SQUIDS TONIGHT AT THE SHIP

DAN JONES AND MATT RONAN @ LOUIE'S WINE DIVE IN LIBERTY, SUNDAY 9/9

RETURN TO SAM BOND'S ON 9/14

HOME RECORDINGS: CONCRETE STEPS

15 HOME RECORDINGS

FRIDAY NIGHT FLIER AND OTHER ASSORTED DOODLES

SQUIDSKC @ miniBAr - FRIDAY 5/8/15

I'm looking forward to this show on Friday with Alex Alexander, Booji Schneider, and Steven Michael Tulipana aka SquidsKC. The other bands are great and share a like-minded approach to melody and mayhem. We go on first, which should be about 10:00, upstairs at miniBar, which has a kickin' new p.a. and many improvements including an ice swan that never melts and pinball machine that features hazelnuts in place of stainless pinballs and tilts everytime the toilets flush, which is why they call it the pinball whizzer. It is a great thing to play songs from different phases of my [cough] career with dear friends who can also play like maniacs. I wish my Oregon friends could see it.

The Concave Man - demo

This came about in a unique way: just a single note keyboard pattern was the foundation for the whole thing; keyboard drumkit-sounds and layering and words coming along later. In the global scope of weird, this song is not that weird, but for me this is pretty far down the personal spectrum of weird.

YOUR COMPLETE DAN JONES PLAYLIST ON SPOTIFY

The complete discography on Spotify. That's not to say cd's and vinyl don't make great gifts. 

18-MONTH REPORT FROM KC AFTER RECEIVING A MIX CD FROM MY BUDDY ZIG WITH ONE OF MY SONGS ON IT ALONGSIDE JIMI HENDRIX

It is supposed to snow quite a bit today, and I am excited about that.  We haven't had much snow this year, and it has been very cold and very dry.  That's one of the weird things about being back in the midwest--dry skin and intense static electricity.  When I sit down and scooch around on our synthetically upholstered World Market sofa, all the hairs on my arms stand up.  Also, the hairs on the dog's head sort of float and waver and he looks like 70's Rod Stewart. 

Last year we lived in a basement apartment in Midtown and it was extremely dry, but cozy in the winter, cool in the summer.  This year we're in an almost 100 year old house and it is drafty as can be.  Winter isn't as fresh and novel this year, after 22 years in the rainy Northwest.  But this weekend we are supposed to have up to 9 inches of snow, and despite all the cold weather, which makes my van honk a bass clarinet sound upon ignition if under 5 degrees, I know that sunny, warmer weather is around the corner.  And truly hot weather, the kind that means you can wear shorts and drink a beer on your porch at 11:00 at night, is after that.  In the Northwest there is an awful lot of cool, wet weather all the way up to Fourth of July.  I don't miss that in the least.

I have been enjoying this Robert Wyatt anthology that I bought at Records With Merritt a couple weeks ago.  Well, I went down there and I flirted with the idea of buying it and had self-denial programming kick in, even though I work my ass off and ought to buy a record now and again.  And some new Pumas, jeez.  Then I went across the street to my van and had locked the keys in it.  It was snowing, bitterly cold, and kind of icy.  So I waited for a locksmith at Mike's Westsider and enjoyed a club sandwich and talked with the bartender about the value of a '98 GMC Safari as a band van, and thought about why I didn't buy that record.  I thought long and hard, then went back the next day and got it.  (This is how I shop, by feeling conflicted, and locking my keys in the car.)  That store is nicely curated with amazing music from around the world.

I am kind of in puttering mode myself with music, chipping away at a few things.  I've never pretended not to be a working person who makes non-commercial music on the side, and that is even more true now because, while I enjoyed all of my day jobs in Eugene, I look forward to my job here in Kansas City, work much longer hours, and have fallen into a very non-musician routine of getting up at 5:15, writing a bit, working from 7 to 5, and falling asleep at 9:30.  For Valentine's Day I got this super cool book called Daily Rituals, a collection of short essays that describe the work habits of various writers and artists.  Love this book.

I'll be 46 in a few weeks and fiddle with music more like an occasional poet.  There is tension and some frustration there, for sure, and still a sense that I could work a less challenging job for fewer hours and start staying out late again going to shows and performing and feeding the scene and building new friendships.  Had I stayed in the Northwest my graybeard years would have been comfy in that local way, maybe. 

I am proud of a cool discography and will add to it, but working in giant design-build shop, managing subcontracted elements of unique projects, and feeling part of big crazy family really means more to me at this point.  If you had told me ten years ago that I would end up working on a playground project for the Indians at Progressive Field, or learning about biased rolling of sheet metal for a museum just blocks from our house, I would would have said you were nuts.   

