Someone farted on the subway in close proximity this morning. I think it was the dude who tried to hold the bar next to me but couldn’t because it was too crowded so he surrendered to the bar on the ceiling. When the doors opened to Union Square, he left and so did that smell. He was good at farting quietly. Strong and silent like a Steinbeck character. He should be proud.
It should have been me. Because this morning, I had breakfast tacos. That I made. Even the tortillas. So good. I miss being able to get them easily as I did in TX.
I really like Robert Rodriguez movies. On the dvd special features for Once Upon A Time in Mexico he has a 10-minute cooking show on how to make the puerco pibil that Johnny Depp eats and then shoots the chef for making it so good. I learned how to make it. And then, I learned how to make tortillas for my tacos from this video:

I don’t have any tattoos. I never knew what to get that
future me would approve of. And neither does my friend, Dave, who plays bass in .357 Lover. But he tattoos other people very well.
Here’s his work on Johnny Murder:

more samples
*Ask for the teardrop special.
He just finished the label for the new Coney Island Beer:

*still thinking about the Anne Murray in The Carpenters font on my arm.

Note: I wrote this after I came home from the marathon. Some of it doesn’t make sense and the grammar is terrible, as I was half asleep writing it. But I don’t want to edit it because that would water down my zombie-like excitement.
i set my alarm for 4:30* but couldn’t get to sleep b/c i was too excited. all these ideas came and went.
i took my piano just in case but i didn’t need it. i took my accordion, too.
i was hoping to get the band to go with me but it wasn’t able to. they were bummed.
i wandered to the green room and saw familiar faces. So damn funny these guys are.
I saw leo allen. He’s a sweet fellow. he writes for the show as does his partner, Eric Slovin. They’re a brilliant pair.
I saw eugene mirman. he’s a funny man. i like that guy. Andy Blitz was doing stuff, too. He’s funny, too. He was booking a flight to chicago to go see his brother to leave within hours.
Nick kroll was killing me. I’ve been in shows around town with him and his buddies, and they were kiling me.
“How do I do this character with this moustache with a jewish accent without being Borat?”
Then, they all started doing Borat and then got the idea to have a Borat Army.
Rob riggle was on fire.He’s the coach that demands your attention but was really funny. no camera, just for us.
I decided at the last minute not to use my accordion. To be exact, the last minute was deciding what song to do. I felt like “Havi Nagilah Monster” would have been appropriate to start things off. There was a debate about 1 to 2 songs so i decided to excite the audience first, since it was 7am and then if they gave me one more song, to then go with something a bit nicer.
When they decided the 2nd song was a go, i was a mess again. Which one? I did Bye Bye Girls b/c I was most comfortable with it. It’s an old jacket that fits well and I wouldn’t it screw up. I’ll take chances on live shows at home.
It went well.
then i went to do an interview with Rob, Aziz, and Paul. I’d met Paul when he used to host “Automatic Vaudeville”. He’s a real nice fellow. The other guys I met at the show. They’re real nice. I was a bit shy but enjoyed being around them.
I finished, hung out a little more to watch the show since I don’t have cable, and got a cab and went home and rewarded myself with a bacon, egg and cheese.
*am

I will be playing on Human Giant’s MTV marathon show on Saturday morning at 7:00am EDT.
More details, soon.
Subterranean link

Because I said

WE PLAYED OUR SET AND THEN BACKED ANDREW WK IN DENTON, TX
ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOWS EVER.

THE RAMBLER:

PARTY HARD!

The first time I heard Andrew WK was at Will Johnson’s house. He’d just shown me his share of stock in the Green Bay Packers when he said, “I know someone you’d like.” He played “Girls Own Juice” for me. Holy shit was it awesome. I imagined some guy in his basement in Jersey recording all these tracks. I took it even further when I did a job in Toms River, NJ and saw a White Castle. I took the hate of the cars behind me as I took a left turn (I was living in TX where there aren’t any jughandles nor White Castles). I ordered clam strips and a coke and turned up AWKGOJ and cruised Toms River. Alone. It was a bad ass night.

Please forgive me as you read this interview as it was done by a fan.

Dear Jon,

First of all, thank you for doing this interview with me. Second, thank you for your patience. And third, thank you for what I consider excellent questions and your obvious preparation and familiarity with this music. I truly appreciate your support and it means a lot to me that you’ve spent time with my output.

