MMIXing

awesome songs, irritating beard

Mixing the night away. Excited by how album is coming together. Regretting decision to not shave until it’s finished.

Xin Chao!

That means hello in Vietnamese, which is what they speak here in Vietnam, which is where I’ve been living for the past 21 months.

The original plan was succinct: after romantic life stabilized and inspiration ran dry, a foreign land would spur the creative spirit, I’d write my opus in exile, and SWLLC would return with fury and vengeance (and maybe electric guitars) in mid 2007.

More time has passed than expected – life in Vietnam isn’t very existentially challenging – and SWLLC is limping through the dog days of the Bush presidency (our first practice was the first day after George W. Bush’s inauguration).. I can’t predict what an Obama presidency will bring from a larger, national/global perspective, but I do believe that the traditional first 100 days of the new Administration will be productive ones for the LLC.

Hope is on the way.

Misha

New music, Monsters in your home

OK, no more vague innuendoes: there’s a new EP in the works, and we’re hoping to get it finished in time for spring break. Why spring break? Because our last two official releases, God bless ’em, were a little rough around the edges, at least relative to the Bull Moose. Gibbard and Tamborello had nothing on the 7000 miles currently separating Portland from Vietnam, so we want to make sure we take the time to do this one right.

Here’s a very rough bedroom recording of “Seattle”, for the brave and/or impatient.

In other news, our cinematic stepchild Monster Camp just came out on DVD. We’re totally biased, but we still think it’s a great movie, and now you can add it to your Blockbuster or Netflix queue with the push of a button. Specifically: your mouse button, on those links in the last sentence. You can also pick it up for keeps at Hyrax Films’ online store, along with our original (but mostly instrumental (and weird)) soundtrack album.

Finally, if you’re into live music, there are a few new shows here that weren’t there yesterday.