Lots of news!

NEWSSSSS!

News item numero uno!

I'm tabling at the Museum of Comic and Cartooning Art Festival this year! Come by and check out of MA WAREZ. I'll have zines, patches, prints, mini books and OTHER STUFF.

News item numero dos!

I am in the 2012 FIT Illustration Senior Show! The reception is May 8th at the FIT Museum or you can just check out everything here. There's a lot of talent in my graduating class and I'm glad I've had the four years to grow closer with them. I'd love to get more sappy about it, but I've been doing that all week.

News item numero tres!

I HAVE A TUMBLRRRRRR! I'll still be maintaining this blog in addition to it.

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.

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!)

Briefin'.

Heavy apologies for the inactivity, all. Thanks a bunch to those who have kept returning. You're sweet.

Tour went well. Zines were distributed and creative expression was spread like a debilitating virus. It has laid down a foundation for yet another heavily involved project, but on an exponentially larger scale! More news on that will come.

After hopping all around the country on tours and road trips, I find myself in Sydney, Australia, interning at the animation studio, Flying Bark. I'm here until the fall semester rears its ugly head yet again in September but before then, I plan on squeezing all of the life that my hands can wring out of the month of August. Oh, I need a place to live too... (Who needs a house/apartment-mate?!)

Unfortunately, I have no art online to show. A months worth of drawings and paintings were removed from my possession but hey, that is the baggage that comes form touring. I've been feverishly filling up a new book and hopefully I can find some worthy sketches and throw them on here.
I'll find the time to host some music too.

Be well,
Alex

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!

On a kick.

A painting that I pretty much just used as an exercise of color application. It's meant to illustrate and accompany a childrens poem about the individuality found in a thumb print...hence why there is that negative space to the right.

A month or two ago, I showed a pencil sketch of this painting, and it kind of evolved into something else. Here I've pit Bill Watterson against the haunting legions of his adoring fans, desperately trying to protect his beloved creation from the sinister hands of mass-marketing.
I don't normally do caricatures, but it was fun. I got to apply some of the things I learned in the previous painting, and I think it paid off.

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I'm glad to note that I've become involved with the Folk Routes Anarchist Networking Distribution Syndicate. You can read up on that...but rest assured that a lot of cool things are going to come out of it. It seems as though I'll be lending my hands both as a visual artist and a member of Wood Spider. So exciting!

Also, there's a lot of other cool, more developed plans happening this summer. I'm sworn to secrecy for now, but all I'll mention is that Wood Spider is going on an extensive tour (For us, that is) and we won't just be bringing instruments with us. That's all I'll dispatch this moment.
(We're going to be taking a very sinuous route from New England to Texas and back. If you're in any of the areas that our MySpace's tour calendar vaguely indicates, come out and see us! Or if you'd want to help us out by suggesting us local bands/musicians that would compliment our sound, e-mail me at alex@krokus.com. It'd be greatly appreciated.)

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Squinch Owl - I Am Always Coming Home EP

Download: http://squinchowl.bandcamp.com/no_js/download_tralbum
Tags: folk, early blues, light brown

Sofia Albam is both a friend of mine and an affiliate to Folk Routes. It's just a three song EP, but her voice is stupid good. Please download it and let your heart be melted.
(That link is taken from her Bandcamp page. If it doesn't work for ya, it should just redirect you to the home page, where you could download it there. Cool?)

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!

Some things.

Fictitious animal study. I was laying out the skeleton for a new species of rodent. I'll go into specifics when I get around to doing the final versions and the muscles.
(Forgive the horrible exposure).






Arthropods.






It was late. There were plums and carrots.










Nothing special. But I like it.

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I got around to scanning and uploading the disposable camera pictures from tour. They can be viewed here.

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Dark Dark Dark - Love You, Bye.

Mediafire - http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=56709098b42ee1f55bf1f12f1ff3f30abebcc7a9f3d3d4cd5621d66e282a0ee8
Megaupload - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TRNHOS1X
last.fm tags: new weird america, indie gypsy folk, hobo revival

In essence, this was the soundtrack of tour. I figured I'd upload it on the grounds that I really, really like this release and because it doesn't seem to be super readily available on the Internet. Hopefully, it'll help some kid out who expresses an interest in..."hobo revival". Whatever the hell that is.

