Fulfilling a longtime goal of mine, you can find us in the library system. What better local distribution than the perennial winner of “America’s Greatest Library System?”

The other fun part is anybody can do this. And everybody should. A fantastic way to simultaneously support the local arts AND the local library. Both of which could always use plenty of love. E-mail me if you don’t know how.

Greetings From The Peach District was named “most fun album” in Columbus Alive’s yearly roundup of local music. The phrase “wonderful whimsy” was used. Intentionally. Though, to be fair, the copy we sent to Columbus Alive came with a puppy. His name is Roger and yes, he is a lot of fun.

Also, in the random world of “press” for this here musical outfit, Songs From The Road, a blog with otherwise great taste stumbled on the Monster House album (no idea how) and actually talked about it highly. Read all about it!

Various Artists – The Year In Chorus

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This one goes out to everyone at the Taj Tuesdays open mic. I take fantastically little credit for it, but together everyone achieves more, right? Bookending the story with the first verse of Animal Collective’s My Girls, this “song” takes the best of the choruses (applicable to the “relationship” theme we’re working with) that came out of that room this year and ends up telling a story. I highly recommend you listen to all the songs individually (here would be a good place to start), as there’s plenty more going on here than just the choruses, but suffice it to say I’m honored to be surrounded by such talent every Tuesday. Cheers you beautiful Taj Tuesdays people, and here’s to another year of writing great songs.

The Songs:

My Girls – Animal Collective
I Just Want to Get Paid – Trains Across the Sea
Run Away With Me – Trains Across the Sea
The Cutest Drinking Song Ever – Cody Johnston (see more of him here)
Love Is Something That You Do – Trains Across the Sea
Musket Sea Family – Cody Johnston
Tree In The Woods – Colors for the War (specifically Phil Kim; see more of him here and here)
A Mile Northeast – Trains Across the Sea
My Girls – Animal Collective
Rapture – Colors for the War (specifically Jason Dutton; see more of him here)

Honestly, I probably won’t beat this weekend in a long time.

Chronologically: A meeting with writers from The Lantern and 614 Magazine about the upcoming Greatest Show (more on that later), 8th Floor Improv’s December Show (another reminder of how TERRIBLE I would be at improv), Bernie’s, endless drinkalong/singalong/DuckHuntalong party back at our place, get a 1:35am text from Bobby Miller that I’m in the Rock Potluck (how did that happen?), woke up hungover to get to Central City Recording for practice, had an hour break to eat, played a Salvation Army food drive show at Tobacco International for probably the greatest audience we’ve ever played for (honestly, thank you guys so much; the recording is here, feel free to send me an e-mail for the password), got my face melted at the Rock Potluck (portion of proceeds benefit the Columbus Music Co-Op), and then completely lost control of myself when our single-serving band (Pussy Control) got on stage and played something, I think. Then on Sunday I read The Road.

All without the assistance of an automobile. I love this town.

Honestly, thank you everybody on this album and everybody on past albums and future albums and anybody who’s ever seen us and everybody I’ve ever met and all that sorta love.

Feel free to ignore the plug for the website at the end. It seems you’re aware of it…

Ah, dear Pat Leonard, staple of the Columbus music scene…

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If you’re not aware, Pat has been running a radio show for years, and normally he has pretty good taste in music. That’s not the case this week, when he weakened from my incessant bothering to allow us into Electraplay Studios to record. It’s a good mix of Trains tunes – one off the first album, one cover, one off the last album, and one new one. The LifeScouts have three songs on the show as well! So check out patradio.org to listen to the show and then check out his new website (to further confuse his listeners) for video and other excitement.

And of course, keep listening to WCRS.

Yesterday was most likely my last “official” day of retirement, and it was a classic. I should be starting a job on Monday (I’ll let you all know all about it as soon as it’s finalized – I don’t want to jinx myself), consequently moving into a new phase of this project; the main focus of which is to keep writing as many new songs as I can. Looking back, it’s honestly an unreal trip having essentially zero obligations for nine and a half months, and I highly recommend it to anybody who can afford to. There are few greater gifts to give oneself than their own life back. And what do you do when you’ve been given your life back? For me, lots of strange things, but I think a brief rundown of my last completely free weekday acts as a pretty fair cross section of how I’d prefer to spend my days.

I woke up with a pot of coffee and bright morning sun and plowed more through my well-thumbed Hunter S. Thompson (Gonzo Papers Vol. 1), journaled a little, worked on a new song for a few hours, had a thick slice of sourbread toast, mixed up some new dough to rise while I’m out, packed the bag (ukelele, iPod, hammock, books, journal, camera, etc) and hit the road (don’t stop doing things just because you don’t have anybody to do them with). The bicycle took me leisurely all over the city; through downtown, to the west side where I climbed a tree and took the picture above, to those benches on the other side of the river downtown, where I took the picture below, and then casually up that consistently gorgeous bike trail to a coffee shop where Patrick was waiting, and it’s reading and laughing and drinking beer at three in the afternoon and MAKING A NEW FRIEND (this becomes a sweet, rare commodity the older you get) and back home for that Andy-sized bowl of pasta and watching a movie with a six pack of beer and just dumbly smiling at the supreme relaxation of having biked all over this grand town and honestly not wanting to be anywhere else.

Songs Start Here

Because we could give a damn about myspace hits.
Because we’d rather make something that lasts than something that becomes popular.
Because art is like anything else on this planet – you gotta work your ass off before you get anywhere.
Because sometimes we were so drunk it was terrible, and sometimes we were so drunk it was amazing.
Because the only way any of us will get there is if we go together.
Because sometimes you pee at the wrong time and miss something.
Because I don’t want to forget the stuff I can’t remember.

Rules:
Each attendee of open mic is allowed one (1) song per week to be recorded. Having a single song/project (cover, original, spoken word, whatever) to work on each week is a manageable chunk of time to really get a good product. Each song is uploaded whenever Andy gets around to it. No ranking system, no preference to any song above any other. All available for free stream/download. The marketing is done elsewhere. This is a simple database for anybody that might ask “what are those open mics like, anyway?” Click randomly around and find out for yourself.

Or, quite obviously, come to open mic. It’s amazing.

I run an open mic at Taj Mahal on Tuesday nights. This is why.

Phil Kim – Tree In The Woods

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So I was listening to The Weakerthans (introduced to me by Anna Sudac), and I send Anna an e-mail, wanting to hear her version of “My Favourite Chords.” Two days later, this is in my inbox. The internet is amazing.

Anna Sudac – My Favourite Chords (Weakerthans Cover)

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