Hmmm. First, the good bits of this story. We played our fourth show with this core band line-up last night down in Huntington Beach. The music was good, the sound was good, and the audience was into the music. We weren’t sure how it was going to go down with this crowd though because it was a bit of a dive bar and the other bands were a bit harder sounding. So we rocked the songs up a bit and had a really good time. Good, good, and good.

But then there was also an element to this place that was pure shit and an in-your-face reminder that there is a lot of hateful ignorance left in America. Although most of the crowd seemed totally cool, there were a few skinheads and other assorted white supremacists. Unfortunately, Huntington Beach is known for being a little bit backward and having a very visible number of these people there, but like I said, not all of the people there were like that and we very much appreciated that we got to meet some very cool people too. After the show though, one of my friends who was helping to sell CDs got turned away by a group of locals who said “yeah, they look like a bunch of nigger lovers”. Hmmmm. The depths of ignorance seem to have no limits. I’m not sure what secret super powers they were using to look into our souls, but in a very twisted way I guess what they were saying was a compliment.  There are times though that I just like to pretend I’m a different species than people who can really believe that type of hate.

Anyway, this story just seemed even more relevant because of the recent news stories about the increase in people joining white supremacist groups. They’ve been gaining membership by playing on the fears generated by the shit economy and blaming Obama and illegal immigration. It’s a perfect opportunity for these fears and twisted individuals to take people who don’t understand basic economics and turn them into snarling and spitting ugly assholes. It wasn’t Obama who got us into this mess, and it wasn’t ‘illegal’ immigrants that tanked the economy. It was a bunch of (mostly) white men on Wall Street, in the previous White House, in the halls of Congress, and in the banks, who got us into this mess.

So, I guess it’s just another reminder that we’re still partially living in the dark ages. I take a small measure of satisfaction though in that we’re at least making progress.

¡¡¡SIGH!!!

Comrades,

I have been wanting to do this forever, and now finally my online store allows it: You can now choose your price that you would like to pay for my album ‘Mercy’. After you have put in the amount you want to pay, and made your payment, you’ll immediately be given a link to download the MP3s for ‘Mercy’.

Click Here To Pay What You Like For Mercy

I’m glad I can make my music available to you at a price you can afford no matter what your situations is. Thanks for your support.

Cheers,

SJ

Friends,

I am playing a benefit show in Mission Viejo, California, for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. It’s a yearly event to raise money to fight cancer. This year the event is on June 6, and I’ll be playing at 7PM.

1 in 3 persons will get cancer in their lifetime. I have been affected my cancer from multiple different angles in my life. I think if we set a goal to cure cancer, like we set goals to eradicate polio, put a man on the moon, end slavery, and do a whole bunch of other things that people said we couldn’t do, then we can also get together and cure cancer.

I’m also raising money for the American Cancer Society for the event. You can follow this link and donate $10, $20, $50, or $100 to cure cancer:

Make a donation here

Thank you for doing your part.

Cheers,

SJ

We lost our cellist this week, this time it was alien abduction.

So now I’m reaching out to you to ask if you or anybody you know might be a really good cellist with a great attitude and a desire to play with Saint John and the Revelations. It’s fun, challenging, and a downright good laugh to play in this band. Send me a note on MySpace if you want to come and try out.

Cheers,

SJ

Friends,

You can now download the MP3s for the ‘Mercy’ album for only $5. They’re encoded at high quality and sound very good, I tested each one personally.

Click here to download

Cheers,

SJ

Comrades,

I am opening my recording studio to singer-songwriters. I would love to help produce your music and get it sounding great for a super reasonable price. Send me a message and let me know about your music and what you’re looking to do. :: Click here to email me ::

If you are looking for examples for what I can produce in my studio, go check out my MySpace page, the songs from my most recent record ‘Mercy’ are up there and they were all produced by me in my studio. The studio has a lot of great warm tube gear and I have so much fun recording music and coming up with ways of making it sound great.

I look forward to hearing your music. 

Cheers,

SJ

I had a really good show at La Cave in Costa Mesa last night. We brought a band called Quebb from Venice with us, and pulled in a local guy, Daniel Valoff, to open the night with some very fine music. The venue was dark and vary cave-y, and the sound was very good (we ran the sound board, so of course it sounded good).  We have a bunch of shows to play before we get super tight, but it was a lot of fun and it has just made us more excited to get out there and play even more often. Check our upcoming shows schedule, they’re going to be a lot of fun.

A couple of judges in Pennsylvania plead guilty to a kickback scheme of where they got money from a privately run youth detention center company. They are accused of sending kids to this private jail in exchange for money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?_r=1

The article makes no mention of these types of companies also lobbying state governments for tougher (and more) laws that put more people in jail, but it also happens. The moral of the story is that if somebody can make a profit from putting people in jail, more people are going to be put in jail.  It’s probably not a good idea to let private companies into the justice system if you want anything that even resembles justice rather than a profit motive.

I barely slept this weekend, and was completely exhausted last night. Sleep felt like a miracle. Now I’m about to go into hibernation to see how much I can get recorded if I do almost nothing else. I won’t be going out at all (except for the shows we have scheduled to play) and will only have visitors over briefly to make sure I don’t go completely crazy in isolation.

There are a handful of different ways in which I write songs. Sometimes I’m inspired by somebody saying something, or seeing something interesting, a book, a movie, or the news, etc. etc. One of the weirder ways that I write songs though is sometimes they sort of stew inside of me until they’re ready to come out. I can’t hear them yet, but I can feel them inside of me. They linger for a while, and then I can start to feel them pushing out, kind of like musical contractions. It’s probably the closest thing I’ll come to being pregnant, thankfully without the stretch marks and morning sickness. Well, I think my water just broke. I’m looking forward to hearing what comes out. 

Anybody want to eat the placenta?