The Ghostwrite

5Jun/130

New Songs, Magic, and Vinyl Records

Hey yinz.

I am going to record two new songs today/tonight with Chris Daley of Mace Ballard.  One is called Sleight of Hand and the other is called Madness.  For all the MtG nerds out there, one might be thinking, "Hey!  I know that card, and I remember that deck!"  And to you, humanoid, I say, "Yr old-school, too!"  Anyway, outside of the titles, there are no references to the best card-game on the planet.  Sad, but true.

Speaking of Magic, I'm bringing a deck of cards with me on my next few tours (I wonder if any of those Shell Corporation boys play?).  For all the punx out there, if you feel like getting schooled, come hang before the shows.  I'm going to attempt to organise a few MtG meet-ups while I'm rambling around North America.  Fair warning, though.  I used to play this game competitively.  I am not even a fraction as good as, say, Johnny Magic, but I've been known to win a Friday Night Magic or two; I've been known to place in the Top Eight of a few larger tournaments; I've been known to choke in the last qualifying round of a National Grinder tournament.  So no pissing and moaning if I mop the floor with yr deck of Healing Salves and Grizzly Bears.

 
grizzly bearhealingsalve

 

 

 

This is not a Magic:the Gathering       combo, nerds.

 

 

 

 

 

Okay.  Enough about Magic.

Last, but certainly not least, both Monster Punch and Personal Political will be pressed to vinyl sometime this year.  The fine folks over at Pizza Heart Records (Pittsburgh) and Youlooklikeshit! Records (Quebec) are going to take the reigns on figuring out all the front-end nonsense, such as talking to the pressing plants, artwork, distro, etc, etc.  Putting together a vinyl release is an expensive slow-train, so don't expect anything before the leaves start to fall and the ground beings to freeze over.  I merely wanted to mention this so everyone can start saving those quarters, loonies and toonies.  By the time the records arrive, I bet everyone will be able to trade those coins in for a shiny new Ghostwrite vinyl record.

30May/130

Summer 2013

I seriously don't have anything better to do, and presently I am totally okay with it.

Anyway, I am slowly getting my summer organised, and it is going to be bat-shit wild busy.

Next week, I am going to record a few new songs (surprise, surprise) with the wonderful Chris Daley, who plays in Pittsburgh's finest pop-punk band, Mace Ballard.

On July 6th, I am playing a show at the Vadican't in Pittsburgh (Oakland), PA.  This show will be a benefit/kick-starter show for Pizza Heart Records.  Their first release is going to be Monster Punch on vinyl.  Rumor has it that the Monster Punch LP will be available later in 2013.  Pretty neat.

After that, I'm going to ramble around part of the US Midwest and play some shows.  Everything is being updated for this tour at the Ghostwrite's Midwestern US Adventure.  <--- Click that for cites/venues/info.

Upon completion of the Midwestern Adventure, I am going to hop on a plane to Vancouver, where I will meet up with the lovely and radical punk band from northern California, the Shell Corporation.  We're going to bomb across Canada and play shows in a bunch of my favorite cities.  Everything is being updated for this tour at
the Shell Corporation + the Ghostwrite Canadian Summer 2013. <--- Click that for cites/venues/info.

Eventually, I will say bon voyage to the Shell Corporation, and I will continue rambling around Canada with a few other acoustic punks.  Jon Creeden and I are going to combine forces and play a wicked show in Toronto with Mischief Brew on August 15, and I'm also going to tour with that rad London Ontario punk also known as the Drunken Wobblies.

I hope yinz are ready to hang!

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28May/130

#236 – Toronto, ON

Well fuck!

Here I had it all figured out.  I was going to play this show, and then I was going to drift off into the sunset.  I was going to perch myself at that bar (in lovely Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), and then I was going to talk about how my glory years were fantastic... talk about how my best years were behind me.

