weekender report

Hey, member' when I said I would blog everyday...well, I'm still gunna try that. but shit, I found myself not doing if for the last few days..just busy I guess..weekends are not for Internet stuff. I find less people check e-mails, update blogs, and update public sites on weekends. It's natural or it just means people are away form work and spend less time on the Internet. whatever the case, here is a small recap of the weekend....Thursday night I had rehearsal with skarekrau. It went okay...I feel we need to real rehearsal better and to work on the newer songs more closely. I think we all need a jolt of some freshness...I don't want the band to fizzle out..it needs Viagra or some shit...more on that later. After we played we all ran up and Mary-Ann came by to do a QQ photo shoot. Earlier I was asked to sit in on the photo shoot and I agreed to get naked and act goofy. So that is pretty much what happened...I clamped my suspenders to my pubic hair, I violated a CP3O action figure, tucked my wiener between my legs and posed out. At the time I thought my face would be covered by Jason's head cuz he left right after rehearsal cuz his back was hurting. But later I found out they will keep it that way. oh well. Roy burned his hand during the shoot cuz he lit his hand on fire with lighter fluid. Made a good pic, but I think he got some nasty burns...After all was done, he cut up a aloe plant and taped the thing to his hand overnight. I think it fixed it good. Now that is not something you would get if ya went to the hospital. I hope I get copies of those pics. I'll post some of them later when I do,

Friday was a normal day at work thou I was pretty hung over. that night we went to my friend's P's house for some holiday cheer and ate pizza and drank light beer. then Bry and Anna came by and we all decided to hang at our place afterwards. My bud Bill came over form St. Louis as well. We all made it my place and Anna brought her "Log" which she called it something like "Moose Toenail" well, maybe not that, but it has the word "Moose" in it and some made up word...I'll fix this later when I get the name right. ....(12/18 found out it's "moose nuggle") anyway, it's an amazing instrument. Last year St. Louis had a nasty ice storm that basically took out 4 of our trees and damaged the hell out of the rest of them. One Maple we have lost some big branches and one was just jutting from the ground like a spear. I noticed it had a crazy shape to it when I was pulling it out of the dirt so I saved the it for maybe a show or whatever (actually I did use it once for a show Roy and I did about a year ago doing our "cut your tree for free" song. I banged it on the wood floor like a deranged lumberjack on acid chanting the title over and over again) and put it in my basement. Anna's birthday came around and I gave it to her because she talked about making a home made instrument (she had at the time worked in a violin making shop). She later shellacked it and sanded it real nice and made it look like a wild work of art (she's a fucked up visual artist..kinda beasty). It almost looks alien. She then put some nutty looking screws in the thing, drilled some holes and wired up some cello strings to it. Since the log bows naturally, it worked real nice...no bridge needed...Then her and Bry came by one night and I hooked a bass pick up to it and they went to town on it. using a bow and a vibrator to make sounds like breeding insects and old houses falling. Anyway, Friday night was a good night for Anna cuz she found a 20 dollar delay pedal which makes the log sound just fucking crazy. Anna and Michelle had already at this time decided to form some kind of band and I think Bry, Bill, and I got to witness their first rehearsal that night over beer and depech mode albums. michelle used a drum maching and a recorder and Anna played her log. Michelle now wants to find a Dr. Sample and make sounds with her voice along with the drum machine in the future. It sounds great. When they do play, go see it. I think they will play Stagger Inn Again before playing anywhere to get used to doing it. But I bet no one will see anything like it. Everyone drove home. It snowed pretty hard so I hung out outside for like 1/2 hour.

Saturday was a okay day...ran errors of sorts...then Faren, Quen, Michelle, and I went to a holiday party down the street. It was fun. The folks who had the party hired a Santa to come for all the kids that were there. One boy was scared of Santa and cried a bunch and looked pretty traumatized by the whole thing. smart kid....Anyway drank beer and hung out. went home then went to bed.

