The End

Oh The Memories. Hey all three people reading this. I know it's been slow, but we've been busy.
I'm just dropping a notice, that I will no longer be making my twice-yearly entries at this blog. I will be putting all my blog energies into the new Motmot blog!

you can find me here: http://motmotshop.com/blog/

Expect a more frequently and less epic blog style.
It's a part of the all new Motmot website.
I hope you will drop by and check it out!

tweet tweeet

Hey anybody reading this, I know it's been slow on this blog, but it's all for the best. We're getting ready to make some big changes in the Motmot - Cheetahs Never Win universe.
There's some big changes coming up at Motmot, which should be totally awesome. Stay Tuned.
Cheetahs Never Win # 3 is well on it's way! It's roughly half finished! It's gonna be around 32 pages this time, and I'm looking forward to it! I've got some other graphic design and Illustration jobs in the pipeline. Which are keeping me busy.
I just wanted to stop by and say hello to anyone who might be reading. We haven't dropped off the face of the Earth, we've been keeping busy!
Stay Tuned!

We're also on twitter!
http://twitter.com/motmotshop

I Need Adventure

We've been busy. So Busy, it's not funny anymore. Two weeks ago, we participated at the Christmas Market at MQ. Then the next weekend we participated in the always crazy and cool Roböxotica festival. Then last Sunday my pal Simon and I had a table at the Comic Boerse in Vienna. Which was kind of fun, even though the crowd wasn't too excited about our indie comics. But it was still fun. We started talking about GG Allin, which, seems to happen frequently around me.  So, I finally had some time to sit down and draw and I started to draw GG, and well, one thing led to another and here he is. Not exactly what I expected, but still kind of cool.

We're cool, but were busy with the Christmas rush and all the time and energy that goes into it. I just wanted to give a quick update. I heard some great new music, and got a really cool new graphic design book, which I want to write about. When I get the time, yo.

Here's the top 10 List.

1. Gentleman Jesse: Introducing Gentleman Jesse

2. Jay Reatard: Matador Singles

3. The Cramps: Psychedelic Jungle

4. Reasons to Be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles

5. Obits: One Cross a Piece/Get it in Writing 7" 

6. Adrian Tomine: Shortcomings. The story of my life.

7. Roböxotica

8. I've been diggin' those early Brian Eno records, all over again.

9. The Sea and Cake: Car Alarm. TSAC are back and better than ever.

10. That guy who threw his shoes at George W. Bush.

Let's Party!

Hey we're doin' our release party with Murmel Comics, double your fun. Cheetahs Never Win #2 Release party and Murmel # 29 release party! Come Visit us on Halloween!!!

Freitag, 31. Oktober 2008 ab 21:00

Einbaumöbel
Währinger Gürtel Bogen 97
1090 Wien

live: boff lemurr
Murmel Djs

Eintritt frei

Cheetahs Never Win outtake

Hey here's an outtake from CNW #2, If you've seen the final printed comic, you might sorta recognize this...

The strip was drawn, then changed, then became a completely different strip, but the basic idea is the same, so this was left out!
But I still like this original version. So here it is!
I hope everyone got their copies of Issue No. 2.

And Hey Cheetahs Never Win is now on sale at the awesome Rocketship comic shop in Brooklyn, NY!

Thanks to Simon for pimpin' my goods!

We're Number Two! We're Number Two!!!!

Hey folks, friends, peoples, etc...

Wow, it's been like, months!

But I've been underground, slaving away! And here are the fruits of my labors!

Cheetahs Never Win number two! The sophomore slump!

No way, Joseph! It's better than ever! (Nothing wrong with issue number one, though!)

Better drawn, better paper, better!

Lots of dinosaurs, chimpanzees, catfish, porcupines, and solenodons!

Get it at the Motmot shop!

Available in the USA at Quimby's books in Chicago! More shops soon!!!

It's a Livin' Thing!

