Turdsday's showe

Well, blogging is hard, it's a chore to make yourself do it everyday I found. So I'm going to do it periodically as much as possible. I just got done doing last weekend..and now it's already Thursday. Okay, what happened in those three days? Well Monday I was hurting cuz I was out late Sunday night with the CAVE show. Worked all day ya know, then got home and showered and put "comfees" on. I don't remember much interesting stuff happening that night except that I didn't drink which made me feel better on Tuesday. Tuesday, same crap with going to work and back and coming home. But after the kids went to bed Michelle and I hung out in the basement. Michelle has been working on some songs for her project with Anna. She only plays a drum machine and some bells. She sings over the beats only changing form clear to distortion on the drum machine. For some reason it sounds like alot more instruments than just that when she's singing. Maybe it the melodics in her voice. Some people say she was the best singer for skarekrau back in the day. Michelle does not believe it but I can see where people might find that revelation. Also people remember her in 2lips. It's been some time since she has played st. Louis, but i think she will soon do it again on a more regular basis. I think the people will be excited about it. I found myself jamming with her with a different drum machine and Casio. It was the first time in years since we jammed 2lips style. It was real fun and I miss it alot. Then once we were done I spun some of the records I got from the flea market and found the Richard Pryor one ("Insane") to be recorded at very low quality, but these were early ones of his and it made more sense that they were recorded that way. sounded like somebody with a tape recorder in the audience. Seems like these were all outtakes from a number a shows he did since the recording quality varies form movement to movement, joke to joke. But it gives you a feeling that you were there actually watching a young Richard Pryor doing his thing in small comedy houses and bars. I forgot he's form Peoria IL, and his jokes about being form there cracked me up. The Redd Foxx record was more tame than I thought it would be. It's called "Wild Party" and the cover art shows cartoon people all naked and screwing and drinking and smoking with Redd Foxx's image superimposed over it like he was hangin' at the wild party. So I expected it to be more explosive with raunchy jokes...but this could have been from the 50's or early 60's (1961 in fact)..so I guess maybe at the time it was..The Mother's album "The XXXX of the Mothers of Invention " was amazing as expected. It's kinda a greatest hits album but like "Mothermania" the hits are altered up versions of the songs. Recorded some select tracks and went off to bed...Wednesday was the same old same old with werk then got home yada yada....Bill came over with some old oddity artsy movies on video tape that he checked out from Webster university. I have a DVD burner that can hook up to a VCR and Bill wanted to lift some. One was amazing to me (and to Bill and Michelle as well I'm sure)...it's called "Soft Self-Portrait of Salvador Dali." It is sooo funny and fucked up that it's hard not to find something about it in some way shape or form. What struck me the most is how the film goes from a traditional documentary style with narration (Orson Wells does the narrating) with images of his family and art work etc etc...than cuts to Dali himself acting so absorbed in his self absurdness simultaneously splicing in subliminal seizure inducing black and white spirals, bars, and diamonds. These black and white images are very psychedelic without needing any color at all...Also the movie cut to scenes around his home with young people running around with shopping carts with big rhino-looking heads in them, some where in giant eggs (Dali himself is birthed in one scooping up blood (afterbirth?) and tossing it out very matter of factually). Dali in one fantastic scene was playing frantically on a piano on the sea...which reminded me of some of his paintings (it almost looked like a painting). In fact you can see his paintings come to life in this film...maybe it's a great way to see how the world looked to Dali. Bill noted how some objects in the movie (like a mirrored hat Dali was wearing and a giant 15 foot shirt) merged with the sky or other parts of the films ecosystem by clever use of the contrast during film making. All the shots could not have been more interesting...He also paints an amazing work inside a giant translucent bubble ... The movie made me really like Dali as a person. it was as if he did not take himself as seriously as one might expect...but of course he did...and this is a real portrait of the man...very recommended to anyone even remotely interested in Dali. It looks like it might be released on DVD soon in Europe. I can't wait till Bill burns me a copy...I want to show this to everyone I care about. He also had some others, but I can't tell you exactly what they were. but one was the infamous "Andalusian Dog " - ya know the one with this image below where her eye will be sliced open.......crazy shit man. Bill hung till about 2am and will have to come over Saturday night to finish recording some of this great stuff. Can't wait. Thursday early morning I went to the DMV to renew my drivers licence. It was sooo quick I could not believe it. Took maybe 15 minutes at most. Then I went to work only being about 45 min late. Worked worked worked. Then I got home and tried to dress sleazy for