My Relationship With the Number Twenty-three

William Burroughs told author Robert Anton Wilson the following story that may give you some insight into the enigma that appears to be attached to the number 23 (I'm re-telling from memory and paraphrasing a bit):

Burroughs was living in Tangier and had become friendly with a local fisherman by the name of Captain Clark. One morning Captain Clark was boasting to Burroughs that in 23 years of being a fisherman he had never had an accident. Later that day he found out that Captain Clark's ship had been in an accident killing all that had been aboard. While he was ruminating on the days events a news bulletin came on saying that there had been an airplane crash in Florida, that the plane had been piloted by another Captain Clark, the number of the flight being 23. Thus the 23 enigma as it were, was birthed into our cultural consciousness. 

I have no idea if the above story is true but it has inspired many thoughts and feedback loops in my life over the last 10 years. The easiest way that I can relate my thoughts on this idea to anyone is like this: the number 23 is a symbol for me, a mental shortcut for my brain to conjure up or expedite to my conscious mind from my subconscious mind, a certain set of ideas that will bring up any number of sensations, images, and what-have-you's that I choose to assign to it. Our brains do this naturally, but it is the idea of willfully assigning meaning to it over the knee jerk subconscious reaction that makes it significant. This is an extension of some of the ideas of my favorite occultists, linguists, psycho-analysts, historians and artists. 

I choose to use the number 23 as a symbol for the coincidences that seemingly weave their way into our lives, to inspire us and help to define our experiences as humans. A symbol for the way that random chance can seem so divinely inspired. Because of the way our brains are wired you may inadvertently find yourself thinking about the number 23 in some capacity as a link to your own personal coincidences over the next few days, months, and years. Our brains have been shaped through thousands of years of evolutionary trial and error to search out and find patterns in the unrelenting static of daily existence. Confirmation bias can also be defined as "hell to pay" because of this. This being said it shouldn't deter you from observing the seemingly random chance that slithers under the surface of our daily existence; spend some time day dreaming about the possibilities. 

My hope is that when I bring a piece of music into the world under the moniker of 23 or with the other musicians in the twenty-three ensemble it's that it is a positive moment in which people can simply enjoy or escape into for the time that they are experiencing it. An experience that helps to exorcise some of the demons of modern existence, to help us to not feel so alone in our own skin, and damn it, to have fun. Or to quote the late, great Glenn Spearman, "...it's one continuous push to bring beauty into a world of madness and frustration." 

- Kiv

Showz and such

Another month is about half-way through so it's time to hit the road to play some shows! Graph will be hitting the road with our good friends in Pile for a 3-day-4-show no-sleep fest starting on Thursday. We will be playing Winooski, VT; Kittery, ME; Peterborough, NH; and Allston, MA. The Peterborough and Allston shows are the same day as our friends in Ugh God and Fat History Month are coming home from a month on the road. Allston should be a total basement shit-show with fun times had by all.

Graph/Pile August Funfest Mid-Weekend of Doom 2011:

8/18 - Winooski, VT w/ Pile & Spirit Animal @ The Monkey House
8/19 - Kittery, ME w/ Pile, Ms. Olivia Kennett & more
8/20 (early show) - Peterborough, NH w/Pile, Dave Kontak, & So Is The Tongue @ The Toadstool
8/20 (late show) - Allston, MA w/Pile, Ugh God, Fat History Month, & more @ The Hen House

Graph also has some other shows coming up in and around the Northampton, MA homebase:

8/26 - Florence, MA w/Grass Is Green, BEEK, & 2 Inch Astronaut @ The Puppy Mill
9/4 - Northampton, MA w/Fat History Month @ Feeding Tube Records

There is more wonderful stuff in the works so I will make sure to keep you posted as I find out new and intriguing ways to kill myself with music and traveling.

