New EXPLONE Single, Key Lime Pie, & Leaving The Island. Issue #155

Here it is, the first single from EXPLONE and our forthcoming disc, Dreamers/Lovers. It's called "Michigan" and was the last song both written and recorded for the new album 3 years in the making by band leader/songwriter Patrick Porter. It's so funny how something added so last minute can be so awesome, but the moment it was recorded it was obviously a stand out track both in energy and a fresh sound Patrick created. I love this track and thanks to some new radio play on KEXP 90.3 which started last week, hopefully lots of other folks will too. Our CD Release show will be on Thursday, June 17th, so mark your calendars and come out and rock with us at the Crocodile in Seattle! Check www.explone.com to stream "Michigan", and for how to get this song as a free download…Turn it up!

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

The short film above is possibly the most moving thing I've ever watched. About a man coming to terms with the end of his dogs life, "Last Minutes With ODEN" moved me deeply and made me run downstairs from my studio to give Logan a huge hug and let him know how thankful I am to have him have me. If I were you, I'd grab a Kleenex first.



I played Willows Lodge on Friday and just wasn't feeling it. Some nights are like that, and you just put your head down and do the the job cause you know next time will be better. That said, a shitty day came to a close when I came home to find my kitchen blown up and in it's place the first key lime pie I've ever had made for me.
Day = much better.



Saturday rolled around and Kristin and I decided to head over to the Georgetown area to adventure and possibly pillage the townsfolk. Now maybe it was due to the fact it was 1:30 and hadn't eaten anything all day, but the lunch we had a small little place called CALAMITY JANE'S completely blew my mind. I'm serious, and Seattle foodies listen up...the ciabatta bun on the burger I had is THE BEST I have ever had. Not only that, but the quirk of the joint is that instead of fries you get a plate full of Cheetos. Also, Frank's Red Hot sauce is my new Jesus Juice. Crazy, crazy, crazy good. Viva Los gorganzola. Yes that's sauce on my face. No, I didn't care.









An interview KIRBY KRACKLE did in Chicago popped up on the super cool site NEWSARAMA (the CNN equivalent for the comic nerd set) and you can watch it by clicking HERE. In other KK news, we're kicking off another 2 weeks of convention travel and concerts starting in Phoenix this weekend for the PHOENIX COMIC CON. The band is going with us for this show and we're rocking the big show concert Saturday night. I also get to perform "Zombie Apocalypse" the night before at a "Zombie Pageant". The weekend should be a blast despite the brain melting 100 degree days we seem to be heading down to burn in. Holy Crap. I complain when it's 85 so I'm probably not gonna be making any friends. Week after that...North Carolina!

Also, Jim and I appeared this morning on The Marty Riemer Show, an awesome webcast that Marty and his partner Jodi Brothers created when they took success into their own hands after getting the corporate chop from 103.7 The Mountain last year. After listening to each of them separately since 1998, it was great to finally meet them, laugh, and play a few KK songs. I was honored they wanted us on after I had been such a longtime fan, and psyched they were as nice as I hoped they'd be. You can listen to the entire webcast interview and performances of both "Zombie Apocalypse" and "On And On" HERE


Finally, LOST (my obsession for the past 6-years) came to a screeching halt on Sunday and hopefully gave the millions of LOST fans closure. Doesn't sound like it did, but I really liked it and thought it was a pretty beautiful message paired with really emotional scoring. It was made even better by a party my friends threw with island themed foods and even "Jacob and The Smoke Monster" cupcakes by DRAGONFLY DESSERTS. Bomb. An emotional ending to what has turned out to be the only show I've ever followed so religiously like a crack addict like fever. Amazing show, amazing memories. I'll miss it very much.








4 8 15 16 23 42,

KS

Princess Kaiulani/Garage Sale/Seattle Beer Week. Issue #154

This past weekend saw the release of PRINCESS KAIULANI, the first full feature length film from my songwriting employers Island Film Group. It was very cool to finally see the public birthing of the film after it began filming 2 years ago in Hawaii and England. Set in the late 1800's, the film follows the life of the Hawaiian princess as she was annexed from her throne and sent to England for education before returning to unite the spirit of the native peoples during the further domination of the US government. It's awesome. Yes, I'm biased, but it's awesome. Check out the trailer then skip over to the Guild 45th theater in Seattle and other major cities!








I had my first ever garage sale this past Saturday and it was a pretty interesting experience being that mostly everything was $1 expect for shoes and jackets which were $5. Some people showed up looking for jewelery, some for video games, but I like to think I made someones day when they bought a Backstreet Boys t-shirt I had...given to me that is. Oh yeah, Kevin was the cute one.

