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Fear + Whiskey
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News
JULY 1
I've been mulling over an idea for this and the bookofkills.com
web sites...I know I often announce big plans one day and then a week later get
bored with those very "big" plans that seemed so exciting seven days earlier,
but I think this is a good and permanent solution to having a web site that
people still check out pretty regularly (bookofkills.com) and the Fire + Whiskey
site which is admittedly pretty low-key and one that I don't currently foresee
being updated on a daily basis for the time being. So I think I'm going to
create a third site (most likely under an entirely new domain address) that will
somehow combine Book Of Kills information with material related to what I'm
currently doing musically both in Fear + Whiskey and solo, along with whatever
other artistic endeavors I might be dabbling in at the moment. And of
course I could then provide more of a one-stop page where folks could stop by to
read whatever daily features I'd feel like putting up that day, whether they
might be related to F+W, BOK or
music/art/writing/photographs/politics/technology/etc in general. I've
re-discovered, for instance, the old Ain't Records newsletters from the early
'90s. I've also come across letters and postcards and artwork that BOK
fans used to send me (pre-internet) on a regular basis, as well as old posters,
cassette covers, and so on. I could also post archival unreleased
recordings, new quickie recordings (say, just me and a guitar and a Dock Boggs
song) and blah blah blah.
I feel as though I've worked hard over the past twenty years to
build up a relatively big community (for an unknown like me, at least) of folks
from around the world who had become regulars on bookofkills.com and I've
dropped the ball since BOK broke up back in March as far as providing these
people with a reason to check in on a daily basis. In a sense,
bookofkills.com had become a loose congregation of basement lo-fi rock and roll
aficionados with twenty years of Book Of Kills history as the rallying focus.
I admit to letting my focus get a little fuzzy in the last two or three months.
I PROMISE to do better.
This is one
of those ideas I came up with after waking up in the dead of night, which
usually turn out to be good ones...for me at least. (Have I ever told you
how for years I'd wake up at 2 or 3 A.M. on a work night with an idea for a new
lyric or melody that would keep me preoccupied and awake until daybreak?
Regular occurrence for years.) I haven't thought much about how I'd
combine everything yet since this hasn't been a typical summer where I had two
months time to work on a new album or do some painting or what have you because
I've gone straight from teaching to...uh...teaching. (I'm sure most of you
who work without break year in and year out feel deeply for me, but then
again...I'm talking about making music here and when I'm teaching I don't have
much energy left over for creating music or art or whatever in addition to
everything else I have to get done on a daily basis.) Anyhow...I'll think
some more about the idea and perhaps make the changes that seem to be
warranted. Now...it's off to the dental surgeon.
JUNE 7
The final show is (finally) online.
JUNE 3
Been adding photos slowly. I'm trying to put up content
here on bookofkills.com on a fairly regular basis since lots of folks keep
visiting.
MAY 29
I've updated the photos page with
20 pix from the June 6, 2009 Rainbow Hill show. I've also added another
previously unreleased acoustic track. I am in the
process of writing some new chapters to The Ballad Of Jim Shelley, as
well as adding additional material to the "old" chapters, but I don't see any
uploads of new material until well into June. I am slowly (very
slowly...it takes freaking forever to do even a single album) uploading
BOK records to bandcamp.com.
MAY 7
This is it. Book Of Kills is shutting down this weekend.
As I noted yesterday, I will construct a pretty extensive photograph page (which
will eventually feature hundreds of pictures from 23+ years), but the regular
updates stop today. Thanks for visiting bookofkills.com all these years
(since 1996). I can't believe the site has been in "continuous operation"
now for fifteen years. That's a long while in internet time. Knowing
me...I'll probably open up the site again one day, but maybe not. Now it's
time to move along. I hope you'll follow with me as I explore the
possibilities of a new band and a new
philosophy of music and performance.
MAY 6
Are you feeling confused about which web site to read?
Confused as to which Views page will be updated today and which one tomorrow?
Well, you are not alone. I understand now why gbv.com simply went dead and
became a static archive after Guided By Voices went kaput. It's just too
hard trying to keep two different band sites up to date simultaneously. I
thought I could do it, but I can't. So what I'm probably going to have to
end up doing is using the Fire +Whiskey page as a conduit through which all
current musical news will eventually have to flow, even if it's about Book Of
Kills stuff (which admittedly won't be all that often.) So, I guess in the
next couple days we will say goodbye to BOOKOFKILLS.COM as an active web page.
Don't be sad...it's all for the best.
MAY 3
It's funny...I really feel sort of caught in a period of
ambiguity right now. Maybe it's the fact that my final year of teaching is
coming to an end (finally) and that I'm so freaking busy all of the time.
I feel as though almost every day of the week I've got to do this and then this
and then there's this and then it's time to go to bed and then there's
this and this and...I suppose most of you know the feeling?
MAY 2
I'll upload a new BOK album to bandcamp.com this week. I'm
leaning towards Hoggett Heads.
APRIL 29
I've been getting the odd request here and there to do this song
or that with Fear + Whiskey. If you've got an idea for a cover or want to
hear one us do one of my own songs in this new band, drop a line to
bookofkils@aol.com or
fearandwhiskey1@aol.com.
