A new exhibition of work by Nick Z at The Public Trust in Dallas, TX.

Saw this on a wall in Vegas. I needed my own. Who else got one?

Boston. Kode 9 with Incyde and Scotch 1 tonight in our city – absolute must attend performance.

My friends Josh and Zack of OPEN Bicycle are finally throwing their much deserved grand opening party this weekend in Union Square, Somerville, MA. For those not following their store launch over on all the biker blogs, OPEN is a multi function bicycle repair shop, design studio, and gallery space which lives up to all these descriptor words because of Josh and Zack’s background.

What I do know is that any multifunction concept that allows for multiple consumer sets to be serviced is a good idea. In fact, anything innovative and interesting that is opened in Boston is a damn good thing.

Check them out online. They’re webstore is filled with some hard to find and unique items.

If you’re in the Boston area, be sure to stop in this weekend.

When I tell people that I became addicted to noise records this winter, I get the strangest of looks. My friends who tend to listen to a wide array of sounds and music cannot grasp my love of records that bounce – at times – non rhythmic sounds across long long compositions, which can be described as nothing more than fucking noise. 

I won’t try to describe noise records, because I simply just got into the genre. But I will point you towards some of my favorite artists working in this field today – Thuja, Eleh, Hototogisu who tend to drone out their sounds and compositions into what I almost label as ambient. On the extreme side, I tend to turn to Karlheinz, Japan’s Government Alpha, and John Wiese.

If I take anything away from noise records, its a certain renewed focus on all other music I listen to.  Noise may not be the most pleasant of genres to listen to but maybe I am looking for music/sounds that make me actually listen a little harder to get to the core.

Most noise is only available physically as vinyl releases, so I have been stocking up on the shit I love. You would be surprised how low some of these press runs are (or maybe you are not surprised).

Billy Bao’s “Fuck Separation” 10″ is not a true noise record but more of a layered non-stop guitar and percussion driven sound fuck. It’s rhythmic as hell and a brutal non-stop 20 minute assault. It’s easily the best rock record I have discovered this winter and it only took me a week to track down a hard copy via this small mail order joint in Berlin.

Billy Bao makes all their music available for free download. You will not find a harder piece of sound.

I happen to love the tonal white silkscreen on white cover of the 10″.

I was in a car with Seth and Will back in December when they began talking about tacking on a swim and bicycle race to the end of their Boston Marathon run this coming April all the while, stopping for beers, cocktails, and partying throughout the course. It sounds funny right?

For most people, passing thoughts of this nature lead to laughs and jokes, but for Seth and Will, any said challenge is one that must be taken seriously. I’m not sure if they’re doing it to say they did it or simply because neither of them is willing to let the other out of it, but “The Epic Man” challenge is a fucking reality.

It is now March and the Boston Marathon is only weeks away and from the looks of it, the boys have a crew ready for “The Epic Man.” Parties and bars have been mapped out over the 163mile course and due to beverage consumption, they have allocated 24hours to kayak and cycle from Maine to Boston just in time to run the Boston Marathon. 

How could I not applaud such a challenge that both Seth and Will have applied to themselves. 

If for some reason you want to get involved in “The Epic Man, ” please contact them. They need all the help and beer they can get.

I for one haven’t run enough to think I can pull it off this year, but I hope to beat myself enough over the next 13 months to get ready for 2010. 

Follow The Epic Man on Twitter.

Reminder – If you have Twitter, please be sure to link me up.

I tend to post up more frequently with quick links, songs, etc…..

Something new coming to Boston.

Snowboards and more for barter outside of the Phish show today in Hampton, VA. Nice 2009 Burton Custom!

(photo via beau colburn)

Another batch of attic finds from this weekend in CT. Comic Strips and shitloads of them. Not the books – but actual clippings that I meticulously sliced with an Xacto back when I did nothing good as a teen.

I clipped comic strips because I hated waiting for the tradebooks to be published at the end of the year (which compiled a years worth of strips). Comic books were meant to be read, saved, and traded. Why the fuck could I not do the same with comic strips.

I found this box in the attic.

I opened it and discovered my stash of Matt Groening’s “Life is Hell” strips from 1990-92. I loved the uncommon square read flow of “Life is Hell.” Like “The Far Side” (which I found to be boring), this odd shape of the comic strip made it a bitch to place in the comics’ section. So youre paper either buried it with the classified, of in the case of “Life is Hell” you just got picked up by the alternative papers.

I think this is the strip that summed up the strip nicely. For those that know Groening’s work on this front, this will be familiar. Blinky in ropes.

Akbar & Jeff – the gay boys.

The craziest part for me was that “Life is Hell” and the Hartford Advocate taught me what trannies were. Flipping over some of the clippings, you’ll discover that they were only a short phone call away… if you’re into that.

I found these red envelopes as well. I fashioned them out of Hallmark envelope remainders from my days working at CVS. “Calvin & Hobbes” all labelled, dated, and spliced in my outstanding obsessive way. Again, I hated waiting for the trades to be printed. I wanted to pull them out and check out Watterson’s pen and ink work whenever I wanted. I think I have about 15 of these little envelopes labelled C&H. Ridiculous.

I love this one. Calvin was the master of torture without shedding blood. “Home Sweet Home.”

Oh yeah, I got more coming….