Chris will be performing with both Victor Krummenacher and Greg Lisher at the First Annual Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven Camp Out.

WHAT: Two day music festival and camp out in the high desert of Southern California.

WHEN: Friday and Saturday, September 9th and 10th. Everything starts Friday evening and goes past midnight. Saturday picks up again around 3pm and goes past midnight again.

WHERE: Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace - inside and out in Pioneertown, CA.

Hope to see you there!

Here we are again, the start of the..... man, I quote that way too much. Anyhow, here it is tomorrow... I mean summer again. Lots of stuff comin' up at Magnetic Recording. Before we get to the future, let's cover the past and what's happening now:

The new Victor Krummenacher CD, Nocturne, is finally "officially" released, and you can hear a sample over on my Downloads page. It's a really good record, and my involvement with it is more on the performing than producing side (though I did get cred for that). Victor and I will also be finishing up work on his release of covers and demos for Nocturne. That CD is entitled Sans Soleil and I feel it puts quite an interesting perspective on the Nocturne CD, a definite companion piece.

The Fat Bottom Girls show at The Eagle Tavern back in February was a huge success and a ton of fun. Check out the clip of our big finale with "Bohemian Rhapsody". Thanks to Doug for taking the time to put that video clip up on his site, since I've been so lame NOT to put it up on mine. Also back in Feb, the first ever Drop Quarters gig was quite amazing and rather well received (who'd a thunk it). Thanks again to Jeff Potts, Patrick Goodwin and Nick Ulman for backing me up. They are so awesome (and check out Dirty Power's new album when you get a chance). The moth wranglers tour and SXSW appearance was pretty smashing (almost literally) as well. Don't forget, you can still pickup your very own Down With People tour t-shirt, payable through PayPal. Still plenty on hand, especially in 5XL.

Now that gigs are done, it's back down to work in the studio. In recent months, we've completed mastering (with John and JJ Golden) for the new Pansy Division CD, to be released by Alternative Tentacles on August 12. I'm very psyched. It's been a lot of hard work over the last year, and I'm glad to see this CD will be released for everyone to dig. Thanks Jello! Also, John Ashfield has been in to Magnetic Recording, tracking drums (with Jeff Potts) for his new solo album. He'll be back in to MR in July, to do basic tracks for the new Bobbleheads CD. Both CDs will be released simultaneously some time this fall. Also for a (hopefully) fall release, we've been working on putting together a new moth wranglers mini-album. We're almost done with remixes and such, and that should be released on Magnetic sometime October/November.

After the year-long Pansy Division project. I'm hoping to try and do a few more brief(er) projects coming up. As I had mentioned the Bobbleheads and John Ashfield projects will be coming in and out of MR this summer, with John doing overdubs and mixing at his studio. Also, there will be basic tracks cut for new projects for I Think She's Tremendous and Greg Lisher (finally!), both of which should take me through sometime in the fall. Looking forward to working at Tiny Telephone for these basics sessions, again with Aaron Prellwitz as engineer. From his work on the Pansy Division project, this dude is the shit!

And yes...there are even more gigs coming up. I've got yet another Drop Quarters gig, this time completely solo (first time ever), on July 19 at The Garage in Winston-Salem, NC for the release party for Every Word, the Let's Active Tribute album (mentioned in my last news posting). It's going to be a very weird gig for me. I hope I make it through without being completely ill. The featured event of that show will be Mitch Easter's new band, The Fiendish Minstrels, performing an entire set of Let's Active tunes. At this point, I'm slated to follow the Minstrel's set..... so, you can see the pressure will be on.

Then for more insanity, My Best Friend's Girlfriends will be performing the entire first Cars album and maybe the song "Candy-O" (in drag of course!) in celebration of Doug Hilsinger's birthday, at The Eagle Tavern, SF on June 26. Come out and watch me do my best mono-synth solos, as I'm playing keyboards for the gig! Hope to see you there.

I hope everyone is well and having a great year so far. It should be a really fun summer!

Oh yeah almost forgot..... the Bulb Records 10th anniversary festival in Detroit was amazing. 25 Suaves is the fucking shit... and Andrew W.K. was alright too. I'm off to the 2nd Tape Op Convention this weekend in Portland, OR. Should be a big mind fuck, as it was last year. Maybe see ya there.

I've survived my 39th birthday and subsequent karaoke party, and now looking ahead to an excellent, if not busy year.

First order of business will be to put the finishing touches on the Pansy Division project. Yes, even 6 months was rather fast for a project of this size. Hopefully that means I'm getting better/stronger/faster (w/o costing 6 million dollars). Hoping to see this released sometime this year (fingers crossed), cause it's fucking great IMHO.

Probably the most exciting news of all is that I'll be playing my first ever "solo" gig coming up this February. This will be the long awaited debut of Drop Quarters, an idea that's been kicking around since around the demise of KM back in '94. You can find details for the gig over in the Drop Quarters section of the site here. I'm totally psyched for this gig and I'm hoping that everyone I know in the world will come out for the show (or at least those in close proximity to San Francisco). Also on the DQ tip, the Let's Active song I recorded this past summer will be released as part of the Let's Active tribute CD, on the Laughing Outlaw in Australia. This CD should be available for purchase in the US. If anyone is interested in buying a copy, I'll do my best to hook you up with one. More details on this once they become available.

The early part of the year also has me hauling ass on completing the new moth wranglers CD, for release (again hopefully) sometime this fall. Within all that work will also encompass.....the first ever moth wranglers TOUR!!! We're looking towards LD and I not killing each other and actually have a good, if not interesting, time playing in cities up and down the west coast, as well as Chicago and (maybe) SXSW 2003 in Austin. It'll be weird to do 7 gigs in one month, as that's about the total amount we've ever done in our 4 1/2 years working together. Maybe by the time we get to Seattle, we'll be way hella tight!!

