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.

Inappropriate for the holidays.

A week or so ago, I did some holiday collaborations with James DeAngelis. Check out how textural and sad they came out.

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Skeletonbreath - Eagle's Nest, Devil's Cave

Download: Mediafire

Tags: progressive, experimental, math thrash, instrumental

Skeletonbreath is a violinist, electric bassist and drummer. They violently barrel through so many different genres and influences (from classical to surf to metal to Klezmer to omgwhat) but with a bizarre grace that makes it so engaging. If you're looking for alarmingly talented musicians playing manic, brutal as hell compositions that will blow your mind through the back of your skull, do yourself a favor and download this.

You may recognize the playing style of Bob Pycior, who is also the violinist of the gothic country/indie folk group, O'Death.

This album was the soundtrack for the collaborations posted above. I feel like it makes sense.

OCCUPY!

Phase 1: Start Occupation

Phase 2: Continue Occupation

Created in acknowledgement of Occupy Wall Street's third Monthiversary. This scene is riddled with characters and friends from past creations and relationships of the last several months. Maybe you'll recognize some!
Though there are things I'd do differently in hindsight, this piece holds a buttload of personal significance and it's crammed with a lot of sentimentality and nostalgia. It felt really good to make it and I couldn't be happier that I did.

Way more to come.

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Couch Forts - Boln

Download: Mediafire
Tags: folk, indie pop, bluegrass

Since we're revisiting the past few months, here's something I listened to a whole bunch back in September. It's really gorgeous folky pop stuff. I've never heard such rich and decorative instrumentals come out of music like this and the lyrics are tender and inspiring. Some lovely things can happen when you put guitar, banjo and fiddle together.

...But we already knew that, right?
(Forgive the absence of album art. Anyone care to help me out with that?)