Every so often, a Facebook status update comes along that, deep down, you know sounds too good to be true.
This was exactly the case late last night when we noticed (via their ReverbNation page) that the Lexington, Kentucky-based prog rock band Dream The Electric Sleep was playing at TBA in Charleston tomorrow, Thursday, February 23rd!
It was weird because we knew they were scheduled to play the V Club that night for a This Ain't No Disco show with our friends in Sly Roosevelt.
We knew this because we'd saved Jimbo Valentine's most awesome flyer to our desktop to remind us of the show daily. Maybe there was some scheduling snafu, and DTES was coming to Charleston, making it entirely possible that we could make it to said TBA venue, see the band, and then maybe camp out at the Transit Mall or something.
You know what they about stuff that sounds too good to be true. Just as we expected, after confirming it with bassist Chris Tackett, something silly happened deep inside of ReverbNation, and it confused Charleston for Huntington.
But make no mistake dear readers, just as you've come to expect subpar coverage here, Charleston's loss is Huntington's gain Thursday night. Dream The Electric Sleep and Sly Roosevelt have each been working on new stuff, and we'll look forward to hearing that when it is ready. DTES singer-guitarist Matt Page has dutifully and descriptively been keeping fans abreast of the writing and demo process on their site, even after the band released Acoustics and B-Sides, but the blog is something very cool to see if you're a big fan of the band.
And even though, in our heart of hearts, we knew that DTES wasn't coming to Charleston, we know this show Thursday in Huntington should be killer.
Jimbo Valentine stands in front of his Hank III mural outside the V Club. Valentine, known for his flyers and photos and art, takes his ambient/doom electronic music project Soul of the Phoenix out live for the first time tonite as part of This Ain't No Disco at the V Club
Reposted from The Huntington Herald-Dispatch
Nobody has been more instrumental in promoting Huntington-area rock shows over the past four years than James Alden Valentine III.
The 32-year old Fairmont native and Huntington resident has, through his Amalgam Unlimited screenprinting and design outfit, been making flyers and designing art for Huntington shows over the past few years, specifically for the V Club.
Whether it’s a big mural of Unknown Hinson on the side of the V Club, art for Hank III or Karma To Burn, band photos he’s snapped at the V, CD art he designs, or flyers, Valentine’s edgy work has been an important part of the Huntington scene.
Now, Valentine will unveil his long-running electronic musical side project, Soul of the Phoenix, live for the first time at the V Club Thursday night. Welcomed and brought out by his friend Brett Fuller (aka DJ Franklin F---in’ Furnace) for the “This Ain’t No Disco” series at the V, whether you call him a musician or not, you, like his many friends, can call Valentine by his normal name: Jimbo.
“Both playing guitar and singing are terms that be can used loosely,” Valentine said over the phone, laughing hard at his own expense, describing the logistics of his first live show.
“Oh man, yeah I’m pretty nervous,” Valentine said of getting up on stage for the first time. “I’ve been stressing out pretty hard. I’ve never planned on playing this live, so now I’m trying to figure it out. I haven’t had as much time as I would’ve liked, but I’m excited about it at the same time.”
Valentine has been busy sorting and arranging the material he’ll play live, taking what he does at home with guitar, synth, drum machine and some samples, and playing it off his laptop, mixing in some live guitar and vocals.
“I’m going to incorporate some new stuff, which is called “Meditations.” It’s a little more ambient. Almost like a little movie soundtrack, with some movie samples sprinkled in.”
Valentine has already released six Soul of the Phoenix CDs online, and has enough unreleased material for a few more releases, he said, whether it’s “Meditations” or his other solo side project, This Drum Machine Kills Fascists.
Valentine, pointing out he’s “not a musician,” said he actually comes from a long line of musicians.
“I grew up in a family that played music,” Valentine said. “My grandfather is a great old school country steel guitar player, my cousin is a country singer, my mom played piano when I was growing up. I always wanted to make music, but just never got into doing it when I was younger.”
While the music may be different (this isn’t your grandparent’s mix of ambient and doom) Valentine faces the same challenge more traditional performers have always faced: keeping people’s attention on stage.
“I’m going to work in a couple of more upbeat tracks at the end, if everyone’s still awake,” Valentine said laughing.
“I just don’t want to bore everyone to death. But that’s where the second guessing comes in; ‘Oh this is going to drag everyone down, they’re going to be nodding off, or whatever.’”
Valentine said he wouldn’t be bringing his solo act out live if not for the support of Fuller.
“Oh it’s really cool,” Valentine said of “This Ain’t No Disco.” “Every week or so there’s been different bands, different styles, and he’ll cater his set to whoever’s playing. But it makes it comfortable for me. He cornered me and asked me ‘Hey man, would you want to do this stuff live?’ I’ve been wanting to but haven’t attempted to put it together. So if it would’ve been anything else I wouldn’t have been as comfortable with it. I’m excited to do it, I’m excited to do it at the V Club, those people are like family to me, so I’m excited.”
