Old News

Both of the City Center shows in Michigan were off the chain amazing. Very very many thanks to Dion & The UFO Factory, Windy & Hitoko, Silverghost, Actual Birds, Jeffery Lewis, Annie Palmer, Eliza and Shelley for coming along with me to both shows, MC5 Bob for ruling, all the friendly faces who came out and just everybody in general. The exponential growth from one show to the next was pretty great to feel. I don't know how I managed to see so many old friends and not take a single picture... oh wait, I was supremely drunk for the duration of both shows due to nervous blather! That'll do it.


This weekend there's a huge music festival in the upper peninsula of Michigan called Keweenawesome Fest. Not sure if this is the second, third or fourth annual one, but I am super stoked to be playing a solo set as part of the jams. From the flyer above, you can see that a ton of Michigan and other-placed homies are playing, and everyone tells me it's the best vibe in the universe. If you live anywhere near Houghton Michigan I hope to see you there.

This last week or so in Michigan has been sick productive. I totally went to the dentist today for the first time in six years, and despite my tooth-loss last year, I only had a couple cavities. No dentures for old man Thomas just yet! Then I did a panel discussion at the Ann Arbor Teen Center called the Neutral Zone on the merits of manufacturing and distributing your music without the help on major labels. It was awesome! Me and a couple other older Ann Arbor music folks talked to a bunch of aspiring teenage musicians about our experiences with making our music happen for ourselves over the years. So positive. AAAAANNNNDDD apart from playing a ton of rad shows, finally finishing the City Center 7" and the Everyone CD, me and Ryan have also been jamming constantly, I finished some new SLGTM songs and, and, and, and...

Especially for the Keweenawesome Fest, I recorded a new album. Over the years my idea about songwriting is that a song is never totally finished, and every time you play a song it's something new, not something that just stays in a static place. I've often gone back and listened to super old recordings and had them make so much sense years after their inception. Since I started playing solo shows, I've been endlessly making new songs, often on super shitty recording equipment or in a rushed, weird fashion cause that's just how I've been rolling. So for this new CD, I re-recorded 8 older songs from the last seven years that I always thought could have been better or maybe just got pushed out too soon. I also recorded a Silver Jews cover, cause I woke up one morning with it rushing through my head. I made them for the show on Saturday, but I imagine I'll have some extra copies. Drop me a line if you want one.

Fred Thomas
"Old News"
Edition of 100 copies.
1.Summer Of OMD
2.Our Fair City And It's Field Of Vision
3.Last One To Leave
4.Roco
5.Throw Me A Line
6.Brookl
7.Living Waters (Download here.)
8.When You Fuck Things Up With Your Baby
9.The Dancefloor Dreams

Total Running Time: 24min 58sec

Back in New York on Monday. Ready for the rattledown rumble rush, but also sad that this weird elongated tour is coming to a close.

Reverse Urgency

As mentioned, I've been doing a ton of stuff in the last week or so, and getting ready for even more. Rather than slowly make the switch to elongated (or potentially boring) summaries of my every happenstance, I'll present you with the truncated form, in order of reverse urgency.

Lexington: Drove a hell-bending stretch from Texas to Kentucky by myself, and played an incredibly giving and joyful set Saturday night at The Shrieking Shack, punk/awesome/holistic house of my friends Lauren, Darin and their son Denali. A more attentive, excitable, thoughtful audience could not be found, and the show was great. There was a full-on drum circle after my set!!!! Mind blown, and more than a lot of love circulating. It was actually pretty hard to leave, following such an intense night of partying, communicating and jamming then a morning of homemade waffles and even more jamming, complete with percussion by young Denali. There is some video up of this show on youtube, including the footage from my last posting and also some super psychedelic stuff here.


When Sons Delay: I am camped out at Sellwood's house in Michigan while he's on tour and I'm waiting for shows to happen. Ryan came over on Tuesday night and we had a monstrous jam, then worked on a new City Center song called "Because". The mathematics of delay seem to be connected to the guy's inner coil of self, as he nailed some crazy algorithms every time. Here are two of the pieces.
Ryan Howard & Fred Thomas "Untitled 1"
Ryan Howard & Fred Thomas "Untitled 2"
Recorded March 18, 2008.
Ryan Howard: Guitar, Percussion, Electronics
Fred Thomas: Guitar, Sampler, Vocals, Electronics

Songs Love Shows, But Songs Hate To Say So: After not a very long time, but what felt like a while in anticipation, the City Center 7"s arrived today! Invisible Friend is the name of the label, and the single has a new, different version of "Gold Girls" and the full-orchestration heavy bass swooner "Bray (All Day)". Nick hooked up some sweet full-color covers, but the printer screwed them up, so the first batch are kind of... "interesting" looking. I am beyond stoked however to have this in the world. 339 copies total, all on white vinyl.

