So, now that most folks think I have a new blog, I have the good fortune of being able to write my more atrocious thoughts here and not have as many of my friends commenting back to me about it.

Today, I barely left the house, except to go to Kinko's to make some CD covers and then to House of Records and Museum of Unfine art to drop off some completed CD's for $$$$. I like the idea of being able to actually sell home made CDs vs selling blood for that much-needed, post-holiday, "I broke as a dirty rat" cash. Oh, and I left the house for coffee. But that was it; really.

I spoke with a buddy from high school last night for the first time in 11 years. Matt Bier and I were part of the same dysfunctional peer group for most of high school - dubbed the "Jun Hoard" by some wise-ass or another. Actually, I wasn't quite D & D enough to be considered a part of the Hoard, but they were my closest buddies anyway. Matt, myself, Shannon "Slug" Sapp, Matt Ashcraft, Wayne "Moose", Clay Pierce, Jimmy D. Chastain, Danny _____, the brothers Tuan Do and My Do and, our indisputable ringleader, Justin DePew. This was the kind of group where blood was often drawn, any and all drugs and/or alcohol consumed ('cept for me - the token straight edge kid), windows broken, deadly dares of suicidal proportions were embarked upon. We're talking the Stand By Me movie populated by a bunch of masturbating, self-immolating, self-loathing losers who used each other as punching bags and were in turn spit upon by the jocks and elite kids at our high school. Scarred for life. That's what the Jun Hoard did to me. I still haven't recovered.
Anyway, it was great to talk to Matt and get the lowdown on where these guys are at now. Turns out pretty much everyone is alive, at least (actually, I'm not sure about Moose - forgot to ask). Matt was one of t6he good guys; not only a good and honorable friend, but funny as hell in a deadpan, Monty Python kind-of way. An extra-hard worker, he finished out of high school a year early and enlisted in the Army on his 18th birthday and also married his girlfriend at the time , Nancy, and had a daughter by the time he was 19. I visited him in Kansas once.
Up until this week, I hadn't heard from him since he'd gone to Iraq for the first gulf war. I'd known he had also gone to Kosovo in the mid 90's. I'm glad he didn't get his ass blown off.
Someday, I'll write about the time we drove to Arcata with Justin to go see the Meat Puppets and Justin got lost and wasted and we somehow picked him up on the highway 30 miles north of where we had last seen him...Aw, shit; that's a WHOLE different story.

END TRANS bzzzzzxt

Wellll... I don't know if I can lose this blog just yet. As inefficient as it seems to have two blogs, I just feel a bit more at ease on this one - it's not so connected to my "Product" self, so I can just write and not really care as much whether or not it's in the "context" of "Ed Cole".

I actually got word that Justin DePew, one of my best friends in high school, read the menacing Halloween story in which I cast him as an evil, evil mean person... eep! I always forget about people finding this blog via searching their names. HEY, SORRY JUSTIN - you were a great friend and a total inspiration in your rebelliousness. And only slightly evil. Also one of the smartest people I ever met, so there. Boo-ya.

Check back from time to time as I'll keep posting here, albeit a bit randomly.

Have a peaceful season

ALRIGHT, PEOPLE!!!!

edcolerocks.com is up and running! I have a new blog over there and will eventually get rid of ol' edhead101.blogspot.com . My life has been hectic lately - I really need to get back to work, but I'm having too much fun geeking out on my site.
The rest of the radio show was fun yesterday...Tony Figoli emailed me & said that KRVM was playing one of my cuts, also...major stokage!! Good promo never hurts. I hope to see EVERYBODY at some of the shows I have coming up ...

PS my girlfriend ROCKS! I love three course breakfasts!

YEEEEEAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!

I'm blogging from KWVA right now...up here with Dana from Yeltsin and Kelani from the Ovulators, plugging our John Henry's show on 12/20 (and also goofing off on KWVA's Mac...) Very fun and goofy to be here...more later...

Awwwright!!

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 12/17/03, I'm playing a little acoustic-y songwriter thing at Cafe Paradiso with Dan Jones and John Shipe. It should be fun, so please come on down and lose your frown and smother those holiday blues with a triple-shot mocha and a glass of beer or something like that. It's cheap, too!! $2!! You can't beat that for wednesday night entertainment PLUS the prospect of socializing with other Eugene denizens. We'd really enjoy your company, so come down. 8pm. See you then!