Ponds has been giving our new guitar player Eric a run for his money by booking as many shows as we can squeeze in. We have a series of shows coming up in September that we are elated about. We are playing a wonderful show at the Flywheel in Easthampton, MA with the mighty Bubonic Bear from Philly and the absolutely bombastic Holy Dirt who hail from the desolate wastelands of Deleware. We are very excited to hit the stage with such sterling bands who are traveling from the Mid-Atlantic region of the US to help lay waste to Western, MA with us. We will also be hitting the stage again with our wonderful friends Black Norse up in the lovely land of Portsmouth, NH the day before that show. 9 days after those shows we are slated to play with a beautiful duo who refer to themselves as Rebel Base. They hail from Greenfield, MA and play straight-up awesome, loud rock 'n' roll. We are very much looking forward to sharing the stage with them in Northampton, MA. We are also planning something special as it is the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

9/1 - Portsmouth, NH w/Black Norse, & others @ The Red Door
9/2 - Easthampton, MA w/Bubonic Bear, Holy Dirt, & 1 more TBA @ The Flywheel
9/11 - Northampton, MA w/Rebel Base, & more @ The Elevens

I think that's it for now kind readers; I will update this again when I have more concrete information about times, prices, and locations. Thanks much for reading.

~ AK

Quote Of The Day

"We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos."

Carl Sagan

Ponds Release, Showz With Bandz

Hello friends,

It's been a couple of months since I've updated ye olde tyme blog, but I've been busy so you can go to hell. Either way, I wanted to draw your attention to this beautiful slice of music that I've spent a good deal of time on over the past few years:

http://ponds.bandcamp.com/

Yep, Ponds finally got around to releasing our recordings with the wonderfully patient Will Killingsworth (Orchid, Ampere, Bucket Full Of Teeth, Vaccine, The Toll). We spent about 4 days recording these songs, and then sat on them for about a year for no discernible reason. Either way, we finally pushed it out like a breach birth and it's available for download. If you come see us play live you will be able to buy a physical copy, as well as other great merchandise.

Our CD release show with Two Tents, Black Norse, and Goddard went really well. 25 or so rabid fans came to watch us play through a couple of new songs, a couple of old ones, and butcher a cover of Night Goat by The Melvins. Black Norse opened up with their chainsaw-like performance. I'm always amazed that 2 guys with such a small amp and drum kit can make such and ungodly racket. Two Tents set up and got the ball rolling with a set of Zappa-esque mindfuckery that was completely different than the last batch of music I saw them perform. They're always doing something different and awesome, please take the time to check them out. Goddard hopped on to the show last minute because Komondor had to cancel due to an emergency hospital stay for their guitar player. I know Jason and Anne from their days in Calumet-Hecla, and they're good friends. They only played 3 songs so that we could have a little bit longer set, but MAN was it good! I look forward to seeing them play a full set and hearing their full-length when it's finished. Please take a few minutes and check out the great bands that we played with that night. As always, support them by purchasing their music if you dig it.

SHOWZ:

w/Graph:
3/26 @ The King Street Manor, Northampton, MA w/Bonezone
4/3 @ Diamond Junction Bowling Lanes, Palmer, MA w/Nat Baldwin, Kurt Weisman
4/13 @ The Flywheel, Easthampton, MA w/Mail The Horse, Pile
4/14 @ The Stone Church, Newmarket, NH w/Mail The Horse, The Maples, & The Migs
4/16 @ Starlab, Somerville, MA w/Mail The Horse, others TBA
4/30 @ Armadillos, Keene, NH w/Goddard, Motel Mattress, & others TBA
5/4 - 5/9 Details TBA Soon

w/Ponds:
4/10 @ The Elevens, Northampton, MA w/Lich King & others TBA
5/16 @ The Flywheel, Easthampton, MA w/Power Blessings, Flies Around It

More bullshit as I find it out. More info on other Collapsible Cat releases when I get the time as well.

