New cool stuff happening all the time. Work is great - I love the business that comes along with the advent of warm weather in Oregon. I get to deal with several different farmers, all of them eccentric and most of them funny as hell, as I put together their supply orders. I make reams of labels for organically grown vegetables and send them off to farms. I eat and sample fruits, vegetables and melons all day long and have a laugh with my friends about every 15 seconds, listen to tons of good and bad music, exchange emails with pictures of vegetables in various states of dying and/or rotting, or "blowing" as we say. I've also been digging my new tape recorder, a vintage JC Penney/Panasonic mono tape deck that really weighs a lot and is so much coole than an ipod. I've been making all kinds of recordings and playing back vintage punk tapes from high school and college. I love the way obsolete technology is so cheap right now and yet well-made and built to last. I'll post some pics and videos soon! Must go on walk now.

Exclusive Cole-house content:

Blogging has taken a backseat to pounding my head against the Facebook wall. Things in the life of this humanoid are well. Tina, Cosmo and I went over to Chez Random for a splendid feast on Saturday night. My memory is not the best, but let me recall for you now some of the delicious items we dined upon: mussels on the 1/2 shell, cheesy puff-balls, scrumptious mixed greens salad with warm goat cheese encrusted with nuts, delicious baked chicken leg-wings on a plate that were beyond belief good! Yuuummmm!! Also included were several good wines, both champagnes and a red and coffee, coffee, coffee with a chocolate tart with pecans. Thank you, Mr and Mrs Random! Your house is our favorite dining spot in town. 'twas nice to leave post-toddler Louis at home, courtesy of DJ Sleeve's babysitting service.
Other things that happened this past weekend are lost in my short-term RAM cache. Band practice happened with Underlings and it was rad. We've been working hard at birthing some new material since we are tired of playing off the same ol' set list. We have a 7" offer from a bona-fide record label that needs to be discussed amongst the band's quality control contingent. If the offer passes strict criteria, a new Underlings product will be headed to record store shelves before too long.
Stay tuned for more rock and roll news from planet Eugene!
muchos,

Ed

I really enjoyed this band I saw in Dan and Tracy's living room last night - Gather Round Us from Portland:

Interesting it is, being at this stage of my physical existence. This weekend, I attended an organic convention in Portland, straining the limits of my cynicism control mechanism. The food and drink was delicious, as were some of the folks and the accommodations. While waiting for a music store to open(so's I could return some rental gear) I embarked on a nice long walk of the PDX neighborhoods just north, east and south of the Lloyd Center Mall. A great way to avoid spending money and/or avoiding intake of unnecessary food and/or coffee. I also enjoyed having a chance to sit and collect my thoughts on paper for a spell in my hotel cell.
In other news, I am psyched that I received in the mail and then installed a Harmonic Designs p90 pickup for my new Telecaster, so's I might create duller yet more rocking tones from my American made hunk of wood and wires. Pretty fucking fun, busting out the old soldering iron and playing surgeon on my new guitar. At first, I was afraid, but then it dawned on me that it was indeed my instrument and I could take it the hell apart if I felt like it, so I did. Much better than eating ice cream and hoping to view some late-night program that might make me laugh.

Yesterday was the Eugene Record Convention at the Eugene Hilton, an event I prefer not to miss. I made it this year and it was totally rad. The vibe was right and the tables seemed to be teaming with cool albums, spilling out in piles of faded, thrift store covers, musty smell and all. Some dude selling dvds in the back was blasting horrible music - Skynyrd, Allman Bros, Cream - stuff that was annoying to most passers by, who were trying to peruse their punk, jazz, rockabilly and country without the benefit of too-loud, over-played classic rock. That aside, I scored some good records this year without going over my meager$60 budget:

1. Stooges, Raw Power; an absolute classic, in really nice condition. I'm sowly replacing my Stooges cds with lps. @ down, 1 to go.
2. The Dictators, Bloodbrothers; I've never owned any Dictators, so this is my start. Haven't played it yet - I'll wait until after work tonight.
3. Dickies, Dawn of the Dickies; this one already put me in a good mood for the day.
4. The Sonics, Original Northwest Punk lp; I love the Sonics when I need some raw-ness in my ears.
5.Out of Sight comp on Pickwick records, a $1 score. It features an early Lou Reed song, Cycle Annie.
6.Phil Lynott, Solo in Soho ; a gift from Scottk (Thanks!)I've been told this album is hit-and-miss, but I dig the song Ode to a Black Man.