Man, the Carnival of Chaos at the Indigo District was...chaos! I was all set to do sound and dropped some extra mics and gear down there earlier in the evening. It looked like things were set, PA-wise , so I went back home to resume clearing stuff out of my garage etc... When I returned, there were no less than four different people trying to plug things into the PA board; cables were hap-hazardly running in every direction; power strip was plugged into power strip was plugged into power strip...for an anal retentive guy like me, it looked like an electrical nightmare! Of course, the PA speakers didn't have proper cables and I ended up doing some surgery on some speaker wire with a borrowed knife to get the damn system fired up. After some re-routing of EVERYTHING, we were set.
DJ Margarine (I can't believe it's not butter!) aka Shawn DiFiore and I were set up in close proximity and it was very fun to be working next to one of my favorite dj's of all time. We joked and adjusted sounds and levels all night long while the Carnival acts came and went. Dancers, shadow puppetry, electronic beat-box/goth-dance music all came and went. Static Chromatic was a noisy, beat-driven group that featured Dj Lucious on beats/guitar/bass, Melissa from High on Peeps vocalizing and reknowned hair-stylist David Wilson on keys/effects/finger-twirling/glitter. Noisy, noisy, NOISY!!! and charming, too.
My favorite act of the night was the group Dum Dum, which features the songs of Scott _____ from the Necro Sluts. Dum Dum was a very 80's sounding goth/metal/slow-Misfits/Christian Death styled group that sounded great - very heavy and sludgey in a good way. Scott is a bonafide screamer, but also can tone it down and sing with an interesting wispy/raspy voice. The music seemed to have a natural consonance to it with long, building songs and flowing dynamics. Bravo! One of the only groups in town to really catch my ear recently. I highly reccomend them.
At the end of the night, I was too sober (as per usual) and gave Tina a ride home in her mom's Jag (nice car!) and then walked back to retrieve my van.

uuuuuuhhhhhhhh...now it's Monday again. Time to recover.

LATE BREAKING NEWS

It's been raining like crazy the past 24 hours or so in Eugene and MY GARAGE STUDIO HAS FLOODED!! Luckily, since most of my gear was in my van after my show last night, the damage was minimal. My yard done flooded and rose up over the level of my garage foundation...man, there has to be 3 inches of water in there! All my recording stuff was up high enough to avoid moisture, so I moved all the cords off the floor, brought the drums in the house and unplugged anything remotely electrical. All the carpets are soaked, but that's okay - I've been gearing up for a major renovation in there anyway. Cosmo and I were laughing at the absurdity of it all as we moved stuff inside.
I called Billy Barnett up at Gung Ho! studio to see if his place had flooded also - it has a history of doing so in the past - but I wasn't able to get through to him on the phone. That would be a drag! I like the rain, but...
See you tonight at the Indigo District - I'll be the one wearing galooshes.

And...

The show at Foolscap last night was good. We played. The Dead Americans played, Fun was had. I laughed, I cried. A well-rounded night of fun and insanity.

Tonight: the Carnival of Chaos and then I'M SLEEPING FOR FOUR DAYS STRAIGHT because I am exhausted.

s'long

WEEELLLLLLLLLL....

I wrote a post yesterday and then my computer froze...I hate that! Not too much to say, other than...

Went over to Tina's to hang out with her and her mom, Kathy (Cathy?) and eat some awesome manicoti that Tina made. I haven't spent too much time with Tina's family, so I was somewhat uptight until the wine kicked in. DJ Sleeve popped over for a bit and we chatted enthusiastically about the Dwarves and Turbonegro as well as the recent death of his friend, Thundercraig.
Scrabble ensued in a wine-fueled death-match. I came within a point of being victorious, but in the end I was beaten.

OK - that's my post

POST-script: I've set up an "Underwear Release" art/cassette/cd release for Feb 20th at the Museum of Unfine Art. Stay tuned for the debut of the Underwear Gods, in all their unholy glory!

POST-POST-script: Come to Foolscap 837 Blair TONIGHT for POST-post-indy-classic-punk-crooner rock by Moi and the Dead Americans! (And also go see High on Peeps at the Vet's club; but come see us first!)

Hey kids -

I've been slacking on my posts due to the fact that I am, once again, on the job hunt. Not something I want to think about right before the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Solstice/pagan blood-drinking season. My main plan of action has been to set up more soundman/music gigs to make some scratch change for the time being. Time to get creative on the $$$ front.
I'll keep you "posted".

