It's here! It's finally here!! aka... "Lookin' at Luckey," the video...

As promised, here it is fuckers:

This brings back wonderful memories of:


- How perfectly Sonora embodied "Luckey" for those three days of shooting.  I felt as if I was back with the real "Luckey" the whole time

- Brianne and Sara shining lights past the Thunderbird while Nate rocked it up and down, over and over and over...

- Sonora sitting perfectly still, take after take, for those shots in the living room of me rocking out

- Sara hitting her (not plugged in) keyboard so hard it made her fingers hurt trying to get noise out of it

- Sharing those wonderful bottles of water-wine on the roof

- The lady in the park who repeatedly demonstrated how many times Bill Withers says "I know" in "Ain't No Sunshine"

- Those Fucking Jibs

- The wonderfully weird boat parade on the Willamette River that night

- How much Kelly's Olympian didn't give a fuck

- How smoking way too many cigarettes in a row feels

- How many times someone commented on how I look like Ryan Adams

- How I loved it every time someone commented on how I look like Ryan Adams (one of my favorite artists ever)

- Getting to sit in an actual Thunderbird and how unworthy I was

- Thinking of how many fucking talented people were in that apartment that night


I could never thank Kevin Pietila enough for taking my Asperger's, non-visual memories of Luckey and somehow creating this.  It is beyond my comprehension how talented he is.


I am so grateful to all the talented people involved:  Kevin Pietila, Sara Morris, Brianne Kathleen, Jon Fickes, Sonora Mindwerl, Nate Ernst, Colby and, of course, me (just kidding, kind of).  They say it takes a village, but we did it with less people, more hard work and more skill.  But most of all, we did it...

No more Olympics... aka no more excuses not to do "music business shit"

Well, the STUPID ASS WINTER OLYMPICS are finally over...  So, we have that going for us, which is nice.  At least for weirdos like me, who enjoy PROFANITY-LACED, DRUNKEN TIRADES ABOUT WOMEN'S FIGURE SKATING.  Yep, same link muthafuckers!  I'm still livid about that but my girlfriend has decided she doesn't want to hear me say "Medvedeva" anymore.  And, since she's much smarter than I am, and prettier, I'll oblige her because she's probably right that I'm borderline losing it over the Olympics I didn't even want to watch but was tricked into it when SHE, not me, started watching women's figure skating.  And I still can't believe what Mirai Nagasu and her bullshit, millennial, lazy, scared, SHITTY COMMENTS AFTER SHE LOST.  I don't give a fuck if SHE APOLOGIZED LATER.  Doesn't mean a goddamn thing.  I would have put her on a goddamn plane and sent her back if she didn't care enough to try.  So disrespectful of her coaches, teammates, competitors who worked their fucking asses off so they could compete with someone who cares more about a warm shower than representing herself and her country.  And don't even get me started on Tara Lipinski and her bullshit gold medal...  Thanks for not getting me started...  (sorry this is what my poor girlfriend has endured for like four days now...)


What I really wanted to mention was how hard it can be for a creative with Asperger's to get excited and motivated about doing shitty, boring music business things instead of trying to write my new favorite song or the best lyric or best hook or best guitar riff or best Moog sound or best anything other than doing bullshit-ass boring-as-fuck shit that "should be doing."   One of the perks about having money (not a lot but more than enough to waste on music and still be able to drink decent bourbon and get to eat a fucking cheese plate with a bottle of wine when we so desire) is that you can pay people to do the boring shit for you.  Only they never do it as good as you could have or as thoroughly or with as much passion or with as much tenacity or, fuck, I wish everyone cared about my shit as much as I do.  I can't do it all.  I tried.  It nearly killed me...


Five years ago, I self-financed MY DEBUT ALBUM "Burn What You Can, Bury the Rest..." (click and scroll halfway down to listen or CLICK HERE AND FUCKING BUY THIS SHIT, you won't regret it).  The band was fairly new and we hadn't yet discovered just how goddamn dysfunctional we were.  Fuck, were we in for a shit-storm like I never expected...


Good thing that happened during the making of my debut album:  I met my future girlfriend, as she sang on "This Old House" and "I am not Afraid."


Bad thing that happened during the making of my debut album:  every other muthafucking thing that happened during the making of my debut album...


Some Highlights:


- Our producer/engineer (and us) got wrecked during the making of the final mixes on Woodford Reserve and good weed because of a bad breakup he'd had (our "discussion" over the use or non-use, I won, non-use it was, of auto-tune notwithstanding.  Don't care if it's standard these days).  To be fair, the producer/engineer of "Burn What You Can, Bury the Rest..." is the best music partner I've ever worked with.  He made us and that record infinitely better than we (probably) were and even sang on "She Will Never Return to Me," in addition to playing organ on several other tunes.  He also supported my ban of our drummer from the studio over a background vocal dispute.


