But it’s a new, especially unpredictable year (I feel), and one of my goals includes posting a larger quantity and variety of posts, including more things I’ve been cooking and crafting (curtains! peppermint fudge!)

What are your goals for 2012? Do tell, I love hearing new years resolutions!

It’s beautiful that all it takes is to aim your life in the direction of what you like to do, and all of a sudden three years later, you’re surrounded by all the most amazing, talented, and genuinely creative people who are your friends but are also people who you respect to their core. And this summer has brought me so much joy to witness all of them finish things that they have been working on. So, if you’ll allow me to prate a little more about my friends, please continue reading for a brief panegyric to each of these bands:

Health&Beauty

First and foremost, Brian Sulpizio — who is also the recording engineer/mix+mastering engineer/guitar player when I can’t play my own shit/drummer of Sewing Pattern music — makes his own music, and it’s undeniably the best music of everyone we know. It’s ridiculously, ineffably good smart beautiful disgusting fucked up amazing. And after many years of making everyone else’s music dreams come true, he’s finally found the time to finish 2 H&B albums. One is a free EP that showcases what this tour was like, meaning no drums (mELLO). The other is the LP that is not released yet, but I will leak 2 tracks here. PLEASE listen! Health&Beauty is my fave fave favorite. Health&Beauty website

Renegade Lightning Rebellion

There was never a more genuine, talented, and sweet musician/songwriter than Brian Stark. Srsly, he’s a fucking angel. Well, actually everyone in Renegade Lightning Rebellion is likewise saintly, as well as virtuosic at their instruments. Hailing between Denton, TX and Chicago, the band consists of oboe, violin, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and synth. But the catch is that they all rotate between every song to play different instruments, a la The Band, but much more endearing. (One small example is that the drums get played by everyone, with their hands!) This is a song cycle about statues Brian saw when traveling through Germany, and they’re all in the key of C and in 3/4 meter — which speaks wonders of their arrangement and writing, because you’d never realize each track was secretly restrained with the same strict parameters. Renegade Lightning Rebellion Bandcamp

Murdertron

Brandon McGhee is one of the members of Renegade Lightning Rebellion, but he also released his own album a month or two before them under his own music project called Murdertron. As far I understand, he made this whole album like in his bedroom. And it blows my mind. He tags it as #boardsofcanada and #steviewonder and it’s about the best combination I could ever hope for — synth/rhodes/drum machine/vocoder that is not only carnally good to the point of being painful, but also incredibly intriguing in its layers and in its themes. I think I’d sacrifice an eye to play and make music like Brandon. We’ve just started practices for Murdertron as a live band, and I’m getting my ass handed to me, but it’s so. much. fun. Murdertron Bandcamp

Andrew Diehl & the Nightmen

Andrew is a dear friend from Lake Forest College, and he’s always been a blues wizard, but it’s always been on harmonica. He picked up guitar just a few years ago, and has been destroying it ever since. This album is a mixture of blues classics and his own songs, and I’m so, so proud of him for making this album — he becomes ascetically and insanely diligent in making his albums (even from my standards), and it’s paid off brilliantly. He’s the youngest kid in what seems a tough scene to break into, and he’s already owning it! Go Diehl!!! Andrew’s website

Contrary to my belief, this tour has indeed made me realize that yes, there are amazingly cool people everywhere in the world, who also make things just because their heart desires to, whose motives don’t lie in fame or fortune, but go no further than wanting to share music with friends in rehearsal spaces. However, everyone has their own idiosyncratic biases, and it is my prerogative (and yours too) to believe that we each live amongst the most talented, awesome people ever.

So I have waited in secrecy to tell you guys this for a while, and now that it’s finally ok to let the cat out of the bag, I am late in relaying it! What an idiot I am..!

A few months ago, a store from Japan called Disques Dessinee contacted me about selling some CDs, but also wished to release their own Japanese export edition of Sewing Pattern on their label, Production Dessinee. I was in complete awe at being asked, not only because I thought, “What, this flamboyant shit?” but especially because I really really REALLY love what music they have on their label: It’s a mixture between modern pop/rock music as well as bossa nova from the 50′s, 60′s, and 70′s.

So on July 13th, 2011 they released my album in their cute paper sleeved format, with the addition of a bonus track. For this, I submitted a recording of the 14-minute piece written for Michelle’s fashion show, “Chez Mignon”. Brian did the recording, mixing, and mastering, and as usual, he made it sound FANTASTIC! And to top it all off, the beautiful Brian Stark soloed over the last ‘movement’ of the piece, and it makes me giddy every time I hear it. Here is the track if you’d like to stream it:

I have feel so, so lucky to have met Production Dessinee — they’ve been amazingly kind in their words and gestures, and I’ll never forget such an experience! Please also check out these other artists and albums they house. This one is from Ray Wonder, a Swedish group from about a decade or two ago, I think. They are so energetic, playful, and incredibly endearing. The other clip is of Pierre Maizeroi, bossa nova dreamboat par excellence! I am so happy to get to be grouped together with these people! Production Dessinee is undoubtedly the label of my dreams!

