News of the Day: Tin Tin Can Update, NaNoWriMo, Fender Stitch, The Weird & More

This will probably be my last post for the month of November. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I'll be spending much of it in my hometown. I'll be back in December with the year-end Best Of lists. In the meantime, I'll leave with these (hopefully) juicy tidbits:

Tin Tin Can

We've nearly finished the mixing the process of the record. By the end of this month, it should be on to the mastering phase, and hopefully in your hands shortly after the new year! A lot of the artwork has already been sorted out, and we're throwing around titled for the record. It'll be 9 songs. We're all very excited to get this out. It's been one hell of a ride.

NaNoWriMo

I've faltered a bit on this front, but not because I didn't like what I was writing. There are definitely elements that need to be fixed. To be honest, I'm not sure I like the narrative voice, which means I'll need to start from scratch, but I'm okay with that. Since Clarion, that's usually how I write. I will get 6-10K words written and realize the voice isn't quite right, then in "revision" (in quotes because sometimes my revisions are a complete overhaul of the story), I'll fix it. A few sentences usually remain an the overall concept is similar, but I have to find the right voice to tell the story in. This is what makes writing so much fun! (On a side note: Once I've completed this novella/long short story, my sister Mandy Monk, a gifted artist in her own right, will be doing drawings for it. Very excited about this too!)

Fender Stitch Magazine

A new online magazine has opened for submissions. It's called Fender Stitch, they pay pro rates, and have an interesting, interactive experience for reading on the internet. Elliot Turner, the owner/editor of site, is a friend of mine and I'd like to see this thing really take off. So, any of aspiring and/or pro writers out there, go their site and submit!

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange & Dark Stories

This anthology covering 100 years of Weird Fiction, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, is out now from Corvus Books in the UK, which you can buy here. Though it isn't scheduled to be released until 2012 in the US, you can purchase it here and there is no shipping fee. This is a must-have for fans of Lovecraft, Borges, Kafka, Krohn, and lovers of anything Weird in general (and for those who just like to see how a genre, if you can call it that, evolves over time). The Vandermeer's have also started a fantastic site dedicated to chronicling All Things Weird (including a wonderful comic on Reading the Weird by Clarion chum Leah Thomas): www.weirdfictionreview.com. 

Upcoming Fiction from Yours Truly

I will have stories out in New Dawn Fades Anthology from Postmortem Press (available around Black Friday), Shimmer (forthcoming in 2012), and a review of Tim Pratt's Briarpatch forthcoming in Bull Spec #7. Expect updates as these become available.

If this doesn't get you through the holidays and all that turkey and tofurkey, I don't know what will. Have a good'n. See you soon.

Lost in the Skahazadhan (and some other news)

I have been quiet here for the last week or so and with good reasons (or so I tell myself. heh.) I am knee-deep in the new George RR Martin book, A Dance With Dragons, the fifth in his series, A Song of Ice and Fire. I've found few faults with it thus far, and those that I have found, are pretty trivial and mine own writerly conscious going, "Well, I wouldn't have done it that way," but, of course, this isn't my story, regardless however much I want to be Jon Snow.

Okay, for those of you who haven't left from the geek-out, some other news on the horizon:

1. Don't forget my story, "El Camino," is available at Amazon. The print version - for those without kindle or smashwords - is coming very soon! It's fairly cheap to purchase and the other stories are also top-notch. (While you're at it, pick up the first Digital Science Fiction anthology with my friend Ken Schneyer's story in it.)

2. My Clarionite friends, Tom Underberg and Kali Wallace, are in the just-released The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. Get your copy at the liquidating Borders bookstores now! Or here! I recommend going to a physical location, however, and asking the bookseller if they have the new "Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities," to see the look on their faces. When I asked a recent bookseller at Borders, her respone was, "I don't know the words you just said to me." We had a good laugh.

3) In music news: Tin Tin Can continues to make headway on the full-length. Guitar overdubs are nearly finished. We have some horns, background vocals, banjo, and various other odd instruments to add. We've got 12 or 13 songs to choose from, but right now, we're leaning on 8 or 9 to make the cut.

