Drew and Ricky are going to start up Project Grimm again, and Mike and I are going to start something new. Hopefully, everything works out for the best.

If you ever went to one of our shows, listened to our music, booked us or supported us in any way, thank you; it really meant a lot.

Cheers,

Joel

So, I picked up what I learned from that disaster and built this new site. Overall, I think it’s a better layout; it’s simple and hell, it works! So far…

Let me know if you run into any problems with it. More soon.

Cheers,

Joel

Thank you to Revolution Cafe and Bar for having us and for having Strongbow on tap!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who was at the show. We had a hell of a time and met some really cool folks.

Oh yeah, Yoda was there!

Joel meets childhood hero, Yoda

The Ex-Optimists rockin

The Ex-Ops: Making the music swirl!

Pee-pee time!

Mike was attacked by beaver! Or maybe it was his guitar...

1. Built to Spill – “Nowhere Lullaby”
2. Stevie Wonder – “Ebony Eyes”
3. P.J. Harvey – Let England Shake
4. The Cool Kids – Bake Sale
5. David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights – Left so Soft

Joel here. Last night we played at Trailer Space Records, in Austin. It was a pretty cool set up; vinyl everywhere, stand-up video games and a small stage in a corner. It was cool to see people at record store hanging out, drinking, etc. It was my first time playing in a record store, so I was excited.

The first band , Keg Vultures, started half an hour late, but were pretty cool; old school-ish punk/Mission of Burma, etc. Their bass player was wearing two different colored Crocs and played most of the show sitting down, which I thought was odd. I met their singer afterward; we traded CDs and shot the shit for a bit.

The second band was alright, they’re singer/tambourine (you read that right) player was interesting to watch; he beat those tambourines like they did something bad to him.

We were next. We set up and the owner of the store walks up to Mike, looks at our equipment on the stage, and says, “nice… you do realize that there is band after yours, right?” I guess he doesn’t like Ampegs…

We started playing and our set was going pretty well, it seemed. We weren’t so loud that we cleared the room and people seemed to be getting into it a bit. We were just about to play our last two songs when the owner came up to the front and told us to stop, because we were out of time and that we were taking up the last band’s time. Well, the last band, Rainbow Dragon, was yelling for us to keep playing and that we had not played too long…

Being nice guys, we stopped playing and got off the stage really fast. I didn’t even swear at the owner! I didn’t break anything, throw anything, etc. I was pissed off, but figured fuck him, let’s go drink.

So, mister record store dude, why did we get stopped? Were we not “hip or punk” enough for you? Is it because we’re from Houston? Either way, that was pretty weak. What’s the point in fucking over a band from out of town who is playing for free? That’s not very hip or punk… Wanker…

Rainbow Dragon were fun and rocked like a motherfucker! The drummer’s kid played along with the band, danced, etc. he was hilarious! I asked him for his autograph and he ignored me. The kid’s a star!

Overall, we had a good show, while it lasted, and we had fun. Thank you Rainbow Dragon for bringing us to Austin, and for a fun night out! And a big thank you to everyone who came out to the show. Well, except for the guy who threw up on Drew’s bass case…

FFW Setlist:

Runim Down
I Never Knew You Could Be So Low
Sinker
Half Hopeless
Put On a Pretty One
*Plug pulled by asshole…

DOWNLOAD HERE

1. David Sylvian – Secrets of the Beehive
2. Muddy Waters – Best of Chess Records
3. La Roux – La Roux
4. Broken Bells – Broken Bells
5. Torche – Torche

When we decided to recorded “User”, we decided that we wanted to capture it as close to live as possible (doesn’t every band do this?). So, we set up in the studio, with the intention of recording the song and keeping as much of the original tracks as possible. Or as Ricky put, “I’m nailing this shit in one take”.

Here’s a video of us recording video of us doing just that. Everything you hear on the recording of this song was played during this video. There was one added vocal track and about 5-10 seconds of a guitar dub that Mike did. Other than that, it’s all live, in one take! I’m still glowing a bit… Please enjoy.

EDIT – By request, the audio on this video is now the actual recorded music, not what you would hear in the room with us, without headphones (as it did before).

Filmed by: Marco Saenz using a Kodak Zi8

FFW’s cover was done by yours truly, except those aren’t my feet. Dead Mineral’s cover is a painting by a friend of theirs who’s name escapes me (I’ll post an update later).

Cheers,

Joel