Save! Andrew! Sole! + Secret Track + Top 25 Albums

Greetings, earthlings and welcome to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog!

This week an extended, convoluted morass of a post– so much going on!

So we’ll do the bad news first:

I. SAVE! ANDREW! SOLE!

A week ago, Detholz! beloved drummer, Andrew Sole, had a herniated disk in his back flare up that has taken him completely out of commission for at least a month. We had to cancel a much-anticipated show at Bottom Lounge (Chicago) on 3/28– it was to be the re-premiere of our new/old keyboardist, Rick Franklin, as well as the debut of a lot of new material. (Note: Baby Teeth’s still on, as well as a new incarnation of Redwalls called “Sleeptalkers” — an excellent bill we are sorry to miss, so y’all come!)

Anyway, here’s the skinny from Andrew himself:

“I went to the back center this past Thursday because I was having some left leg pain coming from my lower spine, something I haven’t had in 6 years since they treated me. As I suspected the diagnosis was a disk problem. So they put me on the VAX-D table right away to start treatment. I’ll be going in every day 5 days a week for the next 2 weeks, possibly more if I need it. Then after that is recovery and Physical Therapy time. Not sure for how long.

My restrictions are, I can’t lift more than 10lbs. I should try not to sit or stand for more than 1/2 hour. I’ve not been playing drums for now except for lessons if I have to demonstrate a simple rhythm for a student.

Any prayers are welcomed and appreciated. ”

If any of you know Andrew, you know drums are his life– he makes his living teaching drums and playing professionally. This is a crushing blow for him, physically and financially. To boot, the disk decided to act up just in time for taxes!

So, in the spirit of “Save The Awesome Cool Dudes” a few years ago when our friends from Austin had all of their equipment stolen, I’ve set up a “Save! Andrew! Sole!” fund that will be active for the next month or so. Musicians are ALWAYS getting the short end of the stick financially– most of us pay for our own benefits & get paid very little to ply our trade. Andrew’s expenses as a result of his herniated disk are punishing, to say the least.

If you can spare a little or if you can spare a lot, it will help a good-hearted musician in need.  Visit the link below to donate:

SAVE! ANDREW! SOLE!

To be clear: these funds will go to my personal Paypal account, which I will then transfer to Andrew directly. I’m not going through official band channels so the gift won’t be taxed to him as income.

Any amount– no matter how big or small– will help. And your help is appreciated, folks. On behalf of Andrew, thanks.

Now, onto somewhat better news:

2. NEW DETHOLZ! (VICTORIA’S?) SECRET TRACK

Everyone loves a secret, right?

I recorded the first new DH! demo in many months last week. Problem is, owing to the subject matter, I can’t post it on a public forum. If you’d like to hear it, email me at “hallameat at gmail dot com” with the subject “Victor, Victoria” and I will send it to you special.

But after that, shhh!

3. Top 25 Albums

This is the latest viral Facebook fad and since I’m attracted to fads like a moth to flame (+ I spent so much @#$%@in’ time on it), I’m posting it here. Thought it might be interesting for DH! followers to see what went into the sauce:

All right, all right. I’m adopting Peter Beyer’s rules here: Think as much as you want and say as much as you want. More information here than you’ll probably care to read, but this was a fun, productive exercise. “Favorite” here for me = most influential.

Jim’s Top 25 Albums, in no particular order:

1. The Residents – Duck Stab

A jarring, bizarre, sometimes terrifying, sometimes ridiculous collection of music concrete and early electronica by what I’d have to admit at this point is my “favorite” band. Added bonus: the greatest record cover of all time. When my older brother introduced me to The Residents in high school, he unwittingly created a monster—I have been obsessively following them ever since & their albums have completely changed the way I think about music.

2. Nation of Ulysses – 13 Point Program to Destroy America

When I was a teenager, I was captivated by the portentious mythos Ian Svenonius spun around NOU, eagerly devouring all of his silly “manifestos” wherein a pajama’d army of disgruntled kids would rise up against the Boomer Generation that produced them, hypnotizing them with their “anti-parent culture sound.” One of the highlights of my music “career” thus far was meeting the personable and friendly Ian on a tour in Norway in ‘04 (then again later in Chicago) and comparing notes. Also, NOU holds the distinction of playing the loudest show I’ve ever seen/heard. All I could make out was white noise and my ears rung for days after.

3. Circus Lupus – Super Genius

Another school bus staple from the early ’90’s. The angular, jarring meters topped with Chris Thompson’s pissy sneering filtered through very lo-fi and loud production makes this a classic for any frustrated high school music geek. I still return to this record for sustenance regularly – “Cyclone Billy” has what in my opinion is the *perfect* bass tone (and a thrillingly acrobatic bass line!).

4. Shudder To Think – Get Your Goat

This record single-handedly opened all kinds of new doors for me musically. It’s far from perfect — the lyrics get vaunted, pretentious and downright silly in places — but there are some truly gorgeous moments. It shares a lot of qualities with “Super Genius” & other early-90’s DC music with its shifting meters, dissonant chords, angular rhythms, etc. but Craig Wedren’s beautiful voice swooping effortlessly around amongst the musical morass makes this experiment a lot prettier to listen to. Their later album “Pony Express Record” is the pinnacle of Shudder to Think’s output and is a far more coherent & better record but this one remains nearer and dearer. I had a “rock star moment” when I was able to meet Craig outside one of their reunion shows in Chicago last year and express my appreciation to him personally.

3. Igor Stravinsky – Mass for mixed chorus and double wind quintet

I got this record at the same time as “Get Your Goat,” and view them as two parts of the same equation. Stravinsky wrote this piece as a natural act of piety. He reputedly wanted to compose “very cold music, absolutely cold, that will appeal directly to the spirit.” There is no more perfect description of this work – stark, dissonant and unadorned. This restrained devotional music resonates in a deep spiritual cave for me that I am usually uncomfortable accessing.

4. Thelonious Monk – The Thelonious Monk Orchestra At Town Hall (1959)

This was required listening in music history class my freshman year of college. I hadn’t spent any time listening to jazz before I went to music school (unfortunately). At the time, I viewed Monk’s command of dissonance and pointillism in jazz as akin to Stravinsky’s approach to the same in the classical realm. I’m not sure I’d say that now, but I remember listening to this album over and over again with pure astonishment in the listening carrel at the library. Another “I didn’t know music could sound like this!” moment.

