shawn avery

this past week was quite productive. both bands i'm in did some rehearsing, performing and recording. after nearly 4 months of inactivity (lame) electroliner did some rehearsing this past tuesday and thursday, with great results. after an hour of two of getting back into the mindset of a 5 piece, we got up to speed on our existing set list and learned some new songs that worked quite well. thursday morning, bo, john and clair performed at the good people brewery for a fox6 morning show appearance. friday night we played two sets during a benefit/fund raiser at the brewery. it was a bit warm in there, but it was actually a very cool setting for us. we were lucky to have our sound-man, kenny on hand to set up his excellent rig of mains, monitors, lights, boards, etc. this is the first band i've been in that's had the luxury of hiring our own sound gear, run by a music veteran with great ears and positive demeanor. it makes a difference. we played incredibly well, even by my ...

travis morgan (skybucket records) emailed me this morning, with a link to a design blog that featured my through the sparks "terminal" poster. this blog, called the inspiration stream, is part of a larger site , and this is the direct link to the feature page. the most astonishing aspect of this to me is the fact that the blog curator placed a design by scott hansen ( iso50 ) beside mine. that guy is a design god, and i visit his blog almost every day. travis has made the poster available for sale on the skybucket label's merch page .

right now, the world is very much aware of the impending disaster scenario in the gulf . its been quite a while since the explosion on april 20th, and conservative estimates have the spill as surpassing 3.5 million gallons of oil. thus far, all attempts to close the valve have failed. today, a very ambitious, and actually quite creative solution is being attempted. a 100 ton box of steel is going to be hoisted off a ship, and dropped a mile below the surface. let's hope it works. luckily, there are a lot of resources available in the gulf, and thus far the weather has allowed for a lot of preparation for coastal defenses. booms, oil burns, dispersant chemicals, natural dispersion, etc. have all helped keep everything somewhat under control. kinda. one obvious casualty of this disaster is not only the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in fishing revenue, but also the renewed debate on the expansion of offshore drilling has been dealt a blow. but it doesn't have t...

this is a poster i'm doing for an upcoming show by post-punk / sludge rock legends, melvins . i think kurt cobain used to carry their amps to gigs for them. anyhoo... this will probably be my last poster for a while. this one started out interesting, with the arresting inverted "colorized" hydrogen bomb image, but the type wasn't working. after letting it sit untouched for a week or two, i finally finished it last night, along with some quickly done alternate cross-processed versions. these aren't my best posters, but they aren't my worst. i drew from some eccentric inspirational elements that i'm too tired to get into. other than the chopped up image and text artifacts, the thing i like most is the text doesn't look computer generated. it looks more like photo text.

there's no way to deny it. i'm a member of generation x. and my generation's musical peak took place during the 90's. the overwhelmingly influential aspects of electronic music from the 90's still affects me today. when i think of making music, in my mind its usually electronically based. the bands i listen to the most are electronic bands. and the albums i have listened to the most have been primarily electronic albums. nine inch nails, aphex twin, cardigans, tears for fears, sneaker pimps, roni size reprazent, goldie, all made important electronic albums during that time. its been a long time since i heard something new to my ears, something worth investigating further. in my view, because of the emergence of insane music technology, and virtual instruments, easy sampling, infinite sounds in sound modules, an electronic artist needs to push the form to get my attention. the last time this happened in a big way was when i discovered tycho, maybe 4 or 5 years ago. ...

the man in black / dark tower narrative the atomic bomb (jughead) saved the world cease to exist theory pushing that button, really was saving the world the package (the importance of desmond) why don't you start at the beginning? (excellent theory of everything) the answer to your question (another theory of everything)

i didn't play on the record, so i'm free to praise it as much as i want to. i've been playing with through the sparks on and off since march 2007. some of the songs on this record started getting performed live almost 3 years ago. finally the record has been released (digitally) and people are starting to hear it. it is by far their best album. and it is short, just 9 songs - but its the perfect length. each song gets your attention. there's a plan for a cd printing soon and possibly a vinyl pressing. here's an over-the-top rave review of worm moon waning , which was released last week. i've updated their myspace page with some fresh images, formatting & code. i'm also doing a beta page for the album site. Through The Sparks - Worm Moon Waning 28. Mar, 2010 - The Southbound Internet Radio Blog What better way to celebrate a fabulous show at SxSW than to release a smashing album of gorgeous songs. Through The Sparks ha...