shawn avery

i haven't posted consistently to this blog since 2011.  here's a little bookend post with some current links of mine, as of spring 2015: personal: tumblr: http://averything.tumblr.com/ instagram: https://instagram.com/shawnaverywhere (old) instagram: https://instagram.com/shawnaverything twitter: https://twitter.com/shawnaverything bands / music: label / archive (the ashes, wiseblood vol. 1, etc): weownthesky.org through the sparks (official): http://throughthesparks.tumblr.com/ through the sparks / facebook: https://www.facebook.com/throughthesparks through the sparks / bandcamp:   throughthesparks.bandcamp.com through the sparks / instagram:   https://instagram.com/throughthesparks dorado / twitter:  https://twitter.com/LRonDorado  

ten years ago today, ashby and i released our girls+cars ep. this was for our band the ashes, which consumed all of our spare time from the spring of 2002 through sometime in 2006 or 2007 or 2008. it morphed into wiseblood, which also released an ep in july in 2008, although the recordings were pretty much finished in 2006. girls+cars was the first result of my delayed adulthood / 2nd adolescence, which was brought on by the massive black void that happened after my move from phoenix to birmingham. essentially an 11 year relationship imploded, i was abandoned in the desert, and moved i with all of my shit to the deep south the week after 9/11. i pretty much emotionally checked out for a few years. by some estimates, i was neurologically altered. i decided to waste those few years playing in an indie band with no future. ashby did too, until he started law school in 2004. while he was in law school, we developed a more mature project based around the wiseblood aest...

maybe i'll fill in the blanks. or start working on my archive site in earnest. anyway. i'm over facebook and everything else. i just want to write and archive and ramble. this is something i've suspected for 15 years. the show i watched with my girlfriend in 1997 in ft. lauderdale was the longest show david bowie ever performed. 36 songs, 3 and a half hours. massively energetic. and it wasn't in an arena. it was in a 400-500 person dance club. i've confirmed this by reading some interviews:  http://indieethos.wordpress.com/tag/bowie-earthling/ and the setlist is below. as i approach 40, i tend to forget that i've been a part of some monumental performances. October 8th, 1997 Set :         Dead Man Walking (Acoustic) Quicksand Waiting for the Man (The Velvet Underground cover) Always Crashing in the Same Car The Supermen My Death The Jean Genie I'm Afraid of Americans (V1 Remix) Strangers When We Meet Fame The Hearts Filthy Lesson Sev...

i played friday night with through the sparks at rogue tavern. we were initially scheduled to play on the outside stage, but we got rained in. on saturday night i played two sets at metro bar. the first set was with electroliner, which was very well attended, and the last set of the night was rubys. this was actually the last rubys show for quite a while, because grey is moving in e few weeks to south korea.  all three sets with all three bands were very strong. through the sparks got cut short, because so many bands had to be shoved into rogue tavern. the rubys set was by far the best one yet. we were joined on stage by matt green, one of the original guitarists and singers for rubys, who now lives in muscle shoals.   here's a few links and a reproduced review of the debut of the secret stages music fest that took place in the loft district in mid may:   the secret stages public flickr page / photo pool from littleadvances....

last week we got an unexpected press blitz from both city papers, leading up to our set during the debut of secret stages on may 13th. i'm posting the feature article interview with jody nelson, along with a pic of the cover of the bham weekly. additionally, david pelfrey, long time music critic at the back/white city paper gave us an in depth review and a lot of accolades. this is the same guy who decimated the ashes in a feature on city stages 2003. looking back on it, he was 100% correct. by David Pelfrey - Worm Moon Waning was the best album by a local band in 2010. In fact, for the last three or four years no one in town has made more appealing, accomplished music than these guys. The next time the experts put together a "crucial" compilation of music made in Alabama (there's a lot of that going on these days), if "Your Old Haunts" isn't on the free CD, we'll know just how much credibility said experts can actually claim. The aforementio...

this was the big one. so far, it sounds like my friends and family are ok. a friend of mine lost her father in west birmingham. another friend told me about an entire subdivision that is gone, and probably the people as well. crazy. after witnessing massive natural disasters recently in new zealand, haiti, japan and elsewhere, alabama now has quite a mess on its hands. last year it felt rather strange witnessing the events unfold in the gulf, while at the same time - nashville got hit with a giant, intense flood event. the associated press national news story is below: PLEASANT GROVE, Ala. – Dozens of tornadoes spawned by a powerful storm system wiped out neighborhoods across a wide swath of the South, killing at least 201 people in the deadliest outbreak in nearly 40 years, and officials said Thursday they expected the death toll to rise. Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 131 deaths, while there were 32 in Mississippi, 1...

