space_transmissions

August 26 - Highland Inn Ballroom

2011-08-22T23:38:00.002-04:00

Jupiter Watts play this Friday night, August 26 at the Highland Inn Ballroom in Poncey-Highland, along with our dear friends Polar Dunes (ex-Luigi, ex-Silent Kids) and fellow Two Sheds artist Virginia Plane. Show starts 9 pm, razor sharp. Come say hi.

PS: Pictured on the left ... an actual polar dune!

Available Across the Universe

2011-07-04T22:55:00.005-04:00

Take Time is now available through finer online sources, including iTunes, Amazon and eMusic. If you don't yet have the record, please visit one of these fine online stores to download it. Or, if you want the record in all of its vinyl glory, you may order it directly from our label, Two Sheds Music.

A New Pic!

2011-04-17T18:53:00.003-04:00

A Jupiter Watts photo session is a relatively rare occurence. Comes around slightly more often than, say, Halley's Comet, but less often than, say, the Olympics and presidential elections. The last time we actually organized ourselves to take photos was February 2007. We just did it again recently, with the talented Adam Davila. Here's a sample of his handiwork.

And, by the way, we release our new album next week. Release show is Saturday, April 23 at The Earl. See you then.

Balloonz

2011-04-06T16:48:00.005-04:00

Here's the poster for our April 23 album release show at The Earl: Artwork courtesy of Harrison Keys. Design courtesy of Jenny Smith. See you soon! Besos, JW

Take Time - Ready to Launch

2011-03-16T00:41:00.004-04:00

We are happy to say that our new album, "Take Time," will be released next month on the fine Two Sheds Music label. Here's an image of the cover art, by Atlanta artist Harrison Keys:

The release show is scheduled for Saturday, April 23 at The Earl in Atlanta. Opening acts will be What Happened to Your Fire, Tiger and Spirits ...

More news to come soon ....

Two Zero One One

2011-01-02T15:08:00.003-05:00

A new year. Wheels grinding into motion. A new Jupiter Watts album, as yet untitled, to be released this Spring. Here's a link to a little number from the record, called "I Propose." The lovely cello part comes courtesy of Kristin Jarvis.

03 I Propose.mp3

We also have a new Facebook page -- drop by, have a cup of coffee, say hello.

Lots more to come soon. Please stay tuned.

happy anniversary, cadillac!

2010-04-06T14:00:00.002-04:00

That's right, folks, our good friends Cadillac Jones are 10 years old (the band, not the guys, who probably average out to be a bit older than that). They've asked us to support the psych-funk madness this Saturday night at the Earl, where we'll open up for them and a smattering of DJs. We've shared rehearsal spaces, members, and even touring vans with Cadillac over the years, so we're happy to be helping them celebrate their 10th anniversary. Our is right around the corner(!), so we might be asking them to return the favor soon.

If you don't already know how awesome we are, check out the generous and well-photographed review of our last show from the good people at Evilsponge. If you don't already realize how fantastic Cadillac Jones is, then you must come out Saturday - they'll surely blow you away, whether you realize that you're a fan of psych-funk madness or not.

Fun starts 9:30ish, seeya there...

In case you've forgotten...

2010-02-01T18:26:00.003-05:00

...we're playing our first show in quite a while at the Earl this Saturday, February 6. We'll be opening for Retribution Gospel Choir, a band spun off from Low. They got a good review over at Pitchfork for their latest album, which we've enjoyed, too - check it out if you haven't heard them yet.

To keep you occupied until then, we've decided to re-post a few tunes we've put up here before. Enjoy:

shameless hobos.

break the curse (old rough mix).

Oh, and while you're listening, check out a little amateur music journalism by one of our own, over at the London-Atlanta Cultural Exchange. Good stuff, even if it does commemorate the disappearance of two killer local bands. We'll do our best to carry on, rock people of the ATL!

back on stage...

2010-01-21T08:51:00.004-05:00

...and we're excited about this one: We'll be opening for Retribution Gospel Choir on Saturday, February 6, at the Earl. No, we haven't gone all moralistic on ya - Retribution is a relatively new outfit spun off from Low, a band that's very close to our hearts. If you're reading our blog, you probably know who they are. If not, go check 'em out - but not before you dig the new sounds from Retribution. We're really excited about the show, especially since it's been a while, and we hope to see you all out there!

We'd also like to thank some of our fave local music bloggers for being disappointed in us - we'll do better this year, we promise! And we're glad to hear the Evil Sponge folks enjoyed what was probably our favorite show of 2009, too - at least if you only count shows we played. In that department, we hope we can up the ante this year. That's right, we've grown only more ambitious - watch out! The action starts Feb. 6. Seeya then...

Wooden Birds/Jupiter Watts @ The Earl - October 6

2009-10-06T13:09:00.004-04:00

Our next show is Tuesday night, October 6 at The Earl here in Atlanta. We'll be opening for The Wooden Birds, a pretty dandy combo from Austin, TX, featuring Andrew Kenny, former singer/songwriter from whisper-rock legends American Analog Set. Word on the street has it that Matt Pond -- of Matt Pond PA fame -- is the touring guitarist with The Wooden Birds. This should be a fun one. We go on around 9:30. Oh Dorian opens the show at 8:30.