That's it! I'm off to work.

I had a great time last night at the Meat Puppets show at WOW hall. I have to admit, I was not expecting the show to be the interstellar return to form that it ended up being. The last real Meat Puppet shows I saw were in 1988 and this show blew those away. Having the Kirkwood brothers in the same room playing music is like tripping on peyote while riding a dirt bike - totally freaked-out, unpredictaBLE FUN. I was happy to see so many old and new friends at this show. Thank you, Rulers of the Universe for allowing this event to happen.
Here are some vids from the middle of their set:

Geez, I can't believe I haven't checked over at the Dave Shack for awhile now. He's written some nice entries, logging our shows and pics and various what-nots. Check it out, ya'll - but try not to get any bbq sauce on your lapel.

Otherwise, life is grand. I took the night off from work so we can go down to the McDonald Theater and see Gogol Bordello, who we also saw when we sat down to dinner at Poppi's earlier this evening. I am psyched to go and see a good band! It's been too long since I've been to a concert, other than the club shows I usually see and play. I'll post the whole low-down on the show some other time.

Cheers,

Ed

Life keeps moving forward in mysterious ways. THe Underlings CD project, which has consumed so much time and thought, has finally come to fruition. After the cds came back in five big boxes on my porch and I hurriedly ripped open a box, sliced open a cd and reviewed the contents, all I could think was, "well, that wasn't so hard after all." It only took one garage band two years of gig money + some personal contributions from our blessed credit cards to make enough dough to cause the recording, artwork and duplication to happen; maybe next time, we'll just rob a bank - that is, if it happens to be a FDIC insured bank. We could always resort to collecting cans with our hobo bike trailers after we lose our mansions to foreclosure.
I hope lots of people come to our 2 shows at Sam Bonds on Saturday, October 4th - one free, all-ages show at 5:30 with Chanteuse opening up and the later, 21+ show at 9:30 with Dan Jones and the Squids opening. See you there!

Somehow, on Sunday evening while I was at work, Louis broke his little baby leg. Tina called me around 8 or so and said he was acting "in pain" after she retrieved him from being baby-sat by a friend. The babysitter didn't have a clue over what might have happened, which was, to say the least, utterly frustrating. According to the doctor at urgent care, Louis has a fracture in his lower fibula and he needs a cast for at least a few weeks. The little guy is bummed out, but he seems to be taking it in stride. Rats! He was having so much fun walking. Tomorrow, he goes to his regular doctor's office to get checked out and we'll see what they prescribe.

Here are a few pics from the last couple of days:

















Extended Underlings band during the Joe Strummer tribute show we played on Saturday. L-R: Alex Fletcher, Dave, Bryant on drums, Reed Gilchrist, myself and Stephen Mathys on the mandolin and bg vocals. Totally, big hella fun
















Cosmo, Louis, myself and Tina at Jed Smith state park in Nor Cal, on my favorite river, the Smith.
















Louis, me and my highschool friend Matt, one of the few people from high school that I still keep in touch with. He and his wife had us over for dinner and beers a plenty.

O.K., that's it for now

-Ed

So much has been leading up to this moment. My band has been preparing for thi sJoe Strummer tribute since March and now, we ar eon the verge of the whole damn thing. Tomorrow night, August 16th at WOW hall, we play our set at 8:50. CAN'T FUCKING WAIT!

love ,
Ed

Here's a bit of video I took during part of Yeltsin's set last night

Yeltsin at Sam Bond's Garage 7/25/2008 from Ed Cole on Vimeo.

I went to see the Melvins play at John Henry's last night, along with my friends Slayer Carl and Gobbles. I arrived late, so I missed the majority of the Melvins' set, but what I did see was delightful - about 3 sludge-y songs plus a guttural version of the Star-Spamgled Banner. Here is an excerpt of that song:

Melvins/Star-Spangled Banner excerpt from Ed Cole on Vimeo.
The crowd was an interesting mix of rock fans from Eugene/Springfield area. I love seeing different people that I've nver seen at show before, and wondering what brought them there. It's always a social scene melting pot of hipsters, un-hipsters, grimy people with appearance attributes that would lend one to believe that they might use heavy drugs, clean cut wussies that squeeze right into the fray and get an up-close looksy. All types, I tell ya.

Life is still good, ya. We've been listening to the newer Gogol Bordello cd around the house and I like that quite a bit. Later, we go to one of Cosmo's last baseball games this season and then, later still I go down to Sam Bond's Garage to play a show around 10. Busy, normal, happy, typingcoffeelaundry oops! Now it's time for second lunch.

