Excerpts of summer.

Some potted plants in the studio of Rumple Farm in Petaluma, CA.

A morning watercolor in East LA.

Birthed on a plane over the mighty Pacific.

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Pale Robin - Birth Rights Versus

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?226rqm62i212eco
Tags: anarcho-folk, acoustic punk

A new project featuring Mars and CPN of Blackbird Raum fame. Give it a listen.

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?!

Lots of news.

This is the cover to a project I worked on with two others over the past winter and spring. It's a zine covering sustainability throughout US History and the current importance of saving seeds. All of the illustrations are my doing and I'll post a couple here to give y'all an idea:

This zine is a component of a massive radical project known as The Circuit. The Circuit is a network of creative individuals with the intention of uniting like-minded countercultures with a variety of artistic collaborations that span over several different media and themes, but all connected with one underlying concept.
One of these projects is our zine, Seed Sharers and while I'm touring with Wood Spider this summer, we'll be distributing this zine at each one of our shows, in a distro-like manner.

Also, as a "cell" of The Circuit, we'll be displaying a small collection of the artwork from both our zine and the projects of the many other groups affiliated with us. These works will also be displayed at our shows, making each one of our performances an event of stompy folk music, zine distribution and DIY guerrilla art galleries! Hot damn!
(We don't know any of the other cells or how many of them there are, so what we display is merely the "tip of the iceberg", if you will.)

What follows is the current calendar for our summer tour in June. Things may get added, switched around or (hopefully not) dropped, so if you want to stay updated, it'd be best to consult the band's MySpace.

June 4 - Westerly, RI - New England DIY Fest
June 5 - New York, NY - Silent Barn (EARLY SHOW)
June 6 - Maryland - Pending
June 7 - Washington DC - Pending
June 8 - Virginia - Pending
June 9 - Richmond, VA - The Wingnut
June 10 - Durham, NC - The Factory (618 Foster Street)
June 11 - Pending
June 12 - Pending
June 13 - New Orleans, LA - All Ways Lounge
June 14 - New Orleans, LA - Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinarian Arts Center
June 15 - Houston, TX - Sedition Book Collective
June 16 - Houston, TX - Super Happy Fun Land
June 17 - Denton, TX - J&J's Old Dirty Basement
June 18 - Conway, AR - La Lucha Space
June 19 - Russelville, AR - The Foxhole
June 20 - Pending
June 21 - Indiana - Pending
June 22 - Columbus, OH - The Boneyard
June 23 - Kent, OH - The House House (Crooked River Collective)
June 24 - Pittsburgh, PA - Project 53
June 25 - Philadelphia, PA - The Fire Pit
June 26 - Philadelphia, PA - Magic City Summer Solstice Festival
June 27 - New York, NY - Yippie Cafe
June 28 - Allston, MA - Islington House Showspace

It'd be awesome if you guys could make it out to these! It's for a good/awesome cause!
And if you're having trouble finding information about some of these shows, shoot me an e-mail at alex@krokus.com. We're playing a few houses, so information on the venue might be scarce.

Also, to you New York folk, go to the show on the 5th at The Silent Barn in Brooklyn! It's a free event on a Saturday afternoon! New Yorkers love free things! Don't try and deny it!
(This isn't to say that a majority of our shows won't be free/donation-based)

I suppose that's all for now. If there's more information to be dispatched, I'll so dispatch it.

GET EXCITED.

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Psalters - The Divine Liturgy of the Wretched Exiles

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?mzzym4mn4wt
Tags: world, folk, christian, tribal, experimental

I listened to this once and fell in heavy, heavy love. This band has a constant revolving door of members and draws influence from a crazy variety of world music. Oh, and they do it well, too! Listen!

Earth Day acknowledges scavengers.

I wanted to get better at drawing vultures. So I went to the Museum of Natural History to do so. Here are two pencil drawings of white-backed vultures.

The top one is a white-back. The bottom is a lappet-faced vulture. Both are drawn with a Micron. Oooooh!

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The Devil Makes Three - The Devil Makes Three

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M6KOHCKH
Tags: folk, bluegrass, americana, country

THANKS, FANNY.

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In celebration of Earth Day, here's me giving an exhausted, shirtless, informal lecture about the Irish Potato Famine to a crowd of people.

(My blog just got awful.)

The holidays and whatnot.

Fact: Santa Claus is, in actuality, a thirteen-foot tall barn owl. Who knew?

Happy holidays and all that jazz. I hope all of your debilitating hunger for material things was left somewhat satiated.

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Corner Tour - The Come On Over

Megaupload - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7LIUO7IS
last.fm tags - folk, blues, americana, jazz

Hey! I didn't know I had this on my computer! It's a Christmas miracle!
It's good music to do a lot of nothing to. I mean look at how god damned brown that album art is.

Dragons and N'Orleans.

Hey.

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Sketches of an Amorous Window - The Palmetto Boudoir

Download - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JXCUYBVH
last.fm tags - murder ballads, old country, early jazz, folk

A kindly, anonymous stranger happened to send this music my way. I'm not excessively confident in the tracklist, but hey! It's music. You love music!
From the same folk who've brought you Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship? Give it a listen! They cover Sally's Song, for those of you who have a soft spot for the Nightmare Before Christmas.

(Also, that ain't the album art. I'm scum, I know.)

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...

And because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want:

Mailbox love.

