journal

Hey everyone, Looks like go*machine will be taking a break for a while, to work on other projects and reconsider how go*machine could possibly move forward in the future. We've been working for the past year now as a trio, and I think we've learned two very important things:

1. Both David and I write music that would be better performed by at least 4 people. It's hard to make our music full with only three people and we have been stressing ourselves out trying to do so (Alex is the best for filling in all those blanks).

2. The songs that David and I are now writing go in different directions. This has always been the case, but I think now more than ever it is true. In playing shows for the past 2 years as go*machine, I've listened to people trying to describe our music, and most people have a difficult time doing so (heck, I have a difficult time doing so). David's songs are Wilco, mine are the Postal Service. Put that together into one song and I think you've got something. But now, as both David and I have become even more consistent with our individual songwriting, it is more and more apparent how different those two consistencies are, especially when those songs are performed back to back.

So we're venturing forth separately, at least for a little while. Both David and I have interest in continuing to work together, but we both agree that whatever project it is, we hope it would be more consistent from song to song than go*machine. I'm not trying to leave Alex out of the equation (since he's so damn important, whether he realizes it or not). I just don't know yet where he sees his future involvement as a performer/part of a group.

Thanks so much to all our friends and family that have come out to support us over the past two years. The kindness and love you've given us have made the long drives and the sleeping bags on hard floors and watching Bibleman all worth it. I can't say it enough: thank you, thank you, thank you.

This past weekend, we played four shows in four of our favorite places: Chapel Hill, Wilmington, Charlottesville, and Arlington. Thanks to Glenn at the 506 who really is doing great things to help out everyone around town and make Chapel Hill a better place for those of us who want to see our local scene flourish. Thanks to Shearwater for being so inspiring at the Thursday and Friday shows. Thanks to the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar for having one of the warmest atmospheres on the planet. To Alice and the Galaxy Hut in Arlington, I give my deepest gratitude for continuing to support live original music, and for giving bands a place to play on Sunday and Monday nights. This weekend's shows made me happy, amidst all the frustration of having to let go of something into which I've poured so much of myself. It made me feel like we haven't lost anything by doing what we've done.

Right now, I'm working on a new album, under the name The Physics of Meaning. Alex is engineering and producing. Some of the Triangle's best musicians have been kind enough to agree to record it with me, and I'm excited.

Hopefully we'll see you soon at a Bu Hanan show. In the meantime, take care of yourselves. Be excellent to eachother, and party on, dudes.

We're back from our tour with the prayers and tears of arthur digby sellers. Had a good time. Pictures from various things are up in the gallery. I always promise myself I will "take more pictures this time," but I fell short again. Sometimes you're too busy actually doing stuff to get behind the lens.

We had a good time for the most part, despite yet another laptop mishap in TN. I'm pretty convinced there's an underground magnet somewhere in the state. go machine is finishing up what could very well be our last three shows of the year this month in Chapel Hill, Wilmington and greater DC before recording some stuff. Daniel has a load of good new songs we've been itching to lay down.

Less than a week left. If you've registered, please don't forget to vote.

So, the Local 506 show this weekend. For all you locals, please come out anyway. I have a Local 506 Membership and Glenn says that it's cool if I sign in anyone who wants to come. So come on out, suckas.

For those of you who missed our appearance on WXYC last night, there are a few clips of the interview and our performance of "Oregon" up on the music page for you to download.

It's been a good month for us - Daniel arrived safely home from New Zealand, and I got back from my stint in New York City visiting friends and then Los Angeles visiting family and extended camp family.

Upon return, we were graced to play at a friend's wedding, and see my old college buddy BEAU down in Hotlanta. Since then we've been plugging away at the upcoming prayers and tears record, so keep an eye on that project as it develops, should it tickle your fancy. David had a great solo show, and Bu Hanan is gearing up for the release of kapow!music's debut release. He's got two tracks all ready for your downloading pleasure over at his website, so please check them out and let us know what you think.

So I read today that Sony and BMG have merged. Bring it on, I say. You know, if we could just convince the governments of the world that monopolies were good, then we could be really efficient and just have one major record label. To the music industry, I say "just keep becoming more and more homogeneous. More mergers! Drop your mid-level bands, cut your staff, and pushing only what can be marketed this week." Sure, that'll keep you afloat now but the problems will just keep coming back to you. At some point, there simply will not be anyone left interested in eating the crap off your tables and you'll just have to close up shop. That will be a beautiful day for people who make good music. Those people will always be around, because they make music because they need to, whether it pays or not. The world will find that music, because people need it. In fact, as I understand it, there is not a culture that is known that doesn't have music. I'm gonna get off my soapbox and go read 1984 again...