APRIL 28
For the time being, I'll attempt to keep updating both
bookofkills.com and Fear + Whiskey on a
regular basis...at least until I drive myself crazy trying. I hope I can
provide new content for both sites. A lot of people check out this page
every day. I suppose I owe it to folks to keep things fresh.
APRIL 27
I've got the Fear + Whiskey
site up. Make sure to bookmark it. It is very simple. I do not
anticipate it ever becoming as labyrinthine as bookofkills.com, but it will grow
as I get a better feel for what I want to do with it and as the band becomes a
real group and starts to play out.
APRIL 25
I am slowly updating some broken links and so forth on this web
site. For instance, I just put up the lyrics to Wasp 51!
Looks as though there's going to be a couple weeks break between
Fear + Whiskey practices. We've all got children and what not who need
attending to, and responsibilities towards family have kind of gotten in the
way. At least we can all practice on our own. I personally need to
pick out the 7-9 songs I want to sing lead on when the band initially begins to
play out. I know for sure that I am going to sing "Cold Rain and Snow",
"Thin Moon and Sky", "To Dream a New Dream" and "Simple World". I'd like
to add another four songs or so, particularly things I've written that I either
haven't sung in a while live or that I've never performed live, including
preferably a new song. Amy and I will be switching off lead vocals 50/50.
She and I have exchanged lyrics and we've both come up with musical ideas.
I keep wanting to write some new material but I find myself always preoccupied
with one thing or another. Maybe I'm just making excuses. Jeff has
told us that a couple of musicians are apparently interested in playing with us.
Amy, Jeff and I have talked very briefly and certainly not seriously about
possibly adding a fourth member. If we did, I would like it to be someone
who could play keyboards. If they're able to play guitar as well, that's
gravy. I'm a little reticent about our little trio's ability to flesh out
a concert long sound, song after song. The three of us will be talking
when we finally get back together.
I'm very near getting the new site up. The guy I'm working with has given
us some ideas to look at. It's just a matter of deciding on some images
and the ultimate colors of the site. (Won't be white type on a black
background.)
APRIL 24
Man, I've been so dang busy doing one thing or another that I
forgot to update the page! Mou and I were doing a little bit of a bar
crawl last evening in Harrisonburg (that's Virginia for all you folks from out
of town) and we couldn't help notice that there's so much potential for a great
scene, but something's just missing. Is it a cool crowd? (Where was
everyone?) Is it the cockeyed way that Harrisonburg's downtown is laid
out? Are there still just not enough places to go to? There was
only one band playing downtown last evening. Might have been something
going on up the street at Blue Nile (which admittedly is only a few blocks up
the street), but I'm talking about the central square of the city. One
band? That's pretty pathetic.
APRIL 21
Someone has volunteered to actually help design the new web page.
Awesome.
APRIL 20
I spent another hour and a half today trying to come up with some
design or something for the Fear & Whisky page and ended up with exactly nothing
again. Oh well...I'll just keep trying until I get it. After all,
it's not as though we've go a hundred songs under our belts and we're ready to
hit the road and change the world with our music. We have miles to go
before...whatever that poem says...
APRIL 19
Man, I really want to get the Fear & Whiskey site up so I can
stop writing about that band on this site. Anyway, we had a good,
constructive practice yesterday. We're on the verge, I think, of clicking
together and that makes being in a group very exciting. We're going to
practice this Thursday. I really like that Amy and Jeff want to work at
this and be good. It will take us a long time, but we will eventually be
quite an interesting little trio. By the way, we've already been invited
to play two different shows, but we just aren't to the point where we could do a
live show justice. I don't even think we quite know exactly who we are yet
and that's important to know before you start playing in front of people.
APRIL 18
I don't know how many folks are checking out this page for
information about the new band, Fear & Whiskey, but until I get that website up
I guess I'll use this page to convey whatever news I feel the need to impart.
I spent a good part of the day Friday putting together a bunch of new pages only
to not be able to import them into a suitable html format for uploading. I
recently switched my web creation software from Front Page 2001 to WebPlus x4
and the switch hasn't been the smoothest. Anyhow, I'll probably just
create something simple on Front Page and upload it for now until I can better
figure out WebPlus.
APRIL 15
Fear & Whiskey will practice Sunday. Tonight I'm heading to
Charlottesville to see the fab Flaming Lips! I would say there's a 50/50
chance that I will have the beginnings of the F & W web site up by late Friday.
I'm still mulling over what the site should look like and what sort of content
it should contain.
APRIL 14
I finally got hold of the photos that Amy Batman took of the
final show. I'll be posting them over the next couple weeks on the
Picture of the Day page. (There are a lot of
them.)
APRIL 11
The process of separating the new page
and bookofkills.com has begun. I will be moving some pages on this site
("Views" & the store, for example) to the new site before long. Going to
bookofkills.com right now will bring you to an index page
that allows you to click on either bookofkills.com or the new site.
APRIL 9
"The only difference between a rut and a grave is their
dimensions."
