Dando Takes Manhattan

Hi.
Guess what? Dando and I have been a little bored in Matt Mcguire's absence, so we started another band to fill our time...and so we'd have an excuse to load our gear in and out of places. We both love doing that.

Lineup is as follows:
Dan: Bass
I: Guitar
Dalton K (Big Sex/Gods on Safari): Guitar
Kevin O (Youg Loves/Black Fortys): Drums

Anyhow, our first show is on December 10 at the Skihouse with Himalayas and our old pals Icarus Himself (Madison, WI). We'll open the show and then let everyone get down to business.

Godspeed,
David

the floor is moving, please believe me.

Here's a video of us playing "Burned to the Treeline" at Gatsby's in Carbondale, IL at the end of summer. The Nightlife crew filmed the sucka. Looks like things may have been a bit hazy up there. Anyhow, this will have to tide you over for a bit as Matt McG's sojourn in Idaho is still in full swing. Rest assured though, we've put the kettle on and we'll let you know when the tea's ready.




-Secondary Modern

firstpersonsingular

Heeeeyyy!

*Thanks to everyone who came out to the Rachael's Cafe show in Bloomington, IN. A good time was had by all and we (with the help of the lovely Simon Moore) finally found a group of women brave enough to wear a black top with blue jeans!

*Also, thanks to those who came to the Carbondale show at PK's. Alpha Villain and the Black Fortys hit the spot and pulled us all out of a shitty mood just in time for our set. Highlights:
+So many birthdays.
+John Lennon wrote words I can't always remember.
+I wrote words I can't always remember.
+Mark Bailie shakes head and flips us off while many others yell for one more song.

*Two shows coming up:
+ Friday, 10/15 @ Subterranean in Chicago, IL. (we are headlining!)
+ Saturday, 10/16 @ Project Lodge in Madison, WI. w/ Icarus Himself and El Valiente.

Yours in geometry,
Secondary Modern

Buy me a flute and a gun that shoots...

Hi there,

If you happened to have checked out our east coast tour dates recently, you may have noticed that they are scattered and messy. It gives me no pleasure to announce that, as a result, we are canceling the majority of that tour. I'm not usually one for looking on the bright side, however, I am excited about the remnants of this disaster:

Oct. 1 -- Bloomington, IN. @ Rachael's Cafe
Oct. 2 -- Carbondale, IL. @ PK's
Oct. 15 -- Chicago, IL. @ Subterranean
Oct. 16 -- Madison, WI. @ Project Lodge

you ain't goin nowhere,
David

CD RELEASE SHOWS!

The record is done. After we print these suckas I never want to think about it again (well, maybe a little bit) Thanks to Mike Bridavsky for a great Mastering job. Pre-emptive thanks to Jared Davey for printing. Thanks to these two high-socked-leather-clad ladies (above) for standing next to that tree on our flyer...hey, check out that flyer (still above) and go to those shows if you can. The John Brown's show will include a horn section and maybe a few other surprises. It will also be free. 8:30pm. The Gatsby's show will be with our Indianapolis friends Amo Joy and local vigilantes Freedom Ride. $3. 10pm.

That's the news from Lake Woebegone,
DB

So...we weren't joking.

Our record is done, or rather, we're done with our record. I'll be dropping discs in the mail so a postal employee can deliver it to Mike Bridavsky--of Russian Recording--for mastering. We think it sounds good (though ask us in a year and we'll slander it to no end) and we can't wait for you to hear it. The cover will be a very strange drawing by our own Matt Mcguire (come on moneybags, I don't have a scanner...instead just check out this picture of me almost falling into the Hudson River).
The record is called Vaudeville Ghosts. We recorded it at Matt Slinkard's Van Buren House. He helped engineer some basic tracks and gave us advice and let us invade his house and gave us his food and beer and smokes. Thanks to Teaya as well for putting up with our shit (and consistently making me awesome sandwiches, unprompted).
Though we've been playing a lot of this material live for the past year, some of the tracks haven't been road tested (and some probably never will be). Other songs we play live were left out. Anyhow, here's the track listing:

Vaudeville Ghosts
1. Echoes Called My Bluff
2. He's Got the City
3. Burned to the Treeline
4. 127th
5. Thin and Anemic
6. Soundly Planned
7. Magnolia
8. Sally Engleman
9. Movements and Dances
10. Massive Russian Ballets
11. Terrible Things

Go to our myspace page to hear a couple unmastered crapppy mixes if you'd like. And then come to see us at the Swamp (Carbondale) tonight. Our set is around midnight, but you should show up early for the others (Himalayas, Big Sex, etc).

