BAT COUNTRY!!!! Volume 3

Hi everyone, this has been one of the genuine craziest times for me as far as being busy with projects. Goldie can attest to that as I periodically bombard her with portentous announcements of all my projects like a proud toddler who has just painted "Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte" on the wall with ALL 8 colors of crayon. Good boy, go to your room. In music news, though, I will share that I have begun collaborating with the immensely talented Sarah P. Randall, an old friend of mine who recently opened for Westfold at Bar Of The Gods, in hopes of resurrecting the sleeping Coeur Machant. But enough small talk, on with the wacky videos!!!

What can you say about Barry Adamson other than that he is sooooooo cool. And I may interview him soon. Keep your fingers crossed.

This song is perpetually stuck in my head, and inspired me to buy a sweet hat.


Holy fuck, Iggy Pop, do you roll out of bed as scary as this?

And to think they let this guy do the tutorials to kids' games.


You didn't know that Karin Dreier was a shaman, did you?

What fucking cave have you been living in?


Tell you what, when you begin your own postmodern mythology, you can have two videos in a row on Bat Country!!! too.

Does anyone else feel like they've just been run through a velvet meatgrinder? Intensity ain't all Drop-D and 808s, kiddies.


Picture this video with the music from the last one...

...and never sleep again.


Yes, yes.

Bathe in the at-the-time-cutting-edge cinematography.


Amelia (14 mos. old) took control of the keyboard momentarily to post this:

I think they should remake "The Parent Trap" with Morrissey and The Blue Wiggle.


"If you meet Kid Beyond on the road, kill him."

"But not before you meet him."


Here's a little taste of an upcoming interview subject:

Kil Ripkin is displaying some definite hiphop skills, and I'll be talking to him about what exactly hiphop is.


Well, that's it for another episode of BAT COUNTRY!!! In closing I'd like to leave you with a video of Crappy's own Ben Meyercord in his band Y La Bamba, who he is too gentlemanly to post a video of himself. I saw them last night for the first time and they rocked it out.

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Musical Tourniquet: Meeting your bandmate for the first time after lengthy internet collaboration

Heh, sorry Eriq. A quick riff on the title of your excellent series was unavoidable.

As it turns out, the meeting of the minds went quite well. While of course Murphy's Law was in full effect for us (my wife got ill, baby needed watching, my bandmate Shreya lost her wallet and had to use public trans to find it), the only thing that really affected the rock was coffee. Our rehearsal was held in the well-esteemed space known as my mom's living room. I offered to make coffee, got mugs out and water boiling, then when I cracked open the container of Folger's Brazilian Roast on the counter, I discovered it was actually compost. Blargh! Probably for the best, it was Folger's after all, and the word 'Brazilian' has too strong of a butthole-related non-coffee connotation for me anyway.

The big B advises that all component things fall apart, and this is certainly true of music projects in the short term. A number of our s had their electronic parts tracked live, and once we tried them in person we moved them into a more guitar/bass/vocal friendly minimal format. Which is fine for these first upcoming shows, until I can work in the mindbending psychedelic audience participation bits and whatnot. All in all, a good feeling. I hope all the long-distance projects that come to fruition out there get to have positive bandmate experiences like I did. It's important, when you're a man of a certain age, that your band respect the boundaries of your family, but also must balance out on the other end with a healthy dose of sweet occult awesomeness.

Coeur Machant is playing Friday April 10th at Le Voyeur in Olympia, with The Harvey Girls, Cool Scool, Estocar, and Live Action Culturez. Show is free. We continue our short-ass tour with The Harveys at Bob's Java Jive in Tacoma, also with Tune-yards and Quinn. $5.

Simultaneously, so you don't think I only pimp myself, Salem has decided to try and neutralize my high school image of it ("Do you mind if I tax those Docs?" "Yes! NO. Wait... shit. What's the correct answer?") by staging the Cherry City Music Festival that weekend. There is a cubic ass-ton of bands, many of whom are quite good. Check out cherrycitymusic.com for more details.

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Wet t-shirt- excuse me, TRIBUTE NITE

So, looking in the A&E I notice that there are not one but TWO tribute nights coming up, one for Tom Petty and one for Tom Waits. Why so many Toms? And more importantly, where is the Tom Jones tribute show? This got me thinking, and more questions followed. Who sets up these tribute nights, and WHY THE HELL WAS I NOT ASKED TO BE INVOLVED?

Let me back up. I have only played in one tribute show, an Iggy Pop show, which was a benefit back in the day for the families of 9/11-fallen FDNY. It was awesome. We were a late add-on, so all the classic songs had been taken, so we ended up doing "Mask" off his then-current album, which mutated into an even harder hardcore song with a very sweet sax-led reggae bit in the middle. It was so much fun. The host/promoter of that show was the ubiquitous DJ Gregarious, and when I talked to him later, it was going to be the first of several tribute nights, such as George Harrison and Cheap Trick. He mentioned that tribute nights are... well, tricky and not cheap, but very popular.

I can see certain difficulties immediately. Many many bands, which means more bodies that aren't paying to get in, more risks and hassle for the venue. The music rights aspect- I mean, it isn't like cover band night at the local watering hole. In the age of teh Intarweb it's even easier. If Roger Water's IP lawyer has a few idle minutes to spare, he can just google 'Pink Floyd tribute nite,' give ASCAP a call, and start shuttin' doors. Is that how it works? I'm actually very curious. As wikipedia would say, "This article requires the attention of an expert."

Here's the thing, though. I can think of some awesome tributes, boom, off the top of my head: Joy Division, The Who, Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell, Morrissey, etc. These are just some of my favorite artists, but you can see what I mean. I'd love to play at any of those, and I think Coeur Machant would be up to the task. So set up some tribute nights already, people, and count me in. I'll help out!

And I won't tell Roger Waters.

P.S.

Speaking of both DJ Greg and Tom Jones, we simultaneously attended his show in the summer of '95. These were the Papaccino's days when he was a barista and I was a patron. Anyway, you of course know that TJ is famous for having women throw their panties on stage during "What's New Pussycat." Well, during that song, DJ Greg (flanked of course by two fine-looking ladies) reached down into his pants and threw his boxers on stage.

Damn.

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