Some stuff:

Cougar skull done with ink-soaked thread pressings.

An exercise of motion. Pretend it's 6' x 6'...That's an easy way for this to be appear impressive.

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Beat Circus - Boy From Black Mountain

Download: Removed by artists' request
last.fm tags - dark cabaret, circus, gothic americana, freak folk

Beat Circus' third album that came out back in October. Ugh, so good.



Also, this past weekend, I've been listening to a lot of Tom Waits' new live album, Glitter and Doom (Came out this past week). I'd normally host it here, but I'm far too in love with that man to illegally post any of his music and run the risk of him finding out and hating me. Also, Anti- Records is probably legitimate enough to yell at me for doing so.
Besides, I'm sure that you'd only have to spend a handful of minutes on Google Blog Search to find it. I mean, come on...it's Tom Waits, for crying out loud. Now go download/buy it and listen to the awesome rendition of Shoot the Moon. Awesome omelet-making music, I tell ya.

"You can't eat some place that is also on fire."

Meticulous markings.

The Nature Tree During the Great Revelation



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The Inkwell Rhythm Makers - Olla Podrida

mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/?ze3lhomtm03
last.fm tags: oregon, folk, folk punk, punk folk

People on last.fm are idiots. This is just good, wacky ragtime blues. I don't know if I prefer it over their first album that I posted earlier; I'm just thrilled that I was able to track this down.

"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...

Where all music fits...

So I guess I'll put some more work up. Jeez, I'm really producing a lot. I'm just too lazy to scan it. Or take photos. Maybe sometime soon.

The Deer God

Madison Square Park Tree Study
(I think I'm going to fill that sketchbook up with a lot more tree studies)

Ugh, the image upload is taking too long. Rest assured that I got a lot of crap to put up.

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In other news, I've never been so happy with where I am in life. I could go into detail, but eh. Not now. Just rest assured that I love where I live and I love the people that I spend my days with.

Here's a few shots of us gettin' settled.

Nothin' compares to eating 3AM grilled cheeses with good company on the floor while complimenting each other's work to the pluck of a banjo in the corner.

Mighty Django

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The Peculiar Pretzelmen - Uncanny Eyes
mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=7d175fdd975ab46fe5c3dee5769931ecd710445db61128bdc95965eaa7bc68bc
last.fm: cabaret, dark cabaret, alternative, new cabaret, avant-garde

Don't know how much those Last.fm tags help, but it's really good. Trust me. If you don't download it, you're lousy.

Heck yeah, education.

Well, I'm in my new, surprisingly accommodating hole for the next year. My room mate hasn't arrived yet, so I've been spending the past day or so here setting stuff up, doing Alex Krokus-esque things and starving since I haven't been motivated enough to buy food yet (But I suppose that can fall under the second category).
Pictures may come soon, if Julian and I could manage to make this place cool enough to warrant taking them. We'll see, I suppose.

Classes start tomorrow. Yeehaw.

(Who wants to sell me a banjolele? I'm tired of losing eBay auctions in search of one.)

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Gangstagrass - Gangstagrass
Download - http://www.gangstagrass.com/

Download this album now. It's bluegrass hip-hop. Bluegrass hip-hop!

Cleaning up ship.

I grew tired of my old header. So I...made a new one! Despite it looking awkward as heck to have it on my page twice, I'll post an image here for the sake of detail.

The fact that it overlaps the border fills me with rage. The fact that I can't fix it fills me with even more rage.

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At work, we've been crankin' out Camera Obscura's new album, My Maudlin Career for the past week...And for whatever reason, it's all I've been listening to...Even at home. Maybe someone out there will share my love for it.

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
http://www.mediafire.com/?ijmyojmmyzz

Hope ya like female fronted indie pop!

A study.

I've been on quite the velociraptor kick. And could you believe Spell-Check doesn't acknowledge "velociraptor" as a valid word? Ridiculous.

The Summer of Alex

I did the drawing last night, fell asleep...and then woke up this morning and did the color. Boy howdy, do I love summer.

I've got a lot of things to do. Lots'a paintin', drawin' and musicin', hopefully. Oh, yeah...I should find a job, too.

March of Robopotamus

A few weeks ago, I was experimenting with wet brush and charcoal...Oh, and there's some Micron pen in there, too.

Cutting Branches for a Temporary Shelter

This is a bisant. You will see more.

The Penguin Cafe Orchestra produces music that everyone should listen to. And I am here to facilitate that.

Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Penguin Cafe Orchestra
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=e7pyfqx6

The only description I will give is that their name is appropriate.

A rainy Monday, indeed

Thanks for the sketchbook, Chelsea.

LET'S CONTINUE TO KICK IT!

Granted everything I produce winds up being for school, but it doesn't really alter what I aim to do at all (Because I usually find a loophole in the assignment and seize the opportunity to turn in something ridiculous). So anywho, we had to illustrate a "futuristic socieity" in General Illustration II, and through my cunning explanation of the infinite parallel universe theory, I managed to get away with this:

It kind of looks awful in the photo, but I like the concept too much not to share. I'll eventually get around to acquiring a more flattering image of it, assuming I can find a large enough scanner or a decent enough camera.
Oh, it's acrylic on canvas board, if anyone cares.

It may also be worth nothing that this painting was based on a sketch I did a about a year ago:


And yeahhhh.