Here in the present-tense, though, after careful consideration - yes, I pondered (MtG reference, nerds!) - I have decided to not do that.  I mean, this has been a twelve years investment, journey, and struggle, yjnz!   It seems rather silly to tap out now. Besides, I cannot think of anything else I would rather do with my life. I mean, I am not going to fool anyone. Rambling around this landmass, with a backpag and an acoustic guitar, is a pretty sweet life.

And to verify...

Tonight's show was, hands down, one of the most inspired and kickass shows I have played in quite some time.  "Triangle Choke" sounded fucking epic with all those lovely souls singing along. Thank you so very much, Jess (Folk the System!) and the rest of the Thigh High Club House.  You are all bad ass.

Okay.  Enough. Time to catch a bus back to the Burgh.  However, fear not, Canada (and parts of the States)!  I will be coming back in August.  Super sweet shows will be announced soon.

ps. Living the dream is so much better than dying the nightmare.

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26May/130

#235 – Sudbury, ON

A show outside, eventually around a bonfire, happened.  The backdrop was filled with trees, mountains, and other nature things.  There was also BBQ, complete with veg options.  Stellar.

This was my first time in Sudbury, and Roxanne and friends did a wonderful job of making this night pleasantly awesome.

Back to Toronto today.  Eventually, I am going to hop on a bus, cross an imaginary line, and stumble back into Pittsburgh.  First, though, there is one more show to be had up here in the Great White North. 

Later, yinz.

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24May/130

#228 – #234 – Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto

I have been doing a dreadful job with show blogs.

In late March, I played a house show with a bunch of Johnstown folk.  Johnstown shows are a good time, and they have been a good timd for as long as I can remember, way back to those prehistoric times of the late 90s and early 2000s.

After that, in late March I helped set up a house show for the mighty acoustic champion, Austin Lucas, at the Pit-Bull Palace in Pittsburgh PA.  This was also a good time.

In May, I played a house show at the Shit Brick in Pittsburgh, which a bunch of Pittsburgh acoustic punx.  Sing-a-longs and beers were had.

Later in May, I played a show in Philadelphia with Andrew Winter and the Reckless Dodgers, and Corporate Hearts.  Not too many people showed up, but that night was still entertaining.  At one point, after the show, while I was hanging with Andrew and friends, a cop car blazed down the road, with his radio cranked (I believe it was that "cut me into pieces, this is my last resort" song) and sirens flashing.   I guess that is acceptable in the City of Brotherly Love. 

Eventually, I made my way up to Montreal for Pouzza FEST.  This weekend was a whirlwind of action.  So many tour friends from all over North America converged upon this festival, and it was, at times, quite overwhelming.  There are many highlights, but getting to hang with Alice, Frank, and Fanny all weekend sure was stellar.  It was pretty neat to lose my mind and scream my lungs out during the Jon Creeden and Audio/Rocketry show.  I played a late on Sunday with Mikey Erg, which was a good time, especially since my friend, Howard St. Roy, entered about halfway through and started clapping, singing, and banging on the house piano.  Part of my lungs and brain can still probabpy be found scattered along the streets of Montreal.

After this, Alice and I hopped in Greg Rekus and Lyndsay Penner's van.  Off to Ottawa we went.  A house show at the soon-to-be legendary Robot House happened.  Ottawa friends, food, and music.  It t'was lovely.

Eventually, after saying farewell to all those wonderful Ottawians, I crawled back in the Rekus mobile.  Off to Toronto we went.  After catching Greg's set that night, I told these lovely Winnipeggers goodbye.  Off to hang with Folk the System Jess! and Brent.

A show in Toronto happened with pop-punk maniacs, Wringer (from Bloomington, Indiana).  Hangs, cheers, and hugs were had.  After wiping the crap from my eyes the following morning, Brent and I ate a Buddah Vegetarian fest.  Delicious.

Now, I am killing time, gathering my energy and hoping I will be able to give her at these last two Ontario shows.  After that, I am going home, where I will stew on the idea of packing up my guitar and bag, hitting the road, and chasing punk rock glory, or if I will, instead, hang up my guitar and try to carve out a life in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Maybe I will leave it up to a coin flip.  Maybe I will call it in the air, once I get home.

