Oh, the news!

Yo! My band, Wood Spider goes on tour today! We're traveling as a five piece through the Midwest down to New Orleans and back up the East Coast in promotion of our new album, In the Thick of It, which you can listen to the heck out of on our Bandcamp.
We'll also be curating a traveling art gallery and distro of prints, zines and stuff as representatives of the Spikedriver Arts collective. All of the shows we're playing are free/donation-based/stupid cheap so you have no reason to not attend every single one! Here are the dates!

WED JAN 4 - NEW HAVEN, CT - Neverending Books (810 State St) w/ Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clarivoyant Claptraps, Tyler Bussey, Black is the Color

THR JAN 5 - ALLSTON, MA - Ted Saunders (Msg for address) w/ The Swaggerin' Growlers, Jake & the Infernal Machine, Andrew Eckel & the Undertones

FRI JAN 6 - HADLEY, MA - Emmett Island (8 Pine Hill Rd) w/ The Suitcase Junket, Asher (of Bella's Bartok), An Historic

SAT JAN 7 - HUSDSON, NY - Spotty Dog Books & Ale (440 Warren St) w/ Pocatello

SUN JAN 8 - ITHACA, NY - Ghost Cat Co-Op (514 N Aurora St) w/ Clog the System, It’s a Riot! Puppet Theater

MON JAN 9 - PITTSUBURGH, PA - Hambone's (4207 Butler St) w/ LRAD!, Gabe Acita & Ryan Williams

TUE JAN 10 - COLUMBUS, OH - Monster House

WED JAN 11 - COVINGTON, KY (Near Cincinnati) - Bangarang's of Covington (620 Scott Blvd)

THR JAN 12 - BELLEVILLE, IL (Near St. Louis) - Illegal Tone Recordings

FRI JAN 13 - MEMPHIS, TN - Courthouse Co-Op

SAT JAN 14 - NEW ORLEANS - We're taking the day off! Let's hang out!

SUN JAN 15 - NEW ORLEANS - Hi-Ho Lounge (2239 St Claude Ave) w/ Sweet Street Symphony

MON JAN 16 - MOBILE, AL - TBA

TUE JAN 17 - PENSACOLA, FL - TBA

WED JAN 18 - ATLANTA, GA - WonderRoot Community Arts Center (982 Memorial Dr) w/ Christ, Lord, Jesse & the Great Perhaps

THR JAN 19 - ROCK HILL, SC - The Hampton House

FRI JAN 20 - CHAPEL HILL, NC - Internationalist Books & Community Center

SAT JAN 21 - DURHAM, NC- Hillbilly Chateaux w/ All Your Science

SUN JAN 22 - RICHMOND, VA - Flying Brick Library

MON JAN 23 - BALTIMORE, MD - Curious Fucking Palace (126 S Arlington Ave) w/ Dee & the Warlocks

TUE JAN 24 - PHILADELPHIA, PA / NEW JERSEY / NEWARK, DE / EASTERN PA - HELP??

SAT JAN 28 - BROOKLYN, NY - The Hive (20 Cook St) w/ Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps


Sounds fun, yeah? See ya 'round!
(Flier is designed by ME and we'll have a buttload of awesomely hand-printed merch also designed by ME.)

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Also! I'm really excited to announce that our tour distro is going to feature a story I've recently written/illustrated, Mathos & the Pursuit of Beauty. It's about a boy who struggles with the concept of creating beauty and goes on a quest for understanding. In his travels, he talks to a lot of colorful weirdos.

It's currently in zine format with around eight full-page charcoal illustrations and spot drawings. Wood Spider will have them on the road, so if getting one of these is up your alley, come out and see us!

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Wood Spider - In the Thick of It

Download: Bandcamp
Tags: folk punk, cabaret, freak folk, lo-fi

Our new album! Yayayay! Get ready for our most full, composed, personal, texturally oppressive release yet. It's six songs of energy and manic angst with banjo, cello, ukulele, accordion, saw, washboard and a bunch of other things all recorded to tape. We're crazy proud of it and if you're into those sweet archaic formats, we have 200 cassettes of it each in their own beautfilly handmade box-thing!

The insides are teeming with more stuff. Teeming.

'Kay. I'm done. I've got to pack now.

The festive post!

