Hey everyone!

While I'm taking some time off touring I've decided to help make some fan-created art.

This is basically a re-post of what I put as the mission statement on the facebook page for this project. The link to that is this:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/kaki-king-guitar-artwork/78255311611

What I want to do is to meet twelve amazing artists, give them each a blank guitar, and let them go wild creating anything their heart desires. The theme of each piece would be the title of one of my songs, and my only artistic contribution would be to paint my fingers and 'play' the fretboard (wherever it ends up) as I would during the song so as to create a visual representation of where my hands travel.

Everyone tells me that my playing is best witnessed visually--so this is one interpretation of that statement. At the end of this project we're going to display all of the guitars in a gallery and throw a party with performances and perhaps the finalization of the last guitar.

Right now I'm extending an open call for artists to submit their websites/jpegs/etc. and ideas about how they could redesign/paint/burn/disembody/what have you a guitar. Those who have experience working with mixed media and found objects will probably do best with this. I will be honest--artists in the NYC area will be considered slightly more favorably due to the expense of shipping costs (and the fact that I like meeting people face to face), but I felt that it was unfair to limit the submissions to just my hometown.

If this is a project for you or anyone you know then please email kakiguitarart@gmail.com. Send any relevant links or materials, your basic bio, and if possible a song title that you'd be interested in. I will answer every single email personally and provide you with all of the relevant details that aren't already here.

For those non-visual artists, feel free to comment about the project, favorite song titles, and any other feedback you feel is relevant. I'll be updating the facebook site and the others as the project progresses. And please, no haters. This is just supposed to be good creative fun.

Thanks for reading! Can't wait to see what y'all got!

love, kaki

http://www.facebook.com/pages/kaki-king-guitar-artwork/78255311611

Hi Friends,

John Darnielle, Mr. Mountain Goats, (Johnny I miss you and your sack of expensive toiletries!) and I did a tour last year, which feels like it was about 18 years ago at this point. In conjunction with the tour we made a really lovely collaborative EP of six songs and put it on extra special vinyl (the kind where it sounds super nice and doesn't wear out easily).

Each night on that tour we played some tracks from the EP together, including the song 'Black Pear Tree' where I sang and John played guitar. On the recording John is covering piano duty.

It's a really special recording I made with one of the most unique songwriters I've ever heard, and I'm glad to announce that you can purchase your own copy by clicking the following link, or cutting and pasting.

http://www.backstreet-merch.com/bands/kakng/product.asp?item=kakng11

More merch and artisticendeavouringblogging to come soon.

love, kaki

I know you all deserve a long post tour email but I've been distracted by this UNBELIEVABLE THING THAT HAPPENED ON ITS OWN OUT OF THIN AIR WITHOUT ME EVEN KNOWING. I literally can't believe how amazing this is.

http://www.thehoodinternet.com/2009/04/2pac-vs-kaki-king.html

fucking incredible.

kaki

Buonjourno Amici!

Whatever, my Italian is terrible.

We arrived in Rome two days after a lovely 40 hours of door to door travel from Australia. Immediately upon arrival we were beset upon by such huge varieties of fine cheeses, cured meats, breads, and table wines that the only proper thing to do was to consume these items in mass quantities, pick up a sipping bottle of limoncello, and prance through Roma and see the sights. Well, since Hankle is still favoring his former broken leg and Dantigan has gone and sprained his good one I do most of the prancing these days. Matt thinks that Dan looks like an evil character from an Indiana Jones movie, what with the cane and all. He needs a facial scar or a funny accent to top off the idea.

First a note to the friends we just left: Australia, you really showed us the finest time as of yet on this visit. We were shocked to find so many friends and fans alike in Cairns, Townsville, Mullumbimby, and other places off the beaten path. Thanks to Quantas for not losing or breaking anything. Thanks to the Sappho cafe in Glebe for always making me feel awkward. Thanks to Chinatowns across Oz for their crispy duck skin in two courses. And thank you Southern Hemisphere for new stars to look at.

Europe we are here and hungry and want to take you all to dinner! But first we must show you the rock! Matt, Dan, and I have cooked up an incredible show for you to see. All the hits, all of the amazing songs you forgot about, and brand new songs for you to geek out on. I was never too timid to say that if you come see me play you'll never see anything like it in your life. Well, with this trio I can say the same thing. You will never see or hear or love anything as much as this show (there are exceptions for people with children or puppies).

List of dates below. See you at one of them! Unless they are sold out which has already happened in quite a few cities already--updates to come.

love, kaki, dan, and hankles

Mar 13 2009 8:00P
Circolo degli Artisti Roma

Mar 14 2009 8:00P
Rising Mutiny Napoli, Napoli

Mar 15 2009 8:00P
Groove Potenza Picena

Mar 17 2009 8:00P
La Casa 139 Milano

Mar 18 2009 8:00P
Bar Wolf Bologna

Mar 19 2009 8:00P
La Suoneria Settimo Torinese

Mar 20 2009 8:00P
Kalinka Carpi

Mar 22 2009 8:00P
Le Bourg Lausanne

Mar 23 2009 8:00P
Badd Bonn Dudingen

Mar 24 2009 8:00P
Backstage Munich

Mar 25 2009 8:00P
Magnet berlin

Mar 26 2009 8:00P
Knust Hamburg

Mar 27 2009 8:00P
Stadtgarten Colonge

Mar 28 2009 8:00P
Gleis 22 Muenster

Mar 30 2009 8:00P
Paradiso (upstairs) Amsterdam

Mar 31 2009 8:00P
Ancienne Belgique Brussels

Apr 1 2009 8:00P
Nouveau Casino Paris

Apr 2 2009 8:00P
Jazz Cafe London, London and South East

Hey everyone!  The tour down under is going unbelievably well.  Thanks for all of you amazing people
selling out almost every show.  And best wishes to An Horse on their N. American rock 'n' roll odyssey.