Does anyone have digital photos you took of us recently? We'd love to see them. Yes, you, Ms. Baton Rouge. Email us at photos@gomachinemusic.com

In April of 2004, I played violin and viola with the Polyphonic Spree, in support of David Bowie's North American Reality Tour. We went from Philadelphia up the East Coast into Canada. We made our way across Canada all the way down the West Coast to LA. Then we headed east into Colorado and Texas, playing our last show on April 30th in New Orleans.

I didn't keep a tour journal. Part of me wishes I had. But here I am, two months later, and still the memories are vivid. I lived on a bus for five weeks, in a bunk six feet long, two feet tall, and two feet deep. I played in hockey stadiums, community theatres, and at backyard bar-b-ques. I saw the Rockies, I saw Pacific, I saw the French Quarter. I ended up on stage with David Bowie, as the Spree eventually joined him for one of the song's in his nightly encore (the song was 'Slip Away'). We played on the Tonight Show, I met Florence Henderson, and I stood a few feet from Marilyn Manson (soooo awwwkwaaarddd!).

But for me, the most remarkable part of the whole tour was that I got to spend time with friends in so many of the cities we visited. I saw people I don't usually get to see, and that made the somewhat lonely life of a touring musician so much better. In NYC I had midnight falafel with Tyler. In Edmonton, I saw the most spectacular and depressing mall in the world with Judith. In Seattle, I laughed a lot with Seth, Divya and Kate. Jenny and I walked around downtown Berkeley and got ice cream with too many white chocolate chips in it. Kevin Hanlon just happened to be teaching in Santa Barbara the same night we played there. I discovered Little Ethiopia in LA with my cousin Jenna. I watched the entire Bowie concert (for the first time) with Kelly in Anaheim. My parents took care of me in Dallas. I caught up with John, Aaron, Spencer, Zen and probably 10 other people I'm forgetting in Austin.

I am forever grateful to the Spree for taking me on their adventure, and even paying me to come along. Thanks to Tim, Julie and Chris for putting it all together, and for being understanding. Thanks to Evan, Jennie and Audrey for the great Boggle games. Thanks to Seth and Joe for all the scary, insane stories about heroin addiction. Thanks to James for being so friendly, to Louis for all the advice, and to Logan for sharing my love of jazz.

Ever since I started driving a city bus here in Chapel Hill, I wondered what it would be like to drive a tour bus. Thanks to Rich Banas, one of the Spree bus drivers, I got a chance to find out. There we were, in the middle of the Canadian prairie, in the middle of the night, and Rich said to me, "All right, buddy, why don't you take over". I tried not to take Rich seriously, but he kept saying it and saying it, so finally I gave in. That was the first and probably the last time I'll ever switch places with a bus driver while the bus is moving down the highway (don't try that at home, kids). Fortunately for me, Rich's tour bus is the same as the city buses I drive, so I didn't have much trouble handling it. As I was driving, I looked out into the night sky ahead and noticed a sharp green line cutting through the darkness. Then that sharp green line turned into a muddy green cloud and passed to our right. It was the Northern Lights! I've been many places in the world, but there are few things I've ever seen that rival the beauty of the Northern Lights.

As you can probably tell by now, I have too many stories to fit into one journal entry. If you have more questions or want to hear more, just send me an email.

Oh, my goodness. Thanks to anyone and everyone who housed us, bought something, or came out to a show. My short term memory is bad but to the best of my ability I think I can say this tour was relatively cool. Yes it's more driving than an East Coast tour, but that just means more DVD watching and extra gas buying. Fossil fuels are cool, right? We got to see so many mountains and even more friends, that is to say we have more friends than there are mountains, but then again, a mountain is pretty big and how many can there be? Is that really so many friends?

Every time we go out I get better at sleeping in the van and being generally very flexible.

Wilkesboro is always a very young crowd. Young crowds tend to be into very sophisticated music, you know the kind: first it's loud, then it gets loud, and then it goes back to being loud again. So we don't always go over great cause we're not teenage rockstars (...anymore...), but after the show, Daniel or Alex mentioned that this was probably the best we've gone over in said youngish town. Interesting bit of trivia: I talked to someone who would have liked to have come to our show that night, but instead opted to go to a local riding lawnmower race. You think I'm trying to be funny, but I'm serious like a trip in the ambulance on this one. From what I understand, one of the drivers actually was taken away in an ambulance. Evidently they trick these lawnmowers out to go super fast and do thinks like knock over bleachers.

