Phasing out Headflap.com

For budget reasons, I am phasing out headflap.com as it exists at this time. Pretty much all the info on that site is already being moved to my label site, HumanInhumanRecords.com. This new way of doing things will more clearly show that BBH and Headflap are inter-related projects, but are in fact 2 different bands with separate but similar personalities. I think this one blog will continue to cover both projects. But keep your eyes out for all those other sites like Myspace, ILike, etc where specialized blogs n bulletins will keep cropping up. Deep sigh. This is exactly how I never envisioned it.

So Much Music, So Few Blog Posts

Here we are in mid October and the number of posts for 2008 is still in single digits??? Outrageous I tell you. But I swear the level of commitment to musicmaking has not decreased one iota on the parts of myself and my bandmates.

I've been mainly blogging the lyrics on the Fear of Music myspace page. The live arm and I now share a renewed commitment to feature the songs from that album when we play out. We are taking time this month and next to add a couple more tunes to the repertoire. Meanwhile we will polish current material and new material to record at Second Story Sound on Nov 15. Meanmean while I have recently recorded four songs for Mood Stabilizer vol 2 and 2 new songs for Gnome Sane? -- which will be my next ummmm... "usual" sort of BBH one man band album, completed by maybe late 2009? we shall see...

We really wanna wrap up 2008 with a show either in Philly or Brooklyn and we would love to find longterm booking assistant / agent asap.

Warm Weather, Warm Response

On Saturday, September 20, we played Clark Park's Fall Fest in West Philly. It was a warm, perfect autumn afternoon. I am bad at estimating the size of crowds, but more than one friend estimated this one to be about 1000 people. And I think I felt a little bit of love from every single one of them. If not love, then at least respectful co-existence or a lack of indifference upon hearing our material. Oh, and a peculiar man named Omar danced in the dirt directly in front of the stage and tried to swipe my USA hat right off my head. He totally broke my concentration as I tried to introduce the band. But I did finish doing so, and then I wanted to tell him he was demonstrating way too much disregard for his own clothing to deserve my hat. But by that time, guitarist Kermit had spit a full mouth of beer at Omar and told him he was lookin for a world of pain. Words to that effect anyway.

But Omar danced on, in his way, and I could not help but feel he too was sending out his odd brand of love and appreciation to Headflap.
And I now send out bundles of love and gratitude to Kermit and all the other organizers of the Fest for showing West Philly a great time and letting Headflap be a part of it.

again with the boffo gig

wow, another enjoyable "blitzkrieg" set as kit called it, was perpetrated by the flap yesterday afternoon. this time we performed at the fire, opening for the orphans at their reunion gig. the place was packed, the crowd seemed completely content to bounce and bop along to the tunes. i woulda gladly played for a second 20 minutes and i don't think they woulda minded. i really wish i had remembered to announce that we had cds for sale cause i'm sure we woulda sold a bunch. THANK YOU ERIK AND DENISE for inviting us to play on your turf. We had a blast and I think we accomplished the mission of giving the people a rockin slice of west chester's yesteryear.

My friend Heather took a bunch of pix which I'll post here and on our myspace,etc. and I also noticed a second steady flash so if you're reading this, o mystery photographer, please send em as a comment on our myspace or whatever method you choose -- thanks for being there, first o all, and thanks for considering it an event worth remembering. You rock!!

Oh and co-founder Hicks showed up. That was a genuinely pleasant surprise.

What a show

Man alive I am thrilled with how our show at Millcreek Tavern went on Fri. night. Our set was brief but effective, to say the least. Our latest line-up totally had our game on and shined. Shone?


millcreek is a great place to play and hang out. Friendly staff, steady stream of patrons. Expert sound, of course. I hope we get to play there again.

i'm looking forward to being a part of the Orphans reunion show/ return of prodigal son Brian McGee at the Fire at the Philadelphia Bar and Grill on the 26th. I'm sorry we cannot lengthen our setlist for that show but believe me -- that is a top priority for us as we roll into early spring.

Resolutions

I consider all the 2007 resolutions for my band and label, as best as I can remember making/stating them, to be so very close to completion, that I can consider them accomplished. We released 2 of the 3 re-issues I resolved to, the 3rd is like a month away from completion. The new album will not be out by February, but very likely by March. Humaninhuman released /distributed 4 albums with 2 to be released within a month and 2 others quickly following. I think that's damn close to my resolutions. Biggest goal of all - rebuild BBH as a real-world, multi-membered band that practices regularly, plays locally and records. To quote Meatloaf, 2 outa 3 ain't bad. Moses, Kit, Zach and I practive evry third Saturday and with our initial temp drummer played a show in September. We even attempted to play an illocal show but thru no fault of our own, it did not happen. No new material is ready yet, so there has been no reason to record. I call that not only a year well spent, but with my health and spirit in the best shape they've ever been, 2007 was the best year of my life. Cue Matthew Wilde.

So what are my resolutions for 2008 in regards to BBH and HumanInhuman Records?

Main thing is to distribute the Slumlord album and release the 2 BBH albums. Hopefully Bruce Satinover's albums will quickly follow and the next mikingmihrab after that. BBH will continue practicing, playing locally, maybe even try again playing illocally. We are making a concerted effort to expand our repertoire, heavily concentrating on LLP and especially the new FOP stuff. The change of name comes when we start recording new stuff, Moses' progrock album GGP. Man... it doesn't even seem like we oughta squeeze that into '08...

I know this: I want to play a show or two with Armalite. I also know this: using the name Bernie Bernie Headflap, I'm going to put out another one man band album, recorded partly at home, partly at SSSS, mostly real instruments rather than software. It'll be titled Gnome Sane? and have mostly all new songs, but some new versions of older oneman band songs that coulda done much much better

also there will be a deluxe remastered version of Cheese on Wheat with new art, megadoses of bonus tracks released under the name Cheese on Wry.

That's all I'm gonna resolve to. If other stuff happens... it'll be gravy... mmm... gravy!!

Did Chronic Pain Kill an Idol?

Here's something I've been thinking on since reading the 33 1/3 book on In Utero a few months back.

Read my discussion on askville