Later, yinz.

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13May/130

At the End of the Road Will I Turn Around?

About fourteen years ago I purchased my first guitar, with the sole intention of starting a band.  I didn't have any real plans for that band, outside of writing original music and playing local shows.  I mean, the few friends I had who were in bands seemed to be having a goddamn ball, and it seemed like a grand way for any youth to escape the boredom of rural life. 

That summer turned out to be frustratingly excellent - the summer entering my senior year of high school. 
Instead of organising keg parties in the woods or tracking down drugs to eat or smoke (two favorite pastime activities for the youth of my small mountain-coal-mining town), I spent countless hours holed up in my bedroom, fumbling around with that guitar.  Day after day, I would wake up and battle with that beat-up axe, and most nights I would fall asleep with swelled, bloody hands and frazzled thoughts, as that guitar giggled itself to sleep.

"Give it up, kid.  Can't you see?  You can't win.  Your hands are clumbsy.  Your rythmn is horrendous.  Your ears are deaf."

For whatever reason, I never threw in the towel.  My brain simply would not allow it.

"You're not really going to let this six-stringed demon defeat you, are you?"

I suppose I was endlessly ambitious and idealistic back then.  However, my skills on that guitar were developing at a snail's pace, and I was losing faith that I would ever becoming a guitar-playing ninja.  Eventually, after pissing and moaning about how absurdly and ridiculiosly hard it was to play guitar, my friend whom had been playing drums since he was in diapers, Chad, suggested switching to bass. 

"You can borrow mine.  You look more like a bass-player anyway."

From here, we spent the next year making noise in his attic, and eventually things started to click.  Slowly, I began hearing notes and understanding the mathematics behind music.

As I entered my freshman year of college, I switch back to playing guitar.  Simply put, I found solo bass-playing to be quite obnoxious, and it also seemed impossible to write complete songs with said instrument, not that I actually knew how to do that.

After spending a month or so trying to organise one of those college bands, a friend suggested that I reach out to one of his drummer friends.

"He's still in high school, but he's probably better than anything you'll find around here.  You should give him a call."

This is where the legend of Devon began.

I think we were completely oblivious to what we were actually getting ourselves into.  Within six months we had a semi-functioning three-piece band.  Our original goal was to make music that sounded like blink or Saves the Day or the Get-Up Kids or something like that.  What we actually created was a hot mess of angst and frustration.  We stopped calling ourselves a pop-punk band after a few friends suggested that we dig deeper into the world of punk rock.

"You don't sound like any of the bands you think you sound like."

They were right.  We didn't.

By the spring of 2001 I had dropped out of college.  By the summer of 2001 we were a full-blown dysfunctional touring band.  By the summer of 2003, after nearly 200 shows and a fistful of New England and Midwest tours, we were a hot mess of drama and broken dreams.

Devon went back to college.  We moved to Baltimore.

Somehow, I managed to keep the dream of touring alive, even if that meant keeping it on life-support.

Fourteen years after first picking up a guitar, through a whirlwind blur of beauty and insanity, I somehow managed to tour mostly all of North America, in a fairly wide array of  musical projects- well over 20 tours and 500 shows.

On Thursday, I will embark on one more tour, quite possibly my last, that will take me through my favorite place to tour:  Canada.  It seems fitting to end this on a high note.  If yr around, come hang.  The festivities kick off in Montreal at Pouzza FEST on May 17.

Once I get back from Canada who knows what will happen?  I mean, my feet are endlessly itchy, and I have been known to change my mind.  However, as of right now, this will be my last tour for the foreseeable future.

See-ya.

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8Mar/130

Art For Art’s Sake, But I Will Not Advocate Starvation

Hey yinz.

Every once in a while I will get into a discussion about the state of the "music industry" (OKAY! That's a fib, as it happens much more frequently than once in a while.  I usually have music on the brain!).   More times than not, a debate will unfold that revolves around whether bands/musicians should offer free downloads on the internet.