4 EVA and EVA OMG.


Seriously though, I've been in purging mode and had a garage full of stuff I don't use that was collected over the years. Kitchen supplies, shoes, clothes, old action figures, you name it. There was something for everybody except Gingers, mostly cause they have no souls (South Park said it). My favorite (?) part of the day was when an older woman showed up and kept trying to talk me down to $14 on a $20 amount of goods. Yeah she was good, and sadly she won just cause I wanted her to leave my sight. The self destruction timer on that backpack she kept trying to hide items in was probably a surprise. Great, now TSA is following this blog. Share the tunes buzzcuts!

As of last Thursday Seattle Beer Week has been in full swing and after a day accepting soggy $1 bills I was ready to partake. ELYSIAN brewer on the hill had a fun event celebrating the liquid Benjamin Franklin said "was proof God wants us to be happy" in the form of their Barely wine lineup from '05-'09. The food was great, the barely wine was delish (even the cask ales of which I'm never a fan), and the games were awesome. Games you say? Yep, and keeping with the theme the games ranged from "Pin The Eye On The Cyclops" to "Feed Peasants To The Cyclops". You can see how it all went down below and if you get a chance check out some activities happening all over the city this week. Besides throwing villagers in trolls mouths, the restroom held some genius of it's own. Written on the tile on the grout in very small print held the ramblings of some drunk savant on a rhyming bender. "Oscar the Grout", "In-And-Grout Burger", and "Grout of Control" was what you read if you looked really close. Are you listening Elysian marketing department? Hire this kid...


Trying to slay the ogre,

KS

Uploading. Issue #153

KIRBY KRACKLE has been posting a bunch of videos lately, and here's a few from the show we did with Marvel Comic's Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada a few weeks ago in Chicago at C2E2...Enjoy!

"On And On"



"Vault 101"



"Tony Stark"



"Great Lake Avengers"



"Take It From Me"



KS

It Might Get Loud. Issue #152

A few days ago I watched the recently released on DVD/Blu-Ray film, "It Might Get Loud", which focuses on 3 different guitarists from different generations in the form of Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (White Stripes). Not so much a movie for guitarists singularly, it focused on how different events in each of their lives brought them to pick up a guitar and learn how to play. Random events meet random events, and poof...you're in Led Zeppelin. That's the stuff I find more interesting any day compared to who uses what amp or pedal. Still, choices that like lead to a musician finding his or her "voice" with the instrument and then translating through the wires the message/art one would like to share with the world (or maybe just the dog sitting at their feet).

After watching the film I found myself wondering, "What kind of guitarist am I?". Strangely, I guess it never really crossed my mind, but also I'm the kinda guy who doesn't believe someone is one thing or belief (i.e. "I'm a Republican goddammit!"). The more I thought about it, and though I do play guitar, I don't really feel like a "guitarist" in the sense of the word that I think most people use it. To me, the guitar has always felt like a means to an end to reach my ultimate goal...the song. If I hadn't learned guitar, I'm sure it would have been piano or something else. This seemed strange to me when I realized I felt that way, at the same time realizing maybe it was time I found out what my voice was. As they ask in the film..."What does your playing say about you?". Hmmmm. This is a good question.

Why did I start playing?

As honestly and as accurately as I can remember, I simply thought the look of the Alternative bands of the early 90's was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. That, along with the fact I was the annoyingly awkward age of 12 and began to see the definite gap in athletic abilities between my peers and I led me to think it was something I could make "my thing" apart from them. I'm guessing this is more common than not. I wasn't amazing when I started (much like now), but I had the drive to learn new chords and treat it with a kind of discipline I have yet to find myself feeling for any other new skill since then. My friend Matt Edington (who appeared on my COLLIDER album last year) and I took in a steady diet of MTV, VH1, and guitar magazines with hopes that someday we could be that cool as the guys we saw on tv. Again, not something I knew at the time, but looking back it was the longing to associate ourselves on that level...whatever that was.

As the 3 musicians in IMGL discussed and shared their influences with one another, I thought about who made up the building blocks of what I do unconsciously all the time when playing. Names that come to mind take the form of Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam), David Bryson (Counting Crows), and Billie Joe from Green Day. This was formative years stuff, and no matter what you think about the previous list of bands, each of these guys did have their own voices you could hear and are still associated with them today. My guess is that if you ask any player around my age they'd list a similar grouping of names. Interestingly enough, ask my band mates in EXPLONE who are 10 years older than me and you'd get a completely different set of names. It's all where you were and what you were listening to during your developing years that hold a special place in your musical DNA. We are the product of our environment, yes?

