The end.



The Inkwell Collective will play their last gig on December 22nd, as an opening band for Something Phonic's reunion show. The line up for the show will be:

steev with guitars
jesse with guitars
scott with the bass
emily with the cello
jessica on piano
namiah playing drums

It should be a fun night--it will be an all-ages show, with alcohol available to those 21+. Other opening acts will include Sly Joe and the Smooth Operators and Jazz Orgy.

Our cds will be available that night--both Falling Signs and National Bellwether. So put it on your calendars. . .

December 22
The Algoma Club, Oshkosh
Time: 7pm
Cost: TBA
Rock: TBA

steev for TIC

The EP is in/out/round about

National Bellwether is finished, wrapped in plastic, and lined up orderly in a cardboard box. And sitting in my entryway next to the coat box. I hope to update the website soon with new content and offer the songs online through some method. . . If you really really want the record, please contact me, $10 will cover the cd and shipping (or come over to my house if you like to travel). I will be sending out copies to the other band members to use and abuse at their own discretion. So if you run into Scott, Emily, or Namiah, they will be happy to sell you a copy of the disc. We will try and do some kind of official cd release in Oshkosh this Fall. Also I hope to send copies of the disc to some of the college stations and blogs/zines that cover indie music. Otherwise, I'm currently working on songs for an Inkstained EP which should get underway recording in July. More information on that project will be forthcoming.

thanks for listening,

steev

coffee+music

we are going to be a part of the Stone Creek Coffee Community+Music project. thanks to our friends over at WMSE who recommended us. . . the idea is that once a day the Stone Creek Coffee folks are going to be playing a compilation cd with a bunch of local bands on it--including ourselves, decibully, marcella, and burbank cartel. so if you're in one of the stone creek shops in bayview, shorewood, grand avenue, delafield, glendale, whitefish bay, delafield, or oconomowoc, you might just hear "moscow, idaho." in fact, we hope you do hear it. so that's one awesome thing that is happening. stay tuned for release dates of our ep and other stuff. if i can get the ftp server to work, i might just update the website, too!

steev
for TIC

National Bellwether EP

well, it's been nearly a year in coming, but the ep is almost finished now. i went down to milwaukee last week to drop off "the stuff" at sooper dooper's enchanting south east wisconsin location. they are printing up 100 of the little guys (or gals) and they should be floating around the outernet (i.e. the real world) and the internet (i.e. the "fake" or blogowhoric world) this summer. if you're lucky, you can buy one! if you're not lucky, then you will just have to burn someone's copy or put it on your ipod.

thanks for listening and waiting,

steev
TIC

When does a side-project become the main project? And when does the band become the side-project? Evidently when I am somehow involved. Inkstained has yet another show--this time in Oshkosh at the New Moon and this time with Expatriate, Patchwork, Aaron Baer, and possibly one other band. That's a lot of song for one night!

Saturday March 24th
8pm
Folk-core extravaganza!
Noisy, quiet, vibrating strings, stomping feet, etc.
Bring your favorite hat!

@ the venerable New Moon on the corner of venerable Algoma and Main St.
across the street from that sundial

steev

hello invisible readers,

just to let you know that we have a video posted of ourselves playing a song on our myspace page. you can go there and watch the video. it was recorded at the new moon with me, jesse, scott, namiah, jessica, and emily all performing. it's kind of noisy and grainy. but there you have it--modern technology.

happy new year,

steev for TIC

LAST SHOW OF THE YEAR!

so we've come to the last show of the year. we'll be playing on saturday at the bremen cafe in milwaukee. to our dismay, we will be without a rhythm section. but to our delight, we will be playing with our good friend and commrade jeremiah nelson aka patchwork. he's really good. hopefully there will be one other performer opening, but we're not sure who it will be.

so please everybody come out and show your support. this will be our last performance for a while as we try to figure out what we want to accomplish next with the band. the ep is finished with some new songs posted on our myspace, but it is not yet ready to be released. we'll keep you updated.

happy celebrations,

steev and TIC

What is a national bellwether?

hello "friends," here's to good intentions!