To put you in the proper frame of mind, here's a link to a page with a couple oldies but goodies, as yet unreleased.

Hope to see you at the show.

Kisses,

J-Watts

we're still here...

2009-08-26T00:33:00.005-04:00

...and we're finally getting back into the swing of things. Yes, it's been a bit longer than we said (shocker), but we have been working in the interim, and we're pretty close to being done with this group of songs. More importantly, we're finally putting up the only song you haven't yet heard from the forthcoming record. It still needs a little work, but it's pretty close to finished, and we like it a lot (despite it being maybe our weirdest effort yet):

ebb/flow (rough mix 8-23-09).

We've got some other news, too: we're finally gonna start getting out in the world and playing again! Our next show (and first in quite a while) is going to be at the Five Spot on September 20. It's a benefit for one of our favorite local nonprofits, a group called Georgia Lawyers for the Arts; they do pro bono work for musicians, artists, and all sorts of creative types who otherwise couldn't afford legal representation. They could really use a little help at the moment, and we'd love to give them a boost, so come on out to see us. Check this space and our myspace for details in the very near future. And keep checking - we're working on a few more shows for this fall and winter, so you ought to be able to catch us out on the town soon...

last two for a bit...

2009-07-04T17:59:00.003-04:00

Things have been slowing down a bit on the recording front lately as we've all been getting busy with other things, and now, sadly, we're going to be taking about a month off before we get back to it. Well, it's only sad for some of us, who will be working; some folks are going to be on vacation. But we'll all be back at it at the beginning of August, and we hope to be close to finished by September. We'll see how that goes...

For now, though, we have two new rough mixes, thanks to some essential overdubs we finally got around to doing. First, as promised, we have the nice-sounding version of "one by one:"

one by one (rough 7-4-09).

This one's still in a somewhat experimental stage; we may add some more stuff or take some away. Right now it's only six tracks, and a couple of things are doubled! We think it sounds pretty good, though. As mentioned here before, we used to call this one "melodica song" for good reason, since it features the funny little instrument. And, as it turns out, it can be a pretty funny sounding one, too - it took a lot of work to figure out how to make it sound good. In the end, an omni mic from way far away smoothed out the rough edges. It's still a bit pitchy, though, so let us know if you think it sounds charming or just crummy (we're hoping for the former). And thanks to Matt from the Liverhearts and the Preakness for loaning us those Earthworks omnis - as predicted, they were just what we needed.

Next up we have one of our favorites from this batch. It's been up here before in an early cut-and-paste demo version, which we've conveniently provided below for comparison (there's also a solo acoustic version on the blog, too, featuring Hutch from Cadillac Jones). This new version is all live instruments, though we have done quite a bit of post-production on it. It's still got a ways to go; we have some decisions to make, including whether we want to edit down a couple of sections to keep it moving a bit more (though of course we do love to go on and on). Let us know what you think:

the target (rough 7-4-09).

And here's the original version:

the target (epilepsy warning version).

So don't expect to many posts here for the next month or so, though we may put up a little tidbit or two. There's at least one more song from this batch that hasn't been posted yet, and it's the craziest of the bunch, so you won't want to miss it.

So seeya soon, and happy Independence Day!

overdubs.

2009-06-18T17:52:00.004-04:00

No mixes of late because we've been spending our meager time on overdubs. As anyone who's done any recording knows, this can be the most tedious stage of the process - for some parts, at least, you have to do it over and over until you get it right, which sometimes becomes less and less likely as you do it over and over. It can be lots of fun, too - you get to experiment with sounds, try new things, do stuff the band can't actually pull off live, and that sort of thing. So far, our experience has been a little bit of all of this, especially for the song we were working on this week. This one's been around for a long time, and we're still fiddling with it. In fact, the picture above features Clay trying to come up with a Wurlitzer part on the spot, which is always fun. It's a lot easier when you have great moral support helping you along, though:

Ramon is truly expert at yelling out chord changes and endlessly suggesting new and exciting variations of the same few notes.

You'll get a chance to judge the results fairly soon, but in the meantime we thought we'd put up a super-old version of the song, from when we first started working on it way back in 2007. It's interesting how much it hasn't changed, though some things have been added and some have been taken away since this very basic version was created. From the start, though, it's featured one of our favorite weird instruments: the melodica. It gets used by our local friends the Preakness, and, somewhat more famously, by one of our heroes, Augustus Pablo. It also turns out to be fairly hard to record well, but you'll hear more about that soon...

Here's the oldest demo version we have of what we once called "the melodica song:"

one by one (demo).

You'll be hearing a nicely-recorded version as soon as we make it sound nice.

princeton 88.

2009-06-13T11:01:00.001-04:00

Here's a little something to tide you over until the next mix pops up here, hopefully early next week. This is James and Ramon in the rehearsal space improvising a bit on "Break the Curse," which we posted a mix of the other day. Ramon is also making use of the Buddha Machine, one of our favorite toys - in fact, we just discovered that we got a mention on the official Buddha Machine blog back in November - thanks, guys!

we are truly honored.