And, if you had told me we'd move to KC, that I'd catch an Alex Gordon foul ball the first week back, and that I'd watch my Royals go to the last out of the 7th game of the World Series in 2014, I would have asked you to Google translate yourself.  October was crazy!  We moved into a new neighborhood, were welcomed with open arms by great people, and I watched pretty much every game with them.  I would go to work and it was Royal blue everywhere.  Amazing times, like a dream. 

There has also been a meaningful proximity to my parents as they have moved into different levels of retirement care to meet their differing needs.  When that really began to change, it sucked pretty bad to be 1800 miles away.

But, as alway, I am full of music, almost as full of music as I am full of bullshit--it just is part of how my brain is put together.  These are three of the demos I've messed around with since moving to KC:

THROWBACK SQUIDS - ONE MAN SUBMARINE RECORD RELEASE MARCH 2003

A DOODLE AND A DEMO - "THINK YA GOT A REAL GOOD DEAL?"

Here's a recent attic demo I made in part with a cool Christmas present, an electronic keyboard that has some fun sounds.

Happy to announce that SquidsKC are playing Middle of the Map fest in KC this Spring, more details to come.

This just in from the doodle department. TTYL.

Just Woke Up (Mountain Dulcimer Bleed) and More Journal Excerpts

This came from fooling around with multi-tracked mountain dulcimer and super-processed trombone. Don't not try this at home. In fact only try this at home. Somewhere along the way I also got a bass amp and that helped.




2014.09.24

I took 71 to work yesterday, it was super fast and I did not miss traffic on 39th, at all.  I'm farther away but it is about the same commute time: 20 minutes.  I get a nice view of downtown going 71 to 670 to 35, too.  I took a longish walk on campus last night and it is beautiful over there, what a great place to run and walk the dog.  I had a weird feeling of being at home there and wanted to look into continuing education classes just from being in that environment.

2014.9.27
I haven't bought a record in some time and this is nagging at me, like I haven't visited an elderly relative in the hospital.  I am looking forward to a good browse somewhere.  I would like to get rid of a bunch of stuff.  When I look at the pile of gear I moved and office things, I see a bunch of beatdown junk.  I mean, if you are working or active musician, your shit looks a pile of beatdown junk, so that's not THAT big of a deal.

2014.9.29
I really want a mocha master coffee maker because I think the ones at work make really good coffee and I am tired of the coffee ritual in the morning, I'd rather have that extra twenty minutes to write.  I wonder if it is actually possible that a machine could make good coffee at home.  I would like that.

2014.9.30

I had a scary dream last night about a diabolical character who was a police detective.  I met with him on a case, in a junior colleague kind of way.  He was an intimidating European, maybe Scottish, very intelligent and intense, tall and kind of lanky and handsome.  Our meeting was over dinner and I remember feeling like a nuisance or an irritation, and I remember something about a soggy sponge or brillo pad used to clean up a spill or something on the table.
    It turned out later that this detective had murdered many people and perfected a way of slowly disposing the bodies that involved chemicals and storage and off-gassing in neutral way.  I'm not sure who discovered this, but it was another older colleague, and I was still somewhat to the side of it, yet had shared a meal with the criminal and felt in some way that my intuition was moving me in the right direction, I just wasn't aware of it.
     It's weird what dreams can signify--weird in the ancient sense of the word.  I've always tried to intuit crime-related dreams as the energy of coming up against personal rules or structures.  I.E. if you feel criminal energy in your dreams or whatever, you might be up against breaking your own rules, represented by the rule of law or morality in your dreams.

2014.10.01

Well, that was the best baseball game I have ever seen while rooting for The Royals and having it come out in our favor.  I mean, it was some kind of crazy miracle game, with this ridiculous inevitability that came after getting down four runs.  I watched it over at Scot's house with the neighborhood dudes, Joe, Dan, Dave, Frank, and Gabe, it was really a grand time.  We set off fireworks at midnight.  It was crazy.  The Royals aren't just a wildcard playoff team, they are officially an American League division series playoff team.

JOURNAL EXCERPTS SEPTEMBER 2014

2014.09.07

This is our last morning at Lake Pomme de Terre and it is very pretty, sunny but cool, and I can hear the boats out on the water, which was one of my favorite sounds as a child.  Should we return we will bring a kettle for boiling water, a good kitchen knife, a domino set, fishing tackle, beach towels, floatation devices, and a 50 gallon drum of bug spray.  I walked by the water at dusk last night with the almost full-moon coming up.  I stood on the dock for a while and reflected on how lucky I am to return to a place I enjoyed as a kid.

2014.09.08

I love the new Bob Mould record, best one in a long time.  It has some aggressive, live-sounding tracks on it that are as vital as anything he's done since "Flip Your Wig" days.  And it has some ballads and more mid-tempo stuff that I like as well.  I basically want to listen to it all the time, which is an experience I have not had with a record in some time.

