For Lee Jackson In Space Update

Posted on May 15, 2012 by LP4

Lee Jackson in Space album cover art by  Nevada Hill.

The Lee Jackson tribute album, Lee Jackson in Space, is GO!   And it’s gonna be a monster of an album; the running time of tracks submitted as of last week, as I recall, was already approaching five hours and I’m sure with the deadline being today, that album’s running time will increase substantially. Steve submitted the final mastered version of our track, “Elven Queen,” just yesterday and Ned confirmed that he got it, so look for us among the many folks raising a musical toast along with many other friends in this virtual wake for Lee.  Our thanks again to Ned Raggett, Mats Gustafsson, and Travis Johnson for making this possible as well as for having us aboard. 

UPDATE: 5/16/12

Just a small update folks.  We thought we’d share a few details from an e-mail we received yesterday from Ned .   In it, he writes;

“…General release date is still sometime in early June…

…The Bandcamp page’s design has been finalized and I’ve begun uploading selections as I can … the base price for purchase is $30, with the option to provide more if desired.  For simplicity, individual tracks will not be able to be purchased, but any or all of them can be streamed.”

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Recovering From Saturday’s Show

Posted on May 14, 2012 by LP4

First off, thanks to all you folks who came to see us on Saturday and thanks to Fiskadoro and Burn the Boats who both put on great shows.  Also love and appreciation to Pam, Terry, and the rest of the folks at Walter’s who are always great to work with.  The new bar Pam added looks great and the place is really starting to feel a lot more homey now. 

This was our first time to work with the over-the-top light show and it mostly went off without a hitch.  We still have some fine tuning to do and the shelving we found worked out pretty nicely.  Special thanks to Chris Cascio for stopping one projector before it ate up one of the reels. 

As for the show, I think we were all pretty happy with it and there was a lot of whoop-up led by Charlie downing shots with the audience.  I may be wrong but I think it was Jo Bird in the audience who took her shots with exceptional and commendable gusto.  Also, Stevie jumping on stage during “Bogfire” to sing back-up was pretty righteous! Thanks, man. 

Consider this.  We got to the space at 3pm and we got back to the space at 3am.  That’s a 12 hour shift and a lot of work too but when you have a great crowd at a wonderful venue, it’s all worth it so thanks y’all.

Here are a few pictures…

Richard Kimball (l) and Kirstin Otis (r) of Fiskadoro rockin’ it.  The trio played some great Post-punk stuff that included a nice Gang of Four cover at the end. Also, that Yamaha keyboard is pretty sweet. The chorus heavy bass was pretty cool too.

Stevie and his epic beard led Burn The Boats as they brutalized all with severely HEAVY metal. They have really come a long way since I first saw them - solid riffs, Stevie’s really gotten great as a front-man, and the songs are pretty schweeeet! Man, more metal bands should do songs based on classical literature because it’s pretty fuckin’ cool to hear songs about releasing the Kraken.

Here is our lighting set-up as it stands right now: three projectors, a psychedelic light, and a laser. Expect more to be added.

Here is how it all looks on stage….

…and this is a bit farther back. (Thanks Shelly for taking these with your camera phone.)

See y’all in a few weeks at the Continental Club.

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Hear “Elven Queen” today on KPFT’s Radio Active

Posted on May 11, 2012 by LP4

As we mentioned in out last post we tossed together the song ”Elven Queen” earlier this week for the Lee Jackson tribute album that should be out later this month.  Lucky for  you, in a shameless attempt to plug both the upcoming tribute album and tomorrow’s show at Walter’s with Burn The Boats and Fiskadoro, you will be able to hear the track today on KPFT’s Radioactive as Rhonda and Phil will be playing the track this afternoon sometime within their 1pm-3pm broadcast. 

You can hear the show in Houston on 90.1fm (90.1 HD1 if you are digital) otherwise you can stream it from their website http://kpft.org/

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Updates: For Lee Jackson in Space, Crom Video, and Oh Yes, We Have a Show Saturday

Posted on May 9, 2012 by LP4

Given our hectic schedule it wasn’t a sure thing but it looks like we have our track for the tribute album For Lee Jackson in Space completed.

