EMHU record is done // RXR @ HoC

There is a new EMHU record and the tracking for it is done. its called "No Man is an Island" and its 13 tracks about 45 minutes long, I believe. Should be mixing it down Friday, so stoked! also check it out, RXR played a sweet show at House of Commons in May. Thx to Sean Padilla for taking video, here is the bands playing the show: RXR: Each Other (Montreal): Milezo & The Noize:

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2009 Wrap-up

In hindsight 2009 was a very long year.

Last New Year's Eve seems like ages ago. I played in the First Night parade for the first show of the Minor Mishap Marching Band. I really wanted to play Fela Kuti songs though and they didn't want to stray from the Klezbah stuff, so we parted ways. After that parade we rung in the New Year at the 360 overlook then made my way to the Space Cave (RIP) for a freakish dance party.



The X-Rays were really picking up steam early in the year, culminating in 6 or 7 SXSW shows. Found this video posted on the youtubes by some guy named SpikedPunchEddy.



Can't forget about the Toughen Up 2k9 Tour with Spiked Punch. Look, I had a beard!



And oh yeah, I produced a hip-hop record. The follow-up is on the way shortly, but I wouldn't expect a show anytime soon. I was initially trying to sell the physical copies of this but I've give up so if you want one let me know, they're free as a bird.

Diamond Minds - Cavalier


There were some epic DJ nights here and there. Halloween on the Lamar Bridge and the afterparty and the super-secret Dobie Theatre blow-out are the two highlights to me. Airport Bar was also up there, so much fun while it lasted. There was one great night at Back Alley Social. The Shapes/Valentine/Schwausch b-day bash was also sweet. Shout-outs to Birds Barbershop for letting me hang out and drink lonestars every week, as well as Ranch 616 for feeding me so well and letting me wear out my disco-edits.

Live at Birds Mix


Oh, and let's not forget that this meager blog is now almost at 600 posts, even if the last 10 or so have been UT sport-related. Here's to another great year of Casavista blogosphere domination.

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Proposed Cover Song

Hey Reverse X Rays.
Cover this.
It probably has the most psychadelic and percussive potential of any Sam Cooke song however I welcome challenges to that statement.

Sam Cooke - (Ain't That) Good News

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Tour Kickoff!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111

Whoaaaa so we had a parttay last night. I think it went rather well, with the exception of the door to our bathroom getting kicked in and completely fucked. Hey, take it out of our deposit. It was a black light party and the basement was tricked out blacklight style, courtesy one mr david salines, who i found passed out on my floor at 4 in the morning after returning from some appartment complex crashing swimming (across Red River from the HEB...nice pool, id never been there before). There was an empty couch available. Signs of a good party, I guess.

Anyways, we are about to embark on our great adventure. 4 weeks! It seems like a really long time. Like, this whole idea is almost silly, but I guess we will see how silly it is after we get back. I just can't even imagine all the adventuring that is going to go down, but I guess if you have to give us credit for one thing, its that we usually live to tell the tale. Plus Party Chris (henceforth WYLD Chris, as opposed to Regular Chris, which is Chris Reed) gave us all necklaces and WYLDPRTY Tshirts. I was there, so i got first pick, and grabbed the necklace with the turtle to protect from bad vibes. I think they all have personalities. The turtle one is protection. Its my spirit animal now. I also got the shirt with the glow in the dark.

REVERSE X-RAYS TOUR KICKOFF @ RANCHO RELAXO, AUSTIN TEXAS
8.1.08
Who Played The Show:
Reverse X-Rays -- probably our best show ever
Plutonium Farmers -- these guys are killed it. Jonathan asked at one point "are we too loud?" The answer was no. You guys are loud as fuck, but no, you are not too loud. you are rocking out.
Operation Playmate -- Erich Ragsdale and Eric Archer ...was this IDM? It was badass.
Ethan Master of the Hawaiian Ukulele -- That dudes an asshole! No, I'm just kidding
Little Mystery Trail -- Christine Aprile solo jammer. badass.

NOTABLE HAPPENINGS: BROKEN DOOR, POST-SHOW SWIMMING, BLACK LIGHTS, OTHER STUFF

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Roctakon Dream

So last night after the Reverse X Rays tour kickoff and apartment pool after-party, I had a funny little dream about DJ Roctakon. He's from New York City and has been around for awhile, I've never seen him play but his Baltimore remixes on the first Money Lotion record from Turntablelab were a staple of my 2k6/7 DJ sets.

The dude is somewhat notorious in the DJ blogging world for being an asshole. He disses people specifically in blogs (Theo Parrish), makes a lot of comments about things he hates about younger DJs on the Low Budget Board , and isn't ashamed to play top 40 trash for the big dollars. He also likes to make a point of how he makes more money than any DJ who wants to argue with him on the internet.

So, in dream world, I find out he is hosting a party at his house. He lives in New York City, Chinatown from what I've gathered from the blogosphere, but that doesn't really deter me. I end up going to this house party and suddenly all of my friends want to go as well, we're crashing Roctakon's party.

