shawn avery

the best music store in town is closing at the end of the year. laser's edge cd's and vinyl. fred, the owner/operator for the past 2 decades is finally feeling the push of the digitalinterweb itunes-torrenting revolution. while i still hold strong to my belief that the new phase of the music industry will be much better than the previous incarnations, it is not without its victims. fred put it best himself in his open letter to the music scene... he basically said that for the past several years, the recording/music/retail industry has been "changing" and at last, it has "changed." several local bands will be playing free shows at the store during the holiday season in an effort to reel in support and shoppers before the best store in homewood closes its doors. this is the 2nd free show in a row the spots will have played. we are that awesome . also... this is what i have left in 2007... some of these events i'm performing, some i'm attending: 1...

so... as everyone who knows me and ashby is aware... our "record" was finished in 2006, took over two years to complete... and still hasn't been released. people actually acted interested up until this year. god bless them. some people thought we had actually been recording and mixing this entire time... for like 8 hours a day or something. the truth is... we started this record as the ashes , and finished it as wiseblood . but it's been done for a while. we talked in 2003 about recording an ep or doing a record at a studio... and fresh off of our tremendously shitty production experience at workplay , i talked everyone into doing it ourselves. this was a good and a bad idea... we had strong songs but limited recording experience. i had never produced a rock record before. i had made demos and experimented with electronic music, but not a full rock album. we played a lot of shows in 2003, and came to the end of the usual regional touring scenario by early 2004. we sta...

this one is from june 2005... mary and i posted some "devil" phrases... then had a bunch of people add their own. i think there were about 30 or 40 comments. funny.... add to the list in a comment, and we'll add it to the over all listing. we'll start off with a few from mary.chain and a few of mine... cell phone companies are the devil blondes are the devil cigarettes are the devil carbs are the devil "w" stickers are the devil reality tv talent shows are the devil long beer lines are the devil republicans are the devil democrats are the devil reader postings: strangers are the devil* mariah carey is the devil* credit cards and late fees are the devil* evil monster morning traffic is the devil* men are the devil but then agian, so are women* fuseball is the devil* granny panties are the devil* the word "PANTIES" is the devil* TOM CRUISE is the devil. for real* liquor stores being closed on sunday is the devil* waking up 20 minutes before your alar...

i have made a few purchases this week that should finally give me all of the gear i need to do some major media organization. i just bought a dedicated film/slide scanner and a 1/2 terrabyte hard drive. basically, i'm "digitizing" the 15+ years of media that i've acquired so far. i started digitizing in 2000 when i made stereo mixes of my vcr/adat and cassette 4 track material. i put everything in reasonably hi bit rate mp3 format. i've kept all of the original cassettes, which now fit into a small box in my closet. earlier this year i began sifting through my 50+ vcr videos and managed to downsize quite a bit of material. i had concert films, high school/prom/performance videos, various home movies and hours upon hours of stuff recorded from cable between 1989 - 1998. i bought a stand alone dvd recorder and simple hit record/pause when something worth saving was on the screen. i started out doing the 2-hr dvd option, but now i've decided i want higher quality...

after 20 years of pondering, i finally know what i want to be when i grow up... the sole proprietor of a "miracle establishment." you know what i'm talking about? like the priest at a church or a restaurant owner... or maybe the owner of a shoe store . anywhere there is the possibility of jesus' face showing up on something. last week it was the lady in ohio, this week its the lady from florida ebaying a pancake with jesus on it... on easter, some lady found the face of mary at a carwash. i can't take it. i HAVE TO get in on this. but i don't want to just sell something on ebay. that's cheap. endearing, but cheap. i want something that will last. like the face of jesus in the rear window of a '56 dalton airstream trailer, parked "temporarily" a few streets down from maynard keenan's house in jerome, az. . ...something that is going to be around for a while. sure, i need to make some cash off of the "see-ers," but i also want t...

this weekend the spots played in the annex/gallery space at rojo during a benefit-silent art auction to raise money for the (shane) hulsey little river trust . alison, duquette and all of their/our mutual friends were there last night... everyone putting their best efforts toward raising money and gathering up some excellent and diverse art work to present for auction. i donated this simple photo of a black dog at dusk... taken on the beach near kennebunk, maine this past august. something about it resonated with me as being right for the auction. i was humbled to hear that shane's mom put in a few bids on this photograph. it sold for around $70 i think? [click on the image below to enlarge]. the spots were initially going to play in the main space at rojo but at the last minute we were moved to the gallery/bar-annex and it was a better choice. we played great. it was one of our best shows. as for generating quality ideas and focus... it may have been our best. what a fantasti...

some info/updates re: superphonic records , a great local label - contrary to popular assumption, i've never been a professional live drummer in the past . i've played bass live for several years, and played drums live in high school and college... and played a lot of drumming studio sessions. but it wasn't until last year that i began to play live as a hired drummer. in 2006 and 2007, i've been touring around as a drummer for duquette jonston & john p. strohm, both formerly of noteworthy indie bands, and now each are performing as solo artists with recent solo releases. both duquette and john recently enlisted jody nelson, (who fronts through the sparks and runs alamalibu studio ), to lend production and tracking on each of their new solo releases. both john and duquette are now signed to birmingham based record label, superphonic records . a.a. bondy (aka scott bondy), a former bandmate of duquette and front man of verbena , has also recently released a solo r...