When I was starting out, I tried to play as many notes as possible to fill the space. It was loud and caustic, and for a 13 year old, that was pretty appropriate in retrospect. When I was 15 I heard the quote, "It's not what you play, it's what you don't play". This blew my mind. I started to listen to the bands I liked differently and realizing that if it's on 10 all the time...it doesn't mean anything. This is why bands like AC/DC seem so heavy; it the spaces between cuts like "Back In Black" that continually hit you in the head like a loose elephant of anticipation.

This is the foreplay of Rock N' Roll.

After I saw how cool this was it forever changed the way I write songs. I went through a period of playing extremely sparse guitar during my songs, I went through a punk style guitar phase (a phase I'm slipping back into), I even went though a time where I was going to be nothing but a "bluesman". Despite my current Rock-Pop sound, this is what I've always felt I am and try to be in the essence of my music. A bluesman connects with the core of the feeling of the song, and does the best he or she can to convey that feeling with the audience. This is something hope I always strive for consciously, and unconsciously.

I'd recommend "It Might Get Loud" to anybody who is a fan of good film making. It was inspiring, and at the same time made me think a little differently about what I do. Do I push myself as hard as I'd like as a guitarist? Honestly, probably not at all. I've gotten used to doing what I need do to serve the song, and play what I want to hear, but I know if I did start pushing the now pretty comfortable boundaries...the songs would get better. This is something I'm inspired to take on now as the result of this movie, and that's a good feeling.


All trying to find our voice,

KS

Calgary Expo 2010. Issue #151

KIRBY KRACKLE is back from Calgary Expo and thus ends a full month of convention travel before we start back up again at the end of May. Like usual when I travel to the Great white north, I'm reminded how much more polite and pleasant the random Canadian stranger is compared to my fellow Americans. We're kinda asses sometimes...just sayin. I didn't play, but promised the disappointed attending fans (I know, I'm sorry!) that we'd be back this summer. Word is bond.

If I can be honest, and even though we had a blast, I'm kinda worn out and crispy from the month and looking forward to detoxing/revitalizing during the month of May. Hey, I know the plethora of exotic and delicious Canadian candies didn't make me eat them, but when in Rome...

KK as featured on CBR (Comic Book Resources) last week!


Besides the usual mix of fellow creators/artists, Calgary Expo had a lot of horror props and life-like monstrous creations. I've never been a big horror movie/gore guy, but I do love me some zombies. Though not undead, these (which I'm assuming are) inbred folks were awesome. Keep it in the gene pool, man.










My good friends Laurie and Kandrix (who run Calgary Expo) just had their new baby, "Noah". After showing all the necessary permits and drowning myself in hand sanitizer I held him and whispered in his ear to fight the power when he's a teenager. If you subliminally imprint at during the 2-3 month age, it statistically holds 23% more successful. I read. A lot.



As usual, the gaggle of girls with the "look at me, but don't look at me" complex made their way around the convention hall with these two being the most unique in the form of a badass detailed "Avatar" and "Zombie Slave Leia". Forever burned in my head will be the image of the Canadian Star Wars nerd she handed the chain around her neck to who held it snorting, giggling and red-faced while she threw herself at his feet for a photo-op. C'mon, own your moment Jabba! THAT NOT GONNA HAPPEN AGAIN.
Really, I promise you...it's not gonna. Still, I smile outwardly whenever I remember what he muttered under his breath while chuckling like Beavis...

"This is awesome"





Finally, there was no way I could've traveled so much this month without by Super-Awesome Covert-Krew (S.A.C.K) of dog watchers. So with that said, big ups to Lita, Kristin, and Reuben for making sure Logi was fed, walked, pooped, Evian watered, holistically massaged, and pilatized with love while I was away. Just today I made sure I cut off enough of his hair to have enough DNA for all of us to have a clone when President Nick Jonas makes it legal in 2041. You guys are the best.





This is how we do it,

KS

Deep Dish. Issue #150

The weeks are blurring. The space time continuum is bending and shifting around me. Well, not really that dramatic, but I do feel I just got home as I now pack today to head out of Calgary for the 3rd and final convention this month on the Kirby Krackle convention train. We were in the Windy City over the weekend, flying in on Thursday with the band arriving on Friday for our Saturday night show at the official Chicago C2E2 convention after party. Here's a few highlights from the trip...