By now, you guys all know that we here at LP4 central have a big D&D fixation.  We’ve had many discussions on things like the proper use of the adjective “Elven” vs. “Elf”, Clinton wrote a joke song called “Elf Booty”, our upcoming claymation video has an elf character in it, and I will go on record right now and say that I’ve always thought that Cate Blanchett as Galadriel in Lord of the Rings is pretty damn hot.  So it should come as no surprise that, when in a pinch and with little time to spare, one of us – Charlie to be exact – happened to have a song idea laying about called “Elven Queen.”  And so, this last Saturday, Charlie laid out the basic idea, Clinton added a bridge, and after eight hours the track was largely done.  Then, last night after about another three hours I laid down my guitar parts and some backing vocals while Larry added some tambourine and by the end of last night we had a rough mix which is likely just a few tweaks away from a final version to send to Ned by the May 15 deadline.  For the LP4 that is quick.  Just writing one song usually takes months of refinement let alone recording.  That whole process was compressed into just hours. Pretty good turnaround by Linus standards if you ask me.  

Credit for the Lee Jackson tribute goes to, Ned Raggett, Mats Gustafsson, and Travis Johnson who have been in charge of this project from the get-go and their work in putting this together is appreciated by all involved more than they likely know.   If you think this is easy, consider the list of bands submitting material; it’s exhaustive but it only shows how much one person could affect so many.   Here is a rough list of some of the bands contributing tracks:

Zanzibar Snails, Primordial Undermind, Black Forest/Black Sea, Mike Tamburo, Harry Sumnall, Tadpoles, Stone Breath, Photon Band, Valerio Cosi, Pete Fosco, quixod, Christian Kiefer, Tom Carter, Helena Espvall, The Weird Weeds, Thunderbolt Pagoda, Rustic Rod and Ade Shaw, Evening Fires, Hush Arbors, Brendan Quinn, Three Minute Tease, Nick Bensen, Doleful Lions, SubArachnoid Space, Magic Carpathians Band, Övind Holm, Paul LaBreque, Kitchen Cynics, The Tadpoles, Anvil Salute, The Renderers, Brad E. Rose, Tanakh, The Roswell Incident, The Linus Pauling Quartet, Marissa Nadler, R. Keenan Lawler, The Institute of Stone Age Sex, Greg Davis, Feature Films, ST 37, Arborea, Seht, Norman Neubauer, Peter Wright, Kable, Roy Montgomery, Raising Holy Sparks, Abunai!, Vanessa Rossetto, André Foisy, Locrian, Derek Rogers, Bruno Ruralfaune, The Alchemysts, Tom Greenwood, Tiago Varjao, Raglani, The Green Pajamas, Windy and Carl, Michael Morley, Sagas, Shawn David McMillan, Volcano the Bear, Electroscope, Ray Off, Insekt Factory, Eden Hazardelirium, Theo Angell, Jefre Cantu, Exterminating Angels, Remora, Matthew De Gennaro, Ralph White…

The tribute album is expected to be released via bandcamp in late May – probably Memorial Day weekend.  We will keep you posted.

In other news, principal photography for the “Crom” video is complete (outside of 14 frames of stills) and we will now be moving onto post-production.  It’s been a lot of work and a hell of a long time since we started work on this back in October of last year. Now is the time where we get to see if all the green screen work and weird stuff like that actually works. 

We don’t want to give away too much but here is a shot of the heroes planning their attack.  I should also note that when showing Clinton some of the dailies, Clinton rubbed his chin and said, “More Blood!!! Needs…More…Bloooood!”  Needless to say, his request was granted and so, any of you who cannot abide by gratuitous clay creature slaughter should be hereby put on notice.  Those of you who do have the stomach for such things should know that, if all works as planned, we should have it submitted to Homeskool Records by the end of May and you guys should get to see it sometime in Mid-July.   

Last but not least, we have a show this Saturday at Walters with Burn The Boats and Fiskadoro!!!  Both those bands are super coolz and we are going to up the ante for our show.  

You know why I can say that with all confidence?  Because nothing is more Rock and Roll than shelving!   Yes, shelving!  You see, Larry is going out this week to buy heavy-duty industrial shelving.  Our light show has gotten that stupidly big.  At last tally, we have three projectors, the new psych oil light, lasers, and of course fog.  Yes, after years of service, the shelf we bought at Target back in 2007 just can’t support the weight of all our crap any more.  We have that much crap now and this is only going to get more insane as time goes on.  

Point is, it is going to be pretty sweet.  See you there!