Regardless of whether or not casual show goers like his music, or if it’s a “disaster” of a show, Valentine knows he’s made a lot of great friends at the V Club in particular and around Huntington in general.
“I’ve actually made a lot of great friends down here. There are certainly some bad things about Huntington and people that complain about it all the time, but there are great people here who are so supportive of me, especially since I started doing the murals and the art, people come up to me and are like ‘Hey, I seen you at the V Club!’ That’s the diamond in the rough down here for me, is the people and my friends.”
IF YOU GO:
Soul of the Phoenix, Franklin F---in’ Furnace Where: The V Club, 741 6th Avenue, Huntington (304) 781-0680 When: Thursday, February 17, 10 p.m. Cost: $3 Online: www.vclublive.com
Team Transylvania is set to release their new CD Stalk and Slash Splatterama Pt. 2: Exploitation Extravaganza at the show, and all's you need to know is you may have your head ran over with a lawnmower and be re-animated into their fan club.
Posters, flyers, and many drunken pictures I have taken.
There are many things I enjoy in life, but there are few things that tap directly into some of my most primal of instincts, one of those things is Karma to Burn. Growing up in Fairmont, I spent many of my formative years seeing shows in Morgantown, since Fairmont's music scene was, and still is, pretty much nonexistent. We would all pile up into whomever's parents would lend us the car and head up to see countless local bands such as Karma to Burn, Law Biting Citizens, Circle Six, Draegerman, Brake Theory, 7X, UK, and many others that are slipping my mind. K2B were hands down my favorite, they had that raw dangerous rock n' roll edge and they truly were the perfect soundtrack for traveling down that dark psychotropic highway that my mind always seem to be barreling down. It amazed me and filled me with pride that they were a local band, they truly seemed to transcend, yet perfectly embody WV all at the same time. They were a great inspiration to a young and confused angry teen scratching pictures of skulls and Satan into his notebooks (and it turns out that not much has changed haha). Over the years, they are the band that I still consistently listen to from that era.
Even though they were originally an instrumental band, they released a self titled album on Roadrunner with a singer, and it kinda confused people. Old fans of the instrumental stuff, hated it, and new fans were confused to find out that they were an instrumental band after they got rid of the singer. There's was also the camp of people that I fell into, which thoroughly enjoyed both endeavors. The self titled was just so dark, that there just isn't much other way to describe it, and I relished every bit of it. That being said, it was nice to see them return to the instrumental form on the next two albums. Sadly like many great groups, eventually turmoil and addiction tore the band to pieces. Last time I saw them pre-break up was with Clutch at 123 Pleasant Street (which may have still been the Nyabinghi at that point). Neil Fallon came out and performed ZZ Top's La Grange with them, which totally blew my shit. I had no idea that would be the last time for years to come, but at least it was a lasting memory.
So then we fast forward a few years. After a few stops along the way for everyone involved; Will was now playing with the fantastic Treasure Cat, Rich had met Daniel Davies and started the formidable Year Long Disaster, and Rob Oswald played with Nebula, and I had moved to Huntington. After deciding to finally making a go of trying to pimp out my art services, I came into contact with Treasure Cat and began designing and printing t-shirts and other things for them. Even though I hate to compare the two bands, because they are both great in their own rights, it helped to fill the void of no K2B. Conversations with Will led me to believe there would never be any chance of a reunion, as you could tell it was still kind of a sore subject. Nevertheless, hell finally froze over, pride was swallowed and a reunion tour finally scheduled to take place. The band set out to show that not only had they reconnected but now had matured and were tighter than ever.
I have to say that I pretty much shit my draws when I got the chance to do not only one poster for their reunion tour, but 4. I did a series of 3 screenprinted posters for their WV dates, and a digital for a show in England with Sons of Alpha Centauri. I also would do another flyer for a Halloween show at The V Club, and ended up doing 3 more flyers for their current tour with Year Long Disaster. I badly wanted to screenprint these, but I have yet to get my equipment set up after moving in the winter. I love doing posters for them, it really gives me a chance to use imagery that I'm really in tune with such as the occult, evil looking anthropomorphized humanimal hybrids, and just an overall dark and menacing vibe. It's nice to play off of the vibes set forth by some of their art done by others, as subjects such the Goataneer really symbolize the music for me. Some of the things I've done for them definitely plays directly off of this, but I've also tried to add my own flavor in there as well and I didn't want to do a bunch of half-assed crap. That's the great thing is that they can totally work with images of evil preachers, goat headed mountaineers, or apocalyptic visions of a burning London. Their music truly stands on its own, but I always believed their fantastical dark album and merch art really helped to elevate the overall awesomeness of the band and I enjoy just being able to add to that visual lexicon.
On a personal level it feels like my life has come full circle in some ways from being that teenager who was frothing at the mouth to see such amazing music, seeing the band break up, and then seeing them reunite and being able to work with them on top of it.