I've posted photos of our booth at the cons before, but you've never seen it with the devil picks on top have you?! No, I didn't think so and though we can't take credit for it, I appreciate the booth behind us for adding to our much needed street cred in the "evil rock" department. Thanks guys!




Being that it was my first time in Chicago, I was curious to see what little I could to the fullest being that I was trapped inside a convention hall all day. What I did see though was an older town that very much reminded me of NYC, without the hustle and bustle or artsy vibe. Every one seemed to be very much in their own space going about their business in a sort of "muted" way. It just felt different than any place I had been before; stark, gray, and not in the weather way of things like the NW. I was informed that "The Dark Knight" was filmed there and immediately that made sense to me. Felt like you'd think Gotham would feel like. Maybe I only think of those things though. I do read a lot of comics...


The costumes were AMAZING per usual and Chicago nerds really know how to put together some classy ensembles. As in many cities though, there are those outfits where you see a little too much more than you'd like but those are few and far between. And by that, I mean who doesn't love a skinny white guy dressed up like Slave Leia?









As I said earlier, the KK live band (Scott Andrew, Patrick Porter, Nelson Estes and Bryce Francis) arrived Friday night minus Bryce our keyboardist (he's in Japan). We met up with them in an old school diner (fully equipped with 70 year olds manning the door who looked like they could kick your ass) downtown where they ate covering their faces in the best steak grease chi-town had to offer. As drummer Nellie eloquently put, "I bet Al Capone kicked someone down those stairs". I'd believe it cause this place was old school with photos from the past 5 decades adorning the walls of stars complimenting the owner on his establishment. After their dinner we walked around downtown before calling it a night for the big day and concert on Saturday...






Saturday brought the longest selling/booth manning day of the convention per usual, and subsequently I cut out early to rest my voice before heading to soundcheck at 5:00 for our concert at REGGIE'S rock club (think a mix between the Showbox and Highdive in Seattle). The band sounded like they spent the whole day drinking beer and riding the brown train all around the city and Wrigleyville so it was nice to live vicariously through them and their stories. I always say this, but I may seriously need to start spending an extra day after the show to walk around and see some touristy stuff! Like I said, we sped over to sound check and THE FUGLEES (band that was headlining the night) were more than kind to let us use their gear they had driven over that afternoon from Indiana. They were great guys and we had an awesome time playing that night. As opposed to San Francisco, I became really excited during the few days prior to the show being about to say YES when folks asked if we were playing during the convention weekend. Again like at the Seattle convention in March, I could see people singing along (even when I hiccuped and sang the wrong words) and enjoyed every freaking minute of it. THAT (the folks singing along) is a new thing for me to experience and validation that KK is moving in the right direction of connecting with our fans in the right way I'd like to...it's such a cool feeling. Once again we were also joined by MARVEL Comics Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada which was very cool for us and especially the fans. This music-meets-comics thing is starting to get recognized by the powers that be that run the events and that feels good. Art and music go together of course and there's always room for something new. I'm really looking forward to the day when there's 4 bands like us and we can all play together full circle style! That RED HULK guitar pick? MARVEL made them up for us as another promo for the company like the one they did in Seattle and simultaneously fulfilled a pre-teen fantasy for me once again...








I know I say this often, but one of the coolest things about going to these conventions is meeting fans of KK and putting faces to emails we've received or folks who stop by to say hi after having written articles about us online or in print. It's not a needing to hear praise thing, it's more about hearing how somebody has enjoyed a certain song because of comic they really like or how it made them want to get into a series because a song had made them curious. I love meeting young fans most of all because kids hold an unfiltered joy, and when they like something, they really like it. I can relate to kids in this way more than adults many times cause I'm the same way. This young Kracklehead left and impression and I was thankful to meet him. The classy gentleman in the middle of Jim and I? That's Malik Yusef, an artist on Kanye West's GOOD MUSIC label. Nice guy and we talked about some possible collaborative efforts. Um yes, that would be fun...





Finally, one of the coolest things I saw at C2E2 was this traveling auction of set pieces from the fist IRON MAN movie. Everything from crushed armor to burnt suits was up for auction and I was surprised they let me get that close to take pictures of it all. Enjoy!









Cool we made it to Issue #150! I'm working on something cool for the 3 year anniversary of this blog on Issue #156 so stay tuned.

As always, THANK YOU for reading and see you next week when I return from the Great White North! Not Everett...


KS