Uncle Will's got a hatchet. Raised.

LP2 is done. Today I found myself with some downtime. Which felt a little weird. Fortunately, I had laundry... playing guitar... walking with friends... and sipping to keep me busy.. as well as the movie You're Gonna Miss Me. I'm a fan of the 13th Floor Elevators (and we'd maybe even do one of their songs if mere mortals could pull it off) ... so I was looking forward to watching this. Our friend Bill is a compadre of Roky and all the band. I'd heard a few good wild stories (often about Tommy) about the time the Elevators were living in. I knew that Roky had been messed around with by the cops, and was sent to a mental institution for smoking pot. I also knew that the songs he'd written were brilliant ... but he somehow went far, far away. Real far. Far.

Pretty Things

In 1970, a U.K. band called Pretty Things recorded their fifth studio album, Parachute at Abbey Road. At the time of release the reviews were really positive. In fact, Rolling Stone named it album of the year, over Let It Be, Harvest, Morrison Hotel and many other classic albums. Yet, Parachute sort of slipped through the cracks. I found a copy of the first pressing on vinyl a few years ago and it is one of the best sounding records I've EVER heard. Every time I play it, every time....huge smile on my face. Mind blowing.

here is a link to some vinyl copies on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pretty-Things-Parachute-UK-1st-ORIG-Pre-EMI-EX_W0QQi...

-Russell

Recording Our New Record!!

We just spent 14 days up at Prairie Sun Recordings up in Cotati, CA, tracking songs for our up and coming record.
Lots of creative space, and good vibes on this old chicken farm turned studio. We're excited about the outcome of our trip up there.
The songs are sounding great!We'll have video's and photos to post really soon. Stay tuned!

-Russell

Norman McLaren

I remember watching HBO in 1983. Inbetween movies like Superman, Mr. Mom, Vacation, Flashdance, War Games and Sudden Impact, they would play these short art films. One of the most amazing shorts that I saw was called, Dots. Created by French Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren.

Dots(1940)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-vsKwQ0Cg

1983 HBO intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1NKoMNy5bY

Summer Update

Here is an update on what each of us has been down with or up to:

Davey Latter (drums, percussion): Well first off, I sure miss my boys!! What I've been up to. I'm super excited about my new rehearsal space. Been goin' in there a lot. Any free time, some woodshedding. Also, I've been giving tons and tons of surf lessons, tryin' to pay some bills and rent. Also, I've been hired to go to Lollapalloza to work for Dhani Harrison's band "The New#2." I've been asked to tech for The Cult, but it runs into Everest tour and recording. That's ok, would obviously rather play. Just a good way to make some dough, in between. Drummin, surfin, teachin. My summertime.

Bonnaroo

Thursday morning, it's 7:45am and my alarm is banging out a rumba that seems to be a part of last night's dream about kittens and 1970's horror films. The sun is asking to enter and the crows and Blue Jays are reminding me that a new morning has come , and Bonnaroo is on the horizon. I get out of bed and walk to the bathroom, take a swig of water and look in the mirror and think,
"Today is going to be a long one and a good one."

Up Next...

It's been a while since we've posted anything so I wanted to pop in and say hi. Hi.

Up next we're going to play Bonnaroo in Tennessee June 12th. We've been hearing about this fest for a long time (look at that picture above??!!), and we haven't played in Tennessee yet so we're itchin' to get there. Fun stuff. Also, in early July we're going to play the High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, CA and then spend an afternoon in Big Sur on July 4th with some genius friends (Parson Red Heads, Port O'Brien, Mother Hips). Then, we're going to do a big free all-ages show at the beautiful Hammer Museum in LA on July 9th. It's going to be a special summer night for sure. In late August/ early September it looks like we'll be headed up the West Coast to play Bumbershoot in Seattle, one of the best festivals in one of the best towns. We'll also add a few more shows here and there while we're working on the record, so stop in and visit our tour page on this site, or on our mytwitfacebookspace pages. Also.......

3 Canadian shows left...

Greetings indeed... from lovely Kelowna, BC. If you ever have a chance to get out this way, I highly recommend it. Yesterday our trusty bus driver Wayne guided us through one of the most beautiful drives we'd ever seen. We passed through Banff National Park, Glacier National Park (different from Montana's Glacier National Park), and then drove along the Okanagan Lake in awe of the crystaline blue/emerald waters. One great view after another. We even saw a black bear at the side of the highway sniffin' through the grass. It was almost like Yellowstone and Yosemite wrapped into one alpine winter day, with a brilliant spring sun showing that summer is knocking. Amazing. Aside from some colds being passed around the bus, we're really having an amazing time hanging with each other. A lot of laughter, for sure. The shows have been amazing and we couldn't be luckier to get to see so much of Canada with Young Neil. The country has been amazing to us and the people have been super sweet. We've been changing the setlist up slightly every night, finding pockets of energy for ourselves and the people we're sharing with.

Everest W/Neil Young Spring 2009

We arrived in St. John's Newfoundland on the 5th of April. The Island is the 16th largest is in the world, originally a part of Africa. Reportedly, the bay of islands was discovered by the infamous Captain Cook in 1462.

It's a beautiful place, full of character and good souls. We played two nights and had a great time with it. I recommend taking a trip here in the summertime. The best seafood you'll ever taste. Great people, beautiful history and culture. Our next journey was to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We jumped on a plane the size of a town car (pictured above) and had a bumpy ride to Gander, where we transfered to a slightly larger plane that took us the rest of the way to Halifax. We caught a couple taxis to our hotel and settled in for a bit before going down to the Shoe Shop for dinner. You can't walk a square mile there without bumping into a local and having great conversation. The show was one of the best for us, we really enjoyed the vibe at the Metro 1. The crowd even sang "Happy Birthday" to sweet Eli Thomson. Thanks Halifax! See you next time!

West Coast Tour Wrap Up

Moving, a reason to do something, impetus. Our band has several reasons to do what we do, but none are stronger than the pull of the music itself, however, the adventure stands next to nothing. We ventured the coast of the Pacific Northwest, took some swings at 70 mile an hour fast balls, skated a half pipe, Visited our Two Sheds in Sacto, snapped into a Slim Jim, thought deeply about cubing the sun, hung out with Richard Swift(his new record melted our hearts),
made up several versions of songs we'll never use, met a boy named Seth, Drank milk, ate Purple donuts, drank Stumptown coffee, watched a river flow through a dining room, danced with hippies, slept for a few hours, pondered the life of Blake, committed sums of hours to Aldous Huxley, read surf magazines, watched America's craziest home videos, played with Day of Lions in Eugene, OR, Saw Mt. Shasta, Took a picture, sold some vinyl, met good people.

ahhhh....life on the road. More soon.

Russell