Fetal Pig are soon to head out to Flat Black Studios in Iowa City to record songs both old and new. If all goes well, we will end up with a totally insane record with no definite plans on how it’s to be released

Why Make Clocks will once again be on the bill with Mark Mallman at Vaudeville Mews, Wednesday, November 10 at 7:30 pm. So is Black Ambient Manifesto.

Unable to put the time together to rehearse with a live drummer, and not wanting to do a guitar-songwriter-folkie set, I spent money on a software drum machine to run on my laptop, meaning Distant Trains is back! I’ll be opening Rhonda Is A Dead Bitch’s‘s release party for the Laos 12″ EP, also at Vaudeville Mews, 9:30 pm Saturday November 20. You should seriously consider picking up this RIADB record they’ll be flogging, not only because it’s got good music on it (look around elsewhere on this site for videos of a couple of its tracks), but also, it has gone through hell to get to you — first the pressing plant had plates come out bad and get broken, then the first batch of the records got mistakenly delivered to Jason Warden’s now-vacant former residence, left on the front porch, where they were absconded with by persons unknown — who apparently, upon opening the boxes and apprehending the contents, graciously returned them to where they had found them the following day. A really nifty band called Golden Veins will be in the middle slot, you should definitely check them out too, they’ve got folks from Beati Paoli involved.

Speaking of release parties, there’s one coming up for the hotly anticipated Samuel Locke Ward and the Boo-Hoos/Mumfords split 7″ at the Blue Moose Taphouse in Iowa City, 10pm on Friday, November 12, and probably not long before they get the record up for mail-order.

Canyons, the new band put together by Des Moines songwriter Gabe Cordova, made its debut last night at Vaudeville Mews, and sounded good despite Gabe’s voice being a tad bit under the weather. Dan remarked to me that they sounded rather like Palace Brothers. Crystal City‘s winsome folk sounds got the night started, and following Canyons we were treated to really nice atmospheric electro-pop sounds from Beach House territory by Portland duo Hosannas. One guy in the place was breakdancing to them. I left too early to catch Seedlings.

The Seed Of Something, one of Des Moines’ youngest active bands and most promising in their age bracket, have become even younger on average with their recent switch in drummers — reportedly, the new member isn’t even in high school and already a solid player. The new lineup makes its debut at the Mews on Friday opening the all-ages Bad Cop show, doors at 5pm.

Samuel Locke Ward reports being robbed in Detroit last weekend. According to a Facebook posting, “Smash and grab happened during the show. Joe Jack [Talcum] and Chris [Ford] got their laptops stolen. Ipod, GPS, phone chargers, groceries, medicine… Everyone is fine. We still have our gear and the van. Got the window fixed and we are back on track and on the road still. We are doing good even.” Still, I feel for these cats. Losing one’s electronics sucks, as does losing one’s meds.

Seattle-area post-doomsters Roareth are to be short-lived. I found these guys interesting because you don’t usually hear of a band making their recorded debut with a single 45-minute track. It’s damn good too — the CD copies are sold out but you can still grab a download. Reportedly, a member of the group is moving to Los Angeles to take a job at Southern Lord Records, and the bassist, his wife, is of course going with him. Details at The Obelisk.

My work continues to be busy, so I haven’t been writing a lot here, but I do manage to find time to post various links of interest to the Centipede Farm Facebook page. I figured I should pop in here quick and talk about music things I’ve been to or done lately. Leah and I went to see The Black Keys at the Val Air with busted AC, the place was packed and probably 110 degrees. I looked like I’d been in some kind of sweat-filled dunk tank. They played wonderfully though. I’ve seen some bands tend to play their songs faster live than they sound on record; the Black Keys, at least that night, played things a little bit slower, which I think suited the atmosphere of the sweltering August night. It was pretty rock and roll.

I saw the diva of mom-glam Leslie Hall, with her band Leslie And The Ly’s, bring their celebration of all things snazzy to a rainy Tuesday morning at the Iowa State Fair. Considering the weather and the early hour, they drew a respectable crowd and really pulled out all the stops when it came to silly props and between-song skits. Hanging quilts, a giant cat, and a tractor called Glitter Plow. Grace plays drums, the only live instrument they use in the show, as everything else is on a laptop other than vocals, and I can’t stress enough the level of skill it takes to be able to stay on beat with something prerecorded like that. Grace kicks ass. They’ll be at something called Inglert in Iowa City on September 16.

We did two Why Make Clocks shows this past weekend, and there were actually people at them. Saturday night’s show was at Vaudeville Mews with Noah’s Ark With A Spaceship, a great band we previously met and played with in Omaha where they’re from. They make a loud raucous guitar-noise-pop sound that I’d place in the lineage of Swervedriver. They’re on Slumber Party Records where they’re labelmates with Thunder Power and Outlaw Con Bandana among others. We got to hang out with them some before and after the show as well, and they are a fun bunch of cats. Some variation on what used to be called The Chatty Cathys opened, a group of young fellows making a Pavementy kind of racket, and they were quite enjoyable. In between was another very youthful outfit (14 to 16 years old, I believe), The Seed Of Something, which involves Dan’s wife Kim’s son Jasper and is also currently sharing drummer Will Tarbox with Why Make Clocks while they look for another. They’re really good and we’d like to see them keep at it, so if you know a kid around Des Moines who plays drums well and likes driving indie rock sounds, get in touch.

