BOK @ The Blue Nile, Thursday, November 20, with The Plague Dogs and Sleepfeeder
(with Casey Firkin). Skip the TV for once and come on out. This
could be an historic show.
As you might recall, I am sort of "producing" a Christmas album for the
Harrisonburg charity Our Community Place (OCP). Today they made an
announcement concerning the availability of the album. This is for a very
very good cause and believe me, there are some great artists (including
Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show) on this cd. And yours truly wrote
and performed the "hidden" track at the end of the album. (See, I'm all
rock and roll and everyone else on the cd is kind of folk or blues or americana
and I didn't really fit on the album, so they stuck me on the end.) But
this is a new, never-before-released BOK song (called "Another Christmas Day")
and it's not going to show up in this particular incarnation in any other form
on any other album or on this website...ever. Anyway...here's the press
release from earlier today:
'For years
we said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could get singers who have been favorites
at the Little Grill over the years each to donate a song for an OCP Christmas
CD?"And now that CD is almost a reality.
The OCP Christmas CD, "Our Christmas Present," will be here in time for
Christmas!!
And it sounds great! We're not just saying that. This is really something.
All of the songs are mixed and in order - some final mastering is being done and
we are shipping everything off to the production company on Monday. It's a cool
mix of originals and traditionals,homey and cutting edge, multiple genres,
little surprises, and more.
We should have the CDs in hand by the CD Release Party at OCP on December 14th
from 7pm - 9pm.
Acts include:
The New Johnsons, Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medecine Show), The Trail Band, Jessie
Trainum, Greg Ward, Alex Albrecht, Heather Kropf, Trent Wagler, Scott Murray,
Chris Howdyshell (Red River Rollercoaster), Jonathan Reuel, Tom Kildea, Danny
Schmidt, Paul Curreri, and Terry Turtle
Pre-orders are now being taken. Just send us a check for $15 a copy to "OCP"
17 E. Johnson Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22802, or pay though PayPal on our home
page to secure your copies. Or stop by for a visit. (When you stop by you can
pre-listen to the CD since we listen to the demo on continuous loop)
We should have plenty, we are ordering 1,000, but pre-orders will help us pay
the bill for the production.
Feel free to write back with any questions or comments.
Peace on Earth and Good Music to All,
OCP'
November 18
Interesting note: The two live tracks from the November 14 show
(see "This Is Your Book
Of Kills") were pretty popular! In fact, those two tracks were
responsible for the single biggest download day in the history of
Bookofkills.com! Each song was downloaded over 80 times November 17 alone.
Wow! I hope I'll have it together enough to record Thursday's gig in its
entirety, though I'll most likely have to charge a couple dollars to download
the whole concert.
November 15
Interesting night...check out the
details on This Is
Your Book Of Kills!
We'll be playing again, of course, this coming Thursday at The Blue
Nile. I'm looking forward to playing a venue that I've heard a great deal
of positive buzz about. As Billy Brett of Buck Gooter said last night,
"The Blue Nile is a real rock club."
November 13
I've been advised that the Little Grill show tomorrow night will
start around 8:00 P.M. and NOT 9:00! So get there early. I think BOK
will be playing first, though I'm not certain of the order.
November 9
Seems to be a little confusion over when Book Of Kills will be
performing in November. Again, these are the dates:
Friday, November 14 @ The Little Grill, Harrisonburg, VA w/ Meade Skelton &
Panther Burn
Thursday, November 20 @ Blue Nile, Harrisonburg, VA w/ Sleepfeeder and The
Plague Dogs
Wednesday, November 26 @ The Box, Charlottesville, VA w/ Panther Burn
All shows start around 9:00.
Do you have a venue BOK could play in? Even if you live in another state
but would like to see BOK play in your home town, let me know. I can't
promise we'll be able to do so, but who knows...
November 7
God bless Louise Bowman Nipe. The finest person I've ever
known. The finest person I ever will know.
November 6
The t-shirts are disappearing. I have 16 left in all sizes
except XXL. Order now.
November 4
I want to thank everyone who visited the web site in October. I had 6800+
visits, by far the most ever. Thank you for your interest in my music and
the band and thank you for turning on others to BOK music. Can't wait to
see many of you a week from this Friday at the Little Grill, November 14 with
Richmond's Meade Skelton (Meade is having his cd release party that night) and
Charlottesville's Panther Burn.
November 3
Sorry that I haven't done any updates in the past four or five days nor been
able to communicate with folks asking questions about music or the t-shirts.
My mother is critically ill and my family and I are keeping a bedside vigil for
her as she gets ready to pass. For the past several days I've been more or
less out of touch with everything and everyone other than my immediate family.
I have put up a song I wrote for her back in
2003 and included on Wasp 51! on the "Get
Music" page that you're welcome to download if you don't
already have it.
October 30
T-shirts have arrived. They look cool. Note there is a slight
difference in the design. I had to use a different shot of Mike because
the other photo wouldn't transfer satisfactorily. But my wife says the new
picture is better anyway and makes Mike look like a brooding rock star.
Anyway, as I said, these shirts are going to be true one-of-a-kinds with only a
very small run of them being made. Get yours now! Buy on line today
using Paypal (you can use your credit card without being a PayPal member...it's
easy.) Only $13, which includes your shipping costs! When I get
notification of your order, I will mail off your t-shirt with priority mail.
Thanks.
October 27
Not a whole lot of BOK news over the last week. There should be a lot more
activity on the site over the next several days, however, what with a new weekly
download and most likely a song or two to upload from practice. Three
shows over the course of nine days are looming. As I've said before, I
hope to record each of those gigs and make them available to fans of the band
either through cd or as downloads. Some new news about the Blue Nile
show...Luray's SleepFeeder will be the third band, joining BOK and The Plague
Dogs. Should be a really fun gig.
I am amazed and deeply gratified at how many people are visiting bookofkills.com
on a monthly basis. Last month the site had 5800+ hits and this month it
appears that number will hit 6000 for the first time ever! Thanks so much
for making bookofkills.com a regular internet stop. I try to keep the site
as fresh as possible with lots of new words and sounds for visitors to enjoy
each week. Make sure to let your friends know about Book Of Kills!