4) I saw the final Harry Potter flick over the weekend, the Deathly Boring Hallows. Well. I was not impressed. Zero character development, 19 years later, inexplicable magic without consequences (yet again), 19 years later, and 19 years later. I also thought Hermione and Ron were about as boring as ever.

5) This weekend I'll be watching Cowboys & Aliens, which I am wary of, but have heard great things about (chiefly from http://www.io9.com/). We shall see. It looks stupendously cheesy to me, but I have been wrong before. The movie I really want to see, however, is Another Earth (despite its kind of moany-emo-trailer) but it isn't playing anywhere near Chicago as yet.

Now, back to the Skahazadhan and the Wall. I shall return again soon.

Tin Tin Can Recording: Father's Day Sessions, Day 2

Our second day of recording was a 14-hour session. It was initially plagued by some technical difficulties, but our engineer and studio owner, Mark Baykian, is pretty quick fellow and the difficulties were fixed in no time. The band set a grueling pace, doing take after take after take of each song. I think we got some really excellent stuff to tape, and I know the five of us are excited to share it with the world. We'll be working on vocals and overdubs over the next few sessions.

Here are some interesting things to note about the recording sessions:

1) We used two and a half reels of 2" analog tape to record the songs on.

2) A D19 mic was used to record scratch vocals with; this is the same mic used in a lot of Beatles recordings.

3) The cats' names are Lucky and Mikra. They did not allow their pictures to be taken.

4) Chris's guitar was recorded in an echo chamber beneath the studio, not unlike a dungeon.

5) Mike tuned a piano.

Here are some pictures of Day Two:

Tin Tin Can Recording: Father's Day Sessions, Day 1

These next few posts will mostly be pictures because, umm, recording is hard and hasn't left me with lots of free time. We worked diligently for thirteen hours yesterday, getting some really good takes on songs; today will be no different. I will have a rundown of antics and other nefarious deeds done in Pontiac later this week. Until then, enjoy these. I'll post more as time allows.

Mike tuning up.

Mike's guitar pedals. I'll see if I can get a pic of the elusive Chris B.'s tomorrow.

 Mike and Pierce in the studio.

The head and cab. It sits high up and away from all the rest of the amps, in the cold mountainous regions of the studio.

The carefully placed paperback and money. This book is amazing! So is that money!

The elusive Chris B., blurred and shrouded by the flash of a camera, as always.

Tin Tin Can: Hot Town

"Hot Town" is a song we don't play live much these days. However, we've discussed bringing it back into the set, with some retooling. HOT TOWN FUN FACT: In the lyrics, I mention "Marion," a town east of Carbondale, IL where I went to school. It always seemed like a town of drifters to me, more so than Carbondale, because of its proximity to I-57. It's also home to Marion State Prison.



Thanks to alynnmonk for posting this video.

Tin Tin Can: Animal Bones

For the next two days, I'll post a video of Tin Tin Can performing as we begin the trek to Detroit for the Father's Day Recording Sessions. The first video is of "Animal Bones," from Confetti Machete EP. ANIMAL BONES FUN FACT: Inspiration for this song struck from Chris's constant noodling. Justin said, "What's that you're playing?" Chris said, "I'm just messing around." I like to think that's how the universe was made too.



thanks to melliehays for posting the video.

Tin Tin Cat at the Viaduct

The Viaduct was one of our weirder shows. The venue is typically for theater performances and there was a stage set into one wall with lots of open space around it and a smattering of chairs set against the other walls. Also, it was very dark. Looking out from the stage was like looking down a mineshaft or into a dark cavern. We played well, which is the important thing, but it was a very surreal experience. It really did feel like, at any moment, a stalactite might fall from the ceiling and split the top of my head wide open; or an illuminated, blind fish might wriggle out of the depths and onto the stage, flapping and flipping about.

So, then. The photos.

Don't forget: I'll be blogging and tweeting from inside the studio as Tin Tin Can works on our upcoming full-length this Saturday and Sunday. Look out!

Tin Tin Can at Empty Bottle

So begins the countdown to Detroit. I'll be posting something Tin Tin Can-related for the rest of this week, as well as blogging about the recording process this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so be ever-watchful of this blog. Or don't. That's okay too.