Also, I got some copies today of a project I recorded last year called Everyone. The record is called "Desperate Times", and it's two long sound-collages I made while I was living in Portland and going through some very desperate times. Heavy dub-drone /who-the- fuck-is talking?- They-voice-all-weird kind of sound. It's a non-CDR silver disc on Kenedik Records, though I'm not sure how many they made. Songs are "Desperate Times" (13min 23sec) and "I Once Was Lost (But Now Can See)" (16min 16sec).

If you're interested in getting either of these releases, I can mail-order you copies and we can do some sort of paypal thing. Drop a comment here with your e-mail or hit me directly at westsideaudio (at) gmail (dot) com.


Michigan, Highs & Lows: There are two City Center shows in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area in the next few days. If you're reading this blog, you may already have a deep Michigan connection, so if you live here, please come out! They both look to be really promising and potentially very different from each other.

Saturday March 22: UFO Factory, Detroit. All Ages.
1345 Division. Suite 101
City Center, Silverghost (Marcie & Delano's duo lover's rock band), Hitoko & Windy.
9 PM, $5.00
Monday March 24: The Alibi, Ann Arbor. All Ages.
603 N. Main Street
City Center, Jeffery Lewis, Annie Palmer, Actual Birds.
8PM, $6.00

Unless I'm forgetting the most urgent thing of all, that should about do it for now. I hope to see some of you at the shows and hopefully the next post will be less lengthy and far less urgent. The first day of spring went well, and the second one looks even better.

Meanwhile

Things are going by at a ridiculous rate, with new ideas or happenings every day. I want to write a full update, maybe even later today, but for now, here's some video from my show in Lexington which ruled the most and I will tell you all about in a minute.

City Center "Gold Girls"/"Life Was A Problem" March 15, 2008 Lexington KY

Sweetbysweetwest

Day One: "Let It Ride"
Following the bitter, bitter death of the red van shortly after the last Saturday tour, Sellwood gripped a nasty-ass orange PT Cruiser like rental car to get us from Ann Arbor to Austin. His plan was to get down to South by Southwest where he'll hook up with Dave Dondero and tour as part of Dave's band until the middle of April. I would drive the rental back up, playing some shows on the way and spending a few weeks in Michigan until the festival in the upper peninsula at the end of the month. On Tuesday we woke up early, got in the orange beaster and made our way. The day accrued us 5 states (Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Arkansas) 15 hours on the road and about 1,000 miles (we were pretty pleased with ourselves making this much time and distance through the US in a single day. We bumped into Rob & Mary later in Texas and were telling them about our feat, literally high-fiving and smug in our accomplishment. They thought it was pretty cool, but also that they could relate having done 1,700 miles in a single day from NYC down. Total amazing deflating teenage movie moment.) One speeding ticket ($75, I was driving. 82 in a 65.) and about 100 albums worth of music on the way. The rule was to "let it ride", with a bar on skipping shitty songs on good records, or even songs that were too long, or that we'd heard a thousand times. I fell asleep during a 45 minute version of "The Other One" from an especially elongated Dick's Picks Grateful Dead disc, but Sellwood let it ride. We stopped in Hope, Arkansas for the night, cracked out as fuck but somehow feeling amazing.

Day Two: "What Happened Next"
One of the great things about spending years on tour is getting a lay-of-the-land on a really broad, magnified scale. Knowing where the sweet health-conscious diner right off the highway in Dallas was meant one less meal at Taco Bell and a better day overall. It didn't afford us enough time for a stop at the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco, but the day was still saved to some extent. We rolled into Austin around four or five. We were staying with some friends at a rented house right outside of town, second year in a row. Going from thawing New York to snow-covered Michigan to breezy, relentlessly pleasant Texas in the spring time was just bonkers nice. The feeling in the air encapsulated the nicest parts of both summer night and late spring vibes, and being amid the ridiculousness all around made everything seem like a fast-forward to the good parts of the year and a rewind to being 14 and walking around a busy Art Fair crowd in Ann Arbor or being at an amusement park or something. The K showcase was at Emo's IV, a little annex to a bigger club on 6th street and Red River, one of the busier intersections of the festival. Karl Blau started the show, awesome to see him again so soon. Then Jeremy Jay ripped a set, and I was stoked to see Yasmine playing bass with him. I went on next, the second live show by City Center, and I was told it was super loud and insane sounding. Really washy, and I fucked up a lot more than I thought I would, but it felt pretty good to be playing the songs outside of my bedroom. There was even some press;

"Blah blah blah, Jeremy Jay played... every time he brushed his hair out of his face or arced his shoulders around the mic stand, there was a pretty eerie resemblance. But not quite as eerie as what happened next."
-Pitchfork

