Lyrical Preview Part 3

"Skating with Girl"

Girl skating, oh
girl skating, oh
to conjure you in snow
to conjure you in snow
six foot ice sickle impales (in pales?)
and red rope licorice entrails (in trails?)
Girl skating, oh
to conjure you in snow.
Your stolen body asleep
My frozen boundaries can't keep
You talk in parables in streaks
to all the idiots and creeps.

Lyrical Preview Pt 2

"Tiger Trees"

I saw your cursive name get drawn
Its pinking tendrils blanket my lawn
Its whipping q's spell:
"I want you to believe my name."
You're tiger tree branch and I'm the leaves
Your roaring cataracts are not believed
I've got six friends.
I wish that they could see your name
And they don't.

Our Friend Ariel's Favorite Song.

He once told me and Emily that if there were one song he could play for anyone, this would be it.

For you, buddy:




Lyrical Preview Pt 1

"Expression Of"

Richard thinks he ripped a hole in me, a hole in me.
Richard thinks he ripped a hole in me and one in you too.
Frightened bright wants you to feel alone.
He should stay home.
Mechanistic mutilator's dream:
A tome in chrome.
Day sun, night sun - expression of.
Day sun, night sun - the coming of.
I don't know how to wish good things for him
And I don't know what to do.

Dreaming of Skeletons

I had this really strange dream last night where I was record hunting at Eat Records, even though they don't have records anymore and I think it's just called Eat now, and found these crazy, fancy, book versions of Skeleton$' pre-Money records. It was like they were these huge books with all this art, plus the albums on two 10" records. And then all the sudden I was on a college campus and Matt from Skeleton$ came up and was like "oh, that's cool that you found those!". And I was really excited to listen to them but then it was all a dream...

Our New Songs Are There

Almost ready. Spent the day hammering out some of the tunes in the practice space at DBA and then I came home and have been working on some lyrics since.

Here are some samples:

"Phantom friends, their shadow shapes / A secret hallway on audiotape."
"Hiding in the insides / waiting just to meet eyes / Messy Mouth, come back home."
"Frightened bright wants you to feel alone / mechanistic mutilator's dream: a tome in chrome."
"Girl skating, oh, to conjure you in snow."
"A broken mouth I can't explain / a blurry crest with no name / your hooded head in the rain /
anonymous wrecks, snapping new necks."

There will also be our first ever instrumental, called "Psychics." It's acoustic.

ICP on a Target Commercial

Say what you will (totally accurately) say about Insane Clown Posse and their massive coven:

It's retarded as fuck.
It's misogynistic as balls.
It's dopey as shit.
It's anti-intellectual as ass.

All true.

But here's what it's not, which indie culture is: completely co-opted. This is strange, since there are probably way more kids out there who are into it than whatever indie band is used to sell things at Urban Outfitters. I'm not sure it's even by their own choosing, so I have no idea if it's worthy of respect or not. But it is interesting. And kinda sad.

Our New Album

So I think we're about done writing our new album. What will it sound like? Your guess is as good as mine. This is the first time that all the songs are basically in one tuning on the guitar (with some slight variations on two jams) which will be kinda nice in a lot of ways. Some of the songs:

3D Voices
Tiger Trees
Aisha
Joyride
RH
Psychics
Skating with Girl
Sharing
Richard, Stay Home
Into the Arms
Surf Something
Dreaming of Police

Moving Shit around at Death by Audio

We're currently moving things around in the pedal factory at DBA, where I make pedals most days. We just got a new room with lots more space, so our solder and paint fumes won't be as gnarly, and my latent attraction to my coworkers, Oli and Matt, will be easier to keep at bay.
It's funny how harshly entropy attacks a place of business, even when you're really working hard. Things become a mess and you don't really realize it until you clean them up, at which point you find all manner of things, like children's bones and Frog and Toad books.


My favorite pedal that we make is the Octave Clang. The guy in this vid doesn't quite use it like I do.