Now, if this was six years ago, I would have stated, "Without a doubt."  And that probably would have been the end of it.  I mean, I would listen to anyone who was in opposition to this position, but I would not budge on this particular belief.

Today, while I still think offering free or PWYC (donation-based) downloads is the way to go, I also think it is rather important to support all those lovely DIY/independent bands/small-label musicians.  Seriously.  Writing music for a proper studio/bedroom release is quite an investment.  It takes countless hours of labor.  Plus, studio time/buying recording equipment costs quite a bit: upwards of $25 - $50 an hour to play ball at any decent recording studio, or upwards of $1,000 - $5,000 (and possibly more, depending on one's vision) to build a decent bedroom/home studio.  Of course, after any band/musician finishes recording, mixing, and mastering their latest masterpiece, a few things usually happen:

1.)  Records/tapes/CDs need to be made.  This costs money, upwards of $750 - $1000 for 500 copies (much more if we're talking about a vinyl pressing).

2.)  Tour! Tour! Tour!  I mean, after the final product arrives, one of the best ways to spread the good word about that creative work is to tour.  For a band of four people, the daily operating costs can easily exceed $150 - $200 a day (assuming this band will crash on a friend's floor and not sleep in a hotel).

** If anyone is curious, my daily operating cost is, roughly, $75 a day when I tour.

Now, in the current global system, this support usually means forking over some of that paper/plastic/internet cash.. and I can hear the chatters of, "Fuck off, capitalist!  I will not participate in this perpetual system of exploitation and abuse, and I don't care if it's in the name of music or art, either!"   If this is one's position, fair enough.  However, for everyone else who wants to participate in this world, can we be real and honest for a moment?  We can?  Cool.

If we're talking about the DIY music culture, which I am, trying to make a living through music, and most creative art forms, is rather goddamn difficult.  In fact, every band/musician/artist I personally know has to subsidize their creative career with another job/career.  Of course, I am quite all right with having to work, as I think an honest day of labor inside that dreaded machine has the potential to offer up a vast amount of inspiration/frustration/motivation to create even more sweet art. However, I do not think any band/musician/artist should starve.

Of course, we're not looking to get rich and famous here.  Fucking seriously.  Any honest underground DIY/counter-culture dweller is quite all right slopping around in the muck and grim.  However, I will not advocate starvation.  Everyone needs to eat, and musicians/artists are not exempt.

Okay.  I'm done.  Let's get to the good stuff.  I've been downloading music like a banshee the past few days.  Here are a few choice selections that I've lent my support to, in the form of internet cash!

ps.  I really think something is going to give rather soon.  The DIY-music scene is bursting at the seams like it's 1993 all over again.  Get in on the fun before that corporate-culture swoops in to bring us all a water-downed version of what's really going on down here in 2013.

 

1.)   RVIVR - The Beauty Between
RVIVR cover

 

2. Royal Red Brigade - Give Into the Violence

RRB cover

 

3.  Hop Along - Get Disowned

hop along cover

 

4.  Civil War Rust - The Fun & The Lonely

CWR cover

 

5.  Spanner - Crisis

Spanner cover

5Mar/130

Battle Line [Guitar Tab]

All right.  I've received a small handful of requests for guitar tabs to Battle Line, so here it is.

Seriously, thank you for all the kind words about Monster Punch.  Yinz are the best!

 

THE GHOSTWRITE
BATTLE LINE

Please note the following:

1.) This song is in Drop D tuning, which goes like so D A D G B e
2.) Capo on the sixth position.
3.) x = mute

Cool?  Cool.