Finally, I have put up a third page of pictures taken by Jana Burtner.
Go here to see the latest
ones.
October 21
Okay...there've been requests over the last year or so to put the "reviews"
page back up, so I've uploaded it for your viewing pleasure after taking it down
back in July '07 . Keep in mind that I rarely sent my albums to magazines
or online 'zines for review (usually only to Alternative Press who at one
time had a page in their magazine devoted to "homemade" music) and stopped doing
so altogether in 2005.
October 20
I believe BOK will be playing (with the Plague Dogs and - I hope - a third band)
on November 20 (a Thursday) at the Blue Nile. This is not a confirmed
date, but should be soon.
Tomorrow or Wednesday I will post 5-6 songs from a live recording of BOK from
'03 near the end of that line-up's existence. I found a fascinating tape I
made at the time which has a number of discussions (all good-natured) between
the five of us as we work on some new material or run through older stuff.
This download will include several songs with Jane as lead vocalist...a nice
departure from the focus on me, I think. Unfortunately, we always had
trouble getting Jane to sing loudly enough in concert so most of the songs Jane
sings in the live tapes of the band from '00-'03 have nearly inaudible vocals.
These are quite clear, however, and the recordings (though they were made on my
boom box) are actually pretty good. I think it'll make for a nice weekly
download.
Here's a photo of the new t-shirt I've designed (sorry, it's not a great
picture):
Again, these are gonna be quite limited. $10, plus $3 shipping.
I'll send them by priority mail. I imagine most of these will sell at our
shows, but if you can't come to see the band play live, make sure to order one
soon!
October 18
Some quick news...
I am in the process of finishing up the design for a new t-shirt. I am
going to have a very limited number of them made. This design will
be unique to this small run. In other words, I will not order a second run
of this design. That will make this an extremely rare collectors
item If you want to order a shirt (or shirts), let me know as soon as
possible. Let me know your shirt size as well! You will not
be obligated to pay for anything until I receive the shirts. They're only
going to be $10 (cheap!) each. Be the first kid on your block to own the
first new Book Of Kills t-shirt in five years!
Contact me now to place your order!
When they're gone, they're gone!
I've uploaded a few more pictures taken by Jana Burtner. Go
here if you want to
see them.
I'm working on setting up another show in Harrisonburg, this time at the
Blue Nile in November. More
details soon.
I've uploaded some of Jana Burtner's
photographs from this
past September shoot at the practice space.
October 15
Jana Burtner gave us the pix she took and I'll be putting a bunch of them up
over the next couple days once I get them converted to slightly smaller sizes
(so that they're easily download-able). Looks as though I'm gonna try to
create a t-shirt from one of her photographs now.
October 10
I have four cd's full of live material from 2001 (Book Of Kills) and 2004-06
(Book Of Proles/The Karl Rove) that I'll be uploading over the next couple
months on the "Get Music" page. If I can get my act together, I hope to be
able to upload a few performances from the new band (which were very
popular when I uploaded a few from a very early practice) as well. Look
for new cuts to download early next week. I hope to have some photos from
Jana Burtner to put up as well. If there's something I think might go well
on a t-shirt, I'll most likely have 25-30 shirts run off. I'd like to do
that before the November 14 show, but we'll have to see if I can get everything
in order quickly enough to do so.
October 5
I am unfortunately going to have to limit the number of free downloads I provide
each week, at least for the time being. What has happened is that the
number of people downloading the songs of the week has skyrocketed in the past
six months. That's awesome, of course, because who wouldn't want more and
more people to listen to his or her music? But I'm now using so much
bandwidth that before long, if I continue to provide several free songs a week,
I will be paying my server for going over my allotted bandwidth. The
solution is to cut back on the number of tracks I provide each week. What
I will do for the time being is provide a free song a week. Anyone who
donates to the page for the download will receive one or two exclusive bonus
songs that week. Regardless, thanks so much for listening and enjoying the
music. I (along with George and Mike) am really looking forward to playing
a few live shows within a month or so!
October 1
First, I want to once again ask you all to be a greater
part of this web site by recording BOK songs with a band or by yourself.
You certainly don't have to go into a studio to do so. Use a boombox or a
video camera or a four track...anything. Heck...you don't even have to
play a musical instrument to make yourself heard! It's the creativity that counts,
not the quality of the audio or your technical virtuosity. I would love to hear others try out a Book
Of Kills song and let the dozens of folks who visit this site regularly hear
what you sound like! And if you don't want to do something with
audio try some other creative means to interpret a BOK song....a drawing, a
photograph...whatever.
Second, I would like to make note of the passage of a great lo-fi pioneer, Scott Johnson,
of Love, Calvin fame. I know few of you have ever heard of Scott, but he
had a significant influence on my music back in 1996, when he allowed me to take
a number of his songs and re-write them for my 1996 rock opera, Splendid
Trigger. That album would never have come to fruition without
Scott's generosity and creativity. I purchased several of his cassette
albums in
1995-96 at the end of that wonderful period in underground music known as
"Cassette Culture" (maybe the last great creative movement in rock and roll?) and those
albums became very important parts of my psychic landscape in that
time period. I'll think of you often, Scott.
September 27
Slow week. I will post part two (of what is now going to be a three-parter)
of the BOK @ WXJM/The Little Grill either Sunday or Monday.
September 23
Our fifth practice last evening...we went through "Not Like A Mirror Image" 3-4
times. That's a tough song to get down, especially for a three-piece.
At the end of practice, I introduced "Never Be Like You", a song that people
have requested I do live for many years. We also worked on a very long
version of "Bucketful Of Sickness" with a Crazy Horse bridge/solo that's a lot
of fun. One of many cool things about this band is its willingness to jam,
something that has been rare in bands I've been in. When you're willing to
improvise, you're putting yourself on the line as a musician and a band, but
that makes for more exciting music, if you ask me. And you never see the
same show twice, which is doubly exciting if you're a fan. I really really
hope to record every show we do and make each one available in some form to
those who want them...probably boombox stuff.
