Our good friends in New Grass Country Club went to play in Shreveport last weekend and got thousands of dollars worth of equipment stolen from them while they were sleeping… To show these heartless thugs that their hate is no match for our love, we’re gonna raise as much money as possible for New Grass and have a party-ass time doing it. There are 2 ways you can help:

1. Buy our “Stop The Hate” compilation with special crime fighting tracks by Sun Hotel, Caddywhompus, Vox and the Hound, Native America, and New Grass Country Club.  I had the pleasure of recording 3 of the songs on this (“Kingdom”, “Earth Chattering”, “Mom’s Origami”), and I am so happy with how it came out.

2. Come to Marleyfest on Saturday Feb 19th at the Mudlark Lounge.  It’s going to be $5 to drink and see sets by New Grass, Sun Hotel, Native America, Caddywhompus, and Habitat. Everything will start around 4:20 and probably go till everyone heads down the street for Krewe du Viewe.  We’ll also be selling these shirts to help ensure that the hate stays away.

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All the money from the compilation and the show will go straight to New Grass for replacement equipment.  Help us spread the word!

This ’70s surf documentary was much more than I expected.  A group of dudes in search of 75 degree weather and beaches all year round is a beautiful thing.  So we start thinking, what better way to celebrate these surfin bros and our southern, summer-starved home than with a projector, some bands, and massive amounts of cheap alcohol?  We bring you The Endless Summer Party:

We recently filmed a crystally HD video of a Native America set in my bedroom, and we’re gonna show a preview that over the projector as well:)

(8:30) Showing of “The Endless Summer”

(9-10) $3 Margaritaz

(10) Native America bedroom set preview

(10:15) Bow and Arrow

(11) Native America

(11:45) New Grass Country Club

(awwll night long) $2 Shark Bites, “The Hang Ten” (10 shots, $10)

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–On Da To’–

I’ve been on tour (da to’) for the past week and half with Sun Hotel and our BFFs Caddywhompus. I think we’ve all become much simpler animals; all of our collective energy goes into the search for burritos, floors to sleep on, and a steady lack of sobriety. This video from our day in Jacksonville serves as a further explanation.

You could go to sunhotelsounds.com for more videos and blogs from everyday of da to’.

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–Chris Shark America w/ Netherfriends–

We’ll be back on Sunday and it’s time to chill hard. In this case, chill hard means play some music at The Saint with a rad ambient pop band from chicago called Netherfriends. Chris Shark America (the combined solo music of Chris Rehm, Tyler Scurlock and I) will be playing our second show evaz on this wonderful homecoming occasion.

It might sound a bit like this ^^^ but with a few of our songs sprinkled on top.  This track, our first release, was recorded during a jambient chill sesh with a bunch of friends at our house one night.  If you like it, come kick it on monday!

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Show is at The Saint on Mon Jan 10. $5 cover.

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John took this awesome picture a couple nights ago on his iphone during our 2:30 am search for eats.  I’d say it’s a perfect summary of this Christmas break– maybe even 2010 in general?

Sun Hotel and New Grass recorded some merry jamz this week, and any who can make it tonight will get a Christmas card with this ^ picture and these 3 tracks.  I got to mix them and I’m so down with how they turned out

And check out this video devin made of the recording session !  Sometimes I think he’s too honest… I promise we’re only jackasses most of the time.

Last week my friend Josh Baker asked if I wanted to record for his Studio Techniques final project.  I really wanted to do a full-band version of a song, but it didn’t quite work out.  Instead I ended up doing part of a new song that I’ve been stuck on for sooo long now.  It’s just guitar, drums, and vocals, but I think it turned out pretty rad:)

When I released the remastered Dancing About Architecture on Park The Van records last month, I decided to give an additional 3 new tracks to everyone who came out for the release party.  Now the remastered record and the new tracks are available to anyone for $3.99 : >

I also made this colorful letter to try and explain how much you rool for finding the download page

Click the picture to go to the download page

If you’re curious where the 3 extra songs came from, they were actually all recorded randomly during this summer and the beginning of the school year.

1. The first one, called “Christ Alrighty”, was recorded in the Loyola’s Vital Sounds studio by my friend Josh Baker.  Tyler (sun hotel-er/my dawg) is playing banjo and singing some rad harmonies on that one too.

2. “Earth Chattering (we should do this again sometime)” is a song that I freaked out and spent half the summer making.  It’s covered in strange background noises from the strange places I went to record. notably: a balcony by the street, the top of a light tower by the mississppi river, and my parent huge tile bathroom.

3. “Les Schtroumpfs Noirs” is me and my dude Kyle Hines (live band guitarist) chillin at his house with lots of strange amps and pedals and a melodica.

hope you enjoy:)

BandPage is an free app by RootMusic that is unbelievably easy to use.  It’s got a neatly laid out place for streaming and download-able music, photos, videos, shows, and feeds for wall posts, the twitter machine, and this blog.  It all fits into one tab at the top of the page!  I’m probably a little over excited after spending so much time with terrible programs, but this is definitely cool and you should check it out.

ps. i <3 alex hertz and his knowledge of hip new web toolz

Click the art to downloada .zip of Microcastle

I went to the House of Blues this past Monday to see Deerhunter, and was completely shattered.  I had become pretty familiar with the band’s 3rd album Microcastle and a few songs off the new one Halcyon Digest, but there was really no way I could have expected or prepared for what went down.  They seemed so honest and real, almost uncomfortably so.  There were these part in the show where they would take a fairly simple chord progression or melody or chuggy rhythm and repeat over and over, while slowly building a blurry wall of sound behind it.  It seemed to go on so long that I would start to feel really anxious or almost nervous, but when I would look at them they gave off this super determined yet comforting vibe.  Talking about it afterwards I’ve had a pretty hard time describing how I feel.  It was an definitely amazing show though, and I can not get them out of my head or speakers.

This is a song off Halcyon Digest that I don’t think I’ve stopped singing since I heard it a couple weeks ago.  I wasn’t sure how or if they would reproduce all the interesting textures and sound layers at a live show, but they really did an awesome job of it:)