Check the back! Knives out!

Guess who's back from tour?

Me.

Holy God. I had a wonderful time. I met so many kind, genuine and all-around awesome people. It's nice knowing those could still be found in New England.
We "toured" the region over the course of a week and saw a myriad swell things. I could go into specifics, but I don't want this to be too text heavy. Some pictures were taken with my camera and those could illustrate my experiences a fair amount, I suppose. We had a few disposable cameras on us, as well...And those are like...mega Holgas when it comes to awkwardness, so get pumped.

I'd like to think some others are worth looking at, too.

Shoot, I realized that only two shows were documented on my camera. I know there were other performances taken on other people's much nicer cameras, so I'll track those down and link them here sooner or later!

Been trying not to slack too hard. Here's a sample of some little things I did while being a total rock star.

I should try and do like...a legitimate painting or something before school starts.

The Mad Dogs of Summer

Oh, my. I sure am a piece of crap for not staying on top of this blog business.
With work, doing a bunch of Wood Spider stuff, and other miscellaneous summer activities, it's hard for me to sit down and art it up. Though, I have been having a great time doin' the things I've been doin'.

As mentioned, last week, I was roughin' it up at Lake George with a bunch of old and new friends. Essentially, it was six days of island sloth and Tom Waits references. It was the most fun I had in a long while. And I actually managed to draw a bit in between my sessions of lazily maintaining the fire and clubbing stuff.
Some excerpts:

Pfft, way to get the month wrong, Alex.

I also took a few rolls of film with my Holga, but I'm reluctant to develop them...because then I will discover that they're all awful and I wasted a buttload of money.

My schedule continues to be busy as hell. There may be a house show Wood Spider is playing in Manhattan tomorrow, but right now that's pretty tentative (If you're interested at all, get a hold of me somehow). Aside from that, there's a lot of recording and whatnot to do before we go on tour in mid-August.
I also have a couple of letters to write to people.

Gotta run! I've got this show to play.

Holy God, am I busy

For some reason, I felt as if this was worth mentioning. I'm going to have oodles of stuff to put up here, assuming that the fact that I'm doing it ALL AT ONCE won't make it all look like garbage. Let's hope not!

Aha. Aha. But seriously...shoot me.

A Wonderful Time: The Best Kind of Time

Things have been simply grand lately. I love it. The weather's been pretty unforgiving, but everything is so god damned beautiful, I CAN'T COMPLAIN. This morning, our photo class reaped the benefits of that and shot down at DUMBO. I scraped my knee, got a nice, hearty smear of goose feces over the back of my shirt and I keep getting curb stomped by the proverbial foot of seasonal allergies but that's alright. I got frozen yogurt later.

Oh, and photo credit goes to Brian Barnhart. Swell guy, he is.

Sorry I haven't been on top of the whole "uploading recent art" thing as of late. Everything I've been doing as of late has been preparatory compositions and sketches and whatnot. But a lot of due dates are approaching with violent haste, so I'm going to have a nice stack of paintings for my scanner soon. So get pumped.

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To compensate, here's an Inkwell Rhythm Makers album. Hope you like awesome jug bands.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nyne2qd2ymd - En- Rag-O-Phonic
Let it be known that they're doing the whole "free music" thing by giving this up for free download, which I feel deserves a good deal of respect. If you can, show them some love, despite them being disbanded.
http://www.myspace.com/inkwellrhythmmakers

If you're looking for awesome new music, check out the blog of my good friend, Ellis. The kid's got a good selection of folk, old and new. So be a good American and take a look.
http://thunderboltjackson.wordpress.com/
GO!

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My God, I'm so sorry I ramble so much.

Let the powerful surge of vanity commence.

Well, I am in class, throwing together a mandatory page for Photoshop class. Now, I've always been meaning to do one of these crazy blog-type deals, and I guess this is the only time I'll have enough motivation to start one. So let's all huddle together and pray this doesn't get neglected over a short period of time.

I'll (hopefully) be using this page to show the neat little things I've been producing in school...And...well, anything else that strikes my fancy. And my fancy is selective, so it'll all be AWESOME.