- Hearing Brianne Kathleen sing for the first time, on my record...  Figured we could just mix it low or cut a bunch out if she sucked but the opposite proved to be true.


- Hearing the "Just Like Jon Fickes" mix for the first time.  Fun fact:  I was so nervous about this song not living up to the sounds in my head that I had a panic attack, then self-sabotaged and drank all morning then had a second panic attack and passed out, missing the mixing session for this tune.  When I finally showed up to the studio, it was already done and I just got to hear it for the first time out of my head (even when we played it live, it was different and more majestic in my head).  It was wonderful and mystical and sounded more like my dream version than any other song I've recorded, maybe ever.  I'm glad I wasn't there to screw up the mix...


Some Lowlights:


- Banning our drummer from the studio for his petulance over not singing a backup part Brianne CLEARLY sang 1000x better than him.  Then, firing the drummer (and the guitar player quitting as a result, they're longtime friends) over disputes (fucking screaming matches) about the mixes, album title, the "Just Like Jon Fickes" song title, Brianne's vocals, the track order, what songs made the final cut and just about every other goddamn decision I made surrounding the album.


- Having to sell everything I owned apart from a free couch and a free bed, my guitars and my boots.  I have a lifelong distaste for "Madmen" after season 3 because I had to sell all the DVD's before I even got to watch them...  It's hard for millennials but I spent a year or two (who can remember?  COCAINE IS A HELL OF A DRUG) without a computer or TV.


- Firing my bass player for trying to create the album art without me, trying to hijack and control the publicist and her message, and basically trying to kick ME out of BRADLEY WIK and the Charlatans since his coke-addled mind knew better than me about how we should display and promote MY album...  Good times...


But, I did have the pleasure of playing "The Dark Lovely" for songwriter Jon Fickes at a show up in Seattle and getting to see him tear up a bit with pride and gratitude towards my love of his music.  Karl's drums got stolen from his car parked outside the show (he wasn't even playing due to a mishap on a backflip during his Seahawks marching band gig).  But, Jon's new album "Closer to a Ghost", under the band name A View of Earth From the Moon, is fantastic and I just got to see him on his tour ending show in Cottage Grove, OR last night.  Yes, I'm still fucking tired from the 2+ hour drive there, and back, and the 3 or so hours of sleep I got (the 4+ bourbons/drinks didn't help either.  4 is Favre's number and so that's my number, 4 + or -, a gentleman never tells...).  And, we did make good money on the ensuing tours, album sales, digital sales, etc. so I can't complain too much, until we decided to make another record......  (yes, that ellipsis had an ellipsis as that shit is far too fucked up and long to go into tonight)  I thought the making of the first record was rough, but I had no idea.  Seriously, no idea...


But, I learned a fuckload making "Burn What You Can, Bury the Rest..." and I wouldn't trade it for anything...


(dictated but not read.  I'm tired muthafucker...)


Album Cover(low res)_1.jpg

"Lookin' at Luckey" the live-action version aka... music videos are awesome

"Lookin' at Luckey" comes alive!


(editors note:  this was supposed to go up Tuesday.  Not sure why it didn't.  Fucking computers and internet things...)




Unfortunately, I was unable to watch a single second of the Packers game as I was busy doing this:




"What does making funny faces in bars have to do with not watching the Packers?" you may ask.  And you'd be right, if I wasn't being filmed doing it.  Because then it's cool and it's called a music video...



I was shooting a music video for "Lookin' at Luckey" this past weekend which was a fucking blast.  I got to work with some amazing people including the absurdly brilliant writer/director, KEVIN PIETILA, and the beyond beautiful and wonderfully-talented lead actress, SONORA MINDWERL.  And that's not including my other ridiculously awesome friends SARA MORRISBRIANNE KATHLEEN and A VIEW OF EARTH FROM THE MOON'S VERY OWN (JUST LIKE) JON FICKES.  It was truly a blessing to have so much artistic energy in the room(s) when making this fucker.  I had such a fun time despite learning that I am not quite as brilliant an actor as I assumed I once was.  That honor goes to Sonora and Jon Fickes, who were wonderful when "action" was called.  Give me a guitar, mic and a crowd and I'm in my element.  Give me words to say and a camera in my face and... not my element so much.  Although, I used to do a fantastic Jack Black/Tenacious D-type impression given the right audience.  I passed my high school speech class with a Bob Marley song ("Redemption Song") and Jack Black inspired improvised speech/performance.  I was tasked with performing this improvised speech in front of my whole graduating class later on, which I guess means it was pretty good.  So, I have that going for me, which is nice...


We did a lot of amazing things during the video but perhaps my favorite was this:




What a beautiful car that I am so undeserving to even sit in...  This Thunderbird was amazing.  It's lucky you can't see below the waist on these shots.  Boners upon boners...


Anyways, more updates for you soon... So tired... Who knew video shoots were more draining than recording sessions?