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Do bands hibernate? Most probably should. A solid stint of solitary study would behoove the majority of what seems to fight for the popular vote these days.. Ask me what I’m listening to at any given moment, and nine times out of ten, it’ll be something from before you were born. There was a time when no genre was prefaced with “a thinking man’s..” The musicians I love and return to time after time are almost all dead. Granted, not all of them died of natural causes, if such a thing exists for musicians, but I’m straying here.. Point is, more than half the music we have access to is complete mindless garbage, robbed from the graves of the pioneers who actually took the time to do things like, oh I don’t know, PRACTICE, research, take chances, test their audience, and ultimately GIVE themselves to thousands of strangers in the face of imminent criticism, crucifixion, and the fickle, shared, single-celled mind of the drooling masses.

TONIGHT, my friends, fellow musicians, dudes-in-bands, and fans of real music in general, What Made Milwaukee Famous will celebrate the end of the “What Doesn’t Kill Us” album cycle at Antone’s here in Austin Texas. It’s been three very long years of touring for this band in support of both Barsuk releases, and now that we’re not staring down the barrel of 250 shows a year, we’ve got some time to sit down and think about what the next album means for us, and how three years of road-dogged living has changed both us and our sound.

TONIGHT we’ll be taking the stage around 11pm and we will be joined by Josh King of The Lemurs on keys and Kelly Doyle on guitar, who you’ve maybe seen with WMMF side project The Motts.  Mr Doyle is quickly becoming my favorite guitarist to play with in over 20 years, and might just be my favorite guitarist to listen to.  This guy makes me laugh and cry, often while I’m trying to back his ass on a solo, which makes my already grotesque stage faces even more amusing, I’m sure.  I dunno.  You tell me.  Come out tonight and hear us one last time before we go into hibernation and see what the dream machine conjures up for the next album.  We’ve got new tunes in their infancy we’d like to share with our hometown crowd, old favorites, and probably a LOT of Firefly to drink..

Showtime: 11pm

Doors: 8pm

Openers :  9pm – Quiet Company / The Laughing

Tickets HERE!

There’s a certain magic that happens just before sunrise.  My rural/farming upbringing had me seeing many a sunrise from the hilltop second-story window that was at the head of my bed.  And in those days, when I saw the sunrise it meant one of two things; either I was about to go “into town” for band practice before school (M-F for most of my jr high and high school career), which was great, or, I was about to get up and get “swinehandled” by a rough cast of hogs for the day (weekends), and this rarely put me in a mood fit for any type of conversation.  I believe it was this “not a morning person” characteristic that actually helped me learn to deal with pigs and quickly learn to love them as animals, even more than dogs.  Anyway, back to the magic..

So I hear the usual lady who delivers the papers to my building outside my window, huffing and grunting as she lobs her bounty onto the second and third floor units above me, counting how many times she misses and has to re-chuck each paper that’s fallen to the sidewalk and hopefully not on my basil.  I briefly ponder stepping outside just to witness this frequently botched routine, but decide that setting up a camera to capture the moment on film is far less awkward for everyone involved.  In theory.  In practice, it’s something else entirely.  And these are precisely the things your brain starts stirring up when you’ve been staring at a computer screen for hours and hours (and I’m not going to shock you with actual numbers here, just trust me, it’s obscene) and dealing with the glorious highs of discovering a new combination of video filters or how to extract a character from your favorite childhood video game, to the ego-crushing and self-doubting lows of software crashes after hours of unsaved work (Command-S stands for “stupid, stupid, stupid!”), discovering complete groups of shots are unusable, or just general “Why the hell are you doing this?  Why?  Explain it to yourself like a child and tell me if it makes sense.  Please.”  And it’s in these very cycles of dementia that Patton Oswalt explains best here, where you either push through it or you let it eat you.  I don’t know about you, but being eaten by anything is pretty high on my list of “Ways To NOT Go Out.”

So I dealt with it, and I explained to myself why I was doing this.  Why I was keeping us (oh boy) awake and subjecting us to such lengths of finger-f*cking pixels into place?  It’s not like anyone’s paying me to do this.  And it was as soon as I realized that that I knew I was doing it for the right reason; because it’s fun.  It’s a creative medium I never thought I would dip a toe in, much less start entertaining teasing the sharks and foraging for scallops.  So why not?  Why not go all-out and do it exactly the way I see it in my head?  Where is it going?  Is there a goal?  Well I suppose so, I mean it’d be great if someone at Adult Swim or any one of my various heroes in the entertainment world got a kick out of it.  For the time being it’s purely a labor of love, and to quote Doug Stanhope, “Did you work hard this week?  Yeah, don’t do that.  I mean, if it’s a labor of love, like, you’re learning to play the sitar, or you’re trying to find my prostate when we’re on ecstacy, then yeah.  Dig in.  Root around!“  And this little piggy is laughing harder than anyone at this latest piece of work.  I’m going to guess that there’s over 200hrs of serious labor in this one, which I titled “Bruch You!” out of finally reaching my limit with my mispronounced last name, hoping to set that whole thing a little straighter, but then it started to mean something else after I’d come to terms with the whole process of what it takes to make something like this all on your own.  You’re getting me at my most naked.  Literally.