our sparkling new 5-song ep called "national bellwether" is now mixed, mastered, and sitting around on a cd-r. packaging and release information will be arriving later this year or early next. we think you will all love it and come crawling back to us, tears streaming down your faces.

the songs on the new record are bursting with nervous energy and will make for some frantic swaying, i can tell you.

the first "single" is up on the myspace for copious downloading. "the leaves are falling and so am i" is an ode to being insecure at a time when "security" is all the rage. i'm sure you all remember those days!

steev

o my good glory. . . i just heard the coolest thing. and it wasn't that garrison keillor was doing a split ep about minnesota with sufjan stevens (although that may or may not be true). no, this is something entirely unrelated to public radio. it was a song that we finished recording last night in the dank basement studio of jeremiah aka patchwork. i will hopefully have a rough mix up later this week. the song is called "the leaves are falling and so am i" and it combines the best of all possible sounds--noise, strings, a choir, a catchy chorus. it's all very exciting. the record is almost finished now and will most likely be "released" in 2007. we have one date left this fall--saturday, september 30th in west bend at pillllars cafe. it's a great venue, all ages, smoke-free. we're playing with juniper tar again, so everybody should just come and watch.

steev

Recording

we're a week into recording our new ep. scott, namiah and i put down the initial rhythm tracks last sunday, then emily put down cello on tuesday night. i went back this weekend to add acoustic guitar, banjo, and one electric guitar line. what do we have left? jesse has been put on notice to perform electric guitar. piano needs to be done and also vocals. we're still a way from finishing, but it's turning out great. we're recording with jeremiah nelson--sometimes known as patchwork--in his home-made studio amidst the detritus of the algoma building in oshkosh. the original 6 songs have been cut down to 5. the last song "the long defeat" will most likely go on our next EP "ghost stories" which we will hopefully record later this year. we recorded a demo of it, but the song is still too new to put on the ep.

a couple of shows in august:

TIC with patchwork on the 5th at the rock island cafe in neenah

and

TIC with Scourge of the Sea on the 15th at indie coffee in madison

come out to cheer us on and listen to the new tunes,

steev

successful? who among us can really claim to be successful at anything we accomplish? am i a successful songwriter or musician? did i write a good song? if so, why am i performing it for free, to five people in a coffee shop on a thursday night? unless i'm so successful that only certain people really "get" what i'm trying to say or do. i said to emily that i'd obsess about this for three days--today is day 3. we drove up to appleton to play at the copper rock and not a single person showed up from our mailing list. nobody showed up that we knew, period. there were a handful of people sitting in booths, but nobody so much as clapped most of the time. we just kind of looked at each other and smiled. it's one thing to play for nobody in the basement of the oshkosh public museum, when at least you know you're going to make enough for room rent. but to play for nobody and make nothing? that sucks. i mean, i read about bands who played for empty rooms on their road to success, but not when they were almost 30, with three kids and a full time job. so BUGGER OFF!!

[steev]

we got back last night at 2:30 am from a nice show at the bremen cafe. we played with juniper tar, who should have their own tv series, and opening the show was janet schiff and her band. i think it was our first show with this line-up: me on electric guitar, jessica on piano, emily on cello, scott on bass, and namiah on the drums. everything went well. thanks to everybody for coming and to janet and "the tar" for playing with us. we're in the midst of a shakedown of sorts right now--working on new material and looking for new shows in new places. our next performance will be in oshkosh with Madison Greene. that will be a benefit show. details forthcoming. we hope to showcase some new songs with our current line-up. and right now i'm listening to my wife watch "elizabethtown" in the next room. all i hear is like a montage of vintage rock ballads or whatever. i'm not interested in watching it at all. goodbye.

so punk planet finally got around to reviewing our cd. it's a mix of good and bad. i'll give you the exerpt, then i'll give the whole thing.

the exerpt:
"The Inkwell Collective delivers with its beautifully crafted folk-inspired indie rock, braiding a cello and viola seamlessly into rock band standards like the guitar and piano."

sounds good, right? ok, here's the rest:

