Author Archives: Jay W. Ess

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About Jay W. Ess

Jay W. Ess is.

Sometimes you just gotta stay out too late for your own good. Especially if the drinks are cheap.

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A Strutt full of people understood that all too well last night, rocking out to Rotten Wood Moon, Gold Panda, and of course HEALTH. The house was packed, the mixed drinks were on special, and the drummer’s monitor speaker caught fire during the last set. Sounds like a good time to me, especially for a mild-weathered mid-June hump-day.

The Almanac Shouters got a great review over at Sounds Good ink. Check it out and get a second opinion. It’s all a tease for us Kalamazoo folks, though, ‘cuz the boys and girls that make up the Shouters are on the road for the next few weeks. That means you’ll either have to wait until they get back to grab a copy of A Long Road Home, or take a little trip and catch ’em on one of their tour dates abroad. Oh, The Corner Record Shop has some copies too. That said, everyone at DIT(K) would like to wish the Almanac Shouters the best of luck and a safe journey. Go get ’em guys!

Friday, the No Fun House is playing host for We’re Wolves, As Above So Below (both from Kalamazoo), and The Lorax Tree from way down in Cleaveland. It’s gonna be a night filled with progressive guitar, spaceship/laserbeam/robot sounds, and break-beats.

I don’t know about you, but I love break-beats, and The Lorax Tree seems to know how to rock a break-beat.

Of course, that’s not all they’re rockin’, but if you wanna get the full effect, you’ll just have to slide through the No Fun House this Friday with two bucks for the touring bands. 9pm, no punk-rock time. Check it.

Photographical Minutiae

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We’ve added a Flickr account to DIT(K)’s already vast array of internet accounts. What does this mean? Well, it means we can display all of the great pictures people take at all o the great shows people go to here in the Zoo. That way, the folks that miss out can see it for themselves and feel really bitter about the whole thing. Personal embitterment is not, however, the goal of DIT(K) or any of it’s members, but sometimes that’s just the way it works.

You can access the Flickr via the links on the right sidebar of any page on the blog. Alternatively, you can visit it directly and do all the nice things that Flickr lets you do with people’s Flickr accounts, like stalk them and make inappropriate comments.

That said, special thanks to Kasey Brown and Jarab Selner for photographing Sunday night’s shows. Jarab’s photographs are already up on the Flickr feed, and Kasey’s will be shortly, as soon as she finds access to a computer with an internet connection.

Don’t forget, however, that DIT still stands for Do It Together. So if you’ve got any great pictures or videos that you’d like to share with the world via this blog, you can email them to ditkalamazoo (at) Yahoo (dot) com and we’ll get ’em up on the photostream as soon as we’re able to.

If you don’t have photos to share, but you want to have photos to share, I guess it’s time to dust of that old point-and-shoot you got for Christmas two years ago (but never really use because it’s pink, and I mean, who buys pink cameras anyway?), and check out some upcoming shows!

Shows and shows and shows and shows and shows and

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Sunday’s night of mayhem was a success on all counts from what I’ve heard. The boys down at the Corner Record Shop put on an excellent harsh noise performance in the evening, and the night was filled with raucious folk yelling and supercharged electric guitar, depending on your location.

The turnout for the Strutt was exceptional according to The Reptilian guitarist and DIT Member Russ Wagner. Plenty of support for Empire! Empire!, Boyln , and Joie De Vivre, which from a performer’s perspective, makes it that much easier to put on an absolutely killer show. Hopefully photos will be forthcoming from that delightful bit of chaos.

Meanwhile, The No Fun House had a record turn-out for Chicken Little, Our Lady…, and The Almanac Shouters, with upwards of 45 people paying at the door (and a bunch of attendees being let in for free). All three bands were fantastic (with Chicken Little being called up for an encore), and everyone had a blast as far as I could tell. I know I did, anyway. Highlights of the evening include No Fun House inhabitant Benji Puppies bringing down a NERF gun which got passed around and used to shoot a great number of innocent bystanders. Thanks to Josh Tabbia for arming Mr. Puppies.

Uh...

It’s been a busy month for DIT, but the month is only halfway through. So if you’re feeling bummed out that you missed some of the excellent shows passed, you can surely remedy the situation by checking out some of the excellent upcoming musical joy.

More music tomorrow night at the No Fun House! Parlor Scouts, Bears of Blue River and locals The Number Eight will join the Elephant 6-related band Folklore for an excellent line-up of ambient soundscape and top-notch songwriting. This is not a show to be missed, especially for the measly sum of 2 dollars (suggested. It’s always nice to toss the touring bands a little more). Let’s see if we can’t break last night’s record. See you guys there.

The Almanac Shouters’ first full-length album ready to drop.

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As usual, the Shouters and I completely underestimated the time it would take to mix down the album. We ended up missing The Grow Fangs! / Problems that Fix Themselves minitour show last night, but the 13-track debacle that was the Almanac Shouters’ first full-length album is completely mixed and mastered to the band’s satisfaction. The jams sound good, if I do say. Of course, if you don’t believe me, you can always check out ‘A Walking Song’ on the band’s Myspace.