Nothing really that I want to post, so there won't be any recordings from
practice this week. We hope to take pictures of the band within a week or
so. We'll use them for t-shirts and posters. I might even create
some new stickers, though that's a big "might".
September 21
I will probably post the weekly download earlier than usual this week. It
might even be a two-parter.
Working on some live shows for late fall/early winter.
September 17
I've got some new
recordings up from the practice last night. The sound's not exactly
stellar, so be forewarned. I will be uploading one final version (pretty
much previously unheard with the exception of a very few folks) of "The Medley"
this one a live cut from 2000 featuring Lisa Van Fossen on bass. It should
be up on the "Get Music" page Thursday or Friday.
September 16
Sorry that there hasn't been much news etc on the site over the last week.
I've been in Virginia Beach with my wife, older son and his wife and their one
year old. It was so great to just get away from everything for a few days,
I gotta tell you. Now back to the so-called real world.
Looks like Tuesdays are more or less the official BOK practice night. I
think George is going to try out "I Fell Inside" and I'll be introducing "Not
Like a Mirror Image". Maybe a couple more new songs after that next week
and then we'll work on really nailing the ones we've got as we prepare for a few
shows here and there in the fall. I'm sure I'll continue to introduce a
new song every so often. I certainly would like to play at least one of
the things I've recorded during the This Is Your Book Of Kills sessions.
Speaking of which: What with vacation and all, I haven't done a thing
as far as writing and recording goes. I'm also the "producer" of a charity
Christmas cd that the Little Grill hopes to put out this December so that's
going to take up some time and energy. I doubt that I'll be doing much
writing or recording until the Christmas break during which time I often come up
with one or two decent new songs if I put my mind to it.
If anything decent comes out of practice tonight, I might just upload it, but to
be honest things are still pretty rough as far as having songs down in a
presentable form. I'll have a new "Weekly Upload" available by no later
than this coming Saturday.
I hope to have some pictures (perhaps by Janna Burtner) taken of the band very
soon. I will use the best one(s) to create some new t-shirts as well as
some posters for upcoming shows. This will be a relatively limited run of
shirts! The last ones (the truly classic designs by Casey from '02-'03)
sold like gold-plated hotcakes, so keep checking back here and I'll let you know
as soon as they're available!
September 15
Folks...
So sorry for the lack of updates over the course of the past 5-6 days. I
have been out of town since last Wednesday on vacation. Regular updates
will resume tomorrow.
September 9
I will be uploading 2-3 more songs from the January 2002 Book Of Kills concert
in the next couple days so check back if you're interested in hearing a few more
cuts from that show. I doubt that I'll upload anymore songs from that show
after that, however.
Happy Labor Day! I've posted another outtake from the
This Is Your Book Of Kills sessions.
August 30
The hits just keep on comin'! I've posted a
third track from the
2002 show...a big crowd pleaser sung by Billy Bird: "Gimme Some Money" by the
immortal Spinal Tap!
August 29
Okay...I'll put up another one. This time it's
"If You Want It, Take It!" also from the January 25 show.
This coming Sunday (August 31, I'll also be posting another outtake from the
This Is Your Book Of Kills sessions! This one is complete and I seriously
considered it for making the final cut. It's a very unusual track and
you'll definitely want to add it to your collection.
August 28
Free music this week!
The outtake from the This Is Your Book Of Kills sessions will be posted
either later this weekend or as next week's "Weekly Download"! Yeh!
Ain't it fun being a BOK fan? Let your friends in on the secret!
BOK!
BOK!
BOK!
August 26
You can follow the progress of the latest incarnation of Book Of Kills by
clicking on theThis Is Your Book Of
Kills!link!
This week's download will be another previously unheard outtake from the This
Is Your Book Of Kills! sessions! It should be up by Thursday!
August 22
I've got a new idea for the web site...I think I'll call it "The Making Of A
Band" or some such corny thing. What I'll do is keep a running account of
what's going on with the new band as it comes together and learns songs.
I'll include pictures and practice recordings, as well. It should be good
fun. I will start it up sooner than later. One more reason to make
Bookofkills.com your one stop shop for everything BOK!
August 21
Biggest news first is that I played a tentative jam with George Nipe (of
Plague Dogs fame, of course) on bass and a
gentleman (whom I met on the internet) by the name of John Bradley on drums.
It was lots of fun playing some old BOK standby's such as "My World Turned To
Black" and "Caroline" as well as some newer material such as "Marzipan Day" and
"River Of Blood". I am going to audition another drummer (at the drummer's
request.) More about that in a day or so. I believe that with
George's level of musical expertise and the obvious chemistry the two of us
have, all we need is to do is complete the formula with a drummer who's right
there with us regardless who that turns out to be. A four piece
would be nice but it is easier to move around a three piece. This band
will be a new version of BOK. Certainly the name is not retired.
We will take a (semi-)serious attitude towards playing and will try to play live shows
as regularly as I can schedule them. I hope the band can initially learn
around 25-30 songs so that each show will be a distinct experience. I
also hope to make this band just a little more varied in its musical approach,
at least as far as my limited technical ability and a three piece band will
allow for. Too, I really want to feature a wide swath of BOK songs from
Bloom Or Die all the way to Different and beyond.
Also of note: I'll be posting an unreleased outtake from
the This Is Your Book Of Kills session some time in the next couple days,
so you'll want to check back for that!
I haven't had time to look around for some good unreleased material for this
week's weekly download, so I haven't got anything to upload yet. I might
still put something up by Sunday, so check back! I'm considering uploading
the very rare (and very strange) 2000 Fan Club Christmas cd, Two-Headed Boy,
a 30 minute rock opera.
In other news, I will be jamming with George Nipe III from The
Plague Dogs, of course, and John Bradley who I met through an ad on Craig's
List. We'll see how things go. I'm hoping to put together a few live
shows before the new year.
August 6
Not looking to jinx anything, but I will be jamming with a drummer
and bassist next week as I attempt to put together a new group.
