October 25, 2004 Popluck Playing
A hello and a ho ho ho! Seems it's been hrair months since you last heard from me. Nothing much going on, siflay, vair, siflay, vair, daily grind of life. I've been away from the burrow on retreat (Repetto Hills Burrow Convention, Alhambra Outdoor Living Forum, etc.) a couple of times which is why you haven't heard from me. There's been somewhat renewed interest in the Songs From The Burrow EP in the U.S. and also overseas. I can't quite figure out what's going on, but if they're getting interested in songs produced by rabbit kids then I'm sure not going to complain! I think the EP has been getting airplay on a few radio stations as well.
|
The Shmatrah, the nice pfeffa label boss guy, has been trying to get me to come up with more songs and make a full length album. I've added several new rooms to my underground burrow, so now there's plenty of room for underground recording. So maybe there will be a new batch of songs coming out, but most likely it'll be quite awhile before that comes out if at all.
There is a good chance that I'll be playing a show in November, if I can get some songs together in time. It will be at one of the Popgun Poplucks at the home of the band Lil' Kickers. There will be several other bands there including some Shmat folks. I'll post more info when I found out more about the show.
|
|
April 29, 2004 Splendid Adequacy?
Hello and ho ho ho! No word from the burrow from awhile, I know. I've been busy with some home burrow repairs and other little jobs. Not as much time for music these days, there's enough other stuff having to do with simply living that have kept me busy. The hrududil-roo have been sequestered underground through the winter, they might make an appearance since it's past spring already.
Well, the EP got reviewed at Think Small, a Netherlands zine. Also some notes from Indieville. Shmat also worked out this little deal by which other Peoples can get the Songs From The Burrow EP plus the Map of the Woods compilation for a nice low price. Nice pfeffa that shmat...
|
So I just found out this morning that the song "Family Car" from the EP will be included on an special double EP release from Sweden by A More Than Cosy Sound Recording. Hooray! The tracklist will look like:
a more than cosy ep comp VOL 1:
1. humdinger: für mein schatz (liebe katz)
2. thee moths: the sounds are there
3. mats & challis: som jag sade en morgon "vad gör all bark här?"
4. hrududu factory: family car
a more than cosy ep comp VOL 2:
1. the easy outs: fall in love for christmas
2. the happy couple: all the time
3. strawberry fair: kristoffer
4. high heels: numb
Hopefully this will be available here in the U.S. as an import. I'm still talking with Shmat about a full length release for Hrududu Factory. I'm really not sure yet about whether to record here in the burrow or what to do about things in general. I have been thinking maybe I should take a little journey somewhere to take my mind off these things. We'll see.
|
|
November 4, 2003 Man of Action
First off, a bit of clarification... Tharn is not in any way related to Douglas Adams or Richard Adams. Although he is a big fan of both the Hitchhiker's Guide and of Watership Down... Action Man Magazine had some good things to say about the EP. It was reviewed in October and here is a quip: "There is a twinge of alt-country to the drum machine rhythms, acoustic guitar twang, and even the kazoo solos that lends to the field and forest setting".
Also, the EP is now available at Sea Level Records and at Tonevendor.com
|
According to Shmat, The Songs From The Burrow EP has gotten up to #5 at 88.7 KSPC Claremont. Frithrah! You can check out the playlist here. Please call the station to request a Hrududu Factory song if you can.
In other notes, I've been feeling that same wooziness that happened when I got transferred into this rabbit body back past this summer. (See my earlier notes for those who don't know the story). In any case, my English has almost completely come back as well. Maybe this was a passing thing and I'll soon be changing back into a human body. I dunno, I've gotten quite used to living in the burrow here in the hills. I have no idea what I'd do if I got transferred back. Or maybe this is only the first in a series of animal transformations that I'll have to go through. Ho ho ho.
|
|
August 18, 2003 Songs From The Burrow
Well, the album comes out tomorrow. Everything went fine with the manufacturing and it looks great. Shmatrah says it will be sold for $6. He says he thinks some Peoples may like it. They may want to know more about me and how the album came about. So he suggested I start giving him my journal entries so he can put them up on his website. I've been to his website a few times, it's a fun place. But there's no internet connection down here. So if you're reading this on the web, it's because Shmatrah put it up on the site. Shmatrah says hrair pfeffaroo visit the site in their search for music. (Shmat's note: You can buy the Hrududu Factory EP here.)
|
I now have hrair hrududil-roo. I've been hard at work making them in my hrududu factory below ground. I just have to get them flay so that they can live properly. Sometime next month, on a night without Inlé, I'm going to drive the hrair hrududil-roo down into the sea. I'm going to run down all the elil and corner them until they become tharn. Then as El-arairah did, I will strike these elil down (with great vengeance, ho ho ho!) until they are zorn.