I just wanted to make a quick update! It's been like, forever! 4 Months, Yikes!
Sorry to my 3 loyal readers, what can I say? I've had lots going on.
Hey, time is money, no wait, time is worth way more than money! (Thanks John!)
What have I been up to?
Uhhhh...
Vacation? Long stopovers in Atlanta? Wasting time with Nintendo DS?
All of the above!
But, we've mostly been working on our stuff. Big plans for MOTMOT
Lots of new stuff coming up, new buttons, shirt designs, stickers, bags, and other top secret projects!
www.motmotdesign.com

I've been steadily chiseling away at my new comic:
Cheetahs Never Win No. 2 "NO FUTURE"
It should be way better, but everything you expect from "Cheetah's Never Win"
Again, expect a late summer/early fall expected release date.

I've been Muxtapin' dig my obscure, and not so obscure, punk and power-pop gems! Dig it! I'm trying to update it monthly, which means more often than this biographical-log.
www.speedreeder.muxtape.com

More stuff to report, but it's summer, I should be outside. Not in front of a computer or Gameboy or whatever.

Top Eleven list:
1. Stefan Sagmeister speaking at MQ (and he dug the shirts we gave him, yes!)
(I really should write a full review/commentary of this event!)
2. Those DIY Compilations Rhino Records released in the early 90's
3. Yes, sadly, I've been playing Animal Crossing: Wild World, on Nintendo DS. The most evil and addictive game ever created! Oops, I gotta go pay Tom Nook!
4. OK, I'm back, If you got that joke, you're more of a nerd than I am.
5. Old Superman comics from the 50's and 60's, where Superman, is getting old, fat, bald, loses his powers, or Jimmy Olsen beats him at a pancake eating contest or something.
6. Early Judas Priest: Sin After Sin, and Stained Class!!
7. The Art of Looking Sideways, By Alan Fletcher. An all encompassing book about graphic design and creativity, and about everything else under the sun.
8. The First four Cheap Trick records. Dream Police is, uhhh, Dreamy?
9. Hello, Please! A cool book about Japanese Kawaii characters. I don't know who's better; Pepo the mousey Police mascot, or the Earthquake Preparedness Catfish?
10. The current story line starting in Batman Confidential # 17. The Catfight, which tells the story of the first time Batgirl met Catwoman back in the 80's. Great writing and awesome art by Kevin Mcguire!
11. San Diego band alert: The Muslims, great band. Pretty straight forward indie-punk-power-pop-whatever. I don't know what to label it. How about awesome?

Toucan Scam

I'm trying something new. I think I might do this, I think it just might work!

I've been thinking about using this biographical-log as an art-platform, a place to show off my new drawings 'n stuff. So, here is a nice vector drawing I made, using Illustrator CS3. Right now this birdie is going to be a Motmot button, and might end up as a poster.

So, in a previous post, I mentioned the amazing Charlie Harper book that I picked up a few months ago. And while I'm not trying to copy his style, (and definitely NOT comparing my work to his!) I am hoping some of his magic will rub off on me. I have been trying to move in a more stylized direction, but still keep the essence of whatever animal I happen to be drawing. Charlie Harper is the absolute master of the stylized animal drawing.

I didn't try to draw something that looked like Charlie Harper, but after working on this for a few hours, I realized it was looking kind of Harper-ish. Or Harper-esque. I'm not sure which.

While we were in Mexico, we had a chance to see some wild toucans. We packed up our stuff, and we found ourselves in the middle of the jungle, with a super nice guide; who lived in the jungle her whole life, and knew every birdcall. The toucan looked exactly like this! (Actually this is a toco toucan, and the toucans we saw we're keel-billed toucans, which look very similar, but have a different coloring.)

Garfield Minus Garfield

Y'know, when I was I kid, I kinda liked Garfield, but as I grew older I realized that the strip was pretty stupid. I read somewhere that Charles Schulz really, really, hated Garfield. Who could love a fat, lazy, overweight, surly house cat? I saw the Garfield movie last year,  and I though it was the stupidest movie I had ever seen. 

