domingo cinco.

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.

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).

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!

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.

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...

...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!

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.