~ AK

Boris/Sunn 0))) + SLEEP + Brooklyn = no work for 2 days Pt. 1

I drove away from working knowing that I had made the correct decision. Newark, NJ to check into our hotel, and then Brooklyn, NYC for the show. I met Mickey at his apartment, we ate monster pizza, got pretentious coffee, then hit the road. 91 to 95 South for roughly 3 hours until we hit city style traffic around the GW bridge. We waded our way through the Escalade hoards and big rig lane blockers. 2.5 hours to the outskirts of the city is pretty damn good time on a mid-afternoon weekday. Another hour passes (give or take) and we arrive at the Days Hotel on Rt. 1 in beautiful Newark, NJ conveniently located across the street from The Newark International Airport. Newark is a pit; hot, decaying, industrial/airport landscapes bolster their attacks against your psyche. It's all too comforting after the chemical refineries of Englewood, Hackensack, and Seacaucus burn their way through your olfactory receptors.

Bodily waste is left, snacks are eaten, drinks are had, and we move our collective ass to NYC to see Merlyn. Afterward, we will be on our way to the Brooklyn Masonic Temple to watch Boris and Sunn 0))) perform. We work our way through a wrong turn in Elizabeth, and wind up en route to the fashion district via the Holland Tunnel.

We get through the tunnel and onto the island, but traffic is so bad that we decide to forego the Merlyn visit until the following day. We sit in traffic on one little loop of a city block for over 20 minutes, reprogram the GPS for our destination: The Brooklyn Masonic Temple.

The temple is an amazing building set in the confines of a Brooklyn neighborhood that feels like it's on the up and up. The 103 year old temple is to be our place of worship of 2 nights of loud, heavy rock 'n' drone. Tonight we are going to see Sunn 0))) & Boris play through the entirety of their aural assault Altar; tomorrow will be the almighty SLEEP who have re-formed sans original drummer Chris Hakius.

Mickey and I find parking roughly 2 blocks away, cover and hide items that might be tempting, then make the trek back to the lodge. We wait outside with the hoarde of metal fans who have come from all over to check out this evenings show. A nice gentleman and I strike up a conversation outside about the various music that we enjoy, as well as our excitement for the show. The bouncers are mostly jovial folks and we get in to the venue with no troubles. There are tons of hipsters, metalheads, and just plain jaded kids in black t-shirts with band logos that are barely decipherable. And hey! There's former Melvin Joe Preston looking very stoned and very lost. We walk through the black and white tiled front hallway, hang a right into the big open room where we will be enjoying the show.

The concert hall is a bit bigger than I would have expected. There is a big, open floor with a wrap around balcony, and a fairly large stage. It reminds of the upstairs portion of Pearl Street in Northampton, MA if it had seats around the top. As anyone who has listened to and/or experienced Boris and Sunn 0))) know they have a LOT of amps. HUGE stacks take up the back third of the left hand side of the stage. There are two drumsets, a whole area sectioned off that has a Moog synth, as well as a bunch of other synths and electronic gear. Towards the back of the room lies a huge mixing console, behind which are located the bar areas. We decide to wander around the building a bit, hit the bathrooms, and check the merch before the show goes into full swing.

The inside of the building is pretty much what you would expect from a Masonic lodge of this age. Black and white tiled floors, lots of Doric pillars offering structural (if not symbolic spiritual) support, and what appear to be marble stair cases. We head downstairs to the bathrooms, and I'm drawn to the room next to where the bathrooms are. On the wall that runs parallel to where the bathrooms are is a giant mosaic of deep Masonic symbolism. It's one of the biggest I've ever seen, and to say that it's awe inspiring is an understatement.

We head back upstairs to check the merch and mill about some more. There is a really great poster for the show, but it's sold out by the time we hit the merch table. All of the shirts have mostly been sold out or are too small for my frame. I didn't realize at the time that Boris/Sunn 0))) had already played through Altar at All Tomorrow's Parties in upstate New York only a few days before. There wasn't anything that I thought was worth purchasing, so we headed upstairs to get some seats.

We work our way up the rickety stairs, find some seats in the balcony, and plunk ourselves down stage left. A good friend of mine from NH is at the show, and I see him on the other side of the balcony. He runs over to our side, and we talk for a few minutes. We make plans to meet up after the first set to take a walk. He leaves just as Jessie Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter swing into their set.