That said, I think these Garfield strips without the fat ugly cat, are pretty hilarious. Without Garfield, Jon Arbuckle becomes a sad grown-up version of Charlie Brown. 

Garfield minus Garfield

Cancelled Comics Catastrophe

A few years ago,  I had an idea to make a zine/comic. It really wasn't going to be a comic, but really a zine about comics, if that makes any sense. I dunno, it was a half-baked idea, that was never really fully thought out. But fate intervened, I picked up a pencil; and started drawing my own little comics, worked on new projects, and abandoned old projects. 

But I have this left-over from that original comic/zine idea, looking at it again, it reminds me of my student work, but it still makes me laugh.

This time I really mean it!

Hey folks, I'm way overdue for a real update. But not today.
Just a quick note, I'm back in Vienna, and it's good to be back.
We had a great time in Los Angeles and Mexico, I will have to post something someday, we had lots of interesting adventures.

I'm thinking about making a few changes to this blog and posting shorter posts more frequently, as opposed to long epic posts less frequently.
And maybe posting some different type of content, more drawings, and other stuff.

Top whatever list:
1. All Star Superman
2. Guided By Voices - Isolation Drills
3. Trojan "Rude Boy" and "Skinhead Reggae" box sets.
4. Graham Parker "The Up Escalator" and "Squeezing Out Sparks"
5. The Night Marchers live!
6. The All New Booster Gold and the original Booster Gold comics from the 80's
7. Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew "The Final Ark"
8. Panico - A super awesome Chilean post punk band who's CD I found in Mexico.
9. Tanner - those Tanner cds hold up pretty well, Gar Wood rocks! (I'm working on a best of the 90's post!)
10. WNYC's Radio Lab, especially the recent "War of the Worlds" show.
11. Geoff Mcfetridge and Ed Fella exhibition at the Red Cat gallery in Los Angeles.

Take Me To The Top!

Wow! What a month, what a last few months, what a year!
Is it that time again? Yes it is! God Dammit! It is! It's time for another God damn update!!!!!! Hellelujah!
And what a last few months it's been! Fan-freaking-tastic! Just when I think I've become old, jaded, and crusty I come across something that kicks my ass and makes me feel young again! It's even weirder when it happens a few times a year.
It's been so long and we've seen so much cool stuff, it's been a treat my friends.
As my friend Zach used to say, "Take me to the top!"

A few days, weeks, I don't know, it seems so long ago (OK about 2 weeks) I had the distinct pleasure of catching the amazing canadian post-psychedelic rock outfit Caribou at the B72 here in Vienna. If you haven't checked out their newest recording "Andorra" I humbly suggest you give it a spin. It's one of the best things I've heard all year. It's a bit hard to describe, it's definitely psychedelic music, but somehow filtered through 30 years of punk-post punk-new wave-post hardcore-electro-post rock-and-electronica. Somehow Caribou manage to avoid all the clichés and pitfalls of psychedelic pop and make some great tunes. Their live show is what was really fantastic, they really put on a great live set. I'm happy to say they tour as a full band, with main-man Dan Snaith doing the multi instrument change-aroo during almost every song, often playing two instruments at once. Of course, what impressed me the most was when Dr. Snaith (the dude just got his Ph.D in mathematics!) was playing the drums, and Caribou had the dueling drumsets. It was a far freaking out, man!