5. Ornette Coleman – Live at Town Hall (1962)

I have my friend Ben Miranda to thank for introducing me to this record. It contains perhaps my favorite jazz track of all time, “Sadness,” which, to my mind, is an absolutely breathtaking performance. Ornette’s “melody leads, everything else follows” approach gives his music a primitive wildness at once alien and fascinating. Jumbo yet shrimp.

6. Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet

I know, I know. It’s an obvious choice. When it comes to rap and hip-hop, I’m afraid I’m a white man’s white man; all thumbs and stuck somewhere in 1990. But this record really helped out during the hot summer afternoons my dad made me mow his large suburban lawn. I felt like a real badass behind the mower with Chuck D barking in my ‘phones: “Welcome to the Terrordome!”

7. The Beatles Anthology – Volume I

This was much-hyped when it was released, owing to the “new” Beatles tracks, which Paul, George and Ringo overdubbed on top of restored Lennon piano demos. Those songs are decidedly Wilbury-esque, owing to Jeff Lynne’s porcelain production style and are the least interesting part of this hodge-podge of outtakes, snippets, live recordings and other rarities. It gives you a glimpse into the Beatles process, which I found fascinating during my music studies. So much so that I listened almost exclusive to the Beatles for an entire year. As one reviewer said, the Anthology “humanizes” the Beatles and brings them back down to earth where they belong, among us mere mortals.

8. Deerhoof – Milk Man

In my opinion, the best rock album of 2004, if you can call this hyper-controlled chaos “rock music.” I had never heard of Deerhoof, then got to meet them by chance when a band in which I played bass at the time opened for them at a show in a dingy warehouse in Oakland (security was run by a bunch of rowdy bikers, so naturally conditions devolved & someone got clocked on the head with a glass bottle). Their performance was totally mind-blowing, even in that tawdry atmosphere, and Milk Man is, for me, the closest thing in indie rock to bona fide chamber music. I tried unsuccessfully to emulate their approach in my own songwriting at that time. It’s harder than it sounds!

9. Fela Kuti – Zombie

“Afrobeat pioneer,” “the Nigerian Bob Marley,” “one of the top 100 most influential musicians of the 20th Century,” etc., etc. I chafe a little at the Bob Marley comparison since Fela is so much more pissed off and, frankly, I find his music to be far more compelling and interesting than ol’ Bob’s. His repetitive, antiphonal “call-and-response” song form is one I borrow from liberally these days. Of all of his many records, this one is my favorite. It’s so devastatingly sardonic, it’s almost a punk record. But far, far better.

10. Bela Bartok – String Quartet #4

This was a piece my composition professor required me to pick apart in school as a prime example of “motivic” composition, where a composer takes a small gesture or “motive” (in this case, 7 notes ascending and descending) & stretches it, turns it upside down, reverses it, pulls panty hose over its head, gives it a swirly, etc. to create an entire piece of music. The result in this case is this tortured, gory quartet, the best recorded performance of which is, in my opinion, the 1988 Deutsche Gramophone release by the Emerson String Quartet. A lot of Bartok’s music is visceral and very violent, which greatly appeals to my inner vampire. Another prime example of this is his pantomime ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin- a grisly and truly savage piece of music.

11. Jean Claude Vannier — L’Enfant Assasin des Mouches (“The Child Killer of the Flies”)

I have my friend Bobby to thank for introducing me to Jean-Claude Vannier, an arranger who collaborated with the “dirty old man of pop music,” Serge Gainsbourg in the 60’s and 70’s. Orchestration is one of the great loves of my life, and this record contains some of the most bizarre couplings of genres and instruments that I’ve ever heard. All Music Guide puts it well: “This [suite] is the terrain where soundtrack music, classical music, gauche pop, hard rock, French café music, Middle Eastern modal music, vanguard musical iconoclasty, and sound effects collide, stroke, and ultimately come into union with one another — often in a single cut.” This record has a truly surreal sound, owing mostly to the massive amount of string overdubs – over 1,000! If you’ve never heard this record and have a taste for the bizarre, it is a classic. Highly rec’d.

12. Pink Floyd – Piper at the Gates of Dawn

This was a college staple, first introduced to me by my older brother, then re-introduced by my good friend and songwriting colleague, Peter Beyer years later. The perfect expression of a fractured, schizoid mind, culminating in the last cut on the record (and my favorite), “Bike.” I have a collection of Syd Barrett solo material as well (Opel), but it’s nowhere nearly as effective and screwy as this album.

13. Frank Black – Frank Black

Though his work with the Pixies will probably stand the test of time, I still have a great love for this admittedly “90’s” sounding record (another argument that I’m stuck somewhere in 1990). The lyrics are less Grand Guignol and more non sequitur than The Pixies, like his oblique tribute to the Ramones, “I Heard Ramona Sing” (“I had so many problems / then I got me a Walkman / I really liked it a lot and / they walked right in and they solved them”) but, as one fan puts it, “he not writing what he knows, he’s writing what he DREAMS.” Musically, his courageous harmonic leaps had a huge impact on me in school. It was rumored he only knew how to play barre chords on a guitar & I borrowed liberally from that approach in the early years of Detholz!. Also, I’ll never forget blasting “Los Angeles” from my battered Chevy hatchback (which contained all of my earthly possessions at the time) as I descended into L.A. after a solitary cross-country drive in 1997.

14. Pete Beyer – Ten Songs

Part of the magic of being a musician is observing and learning from other musicians as they ply their trade. My good friend Pete has always been one of the finest songwriters I’ve ever heard (and was the inspiration behind this note). Playing his songs in college as the bass player in his band was hugely instructive to me – to this day, my bandmates who know him will say, “wow, that sounds a lot like a Pete Beyer song” when I present a demo to them. So let me say here, officially, on the record: thanks Pete! Visit his blog and benefit from his musical wisdom: http://www.peterbeyer.com Pete also has the distinction of writing one of two songs that caused me to spontaneously burst into tears (not something I’m wont to do, as my wife will tell you, unless I’ve had too many glasses of wine), his restrained and poignant song chronicling his reaction to the attacks on 9/11 called “In the Wake.” Hopefully we will finally finish his damned record we’ve been working on for over 8 years this summer. Right, Pete?

15. John Carpenter – Soundtrack to Escape from New York

…or Halloween or The Fog or Assualt on Precinct 13 , etc. Carpenter’s simple synthesizer scores are forever seared into my brain as the way horror movie music should sound after sneaking in Halloween as a kid at a sleepover. Escape From New York is my personal favorite of the lot & is one of my favorite albums to drive to. I also used to annoy my friends as a kid by incessantly playing the theme song on my mother’s piano.

16. Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express

Speaking of music to drive to, Kraftwerk makes for a great driving and/or housecleaning soundtrack. Nothing like dorky German synth-pop to inspire you to dust the corners of your bookcase, bureau and/or rolltop desk. Their choruses are amusingly underwhelming: “Fun, fun, fun on ze Autobahn” und “I’m ze operator mit my pocket calculator.” Great to mop to!

17. Einsturzende Neubauten – Faustmusik

Speaking of crazy Germans, this little-known gem by the storied industrial monoliths, Einsturzende Neubauten, is one that’s gotten a lot of spin over the years when I’ve been in a dark frame of mind. It’s mostly narration with a stripped-down ensemble providing a soundtrack – there are no “songs” per se. The language is too dense for my high-school pidgin German, but this record creates an atmosphere that’s far scarier and menacing than others of their releases I’ve heard. Blixa Bargeld’s syrupy whispering makes for convincing Devil-ese.

18. Dan Deacon – Silly Hat vs. Eagle Hat

A few years ago we played a show with then-unknown Dan Deacon at a tiny hole-in-the-wall in DC & if anyone deserves the full weight of the indie hype machine, it’s Dan. His frenetic mad-science-gizmo acrobatics are incredible to watch in a live setting. I played with him again last year in another outfit and his show had developed to a nearly cultish pitch. At one point, he had a sold-out club full of people climbing all over each other through some sort of weird, frenetic square dance at his command. I’ve never seen crowd control like that.

“Silly Hat” is my favorite of his records—Dan is kind of a genius and the scope of his facility with electronics, pop, jazz and even atonal classical composition are recklessly displayed here. A great album to Photoshop to. Dan said he’d be taking some time off of his solo electronics to focus on classical composition this year. I’m greatly anticipating his next record.

19. Sparks – Kimono My House

I should thank my friend Colby for introducing me to Sparks and especially to “Kimono My House,” by far their best album. It’s an almost irritatingly catchy glam-pop album with a lot of quirky twists and turns, lyrically and musically. I guess if there’s such a thing as “progressive glam,” this is it. I had been told that the Detholz! sound is pretty close to Sparks and after hearing this, I definitely saw the connection. High praise, indeed.

20. Captain Beefheart – Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)

Possibly the least touted of Captain Beefheart’s records, this is by far the most accessible with, in my opinion, some of his best songs. I agree with All Music Guide: “’Tropical Hot Dog Night’ that sounds like what happened when Beefheart encountered a Miami disco and decided to make something of it.” The lyrics are obtuse, sometimes silly, sometimes wistful, other times menacing – the usual growly Beefheart fare: “When I See Mommy, I Feel Like a Mummy,” etc. Another example of tightly controlled chaos, his Magic Band is in top form on this record, delivering some truly mind-bending dissonant hooks.

21. Frank Zappa – Apostrophe

I guess I can’t mention Captain Beefheart without mentioning the music of Frank Zappa which, as my friend James describes it, is like all of the songs of the 70’s crumpled into a ball and injected with acid. “Apostrophe” is his most famous record, and for good reason. The musicianship on this album is flawless, as usual, with a burning white-hot xylophone solo in “St. Alfonso’s Pancake Breakfast” that will make your head spin. This is a usual complaint about Zappa—that he was a genius-level musician who chose to be the clown over the “serious artist,” writing bawdy songs with titles like “G-Spot Tornado” and “Half a Dozen Provocative Squats.” This precisely what makes him so great and so inspiring to me—and to many others, apparently. The number of posthumous awards he receives continues to mount.

22. Louvin Brothers – Satan is Real

Despite the now-infamous cover picturing Charlie and Ira Louvin in a rock quarry littered with burning tires in front of a 12-foot paint-on-plywood Satan, this record remains my favorite country gospel album. I have deep sense of connection to traditional gospel country because of my background, and though I don’t agree with most of what the Louvins are saying, the authenticity of the message and the pure intention for its audience moves me deeply. It also helps that the Louvins were reputedly hard-drinking, violent men. That a couple of hardened country boys could have such beautiful voices singing this fire-and-brimstone stuff, sincere or not, is profoundly poetic, at least to me.

23. Bernard Herrmann – Soundtrack to Psycho

…or The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) or Cape Fear or classic Twilight Zone TV series or any of the other films he scored. Herrmann broke all kinds of new ground in film scoring (and music in general – he was a sort of proto-minimalist) and his undulating, restless music makes full use of various extended performance techniques in the orchestra, almost phrase-by-phrase. Very dense, complex orchestrations here. It’s funny to think how much he resented being a film composer because he was so clearly the best, perhaps ever. Film music rarely makes such an impression on the cultural collective consciousness, but the screeches from “Psycho,” or the tritonal “Twilight Zone” guitar ostinato are unmistakable, even to a nonmusical joe.

24. Fugazi – Repeater

“Repeater” was the first compact disc I bought with my own money as a kid—even saved up for it. I remember opening it and showing it off to a friend who mused with wonder, “Man…. This will never wear out!”

In early 1988, the very first show I attended as a shrimpy pubescent 13-year old was a Fugazi show at a bombed out movie theater in Frederick, MD. This was before their first record so it was up close and personal. Definitely a benchmark moment for a music-smitten teenager. In retrospect, it could have been any band and I probably would have gone goo-goo eyed, but Fugazi was such a live juggernaut— so acrobatic and fun to watch as they played their special brand of fist-pumping slogan-core. I saw them as many times as I possibly could after that. “Repeater” was always my favorite record of theirs. I stopped following them after 1991’s “Steady Diet of Nothing,” but that first show was forever burned onto my brain as the apotheosis of live music.

A few months ago, I experienced a mild thrill when I played through Joe Lally’s old GK bass head at a Baby Teeth show.

25. Bobby Conn – Llovesongs EP

Though I am fortunate to count Bobby as a friend now, I started out as and continue to be a big fan. Playing in his band for a few years was like being a kid in a candy store. It was also a crash-course for me (sometimes literally) in stage- and song-craft. Though I think the most crystalline channelings of the Bobby Conn persona are captured on “Rise Up!” & “The Golden Age,” which even caught the great David Bowie’s attention, “Llovesongs” is my favorite Bobby Conn album because it contains two of my favorite songs of his, “Maria B” and, if you’re lucky enough to have the Japanese import, “Language of Love.”

