Trying to hit the magic number of twenty and then taking them into the producer to decide what is going to make the cut. The tentative title is 'Partners' and I am aiming at nothing less than one of the greatest break-up albums of all time. There will be punky tunes, country-Americana tunes, a couple funky ones, a metal one or two, even a pseudo-R&B one. All delivered through the warped lens that makes MERCH what it is. There will be a full horn section and multiple cellos to boot. not to mention way more guitar than the first album. Thank my ex for the creative surge.

www.facebook.com/merchmusic

My Australian/New Zealand is now official and will be from September 1st-23rd. I'll post the dates as they come in! Don't worry, I'll be doing the U.S. again this year too.

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, it has been a hectic time as of late. I decided that since I plan on doing quite a bit of international touring later in the year, I needed to get a job to pay for all the plane tickets and what-have-you. I ended up applying at an independent musical instrument store, but they ended up bumping me up to essentially being Head Of Operations of their wholesale company down the street. It's actually really cool since it is in keeping with my ideals in that they don't supply their instruments to big-box retailers like Guitar Center, they're all about the DIY mom-and-pop establishments and their instruments are ethically made.

Of course, I had a bit of a crisis on my hands once I got offered a bigger position with more responsibility. I initially planned that I would take a little retail job and then quit when it was time to tour. Well I told them that I would need to tour throughout the year and they're cool as long as the tours aren't longer than 3 weeks at one time--which I can totally manage.

I also have a new rehearsal space in the Tenderloin, which I love and is super cheap. I'll be doing a lot of the preliminary work on album #2 there before I go in the studio with Greg Ashley. I have been listening to metal non-stop since the Scion Rock Fest in Atlanta a couple weeks ago, so we'll see how that influences how the songs end up sounding. By the way, my favorite bands of the night were 1349, Krallice, Wolves In The Throne Room, Baroness, and Mastodon. I also liked Kylesa, Torche, and Boris. I'm sure there were many others that I enjoyed, but that's who I'm thinking of right now. It probably was the best festival I've ever been to in any genre of music though.

'Crash Boom Bash' is now being sold at various record shops throughout Australia and is getting a solid amount of airplay as well. I'll put a list up of all the locations you can purchase the CD there tomorrow as well as what stations are playing it.

I was planning on driving to Stockton tonight to see Chelsea Wolfe, but the money I deposited in account hasn't cleared yet so I can't get a Zipcar.So tonight is movie night for me. I'll be watching The Burrowers (a horror film set in the Old West) and The Square (an Australian neo-noir film that just premiered at SXSW the other day).

From time to time I get requests from people wanting to know the lyrics to certain songs off the album or all of them. This always causes me to listen to the album again to figure out exactly what the hell I was saying (live I'll change the lyrics pretty regularly) at that time. So now here you are, once and for all. These are the lyrics for all the songs as they are sung on 'Crash Boom Bash'.
................

..........................

Crash Boom Bash

.. ..

.. ..

Boxcar:

.. ..

A candle that is in a can

Its glow just aggravates me

To have to hide out every night

Why did Jim speak to them again?

When they could incriminate me

To live our way you have to fight

.. ..

You're in the boxcar waiting

And there's a cop car wailing

Don't think I'll make it on this trip this time.

To be nabbed now would be too risky

We'll meet up in ....Cincinnati....

Don't think I'll make it on this trip this time

.. ..

My mind it moves so very fast

No time for human frailty

Except maybe when it comes to you

This squat has gotten fucked so fast

If it's found they're going to catch me

To make haste is all that we can do

.. ..

You're in the boxcar waiting

And there's a cop car wailing

Don't think I'll make it on this trip this time.

To be nabbed now would be too risky

We'll meet up in ....Cincinnati....

Don't think I'll make it on this trip this time

.. ..

.. ..

A Sorcerer's Lament:

.. ..

With a disciplined mind I could always conjure things that could simply destroy you

Not much more than a bit of will would be all I would need to set your kingdom crumbling

.. ..

As of late there’s been word that you have learned the dark arts that I have based

All of my work upon

.. ..

Yes, that’s when the clouds came (x2)

.. ..

Now I have the cadaver

.. ..

In the smallest body of water I have seen the fates of all that have come before you

Of those ends I could not foresee I dare say there was only one I did not banish for fear of crossing me

.. ..

Between time I could feel the air growing heavy

And my reign feeling strained in the night

.. ..

Yes, that’s when the clouds came (x2)

.. ..