New Video!

http://themusicslut.com/2010/06/tms-video-premiere-grooms-acid-king-of-hell-guitar-feelings-contest-grooms-vinyl-album/

Video courtesy of Matt Conboy and Vanessa Carr.


Rejoicer on Vinly NOW

Courtesy of Kanine Recs. Different art than the CD of Rejoicer and even comes with lyrics and a download card! Will be in stores and online shortly. In the meantime (or in the post-time, if you still wanna), you can buy directly through us for $15. You can get shirts too and CDs too! Write us at groomstheband@gmail.com to procure a copy. Oh, and the bottom pic is what we almost went with...




One Hundred Things to Try and Sound Like besides Animal Collective's Last Three Albums

1. Their first 5 albums.
2. If Charles Mingus were in the Beatles pre-Revolver.
3. If Charles Mingus were in the Beatles from Revolver on.
4. "I Talk to the Wind" by King Crimson
5. The first side of Low.
6. The second side of Low.
7. Your parents' best impression of their last 3 albums.
8. Charles Ives auditioning for Can.
9. The sense of embarrassment you (understandably) feel when you've poured yourself what you thought was vodka, but was, in fact, white vinegar.
10. Marital sex, conact-mic'd and run through a Digiverb pedal.
11. Guitars strung with human ligaments.
12. Muslim sacred music.
13. The Trees Community.
14. Kira Sedgwick trying, through song, to win back Kevin Bacon.
15. John Cage's "Dream".
16. William Baines.
17. Joan of Arc.
18. Joan of Arc.
19. Skeleton$.
20. How Joan of Arc felt.
21. Nudity.
22. The Cocker Spaniels.
23. The Geddy Address.
24. Mountains of hate eroded into hills of ambivalence.
25. Hills of ambivalence eroded into plains of apathy.
26. Plains of apathy eroded into valleys of love.
27. Plastic Ono Band.
28. Plastic Ono Band.
29. Going on Nicorette at age eleven.
30. Running out of Nicorette at age eleven.
31. Meeting someone on the internet.
32. The soundtrack to John Mayer and Gary Busey's buddy-cop romp.
33. Doctor Came at Dawn/Red Apple Falls
34. Wild Love.
35. "Obscured" by Smashing Pumpkins.
36. Rachel's
37. The score for The Mosquito Coast.
38. A dirty bedroom.
39. Sharon Van Etten singing in Sisters.
40. Staten Island's answer to Penderecki.
41. "Long Long Long".
42. Siamese Dream with a better drum sound.
43. Illumination by the Pastels.
44. Eureka by Jim O'Rourke.
45. TNT by Tortoise.
46. Drum's Not Dead without drums.
47. Very early Centro-matic.
48. My cat's early morning squeaks.
49. Mellow Gold and old Beck b-sides.
50. Johnny Cash and Donovan, together at last.
51. The weirder Smiths moments.
52. The sadder Solex moments.
53. "Torture Day" version with Cynthia Dall.
54. Cynthia Dall.
55. This Heat.
56. The Ex.
57. Fuck.
58. Bone Machine.
59. Xiu Xiu
60. Murmur.
61. Fables of the Reconstruction.
62. Automatic for the People.
63. Q Lazarus' "Goodbye Horses".
64. Portishead's Third.
65. In a Silent Way.
66. Bedhead.
67. The Dirty Three
68. The Fugs.
69. Calexico's darker moments.
70. Kyp Malone and Daniel Johnston with lots of helium and machine guns.
71. Unemployment.
72. Mission of Burma's more introspective moments.
73. Karate.
74. Karate.
75. Macha Loved Bedhead.
76. A literally insane kitten.
77. Millennial fear.
78. Laughing until it hurts.
79. Kissing.
80. Michael Jackson fronting U2.
81. Pregnancy, after trying for 20 years.
82. How purple everything gets when the sun is going down in the summer, in certain parts of Texas.
83. Sticking things like screws, needles, coils, and glass flecks inside your skin.
84. Swans.
85. The world, if the ending of Lost hadn't been so terribly disappointing.
86. The first taste of meat after not eating it for 10 years.
87. Staying up all night for good reasons.
88. Staying up all night for bad reasons.
89. Sleeping all day.
90. How you'd feel if you ingested nothing but sugary soda for a week.
91. Being cloned.
92. Flattop Tony and the Purple Canoes.
93. Honesty in Motion.
94. Wetness.
95. Songs original to David Lynch movies/shows / Angelo Badalamenti's scores thereto.
96. Drum circles where the drums are compressed to sound like Ringo's.
97. Ponytail.
98. Church bells.
99. Life in the fast lane.
100. The way Animal Collective's most recent 3 albums sounds to your pets.

