Thanatos is playing a solo show opening for Devoured by Flowers at 8 p.m., Thursday, October 19, 2017 at Lovecraft Bar (421 SE Grand Ave., Portland, Oregon).

This is the first time I've played west of Texas and I am thrilled to be playing with Ashkelon Sain (Trance to the Sun)'s new band. I am playing solo but I hesitate to call it "acoustic" since I am thinking of playing my electric. I usually only play this with a band but it is the very same guitar I used on most of my early records where I played an electric. Oddly....given the acoustic nature of the first two records I didn't own an acoustic guitar until after the first two Thanatos LPs were finished.

But enough boring history! This will be a fun show. I am opening for a band that I am thrilled to be playing with. I am doing this show, in part, so I get a chance to see them. Click on their name to check out their music.

So the Thanatos record now has all the songs that are going to be included in SOME form of completion. Some need more work than others but the pace is accelerating. I have some parts I want to add to some songs that may take time to sort out (people I want to add stuff are not in town) but the end is much closer.

I recorded a new cover of Tim Larson's A New Deal....a song that is both appropriate for our time and for me personally....I abandoned (for this record) a cover of Goddamn the Sun by Swans but I may come back to it for other projects I am planning in the not TOO distant future. This record is quite different from the Thanatos records of the past--as different as you are likely to get from a project I am writing anyway!

Right now there are 11 songs, as noted. They include:  A New Deal, Ghosts,  Something to Tell You, Hallelujah, Wade in the Water, Chockoloskee, Sleeping in An Art Free Environment, Every Dark Corner, A Prayer To Everyone (Unanswered), The Coyote in the Graveyard and The Night Visitor.

For those keeping track the new Thanatos record  is moving along at breakneck speed (yes, yes it has only been in the works for 2 years).  The new direction the record has taken has been based, in part on basing songs off simple, small pieces of music that are then completed by juxtaposing sounds and samples against that simple piece of music.

There were a few inspirations for this--two were live shows.  I am not mentioning the bands because what Tim Larson, Eric Polcyn and myself are doing are totally different from these bands musically. I have found that if you put an idea in peoples heads they run with it....like if I wrote "It sounds like Beyonce" people would then judge it based on that and either think it did or complain it didn't. Suffice it to say that I was inspired by bands building great songs around simple pieces of music (or samples).

Another thing we discovered today was three "lost" cover songs: Love Minus Zero No Limit (Bob Dylan), Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) and The Price I Pay (BillyBragg). None of these are likely to find their way onto the final record but they will likely find their way out into the world someway.

A few years back I did a Kickstarter for a new Thanatos LP,  Coyote in the Graveyard.  My idea was, in part, that I would be inspired to work on new material if I did that; it worked up to a point.

BUT, for the first time in my life, the first group of songs I recorded? I just didn't think they were worth releasing (to prove this I briefly put two mediocre tunes up on Bandcamp.....they have now been assigned to the garbage heap of history).  It wasn't the recordings or the performances. They just were not good songs. No matter how you record a bad song? It remains a bad song.

Not all the songs recorded up to that point were BAD. We did get one good song out of that session and one before. Two songs, however, isn't much of an LP. Part of the problem maybe was my boxing myself in with a "positive vibe" theme. I confess that my idea of what is cheerful differs from most people. I think the movie The Seventh Seal is cheerful for instance (the Knight saves the family for fuck's sake...AND everyone else who dies wants to die or is a jerk).

My idea was to be uplifting in a broader sense which is, perhaps, not what I do best.

In any case in recent times we've slowly but surely started moving in the direction of producing solid music (in my opinion anyway).  Today, as I post this, we brought in Thanatos bassist, Eric Polcyn, to lay down bass on a cover and a new song that has been lurking around in my head. As usual in recent years Tim Larson was the one doing the recording.

Part of my recent realizations is that, instead of getting more complicated in the foundation of my songs--which as usual is the acoustic guitar--I decided to get simpler and to add complexity later. I had an art teacher who told the class to "squint your eyes" at what you were painting and therein see the background color that you laid down first. That is sort of what we are doing.

I am very conscious of trying to avoid slick here too...This isn't always easy in our digital world. More on this soon for people who care to read! You can check out two current songs--the title track and The Night Visitor on our Bandcamp page. These are not final mixes.