Anyway, here are some photos of Tin Tin Can performing at The Empty Bottle in Chicago.

 Above: One of the walls in green room at The

Empty Bottle. To the right and just below the

jellyfish is "Tin Tin Can" in Thai.

Right: Let me tell you a secret about being up on

that stage: it is hot. Damn hot. And the lights are

bright. Damn bright. And my throat was parched.

Where was my beer?

In the green room feeling lonesome without the band.

Mike sings background and Chris looks very studiously

at his guitar.

More of dapper guitarists, Mike and Chris. Adorable, really.

Austin: A Retrospective, Or Lasering the Grackles

As most of you know, this last weekend Tin Tin Can played the Spencer Bell Legacy Show in Austin, TX. For all of us in the band, it was our first time in Austin - and the 80 degree whether was a welcome change from the biting cold in Chicago. We played the Mohawk on Saturday, sharing the stage with some of our favorite musicians and friends. I'd like to give a particular shout-out to Claudia Garate and Brittany Wolfe for putting the Legacy Show together in Austin and for being all around awesome people.  Everyone that came out, braving the heat for a good cause, thank you too. It was a blast!

Pierce, Mike, and I were lucky enough to stay an extra couple of days in Austin. We checked out the city on Sunday with a little tour guidance from Mike's friend, Sarah, and joined by Jake Miller from The Kissing Club and Stevedores. Our first stop was Torchy's Tacos, recommended to us by several concert-goers the previous night. Unfortunately, I have no pics of the food we ate because we were all of us very hungry and scarfed it down without much adieu. I ordered The Republican - jalapeno sausage and cheese and sauces on a tortilla - and The Brushfire - mangos, spicy sauces, chicken, and sour cream all wrapped in a tortilla.

The most interesting item we ordered at Torchy's, though, was the deep-fried cookie dough, called, ahem, "nookies." It was very rich and greasy, to say the least. How about this: after eating one round, deep-fried ball I think the dough stuck to my ribs and it was a long time before I could breathe deep again without sharp pains shooting up and down my sides. Do I regret eating two of them then? Only a little.

Sarah, Mike's friend and our tour guide, took us to Trudy's, a bar where the first  three beers on Sunday are only a buck. We stood around outside, chatting in the cool breeze, and a homeless man asked us where the synagogue was. Unfortunately, none of us knew.

We wandered around a little outdoor venue called the Spider House (see the pic above) and stopped in at a toy store. Mike bought a dancing robot of some sort at the store. I nearly purchased a B-movie victim figurine but opted out at the last minute. There was an awesome squid shirt at the toy store that Jake almost bought, but it was too damn expensive.

You can't come to Austin and not visit the Daniel Johnston Mural. I snapped a couple pics of Mike playing the ukelele in front of it. A shame that some other ruffians mangled it up with a cigarette and whatnot. Still, it was pretty cool.

Afterward, we went downtown to the bridge overlooking Lake Austin or Town Lake or Ladybird Lake, depending on who you talk to. The bridge is famous for its bats. That is, the bats living underneath the bridge that take wing in swarms just after the sun sets. We waited in the chilly dusk along with 80+ others and it seemed as though the bats weren't coming out after all. They finally did, though it wasn't the massive black-winged swarm that I imagined. Instead, the bats circled around the bridge above the dark waters. It was neat but after about five minutes it was dark enough that I could no longer distinguish the bats from the darkness with my color blind eyes, alas, alas.

Sarah took us along the main drag of downtown Austin. It was a little like Nashville: bands of all genres playing in seedy-looking bars, the windows open, music bursting into the street. It smelled like tacos, garbage, and perfume: pretty great. We stopped at Hoboken Pie for a quick slice before heading back to our place.

The next day we ate at Magnolia's with Claudia and Brittany and stopped in at Half Price Books where I picked up Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon and The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce. Mike, Pierce, and I flew back to Chicago Monday evening; albeit with one delay: our plane had a cracked windshield or some such and we had to board another a couple hours later. Chicago greeted us blustery and cold. I remarked to Pierce, "When are we going back to Austin again?"

