Elastic No-No Band: News

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After a bit of delay, we are finally selling the Klaus Kinski T-shirts from my solo tour back in April/May online. You can pick them up from our good friends at Olive Juice Music.

Sizes Small to 2XL, although we're down to one shirt apiece in sizes S, M, and 2X. So order now.

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Also, the documentary I just finished, Making Lovers & Dollars, is now available on official bootleg DVD-R, featuring not only the 50-minute main film, but also 47 minutes of bonus features -- including an animated music video and live performance footage.

For info on owning a copy of the DVD, email me at justin@elasticnonoband.com.

Work continues on new ENB recorded material, and as it does, I am putting finishing touches on the DVD for a documentary I made about the recording of my friend Frank Hoier's new album, Lovers & Dollars.

The movie, simply enough, is titled Making Lovers & Dollars. It runs a little under an hour and features 8 full songs from the album. I like to think of it as Dont Look Back meets The Last Waltz, but with people you might not recognize.

Frank is backed on the album by a cavalcade of indie songwriters including The Weber Brothers, Andrew Hoepfner from the band Creaky Boards, Timothy Bracken, and Feral Foster. They all also appear in the film.

The flick will premiere Friday, August 15, at 6:30pm sharp, kicking off the Friday night festivities of the 2008 Summer Antifolk Fest at the Sidewalk Cafe (click on that link for more info and directions).

DVDs unfortunately won't be done in time for the premiere screening, but they should be done in late August or September 2008.

Clips from Making Lovers & Dollars are up, along with some of my older short films, on my new filmmaker Myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/weemaykmovies

Back to the grindstone.

--Justin

I've been recording new bits and pieces, in fits and starts, since the release of My 3 Addictions last October, with an eye toward eventually putting out a massive new album called Fustercluck!!!. It will be a full-band album, a Justin solo album, an album of collaborations with friends, a rock album, a stripped-down folk album, a more serious collection of songs, a tossed-off collection of junk; it will be all-new material, it will be a covers album. It will be long, and take a while to finish.

So... I've decided to make a more concerted effort to crank out 6 of the songs intended for Fustercluck!!! this summer, to have a stopgap (probably download-only) EP to put out before the end of the year. The EP's focus will be mostly on full-band songs, with a couple of guest appearances. The EP's tentative title is "The Shame About Manboobs" and other songs about how you look and how we feel.

--Justin

I went on a 24-city, 25-show that went from the end of March to the start of May. I wrote a number of interesting, picture- and video- and music-filled blog entries on Elastic No-No Band's Myspace blog.

If you didn't read it while I was on the road, please enjoy.

--Justin

This past Valentine's Day, Elastic No-No Band played a very delightful show on WMBR Cambridge 88.1 FM. And we did it without even taking a trip to the Boston area.

How? you might ask. Well, we were featured on the show Phoning It In, where performers play into a phone and it gets broadcast live on the radio.

And in this TiVo age, you can expect there to be an archive of it, which you can find at this link right here.

The Phoning It In archive features the dozens of previous shows from both the Cambridge, MA, and Providence, RI, editions of the radio show. There's a lot of great gems in the archive; you should check it out.

--Justin

So I got a new computer with a built-in webcam, so I knew this was too good of a chance not to immediately make a cheapo music video. So within minutes of setting the computer up, I shot a video for "Run-DMC".

It looks essentially like I made a fan video for my own work. You can now enjoy it on our Video Clips page.

--Justin

Performance artist, singer-songwriter, and tastemaker Dan Fishback has created a series of Top Ten lists for 2007.

Sandwiched between Toby Goodshank at number 1, and Dave End at number 3 (a very tasty sandwich to be a part of, I might add), is Elastic No-No Band with "Would You Care?" at number 2 on the list of The Top Ten Songs of 2007.

With the fast pace of the modern media and the public's short attention span, this tune could almost be considered a time capsule of February 2007.

It is featured on our CD, No-No's (Leftovers and Live Songs), but can also be downloaded for free from this page on our website.

Check it out if you haven't heard it. And thanks, Dan, for your support.

--Justin

Last month, I gave a copy of My 3 Addictions to Laura Cantrell, who -- as you may know -- is the subject of one of our songs: "A Modest Proposal (For Laura Cantrell)."

I wrote all about the encounter in Elastic No-No Band's Myspace blog, and if you haven't read it, I'm sure you'll enjoy the story.