I am leaving for 2 weeks to play bass for Health&Beauty’s tour this morning, and I feel paranoid. The sky looks ominous. The freezer seemed ominous. I’ve never been to Montreal or Vermont or any of these places really. I told my mom we would be safe!! ARE WE going to be safe?!

But I promise to catch up on blogging for each 5 hour stretch of travel time between states, for I must tell you about all the great/wonderful/horrible things that have happened this summer (“Great” being all the music our friends have made, “Horrible” being Graham’s severely sprained ankle)!

I shall leave you with this photo of my new sleeping bag! I’ve never had one before and thought the most sound choice would be this youth sleeping bag in a fox cover with ears and paws and a face ♥ It’s from Target.

I was so excited to be interviewed by Brendan Finucane, the founder of Soapbox Music! Soapbox is a place that does music and creativity in the rightest of right ways: fostering an incredibly positive creative community in assuring us all that we need not have tons of money or resources to make music, as we can all help teach and make music with each other, and collectively increase our knowledge, practice, and love for our skills and creations. Thank you for all you do, Brendan!

Please click the image to read the interview.

This Friday, Sewing Pattern will play at Schubas Tavern (3159 N. Southport) at 7pm sharp. It’ll be a short opening set for Danielle Ate the Sandwich, who will be super fun! A duo was requested for the bill, so it’s me on keys and L on violin, with our little drum machine! Come for a nice evening and eat with us afterwards – I love Schubas food…!

But before Havdalah is recited and I resume my lonely, creatively assiduous fate, let me present as brief of a slide show as possible of all the great things we’ve done in the last 3 months and haven’t gotten to tell you about, dear friends!:

♥ We spent 3 days at a cottage in Michigan where we had an entire beach to ourselves, melting in warm orange light and then to a red and plum sunset while listening to Arthur Russell and Destroyer. Please listen to these two tracks and close your eyes, and I will say nothing more…..

♥ We visited the Garfield Park Conservatory and the Cultural Center’s Project Onward exhibit — how have I managed to not visit these places before?! Project Onward is a gallery / treasure trove where artists with mental or developmental disabilities create art, and it’s motherfucking so great, so honest, and amazing. And the conservatory is a wonderland!!! My favorite is the Palm Room. It’s absolutely humbling to see these palm fronds that are bigger than buildings we spend billions to construct. It really sends one’s ego plummeting back down where it belongs, in the most lovely way.

♥ Celebrated Easter with yet another perfect Kilimanjaro family dinner. I love them all so much! The catch this time was dressing all the boys up to match me and Michelle’s pastel raiments. The feast consisted of Michelle’s cranberry-walnut salad, Daniel’s “stick-to-your-ribs” curry stew (full of melted down potatoes, beans, rice, mushrooms, veggies, ahh), Ueli’s amazing roasted garlic chicken, and my chocolate-coconut milk-ganache in an almond shell tart. Doesn’t everyone look so so good in our family portrait??!

♥ Book wise, I’ve been loving my introduction to Truman Capote with In Cold Blood (what beautifully structured sentences and phrases behind the guise of sturdy, humble journalistic prose!), Arthur Miller with Death of a Salesman (the first modern play I’ve read, I’ve never imagined the layers of juxtaposed narratives you can fabricate in that medium before), Phillip Roth with Sabbath’s Theatre (so flourishingly vile), and Homer’s Illiad (WHAT THE FUCK I’M REALLY ADDICTED! I’M HALF WAY THROUGH!).

♥ Tons of Prince that I never really paid attention to. Oh my lord I can’t stop listening to Prince. How have I missed Prince?! He’s influenced every artist and album and anything that is about sex that I’ve ever encountered (though the last doesn’t really say much for him).

♥ A lot of daisy chain making in parks for Michelle, for Brian outside his house, etc…

♥ On the music front, I’ve been recording, editing, and mixing/mastering the “Chez Mignon” track, which I must hide from you all for now (Secrets!). This last weekend, I just sat and watched Brian mix and master the 14-minute track from start to finish, and holy shit, he’s a magician…

But let it be known that from this day forth, I shall be climbing back down into the despondent but ultra-productive hole that is my creative process, and digging down into a brand new musical project, as well as immersing myself in fresh guitar, jazz, and sewing lessons, and I can’t wait to tell you about all the new inspirations I encounter! Please don’t let me climb out again until I have a new project — I have tasted freedom and I like it too much! Kick me back down please!! And so I offer a hecatomb to the muses and pray for creative divination, and down I go, back into the crevasse…….