August 3
Some interesting statistics from Godaddy.com concerning Bookofkills.com:
This web site had 4774 hits in August and the count is growing each month!
Bookofkills.com is on its way to getting 60,000+ hits this year!
In the last seven days, people have downloaded 296.360 MB worth of mp3's!
In the last five months, people have downloaded 2.701 GB worth of mp3's!
Thank you so very much for your interest in Book Of Kills/Jim Shelley
music! Please tell your friends about Bookofkills.com!
I am looking for musicians to form a new band. I will keep you
apprised of progress. If you're a local musician and have an interest in
playing, drop me a line.
July 25
I'll put up a "weekly" upload Saturday. This week will feature
the nameless six song e.p. from 1999 consisting of Average Day, The Handcuff
King, La Fee Verte, Laughs All Around, Banquet and Strange One all for a buck.
Next week I'll probably upload the original 1996 e.p., Writing On The Wall, that
I combined with the stuff from '99 and released on compact disc.
As far as the new album goes, I had computer problems all day today and
wasn't able to do any recording. Hoping to have things rectified soon.
What a busy week! Anyway, tonight I will turn my attention back
to the music. I should have a second song ready to upload by Tuesday
evening. Also, after a friend ordered a copy of the long-deleted 8 From
The Attic cd (which I gave free to original subscribers of the old Notes From
The Underground BOK fanzine back in the days before the internet spoiled
everything), I went looking for a couple of the songs from that cd that I'd
misplaced and found the original recording of "Thank You (For Being My Friend)"
as well as what as far as I can tell is a previously unheard song called "Na Na
Na Na Na Na Na Na (39 Reasons)" which I found tacked onto the end of a minidisc
that I could barely get to work on my battered minidisc player. Since
pretty much all of the stuff on 8 From The Attic has been re-released on other
discs since its debut, I thought I'd add the two unreleased tracks to give the
disc at least a little added value. If you want a copy of this disc, let
me know. $3 will pay for postage and material.
July 17
A friend emailed me last night to inform me that many of the
links on the 'Pictures' page are broken. I will be very busy this weekend,
but I hope to have the problem corrected by early next week. I'll probably
remove most of the links and put up a few select pictures instead.
I met with Garfield and George last evening and, in effect, tendered my
resignation in the Plague Dogs. This was not something I'd treated
lightly. I'd found myself debating many courses of action over the last
couple of months, trying to rationalize a way I could stay in the group, but for
largely physical reasons I have known for quite some time that I would not be
able to continue with the guys any longer. The fact is I was having some
pretty serious vocal problems stemming from the strain of singing the type of
songs I was performing. I loved the things we were doing and was quite
proud of what we accomplished over the past year, but I simply couldn't manage
the strain any longer of playing and singing hard rock and metal exclusively.
It was very hard to leave Garfield, George and Mike. I felt quite close to
each of them. They were the nicest bunch of guys I've ever played with.
So now I'm back to not having a band for the first time in several years.
I do intend to put together a new line-up but with whom is anybody's guess.
It's not exactly like the Shenandoah Valley is full of the sort of musicians who
can cozy up to BOK music. I'll put an ad in the local paper and maybe
stick another in some online sites. Probably put up a few flyers around
town and see what happens. I certainly don't want to give up playing live
just yet. In the meantime, I'll turn my attention back to the new album.
You can get the latest info
here.
July 11
Much of the time over the next month or so, I'll be posting updates on the
This Is Your Book Of
Kills page without updating the news, so you might wanna check there first
for the time being, if you're interested in following along with the creation of
the album.
This week's downloads
are once again free! Next week I intend to have one or two new songs ready
for download. Cross your fingers. I've been kind of neglecting BOK
for a while. I hope I can get things back on track by writing some new
material. I'll be offering a few little special odds and ends in July.
More later...
This week's downloads
will be available tomorrow by noon EST and will once again be free!
Come back tomorrow to get nine new Plague Dogs recordings!
June 14
No weekly download this week. Sorry. This has been a very busy
and sometimes even a bit stressful month for me, as I am semi-retiring from
teaching (after thirty years), possibly taking on a slightly less demanding
part-time job, winding up the school year (always a busy time), and writing and
preparing to deliver the commencement speech at Harrisonburg High School's
graduation ceremonies (which are today.) After the graduation ceremony, my
wife and I will be heading out of town for a little while. Anyway, I
simply didn't have time to prepare a decent download this week. However,
if you haven't already checked out these free downloads, go
here. If
you already have them, I will be back on track next week with weekly offerings.
I can also promise that Plague Dogs downloads will start becoming available next
week on this site, the MyPages site and the Plague Dogs home page. I can
also promise you that in the next couple months you'll see some new material on
bookofkills.com and some new songs (probably in the form of singles downloads)
will be available as well. Should be a fun summer on the ol' web page.
June 6
This week's download features four cuts for 99 cents. Read all about
it here!
I know I've hit one of those periods where I'm not paying a whole lot of
attention to the web page, but in a week or so, I will have a good deal of time
to devote to it and things should get a little livelier. I am running
several ideas through my head about new content! By the way, the eight
Plague Dogs songs that we plan to offer free on this page and ThePlagueDogs.com
should be available in a week or so!
In response to those who asked if there was a download last week...yes.
This week's download is "Stanley The Steamer". Read more and order your
download here!
May 15
I've posted some new pix by Deanne Good on the Plague Dogs site of the May 3
Metal Fest gig in Luray, Virginia.
Check 'em
out.
Spent yesterday evening over in Luray, Virginia at Casey Firkin's place along
with ever-excellent photographer, Deanne Good, Ike Good (late of Disenfranchised
Youth and now one-third of Sleepfeeder), and Billy Brett of Buck Gooter (along
with his lovely mate, Sarah, and their six week old daughter!) perusing a
treasure trove of Book Of Kills memorabilia, including flyers, photos and
various pieces of related artwork as well a 60 minute tape of BOK live at the
Little Grill from January 2002. Casey let me take the tape in the hopes I
can transfer it to DVD (it's not in great shape but definitely salvageable and
certainly watch able.)
