Dammit Liz just reminded me that I haven’t mentioned this on my website. THIS IS WHY THEY PAY HER THE BIG BUCKS, PEOPLE!

In an effort to add a real, physical deadline for writing new songs, I’m trying to host a series of shows in Seattle, wherein I promise to present new material at each and every show. For the foreseeable future they’re going to be every other month (speaking of which, we need to just decide as English-speakers what “bimonthly” means, because “every other month” and “twice a month” are VERY TOTALLY SUPER DIFFERENT), but my long game is to become such a productive song factory that I can swing one every month.

It’s in this lovely “listening room” in the aft of this bar called Copper Gate in Ballard. You may know Ballard from its Kingdom Of Cards, or for its how it used to be where Archie McPhee was, or from that that Seattle-based sketch show that nobody watched.

If you like boobs and vikings, you’re going to love the Copper Gate. I’m actually neutral on both of these subjects, but the Copper Gate incorporates both with tastefulness and panache.
Did I mention that the door to the listening room is shaped like a giant vagina? It is. But again, tastefulness and panache.

I’m excited but mostly terrified. It feels good to be terrified, though, and I think it’s healthy to be terrified every once in a while.

ERMAGER FACEBERK
ERMAGER GERGLE PLERZ

Hope to see you there!

I’m about to start up the coast to meet The Doubleclicks and start our BIG WEST COAST TOUR.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been using Bandcamp to offer postcards from the road. Due to my shoving off tomorrow and not having access to a printer, I was going to close that up tomorrow, but I remembered as I was typing this just now that I have a printer at my house in Seattle, so I can totally wait until the 6th! which is good, because these are actually pretty fun to write.
Proceeds from these postcards will go directly into keeping gas in our tank so we can get from show to show.

• 1/5 — Seattle, WA
  Wayward Coffeehouse, 8pm
• 1/6 — Portland, OR
  Things From Another World, 7:30pm
• 1/8 — Sacramento, CA
  Great Escape Games, 7:30pm
• 1/9 — Palo Alto, CA
  house concert, 7pm
• 1/10 — Santa Clara, CA
  Illusive Comics & Games, 7:30pm
• 1/11 — San Francisco, CA
  house concert, 7:30pm
• 1/12 — Oakland, CA
  Endgame!, 7pm
• 1/15 — Hollywood, CA
  M Bar & Restaurant, 7pm
• 1/16 — San Diego, CA
  house concert, 7pm

More info about any of these shows at http://sweetafton23.com/irl/.

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Since all the morning news shows started pooping their pants about it, I was pretty proud of myself for successfully quarantining myself from Call Me Maybe. But then it was on the radio in a taxi I took at San Diego ComicCon and I didn’t want to be that guy that went “EW NO change the station NOW. NOWWW.” And now I want to start all my blogs and things with “I just met you and this is crazy, but [declarative statement] so [imperative verb phrase] maybe?” THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT PEOPLE WARNED ME ABOUT.

I’m going on an east coast tour with The Doubleclicks. At first it was a chain of house shows that Angela had put together, and then we introduced a Dammit Liz to the equation and BOOM. Now there are venues, and special guests, and a pretty and informative website!

But as it turns out, traveling four people and a cello across the country for a tour has a pretty big overhead. We’ve reached out to some of our favorite geeky companies and podcasts to help us finance big things like airfare and gas for our tour van, but we also have to put aside money for shipping all our gear to Boston, and doing laundry a couple times, and feeding ourselves between shows. (We’ve almost entirely cut out the need for a hotel budget by crashing with locals in every city. Huzzar!)

This is where we need your help. We’re going to make an exclusive Official Tour Sponsor shirt, for which I did the art. We’re also offering to send a personalized postcard from the road, from all of us, in exchange for a donation of $100 or more. The revenue from these things will go towards keeping us fed and alive between shows and also keeping us from smelling weird. I’ll also be vlogging a bunch from the road. You don’t have to pay anything for that, I’m just really looking forward to doing it.

I just met you, and this is crazy, but tours are pricey, so buy shirts maybe?

First thing’s first: the big graduation show was a bigger success. Jade Gordon made a beautiful poster just for the occasion, Vixy & Tony lent their musical chops (and their musical friends) to making my songs sound lush and amazing, and Dammit Liz put my head on straight and put me in a proper venue (the show would have been in a coffee shop if I had my way). Marian Call and The Doubleclicks shared in the rocking, and Stepto and Kris Straub literally made out onstage to stretch for time, which we –er– appreciated? And if you haven’t seen them yet, Rasmus Rasmussen (who has a gifted eye for photography and also great taste in WordPress themes) took gorgeous photos of what happened both onstage and backstage. Squeeee.

Graham Stark did an amazeballs job putting together a set of Behind The Music-style biographical shorts, which I’ve included after the jump. The original plan was to finish editing them while he was on a bus down to Seattle on the day of the show and hand them to us on a thumb drive, but he got stopped at the border and sent back into Canada. So he sat in an internet cafe and, with a dying laptop battery, uploaded the videos so we could download them onsite—Some of them were still being downloaded during the show! So if you see Graham on the internets, give him a big ol’ internet hug for me, won’t you? (I will not be held responsible if you give him an IRL hug.)

I’ll be spending a lot of time with The Doubleclicks in the next 6 months. First we’re going to be scheming at GeekGirlCon in Seattle, and then we’re sharing a show at Bridge City Comics in Portland on August 19th. It’s literally in the courtyard of a comic book shop, so come and open up your folding chair next to us.

Then I’m going to Dragon*Con. The Doubleclicks will not be there, but Marian Call will be, as well as Ken Plume, fighting robots, and pretty much every costume that has ever been made by humans. I might be on panels and stuff, and there’s a big concert thing on Saturday at which I will definitely be playing music.

Then The Doubleclicks and myself are embarking on a three-week east coast/midwest tour! We’re nailing down final details and should have that ready in the next week or so. In the meantime, I’ve fixed up most of my website, and made my Shows page actually usable! YAY ME.

Then The Doubleclicks and I are going on a cruise together in February.

I’ve cracked open the Tumblr doodleblog, and also got a portable scanner, so all kinds of wacky doodles are probably going to come out of that.

I’ve also picked the busiest and most wrongheaded time to think about opening an Etsy shop. More on that later.

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