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