It was awesome to sit with Casey and reminisce about the show and the "glory"
days of BOK. The stories we could tell! And just sifting through the
memorabilia and talking with Casey jogged so
many great memories that I'd sort of forgotten. No...we weren't the musical sensation of the century,
but I have to admit I'd forgotten how excited we could get a crowd and what a
rabid little following we had. I tend to perhaps over-romanticize the
group, but as I wrote once in The Ballad..."It's hard to explain the
magic we could create on stage when everything was truly clicking, but that we
could indeed create magic is undeniable."
The Ballad Of Jim Shelley doesn't even touch on a fraction of everything,
good and not so good, that went down in those times! Deanne and Casey are
going to scan a bunch of the artwork Casey collected (much of which he created
himself) and eventually I will post it on
this site.
This week's download (which will be up by later this evening)
is probably going to be "See You Again". I'll include the original
version from 1999's Welcome To Concrete ep, the brief boom box demo I made of the song,
and, of course, the best known version
from 2002's All About You.
May 02
I have posted "River Of Blood" from the recent Plague Dogs recording sessions at
George's practice space in Harrisonburg. This is not a final mix,
but I really wanted to get something uploaded from those sessions since I've had
some folks wondering when the new songs would see the light of day. The
guys talked about our future plans last night at practice and we will turn our
attentions first of all back to finishing up all the recordings starting next
week after, of course, playing our gig tomorrow in Luray (see below). I've
also included the original Karl Rove version of the song as well as a live
recording (also by the 'Rove) of the first time we ever played the song in
public. This week's downloads
are completely free! I hope you enjoy them!
April 29
I am hoping to put up at least one or two of the new Plague Dogs tracks this
week as this week's free downloads.
The 'Dogs will be playing at 2:45 this coming Saturday afternoon in Luray,
Virginia at an all day metal fest. Yup. You heard me. It's at
the VFW and starts around one.
April 26
This is a pretty funny (and pretty accurate)
article about
mp3's and white people.
April 25
This week's download is the entire If I Should Fall album from 1998,
one of the more popular records in the BOK canon of hits. This download
includes a never before heard song, "Get Back Go Back", from late 1998, plus a
lyric sheet. I transferred the basic rhythm track to computer and added
some new voices and instrumentation. It's a pretty cool song. Go
here to
listen and/or order!
Don't forgot to drop by Casey's in Harrisonburg, VA to catch a
fine show of hard rock and roll with Plague Dogs and yours truly PLUS Jack's
Box! We should hit the stage around 9:30.
April 23
Right now I'm pretty focused on getting ready for the shows this weekend and
next with the Plague Dogs as well as trying to finish up the recordings we
started several weeks ago. It's been kind of slow going, but we'll get them
done before you know it. Show this Saturday at Casey's in Harrisonburg and
next Saturday at a humongous "metal festival" in Luray, Virginia at the VFW.
We'll most likely be going on early in the day that show.
This week's downloads will be the first album I've put up, If I Should Fall,
a personal favorite of mine. As a special bonus, I'm including a
never-before heard outtake called "Get Back Go Back". This is a complete
song, not a rough demo...it's similar to "If I Should Fall" and "Free Assembly".
I recently transferred the basic rhythm track from late '98 to computer and
added some voices and instrumentation.
April 19
Wow...I can't believe I've finished the first draft of The Ballad Of Jim
Shelley! I don't even remember when I first started writing and
posting it, but it seems as though it has been at least a year since then.
This week's download will either be a new two song single or a multi-song look
at "To Dream A New Dream". I'm kind of antsy to do the "New Dream" thing
'cause I completely by accident discovered the demo I made of that song back in
March of 2001 for Casey and Jane to listen to. No more than 3-4 folks have
ever heard it. It's actually a fairly
elaborate demo (8 tracks). Interestingly, it has some pretty different
lyrics to it. I figure I can post that one along with the '01 band
version, the slightly different alternative band version and maybe two or three
live cuts of the song. A week or two ago I rediscovered a disc with the
audio (not the video, which I also found on tape not too long ago) recording I
made of the 4/28/2001 gig at The Little Grill which has on it the third time
ever we played "Dream". Regardless of what I post this week, I will try to
keep it and every week interesting and value conscious. Downloads
should be available, as always, no later than Saturday!
April 14
The final chapter of The Ballad Of Jim
Shelley is now up.
April 10
You can now get this week's downloads! Four tracks for 99 cents! Go
to Get Music! and get
some music!
April 9
This week's download (coming no later than this Saturday, depending upon
when I get a chance to master the songs) will be a cool little three song thing
featuring the evolution of a largely unknown BOK track from 1992 that has always
been a favorite of mine, "That's The Life For Me". While sifting through
the cassette box, I came across the original recording of the song - a slow, sea
chantey sort of thing with harmonica - and a second version which was much
closer to the final version (which was originally released in 2001 on the
compact disc re-release of The Haunted Life as an outtake), but with
slightly different lyrics and a harmonica doing the between verse solos rather
than a guitar. Pretty neat, if you're into your BOK.
Of course, the download will also include the 2006 remix/remaster
of the song as well as the original 1992 mix. If you've purchased either or both of the first two
downloads, this one's FREE! You will receive an email from me with the
link to the downloads no later than Saturday. Download either "Caroline"
or "Simple World" by Friday and you'll get "That's The Life For Me" free.
Get in on the fun. Each week you can download at least two songs, at
least
one of which has never seen official release, for just 99 cents (not including
entire albums, of course, which will be available for download periodically in
the future.)
Go to "Get Music!" for
more details.
April 6
A nice musical weekend. Spent much of Saturday recording tracks of new
Plague Dogs music which should be ready for free download within less than a
month. Next day I went out to Gary Bugg's home studio and did some very
loose, impromptu jams on old rock and folk classics like "Know You Rider", "C.C.
Rider", and "I'm Walkin'" with some buddies, including great
friends, Gary Bugg and fellow BOK alumnus, Dustin Bugg.