So myself and party crashing company enter the house and suddenly I'm piss drunk, stumbling here and there, and I knock over a lamp. I'm like a drunken sailor, Johnny Depping by way of Keith Richarding my way through this party of people wearing really trendy hats whose blogs I've probably downloaded disco songs from.

Luckily no one seemed to notice that I was floating like a sailboat around this house uninvited. I manage to leave, drive drunk, and get pulled over by two police officers. They come in from my left and right, getting closer and closer to my car and so that i have to slow down and they block my path in a V formation. And then I woke up. I usually wake up in situations like that. Except a few nights ago when I killed a police officer instead of waking up. I'm hard sometimes.

Here's the "promo video" for Roctakon's new mix, which has been posted on about every blog I read.


roctakon promo from Woods on Vimeo.

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SXSW Day Show Thursday

Lots of good bands. A few crossovers from the Rancho shows (Fiction, Reverse X Rays) and some other great Austin acts as well as a few out of towners. Come say hello.


o t i s


J.CHU
myspace.com/hellowhereisjchu

Canopy
myspace.com/ccanopyy

The Shakem Ups
myspace.com/shakeemups

Fiction
myspace.com/cantrememberthewords

Reverse X Rays
myspace.com/reversexrays

Mittens on Strings (Chicago)
myspace.com/mittensonstrings

Hearts of Darknesses (NYC)
myspace.com/heartsofdarknesses

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Secret Belaire Show // TOTAL EXISTENTIAL FREAKOUT // Tour Announcement

Sometimes going ahead and grabbing a 12 pack of High Life at 12:45 when you are already mostly wasted is a good idea. I'll let history be the judge of whether or not it was last night, but actually I won't, cause fuck it!

Last night was the first Belaire show since I am guessing the CD release show with Yellow Fever. It was held at Josh Duke's old house, which I believe is the currently the house of the new drummer for Belaire, whose name I don't know yet. The scene was a veritable who's who--which is to say basically everyone in every band in Austin was there. Mad props to Justin Cox from the Austinist for his late night supply of beer (dude stashed 36 brews in the car!!! whoa! and they were all cold!!) Never let it be said that that guy doesn't know how to party, cause that would just be false. I was in a great mood, which I explained in conversation form to about 7 different groups of people, mainly on account of 1) the sandals I was wearing (first time this year) and 2) the fact that I can as of recently bike almost anywhere without being worn out at the end of my journey. Yeah, I totally explained that to like 7 groups of people.

The band sounded great. Not to toot the horn of my friend Christine (Christa's replacement who totally and eerily looks like her), but girls got some mad rock star powers/sassiness. You just like to see that. It was totally fun and the band was tight like "whaa? aint this yalls first time playing together?" Reverse X-Rays have played like 15 shows, and we are still not 1/3rd as tight as those guys.

so onto later in my evening....I biked up with Shane and Tim (aka Timmy Baltimore, aka Geronimo Dynamite aka Julio "The Killer" Vasquez) to Trillopolis (aka 46th and Duval...this is from 3rd and Atayak...luckily it was FUCKING 68 DEGREES OUTSIDE! AUSTIN TEXAS IN THE SPRING TIME BABY!!) and Tim proceeded to totally freak me out. I was sort of jawing with Shane and him on the bike up about basically trying to figure out what it means to try and be an artist and going for the gold, and Tim (dudes got an art degree) really broke it way down on so many levels so hard that I got this tight knot in my stomach and eventually had to tell him to stop. This was like an hour later. He described what I was experiencing as existential dread and apparently I'm supposed to embrace it and be fearless. Workin' on it! It was related to so many things like:

How am i supposed to figure out what to do next? (I forget Tim's answer)
Should I try and predict how my future self will think and match my current actions with those future thoughts? (Tim's answer: "its like when you look out the back of a boat and see a wake. The wake is only behind the boat, but its not pushing the boat." or something like that.)
Is it pointless to want an audience, and does a person need a reason to want an audience, or is it pure vanity? (Tim had an answer, but i forgot that one, too)
Did Basquiat really know what he was doing in regards to understanding and applying abstract expressionism at the tender age of 20, and how the fuck did he figure that out? Also, if he was elevated to his historical status randomly, doesn't that to some extent negate his artwork? (I think we ended up at an impasse on this one, or the conversation changed or something)
Do you think I should change my album title? (for the forthcoming Ethan Master of the Hawaiian Ukulele record. The working title is "So Real". Tim said I should change it, that it was over obvious, reactionary, and a cheap laugh, but I think I am going to keep it, despite the fact that we came up with a couple decent alternate titles)

So that was my TOTAL EXISTENTIAL FREAKOUT. It was hardcore. The other thing I thought I would mention is Reverse X-Rays are going to try and go on tour this summer! The tour is going to end up being between 4 and 5 weeks and when we get back from the road we are going to be total fucking beasts. At least that is the plan. I want to write out all the cities we were like "yeah! lets go there! and then on day 32 well cut back down to New Orleans, and then..." but I have it on a different computer. Anyways, I'm sure booking this tour is going to end up being somewhat of a group effort (if you're in a touring band and reading this, expect at some point a myspace message asking if you have any leads on venues/bands to play with).

so yeah, thats it for now, but pretty epic shit is going down.

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