~Ellen Glasgow
APRIL 8
I am going to make the switch from a focus on BOK to the new band
this weekend. I will create an index page for the group as well as a news
page. From there, I'll add a picture page and so forth. As I noted,
in the April 7 entry, it's kind of difficult to maintain two separate group
pages when my own interests have largely turned to what I'm doing with Amy and
Jeff. When I am able to create a matrix of the final BOK show, I will
definitely let everyone know. I will most likely simply post it free.
Anyway, you can check out news about the new (still as yet unnamed) group
here.
APRIL 7
I'll be honest with you...trying to keep this page current
with some sort of content while starting up a new band and trying to focus on
what I'm gonna do with them and with the new web page is not easy. I am
certain that I won't simply abandon bookofkills.com (a la Guided by Voices
turning gbv.com into a frozen world archive), but on the other hand, there has
to come a point when my energies transfer mostly to the new band.
APRIL 5
If you're waiting for a single of the month, I truthfully
couldn't come up with anything in the free time I had. Seems like family
and work concerns have been pretty demanding. I was toying with the idea
of doing a live single, however, using a few cuts from the completely unheard
(only I've heard them, that is) 5.09.2009 show at the Outback in
Charlottesville. There are three or four cuts that might be releasable
from then. I'll make a decision by Wednesday.
By the way, I saw all the pictures that Amy took of the last show. Now,
they do mainly focus on me, but I'm telling you that there are perhaps 8-10
shots that are as rock and roll as you can get with a camera. I'm excited
about putting them up (one at a time, of course) on the web site!
APRIL 4
Happy Easter, if you celebrate that sort of stuff. We're
having twenty-one people over for lunch. Looks like it's going to be a
perfect weather day.
Yesterday I went over to George and Mike's place and helped them position
microphones and get the recording software set up. They're embarking on a
gynormous recording project that could take months to complete.
My daughter-in-law, who was at the March 13 show, took lots of really good
photos. She's going to be putting them on a cd for me soon and I'll start
posting them on the Picture of the Day page when I get them.
APRIL 2
You can go here if you're interested
in reading my little diary of sorts concerning what's going on musically post-BOK.
This is I guess a temporary thing until I better figure out how to develop a new
site.
Nothing new to report as far as the recording for the last show. Thanks
for everyone's interest!
MARCH 31
Did a little updating and cleaning up on the web site.
Also, the 1992 BOK classic (the third of three albums from that year!) The
Haunted Life is now available from
bandcamp.com.
Cross Don't Stop The Scream (also from 1992) with The Haunted Life
and you get Book Of Kills.
MARCH 29
In the next day or so, I will start up a second website, linked
off bookofkills.com, which will be devoted to my latest musical exploits.
I suppose it's no surprise to anyone who has followed BOK for any amount of time
that after George, Mike and I announced the end of that band I began to look for some new
musicians to head off in (slightly) different musical directions. A number
of you are aware that George and I gave a one-off show back in 2007.
That was a well-received, fun, and (for me) important gig as I've detailed on
this page in the past. Jeff Lown played drums for us and
afterwards, though I knew it would be a while, I told Jeff I wanted to jam again
with him one day. Anyway, Jeff has agreed (to my delight) to be part of
the new band.
The other player I asked to join is Amy Bugg. Amy is a
relative newbie to music, but I've seen her play bass and sing a couple times
live and I thought she had great stage presence and a real passion for music, so
I asked if she'd be interested in joining the band as well and she
(to my delight) enthusiastically agreed to sign up.
We have already jammed once on a
couple songs - Bob Dylan's "Man in the Long Black Coat" and my own "Thin Moon
and Sky" - out at long-time friend (and Amy's dad) Gary Bugg's house and it was
lots of fun. We'll be getting together again soon. I'm intrigued by
the possibility of being a more improvisational type group than BOK could
necessarily be. I also like the freedom I'll have to do just about any
cover song I want.
I have no intention of forsaking all BOK songs.; however, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I will not be performing
songs such as "Don't Stop The Scream", "Killing Time Again" or "Fat Woman" any
time soon. On the other hand, tunes such as "Caroline", "I Fell Inside"
"Stanley the Steamer" and "To Dream a New Dream" will certainly be possibilities.
I'd be an idiot to jettison every song I've performed in the past. I'll
also have the chance to do BOK stuff that just didn't seem to fit in the past
for one reason or another.
The group is,
of course, in its embryonic stage, and I really don't know that there's much
more to say about it now. I don't have a time line for starting the new
site, other than that it'll be up shortly. The band hasn't even got a name yet,
so it would be a bit premature to put up some sort of full-blown coverage.
As always...stay tuned. And thanks for listening.
MARCH 27
I'm hoping to do some recording early next week. Don't
really have anything in mind particularly, but I'm going to either try out a
couple of traditional songs or write a couple drone-y pop tunes.
MARCH 25
I will soon "split" these
pages into two separate sites.
MARCH 24
I believe that I'll record a couple new songs next week and
release them in early April as the next Ain't Records Single Of The Month.
Stayed tuned.
MARCH 23
It's weird...the George/Mike/Jim/Sometimes Teker-era BOK only
played a total of 16 shows.
Neil Aspinall, who ran the Apple Corps music empire for the Beatles from 1970 –
2007, died at a hospital in New York from cancer at the age of sixty-six on this
day in 2008.
