So, I’ve got five different drawings i wanna get done within the next week, and I sorta fell into a rut where I’m getting NONE of them done. I’ve also spent the entire week completely out of it. I’ve been in sleepwalk mode for like five days straight now. Total suck. I got this done though.
However! Its been a fairly eventful week anyway, especially when it comes to rockin’ out. First off, Thom ‘n I went to see Converge last friday night. I’ve been trying to see this band for SEVEN YEARS now, and i finally did. Completely blew me away. Say what you want about this band, but this was one of the best live sets I’ve ever seen. They played “The Saddest Day”, they played new stuff, and they covered “Wolverine Blues” by Entombed! Entombed!!! Oh, and Thom ‘n I were in total Booze Tornado mode. Trouble/adventures everywhere.
Monday night, Haunted Castle finished writing our 4th song, sans Doug and vocals.
Haunted Castle - “G.F.T.D. (A.G.T.H.)” rough practice - 033009 from Dan Bones on Vimeo.
We’ve got a pretty solid setlist right now, and I’m extremely amped for our next show, which is in two weeks at the Charleston.
We’re playing with Nanda Devi from Portland, who are super heavy doom metal, and We Are All Savages, who are good friends of ours, and tear stuff up pretty hard. Do me a favor and repost this damned flyer.
WAAS also played Fontana’s in the Lower East Side on Wednesday night, and I took a ton of photos.
They also did an amazing His Hero is Gone cover.
As if that wasn’t enough of these dudes, Jack Crank also interviewed singer/guitarist Junior for No Gods No Vegetables
Aaaaand to round out things nicely, THE SLEEPIES ARE PLAYING TOMORROW NIGHT!
Stupid jerk lovable bastards. It’s Josh’s birthday soon, so come out tomorrow night and throw beer cans at these guys extra hard. Circle Pits everywhere!
Here’s a little of what I’ve been workin’ on these days.
I am super happy with this piece, and I got a call yesterday afternoon from my mom saying it arrived safe ‘n sound in the mail. AWESOME.
This is the half finished version I started in photoshop, scrapped, and have since redone entirely in watercolor.
What do these two pieces have in common? They’re both birthday presents! I’ll post up the Watercolor version of this as soon as i get a decent photo of it. too big to scan properly…
One more;
This was a piece i had initially started for the Rat Pack Hustle sprint series i throw in the Fall. I’ve since changed focus and i’m really really excited to see this one when its done.
Anyway, I’ve got a bunch of things in the works at the moment, so I should have steady updates for at least the next month. Also, I’ve been regularly updating my Chainsaw Portraits, which never gets old for me.
I’ve had this weird fascination with the way chainsaws are inherently linked to fantasy violence well before they’re linked to utility. Its a social norm that we inherently opt for a macabre form over function. Maybe its because we know more crappy slasher films than we know people who own chainsaws, but the chainsaw will always have this stigma of being a romanticized instrument of death than a simple motorized tool.
I dunno, they are pretty vicious looking.
Point being, I bought this kickass Yardmaster (no, i do not keep it gassed up, no it does not work), and I’ve got a couple ideas kickin’ around my head for different projects exploring modern society’s relationship with the chainsaw. First and foremost are portraits. Get in touch if you wanna come over and have your picture taken wielding the Yardmaster.
I’ve got new artwork, fun anecdotes and new Haunted Castle songs to post up here, but I’ll get to it later. I got better things to do than sit around all day bloggin’ about stuff. …that would make me a blogger.
So, Haunted Castle played our second show last night at the Charleston with our new friends Hibagon and a few prog metal style bands on tour from CT and NJ.
Fun facts about last night’s show:
-Doug is in LA, thus we only played as a 3 piece.
-Jack had been stuck in an Atlanta airport for a day ‘n a half because of blizzard conditions, and came straight to the venue from the airport EXTREMELY agitated.
-Thom lost one of the pins in his wrist over the weekend. From his surgery in the fall. It broke the skin, and then just fell out. Oh my god. What the hell.
-I’m sick as hell! I caught a gnarly headcold as soon as my stomach healed up from my bacterial infection, so i spent the night pounding water, vitamin C and Dayquil.
After all that, our set came out something like this.
Anyway, Hibagon went on after us and killed it, yet again, and it turns out that I’m probably going to be filling in as their bass player starting in April. Alex is going off to LA for a reality TV show about how awesome he is, thus bassist wanted. Two bands! yeah!
So, we’re writing new songs, lining up more shows, and aside from that, I’m just trying to get over being constantly sick. Between this week’s batch of death throes, however i managed to finish up the Blog Header for Jack’s No Gods No Vegetables.
click the picture for the larger version.
more fun stuff on the horizon, and more friend updates too!
so, i’ve spent the better part of this week in bed unable to hold down even the tiniest bit of food. turns out i finagled a bacterial infection in my guts at some point over the weekend, and it put my body in meltdown mode sunday afternoon. After spending most of tuesday in Bellevue hospital, I’m slowly gettin’ back to normal and once again eating food. god, i love food. i’m starving. i would kill for the ability to eat ten burgers right now. TEN.
however, before i caught roaring hell, we managed to throw a phenomenal party, and Haunted Castle played a damned fine first show.
We played with The Sleepies, who put on their best set to date if you ask me, and Thomas got a couple pictures of us that he posted to the Up The Drunx podcast he does with Josh.
Well, we’re supposed to be playing our second show this Sunday at Death By Audio in Brooklyn, but since Doug is gonna be in LA, I’ve barely been able to walk all week, and Thom was in the hospital himself since his previously broken wrist has been acting up, the odds are kind of against us.
I’m workin’ on a comic for my friend Jesse, since it was her birthday last week. I’m halfway through coloring it and adding backgrounds at the moment, and I’ll post the final version when it’s done.
Even though I started this piece two weeks ago, it is REALLY difficult to feel accomplished after Nick James put out Body Modifications this week. Dude just won’t stop raisin’ the bar over here.
Anyway, whatcha doin’ this weekend? Come party with me.
five bucks at the door, cash bar, lotsa bands playing, John K Tel is DJing, and my band might even play! ridiculous!
Nick James has once again outdone himself and put together the first Dick Jones comic, which you can see here.
Dude is just blowing everybody out of the water, and this comic proves it. also, i’m pretty sure this was an actual conversation.
…or, at least it started out that way. nick still has both legs, but i do have this:
anyway, I’m still in constant Go Mode, and i’ll have more of my own work to show in the very near future, including my own comic i started last week, more muppet makin’ updates, and new songs from my band Haunted Castle.
A handful of my really talented friends ‘n I have been talking about starting up an art collective for a few months now, and we’ve finally gotten the ball rolling on a fairly ambitious long term project. The first step is to make muppets, and when they’re finished, we film them in front of a green screen.
This is a small part of a much larger project, and I’m doing my best to take the reins as producer. I’m super excited to see what kinda progress we’ve made within the next month.
more muppets:
In the meantime, I’ve got a TON of other stuff I’m working on, some long term, some short term, and my band Haunted Castle has our first show on March 1st at Death By Audio. HELL YEAH!