I spent some time hanging outside with Mar, Bones, Tammy, Ingeborg (in town all the way from Oslo, Norway!) and the Canada kids who had just come from their show sadly happening at the same time. The sucky thing about SXSW is that it's literally five hundred different shows happening on the same night, a week in a row, so it's inevitable that you miss friends' shows or shit you really wanna see. We hung out for a minute, then walked down to see Tyvek, who were ripping it up super raw style, including their new guitarist coming out into the crowd to put his foot on my shoulder and play a guitar solo directly into my head. Amazing. Then we stood in line, waiting to see the Lemonheads, but not before walking by REM playing "Fall On Me" at Stubbs. College rock dreams come true. We caught the Lemonheads show from the front of the line outside the Emo's tent, but I coulda gave a fuck because THEY WERE PLAYING "IT'S A SHAME ABOUT RAY" IN IT'S ENTIRETY! This might not mean a lot to some, but having worn out that tape at a tender age, it was a formative thing for me, and even a somewhat lackluster rendering of it by Evan Dando and two session dudes was good enough for me. Sadly they omitted "Kitchen", "Frank Mills" and "Mrs. Robinson", but then they filled out the set with other early-90's jams. All of a sudden I was back at the mall, walkman in back pocket of oversized jeans, trying to figure out what "disaffected" meant. Caught some of Kimya Dawson, Mahjonng, the Blow and then went back to the ranch to crash out hard, strains of "My Drug Buddy" still flowing through me like summer rain.

my son! and my spiritual advisor

times new viking

Day Three: Just The Facts
In the past at SXSW, I've always done lots of shows, as many as six in three days, which can get to be both exhausting and time-consuming. This year only doing one show meant that I had open reign to hang out and see lots of bands instead of focusing on being somewhere else or playing myself. Thursday was intense and beautiful, saw so many awesome new jams. Woke up later than my homies at the house, ate at Mr. Natural down the street (THE BEST!) and then took a bus in to downtown, checking out Ponytail and Ecstatic Sunshine at the Todd P outdoor thinger, Detroit homies Hard Lessons & Great Lakes Myth Society at some sort of Michigan-based showcase, Shout Out Louds, Times New Viking (aamaaaazzing! the live show sounds just as fucked and lo-fi as the record!), World/Inferno Friendship Society (still kicking it), walked by Motorhead (!!!) but couldn't get in, saw some of the Secretly Canadian showcase with Phosphorescent, White Hinterland, Throw Me The Statue, and then rounded out the night at the super-down Upset The Rhythm showcase. Lots of friends there, and not too crowded, the show felt more like a party than an overwrought South-By debacle. Soiled Mattress & The Springs played some supreme skronk jams. KIT, who I hadn't seen yet totally ruled. Kinda improvised positive hardcore with George Chen shredding dutifully and VC directing vaguely from the drumkit in a Roscoe Mitchell's - adopted- kid- who -only -listens -to -Black -Flag style. Ruled. High Places had a pretty staid set, a really mellow and fruitful kind of vibe. I hadn't seen them for a few months, and the new songs were great, somewhat sad even.

kit

high places

Day Four: Peace
I woke up, ate at Mr. Natural again and said some quick goodbyes before getting in the car and heading back up. SXSW complete in-and-out style, but fully just enough and by far the friendliest, most relaxed one yet.

sellwood with keynote speaker lou reed

Run For The Raw Row

Leaving for tour tomorrow, fully frantic and with an inexplicable sore rib. One less rib is the best way to go. Packing now, flying into Detroit tomorrow and then a long drive to a week-long beer commercial and/or "Keep It Indie!; The Movie". I had a "practice" today (aka- plug everything in, play the songs through headphones while I sing/do live samples/play percussion in the room and my upstairs neighbors become agitated) and it was pretty raw. But like Big Baby Jeasuos (rest in pweace) would say...

City Center "Bleed Blood" (practice tape March 9, 2008)

Green Tape

Getting ready for tour after getting done with tour and also getting less sick as the seconds pass. In the meantime I've finished a tape for release on Michigan noise/awesome label Green Records & Tapes. The covers aren't totally done, and the master hasn't even been mailed out to Knox yet, but if you're interested you should check out the myspace page and hit him up for a copy sometime in the next few weeks. It turned out really good, totally icy and less psychedelic than I thought it would. A couple songs have been up here, and you can check out another one below.

Last night I went to make some backing tracks for the upcoming shows, only to find somehow many, many many of the Pro-Tools tracks for the songs were completely gone from my computer. Fully vanished, aka no songs, aka no band, aka no tour maybe... Totally freeked for a couple hours then I was like "Well fuck it. Maybe I can re-work them in a super rushed way and have something to play..." The only thing is... THE STUFF I RE-DID TURNED OUT A MILLION BAJILLION TIMES BETTER!!! And insaner. And excitinger. I finished a version of "Bleed Blood" twice as long as the original with serious subsonic bass vibes. I have to fuck up and accidentally delete all my songs more often. Tour info should be up by Tuesday and the info about the Green Tape is below. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

City Center
March 2008 Cassette
Edition of 35 copies

Side One:
1.Say A Prayer To Yourself (Download here.)
2.Glass Slipper
3.Beached
4.Last Door

Side Two:
1.Snow Case
2.From The New Seasons Parking Lot In Northeast
3.White Shoes
4.Soft Light

Total Running Time 27min 30sec

Sick Synch

Super demo version of a fever breaking and no cigarettes in your dreams. I finished the tape for Green today, I'll have details up tomorrow.