MacRock was in town. A nice idea, but I
wouldn't want to go there. They never did want BOK and when I used to go
see some of the wretched bands that did make the MacRock line-up...well,
it just kind of pissed me off a tad. And to pull off a great capper of a good weekend, Mary Lou and my
friend, Vicky Surface gave me her late husband, Eddie's 1963 Fender Jaguar.
It needs some substantial work, but someday it just might become my number one
axe.
April 3
For the second weekly download (available NOW!), I've posted the
early BOK smash hit, "Simple World", from the 1991 album, For The
Good Of The Cause. Along with this download you will get the previously unheard
outtake from 2002's All About You..."Simple World"! This is not a
bare bones demo, but rather a finished track that was originally recorded for
inclusion on All About You! This one's a MUST for BOK fans!
Go here to have a listen in Real Audio or
Windows Media!
March 28
As of today, I am going to begin posting previously released as well
as previously unreleased BOK/Jim Shelley-oriented songs for
purchase. I will put up tracks on a fairly
regular basis, so check back often! Each download will consist of at least
two songs (the first - "Caroline" - features
FIVE separate tracks) for just 99 cents, unless otherwise noted. If you
absolutely cannot afford to pay for a download that you really want, let me know
and I will make it available to you absolutely free. However, I hope
you'll want to support this ever-expanding website by occasionally purchasing
downloads or making a donation. Thanks! You're the best!
Another exciting feature of bookofkills.com is the newly
formed All About You page where I hope to feature BOK/Jim
Shelley-oriented material (poems, photos, paintings, drawings, BOK cover
recordings, videos, etc.) that YOU create! You make it, and I will put it
on the page. I'm really hoping that you'll take the time to make something
so that bookofkills.com becomes your website as much as mine.The first contribution is Billy Brett's cover of "One Of These Days."
I truly hope YOU will follow Billy's lead and send me something!
March 27
Boy...it all comes in spurts, doesn't it? Anotherchapter in The Ballad is up and ready for your
eyes.
By the way, I'm recording tonight with The Plague Dogs. We
should have five or six new songs ready for you to download before too long.
Check the Plague Dogs site for more information
as it comes.
March 26
Check out the
pictures of
the Buck Gooter recording sessions for Animals, which I engineered for the boys
way back on 7 July, 2007. Those were the days!
March 25
I'm going to announce something a bit new in terms of future BOK/Jim Shelley music
in a day or two on this here page o' news. It's just my own opinion, but I
think you ought to check back in said day or two and make sure that you get all
your friends to do the same 'cause...uh...just 'cause. Honest...it'll
be cool and different. Be there or be L7.
March 22
Last night was lots of fun. Big party. Loudness.
Etc.
Please don't forget that I am taking down the geocities
account in about a week. The only way to access these pages will be
through bookofkills.com! Thanks and be sure to drop by on a regular basis.
I think I might have a couple of live cuts to put up soon.
March 21
The Plague Dogs will be playing this evening (Friday) in
Harrisonburg. It's a party, but if you're interested, give me a call and
I'll give you directions. We should start playing around 10-10:30.
March 15
Okay...I've been really busy with all kinds of stuff and the web site
has had to take a back seat to it all. I do intend to FINISH The Ballad
Of Jim Shelley by April Fool's Day. That's not a promise, but I do
want to wrap it up so I can focus on other things. I don't know if
there'll be a new chapter uploaded before next week, however. Believe it
or not, I still have some further revisions to do on Chapters 57-58. Of
course, eventually I will take the whole thing through a revision/expansion.
I am still considering putting together some sort of
cd-rom focused on an expanded version of The Ballad along with some unreleased
tracks (yep...there are STILL some left) and perhaps some photographs. If
YOU have any photos of Book Of Kills/The Karl Rove/etc. from 1987 to the present
that you haven't seen on this web page and which you think I might not have, I
would be extremely interested in seeing them and would certainly be more than
happy to send a couple BOK cd's your way for your troubles.
I recently "discovered" a VHS tape of the 4.28.2001 BOK
performance at the Little Grill. I no longer have a VCR, but I will try to
borrow one soon and see what's on the tape (I don't remember the quality, how
much of the show is on the tape, etc) and then do a transfer to digital.
If there are some decent performances in reasonably good quality, I might
include a few QuickTime files on the cd-rom.
Check out the new Book Of Kills
profile on NumberOneMusic.
I have a few songs posted there. I'll change them on a semi-regular basis.
Of course, you can also go to
CDBaby and hear/buy dozens of BOK songs, can't you? And there are
still some free downloads of BOK/Karl Rove/Plague Dogs tracks on the internet
archives site.
March 6
George has scheduled three shows thus far for the spring:
March, 21 2008, at Maryland Street Madhouse
(contact us for info); Casey's Bar in Harrisonburg with Jacks
Box, April 26. (For those of you who are familiar with Harrisonburg, Casey's is
a part of the Holiday Inn next to Guitar and Amp); and with Octanian and Gander
Farm Shop, May, 3, 2008, at
VFW Post 621, 218 Veterans Lane,
Luray, Virginia.
March 1
Chapter 58
has been posted. Evidently I inadvertently uploaded it before I'd quite
finished editing it, so if you've already read it, it is slightly different from
what you read, though probably not enough to warrant reading again.
February 24
Most of the files have been transferred to godaddy.com. However, I'm
certain there are going to be many broken links. It will take a long time
for me to test everything. In the meantime, if you come across a link that
needs fixing, please email me at
bookofkils@aol.com so I can fix it! Chapter 58 is on the way.
Also, I added Different to the "sounds" page.
If you're a Plague Dogs fan, be advised that I will be transferring those pages
to godaddy.com soon as well!
February 21
I am making the transfer of files (slowly)
to Godaddy.com. If you are a regular visitor to Bookofkills.net, you
should start accessing the index page on the Godaddy.com server! The
address is: http://www.bookofkills.com/bookofkills.html
or you can simply type in "bookofkills.com".
Check out Billy Brett's cover of the 1995 St. Judas outtake, "One
Of These Days" from Buck Gooter's Billy Brett.
Pretty cool. Don't forget that Buck Gooter recently recorded a new album
with Casey Firkin at the producer helm.