Here are my answers:

Is Smokeshow going to be similar to Your Friend, Andrew W.K.?

I think Smokeshow and “Your Friend” may similar in terms of their overall emotional intent. We had conceived of “Your Friend” as being a T.V. show with inspiring and joyous content. I think that was achieved, and for that I’m grateful. I’m also grateful to have been given so many great opportunities working with the wonderful people at MTV, who made “Your Friend” and Viacom for their ongoing support. I feel even more fortunate to have ongoing creative relationships with the co-creators of “Your Friend”, who are involved in producing Smokeshow. The primary producer is named Jesse Ignjatovic. He and I’ve worked together since my very first music television experience in 1999. In addition, my long time friend, Evan Prager, is also producing the show with Jesse, out of their new production company. I recently met with them at their offices in LA and since then we’ve begun making the Smokeshow.

If you had complete control of YFAWK what would you have done different?

I wouldn’t change anything about the show now – however, at the time, I certainly felt like we could’ve included more footage from the actual show and less videos and advertising. At the same time, I liked the way the show was informal and part of a larger programming concept. At the time I felt that the show would be more powerful if more of it could be seen. Fortunately, we’ve designed Smokeshow to be an uninterrupted and complete half hour, plus their is total freedom in content and theme. In fact, in keeping with the best paradoxes, the “concept” is that there is no “concept”. Smokeshow is whatever you want it to be.

In relation to your live movie, “Who Knows?”, what is sync-stacking?

Sync-stacking is a simple technique used in mixing, where multiple tracks of performance are stacked on top of each other, so multiple versions of the same song are all being heard at once. Kind of like recording an entire band, and then, having the band overdub every part and every instrument a second time. Sometimes in “Who Knows?” we had three different stereo performances going together – we called that the Triple Stack. Most of the other songs are Double Stacked, and a few are actually just single stereo mixes. It’s interesting to see how they enfold together.

This process is similar to the recording process on the first album, “I Get Wet”, and even more so with the second album, “The Wolf”. On “The Wolf”, any part that was played, and most of the songs had four instrumental melody parts (bass line, melody line, high chord line, and lead melody line) and each of those would be doubled up on itself around a dozen times. I’m not sure of exactly what it was intended to do, but it was some kind of attempt at the sonic equivalent of a hall of mirrors, where there is no single source. It was the most severe example of one’s commitment to a process, and my own personal climax with that approach. But either way, there’s always been lots and lots of doubling and doubling and doubling of the music. It seemed obvious that the live recordings should also be doubled with other live recordings.

Is there any inspiration from the Kiss Alive Albums or any Queen album?

Perhaps in that they all feature some form of audio manipulation. Sometimes in a potentially subversive way. But that’s difficult to say and most likely incredibly unimportant.

How did you hook up with Hanson?

For many years, my publisher, Gary Helsinger, has been encouraging me to co-write more music with other people. Initially, I was very opposed to this idea. I had various reasons, including wanting some sort of creative control, or having a particular focus that was meant to be singular. It’s possible that all along I was simply scared of the idea, because I had never written a song with a stranger before. I don’t regret those years of self-imposed musical isolation, for it had a charm of its own, and it seems necessary along the chain of personal contradictions.

Recently, when Gary asked me if I’d consider co-writing again, along with encouragement from my manager, Pete Galli, I decided to just try it, almost purely out of the need to break out of that old shell… or as a way to escape from the confines of a quickly closing set of brick walls. Once we find ourselves in holding patterns, it only seems natural to make a crop rotation and to specifically do the opposite of what you did before.

Soon after I had started co-writing with various people for various different songs, Hanson invited me to participate in their song writing project called “Fool’s Banquet”. I loved the name right out of the gate, as I had been feeling very foolish about an assortment of absurdities. The Banquet invited me and about 6 other songwriters to their estate in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They matched up different people into groups of two or three and each group was to write and record a song in one day. Then the groups would switch and we’d write another song. I loved how intense the focus was – all the lyrics had to be finished, all the instrumentation, and then they had two top-of-the-line studios set up for recording. So by the end of it, there were 17 well recorded brand new songs. I co-wrote on 5 of them. By doing these types of collaborations, a songwriter develops a collection of songs that can be recorded by other performers. This catalogue of course can also be recorded by the writer personally. I enjoyed this experience very much.