So with a grand goodbye to Summer, I present Jrm Says.. “Bruch You!”  In the break between episodes, I’ve got a busy September on the books, musically-speaking, so be sure to check the calendar for dates with Dertybird (CD release!), Becca Garcia, What Made Milwaukee Famous, and a new top secret project that’s been in the works for a few weeks now as we prepare for our first gig, so stay tuned for that one for sure.  Also, September is the birth month of two of my favorite ladies on this planet, who actually happen to share first AND middle names.  Love to you both.  I’m glad you was borned. 

Have a great weekend and keep the feedback coming.  I’ll keep the feedbag full.

Oink,

Jrm

So this most recent episode of Jrm Says really took considerably longer than the last episodes to crank out, mostly due to the fact I have upgraded my editing software, camera, and my computer’s ram.  This also means I had to spend a lot of time getting familiar with the training DVDs for Final Cut Pro.  The normal flow of editing was far out the window once I started realizing the new world of possibilities I was slowly uncovering.  Thankfully I kept the food painfully simple, which left plenty of room for ridiculous editing tricks like glowing flying severed faces (my own), a flatulent star from a beloved food network, and most importantly the introduction of my new co-host, “Michael” who is merely the split-screen a••hole version of me and goes by my middle name, which is what I was called as a child when I was in trouble.  Hence, Michael is reborn.

So from here on out, it’s going to get considerably weirder.  Please keep the feeback coming.  I’m making this mostly for me, but also for you.  Nobody’s paying me (or even asking me) to do this, so I appreciate the suggestions, even if some of them do fall on deaf ears (no, I’m not making a pie or cutting out the profanity.  watch Paula Deen if you want those things).  I promise to keep it interesting and, well, uncomfortably odd.  Thanks for watching.

Eckso,
Jrm

It took me some time to finally hunker down and step out of my iMovie HD comfort zone, but thanks to some assistance from a certain badass director I know, I have now almost (almost) completely forgotten about my old ways.

..and now I present to you, the coming season of Jrm Says.., now in HD and edited in Final Cut Pro. If you thought things got weird before..

..hell, I’m even scared.

Keep an eye out later this week for affordable and decadent date ideas. Hint: “we all float down here..”

Also check in on the Gigs Calendar for added July dates with Dertybird, Becca Garcia, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Golden Arm Trio/Graham Reynolds, and more..

Keep cool kiddos,
Jrm

So I finally took a long-overdue trip back home to the family farm a few weeks ago, as you can plainly see in the above video. In this most recent installment, I spent three weeks back home in Iowa, relaxing in the Iowan hillside, almost completely off the map. Now, back in Austin, I have resumed my frantic gigging/recording schedule, playing with numerous musicians and groups around town; Suzanna Choffel, The Motts, Becca Garcia, Dertybird, Golden Arm Trio, and various jazz groups. I’ve also picked up some video editing work for a major local sports/entertainment management company which has me working with newer and better software and cameras, as well as working on projects ranging from video blogs to actual concert footage from big shows. Quite exciting to be fully-immersed in the professional video editing world, a realm I never imagined I’d see. It just goes to show, being self-taught and persistent and disciplined WILL pay off in the end. Having never had a drum lesson, gone to culinary school, or taken a single class on video production, I’d say I’ve carved some profitable paths for myself.. So let that be a lesson to you kids; don’t waste tens of thousands of dollars on a college education when you can just as easily apprentice your way to your goals, often with only the help of a local library card and some determined Googling.

Other than that, not much else to report. I’m still scheming up plans for my mobile food vending service, but it seems that everyone and their dog has a food stand popping up in Austin this summer, so I think I will bide my time and study these new business and chart their popularity over the coming months, refining my plan of attack. Being that most food-based businesses never see their first birthday (marriage/restaurant stats are almost identical), who knows, maybe one of these saps will have a nice trailer to unload for a reduced price come September.. So until then, I am sticking to chef-for-hire and doing a few private parties and things like that. If you’d like to secure my services, please contact me.

And let’s see, oh yeah, I shaved my head for summertime scooter/swimming aero/hydro-dynamics. Also, public access channel 10 here on Austin’s Time Warner Cable has been showing my cooking show episodes in between musical performances and band interviews at 11pm Thursday nights, so if the screen on your computer isn’t big enough for your Jrm Says needs, tune in and let’s all pretend I got me some syndication, yo!

Sorry.. I’ve been watching Breaking Bad entirely too much. I highly recommend it. Best show maybe ever..

So that’s pretty much the wrap-up. It’s gonna be a busy summer of food, music, and video. Future Jrm Says episodes are going to start wandering into exciting, scary, and even sexy territory. Stay tuned. It’s about to get a whole lot weirder..

Y’all be good.

Choz,
Jrm