Anyhow, shortly after giving Ms. Cantrell the CD, she sent me a nice email saying that she and her baby daughter had listened to the album and added "Let's hear it for Cheese Fries!" I expect this is both in praise of the foodstuff and of our song about said foodstuff.

Now, we'll just have to hope that Werner Herzog (mentioned in our song "I Am Klaus Kinski") or Kenneth Branagh (the character who narrates our song "Woody Allen Surrogate") hears our music and is as nice as Ms. Cantrell.

--Justin

I used to work for Troma Entertainment, the company that made the TOXIC AVENGER movies and countless other schlock classics.

I was the production manager and main video editor behind some of their best recent DVD releases, including LolliLove and the 10th anniversary double-disc edition of Tromeo and Juliet.

During my time there, I also came up with a song for their big 35mm theatrical release Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, "Lone Gay Man's Last Words," which Herb Scher and I performed, and which can be heard on the Poultrygeist soundtrack, as well as on our "rarities" CD, No-No's.

Anyhow, I just learned that, after some sporadic nationwide screenings, Poultrygeist is finally coming home to New York City in March 2008. Mark your calendars. Check troma.com for more details.

--Justin

We had an amazing CD release show on my birthday, Monday night, the 24th. Thomas Patrick Maguire, Sammy Shuster, and Schwervon! played sets before us and were AWESOME!

There were interpretive dancers, there was blood, there was a Weezer sing-along... it's a shame you missed it.

No fear, though: you can pretend you were at the CD release party, by picking up a copy online.

My 3 Addictions is now available at CD Baby for $9.97 plus shipping.

But the CD -- like all of our stuff -- is one of CD Baby's $5 special CDs, meaning that you can get it for a discounted price of $5 when you buy 3 special CDs.

Imagine it, you can own all 3 of our albums for a measly $15 plus shipping!

Check out the CD Baby site now!

Dan DiMauro, who did the art direction for The Very Best of Elastic No-No Band So Far, has once again done our art for us, and has even DRAWN the cover!

Check out UPCOMING GIGS for info on the CD release party, and expect to be able to pick the album up from online retailers starting in October!

Find out the answer to that question right here.

--Justin

So, I noticed there was a big jump in the number of views for the live clip of Elastic No-No Band and friends doing "A Modest Proposal (For Laura Cantrell)" at Sidewalk Cafe.

I went to the list of links on the youtube page, and I saw a whopping 73 clicks came from this blog, and more specifically this entry.

It's a blog for chubby-chasing gay dudes (or chubby-chasing heterosexual chicks, I guess).

What the hell? That shit's awesome. I'm fucking hot.

Check out the clip at the link above or on our Video Clips page, and see if you don't agree.

--Justin

So, as of yesterday, our new rarities CD, No-No's (Leftovers and Live Songs) is now available for download from iTunes.




But I'm not gonna lie. Getting it from iTunes is not a good deal. Not if you want the whole CD. In the US, they charge $9.99 for 12 songs -- their standard rate.*

But, if you buy the CD from Olive Juice Music, it's $6 in the US ($4 plus $2 shipping)** for 15 songs (there are 3 unlisted bonus tracks). Also, you can get the disc FOR FREE from Olive Juice, if you buy our first CD there.


Now, if you just want to pick up a song or two, go ahead and check out No-No's on iTunes.

--Justin

*For international buyers, it's whatever iTunes charges standard for you.
**For international buyers, it's the equivalent of $4 plus the international shipping charge.

So I sent off a copy of The Very Best of Elastic No-No Band So Far and No-No's (Leftovers and Live Songs) to this blog called Eartaste, since I saw that my Sidewalk Cafe-based chum Ben Godwin got a good review for one of the tunes on his new CD Skin and Bone.

Basically, your tunes get a listen, and if one of the songs stands out, it gets written up in the blog and stuck in a podcast.

Well, "Nobody's Listening" from No-No's was selected as one of the "Tastes of the Day" last Tuesday. You can read the write-up if you go to Eartaste and scroll down to Tuesday, May 8.
Also, you can check out the podcast at this link here.