2009-06-11T17:52:00.007-04:00

So, has anybody else noticed that the new Sonic Youth album cover:

...is clearly an homage to the cover of our last record?:

It's nice to see the influences go both ways sometimes.

By the way, if you want to compare more closely, you can get a copy of our self-titled record here. And you already have a copy of "The Eternal," right?

Oh, and don't worry: Our current recording project is still ongoing - keep checking back for more actual content.

the mysteries of phasing...

2009-06-09T15:05:00.007-04:00

OK, so it's been kinda slow going on the updates, but our initial rough mixes were rough enough that we weren't in a hurry to put them all up without a little more work. Plus, we had to drag this out, right? So, today, we present rough mix #2, which was actually the first song we tracked over Memorial Day weekend:

break the curse (rough mix 6/8/09).

This mix is a bit less "rough;" we spent a couple of hours messing with it yesterday. Though the performance is pretty good all around (including most of the scratch vocals), as the first go with our live-in-the-living-room setup, this one came out a bit funny at first. The main problem was boomy, muddy bass; anyone who's recorded in less-than-ideal environments knows all about that. But, when we flipped the phase on the bass track and dropped the low-end EQ on a number of other instruments, things came out sounding quite a bit nicer (we're big believers in subtractive EQ). It's not as tight as we'd like, but at the same time, the overall sound seems to fit the mood of this song well.

This particular track arose as an instrumental quite some time ago; we debuted it at our "Wandern" gallery show, which was in some ways the genesis of our current approach. It started off as an improvisation and later morphed into this thing that some people might actually call a song, though it does stretch the definition a bit. Keep an eye out for chord changes, they're easy to miss!

Ramon plays drums on this one; the guitar drone you hear most of the time is a loop he starts before moving over to the drums. We actually recorded it that way to create the sound in the room we're used to hearing. The lead guitar on the left is James', recorded as discussed before. We also did a bit of reamping on this one, running Clay's keys - recorded direct - through a tube amp for a little roominess; they may need some more, yet...

This reminds us; we didn't give much detail in the last post on the song featured there, "I Propose." But if you're interested in hearing those crazy Grundigs that sound like the legendary Sennheiser 409, check out Ramon's guitar on the left. And somebody tell James his fuzzy tone on the right side complements it nicely; he's not sure about it. For your convenience, here's that song again:

I propose (rough mix 5/29/09).

Keep checking back, there'll be more this week...

here goes...

2009-06-03T16:59:00.018-04:00

As promised, we are finally delivering some actual content related to our just-commenced recording project. And in the spirit of generosity, as well as some guilt related to the very low frequency of posts on this blog, today's edition is going to be epic.

We'll start with the general idea: We're a band working on a record by ourselves, and we thought some people might find it interesting to follow along as we proceed. We don't have a very solid plan here, but our basic approach is to try to create a good-sounding document of what we do live, along with some limited embellishments that we come up with during recording. We want to use the process of recording in somebody's house as an opportunity to inject a little serendipity into the result, which we think is lacking in a lot of recorded music (though there are lots of great exceptions to this - more and more lately, in fact). So, while we're going to do a fair amount of overdubs and that sort of thing, we're going to try to keep it to a minimum, and we'll avoid using tons of post-production compression and effects (except in some cases for, er, effect). The idea is to leave things for the most part as they are, in order for the recording to be a document of something that actually happened in a particular place and time, rather than just a thoroughly-crafted product. We think this is one great thing about many records we like (including a few recent examples), and it fits in well with the aesthetic of our current crop of songs, since in many ways they're about space, place, and interplay between the band members.

So here's where you come in: As we go through the process of tracking songs, doing mixes, overdubs, etc., we're going to throw a lot of stuff on here for everyone to check out. At this point, that's going to be a lot of rough mixes, ideas, things that might get scrapped, or whatever - we're going to try not to edit much what we put up here. We simply invite you to enjoy the chance to see the process at work, warts and all.

Also, since we're recording geeks (or at least some of us are), we're going to explain things with a fair amount of technical detail about microphones and so on. Today, though, since there's a lot of that stuff, we'll go ahead and give you something to listen to, and you can skip the rest if you're not the sort of person who gets excited about Grundig GDSM 200s. Of course, there are lots of pictures, too, but none of them even have people in them (sorry, James).

One last thing before we get to the good stuff: We've spent a lot of time and energy gathering and learning all of this gear ourselves, but we wouldn't have gotten nearly as far as we have without the help of a few friends. In particular, we've relied a great deal on the amazing generosity and enthusiasm of Jim Marrer, who's loaned us a ton of gear and offered a lot of great advice over the past year or more. And more recently, we've received a few choice items on loan from Eli Aiken (including those crazy Grundigs!), who really shouldn't have (but is welcome to do so again). Finally, we've got to give some love to Tape Op Magazine. If you've read this far and you don't know about it, you need to check it out ASAP.