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Behold, Shelby Hohl’s album cover for “Bag of Hammers”

Posted on May 5, 2012 by LP4

Here it is folks, in its full gate-fold glory – Shelby Hohl’s awesome original art for our upcoming CD/ double LP, Bag of Hammers!

Also, don’t forget we play Walter’s next Saturday, May 12th with Burn the Boats and Fiskadoro.

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Because you can never have enough stage lights…

Posted on April 30, 2012 by LP4

Behold, the newest weapon in the LP4′s live show arsenal has arrived just in time for our Walter’s show on May 12th with Burn The Boats and Fiskodoro!

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Upcoming Show Updates: Dallas show confirmed, Lee Jackson Tribute show still up in the air, etc.

Posted on April 26, 2012 by LP4

It’s pretty busy here at LP4 Central. We just had a great show last weekend at Rudz but we aren’t slowing down.  We finally got word of the final line-up and venue for our June show with the ever bad-ass Wo Fat and all I can say is, there is gonna be some crazy stoner rock action in Dallas that night!  I know a lot of you are wondering about The Lee Jackson show in Austin as well but it is still up in the air.  We haven’t heard hide nor hair from the organizers since April but, given our busy schedule in May, we’re hoping it is still happening and that it won’t conflict with some of our other shows.  We’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything.  Anyhow, here is the latest list of upcoming shows.

Burn The Boats - LP4 - Fiskadoro

May 12, 2012 – with Fiskadoro and Burn The Boats @ Walter’s

May 26, 2012 – 29-95 False Idols tribute to Velvet Underground w/ Linus Pauling Quartet as the Velvet Underground, Muhammad Ali & Future Blondes @ The Continental Club

Bag of Hammers: Texas Pre-Release Show weekend June 22 – 24

June 22, 2012- with TBA, From Beyond, and Hearts of Animals @ Fitzgerald’s (Houston)
June 23, 2012- with Wo Fat, Big Sandy Gilmer, and F..T.W. @ La Grange (Dallas)
June 24, 2012- with ST37 @ Trailer Space (Austin)

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Saturday Night Zen Monkey

Posted on April 24, 2012 by LP4

Yes. Yes. Yes.  I know there are no pictures of Saturday’s show here but, hey, we were much too busy bringing the rock that night to even consider taking pictures.  So instead, here is a Lynda Barry* painting of Zen Monkey which is kind of how I felt at 4am on my way home from the rehearsal space after the show. 

Come to think of it, I’m still recovering from Saturday.  My day started at noon, biking over to Rockin’ Robin to buy strings, picks, a new strap, and things like that.  I also went ahead and plunked down a whopping $130 for a Fender Starcaster which is this super crappy starter guitar which I’ve been needing (especially given we’re going to need an Ostrich guitar for the upcoming Velvet Underground show in May).  As it turned out, it came in great that night and I used an alternate tuning on it for “Cole Porter”.  After Robin (and a quick pass by Black Hole Coffee shop),  I dropped by Chris Cascio’s art opening (he, as you recall, did the cover art for Horns of Ammon) which was pretty nice.  All seemed well until I proceeded to get massively sick off some bad avocado I ate for the rest of the afternoon. By the time I recovered, I realized I’d lost a major part of the day that I’d intended to set aside to edit and splice 16mm film that I meant to use on the new projector I’d bought last week in Austin.  All that editing set me back but the rest of the band loaded up the gear and I just met them at Rudz.  It was kind of a pain int he ass but let me tell you, running three projectors at once is pretty sweet.  Add to that the fog and the lasers and we we’re gold, baby.  Only problem was, we foolishly set the lasers where all they did was shine on Clinton’s hind quarters.  Scott Grimm commented afterwards on the “Sparkly Clinton Ass” effect which we have subsequently copyrighted. The fog meanwhile also a slight issue as a little bit went pretty far at Rudz.  One or two gusts and the stage was filled with fog.  Industrial Strength? Yes!  So we used it sparingly.

As for the show.  From Beyond kicked epic ass as usual.  Dick Beeman is a monster of a drummer and locked in with their bassist, that band is unstoppable.  Of course Robert kicks ass on the guitar even when he is playing with a mere set of two 4X10 cabs.  

Our set was, if I may say so, pretty kick ass too. The set was a hella lotta fun and we must have been doin’ something right because we even had some folks dancing (!!!) during the end of ”Southern Pine.” I don’t care what John (Cramer) says, people dancing at your show IS awesome!   Good, exhausting, rock and roll set and a great crowd - who could ask for more?

