Outtakes

Every now and then I make cards for people. These are a lot of times post cards that I've amended for the specific special occasion. Christmas cards, birthday cards, Valentines, etc. These are fun and incredibly liberating to make, an exercise in letting go. It's also very fun and nice to know that between my mailbox and the recipient's hands, who knows how many eyes have been lain upon these little pieces of art.

It is a free traveling art show.

Here is an idea that never felt like following through...

I don't even remember who this was intended for.

Jury Duty

I was trying to get to a doodle a day a couple weeks ago,
but then I left the country for a week.
Upon my return I was selected to serve on a jury for a murder trial.
Very interesting, and ultimately I feel a justified outcome was reached.

While waiting for the attorneys
to smooth out a problem yesterday,
we had about 20 minutes to ourselves.
I used that opportunity to get a doodlin'.

I had to snap a quick picture
because the bailiff was taking up everyone's notes.
Here's the result:

Interesting metaphor
for our role in the case.

Doodle A Day

... keeps the doctor away?

It's a fun experiment, so......

So colorful!

Keep Doodling

Adding to my series of motivational posters...

[not drawn to scale]

In other news... two days, two posts!

Hope your week is going well,

Kyle

Well, it's been a while.

Some weird and random stuff might start popping up here again soon.

We'll see where this takes us...

Harvesting

MUSIC MONDAY ANYONE??

How long it has been. It seems like just yesterday I was filling the page with the stuff of regretful blogger, espousing a new mindset of writer. How short lived that was.

To be fair, I feel like I have a good excuse. I'm in a band.

Terrible excuse.

Okay, so it is a terrible excuse. I justify it though, as such... I cannot be creative across multiple platforms. That's just the truth. I wrote somewhat frequently for a long time. For online music magazines, on this blog, in my own time. Then I started drawing. When I started drawing and painting, the writing dwindled. Then I started playing in a near full-time band. That caused drawing to return to doodling and writing to completely fly out the window.

This is somewhat OK with me though, because making music has always been a dream of mine, and thankfully, due to the ease and overall cost effectiveness (to some) of the recording process, I've been able to live out this fantasy/dream/eagerness over the course of the past 6-9 months or so.

What has been taking control over my thought process and in the course, draining every drop of creative juice to the point of wanting to completely break down and quit every other week or so?

How The Ship Goes Down

The fruit of my (and a few others') labors is this: How The Ship Goes Down. A 7-song EP that marks the first "official" release of a band that I, with the help of a longtime friend and collaborator, started. We call ourselves: WHALERS.

You mean, like Bob Marley and the?

No, more of the nautically themed sort. Yes it was annoying for a while to have to correct people on it, and yes it is sort of an uphill battle that we started ourselves out on unnecessarily, but I personally don't mind it anymore, and it's kind of enjoyable to correct people now.

So, the EP... We're really happy with it. We recorded it at my house in Austin, TX. A friend of a friend's cousin is in a band we're all fans of in Kentucky (Wax Fang) and he offered to mix it for us. We were blown away by the results of that session. We then got it mixed at Public HiFi in Austin, a studio owned by Jim Eno of Spoon.

It was a lot of work, and it wasn't fun all of the time. I understand why bands break up and solo projects start. But we're so happy with the result that any stress that arose from the recording process has dissipated and we're now peddling the album wherever we can.

And on that note?

If you'd like to buy/listen to the album, please visit our bandcamp page here:

WHALERSMUSIC.BANDCAMP.COM

Individual songs are available for $1 or the full thing is available for $5 (or more if you feel it is warranted). I ask that you at least visit and give a listen, as this blog has been a venue for any sort of creative output I like to be made public. I feel this is just another chapter for The Foggiest.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and I look forward to another Music Monday at some point in the future.

SXSW In Review... Sort of

SXSW was a little bit nuts this past year. Partly because I've found myself in a sort of apathetic mindset to the hustle and bustle of getting around to see the best new thing before others do. So this year was way more relaxed on that front, which yielded fewer buzz bands but more hair remaining up top.

What has been pretty nice is going back and finding audio from different performances from trusted sources after it's all done with. So here's some audio clips from KUT, our local NPR affiliate, a couple great bands that I caught this year, from sets of theirs I personally did not see, but it's great to hear it anyways.

Brazos

Dawes

I probably talk about Brazos too much, but damn it's enjoyable in a really mellow way. It makes the loud moments all that more poignant. Like only speaking when you have something to say.

Dawes I heard for the first time thanks to a favor from a friend (thanks Desha), after being told I should listen to them by two other friends prior (thanks Anton and Ben).

These links should lead to many other discoveries for you.