Alright, so here's the first track. It's called "I Propose," and it features some signature Jupiter Watts guitar interplay, along with alternately kooky and spooky lyrics. It's just basic tracks with scratch vocals, but there's not a lot more to this song than what's here:

I Propose (rough mix 5/29/09).

We'd love to know what you think of it.

OK, now for the serious recording geekery:

We'll start with the obligatory console shot. The heart of the studio, it's a 1989 Soundcraft 600 with patchbay. It has its quirks, but for the most part it works very well, and it sounds great. It also came with a number of snakes that make interfacing gear through the patchbay very easy - though we have done a lot of soldering, especially with all the equipment we've recently acquired.

And here's a bunch of said equipment. There's probably no reason to go into all of it; it's a pretty standard bunch of home studio stuff, most of which should be familiar if you're an avid Tape Op reader. The FMR RNLA is the latest acquisition; it sounds great, though not as colored as expected. Of special note are a few items on top of the rack: In the wooden box on the right are a pair of RCA BA-31 mic pres, courtesy of Jim Marrer. These are old, they sound killer, and they're especially great because they have absolutely no features - only an on/off switch. Want to adjust the gain? You're gonna need some inline pads. Over on the left, just peeking above the top of the rack, there's a Grace Lunatec V3, used only for its pres, which are just as awesome as everybody says they are - maybe we should be trying to use the conversion. They're on loan from Eli Aiken. At the bottom of the rack you see two totally stock M-Audio Delta 1010s, one of which is pushing ten years old and working fine (knock on wood). They feed a custom-built PC running Sonar 8.

Facing the console is this chair people sit in when they want to criticize the mix or just check out for a minute. Reactions are usually mellower on the ancient and grubby orange velour couch, which you can just see in the console shot above. There should be a couch in the room with every recording console, even though the Beatles didn't do it that way.

This shot shows what tight quarters we're in: Everything possible is tracked live in the living room, just outside the "control room," which isn't even separated by a door. The house is a 1921 Craftsman, but the previous owner helpfully removed the wall between the living and dining rooms. Combined with the high ceilings, this makes for an unusually good sounding residential space.

Here's the main setup; everyone's in a half-circle facing the drums during tracking. The SVT is mic'ed up close with a Beyer m380, a classic mic for this purpose, though it can be too much if you're not careful. Most things are mic'ed closely to minimize bleed. James' Pro Reverb is covered with an AT 4033 - not our first choice, but it produces good results in this setup and we wanted to use all of our large dynamics on other sources. He usually plays a Les Paul these days, so it doesn't come out too bright. Clay's keys are recorded direct, though he does have an amp in the room for monitoring.

Here's Ramon's guitar setup; he uses an AC30 and loves that little old Silvertone for recording. And he owns that killer Jazzmaster, but tends to favor the Squire Tele next to it! Oh well, it does sound like a Tele. The funny little mic on the AC30 is the Grundig mentioned above; apparently it has the same capsule as the famous Sennheiser MD409. We wouldn't know, but we do know it sounds freaking killer - totally 3D guitar action. Up front you can see we're using an RE20 for James' vocals, which he prefers to any condenser he's used, and an SM7 for Ramon's. These are both really trendy right now, maybe because they're so awesome. The SDC in the weird spot is an AKG C360b, just standing by for use on acoustic guitar.

The most unconventional thing here is the drum setup - we stumbled across the idea of doing this minimal kit - similar to a "cocktail kit," but with even less to it - quite a while ago when we began to really focus on more quiet, spare music. Ramon, James, and Clay switch off drum duties, and we never use anything more than percussion in addition to these two drums. You can see an MD421 on the snare; this is probably the only mic in the room we actually move around all the time; it's a great mic, though, so all crappy snare sounds are totally our fault. There's a D12 under the floor tom, which sounds amazing and kick-drummy in just the right way. We all love Ringo, anyway - and yes, we said D12, not D112. The overheads are AT pro37Rs; they're in X/Y facing away from the band to minimize bleed. That 57 is just there to feed a delay we occasionally use. Oh, and you can get a sense of the shape of the room and where the drums are located if you notice the vocal mics just peeking above those gobos. It is pretty tight quarters, but it's comfortable and produces a great vibe, and it's infinitely quieter and more pleasant than our rehearsal space.

So there you have it - that's how we'd record a band if we were going to do it in a smallish old house. Which we are. This was the standard setup for the first session, which produced basic tracks for five songs in three days; we'll likely do at least one more such session in the next month or so, along with tons of overdubs in less complex setups, some possible at other locations. Keep an eye out here as we'll be posting lots more and looking for feedback, especially if you want to geek out about old mics and stuff.

Oh yeah: We will try to put up some pics with people in them someday, too. We promise.

well under way.

2009-05-27T18:03:00.007-04:00

Well, we had a pretty great long weekend tracking - although we didn't get as many songs done as we would have liked (shocker), we're quite happy with the initial results. We'll be working on mixing and overdubs in the coming weeks, and we may have another major tracking session coming up soon. And we'll probably be posting some rough mixes and recording details here for you any day now - in the meantime, you'll have to make do with these photos and a bit of commentary...

The patchbay and some gear. this is our first major effort on our own, and things can get complicated...