I’ve never met them but they seem very goodhearted. What are your plans with them?

I found them and the rest of the Hanson family to all be incredibly kind and generous and articulate people. I think they’re incredibly talented as musicians and performers, and being around all the different people they welcomed into their world was amazing. They gave everyone complete creative freedom and I didn’t experience a single bad vibe the entire time. I also spent time with them in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where I’ve been filming a great deal of different material over the past two years. I went there with Hanson to do some filming with them, including an interview with Taylor Hanson for Smokeshow.

A couple days ago, Hanson played in New York City, and they invited me to play piano on a couple of their songs. I really enjoyed the experience and there fans were really amazing. So intense and passionate and beautiful. I loved the whole show.

You played at my house, once – The Good/Bad Art Collective in Brooklyn. I was on the road and missed it, but I heard you did a lot of shredding. How has your performance evolved over the years?

I remember the Good/Bad Art Collective, but at this moment I can’t recall I thing about my performance or shredding. As far as performance, I think there’s been a relative consistency that’s been somewhat unintentional – meaning, there certainly were times when I made efforts to evolve my performance or aspects of it, but overall, it seems essentially the same feeling has been there, at least for me. Maybe the consistency has to always push towards evolution in life and in personal experience, and maybe that very type of change becomes a consistency in itself – there’s another paradox. I’d like to think there’s a push towards further levels of exposure, openness, connection, and vulnerability – those seem to be accomplished by some amount of concealment.

Your rock soul is 10-20 years older than you are. What did you listen to prior to your Bulb release of Girl’s Own Juice?

10 to 20 years older? That’s what you say. Maybe I’m 40 to 50 years younger! For the several years prior to Girl’s Own Juice, I was recording heavily and making an attempt to isolate myself from music outside of that which I produced. I don’t necessarily feel that’s a “good” or “bad” (Good/Bad) approach to recording, but it is a valid head-space to be in, and the vacuum like qualities achieved when “tuning out” seem to create some greater amount of “tuning in”. Of course I listened to all kinds of other music too, I just don’t feel like talking about it right now. I trust people – whatever they think, is right.

Speaking of Girl’s Own Juice, why was the song changed to Girl’s Own Love for “I Get Wet”? I like that there are two versions.

I’m glad you like it. It was just for fun. For some reason, I used to really not like the idea of more than one version of a song. I thought one definitive version was idea – and I still think that has a lot of power. By the time I was recording for “I Get Wet” I decided to intentionally contradict that idea and make another version. I had thought I could somehow improve upon the original – I don’t think Girls Own Love is better than Girls Own Juice – they became two different songs, at least to me.

Ann Arbor appears to be a good location to tour from. Did you take advantage of that?

Not really. The only “tour” I ever did while living in Michigan was a two trip to Chicago to play at a crust punk festival with my Detroit based band, Kathode. We somehow screwed up and got there late – missed our set time and everything. I think we got yelled at too. We end up staying at Martin from Los Crudos that night, and drove back to Michigan the next day. I was living in Ypsilanti at the time. I love Ypsilanti.

What brought you to NYC?

It seemed like the most intense place I could possibly go. Whether that was true then or now, I’m not sure, but it certainly seemed intense, and actually seems more intense to me now. I wanted to become that intensity and allow it to define me and my experiences. The less I’ve tried to do that, the more it’s happened, or maybe it’s just gotten easier to live here. Either way, I’m grateful for every aspect of every experience I’ve had and continue to have in New York City.

Have you ever collaborated with Mr. Quintron?

No, but I’ve always loved and admired Robert and Panacea. He used to be in a band called Math that really blew me away too. That was at least 13 years ago. I love them both very much and have always deeply enjoyed seeing Robert in New Orleans. There was a show we played together in Detroit at a place called The Gold Dollar – I was performing keyboard with The Beast People. That was about 10 years ago, I think.

Is there someplace you want to play that you haven’t?

Sure, there’s lots of places: South Africa, Poland, mainland China, Dubai, New Zealand, Alaska. That’s probably the main list for now. Fortunately, we’ve had the opportunity to go to a large number of countries and continents. I’m grateful for all the travel.

Tell me about The Joy Trilogy. Your music is full of joy. There seems to be a tone of fighting for joy and not taking shit and not having your spirit broken. What inspired this idea of a show?

