Day 241: Daily Titan

Rounding out the scoundrel week, we made the newspapers of Cal State Fullerton when we played there on Monday. You can

You can

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Check this out over here.

First I will tease you with this:

When was the last time you felt like a fool?

Mine was today when I walked into Autozone. I was trying to find something to do while my laundry was in the laundry mat, and I thought, "I bet I could change my own oil." I had seen numerous individuals of my same gender do this, so I knew that with my chromosomes, it was possible. I pulled up to Autozone and headed for the door. But while walking through the entrance, just as the mosquito fan blew me off, I began to feel naked, realizing how little I knew about one of the pillars of American culture: cars. I was about to look like every eager beaver you've ever seen.

When you're in that moment, the moment of being new at something, you feel like what happens there has the potential to make you shudder for years as you remember it. Some of your best qualities - drive, earnestness, optimism, courage, persistence - which come in so handy at other times, can turn on you in a second, taking you from uneducated to foolish in a flash.

Walking into the store, I began sizing things up, and realized pretty quick I'd have to talk to somebody. Hmmm...busy with someone there, busy there. busy......inventory guy. Okay. Deep breath. But on my way over to him, somehow my feet turned another way and my hands started rummaging through something. I was suddenly enthralled with the section of Autozone that could only be interesting when you're trying to avoid one of the most feared male scenarios: trying to do something you don't know how to do in front of another dude.

Jorgé was neither impatient nor compassionate towards me. Instead, he had the true male reaction, which was to recognize a source of revenue and exploit it. Within seconds, Jorgé had me feeling all kinds of oil changey, showering me with this and that, all of it imperative to doing this thing right. "Do I really need hand cleaner?" "Well, I mean, yeah, motor oil is very hard to clean off." I don't know, man, I've had paint on my hands before and soap seemed to do me just fine.

It was only after coming home with the jack, oil pan, shop towels, hand cleaner, Castrol GTX and a funnel that I realized the ultimate response to being exploited. Do you want to know? I should have asked Jorgé whether he needs shop towels and a funnel when he's servicing a car.

Dang, wish I had thought of that when I was at Autozone.

Like a true man, though, my finishing thought is, "yeah, but now I totally know how to change oil."

Day 240: Aaron made Brand X

Check it out, we're legit in LA, we're legitimate Angelinos.

I feel weird posting this about myself, but I'm consoled by the fact that I'd do it to anyone else in the band.

It's from this week's issue of a part of the LA Times called Brand X, which is a weekly vibe-oriented mag they put out in boxes around the city each week. Believe it or not, the photographer used an iPhone to take this shot. Check out her other stuff, it's rad.

Day 239: Kosher Dillz / Flex Mathews

These two dudes stayed at our house last night. Bomb!

Day 238: Skittles

Fun

Day 236: The Black Belles

Jack White influenced, but no doubt good in its own right. Try it out!

Day 235: Self Promo cion

Here's a new vid. It combines three of our favorite awesome shows from the past while. Fans, great job. Everyone dreams of having fans like ER fans.

Los Angeles - Santa Barbara - Provo

Next week, if you're near Fullerton, California, it's really cool news for you: we're playing a show there on Tuesday night. It's going to be such a jam. Join the thing online if you're into it.

Don't worry about the frivolous things. You get a lot of mileage out of doing one thing really well. One old hairy, happy business man once said that every year, he picks one thing, the most important thing he wants to accomplish that year, and then does that. Another old man who's lived a long time and knows things lots of people don't said that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Our main thing is making tons and tons of music. Writing it, recording it, playing it for you. Fields and fields of music. Holes of music. Beards of notes. Sock drawers of lyrics. Kiddie pools of riffs and cheddar. Busloads of beats. Garage fulls of melodies. Basements of verses. Playgrounds of choruses.

What's your main thing? Does it freak you out to actually think of it? Did you ever think you'd do it? What does your mom say about it? How hard is it to do? Are you a bombshell? Can it fit inside a microwave? Do you need help?

Bow. Curtsey.

Day 233: More RnB Bible

THE BOOK OF ONE WAY

Lady You are

Chapter 1

1. I've been with you for awhile now, and you're still so nice.

2. Not like all the others I've been around,

3. Who love to fuss and fight.

4. You've changed in no way.

5. You're always at your best.

6. I love your style, your personality.

7. You're better than the rest.

8. You're so considerate when it comes to me.

9. I'm so glad to have you; so splendid you are to me.

10. I love your everything

Chapter 2

1. 'Cause you're a lady.

Chapter 3

1. Lady you are

2. You're a lady, and I'm so proud of you.

3. You're so sweet and innocent in all the things you do

4. Not to mention your lovely smile, so plentiful and true

5. You've changed in no way.

6. You're always at your best, I guess that's why I really love you.

7. You try so hard for me.

8. Multitude, self gratitude you deserve in every way.

9. Astonishing you are to me; I love your everything.

10. 'Cause you're a lady, lady you are

11. You're a lady. And I'm so proud of you.

12. Laaaa-daaay!

13. I-I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I ever lost you, no, no.

14. I love the way you carry yourself

15. 'Cause you're a lady

listen along

Day 232: It's not funny

Believe it or not, these guys are on our radar this year. Tim and Eric (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) "They were comissioned by Absolut Vodka to make a film for their website. They were told they could do anything they wanted as long as they mentioned the product."