The Shouters will be playing the Trumbullplex tonight in Detroit, Mi, and selling their newly-cut album for a reasonable price. Then, tomorrow night, the official hometown CD release is happening at 9pm at the No Fun House right along with Chicken Little and Our Lady… . It’s gonna be a hootin’ and hollerin’ (shoutin’?) good time.

Well, I’ll be yelling anyway.

Looking sharp, DIT.

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In the true spirit of doing it together, fellow musician and newly-graduated graphic designer Josh Tabia threw together a most excellent banner for the blog. Fella knows how to make a two-bit operation look good, that’s for sure. Thanks Josh, for making us seem that much more legitimate. If we keep this up, we might even get somebody fooled!

Last night was another I spent in the studio, but not with the Almanac Shouters (that mayhem will resume – and hopefully culminate – tonight). No, last night was installment 3 of a project that has been creatively (hah!) dubbed ‘The Album-A-Week Project’. Every week we’ve been getting together some of Kalamazoo’s finest young musicians, writing up some chord changes, and jamming – just to see what will happen.

This is not an Album-A-Week session, but it looks like one

All three sessions have been very successful, with plenty of fusion-jazz jam-band goodness packed in to three hot and sweaty Wednesday nights. As soon as I get some of the material mixed and mastered, you can bet it will be available for free download right here, so if that’s something you’re interested in, make sure you keep checking back – I’m bound to get some of it done eventually.

The blog will be getting yet another facelift and slight relocation in the near future, as DIT member Carman Goodrich was awesome enough to take care of URL and hosting space for a bona-fide site, which he’s also going to whip up for us. We’ll let you know before that happens and where we’re going, but rest assured it’s going to a positive development, allowing us to do all the silly things we really want to see in a DIT website.

That said, if there’s anything you guys want to see us do, give us your recommendations by emailing jaradwselner (at) yahoo (dot) com and we’ll make sure we take ’em in to consideration. After all is said and done, everybody’s got to help if we’re gonna do it together.

Long Nights and the Like

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Over the last few days, I’ve had the pleasure of hosting the Alamanac Shouters in my studio, where we have been diligently (if not ridiculously) recording their first full length album. I don’t know what it’s called. I don’t know what it’s packaged in. I just set up the microphones, play the fancy nobs and sliders, and press the little red button that says ‘record’ from time to time.

When you spend extended hours in two small, padded rooms with the same 4 people, things tend to melt down from time time. At points, you just can’t help but shouting (oho! See what I did there?). At other points, you’re just going to laugh and laugh and laugh while the guys in the other room shout at you for laughing because, well, damn it, they’re trying to record a take here.

For as silly as things can get, though, The Shouters are a real pleasure to work with, and as many of you guys know, their material is top-notch home-grown minimalist guitar-plus-banjo folk-punk bliss. Barring a complete failure in production (which is not impossible), I know you cats are gonna dig this album. So you know, make sure you come around on the 13th when the Almanac Shouters (hopefully… fingers crossed!) release it.

Accidental Awesomeness

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Last night’s last-minute show was a fantastic success, with a good head-count at the door, two great touring acts we didn’t know we were gonna have, and two local bands picking up the slack – Andy Savina nearly killing himself as he biked in from work to play the set. Good times were had, merch was sold, and Eric Ayotte and Busman’s Holiday got a little more money for their gas tank. Good luck on the rest of your tour guys!

This week has a lot of good things happening in the Zoo (maybe more than we think if last night was any indicator). Of course, the Grow Fangs/Problems that Fix Themselves Weekend tour kickoff is an event not to be missed. Sunday, though will be a real day to remember.

The Corner Record Shop will be hosting Paraniod Time out of Grand Rapids at 6:30 Sunday evening. That bill is still otherwise wide open, but we’ll see what develops in the next few days.

The real trouble starts at 9 though, with two excellently rockin’ shows going on at the same time in two different places, with The Strutt putting on The Reptilian, Joie De Vivre, Empire! Empire! and Bolyn while The No Fun House hosts Chicken Little, Our Lady…, and the Almanac Shouters‘ semi-official tour kickoff (and hopefully their CD Release too, fingers crossed) .

Yeah, it’s lame that we’ve got two excellent shows competing directly, but some things just can’t be helped. Either way, it’s gonna be a good night, so make sure you check out some music somewhere.

Breakin’ Things In

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Well, it’s summer time in Kalamazoo (Really, it’s summertime for the entire northern hemisphere, but I’m not so concerned about Tibet), and Kalamazoo is doing summer right. This season is chock full of already-booked shows, and there are plenty of excellent bands we’re still working with getting slotted in before the snow flies. This week is no exception, with a few particularly rockin’ sets tearin’ down the houses.

This Friday (June 11th, 9pm) the returning champions The Grow Fangs! will be playing the Iglesia’s upper room. Joining them is the one-of-a-kind noise outfit Problems that Fix themselves. Both of these groups will be setting up and welcoming the Texan touring act Daniel Francis Doyle, a delightfully eclectic sort of musical fella. It’s gonna be a rockin’ sockin’ good time.

This show is also on a short list of remaining dates for La Iglesia, so come and enjoy  one of Kalamazoo’s longest-standing house venues before the lease is up and everybody gets married.