It’s not often that I’m dead wrong when it comes to my gut instinct about music. I’m a snobby motherfucker most of the time, and I know what I like and what I won’t like. And for some reason, I got it in my head that the band Pinback wasn’t for me, even though some of their first releases were on a record label I deeply respect (Absolutely Kosher Records) and they’ve always received favorable reviews.

It wasn’t until the other day that I even gave them a shot, and I was surprised and annoyed by how much I liked them. I didn’t expect catchy music; in fact, somehow from seeing the Offcell EP cover about six years ago I had surmised they were a math rock band (you know, because the cover has a graph on it!) and figured they made lo-fi, angular and dissonant music, which is the exact opposite of the truth. Their songs have a distinctive aura of progression about them, while still maintaining a comfortable, catchy quality to every track. Overall, the songs remind me of a young, mopey Death Cab For Cutie. I was mostly annoyed because now I have like six albums to go through. So far, I’ve liked nearly everything I’ve heard, and the only time I reach for the “skip” button is when they make something super-poppy with fake drums, which is probably 10% of the time.

All I can say is that I’m dumb, and shouldn’t jump to conclusions with music so much. Then again, being skeptical has saved me from making some horrible purchases as well, so who knows.

Thanks to everybody who commented on my last blog post! I really appreciate you sharing your playlists with everyone and introducing us to some great new music!

As I was responding to your comments, something hit me. You guys have shown us an incredible ammount of support over the last few years. You’ve called your local DJs to request our music. You’ve come to our shows and purchased our CDs. And your votes have caused us to win more contests and get onto more playlists than I could count. Each of you has helped make what we do possible.

Last week was really cool because we had twenty people contribute to our post! But, our anlaytics show that hundreds of people read it. Why is that? I’m not sure. But I feel that it is – at least in some part – due to the fact that so often the creation and delivery of art is a one way street. I want to change that; so I’d like to invite you to take a moment to do three things:

1. Visit atris.wordpress.com (This will be more fun if everyone goes to the same page.)
2. Scroll down to the comment box and introduce yourself. Write a few words about anything you’d like. How did you first hear our music? What city are you from? What are your favorite movies? Pretend we just met at a coffee shop. If you’d like share your blog address, Twitter ID or someplace where we and other people can learn more about you that would be great too!
3. Check the box that says Notify me of follow-up comments via email.

Please don’t do this for us, do this for yourself and for everyone. It takes a certain amount of bravery to put yourself out there; but it’s worth it. We love to get to know people with similar interests, ideas, and opinions. And it’s really cool when group discussions are started. If you have something in common with someone who posts, let him or her know! It makes me feel great to see people responding to my comments, and I love to chime back in to share my thoughts.

Looking forward to meeting you!

-Mason

Over the past month or so I went to some real neato deato smeato concerts. (Are we still calling them concerts? What are the hipster losers calling them these days? Rawk shows? Gigs? Smegma?)
First up was Thursday and Far at Bowery Ballroom. Oh yeah and the terrible opening band, Midnight Masses. Some of the most boring music I’ve heard in a long time and their performance was even more boring. This is exactly the kind of crap that Pitchfork is going to tell you is so hip right now. It was kind of sad actually because all six members sang but they did the most boring harmonies and background lines possible. It’s really a waste to have that many people in a band that can sing and just have them doing “ahhhhhhhh” on one note for a whole song. So I’m sure this time next year this band will be huge and having Carrie Underwood open for them.
Far was amazing as expected. I’ve been listening to them for over ten years and it was great to finally see them live. They didn’t play any new material from their upcoming which was good idea I believe. I was surprised that at least half of the audience seemed to know the songs and that some mini pits broke out. It’s too bad that the only shirts they had were youth small since I clock in at over 500 pounds.
Thursday played their “breakthrough” album, Full Collapse, from front to back. Personally, I would have preferred to hear War All The Time instead but Full Collapse translates better live than the recording. Geoff, the singer from Thursday, had also joined Midnight Masses and Far each for a song so that was something that happened. After playing Full Collapse Thursday played about six more songs including Jet Black New Year, which is scientifically their best song for sure. I’ll be seeing them again in December and hopefully they’ll play some of the better songs off of Common Existence. Also playing that show will be Dillinger Escape Plan(!), Glassjaw(!!!!!!) and United Nations(?!). When we got flyers for this while waiting in line we thought it was a joke because the lineup is almost too good to be true.