This is in no way saying anything nasty about AC and their tunes.


Wake up in the Morning, Feeling like Keith Richards

Getting tired of spoiled poseurs using hip, classic samples for their limp "songs".

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Endtroducing and Preemptive Strike to listen to!

Fanning Dakota

There was a band who played at DBA tonight that I caught some of while taking a break from fuzz (and on my way to pick up some ice cream) called Slingshot Dakota. When I walked in the room, they were covering "Waiting Room" with just drums and synth, girl and boy vocals. Then, before launching into their next tune, the drummer said something like, "Hey, so if this song goes out to those in the audience that have been the victims of assault and sexual violence. If that's you, please speak to someone about it, don't keep it in. And the rest of us should all open our arms for our friends who have been victims, so they can come forward." Indie/punk/whatever rock is so annoyingly apolitical these days that it almost seemed like this drummer fellow was joking at first, and that really bothers me. Not that we always have to say something like this every time we play a show, but seriously, how awesome is it for a band to put themselves out there like that? I miss it.

Smog Cover - Bloodflow


You can listen to a cover we did of Smog's "Bloodflow" here. Smog is one of Emily and Travis' favorites of all time. Jim might come around on the next tour.

Others we'd like to do sometime:
One Less Star
Confederate Bills and Pinball Slugs
Bad Investment
Red Apples

Above is a picture of a Smog shirt Matt from Sisters got me on their last tour. Never seen it before.


Joyride Lyrics

We have a new song we've started playing live. It's called "Joyride". Here are the lyrics:

Car windows: broken glass
country lanes blind past
and I feel so fast
You crash your hood
I melt
caution expelled
I feel so felt
On a joyride
A nice boy
made unsafe
by your tongues and blades
seduction and haze
My father's sedan
boyhood and boy
girlhood decoy
adult toy destroyed
On a joyride.
I don't like this music, Lord
I don't like its face
I don't like the chords they turn to waste
You weren't kidding when you said baptism
I did not believe
Car off the dock into the sea
on a joyride.


WOXXXXY!!!!!

WHAT THE HELL?!
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/popcandy/post/2010/03/shocking-shutdown-woxy-goes-off-the-air/1

Fuck you, Future Sounds!

Always possible things could turn around, but in the meantime, proud to be one of the last bands to play for them.

http://woxy.com/music/loungeacts/index.php?id=414

SXSW

Us at South by Southwest -

Wednesday March 17th, 12:30 pm at Music Gym w/ Class Actress, Ume, Male Bonding, and lots more.

Wednesday March 17th, 8pm at Wave Rooftop. Kanine Records party with Surfer Blood and lots more.

Wednesday March 17th, 9:15 at Longbranch Inn w/ Sisters, JEFF The Brotherhood, and lots more.

Yes, we're aware the festival is more than one day long. If you'd like us to play some other show let us know.


Violence Doubled.


"Life and Limb" by Fugazi is creepy and catchy like nationalism. I miss Fugazi. Underground
music is an amoral void now.

$PERM.

http://www.spermbank.com/

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A California Cryobank Sperm Donor?

