Friends,

My Kickstarter campaign is 71% funded with 6 days left to reach the goal of $3500. I’m trying to raise the money to pay for the recording and production of my second full length album, Malheur. The songs that make up the album were written in the year following the death of an old friend, Raul Ugalde. Raul was one of my best friends growing up and he was also my first songwriting partner and band mate. His effect on my life, musically and personally, is immeasurable. After Raul’s death the same themes and questions kept coming up and they made their way into the songs on the album.

Malheur was recorded and mixed this month at Type Foundry Studios in Portland with Adam Selzer (Norfolk and Western, M. Ward). Adam and I worked closely together to create the sound for the record to make it a self contained album. Additional players on the album include Jay Clarke (Dolorean), Alia Farah (Alialujah Choir), and Paul Christensen (Weinland).

The $3500 I’m trying to raise will pay for the recording and production of the album, but not the total cost of putting out the record. If any money is raised over the $3500 goal it will go towards the additional costs that include the mastering and promotion of the record. I have a number of rewards you’ll receive for various levels of support. The rewards are listed on the right hand side of the page and begin with simply pre-ordering a digital download of the album. The rewards go up from there, ending with the “mbilly forever” package in which you purchase all the music and related schwag (t-shirts, stickers, et al) I have and will ever produce.

It’s very difficult to put out an album independently, because the upfront costs are so high. Your support in helping to cover those costs makes it possible for me to keep making records. It’s difficult to convey over video or in writing how much I appreciate the support that I receive, but please know that it means a lot.

That’s right, after a little break, I am back. Prepare for some posts!

I got the cool, hip iphone camera app that I’ve started seeing around much more. I can’t remember its name. The clouds were incredible on Friday so I tried to get a picture of the boys. I told them they could make any face they wanted as long as they stood next each other. Then Madee fell down.

It was really pretty and stormy that day, very springy. There was a rainbow, a perfect setting for a photo with my life partner, Frank.

I have already mentioned–and most of you already know–that I play music under then name mbilly. I started making a record two and half years ago and finally it is finished and ready to be released. I’m having a release show this coming Friday at Mississippi Studios where I will be joined by my good friends Tara Jane O’Neil and The Alialujah Choir. The Alialujah Choir is made up of Adam Shearer, Adam Selzer, and Alia Farah all of whom contributed greatly to my album, Mister Nobody Baby, as did Tara Jane who sings on a song and recorded part of it.
Eban and Amedeo contributed to the album–not only by virtue of being born–through the title which comes from Amedeo and the drawing on the cd itself which is done by Eban. If you are in town and would like to come down to the show you can buy a ticket in advance here. The album will be available online this week in digital format here (and soon on itunes). It should also be up on Cdbaby any day now.
In the meantime, you can check out some of the songs at the myspace.

Our cat Sebastian is a cold blooded killing machine.

We’ve been having our February heat wave the past week or so. It happens every year in Portland and every year we all stand around and say, “Can you believe this?” And every year March it’s rainy and drab and people talk about that warm weather we had in February, thinking that maybe spring had come early this year. And then April and May and the first couple weeks of June are very rainy as well, with occasional breaks of clear, sunny days. Portland’s weather is surprisingly consistent throughout the year and Portland’s citizen’s are surprisingly caught off guard by its patterns. I get to talk about the weather a lot in my line of work, work that is as much about talking to people and interpreting their little idiosyncrasies as it is about serving flavored water.
Derryck and Meghan invited us back in December to a time-share in Gleneden Beach that Derryck’s mom had reserved, but couldn’t use. It so happened to fall on this very weekend so we left clear blue skies and warm weather and hit the beach which had clear blue skies and warm weather. The Oregon Coast is slave to no season, so the weather we experienced in February would be amazing and appreciated in July or any other month. It was absolutely incredible.

The waves were frighteningly large very close to the shore and we were warned of “sneaker waves.” We talked to the kids about it a bunch and I eventually set up a rock to designate a “do not cross” line. About forty seconds after setting up the rock, a huge wave came up twenty five feet past the “do not cross” line and the rock was gone.

The kids were mostly obsessed with their various electronic devices and spent any time allowed with their heads bowed over illuminated screens. Meghan showed them some new iphone games and it set up a beautiful modern day Rockwell painting. Suck it Norman!

I just had the realization that the majority of people who use “I don’t have a crystal ball…” to start a sentence are total dicks.
On a totally unrelated note, we went to this waterpark a couple weeks ago when we visited my parents in Ontario(Oregon). The water park was super duper awesome. So much fun. I love water parks! For real. It made me think of this amazing photograph by Joel Sternfeld, he being probably my most favoritist of all photographers.

And since you mentioned amazing photographers and Ontario, Oregon, why not take a look at this photograph by Stephen Shore he took inside the Stampeder Motel, now sadly the Economy Inn Motel.

And if Stephen Shore is too modern and whacky for your taste, how bout ol’ Dorothea Lange. Here’s a photograph she took in the thirties when she was among many documentary photographers working for the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information. There are lots she took around Ontario and Malheur County. This is of the Malheur Butte, which is very iconic and idendifiable in the area.

That huge pipe runs from the Owyhee Reservoir which is some fifty miles away. On a side note to the last four side notes, I got to go inside the dam for a tour in high school. It was fucking nuts! The reservoir is also famous for its glory hole–not what you’re thinking–which I would categorize somewhere between fascinating and terrifying. I digress…the huge tube carries the water from the reservoir to the surrounding farm land. When it’s not flowing with water, drunk high schoolers walk around in it and spray paint their names on it.

My dad just sent me this picture he took of the boys over the weekend. I think it’s pretty awesome.

I was rocking the new Bill Callahan–aka Smog, aka (Smog)–album Somtimes I Wish I Were An Eagle at dinner tonight. Once they were done eating, the boys started jamming out hard to the second track.

The song gets somewhat rocking, but I don’t think it’s anything that would warrant the enthusiasm the boys had. I can’t imagine anyone has rocked this hard to one of ol’ Bill’s songs since the Cadillac commercial with Bob Dylan featuring the Smog song “Held” aired and tens of thousands drunken frat boys danced and high fived. I hope Bill made thousands upon thousands of dollars for that song, because the guitar riff could make it a huge fucking rock song. And what I love about him is that he kept it subdued and weird and so awesome. Knock Knock, the album that it’s from, is classic and features among the greatest cover art of all time.
Oh, just wait until I play the boys “Held.” They will destroy the place!

I asked the boys if we should set a trap for the Easter Bunny and then we could force him to take us to his stash. They didn’t really seem to believe it to be a possibility, but I said sure, why not. After I set up a bunch of plastic eggs for them to find, I staged this little bunny trap.

When they walked in I said, Check it out, I almost got him. I left a trail of cotton balls to the back door too. They looked at it briefly and at me and said, “What? No…” I said, Yeah, really look. Then Madee said, “Look, an egg!” And then they were off finding eggs. They could give two shits about anything after that.
Adam Shearer and I are talking about doing something Christmas morning where we have him tied to a chair dressed as Santa (Adam has a big beard and gets pretty rosy cheeks when he’s drinking).