Soaring Eagle Vs. The Lonely Catapillar

So I had an idea for a kiddie book a while back and illustrated the concepts in a journal. Since then, I recorded (on garage band) a demo song for each page. You will find them here in backwards order, so please scroll from bottom to top (ie: page 1-13) and click on the links to download the songs. So, without further ado, I give you: SOARING EAGLE vs. THE LONELY CATAPILLAR!




Pg. 13 song (click here)

Pg. 12 song (click here)

Pg. 11 song (click here)

Pg. 10 song (click here)

Pg. 9 song (click here)

Pg. 8 song (click here)

Pg. 7 song (click here)

Pg. 6 song (click here)

Pg. 5 song (click here)

Pg. 4 song (click here)

Pg. 3 song (click here)

Pg. 2 song (click here)

Pg. 1 song (click here)

After Dore

I've been doing some interpretations of Gustave Dore's famous Biblical drawings. I haven't made my way through Genesis yet, but I'm persistent. Here are the current results (forgive the amateur scanning -- just got a new scanner and I'm learning the ropes).

Hope you enjoy.
Yours,
Derek

Q's, Q's, Q's

What does one do with one's time? Here's a question I've been struggling with for weeks and two months now. While music and art have always been sanctuaries, lately, my inspiration feels tapped.

I don't know whether to blame it on laziness or medication, but I've been sluggishly parading through the day. Sometimes I just want the day to end so I can go back to sleep. Other times, I'm anxious to do something meaningful with my time. So, now, I'm just filling the void by typing here at the computer hoping for some sort of enlightenment to strike me.

What do we do with the time given to us? I'm not sure but I'm willing to bet it has something to do with other people. Who and what do we value? Who and what's really important?

I'm still trying to figure out the man I want to be in the future. I know others who are seeking the same things. May we be blessed on this path and not fall apart too easily.


In other words, I believe help me with my unbelief.



-derek

Life After Hospitals

Hello all,

Let me first address the matter of the unfinished tour blog — it happened for a few reasons:

A.) Laziness
2.) Craziness
D.) 12 days in a mental hospital in OKC

Yes, it's all true. The real truth, however, is the love of my friends and family have seen me through a troubled time in my life. I've been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the meds seem to be doing their trick.

I'm currently living with my mother and grandmother in beautiful Mill Valley, CA on top of Mt. Tamalpais — north of Muir Woods (where G. Lucas shot the famed Ewok scenes in Return of the Jedi). I can't think of a better place to recuperate, relax and recover which I plan on doing in the following weeks. Currently waiting on some delicious baked mac n' chee while digging on Santana's classic first album.

So anyone worried, please don't worry. Life's too short to be bothered with those feelings.

Anyhow, music and art have been sanctuaries my entire life and I've spent a great deal of the past month doing these things. Keep checking as I plan on posting them sooner than later.



You are loved,
Derek



P.S. Read II Tim 1:7 if you ever find yourself in my shoes.

TOURRUOTTOURRUOT

So I totally neglected to keep tabs on the tour via this blog. This will be remedied.

RECAP:

Tour has been going really well — so far, we've played three shows.

Thursday was Nashville @ 5 Spot with Denney and the Jets/Daniel Pujol, ACTION!, and Natalie Prass. All of these bands were so very good — by far, one of the best sounding shows I've ever seen at the 5 spot — I was surprised how well the acoustics turned out. Playing with some of my favorite people and musicians in Nashville was super-special and (despite a tornado warning) we had some of my best friends and random people come out and it was a very good and chill way to kickoff the tour (complete with numerous stuffed animals, freaky life-sized Barbie and collapsing tin-foil stage reflectors). The next day, before packing up, we caught a midnight showing of obscure Japanese horror/comedy HOUSE (HAUSU). Which, of course, kicked all of our asses — so good!

Friday we played in Louisville Kentucky at a neat cafe called Derby City Espresso. Special thanks to Matt Kinder from Parade Schedule for setting it up and playing one of the best sets I'd seen in a while. These guys also just signed to the Record Machine label and I couldn't be happier to be labelmates with such a talented band. Matt was super-cool and let us crash while making sure we got our fair dose of Batman movies — right on. To make matters only better, Danny (Parade Schedule's bassist) and his wife hosted us the following morning for an exceptional breakfast/brunch. Biscuits, veggie-gravy, melons, cereal, donuts and eggs were consumed in mass quantities. Yet nothing could prepare us for the badass Bananas Foster desert treat — basically orgasmic.

Saturday we played our second show with Parade Schedule, this time in Bloomington, IN at another cafe called the Pourhouse. This was a seriously great time as I was super stoked to be catching the ridiculously great band Heavy Hometown. Not only the nicest guys in the world, this band kicked so much ass — if you haven't heard them, you need to. But special thanks to Anna from the Pourhouse for opening up the doors despite the cafe not usually being open on Sundays. It was a great night and very positive. Afterwards, shots, beer and Jimmy Johns took the edge off before Empire Strikes Back and cannabis made for a giggly, absurdist late-night conversation before dreamland. Special thanks to Eric for putting us up and to Cory for the shots and good vibes.

