The Music of Action Sports!

I’ve mentioned a few times on Twitter that we’re working on a new song for a compilation CD that will be out this summer. The compilation CD is a promotional item for a sports marketing company out of Michigan called AGA (Adrenalin Games Alliance). Their aim is to produce quality action sports events in the Midwest and develop a distinct brand and style that also includes music. I’ve been in touch with them and am helping them to develop the music side of what they are doing. I’ve put together a collection of up and coming independent Midwest bands for this initial release on AGA Music. The CD will only be available from the bands involved and as a free give-away at AGA sporting events. I’m having my pal Pat Crawford at Spindle Studios in Columbus do the cover design and I’m having it mastered by Jon Chinn. Doing my best to keep it all local. The list of bands so far includes Earwig, The Hard Lessons, Hot Cha Chas, Javelin, Bookmobile, The Lost Revival, Chief, The Safes, The Silent Years, Mason Proper. There will probably be a few more. This compilation should be available at Earwig shows in August.

Earwig’s Bionic Arm

Well, well, well. It has been a long time. No excuses...but there are reasons that so much time has passed since we last updated this blog. One of the biggest reasons is that I’ve been occupied dealing with an injury. Last fall, I crashed while skateboarding at the Athens skate-park and grandly smashed my elbow. I knew my elbow was messed up and it hurt, but I didn’t have it X-rayed or realize that it was actually broken until January 2009. The Radial head in my left arm was broken and there was a piece of that bone lodged in such a way that I couldn’t fully straighten out my arm. I had also severely damaged the tendon in my elbow. I ended up with an orthopedic specialist in Columbus and had joint replacement surgery in early February. They cut off the damaged end of my radius and fitted me with a titanium replacement. Even cooler than that…they grafted a harvested cadaver tendon onto my old one and attached it to the bone with little screws.

I know what yr all saying. Instant bionic arm. Awesome! Right? Well, yes and no. At least I now have the prospect of being able to recover the full range of motion in my left arm. After the surgery, I was in a cast for several weeks and then I had to wear this radical robo-brace on my arm to restrict my movement and make sure I didn’t re-injure it. As a consequence, I couldn’t type (good-bye blogo-sphere), drive or play guitar for several more weeks. Even now I’m still in physical therapy to get everything working normally again. No complaints from me, I feel lucky that the cadaver tendon hasn’t taken over in a struggle for control of my arm like something out of a cheap zombie slasher flick. I do still have some trouble playing guitar and it’s caused quite a delay in the recording for the new Earwig record. But things are back on track now. Check out these pictures of me rockin’ the robo-brace!

Wags' 2005 Tour Diary: Deluxe Expanded Reissue Vol. VII

8/5/05
TOFURKEY DINGLES
Outside Las Cruces, NM
What a weekle! Where to start? New Orleans is tremendous fun but very dangerous for someone like me. I knew there was a reason I live in a city with no 24 hour bars. We rolled in about 10:00 Sunday night intending to wander around and visit some bars all night, and then get a motel room the next afternoon. The first bar we stepped into, THE ABBEY, was just like home. Just a total dive w/a great jukebox.* J and I were in heaven. We pretty much stayed all night while Liz slept in the van. Our bartender Gillian was a badass. Way out of control. As the sun came up, about 2 hours after we became officially stupid, I overheard the dude on my right talkin' to his friend: "Man, those are some heavy glasses". His friend said: "Well, I have mass." I decided to interrupt. (Backstory: for a couple of years in the late '90s I was in a band in Cols. with my friends LOU POSTER and BETH SHAFFER.** POST went on to form GRAFTON with another bandmate of mine. Stealer! Anyway, our band was named I HAVE MASS.) I don't know why I felt compelled to interrupt - after all, it was such a random comment; it could've meant anything - but I was pretty curious. Long story short, this "friend" is named LLOYD MILLER and he's a Cols. expat with whom we have several mutual enemies and friends and he was indeed referring to my old band and do you guys need a place to stay or at least a run-on sentence? Is this a crazy world or what?

