I just got back to Chicago after taking a road trip with my father.   It wasn’t a vacation–We had to go to central Florida to transform my grandmother’s apartment into a collection of boxes.   Over 36 hours, we traversed most of the southeastern United States and went through the bulk of Otis Redding’s discography.  I broke up the listening with a couple of Silver Jews CDs, as lately the band’s been unable to get away from them for more than a few days. (We were even moved to try our collective hand at “Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed” at our last show.  Not sure if we’ll be bringing that out again any time soon, though…)

As a result, I decided to respond to this experience with a rather David Berman-inspired poem–the first I’ve written since high school.  Enjoy!

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Hidely hey!

So, the Darkroom was awesome last night.  Pictured above is myself (left) and Doug (not left), visibly enjoying ourselves, due to the show.  Many thanks to those who came out & much appreciation to the Grownup Noise for getting this together.  Deanna Devore put on a great acoustic set & the Ropes closed the evening with a real gritty New York electro rock set.  Also, thanks to the drunk guy who gave me vocal tips after the show as we loaded gear.  I think the show went a little something like:

1. Safeward

2. Eye Contact

3. Model Town

4. Deduction

5. Dig a Hole

6. Minerky Bill

7. Only Hungry

8. Stapling Flowers

9. Angelo

Our next show’s at Martyr’s on Wednesday,  August 19.  We’re playing with our friend Sean’s band, Save the Clocktower, who are a sometimes loungey, sometimes rocky, always sweet guitar/key/drum trio.  $7 at the door, gentleladies and charming men.

Oh yeah, and if you’d like to be on our MAILING LIST, just click on those big blue words, input your e-mail address, and then click submit.  Simple, easy, free.  Fun.

Then, by a coordinated series of digital tubes, your information will travel, “packet by packet” until we receive the recombined data on our end.  The data will be printed via computer image laser imprinting on large sheets of industry-grade papyrus, which will be hung from the walls to dry and “settle.” After weeks of binary translation, we will be able to transcode your address into our system, and begin to send you updates about shows, or other notable things you might enjoy.

See you soon!

Watch 14. Harpya (Raoul Servais, 1978) in Animation |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Here’s a short from the 1970s by Raoul Servais, one of my favorite animators. It’s called Harpya. This is the only one of his films that looks this creepy, and it’s probably his best. For years,  I’ve wanted his films released on DVD in the States, but unfortunately, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.  Oh well.  You can see a lot of them online (you can probably just follow the links embedded with the video).  If anyone ever hears about any of his films screening in Chicago, please, by all means, let me know!! I’ve only been able to enjoy his movies online, and I think that’s just wrong.  In the meantime, it looks like we can get a DVD of short animation by a fellow named Brian Dewan.  These look totally promising!

-phil

Click the image above to read a very colorful comic. Very colorful, indeed.  Almost too colorful.  Yikes.  Share and enjoy!

-phil

Hey folks.  So we just started recording a new album.  From the looks of things, it seems like the record itself and the process of making it are going to be long, long, long.  Basically, between our three songwriters, we’ve written and arranged thirty, maybe forty (fifty?!) songs in the last year.  If we don’t record these bastards once and for all, I think we’ll all go crazy.  So begins the long process of the second Percolator record.

If you’re anything like me, you fucking hate waiting.  So I’ll help you out a little.  While we’re recording this massive batch of songs, I’ll be posting up little sonic nuggets for you every so often.  Think of them as little snacks to keep you from starving while you wait for the big meal.  My first selection is an excerpt from a jam we recorded in our practice space maybe a year or so ago.  It is the first and only time we’ve ever played this.  I believe PJ and I are on guitars, Matt on bass, and Ben on drums.  Stay tuned, folks. There’s more to come.

-phil

Happy New Years, everybody! A couple of things worth mentioning…we’ll be playing a handful of shows in January so watch out soon for forthcoming dates, times & locations.  By the looks of it though, between the slew of shows getting set up & all the recording we have ahead of us (LP2 is on its way!), 2009 is looking very, very exciting!  Very shortly, however, friends the Nothingheads will be playing a free show:

Friday January 2nd at Hotti Biscotti in Logan Square, 3545 W. Fullerton, 8pm FREE

…which is a cool little coffee joint in mine & Ben’s neighborhood.  Why do I mention this?  Well, aside from being an awesome band that we’ve had the pleasure to play with before and hope to play with again, they’ve asked me to play a short acoustic set before the show.  I’m very used to playing full band shows, and not so used to playing with only an acoustic guitar, so this should be some folksy, adventurous fun.  I’d highly recommend investing your $0 in this surely entertaining evening!!

But, to get to the REAL point of this post…Sylvia Browne, “psychic” extraodinare!  That’s her beautiful visage at the top of the page.  I’m sure this lady’s not news to a lot of people, but I just can’t help but point her out & laugh…beyond the obvious humor of being flat wrong as a psychic, she’s also either terrible at her job of cold reading people & conning them, or much less likely, she’s actually a functioning medium that, while gifted, understands her gift so poorly that she’s unable to meaningfully interact with the people she’s attempting to help, despite genuinely receiving imagistic impressions from the dead.  Or maybe the dead are just fucking around with her?  So, bad con-woman, or bad psychic?  Or both, and then more?  I think you should decide, by joining me on a video adventure after the break, by clicking here… (more…)

Don’t forget…we’ve got a show tomorrow, December 18th at the Subterranean with Allá and Busted Canoe!! ($8, 21+)

Though demoralized & frozen from the snow yesterday, we still really enjoyed playing with both Genius School and Flatlander at the Dark Room. Genius School reminded me, at least vocally, of some Dismemberment Plan stuff…sort of silly/paranoiac slogan-barking while the band stayed harder-edged. Flatlander brought a lot of variety, crooning like Julian Casablancas, or howling like Iggy Pop…both very fun.

AND, as it’s the end of the year, we here at Percolator have been compulsively making our Top 10 lists…after much frivilous deliberation, these are our favorites of the year… (more…)

It sounds filthy when you say it like that, doesn’t it?  If anyone is unaware (and I have no idea how that could be), there’s a man named Grant Morrison who is busy as hell writing comics these days.  My friend Vaughn steered me in his direction years ago, but like many things Vaughn tips me off to, it didn’t really sink in until years later.  After an awe-inspiring run on more underground titles like “The Invisibles,” “Flex Mentallo,” “The Doom Patrol” and his first D.C. project, “Animal Man,” Morrison has been redefining more mainstream characters…Superman, the X-Men, the JLA…most of them, really.  For the past few years, however, he’s been the main scribe on Batman, a run on the title which has culminated in the recently concluded “Batman R.I.P.” storyline, which I will gush about after the break…but before I do, check out this song… (more…)