PRESENT:

Sitting with mediocre coffee at a friendly coffee shop in Ukrainian village (??) of Chicago before we play at the Darkroom — Monday night in Chicago? Yes, expectations aren't sky high to say the least. Still, a good time is guaranteed because it's been so much fun to play the songs with Scott and Jon. We're in great spirits and I can't imagine being in a better frame of mind for this trek.



Stay tuned for more updates and if you're in town, we'd love to see you at a show — be real.




love,
derek


LINKS:::::

http://www.myspace.com/denneyandthejets
http://www.myspace.com/danielluccapujol
http://www.myspace.com/natalieprass
http://www.myspace.com/actionsongs

http://www.myspace.com/theparadeschedule
http://www.myspace.com/heavyhometown

Porky Pig

Here's a new demo for you to chew on:

CLACKXXX HEREZZZZZZZZZZZZZ







Tour is almost booked completely, stay tuned.


-derek

btw, that's not all folks...

the time is nigh

not much time to chat, folks.
too busy... booking... tour... and... writing... drawing... stuff... music... too.. and...

ah!

must.. tell.. you.. perhapsy... album... is... now... on... itunes!

Link: here!

and Amazon!

Link: here!




stay tuned for more fruity pebbles and remember: "MINOR BUN ENGINE MADE BENNY LAVA!!"


p.s. here's an interview I did with the awesome grouper for TMT: here
st.vincent and pattern is movement live show review for TMT: here

Links, Links, and Sausage links

So, it's been a while.

Apologies.

Since last post, I got a few interviews published with a couple of my favorite artists:

Take a gander —

Interview with Charlie Looker from Extra Life: CLICK HERE


Interview with Randy Chabot from Deastro: CLICK HERE


In other news, I watched a pretty good documentary on the life and art of Henry Darger (one of his paintings is pictured above) called In the Realms of the Unreal.

Watch it before youtube takes that shit down! clackity click

Also, I've been busy getting kicked out of my apartment, finding new housing and working on art, music and writing.

Same old same old — more or less.

Some of my new illustrations/weirdness may be found here: CLOCKITY CLICK CLACK



All right, enough links already!



Hope the warm weather finds you and finds you well.


Love,
Derek




p.s. The second picture (below the Darger) is when Jonathan and I played at Calvin's FFM at the DAAC. A perhapsy tour is coming up for late July/early August — stay tuned...

Full Album Stream

The kind gentleman from KC's the record machine are currently streaming the album in it's entirety, for a time.

It's to be officially released JUNE 16th.

There. Now you have a date.


Row, row, row your boats, children...

Link: Click this button right here... no, right here. that's it.


Or enter this punk: http://www.therecordmachine.net/front/





Bye,
Derek

New Demo (Just In Time for TTTAXES)

Things that make me happy right now:

1.) $5 copy of Art Spiegelman's MAUS

2.) Louis Wain (he's the dead guy that painted the lovely, psych-cats in front of you... I've never had the desire to get a tattoo until seeing some of his work — don't worry, I'm too much of a pussy for that )

3.) Easter card from my mom.

4.) Grouper

5.) New comics to share...

6.) "Remade Horizon"

7.) Getting to work on new music — see below.

Have fun — song's tentatively called "Lazarus." Don't ask why, please.

Download me: CLICK!


take pear and pizza out,
derek


p.s. don't forget to do those taxes, you crazy kitties, you.

Back in Ohio

So I just spent twelve hours riding a greyhound.

The first four hours were nightmarish — an overstuffed 3:45 AM bus from Nashville to Kentucky in which the toilet overflowed. I didn't have room to store my guitar, so I had to stay awake and move it whenever someone needed to pass through the aisle. Pretty wretched... but I quickly learned the importance of getting on board early.

The last few bus trips — Louisville to Cincinnati to Columbus to Mansfield were surprisingly pleasant! I talked to a very kind older lady who was familiar with Ann Arbor, Nashville and Grand Rapids. She was going to visit her son Jonathan in Ohio because he was very ill. She was a very sweet person and I gave her a CD because she said she wanted to listen to it. Some fascinating people at Greyhound stations... To say the very least.

Here I am now in good ol' Manfield, OH. Well, definitely old — good? It has it's moments.

For instance, the first thing I heard upon arrival at the greyhound station was "With Arms Wide Open" by, according to Mansfield radio station MIX 106, THE Creed.

It was a very Mansfield, OH moment.

Went to Athens Greek Restaurant and munched on some delicious falafel, fries and baklava — cheap and delicious.