So, you know, I was burrowing through the series of tubes we know as the internets, and I stumbled across Charley Harper. This guy must be the most influential illustrator that, it would seem, no one has heard of. OK it turns out he's a bit like Norman McLaren, and he did enjoy a bit of fame and fortune back in the day, but as time passes on, he's become a bit obscure. I've been influenced by Charley Harper without even knowing it. I've tried to draw/design simple and stylized animals for years, and it's hard to imagine Don Pendleton/Alien Workshop, Ryan McGinness, or Geoff McFetridge haven't all been heavily influenced by Mr. Harper!
It turns out that designer extraordinaire, Todd Oldham, has been slaving away making a book featuring Charley Harper's work, and that big, heavy, and expensive book arrived in the mail yesterday. When Anna and I got home, we started looking through this huge book and had a sense of amazement with the turn of every page. And on the next page there was something more amazing than what we had just seen, Harper's work is so clean, geometric, minimal and iconic, but it's never stiff. Hats off to Todd Oldham, who's Laissez-faire graphic design let's Charley Harper's work stand out. This book could have very easily become horribly and gratuitously over-designed, but Mr. Oldham let's Harper's work speak for it self. Amazing stuff.



And in the Holy-f@cking-sh!t category, we had the rare opportunity to see the meastro himself, ENNIO MORRICONE, live in concert. Now in his late 70's and having composed the soundtrack to some 400 films, Ennio Morricone has decided that he should take his show on the road. We were lucky enough to catch his show here in Vienna, and it did not disappoint. Having over 40 years worth of work to choose from, Morricone tended to stay away from his, shall we say, quirkier soundtracks and really put the orchestra to work. It was amazing to watch Morricone conduct a 100 piece orchestra and and additional 80 peice chorus, the music was beautiful and sublime. Of course, he played the "big hits" such as the main score from "The Good The Bad and the Ugly" and "The Mission" as well as lesser-known works such as "Indagine Su Un Cittadino Al Di Sopra Di Ogni Sospetto" and "Queimada." When they played "The Ecstacy of Gold" it gave me goosebumps! Needless to say, the crowd enjoyed it, and il Maestro came out for 7 encores! Leaving the concert hall, I wondered if we had just watched the Mozart or Beethoven of our time? What would movies and music be like without the music and influence of Morricone?

CHEETAHS NEVER WIN: Out Now!!!

Cheetahs Never Win, No. 1 is out now.
It's 36 pages, B&W, Color Cover. $5.
Right now it's available at the MOTMOT shop.

UPDATE!
Cheetahs Never Win No. 1
Will be available in November at Atomic Books in Baltimore, MD. and at Quimby's in Chicago!
I am still interested in shops in YOUR area. Let me know!!!
It is also available NOW through mailorder in the Motmot online shop!!!
Online orders will receive an exclusive cheetah badge!
AND!The Cheetahs Never Win! Release party will coincide with the Murmel Comics 27 release party!
Murmel 27 will feature an all new comic by me! (As well as a gang of other fine comic artists!)

Friday November 9th. 9 PM
At: Fluc
In Vienna
Live: Rotterdam, Fantas Schimun, & the MurmelDjs

Be my friend on Myspace!
http://www.myspace.com/cheetahsneverwin

Random Record Reviews

Here are some quick reviews of some new things I picked up. Not really a review, but more a heads up. Enjoy!

THE EAT were a punk rock band from the sunny state of Florida. Hence the silly title. Apparently, their original 7' releases are these incredibly obscure and over-priced collectors items. The fine folks at Alterntative Tentacles have graciously re-released the original Ep's, as well as a ton of extras: A cassette-only release, an album, and a heap of live songs!
The songs are kind of funny, lyrically, it sounds like these guys weren't dumb, and knew how to make a decent string of words into (often) funny lyrics.
It's kind of Lo-Fi, but not too Lo. A comparison to the Angry Samoans might not be too far off, and a number of reviews compare the Eat to the Angry Samoans, but I think it's not quite the case, the Eat are more melodic, less retarded, and the tunes are more memorable.
And the tunes are what is so great about this CD. This band was able to walk a fine line between raw punk and melody. The songs are pretty raw and tinny but these guys were able to put together some great rock and roll. It's raw, it's great, you can hum along to it.
...
Silkworm were one of my rock and roll mainstays during the 90's, they were real meat and potatoes rock. A three piece of Bass, Guitar and Drums. Rock music stripped down to it's most basic components. They always put on a great show, and were always friendly and talkative with their fans. For anyone who doesn't know their music I would recommend checking out "Italian Platinum." Sadly, after 15 years as a band, Silkworm called it quits in 2005 after the untimely death of drummer Michael Dahlquist.

