DofStC

DAUGHTERS OF SAINT CRISPIN

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Midwest Blitz: 8/29 - 9/1

Thursday 8/29 - Chicago @Reed’s Local

We rolled to Chicago after a long work day, ready for four days of rock action. Reed’s is a little hole-in-the-wall local Chicago bar that has a small music room up a couple of stairs in the back. As we sat at the bar waiting for things to get started, a steady stream of friends filed in and there were hugs and slaps on the back all around. Pete wasn’t yet comfortable with his brand-new Rickenbacker so we had to do a quick swap of strap locks back to the Mockingbird. (Yeah we hauled that Rick around this weekend and never used it.)

La Fea was up first and churned out some delicious jagged noise rock with occasional soaring guitars. It was the brother-sister Augustins’ band second show (and sadly, their last). We were up second and were told after the first song that we had dispensed enough fog and to cut that shit out. At the end of “Head And Heart,” the laptop cover vibrated closed and cut the drum track prematurely -- we winged the ending and slipped into our Joy Division cover. Erratic Retaliator Strategy closed out the night with their weirdo Big Black/Ween vibes. Of particular note, all three bands covered Joy Division songs this night: La Fea dished up “Warsaw” (3 5 0 1 2 5 GO!), we did our usual “Transmission,” and ERS did a lovely and melancholy version of “Disorder.” Got the spirit, lose the feeling, let it out somehow.

Friday 8/30 - Louisville @Kaiju 

Got to Louisville in time to drop our stuff at my old friend Connor’s house and meet his menagerie of recuse Dachshunds. Then out to dinner and drinks before the show at Kaiju. It’s a fantastic venue with a great staff and vibe. Connor did some cool between-set ambient pieces under his Shedding moniker. Ritual/Error did improvised post-rock with synth and cello to start the band portion of the evening. We played second and managed to segue Connor’s soundscape into our intro ambience. Turned out really cool. We threw down and the crowd to really seem to dig it. It was nice to see many old friends in the audience too! 

Satellite Twin killed, as usual. I’ve been a fan since I saw them several years ago and they’ve only gotten better. It’s noisy ATDI/Unwound-style gloriousness. And fantastic dudes to boot. Packed show. Great night.

Saturday 8/31 - Cincinnati (Newport KY) @Southgate House

Pete got up early and lifted weights. (!!!) I relaxed over coffee with Connor and his wife Deidre and the weiner dogs. Made a stop at the fantastic Fat Rabbit, a super cool record/thrift/book store where Pete bought some punk rock shirts for his kid and a three-foot religious garden gnome. Then it was a beautiful drive through the mountains to Newport. We met Phratry label boss Jerry Dirr and Chad of Ethicist at the amazing Mexican restaurant that I’ve been going to for years every time I’m in town. The show tonight was in the Lounge at Southgate House, but the big room was hosting some modern country show. Attendees of that show would wander in now and then and leave quickly as soon as they grasped that a noise rock show was happening. :( Grey Host played cool doomy post-metal and My Condolences played cool grindy almost-screamo. We were sandwiched in between. 

The lack of audience and the prohibition on our fog machine made for a slightly less-inspired performance. Great night, nonetheless, connecting with old friends and bringing the rock. We got paid a ridiculous amount of money too.

Sunday 9/1 - Bloomington IN @ The Bishop

We got to Bloomington with time to spare and found a cool bar with great food, including a really good jackfruit sandwich! And then it fucking poured. There was a slight let up and we were able to load in rather unscathed. But then it let loose again. We fretted a bit about whether that would discourage attendance, but we needn’t have. Vuduwasa played their first show, laying down some progressive sludge metal. (”This song is about mammoths and shit. It’s called ‘Tusk Eater’.”) We ripped into our set, fog and all, and by the end of the first song, the fire alarms were blaring. (Foreshadowing resolved!) So the room was cleared and BFD had to be called. 

We felt like assholes. We were worried everyone would leave and Civilized Worm hadn’t even played yet. After an excruciating 30 minutes, fire fighters arrived and shut off the alarm. We started again and the room filled back up immediately -- everyone had just been chilling on the sidewalk. Civilized Worm had some of the ugliest guitar tone I’ve ever heard and laid down some Melvins-style sludge (not surprising given the name of the band). It was great night with a very enthusiastic crowd. New friendships and connections were formed in the glow of rock.