But with deep thinkers like James on the job we always make it through.

Meanwhile, Clay and Ramon get their jam on. With limited time, we tried to stay on task as much as possible, so we didn't produce the percentage of random improvisations that we normally might. But these two will always find a moment to screw around. Who would have guessed?

Keep an eye out for more to come soon...

what does it take to make a record?

2009-05-20T17:45:00.002-04:00

As musicians and music fans, of course, this is a question we've pondered at great length, but we wouldn't presume to offer a definitive answer. After all, great records have been made with little more than a four-track and an idea, while others have required many months and untold quantities of self-obsession to create. Some might even argue that whiffle-ball is an essential recording tool, though we prefer ping-pong.

Well, we're not going to do it quite the way anybody else has, but we're getting ready to give it a shot. We'll be holed up all weekend getting started on our next recording project, and we'll be doing all of it ourselves, at least at this stage. We're not expecting it to be brilliant, but we're going to try to make it as good as we can - wish us luck, and look for regular updates on our progress here.

To give you a taste of what we'll be doing, here are a couple of improvisations recorded under similar but somewhat more casual circumstances at the same place we'll be working this weekend. Both of them feature guest appearances from our friend Matt Glagola, of Liverhearts fame (by the way, if you want to see a band blog that's cooler than ours but even less frequently updated, check theirs out).

untitled 11.

untitled 8.

Bonus points if you can guess where we did the recording (and no, it's not the place pictured here - double bonus points if you can identify that location).

ah, springtime.

2009-04-27T17:12:00.008-04:00

Yep, it's really and truly everyone's favorite season now, and we couldn't resist suiting up in our springtime celebration garb and joining the parade at the Inman Park Festival. OK, we weren't really in the parade, but we were standing right there, and it was awesome.

Still, the parade was not quite as awesome as the backyard performance by our good friends Cadillac Jones, who really made it look easy, despite the unusually well-lit environs:

They even made it sound good, too.

We, on the other hand, accomplished nothing remotely useful over the beautiful weekend. Fortunately, though, we must have been vaguely productive at some point this past winter, when we spontaneously created yet another droney jam. Thus, in the spirit of springtime creativity, we offer:

yet another droney jam.

Enjoy it while you're enjoying the weather, and look for more from us soon...

five-two-nine.

2009-04-06T22:02:00.003-04:00

Hey hey people: Thanks to all who came out to the Earl show a couple of Saturdays ago - it was a great time for all, and we really dug the Preakness and the Selmanaires, both of whom brought the rock like only they can do. The new Preakness record is a good one, too - don't forget to grab a copy ASAP if you haven't already.

Now, if you haven't yet had your fill of the new Jupiter Watts sound, you've got one more chance to catch us in the immediate future: This Wednesday we're playing our first show at 529 in East Atlanta, starting earlyish at 9pm sharp. We know you won't miss it!

As an advance token of our appreciation for your attendance Wednesday night, please accept a studio version of one of the new songs we've been featuring in our recent sets:

ebb/flow.

Seeya soon...

another day at the earl...

2009-03-27T15:25:00.005-04:00

Thanks to all who came out to see us at Dunch a few weeks ago - we all had a great time, and it sounds like everyone else did, too. In fact, our friends over at Evilsponge enjoyed it enough to give us a really nice writeup, complete with lots of great photos of the snowy atmosphere - thanks, guys! And thanks to our friend Dixon for the cool photos above.

We hope to see all of you out again this Saturday night - we're really excited to be opening up another show at the Earl for our good friends the Preakness - it's their first full-length CD-release show, believe it or not. They'll be playing in the middle, and rounding out the killer bill (if we do say so ourselves) will be everybody's faves the Selmanaires. We don't even have to tell you this will be the place to be Saturday night, do we? We'll be rocking, rain or shine - doors open at 9:00.

And keep an eye out here for some more tunes soon - hopefully we'll get some stuff up here for ya before our upcoming show on April 8 at 529...

almost there.

2009-02-27T11:57:00.009-05:00

Yep, we're just about to play our first show in quite a while - finally! We know you've been waiting with bated breath, so be sure to come out Sunday to the Earl for Dunch - we should play one set around 1:00pm and another around 2:30. We'll be playing a number of new things in a new configuration, so it should be fresh and exciting for all. Just to keep you entertained until then, here's a couple of Jupiter Watts tunes from Ramon's recent solo show at Kavarna; he's accompanied by our good fried Hutch from Cadillac Jones on standup bass. Thanks to Hutch and Gary for the recording.

the target.

nothing at all.

jupiter watts go multimedia.

2009-02-13T18:20:00.004-05:00

Man, we're really slack about updating this thing - but look for several new posts in the next couple of weeks. We've got to get you hyped for our upcoming Dunch show at the Earl, right? Don't forget: March 1, 1:00pm. Until then, keep yourselves entertained with our first foray into video, lovingly crafted by our very own Ramon "the Domingo" Wals:

just a quick reminder...