Well, a few years have passed and and the other members have regrouped and are performing and recording under the name: Bottomless Pit. Their first record is coming out, Hammer of the Gods! You can listen to mp3's of four of the eight songs that will appear on the album.
I reminds me a lot of Silkworm, but somehow older, wiser and more contemplative, or maybe I'm just reading into it.
They've shuffled their line up a little bit, Tim Midgett has moved from bass to guitar, and they have a new rhythm section. Musically, it's similar to Silkworm, but they sound a little bit tighter, more fucused, and completely fantastic. I've been listening to the Mp3's non-stop. Andy Cohen is still one of the most amazing guitar players I have ever heard.
The album is a double 45 rpm LP, and also comes with a CD version of the album, so you have no excuse!
Bottomless Pit

Jams Run Free

Hey! We saw Sonic Youth at the Arena in Vienna. Man, they were just as awesome as always, I'm beginning to think it was the best I have ever seen them!!! I'm always a little bit leery of big rock shows, big crowds tend to bother me, and I always like it when a band can remain accessible to their fans. But it's an imperfect word, what can you do?
They played a set heavily based on their excellent new record "Rather Ripped" and a lot of stuff from "Daydream Nation." They played my favorite song of theirs "Hey Joni!" Which I have never heard them play live. It seemed like most of the singing was done by Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo, which is kind of a cool treat.
They ended with "The Trilogy" from Daydream Nation, which was completely fuckin' awesome.
Man, their live guitar sound was just so loud and otherworldly, so, uhhh, Sonic! The sound just fills up the space. You can really forget how different the live sound is compared to the recorded version.

I do find it interesting that they hardly played anything from their 90's era, they skipped over: Dirty, Washing Machine, EX Jet Set, and A Thousand Leaves. And they didn't play anything off of their last two records, Murray Street and Sonic Nurse (Both of which are also great!)
I'm just kind of wondering about this band, are they like the Grateful Dead of Indie rock? Are they the Beatles of indie rock? Or are they really some kind of avant-noise-rock band that managed to stick it out and stay creative? Probably a bit of all of the above. I have to give it up to the band, they have managed to stick around for over 25 years, with almost no line up changes and no backsliding. If only Thurston Moore would have signed Royce's bottle of Paul Newman brand salsa... but that was a long time ago, and now, i think I can forgive you Thurston!

I'm still here...

We're just having a little "working vacation" in the South Tyrolean alps.
I'll post more later, but here's a weird little thing we found in the Italian grocery store.
For the baby that enjoys the finer things...

I've had a pleasant enough time watching some Swiss TV. Austrian and German TV are abysmally bad, but Swiss TV is pretty good. And they broadcast some shows in English and German. (If a movie is originally in English, they will send one signal in German, and one in English!) The other night they broadcast (uninterrupted and unedited), Anchorman, Secretary, then the Pretenders in Concert. A few days later they showed a great documentary on Elvis Presley.

Libraries are for Nerds

An actual post about life in Vienna! Sort of, kind of.
I've mentioned to a few people that I pick up quite a few CDs from the Vienna public library.
The library itself is interesting, it is a huge brick and mortar monstrosity placed right above the subway line. It has a never-ending number of stairs that lead to a restaurant, and a nice view of the city. If you look at it just right it looks like an upside-down Jawa Sandcrawler (sandcrawlers are always good!)
It's nestled in a comfy spot not far from inbetween work and home.
I normally don't spend much time in libraries, even if they look like they were built by Jawas.
The books are mostly in German, (duh!) so not much for me there.
But real deal is the amazing Compact Disc collection. They must have some cool people buying their music; I've never seen a library with this good of a music selection, not even my college library. Even after CSUF rebuilt their library, their shelves just seemed to have "library" music. (e.g., zydeco compilations, e-z jazz, Harry Smith's anthology of folk music, ZZ top, more jazz, and Gato Barbieri.)
The library will let you actually take 12 Cds home, for a whole month (with very modest late fees!) (CSUF, didn't let you take anything home, and the Cerritos Library let you take it home for a week, but with hefty late fines! I still owe the Cerritos Library a fortune!)
Last week I made it over to the Library and here's my big score.