Sorry ladies, take your tampon napkin somewhere else!

Cockaoke.

Japanese princess?

I’ve been spending most of my time at Tumblr simply because I am still working on my main computer (upgrading, fixing, and all that) and it’s easier for me to post via my phone.  Anyway, make sure to check out my two Tumblr pages:

BearMythology

BearMythology Fetishes (Totally NSFW!)

Just recently posted about the woofy Rob Crow in my main Tumblr blog and a very different look at Orcs and Dwarves in World Of Warcraft in my scandalous Fetishes blog…

Wow. Whole lot of news this week: First of all congratulations to you! Because of your votes a’tris won the first round of the Indie Show Contest! I’ve seriously lost count of how many of these we’ve won thanks to you. This win will allow us to advance to The Indie Show’s finals round, so as soon as we have more information about that I’ll post it here. Thanks again!

Yeah… I think I need to have this looked at. It’s a four hour drive to the show tomorrow too so, if I’m to fit this into my schedule (and I believe that would probably fall into the good idea category) I have some work to do! Hopefully I’ll be able to update this post with a before and after. For the moment here’s the before:

Warning: the following photographs are graphic and may offend some viewers – who are musicians – who play keyboards.

-Mason

Based on the name I always assumed this band would sound like a bunch of bleach-blonde spikey haired, kikwear, bad vans wearing douchebags.

Instead they sound like a bunch of cloud people who play instruments made out of dandelions, a drumset of five bear cubs who squeek when you pat their head and a singer wearing a 1920’s diving suit.

Kind of insanely awesome.

When I was in college a good friend of mine graciously made me a mix cd. It had a great song on it called Fortress by Pinback- a good mix of smooth indie and punctuated rock – perhaps one might call it a summer jam. I started exploring the band at that point and have been a fan since.

Although they haven’t put out anything new since 2007- the band is still touring and I had the pleasure of seeing them last night at The Loft. Just to let you know- The Loft is a standing room only venue, so once again my small stature could have been a problem- alas it was not. However, I would like to understand people that walk by like they are trying to find someone and then conveniently stop RIGHT in front of you. Like- I’m standing right here- did you not see me? But I digress…

They played a great show, covering songs from all of their albums including crowd (and my) favorites- Fortress, Good to Sea, Penelope, Sender, Bloods on Fire, Non-Photo Blue and Concrete Seconds. They played the latter even though they hadn’t rehearsed it in over a year, but the crowd would not stop chanting it so they finally gave in.

So after the show, I started thinking about other bands that I listened to in college. I realized that they all kind of have the same vibe. All songs that you could listen to in the library while studying or driving down the street with the windows down (maybe you could play them at a party with a group of music appreciators ). Bands like The Sea and Cake, Sondre Lerche, Built to Spill, Bright Eyes and Neutral Milk Hotel- among others. These are all bands that for the most part I still listen to today.

I think it was during that time in college that I really first started exploring indie rock. I realized that I liked it because typically the lyrics meant something to me and the rhythm was somewhere in between rock and emo. For me it is a perfect balance- not to hard, not too soft- juuussstttt right.

More Soon,
J

Hottest events — coming soon! 

Oct. 19 Pinback featuring Bellini

Oct. 20 NBA CLASSIC FEATURING SAN ANTONIO SPURS VS OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Oct. 20 Pinback

Oct. 20 Spring Awakening More dates: Oct 21 | Oct! 22

Oct. 21 Terra Naomi @ Emo’s

Oct. 22 Matt Kearney

Oct. 22 Colbie Caillat

Oct. 22 Buju Banton

Oct. 22 A Wilhelm Scream featuring Living With Lions / The Riot Before / Broke

Oct. 23 Mary Poppins More dates:
Oct 24 | Oct 25 | Oct 27 | Oct 28 | Oct 29 | Oct 30 | Oct 31

Oct. 23 Jim Gaffigan Dallas

Oct. 23 Smothers Brothers Austin More dates: Oct 24

Oct. 24 Built To Spill

Oct. 24 Brian Regan

Oct. 24 Rozone Productions Presents Sean Kingston Tomorrow Tour

Click here to Download FREE MP3!