There’s a lyric in “Language of Love” I had wrong for over a year:

“You want to touch it, man, well…/ Gonna let you down.”

I thought he was singing:

“You want to touch it, Manuel… / Gonna let you down.”

This dawned on me in the car as I was listening to this EP on a road trip. Sorry, Manuel!

Thanks for reading– see you next week!

The Transformation of “Lost Weekend”

Welcome or welcome back to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog!

This week “Mp3 Blog” is something of a misnomer since, once again, I have no new track to offer. However, a comment from last week got me thinking that a discussion about the Detholz! process of creating a song, from demo to live performance to the recording studio, might be interesting to fans and fellow music nerds alike.

Our case study: Lost Weekend <–The demo is re-posted here for your convenience. For an exhaustive discussion of the lyrical and musical content of this song, click here.

It’s probably not the best case study since it’s such an atypical Detholz! song in just about every respect. I guess that’s why I found the process so interesting!

DETHOLZ! SONGWRITING

When we first started out 12 years ago as acne-addled college students, the songwriting was usually done as a group. I remember fondly evenings with Karl and Big Jamesie seated on the floor in our rank, musty college apartment, acoustic guitars in hand, cranking out one geeky, stupid song after another. [The only surviving example of a song written during that period is “Last Train to Mars,” which is on our first record Who Are The Detholz!?, available for download or song-by-song purchase at www.detholz.com/merch.html]

Over the next few years, Karl and I would occasionally regroup to write in tandem. I remember a number of nights when I was working full-time as a piano salesman in Downers Grove (really lives up to its name!) when we would meet in the back of the store after closing to sit amongst all of the dusty granny organs and write songs. ‘Twas a magical time! “Sunburned in the Sun” (also on WRTDH!?) was written at that time and remains the band’s favorite, even after all these years.

As we got older and life got busier, we’ve settled into a tried-and-true procedure:

1. I (or someone else in the band) record(s) demos at home arranged as completely as possible, incl. percussion, keyboard parts, guitar/bass parts, vocals, etc. (many of which have been posted on this here blog over the past few years — a box set’s worth of material, in fact. See previous posts)
2. I (or someone else) will email the demos to the band for a vote.
3. The band votes “yea” or “nay,” usually citing specific parts or reasons why.
4. If “nay,” then the song is scrapped on the spot. If “yea” then it proceeds to the next stage on the Detholz! Conveyor Belt, DETHOLZ! REHEARSAL.

In the case of “Lost Weekend,” I did something a little different: there were no guitar parts recorded on the demo. I anticipated that this might jog the band a little bit in rehearsal & transform the song into something different, something better. Turns out I was right!

DETHOLZ! REHEARSAL

Usually, we learn any given song in its original “demo’ed” form. This typically involves me charting out parts for Jonny & Rick (keyboards) and Ben (bass) using either standard notation or “lead sheets.”

One of three things happens next:

1. Nothing!
2. Extant sections of the song are excised or extended
3. New sections of the song are written collaboratively & added — this happened on songs that have been in our live rotation recently, like “Future Wife” and “Catherine Zeta-Jones” (which also went through a huge makeover in the studio, incidentally)

“Lost Weekend” was a chaotic mess in the rehearsal stage. First of all, we were rehearsing to record it, not play it live, which meant there was extra pressure to “get it right” in rehearsal. There were so many keyboard parts on the demo that Jonny and Rick couldn’t possibly cover them all, which meant Karl and I had to come up with guitar parts on the spot in rehearsal. These changed literally almost every time, clear up into the recording session.

The most difficult aspect of playing “Lost Weekend” was achieving the right “feel.” It’s so radically different from Detholz! usual anal-retentive Prussian herky-jerk; it has a much more relaxed, loose and creepy almost “dub” feel to it that we really had to wrestle with to get right.

This is where having an excellent producer like Bobby Conn really came in handy. Bobby attended all of our rehearsals leading up to the first tracking session at Bill Skibbe’s magical Key Club Recording studio in Benton Harbor, MI. He took copious notes and recorded every rehearsal on a small handheld cassette recorder. For “Lost Weekend,” he even sent Andrew (drummer) a bunch of different dub recordings, since Andrew was largely unfamiliar with the style. He also spent a lot of time working with Andrew on a “looser” style of playing.

We wrestled with this clear up until the last rehearsal, when the song started to get closer… but not quite all the way. I kept telling Andrew to play “behind the beat,” which he interpreted perhaps too literally at first. The more we practiced, the better it got. Still, it had an edge of tightness to it that sounded affected and wrong. By the time we were going into the studio, “Lost Weekend” was still nowhere near 100%. Of all of the songs on the record, I was extremely concerned… it was looking like “Lost Weekend” = FAIL.

RECORDING SESSION

When it came time to record “Lost Weekend,” we found that the song was really living up to its name. There we were: sitting in a recording studio on the weekend, completely lost!

I should mention: for this session, we set everyone up to record simultaneously. The drums and bass in the “big room,” guitars in a room whose walls are completely lined with cut logs (my favorite room at Key Club — it’s like playing on the set of Twin Peaks) and keyboards in an isolation booth at the rear of the building. There are windows in each rooms walls, so we have a line of sight to one another. (Pics will be posted shortly…)

After doing a couple of “okay” but stilted takes, Bobby told us to take a break (everyone except the drummer, that is) & that he was going to try something. So, we all meandered out into the kitchen area, feeling a little dejected. A few minutes later, he called us back in. Andrew was playing the part PERFECTLY, even with the little hi-hat flourishes and odd cymbal crashes that are characteristic of a “dub” sort of style. We were astounded.

Q: How did Bobby flip this magical switch in so short a time?

A: He ran ALL of the drums through an Echo-Plex, a vintage tape reverb unit!

Playing along to his bad delayed self, Andrew was inspired to loosen up and improvise, which he does very well in his jazz playing all of the time. We went back in & all it took was 2 more takes for us to perfectly nail “Lost Weekend,” with the elusive feel we had sought all along. A truly great moment in Detholz! history! There’s nothing more exciting in music than to have a take like that happen spontaneously in a studio. It’s the “happy accident” principle & involves an element of chaos that goes beyond rehearsal, planning & raw musicianship, even.

I like to think it’s white magic… in fact, I more than “like” to think it– I do. Never believe it’s not so!