Now I have the cadaver

.. ..

Short Stint:

.. ..

I’m going on a short stint as a slut

So I won’t be afraid of making love to you
To hold you in my arms is all I can do

To feel I have something to compete,--to please you

.. ..

In the mechanics of making love

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do

So I’m going to have my way with every little thing

With whom my eyes connect

.. ..

Maybe I’m a weakling

Maybe I’m obscene

Perhaps I am focusing on the wrong thing

But I can’t seem to register

I can’t seem to place

Inaction keeps me out of mind, in that way

.. ..

I’m going on a short stint as a slut

The deprived acts I’m about to commit!

The level of which will soon elevate to myth

But I’ll do what I have to do,--to please you with

.. ..

No Author:

.. ..

There's something you're not telling me

I can hear it in the snickers of the falling leaves

And I have no reason to think so

But I know, I know

.. ..

I can't trust when my head is clouded with murky water

I have a short story but I don't know the author

I guess I'll just resent this and turn my head bitter

When you come in for a kiss

There are so many things I'll miss

But I know, I know

.. ..

Long Steel Rail (traditional):

.. ..

Long steel rail and a short cross-tie

Hammer my way until I die

Never have I loved but that one little girl

Sorry I ever loved her

.. ..

You caused me to weep and you caused me to mourn

You caused me to walk away alone

You ought have been in town when that train come around

You could hear that whistle blow a hundred miles

If that junker runs right

See my friend Saturday night

We've got so many miles left to roam

.. ..

Long steel rail and a short cross-tie

Hammer my way until I die

.. ..

I'm going down that line with tears in my eyes

Trying to read a letter from my beau

If my fortune is poor I would railroad no more

But I hope to stay on the road and true

I'll pawn you my watch and I'll pawn you my chain

Pawn you my golden diamond ring

If that don't pay my good woman's fine

I'll pawn you my wagon and my team

.. ..

Long steel rail and a short cross-tie

Hammer my way until I die

.. ..

Water Balloon Bomb Song:

.. ..

I hit you from the fourth floor

In the dark obscured my wrath comes down upon you

(bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah)

It's a shame you've crossed me on this day

This time I won't abate, no I won't step back from taking you down

(bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah)

.. ..

.. ..

It's all your fault, this is all your fault

Best speak swiftly now, swiftly now because you are caught

(bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah)

This world has squeezed the love from their dawn

Now all my hope is gone

Here is my water balloon bomb song

(bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah)

.. ..

It started when they were children

They played house even then

And now those children's children

Play with toy carpe diem

.. ..

So now i find you walking

I spot you down below

I aim carefully so

Your whole suit is soaked

.. ..

I Don't Think I'll Make It Through The Summer:

.. ..

I don't think I'll make it through the summer

I don't think you'll see me in the fall

I am burnt so easily

I'm glad you seem to have found a way around it

In summer crops, like stories, grow so tall

.. ..

I don't think I'll make it through the summer

I don't think you'll see me here at all

I am not immune, you see,

To these elements that bear down on me

In summer when I swim I taste the salt

.. ..

And summer is a time, fires rage where landscapes dried

When there was once so much there alive

And summer is the time

Lips will blister and your skin will fry

From the heat of people and their lies

.. ..

I don't think I'll make it through the summer

I don't think I'll brave that golden ball

I am not immune, you see,

To these elements that bear down on me

In summer when I swim I taste the salt

.. ..

And summer is the time, ice melts and goes back to the sky

But what if that is all I had inside?

And summer is the time

Lips will blister and your skin will fry

From the heat of people and their lies

.. ..

The summer

The summer

The summer

It's murder

.. ..

.. ..

Shoop

.. ..

(shoop shoop)

When the callous climbs the overflow

That's the sort of line I love the most

When you call my name you call me out

.. ..

(shoop shoop)

Our feelings boil in the mercury

Bloody lip, black eye, bruised memories

When you call my name you call me out

.. ..

(Did you want a little, but instead you got just a little more)

Well, you know that I did

(What's a little blood, what's a few drops on a wooden floor)

But this thrill is all wrong

(Did you want a little, but instead you got just a little more)

All my pride is gone now

.. ..

(shoop shoop)

My heart is a ..Coney Island.. ride

You take a trip to and from tonight

When you call my name you call me out

.. ..

(shoop shoop)

Your hands, my neck, the wounds they've given me

I wear a burst blood vessel rosary

When you call my name you call me out

.. ..