2009-01-16T19:22:00.007-05:00

...to catch Ramon tomorrow night at Kavarna, playing with some friends from Eskimo Kiss. And here's a little one-off jam from a couple months back to get your weekend started out on a relaxed -but-upbeat-but-also-slightly-strange note:

shameless hobos.

Meanwhile, we're headed out to see some friends play a little reggae with Lloyd's Rocksteady Revue at the Five Spot tonight - maybe we'll see you there.

we were never gone...

2009-01-08T18:53:00.012-05:00

...we were just keeping quiet. But no more. Expect to see us out and about more often in the near future: Ramon will be doing a solo appearance at Kavarna next Saturday, January 17, and the band will be playing some new material for a Dunch show at the Earl on March 1. Expect to see a lot more recordings popping up here, too.

In the meantime, keep yourselves occupied with this, improvised by three of us on two different occasions in one room:

ironside.

home again, home again....

2008-05-27T21:19:00.005-04:00

...and we had a great time all around. We met some wonderful people, saw some rocking bands, checked out some mind-blowing art and spent a little time in three really cool towns. We even got to see some family (thanks for coming, and for the pound cake!). We owe a big thanks to all the folks who helped us out along the way.

We hope you enjoyed the photos from the road. Obviously we didn't figure out how to actually add text to the posts, but it was easier that way, anyway. Look for many a photo from the trip to show up here in the future, though, possibly with a bit more info about our North Carolina odyssey...

dancing @ the Soapbox

2008-05-25T23:52:00.000-04:00

@ the soapbox in Wilmington.

2008-05-25T21:13:00.000-04:00

things are nice.

2008-05-25T17:26:00.000-04:00

in Wrightsville Beach.

2008-05-25T17:20:00.001-04:00

en route to Wilmington (not much out here)

2008-05-25T13:43:00.000-04:00

T minus 45 @ Elliott's Revue

2008-05-24T21:08:00.000-04:00

if governoring doesn't work out...

2008-05-24T20:25:00.001-04:00

there is serious art in Greensboro.

2008-05-24T20:05:00.001-04:00

The Flatiron. Small but excellent.

2008-05-24T02:09:00.000-04:00

BBQ+Rothko=Mmm.

2008-05-23T16:11:00.000-04:00

and we're off.

2008-05-23T02:15:00.003-04:00

Have we mentioned that we're just about to embark on a brief North Carolina sojourn? Hope to see you there; dates and places below.

And if the mood strikes, we might be blogging the trip - keep an eye out here over the next few days if you can't catch us in person.

May 23 2008 9:00P

--Flatiron (a bar for people who like this kind of bar) w/ Citified

--Greensboro, North Carolina

May 24 2008 9:00P

--Elliott's Revue

--Winston-Salem, North Carolina

May 25 2008 9:00P

--WE Fest @ The Soapbox

--Wilmington, North Carolina

We can't wait to see the Soapbox.

on the porch.

2008-05-17T20:13:00.003-04:00

Ah, spring is really and truly here. And there's nothing better in springtime than jamming on the porch on a Sunday afternoon. That's how we came up with this tune, recorded with one little giant squid mic, running right into the laptop:

what on earth.

In other springtime news, we got a nice mention and a song played on a new Atlanta podcast from Walk to Run Records. They were sharp enough to notice that we're playing a few shows next weekend in the great state of North Carolina. If you're in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, or Wilmington, keep an eye out for us!

Less is more...

2008-05-01T19:01:00.003-04:00

But is more of less more? This is about 17 minutes of live, unedited, improvised, um, I guess we'd call it "drone." If you hate it, blame Can, gamelan, and "Live-Evil." It's not our fault.

This was recorded on the same evening as the "domingo cinco" post below, by the same 3/5 of the band. Since we forgot to mention it before, the recording was done with a 57 on the keyboard amp, a 421 on the AC30, and our trusty M380 on the SVT, all through our 400B into the Delta 1010, w/ very minimal post-production.

Oh, and if it doesn't play on the site (which it probably won't), just right-click and download it. Enjoy!

to say we and mean I.

kittens = love.

2008-04-23T12:45:00.004-04:00

And we love love. That's why we love local music blog "it covers the hillsides," which just gave some love to our recent Star Bar show. It's good to know people are digging the new stuff! But what's with people commenting about us elsewhere, but not here? Yeah, that means you, John and Rich! Talk to us! Otherwise we'll think you don't love us like Todd does (thanks Todd).

domingo cinco.

2008-04-21T01:41:00.003-04:00

Thanks to all who came out to the Star Bar - we had a great time, and we sure hope you did, too. In fact, we think you've earned a special treat, so we're putting up two more songs.

Actually, it's really just one long jam that we chopped up into two parts for the sake of bearableness (bearability?). You know, to make it more bearable. And also to make it more mysterious as to how we got from point A to point B (trust us, you'll see what we mean). So anyway, they aren't really "songs" per se, but they are new - we just did them last Thursday. They were recorded in the space, of course, and with a skeleton crew. We will not attempt to describe their sound.

Here ya go:

you can see yourself [part one]

you can see yourself [part two]

spoon/sponge/starbar/saturday.

