Hey folks!
Just wanted to you all know that Shinobu has some surprises in the works for the new year. Possibly a show this week, possibly a b-sides album, possibly a new record???

Keep your eyes open for more news here.

Love,
Bob

So I meant to put this up with the album itself on the Quote Unquote site but ended up forgetting. But a few people have asked who Howard Melworm is, and I think one or two also said "hey, you should be self-indulgent and post a track by track explanation of the album" (no one said this). So here it is: a track by track explication of the album that critics have called "Shinobu's latest album" (Punknews) and "all that business" (Music for Robots)!

-mike!

..Introduction..

Matt is a very good trombone player, and I've been trying to get people to not think of us as a punk band, because then they just end up thinking that we're not a very good punk band since we don't sound like Dillinger Four. So I really wanted an unaccompanied trombone track to open the album. And I think its good.

..Teachers Get Tired..

I am an incredible wimp, but sometimes I watch The Street Fighter (Sonny Chiba) and swear to God that I was meant for a life of violence and action. This is sort of about the frustrations of living a highly stable and normal life when what you really want to do is throw people out windows.

..Cetacean History..

At the time of writing this I was dead sure that love was entirely impossible. Not sure if I still think that exactly, but I still remember the feeling. Also, I was obsessed with the idea of "healing," in a medical sense, and was really concerned about the pretty common notion that love is the "cure" for "what ails ya." That kind of blanket statement isn't always true, and it can lead to some clear pathologies if everyone just assumes it to be true. Also I was reading Moby Dick.

..Bob's Song..

Coming straight out of my "there's no such thing as love" whining, Bob's super sincere song about the love between a boy and his cat (or a man and a fine cigar) makes me feel a little maudlin.

..Chase and Sanborn..

This was inspired by a thought experiment about experience, but ended up being about friends going separate ways. Chase and Sanborn are two coffee tasters who work for Maxwell House and are buddies, until they, for different qualitative reasons, can no longer be friends. There are lots of nerdy references in this song that I would feel like an asshole explaining.

..Howard Melworm..

I had received my own first few rejection letters around this time and then a letter addressed to Howard Melworm accidentally ended up at our practice space. So he became a heroic but misunderstood would-be author in my mind. Later, John from Calling All Monsters sent me an article which quoted the real Howard Melworm, who I guess is some guy in San Jose. Also, somehow there's a box addressed to Leland Palmer (the dad from Twin Peaks) in our practice space. What's going on with the US Postal System?!

..Colonial Kissing Booth..

For a long time I walked around Santa Cruz with a notepad in my pocket and would write down snippets of words and ideas that came to me. "Colonial Kissing Booth"--somehow--was one of those things. Reading is from 'The Whirlpool' by George Gissing.

..Montel..

Once, in Cereal City, USA, we met a man who was almost named Montel and who exclaimed, apropos of nothing, "Man, sometimes I wish I was little!"

..Jeff Rosy..

A very fond memory I have is meeting up with Jeff, Neal, and Chris Candy on the Shinobu/Pteradon tour and playing Jeff's recently purchased Wii together at Chris' house. Later on that same tour we saw the extended Bomb crew on their home turf and had brass monkeys for what seems like 15 hours. That "list of things that never fail to bring a smile to your face," for me, I believe, was: 1) 'Landslide, Baby' by Beaulah, 2) Cowboy Bebop, and a third thing that I can't remember now.

..Instrumental..

Me and Matt did a lot of jamming around this time...

..Tiger!..

Someone (maybe it was me?) told Jon to write some lyrics. He emailed them to all of us and we sort of jammed on the idea for a while, I pared the lyrics a little here and there, and then we came up with this bad boy. Jon loved that SF zoo tiger attack. And, really, who could blame him?

..Amor Fati..

Matt had this guitar part, thought it might be a little too "dramatic," and I proceeded to write really overly dramatic lyrics for it. Sorry man. Dramatic though they may be, they are also probably the most accurate history of Shinobu yet. "All spit and spite and nothing" is borrowed heavily from an Elliott Smith song.

..1995..

An idea I had while walking around Santa Cruz on Halloween, about a burgeoning chess genius who never reached his potential and became an alcoholic.

..Moustache..

The best thing I've done in my life is go on tour. Our first tours left a little to be desired, but the experience was essential and we got to know each other better than we ever had before. Slowly we met more people, got to know each other even better, and realized how lucky we were to have that opportunity. This is dedicated to all the great friends we've made around this country. My Korean Friends, Omaha, I Need Sleep, and Donald and Shanea get name-dropped, but there are countless others who have been great to us time and again. More chess imagery pops up since I was pretty into chess around that time. The Moustache King seems to have had a tough year, but he knows that soon he'll see those friends again. He's never gonna get defeated. Not even by that half step key change for the guitar solo...into a half step key change right back for the chorus.

Soooo... I (Matt) have a Myspace now (www.myspace.com/mattkeeganmusic) to detail my goings-on on the East Coast. I'm pleased to have hopped on this train at the worst possible moment when it seems like no one gives a shit about this site anymore! Hooray! Regardless, if you're interested at all in what I'm doing out here, add me and whatnot. For those who don't care, stop reading right now or you'll get a synopsis! Syyyyyynopsis!

I have been playing/touring with Bomb the Music Industry!, working out my solo trombone stuff, playing fucked up versions of standard songs from the 40's (while drinking 40s!) with my trio, and finally preparing the release of the Actually, Actually record on PNP.

There! Was that so bad? It was? Maybe I should just give up on music then.

Cheers!

-Matt

P.S. I also have some bloggy thing. http://mattkeeganmusic.blogspot.com/

So there's a few things that didn't get included in the notes to the album because I forgot earlier, but they should not be uncredited.

Female vocals on Howard Melworm are Angelina Banda.
1995 Store Champion was recorded with the help of Skylar Suorez.
And the whole album was mastered by Jeff Rosenstock.

I think that's it.

-mike!

About a year ago, while that cuddleberry Matthew Sex was on hiatus from being all metropolitan and crap in New York, and before that sage Jon Fu moved to Japan and lost 20 pounds, and before I moved to Japan and ate dog, and before the Roger Ebert of literature Mike started a blog and two other awesome bands, the four of us holed up in the Cuddle Space for a couple of weeks and recorded the 15 or so tunes that now make up our soon to be album, Strange Spring Air. Aside from one or two of them, every song was pretty much written and recorded on the spot. This led to what I consider some of our most unquestionably awesome stuff (and, I might add, some of our most questionably awesome stuff too).

We're going to release the tunes via Quote Unquote Records in a couple of months. For now, you can head on over to their site to check out a song I wrote called "Sometimes I Wish I Was A Cat" on their 2009 sampler. I have a limit of only being able to write one song every two years or so, so don't expect too much more stuff like that from me. Every one else takes the mic on a song or two as well, so y'all might be surprised with how the record sounds.

On a side note, Dolemite might be the worst movie I've seen in a long time.

For those of you who want to hear the last minute or so of 'Hail, Hail the Executioner' without buying the album, its now in the most recent preview for student film 'The Greatest Road in California' (which is most likely not 880). You can check that bad boy out here: greatestroadinca.blogspot.com/2008/10/second-trailer.html

Hey guys,

Our friend Fat Tony just got a really nice review on Tiny Mix Tapes (which is probably my favorite music news site). If you're into hip hop and got some time, check out the review and check out his site--he's fucking good! I'm excited for him.

www.tinymixtapes.com/Fat-Tony

www.myspace.com/fattonyrap

-mike!

Introducing: Hard Girls.

www.myspace.com/hardgirls

Also, there's this:

booksandshit.blogspot.com

-mike