LOST WEEKEND EPILOGUE

“Lost Weekend” isn’t completely finished yet, but it’s already one of my favorite cuts on the new record this far. It’s a very different kind of sound for us — in fact, Rick wondered in rehearsal if it was TOO different & would sound strange in the context of the other songs. After the transformation it went through from demo to studio, however, we all agreed that it fit in nicely & I know I’m not the only one in the band for whom it transmogrified from a “meh” song to a total standout.

Unfortunately, we’ve had to postpone our final tracking session due to scheduling problems, so it’ll be awhile before we’re able to put Death to the Traitor in the can.

On the flipside, Detholz! is planning to work on new material over the next few weeks, so check back for some brand new demos & cast your vote! We exist but to serve!

“Death to the Traitor” Session 1 COMPLETE!

Greetings, Detholians, and forgive my protracted absence from the blogosphere!

Over these past weeks, I have been caught in the undertow of a magical tsunami, madly writing orchestral scores, mastering the new Baby Teeth record (ETA July 09!) and disappearing to distant lands to start the tracking process on the new Detholz! record, “Death to the Traitor.” These are the times in life when I am truly grateful to be in music — it feels like living inside a pleasant dream and not at all like work, despite the lack of sleep, late nights and near total and constant physical exhaustion.

I have no track to offer this week, just an old-fashioned blah-blah-blog about our 4-day marathon session at Key Club, Bill Skibbe’s fantastical recording emporium in the unlikely burg of Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Utilizing the classic Prussian Dao of Detholz!, we were able to complete basic tracking for 10 songs in just two days. For this recording, we have enlisted the services of the giant brain of the tiny master impresario, Bobby Conn, who has given 110% thus far in making this record the best Detholz! outing to date. Arrangements have been improved, thanks to Bobby (including a significant overhaul of the songs “Catherine Zeta-Jones” and the title track, “Death to the Traitor”), bongos have been expertly played by our keyboardist/Zen Master-in-residence, Jon Steinmeier (why not visit him today at jonsteinmeier.com ?), theremin has been not-so-expertly tracked by yours truly, as well as a host of other goodies as we flesh out this unseemly beast.

Recording is by far my favorite part of playing in bands and our session last weekend proved my favoritism is well-placed. Key Club is the perfect place to make a record– it’s far enough away from anything that an epic odyssey is almost always required before you begin the recording process. This record was no exception– we migrated there in a caravan in near white-out conditions.

Once you are there, you are in a magic cave. Time literally ceases to exist — it has no meaning whatsoever. This is the perfect environment in which to make a recording because, as I am loath to admit, recording has more to do with “vibe” — how you’re feeling at a particular moment in time– than it does with raw preparation, musicianship, or even the science of recording. It always pays to be prepared going into a studio, of course. The last thing you want to have to do is spend money on time to practice when you should be tracking. Simultaneously, I think it’s possible to be OVER-prepared for a studio session. You want to leave room for magic-making, improvisation, and a little dash of old-fashioned chaos.

There was plenty of all three in our session. You will not recognize a lot of the songs from the demos I’ve posted here over the past few years– which is a good thing. The session (and hence the songs) took on a life and breath all its own. We want this record to be a little more organic in scope than our past highly controlled albums — the material is a little looser and needs to breathe a little easier than our past gyroscopic contraptions.

That’s exactly what we got. There’s even material that, dare I say, sounds downright sexy. And, as a great man once said, “What’s wrong with being sexy?”

We are very, very excited to be cooking up this violent, bloody dish for you. As Flannery O’Connor once said, “a writer with Christian concerns need[s] to take ever more violent means to get her vision across.” This is shaping up to be what we hope you find to be a delicious and challenging cannibalistic feast to enrich both your flesh and your spirit.

We go back to Key Club for Round 2 this weekend. Another update to follow next week…

GFS A Cappella Group – “Silence is Golden”

Greetings, once again, Detholz! aficionados welcome to the all-new Detholz! Mp3 Blog 2009!

Look to your right and you’ll see a couple of new gizmos I’ve installed to streamline your shopping experience, including Top Posts, Most Recent Gripes, Jibes & Grumbles from the Peanut Gallery, etc.  There’s even a calendar if you lose track of the time you fritter away here at the Detholz! Mp3 Blog!

Happy New Year to all and welcome to a New American Golden Age (I think).  I don’t usually like to talk politics on this blog, but our friend, Thax Douglas (“Chicago’s Rock ‘N Roll poet laureate,” as he’s known), summed up how I felt about yesterday’s inauguration proceedings for President LaBamba perfectly in a MySpace posting.  I’ve reprinted the post here verbatim with his permission:

“Well the ice floe of the 20th century has been floating off chip by chip over the last nine years, especially when someone like Mailer died-but a huge gob of it drifted off today. I feel orphaned in the 21st century, a strange feeling even tho it was what i wanted.

People forget that catastrophes can be positive.
the Obama presidency is a positive thing but it’s still a catastrophe in that it is life-changing and irreparable.
It is comparable to a) finding you’re not dying after all-b) winning or earning a large chunk of money-c)having the girl of your dreams say “yes”-
Thus even tho Obama who I voted for and feel will be a napoleonically great president taking power is a good thing I still feel the hollowness I felt the day after 9/11.  We can never go back. It will take a while for life to rush and fill the hollowness.”

Will President LaBamba end up being the girl of our dreams, with all of the large chunks distributed in all of the right places? Only time will tell.

***

Today’s mp3 post is a little out of the ordinary, to say the least. 

Last week, without warning, Detholz! received a fully-realized a cappella vocal arrangement of “Silence is Golden” via email from a longtime fan, Allen Drew, which I’m posting here with his permission:

GFS A CAPPELLA GROUP – “SILENCE IS GOLDEN”

Allen is the a cappella choral director at Germantown Friends School in the Philadelphia area and this performance of “Silence is Golden” (first track on Cast Out Devils, Detholz!’s second album from 2006 available at http://www.detholz.com/merch.html) is by his kids in the high school a cappella group, called (strangely) “GFS A Cappella.”

For those of you who have been with Detholz! for any span of our 12-year history, you know we revel in deconstructing pre-existing music & patching it back together in Frankensteinian fashion (see posts leading up to Halloween last year/previous years…). Suffice it to say, an arrangement of “Silence is Golden” — a decidedly Shatner-esque spoken word track — for a high school a cappella chorus really tickled us pink. Detholz! all gathered ’round the computer to listen after rehearsal last week & there were high-fives all around.