Their new album art is no exception of excellence set forth on their previous albums, and after listening to it for a couple months (it will rock your stool loose by the way), I'm completely psyched up for these couple shows with YLD and Suede Brothers. The new album covers some known territory, but shows a lot of growth in the small handful of songs. The bonus disc of rare tracks and rerecordings is a nice touch. I'm excited to see what Daniel Davies brings to the table in his part of the live show, as Waiting on the Western World is a pretty mean ass song that is just begging to send crowds into a frenzy. All of it is pretty exciting in ushering in what appears to be a new era of Karma to Burn.
So get the new album, carve a bunnygram into your kitchen floor, and Hail Satan.
Not the literal last day of summer, the 11-song split release from our friends in Treasure Cat and England's Sons of Alpha Centauri, released just a few days ago.
It all started with Will Mecum and Roy Brewer skipping across the pond to merry old Kent, England to record and collaborate with the guys from SOAC.
Their Last Day of Summer is basically a few songs from each band with three songs from what they're calling "Alpha Cat" -- the successful merger of two-thirds of Treasure Cat with SOAC for a few songs on the release.
You can see a trailer of the release on Treasure Cat's MySpace blog, hear a few tracks on SOAC's page, and order the release off Underdogma Records website.
You'll notice the killer artwork for the CD and flyer, most ably done by Barboursville's Jimbo Valentine, who's done previous art for TC (which should have a new CD out by summer of 2010, we're told) and whom we featured in our recent "Focus on the Flyers" series; good show lad!
Mecum, when reached for comment, said "The streets will run red with the blood of the non-believers of Treasure Cat." So check out the split release and whatever you do, do not doubt Treasure Cat.
James Alden Valentine III got an early start on his artistic career.
“When I got tested before kindergarten, they told me to draw a picture of myself, so I draw my little blob looking life-form resembling me, and gave it gigantic ears, because everyone always told me I had big ears. That’s the first picture I ever remember drawing.”
Since then, Valentine has definitely progressed as an artist; he has run Amalgam Unlimited, his own screenprinting and design company, for a few years now, and has worked with several rockin’ local bands, making flyers, CD layouts, shirts and merch.
When you’ve asked yourself in recent months who’s made those awesome flyers for Clutch and Karma To Burn, or who it was that painted the big Hank III and Hinson murals at the V, it was him.
You may know him as Jimbo.
He’s been doing a lot of great work, recently designing artwork for West By God'sFor Glory or for Flames and Treasure Cat, and he said it’s been gaining steam.
“It’s steadily growing and I’ve been doing stuff that I’m really proud of. I still haven’t gotten to the point where I can totally live off of art, but I keep getting some pretty sweet gigs that have gotten me other gigs, so the word of mouth is growing, and that’s a good feeling.”
Aside from a “couple of minor speed bumps involving wheels flying off of cars and stuff like that,” 2009 has been pretty good for him, he admitted over email.
Looking over his stash of gig posters, band art, propaganda and older paintings and art, it’s hard to pick what to include, aside from the flyers. Whether it’s his surrealist, sick apocalyptic collages to the childlike freehand art like Hellijah the Hilljack Rabbit or Overbite Oakley, it’s obvious that he’s been making art for a while, is good at it, and loves doing it.
“I just like making both, in the end I probably make more darker stuff, but I definitely still have that inner child that’s always giving me ideas as well. I’m trying to work up ideas for a kid’s book about a girl named Overbite Oakley. I have three nephews and a niece and lots of friends with kids so that really helps to keep me in tune as well. They are all so fun and random, I love it.”
And just like musicians create music as catharsis, Valentine sees his art. “There’s been times when it has really helped me through some rough stuff,” Jimbo said of his art.
“It’s a good feeling to have someone want to have your art to represent their art. Doing posters for all three of the Karma To Burn West Virginia reunion dates and their London show is a big highlight so far this year.”
Valentine doesn't just make the flyers but also dabbles in making music. Just like making art, he makes his music by himself, in the form of his electronic projects This Drum Machine Kills Fascists (a nod to Woody Guthrie) and Soul of the Phoenix, which will release Astronautical later this year.
“I plan to finish up Astronautical before the end of the year. Never played any of my stuff live, but I think it would be fun to work up a few songs to play at open mic night or something for shits and giggles.”
So you may see Jimbo opening up for a band he makes a flyer for; he said that Huntington is pretty rockin’ as far as shows go.
“The V Club has really put on some awesome shows; the Hank III show that was just there was hands down one of the best shows I’ve ever seen even if it was hotter than hell in there. It made like almost like some kind of religious experience. I’ve also seen some good shows at Club Echo lately. The Karma To Burn show there was epic to say the least.”
So Jimbo and AU are gonna keep moving forward; Valentine will continue to attend Marshall (“I’m thinking about trying to drag it out another 100 years,” he said of his continuing education), he's involved with a Treasure Cat/Sons of Alpha Centauri split called The Last Day of Summer (due out later this year) and be seen at Huntington area shows, like his big murals.
“So everyone should come down, check them out, and enjoy a few tasty alcoholic beverages.”
Every so often, a Facebook status update comes along that, deep down, you know sounds too good to be true.