The next night at Charlotte's the Evening Muse, we were asked to play an encore/request of What Can You Do (But Keep Movin' On). We obliged. It was a small but decent/interesting show.

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but, a whimper.
~T.S. Eliot

we had a nice day at the lake with old friends at a beautiful house north of Montgomery. I realized at the very intimate house show we played that night just how much a cool space (this room had giant windows opening onto the lake) can inspire us to make new music. The drive to Chattanooga was beautiful. We played underneath a chandelier in an old club (think Mafia). It looked like it hadn't changed since 1976. Though for some reason there were no doorknobs on the doors. After the show we drove straight on to Knoxville to spend the night. It's times like this I really start to forget what city, state and time zone I'm in. Not even twelve hours later, we were hanging out on the Blue Ridge Parkway before our drive to Wilkesboro. I ran sound for Slow Andy which was fun, because I hadn't run live sound for another band in years. Sunday night is last show. I am tired, but the tour has been fun. We've met many new friends and caught up with so many old. To bed...

Baton Rouge and New Orleans were both great. I'm stuffed full of good food and we played with some really, really, really excellent bands. Sometimes when you play and go to too many shows you get burnt out on music - but then you always get that show - a show with a band that just makes you remember why you like music to begin with and makes everything feel fresh again. Reception is Suspected had everyone dancing in place because there wasn't enough room to really move around with their infectious beats and vocoded vocals, and I can't impress upon you enough how much The Standard rocked my butt. Tim's bleating over some fantastic playing on everyone's part was just heavenly. I hope we get to play with them again soon.

As for now, we're in David's old stomping grounds of Montgomery, Alabama, and he's showing Daniel where all the cool treehouses used to be. I, as per usual, use my internet radar to locate the nearest wi-fi connection.

On the speakers today: Architechture in Helsinki, Freaks and Geeks

Okay, Monday wasn't really wasn't an off day. We played a suprise birthday party for our friend Ben Guthrie and it was a lot of fun. The Tah Dahs had me hopping up and down and trying to figure out why Dallas is always so much friendlier than most places. I think maybe because they just don't CARE about looking cool (ahem, Chapel Hill). Anyway, Tuesday we do an interview on LSU radio before our show with Ilya. Tune in...

We played an in-store at Good Records yesterday. A modified phonico opened the show. (Both my brothers are in this band, though Dane was absent this time). It's always weird to play without monitors, but I try to look at people's faces instead - a glazed over look during a violin solo means they aren't hearing it, a cringe might mean the guitar (oh that piercing telecaster tone!) is too loud, and I can tell by whether people look at each other after Alex triggers the first vocal sample if the keys are loud enough. I think the mix was generally decent. Afterwards, Alex and I ate dinner in Deep Ellum with some folks; there was a band there, Spector 45, that had been made by the management to play quieter. The drummer, in a sort of protest, played all his parts in the air, not actually hitting the drums (interesting because you could still "hear" what he was playing in your head). Also, we met up with my friend Christina who is gonna to tour with us for a few days and help out with merchandise. the Pedro the Lion / John Vanderslice tour is running in parallel to ours except that they're in Dallas when we're in Austin and vice versa. Bummer. Would be nice to go to a show.

The drive the Fredrickricksburg was beautiful. Texas has so many different terrains. After our long set, Alex drove us back to Austin. Our host, John Ribo (Kapow Music) and I went to an all night diner and then slept a few hours before taking Daniel to the airport (he's going to a wedding in Dallas today). Fingers crossed he doesn't miss his plane back to Austin for our show tonight.

On the speakers today: The French Kicks

I got several emails asking how the laptop is doing. It's doing great. Brad is totally my hero - He had a hard drive with XP already installed on it when I pulled into Dallas late Monday night and had gotten all my backup files moved from Chapel Hill to Dallas burned onto a DVD-R. We rehearsed Tuesday afternoon and it was as if nothing had even happened to the laptop. What a relief. It really made me re-think the whole laptop thing, to be honest - I am going to have to consider a spare parts plan in the future.

Dallas is always interesting to come back to - each time there are fewer and fewer of my close friends from college, though it is nice that Wild About Harry's is still around for your carnivorous pleasure. That'll hold me until I get home to Los Angeles for some Pink's action in late July.

