here's what i've collected so far. it hasn't been easy, but i think i'm up to the challenge. i haven't been challenged enough in life and this will build character. please note that all times and dates are still tentative and there may be restrictions on who can go where to watch me play--21 and older, cover charges, excessive bees, etc.
Sunday March 14 -- Windhover Art Center (FAMA), Fond du Lac @ 7:30pm C
Monday March 15 -- Bremen Cafe, Milwaukee @ 8pm
Tuesday March 16 -- the Coffin Factory, Fond du Lac @ 8:30pm (Inkwell practice)
Wednesday March 17 -- Linneman's Riverwest Inn, Milwaukee @ 9pm
Thursday March 18 -- UW Madison Union, Madison @ 8:45pm
Saturday March 20 -- Anodyne, Milwaukee @ 8pm
Monday March 22 -- the Coffin Factory, Fond du Lac @ 8:30pm (Inkwell practice)
Tuesday March 23 -- The Sidecar (Cafe Montmarte), Madison @ 8pm
Thursday March 25 -- Arbuckle's, Fond du Lac (band open mic w/ Jon and Scott)
Sunday April 11 -- Windhover Art Center (FAMA), Fond du Lac @ 7:30pm C
Tuesday April 13 -- The New Moon Coffee Co., Oshkosh @ 7pm
Friday April 16 -- The Coffee House, Milwaukee @ 8pm C
Saturday April 17 -- Bubolz Nature Preserve (Green Apple Folk Society), Appleton @ 7:30pm
that looks like a lot of dates, but it's really only 11 different open mics. i'm counting band practice on here, although really that's cheating (but you are invited to come and see us anytime). i've got a long way to go yet, so keep sending in suggestions. some of these dates will feature special guests--kevin keshan of inanimate carbon rod will join me in madison, emily and/or kara can be coerced to lend their talents in oshkosh, the lads will no doubt be on hand at arbuckle's on march 25. we plan on being a big noisy rock band that night.
some night in april the inkwell collective will be the featured band at the french quarter in oshkosh. i'm also trying to book some actual shows throughout the months of march, april, and may at conkey's bookstore in appleton, st. somewhere cafe in west bend, the bridge in egg harbor and the filling station cafe in west bend. also we hope to get the algoma club in oshkosh for a may show with some other local bands--we're hoping for happy, the new kentucky quarter, and inanimate carbon rod. details will emerge with low tide.
steev
2.26.2004
2.25.2004
well, the inkwell collective had a good practice last night. we arrived to find the ceiling dripping a murky substance and an ingeniously rigged catch-and-drop system that funneled the drips into a large bucket. emily, kara, and i set up our equipment while jon and scott experimented with pressure differentials. by the time they were finished, the string section and i had already went through a short set of acoustic material. jessica arrived and the lads joined us for a rousing rendition of "hope w/out drugs." things have been getting louder since i acquired a footswitch for my amp, so there was a good deal of ear-ringing on "my use of metaphor" and the ineffable "passenger pigeon."
we're working on a new electric version of "the landscape" (available acoustically on my demo cd "nerve") that seems rather amorphous. we just can't seem to pin down a decent beginning, middle or end (crucial to a good song). we almost gave up altogether when kara suggested that my riff at the beginning sounded like john cougar melloncamp. we're also perfecting a new song--"they found a hand, they found an unburned bible"--which is a bit more "post-rock" than anything we've done previously.
the girls left at midnight and the lads and i went through some american misery material: "bottle," "hope is not company policy," "last known words," "ameriparanoia," and "to the starving nations of the world, i'm sorry." ending, as always, with "listening for echoes in a dark room." it seems like the old songs haven't lost any of their immediacy as a three-piece, although they are rather short on atmospherics without kevin's guitar trinkets and baubles.
so i've gotten a few open mic suggestions from milwaukee and madison and i have strung together a possible 5-day itinerary; only 15 more days left! i'm not sure when i'll be doing this--probably in april or may. sometime before school is out, anyway. so keep the suggestions coming and be sure to check out the links to the left (your left, not mine) which will be updated bi-daily.
steev
we're working on a new electric version of "the landscape" (available acoustically on my demo cd "nerve") that seems rather amorphous. we just can't seem to pin down a decent beginning, middle or end (crucial to a good song). we almost gave up altogether when kara suggested that my riff at the beginning sounded like john cougar melloncamp. we're also perfecting a new song--"they found a hand, they found an unburned bible"--which is a bit more "post-rock" than anything we've done previously.
the girls left at midnight and the lads and i went through some american misery material: "bottle," "hope is not company policy," "last known words," "ameriparanoia," and "to the starving nations of the world, i'm sorry." ending, as always, with "listening for echoes in a dark room." it seems like the old songs haven't lost any of their immediacy as a three-piece, although they are rather short on atmospherics without kevin's guitar trinkets and baubles.