After Emily brought up how sperm worked on our trip to DC the other night, this seemed appropriate. Safe to say none of us have what it takes.

Just look at the guys who DO!

RIP David Berman?

I had a dream last night that I found out my buddy, THE Silver Joo, David Berman, had died in 2009, and I was just finding out now. In the dream I dedicated our show tonight (at Market Hotel) to him, and it was really sad. I think I'll still do that, but he's not dead, thankfully.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/18048021/Silver+Jews+David+Berman.jpg
Testing a post from my phone...

Sistah Sistah

As opposed to the kind of singer-songwriter-y thinness of not-just-simple-but-really-just-boring music, or the big stew of trendy textures that don't turn into anything worth listening to of other music, Sisters, some friends of ours have a new album that's just good songs recorded really, really well. Not sure what it's going to be called yet, but it'll hopefully be called one of these:

Matt
Aaron
Matt & Kim & Aaron
Infinite Fatwa
Reggae Thyme!

Julianna Barwick

Just listened to Florine by Ms. Barwick and couldn't be more thrilled to play this firehouse show with her tomorrow night.

If you haven't heard it, hear it. Come hug us tomorrow night, too.

Our Show This Weekend

We were going to play a show at St. James Church, but due to some insane posse of clowns, we can't.

Instead we're playing at an antique firehouse at 87 Lafayette St. between Walker and Canal. It'll be beyond dope. Help us, especially if you're a Christian, and beyond that, especially if you're Catholic, show the people who don't give a shit about common sense, freedom, or facts, that fun can be had in all kinds of places by coming out.

Regarding the events that took place at St. James on January 15th, here's my favorite summary so far (from a commenter on Brooklyn Vegan, no less):

Ariel is just the scapegoat for a perhaps bad, perhaps desperate, and perhaps very much well intended choice made by the proprietors of the St. James church in order to save it from closing. Be assured that they were paid very well for use of their space (which in turn supports the church and the local community), were well aware that the plan was to fill the church to capacity (600), and that alcohol was to be served. The show was over before 1, and Ariel and his crew stayed until the early hours of the morning cleaning the church and bleaching the floors. The place was spotless afterwards. There is no problem here, it’s a business transaction, plain and simple, that the proprietors not only agreed to, but sought out themselves. Now they're facing mounting pressure (with an angry mob suggesting the bishop step down from his position) from the Catholic community and Ariel is the fall guy. It's all his fault, right.

It wasn’t in bad taste to host a show here. It wasn't in the interest of self-promotion. It was driven by the desire to provide kids with a different DIY show experience, in an interesting space not previously made available. Ariel has booked shows under the high line, in a boat that sailed through the NY harbor, and in the basement of Damon Dash's offices in Tribeca - where Mos Def freestyled over Javelin to a crowd of 100 people. Give him a break. He's trying to set up cool shows for the community and you all just turn your back on him at the slightest indication of a controversy.

Ariel was in the process of meeting with the local community board, and most of the neighborhood was EXCITED to have him host shows at the church, because if he did not, the church was likely going to close it’s doors forever. And bulldozed to the ground. Probably for some shitty new glass condos. Why aren’t you guys getting angry over the real issues here? If there was this kind of anger and protest against regional landmarks vanishing from the New York landscape due to unrealistic rents with no protection from the city, then maybe we’d get MORE ARTISTS AND LESS CONDOS.

And more importantly, the church never would have needed the cash to begin with.

Less Antagonism More Christ

What the hell?

This is utter insanity. There should be no problem with a church choosing to open its doors and give kids a pretty-fucking-safe place to go for the night. No one should be getting in trouble, or offended. Not the promoters or the people at the church that let the promoters promote. This isn't a matter of respect or disrespect. It's a matter of context, facts, fun, reaching out, and remembering who it is you claim to follow. I say all of this as a committed believing person.

Bad vibes are from hell. Not rock music.