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

Bummer school

Hey friends! Here's a quick run down of what I've been up to and in to.
1. I've been taking a German class again, after 3 years of struggling with this stupid language, and I have to say that things are finally beginning to click. I also picked up a great book called "English Grammar, for Students of German." It breaks down German grammar and explains the quivalent in English grammar (or points out when it's just different!) I thought cases didn't exist in English, I never knew that word order and pronouns are how we express them (in German, cases are expressed using articles and conjugation, and word order is flexible. Yowza!)

2. Anna and I did a presentation on "Radness in Graphic Design" and we did a screenprinting workshop at the Johanneum in GRAZ, Austria. It was interesting working with graphic design students, because we normally work with High School kids. I was fun to give a little lecture on skateboard and punk graphics, because I'm sure they haven't seen any of this stuff.

3. Soho in Ottakring, is the annual arts festival in the 16th district in Vienna. (AKA Ottakring) There was some good stuff, but I was seriously blown away by a short film called "While Darwin Sleeps" by an English film maker named Paul Bush. An amazing piece of animation, that reminds me of Stan Brakhage but Paul Bush takes his Brakhage influence and goes somewhere new with it.

4. Ted Leo's "Living with the Living" I think it's his best so far, I think it's his "London Calling." I seriously think he should be as huge as the Clash were in 1983! Right now the world needs smart and politically informed music! Ted Leo is a rocker for sure, but he's all over the place on this record, punk, power pop, reggae, and even a little folk, make this a great mixed bag of music.
Hey! he's playing in Vienna in June!

I enjoy actually having time to get some of my art and graphics finished! It looks like we might have some new shirt graphics, and the comics zine, might actually come out on time!

Bis bald-Steve

Their Greatest Hits

Today, Thursday, May 3rd. 2007, I feel as if I have somehow come full circle, or at least a very-small and minor chapter of my life has come to a close. But still, it's something that's bugged me on and off for 15 years!
What's the big hubub?
It all has to do with a band called Trusty. Trusty, a pop-punk band most of you have never heard of.

Yep, this is gonna be a long-ass record review, but one with a unique personal twist.

Let's set the way-back-machine to around 1990-1992. That's about the time I started driving, going to punk shows and hanging out at Zed records. One day I walk in and Big Frank Harrison is listening to a bunch of demo tapes various bands have sent to him. He hears one, isn't too thrilled, and he asks me if I want it!
I take the cassette and I'm pretty thrilled with it, it's good melodic punk rock, but with a real power-pop twist. Punk music that's really poppy and catchy, but it's loud and still has balls. Maybe if the Misfits and the Beatles teamed up.
Slowly, I become enamored with this demo tape, and want to find out more about this band, Trusty. Little information, I don't even know the names of the songs, I just got a tape with "TRUSTY" written on it!

So time goes on, and in a fanzine (probably Flipside, remember, this is pre-internet!) I read a review of a record by Trusty, and I find out that they are from Little Rock, Arkansas! (Punk from Arkansas, whoooooaaaa, that fat guy running for president is from Little Rock, right? (O.K. so it turns out they were hometown heroes, and there was a ragin' music scene in Little Rock, AK.)) So, I order the record from a label called Truant Records, a few weeks later, I get this weird looking record, it's orange, with a big T and it's got some ants drawn on it. I put it on, ...it rocks... it's pretty good....I get to the end...and..the...demo tape songs...aren't on it???
I pick up a few more Trusty discs over the years, some of which are amazing, and some of which are just O.K. Then I hear that Trusty have moved to Washington D.C. and are making some good tunes.

