Help a PIAS Label

Posted on August 9, 2011 by jvd

For those who haven’t heard, the Sony warehouse holding much of the yet-to-be distributed stock for PIAS distribution customers in the UK was burned last night. The story is here. This affects many independent labels from around the world, and will severely hurt them and the artists they work with. The full list of labels distributed by PIAS appears below.

If you’d like to help, follow a link to a label site and buy digital from their listed source.

Throwing Muses – Season Sessions

Posted on January 25, 2011 by jvd

Part of redesigning the blog was a commitment to using it more. I’m working on some writing that will come later this week, but I also want to start posting more design and art stuff. Who doesn’t like pictures?

These are the first two (of four total) covers for the “Season Sessions” by Throwing Muses. The Muses recorded live studio tracks to go along with the release Kristin’s book, Rat Girl. The music traces and at times guides her story, so I mixed the strong tactile descriptions from Kristin with my own New England memories and some simple photography to make these.

Fall

Winter

Goodbye, Tyler Jesus

Posted on January 24, 2011 by jvd

It pains me to say it’s time for something new. My patron saint, Tyler Jesus, is being retired. On to greener pastures, my friend. Please roll me a heavenly burrito in the sky and always keep the lime-aid flowing. Your inspiration, Tyler sans Jesus, will soon be living here in the beautiful state of Oregon so I’ll give him your best. Goodnight sweet taco god.

Tyler Jesus

Family of the Year artwork

Posted on September 28, 2010 by jvd

Worked in pictures from the von Doom summer fun, so I just wanted to post these somewhere.

Oregon, Here We Come

Posted on July 24, 2010 by jvd

The last bit of resistance has faded. My East Coast roots are apparently no match for the pull of the Pacific Northwest. After a lot of talking, dreaming, worrying, and more talking it comes to this: the von Doom family is moving to Portland.


This photo is freakishly accurate, as long as you’re willing to replace the little boy with a chihuahua and the gun with…well anything that’s not a gun.

Taryn and I have talked it over and feel that Portland’s a good fit for the family. I’ve spoken with a lot of people involved with CASH Music and it seems like a good fit for the organization too. So when I say “we’re moving” I mean everything. My family and I are headed out to Portland, OR in September and we’ll be bringing CASH Music to Portland too.

We looked at a few cities, but in the end Portland had the draw of friends and a great community, with all the West coast benefits of California. On a family level, Portland offers connections, great food, other young parents, and frankly the rents are more affordable than we’ve seen elsewhere. From the CASH Music perspective, Portland has an enthusiasm for nonprofits and social change, there’s a rich tech development scene, and the music community is second to none.

Moving cross country takes a lot of planning. We’re in the process of selling a lot of our stuff, packing up other stuff, and figuring out how to ship the big stuff. (Lots of stuff!) We’ve gotten transfer papers for the girls’ WIC account and we’re trying to figure out health insurance on the Oregon end. The biggest challenge, and the hardest thing to do from Rhode Island is for us to find a place to live.

We’ve been looking on Craigslist for a 3 bedroom place, and it looks pretty realistic that we could even find a small house to rent for $1300/mo or less. That’s a pretty big stretch for us — doing a startup nonprofit doesn’t exactly place you in a comfortable middle-class bracket — so we’re trying to find a rental in a good situation: a known landlord or friend with a house, a great close-in neighborhood, or a nice place further-out that might be less expensive. Any help would be greatly appreciated and repaid ten times over in cookies and curry.

Once we settle the housing thing it’s on to transferring the nonprofit, setting up regular CASH meetups, and all the other parts of establishing the organization as a part of the community. You know…no big deal.

So there’s clearly a lot ahead. Exciting times, but to sum it all up:

Oregon, ho!

My Favorite Song. Ever.

Posted on May 24, 2010 by jvd

My friend John IM’ed a few weeks ago. He told me to check out a dude named Benji Hughes. He even sent a few tracks. First was ‘Tight T Shirt,’ a fun kind of great song that reminded me of Beck. Next up was ‘Neighbor Down The Hall,’ lounge meets crooner meets indie. At this point I’m intrigued and immediately steal buy his debut record, A Love Extreme. It’s great, and all the lighthearted and diverse indie sound is balanced beautifully with a touch of country and some simple beauty in songs like ‘Girl In The Tower.’ I really can’t recommend the record enough.

So naturally I prepped a blog post about how Benji is a direct descendant of Norse gods, an amazing talent who should be immortalized in posters on every teen girl’s bedroom wall. I wanted to call for a movement of fifteen-year-old boys wearing fake beards and growing their locks long. To say I’m enraptured with his wild mountain-man looks balanced against delicate songwriting would be putting it lightly.

But then a few days later John tells me his (rad) label, vosotros, is putting out a split single with Benji featured on the A side over Willoughby on the B. Clicking through I found Benji’s track, ‘Country Love,’ and basically haven’t stopped listening to it since.

there

When I first started dating my wife I found a photo on the ground. Over seven years, two daughters, and five apartments I’ve kept this torn up, beat up, out-of-focus photo with me. It’s a picture of some trees, some grass, and a hazy sky. It’s the reason I work so hard, the thing I’m reaching for. It’s a photo of a place that I hope to find some day. I have a picture in my head of ten perfect years — I’ll work the other ninety or so to make those ten happen, and they’ll happen in that place in the photo.

Well ‘Country Love’ is the song that goes along with my photo. It became instantly important to me and my story. It’s a simple song, true country music with none of the genre trappings or bullshit cowboy-hat-macho bullshit that soaks through the commercial ‘country’ music. It tells a story, simply, and sells you on the romance of the American South. In your mind you can see Tennessee and it’s a perfect place to be, all the complications and realities of modern America stripped away. Every lyric carries meaning and is sung with emotion. It’s real. It’s full. It’s a wonderful piece of music.

And it’s the song that goes along with my dream.

Benji Hughes – Country Love

Get it: sargentrecords.com