"But the lyrics, my goodness, the weak sauce lyrics! Listening to words distracts from the music; you can't help but think that the "wordsmith" behind it all is trying too hard to achieve the kind of lyrical finesse of the likes of the Weakerthans or Neutral Milk Hotel. Vocalist and guitarist Steev Baker's voice is strong and capable, but you just can't get over the words spilling from his lips. Baker says so himself, "lately I've learned to think and speak in cliches" ("My use of metaphor"), and he continues in the same song to treat us to this: "You were the miracle and I was the skeptic / I was the gash and you the antiseptic / You are an animal and I'm a carnivore / You are the oxygen but I'm afraid I'm underwater [sic]." There are times when you can't help but feel as if you're listening to words he wrote in his high school poetry journal."

so there you have it! i don't have any comment except to say that i'm glad to finally get an outside view of the album. and now back to my high school poetry journal. . .

steev

post-rock wisconsin

we're playing a show on february 25 with west bend-based rock band canyons of static. they're an instrumental post-rock band like others you may have heard of--explosions in the sky, mogwai, godspeed you black emperor, mono, etc. etc. i've been poking around the internet, looking for other such bands from wisconsin. it turns out there are currently quite a few. so here are the bands with links (mostly from myspace):

wooden robot is an all-acoustic act with upright bass, saw, dulcimer and other traditional instruments.
canyons of static combines guitar, drum, and bass with violin and piano and also project original films over the band while they play.
wood & wires are from madison and they have a viola player!
frail by design augment their sound with samples and electronics.
sounds like braille has a traditional 3-piece rock line-up. and they rock.

pillllars caffe
225 S. 5th Avenue
west bend, wi
25 february
7pm $4 cover All ages!
with singer/songwriter dan klotz and post-rock band canyons of static

NEW FOR 2006!

what's new with you? not much here. we've been trying to get together to work on new music for the past few weeks, but between chicken pox and observances, it's been difficult. emily and i did get to record cello for "leaving wisconsin", which you can find at my solo site. it will be the title track for a collection of demos i hope to finish this year. of course, that's what i said last year. . .

the collective is playing a show in oshkosh at the water city grill on january 26th, so everybody should come and listen there. hopefully we will be doing some interesting things there. or maybe it'll be embarassing. either way, come over and get a drink and listen to some sad music.

demos of all of our new songs are now available on the website. they may not be there for long, so if you'd like to hear the basic structure (mostly just acoustic guitar and vocals) of some new songs, head over to our dot com.

i'm doing a solo show on friday the 20th of january at the new moon. i'm going under the name "inkstained" and will hopefully be accompanied by emily and kara. also performing is stephanie ott/tuesday parker as "the daffodil mafia," krist krueger as "southerly," and andrew johnson as "holly & plastic." they all rock, so come and check out a very different take on acoustic music. maybe i'll just call it "post-folk." i don't think anyone uses that term yet.

post-steev

they found a hand, they found the dollhouse room

it was very cold on sunday afternoon when we pulled into the oshkosh public museum parking lot. the museum is kind of a cool place--an old mansion that has been turned into a local history museum with some nice interpretive exhibits and the apostle clock. they also host traveling exhibits, and just had one about pirates which featured a sweetly dessicated corpse--for the kids, of course!

anyway, it was cold and we loaded all of our stuff up. jessica was sick, but played anyway, even after we forgot the cables for her piano (she drove home and got them). we were led into a small, well-lit room in the basement. this was the dollhouse room, being filled with three large, fully decorated and peopled doll-sized buildings. there was a space for us against one wall and a few rows of chairs set up. emily and jesse showed up and we proceeded to play the oddest "show" ever. we started playing at noon and basically nobody showed up until after our well-earned cookie and "perked, spiced cider" break at 1:30. at 2:00, the four of us called scott and told him not to come; namiah never showed up, which is all the better. we did have a packed room for our set of inkwell collective songs from about 2-3. then the puppet show started upstairs and we were playing to ourselves again for the next half hour. oh, an 80 year old woman stopped by as we played christmas carols and noted that it was nice to hear some good music, not that pounding noise! which i can only assume meant that she had probably not heard our earlier set.