Writing & Music: Your Wednesday Update

I'm proud to announce that my story, "Shiny Things," will be published in the Spring Issue of the new literary magazine, Prime Mincer. "Shiny Things" was my final Clarion week story and it took me almost two weeks to write, so I'm particularly happy it has found a home. The inaugural issue of Prime Mincer will be available soon in print mid-March, as well as through itunes and for the nook and kindle.

And for those of you who haven't read it yet, my story "Galilee" was published last September in Aphelion Magazine. The editor thought it was an incredibly dark Heinlein juvenile story; and several comments mention how totally depressing the story is. Well, what can I say? I guess I was in a mood.

A few friends have exciting news on the horizon, too:

Clarion chum and rock climbing fiend, Gregory Norman Bossert's novelette, "Slow Boat," originally published in the April/May issue of Asimov's, is being translated into Russian and will be featured in Russia's oldest science fiction and fantasy magazine, ESLI. I don't know that it gets any cooler than this. There are a few of you from Russia out there reading this blog (I see you!) and as more details become available I will let you know.

In case you missed the last signal boost, Karin Tidbeck's story is available in Weird Tales, Tamsyn Muir's story is now available at Fantasy Magazine, Kali Wallace's story is out in the current issue of F&SF, Adam Israel's story is online at Crossed Genres, and John Chu's story is upcoming at Boston Review. How's that for links galore? And, can I just say, Clarion 2010 is taking over the literary airwaves? Yes, I can. Clarion 2010 is taking over the literary airwaves!

Michael Martello, multi-instrumentalist for Tin Tin Can, has released a new solo record, titled Sheep Numbers & the Canine Psychology. Though I don't think this is available online as yet, he will be selling cds at upcoming Tin Tin Can shows and it is well worth a buy. Mike recorded the songs over a week while he was dogsitting.

My sister Mandy, talented artist that she is (that's her art up top), is also an awesome musician. She's working on an EP that should be available soon through Prospero Records. Mandy and I used to perform together in Root Shoot Leaf and I can tell you that her songs were always the audience's favorites. Be looking out for her EP!

I hope I haven't missed anyone. Leave a comment if I have and let me know what you're up to.

END TRANSMISSION.

This Week in Song: New Tin Tin Can "Any Stone"

This Week in Song showcases a new series wherein I perform a song a week (or thereabouts) in various locations around wherever I'm at at the moment. The first for your viewing pleasure is a new song I've written for Tin Tin Can called "Any Stone." The band has worked up a slightly different - and certainly less goofy version - of this song and we'll be performing it at the Friends of Spencer Bell concert and upcoming shows as well.

When we recorded this the temperature outside was around -4 with a windchill of who knows what. About halfway through the song I stopped being able to feel my fingers making the chords.

The Ghost of Tin Tin Can

Start All Hallow's Eve off right with this treat from Tin Tin Can:

A Few Lyrics from some Tin Tin Can Songs (More to Come)

"Bandwagon (Abducted by Aliens)"

You start talking to the moon and the belltower is ringing like careless ocean waves.  When you walk into the room I can hear you hit the walls: it's a clattering of plates - more like a Dixieland Jazz Band.  The stars cry through your window and the birds are sleeping silently in the trees and in the ground, and that big light shining above your bedroom, baby, is a burden in the clouds.  It's not a dream you're having, but maybe I am.  If you ever come back here, look me up again: I'll be waiting for you to return.

I don't mind if you jump onto the bandwagon and forget me like everyone else is doing, my dear.  I can't wait for you to get abducted by aliens.



"What Fireworks"

Oh, Sylvia, step out of the rain.  You don't have to get so soaked.  I'm just happy to see you at my front door.  I'll take the blame.  I'll walk on glass if you'll only come inside.  We can read our fortunes in tea leaves.  Was it you who said that's how we get to perfection?  You said that you made it to the black hills and the miners' lights were like stars; how you slept on a coal bank and watched fireworks.  What fireworks?  If you don't want my money, give it to somebody who gives a damn.


http://www.prosperorecords.com/