A writer from The Boston Globe interviewed me yesterday for an article that he’s working on about Grinding Tapes Recording Co. If you’re not familiar, GTRC is Boston based label that releases my music.  Run by my buddy Jason Rozen, it’s a wonderfully DIY, little label that puts out limited runs of some fabulous artists often times housed in handmade packaging.  Portions of proceeds go to charity and Jason takes next to no money for the work he puts in. We’ve been friends since highschool. Oh and he gave me a kidney when I got sick! Yup, that’s the kind of guy he is…The Globe article should be out in Friday’s paper.  I’ll keep you posted.

I found some photo’s from my transplant on an old Picasa album I forgot about. This was one of my nurses. I know right?! She pulled out my catheter. I’m going to go ahead and call that 3rd base. I’ve forgotten her name…cause I’m a player.

Rhonda and I are in the new Levi’s ad campaign!

A few months ago I was nearly asleep in my backyard around midnight. I had brought a blanket and pillows out to the hammock, prepared for a slumber party with the fireflies. My snooze was interrupted when my friend Kimberly called and said, “Hey there’s these cool folks working for Levi’s new ad campaign and they want to do a story on you and Rhonda and Figs. Come over to Sky Bar!”

Well, Ra and I went to Skybar and hit it off with the folks from Duck Duck Collective, a group of BFF’s from Lynchburg, VA who take stunning photo’s/videos, and they spent the entirety of the following day following Rhonda and I around with cameras, asking us questions and zooming in on Crashdog. Duck Duck was hired by Levi’s to travel the Eastern Seaboard to document the New America. They chose to focus on many great, tender communities where us Millennials are thriving and sharing.

What I love about this short film is Duck Duck’s choice to explore characters that are working towards becoming what they love. In most cases in the film they are working with their group of friends to create something beautiful…or at least healthy…which is beautiful.

Anyway, this summer I played a show at Duck Duck’s incredible loft space in downtown Lynchburg. John, Ally and Matt of Duck Duck are some of the most warm, generous folks we’ve stumbled into, so the show was lovingly planned and incredibly executed. There were glow sticks hanging around the entire loft space from the rafters. With the lights off it was magical, and they streamed the entire show. It seemed like every hipster in Lynchburg showed up. We bought cheap beer and let everyone drink it, Jake had a bit too much and barfed everywhere late at night. All in all tiny mtns went to Lynchburg and had a ton of fun. I seriously think about those guys (and girl) all the time and can’t wait to hang out with them in the future. I’ll try and find some pictures from that show.

This film will be shown in San Francisco on October 17th and NYC on October 22nd.

Rhonda’s been blogging about this and other fascinating adventures in our life at http://figsblog.wordpress.com.  Check it out!

Any suggestions on what to name our vintage trailer?

We’ve been tearing out the innards of our beautiful aluminum submarine. I’d like to draw attention to the orderliness of the trash pile we pulled from that metal slug. It’s without a doubt the most orderly trash pile I’ve ever been involved in creating. Hooray!
We stacked all the refuse in front of the barn.  Ra took this photo of the overhang our barn had once upon a time.  Now a mutant Honeysuckle has crippled it. There’s a live animal trap under there too…yuck.  No animal at least.

I love that the small piece of land we bought includes a tiny barn! There’s something magical and wholesome about a barn in disrepair.  As you may know, someday we’ll build a house on our land. Renovating the barn was our initial plan, but it would probably be cheaper/easier to build a new, simple home. Keeping the barn would make me happy. I’d love to fix it up enough to use for storage. Just having it on the land makes me smile.

If you dare brave tetanus, spiders and wasps you can climb through the wreckage of the overhang and into the second floor of the barn which is in surprisingly good shape. It’s beautiful in there. Sun shines through slatted wood that’s decades old. There are dozens of hornet and wasp nests along the ceiling, but they weren’t a problem, showing no interest in me whatsoever when I went in last.

