this could be the most exciting post i've ever written. just look at what i found on youtube tonight. old school oliver videos. if you don't know about my man oliver, check it. a singing sensation, sex symbol, talented writer, icon, living legend, and dare i say it...... 'the prized jewel of the adriatic." this man single handedly took the yugoslavian pop song out of the country and gave it to the world. let's take a look at the vintage oliver i dug up and take a moment to soak in this genius.





in this clip we have oliver with his long time time writing partner zdenko runjić killing it at the split festival in 1978. watch the way he accepts his award. and when the band starts in and the back-up singers are out of tune, does oliver give a shit? no! he just won the best singer in the world award. like he has anything to prove at this point. let them sing out of tune. and watch at the end of the song when the lights go down and the credits roll. he shut down split '78. who's going to follow that act? tomislav ivcic? give me a break!!! this is classic oliver.





this is a short one. live from 1980, oliver singing 'oprosti mi, pape' which translates into 'forgive me, father.' here we see a different oliver than the clip from above. here we have a vulnerable oliver asking forgiveness from his father when he realizes he turns out just like him. turns out oliver can be a dick from time to time. it sounds like a familiar song because of the countless number of rip-off songwriters with their ears pointed towards the adriatic.





so you think you appreciate stairs? bullshit! here is oliver's tribute to stairs. the video features oliver and a whole lot of stairs! oliver's favorite. the song deals with stairs and how they mirror human existence. "climbing and falling," sings oliver in his usual "i couldn't give two shits about what you losers think of me" attitude.




you don't have the grapes to write a song about a seagull, so just leave it to oliver! here he is tripping out on a seagull. the song 'galeb i ja' translates into 'my seagull' and boy is it ever! some of the lyrics roughly translates into "inspirations take flight on wings of gold." this could be the national anthem one day. now sit back and listen to this song from start to finish. i'm serious. it's the 'stand by me' of the balkans.

and then add him as your myspace friend.

our last two shows were in phoenix and tucson. two of my favorite places on this planet. from san diego we got to phoenix dodging a nearly deadly encounter with border patrol. if you have never been stopped by the border patrol, let me tell you, it sucks. the not being able to say anything to the person next to you. the potential long lonely nights in prison. and those idiot dogs.


got sean home in time to make love and for ben and i to break at least $100 worth of shit at starbucks. our remedy for the situation. just leave.

we got to the show and i got to see some of my favorite people. including david jensen who just sent me a copy of his new cd 'art for starters' which has rocked me for months now. the 'after party' got me way sick and from this point on i can't remember much. getting turned away from a barbershop. having a wonderful midnight drive with meghan l. and one hell of a late night with mr. ryan. driving home through the morning to see my niece turn two and then falling asleep for most of it.

it was a beautiful thing for me this tour. i think of every great thing i do to be my last stand. and if this was then im happy about it.

after about a week i started feeling better about myself. i keep singing the songs we played on tour over and over. those boys are the real thing. they keep pulling me back into a world i don't get to see very often these days. here's us in the digital age.

i love this place. the boat house in san diego is for me the best night on the tour. a liquor store right across the street. all my friends from 'visions of a dying world' and the night i met josh peterson. check out the action.

it doesn't get much better than this. long beach at the hickey underworld with cmg. it was a pretty great homecoming. i don't know who took these pictures, but thanks. i do know you go by the name "interrupt_thiscall" on flickr. i'll be waiting for the cease and desist letter. but until then, enjoy!




how about some in black and white?

the bigfoot ranch is this great place in san francisco where they love beyonce so i gave em what they were asking for. its a place where they buy like 20 wine in a box boxes and then remove the box part and throw them onto a table where they sit looking like bags full of urine and then people pass out in the bathroom and you go and get mc donalds. this was a really fun show. i was sleeping downstairs and heard this noise that wouldn't quit in the morning so i got up and went upstairs and found a phone's alarm going off, set to vibrate, in the bottom of a trashcan filled to the top with what appeared to be used tissues from bottoms. here are the highlights.




thank you for the memories bigfoot ranch and for letting the old man moonlight as a college kid who really digs 'the punk' as the kids call it. im not even being sarcastic.

portland. sean bonnette killing this song 'candle in the wind'.



the artistry ruled pretty hard that night.

here's what two men in love look like.
portland was all right. in the morning we had breakfast with the ladens and this happened.

when your friends call up and say, "dude, we're totally going on tour!", 99% of the time you can bet that you're totally not going on tour. but this time it happened. flew up to seattle the day before new years to party with my drum life partner jens and then got dropped off at the school of rock to begin massive tour plans. i hadn't practiced because i refused to believe that this could happen. i thought my showbiz days were over. so i sat with ben and practiced songs and helped mix down a song with ben for a record he'd been working on and then sean flew in and then we were putting together albums for ben and i guess tour officially started. it was an awesome day.

the tour was born out of the hard work of one sean bonnette, a frenchman with the heart of a pug. he hails from pheonix, arizona and is 1/2 of a band called 'the andrew jackson jihad'. he is also an awesome guy. ben barnett used to be in a band called 'kind of like spitting' and i used to be in that band with him in my younger days. also a great dude. ten day tour. i'll put up highlights as soon as i get them. here are some pictures from our first show at the healthy times fun club.

this is the year of the CMG record. ten years in the making. the deadline is 2010 and i think we got this. here are a few pictures the man himself setting tempos for the 2nd half of the album.

it's official. old people are cuter than babies. i was doing some "research" about copyright laws and i came across this. and i know you might have seen this and maybe its a commercial for mountain dew but it made me smile at 3:30 in the morning so its going up.



p.s. she's dead. here's the tribute.

i think it only took me fifteen years, but my friends and i finally got us a real practice space. i finally feel like i'm in a band. so this is my studio, a desk in the corner. it's all i really need. the space sounds like crap though. sound bounces off everything and the walls are paper thin with a hardcore band on one side (tijuana knife fight) and a death metal band on the other. but i call it home. i started to record a few things. i plan to post something by the end of the week. let's see a few photos from the camera phone.

here we have the control room. my set up right now is a 7 year old i book with a 7 year old mbox and a lamp.



now lets move on to the tracking room. a $50 mxl mic, 80's pearl drum kit and a bob marley poster.

and this incredible view of the port. sometimes i look out into the distance and think about how i should give up music and get a steady job at the port, but then i look up at the bob marley poster and forget about what i was thinking about.

but i am excited to get to work on some new music and also recording the rest of the "cmg and we are the night band" record. 2009 might be my year? let's hope so.