As far as the cd-rom goes, what I'm envisioning is a cd featuring an expanded
(and slightly better written) version of The Ballad Of Jim Shelley along
with some unreleased photographs and some unreleased songs.
The cd would play in regular cd players but you'd be able to access a Word or
Note Pad version of the book from it as well by using your computer. This
is all pie in the sky right now, of course.
February 17
I've re-written and expanded Chapter 56. I'm still working on Chapter
57 but that one ought to be up by Monday or Tuesday. I currently foresee
at most four or five additional chapters at which point I'll start working on
the compact disc (perhaps in cd-rom form) that I hope to issue by the end of the
summer.
February 16
Two weeks since the last chapter of The Ballad Of Jim Shelley and
still no new one? Well, by the end of the weekend I'll have a new chapter
up plus chapter 56 will be significantly rewritten. Still more folks let
me know that some of the narrative and, indeed, the overall timeline in that
chapter need considerable fixing.
Coming this summer: A new cd with the entire (expanded)
Ballad Of Jim Shelleyplus some previously unseen photographs, and
six unreleased BOK songs!
February 4 You can now find the Book Of Kills index page using bookofkills.com
again. If you already have the index page saved, you will eventually have
to save it under bookofkills.com since bookofkills.net will become
inactive in a year or so.
February 2
A new chapter finds Jim Shelley
wandering through the shadows of the Valley of Death arm in arm with Karl Rove.
February 1
I have finally re-purchased the domain name BOOKOFKILLS.COM after it
was bought by one of those scummy companies that trolls the internet for domain
names that have inadvertently lapsed out of registration (I had forgotten to
renew my domain name subscription). They tried to "sell" the name back to
me for $100! I simply registered bookofkills.net, transferred everything
to that name and waited until bookofkills.com went public again a year later.
(I knew no one would buy it and that they'd let it go rather than buy it again.)
However, I have grown weary of dealing with geocities/yahoo lately due to some
reliability issues they can't seem to rectify and I will be heading to godaddy.com within the month
which means you'll most likely have to go to a different address to get to
BookOfKills.com. I'll keep bookofkills.net active for a
couple months, but eventually that domain name will lapse.
January 26
Sorry for the long gap. I've been pretty sick since Monday. I really
just started feeling (almost) normal yesterday (Friday.) I'll be tossing
up a new chapter in the next few days. In the meantime, read this little
article...you'll get a laugh about half way through...
Well, as someone pointed out, I had my history a little jumbled up in
chapter 54, so I did a pretty substantial re-write
of it and added quite a bit of information. Chapter 55 should be coming
along soon. Thanks again, for the nice things people have said to me about
The Ballad Of Jim Shelley. I have really appreciated them all. The
positive remarks have really kept me focused on getting this book done.
Here's another video clip of BOK playing "Sweet" at the same show as below.
January 8
Check out this video clip of BOK playing "Jesco White" at Alston's Pub
in Harrisonburg, VA from 2003 on youtube.com! The clip comes from the
Video Bootleg - Volume 2 released in 2003. I'll probably put up a few
more performances from that show and perhaps one or two from Video Bootleg
-Volume 1 in the coming weeks. I also have a few video tapes of Karl Rove
shows, so when I get the chance to convert them to mp4 I'll upload a few clips
of that band as well. Eventually I'll move the video clips to a separate
page. Don't forget the Plague Dogs show Wednesday night at Rocktown.
This is an 18-up show.
""
January 2
I just posted a new chapter of Ballad.
Don't forget the Plague Dogs show next Wednesday. Honestly, this is
one of those gigs that could open up things for local bands at Rocktown if we
can draw a lot of folks.
December 27
The Plague Dogs show originally scheduled for January 2 has been
re-scheduled for Wednesday (NOT Tuesday as I'd originally written here), January 9! Yeah...we didn't really want to
play on National Hangover Day anyway! Now you have another week to gather
together all your friends for the show!
December 26
Hope everyone had a great Christmas (if you celebrate it)! I
had a really good one, spending the whole day with lots of family.
A new chapter of Ballad is up. This
one takes us into 2003 and the last throes of the band's existence.
Still no new information regarding the Plague Dogs show at Rocktown,
Wednesday, January 2. Hope you can make it to see one of our rare live
gigs...and bring all your friends!
December 19
Since this is in essence the web site for all things Jim Shelley, I
will regularly update Plague Dogs news here at least for the time being until
the official Plague Dogs site is
fully operational. The big news for the day is that Rocktown Music
in Harrisonburg, VA has asked The Plague Dogs to play (tentatively) on January
2, 2008. This is sort of one of those "test" gigs that I seem to have
spent most of my musical life playing periodically, so it would be groovy to see
as many BOK/Jim Shelley/Plague Dogs fans at this show as possible. Yeah,
it's a weekday. And yeah...you're not gonna live forever, so grab life
while you got it and come out to the show. I know there've been a
few folks who were not initially happy that I joined the Plague Dogs, but let me
tell you folks...this band is as kick ass a group of fellows as I've ever been
in and we're gettin' better by the week. This IS good rock and roll.
Hope to see you at the gig!
And, by the way, we are trying to kick start a rock and roll
scene in the area. It's tough. We need bands to...well...band
together and work on CREATING shows on their own. Why not
contact me if you have a band and you'd
like to be in on the fun?
More news will be forthcoming.
December 13
No real news. I just did some much needed house cleaning
on the links page.
December 12
Part Three of The Ballad Of Jim Shelley is drawing to a close! That
means Part Four is almost here and "the end" is nigh.
Here's the latest...
December 5
Yup...you guessed it! A new chapter!
Big number 50!
Geez...how long can this go on?
December 3
My latest album (released this past summer), Different, is now
available from CDBaby.com. It will eventually also be available on iTunes,
Rhapsody, Napster and dozens of other online outlets. You can currently
download individual tracks or the entire album in the mp3 format or you can
purchase the album as a compact disc. As I noted, some time back, I will
be putting all of the albums up on CDBaby, including some with never before
released tracks.