This weeks playlists at Rate My Playlist feature songs with hand claps in them.  It’s good.  Download it and enjoy!

Click here to download the FREE MP3!!

Handclaps are awesome…handclaps in songs are just downright delightful.  Check out and download our Playlists this week.  We present our favorite songs that feature our beloved natural instrument.  Hope you enjoy!

Doors @ 7:30 • $15/$17

I’ve always loved the way that Pinback songs build in layers.

Pinback “Fortress”

Like what you see feel free to email me at tad@creativesquall.com and don’t forget to become a fan on Facebook. Check out the Creative Squall website to see how sketches grow up to be complete ideas.

Fall in the Mountains   -   A Meatysauce Review Playlist

Click here to Download

Well, I am going to try something new on this website. Instead of exploring some of my favorite bands, I am putting up a mini playlist with some of the songs I have been listening to lately.

I woke up this morning and felt the fall chill in the air. Aside from hanging up the flipflops for another year and the leaves changing colors…there is also a bit of a change in the music I listen to.  Give it a download and put it on your iPod.

Pinback is coming to  the Marquee in Phoenix October 17th.
Alright, who wants to take me? Advance tickets only $15 at www.luckymanonline.com/Calendar.aspx
If you buy me a drink too I’ll definitely let you hug me at the end of the night.  

d-d-d-dig it:

Thanks again to everyone for your votes! Our appearance on Fame Games was a big success. Check out what the judges had to say after the break.

By the way, if anyone else wondered what “tickle my tittler” meant urban dictionary gives us the following definition:

1. Tittler – A small alcoholic beverage that is intended to stop after just one. Usually followed by many other tittlers. Usually consumed by people on shift in the restaurant business. tit-ler

“Hey Cypress, is it time for a tittler yet”?

So apparently one of the judges did not believe that our music tickled his small alcoholic beverage.

If you feel that you can’t stop after voting for just one a’tris song there’s good news! Thanks to your support, “Chasing Rabbits” will make its Fame Games debut this coming Monday, 28 September! I can’t tell you how excited I am to see that one getting this type of exposure.

Some songs take days to write, some take weeks; “Chasing Rabbits” took months. My writing partner, Michael Kreher, came up with the foundation for this tune and I knew he was on to something the moment he first shared it with me. Even in its early form, CR held a lot of potential; but I didn’t know where it wanted to go until I watched a speech that Sam Harris, the author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, gave at AAI 07. If you would like to get some more insight into the source material for this song please visit samharris.org.

To help “Chasing Rabbits” advance please use the following links to vote and review for it!

More news to come!

-Mason

As I said before I have a whole slew of new designs ready to go. Having a slight technical issue though and until it’s resolved I can’t get them actually made.

When I use photos, I use photo paper. I’ve always used this great matte photo paper that was the perfect weight – thick enough, but not too thick that it wouldn’t bend around the buttons. Well, it seems that has been discontinued and the replacement ‘presentation paper’ is just unacceptable as it is much too thin – almost like regular copy paper. I made several buttons with it and they literally could be pulled apart. I found as I dropped one on a carpeted floor and it fell apart. Ugh! So, until I can find a better alternative I can’t make any new ones.

…By the way – ALL of the buttons currently listed were made using the older, thicker, deeply missed paper.

I have been in contact with the button parts manufacturer and they’re sending me some samples to try to correct the issue, hopefully I’ll have them by next week… and they will work… then order more … and fingers crossed have new Twilight buttons by the end of the month. Whew!

So until then I have several of the older styles listed together in a ‘5 of your choice’ listing here. All of them made with the older paper as well and all have been well tested. =D I will update when I have more news.