so, this gig was stranger than my high school reunion gig, but it paid 7500% more. although we were basemented, it was still kind of a fun way to spend a cold afternoon. thanks, oshkosh public museum. see you next year!

the inkwell collective

the bremen cafe

thanks so much for the turn out at the bremen cafe. we had a fine time playing there. i only hope we didn't piss off the establishment as apparently we were supposed to play last instead of second. then nearly everybody left after our set. i was battling the vicious flu bug that night and am still kind of sick today, but i think that was our first performance in a while where i didn't forget any lyrics. . .

we have a few more shows to close out 2005:

dec. 4th at the oshkosh public museum
Noon-4pm we'll be doing a couple of sets and some christmas songs during their annual holiday open house. the museum is small, but has great exhibits and is free! so if you're in the area, come on over to see us.

dec. 10th at the wonderful world cafe in sheboygan
8-10pm
this is a "solo" show with me, kara, and emily. i'll be playing over two hours of my songs acoustically. so if you like that kind of thing, and you live near sheboygan, come on over. they have good food and coffee there; and we get paid in tips!

dec. 17th at the new moon cafe in oshkosh
8-10pm
$3 cover
we're playing our annual mid-december show at the new moon. southerly is opening and no longer micah. also we'll have some artwork on display there, but i'm not sure by whom. it's a mystery!

jan. 26th at the water city grill in oshkosh
9-11pm
21+
we're the background music for drinking. you can watch sports and listen to us play! it's the perfect combination! sports! sports! sports! i like when they kick the ball.

steev

various topics, some of which will interest you

just got back from a kind of late practice. namiah, our current drummer hopeful, has decided not to play with us on thursday (i guess that's tomorrow since it's a quarter of 1 in the morning), citing various issues, none of which have to do with us particularly. but rest assured, he's coming along nicely and should hopefully play with us on december 17th at the new moon.

but tonight scott, emily, jessica and i recorded a song on my portable recorder. it's not the best quality, but you can at least hear what we're up to lately. the song is called "newfoundland" and it's been put into regular rotation in our setlist since mid-summer. i'll post it in the next few days on our website, so look for it there.

still no news on recording, but i have a few new songs so we have a lot of stuff to choose from. old songs like "book of job" and "don't try" (arguably the first official inkwell collective songs, along with "small town skin" and "medicate!"), a couple of tunes that were left off our last cd ("ghost story" and "ECR", neither of which we play live anymore), new versions of old songs ("they found a hand. . ." has improved dramatically along with "my use of metaphor") and a whole slew of songs new this past year: "domestic fiction," "o lord have patience," "i need you to fail so i can succeed," "did you find russia," "newfoundland," "the leaves are falling and so am i," "bloodstains," "middlewest," "moscow, idaho."

some of these songs will appear on my solo cd "leaving wisconsin," which i haven't really worked on in a while, but which i have lots of ideas for and which i hope to get out before sufjan steals my state from me.

be sure to come and see us in milwaukee on the 19th! we need all the support we can get!

best,

steev
for the inkwell collective

Years of dust. . .

For the 7th year in a row, we played at the Little Farmer Apple Orchard in Fond du lac. This was my very first brush with public performance nearly a decade ago (my brother ben lugged his drum kit 150 miles to play on a few songs), so i feel a little nostalgic whenever i go there. it was also the place where i proposed to my wife and the place where we conceived our first child. just kidding.

so i volunteered through this group i'm a part of to be in charge of the little farmer weekend this year. i did the sound and contacted people to play. there were several folk-singers of the pete seeger type, a few of the bob dylan type, and a bluegrass band. then we played. jesse brought his acoustic guitar and the very large pedal array and kara, emily, and jessica also played. it was very dusty and hot, but there were a ton of people there. it's hard to say if they "dug" us or not, but i did give a copy of the cd to a guy from the oshkosh public museum. he wants to get a program started where every sunday afternoon musicians are broadcast live from the museum and we might possibly be invited to play.

next we play the kewaskum kettle kountry kolors festival. i still don't know who'll be playing the show; jesse and kara won't be there, but me, emily, jessica, and scott at least will be. sounds exciting, no? no. no it doesn't.

steev