GIANT CLOUD

Pictured here is the band Giant Cloud, hailing from New Orleans and one of my favorite groups of people ever. We met while Toy Soldiers toured the south in early January, and we headed to New Orleans to play a show at the Circle Bar. Here we were lucky enough to catch Ben & Julie (the two in front) playing an acoustic thing as we loaded in. We all had a few beers together but then sadly had to split.

Shortly after our second HUGE snowstorm here in Philadelphia, we played with them again at the Fire. They played one of the most beautiful sets I've heard in a long, long time to a room of about 15 people. I then found out that they had been in our lovely city for the previous 2 weeks, living and tracking their new album at Bill Moriarty/Dr. Dog's studio "American Diamond". It was the last day of tracking, and they had run out of time...still needing to record a few trumpet parts. Giant Cloud meet Woodstove. Good Ol' Harry Murtha from the Circadian Rhythms came over and laid down the trumpets in about 20 minutes. Everyone ended up hanging out until the wee hours of the morning before their long and arduous journey back to 'Narlins. Make sure to snatch their album, which'll be coming out on Park the Van later this summer. Good tracks on their myspace too.

TOO MUCH

It's been a very, very long time since I've sat down and collected my thoughts on everything that's been going on. I moved out of the woodstove in july, passing my hut to my great bud Sean Hamilton (4000 flavors/the spooks etc.) Lived above and worked at EKTA indian cuisine, which didn't pay shit but there was always tons of free food. In this period I finished the recording and mixing for the latest installment in the neighborhood choir catalog, the Anterior Design EP. You can download the entire jawn by clicking HERE, although keep in mind there was no mastering involved. She'll get a much more proper release in the somewhat near future. The second single, "Tio Luis" is included in YVYNYL's new spring mixtape called "handstands" which also features some of my favorite new bands like Reading Rainbow, Best Coast, and those crazy longhairs from Austin, Wild Harem. Download it, burn it, BBQ to it, do it to it.

With our beloved Danny in Argentina there certainly haven't been any neighborhood choir shows, but Paul's been shredding super hard in the new garage-surf outfit The Spooks. Parker and I recorded their Sea Monster EP at Woodstove during those cold winter months and now they're poised for Fishtown superstardom. I got the chance to catch them on tour in New Orleans at the Saint, and it was THEE most face melting show I've probably ever seen. Go to their innernette sites and watch some cool videos. Oh yeah, here's Danny working real hard:

Peter Plaxa, Henry Koon (of the Major Leagues) & myself have also been playing quite a bit of jazz recently under the name Fishtown Jazz Odyssey. We did a couple Philebrity Salons at the 700 Club in Northern Liberties, but our bread and butter is our residency at the venerable El Bar. We play the first monday of every month, which up to this point have all been pretty fun events. That bar becomes quite a different place when the jukebox isn't blasting ELO or 90s party jams (although I love those in moderation.)