So, big thanks/mad props to Allen and his excellent singers for all of the effort that went into this recording! Speaking of which, this track is from an entire album of deconstructed a cappella songs, called Vinyl, much in the spirit of Jukebox of the Dead (Detholz! annual Halloween cover show). Vinyl is available for purchase for $17, with all proceeds going to benefit the GFS a cappella vocal program.

To order your copy, send a check for $17 made out to “Germantown Friends School” with “A Cappella” in the memo line to:

Allen Drew,
Germantown Friends School,
31 W. Coulter St., Philadelphia, PA 19144

Allen can also be reached for questions at Allend@gfsnet.org

Here’s a sampling of the track listing, just to whet your appetite. Due to some sort of psychic anomaly, the kids are singing a lot of songs Detholz! have covered in Halloweens past:

Kiss – Prince

I Used to Love Him – Lauryn Hill/MJ Blige

Love Shack – The B-52s

Hide and Seek – Imogen Heap

The Girl From Ipanema – Astrud Gilberto

Crazy – Gnarls Barkley

Faith – George Michael

Helplessly Hoping – CSNY

Mexico – James Taylor

Somebody to Love – Queen

Silence is Golden – Detholz!

White Wedding – Billy Idol

Livin’ on a Prayer – Jon Bon Jovi

Final Countdown – Europe (This one makes Jonny proud!)

Thanks again, Allen and the kids at GFS!

Tune in next Wednesday for another installment of Detholz! Mp3 Blog…

Jim Cooper – DRAC I

BEFORE WE START TODAY’S BLOG, A COMMERCIAL:

In their continued epic struggle for supremacy, THE M’s and DETHOLZ! pit two giant custom-built robots against one another in a vicious mecha-duel that promises rampant carnage, death and destruction!  Watch from the sidelines, or feel free to participate in the slaughter yourself!

THIS FRIDAY, NOV. 21
THE M’s vs. DETHOLZ! REPUBLICAN ROBOT CHALLENGE
Hideout
www.hideoutchicago.com

In one corner, DETHOLZ! mount up their custom-built, constitution-eating steely chasse known as DIKK CHAINEY, who spews motor oil from his 10-ton cannons and eats Colin Powells for breakfast!

In the opposite corner, THE M’s power up the gigo-normous & steely moose slayer, SARE A’PAILIN’!  Watch her eviscerate and devour the English language as her gaping metal jaws work the system like a mega Johnny Cochran!

Watching two giant Republican robots battle to the death was never this exciting!

Hope to see you!

Also: buy a copy of the new Jukebox of the Dead cover album at www.detholz.com/merch.html !

XXOO
VORTECS Corp. Federalist Society Dept.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

Welcome back to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog, and mucho apologio for the missed week last week.

There is a reason for my tardiness. Allow me to explain:

Lujo Records, the doughty DC label that releases Baby Teeth’s records (new album “Hustle Beach” coming this Spring, incidentally!), has decided to release 3 solo albums from the 3 Baby Teeth members, Abraham Levitan, Peter Andreadis and myself, in advance of the release of “Hustle Beach.”

Since I have been writing for Detholz! for so long, I don’t really have much in the way of Jim Cooper solo repertoire. So I was stumped for a few days. Do I write an album of tear-jerking, convulsion-inspiring, vomit-inducing “serious” songs that really plumb the depths of my incredibly complex and interesting emotional construct? That seemed narcissistic and, frankly, my emotional construct isn’t that complicated. (Example: after an extremely irritating evening last night, my wife made me a plate of spicy sausage. Problem solved!)

Another idea: write an album of montage-inspired music, much in the vein of FLEX (see previous Oct. 08 posts). I was ready to jump that train but then rethought it: after the third song or so, the joke would get old. Besides, who wants to listen to a novelty record any more? I might as well record myself reading Yakov Smirnov jokes.

So, for better or worse, I decided to challenge myself and write in a format which I have virulently detested my entire life: I decided to write a MUSICAL. (Cue thunder and lightning)

Musicals have traditionally chapped my ass something awful. I have a big problem suspending disbelief when people suddenly and inexplicably burst into song. Additionally, the sort of humor typically found in musicals is what Dick Cavett might call “bridled hilarity.” In other words, it’s poncy as hell.

My wife has slowly been changing my mind as to the viability of the Musical format, starting me off gently with Sweeney Todd, which, all things considered, is really pretty great. The songs are complex and layered, plus there’s a sufficient amount of good gore and violence to hold my Neanderthal male interest. I am also slowly coming around to “Jesus Christ Superstar,” though I’m not all the way there yet. The first South Park film stands on its own merit as a great piece of musical satire.

I feel like I’m slowly lowering myself into the Hot Tub of Musicals, testing every inch of the water as I descend. As Eddie Murphy once said: “It’s HOT in the Hot Tub! It’ll make you sweat-a!”

I’m not going to divulge what this musical is about yet, but suffice it to say it’s loosely based on the classic Dracula story and most of the action unfolds in a trailer park in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania. To get things started, I began with an instrumental piece:

DRAC I

The scene: a dishonest, sleazy country lawyer is driving higher and higher into the mountains on the proverbial dark and stormy night.

More to come…

See you next Wednesday!

New Jukebox of the Dead covers album available online!

Welcome to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog!

Thanks to all who made this year’s Halloween show extra-smarmy and FLEXible! You will never be forgotten.

There is no new mp3 this week as I am recovering from hauling around 250-pound faux Grecian columns and squeezing out of my “JUICY” shorts from Jukebox of the Dead IX. So, this week is written in the “stil billboarde” (in other words, it’s a commericial!):

JUKEBOX OF THE DEAD VOLUME II – You : The Power of You

NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE @ http://www.detholz.com/merch.html

Download individual tracks for $0.89 each, or the whole record for the low, low price of $7.49! Take THAT, iTunes!

Additionally, after a rare foray into the magical realm of visual art, I designed the cover for U:PU myself — it’s included as a free bonus for your viewing pleasure. Print it out, blow it up, iron it on a Tshirt, or use it as toilet paper — it’s art that’s both beautiful AND pragmatic!

While you’re at it, why not examine some of Detholz!’s other releases from ages past?

Or check out U:PU from last year’s Jukebox of the Dead VIII on YouTube?

Of course, there is about two double albums worth of material available for free right here on this ol’ blaug!

“Detholz!. So many choices, you’ll probably explode!”

See you next week, when we shall resume our normal blogramming…

p.s. President Obama? Well, shiver me timbers! How about that?

Jukebox of the Dead IX Countdown – “Built This City” Sneak Preview!

