shawn avery

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...