show date up- march 7 at an as-yet undisclosed location in chicago. this’ll be my first chicago show since the one in october at the congress theatre, and should be a lot of fun.
01 30 06. some new tour dates up for march. this one seems to have picked up a few extra days in cities i’m really looking forward to playing- indianapolis, bloomington, lexington- so hopefully there will be more opportunities to come out and say hi this spring.
also started booking the may tour with james eric. only one date up so far, but it’ll be ten days going east, maybe as far as boston. stay tuned for updates as it gets closer to may.
01 27 06. site redesign finished a bit earlier than expected, so going live at three o’clock today.
alamo is finished and launches with the site. as with everything else here, it’s free to download in its entirety.
the misc writing section features two flash fiction pieces that had appeared previously in a zine called a secret i can’t keep, one that was published on livejournal as part of the summer 2005 rent-party telethon, and one called “eunice” that had previously never surfaced anywhere. it also features the full text of conviction and 5104, previously only available in-print.
poetry now includes the full text of the killer and other poems and sometimes you gotta fight the bear. the cover illustration for sometimes you gotta fight the bear was done by frippy.
the rest of the updates are technical stuff. please let me know if you find any bugs, as i’m far from good at this sort of thing.
01 24 06. site redesign in progress.
tour dates for march are nearly confirmed. this is a very short tour of the midwest. i’ll be performing all-new material, just testing it out.
alamo is in the final mastering stages right now. there are four tracks up on myspace. the final tracklisting is as follows:
1. passed
2. in plattsburgh (feat. tony presley of real live tigers)
3. fighting february (feat. art mayes)
4. alamo
5. the beast (feat. donner from charlie daniels death wish)
6. annie says (feat. james eric)
7. the killer
8. autumn song
9. found
10. st. daniel
as is the way of things, more tracks were recorded than appear on the album. expect a b-side called “on waiting” to surface, as well as a cover of “death threats (to thom yorke)” by charlie daniels death wish.
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