We’re sifting through flooring options. Cork or bamboo would be lovely, but we’re not sure we want to drop 500-800 bucks on the flooring alone. We are doing this to save money after all, so we’re keeping an eye out for remnant hardwood on CL and the Habitat for Humanity store.

I think “The Slug” is a nice name.

1/4 of a hundred!

Tonight I open for David Dondero in the small town of Rutherfordton, NC.  If you’re not familiar with Double D’s work give him a listen.  NPR’s named him among the greatest songwriters alive, and he was highschool friends with my buddy Stephen.

Here’s the show info:
10/17/2009 6:00 PM at Brood Awakenings w/ David Donderro
213 North Main Street, Rutherfordton, North Carolina 28139

Future Home!

Our new 25 ft. 1967 Avion. Photo by Rich Orris.

Ra and I have been the busiest beavers in the whole dammed river.  So we were in Washington DC for Crafty Bastards about a week ago.  Figs made bank and had we an awesome time which is besides the point, but Rhonda had a great idea.  Here’s how the conversation went:

“Let’s sell our house and live in an Airstream trailer for a while.  We can pay off all of our debt, and it will be fun!”

“Alright!” <–that’s me.

When we got home we found the trailer you see above and bought it for $1,200.  We’re going to completely gut it and rebuild it into a cute little place to live!  I’m terribly excited about this project.

Seperate beds!

So my buddy Lee and I ripped out the fridge and the heater while our respective wives looked on.  It was fun, but now there’s a pile of garbage on our land.  I would be more concerned about appearances if our neighbor hadn’t left a toilet half buried on our land before selling it to us…oh and one time he lit a futon on fire on our property while we were gone.  That makes it sound bad, but he’s really a nice guy.

Looking for something to eat.

There are magnets on the ceiling of the camper that hold the cabinets open!  I love that! Too bad most of those cabinets will have to go away.  I’ll post more as we fix it up!

Oh and Ra posted more pics on the Figs & Ginger blog.  Check it out!

Bye!

Future tiny tours!

I’m booking a few tiny tours, and the best part is that they’re in conjunction with traveling for Figs & Ginger.  Which means that Rhonda will be along for the ride!  She can’t reaaaally drive stick so I do most (read all) of the driving.  Her company is worth it though.  Anyway, I figured I’d post the dates that I’m working on up.  If you want to book me for a show on any of these dates e-mail me.  I’m also always booking shows in the South.  NC, SC, TN, VA, and GA shows are always welcome.  I’d be super grateful!  ElijahWyman (at) gmail . com

Dec. 5th/6th – Seattle, WA
Dec. 8th/9th – Vancouver, BC
Dec. 11th/12th – Pittsburgh, PA

Jan. 21st – Asheville, NC
Jan. 22nd – Lynchburg, VA
Jan. 23rd – Charlottesville, VA
Jan. 24th – Washington DC
Jan. 25 – Baltimore, MD
Jan. 26th – Philadelphia, PA
Jan. 27th – NYC/BKLYN
Jan. 29th – Portsmouth, NH
Jan. 30 – Boston, MA

Tonight I’m going to pack up a bunch of tiny mtns CD’s and ship ‘em on out to various press and college/independent radio stations.  Oh, I need to re-write my bio and press release.  I post where I’m sending stuff and any positive response that I get.  Oh, and if you have any suggestions on an awesome magazine, blog, radio station, etc that I should send a presskit to, I’d love to hear it!  I’ll be Tweeting about it too.

Ready to get ignored by Pitchfork? Alright!

I love:
1. Re-watching the Office season 3.

2. Eating apples I picked with friends.

3. You

Oh and if you live in Asheville, NC I’m playing tomorrow night at The Grey Eagle opening for Vic Chesnutt.  He recorded albums with A Silver Mt. Zion & Elf Power which is enviable.  It starts at 9pm.  I’d love to see you there.

Happy 20th post blog! Check out this poster my buddy Jason Rozen made! I love it.

The Ant Cellar – Lowell, MA