Kindergarten:

.. ..

I am waiting in line for a good dream

Despite what you might think they can be

Rather quite hard to come by

So I'm waiting in line

.. ..

This time the arm broke like the cigarette

I carried around in my pocket

Lifted from my older brother's card-box

Too scared to light

.. ..

And they say you're as pure as the freshly driven snow

But I've seen all the muck that you pushed to the side of the road

I can't do anything right

In your eyes

I can't do anything right

.. ..

I am waiting on ice-cream and good times

That you'd walk your dog into a landslide

As deep as the issues you gave me

That I've tried to hide

.. ..

At home the switch stings like a blowfish

But that's what I've come to live with

Here it seems quite so out of place

Just like the sun

.. ..

And they say you're as pure as the freshly driven snow

But I've seen all the muck that you pushed to the side of the road

I can't do anything right

In your eyes

I can't do anything right

.. ..

What Business Of It Is Yours:

.. ..

What business of it is yours

If I want to drink myself to death

What business of it is yours

If I want to stub a cigarette

On my arm

It’s a feeling that you can't repress

It's no harm

To anyone I have not hurt yet

.. ..

.. ..

What business of it is yours

If I want to die a lonesome death

What business of it is yours

Don't try to fix what is not your mess

To be saved

Is nothing but an idle threat

You are not my private dick

I am not your screen starlet

.. ..

.. ..

.. ..

.. ..

.. ..

Here are the plans for MERCH in the coming year...

--another national tour supporting Crash Boom Bash
--the vinyl release of Crash Boom Bash
--beginning preliminary work on the next album within the next month or so,    tentatively titled 'Cape Tribulation'
--a tour of U.K., Europe, Israel, and Palestinian territories
--a tour of Japan, Australia, and New Zealand
--CMJ? We'll see, I have to send in my application still.

That's the major stuff I can think of right now.

My username is merchmusic

Here is what got me through the month of November

Books:

Lyra's Oxford--Phillip Pullman
Locke & Key (comic book)--Joe Hill, the guy that wrote Heart-Shaped Box (the horror novel)
The Northlanders (comic book)
House Of Mystery (comic book)
The Umbrella Academy (comic book)
Raw (cookbook)

Movies:

Let The Right One In: I finally got to see this a couple weeks ago and am absolutely enamored with it. You can have 'Twilight', this is the vampire film by which all others will be judged against for a long time. This and The Dark Knight were the two this year that I saw that I knew I'd see again down the line.

Zathura: After Jon Favreau had such a major success with Iron Man, I thought I'd see what was up with this film of his that came out a couple years ago. I knew it was written by the same guy who wrote Jumanji (which I hated because it seemed slapped together and caused me to suffer from an unrelenting CGI pummeling) and had a similiar feel which was enough to keep me away. Well, I heard lately that it had a sci-fi element to it and was a family movie and those are the movies I like to watch when I'm sick which has been happening a lot lately. So Jade and I watched it and I was transported to the wonder I felt watching the movies of the 80s that we all loved. I don't need to list them all I'm sure, just think about any of the movies from back then that had a fantastical element to it, a lot of heart, and good special effects. This movie was a love letter to that time down to the camerawork. You really could have told me that it came out in 1987 and I wouldn't have known the difference.

Man On Wire; A French documentary about a tightrope walker who is hella ninja. He goes up to the top of super-high landmarks, constructs a tightrope mechanism, and wows the people down at the street. His dream and obsession ends up being setting up tightrope connecting the Twin Towers during their construction. How him and his friends sneak around making it happen is pretty awesome.

TV

Supernatural: I just discovered this show and finished the first season last night. It's kind of like Scooby-Doo except with two brothers and the monsters are real.

Music:

Caina-Temporary Antennae: This has been described as 'Post-Black Metal'. I don't know what that means, but I like to think of it as The Microphones 'The Glow Pt 2' of metal. Kind of lo-fi in an artful way, really expansive, epic, and very original. It really covers a staggering amount of ground while still sounding cohesive.

Ty Segall--good lo-fi arty garage stuff that makes me want to throw everything around the room and give my parents the finger

Guns N Roses-Chinese Democracy--I don't care. I like it.

Random:

Ami Cat Vegan Cat Food--My cat Emma really likes this stuff. It's imported from Italy, I think. Everytime she takes a bite, she looks around the room like she's thinking "Hey everyone, can you believe this shit? Man, this is delicious."