A friend gave me the idea that I should put out a single disc with
the best of the previously unreleased material from the Adventures In
Inspired Amateurism Box Set for people who might be interested in hearing
that stuff without having to pay for seven discs. I thought that
was an interesting concept and it would allow me to add four or five, maybe
more, never-before-released tracks as well, including outtakes from
Different,I Can't Give You Anything But Love and All About You.
There are no unreleased outtakes from Wasp 51! in case you're wondering.
As usual, I'll think about it for a while. I would imagine if the album
became reality it would be released some time in the spring or early summer.
I have no plans for recording a new album in the near future. Honest.
November 24
A new chapter to The Ballad Of Jim Shelley should be up in a day or two.
It's odd to write about recent history. I've found it a little more
difficult than writing about the 'old' days.
Different will soon be available on CDBaby.
As some of you have probably discovered, most of the free downloads on
archives.org have been deleted. I am still thinking about offering a
special very limited edition version of the album but have not decided if I want
to do that or not.
Almost 40,000 songs of mine were downloaded from that site
since January 2007. That number, coupled with the 5000 plus downloads from
this web site a couple years ago, is mind-boggling to me.
November 14
I am removing many of the free downloads from the internet archive.
Sorry. I hope you got the chance to download the albums you wanted.
If you did not, many of those old records will become available at CDBaby.com in
the future.
Sad news of sorts...I sold my Tascam 788 system to Billy Brett of Buck Gooter.
I recorded E.P., Hoggett Heads, All About You, Wasp 51! and a number of
demo tracks on that machine. It served me well and I always thought it was
an easy to use and versatile piece of equipment. If you're looking for
something relatively inexpensive to record with, you can find the 788's with
great regularity on ebay going for around $2-300. Get a cd-r recorder
(probably for $100 more at most) and you'll have a complete recording studio!
Selling it was like letting a piece of my musical history go. But I'm sure
Billy and Buck Gooter will put it to good use. Too, I see myself reverting
to recording on the Tascam 488 for the near future. There's just something
about making my albums on cassette the old-fashioned analog way that I find
comforting and...well, easier. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed
recording Different on the 488.
News from Garfield is that his mom's surgery was successful.
She will undergo chemo in the near future and continues to need your thoughts
and prayers.
I am considering offering my limited recording capabilities to
local artists in the near future at a very low cost...most likely at no more
than $15 an hour. If you're interested and don't need the services of a
professional, contact me.
The Plague Dogs were scheduled to play at a get-together in Waynesboro
hosted by former BOK lead guitarist extraordinaire, Mike Chiarello, Saturday
night. However, we have learned that Garfield's mom is ill. I am not
sure if the gig is on or not, though I would imagine we will cancel it.
The more important thing right now is that you remember Garfield and his mother
in your prayers.
The Monkey Claus Sessions Plus by The Karl Rove is now available for free
download from archives.org. Go
here to
get it. If you like it, and any of the other free downloads from Book Of
Kills and/or The Plague Dogs, please leave a brief review.
October 19
As soon as you get the chance, check out Billy Brett's
(Buck Gooter) new Pod-o-matic web page. He has already posted two shows
that fans of slightly "eccentric" music will certainly enjoy. You can find
his show, "Dinosaurland", here.
I plan to post a lot of Karl Rove material (initially most if not all of the 20+
cuts off The Monkey Claus Sessions) on archives.org soon. I'll let
you know when they're up. They deserve to be heard and right now no one's
hearing them!
October 13
Jeez...almost two weeks since the last chapter. Sorry. Well, here's
the next one.
The special edition cds of DIFFERENT have all been taken.
I hope if you wanted one you got one! If you didn't get a copy but
really want one, I am contemplating some sort of shamelessly capitalistic
new version featuring three outtakes from the DIFFERENT sessions and a new
collage cover. I'm rather iffy about doing this and I'm not sure if I'd
just create one cd or several and how I'd sell it (or them). Through the
web site? Through ebay as an auction? I'll think about it.
October 4
Hey, if you've enjoyed downloading free BOK/Plague Dog songs from the
internet archive, I'd like to ask you to do me/us a
favor: When you get the chance, take a little time and write a review of
the albums you've downloaded and post them on the archive. To do so, you
simply go to the album you want to review on the archive and hit the "Write a
Review" line underneath the song download box at the lower right hand corner of
the page. To get to the BOK albums, simply type in "book of kills jim
shelley" in the search box. This will actually help spread the word to
others that there are lots and lots of free BOK songs for download available.
Thanks!
September 29
Yippee Skippee! A
new chapter of The Ballad Of Jim Shelley is here!
Photographer extraordinaire, Deanne Good, has posted a
bunch of new pictures of the last show at the Little
Grill. Check 'em out! They're great!
September 18
The Plague Dogs Free E.P. is now available on the
internet archive. PLEASE NOTE that I remixed and remastered the EP today
before posting it since I was not entirely happy with the original mix. It
has a slightly fuller, more expansive sound now. Go
here to download it in either the mp3 or flac format.
You are encouraged to make copies for as many folks as you wish!
You might also want to check out the
revised introduction to the Sounds page.
I have gotten, either through email or in person, a
number of expressions of concern that I am focusing too much attention on
doing old pre-1995 BOK numbers at the expense of the vast amount of material
I've written since then. That's a legitimate issue and in the past, as
long-time BOK fans know, I occasionally felt constrained by the rather narrow
focus of some of the groups of which I've been a part on a very small pool of
songs I wrote between 1989-1994. Keep in mind, however, that The Plague
Dogs while hardly a new group is very new in the sense that I just joined
the line-up in July and we've only been practicing as a four piece for a few
weeks! We felt it would be a logical first move to try out some songs we
were all largely familiar with at first and advance from there. We are doing "River Of Blood" and "Little Metal Toys", both
of which date back only to 2006 and we're doing them as well as they've ever
been done. The fact that people care enough to express their opinions in
an impassioned and astute manner is
gratifying. I'm having great fun in this band and George, Mike and
Garfield are as cool a group of players as I could wish for. More new
songs will certainly follow.