1. Fela - Beasts of No Nation
2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues + The Lyre of Orpheus
3. Godspeed You Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.
4. Linton Kwesi Johnson - Poet and the Roots
5. The Donnas - Spend the Night
6. Kraftwerk - Autobahn
7. Desmond Dekker - You Can Get it if You Really Want
8. Brian Eno - Ambient 1 - Music for Airports
9. Brian Eno - Ambient 4 - On Land
10. 20 Years of Dischord Box set!
11. The Temptations 2 CD set

Not to mention all the other stuff I've found: Shellac, Fugazi, Ian Dury, RFTC, Ethiopiques, Philip Glass, Melvins, Can, Faust, Steve Reich, XTC, and countless number of Lee Perry CDs. And they seem to keep current, I've picked up (or seen) stuff, by the Futureheads, Go! Team, Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, etc...
They also have CDs by your favorite Austrian, German, and Turkish pop stars.
They have a pretty good Jazz section, and an intimidating classical section.
I wonder who is buying the cool stuff.

Cheetahs Never Win!

Hey folks, It's been nearly a month. I just wanted to drop by and mention we're having a great summer, we're having a great time with lots of friends visiting, and we're having an all around bitchen summer! (And lots of work to keep us busy! The Motmot shop is bustin' loose, and we've got some new shirt designs ready for action!)
But I really wanted to mention, that I have come up with a definite title for my upcoming comic. Drum roll please......

CHEETAHS NEVER WIN!

Here's the cover art, I'm expecting a mid-late summer release date.
Around 36 photocopied pages of wacky-mad-cap comedy and foul mouthed animals in crisis and despair! Fun for the whole family, expose your kids to life's harsh realities at an early age, it's gonna happen eventually, why not in the form of a comic!
Available some time in mid August.
It's really happening!

I'm Giving it Away

Here's a sneak preview of one of my one-page-gag-strips.
This comic appeared in Murmel Comics # 25.
A slightly different version will be appearing in my upcoming comic collection titled "Run Like Hell!"
But here you can see the original!

Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire!

Wow, less than 6 months between posts, I'm on a roll!
I don't know why, but I just haven't posted much of my comics, or other hi-jinx, on this blog. And I think I really should, I blab about everything else; but then I think, it's such an egotistical thing to do. But then I think, ya' gotta hustle, and a blog is a pretty egotistical thing anyway...
Time to toot my own horn, so, here goes.

1. Rosebud Magazine, Number 6. is out now! I've seen it in finer shops in Vienna, and I saw it in London. It's probably in New York, and L.A. and who knows where else! I have a series of color-Xerox collages, taking up 6 pages of this gargantuan (400 pages!) book. Check it out, there is a preview page, (with two of my pieces!) the design is amazing, the whole thing is awesome. Those folks at Rosebud do great stuff!

2. Murmel Comics Number 26 is out now (although extremely difficult to find outside of Austria!) The theme of the issue is "Lying." I drew up a few pages, throwing light on a few of the best yarns I've ever spun. Like the one shown above, now you know the truth about poor Tom Marley!

3. If you know me, you know I've been contributing to Murmel Comics for a while, and a few of my friends have been curious to see what I've been doing. So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I will be collecting all my Murmel contributions, and a lot of new stuff, and rolling it into my own comics zine. It should be around 32 pages, and should be out some time in the summer! It's still in production! I didn't give up, not yet, at least! Will be available in the Motmot shop, as well as a few other fine outlets!

-have a bitchen summer, K.I.T.-Steve