In honor of this occurrence, I've put "Nobody's Listening" back up streaming on the ENB Myspace page. Don't forget that No-No's can be purchased for pretty cheap at CDBaby.com and OliveJuiceMusic.com

--Justin

So, I'm going back to my hometown, Toledo, Ohio, for a little over a week at the end of May/start of June. One of my very good friends, Josh Godfrey, is marrying his longtime girlfriend, Becky Ehrick. I was not asked to be a groomsman, so I shouldn't even go, but I will, because I'm a better person than Josh.

(Just kidding. Besides, Josh wrote a very nice, honest review of The Very Best of Elastic No-No Band So Far on CD Baby, although under a completely deceptive pen name [click on the link and find his review, to see what I mean].)

Anyhow, while I'm in town, I'm going to try to fill my time with shows. A coffeehouse set where I'll sing and tell the stories behind the songs, an in-store appearance at Toledo's most popular record shop, and one more, which will hopefully feature some special guest appearances.

For more specific info, go the UPCOMING GIGS PAGE.

NO-NO'S (Leftovers and Live Songs), the new "rarities" CD from Elastic No-No Band is now available from CDBaby.com. They've got it for a decent-ish price, $6.95, which is good for 50 minutes of music, I think.

AND, just like THE VERY BEST OF ELASTIC NO-NO BAND SO FAR (our first CD), it is part of CD Baby's $5 super sale. If you buy 3 of the Super Sale discs, you get them for $5 apiece, instead of their normal listed price.
That means if you buy NO-NO'S (Leftovers and Live Songs) AND THE VERY BEST OF ELASTIC NO-NO BAND SO FAR, you're already two-thirds of the way there.

Keep checking in. This disc is sure to pop up elsewhere soon enough.

New live mp3's posted!!

Guys With Glasses
(Below are mp3's from the [almost] complete
solo live show where Justin covered his favorite
singer-songwriters with glasses.)

1. Ben Godwin intro/Cynical Girl/It's So Easy
(Marshall Crenshaw/Buddy Holly)
2. Everyday (Buddy Holly)
3. Radio Sweetheart (Elvis Costello)
4. Living Without You (Randy Newman)
5. Uncomplicated (Elvis Costello)
6. I'll Get You (John Lennon)
7. Tip Jar Announcement/Short People (Randy Newman)
8. Live in the Hills (Chopping Wood)
(Herb Scher) [ending missing, due to recording error]
9. Only the Lonely/Outro (Roy Orbison)

There's a new ENB CD coming.

No, I don't mean ENB's new forthcoming studio album MY 3 ADDICTIONS, which we are continuing to piece together with Major Matt's help over at Olive Juice.

I am putting together a CD of rarities... no, not "rarities": all of our "main" recordings are pretty rare in the greater scheme of things too.

I am putting together a CD of B-sides... no, we've never put out a single so that would be a misnomer.

I am putting together a CD of ... er... leftovers. YEAH!

It's called NO-NO'S (LEFTOVERS AND LIVE SONGS), and it's going to be a limited edition thing. I'm going to give it to Major Matt to sell in the Olive Juice online store for real cheap -- like 4 or 5 bucks -- and to include it FOR FREE! to anyone who buys our official CD release, THE VERY BEST OF ELASTIC NO-NO BAND SO FAR, from Olive Juice.

Here's the tracks:
1. Sally's Strut [from the ANTICOMP FOLKILATION]
2. Would You Care?
3. Nobody's Wife (You're The One) [live, with Sammy Shuster]
4. What I'm Good For
5. Let's Fuck [live, including the story about the Christian guy]
6. Nobody's Listening
7. You Never Swam [live]
8. Cheese Fries [live]
9. Lone Gay Man's Last Words [from the POULTRYGEIST soundtrack]
10. Younger Than Me
11. I Am Klaus Kinski [live, the version where I flip out on some drunk guys in the audience who won't stop talking]
12. New York City Girls/You Think It's Wrong (To Sing Along) [live]

...and probably some hidden unlisted tracks as well (way to spoil the surprise, I know...).

Keep your eyes peeled, NO-NO'S should be available by mid-April.

And MY 3 ADDICTIONS should hopefully be done by fall '07 (and now the CHINESE DEMOCRACY-style delays begin).

--Justin

So I'm adding lyrics to the 57 FREE MP3's PAGE. If you notice that a song title on that page is also a link, click on it, and you will find some beautifully constructed lyrics.

I did about 10 (completely random) songs tonight, and I'll keep it up until all the original songs on the site have lyrics. The lyrics for the covers, no doubt, can be found somewhere else on the internet.

--Justin