Summer got under our skin, so we spent it going astray. Maurizio played colonialist in St. Martin; I took a flat in Budapest; Dann smoked lazy opium with the crew of a dry-docked Chinese junk in Seattle; and Tristan…um… went to LA for the weekend.

But before we left, we made demo recordings of every unreleased song in our catalog (about twenty five…). While we traipsed about the globe, our headphones were full of the loud noises we’d made back home; it was like the musical version of a Madlib. For instance, a song written four years prior about a friend who’d moved away came on while I was lost and studying a subway map. And once, while Maurizio was whiling away the humid hours in a third world brothel, one of my maudlin piano intros danced on his eardrums.

When we returned to Phoenix with a new perspective on our work, we sat down and cast our votes for a tentative tracklist for a nascent full-length album. We’ve begun pre-production at our home studio and should have a solid timeline soon. Looking beyond that, we’re beginning to flesh out the rest of the year with as many shows as possible. Starting around Mid-October we will be playing out frequent and far flung shows (I’m looking at you Salt Lake City!...).

-conan

We’ve been chugging along like an industrious steam engine as of late; lots of new equipment and songs. If you’d like to hear the sound of progress, just press play up in the right hand corner and listen to Caroline Meeber and A Nation of Two, our newest recordings.

We are playing a few select shows this summer including Fund Your Mentals CD release on June 1st at Chasers (no, not the Chasers in Slough… like The Office BBC-styles…) and another date with our good friend Matt Hopper on June 12th at Modified Arts. Throughout the summer we’ll be picking the songs we want to refine for a full length, working in our home studio to get demo versions of all the new material, and posting some fun promo stuff on here.

conan

Alright, time for an update.

Right now, we’re waiting like patient cherubic children in some 19th century Christmas print. Our new demo is in the mail to West West Side mastering. We recently spent some time at Audio Confusion recording two songs with the Svengali-esque Jalipaz. His new studio was exceptional and it was great being one of the first few projects he did in there. A couple of my favorite local albums (Andrew Jackson Jihad’s “Candy Cigarettes and Cap Guns” and Asleep in the Sea’s “Yay! O.K. Yeah?”) were recorded with Jalipaz and I was really excited about working with him. In addition to the two songs we completed at Audio Confusion, we also laid down two tracks in our home studio, Winter Recordings. Here’s what we put on tape:

Audio Confusion
1. Caroline Meeber
2. A Nation of Two

Winter Recordings
3. The Used Bin
4. Driving

We have a few local shows coming up here through January, including opening for the Pecan Sandies CD release Dec. 8th at The One Place. And we are working on booking out of town weekends throughout winter here. So keep your eyes out for some dates in San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Sante Fe, Tucson, Flagstaff and Prescott. As soon as we get the mastered copy back from West West Side, we’ll be posting the songs here and on myspace.

conan

I’ve been trying to get myself to write this for quite some time…I think what is really holding me back is I that I wish the text in our news section would scroll across the screen like the CNN news crawl…so it like, you know, seemed more pertinent and stuff. I’ve been told by the rest of the band that the technology is patented, when what I think they really want to say is that they think I’m an idiot. But I’m not an idiot…I have vision. So I’ve come up with a middle ground that I think will make me feel better about this whole venture…It’s going to take some crowd participation, but you’ll find these next few sentences thrilling if you just lose your inhibition. Dance like no one’s watching…that’s what they say, right? What I need you to do dear reader is get up from your chair and stand at the left edge your desk, then focus your line of sight on the first numbered item. OK, good. Now as you read, don’t move your eyes…move your legs and walk to the right edge of your desk . Repeat per news item. Thank you so much… you have no idea how much this means to me.

1. Dust Jacket will be touring a little bit this summer, watch here or myspace for details.
2. Dust Jacket is planning recording full length later this summer.
3. Terrorists want your credit rating.
4. In business news, we are selling our EP “Our Tapestries are Thrift Store Quilts” on the merch page.

conan