2014.09.09

If you take a look at pretty much anything in culture you can take a read on its usefulness, its triviality, its underlying animosity, or the self-regard of its maker.  Nowadays I look at a lot of what we do and the message I see is "this is NOT happening! Sell more shoes!"  The migratory patterns of North American birds are getting all fucked up.  Many species won't survive the adjustment process.  Sell more cars!  The culture of denial, or whatever you want to call it.  I don't believe in being a crank, unless you are a really, really, really good crank like H.L. Mencken or somebody like that.  But we are messing everything up, big time.  That's a weak way to put it.

2014.09.10
   
Later I dreamed Neil Young had a new lost album that required real estate developers to finish.  It was a new Tonight's The Night type record, but apparently was all about sex.  I was imagining the packaging of the sleeve and all of that.  The music was supposedly really great.

2014.09.11

I have used journal writing for bloodletting more than once and you end up with writing that you feel you need to burn or throw away.  I wrote it longhand in part to hide the negative commentary that might hurt someone else or make me look like an asshole.  I guess the point is in relationships, whether at work or at home, imperatives and intuitions are there, it's not like you have to write them all down, especially if you are writing them down to get rid of them until they build up again with such force that you're struggling again.  Better to just be present with whatever it is than to feed it, nurse it, drag it out in writing.
    I was thinking I'd make eggplant parmesan tonight, then again I was thinking I might go to the Royals-Red Sox game at the K.

2014.09.15

Yesterday I broke my step record of 16K and got close to 18K--that was a good long walk and a bunch of hauling boxes and stuff out to the van and into the basement of the house.  I was reviewing my journal entries and find that I have mentioned the step counter three or four times.   This makes me wonder about Alzheimer's but also tells me that I really like having a step counter on my phone.

BALBOA DISCOVERS THE LOST TROOSTWOOD COMPOST PILE

     Yesterday I exposed a pretty nice compost pile in our back yard and hacked away at three giant fountain grass clumps, untended for probably years.  I am no stranger to untended fountain grass but in middle age I do not hesitate to cut it down to the ground.  My better half would prefer it 90% eradicated.  This is how I feel about any kind of ivy, only100%.  Shooting it with RoundUp is better than having an XBox.
    
     I also located the lawn and leaf recycling center on North Chouteau Drive.  It was kind of a long trip because of the KC Marathon, a traffic jam on 71, and my alternate route all the way down Prospect to Independence Avenue to Chestnutt Trafficway.  But I had a nice sense of adventure getting the recycling center dialed in and still appreciate how much of the city I do not know.  When I drive some of those blocks full of boarded up houses I try to envision how this will change for the better because someday it will.  On Woodland I saw an old theatre with a beat old sheet metal marquee and wondered what bands and movies played there.
  
    Lawn shears, snow shovel, foaming hornet spray for an underground nest--all while flea bombs off-gassed at home--this way my errand-y day.  And of course what errand-y Saturday would be complete without a trip to the carwash?  Always psychedelic.

     Stuck waiting for a train near Knuckleheads in the East Bottoms, I listened to Mose Allison's
Back Country Suite for about the 20th time and read the liner notes, soaking it in after re-discovering it in my cd re-organization and cull. (The Westport library now has our doubles of Sugar, Beach Boys, Flaming Lips, and Son Volt records.)  Witty, intelligent, and narrative with country blues soul, perfect for being stuck by the tracks for half an hour with 9 bags of black walnut yard debris and a gnawing appetite for fried food on a Saturday afternoon.

     For the first time in a long time I have my trombone out on a stand in a music room and I have been playing it for 15 minutes a day trying to get some kind of embouchure back.  The sound comes back, and it is relaxing, like ohming or chanting, just to play long tones.  But attacks are all spitty and florfy after only 5 or ten minutes.  I can't believe I played a whole 25 minute set with Drop A Grand. I don't remember the pain, and don't usually associate low brass with punk rock adrenaline.  Looping back to trombone as a classically trained player who plays self-taught rock and roll has always been really weird.  I immediately assume a strict concert posture even with Steve doing high kicks near my face.  Almost every time I pick up the horn I think of my old KC trombone teacher, Stephanie Bryant, who died this year.

 

BASEMENT/GARAGE PUTTERING SOUNDSYSTEM DELUXE

SQUIDSkc @ recordBar 7/20/14

Here's a Spotify playlist of songs from our show the other night (including originals of a couple covers by Grant Hart and Wreckless Eric), plus a couple of vids. 

UPCOMING SHOW: 7/20 @ RECORDBAR - 8:00 START! EARLY IS THE NEW PUNK!

We're learning some new songs, it'll be the bomb.

SquidsKC

SquidsKC @ RecordBar Sunday July 20

Steve, Alex, Matt and I have a show this summer. We are working up some songs from my catalog and a couple of fun covers and performing as SquidsKC.  The show is Sunday, July 20 and we go on at 8:00.  It is fun finding a groove with a new group of pals and figuring out how to play these songs together.

We'll be opening for The Donkeys (from San Diego) and Mat Shoare (KC).