Greetings to all of our readers: warlocks, philosophers, goblins, Wiccans, vampyres, hockey moms, personal trainers, devil worshipers, Joe Six-Packs, Wall Street, Main Street, dungeon masters, fire demons, incubi/succubi plus all paying members of Bally’s:

JUKEBOX OF THE DEAD IX IS UPON US!
THIS FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE BITCHIN’ HOUR!

Detholz! present:

“Jukebox of the Dead IX : FLEX”
w/special guests ALEKS & THE DRUMMER and HOOD INTERNET
@ Empty Bottle
1035 N Western Avenue
Chicago, IL

$12 in advance, $15 @ the door

Buy your tickets in advance!  The past few years, we’ve had to turn people away at the door:

www.ticketweb.com

The red text is starting to hurt my eyes, so we will revert back to classic black.  Speaking of hurting eyes, those of you who elect to join us Friday evening had better brace for what’s in store…

For our last installment in the countdown, I give you a sneak preview of our new covers records, available for the first time on Friday night:

(WE) BUILT THIS CITY

The record is being mixed as we speak by Shape Shoppe/Obey Your Brain maven, Blue Hawaii, so this is not the final mixdown.  This is, however, MY mix of this song, which was arranged originally by Mr. Ben Miranda, Detholz! bassist (see last week’s entry).  In fact, we’ll be doing quite a few of Ben’s arrangements this year.

“Built This City” by Jefferson Starship routinely wins awards and accolades as one of the worst charting pop songs of all time.  Our arrangement has evolved from Ben’s original over the past few years and it’s always been one of my favorite Detholz! covers to sing.  The lyrics are impenetrable, ponderous, and downright bizarre!

In fact, “knee deep in the hoopla” has become something of a catchphrase in the Detholz!/Baby Teeth lexicon.

LATE ADDITION: Of course, it took my wife to remind me of the special significance of this song.  In homage to Starship, Ben Miranda’s arrangement, Detholz!, Bobby Conn, Baby Teeth and all of the other musicians present and not present at our wedding this past summer with whom I’ve had the privilege of associating, I did a special arrangement of “Built This City” for woodwind quintet that was performed at the end of our wedding ceremony.  We listed it as “Wir Bauen Diese Stadt” by J. Raumschiff so as not to upset the priest.

If you wish to sink deeper into the hoopla, I posted a mockup here:

WIR BAUEN DIESE STADT

Thanks to all who participated in the Detholz! Blog Roll-Up this month!  We apologize that you haven’t received your advance copies of the new covers record by now, but we are still waiting to receive the final mixes from Blue Hawaii.  Those of you who come to the show Friday, feel free to look me up after the show for some free stuff.

The Detholz! Blog will be dark next week as I will be in catch-up mode after Halloween (and busy voting), but tune in Wed., 11/12 as we resume our normal blogramming.

Countdown to Jukebox of the Dead IX – “GAMBLOR”

Welcome back to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog and apologies to regular readers for the late posting.

With a hugely successful filming under our belts this past Tuesday (perhaps I should say “below” our belts?), Detholz! is now armed to present you with perhaps our most daring Halloween presentation to date at this year’s “Jukebox of the Dead” Halloween party @ Empty Bottle in Chicago, Friday 10/31!  Suffice it to say any aspirations we may have had of running for public office will be summarily dashed to the rocks. Special thanks to Steve Niketopoulos for riding the wheels of steel, running TV cameras and for some “juicy” editing on the fly!

This week’s Halloween cover comes to us by way of the complicated cranium of Detholz! bassist and percussionist extraordinaire, Benjamin Miranda:

GAMBLOR

The entire band was immediately on board with this arrangement.  In my estimation, it’s one of the most disturbing Detholz! covers in the repertoire.  There is some back story here: Ben performed this song as a child at a church talent show.  In a sense, this could be seen as a paen to lost innocence or a lament for a simpler time…

I reviewed the lyrics for this song this morning — this dark, portentious tale ends with a warning to us all, especially at this dangerous juncture in American history:

YOU GOT TO KNOW WHEN TO HOLD ‘EM.

Muah-hahahaha!  See you next Wednesday!  If you want to hear more of Ben’s excellent music, visit him at www.tinytron.com

For those who are just tuning in, we’re running a promotion through the month of October.  See the rules for the Detholz! Blog Roll-Up below…

And remember, folks: buy tickets early and often: 10/31 @ www.emptybottle.com

We had to turn people away last year — don’t let that be you!

***

DETHOLZ! BLOG ROLL-UP  CHALLENGE!

To receive an advance copy of You: the Power of You, simply follow these steps:

1. Get a blog.  If you have one, skip this step.

Note: please, no MySpace, Facebook, or other social-networking site blogs for this promotion. These blogs aren’t indexed, and are therefore useless to Detholz! for promotion. From now on, only dedicated blogs on indexed blog sites like wordpress.com, blogspot.com and their ilk will be accepted. Sorry for any inconvenience!

2. Write a Detholz!-related blog.  Whether it’s about a show, a song, or how much you want to see Karl Doerfer (DH! guitarist) prance around in a Laura Bush costume, any and all is fair game as long as it’s Detholz!-related.

3. Put the following text somewhere in your post:

Jukebox of the Dead IX
“Detholz! FLEX!”
w/special guests Aleks and the Drummer & Hood Internet
Friday, October 31, 2008
Empty Bottle
1035 N Western Avenue
Chicago, IL
Buy tickets at http://www.emptybottle.com

3. Post a link to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog in your blog roll.

4. Send the link to misterb at detholz dot com.

If you carefully follow these steps to the letter, here’s what you get:

1. An advance copy of “You: the Power of You” in its entirety

2. One other downloadable Detholz! record of your choosing

3. A link to your blog posted on the Detholz! blogroll

4. The satisfaction that only BLOG can provide

Jukebox of the Dead IX Countdown – “Rick Rollin'”

Welcome (back?) to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog!

ANNOUNCEMENT: A special shoot has been arranged by the Maestro of the infamous Maplewood House at CAN-TV in Chicago THIS TUESDAY NIGHT, OCT. 21.

THIS IS AN OPEN INVITATION and your chance to join Detholz! onstage this Halloween night via satellite! Technology is amazing! Details below:

Tuesday October 21st, 7pm to 8pm preshow, 8pm to 11pm filming
CAN TV is at 322 S Green Street, Chicago, IL

Come in a sleazy exercise costume and party with the band! Spandex, gold chains, sunglasses, sweatbands and uncomfortably “tite” apparel is encouraged.  Remember to stretch thoroughly beforehand.