We are made of love, and have nothing but the potential for love. Joy is the human experience of that love. Some have said that God is love, and therefor experiencing love is to experience God. I used to think that the statement “God is love” didn’t pack much of a punch. However, just reconsidering it as “Love is God”, it seems to reveal itself more clearly to me. The feeling of total love is the equivalent of God – the highest feeling. Maybe love is the active definition of God – the highest possible form. I used to get real hung up on God and thought of it as sort of a made-up idea or story. I still consider it possible that God might just be made up by our own minds, but that doesn’t lessen the power of the idea, in fact, our capacity to imagine the unimaginable is the essence of God.

Once I began to think of God as a word used to signify all that I can imagine and everything else I can’t. God is the unknown. God is a word to use when we talk of everything, but know nothing. God is consciousness and God is to each person, there own choice. If I choose to say, “There is no God. God does not exist,” this has no bearing on whether it does or does now, or on whether or not I experience what others would say was “experiencing God.”

I want to feel good. I want to experience joy. I do feel good. My life is joyous. This is what the Joy Trilogy is about. I was inspired to do it because I’ve never done it before and because it’s been feeling good to debate less and take action more often.

Thanks to Ben Kharakh for setting this up.

Gothamist link

The photos page is broken. I don’t know why.

You can view all of Corn Mo’s Photos here:

http://flickr.com/photos/cornmo/

-Web Mo

Friday, June 23
Des Moines, IA
House of Bricks

Clear Lake, IA

Fort Custer Maze
I was lucky on the drives as I was coupled with Tyler Fyre, the show’s mc and sword swallower. His van is bad ass. It has flame-tricked pedals and xm radio and good times waiting in each town. He can stay up all night having those good times and still be good to drive and still put on a good show when we arrive.
We started those good times when we passed by the Fort Custer Maze and then turned around to go do it. It took us well over an hour.
If I had money to burn, I would have one of those mazes built, have it changed daily and would toddle through it quickly between the hours of 6 and 7 am. Then, I would have a breakfast fruit cup waiting for me and a breakfast beer that I had previously invented, which bore me the wealth that paid for that very large maze. Just kidding. I’d invest back into the company. and writing classes.
I bought a fossil there because it was on sale. $5 for a trilobite. I think that’s a good deal.
This was in Clear Lake, IA, which is also the last town that Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper played before they died in a tragic plane crash. We found the venue, the Surfland Ballroom, and went inside. It’s a beautiful room.

Des Moines
We made good time getting to Des Moines.
The House of Bricks has a garage door that divides itself during showtime. There’s also a large basement to hang out in.
I finished soundcheck early and watched Johnny Reeferseed play a bit. He and some friends sat on stage and passed the guitar.
I played a lot of Megatouch, during the downtime. I enjoy winning trivia games. You’ll find my name there along with the names of my friends in the winner’s circle.

Showtime
The shows would go like this: I’d do an opening set of 30-45 minutes. Then the Burlesquepades would begin. During that show, I would do a mini-set and then sit in with the band for a couple of numbers, ie. ZZ Top or Preston Epps. I would usually go on after Kitten DeVille, who has a strong stage presence. It was a challenge for me to follow her – a woman who has taken most of her clothes off. But, I enjoyed the challenge and it made me a stronger performer.
I was heckled by a man with his own pitcher of beer. I took the Look-At-Me to the mat and he quieted a bit. It always helps when the audience wants you to win. And I did.
After the show, I treated myself to a Mickey’s. I haven’t had that in a long time. I remembered that the length of time I’d gone without a Mickey’s wasn’t solely due to its absence from a bar’s menu. It has a large mouth.

A gallery of beverages with the proclivity to be Brigadooned to my mouth
  My Mickey’s      Billy Bass w/ Grape Drink Dispenser
Nik L Nip

Upon walking into this venue, there was a man named Cadillac Andy playing a baby grand in the style of boogie woogie along with a drummer.  He was very good.  Rockabilly piano isn’t played enough from where I’m listening.  I felt awkward loading in and setting up while he played on the floor, although he didn’t seem to mind and we had to do it.
There were plenty of dressing rooms for everyone.  I went to the basement, which was reminiscent of hanging out in your neighbor’s basement- musty smell, a dartboard, an old couch, and more dudes than girls. 
The theater is excellent and the sound guy was great.  The seating arrangement, however, made it a bit rough to play to the audience.  There were a few seated near the front but most were sitting on the sides far, far away.  It was like trying to play a proper tennis match with a fellow who’s down the hall, to the left and then take another left. 

 the layout   

   my tennis analogy    

   if the layout were a garden instead of a theater, the audience would fare well as crocuses

The dinner was half-off at this theater.  I ordered the shrimp cocktail and the linguini in clam sauce.  Holy shit was it good.  Better yet, I found an empty loft above the stage where I could eat dinner, drink beer and check the news of the world within a space of time that started after the ZZ Top number up until the Billy Idol finale. This would be my dinnertime window for the rest of the tour.

