QUICK TOUR POST, PART 1

Photo courtesy of Mikey Sklar

Well, tour so far has been very very innaresting. Incidents thus far: running over a dead deer, surviving a fly infestation, police search and lengthy interrogation by state trooper (" you guys are crazy! this vehicle is going to explode! "), back axle making very disconcerting noises (likely as a result of the dead deer we hit), hot springs, bathing in crystal pure waters (using our trusted Dr. Bronner's), trespassing and swimming in fast-flowing creeks on a farm, long mountain drives, a death threat from a drunk man, our engine exploding into a hissing cloud, buying butter at a Circle K and being literally bombarded by drunk people in the parking lot, 15 gallons of bio-diesel, 80 gallons of waste vegetable oil, the confused looks of fellow drivers who see us filtering oil in a parking lot using a filtering sock into a plastic barrel, tour of a former RV park now a completely off-the-grid compound inhabited by an inventor (Mikey Sklar and his cool lady) who recently sold his latest invention to NASA, a tour of a biodiesel facility... to filter their oil, they had constructed a copper pyramid and were piping in Tibetan monk chants through speakers to create spiritual intention for their filtering process. And we are about to play, uninvited, unannounced, at a coffee shop called "Bentleys."

Mikey Sklar's blog entry about our visit can be found here. He also included a nice photo!

Mikey is the aforementioned inventor who just sold a patent to NASA.

"Deep-Fry Into the Sun" Tour

On Wednesday, we will be leaving for a West coast tour we have dubbed the "Deep-Fry into the Sun" tour.

Our vehicle is a 1984 Mercedes station wagon that has been converted to run on waste vegetable oil. We have a pump that filters oil from grease traps, and plan on filling up the whole way using waste oil from restaurants. This will be a first for us, and for any other band I've ever known.

This is very exciting. Free fuel (!!!!!), provided the restaurants allow us to pump. If they don't, we could always go "ninja-style" and liberate the oil. This neatly circumvents the insane problem of "touring cost" that most bands are facing right now.

Environmentally speaking, this is a revolution waiting to happen. We're removing ourselves from the grid of ridiculously overpriced gas stations that pollute our world and have distorted/dictated American foreign policy for quite some time.

We're also not burning million-year-old carbon (petroleum) to fuel our car. This closes the "carbon loop," so to speak, since the carbon we're releasing would have been consumed from the air (by the plants that created the oil) within the past few years.

It's really kind of like Dr. Brown in "Back to the Future." Remember how he fueled his car on Marty McFly's trash... he poured beer and a banana peel into the tank, remember that? Well, looks like the future's here, folks.

I will be blogging extensively along our travels. This tour is an experiment, a bit of research into a new and hopefully better way of doing things. So stay tuned for updates from the road.

S.W.A.K. #2, print edition

At long last, SWAK #2 has arrived. "The Exquisite Corpse" issue. Filled with lots of fantastic illustrations and exquisite corpse stories by Michael Baird, Michael Bain, John Kolar, Sam Miller, Willis McClung, Will Patterson and yours truly. We did most of the work during the "Slightly Annoyed Max" tour. Also in there are some photos from Sound Team's last tour, which was indeed exquisite and the band was shortly to be a corpse, so I guess it fits with the theme.

If you would like a copy, please paypal $4 ($2 plus $2 shipping) to: mortonbairdiii@yahoo.com

Make sure you include your address!

If you catch one of {{{SUNSET}}}'s shows, they will be on sale for only $2. Limited edition of 100 copies, cut, copied and stapled at that bastion of local diversity, FedEx Kinko's.

CHRIS SCHLARB SHOW

Chris Schlarb, in conjunction with his awesome new album "Twilight and Ghost Stories," has put together an ensemble in San Francisco and Austin to perform his album. I (bill) am fortunate to be part of that ensemble and I think it'll be innaresting...

here's the flyer:



more info at chris schlarb's website

"ETERNALLY DEAD" IS NOW ALIVE

The cassette is mostly live performances... in some cases, i prefer these to the final versions... there is a real spirit to the tape... much of it seems like stand-up comedy...

In addition, there is a phone call track called "sausage" and a monologue called "self-help heckling" and a few other songs available nowhere else, like the elusive "Civil War."

There are only 100 and there will definitely never again be another printing.

North American orders:

International orders:

sk8r boi party, july 11 // "eternally dead" tape

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the "eternally dead" tape is being born right now, as we speak...

hopefully..... at the sk8r boi show, they will be available.

Other Music, part 2: Too Much Wes Anderson

Other Music wrote a full review of the album:

"
Sunset's Bill Baird is depressed, or maybe he's just been listening to depressing music, or maybe he's watched one too many of Wes Anderson's movies (they're both from Austin, TX); anyhow, this singer/songwriter is channeling something that has led to the creation of the must-hear prog-folk record of the summer. The Glowing City is a smorgasbord of sound that seems to have been crafted in a toy factory with a tape machine and an ethereal piano. By his lonesome, Baird is able to do what the Polyphonic Spree uses upwards of 20 musicians to achieve, which is crafting triumphant harmonies of disharmony in the style of '70s pop by the likes of ELO and Bowie. There are most likely some collaborating musicians, but Sunset is Baird's opus. As Baird alternatively croons and chants deep within a densely layered mix, you can hear his passion seep through instruments as diverse as French horns, tribal drums, Kraftwerk-esque keys, and accordions. This album is apparently the conflation of two separate complete records, yet a narrative arc is undeniable and the overall tone is cohesive to a fault. Bill Baird took some chances recording this music, and you should take a chance listening to it...the effects could be emotional.
"
-Max Gray