Hey look, an updated website with a ton of new work and surprises around ever corner! There are still a few glitches with it, but I figured if I didn't put it up soon I would never get around to it. I think some people might have trouble drawing some of the wider illustrations on a smaller resolution....as in the iframe wont scroll for them. But I have only seen this on other people's laptops, I cant for the life of me get it to fuck up on my own computer.

I also changed the font size on this blog, because quite frankly it was horribly small...now its just irritatingly small.


I put this together for our band yesterday. It is kind of impossible to come up with any sort of "iconic" image for our music, but this seemed to fit pretty nicely. not to mention, we can break it up and it becomes remarkably versatile. I love victorian silhouettes. I wish I could have a wall covered in framed silhouettes.

Sabrina and I recorded three new songs in two days and put them up on myspace. I feel like we are finally getting to the meat of what we want to sound like. Not to mention I am starting to finally figure out how to write music to my rambling lyrics, something I was completely incapable of four months ago. It's such a weird feeling to be making music that people ACTUALLY like...every-time we play a show, I am still surprised when I hear people clapping (and stomping).

There has been a lot of talk about us putting together an album. Which is a remarkably daunting idea. We have been thinking a lot about making the whole thing reading out as a story instead of just separate songs. I put this together yesterday afternoon. And while it is incredibly rough, I feel like it is getting pretty close to the whole idea of a "story album". Not to mention the fact that it is the first time I have played harmonica decently in months.

My brother gave me a couple of albums while I was on my "fastest visit to Indiana" trip.

K'Naan's "The Dusty Foot Philosopher" is one of the most intriguing hip-hop albums I have heard in a long time. Raised in Somalia (which makes Compton look like Dollywood), he pulls a lot of his beats and lyrics from traditional African music. I am actually pretty turned off by his more polished "american style" hip-hop, but what isn't polished is absolutely amazing. This guy has one hell of an insane MC style, and I just can't get enough of it.

In another life I was not all dirt, cornfields, and folk music. If you couldn't have been able to tell from my constant collaborations with Type Records, there is a huge part of my heart still stuck with electronica. But there's a problem...I don't really like much of it. Outside of early Tangerine Dream and Type Records I feel pretty lost. But Burial's "Untrue" really sticks out at me...the songs are disjointed yet beautiful, half the time it sounds like they record is about to break in half but it is all done so so perfectly. Jesus, is this what trip-hop became while I wasn't paying attention?

The fucking unbelievably great Graham Lindsey introduced me to Chuck Ragan & Austin Lucas's "Bristle Bridge". And much like the Be Good Tanyas' album I mentioned the other week, I have the same complaints about this album. Maybe it is just modern bluegrass....but I absolutely love half the album, and can barely stand the other half. The part I don't like is just too gushy, too repetitive. Eh, maybe they are right and I do only love Black Grass*.


There is nothing I find more endearing than over-sized collars at Best Sub #2 at 3 in the morning in 8 degree weather.

* Black Grass; a term used to describe heavy loud music in the bluegrass style, that usually depicts murder, burial, or the devil. The term "Black Grass" was first used in a drunken pre-show conversation at a pizza restaurant in the neighborhood of Logan Square in Chicago, Illinois.

So for the one thousandth and third time I have redesigned this blog, and hopefully for the last time. I keep coming up with these ideas of grandeur that fall flat on their face. So, I went as simple as I could. No title? No post titles? Get used to it.

So after a long motivating talk with my rep, I have decided to once again redo the promotional piece that I posted about last time. I am just sketching down idea after idea until I come up with something everyone is happy about. And because of all of this, I have spent the last 6 hours searching flickr for makeout pictures. Grossly awesome. It's also amazing how many bands have the word "makeout" in their name.

So to follow (I always write "fallow" instead of follow, which is kind of amazing) up on this whole music thing, I thought it might be nice to talk about something made...you know, since the invention of the seat belt?

William Elliot Whitmore is definitely one of my favorite musicians of recent years, and while all of his music is great I especially love "Hymns For The Hopeless." Its got just amount of dirt under it's nails to keep my attention. It's also incredibly incredibly sad, while still being able to keep most people's interest...which seems to be a hard task these days. Some people think I have a gruff singing voice, but I've got nothing compared to Will E.