My good friend Jon Thompson, who's responsible for recording, engineering and playing on the perhapsy album, picked me up and we're getting stuff together for a performance in Grand Rapids. It should be very exciting and fun to see some best friends there and share some food and music.

So, that's about it...

If you haven't heard of him, check out the artwork of Louis Wain — really incredible.





This post was boring. Sorry.



Best,
Derek

New

Inspiration is a tricky thing.

Had a bit of it today. The result? Another garageband demo.


Mucho improvisio on this one.


Enjoy: click right here



love,
derek



p.s. extra credit if you guess the sample... ;(

ffm updated -- i's patting meself on ze back.

Hey guys,

Me again.

Some more good news to share: I ended up placing in the top 5 of Calvin College's FFM Bandspotting. Which, apparently, means two perhapsy songs will be featured on a whole bunch of CD's distributed to attendees of the festival.

I've always been a fan of the festival (I even wrote about my experiences for the Michigan Daily back when I was in school at UM: here )

I'm told Asthmatic Kitty boss-guy Michael Kaufmann and Andy Whitman of Paste magazine were the two gents put in charge of judging the entries. They had these kind words to say:


"From an instrumental standpoint, this is the most impressive music I heard in the whole batch of songs in the final list. There’s some seriously great guitar work here. Both “Bow Song” and “The Elephant Vanishes” feature an intriguing mix of electronica collage and sweet fingerpicking. It reminds me of some of the early Windham Hill music, back when “New Age” was not a derogatory musical category, and the music actually had some substance. Wonderful, lovely, and engaging
music."

Awfully kind.

Here's a link:
click

Anyhow, haven't decided if I have the funds to attend or not, but if you end up going to the festival, I hope it's as good as the last few years.


best,
derek



p.s. i'm currently in san francisco visiting my mom and was treated to some banging steamed artichokes... don't get much better than steamed artichokes.

Comix, etc.

So, it's been a while.

Apologies to anyone who cares.

For the obvious reasons, I've been pretty busy with work, music, writing and whatnot. Since my last post, I had some stuff published on Dusted and Stereo Subversion — because I do that sort of thing.

In other minor accomplishments, at the persistent encouragement of a friend, I recently submitted some music to Calvin College's FFM deally. Apparently, I've made it into the top ten peeps along with some old friends (Deastro and Aaron Roche). Hot potatoes... If you want, check out the submissions here (some really good ones including my great friend Charlene Kaye and breathe owl breathe — my favorite band from Michigan).

After some delay, the art for the perhapsy album is coming along well. Things should be ready for early May... I think itunes should have that stuff, but yeah... No more procrastination is the goal...

But enough about that shizzz, on to a subject everyone loves: homemade comics.

Well, maybe not everyone. Either way, I've been drawing a whole lot lately and am happy to share some of the randomness and resulting crazies. A good deal is meant to be humorous, but some of it's personal stuff, so, apologies if I offend.


Take a gander: here





best regards,
derek



p.s. happy march.

Correction —

I've been informed, by a friend, that my previous link — the one to the Fell Trees cover song — was faulty.


My apologies.


Here's the right one:

"Seeing Is Believing" (Fell Trees Cover)" by Perhapsy Download


Best,
Derek

"Seeing Is Believing" — Brian Militana/Fell Trees Cover

Sometimes I have ideas.

This one began as a vague frustration — while on tour with my old band, my friend showed me some music by a guy named Brian. I was really impressed with it. But I also figured the guy, with his deep baritone, to have been about 38 or something.

Later that night, unbeknownst to me, Brian opened up a show in Nashville, TN. Before the music began, I had no clue it was the same guy. I remember saying to another person at the bar — "Is this what it feels like to see Johnny Cash for the first time?"

I'm not sure if Brian is continuing to do music, but here's the frustrating part: more people should know about his stuff.

So, my idea was to at least try and cover one of my favorite songs on the most recent record Territory

My first attempt was pretty bad — being that I have little to no singing talent whatsoever.

A month or two later — after working on a few original demos (the ones I posted previously). For whatever reason — probably just to fulfill the old "finish what you start" saying — I tried again.

Which brings me to my latest idea: I asked a few folks familiar with the music of Brian Militana and Fell Trees to work on a cover album of sorts. I wanted to make it available for free to anyone interested in listening. If anything, I feel the stuff is too important to go unnoticed. There's a unique challenge in covering a song which may prove to be exciting for some.

A few people have already agreed, but I'll let you know how it goes.

I hope it to be a cool project.


In the meantime, here's a cover of "Seeing Is Believing" (I suggest listening to the Brian Militana/Fell Trees original first — http://www.myspace.com/brianmilitana )

Here's my version:

"Seeing Is Believing" (Fell Trees Cover)" by Perhapsy Download


Best,
Derek