ALSO, take a look at our tour dates while your on the ol' myspace. Notice the "TBA" dates. Help us out if you can.

Over,
David

Sir, that dog matches your hat!

Three things:

1. (less rambley thing) We are playing at Lost Cross in Carbondale on Wednesday, May 26. In five years of playing music in this town we have somehow never played there. We'll christen this ship with The Slow Death from Minneapolis. 10pm.

2. (middle thing) We're booking an east coast / midwest tour for fall. If you wanna help email secondarymodern [at] hotmail [dot] com and I will send you the tentative route.

3. (let loose and ramble) Our new record, you know the one--the one that we've been working on for almost a year now--that'll be done by the end of June. And mark my words: no new taxes. We have a couple of the catchier tracks on our myspace page and one creepy downer in a previous post on this page. We just finished a tune of Danny's yesterday. While I recorded his vocals I realized for the first time that his lyrics scare the shit out of me. Two hours making a wall of sound/organ/noise/bowed upright bass through a crap distortion pedal. One hour of editing that so it makes sense. one more hour of debating with myself about whether or not this is appropriate for a pop song.

We've decided everything is appropriate. Stay tuned.
-David

"I think maybe sorcerers just get a bad rap."

This is news? Now I feel better about the quality of this blog. Aside from this slightly extraneous post. So then, here's an unmastered mix of a new song...

Movements and Dances by secondarymodern

I've met you...uh huh...on multiple occasions

I'm going to try to keep this short, but it's probably not going to happen. Regardless, here is a light/lite reminiscing of the past week and a half we spent on tour:
Bloomington, IN - Played with Kentucky Nightmare and My Pal Dragon (Matt from Thunder Power) in a pizza shop. Loud, Loud, Loud. Matt recorded the whole night. I know you're wondering...yes, it should be on his Lo-Fi Audio Blog soon. Went to the Video Saloon for after hours shenanigans that would prove to be a recurring theme over the next week. We were cooked breakfast and sent on our way by Simon moore & co. Short pants...damn.
Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen, ahoy! Great show and a noteworthy chicken sandwich. Lots of old friends were present. Apparently we have quite the draw among the Chicago Greenpeace office too. Stayed with Rachel whose hospitality blinded us. Desmond (who is a dog) was in danger of being taken on tour...
Madison, WI - Icarus Himself is one of the best bands we've ever played with. Period. Got to hear the new ep. Played at Mickey's, made new friends (Liz, Ellie, lots of really cool cab drivers...that's not a joke). Cookouts! Oh, God, homemade sweet potato fries! Went back to Mickey's on our day off. Each of us played something at open mic. Matt's Pavement cover made people sing.

[day off] only worth mentioning here because we saw Hot Tub Time Machine. Actually very funny. Or I'm a child.

Ames, IA - Good show at Ames Progressive (Nate!), singing in the dark, playing honky-tonk pianer. More shenanigans. Randy Newman.
Omaha, NE - Played to 3 underage people at Barley Street Tavern. Still had fun. Met Kyle from It's True and stayed at the Thunder Power house.
Lawrence, KS - People in Kansas drink a lot. They also go to our show and clap. 8th Street Taproom with Mouthbreathers and Jabberjosh. Afterhours at Replay Lounge and Beatles singalong with Zach Campbell until 6am.
Warrensburg, MO - This day was haunted by a collective haaaaaaangover in the Secondary Modern camp. I know my grandmother is reading this...and I'm sorry. Good show in a very small town. Bought a Pere Ubu record (in a very small town?!)

Now I'm going to drink some coffee,
David

Sabertooth Tanner

I wanna thank everyone (and there were a lot of you) who ignored the design of the human body and came to the MWMF aftershow at the Swamp. Carbondale may be the only place I can think of where a show that starts at 3am sounds like a great idea to that many people.
I hope everyone was able to rest up and catch the Himalayas set the next night at the IMC. Each time I see them they renew my faith in music. Go pick up their new record (Yeti Slang) right now.
As you might know (because if you're reading this there is a good chance you are my mother or father), we're going on a midwest tour in a couple of weeks. We'll make an attempt to update this here blog while we're out...incoherent babbling is a certainty. Check out the dates in the post below, or go here. Also, check out this cool flyer for the Beat Kitchen show...I wonder what king of candy that is. In the meantime, more recording, obsessing, coffee and tea.

