shawn avery

City Council President Carole Smitherman is the Interim Mayor. She represented my mom in a small claims case in 2006 and kicked ass. She's inheriting a big bag of shit. Good luck. Below is photo of Larry waiting (apparently he didn't have to wait long) for the jury to decide his fate. The news blurb below is from the al.com blog and the birmingham news. Larry Langford, Birmingham's mayor and a former Jefferson County commissioner, has been found guilty in his federal bribery trial. Langford, who is 61 or 63 , was found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified they made cash payments to Langford while he was the president of the Jefferson County Commission to ensure business for Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co. "We all have our trials, this too will pass," Langford said as he walked from the courtroom followed close...

the past week or so: rehearsing with electroliner - learning a ton of 80's cover songs, a few honkey tonk tunes, etc. we are trying to get about 20 or so in our set, so we can be ready for whatever gig comes our way. apparently we got offered a spot at sxsw10, but we declined because we won't have any material ready by then. on a side note... i finally have a drum kit for shows. i've been playing it for a while, but i recently got exactly the pieces i wanted, so i guess i'm ready to rawk. i sold my previous kit in the spring of 1999. this past weekend, through the sparks shot a video for the first song on the new rekkerd. the song is called hot rock constellations . it is a surreal video to say the least. we made doppelganger masks of our own faces and shot on and off for about 5 or 6 hours. adam wingard ( ibdb ) from team bloodjet shot the video, and i expect nothing but brilliance form that guy. he's easily my favorite film maker in town. he released a full-len...

the next big nashville trip was quite fun. the drive up was cloudy, but fast, the hotel was decent, the crowd was smaller than expected, but very supportive. the other skybucket artists performed well (vulture whale killed)... great conversations on the porch... all of the bands that played (except the last band) were excellent. the next time i go, i must spend more time up stairs in the music shop. impressive. below are my remaining shows with tts & electroliner, and some pics from the trip - they suck, but blame my iphone, whatever. i'll post some video clips soonish. why do i write on here as if someone actually reads this shit? TN 10.10.09 - through the sparks @ the basement (nbn '09) AL 10.24.09 - electroliner @ private event AL 11.20.09 - electroliner @ rogue tavern AL 11.28.09 - through the sparks @ the nick [with magic math] AL 12.25.09 - through the sparks @ the nick [xmas show]

NINE INCH NAILS: one of my favorite nin songs. this was recorded this summer on the supposed last nin tour. great energy with just one camera. no edits. NIN / Sasquatch Festival, 5.24.09 [HD] ST. VINCENT @ WORKPLAY: on monday night, alison and i went to workplay to see st. vincent open for andrew bird on the sterile soundstage. the experience would have been so much better at the theatre section of the venue, especially for these types of artists. it was a good show nonetheless. st. vincent played a short, erratic and noisy set, which was the most "inaccessable" of any of the 3 previous shows i'd seen. this isn;t to say however, that it wasn't good. she's fantastic, and i get what she's bringing forth. andrew bird is talented, but fey as a pink cucumber. his band is great, and i was impressed by his live looping and genneral mastery of the stage and his material. the whistling got to be a bit much. about halfway through his set, i looked at alison and said... ...

the new site for through the sparks is up. right now it is simple and kinda choppy. after i get a chance to tweek the CSS, it should look a little better. at least there's a solid merch page and links to stuff like twitter and facebook and videos. the 3rd show as the revamped through the sparks is this saturday in nashville at the basement during the next big nashville music conference. there are two full band shows and two solo (jody nelson) shows coming up: 10.10.09 @ the basement // nashville 10.14.09 @ bottletree (birmingham tapes show) // birmingham - *solo 10.23.09 @ pete's candy store (cmj marathon) // new york - *solo 11.28.09 @ the nick (w/ the magic math) // birmingham

a huge chunk of my musical output has thus far been either embarrassing, depressing, or wasted. music is the ultimate time killer - and killing time has been a lifelong career. and now, its probably pointless as well. culture really just needs background tunes from now on. i guess there have been some pretty cool shows here and there, which is kinda rad . it took me until age 34 to be in a few bands that actually challenge me constantly, at least in terms of new songs. the spots are of course an exception, because the spots don't write songs, and are plenty challenging as improv music. its been about 10 years since my super prolific years of constantly recording demos ended. i'm hoping that somehow, this will turn around soon. we'll see.

through the sparks will be performing at the basement @ 8pm on october 11th during the next big nashville music conference . Next Big Nashville Promo