I didn't know what to expect from them as I'm really only familiar with her vocals on Sinking Belle from Altar. Jessie has a beautiful voice that compliments the palpable longing of her songs. Her backing band is tight and they burn through the set with genuine intensity. The guitars have a twangy, reverbed-out quality that blend well with the emotions being conveyed by her vocals. It's only been about 40 minutes since the show started and I'm already starting to sweat like a pig. I'm really looking forward to getting out of the building for a few minutes.

We head downstairs and meet up with my friend from NH. We get blasted with cool air as well as a sea of black shirts and jeans. Right out in front of the building there is what has to be the smartest ice cream truck driver in the 5 boroughs. He's parked to the left of the buildings exit, and already has a line of people 20 deep. The guy must be making a killing off of Chocolate Eclairs, Rocket Pops, and Good Humor bars. We walk around the block, do the deed, and return to the sweltering heat of the lodge. BXI is just about to go on, and I'm very excited to see them play. I'm not a huge fan of the Cult aside from the albums Love, and Sonic Temple but after seeing a clip of Ian Astbury playing with Boris on youtube I'm very curious as to what they'll do.

I can honestly say that Boris is one of the best live bands I've ever seen, but my confidence in Mr. Astbury is not quite as strong. They start ripping through their first song, and it's then that I notice that, not only is he wearing sweat pants, but he's also got on a leather jacket. Hidden behind that dried and cured cow skin coat is a giant gut that I'm assuming he's CULTivated in the last 20 years of not really doing much (unless you count his jaunt out with The Doors 2000 or whatever the hell they called themselves...) Much to his credit, the man can still sing, and it winds up being a fantastic pairing. The songs flow fluidly together, intertwining the sonic abuse of Boris' Sunn 0))/Orange amplifier worship and the soaring, gritty vocals of Mr. Astbury to great effect. The end their set with a noisy, powerful rendition of The End by The Doors. Often times collaborations of this kind leave me feeling like it could have been more, it could have been BETTER. But this is a marriage of the best elements of all the performers, what any good band should be. The only disappointment I felt was when they ended their set after 5 songs.

It's getting hotter in the venue by the minute. The smell of sweaty, unwashed dudes, puddles of cheap swill, and the subtle hint of ozone from all of the electricity they must be pumping through the PA is hanging like a wet towel over a bathroom door. For some unknown reason we decide to stick it out upstairs despite the heat. There really isn't any setup between BXI and Altar as almost all of the same gear is being used. To say that we were ill prepared for what was about to happen is an understatement.

The set started 10 minutes after BXI cleared the stage; the house lights went down, Boris and the various members of Sunn 0))) walk out in their floor length hooded robes. The crowd lets out a triumphant roar as they take their positions and begin the set. The first waves of sound start to caress the audience like a spiteful tidalwave. The bass is thunderous to the point of being vomit inducing, the guitars are a screamingly loud wall of hate, and the drums tear through the mix like Summer lightning. At some point early on I realize that every part of my body is vibrating at the same frequency as the music and I start to question the integrity of the balcony seating. The waves of sound continue to crash over us for another 10 minutes or so. During the 2nd song bass player Bill Herzog is playing long, droney notes on a stand-up bass while drummer Atsuo scrapes his cymbals to create metallic ambience. The sounds are immensely unnerving and border on overwhelming. This continues for about 3 minutes until all of the lights on stage go off, half the amps cut out, and all of the sound goes out from the left half of the PA. They've been playing for under 15 minutes and they blew out the power to the left side of the stage. The crowd cheers it's satisfaction at the wanton destruction of the temple's fuse box.