(Here's where I gush about this band.) Their song "Capitol Hill" appears on a comp called "Echoes From the Nation's Capitol." Which I picked up on cassette, of course! This song starts out sounding like the Misfits, and ends up in a chaotic crash of powerpop oohhs and aaahhs, with a little piano thrown in, and an extended chorus/outtro. Exactly two and a half minutes of power-punk-pop bliss After nearly 15 years this is still one of my favorite songs. Their Kathy's Keen EP on Desoto records is not far behind, both songs are really rocking punk anthems. This is some of my all time favorite music.
Their best stuff appeared on singles and compilations. It seems as if they gave their best stuff away, and when they made their proper albums on Dischord, they didn't have these incredibly strong songs anchoring side A and side B, respectively. As a result their records on Dischord never floored me. Maybe they're a great singles band, the Buzzcocks and XTC's best stuff are their singles. O.K., no biggie, I digress, Trusty were a great band. They put out another record did some touring, moved back to Little Rock, then split up in 1997. I never did get to see them play live.
....
Fast forward to 2007, I threw out almost all of my cassettes ages ago, the Trusty demo and "Echoes..." cassettes (along with hundreds of others) were lost in a endless shuffle and eventually I threw out boxes and boxes of tapes. I had been looking for an MP3 of "Capitol Hill" for ages, turns out my friend Royce had an MP3 of "Capitol Hill" and "Kathy's Keen!" I don't think Royce realized the treasure I had just found (thanks Royce, you will be rewarded in punk-rock heaven!) So I rock out to Trusty all over again, and I begin to wonder about those long lost demo-songs, Keep in mind, this is something that has been nagging at me, for like, 15 years!

I do a little searching on the internets, and find a CD called "The Paul Years" which is their first album as well as a few demos and compilation tracks, and it has also been out of print for almost 10 years! I manage to track down a record seller in Germany who has it, and when I receive it, it's like the first time I got the debut Trusty record; as I go through the songs, I realize that those precious demo tracks are absent! I start thinking; I imagined the songs, or maybe I didn't remember them correctly or something!?!?
After a little more internet researching, I find out that Trusty have dusted off their guitars, and recorded a few new songs, and along with the new songs, the new CD has a bunch of "lost" songs never released!
So I place an order.
Which arrived this morning.
Finally.
As I go through the songs, I realize the two new songs "Sugar Smack" and "Gone" are Trusty classics, and again they put two fantastic songs on an EP! Along with a 15 year old demo! Then, when song number 3 comes on, I hear this tinny demo tape sound, and it's sounds pretty familiar (I always thought my copy of the tape was of poor quality, but it was the recording itself!), then when I get to song 7, it clicks, and everything is exactly how I remember it.
I've got the names of the songs! Passive Spy, The Greatest Hits, 10th and Rock, as well as others!
I thought they said "the Brain is Dead!" It turns out they say "The Greatest Hits!"

What's interesting, is that, in the liner notes, they explain why these songs never saw the light of day, and were never properly recorded! (It's a long story, but basically they were going to be re-recorded and released, but their indie-label (Skene! of all labels!) folded and the band distanced themselves from this era of songs. Then the tapes were thought to be lost, and then eventually, were found.) I wonder what would have happened if Big Frank had liked the tape and contacted the band?

But what's interesting for me, is that at least one loose end in my life has been tied up. Let's call it a wrap, the mystery of the Trusty demo has been solved, let's go get some Scooby snacks. It's like being reuinted with an old friend, finding a lost heirloom, or stumbling upon some old photographs that you though were lost. Closure isn't the right word for what I'm trying to describe. To extend the "old friend" metaphor: it's like meeting an old friend and finding out what they've been up to, discovering that you still have something in common, and realizing that they've been wondering about you too.

Trusty's "Sugar Smack" CD is available at MaxRecordings.com. A fine distributor of all things Little Rock!
More Trusty available from Dischord

It's Springtime

Wow! It's Springtime, time to dust off those old shelves, throw out all those unwanted X-mas gifts, and update this biographical-log. Whew.
That said, the weather's been exceptionally beautiful, and I don't feel all that compelled to sit in front of a computer all day, I would rather be at the beach, or something (no beaches in Austria!) But, here I am, pluggin' away, because my job needs me to sit and watch a shop, and do stuff with a computer! So here we are, sorry, I haven't updated since November, but I've been sorta busy. Busy doing what you say? Well we've been slaving over a hot computer day and night to bring you the motmot online shop!!!!
Check it out: motmot shop.
You can finally get our stuff.