I’ve added the rest of the ‘already made’ buttons to the store – all of them can be found here.

Here are a few of the new sets

Elijah Wood

Jonas Brothers

Harry Potter Movie Posters

Daniel Radcliffe

Bleach

Again, these are just a few, check out the store for everything that’s available.

Including: David Beckham, Hayden Christensen, Mickey Mouse, several Elijah Wood, several Daniel Radcliffe, several Jonas Brothers

Last time I blogged I asked you guys if you’d like to help us get another tune of ours back on Fame Games by voting for your favorite song. Thanks for responding in a big way! “Black Bird’s Song” is now going to be receiving some major exposure as, thanks to you, it will be appearing on Monday’s Q show! I’m so glad to see that you like “Black Bird Song”; it’s a personal favorite of mine.

For those of you who aren’t on Twitter, the guys and I have been tweeting about some really great news this week and I wanted to share some of that with you here. Currently “Automatic Doors” is #1 on Ourstage’s Alternative Channel for the second week in a row! There are all kinds of cool prizes to be had for monthly winners so thanks for helping us hold steady at the top Two more weeks to go, w00t!

In other cool news, a’tris is currently Globally ranked #71 on ReverbNation’s Alternative chart. Just to give you some perspective, over 250,000 bands use ReverbNation to promote their work so we feel really good about that

Thanks again for your support!

-Mason

Usually I try to focus on bringing you tunes from the 80s and 90s, but this week I’m going to do more. I’ve got some great tracks from the early 80s and then some really recent bands and bands from the early 2000s that just go so good with the early new wave and punk sounds. I’m also going to be bringing along some classic late 80s/90s tracks. It will be a fun time.

Listen in tonight on KRUI 89.7 fm or online here. Also my dad is here with me. Here he is eating an ice cream. How cute is this man? And, he’s cool he played Johnny Cash.

1. Archers of Loaf, Icky Mettle, Hate Paste
2. The American Analog Set, Promise of Love, Come Home Baby Julie Come Home

3. Crime, San Francisco’s Still Doomed, Frustration
4. Built to Spill & Caustic Resin (1995), EP, One Thing
5. The Stooges, The Stooges (1969), Real Cool Time (Remastered)
6. Northern Picture Library, Paris (1994), Signs
7. Aveo, Battery (2004), Awkward at the Knees
8. Lush, Split (1994), Starlust
9. Frank Black, Teenager of the Year (1994), Space is Gonna Do Me Good (Check this goof ball out!!)

10. The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Strung out in Heaven (1998), Wisdom
11. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Let Love In (1994), Ain’t Gonna Rain Anymore
13. Radio Birdman, The Essential Radio Birdman, Murder City Nights
14. T.S.O.L., T.S.O.L. (1981), Word Is

15. Descendents, Fat (1981), Mr. Bass
16. Pinback, Blue Screen Life (2001), Prog
17. Shipping News, Flies the Fields (2005), Axons and Dendrites

18. Wild Beasts, Two Dancers (2009), All the King’s Men ( I learned about this band and Autolux which was played later from the podcast One Track Mind, their blog can be found here. It’s pretty cool.)

19. Orange Juice, The Glasgow School, Falling and Laughing (track came out in 1980)
20. Autolux, Future Perfect (2004), Turnstile Blues
21. The Sleeper, The It Girl (1996), Dress like your Mother
22. Shop Assistants, Shop Assistants Anthology, I Don’t Want to be Friends with You
23. Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues (1983), Moon Rocks
24. Young Marble Giants, Colossal Youth, Choci Loni
25. The Cure, Pornography (1982), The Hanging Garden

26. The Verve, A Storm in Heaven (1993), See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time)
27. Guided by Voices, Live at the Wheelchair Races, Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox

The XX are a cross of Stars, Pinback, and a dash of The Whitest Boy Alive. I’ve read a bunch of stuff saying they have the album of the year. I’m not ready to give them that honor. They sound a helluva lot better on the earbuds than anywhere else. My favorite song, VCR, is below.

The XX – VCR

The XX on Myspace

Official Website