We’re very excited to announce that we will be playing numerous shows this weekend at the BIG EARS FESTIVAL in Knoxville, TN.  Mason Brown (of Brainworlds) will be joining us for several of the shows to play whatever he wants to play!  Our ‘official’ shows are Friday and Saturday nights at Big Ears Annex at 10pm.  There are sooooo many amazing bands/artists playing this years festival.  We are honored to be a part of it.  We will also be playing some guerilla shows – popping up at different locations around town to play and entertain.  Follow the BIG EARS TWITTER to stay informed on where we are playing at any given moment and lots of other info about all the happenings at Big Ears!  Get pumped!

Ho! Lots happening here.  Been working on new music.  Recently finished two new pieces for an upcoming Athens experimental compilation that awesomedude Thom Strickland is working on putting out.  The first of the new tracks is a Council piece called “A Phineas Gauge” – all vocal piece that is technically Kinked Demand 2.  The other track i just finished tonight and it’s a Counseling piece called “Entity Rape” – all field recordings done with my big fancy iPhone and then compiled into a semi-coherent piece.  No effects were used in making “Entity Rape” other than the gigantic reverb box that my friend (and hero) Matt Jugenheimer was throwing around and i recorded it.  Good work Matt!  A whole new way to listen to oldies.

In case you missed the new Decomposer track that i finished just in the nick of time for the CoCo Art “Roam for the Holidaze” comp – its time to download the comp now!  The comp is stuffed with tons of amazing artists from all over doing all kinds of things!  it rules!  The Decomposer track, “Kurse of the Krakatuk,” tells the story of the Mouse King before we pick up his story in “the Nutcracker”.  Fun!

Expect lots of Council, etc to come in 2010.  Lots of plans are being made.

Oh, and, general superdude and man-about-everywhere, Jeff Tobias, is writing an in depth review of each disk of the Head-On Collusion box set.  Keep your ears to his HOMEDRONE blog on flagpole.com.  Its a great, great honor to be given such time from a man who has no time!

ps. the photo for this post was taken the Zoe-Ruth Erwin, she rules!

Council is playing tonight (Monday December 28th) at the Caledonia in Athens, GA.  This is a rare club show and also a rare J.Noel only show.  Council plays first (10pm), then Cornelius F. Van Stafrin III, then Ghost to Falco and headlining is Tunabunny.  Should be a fun night for all of you that are in town!  Let’s make it happen!

Brainworlds played next, then a kid who lived at the house (he played an amalgamation of experimental boom box, violin, kazoo, banjo and vocals) (very cool), then Cash Slave Clique (techno-noise-oddity from DC) (awesome), and last but not least Tiny Concept (one-very-petite-french-girl-band from France) took us on a very interesting musical journey that i wasn’t expecting at all.  Certainly a sight to be seen (and heard)!

No shows booked right now but I’m working on a March tour of midwest and south… should be doing a few shows here and there in january/february as well.  Also, I’m looking for non-sxsw shows during sxsw to play.  If you know of anything – get in touch!

I’m starting work on the fourth album very very soon.  Its a musical response to a book that was recently published authored by a friend of mine.  I’m very excited about it.

We got up early in Greensboro to head to Athens, GA to play a train car dubbed Metal Walls of Milk. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the train car to make sure that everything was in line – we realized that the heavy recent rain had created a bit of a river right in front of the entrance to the train car.  So we moved the show to Oneta Space where i had done my first Council show. We will do a show at Metal Walls of Milk sometime in the spring when its dryer and warmer.  Get pumped!

We got to Oneta Space and set up and the golden triangle that i had built back in July was still there!  Rob Peterson,aka Dan Hole Pond, opened the show with an awesome set of field recordings, effects and harmonica.  It was fabulous.  Next up was Monotaur, the new ambient/experimental project from Andy Hollingsworth (ex-the Dumps) and Al Daglis (Dark Meat).  Their set was awesome and i look forward to hearing more from them.

Brainworlds was awesome as usual, and we played after that.  One of my bass amps was crapping out so i had to borrow one from Eli of Spring Tigers.  Thanks Eli!  The show was lots of fun but a little bittersweet since it was the last show with Wil for awhile.  I can’t wait to play with him again.  Hopefully he’ll be able to tour more with me early in the new year.  He was such an amazing addition to the sets every night for the last week and a half.  He rules.  Check out his other bands, Senryu and Physics of Meaning.  Wil is currently working on the new Senryu album and i can go ahead and tell you that its going to rule.

Big thanks to everyone that came out to the shows, helped us set up the shows, let us stay at their houses, etc etc.  All of you rule.

Next show is Sunday, November 29th at the Jailhouse in Atlanta, GA with Brainworlds, Pony Payroll Bones, Tiny Concepts and Clash Slave Clique.  Yeah!

After our 2 lunches we headed to Nice Price books & records and got ourselves some pretty great vinyl and just relaxed for the afternoon.

The show was at the Green Wall in Durham, which is basically just a green wall next to a park in downtown Durham.  We set up just in front of the massive wall and played to passers-by and friends.  It was pretty awesome.  It was a beautiful but pretty frigid evening.  After the show we headed back to Greensboro to stay with our friend Kathleen again and to get a head start on our drive to Athens.

On our way back to Greensboro we stopped at an amazing little joint called Beef Burger (formerly Biff Burger – they changed their name in 1971).  This place flat our rules.  I’ve attached a picture of half their menu.  I got a Biff Burger (diner burger with bbq sauce), a Spamburger (duh) and a Chuckwagon (country fried steak sandwich).  I was not familiar with Chuckwagons but they are awesome.  I’ll definitely be going back to Beef Burger.  We also stopped at a gas station to pick up a few beers and picked up a weekly newspaper called The Slammer. I can’t even begin to describe this thing to you so i’ll just tell you its a newspaper of just recent mugshots and listings of what crimes the people commiting.  There are also fun games in it like “Match the Mugshot to the Crime”.  Amazing.

All in all, another great night in North Carolina.

One more show on the tour – Athens, GA.

Wil went back to Greensboro with our awesome friend Kathleen and Mason & I headed over to the Federal for some late night dinner and a few beers.  I had some fabulous lentil-leek sliders and a couple pints of Bell’s.  We met up with our good friend Sam Gunn who I used to be in Iron Hero with.  It was great to see him as he had moved to Durham to attend law school at Duke.  He’s a great dude and so is his wife Jenny!  We stayed with them last night and appreciate their hospitality.

Today we play the Green Wall (117 W. Main St.) at 7pm.  This show is going to be outdoors and lots and lots of fun.  Come on out!

Click here to view the embedded video.

After the show we headed back to our friend Kathleen’s house and played Therapy: the game and tried to find all the scandalous subliminal messages in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.  This morning we got treated by Kathleen to some some of her homemade donuts and crispy bacon!  And cloudy apple juice.  She’s taken really good care of us and we can’t thank her enough.

Today we eat chili dogs for lunch and head to Durham to play an early show (6pm) during the ArtWalk at Golden Belt Arts. See you there!