City Center "Sickly"

'Twasn't Thine

SLGTM mini tour was fucking rad, and over all too fast. I thought about being more on point when it came to taking photos of people we met or sweet things we did and saw, but as has been my way since I started touring, I mostly just took pictures of inanimate natural objects in obscured form. Sweet. Getting to Alfred was treacherous due to a snowstorm, and we ended up being super late, but the organizers were totally sweet, and the crowd was positive. Even a super busted expensive sound system didn't break up the vibe and we ended up doing a couple new songs in improvised fashion and an extremely teenaged Breeders cover. It seemed like an especially wild clientele up there. When changing in the bathroom, I heard a succession of kids come in to throw up, in a way that seemed like it could only be to make more room for alcohol. We played with Raise Up Roof Beams, who were kind hearted and cool, and then slept in snow-covered silence at the hotel on campus. It's really still up in northern NY, enough so to become kind of eerie.

The next day was so perfect. We got up early and drove in clear, un-murderous upstate beauty to Swarthmore College near Philly. A super small college town, and the student body only numbers 1,400 kids, but a more amazing night could not be found. Again everyone involved was super positive and cool, and the show was full-bore rage. Not sure how the rage cage got rattled the way it did, but I spent a lot of time telling the audience "Guys, I'm fully raging right now! This is the best!"

Before the show we did a small radio-interview/performance on the college station, including a few slow jams and an extremely impromptu VU cover. Patrick Kolodgy recorded it and was nice enough to send me a link to the songs, which are super off-the-cuff and sweet in a kitten sneezing kind of way.

SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME: Live on WSRN March 1, 2008
1.Leave It Alone (3:14)
2.Peg (2:34)
3.Stephanie Says (3:29)
4.The Girl's Distracted (2:27)

We also had the pleasure of sharing the bill that night with Jotto from Philly who have this sweet backstage video series thing that we took part in. You can watch it here.


I think a lot of what made this trip so great was the complete absence of Taco Bell, replaced with really good food, always band-funded thanks to collegiate entertainment budgets. I have to remember that for next month in Texas. You remain what you eat. More than that, I think our quick-to-form obsession with the Shaggy song "It Wasn't Me" made all the moments of this last weekend so bright. The thing is fucking genius!!! The melody, the bassy dancehall growl conversation, the completely audacious idea that when you get caught cheating on your girlfriend the best thing to do is just deny it was you. At one point we all considered getting "it wasn't me" tattoos, spring break style, but somehow our better judgment prevailed.

Sunday night in Northampton, Mass was pretty good, but I suffered from deep dinner-induced lethargy, and couldn't pull my energy together until the second we hit the stage. The van, a maroon behemoth that Sellwood has had for about six years, was sputtering to it's demise by that point in the tour, kind of taking away slightly from the joy. The thing has 171,000 miles on it, 101,000 from Saturday tours. Its sad to see the old guy go, but it really has had a great run. We had multiple stops to fix weird random problems while driving back to Brooklyn that night, and the next day getting to the Knitting Factory it stalled almost every time it stopped. The knit show was great, despite the fifty extra bands added last minute to the Monday night bill. Not really 50, but man, there were a lot more band members in that building than music fans, for sure. It was good to have a show that felt like a totally connective and loving experience where people wanted to rock the fuck out and know all the words, screaming and dancing rather than wanting those things in stilted silence. The perfect last show of the winter, and a great way to spend a weekend.


Next week I leave again for the City Center outing /adventure/ lifesblood/ lambsblood/ sheep skin/raw wool moments tour. I will post some dates up here as soon as it's a little more together. Also will try to have a new recording for the tour, so maybe I'll put some new songs up in the meantime, too. Thanks to Dan, Kate Dog, Bones, Robby, Josclyn, Carey, Emma, Patrick, Melissa, BZ, Elan, Phoebe, Teen and really everyone and anyone who made it out to this last string of shows. Saturday, when everyone lived in the same place, was prone to touring about 6-9 months of the year and ripping shows in the same way some people eat donuts. Ok, in the same way I eat donuts; daily and without a care. But as we've spread apart geographically, it becomes more and more emotional (see photos) and special to get a chance to jam, so thanks for being a part of that. More up soon in a less long-winded and gushy way, more chorus, less bore us.