Last up was Project Grimm and – speaking of great rhythm sections – Ricky and Drew are amazing to watch when they are firing on all cylinders.  One guy standing next to me was practically in awe telling me how he just stumbled on the show and couldn’t get over what a great drummer Ricky was.  “Who are these guys?  Man, that guy’s fucking amazing!!!” and so on.  No dancing, but they delivered in spades.

By the end of it, I think everyone was sweaty and utterly spent.  That my friends, is a sign of a good rock and roll show. 

Thanks to everyone who came out,
See y’all at the next show.

*I recently picked up a copy of Lynda Barry’s Picture This on Drawn and Quarterly and kind of rediscovered how brilliant her stuff is.  Zen Monkey is pretty cool but my favorite is her weird trunk creature and the cephalopod… anyhow it’s good stuff. Check out a copy at yoru local store, yo.

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Technology Fail on KPFT’s Radioactive.

Posted on April 20, 2012 by LP4

We just got back from KPFT studios where we dropped in on Rhonda Garner* who was hosting RadioActive solo (Phil was on vacation) and, let me tell you, it was a pretty punishing example of technology failing us.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the show itself was fun and Rhonda is always good folk to drop-in on but our problems all arose becasue Steve and Clinton couldn’t make it so I went in solo but I had to find a way to play”Victory Gin” from the new album on air because I didn’t have a CDR copy of Bag of Hammers with me.  (strike 1) No problem, I’ll just ask Steve to put it in Drop Box. Seems easy, right?  So I head to my usual lunchtime stop, The Black Hole Coffee shop on Graustark, and – with my Ipad – downloaded the Drop Box app so I could grab the track Steve uploaded for me.  The one problem – Drop Box doesn’t download the file; it only streams it.  (Strike 2) Great, maybe this will still work if I can get Wi-Fi at KPFT.  So I finish my scone, take my coffee with me, and head to the studio.  When I get there, I find Rhonda in good spirits and things look positive after she find an RCA converter so as to hook my Ipad into the board.  Unfortunately, I proceed to try to stream the track and it turns out the wi-fi is sketchy in the DJ booth in that particular corner.  (strike 3! One Out!) OK, ummm, maybe if I e-mail the link I can drop the file into my ITunes.  So, I head out to the lobby again but when I go to the download link, I get the same issue as earlier – the Ipad won’t download the file to my ITunes.  Instead, it only streams it!  (Strike 1).  No problem, Steve comes to the rescue with his Mac which has a copy on its hard drive.  So we plug it in to the board but, for some reason, the board isn’t piping in that channel.  (Strike 2) Ok, maybe we can burn a CD and we can just play it on the CD player.  We ask around and sure enough a guy named Colin had one he’ll let us have. Great!  But when I bring it to Steve, he realizes it’s a DVD-R!  (Strike 3! Two Outs!!)  Finally, we decide to take a chance and just hope that the issue is simply that the monitor isn’t feeding the signal right and we  can’t hear the channel on the board because it has something to do with the fact that it’s not live.  We start the intervew and go for it and all we get is dead air. (1! 2! 3!   YOU ARE… OUTTA HERE!) Epic Fail!

Still, no worries, we had a good laugh on air about this and we shot the shit with Rhonda for a good 15 minutes. But that’s typical; KPFT is always kooky fun (much like KTRU) so you always leave with a smile on your face no matter what.  So, thanks Rhonda (and the vacationing Phil) for being such good folks. 

Oh and by the way we also got a nice mention in The Houston Press today.  They listed “7 Cool & Cheap Things To Do This Weekend” and kindly mentioned our show tomorrow.  Thanks Chris, ‘ppreciate ya.

See, y’all tomorrow night at Rudz!

*By the way, the broadcast is archived.  We appear about 22 minutes into the program here: http://archive.kpft.org/m3u.php?mp3fil=8425005
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This Weekend at Rudyard’s we play with Project Grimm and From Beyond

Posted on April 18, 2012 by LP4

Come on out to Rudz this Saturday night. We’re gonna be playing between two great bands – Project Grimm and From Beyond.  Our set will be reaching back a bit to some older stuff we haven’t played in a while like Southern Pine, Monkey, and Bongfire which have been pretty fun to play during rehearsal and we just got a third 16mm projector so expect even more crap going on behind us when we play.  Fog, Films, and Rock -  see ya there.

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