"If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I would have freed
thousands more."
- Harriet Tubman
MARCH 22
I imagine I will start assisting George and Mike with their
recording either late this week or next week.
I should have some interesting news by the end of the week.
MARCH 20
Deanne Good has posted some really fun pictures from the final
gig that go a long way towards giving you a feel for the evening...especially
what it was like on the "front row". You can check them out
here.
Also, Casey tells me that he got a good recording of the entire show with his
reel-to-reel. He's going to send me a copy of the recording. I will
see them if I can create a composite recording of the show. If I can get
something satisfactory, I will create a compact disc album. I know Jana
Burtner and Amy Batman both took a lot of pictures of the show as well. I
hope to eventually get hold of both series and post them somehow or another.
MARCH 18
Alex Chilton is dead. That sucks so bad.
MARCH 17
Well, you'll notice that I've trimmed down the site a bit.
The Song of the Week page, the Get Music page and The Ballad of Jim Shelley
are all gone. The Ballad will probably return some day.
There'll probably be other changes in the future. Also in the future, I
will add a new link that will take you to a separate area of the site devoted to
new music and a new band. That is, as I said, some day in the future.
1995's Saint Judas, generally regarded as one of BOK's best albums, is
now available on bandcamp.com.
MARCH 16
Billy Brett wrote an interesting essay largely about the end of
Book Of Kills. You can read it here (Billy
gave me permission to put it on this web site), and you can also go
here to Buck Gooter's blog page
and read the 'original' plus check out Buck Gooter's site, in case you haven't
already.
MARCH 15
As far as questions about this site and the future of Book Of
Kills, let me answer a few...
(1) I am not closing this web page.
(2) I am not abandoning this web page as an archive. I will continue to
update it at least a few times a week. Honest. However, I am
going to eliminate the "Song Of The Week" page and the "Get Music" page. I
am also going to take down The Ballad Of Jim Shelley within a week or
two.
(3) Saturday night's show really was the final BOK concert. Does
that mean forever...?
(4) ...Never say never. Right? If somebody came up to me a year from
now and asked me if BOK would re-unite for a show to help out a charity, I'd do
it if Mike and George wanted to. Otherwise, I don't see us playing again,
at least as Book Of Kills. I must say that George and Mike are easily two
of my favorite people to play with ever ever ever. I don't foresee me
never jamming with them again. I will be helping them record some Plague
Dog songs in the near future, by the way.
(5) Over the years, BOK came to be perceived as a hard rock band that performed
a certain sort of song and it got to be increasingly difficult to move away from
that formula, if that's the correct word. As much as I love singing "Don't
Stop The Scream" or "River Of Blood" or "Fat Woman" or whatever songs the band
has become known for during the past 16 years, I want to be able to perform
any song, original or cover that I want to do, regardless of whether or not
it fits into expectations that people might have. If I feel like doing a
Dock Boggs song from the '30s, then I want to do it. If I feel like doing
"If I Went Mad" with an accordion accompaniment, then I want to do it. If
I feel like doing "Sugar Sugar", then I want to do it. If I feel like I
want to do Velvet Underground covers for a show, then I want to do it. If
I feel like jamming on "Oops I Did It Again" for forty-five minutes, then I want
to do it. And don't think I won't in the next band.
6. I am going to continue to put BOK albums on bandcamp.com. Thanks
to the people who've shown their support.
6. I will continue the BOK auctions on a very irregular schedule. I'm not
sure what album will be next.
7. I will for the time being discontinue the Ain't Records Single Of The Month.
I have every intention of starting it back up once I get a new band going.
MARCH 10
"The creative artist seems to be almost the
only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground.
You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own
ego is always in the foreground of every picture."
- Raymond Chandler
"The ultimate aim of the ego is not to
see something, but to be something. "
- Muhammad Iqbal
Just a few days to go before the final BOK show. Over the
past couple weeks I've found myself thinking a lot about Book Of Kills' 20+ year
history and I also found myself wondering how much BOK really meant to anyone
other than me.
(And this is not a call to people to make me feel good about myself by
emailing me testimonials...I won't read them.)
Some of you certainly know that when I was a small child, I fell
in love with music in general and rock and roll in particular. As the
years of my life rolled on, music became more and more important to me,
particularly so after first hearing The Beatles on the radio and feeling my life
transformed into something bright, new and shiny. From that moment on, I couldn't separate my being from the music
I so adored...trying to do so would have been tantamount to removing my heart
and thinking I could somehow live without it. Not long after watching
John, Paul, George and Ringo play for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show,
I began to fantasize about being a rock and roll star myself. But, as we
all know, life takes many twists and turns as we travel to wherever we're meant
to go (and I do believe we all end up doing exactly what we're meant to do, even
if that seems like a cop-out), and my path led to a family and a
career as a high school teacher. Am I sorry that that is the way things
turned out? Only a fool would trade a life in a family he loved for
adulation and riches. I suspect I couldn't have walked both paths
simultaneously.