As reported in the last news update, I was to be recording the new Greg Lisher solo album during this time. The start date for that project had to be postponed (and of course all of this other stuff filled in its place). However, it looks like we're be back on the boards for April and we'll be able to slam right through it. Greg's project should take me through the summer, just in time for the new mw release and maybe a bit of mw touring after that.

2003 has been boarded. Let's push back and take off!

Man, I've never been so insanely busy in my entire life. The Pansy Division project has been coming along SLOWLY, but the results have been really great. We're looking at completing mixes by Thanksgiving, hopefully mastered by January and in everyone's hands sometime late Spring 2003. PD has got some great songs with this batch, so my suggestion is leave your inhibitions at the door and listen without prejudice. (I know, I'm gross).

moth wranglers will be performing their roping and branding act during the CMJ Music Marathon. Look for us scouting the halls of the Hilton by day (searching for potential victims), and then bringing it all to the stage at the Galapagos Art Space in wonderful Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Saturday night, November 2. We're going on at either 9PM or 10PM. Check the web site for the updated time, or just show up early to get a good seat in the splash zone.

The John Moremen EP is finally out, released by The Bus Stop label. It's quite the austere package, but the songs featured are pretty excellent. I'll be backing up John Moremen (along with Sneetches Mike Levy and Daniel Swan) every Wednesday night in November for John's residency at Thee Parkside. That last Wednesday night is just before Thanksgiving, so if you're not goin' out of town then come on down for a Friday night-like party. Rock out and work up that appetite for the next day (or just drink a lot and be hung over for dinner).

The new Victor Krummenacher CD, entitled Nocturne, is completed and should be released by Pitch-A-Tent in Feb/March or 2003. Look for samples in the Downloads section of xefos.com soon enough. Also, I recorded both nights of the recent (and awesome) Camper Van Beethoven reunion shows here in SF. Victor and I should be compiling those recordings soon, and we'll let you know where and when the release is planned for that.

And further on the CVB tip, the new Greg Lisher solo album is ready for boarding. Make certain to have your photo ID ready for inspection by the attendant at the gate, and be prepared for a possible random search from some (add your own comment here) TSA employee. Seriously, we begin tracking for Greg's new CD later next month. The rhythm section will be Victor Krummenacher on bass and Jim Bogios (from the Sheryl Crow band) on drums (psyched about that). We'll be tracking over in Oakland at Studio 880, the same tracking location for the recent Pansy Division and Victor Krummenacher recordings. I'm diggin' the room and the people over there. So far, so good. Let's hope it lasts.

The fine folks at Delusions of Adequacy have completed and posted to their site an interview with ME! Now I've done plenty of interviews before, but this is the first time an interview has ever focused on my own work exclusively, so I'm pretty psyched about that. The interview is actually a lot of fun cause it kinda reads like one of those 20 Questions email things you get every now and then (except you don't have to fill this one out and send it back (which I never do)). It's a pretty cool piece, and it was fun to do too. Check it out.

Well, the biggest portion of the news is that we got this damn news page up at all!! Thanks to Brad for bein' the best webmaster a guy could have at his disposal.

Anyhow, on to the rest:

Both the John Moremen and John Ashfield CD projects are DONE!!!! John Ashfield is currently selling copies of his CD, Harmony Bunny at his website. I think he's got samples of it up there, so you can check those out. John Moremen's CD will be an EP, released by The Bus Stop Label. Not yet sure of a release date, but you can check out www.johnmoremen.com for more info. As well as doing much of the engineering/editing for these projects, I ended up doing the mastering for them as well. "Guess I don't know my own strength"

SXSW 2002 was a super fun time and, after finishing the John projects, a much needed (working) vacation. Some of the highlights (besides the moth wranglers shows) were:

Shiner
Rebecca Gates
Jon Auer
Jim and Jennie & The Pinetops
Mahogany
Mr. Quintron and Miss Pussycat
Kreuz Market (in Lockhart, TX)

Our Austin host, Mr. Daniel Zmud was of invaluable assistance with most of our good time. We also got out to the Magnolia Café, Threadgills and the smoothies at Central Market are some of the BEST!

The new Victor Krummenacher CD is coming right along. We're about 1/3 of the way through editing, and if we keep up this blazing pace, we should be complete with the entire CD by sometime in June, almost two years from the completion of VK's previous CD (a new world record!) The band sounds awesome on the recordings, and if you want to witness that awesomeness LIVE, then come on out to The Fillmore in SF on 4/27 or The Catalyst in Santa Cruz on 4/28. The VK band will be opening for Cracker, so expect some whiskey flowing (though I won't be drinkin' that stuff).

I am set to produce the new Pansy Division CD during this summer. It will certainly mean long hours sitting in my "box" staring at the screen. I probably will not see many of my friends during that time, except for all of the cats that roam around my back yard. However, PD's got some cool songs that we demoed a few months back, so I'm psyched to do the full CD with them. We do basic tracking at Toast at the beginning of June, and we're looking to have the CD done by sometime in September (again goin' for the new record).

Hope to get a new moth wranglers EP together and (maybe) out by this fall. Just needs a few touch ups and then we'll be set to go. Stay tuned for that and www.magnetic-recording.com A new name, a new identity, a new... excuse to make myself crazy.

Oh, and look for me at the Tape Op Convention in Sacramento 'round June 1. I'll be hob-nobbin' with Steve Albini, Mitch Easter and a bunch of other geeks like me. Should be fun, despite that it is Sacramento.

The much anticipated full-length debut release from moth wranglers, "never mind the context" will be available October 2, 2001 from Magnetic.