When we reach the ocean, I'll carve up the ground and concrete with the hrududil and plant fields and fields of flyarah. There will be no Owsla and no Owslafa to order any rabbit around. By Ni Frith on that day, there will be no such thing as a Rah. This will be a republic of rabbits and we'll all silflay together.
|
|
July 19, 2003 We have liftoff!
Frithrah! I figured out how to make that beast of a hrududu run. I took it out for a test drive today. It clatters a lot and teeters like it's going to fall apart. But it runs all right. It digs the ground too. I made an attachment on the back. I scared away a bunch of hlessi wandering about. They'd best be scared. I'm planning on taking a the hrududil and carving down a path to the sea. I'm tired of being stuck in the same place with all the embleer elil trying to get at us with nowhere for us to go and hardly any flayrah. Anything that gets in the way of my hrududil will be zorn!
|
Well, on a more positive note, I wrote and recorded two more songs for the CD EP in the depths of my little burrow. Borrowed some drums from the Shmatrah (pain to shove down into the burrow, had to enlarge the opening) and added drum tracks to a few songs. I don't know how a pfeffa like him manages to play all these instruments with his paws, he must have incredible dexterity. I just hopped from drum to drum to keep the beat. This album is going to be released in August. The Shmat and I and some of his Peoples made some cool packaging for it. I don't know the exact process, but he says the CD itself will be manufactured and then put into the packaging. He says it'll be a limited edition release of only 500 copies. By El-ahrairah, I hope everyone will like this EP. Time for silflay and vair.
|
|
June 12, 2003 My Tractor Factory
I've been feeling funny lately, like there's bees inside my head. I can't seem to think straight. Strange words come into my head... like when I'm thinking of the word tractor... well, that doesn't seem right. Another word comes into my head - "hrududu". And when I went to take a dump the other day, I looked down and thought "hraka". What's going on?
The songwriting is going great. I got another 2 songs down, "Tractor Guy" and "Midwick Hill". Shmat says maybe we can release this music on a CD EP in August some time. That's so cool! It's a really therapeutic process, what with the bees in my head all the time.
|
I'm starting to fit in more with the other animals. They don't want to kick my ass any more. Shmat says this is "social acclimatization". He knows a lot of big words.
I came up with a title for this CD if Shmatrah ever gets to put it out on his record label. "Songs From The Burrow". Sort of simple and easy, but I like to think that I'm a simple and easy rabbit.
When I'm not writing songs, I've been building away in the cave next to my burrow. I've actually made a small version of the dead Hrududu that I found. I just have to figure out how to make it work, and don't ask how. I'm going to make hrair of them, by Frithrah. Whups, almost Fu Inlé, time to go silflay.
|
|
May 3, 2003 : Wrote Some Songs
Been busy. I've written 2 songs so far one called "A Terrible Sight" and another called "Family Car". Shmat lent me a guitar and he gave me a kazoo to mess with. He's been coming by the burrow to help out with the recording. A nice guy, that Shmat.
You know, writing songs has been helping me to deal with this rabbit change. But it just seems so unfair being a rabbit, there's not enough room in Alhambra and not enough vegetation to roam around and too much dry brush everywhere in the way.
|
Well, the other day I was hopping around and I cam across this huge hulk of a rusted machine. I think it used to be a tractor. It looks totally rusty and dead.
But I was thinking, let's say I can't get out of this rabbit's body forever. Well, then I think I'm going to make some adjustments to my environment. For starters, I want more open space without so many Peoples around. Looking at that dead tractor, I was thinking... what if I built a miniature version of that and used it to clear out some of this wasteland? I used to be good with machine parts. I can fix stuff.
