Went to a bar the other night where myself and the other patrons were treated to a free impromptu performance by the actor who plays Elvis over at the Hard Rock Cafe. Between sets by the band, he had met with the guitarist and worked out a medley of songs, including "Heartbreak Hotel", "All Shook Up", "Hound Dog", etc. Good fun. He bears a striking resembelance to Elvis, he's just a little shorter perhaps. Too bad his Elvis shades broke during the second song when he placed them on the conga drums and they fell off. >>>I might have to conduct an interview with him for the Red Elvises fanzine, of which I am assistant editor.... look for details, coming soon!



In other news, Bill over at 1980 records has finished mixing the Ice Cream Factory project. We're expecting to release it sometime in early August.

Bill Tucker of 1980 Records in Chicago will be releasing Ice Cream Factory's 1998 self-titled project on CD sometime in early August, as soon as we trade CD-Rs by mail and hunt down some missing tracks on ADAT. It will be a joint Aaugh!/1980 issue and I've already lined up tenative distro in the Netherlands and the Philippines. I'm also looking at distro possibilities in France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and Mexico.



ICE CREAM FACTORY

Bill Tucker- guitar, vocals

Rick Williams- bass, drums, vocals

just posted a "links" page at the main site.



i've been listening to some tracks i downloaded from go home productions. they did an interesting re-mix where they put snoop dogg and dr. dre over a crowded house song... give it a listen!



download "return of the weather episode"



i burned this and have been trying it out in my car. interesting stuff.

I'm sitting here at work (on a Sunday) listening to Bob Dylan- Live 1966 at The Manchester Free Trade Hall (the "Royal Albert Hall" concert). I'm supposed to be studying UniCode so I can start publishing web pages in Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Came in and there were a couple of thick reference manuals on the desk... Last night I watched "Punch-Drunk Love" on video for the first time. Blockbuster let me have it for a whole week, so I'll probably view it a couple more times. Tonight I plan to watch Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask)" which I havent seen in probably 6 years or so.



The other night some of my Chinese friends introduced me to Sichuan hot pot. For the uninitiated, it's a huge pot of broth with beans, chilis, garlic, ginger, etc. (Chili ingredients in Texas); you place seafood, sausages, assorted vegetables inside the boiling broth and let them cook for a few seconds. Sichuan food being quite spicy, the results are quite literally breath-taking but absolutely delicious. Need a lot of rice and a cold beverage!



Check out Nic Tse's updated site (with lots of cool photos from around the world) at: www.nostalgic.org

A couple of releases I've been pleasantly surprised by over the last few months:



Riki Michele, Surround Me (rikimichele.com music)

This new disc by the former Adam Again vocalist is one of the most original releases I've heard in a long time.

It sounds nothing at all like AA or her past projects, Big Big Town or One Moment Please.

There's something very refreshing about the vocals and production; the producer is none other than Julian Kindred, who engineered most of The Choir's Grammy Award-nominated Flap Your Wings. More use is made of Riki's considerable vocal talent. This is the most forward I've ever heard her voice in the mix. The very fact that she released this herself (with a little help from her friends) is commendable. It has a big label sound on a home studio budget.



Derri Daugherty, A Few Unfinished Songs (Lo-Fidelity Records)

This disc by the Choir frontman is very understated, mostly song ideas he had been kicking around for a while. It bears very little resembelance to a Choir record; actually it sounds more like George Harrison at times (the Choir themselves covered Harrison's "Behind That Locked Door" a few years back). Very minimal production values (not overbearing, in other words) and only 5 songs in length, it gets full marks from me... still I hope to hear a full length solo release from him.

vous aiment des frites de liberté avec cela?

look for new cd releases soon.



we hope to have books in the online store by August.

i'm still working on the website, thanks for your patience...



Rick

I might be putting a new band together soon, mostly local guys... not "traditional" Chammorro music, if there is such a thing (most of the stuff you hear here is MIDI-oriented). It would be cool if we could get some new material together and come out with a CD by next year, maybe even play some dates in the US, Europe and Japan (I'm working on details as we speak)... I'm looking for musicians who are into U2, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins- most of the guys here are into Linkin Park, POD, that stuff. Maybe it'll be a sort of compromise...



visit www.aaughrecords.com to find out all the latest news and info...



Rick

here's an interesting article on the bush admin's fabrication of evidence against iraq... (thanks to www.michaelmoore.com)

well, i went to see terminator 3 last night; between that, popcorn, m&ms and pepsi twist i was not having the greatest dreams... i dreamt that i was being chased by cyborgs or something... woke up at 3 a.m. with an anxiety attack and chased it away by browsing the internet for a couple of hours (i drank some cold water, too).....



my job still won't have an office until probably august. until then i'll keep trying to get things accomplished from home, not an easy task. it's all i can do to update this blog once in awhile, let alone work. especially in this heat.