So I am unintentionally yet right on target, I’ve come to realize, for my customary, post-CD-release-show stupor where I don’t know what is up and what is down, I don’t remember that the internet exists, and I’m simply out of commission! But I MUST tell you about what is going on tomorrow, and what I am blessed to get to participate in!

Do you know what it’s like to witness an entire season of Project Runway unfold right in your own apartment, in front of your own eyes? Well yeah it’s the fucking best thing ever in the world!!! I have been so privileged as to witness Michelle Dimitris — the most talented and beautiful girl in the world — build her fashion line, Dollparts, completely from the ground up. A fashion line constructed out of reused, vintage garments, they are all the prettiest, florally abundant masterpieces! We here at Kilimanjaro have gotten to watch her successfully fund her Kickstarter back in November, watch her design, pattern, and construct each garment, and now it’s time to see it all glow on the runway show!

This Friday, April 1st, Michelle is celebrating and hosting a fashion event at Elastic Arts Foundation called Chez Mignon: A House of Pretty Things. It will showcase Dollparts as well as 5 other designers and vintage sellers. Also present will be prints by local photographers, including our very dear roommates and friends Bodywallet, Shannon Driscoll, and AlderEgo. (Oh the talented people we get to be so close to!) Sewing Pattern is also dying with happiness to get to participate in Chez Mignon. We’ll be playing the reception starting at 7pm, as well as the runway show at 8pm, where we will debut a piece written specifically for the event! (Lite disco is the name of the game, friends). Afterwards, Deep Deep Diver (the band of the frightfully talented Ben Para) will kick off the sale event, which runs for 2 hours.

I can’t begin to explain to you how inspiring it is to see Michelle create this all. All throughout this previous winter, I’d come out of my room and bitch and sigh endlessly about whatever stage of making the album I was at. But to then, in turn, see her absolutely crush her goal of curating an entire blissful night of fashion, art, and music, as well as craft a whole collection of the most wonderful pieces of clothing, with nothing but the best attitude and the strongest diligence and without so much as a frown ever… it’s supremely awe-inducing.

You guys have to come out, simply because everything that comes from the hands of Michelle is beautiful, and tomorrow night you will be in house of her creation…

p.s. – Daniel made a flyer too……..

I woke up the morning after the show expecting to feel like I slept for a hundred years. But instead I felt as if I had never gone to sleep and, glancing at the clock, realized I had barely gone to sleep. Every day since then, it’s been the same — I don’t think I’ve yet kicked the adrenaline high of what was the most amazing night EVER.

Oh boy, Old Town School of Folk Music, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways… Well, let’s just start by saying that it is the closest I will ever come to being treated like a queeeeeeen.  Their assistance far surpasses hospitality, and approaches munificence! The least impressive treatment was the spread of fruit, hummus, snacks, and mixture of hand picked midwest microbrews in a cooler (with a paper bag oh-so-cutely placed under the table specifically for you to keep your leftovers, and to instantly void our heathen band jokes about stuffing everything in our back packs…).

Now the venue itself… oh my, is the sound HEAVENLY. But more impressively, I’ve never seen a venue that can feel simultaneously so regal and yet so uncondescending but instead, cozy and humble. There couldn’t have been a bad seat in the house, and those handsome walls conduced nothing but warmth and empathy from the audience directly to the stage where, behind me, stood the best group of people anyone could ever hope to play music with. It was Andrew Young on bass, Brian J Sulpizio on drums, Jin-Huon “L” Jou on violin, Rachael Smith on flute, Kate Otto on background vocals and hand percussion, and Daniel on keys and background vocals. Of all the compliments people gave after the show, the best was that we looked like we definitely enjoyed each other’s company. Fucking hell yes I love their company, have you met each of them??!! It’s impossible not to!!

Last but not least — as if that wasn’t enough — on the opposite of the stage were all my friends who, after months and months of me hiding away to work on this, came out to the show. The sheer amount of love I felt that night is absolutely guilt-inducing…

The night after my show, I made dinner for friends (I’m foraying into the stuffing of peppers) which sealed the celebration of the end of a paradigm. Farewell to diligence that is so dense that it leads to consciously barring the world from you! Farewell to fearing time and order! It’s finally time to take in everything that I’ve ever wanted to meet. The endless list of books, exhibits, movies, sounds, skills, places, ah! They’re all ours!

For starters, if I could get off of this adrenaline rush and revive my need for sleep or food, that’d be kind of nice… I’m gonna give it a couple more days.

Here is the official poster of the event!

Canasta writes: “We’re proud to unveil the screenprinted poster for our upcoming Old Town School show w/ REGO and Sewing Pattern. It arrives courtesy of the ultra-talented Phineas X. Jones, whose work you may recognize from Lollapalooza posters and Half Acre cans: www.phineasxjones.com.”

Meanwhile, my CDs are being shipped over from Curtis at SpinDisc media! It’s all coming together, guys, the keys to my freedom!