I think I can use that big open underground space near my burrow as a workshop. I have no idea how i'll do it with paws but like the Shmat always says, "anything is possiblous".
|
|
April 9, 2003 : Met Shmat Today
Of all things, I made a friend today. Well, see, I've gained this reputation around the other animals as a ne'er-do-gooder. In particular, this one raccoon wants to kick my ass I think. Hey, what do you expect, I wasn't born a rabbit. I'm not going to be very jolly talking about beets and carrots all day.
His name is Shmat, but everyone calls him "The Shmat". I guess he gets the article on the front because he's well respected around these parts. He's a cat, I think... I'm not sure. Oh also, he didn't really go into it, but he said that something similar to what happened to me struck him many, many years ago.
|
So I guess he played with rubber bands and frisbees too. Or something. He didn't get into it, like I said. Hey, he's even secretly become friends with humans and he can talk their language somehow. He calls them Peoples.
I told the Shmat that it's been tough being a rabbit and he asked what I usually do nowadays. I said not much, mess around with dirt, go spelunking down the burrow paths. Have carrots for lunch. He said that he's starting up a record label, and would I like to help out or make some music to put out on it? What a cool idea, I have no idea how a cat started a record label. But he does have his Peoples connections. I said, how does an animal play the guitar or drums. He said it's possible to make do, just need a little ingenuity. Well, i'm excited about this! I told him I'll try it out. He said he has a spare 4 track he can bring by later on so I can try and record something. He also said he has some instruments I can borrow. What a cool cat.
|
|
March 28, 2003 : Carnivorous Bunnies
I was daydreaming today about a big thick chocolate milkshake. The kind made with real ice cream and it's so thick that the straw clogs. I'm getting tired of veggies. Here is a short list of food items that I want to eat right here and now:
Pizza
Chicken strips
In 'n out double double animal style
2 Tacos for 99 cents
Breyer's mint and chip
Boba milk tea
Snickers
Fettucini alfredo
Beer
|
Yeah, this is strange, I totally thought rabbits didn't eat meat but I feel like eating hamburgers for weeks. I guess I'm a carnivorous rabbit.
I went exploring down past my own burrow into that bigger cave area. It's really large and it smells funny. Like old slimy mud and dirty wood. Well, you get used to it. But it's not wet at all, perfectly dry, and the ground's packed in hard. It's as big as the size of my old apartment though the ceilings are only 5 feet tall. Not that it matters as I'm pushing only 1' 2" nowadays. What do you reckon, I bet I get in for free at theme parks?
I met a couple of skunks today. Turns out I speak their language now that I'm in a rabbit, who would have guessed? They told me in no uncertain terms to go and frick myself. Lousy, smelly skunks.
|
|
March 19, 2003 : I've Become A Rabbit
I was once an indie pop kid, just like you. Minding my own business. Not at all out of the ordinary. Just going to the occasional Belle and Sebastian or Teenage Fanclub concerts, kicking it with a pastrami at the Hat, and playing with rubber bands and frisbees. Well, that last item was my undoing. Who knew that could be a bad combination?
It happened last week. Yeah, I'm living in a burrow now but I'm getting used to it. The worst thing is the boredom. I need to find something to do. You can only do so much with carrots and dirt. There's no TV here. There's no beer!
|
I don't really feel like a rabbit. Yet. Famous last words, and all. Maybe the next couple days I'll start to lose my human thoughts and I won't think of anything but carrots and female bunnies. But when I look at my furry paws it really hits me. I'm in this rabbit's body and there's currently nothing I can do about it. I've been staying underground mostly because I'm still afraid of getting caught by the coyotes or something. Yeah, Alhambra and Monterey Park are metro areas but there's still some wildlife around hiding out. Like this rabbit that I'm inhabiting. Inhabit the rabbit. Ho ho ho.
You know, this burrow I found is pretty extensive. It kinda curves after about 10 feet down and runs parallel to the ground for awhile. And then it opens up into a bigger area, almost like an underground cave. I stayed out of it because it looked a little scary. Maybe i'll check it out later on. But for now this burrow is pretty snug.
|