so i've gotten a few open mic suggestions from milwaukee and madison and i have strung together a possible 5-day itinerary; only 15 more days left! i'm not sure when i'll be doing this--probably in april or may. sometime before school is out, anyway. so keep the suggestions coming and be sure to check out the links to the left (your left, not mine) which will be updated bi-daily.
steev
2.23.2004
The Songwriter's Confession
i am lazy. very, very lazy. i mean, you wouldn't know it by looking at me. i'm the director of a library, i have a lovely wife and little family, i own my own "digital alarm clock." but you know, success can't be measured by material things. . . sometimes you need to get away from that and look in your heart and see what really matters. to my heart, blood matters. blood and oxygen. there's also a bunch of red and pink stuff in there that i don't know what it is; it's very moist, though. and squishy.
so i come home sometimes and i write songs. i play them in front of people now and then, but the problem is this: i've never really seen myself as a rock star or a performer in any way. i, like most people with english degrees, am afraid of people. even kids scare me. not toddlers, but like those junior high kids. . .i hate them! particularly those really cool kids who have luke skywalker hair and t-shirts from "the gap" or something. i always think they're going to beat me up.
it works like this: i'm driving home and i'll have to turn the radio off because there's this other song in my head. and it's a song that nobody has written, but it's there--lyrics, melody, drums, sometimes even the string section. then i turn the radio off and i dig around for a pen and something to write on. i used to have a little portable tape recorder, but i lost it.
when you write a song, what do you do with it? what is its purpose? i believe that songs should be heard by as many people as possible. and there's the whole punk ideal that you create a piece of art by yourself, you get it out to the people without the aid of corporate greed. and etc. so i play my songs to people in churches, bars, coffee shops, apple orchards, open mics. . .
i've been writing and performing my music now for nearly 10 years, but i've always been kind of alone. i'm not really a part of any "scene". i mean, i know some people from some bands, but i'm afraid of them. so i thought it would be fun to just get the heck ["heck" is just a substitute for "hell" ed.] out of town and play some open mics by myself in some big (or small) scary places like milwaukee, madison, oshkosh, etc. then i could write about each experience and put it here online and people could read it and i could make them laugh or cry or stare at the lines in their hands uncomfortably and think about what it means to be 27 and a lot freakin' better than, like, those "american idol" jerks, but you still haven't gotten signed to any labels, even those small, hip labels with the punk buttons, the tight vintage shirts, the screen-printed cardboard sleeved albums.
so think about it. i'll get back to you.
steev
i am lazy. very, very lazy. i mean, you wouldn't know it by looking at me. i'm the director of a library, i have a lovely wife and little family, i own my own "digital alarm clock." but you know, success can't be measured by material things. . . sometimes you need to get away from that and look in your heart and see what really matters. to my heart, blood matters. blood and oxygen. there's also a bunch of red and pink stuff in there that i don't know what it is; it's very moist, though. and squishy.
so i come home sometimes and i write songs. i play them in front of people now and then, but the problem is this: i've never really seen myself as a rock star or a performer in any way. i, like most people with english degrees, am afraid of people. even kids scare me. not toddlers, but like those junior high kids. . .i hate them! particularly those really cool kids who have luke skywalker hair and t-shirts from "the gap" or something. i always think they're going to beat me up.
it works like this: i'm driving home and i'll have to turn the radio off because there's this other song in my head. and it's a song that nobody has written, but it's there--lyrics, melody, drums, sometimes even the string section. then i turn the radio off and i dig around for a pen and something to write on. i used to have a little portable tape recorder, but i lost it.
when you write a song, what do you do with it? what is its purpose? i believe that songs should be heard by as many people as possible. and there's the whole punk ideal that you create a piece of art by yourself, you get it out to the people without the aid of corporate greed. and etc. so i play my songs to people in churches, bars, coffee shops, apple orchards, open mics. . .
i've been writing and performing my music now for nearly 10 years, but i've always been kind of alone. i'm not really a part of any "scene". i mean, i know some people from some bands, but i'm afraid of them. so i thought it would be fun to just get the heck ["heck" is just a substitute for "hell" ed.] out of town and play some open mics by myself in some big (or small) scary places like milwaukee, madison, oshkosh, etc. then i could write about each experience and put it here online and people could read it and i could make them laugh or cry or stare at the lines in their hands uncomfortably and think about what it means to be 27 and a lot freakin' better than, like, those "american idol" jerks, but you still haven't gotten signed to any labels, even those small, hip labels with the punk buttons, the tight vintage shirts, the screen-printed cardboard sleeved albums.
so think about it. i'll get back to you.
steev
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