The following night both Why Make Clocks and The Seed Of Something played a double-birthday-party show at Des Moines Social Club along with The Atudes, Christopher The Conquered, and Poison Control Center. The birthdays in question were of our very own Dan, and of Pat from PCC, both of which were on Monday. Everyone put on a great show, though the sound in the Black Box Theater room of the DMSC was as usual a bit off. Friendly vibes abounded. PCC continue their “Never Ending Tour” tonight at The Slowdown in Omaha, and tomorrow night at The Lift in Dubuque , then a whole bunch of other places. I’d suggest checking the lengthy list of dates listed on their MySpace because chances are if you’re reading this, you’ll have an opportunity or two to see them in the next few months.

Finally, just last night, we did the second-ever show of the reunited Fetal Pig, opening up for the amazing Mahogany Frog from Winnipeg. MF first came to our attention when Why Make Clocks ended up playing with them at Big V’s in St. Paul. We liked them a lot and told them to get in touch if they ever thought of coming to play in Des Moines. They do mostly instrumental psychedelic prog-rock epics with lots of keyboards. It’s partly a recreation of prog circa ’72, but also very modern; I caught a lot about their set that I think fans of stuff like Battles would get into. Hell, anybody can get into stuff this good. While they were playing I kept thinking to myself they might be the best band in the universe.

Leah got me a bag of gummy centipedes!

Tonight: Ember Schrag, Pennyhawk, Ron Wax, and Nuclear Rodeo at Ames Progressive, 8pm.

I’m gonna do it kind like the solo gigs I been doing since ’08 or so, with drum machine and looper, but playing bass instead of guitar, and playing it loud and slow and sludgy the way Distant Trains rolls. I could maybe use a bandmate though, for future performances. Maybe someone who plays both drums and spaced-out synthesizers.

The show is at Vaudeville Mews here in Des Moines this Wednesday at about 9:30 pm. The Bassturd is the evening’s headlining attraction, and deservedly so; if you have not seen The Bassturd yet, you really should. The man is a songwriting keyboarding rapping improvising accordioning juggernaut of hilarity, absurdity, and awesome. A past collaborator of The Bassturd is also on the bill, Des Moines O.G. songwriter Todd On Acid, and newfangled local psychobilly outfit S.E.R.F.. I’m not quite sure what the order is other than of course The Bassturd goes on last.

I would have posted this bit of news much earlier but shit has been hectic in Centipede Land. I moved from a rented split-foyer in southeast Des Moines to a cheaper and lower-maintenance apartment in West Des Moines and started a new job as a combination Ruby On Rails programmer and server admin and possible development team lead. It’s the kind of job that forces me to learn a bunch of new shit to keep up, which is the kind of job I like. I went to 80/35, which I’ve already written about. I worked out an apartment-friendly headphone-based practice setup for bass + drum machine. I bought a Stylophone, and that kept me kind of busy for a while. I’m reading about four books at one time. In the process of moving, I unloaded a lot of random, bulky, oddball possessions that I didn’t really have much of a use for any more, but I’ve still got a lot to go. Feel free to make me an offer on a Yamaha CP-30 electronic piano or an epic collection of pencil sharpeners, including a ton of those die-cast metal ones that look like old cars and appliances and shit. The collection of Pascal programming books didn’t sell as well as I had hoped, most ended up in the recycle bin. My Atari 2600 and large collection of cartridges and accessories will be going to the International Video Game Hall Of Fame being started in Ottumwa, Iowa, in hopes that they do in fact appreciate the significance of Chase The Chuckwagon.

Anyway I didn’t start Centipede Farm to be a personal blog, in fact I very expressly started it not to be a personal blog, but you know, I’m sure that’s all interesting shit, and it ties in in some ways with my musical projects. Another rad thing I’ve got going on is the Fetal Pig reunion, which also involves a reunion of yet another classic ’90s Des Moines band, Going To Grandma’s. It will also be happening at the Vaudeville Mews, this Friday, along with another classic Des Moines rock band that needs no reunion because they never went away, Squidboy. Learning Fetal Pig songs, which are these crazy complex riff-fests that sound like a cross between The Minutemen and King Crimson, has been an awesome mind-bending experience and one that I hope will influence my writing for Distant Trains. There is talk that since we’re getting the songs down pretty tight we should go down to Luke’s and record an album.

See you Wednesday and Friday
(Now listening: Sleepy Sun – Fever)

I just had practice earlier today with the reunion lineup of Fetal Pig that’s going to be performing at Vaudeville Mews July 23rd. The lineup is the brothers Hutchison and myself (interestingly, this same lineup has performed as Why Make Clocks once, at The Replay Lounge in Lawrence). It was awesome. Des Moines old-skoolas ought to get your asses out there for this show — Going To Grandma’s will also be doing the reunion thing on that show (same Hutchisons are involved).