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Ambient Absence: Dubuque & DeKalb 8/16-17

Back in Dubuque at Monk’s. Prior to the show on a gear-sharing thread, we were made aware that one of the local acts wouldn’t be making it. “No problem,” we thought, “there’s another local act and it’s a Friday night. What could go wrong?” Turns out the other act on the bill was just one dude playing solo, ambient bass. And he only had ten minutes of material. When he wrapped up his “set” and shrugged, we were so taken aback that I yelled, “play it again!” And he did. It was cool sorta Sigur Ros-inspired soundscape stuff but, come on, ten minutes?!?! 

So then it was us. We bravely soldiered through our set to the six or seven people in the room. It was cool though. Our friend Brett was there with a buddy and so was a couple visiting from Des Moines and they all seemed to dig it a lot. It’s called paying your dues, man. Realizing that no matter how many bands I’ve been in, you have to start over every time…

Brett and Lisa put us up and fed us breakfast in the morning and then we headed out to Galena IL to check out West Street Sculpture Park. It’s like a tamer and more focused Doctor Evermor, with stories and construction notes on the fantastic and fantastical sculptures. We met the artist, John, and he gave us tour of his work shop and well-cared-for vintage drill presses, welders, and pipe benders. And his wife gave us homemade cookies. 

On to DeKalb. Killed some time checking out some thrift shops and reading at a funky coffee shop. Later, we met up with Brandon, Bob, and Mike from Things Falling Apart for dinner at a great Thai place and then loaded in at the Fargo Ballroom. Or should I say “ballroom”? It’s really the front parlor in a weird sort of artist loft/co-op living space above a skatepark. Cool space in a cool old building to be sure, but “ballroom” it is not. 

The theme from last night continued… One of the bands canceled and Things Falling Apart’s drummer couldn’t make it, so once again we were playing on a bill with another act doing instrumental ambient stuff to a very thin audience. At least TFA had more than ten minutes of material. In addition, we weren’t allowed to use our fog machine (some fire alarm bullshit?*) so everything felt a bit off and, I dunno, less dramatic? We played well and people dug it including my old bandmate Jason who drove down from Madison for the show and my old friend Nick who rode his bike out from Chicago! 

Afterwards, we went out to some townie bars with a crew from the show. Pete got very friendly with one of the locals but ended up crashing with me at Nick’s Air B’n’B.

Thus concludes the Ambient Absence Tour 2019. Onward. Upward.

*foreshadowing

[dofstc]

Debut EP Out Now

Debut EP is out today. Pay what you want on Bandcamp. Slowly trickling onto all major streaming platforms. Shiny Compact Discs suitable for landfill or collecting also available. Get it.

[dofstc]

Madison August 10

The Tip Top in Madison is a neighborhood bar that has only recently begun having rock shows. It's going to take a bit to catch on, so it was a bit of a weird crowd -- fans, friends, regulars and looky-loos jostled together. The burnt out hippie savagely head banging along to every band was a nice touch though. Nastos from Milwaukee strated the night out with some cool shoegazey stuff with killer interlocking guitar riffs. We were up second and played a tight, punishing set. Here's a quote from our friend Mike Noto, Caryatids singer: "There were some extended passages of strangled tremolo picking and polished, effects-coated bitterness... And the beats add a lot of rigidity and tension to what is already deliberately avoidant and restricted music. I like the deliberate minimalism a lot." Caryatids closed out the night with weird psych-math-gaze powered by an astounding drummer. Good stuff.

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Milwaukee/Racine, July 19-20

It was an oppressive kind of hot and we were dripping sweat by the time the van was loaded. Loading into the High Dive wasn't much better and the single window unit attempting the cool the place wasn't really up to the task unless you were standing right in front of it. Never the less, the show proceeded. We set up on the postage-stamp-sized stage. Most bands have to have a member or two on the floor but since we have enslaved a robot as our drummer, we fit. Barely. We tore through the set, making a couple of small, easily correctable errors. I broke a string on "Head And Heart" and switched out guitars for the Joy Division cover. Then evacuated the stage to make room for the 8-person band from Austin TX. They were kids who didn't understand the value of efficiency and took 40 minutes to get going. Not acceptable. Shit's gotta be tight! IfIHadAHiFi was up next, playing in support of their brand-new and quite excellent record. The crowd got bigger and the room got hotter. By the time it was all over, a cold-front had moved in dropping the temperature on the street outside by 20 degrees. All in all, a good night -- new and old friends and stellar times all around. We drove for what seemed like ever to crash at Pete's sisters house in some godforsaken Milwaukee suburb and crash we did.