the buttfuck pussy show. Laura who just came in form Baltimore told me she was wearing something sleazy so I thought I should too. All I could come up with is a "wife beater" shirt and faux jeans and work boots. I went unwashed to look dirtier. But it all didn't matter. I wore a sweater over it. The sweater I wore was the one with Atari looking birds flying over a beach with the sun poking up. Lots of people like this one. It's a bit small on me and people always says they want it. Rose said it at Mangia last night and at one point I did give it to her. She had given me a number of fun wear over the years. One was a orange full body spandex suit, a gray tee shirt with "Kuter" written backwards on the front and "Kuter" written normally on the back., and these rad sparkly nylons that I must have worn millions of times in skarerkau. I felt she needed this sweater as good karma for what she had given me. Anyway I got to Mangia at around quarter to ten and say Dave Early and his wife hanging at the bar. Rose who was bar tending at the time gave me a bear. Said Hi to Joe, Roy, and Chris B. then dashed over to CBGB where old Phut members were doing various musical things. Laura was there was Eric, Shawn, Chris Sment, and Dave were hanging out. Drank a Huber. went back to Mangia where Shed Shot was getting ready to play. Thomas had set up some rad tee shirts him and Elinore made earlier in the day. It had a rainbow hamburger with "Quief Quota" swirling around it. Shed Shot has my bro in laws Matt and Jake in the band...Galen, Brit, and Dwane also played. It's really Matt and Dwane's band for many many years. Jason T. did a poem for their opening song. Tyey jammed the first one hard, so uch so that Galen's drum set started falling apart. It was one of the best shows I've seen them do in quite some time. I never saw them play as a full band in almost 4 years. It's always funny seeing Matt make comments about the song they had just played after every song they play. Mostly about how they played it. I think they should release an album where he does that after every song. Just as abstract as the live shows...Then it was our turn to play. Buttfuck Pussy is a old band that Elinore started in Chicago. She claims that she started Buttfuck Pussy bands in Europe. Now there is one in St. Louis. It was me on Guitar, Elinore on drums, Chris Sment on bass, Dave on sax, Roy on keys and trombone, and Laura J. vocals. It was pretty rad hearing Laura sing. I could not tell what she was singing, but it sounded like it was alot ya know. she also screamed like she did in skarekrau which brought back some good memories. My pedal sounded like it was not working right (oh, my woes with my equipment) so my guitar did not sound very loud once again. So I busted out my walkie talky and my bent magical musical stick and played with those for a bit. Elinore did some nice tribal beats and Chris and Dave was a tidal wave of sludge falling all over me. At one point I was playing on top of a table maybe becasue of all the sludge. I felt it well...it was real nice playing with all those guys...I hope we all do it again. Quief Quota was next and it was nice to finally see them play live outside the rehearsal space. Jason wore a nice corduroy suit which I felt was very Quiefy. They kinda remind me of a fucked up barber quartet with rock instruments. Very addictive songs for sure. I find myself singing their songs all the time. the peoples in the bar seemed to dig their pop sensations well..which put a smile on me face. The lyrics are pretty hilarious. I hope I get to play with them one day if I get a chance...looks like fun. After they were done we had to get outta there. Talked to Jule C. about how she's going to move to Japan for a while and talked to Bill and Monica for a bit. Got some nice hugs from Amanda which is always nice. It was a real nice time with family and friends. I went outside and Chris Sment was out there with this suitcase looking thing proped up on a trash can and told me he had been meaning to give me this thing for a couple years for my birthday. He opened it up and my eyes popped out. It looks like some kind of archaic medical device (it even smells like band aids) with all kinds of dreams built in. I can't wait to rig it up to an amp and play the thing. This could not of had happened at a better time, where I'm recording and doing music outside of skarekrau and really enjoying it. This object Chris gave me can only bring me more planes of destiny. Then Dave and I went to goto CBGB again, but this gay dood named Tim who hits on me all the time found me and tried to get me to smoke pot with him in my van. I didn't want to smoke cuz I was driving home soon. So I went to find dave over at CBGB with him and he got me in the side entrance (CBGB was closed at this time)...It was rad cuz I have not been in a bar after hours in a long time. Eric Hall was a great host, had a nice smile on his face and he gave me a beer. He's a real cool guy, like to get to know him better. I always thought of him as a quiet kinda guy...playing his avaunt guard sounds and setting up shows. Dave was there wit Ajay and we talked for a bit while Tim gave us massages. Then it was time to go and I drove home with my hand over one eye in a deep heavy fog. I'm glad I made it home. It was 4am and that sucked. woke up this morning like wet rag. found that I left one of my pedals at Manga or somebody grabbed it. Got to work and found that my boss is out of town. Which is killer. I get to go home early today. yay!!

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...