Hey, it's my favorite time of year. Things are dying in an excited burst of color.
Here's a couple of things I've made this week:

This Wednesday, Wood Spider is playing with some really great touring acts at SUNY Purchase college. If you can manage to make it there, it'll be way worth it. I swear! (We're playing as a five piece that night!)

A comp for a poster design. These are my first awkward steps into the world of printmaking.

Happy Halloween!

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Happy Jawbone Family Band - Hotel Double Tragedy

Download: Mediafire

Tags: indie pop, garage, lo-fi, noise

"The Hotel Double Tragedy is constantly burning. You will be too with these new hits from the family! Simply listen to the album at a decent volume and watch your life fall apart. We were thinking of releasing this album under the pretense that it was found under the bed of a dead priest who was the grandfather of a couple of members of the Vaselines, but we thought better of it. You deserve the TRUTH! You deserve magic in POP ATTITUDE! You deserve ONE ANCIENT JANGLE! In ten seconds FLAT! You deserve HOTEL DOUBLE TRAGEDY!"

Quote jacked from the Happy Jawbone website. I'm not sure what an ancient jangle is, but I love the sound of it.

I think I can.

Yo, CT kids! Get out to New London next weekend to see some cool folky things!


Also, here are some school assignments, completely free of context! Oh, joy!

White charcoal, white ink

Charcoal, ink, gesso


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HYENA - Outside, The Great Drought

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?x2h20rvdu3r2pa3
Website: Bandcamp
Tags: indie rock, experimental, folk, no wave

So many truckloads of work were put into this album and it definitely shows. I'm getting better acquainted with the guys involved with HYENA and they make such cool, beautiful music. All I really want is for it to be heard by more people who would love it. The last three tracks are downright perfect. Please at least give it a listen on their Bandcamp!

Cold.

Hey! Happy 2011! So at the end of this week, Wood Spider's going to be going on a Northeast tour. So if you happen to be in the area, you should totally go! The schedule is as follows:

Jan. 8 - Glen Rock, NJ - Front Porch Fest at the Porchlight Theatre (555 Broad St) w/ Spook Houses, Toasted Plastic, The Jean Jackets
Jan. 9 - New Haven, CT - Neverending Books (801 State St) w/ Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps, Feral Flowers
Jan. 10 - Rhode Island - HELP?
Jan. 11 - Allston, MA - The Burrow (Formerly known as Eliconia) (32 Mansfield St)
Jan. 12 - Lowell, MA - The Ant Cellar (778 Broadway St) w/ Trunks & Tales, Pile, Dan Blakeslee
Jan. 13 - Biddeford, ME - The Oak & the Axe (140 Main St, Ste. 107) w/ Hyena, Machine Gun Mustache
Jan. 14 - New Hampshire - HELP?
Jan. 15 - Burlington, VT - Radio Bean (8 N. Winooski Ave) w/ Nicole Erin Carey & the Homemade Blues, The Crack-Up, Mark Lester
Jan. 16 - White River Junction, VT - Main Street Museum (58 Bridge St)
Jan. 17 - Western MA - HELP?
Jan. 18 - Albany, NY - Valentine's (17 New Scotland Ave) w/ John Alfred, Northern Water Snake
Jan. 19 - Hudson, NY - The Spotty Dog (440 Warren St) w/ StickLips, Jenn Kelly
Jan. 20 - HELP?
Jan. 21 - Brooklyn, NY - Zora Art Space (315 4th Ave.)

Wood Spider will be making noise as a four-piece with guitar, cello, ukulele, banjo, glockenspiel and accordion. We'll be also traveling as a representative of the Spikedriver Arts Collective by touring with a distro and guerrilla art gallery. So please come by a show and see some really cool stuff!

I don't know how connected to the Internet world I'll be, so this may be my last post 'til I get back. Stay warm, y'all.

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Wood Spider/Niko & The Juggler Meadow Family Band - Tending Fires

Download: http://woodspider.bandcamp.com/album/tending-fires
Tags: folk, acoustic, americana, punk

This is a split release between us and Niko (formerly of Mallory). It's on cassette and the package features a sweet printed box, illustrations for each song, short literature and music (of course!). It's a mega limited run of 50, so get at me if you want in!