Sunday was a great day. Michelle and I had sitters for the kids so we were free to do some shopping at the flea market. We went to get stuff for people for the holidays but as normal, we got stuff for ourselves as well...I got a bunch of Albums...Muthors, Fugs, Redd Fox, Richard Pryor, Car Wash soundtrack. some stuff for Michelle. My dada and mom. We then went out to eat and I got home to get ready for our skarekrau show at the cavern....I was pretty excited about this show because I would get to see Cooper, Zach, Rotten, Rex (who's been away in New Zealand for 10 months), and the rest of fungles in CAVE and the Columbia MO/Chicago heads. It started off pretty weird cuz my belly was acting up. I thought I was going to throw up...I took some Peptomismol and hit the road for the Cavern. The Cavern is a basement venue under an art space known as "Ft. Gondo." It's run by a buddy named Galen who also used to run Radio Cherokee. When I get there no one is around so I called up Cooper on my cell and he went outside and flaged me down. Turns out he was down the street at a place dubbed "Camp." I ran and took me to Camp and hung out there for a spill. It was nice colorful cramped space with a bunch of loving hippy like folks. There was cooking and talking going on..bunch of people really. Nice cat with a small tail came over and said hello. Then we walzed back out to see if we can get into Ft. Gondo. On the way, the rest of skarekrau showed up with our equipment and we unloaded everything real quick since there was no place to park on front of the club which is kinda not normal. It's cold inside cuz the heater is not working right I guess after a hardcore show went bizerk and bodies slammed up on it and made it work funny. Well it's cold and I felt kinda sick still and decided to drink my Stag tall boys and hope for the best. People came in pretty quick, not a bad turn out for a Sunday night in winter weather. Which made me feel great. I really wanted Cave to make some good cash because of the woes they suffered on their tour (actually they had a great time on tour until the last three days when the shit hit..read last post). Anyway there was some confusion who was playing when and where but things got started out with Rand playing some momo on his laptop..made the everyone move more smooth instead of the jauntily steppy-over-excuse-me-sorrys that were going on. The space is kinda dark and small and has a low ceiling..which makes it cozy..but with everyone in their coats and beer it was kinda clumsy. But for me the space is intimate and warm...has a good feel...like only good things happened down there for the past 100 some years. good mojo ya know. I think a bunch of folks felt that. Anyway Rand smoothed things out. He was wearing this crazy gangster X-mas like Garfield (the cat) sweatshirt with shades on...cig dangling out his mouth....he was the best looking guy there for sure....no shit... Then bubblegumshitface with Larva played a ghostly set with acoustic guitar and banjo. The played facing each other with Bubble kneeling on front of a seated Larva. It was pretty creepy backwoods craft for sure. Like I was imagining them in the woods off the highway in Alabama with headless chickens scattered around them and candles dripping red over skulls and a hairy beast lingering in the shadows. We were the trees surrounding them and maybe my stomach was the beast...cuz it still was bothering me at that point. Rand got back to playing momo while Cave set up. Rand played that song Manfred Mann's "blinded by the light" (a Bruce Springsteen cover) and when the singer sings "Wrapped up like a Douche" everybody snickered or smiled alittle and some even talked about it. Seems like everybody does..it's funny...the singer is actually singing "revved up like a deuce" -but I bet if it didn't sound like "Wrapped up like a Douche"the song would never of had the glory it does now. Cave started their set like an angry pickup truck with hemorrhoids. Very dirty and in motion. This is what I usually expect form Cave at some degree on another. That's why I play their cds in my van alot. good driving alone music...like good coke on a sunny afternoon. It was mean, and people were starting to dance. I even saw Thomas dancing away in red ear-muffs..like frosty the snowman stumbled into a tree mulcher. At first I stood in front of the action but had to move towards the messed up heater and look at CAVE from behind because I could not see them otherwise with all the tall and coat and cap cladded people about. That's when CAVE's set took a turn. Cooper and Zach switched bass and guitar and went into this ride with Milk screaming some crazy shit. Then suddenly the song went into a state of crystal euphoria. I don't think I ever seen CAVE or Warhammer (Cooper's other band) ever dipped into the 