2008-04-16T07:10:00.010-04:00

Jealousy can be a good thing, right? Not all of us are into the Austin band Spoon, but those of us who are REALLY love Spoon. And Monday night they blew us away at Center Stage, performing stuff from at least four albums with fire and precision (a rare combination). They always seem to produce maximum rock with minimal effort, and for that we are truly grateful. And on Monday they also brought along their own sound guy to perform dubby freakout delay action on the vocals and keys, which was the perfect addition to their stripped-down rock. Man, are we jealous.

In news that's actually about us, we're happy to report that we got some more press for our recent Dunch show, from the good folks at Evil Sponge. Those guys are great, despite being evil.

But don't start thinking we're just a quiet, droney daytime band! We're still gonna bring the rock this Saturday at the Star Bar, along with old friends Long Knives and a band called Imagination Head. We're headlining, but that's no reason you shouldn't be there early. And if you're checking out "Record Store Day" at Criminal Records across the street, you can just wander on over afterward - sounds like a glorious day of rock to us!

Finally, just in case you forgot how awesome we are when we turn up the volume, check out everybody's favorite Jupiter Watts song from our last Earl show:

Nothing at All (Live at the Earl, 1/19/08).

some local love (and a sad farewell).

2008-04-08T12:36:00.008-04:00

You haven't heard from us for a while, but we're still around - we've just been busy with a lot of extra-rockular activities of late. Look for more content, more often, coming soon. We promise. And plan to come out and rock with us at the Star Bar on 4/19; we'll be playing with long-time pals long knives. In the meantime, you can busy yourself with some love from the local music press for our Dunch show this past Sunday (complete with nice photos!).

In other, very very sad news, one of our favorite local bands is no more: After years at the top of the Atlanta heap, Luigi has called it quits. Now who will we call when we need somebody to bring a real crowd out to one of our otherwise-sparsely-attended shows?

Here's hoping they all have good luck in their other efforts, and that they do a reunion show soon. Their endless fun, creativity, and catchy harmonies will be sorely missed.

In Luigi's honor, we give you the first non-Jupiter-Watts song to appear on our blog: "Ten Little Indians," written and performed in a single day by Space Key, the one-off band from 2005's Happenstance that featured current members of Luigi, Jupiter Watts, Parade, and the Howlies. Enjoy!

ten little indians.

they really like us!

2008-02-26T16:51:00.007-05:00

Ok, not necessarily. But we’ve been getting visits to the blog from all over creation lately (really, from Hawaii to

Kuwait)

. So are we international superstars now? Not yet. Turns out everyone really just likes other stuff we like, like Buddha Machines and Guided By Voices tunes. But hey, we’re up for whatever it takes to bring the drone to the world. Coattails, anyone?

Oh, and sorry there's no music this time, but a picture's worth a thousand words, right? Hint: this one goes with the very first post (we've been holding it back a long time).

another one from the vaults.

2008-02-15T15:33:00.009-05:00

That's right, this is another old one we've dug up, but only from this past December. (Hey, we can't come up with something new every week, can we?) From the same general temporal/sonic neighborhood as "buddha machine music," it was also recorded with just two mics in the room, though we only used actual instruments this time. Unusual for a totally spontaneous jupiter watts jam, this song features a chord change or two (ok, maybe it's just one). It also includes what may be the first ever appearance of the new crazy-random-static keyboard sound that we can't stop using now.

We really like how the song starts out great, then sorta falls apart, then really gets going, then ends with us praising ourselves, obviously having forgotten the whole falling-apart-in-the-middle thing. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did...

little buddha.

don't get used to this...

2008-02-12T01:00:00.001-05:00

...but yes, this is the second post we've added in only a week. Just consider yourselves lucky.

This time, we've got a sort of hybrid track for you. It sounds a bit like a noise jam, in the mold of, say, "buddha machine music." But it's not exactly a jam - though it's based entirely on improvisation, it was multitracked in the same way as "the target," and by the same 3/5 of the band. The result is quite different from either of those songs, but we like it. Or at least 3/5 of us do, and we're confident that you will, too. Or maybe that it'll grow on you over time. Just give it a chance, ok?

As a special bonus, if you make it to the end of the song you get to experience the rockingest triangle duet you've ever heard. No kidding:

Oh, and before you start, a technical note: We're aware that some folks are having a little trouble streaming songs from the blog, and we're working on it (you may have noticed a new, more elegant look to the players, too, thanks to the del.icio.us playtagger - great stuff, but we're still working out the kinks). In the meantime, you can always just right click on the song titles themselves and download your very own, super-high-quality, unrestricted mp3s - yours to keep, no questions asked!

And let us know if you have problems, suggestions, propositions, etc.

Oh, and here's the song:
hold me now in an ordinary way.

Enjoy!

super Wednesday!

2008-02-06T20:21:00.000-05:00

Every day would be super if you could take a little time off work, stand in line waiting for a bunch of little old ladies to verify your identity, and finally cast a (possibly meaningful!) vote for your favorite presidential hopeful, wouldn’t it? What if you could listen to/download some new songs from your favorite band? That would also be super!