In December, 2013 Thanatos played two shows to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first LP, This Endless Night Inside. The first was a solo acoustic show in New York City (I would like to apologize to the folks who attended that show...just all around iffy).

But this show? (which you can download free HERE)  It brought me back to the old Thanatos, when it was me, Eric Polcyn and William Tucker out on the road playing acoustic, drummerless music that mirrored the first two LPs from Thanatos.

Of course while Eric was still on hand we had to good luck to add William Faith on guitar and our fairly longtime collaborator Tim Larson on keyboards. One of the great things about this show was that it was very "thanatos-y." 

While Eric and I practiced a few times to refresh our memories we played with Tim and William together only TWICE (we did practice with one or the other a couple of times too). But all together? Only twice! And the funny thing is that the person who fucks up the most is ME.  William posted about his "screw ups"...noting he made three mistakes. I noted that I made three mistakes in the first song!

SO fantastic to have William, Eric and Tim there.  I may do a show once the new Thanatos LP is finished.

There is finally a new Thanatos song for your perusal. The acoustic version of the song, Coyote in the Graveyard, is up for your perusal. If you pledged to the Kickstarter please send me a note via Kickstarter and I will send you a code to download it free.

It is $1.50 for the rest of you but you can listen to it free of course.

I will, in a few days, put up way for you to pre-order a physical copy of the CD (which will be very limited...after the kickstarter and some freebies? I think I will have maybe 50 for sale).
Let me know what you think. This was an attempt to get back to the first Thanatos LP....

So Michael Holcombe  put together this wonderful version of the song "Rain."  I wanted to share it with all of you.

It also got me thinking? If you want? Do your own covers of Thanatos songs and I will post them here. If I can help with the music? Give me a holler. Sometimes it takes me a bit to get back so be patient.

We played well. The venue was great, the staff was great and the other bands were awesome. I made a very wise decision playing before rather than after Tim Larson and Ryan Durdin because they rocked. Thanks to William Faith and Eric Polccyn for playing with Thanatos.

Thanks to Shimmer DJs, Philly Peroxide and Scary Lady Sarah. I hope Shimmer finds a permanent home to spin shoegaze in Chicago once a month soon (cause I need a place to hang out).

But lordy...really thanks to the folks who came out. I cannot imagine doing another show? I love playing, love working on music but I just can't deal with some of the more mundane aspects of it (one being...well honestly, though there were MORE in the room..24 people PAID to get in...so the net pay for three bands and 2 DJs was $18).  Why would the venue book a "main act" that cannot draw more than that? Hell I sure as HELL won't ask anyone to again--that I assure you.

If I promised a record release show for Coyote in the Graveyard? I will find a way to do it  or if someone else I like asks me to play on their bill? Possible...but really? I think this is pretty much it....and a fun, fun way for it to BE that!

Thanatos' Chicago show at Door No. 3 at 8 pm, Wednesday December 18, 2013 with Binary Partners, Tim Larson & Ryan Durdin and Shimmer DJs Scary Lady Sarah & Philly Peroxide.

Practicing with William Faith and Eric Polcyn tonight (Tim Larson was practicing his own set) I decided this is going to be...or could be...a special show. There is a feel to this new incarnation that makes me think this. It isn't that we are knocking it out of the park hitting every note it is more that there is just something right about it. All I can say about it really.

December 18, doors at 8 pm (get here early!)...

We will be playing a lot of songs off the first LP in honor of the 20th anniversary but also some tracks off latter records,  like Embassy to Gaius and Blisters. I will be totally honest? How long this set is will vary with the "vibe" I feel in the room.

The show starts early--Binary Partners go on (at the latest at 8:30 p.m.), Thanatos  follow after a break and Tim Larson and Ryan Durdin will go on right after Thanatos. The shimmer DJs will play in between and after...First "band show" in at least four years.

A few years back Tim Larson and I, in one night, recorded the three song digital only Christmas "EP," A Very Thanatos Christmas....It was up on this site but you couldn't download it. Now, due to the magic that is Bandcamp? You can download it--for free.

I sing, I think I play some guitars...Tim plays guitars, mandolin, steel guitar and sings too. Feel free to spread it around and Happy Holidays.

Maybe I should add a Christmas song to the list for the show in Chicago on December 18?