Woke up this morning and had french press coffee. I'm not sure I taste the difference so much but it was still good. I'm half certain it's the process of making it that people dig, reminds me of drinking some in Luke's room a few years ago. He made us Ramen noodles and we probably had some conversation about something. I started thinking about music and art. Morning time is a good time to do that, I think. I'm excited to see what will happen soon. Musically, Erik and I are releasing a vinyl soon and writing new tunes. Also, I'm starting something new with Joey called Moses and the Ten Commandments. And on top of that, like a cheery on a milk and cookies hand-dipped milkshake, I'm piddling with solo things. I'm not sure what it's like quite yet. I "wrote" two songs yesterday, one that was a total chill-out love song and another that is like a dirty Tom Petty song. I'm excited to see what will come of my music and art in the winter months ahead, where I envision myself staying indoors (Bloomington is really cold now) and recording things on the four track.

So, lately, I've been listening to a lot of Ecstatic Sunshine/Ponytail/Dustin Wong. I'm really excited about how this music uses guitars and effects in a natural, flowy way that doesn't seem to processed. The sounds are really beautiful and powerful, while not seeming too compressed or anything. I've been thinking a lot about pedals and guitar things the past few weeks, pondering noises and cont

emplating what I think pedals should do. Here's a video I've been watching:

I've become partially obsessed with this Miracle Fortress cover of John Cale's "Hanky Panky Nohow". Sometimes the melodies in songs of this sort really get me emotional and stirs up all kinds of things. It's really good. Here's the link to download the "Maybe Lately" 7" (which is out of press, I think): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RXNV6ZHV

(Thanks to cool Steve for the upload)

In addition to the Dustin Wong thing, David told me about some new Ponytail stuff floating around on the internet, so I investigated and found some sweet audio from their set at Primavera. It's really cool, especially the new songs that have an emotional and melodic quality maybe not found in "Ice Cream Spiritual" or anything before that.

Below is a sweet video from that performance of what I think is a new song. It seems so fitting that they are playing surrounded by palm trees and such. Cool, awesome, check it out:

Oh, and here's the link if you want to listen to the whole thing: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/31819

I just finished the last of the french press and that shit was good.