shawn avery

i'm going back to cali for new years. i'm leaving tomorrow night. i'll be staying with MARY.CHAIN and her best friend / roommate, MARY.DEATH. also on board will be my old friends from phoenix, lisa and steve. in terms of the cult that i started in september, this means that we will have, the two leaders of the cult - MARY.CHAIN and MARY.DEATH + the 1st apostle (myself) plus two other apostles... if we gather up a few members of the mcdc, who live out in LA, we could damn near have a full congregation. for those of you who don't know what i'm talking about... i started a love cult, that is called the death cult (the mary.chain.death.cult) which is sorta based in LA. it's a play on their names, their names of which, or a play on their names. so that would be... maryjane = MARY.CHAIN and... marybeth = MARY.DEATH = the MARY.CHAIN.DEATH.CULT apparently, maryjane has some surprises for us... we will be drinking red absynth for a good part of the weekend. i'll be b...

in a truly post-modern gesture... i'm reposting some stuff from myspace... the first entry here, a eulogy of lennon, was written on the 8th... what follows (after lennon) is quite possibly one of the best things i've ever written. ok, i'm kidding... but it's pretty funny... its my very own awards ceremony. and thanks to greg slamen, the awards themselves have a name now... "the panties." the music awards blog was originally posted on december 13th... as many who know me are aware, i go thru classic rock listening binges from time to time. from the time i was a kid, i've gone thru these phases of getting interested in a band or artist and then gorging myself on their material. in 1983 it was michael jackson. in the late 80's and even into the early 90's it was van halen. in the mid 90's it was tears for fears and fleetwood mac. for some reason... in 1999 i flaked the fuck out and went nuts for cibo matto. i saw them in concert in phoenix / lil...

behold ... best album : tears for fears, everybody loves a happy ending best rock band, duo or group : wilco best male pop vocal : roland orzabal of tears for fears, last days on earth best male hard rock vocal : trent reznor of nine inch nails, with teeth best female pop vocal : sheryl crow, wildflower best beatles bass line : paul mccartney, i want you (she's so heavy) best pop vocal by a local group or duo : long story short, to whom it may concern best synth lead from a local group or duo : through the sparks, man alive best local drummer : josh cooper best local guitarist : clint wells / jody nelson (tie) best local keyboardist : james brangle best local bassist : greg slamen best local male singer/songwriter: (two way tie) jody nelson and ashby pate best local female singer/songwriter : brittany painter best local group or duo : through the sparks local bands currently producing the most anticipated albums that have yet to be released : (three way tie) lunasect, long story...

i might update here and there but i gotz too much shit goin' on to keep fiddlin' with this every few days. the past few months only have a hand full of entries. this past week... watched a ton of bands over the holidays... i finally got to see wild sweet orange. they opened for the last show i played, but i didn't get to see them. very talented group of kids. as i said to daniel johnston at the show... "they have no fear." also at that show was through the sparks. incredible as always. i watched about 20 mins of t-minus band... very solid indie rock, but no wheels were re-invented. on friday night i watched the rewinds. they were good, but not as good as they were last year. great drum beats though. very catchy stuff. on saturday i went back to the nick (the 3rd night in a row) to see my friend jesse payne. i only caught about half the show because my date and i got a bit too comfy at the garage cafe. nonetheless... what i did see was very refined, although a l...

i'm doing more editing (very little) this week for our next mixing session on saturday. i've been focusing a lot of my time of getting some simple photography galleries up on the internets. i'm still in the middle of my fleetwood mac binge. i got "destiny rules" from netflix... the documentary about the making of their 2003 comeback album. incredibly interesting and inspiring. i witnessed a lot of parrallels between them and out own record making... and i know that sounds pretentious. tonight ashby and i are going to the superior grill to see clint wells play with his cover band. clint is an incredible sideman and smart kid. aaron will be there as well... we are going to discuss my going over to see aaron's band record on sunday. i'm going to tweek their protools le system. i scaled down some stuff online... and i'm getting ready to publish not only these photography galleries, but also the "wiseblood" photos - tons and tons of photos fro...

so picking up where halloween left off... and backing up a bit. i got into the worst traffic i've been in, in a long time. closed roads due to wrecks, double wide trailers on the interstate... more wrecks further up the interstate. i was supposed to arrive at the studio at noon. i got there at 1pm. crazy. but at least i had a mixing session to look forward to. for those keeping notes... that means we are getting closer to finishing. so last friday jeff and i mixed a track tentatively titled "dreams." it took 8 hours to mix it. and it still isn't there yet. but it is air tight. very different. think so-cal harmonies. friday night i went to the rocky horror ball at the alabama theatre, but my ears were tuned to a tight studio room, not a massive theatre with tinny audio. my ears couldn't handle it. so i just hung out with my pal amber backstage and drank wine in a plastic cup. she had to do a radio remote/appearance down the road at the grill, so i was commissioned ...

the ghost of biggie smalls is haunting my myspace page. fellow myspacer, design student and m.c.d.c apostle, karen chenoa, has assumed my online identity for the week. this week i'm editing "dreams" and "hwy" for our mixing session on friday afternoon. i wanted to get some editing and recording done this weekend, but all i managed was a synth part. so what did i do last week...? thursday night i went to see through the sparks play at the nick and they completely blew my mind. everytime i see them, they get better. they played a few new songs and had a very nice mix. traci and leah hooked me up with a fucking mountain of music. i love indie rock women. so giving. so pure of heart, so obscure. friday night i did a lot of work at the office and ran errands. i went over to ashby's and then over to brett's where we all listened to a few hours of the notorious b.i.g. i was pretty into it. probably not as much as brett or aaron, but i was into it. ashby and ch...