my good friend grey watson, with whom i play in two bands, is moving to south korea at the beginning of june for a one year teaching contract. he's in his late 20's, so this is pretty much the perfect opportunity to go abroad. this will effectively dismantle our rock trio, rubys... and will put a definite damper on through the sparks. we were planning on starting an album soon, but everyone stayed in a holding pattern until we knew what grey was going to do. now hopefully we can at least record some live demos of the new material so it doesn't get lost. at some point we might release the ep we recorded as a 5 piece at jody nelson's house in early 2010. at my age, i don't think in terms of years anymore. they go by too fast. 5 years ago, i was already recording with the spots. life moves pretty fast. anyway... so rubys will be going out in a blaze of glory. we have two shows lined up with the grenadines - one at the nick in birmingham and one somewhere in tuscaloosa...

adding some more photos and links, and soon i'll be posting a half hour recap of random video clips i recorded. i'll flesh out this posting during the next day or two. these first photos were taken by jim fahy. here's another blurb from just before sxsw via bham weekly .

here's some photos of the bham showcase, mainly taken by marcia de fiore as well as a video clip filmed by alison hulsey and sean courtney. i took their two clips and edited them together into the black/white version below. the audio is sketchy but the performance is spirited. i think corey flegel might have taken a few of these as well. i also know there were some folks from al.com but i may have already listed them? this last photo was taken on the way back to the craziness downtown after alison and i had dinner with my friend kristin, who i hadn't seen in nearly 10 years. so great to see her at sxsw... i'll post more photos on here later in the day. still working on combining all of the video clips into one long video, which i'll post soonish. the showcase featured two stages, one inside and one outside, blaring out into the street. very cool. here's a few links to some local press about the event: al.com / sxsw coverage . al.com blo g .

so here's the obligatory multi-part sxsw post. this is going to probably be three segments. one on phantogram, one on photos, and one on video i filmed during the weekend. the last one will hopefully be compiled into one, semi-coherent clip. here we go with the phantogram business. at first, alison and i weren't sure if phantogram was going to play this year, but i was fairly confident that they would. their album came out right after their showcases at sxsw 2010, and they were a huge buzz there last year. after we found out they were playing a few showcases this year, we rsvp'd for the filter mag party and hoped for the best. upon arriving last friday morning after flying in from bham, we waited around to check into our room and called a cab to take us downtown. some hipster girls stole our cab van and i nearly killed the driver, but we were lucky enough to catch a ride with the grenadines. we all got downtown just in time for alison and i to jump out of the van and ...

strange . the winter/spring of 1991 was 20 years ago. the gulf war started just over 20 years ago. i was 16. its been 20 years since i played in my favorite high school band. i also realized that i've been using the same snare drum for 20 years. it was given to me by the drummer for the band "the van goghs" who were about to go on tour with "the rembrandts" - true story. this is super geeky, but knowing i've had the snare for over 20 years, i figured it was probably a lot older than that, so i found the product info. this is interesting only to me, i know this. its the only part of my 2nd drum kit that i kept, and its been an incredibly versatile snare. if it can keep up in a genre bending band like through the sparks, then its pretty solid. according to some of the usergroups i've read, the snare retailed in the mid 80's for around $250 and is generally regarded as being a powerhouse both live and in the studio: 1984-85 Model product model is: M-514...

through the sparks is heading to austin once again for sxsw. this will be the 5th year in a row that through the sparks has played sxsw, and the 2nd time i've played with them. we will be there very briefly... from friday morning until sometime sunday, but i'm hoping to fit in a worthy sxsw experience. starting with flatstock : details /// among the other events i'd like to see... phantogram show on friday the 18th at the filter magazine day party, the fader magazine party... haha tonka... and i'm sure i'll see some unexpected gems. when i went to sxsw in 2007 i had a list of bands i wanted to see... but ended up not seeing very many of them. however i discovered st. vincent and the rosebuds along with a few other impressive bands. this year will probably be no different. i just really want to see phantogram. below is the show poster for the sxsw benefit show through the sparks is playing. there are 4 benefit shows all together.

first up... found this fake vintage ad campaign this morning. love this kinda thing. retro is my deal. also this is technically my first blog post of the decade. i found these images on what has become my go-to site for design oriented images, designspiration.net - this site is closely affiliated with my favorite blog, iso50.com . so i finished up the year at a very low-key year year's eve party in crestwood, in the midst of a crazy winter storm. the winter has gotten quite intense so far this year, with no less than 2 ice/snow storms, with one more on the way this week. more non sequiturs... my car still has a dent in the truck from 10/29/10 that i'll hopefully get fixed this week. still not moving forward fast enough with the synthesizer production muzak stuff. last month however, i did finish the artwork for the new through the sparks singles compilation titled "almanac (mmx) year of beasts." the idea behind the design, is to present an anti-album cove...