Everyone was gone to a swim meet or some shit when we woke up so we helped ourselves to food and coffee and swimming pool before making the short trip to Racine. The show was billed as a day-long "festival" dubbed "Gamerafest" but it turned out to be lest of a fest and more of a bunch of bands hanging out. That's not to say it wasn't cool, it's just that the audience was a bit thin. As went to unload, we discovered that the back door of the van was inoperable. This had happened once before (two years previous when I was on tour in Atlanta) but we couldn't figure it out, so we had to load out through the side door. Ugh. Just before we started, we foolishly asked for the house lights to be turned off. This made the stage so dark that at times it was impossible to see. When our lights were full blast, we were ok, but when they flashed or the fog was particularly billowing, execution was slightly less than optimal -- I clammed a few parts and Pete was worried about falling off the stage. Turned out pretty well and people seemed to dig it (and provided some good photo opps). Highlights of the day were Moon Pussy, Erratic Retaliator Strategy,  Guerrilla Ghost, and the mighty Evacuate The Earth. Done fairly early, we decided to drive home and made to Madison only slightly bleary-eyed.

[dofstc]

Live at Mickey’s 5 July 2019

[dofstc]

HOMETOWN DEBUT - Madison/Chicago, July 5-6

Alright, with a couple of shows under our belt we were ready to unveil this thing for a hometown crowd. What better place than the cramped and sweaty front corner of Mickey’s Tavern? We were up first and played pretty flawlessly (aside from one computer glitch that was seamlessly remedied that many people didn't even notice). The packed crowd was right in our faces, most with shit-eating grins on their faces -- when we could see them through the smoke and strobes. Afterwards it was all smiles and slaps on the back. I guess we struck a nerve? It was especially gratifying for me -- I'd been pretty anxious about how it would go over considering I'm doing something totally different from past projects. I was pretty floored when someone said we reminded them of Killing Joke. I coasted through sets by Our Friends The Savages and Gran Fury, barely paying attention and still riding on the adrenaline/endorphin high. Feels good man.

Saturday afternoon on the way over to Pete's house, I bought yet another dongle doo-hickey for our computer set-up (I'll spare you the technical details -- PM if you want the nitty gritty) that hopefully will be the final piece of the puzzle. I-90 traffic sucked as usual and Pete cracked himself up narrating a short Final Destination doc as we followed a semi loaded with logs. This show was an event that I helped set up, dubbed Don't Quit: PRF Addendum. The annual Electrical Audio-affiliated PRF BBQ always has way more bands submitting to play than can actually be accommodated and we didn't make the cut. Instead of grousing (OK we groused a little), we did our own thing setting up a show with all bands that likewise did not make the cut. Two of the PRF credos (besides "Blast it with Piss") are "Don't Quit" and "Doin' Thangs" so...

We arrived early at Live Wire and chilled with the wacky bartender and loquacious daytime regulars. First up was Dummy, old guys playing legit old-school Chicago punk rock. Then Seaxes, mathy noiserock ala Shellac. Highly recommended. Then it was our turn. Again we played pretty flawlessly and our drummer didn't take a shit on stage. Fog and light apparently made quite an impression as well and there were high fives galore following our set. Stick Horse followed us with a swampy take on indie rock. The night was closed out by the mighty Ribbonhead who turned in an absolutely stunning set. I mean, they never cease to amaze me, but that set was spectacular in its ferocity and affect. Holy shit. Camaraderie continued after the show with a visit to Logan Arcade and chilling at Jesse and Emily's house. Great night, great people.