Still, I do regret being too lazy or too scared to head to New York or Los
Angeles or wherever by myself and trying to make a life in music. (I also
know that most people end up feeling they never did quite live the life they
thought they'd enjoy.) I most regret that I never had
the talent to create music that would actually help define the lives of others,
though. Believe me, I understand that that is a selfish thing to say, but
it's the way I feel. I wanted to be the rock and roll star who literally
saved lives with his breathtaking musical talent. I wanted to be a rock
and roll pioneer who blazed trails in music that others could only
follow. I wanted to stand sweaty and exhausted on a stage in front of
20,000 flaming lighters.
Instead, I was something else.
But I owe Book Of Kills (or more correctly, the concept of Book Of Kills,
because end the end it was only an idea that made itself real somehow or
another) an awful lot. BOK brought me so much good, mainly
in the form of dozens of wonderful musicians and music fans far too numerous to
name whose lives intersected with my own in countless wonderful ways. I
cannot comprehend the life of quiet desperation I would've lived since 1989
without BOK. God knows, too often it was desperate enough with it.
How could I have lived the past twenty years without having known
folks such as Mike Johnson, David Taylor, Dustin and Gary Bugg, Brian Temples, Brian and
David Buracker, Brock Beatty, Aaron Farrington, Billy Brett, Terry Turtle, Ron
Copeland, Ike
Sours, Mike Chiarello, Lisa Van Fossen, Jason Hevener, Johnny, Robert and Phil St. Ours, Casey and Jane Firkin, Billy Hunt,
George Nipe, Mike Hicks, Deanne Good, Garfield Banks, Jordan Williams, Jim Santo, Pinky
Crouse, Randy Simpson, Rob Christensen, and a legion of others, either with whom
I played or who spent a moment in time listening to me while I enjoyed the
privilege of playing my own music? The
prospect of a life without all those people touching me in some small (or very
momentous) way is unimaginable to me.
A few months ago a former student of mine dropped by my office at
school to talk about a short story she'd written. We got to talking for some reason about
The Ballad Of Jim Shelley, which she confessed to having read.
I told her that what was there was at best a quarter of the whole story.
The Ballad was ultimately a shallow cop-out, a skim milk
approximation of all the things that had really happened to me during a
life in music, particularly during my years impersonating Jim Shelley.
"There's no way I could've communicated the real truth of what happened," I told
her. "There's no way I could tell it all. I left out the best
parts." She seemed quite surprised by that admission. After
she'd left, I thought about our conversation and it struck me that being a fake
had made me real and given me some
semblance of the unattainable life I'd yearned to live since I was eleven.
I know now that I am, despite what many well-wishing friends would say to
the contrary, most decidedly not a musician. I literally willed BOK
and the persona of Jim Shelley into life as "real" entities. When I created my first album, 12 Songs, back in
the early 1980s, I knew almost next to nothing (in spite of years of noodling)
about playing a guitar or singing (and I still don't, if truth be told). I simply decided I would buy a four
track recorder and somehow create the sounds I heard in my head as best I could.
Years later, after more or less forgetting music-making completely, I would for
some reason pick up a guitar again and do the same thing all over again with the
first BOK record, Bloom Or Die?. From there, as the old saying
goes, I became a legend in my own mind.
I spent the next two decades in essence pretending
music into existence. I never have figured out if people listened to BOK
only because they knew me or because they actually liked the music I made.
I've always been an outsider playing the role of the committed insider (how
did someone like me ever decide to become a teacher and a singer in a
rock and roll band?) and I recognized early on that the best thing I could do
musically would be to try to create the sounds I heard in my head and not worry
about others liking what I created, though in the end I always longed for the
sort of mass approval so many of my musical idols achieved in their lives.
But now the story is over. Or at least one very long chapter is. It actually hurts me inside to walk away from Book Of
Kills. But it's something I need to do so I can explore whatever other
musical worlds (not so different, I suspect, from the worlds I've already
explored?) I can in whatever short time I have left to do so. I truly am
starting to feel old (or perhaps I should say "older"), particularly after two
bouts with pneumonia in the past two years that have left me feeling more than a
little battered and a whole lot more mortal, and I suppose it's time I started acting at least a little
closer to my age.
Saying goodbye to a life without very much George and Mike in it will hurt even
more.
I was never
the success I wanted to be as a musician. But at least I never gave up or
gave in.
In the end, perhaps that's all we can hope for.
MARCH 6
It seemed appropriate for me to upload the first Book Of Kills
album, 1989's Bloom Or Die?, to bandcamp.com, seeing as how BOK is
playing its final show this week and all. If you wish to download it, go
to the link above.
MARCH 4
Yes, the folks on the front page of bookofkills.com represent
everyone who I've played with in either Book Of Kills, The Karl Rove or the
Plague Dogs...except one, as one sharp-eyed BOK aficionado pointed out. I
do not have a photo of the very first lead guitarist for BOK, Mike Johnson and
thus could not post his image on the front, much to my regret. I know that
there are indeed some photos out there of that very first show (as I reported a
while back on these pages) but that person has chosen strangely enough not to
share the photos with me. Ah well...what's a body to do?
MARCH 3
I've put up a new Song of the Week
(#41).