For as much flack as they get, The Be Good Tanyas aren't all bad. Sure, they're sappy as hell...and the amount of horrible youtube videos with their songs in the background is staggering. But Chinatown is remarkably good. I am not really a fan of their traditional covers (astonishing, I know), but they're originals like "Waiting Around to Die", "Ship Out on the Sea", and "Lonesome Blues" are particularly good. I much prefer when they are trying to sound like ghosts, rather than hayseed sirens. (also see the always wonderful Jolie Holland)

Sarah and I snuck into both the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium yesterday, and then were reprimanded by having to sit through Australia. I can honestly say there was a lot of inappropriate laughter from the two of us after the first 2 hours. But really, I wish I had the balls to dress like Jackman everyday.

Sabrina and I are playing a show this Sunday, and I can't say I am really looking forward to it. At least we get to do the terrible song about how much we love being from Indiana...that should at least be entertaining. Oh, not to mention that we are playing with one of my favorite live bands ever.

This was done for the seasonal promotional book that The Art-Dept puts out. Every book has a theme that the artists are asked to stick to. This book's theme was "Love, American Style". So, like myself you may be asking...what the hell does that mean? Well it means three things; a) something to visually represent the historical election of Obama, b) something for valentines day, and c) due to this nation's economic crisis something that will sell. Now if you hadn't noticed, I am not really good at any of these things. The pieces I do for these books always come out rather successfully...and in my opinion are my best work. The previous books had been Color (mine was violet), Flora and Fauna, and Reel (movies). These really are some of my favorite pieces, so I was really trying to out do myself here.

My rep had mentioned doing something along the lines of this piece. This stupid drawing gets a lot of attention...because well, it's my best piece. I'll admit it, even though I hate to. Everyone loves this thing. And every client in the world basically wants me to just redraw this. But the truth is, I can't. I can't out do this drawing. I was at an apex of my visual narrative, and in a ridiculously emotional state. I just can't get myself there again, no matter how hard I try. And to be honest, I don't want to get there again...yeah I may do great work, but it's not worth it to me emotionally.

So I stuck to my guns. Fabric, sexy/sad girls, crazy hair, and tattoos. And really, when it comes to those themes I kind of out did myself.

One of the questions I get asked most, is "how do you get hair to look like that?' And really, I can't tell you. I don't really know how it works, but it always does. The trouble isn't all the stringy strands, it's the actual body of the hair. Once I get the shape down, it's a piece of cake from there. Well...and thing lines and breath control really comes into play too. I used to use a quill a lot with hair, but now I barely do at all.

I actually did a few different pieces for this promo book. Here is another one that I got half way through coloring:



For some reason I always set myself up for this trap. There is something stupidly hard about making the shadows look right when they are coming from the far side of a face turned at three quarters. I have had this problem for years and no matter how many times I try it, it will always look like shit. Oh well....I think I am also way over fish scale patterns. This thing just burned me out on everything.

So since people seem to actually WANT me to talk about music, I will do so. I am actually a little disappointed in the Memphis Jug Band & Cannon's Jug Stompers compilation. But it's my own fault....it's just too much of the same thing. Four discs of Memphis Jug Band? You've gotta really love them to sit through that, and simply...I don't love them that much. Though some of the tracks that have female vocals are great, Minnie Wallace and Hattie Hart especially. But I am pretty sure I have all of the tracks where they sing on another compilation.

Some other "albums" that I can't recommend enough are Hank Williams' The Nashville Demos (volumes 1-2), and Woody Guthrie's The Asch Recordings (volumes 1-4). The Williams albums are great just because it's a lot of rare stuff, great sound, and hell..it's Hank. You can't go wrong with Hank. I own a lot of Guthrie, but The Asch Recordings are probably my favorite. They are all over the place, and I don't think there is a single track on them that isn't fantastic. Also, it has the best version of Mean Talking Blues that I have ever heard (later amazingly sampled in Buck 65's Strong Arm mix tape).

So insane Chicago weather is officially back. Three days ago it was 60 degrees and raining, yesterday it was about 18 for the high and absolutely terrible at night, and then today it has been non-stop snowing...I think we have close to 7 inches now. This is the first year I have ever owned a coat in Chicago, and I am seriously happy I do. Not only does it obviously keep me warm, but it makes getting suited up for the outdoors about a fifth less the trouble because I am not putting on layer after layer (not to mention, I look pretty dapper in it if i do say so myself).

Tomorrow I will be going on my 3rd date with said girl. She is playing hooky from work just to hang out with me during the day...is that ridiculously nice or am I just easily impressed by pleasantries these days? I mean c'mon, the girl still has a crush on Tim Kasher....how I can i not be a sucker for her?

I also forgot how much I love Shelley's Frankenstein. Not only is it about natural monster...but good god that writing is beautiful.