4th dimension before. It would say it's a growth of Aquarian singularity opened up there in the Ft. Gondo basement just then and we all got sucked in. My stomach felt better, the heater kicked on, I found my arm around Bubblegum, a smile was on my face as the music drooled on and on in it's bask of upper demented conscience. Then like waking from a dream or coming out of a trip it went back into the ride with Milk again swallowing his mic whole and Rex humping the transmission with all the orgasmic expressions we then felt like we were all going to land safely. They smoked a few more before Rand merged back into the momo...I didn't want to do anything but it was time for us krauys to get set up to play our warning orb. We set up and ran upstairs to change. Mike had a very intricate and alien looking garb on while Jason P. wrapped orange ribbon around his head (with his costume formed to exhibit weenies). We came up with a loose set of songs we were going to play w/o anything brand new which was okay since I don't think we were really ready to do all the yet to be future teachings of Kuu. We started to freak and went into "Spandex the Flaccid" - a tune we have not finished creating yet and my guitar strap broke right outta my guitar. I could not find it to put it back on until someone shone a big old yellow light over me. Once I got it back on it didn't hold well, so I had to play strapless for the rest of the set. I usually go into a personal void when playing with these folks and try to transpose myself in a corner of the basement, detach myself ya know. Things I remember is Jason P.'s drums going into a drop of oil into the ocean where when we play sounds completely off but whenever we get a video of a performance where he does that, it sounds genius. I don't know how he does it, but I figure it has something to do with putting up with our fuckeries for so long. I like to think of his drumming akin to a snake handler. Jason is Ophiuchus. So now when this happens, I just repeat repeat repeat until my hand can't handle. I think this happened during "Simulated Tapeworm." I remember seeing Chris B. and Thomas** being alittle frustrated with the going ons, Mike looking just whacked and stoic at the same time, Roy playing some amazing synth that helped us out of some holes. Jason T. and Julee were everywhere but I never actually saw them. I do remember Julee stepping on my guitar as I had it rested on top of me while I simulated masturbation. Roy later told me that he placed his trumpet wearing hair around the bell over my cock as a pussy love offering. I don't remember that..but I wish I did. We played I thought decent but not with our comfort of swagger. I think people left while we were playing, maybe an retro-omen from the Temple of Bon Matin show. I might have set this off with my strap falling off thus pausing the show for 5 minutes. all my shit is falling apart and I just don't have the money to fix it all. I did last night (Tuesday 12/18) fix my strap. But if it is not my amp it's my guitar or it's my hand...why all the obstacles...I have no idea. Cooper came up to me after we played and said he really enjoyed it but said that every time he sees us play it's completely different. Like he does not know what to expect from us but in a way that it is a positive rather than a negative. Maybe some shows some of us shine and some of us fade out...It's like a jazz band where no one knows who's going to step up at any given time. I just think we need to concentrate more at rehearsals so when we do try to play a song, we play it with more confidence. Some new faces in the crowd seem to enjoy it so that was good, more converts to Kuu!!! Other positives of the night: CAVE thanked Skarekrauradio on their new album liner notes. Hung with Amy B. and found our friendship cyst still secure. Saw Rose again which is nice because she is rad and always a good time to hang with. Saw JerermyK. and Josh L. which is always good to see at skr shows. Talked to Jason HTEETH about how he's moving to Oregon to make bikes and live in the middle of the woods far from anyone. He seemed real excited. Roy seemed real happy with the set which is always good to hear someone in the band had an above average time. I still had a Stag tall boy left. Talking with Galen about old Chicago bands like Naked Raygun, God's Acre, Effigies, and Dead Steel Mill, Talking with Cooper, Zach, and Milk outside my car before leaving was full of the love, so my ride home was floaty which was ironic cuz a fog settled in over 55 about 15 feet over the street and it looked like I was traveling under a shallow sea. Got home and went to bed.....

**on Thursday 12/20 I found out that Thomas really had a good time at the show and liked our jams...bad call from me..perhaps maybe about chris b. too...I never know...