Alright, kids, let's get down to business. I know how we've presented ourselves in the past - as drunken buffoons who show up at our gigs primarily for the free beer. Is this an accurate representation of who we as a band really are? In a word, yes.

That fact notwithstanding, we are taking a series of bold new steps right now. As our small, cirrhosis-riddled band of loyal followers already know, we have opted to proceed without the fourth member that we had long sought. The power trio format has proven liberating, leading to the writing of a slew of new songs that we're now forcing into our live set like a series of loud, square pegs into a series of dry, unwilling, round holes. We hope you've all enjoyed watching that.

Now, we channel our newfound motivation into the recording, at long last, of the full length album that has been delayed so many times. We're about a third of the way done with the thing, meaning that by May or June, we should have something entirely new to offer you - BAND MERCH. Crass and unthinkable though it may seem, we now plan to let you all purchase and take home with you your very own tiny little pieces of the magic that is Good Touch Bad Touch. Fuck, we're even gonna make some T-shirts.

I tell you all of this only so that you may not be alarmed when it all comes to pass. Prepare yourselves. Produce your wallets, that they might be opened to finance our ongoing battle with crippling alcoholism. Let's do this thing.

Love and kisses,

R. James Wilkins, Esq.

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who came out this past weekend to check out our shows for the Music Saves/Square Records Holiday Extravagana. Everybody was great, and we had a surprisingly good time during our brief stint as a power trio. Thanks to Gabe and New Body Type for lending us a bass amp, thanks to Real Dogs for serving the booze, and thanks to National Suicide Day for making my pants vibrate in a most enjoyable fashion.

So that wraps it up for 2008, but there's plenty more to come next year. We'll be making our Grog Shop debut in February with the nice people from The Sea and Cake (whom we hope to someday join among the ranks of great bands that never quite got as much attention they deserved). Also, work on the record continues, albeit slowly. The ranks of the GTBT faithful grow with each passing day. Oh, wait. Those are just the same 4 guys from the Hot Rails that come to every show. At any rate, the flattery is nice. Keep it coming.

So for now that is it and that is all. May your holidays be filled with joy, and may your herpes remain in remission indefinitely.

Love,

R. James Wilkins, Esq.

So, long story short, I broke my right arm cycling last week, which is why we canceled a couple of shows. We're still playing our Kinks set at the Beachland Halloween cover party on Thursday, with the talented Mr. Michael Allan of the Afternoon Naps on bass. There will be more shows in the future, and work on the record continues. I'm going to stop now, because this took me about fifteen minutes to type left handed.

Rock,

R. James Wilkins

Kick ass week! The economy is in the tank. That crazy, power-mad lady from your PTA meetings who couldn't even run the bake sale is poised to become vice president, and her running mate is a corpse who rises from the crypt every night groaning "maaaaaveriiiiick.... maaaaaveriiiiiiick!!!!" like a deranged extra from Top Gun, thirsting to feed on the blood of Arabs. My student loans are in default, and even my late fees at Blockbuster have been referred to a collection agency.

And yet all is not lost. Work has finally begun in earnest on the GTBT album, as last night we went into the studio and knocked out five basic tracks with Chris Russo (of Dreadful Yawns fame [p.s. - I'd like to give a shout out to Drunk Betty]), and over the course of October, we'll be making a record whose explicitly stated purpose is to make three part falsetto harmonies cool again. We will proceed as we did last night, blazing relentlessly through one track after another, until we get too loaded and regress to jamming on Foghat. That's right. Foghat. Told you we were cool.

Also, just as significantly, tonight we play Tower 2012 in Cleveland with The Dreadful Yawns and Antlers. I love the Tower. It's the last venue in town where you can bring your own pint of Mad Dog 20/20, smoke inside, get your face rocked off, and wrap up the night by spooning a drifter in a state of advanced alcoholic catatonia. That's what you call a win-win-win-win situation. And I relish the prospect of playing with the Yawns, who have been one of my favorite bands ever since I moved to Cleveland, and who remind us all that there is still a place in the universe for psychedelicspacegaragenoise with a heart of gold. It never fails to put a huge fucking smile on my face. So come, rock with us. Rosh Hashana is over, and now it's time to party!