  ZZ Top’s Keys

Midwest Tour with The Pontani Sisters
Wednesday, June 21
Chicago, IL
Martyrs
Drove from Paducah, KY to Chicago.  Traffic in Chicago is amazing!  I truly toddled.  Things learned:  Don’t take sureties over the phone with Expedia and keep close watch on your parking meter.  And get the pizza at Martyrs.  It’s good.
The girl that hit on me was real pretty.  And then a myspace friend bought me the pint of Guinness that she’d promised me on my myspace.  I drank the pint with her and another myspace friend and a fellow that I didn’t know from myspace or anywhere else.  That girl that hit on me was pretty drunk yet still really pretty.
I returned my car rental to the airport around 1am and there was a really long line waiting for me.  Everyone was peeved in the line.  One man said he was a Hertz Gold member and was really, really peeved.  I’m not a gold member and I have games (Uno Challenge) on my phone so I was doing okay with waiting yet still a bit anxious since the tour van was waiting on me to go to the hotel.
Poor me.  A precious martyr. Ha  Ha!  Get it?  ‘Cause I played at Martyrs!
Sorry.

started reading a new book.  wish i could download text onto my contact lenses.  only way you could tell i’m reading is by me pretending to hear you talk.  and you ask me what did you just say.

it’s reading like a girl book so far.  but it’s written well.  i wish i could keep reading it.  i bet tv lenses come before text lenses.  by that time, season five of Lost will be the most downloaded.  and i’ll have finished the girl book by then.

my friend recommended the book.  sort of.  so, it’s not like i saw it on the shelf and said, I’d like to read a romance novel.

He put blankets on the crops around 4 today to make sure that the frost didn’t kill them. There were about 25 electric blankets lying on a bed of tobacco plants waiting to be turned on.  He wanted to get a head start on his dark plants, creating a longer growing period, thus making the plants more mature and perhaps more flavorful.  He’d argued at the pizza palace the day before about chickens (the older they are the more tasty/nooo, the older they are the more tough and oldey).

Later: 

The frost came and (wouldn’t you know it?) one of the electric blankets went out and, as a result, the others went out much like Christmas lights.

Later:

The leaves froze and by sheer habit, he broke off a piece and put it in his mouth as he did the turnip greens in August.  At first, he was angry when he chewed but then he cocked his head to the side causing his dog to do the same.  The taste was sweet.  Real sweet.  And you can go to your books and find that this doesn’t happen but it did.  Like a riesling wine (I’m told) but in the form of a skoal bandit or a plug.

Results: 

He called them Plug Cakes. They soon got the nickname, Cancer Cakes, although they sold like hot cakes.

Walter Kuhr kindly came by the studio the other day.  He laid down some bassoon tracks for a few songs.  I was going to use bass clarinet but couldn’t find anyone.  It’s better to have friends play anyway.  It’s more fun that way.  He’s the fellow who directs the Main Squeeze Orchestra, the all-girl accordion orchestra.  He also runs an accordion shop called the Main Squeeze.  He fixed the bellows on my accordion last week.  He’s a very good fellow.

I recorded tuba tracks on four songs with TubaJoe Exley today.  He is Exleynt on tuba.  sorry.

You can hear his stuff here.  The sounds he did with me are for the cd I’ve been working on which is supposed to be done, soon.

Dear Corn Mo,
At the behest of Mr. Bill Stites, I checked out your Bonnaroo set and
was blown away by it.  Never before have I been as utterly compelled
by a single musician with an accordian, or even watched one for that
matter.  I was pleasantly surprised to find you’d be in Baltimore
shortly and will be getting together the small group of people that,
while watching your Bonnaroo set, I thought “I know some people that
would love this” about.

-Yancy Davis