Norman was a lot of fun - my mom drove all the way out from East Texas to see my show and my cousins, Jack and Diane (yes, they've heard the song). We all had dinner together and then headed off to the show. The Opolis is very cool, nice folks work there, and James and Jeff (of the amazing ambient rock trio Ester Drang were there recording with their friend at a studio nearby. I got to play James some of the mixes from the new prayers & tears album coming out later this year, which he played some drums for, and we hit up the Taco Cabana late at night before the drive back to get some food in our bellies and talked a while before making the long, rainy drive back to Dallas.

Driving time is thinking time, especially when the other two guys are sleeping in the car, that's usually depressing for me, but last night I got to think on a lot of fond memories - drinking beer on the roof of Dana's apartment watching a sunset my last summer in Dallas, running into my friend Ji in a parking lot in California, hanging out with Beau and Chris in Atlanta last summer... These are all good things. My recommendation is to find a happy memory today and relive it for a while. I promise you'll feel better.

On the speakers yesterday: Astronautalis, Air, Shearwater

I hope this tour is not the beginning of what we will one day call the don't count on it tour. We left for Nashville yesterday morning and about the time we were peeking over the Tennessee side of the appalachians, Alex's laptop died mid-Tetris II. (I know you are crying, as you love that game as much as we do). If you have seen go*machine since we became a three piece, you know how important the laptop is for us. Needless to say, the Nashville show was... uh... different. No laptop beats, really. Alex did get to play some pretty cool vintage keyboards. Gabe (of disappointed by candy) lent us his mini-korg and Doni (forget cassettes) lent us his Rhodes. We played some songs we don't play so often, so it ended up working out fine - thanks, Nashville. Today's drive to Dallas was uneventful. Alex and Daniel always make fun of my enthusiasm that comes with crossing the state line into the Lone Star state. To them, I say "don't mess with Texas". Alex has already got another hard drive lined up (thanks to Brad Pittler - and Jennifer Anistonler) and we're planning on having a rehearsal on our day off tomorrow to make sure everything is in working order.

On the speakers today: early Death Cab for Cutie, Zakir Hussain, pattern is movement, Ticonderoga

Well, we did it again. WE Fest part deux, for us, anyway - the Wilmington Exchange Festival is several years older but this is the second year for go machine. It was more fun, in a cooler venue, with better sound and a bigger crowd - not to mention the beach! Alex and I body surfed for the first time in many years. I got a lot of salt in my nose and my pants fell off but I was certainly faring better than Alex, who went across a bunch of shells on his back (ouch). But now he's got boss battle scars. Daniel has no scars. He got sick and played Tetris 2 instead (we play this a lot on tour). There was an incredible band at the festival from Philly: pattern is movement. We hope to play some shows with them in the future. I guess I got sick somehow, cause now I have a cold again and the to texas tour is only a few days away. Erg, I am determined to regain my strength, though. See you soon. To bed...

There's a new picture gallery style photo album on our pictures page. Click it in the top left menu, let us know how it works.

DC was awesome. We played a packed house party in Mount Pleasant. From what I gather, the neighborhood is so sketchy that the cops are too busy chasing down real crime than to be bothered by a rock band making a lot of noise. So although I am generally wary of house parties (having been shut down before), this one was huge success. No room to walk and people were INTO it. To the very active guy in the google T shirt, thank you for receiving all our transmissions and rebroadcasting right back out again. You're our #1 satellite.

I have posted some pictures up from the tour thus far. We're taking a day off here in Boston today watching movies, but you can see what we've been up to.

The snow finally seems to be melting away here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I like snow, I really do. Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are snowflakes. But let me tell you a little story about why I wish this snow had never come to town.

Alex, David, and I played a show on Jan. 24th, in Murfreesboro, TN (just outside Nashville). We stayed there with our friend Gabe on Saturday night, and decided to head back on Sunday around 1pm. Originally we were shooting for noon, but they had Predator on TV when we got to the pizza place to eat lunch. One bad 80s movie with two current U.S. governors in the cast - who could pass up watching that?

We get a call from our friends in International Orange (they had played a show in Nashville that weekend as well). They called to say that a terrible snowstorm was hitting North Carolina that afternoon--

This story is getting so long and I feel like I'm leading you on to some great climax that will never ever happen. So let me sum up:

After much debate, we left Nashville around 2pm Sunday. We hit the ice and snow at the NC border, coming up into the mountains. It was nasty and dangerous weather. We drove down the mountain at about 20mph. There were cars on the side of the road everywhere, cars in the median, car flipped around the wrong way.