VERSE ONE
If you call me old...
(x4)

e -
B - 1   1  1  1
G - 0  0  2  0
D - 2  0  2  3
A - 3  2  0
D -

BRIDGE
(x2)

e -
B -   1   1   1   1
G -  0   0   2   x
D  - 2   0   2   3
A -  3   2   0   3
D  -               3
PRE-CHORUS ONE
If you call me a liberal...
(x2)

e  -
B  -    1   (x)   1   (x)   1   (x)   1
G  -   0   (x)   0   (x)   2   (x)   x
D  -   2   (x)   0   (x)   2   (x)   3
A  -   3   (x)   2   (x)   0   (x)   3
D   -                                     3

PRE-CHORUS TWO
Don't worry praying for me...
(x2)

This pattern is the same as PRE-CHORUS ONE but with palm-muting.

 

CHORUS
If you've drawn the battle line...
(x4)

e -
B -   1    3
G -   2    0         5
D -   2    0    3   x
A -   0    0    3   3
D -         5    3   0

And then go back to the start and repeat the entire sequence. The OUTRO is the same thing as the CHORUS, with a slightly different strumming pattern.

Happy strumming and singing!

4Mar/130

PERSONAL POLITICAL

Well, I am back in Baltimore.

After dusting off the rust from another Pittsburgh to Baltimore bus-trip, stretching my muscles, cracking my bones, and diving into another "Lego-building" work season, I began picking away at another album.  I do not entirely know what it is about this place, Charm City USA, but every time I come back from a music tour or a Lego-building adventure, I am usually inspired to write.  Maybe the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe is haunting me?

Anyway, this one will be an EP, five songs.  Everything is demoed, and recording time is in the process of being scheduled.  I am going to do this one with J. Robbins at Magpie Cage in Baltimore in early April.  When I step into that studio, it will have been almost five years, to-the-date, that J. and I last worked together.  I feel like my writing, guitar-playing, and vocals have improved a bit since then, so I am anticipating quite the little scorcher of an EP.  It will be released sometime in May 2013, probably.

Here's the artwork for the next one - designed by Chris Fredrick/Fall Media.

 

PersonalPolitical1

24Feb/130

#226 & #227 – Pittsburgh, PA

February 20, 2013
Inn Termission Lounge  The Pacific Speedway Pit-Bull Palace
w/ Saul Conrad, Katie Schecter

None of us could figure out how the fuck we ended up playing this particular show, the one that was supposed to happen at the Inn Termission Lounge.  Obviously, it was a train-wreck.

There was a fund-raiser going on for some wanna-be judge when I arrived, and then after that concluded, the Pittsburgh (hockey) Penguins were being broadcast on those television screens.  Have yinz ever tried to compete with the Pens in Pittsburgh?  I wouldn't recommend it.

Since Saul and Katie were out on tour, I wanted to make sure they got to play to a few sets of ears that would pay attention.  Away we went to the Pit-Bull Palace, and as-per-usual, everyone had a ball.

 

February 23, 2013
FFD House
w/ Average Joey, the Otis Wolves, Ivory Weeds, Tender Mercy, Steve Easter

We set this show up for Mark (Tender Mercy) who was out on tour from Louisville, Kentucky.  He called it the best show of his short tour.  Pittsburgh is solid.  Seriously, I don't know what to say when people go, "The Pittsburgh music scene sucks."  These people obviously need to get their sorry asses off those bar stools and into the underground.  I don't know, maybe the music scene above the surface does suck, but I wouldn't know anything about that.  I'm too busy having a goddamn blast down in the muck and grim of the DIY underground.

All right.  I'm done pissing and moaning.

Here's a picture of an aging mill that rests within the town limits of the once lively and thriving Braddock, Pennsylvania.  I took this one as I walked from the Swissvale Bus Station up to my house in North Braddock.  That's like 5-K away.  Fucking eh!

Steel Mill

I've heard chatter that Braddock is going to make a come-back.

 

Oh!  Monster Punch has been out for about a month now.  To the 210 of y'all who have already procured a copy, whether it be in physical or digital form, thank you.  If yinz really like it, please share it with a friend, or pass along the download link.

I know musicians say this shit all the time, but I honestly think this album is my best effort, thus far (I think Vagrants and Pacifists is pretty okay, too).

 

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