And I've been slaving away with pen and paper, to try to bring the world my first comics-zine. I've been contributing stuff to Vienna's own Murmel Comics for a few years, and a few friends have wanted to see the stuff, but it's impossible to get in the USA and 95percent of the comic is in German (except my stuff!) So, I'm collecting my contributions, as well as a bunch of other things I've been drawing the last few years, into a heaping 40 page tome! You can get existential with foul-mouthed dinosaurs, nihilist dodos, Sad-sack Shark, surly beavers, pissed-off elephants, and a host of others. Loads 'o laffs. I've been toying with different titles, so far it's either "RUN LIKE HELL!" or "THIS PLACE SUCKS!" It should be out sometime late spring/early summer. Available in the Motmot online shop, as well as Quimby's in Chicago, and Needles and Pins in San Francisco. You can help, by letting me know of a cool/easy going zine shop in your town!

Top List
1. "For Cal" compilation. I feel lucky to be able to call one of my personal heroes, J. Robbins, a friend. The whole Jawbox/Burning Airlines gang have always been really sweet people and have been really great to their fans. It's really sad to say, that J. and his wife have a very sick baby boy. The nice people from The Cultural Society and Catlick Records have put out an amazing 2 CD compilation. Arcwelder, Channels, David Grubbs, Joe Lally, Jawbreaker, Life and Times, and MISSION OF BURMA, are just a few bands that have contributed! It's great to see so many great bands throw down for a good cause. Go get it!
2. Trans Am: Sex Change. A return to greatness from a band that never really went downhill, but it's one of their best!
3. Trusty: A great band that lots of people never heard of, great power-pop-punk.
4. Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action! A classic!
5. Smoking Popes: Destination Failure. This record is 10 years old, where was I when this came out? Good poppy punk slightly-emo, but we'll let it slide because the songs are so great.
6. This American Life TV version. Exactly what a TV version of this American Life should be like, it will be interesting to see if they can really make it something new for television.
7. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Living with the Living. Possibly Ted Leo's finest to date!
-Steve

Brrrrrrrrrrr......

Hey folks, nice to be bloggin' again, it's like my two weeks is up, time to make a new mark on the ol' internets.
Just wanted to touch base, and make a few observations.
1. It's the 2nd day of November, and it's the first snow of the year! I am woefully under-dressed for today, time to get the coat out, for those of you that live in California, a coat is thick jacket, with long sleeves, sometimes with a cap or hat attached.
2. Viennale film festival: Not much interesting this year, a bit of a disappointment. We managed to see a film on an Italian mafia-murder case, the interesting documentary "My Country My Country" and John Turturro's "Romance and Cigarettes" which is really a Coen Brothers movie in disguise.
I was kind of disappointed that Jesus Camp, wasn't playing, but maybe next year?
We wanted to see The Pervert's Guide to Cinema which seems like a great documentary featuring Slovoj Zizek (sorry, I dropped the accents) and his ideas and ramblings about the movies. Vienna being the city that it is (I can't help but think that in most towns, a movie screening about a Slovenian philosopher's film theories would be half full, at best) the movie was hopelessly sold out, and we didn't have half a chance of getting in. Lots of art school kids in attendance, looking arty.
3. Raymond Pettibon at the Kunsthalle in Vienna, We all know and love the work of Raymond Pettibon, you know the guy who did the Black Flag art? Yeah well now he's a pretty major and respected artist, and some of his drawings are on display in Vienna. I attended the opening, and it was funny to hear the museum director, go on and on about Pettibon, and then Pettibon, went up and struggled to utter and mumble a few words, and say thanks. I talked him into drawing Gumby and Pokey in my sketchbook, so now I have my own Pettibon drawing!
A few days later Greil Marcus gave a lecture about art and politics, and talked about: Riot Girl, Philip Roth, Bikini Kill, Sinclair Lewis, Sleater Kinney, T.V. on the Radio, and Green Day. When asked about Raymond Petibon, he said something to the extent of "Eh, not a fan."
4. Erwin Wurm at the MUMOK. Erwin Wurm, is pretty bitchen, I like the guy's work, I'll forgive him for the Red Hot Chili Pepper's, because he didn't make it, they were just "inspired" by him. Good Stuff, some of the best artwork I've seen in a while, like Charles Ray, with a sense of humor.
5. I caught them all. I caught/evolved every Pokemon in Pokemon Pinball advanced, I am a nerd.