David almost went crazy sitting in the back seat the whole way. I almost went crazy driving back the whole way. We amused ourselves by watching the Two Towers and making fart noises during those long pauses in the love scenes. We got home at 3am.

Since then, it's been cold. First it was cold, then it was really cold, then a little colder, and then cold some more, then cold, cold, cold. Then it was warm for a minute last Friday, so we went roller-skating, which was so much fun. But it was not really warm because it was cold. "Cold, a deer, a female deer. Cold, a drop of golden sun. Cold, a name I call myself. Cold, a long, long way to run..."

I'd like to thank the sun for melting a lot of the ice and snow on the roads. I'd also like to say, "Hey, can't you work a little harder? We're cold down here."

Someone could throw a "It's Too Damn Cold" party, and we could sit around and burn a couch, or a house, or something like that.

I did it again.

I have this insane urge to watch the movie Cloak & Dagger. If anyone has a tape of this I can borrow, let me know.

I am tired. Work. Mix. Sleep. Work. Mix. Sleep. But all that comes to an end with the release of my third solo album, Angles. We are going to have a Chapel Hill CD release show at the Local 506 this Sunday night, Jan. 18th at 9:30 pm. Come and be the first on your block to hear the music from the new album live. Then take a copy home. (Get a sneak peak over at Bu Hanan Records). I'm gonna do a set all by my lonesome and then prayers and tears will play a set. Come. Be cold. And still. Cause it's January.

So, seriously? What's going on with you? I want to know. Email me.

I got a really cool thermoplastic spoon for Christmas, and a flashlight. I also got a new synthesizer, which should be making it's way into the go machine live shows and recordings soon enough.

Maybe no one told you, but I'm sort of a big dork. I used to dream of getting my MBA and being involved in the enivitable colonization of Mars, but I've given up that dream.

Is there any more coffee?

There is so much cool stuff in the works for the beginning of the new year: CD releases, recording, a lot of touring, and maybe a video or two. We're still in the running for this year's SXSW, so keep your fingers crossed for that - it would be a great opportunity for us. We've been working on a track to submit to a Will Oldham tribute compilation. More on that later, but I think it's our best recording to date. Bells, whistles and a song that just punches you in the chest with it's beauty. A tour with our friend Annie Clark is in the works. It will be nice to have a new face around on tour. Backing each other up a on few songs in each of our respective sets should be fun.

I hope you get that power pad you were wanting for Christmas. I am hankering for at least 5 slap bracelets.

How do you like the new look of things? A special thanks goes out to my friends Sharyn and Ben for providing some of the artwork you see on the page.

I've had a crazy rush of nostalgia this week, what's up with that? It seems like my creativity, libido, nostalgia - virtually every condition and feeling that is a part of me travels in a perfect sine wave - just all at different frequencies and amplitudes.

Since Daniel has shared his recent reading choices with you, I feel obligated to do the same. I've been reading the Enderverse series by Orson Scott Card. It's kind of like Harry Potter meets Starship Troopers - as a jumping off point, anyway - It gets a little deeper than either of those get. I'm enjoying it. Good fiction is hard to find - at least for me, I seem to be picky about it. Personally, I'm all about Bean. He's my main man.

Well, lately I have been doing most of the mixing for From Where I Come, the latest GO MACHINE recording thats going to come out on the the Chapel Hill compilation that Dylan and Jay from Eyes to Space are working on. Haven't heard any of the other music (other than the Prayers and Tears track) but Dylan says it's gonna be good. So Bu Hanan Studios has been pretty busy lately, with various guests dropping in to do some vocals.

GO MACHINE rehearsals have been interesting. Very challenging, but many opportunities present themselves. I have always thought limitations are productive. One is forced to come up new solutions, like an unknown trail up the other side of the mountain... or something like that. Speaking of which, I think I'm going to the mountains this weekend. This is good. Cities encourage production, but can skew vision. On the top of a mountain you can see clearly the big picture if the weather is good.

Hey, we're back from our Tennessee to Texas tour. I'm really glad we went. We played a couple great shows (Nashville & Dallas were my favorites), and I think I'm improving at being more relaxed on stage, not having my muscles tense all the time, and being able to breathe new life and energy into performance. Cool, huh? Well, at least for me.

I also can't say enough about my bandmates. They make this whole crapshoot worth it.

I'm reading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and trying to absorb Milan Kundera's writing style. At least in translation, his characters and stories are so captivating. At the same time, the book is making me sad with its bleak view of human motive and intention. I'm almost done. I feel like I should read something uplifting afterwards.