Lloyd is a stand-up guy. If you see him give him a kiss on the cheek. Or if you are a germophobe, give him your ATM card. He deserves it.

Road rule #48: If you leave New Orleans early in a Tuesday morning, don't leave your video camera at Lloyd's house. You will regret it as soon as you realize what you've done. And by "you", I mean "Justin".

Yeah, NOLA is pretty much a tourist trap, no 2 ways about it. But the people there (at the bar, where we were) were friendly. "Where we were" - that's an interesting phrase. Same letters over and over, with no hard consonants. Dig on that, Jack.

Texas is big. I mean, you see that junk on a map, you be like "Damn shit is big!" But you just don't know until you get there. That fucker is HUGE. And it's true. Everything IS bigger in Texas, except me.

When we got to Dallas, we slowly realized that "oh yeah, we're a band on tour!" It seemed like a year ago back in Florida. Here's some fun trivia for the kids: How many people came to see Earwig in Dallas? How many people even came into the bar for a beverage? If you said "more than zero" you need to back up, buddy. Dallas fuckin' sucks. Didn't make a dime. Hell, I feel bad for the bartender, door guy, sound guy for wasting their time. Maybe if there had been a local band on the bill? I mean, I'm no expert. Why didn't we play Austin instead? Yup - you guessed it. Jerks. Tex-Ass.

The weather has been remarkably kind to us so far considering our AC lasted FOR ONE DAY. We've been lucky with the temps. I'll talk about New Mexico*** after I catch a little napsky and kill my pen for being SO SHITTY.
-Matt

P.S. That thing I said about the weather? Too soon. Arizona has changed all that.

*I probably played "Metal Guru" 15 times that night.

**Beth is now known as Eli and he lives in New York City. We are friends on myspace.

***You'll notice that I won't.

Wags' 2005 Tour Diary: Deluxe Expanded Reissue Vol. VI

7/29/05
Earwigay Ourtay Iaryday
TAMPA, FLA
Ever been to St. Augustine, Fla? No? Let me save you the trubba. Ever seen the RIGHT side of the tracks? St. Augustine hasn't. I ain't tryin' to complain, I'm just serving you some facts. That town is no good. Even Jeff Foxworthy would make fun of it. And he's a giant poop-anus. We played last night at the Fusion Grill and Bar. Sound guy was a big Ding Dong Lik-M-Aid. He kept telling Liz to turn down, and when we were done he blasted "Master of Puppets" at ear-splitting levels over the PA as if to say "You should've played real quiet-like because I'M AN ASSHOLE!" There was a lady there, Dina, who really wanted to party with us and I guess we really disappointed her 'cause we had to leave right after our set to drive 3 hours to Tampa. She was acting weird, like maybe she had just gotten into a fight with her husband or something -- real desperate. But sweet. She bought a couple of CD's, so she is worthy of note.

Some people refer to Tampa as "the city by the bay". Does Journey know about this? We are staying at Justin's dad's house. It is my first time meeting him and he's a pretty nice guy (heck, he's J's dad. Ya gotta be an ax-murderer not to raise someone as nice as Justin). Liz and Jr. are going over the atlas and it is dawning on us that we're royally fucked. The distances between the places we are playing are too far to reach in the time we have between gigs. This is a big ol' trainwreck. I would like to meet the person who booked this tour so I could hit this person with a pie. No, a brick. We drive a million miles on no sleep only to play at some podunk-shitstick-"y'all ain't on the bill"-sub-pizza-hut-outhouse-in-the-middle-of-nowhere. And maybe we'll get $20. Like I said, I ain't complaining. I'm just here for the beauty of the ride.

Lizard is obsessed with seeing Alligators while we're here, but all I've seen so far are tiny Lizards, ironically enough. Tomorrow we practice.

More later, honey. -> Me.