There is a lot of scrambling going on behind scenes. I can see flashlight beams bending with the angles of the backstage walls, many distressed techs scurring about trying to locate the source of the problem. 15 or so minutes pass and Stephen O'Malley came out to pacify the crowd by letting us know that they just needed 10 minutes to figure out the problem. 30 or so minutes later they fully unleash the beast and lay waste to what remains of the Masonic Lodge. Jessie Sykes comes back out and sings an unbelievable version of The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep). As amazing as this show was, this may have been the highlight. My NH friend joins us on the floor and we all comment on how this has been more than a show. It has been a total body experience which I might never feel again. The hairs on my arms stood up as the frequencies rolled through my stocky frame. The drums pounded my soul into a new shape; the long drones re-defined my being. Cthulu and the Elder Gods may have truly been unleashed upon this unsuspecting Brooklyn neighborhood.

Graph/Bunny's A Swine Tour Beginning

I just got back from Graph's Rust Belt/Souther fall tour with Bunny's A Swine on Monday the 18th of October and I already miss the road. We started out with high hopes and a sparkle in our collective eye only to have those hopes (mostly) dashed by van trouble all along the way.

You see, the van we were supposed to take fell through for reasons that I'm not going to get into, so we had to scramble around at the last minute to find something, ANYTHING to get us around for 11 days. We settled on a local company that bent over backwards to help us out. Little did we know they were actually bending us forward so they could stick it where the sun doesn't shine, even if it was unintentional. Ok, maybe that's a little harsh, but we did get fucked so bad that we ended up missing 3 shows on tour, which is a lot when you only have 12 scheduled.

Problems started before we even left from Northampton after our show at the Sierra Grille. The trailer that came as part of the package deal didn't have any running lights. After Seth fixed a bad connection and the lights (mostly) worked again, we were able to rest easy. We drove through the night into the next day, stopping at the first Waffle House we could find for a greasy breakfast that included smothered and covered hash browns for everyone. We then set out for Dayton, OH once again without really realizing that we would probably have to stop for veggie oil during the day. We stopped in Oberlin, OH at Full Circle Fuels to fill up our 125 gallon trailer reserve tank.

Full Circle is set up like a regular gas station, but they specialize in selling bio-diesel and veggie oil. They also have a 2 bay garage where they modify diesel cars to run on veggie oil. They actually have a veggie oil pump which is pretty awesome, so we pulled up to it. The nice woman who worked there informed us that she was just getting around to filling the veggie tank so we might not be able to completely fill our reserve tank. Turns out the pump wasn't working at all and we would have to do it all by hand. The woman, whose name I've since forgotten, informed us that she had 5 gallon jugs of fresh (ie. unused) veggie oil in a trailer behind the shop. We all got to lugging these jugs over to the van, and Ry got to dumping them into the tank one at a time.

After we picked up our 100 gallons of SVO, we started back towards Dayton, OH for our first show away from home. We pulled into the club and noticed that we had a trail of something following us down the road and through the parking lot. After Ry put a cup under the leak we were able to discern that it was a robust gold color; a color familiar to fry cooks all across this great world. FUCK. We were able to suss out the problem: the line going from the veggie tank to the engine had sprung a leak and was pissing oil all over the place. Our representative at the rental company told us that he would work as hard as he could to find someone to fix it for us, but it was Columbus Day weekend so it might be hard to do. Until then we would have to run on diesel. Okay, well it's not what we wanted to do, but these things happen on the road, and it will get fixed in the next couple of days.

We played a show to a mostly empty bar; BiaS played a really great set and we played like shit because I was a little too drunk. I started off the first song wrong, and it was kind of a train wreck from there on out. We mostly played to the other bands, the girlfriends of the local band, and the largely uninterested barflys. The bands were not memorable, so I won't even try to give you any information on them. Dustin was able to get some beers and money from the bartender so we walked away mostly happy. Our Days Inn awaited, our hopes for Milwaukee, WI were high, and we had plenty of booze to drink.