MARCH 1
Well...I reckon Mike, George and I have two or three more
practices and then the final show will be upon us March 13. I have had
some queries from various people asking why the show is going to be at the
Little Grill and not a bigger venue. Well, for one thing, I had trouble
getting a show at any other venue. Though I didn't schedule the
show at the Grill either, I was at least able to get the show booked through
Billy Brett with Buck Gooter and Sleepfeeder. Besides, I like playing in a
very cramped environment, eyeball to eyeball with the crowd. For my money,
that's the only way rock and roll should be played. Oh yeah...I'm just
like everyone else...I love the big rock spectacle but that's not really rock
and roll...it's rock spectacle. There's a difference. And for
another thing, as I've already noted, the Grill is where BOK played its first
show (ou can read - or re-read - about that particular performance
here) and I've always been a person who is very
keen on tradition, particularly in music, and art in general. If you're
not well-versed on the history of rock music, then you really are missing out on
the full picture. You're more or less simply focusing on yourself and your
own desires rather than opening yourself up to the experience of the whole wide
world of music and all the people who created it.
FEBRUARY 25
You can now download another BOK album...2002's
All About
You...from bandcamp.com. "Sharing is caring."
FEBRUARY 22
George, Mike and I have decided to give one final show. It seemed
appropriate that the three of us would do this since we three have been playing
together in some form or another now for three years. I asked Billy Brett
of Buck Gooter/Kill Your Brain if he could help set up a gig for us and he (as
always) kindly obliged. I also asked that it include Buck Gooter and
Sleepfeeder. It seemed appropriate that Book Of Kills' final show would
include those guys as well. This will be the twenty-eighth time that
some version of BOK has performed at the Grill (which, I guess in my humble opinion,
remains the best place to see a rock and roll show in Harrisonburg). While
I intend to continue in a live band in the future (more on that soon), as do
George and Mike (more on that soon), this is the final BOK show ever. If
you've never seen BOK live or just want to see them one final time, this is your
last (as in final) chance. Bring your friends. Call up your old Army
buddies and tell them BOK is back in town one last time. Relive
alternative rock's heyday. Just come 'cause it gives you the excuse to
drink really good cold beer. Whatever the reason, we'll look for you
there, Saturday, March 13.
FEBRUARY 18
An interesting story I came across this morning:
"After resigning as The Pirate Bay’s
spokesperson, Peter Sunde was left with some extra time to spend on his side
projects. One of these ventures is Flattr, a social micropayment system for
people who share content on the Internet, which just launched in Beta. Ernesto
of TorrentFreak reports.
Computers and the Internet have made it
extremely easy for anyone to produce content, and distribute it to millions of
users.
Musicians and movie makers can share their work
with the rest of the world with very little investment, something that was
impossible little over a decade ago. Similarly, weblogs are able to provide news
and information much faster than old media at relatively low costs.
The Internet has brought us a tool to share and
consume content, but up until now there has been no really easy way for the
consuming side to reward content producers. Flattr (http://flattr.com),
a new venture started by The Pirate Bay’s former spokesman Peter Sunde, opts to
change this.
Flattr has been in development since 2007 and
finally opened up in Beta this week. It is best described as a mash-up between
social content discovery sites such as Digg, Reddit and Stumbleupon, and an
online payment service like Paypal.
'It’s a new revenue stream for people who share
their content! It’s a combination of a donation system and a quality list of
interesting content online,' said Peter Sunde describing the service to
TorrentFreak.
Users who join the site can use it to discover
interesting articles, great music and useful software, like on the
aforementioned social discovery sites. If they see something they like they can
give it a thumbs up, which is nothing new either.
The innovative part is that users of Flattr set
a monthly budget they are willing to donate each month to the content they like.
This can be as low as US$2, or whatever the user is willing to share. At the end
of the month the money is shared between the creators of the content they liked,
who are all Flattr users as well.
In other words, Flattr allows consumers to
flatter content producers for a flat-rate fee, and offers a revenue stream to
those who create and share content.
The idea behind Flattr is innovative, but for
the service to be a success the user base has to be significant. If Sunde and
friends succeed in that, they have an ideal solution to pay off the people who
share their work free."
And here's a response to the idea from a
reader:
"If I understand it correctly, Flattr doesn’t
have any content itself. Instead you pay a small fee every month (say 5 euros)
and every time you click a Flattr button a part of that fee will be forwarded to
the person in question. If you click 10 buttons a month every button owner will
earn 50 cents. If you click 20 times they will each earn 25 cents and so on.
Added advantage is that you have a set limit every month which makes multiple
donations easier. (Think about it as a Paypal button, but more convenient.)
“But why would people use this when they can
use other sites for free?”
That is what you call 'Sharing is Caring.' It
works like donation-ware, where people donate money to support a project.
Donations are completely voluntarily, but they help good projects forward.
If you use torrents and content sharing only to
get things for free… Well, let’s just say that no one likes people who just
leech and never give anything back.
Personally I really like this idea. If it
becomes a bit widespread I would join it. That way I could give a little bit
back to all the wonderful blogs, freeware and other helpful people out there."
FEBRUARY 16
Check out the new "Single Of The Month"
at bandcamp.com! You can listen FREE to each song!
I've been asked by Billy Brett to participate in a new music anthology.
