When the Wind has your Back Everyone looks Familiar

It started last Monday. The Culver Den: Sleep gets a call from his sister. Thom Yorke tickets are going on sale at ten o'clock Tuesday morning..

Sleep: Whoa! This is gonna be crazy! I don't think Thom ever toured for his solo project [The Eraser].

Justin: Yeah! Sounds like fun! ..too bad I'm broke.

Sleep: Just try to get some tickets! You know how anything related to Radiohead sells.. you can put it on my card.. Don't worry.

Justin: okay.. if you say everything'll be alright..

Anyway, the next morning, Justin wakes up ten minutes after Sleep calls from an unfamiliar number, and seven minutes before tickets go on sale to the general public. Justin tries and fails to get ahold of Sleep. He tries and succeeds at getting ahold of Thom Yorke tickets, panics, then proceeds to finish purchasing the tickets with money that he'd reserved for food and shelter.. only to find that, due to a paperless ticket procedure, Justin was now obligated to show up in person on the night of the event (sun. oct. 4) to claim the two tickets.

At this point, now, I have two seats at the Sunday night Thom Yorke show and one hundred forty less dollars in the bank.. So I do the only appropriate thing there is to do: call another starving musician, who also happens to be a die hard 'Head' fanatic. In hopes that instead of only one, there would be two morons wallowing in their irresponsible, but everso chivalrous decisions.

Long story, short.. I spend Sunday recuperating from a Saturday night out on the town with the fam.. Croby, Stills and Nash at the Greek.. And after a very frustrating time with the old voice, I meet up with Sleep, Jon (Stinky Pinky), and The Doctor, Chris Yenny back at The Culver Den. We spend some time talking about the possibility of future independent publication endeavors and synthetic opiates. We talk about the moment and maybe making some beats to trade for rent.. And we enjoy Downtown and The Orpheum Theatre. And we enjoy Joey Waronker on drums, Mauro Refosco (percussion), Radiohead producer, Nigel Godrich (utility), and Flea on bass.. And we enjoy Thom Yorke and the band playing The Eraser, in its entirety (not to mention some rare solo performances of old and some new Radiohead songs). I enjoy bumping into Edward Norton and Jon could hardly pull himself together after shaking hands with Colin Greenwood.

It was a night of running, with the wind at our backs. One of those nights when everyone looks familiar and you're just trying not to order another bacon wrapped hot dog freshly grilled on someone's newly converted shopping-cart-stove. And you're doing your best not to order another whisky..

inspiration

"I was scared to see if people were going to embrace the idea of a whole shitload of sounds on one album,"

- Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew a couple months after You Forgot It In People was released in October 2002

shows

Last 3 shows attended:

Bat for Lashes
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Dodos

...I am a spoiled brat.

...in my car CD changer

1. The Wave Pictures - If You Leave It Alone

(found in my living room. I think Sleep must've left it)

2. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

(Fingerprints, LB)

3. The Dodos - Beware of the Maniacs

(Amoeba Records, Hollywood)

4. Wells - 8/5/09 Live @ The Shore

(The Shore, Hermosa Beach)

5. Elliot Smith - New Moon

(don't know where I found this one. probably from Sleep)

6. UP1 Mix

(a nokiss made mix ranging from Tokyo Police Club to Dosh. from M.I.A. to Ghostland Observatory. and from LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture to.. well, you get the idea)

Buttons!!

So..  Ann came over yesterday.  And she brought pieces enough to make probably over a hundred buttons.. and she brought over her very own button press! and she brought pens and a little watercolor kit.. and she done strained us some kava, yo!  Wow.. it pretty much goes without saying, but "We like Ann!"

"I just ordered a thousand more of these guys.." she squeezes through a mischievous grin.  "Let's make some Wells merch!"

 And make, we did.. About a handful of buttons.  Although, I feel it is safe to say that the quality of the buttons far exceeded the quantity.  The most important thing here, is that we all enjoyed ourselves.. in the company of ourselves, while creating.. art?  Right?  Right.  So, be on the look out for Eyeball Burp! and Wells of People buttons!  And once you get your hands on some.. you can pin them on your bookbag, or your favorite hat!  Use one to mend a broken zipper or a relationship on the rocks! ..well, probably not a relationship on the rocks.. but maybe..

Geography

I'm in the business of creating geography.  Well.. really, we all are.  And capturing topography in moments in moments. Of movement. And, in time.. memory.

"Things ain't what they used to be.."

They always were.  And when they went and changed, we wondered what they always were.  All along.  Along the coasts and plains. The crests of mountains and the lows of valleys that made lakes. We've camped out and trained trails into the wild. We've given names to the places we've seen.  We've sounded them out and we've woven them into a familiar fabric.  Where there were holes, we stitched seams.  We took care of the connections we made between things.  We waited for physics.  And sometimes, when we thought no one was watching we'd believe in magic.  And we'd lean ourselves against the wind. Lend our eyes to the sky.  We'd keep our ears to the ground.  And wait for physics.  To run its course. To give us a sign.

Need Music

I need it in my car.  in my head. Sleep! Help!