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!

Read more »

Here’s another tasty improvisational musical exploration, by Percolator, using instruments. Jam 2 (10.25.09):

This is the second of two jams we played one after the other during rehearsal, both strangely the exact same length. We seem to be in Talking Heads “Remain in Light” territory, which is a fun place to be. Thanks to Elena Curry for the nice shot of us at the Empty Bottle!

Here’s a bit of Percolator in our natural habitat, in the midst of a sprawling jam. Jam 1 (10.25.09):

This is the first of two jams we played one after the other during rehearsal, both of which are exactly the same length, by some odd coincidence (6:30-something…I forget specifically). Check back for an equal amount of time spent jamming later.

Join us Thursday, January 28th at the Bottom Lounge!  Looks like the Cathy Santonies are headlining, and either Airlines-X or ourselves (Percolator, pictured above) are opening.  Looks like the show starts at 8, so make sure to get there a little early, so as not to miss us.

In the meantime, we’ll be constructing our own bass baffles by hand, acoustically padding our rehearsal space and finally getting down to mixing our second album.  We recorded almost everything last summer, but it’s been a journey since then to get all the overdubs and vocals recorded, to set up a computer for mixing, etc., etc.  With Mike McGovern’s help, this record will surely sound better than anything we’ve released before (except maybe the Narcoleptic Tongues EP, which he also recorded and mixed for us).

If you haven’t already, head on over to iTunes to pick up a copy of the Illegally People EP.  Digital copies are going fast…make sure to get yours before they sell out!  Both the Narcoleptic Tongues EP and our debut LP, Man is Not a Bird will be available on iTunes soon.  Though, if you’re a fan and you’re clever, you’ll notice that we’re giving Man is Not a Bird away digitally for free right now, right here on this webpage (while supplies last).

Hey everybody, a few items of Percolator note:

We’re on iTunes!  Hooray for that.  In due course, we should also be on every other fathomable online digital musical provider.

Monday the 14th of Dec, we’ll be playing @ Ronny’s (2101 N. California Ave.).  Evidently, Mondays at Ronny’s will now be “Public Hair” shows, which are their variety evenings, so this will be the maiden voyage of something potentially very odd and entertaining.  Not sure on ticket price, but it’s a cash-only bar that serves nachos all night long out of a crock pot, so I assure you, any sum of money is absolutely worth it, unless you can find and purchase chips, jalapenos and cheese dip by yourself and own a crock pot.

Wednesday the 23rd of Dec, we’ll be playing @ the Empty Bottle (1035 N. Western Ave.) for $5 at the door ($3 in advance) with Sequoia, Lord of the Yum Yum and our personal friends & headliners, Avagami. We’ll be opening, so aim to catch us around 8:30ish, just in case they put us on super-early.  Needless to say: Empty Bottle…awesome venue, and our first time playing there.  So…we’re ridiculously excited.

So, the show at the Subterranean last week was awesome.  Thanks so much to everyone who came out & special thanks to Rob for taking pictures!  We’ll be playing Ronny’s in a few weeks, so if you wanted to see us but missed us, you’ll have another chance before Chicago becomes unbearably cold.

Moving into the bright and shiny digital future, we’ve landed on CDBaby, and are now offering our “Illegally People EP” for $3 on their fine website.  Just CLICK HERE, as they say in the future, and you’ll be whisked away to an album-buying opportunity.  In a few weeks, once they’ve crunched all our 0′s and 1′s, we’ll be up on iTunes as well as Lala, eMusic & all those jazzy internets.

I’m very excited to announce that we’ll be headlining the Subterranean (2011 W. North Ave.) Wednesday, October 21st.  If there’s one Percolator show you go to this year, this one should probably be it!  We’ve been laying low, recording our second album for a while (25 songs! possibly a double album!), but we’re really excited to be playing out again, especially at such a cool, great-sounding venue.
Opening will be the Vindits as well as EL DF, which is a side-project of Alla, who are an excellent local psychedelic sort of band.  Should be very exciting.

The cover will be $8 and doors open at 8:30, show’s at 9, 21 and over.

TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED HERE

Hope to see you there!

It may be grainy, out of focus, and poorly lit, but this is my all time favorite picture of Ben.  Cheapass plastic rain poncho wearers: strive for this.

-phil

Our internet guru & band-member, PJ, has slipped into an irregularity in the fabric of time (pictured above) after trying to iron it out of his urban camouflage jumpsuit (unimaginable), so our regularly scheduled Single of the Month will be with you shortly.

For now, I might redirect your attention to some relatively deranged Beatles covers, originally recorded by Percolator (Helter Skelter) and myself (Matt) for our friends at the Aquabear Legion.

Click links to stream, or right click & Save As to download and put on your music pod discman machine:

Helter Skelter – Percolator

Revolution #9 – matt collander

You should really check out their entire White Album Tribute Cover Album Thing…lots and lots gems, all free (Why Don’t We Do It In the Road, Honey Pie, Wild Honey Pie, Martha My Dear, Birthday…all must-listens)

Oh yeah, and we’re also still preemptively excited to be playing Martyr’s on Wednesday,  August 19 with our friend Sean’s band, Save the Clocktower.  $7 at the door!

Click HERE to hop onto our mailing list!

Auch ist hier eine andere wichtige Sache.

-matt/Percolator

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!