I'll be doing something similar to the sound collages I created way back in 1994
for Songs For A Gone World. I'm glad he contacted me about doing
something because it reminded me that I'd promised myself to jump back into
sound collages again after way way too long of an absence. In fact, I
think it might be fun to make the next Single of the Month something along those
lines as well.
There's always so much to do myself and so little time to do it. I've come
up with an interesting idea to supplement what was an extremely popular feature
of this web site, The Ballad of Jim Shelley. It would involve a lot of
writing done on a chapter by chapter basis, but I think it would be fun to read
and really interesting for me to create...if I can come up with a
suitable design for the whole thing. I know that tells you absolutely
nothing, but I'm not even sure exactly how to explain what I want to do and if I
can actually do it, if I can clarify the notion in my own mind.
Then there's the next Auction Album...
Then there's the matter of starting up a new band...
Then there's also potentially news about the 'old' band...'
And then there's all the non-music stuff I
need to do.
Hope I don't die before I get old.
FEBRUARY 12
Check out the new "Single Of The Month"
at bandcamp.com! You can listen FREE to each song!
In other news...umm...there isn't any other news. As far as queries about
where I'm going from here (musically), I appreciate the interest and advice I've
gotten. I also appreciated the memories that some of you shared with me
about BOK shows from the past. I can't really say what the future holds
right now, though I think I'll probably have a new direction to report certainly
sooner than later...but, really, it's useless for me to speculate right now
about what I might do or with whom I might do it. I'm relatively sure I'll
be walking down a new path this time. I hope the folks who've followed me
over the last twenty years with the many different permutations of BOK, as well
as The Karl Rove and The Plague Dogs, will continue to share my little musical
adventures in inspired amateurism in the weeks and months to come.
I think I have an idea for the next Auction Album. Nothing spectacularly
different and I'm still mulling the possibilities, but I think I'll have news to
report on that within the next week.
FEBRUARY 10
Here's the "big news" I alluded to a few days ago...don't know if
it will surprise anyone or not: George and I have talked about the future
of BOK and we've both agreed that after three years together (for a year of that
time as The Plague Dogs) it's time to move on to new challenges. This
doesn't mean Book Of Kills is finally kaput. I'm hoping that maybe a
couple times a year we'll be able to come together and do a show, if there's any
demand for such a thing to happen (as I'd like to believe there would be.)
It has been a lot of fun and it's a good thing that the band is winding down
with everyone still friends. I have some incredible memories of the times
I shared with these guys, particularly, of course, Mike and George. We
played some great shows together, even if they were few and far between. I
will most fondly remember all the great times we had practicing. That's a
part of band life that people outside of music don't really ever get to
experience. It's a shame 'cause we gave some of our greatest performances
during those times when we were the only people around. (I remember
reading once where that guy who fronts Phish said his band's best shows were the
ones they put on during practice.) Great thanks go to Billy Brett, Casey
Firkin, Ike Sours, Deanne Good, Jana Burtner (and all the other faithful folks
who seemed to show up for every gig no matter where or when it was) for the
support they showed the band over and over again. There won't be yet
another version of Book Of Kills. This is the last one. After 22
years, it's time to lay the name to rest. Hard to believe that BOK started
back when the Pixies were still skinny, Kurt Cobain hadn't tried heroin yet, The
Jesus and Mary Chain, Public Enemy, Ministry and Dinosaur Jr all were just making a
name for themselves, it would be five years before anybody outside of Dayton,
Ohio had even heard of Guided By Voices, and Guns and Roses were probably the biggest act in music.
I'm not sure exactly what sort of changes I'll make on this page. Perhaps
I'll change the name, perhaps not. I know for the time being that I'll
continue to update the site on the same (pretty) regular basis as I do now.
FEBRUARY 9
There's a new song of the week.
FEBRUARY 6
Didn't get the mother of all snow storms, but we do have 13" as
of 9 a.m. Saturday with another 2-4" forecast for today along with high winds.
FEBRUARY 4
Well, tomorrow we're supposed to have the mother of all snow
storms hit the Shenandoah Valley, or some such crap. Man, am I tired of
freaking winter already. Guess I'll have plenty of time to record...of
course, the damn electricity will probably go down all weekend.
JANUARY 29
I haven't really thought about the next auction album. I
guess I should start focusing in on what the next one will be like. It'll
be hard to top the last package, so I don't think I'll even try, but I'll try to
make it something cool nonetheless.
JANUARY 28
Probably put up a new song of the week tomorrow...
JANUARY 27
No show at the Blue Nile either 1/31 or 2/4.
JANUARY 24
You can go here NOW to
download the first Book Of Kills Single Of The Month! Name your price.
No minimum. Hey, it ain't as good as some I've written and it's better
than others I've written. I just think it's pretty cool that we've got a
new feature going here on the web. And I know there are some regulars (we
used to call them Bokheads back in the early 2000s) who really get into new BOK,
whatever form it takes, so...enjoy! And by the way...if you can, download
the flac file; they sound so much better than mp3's! You can find loads of
free flac decoders on the internet. It's easy as pie to download a
lossless flac file and convert it to a .wav track.
I now have Don't Stop The Scream (1992) and If I Should Fall (1998) available
for download. Name your price! No minimum! Tell all your
friends!
I've also got a new song of the week up as of
today.