Well...

A couple exciting pieces of news. First off, we've received the official go-ahead for our Kinks cover set at the Beachland, October 30th. If you want real Halloween joy, you must check it out, and not just because of us. I've been made to understand that the Hot Rails will be playing an all J. Geils Band cover set, and it seems only natural; anyone who has ever met Ken Janssen has to admit that the physical resemblance between him and J. Geils is uncanny. My favorite piece of J. Geils trivia: in college, he was David Lynch's roommate. David Lynch asked to be moved to a new room because Geils was "too weird". Think about that shit for a second...

Also, perhaps more importantly, work on the debut Good Touch Bad Touch album is set to begin in the next couple of weeks, meaning that there will be lots more falsetto harmonies and scintillatingly bouncy rythyms aimed at all of your respective faces in the very near future. The track list is more or less set, and Chris Russo of the Dreadful Yawns will be producing. I'll try to post some updates/previews of the new material as they become available.

Albatross!!!  Albatross!!!!

Love,

R. James Wilkins, Esq.

Hola.

First off, thanks to everyone that came out to the Ballroom last night. That was lovely! There should be video of a couple of songs posted on YouTube within a day or two, courtesy of a friend of the band, to whom I promise that we will play All Saints next time. And if you've never checked out Matt Costa or Sera Cahoone (I'll admit it, prior to last night, I hadn't either), they're really f'ing good.

But lets get down to business. The real magic last night happened after the show in the tavern, where the Karaoke commenced, and we all learned that Sean secretly loves Billy Joel, Dave knows all the words to "Bust a Move" without looking at the monitor, and Ken Janssen (of the Hot Rails) really knows how to bring a power ballad to life by inserting the word "crotch" at key points in the lyric. And of course, it all ended with a group singalong of "The Weight" that probably resembled the rendition of "Louie Louie" in Animal House more than it did the Band's original recording. Stellar. Something about a karaoke machine just brings out the sexy in all of us.

Anyway, there's a lot of shows coming up, so come check one out. We'll have more recordings up in the next few weeks, with any luck, so dig that too.

Love and Kisses,

R. James Wilkins, Esq.

Okay. This marks my first attempt to keep up some kind of a running commentary on this page. My relationship with the concept of blogging has been a very on-again, off-again affair - we only fuck when I've been drinking, and I usually end up regretting it. That being said, we're doin' this thing.

First off, thanks to everybody who's given feedback on the trial batch of recordings. You've been very encouraging, although I was a little baffled by the comparison to Throwing Muses (thanks, I think...). I personally draw more inspiration from my middle-school show choir experiences. And like I did in middle-school show choir, in this band I generally find myself wishing I had more of a background in jazz dance.

Also, you turkeys ought to tell your friends about the show this Friday at the Beachland Tavern - we have the privelege of playing with Wussy, who, despite the fact that their name sharing a bill with ours makes the show look like some sort of a community forum on pederasty, are an awesome band. There will be rock, it will be loud, and we will play songs that nobody has heard before, incorporating (I shit you not) a combination of military and carnival metaphors to describe the state of the modern sad bastard, with syncopated harmonies.

Dig that shit.

I've been reading Lester Bangs this week. I would like to dedicate the hellaciously convoluted sentence structures above to him. He and god are up there drinking cough syrup and listening to White Light White Heat right fucking now. Jah bless.

So have a charmed evening, and for the love of christ come see GTBT this Friday.

Love and kisses,

R. James Wilkins, Esq.

Okay, these are the rough mixes of our first recording. Treasure them - they're kind of like our baby photos, except without the nudity or drooling. Tell your friends to come listen to us - this is a new page, and if we're to take over the world you're all going to have to get on the ball and promote this thing. Enjoy the tunes!

<3

Ryan