-David

Maybe I'll sleep at a Holiday Inn...

Lets kick this one off with some gloomy news so it can get better: Alex Chilton died. Days before a Big Star reunion at SXSW. Go pick up a copy of Third and take a listen. You'll see why it's worth mentioning here.

Moving on, we have a lot of Secondary Modern-related news. Lots of shows, including one tonight at PK's with pals from Madison, WI Icarus Himself and Carbondale boys Moonbuggy Kids.

We also have a decent amount of outatownish shows coming up:

Mar 18 2010 10:00P	PK’s w/ Icarus Himself and Moonbuggy Kids	Carbondale, Illinois
Mar 26 2010 9:00P	The Swamp w/ Aktar Aktar (chicago)	Carbondale, Illinois
Apr 8 2010 8:00P	Greek’s Pizzaria w/ Kentucky Nightmare, My Pal Dragon	Bloomington, Indiana
Apr 9 2010 9:00P	Beat Kitchen w/ Unique Chique, House of Normandie, Hospital Garden (cd release)	Chicago, Illinois
Apr 10 2010 10:30P	Mickey’s Tavern w/ Icarus Himself	Madison, Wisconsin
Apr 13 2010 8:00P	Ames Progressive	Ames, Iowa
Apr 14 2010 9:00P	Barley Street Tavern w/ Sun Settings, Ryne Doughty	Omaha, Nebraska
Apr 15 2010 10:00P	8th Street Taproom w/ Mouth Breathers and Jabberjosh	Lawrence, Kansas
Apr 16 2010 10:00P	400 Club	Warrensburg, Missouri
Apr 23 2010 8:30P	John Brown’s on the Square	Marion, Illinois
May 8 2010 12:00P	Sweet Spring Classic	Carbondale, Illinois

To top it all off, we have a couple rough mixes from the upcoming record, Vaudeville Ghosts, on our myspace page. That's Kevin Ohlau on the Saxamaphone on "Sally Engleman."

and the hits just keep coming,
David

Vaudeville Ghosts / Chicago

The recording of our new record has started again. An unexplainable lag / hiatus in making the record, which was actually started late last summer, seems to have done no harm. The next logical sentence in this paragraph is "the record will be finished by..." Sorry. Not this time. It's done when it's done. We've rushed every record we've ever made (we also rushed this really weird promo picture that even a student paper wouldn't print).


In other news, we'll be rushing to Chicago this Friday (February 19) to play a free show with Tin Tin Can and Legs Like Straw at Quenchers Saloon [fullerton and western]. 10pm.

Tune in next week. Same Bat time, Same Bat channel.

-secondary modern

praying to the light machine

We have some shows coming up which you might want to attend. Oh man...okay...we'll tell you about them.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29 <> 8pm john brown's on the square [in marion, il.] w/ young loves
we'll be playing a lot of new material and young loves will play in the infamous 5-man-revolving-door lineup that the kids today love so much.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4 <> 9pm
the bishop [bloomington, in.] w/ kentucky nightmare
the first of three days with simon, tyler, and bernard.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5 <> 8pm lemp neighborhood arts center [st. louis, mo.] w/ kentucky nightmare

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6 <> 5ish pm plaza records pizza party [carbondale, il.]
secondary modern vs. kentucky nightmare
no, that's not a joke. we're throwing a pizza party at our favorite record store with our favorite out of towners. show up 'round 5. buy some records. shoot the shit. eat some pizza. show around 6. what is a versus set? they play two songs, we react with two songs, to which they react with two songs, and the battle goes until it's done.

i think that's the new for a bit. not a revelation, but it'll do.

20 gun salute,
david

the laughs come hard in auld lang syne

For lack of any real news, these are a couple of things that are worth your time:

[Beach Boys] SMiLE
haunting american pop music. every version is different. and worth it.

[Mozart] Piano Concerto No 21 in C Major - II. Andente
no words for this. no words in the piece either.

Grant Morrison is better than Jim Morrison
...as promised, comic nerdery in hyperlink form.

-DB