-Ed

I've added a sidebar link to the Underlings mp3 practice blog - mainly for hosting mp3's for my bandmates to listen to, but feel free to check 'em out at your own risk:
edhead101.wordpress.com
Occasional, I guess I'll probably post live tracks or whatnot, and probably make it look nicer or something.
Last night, we had a semi-full rehearsal for the Joe Strummer Foundation benefit show that we're doing in late August. It was rad to have the awesome lead guitar of Alex, formerly of Chance Became Fate and currently of the Traitor Hearts, as well as the mandolin playing of Stephen Mathyss, a long time friend of the band.

write to you later,

Ed

We've had a busy stretch of family visitations over the last two weeks. First, Tina's parent's came over for Louis' birthday celebration. Then, we were graced with the presence of my older bro, Darrow and his wife, Cynthia and their two kids, age 6months and 4 years, which was totally awesome, since Louis had never met his young cousins before. Here's some video footage of Louis and his cuz, Nathan, eating some blueberries:

Nathan + Louis pt 1 from Ed Cole on Vimeo.

Also, my younger bro, Walter, was in town for a stretch, on leave from the Army. He is deployed in Afghanistan with his platoon and hopefully will not get his ass blown off. Even though I don't in any way support war, I support my brother in the military. He really seems to have more of a sense of maturity and direction in his life that wasn't there before. Discipline, training and learning to get along with others is a good thing. Blowing people up just because someone tells you to...that's another thing entirely. There will always be a contingent of people in this country that think fighting in the armed forces for America is a worthy calling; I have a different opinion, especially when oil companies and big business are the ones running our government and it seems to suit their collective profit desires to start another war.
Enough said. I'm sure I'm not the only dissenter who has a close relative in the military. I just hope they quit enforcing the U.S.'s will on the rest of the word.

Peace and Love !

Ed

(Louis and Louis)

So many things to report - let's see if I can hit a few of the more important happenings:

Louis had his first birthday yesterday. He stayed pretty well entertained the whole time, thanks in part to Tina's parents, Big Louis and Cathie, who came up from Cali to observe the event. We had BBQ steak and cake and then went to go see Cosmo play some baseball, out the old Elmira way. His team won and Cosmo's keen hitting was part of the reason. Fun, fun, fun.

Mr Random came ove today to record the Underlings' practice for his radioNOT blog. I think he said he'll have it posted in a day or two. The segment will be part interview, part music and all sweat, since it wsa 96 degrees Fahrenheit outside and about 110 degrees inside the garage. Phew! I think our playing was better on some songs than on others, but overall we rocked it good and can't wait to hear the results. Be sure to check out his other fine podcasts as well - get hip to listening to radio in a pod-style. Time to plug in and pod-out, geekoids of the internet!

I've really been liking our fine, hot weather here in Eugene. The first half of June was bleak - cold, rainy, miserable - not at all like June should be. Now. it feels like summer is finally on and I'm glad.

My biggest bro comes tonight with his family - that would be Darrow - and my youngest bro - Walter - is here tomorrow. Plus, Softball tomorrow and of course, work tomorrow night. I think I keep busy, but I still feel lazy at heart.

Peace out!

-E

The Underlings live at Luckey's 6-6-08 from Ed Cole on Vimeo.
Video taken by Mr. Random

Holy Shit!!!! This vid re-charged my batteries and now I am ready to take on the day:
Meat Puppets live, probably from 1986/87/88

When I was a kid, I stayed over at my friend Bar's house a lot. Bar had a big family with lots of older and younger siblings, so it was a real zoo - people always stealing each others socks and constantly walking in on each other while in the bathroom. I was basically an only child, since most of my sibings head left the house by the time I was ten, and I loved the chaos that happened at my surrogate family's house.
One thing I remember about staying over at Bar's was the breakfast cereal. Food was at a premium for his brood, and if you ever had anything good to eat, you had better eat it before anyone else got to it. Breakfast cereal was at the top of the food chain, and on top of all cereals was Ohs!, the crunchy sugary prince of cereals. Bar used to hide his box of Ohs! from the rest of his family, but if I was lucky, he would share them with me, subsequently stashing the box from the prying eyes and fingers of the less fortunate members of clan McKinnon.
So, you must understand how I felt when Tina came home with a box of Ohs! a few weeks ago. I felt like pouring myself a huge bowl and locking myself in the closet, where passers by would wonder what the hell all the crunching was about.