JANUARY 23
The very first Book Of Kills Single Of The Month should be
available for download by Sunday evening! It will comprise two all new
songs, a lyric sheet, and a front and back cover in case you want to create your
own little cd single. Check back here no earlier than very late tonight or
tomorrow for details! I had great fun making this little package and I
know some of you are going to enjoy it (as well as the ones coming in the
future.) I really like the idea of not having to come up with 12-14 songs
at a time. I never listen to albums all the way through anyway.
Singles are the way to go these days!
JANUARY 22
"Lived Inside Of No", the first of two songs for a new single
that you'll be able to download eventually (probably on bandcamp) is done.
It's a nifty little lo-fi thing that I wrote and recorded super quick.
It's silly and stupid and kinda fun. I will try to record the second track
this week and have the "single" ready for release by next weekend.
By the way, Don't Stop The Scream is now available on bandcamp.com.
Be patient...I'll put the majority of BOK albums up as time permits. I
think Toward The Escape will be next.
JANUARY 21
I had almost finished up a new song when my external hard drive
began to die on me. It is still sort of working and I'm hoping that I can
finish the song before it dies. I've sort of picked up where I left off
with 2008's This Is Your Book Of Kills in that the song is simple and
very much in the lo-fi tradition that I love so much and was written and
recorded quickly. I'd like to record a second song to create a true
"single" in the tradition of the old 45s from the vinyl era. I'm on no
deadline, so it'll be ready when it's ready. I may very well put it up on
bandcamp.com so folks can download it and pay whatever they feel is fair (which
most people think is "free", but whatever.) Eventually I hope to have at
least a couple dozen BOK albums up for download on bandcamp.com.
JANUARY 18
I have joined bandcamp.com. You can currently download all
the tracks from the...ummm...critically acclaimed mini-album, If I Should
Fall, from 1998. The cool thing about bandcamp.com is that you can set
your own price to download albums...which means, of course, for many bands that
you can go there and download lots of good music without bothering to pay
anything for it. Or you can pay what you can and download lots of good
music. That choice is yours, of course. Anyway, go
here to see the new
digs for my music. I intend to put up many of my albums there in the
coming weeks. I have started recording a new song, by the way, for the
single of the week. Don't know when it'll be available.
JANUARY 17
I've got an interesting unreleased acoustic number from 2006 that
I'm considering putting up as the first "Single Of The Week (Or Whenever I Feel
Like Releasing It)". Might go up next week. I might record a new
track next week too. Something maybe a little different from the norm?
JANUARY 14
I would imagine the next auction will be in 2-3 weeks.
Could possibly be sooner, but I doubt it.
As far as putting up the first new single, I'm thinking I might have time to
cook something up by mid-week next week, but don't hold me to it.
JANUARY 12
Kenneth Alley won the latest auction. In fact, Ken has won
all three of the music auctions! Well...it is nice to know that there's at
least one person in the world who still likes what you do! I'm beginning
to think that perhaps I'm just too old for this game anymore. Not that
rock and roll is a young man's game. But maybe I'm so out of touch that I
can't even reach folks musically anymore.
JANUARY 11
Looks as though Mike, George, Teker and I will finally jam
together again this week after an extended break.
JANUARY 7
I should - as I failed to do on ebay - add that the compact discs will come in a special
multi-disc plastic package along with new (printed) artwork and an insert with
song by song notes. (After a bid is placed on an auction on ebay, you're
not allowed - understandably - to edit the description.)
JANUARY 5
You can take a look at the latest (and bestest) auction
'musical/collage' here.
The compact disc will include two outtakes from the TIYBOK sessions, "The Shape
Of Your Eyes Goes Round My Heart" and "She Had Mad Machines".
JANUARY 4
The pictures have been taken. The insert is finished. The two
outtakes have been mixed and mastered. The compact disc has been burned.
Tonight I will put the This Is Your Book Of Kills auction album on ebay
for a seven day ride. This one's the coolest yet by far! In edition
to a six page insert (each with an all-new collage), you'll get a lyric
sheet and the original album with two previously unreleased tracks (which won't
show up on any future edition of the album), plus a second copy of the cd in
case you wanna save the first one or give it to a friend! It's the best
BOK special edition EVER and it should be ready to go on ebay by 9:00-9:30 P.M. or so
tonight! I will have photos of all the collages on the This Is Your Book
Of Kills page (natch since this is the TIYBOK album we're talking about here!)
later this evening.
You can take a look at the auction here.
JANUARY 3
Happy, merry new year. The auction for the special edition
of This Is Your Book Of Kills will begin Monday or Tuesday. Promise.
For real. Honest. Maybe Wednesday, but probably not. I mean,
it could possibly be Thursday, but probably Tuesday. Or maybe Friday, but
more likely Monday, if not Tuesday.
I will make every effort in the new year to put various features up on specific
days of the week that you can pretty much count on. Also in the new year,
I will start some new contests, sort of like the sort of thing I did back in the
late '90s...maybe the occasional raffle, etc. I'm still thinking up some
other cool things I could do in the new year to make the page a little more
interesting. I don't really care about jazzing the graphix up or anything
like that...I'm more interested in substance over flash.