[dofstc]

INAGURAL RUN - Wausau/Dubuque, June 21-22

After six months holed up in the basement honing our set, the time had come to play shows. First up was Wausau, two hours due north of Madison. Frank, the Polack Inn booking agent, has been a long-time fan of my previous bands and had willingly agreed to book our first show at the PI. We loaded in and grabbed some dinner. By the time we got back my old friend Brad and his band Wardehns were loading in. We nervously watched the blistering thrash of the Wardehns set and then quickly set up. Problems arose immediately: no sound from the computer to our dedicated drum PA. After a few minutes of panicked power cycling and rebooting, it turned out that trying to send a signal to FOH was preventing sound from getting to our on-stage monitors. (Super weird -- will have to figure out later). Moving on. Testing the fog machine then made the computer drop the audio interface. FUCK. Reconnected and everything seemed OK. We launch into our set. Pete's bass starts cutting in and out immediately. I plow ahead on my own while he switches cords but that doesn't really help. Then the he hits the fog and the drum tracks stop. We finish the song, I reconnect the interface, and Pete fiddles around with his bass. We launch into our second song and the bass immediately cuts out and doesn't return for the rest of the song. The computer drops the interface again and when I get it going, I advance to the wrong song and have to start over. Fucking nightmare. Finally we're on our last song which is a Joy Division cover. We get through it pretty well -- drums play through, bass stays audible.

And then we're done. We sheepishly break down and pack up and slink to the bar to nurse our wounds. It was a disastrous first show made all the more heart breaking by the months of flawless rehearsals we'd been grinding out in the basement. Elms played after us and crushed an amazing set of intricate-yet-heavy post-metal. Despite our mess of a set, it actually seemed to have gone over fairly well. The other bands dug it and after several more encouraging and supportive comments from audience members and Frank, we started to feel a bit better about it. We crashed with Brad and stayed up well into the night listening to records.

In the morning we reconvened for coffee and a post-mortem at Culvers and then hit the road to Dubuque. We arrived early enough to ride the Fenelon Place Elevator up the bluff to the spectacular views of the city and the Mississippi. We wandered around the deserted down town, confused by all the shops closed on a Saturday afternoon?!? We grabbed some lunch and, after some internet research, went to Best Buy to purchase a UPS battery backup/power conditioner. (Apparently fog machines notoriously cause voltage spikes that were likely the cause of our problems.)

After loading in at Monks, we took apart Pete's input jack, identified the likely culprit -- a tiny break in the wire insulation -- and, lacking a soldering iron, covered it with electrical tape. We hooked everything but the fog machine through the UPS and then waited for our turn. Fat God, aka Bob Bucko Jr., did a super-cool set of weirdo synth pop filtered through the dark aesthetic of bands like Cabaret Voltaire and PiL. Embral, on tour from Indianapolis, did Squarepusher-inspired experimental ambience. Then it was us. We set up and lo and behold, redemption! The set went flawlessly with nary a technical glitch. We played well and seemed to go over quite well. We even had a few dancers for the Joy Division cover. Laced Hash rounded out the night with mathy instrumental craziness. Good stuff. We basked a bit in the glow of not only a set well played, but in the knowledge that our problem-solving skills pulled us through. Spent the night with our friends Brett and Lisa and once again stayed up way too late watching YouTube videos of stuff I honestly don't remember.

Onward. Upward. Forward.

[dofstc]

Debut single, Ex-Spies, out now on Bandcamp and all streaming services.

[dofstc]

Live Dates

Jun 21 - Wausau @Polack Inn Jun 22 - Dubuque @Monk's Jul 05 - Madison @Mickey's Jul 06 - Chicago @Live Wire Jul 19 - Milwaukee @High Dive Jul 20 - Racine @Gamerafest Jul 23 - Madison @Wisco

[dofstc]

First Single Out Now

Our first single, "Ex-Spies," is out now on Bandcamp and your streaming service of choice including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal... However, if you grab the download from Bandcamp, you'll get our Joy Division cover too. So there's that. Cover art by our tattoo artist, the amazing Yann Black.

[dofstc]

Origin Story

Pete and I have known each other for decades. Our bands revolved in and out of the Madison music scene and we’d always exchange pleasantries and knock back a few beers. After Pete traveled to Montreal to get a tattoo from the same artist who’s worked on me and becoming enamored of the Belgian post-doom band Amenra, our connection grew to the point that we decided to strap on the guitars and see what would happen. We started writing songs immediately and really enjoyed both that process and just hanging out. Our initial plan was to find another guitarist, singer, and drummer but the flakes and weirdos on Craigslist just kept coming until we decided to say fuck it. We didn’t want to mess up the vibe and with state of music technology what it is these days we figured we’d keep it as a two piece and see how far we could take it. So yeah, programmed drums and synchronized lights have been relegated to the laptop with both of us singing and bashing guitars. I guess we will see how far we can take it.  -- Russell