If you ai in LA to-nite, Chinatown yes! Click this facebook event to gouge out some time for it. How else will you have such fun?

Girl, it's computers that keep us together, computers that break us apart. Love really doesn't matter at all. Let's take a dry land boat down the LA river and ride the runoff. Who knows what will happen to us? In two years, you could be with some other fancy dude. And I could be milking cows in Babylon. Cherish the treasure together. Share us the bleasure. Lattice the smashed ice. Memorize the memory, because it won't erase until you get amnesia and Anne has to take care of you. She won't mind, in fact, it's her favorite thing.

Day 230: Show announced

Announcement:::::

ER will play a show in Utah featuring the works of artist Jesse Royston. Get ready.

ER featuring Utah artist Jesse Royston

March 27, 2010

Velour Live Music Gallery

135 N University Ave

Provo, UT

8:00 pm

Other bands to be announced

Here is a sneak preview of a painting titled: Semi Spiced Spine (inspired by ER's Soy Sauce Sailor)

Day 228: They just have such thing-a-lings

For a band that's done being a band, there's sure a lot of stuff happening. Usually wouldn't do two in a row about the same thing (unless it's us) but you can't help it with this song.

tandemoro - diamonds from fabian röttger on Vimeo.

It's done by other friends of ours, A Nice Idea Every Day. You should check out other stuff they've done by going to their website, aniceideaeveryday.com. They're nice people, Vivien and Fabien. Nice people with nice ideas. Nice one. Nice.

Check? Check one two three? Is this thing working? Can you hear my ting ting? What denomination of funk gospel are you? When do you pick up a service? I need to tell you something. Please don't change your worship time in the church of funkology. It's inconsiderate. Lest you be laughing with the la las. Lest you linger on their languishberries. Lest you lodge something in your lozenge.

Day 225: The Freebie

Here's some cool news.

-Friends of ours, formerly Tandemoro, got one of their songs into a movie "The Freebie"

-The movie just got a deal! check that out

-The Freebie will be in theaters this summer

-Even better, Aaron knows some of the crew of this movie, and says "those guys are alright!"

Day 223: Earth Room

Just found out about this Earth Room in New York. You buzz to get in from the street entrance, and you can go upstairs to see Walter De Maria's work: 140 tons of dirt in a loft.

Day 220: Resa

We will have seen Resa by the time you read this.

It's hard for me. It's hard for me to get into a band by listening to its myspace. And yet it has happened, for the first time this year, with Resa. Wow, their myspace is bad. The colors are worse than ours used to be. But their music did it for me today.

When I listened to them in mono.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me esplain. Okay, yes, I'll do it. I have some speakers by my desk that I listen to music on. They're pretty big and far apart. I mixed both of our albums on them. Anyway, I have a mono button next to my computer. When you push it, it combines the left and right sound into one sound. It gets rid of that wide stereo sound and makes it sound like how it would sound if you were hearing it out of an old truck - with one speaker. Or, it's kind of like black and white instead of color.

Resa sounded way better in mono for some reason. It's not logical. Isn't that wide, huge stereo sound supposed to be...awesome? I would try it every so often during their songs just to make sure. Nope. I think it's because their music fills up one speaker perfectly. You don't want all that detail with them. In stereo, I feel like I'm examining the drums scrupulously, noticing the guitars that you're not supposed to notice.

Great stuff, Resa. Very real, no fluff here.

A few examples of songs in mono:

Good Vibrations - Beach Boys

You Really Got Me - The Kinks

Tired of Being Alone - Al Green

Maybe I'm not the first person to have said all this. But I might be the first person YOU know who said all this.

Update: went to see Resa tonight with Fictionist and they made the live connection. Resa's lead singer even looks awesome, especially on the high notes. Plus they were all genuine guys to meet.

Day 218: John Lennon

Here's a look at the 1969 John Lennon, that peace loving, beard growing thinker who would soon leave the Beatles.

The info reads:

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short and won the 2009 Emmy for 'New Approaches' (making it the first film to win an Emmy on behalf of the internet).

How about it. Peace.

Day 215: Neon Trees

A forest of Neon Trees is engulfing LA this week. We heard them on KROC this week in LA. Tony was at Autozone.

Mech: "No way, you know these guys?" It rings true, they've been great to us through the years. Like us, they moved to LA in hopes of a bright future. So cheers to an act that sprung from Provo.

Play

Go here to download their music from iTunes.

WHERE WE'RE AT: Welcome to the wonderful world of Spencer's on a cruise. While he's having a ball, you're having a ball. While he's in the sun, you're in the sun. While he's rocking from side to side, you're rocking from side to side. Dual exhaust snores. Pumpkin pie tie. Microwave oven pooch. Just tie the whiskers together and dot the indian.

Enjoy the next week of things.