(It's a pay-what-ya-want download. So if you're strapped for cash, don't feel bad gettin' it for free!)

Starch! Starch! Starch!

If you just so happen to be around Oberlin, Ohio Friday afternoon, you should go to this bread sale! It's a fundraiser supporting Spikedriver Arts Collective, a newly formed radical arts production/distribution syndicate and artwork will be- bah, it's all on the flier!

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Carolina Chocolate Drops - Genuine Negro Jig (2010)

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?bfgba2ky6ypbfra
Tags: bluegrass, country, roots music

“Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians.”

Crawling to a finish.

Here's the design for Wood Spider's tour flier.

Here's an out-of-context illustration of Johnny Appleseed.



I'm waist deep in a thick sludge of work that must be done. However, I've found time to update my blog... So I guess this means it's possible for me to have even more to do...

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Luminescent Orchestrii - Too Hot to Sleep

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PALS2WOZ
Tags: gypsy, tango, klezmer, punk, world

Another old favorite. They're a bunch of awesome folk musicians/songwriters that are paralyzingly amazing to see live. They managed to incorporate punk influences, but still preserve musical integrity! How? HOW?!

BREAD.

This was a flier I designed for a bread sale ("Bake sale" has such a bland connotation these days, don't you think?) that went on at Oberlin College this weekend. Obviously, the sale's rousing success was due to my AWESOME flier design. Obviously.
All of the proceeds are going towards Wood Spider's multimedia summer tour! Get pumped! ...If you're on the East/South Coast, that is.

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Blackbird RAUM - Under the Starling Host

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W89U0SR0
Tags: gypsy punk, folk punk, riot folk

In honor of bread, I'm hosting Blackbird Raum's most recent album, Under the Starling Host. These people add such a gross amount of musical innovation to the typically repetitive genre they're usually lumped in. They play folk punk in 15/4 for God's sake! 15/4!

Let 'em know!

This would be a flier I just made for a show in Allston, MA later this month. Go! Y'know...if you're around the area.

Sorry about not being the best blog updater lately, but that will change soon. February is proving to be a busy month as well, but for more productive reasons. I'm eventually going to have a whole bunch of posts to show for it. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

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Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - Inside the Human Body

Download - http://www.mediafire.com/?1jzqgoyeiz5
last.fm tags - indie, folk rock

When the Violent Femmes started getting lame, their awesomeness had to go somewhere. It just had to.

Note: The connection I'm on is being difficult with my hosting, so I managed to find another link to the album here. If I remember, I'll put it up myself later.

Unsubstantial titles.

Agh, I haven't been keeping up with things, have I? I've been working on a lot of different things...It's just that a lot of those different things haven't been completed yet. ...D-does this mean I'm a real artist now?

But until that happens, here's another flier I put together!

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Blackbird Raum - Swidden

http://www.mediafire.com/?phszm3a3n4c
last.fm tags: gypsy punk, riot folk, anarchist

Practically everyone in my inner circle is in love with this band. And for good reason. They're doing everything I want to be doing with music. This band is in the midst of releasing a new CD, so stay on the lookout for it. I'm more than confident it will kick all varieties of ass.

"We don't know where this animal is going."

Here's some things.

I was at SUNY Purchase for a chunk of this weekend. They have some really handsome trees there.

I made this flier for a show going down in Boston. Both current acts are quality stuff so if it's within your ability, you should go! C'mon, it's free music.

The Disappointment

More stuff to come...

One itchy August...

Flier done for the upcoming Portland show. There's still a few dates on tour that are not concrete yet, but I may make a few more fliers for the ones that...y'know...aren't falling apart.

Oh, Lord. I have so many projects planned that won't get done this summer. How very tragic.

Battling sloth.

Unorthodox show. After reading through the flier, you'll know just as much as I do about the event. Whatever. Should be fine. There's enough details to get there, if it's of interest to y'all.

I take too long doing things in Photoshop.

Us kids and our crazy folk-punk.

Flier numero uno. Paul DeRuvo helped with showing me little Photoshop tricks and whatnot, so here is credit where it's due. If it is not too ridiculous of an idea due to your location, you should go to this! Fun times are expected to be had.

A dear friend of mine, Max, has intentions of screenprinting this...and yeah, that should be cool, too.

More to come. More to come.