When Matt left Postman Syndrome and Day Without Dawn formed I obviously wanted to still make music with him, because the dude is the bomb. I had also been wanting to try to write music in a very different style, by writing the vocals along with the music, and even choosing chords around melody lines.

So in 2006 Matt and I formed a very short lived project that was going to be called Biclops actually, but since we only got together three times I didn't want to waste such a good band name, and I posthumously wound up calling the "band" Hanna Barbarian. It turns out there's a band or two with this name, who I'll avoid listening to so that I can pretend I'm the only one with good ideas (much like how I pretend that no one else came up with the idea of calling their band, character, or scientific apparatus Biclops).

For years I've been wanting to go back and finish these songs, especially Lasso which was basically done, but I've had more stuff on my plate. Oh well. Maybe one day if one of our main bands ever slows down.

It was fun though, just writing for the studio and not worrying about a preconceived idea of what our sound should be. I suppose the project was more my thing and I roped Matt into it. I was in a Ween and Beach Boys phase and I wanted to do quirky pop like that, but mixed with some of the, uh, post-prog, sure why not, that we usually play. I think it had potential. I enjoyed writing lyrics that were simultaneously stupid and bleak.

Lasso
Snowman

On Lasso I played drums, guitar, and sang the parts that, well if you remember that Matt can sing well it's obvious which parts I'm singing on (fortunately I've gotten at least a little better since 2006). Matt played guitar, and sang well.

Snowman is much less completed. The guitars were also recorded like ass. Still, I love Matt's backing harmonies. I can't believe he agreed to sing those lyrics. His guitar is on the left and mine is on the right. Pretend rocking drums and bass come in with the second riff and that the song doesn't end lamely like drunk sex after a fifth of jack.

-Chris

-Chris

Sorry, no update for the moment. Had a stomach virus. We don't have rehearsal tomorrow night so providing I feel better I should have time to put something together tomorrow. May I suggest biding your time until then by shaking in a corner nervously and ranting of the end of days?

-Chris

Sorry for the late update, but I think this one turned out pretty well. It tells the story of our tourmates and buddies, A Fucking Elephant, and their brief foray into a power-trio lineup.

That's it, nothing else to tell this week. Until the next, then.

-Chris

Sorry for the delay. Late rehearsal and I realized I needed a few more scenes from later in the tour, so I had to dump the rest of the footage (we filmed almost 6 hours of footage, and I have to watch it as it dumps to take notes on which are the good, er, less bad sections). But now everything's on my hard drive. Huzah.

But enough excuses. A short, stupid video and the rest of the update will be online late Wednesday night.

Sorry about missing an update last week. We try to rigidly adhere to the schedule but sometimes we just can't get the content ready in time. I dumped a bunch of footage though so we should be good for a while.

This footage is from the winter, when we first picked up our new camera. We were digging through the options when we found a feature called "scene mode." Our minds raced with the possibility of what this miraculous feature would do.

In less stupid news, we starting writing our first post-recording new song. A couple riffs in and it sounds pretty good so far. Since we're still in the process of finding a home for our current record I suppose we'll just get a head start on writing the next one.

-Chris

p.s. Today is the ten-year anniversary of the Dreamcast. Pour one out for your dead plastic homeboy.