I implore all of you to come enjoy the Dead Americans (alt-power-pop) and Ed Cole + C.G.of T.B. at Foolscap books (8th and Blair) this friday. All ages/byob 9pm
Also, I'm doing sound at the Carnival of Chaos at the Indigo district on Saturday the 13th of Dec. ( High on Peeps + Scott from Necro Sluts, Takimoto and others) Please come!

Soooo...

The show last night at Sam's place was not crowded, but much fun anyway. Sam's is a clean little bar over on the West-side of Eugene - kind of a working class joint that gets overlooked due to it's obscure location on Wilson street. They have a decent stage and sound-system and the room itself doesn't sound harsh like some small venues in town. I strummed out a hastily-prepared acoustic set in front of the small crowd and tried my best to provide some entertainment for the patrons to chit-chat along to. Billy Barnett walked in to check out the scene and ended up playing drums on about four tunes-much fun.
The Kandy Shazz played next and they sounded good. I'd heard most of their set before, being that they used to practice in my garage over the summertime. Their sound is a mix of Deep Purple/Nirvana/Sonic Youth/credence Clearwater Revival. I really dig main man Evan St Cyr's guitar and vocal style- a very unique sound emanates from his de-tuned Hagstrom and he sings with a voice not unlike the late Mr Cobain's. I look forward to seeing them again.
Afterward, I mosied over to Kelani's b-day party over on 11th. Much fun and barely-clad chaos ensued. I mainly chatted with Tina's friend from Tahoe, Jeremy and Zookie and drank sierra nevada's while taking in the chaotic going-ons. Then home. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When will I ever feel awake enough to clean my friggin' house? Now's the time!

Shows still to come this month:

Friday, December 12th: FOOL's CAP BOOKS on Blair at 8th with the DEAD AMERICANS (price undetermined)

Wednesday, December 17th: Cafe Paradiso / Ed Cole solo with Dan Jones and John Shipe. (cheap!)

Saturday, December 20th: JOHN HENRY'S with YELTSIN, the OVULATORS and the HIGH VIOLETS (price= priceless)

PLease come and bless us with your presence!!!

Yours in Rock,

Ed

Burnt...tired...burnt-tired. I'm still recovering from my weekend get-away + thanksgiving gluttony. By the way, I'm thankful. Thanks.

I came upon a box full of unwanted used cassette tapes in the alley behind CD/Game exchange today and had the great idea of using them as media for my next 4-track release. Maybe packaged in some crazy way - you know, like in a dirty sock or in a zip-lock bag with some kind of cracker-jack prize (like underwear) inside. I really hate CDR's, as neat and cheap as they are. I have so many cool cassette-only releases from the 80's and 90's - Snakepit, MR Bungle, Soda Jerk, 9th Life, Billy Jack + so many of my own. I really miss the true guerilla-release satisfaction that only a tape can provide.

OK - gotta go create now.

DAMN YOU, DESERT FATHERS, FOR MAKING AN ALBUM THAT I ACTUALLY LIKE!!!! I wanted so very badly to hate your guts, but I end up being sympathetic. Attention local noise geeks - you would probably like the aformentioned band if you like the following: Big Black, Scratch Acid, Butthole Surfers, Sounds of Crashing Metal etc.. etc... etc... Loud, noisy, warp-y, wierdo-rock. Their record sounds very much like some of the Mr Bungle off-shoots on the Ipecac label. Not something I could listen to very much, however - I'm much more stuck in the homo-bubblegum pop hair-metal genre as of late.

I went down to House of Records today and grabbed my special-ordered Cometbus Omnibus today. In particular, I was looking for the issue contained within where Aaron Cometbus stayed at our Eugene apartment back in '92 and washed his foul-smelling socks in our bathtub, thereby ruining our chances of collecting our rent deposit. I haven't found it yet but I'll keep you posted.
I am reminded, however, that all this computer-blogging hoo-hoo is for the birds and generally places me in front of my glowing CRT for too many hours of my week. I've got to work my way back to writing off-screen, as hard as that is - I think I like the instant gratification of knowing people are reading in on my little world. I won't bail out yet, but the time is growing nearer.
One more thing to report: my adorable neighbors from Florida have ONCE AGAIN turned their front yard into the world's most bizarre Christmas tree lot, which means I'm going to have to endure the world's most bizarre Christmas tree-buying customers parking in my narrow driveway and blocking me in with their over-sized pickup trucks. Will this madness never cease? Hold me back from the gas can and matches...