Also I bought the url of www.doeandstag.com for our "band" this morning, and through this together until either of us get enough momentum to change it.

I just finished this piece for Vim & Vigor. It's for an article about artificial knee joints, and exercise. This is kind of the exact opposite of the direction I am trying to push my work right now, but the AD was a big fan of how I handled some of my older work so I went with it.

Remember how I said how easily this blog could become about archaic music, and I needed to cut it out? Yeah, ignore that I said that.

While maybe not the nicest box sets, JSP has some ridiculous collections. So far I own Memphis Jug Band with Cannon's Jug Stompers, Memphis Shakedown, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, and Lightnin' Hopkins 1946 - 1951. There are also a few early bluegrass collections I can't wait to get my hands on. I am pretty sure at this point my neighbors think that I am constantly having a corn shuckin' contest in my apartment. If only.

I will try and keep the old timey music talk to a minimum. I highly doubt anyone reading this cares at all, except for maybe Brendan Larsen...but I don't even think he reads this anymore.

I have been having some trouble with my little last.fm widget over there to the right, and unfortunately had to put that new hideous thing in the old one's place. But hell, at least it works.

I have another Art-Dept promotional piece due on Monday. The last three of these I have done have been some of my best work, and I am really hoping that this one will pull through as well. I am very very slowly starting to feel like I am regaining the soul in my work.

I recorded a version of "I'm On Fire" today, that totally blew me away. It is incredibly rare that I am impressed with anything I do musically, but at the end of this one I actually said "holy shit" out loud because I had really floored myself. Now all I have to do is wait for Sabrina to come back from tour so we can start multi-tracking and getting everything together. Once again I have succeeded in turning a hobby into a job.

I totally forgot how fucking great Nathan Fox is.

I threw this together last night, using an image from something else i am working on. The figure on the right was initially supposed to be male, but their features are so feminine at this point I don't think there is any turning back. I have also gotten too good at hand lettering things for my own good, that half the time they look like fonts...and well, I really wish they didn't.

This will be our second real show, and let's hope to god it goes a little better than the last one. My ability to feel comfortable in front of groups of people has not changed since I was 5, so I have given up on "getting used to it". We have decided to start working on an album....which is still pretty puzzling to me. I find it increasingly surprising that people want to listen to our music without us forcing it on them. So knowing me, in two months I'll have 60 songs recorded and at the last minute decide none of them are worth listening to.

The other night I dragged this Yazoo's Man of Constant Sorrow collection out. I don't think I had listened to it since I bought it years ago. The Smithsonian Anthology of American Folk Music compilation kind of took over the chances of me listening to any other folk compilations when I got it nearly a decade ago. But this Yazoo collection is fantastic, not to mention the fact that Cousin Emmy's "Pretty Little Miss Out In The Garden" is unbelievably good, and blows the Ralph Stanley version out of the water. I need to be careful or this blog will become about archaic folk music very very quickly.

As mentioned many time on this blog, I am an idiot. But this time it is a little more...visible? Somehow in transferring files from the old blog to the new blog, I somehow overlooked the "uploaded files" folder and ended up deleting it. The result? Nearly 3 years of uploaded images are gone to the wind. Meaning that there are no images with any blog post any older than the last thing I posted. I guess maybe I should be upset about this...but really, I am not surprised that I did this at all.

I am hoping to have the new site up next week. It all depends on how much work ends up running my life between now and the holidays. But hey, at least I got the new blog up. That counts for something, right?

My hair is still far too short. Amazon wish-lists are ruining my life. My date went exceedingly well...so well in fact that I would be more than happy to go on another one, imagine that. I realized the other day that I know when it's going to be bad weather because I can feel it in my bad knee (which is completely healed by the way. Terribly scarred, but healed). I learned "I'm On Fire" on banjo, and really can die happily now. I think that maybe, just maybe it's time to stop smoking.

Things are happening, I swear. I have had a nearly finished website on my desk for weeks, and just haven't gotten a second to put on the finishing touches.

I now have subdomains, which is very nice. If you hadn't noticed, this blog is now on a subdomain (so please update rss/atom whatever, if it ever even worked in the first place). Also, I have started putting this together, which is long over do.

This blog changed names, and design...but the design is terrible and I am still working on it. The whole new site should be up soon, so expect lots of new work and other mundane excitement.

Chicago is freezing. I cut my hair way too short. I barely ever leave my apartment anymore. My hnds are blistered from playing banjo so much. I have started wearing my father's ring. I am thinking about comics again. I have a date tomorrow, I don't know wether to be excited or terrified.