After a night of abusing our innocent livers we get up, get dressed, scrubbed and showered, stuff ourselves back in the van after another battle with Waffle House breakfast and head towards Milwaukee, WI. Being that I'm probably the least hungover of the bunch, I get behind the wheel and settle in for some driving. 2 hours pass, and I notice that the diesel gauge hasn't really moved at all since we left Dayton. We're not running veggie anymore, and that gauge hasn't moved at all. Hmmm. We are just outside of Indianapolis, IN now, everyone needs a break, so we pull off to get some gas, leave some bodily waste, and get some snacks. I start pumping diesel, and after it pumps roughly $13 worth it stops. Weird. One would think that 2 hours of highway driving would eat up a lot more gas than that. It's at this point that someone, probably Ry, notices that diesel is now leaking out of the area that the tank is at. FUCK.

At this point I'm trying as best as I can to stay calm to try and figure out what we can do. Our representative at the rental place tells us to keep driving, keep an eye on the gauges, and note the mileage. He doesn't seem to be worried about the combustible fluids that are leaking from the bottom of the van, which worries me and everyone else in our crew. After calling all of the local shops, and AAA we find a place that is a 3 minute drive from the gas station. Cool. The only problem is that they close at 5pm, and it's now 4:45pm on a Saturday. We rush on over to make it happen.

Arriving somewhere around 4:55pm due to traffic, and pull the van up next to the building. The guy we had spoken with was incredibly nice and jokingly made a comment along the lines of, "So this thing runs on french fries, huh?" He was in his mid-20's, blond haired, blue eyed, and mid-western all the way. We detached the trailer and had him drive the van into one of the bays so he could take a look at it. It was at this point that Emerson, Dustin, Matt, and I noticed a giant liquor store about 500 yards away. Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem...

After messing with the trailer in traffic, we're off again, on the road to Milwaukee, WI leaking diesel and quite possibly veggie oil.  As the day wears down, the autumnal gold spilling over the trees starts to fade, and we get close the end of Indiana. Gary is a hell-hole of bad industrial smells, but it's at least a change from the bad industrial farm smells that encompass the majority of the jaunt through the state. One of the prettiest things we come across on the entire trip is in the middle of Indiana when we roll through a stretch of wind farms. Gigantic blades are turned by the wind which generate electricity that is stored at a substation. The rate at which the blades move are sometimes in tandem with, and sometimes out of sync with other wind turbines. This produces a soothing backdrop to pass through as the sun glints off the silver blades.

We are very late to our show in Milwaukee, so we call the house where we are playing. They kind of give us the run around because no one has shown up to watch the party. We express our concern because it's almost 8pm, the time the show is supposed to start, and we're driving out of the way of our next show in Eau Claire, WI. We are reassured that it's no problem, we should continue our drive, and it's no problem for us to play. Good deal. I'm burned on driving at this point and I ask if someone else wouldn't mind taking over.

It takes awhile, sloughing through 45 minutes of shitty Chicago traffic, nearly constant farting, screaming, hilarious banter but we make it to a rest stop so I can take a break. I leave my urine, wash up, and walk out to Starbucks where I order a strawberry smoothie. It was well worth the hit to my wallet as I can at least kid myself that it's SOMEWHAT healthy. Onward and upward through Wisconsin we go, until we reach the cheap beer capital of the US. Schlitz, Blatz, and Miller are brewed right here! There isn't a lot to see as we're coming in to town in the dark. It's possible that the darkness is adding to this effect, but it looks DIRTY.

We arrive at the house that we are supposed to be playing at. It's in a decent neighborhood, and it looks like the kind of house I lived in when I was in my early 20's. Dirty, old furniture on the porch, lots of random ephemera on the walls, VHS tapes and DVD's skewed about, no less than 5 overflowing ashtray's, etc. There are roughly half a dozen hipster college kids milling about, ironically drinking cheap beer and something called "Joose". If the drunk hipster is any indication, Joose turns you into an ironic racist. They don't want us to play, and they say just as much. We are polite, have a couple of drinks, and head to our hotel about an hour away.

That bottle of bourbon that Dustin purchased, along with my 30 pack of PBR goes a long way for 6 people.