If you plan on coming, won’t you RSVP to misterb at detholz dot com ? We need to make sure we will not exceed the size of the studio– first RSVP, first serve!  Prepare to flex and be flexed!

***

This week, our countdown to the Detholz! Ninth Annual “Jukebox of the Dead” Halloween show, themed “Detholz! FLEX,” continues with a Halloween cover to really pump you. And pump you again:

RICK ROLLIN’

This track had a different title originally until I was enlightened by our bass player, Ben Miranda, about the mysterious internet phenomenon of “rick-rolling.” So, consider yourself “rick-rolled.”

To those of you just tuning in, every year for the past nine years, Detholz! curates a showcase/Halloween party entitled “Jukebox of the Dead,” where they disassemble and reconstruct songs you would likely hear while waiting to receive a root canal.

Also, we had two DH! Vikings take up the chalice of the Detholz! Blog Roll-Up this week (see rules below), longtime fans Wizzbizz & Meezus:

WIZZBIZZ MYSPACE DETHOLZ BLOG

MEEZUS DETHOLZ BLOG

Note: if you are using your MySpace blogs, please make them viewable to the general public! We prefer if you have a blog separate from MySpace for the Roll-Up Challenge. In these cases we will make exceptions, but please, folks, no more MySpace blogs.

Thanks to all of you immortals who have participated thus far — your advance copies of Jukebox of the Dead II : You : The Power of You are being mixed as we speak! A special place awaits you in VORTECS Corp. Valhalla. For those of you who are still languishing in the dark, see rules below.

Tune in next week for the next Halloween cover tune in the countdown to Jukebox of the Dead IX!

Remember: buy tickets early and often: 10/31 @ www.emptybottle.com

***

DETHOLZ! BLOG ROLL-UP  CHALLENGE!

To receive an advance copy of You: the Power of You, simply follow these steps:

1. Get a blog.  If you have one, skip this step.

Note: please, no MySpace, Facebook, or other social-networking site blogs for this promotion. These blogs aren’t indexed, and are therefore useless to Detholz! for promotion. From now on, only dedicated blogs on indexed blog sites like wordpress.com, blogspot.com and their ilk will be accepted. Sorry for any inconvenience!

2. Write a Detholz!-related blog.  Whether it’s about a show, a song, or how much you want to see Karl Doerfer (DH! guitarist) prance around in a Laura Bush costume, any and all is fair game as long as it’s Detholz!-related.

3. Put the following text somewhere in your post:

Jukebox of the Dead IX
“Detholz! FLEX!”
w/special guests Aleks and the Drummer & Hood Internet
Friday, October 31, 2008
Empty Bottle
1035 N Western Avenue
Chicago, IL
Buy tickets at http://www.emptybottle.com

3. Post a link to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog in your blog roll.

4. Send the link to misterb at detholz dot com.

If you carefully follow these steps to the letter, here’s what you get:

1. An advance copy of “You: the Power of You” in its entirety

2. One other downloadable Detholz! record of your choosing

3. A link to your blog posted on the Detholz! blogroll

4. The satisfaction that only BLOG can provide

Countdown to Jukebox of the Dead IX : “Scarface (Push It to the Limit)”

Welcome back to the new, improved Detholz! Mp3 Blog, Mark II!  I’m no longer going to list episodes in Roman numerals– the math was starting to get too challenging for my pea-brain.

Thanks to all of you who have taken up the gauntlet of the DETHOLZ! BLOG ROLL-UP! (see below for rules) You will be the first to receive piping hot advance copies of Detholz! second album of deconstructed pop songs direct from the dentist’s office : Jukebox of the Dead II : You : The Power of You.

Three cheers to those of you who dove immediately into the fray, swords swinging!  Here are the links to our winners’ blogs thus far:

http://kebabdylan.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/ziggy-2000/

http://johnsorc.wordpress.com/

http://baconfresh.wordpress.com/

The Roll-Up is far from over, however.  Seize this opportunity to gird up your blog battle-ax and take your place among the greats in Detholz! Cyber-Valhalla — see the Blogroll to the right for these newly added champions!

As we progress into the second week of the Countdown to Jukebox of the Dead IX (if you’re new, see previous post for explanation), I give you the heart and soul of this year’s show :

SCARFACE (PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT)

Penned by the Italian master of 80’s montage music, Giorgio Moroder, and originally performed by one-hit wonder, Paul Engemann, for the Brian DePalma classic, Scarface, it is my personal favorite in the “80’s montage” genre. In fact, the entire score to Scarface is, in my estimation, the quintessential 80’s synth score.

(I should say Engemann was a TWO-hit wonder : he scored a Top Ten hit with the single “Room to Move” from the Dan Aykroyd movie My Stepmother Is an Alien.)

This year’s Halloween show will hinge upon an unholy obsession with physical fitness, and I thought this song captured some of the melancholy associated with bad body image. It was arranged in a pretty straightforward way, though in rehearsal we have decided to reorchestrate it somewhat…. I won’t spoil the surprise, however!

QUESTION: What is your favorite movie montage song? Doesn’t have to be 80’s. Send me a comment below and I’ll consider adding your favorite to the list of new Detholz! covers this year! Help, folks, I need song ideas!

Tune in next week for next installment of the Covers Countdown! See below for details on the Halloween Blog Roll-Up:

DETHOLZ! BLOG ROLL-UP  CHALLENGE!

To receive an advance copy of You: the Power of You, simply follow these steps:

1. Get a blog.  If you have one, skip this step.  Ha.

2. Write a Detholz!-related blog.  Whether it’s about a show, a song, or how much you want to see Karl Doerfer (DH! guitarist) prance around in a Laura Bush costume, any and all is fair game as long as it’s Detholz!-related.

3. Put the following text somewhere in your post:

Jukebox of the Dead IX
“Detholz! FLEX!”
w/special guests Aleks and the Drummer & Hood Internet
Friday, October 31, 2008
Empty Bottle
1035 N Western Avenue
Chicago, IL
Buy tickets at http://www.emptybottle.com

3. Post a link to the Detholz! Mp3 Blog in your blog roll.

4. Send the link to misterb at detholz dot com.

If you carefully follow these steps to the letter, here’s what you get:

1. An advance copy of “You: the Power of You” in its entirety

2. One other downloadable Detholz! record of your choosing

3. A link to your blog posted on the Detholz! blogroll

4. The satisfaction that only BLOG can provide