Well, here goes: Recorded very affordably by the wonderful sound guy at the Earl, a couple of new songs, one kind of old one, and a cover, as performed/botched by jupiter watts on January 19th (otherwise known as The Great Blizzard of '08). For your convenience, we’ve excised most of the unwitty between-song banter – we’ve gotta give you some reason to come to the shows, right? Oh, and please listen/download only if we are actually your favorite band. Thank you.

high sign:

This is a new one, in our super-slow-and-quiet-but-also-
sorta-noisy mode. Some people might call it “challenging.” We call it “radical,” in every possible sense of the word. When listening, please try to imagine that you didn’t just drink seven beers while rocking out to two awesome indie-pop groups in a row. In fact, try to imagine that you’re wearing all black, and it’s foggy, and you speak fluent German – you get the idea. And just wait for the payoff. That’s right, wait for it...

strange things:

This one’s from our second record, “let it lie,” which we think is almost as excellent as our newest record. This is the first “old” song you learn when you join the band. Don’t get any ideas, though, we’re fully staffed.

so literal:

This song is so new we hardly know how to play it. You can barely tell, though, right? Try and guess how it got its name.

teenage FBI:

Finally, for all of you who never completely succumbed to indie-rock record-geekdom, this is a cover of a song by a little band called Guided by Voices. We think they’re pretty good – so much so, in fact, that people always say we sound like them. Which must mean we’re pretty good, right? Anyway, we don’t play it that brilliantly here, but it’s really got a spark, nonetheless. And we play it more like the record than they do. If only we’d had Ric Ocasek produce this recording...

Stay tuned, we’ll be posting more stuff soon – we promise this time, really.

back and better than ever.

2008-01-22T17:24:00.000-05:00

So, first off, an apology to all of you (so very many) loyal readers: It’s been over two weeks since our last entry, and for that we are sorry. We were being productive, though, getting ready for our show this past Saturday at the Earl, which was a great time for all. Turnout was pretty good despite some fairly serious weather (thanks for coming!), our friends Luigi played a typically rocking and energetic show featuring their new guitarist Jeff Holt, and we debuted three new songs and a killer cover. Luigi and the Watts also introduced our awesome new joint t-shirt design, designed by the unparalleled Harrison Keys, pictured above (the shirt, not Harrison). Solidarity!

Maybe the most excellent thing about the show, though, was the Massachusetts-based opener, Drug Rug, who blew everybody away with their inspired, classic California psych-pop. Everybody thought they were great live, and we’ve all been digging their new record, too. They’re still touring, so check them out if you have a chance. Be aware, though, there’s another band called ‘Drug Rug’ (no kidding), and we don’t know anything about them.

We’ve also been spending a lot of our time setting up a new, super-sophisticated practice space recording rig, capable of recording up to eight tracks of simultaneous audio. It’s no mm1000, but it gets the job done. In case you care, we’re recording to a Sonar system via an old Delta 1010 converter, and running everything through a vintage Soundcraft 400B with a whopping twelve inputs. We’re also lucky enough to be using a small but awesome selection of mics, courtesy of a good friend of the band’s (thanks, Jim!). Everything’s up and running now, but we’re still experimenting with sounds, techniques, soldering, electrocution and whatnot. Here’s a couple of early efforts:

felix (version):

For any of you who’ve seen us play at Dunch or any other low-key venues, you know we love to tone it (way) down sometimes. This is the slow, quiet version of one of our favorites from the last record, recorded live in the space.

the target (epilepsy warning):

This one’s just a demo of a brand-new song idea. Recorded piecemeal by 3/5 of the band, this one went from inspiration to what you hear in about six hours. Impressive? You be the judge. And keep a lookout for more stuff, more often, we promise...

new show, old song.

2008-01-04T15:01:00.000-05:00

Two things. One: We have a show coming up at the Earl January 19, along with our good friends Luigi and a band called Drug Rug. Should be a great show. In fact, we were so excited about it that we asked our friend Harrison Keys to design a poster; thus the strange and excellent image to the left (Harrison works freehand, so there's no digital image of the piece). It should currently be on display in a grimy window near you. And, if we get it done in time, there'll be an exclusive Luigi/Jupiter Watts t-shirt available at the show, also designed by the illustrious Mr. Keys.

Two: We came across a recording yesterday that seemed like it had to be released upon the world immediately (assuming the world has about ten minutes to kill). Recorded back in October in much the same manner as the tune in the previous post, this was the result of some particularly inspired-yet-restrained drone-jammery. It doesn't really have a name, and we'll never play it again, but here it is:

Arp A 10-6-07

hello, hello.

2008-01-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

Jupiter Watts has a new blog for the new year. Intended to be a zen-like respite from the light and noise of myspace and the perennially outdated website, “space transmissions” will feature regular reports from the band’s rehearsal space, along with pertinent media and commentary.

We’ll start off with the first of what will surely be a great many late-night noise jams, this one the result of our discovery of what happens when you press one (or two) of our favorite new toys against the buzzing strings of an amplified guitar. Recorded through a Lexicon Omega with a spaced pair of naiant MSH-1s, here’s...

buddha machine music