I'm sending this invite for those of you in the NYC area.  I've been
scoring and contributing music to an incredible documentary called Fish Out of
Water.  It's an incredibly compelling story that finely dissects the issue
of homosexuality and the Bible.  My eyes have been opened wide by it and I
hope yours can be, too.  To put the finishing touches on the film the
producers are having a fundraiser at Monkeytown in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
 All of the info is below.  It's bound to be a great night and the
small donation fee will go towards spreading a powerful message.

I wish I could be there, but I hope as many of you as possible can make it.

much love,
kaki

"Bait and Tackle: A 'Fish out of Water' film Fundraiser"
Saturday, February 28th 10pm
Monkey Town, 58 N. 3rd Street Williamsburg, Brooklyn (L Train to Bedford) (www.monkeytownhq.com)

Featuring: DJ Chaz Requina (Palms Out), DJ Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift),
Elizabeth Harper and the Matinee and...
The Premiere of the Fish out of Water trailer
First 50 guests will receive a gift bag

Tickets: $10/advance, $15/door. Visit www.brownpapertickets.com/..event/55042 to purchase.

For more information about the film, visit www.fishoutofwaterfilm.com

Friends!

Australia! The beating you guys are taking is so tragic I can't think of one single funny thing to say. I am coming to you to stand in solidarity and hopefully play some nice music that will get your mind off the heat and arsonists.

I'll be joined by my steady right hand, Mr. Daniel "Danish" Brantigan, who will be joining me on the trumpet and the world famous EVI. Many of you have already taken in his power and felt your life change forever. Oh, the joke is too easy.

But what I haven't yet shown to you is my secret weapon, the guy who inspires me to sweat more and more each show, star of every band dressing room on Broadway--the fabulous Mr. Matt "Get your get right" Hankle! Hanks will be beating the skins and blowing your mind with his sticking technique. Then he'll play the drums! Wowie do not miss these shows we are going to rock out with your socks on!

And yay yay yay! At this show we have brand new t-shirts, some amazing posters, gorgeous one of a kind prints from the "Pull Me Out Alive" video shoot.

Most exciting is the new music! We have made a five song EP called Mexican Teenagers and it will look spiffy and be for sale at each and every show. Get em before they're gone!

We are so excited to be playing the first series of shows with An Horse. Kathleen Cooper and I must be distant relatives because my mother's maiden name was Cooper. An Horse is such a great band and I will be in the audience singing along! I wear a bowling club pin from Darwin on my bag that Kate got me from an op shop. Oh--and Kate, I still have that Missy Higgins poster of yours. The one where she looks like she's praying and you wrote a thought bubble out of her head that said "how can I win Kate's heart." Yeah. Just wanted to let you know I still have it.

EU--you are next. I'll deal with you when the time is right.

Can't wait to see everybody. It's like going to the biggest summer camp in the world for me.

Byee!

k

Um. Hello.

It's almost 7:00 EST and in one hour CNN will broadcast "CNN Heroes, an ALL-STAR Tribute" for the 4,897th time this weekend.

I waited until this moment to tell you good people that in the credits following the program you can see the words "Original Compositions--Kaki King" or something like that. But only if you are a really awesome speed reader.

Myself and Yuval Semo did in fact score the music for the vignettes for Viola Vaughn, Anne Mahlum, Yohannes Gebregeorgis, and Maria Ruiz. Yuval was incredibly helpful in creating some of the music because Tel Aviv is much much closer to Ethopia than Atlanta, GA. Not sure yet where we stand on Senegal, though. Watch and you will understand.

I even got to go sit in the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, Hollywood, and see the whole thing go down live.

In the words of Hodgeman:

"THAT IS ALL."


But there will be much more to come very soon.

love,
kaki

ps--I wasn't lying in that other blog post.

It truly is the finest beer that I can get from the local market. I only drink it in the can so I can rattle the bead around the empty when I'm done.

Hi, everyone. I've had a fine 24 hrs off in New York. All the fish in the tank mysteriously died, except a teeny teeny orange fishie only one cm long, which we didn't know existed in the first place. With death comes unexpected life. The snails are doing quite well, though, and continue to increase their population no matter how much chlorinated metropolitan water we dump in the tank. Congratulate our asexual friends, friends.

Tomorrow we embark on the "Last Happy Night of Your Life" tour. Chi-town, my old friend, it will be good to see you again. Soft, chewy Kaki and delicious Mountain Goats, washed down with your swill of choice (I recommend Boddington's. THEY HAVE BEADS INSIDE THE CAN! HOW DID THEY GET THERE? OMG, OMG, OMG.)

The "Black Pear Tree" EP will be available on sweet beautiful vinyl. MG John Darnielle calls me literally every single day to tell me how gorgeous our EP is and how good it smells and how he just wants to lick it all over. I take everything JD says as gospel and you should do the same.

Mack, Yuval, Matt and Dan Brantigan are all looking forward to seeing your smiles and hearing your cheers. I'm looking forward to talking shit about that one asshole in the front row who keeps texting their friends (you know who you are and HAVE BEEN WARNED).

USA, here we come. 

Love to everyone,

DJ kak attack