While it is true that the world of CHEER-ACCIDENT will continue
its silent slumber for most if not all of 2012, a little something just
came down the pike from a neighboring solar system to aurally
keep you company in these quiet months:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stopped-clocks/id501980001

Downloadable now. Available physically (via this here website) in
a month.

And now a word from Pravda “We’re Still A Record Label” Records:

Stopped Clocks is a collaboration between Scot Ashley and Thymme Jones, two veterans of the Chicago music scene, or (to be more precise) of two completely separate Chicago music scenes: Scot has lent his deeply diverse guitar talents to such mainstream success stories as The Greg Kihn Band, Martha Reeves And The Vandellas, Louis Bellson, Jim Peterick, Enuff Z’nuff and The Platters, while Thymme has continually burrowed his way through the underground with the likes of U.S. Maple, Brise-Glace, Tony Conrad, Illusion Of Safety and Dead Rider, while remaining a (founding) member of the seminal art-pop band, CHEER-ACCIDENT. In Stopped Clocks’ self-titled full-length debut, these two worlds converge in ways that are surprising yet somehow entirely natural. As it turns out, combining the pop sensibilities of, say, Cheap Trick with the more “outside” elements of ’70s Miles, mid-’70s ECM, and Morton Feldman results in a wholly rewarding listening experience. Rounding out this veritable musical adventure are the inclusion of two Chicago luminaries: Bob Lizik (who’s played with Brian Wilson and many others) and Chip Z’nuff were both gracious enough to provide their signature bass-playing styles to several songs on the recording, putting the finishing touches on this already-formidable undertaking.

_______________________________________________________________________

To quickly add to that…

For those of you familiar with the history of CHEER-ACCIDENT,
you will already know that there was a band in the early ’80s
called Dot Dot Dot, and that that was where Chris Block (bass
player on first three CHEER-AX albums) and Thymme first began
playing together. This avant-rock/faux-jazz ensemble, which
included Jef Bek on drums, was also where Thymme and Scot
first began playing together.

You will also recognize Scot as the performer of the classic
guitar solo on “Facialization” from The Why
Album, as well as the fade-in solo on “The
Middle Age” from the second Variations On A
Goddamn Old Man. Additionally, he co-wrote
“Fat Dog’s Gonna Hatch” from Dumb Ask
and “Surviving A Methodology” from What Sequel?
(The latter on which he played guitar.)

So now, three decades after their first musical encounter, we have
Stopped Clocks, the result of Scot and Thymme putting their heads
(and hearts) together to create twelve new moody, rocking, hypnotic,
and poignant tunes. Perhaps, given the vast amount of time that
seemingly refused to pass, they should have called themselves
“Calendars With The Pages All Stuck Together.” Nah, that doesn’t
have quite the same ring to it.

That’s this Friday, February 17.

Dead Rider
The Conformists
Redgrave

The Hideout
1354 W. Wabansia
9pm

And the incestuous relationship between Dead Rider and
CHEER-ACCIDENT continues to flourish: Thymme has the
privilege of being a member of the band for this show, as
it’s the first time this lineup will have played since September’s
Thymme Gets Beaten Up In Cleveland Tour. It’s
also the first time this version of the band has ever performed
in their hometown of Chicago.

There might actually be too many good reasons
to attend this show. Hmmmmm… might wanna stay home until
something slightly less fun hops onto your calendar!

This is your last chance to see Le Singe Blanc before they
fly back over the ocean to France:

Tuesday, September 27 at 8:00pm
Cobra Lounge
235 N. Ashland

The show is free. Free is good, right? Their show earlier
this month was not very well-attended, which was rather
disheartening, but they certainly delivered THE ROCK to the twelve
of us who were there. Don’t blow it this time!

Our good, good friends from Metz, France, Le Singe Blanc, are playing this Saturday (September 10) at Reggie’s Music Joint. Everybody: Please attend! They are a unique and incredibly fun/tight band. They’re also really good people, who have treated CHEER-ACCIDENT very well when we’ve visited their homeland throughout the years. Filling out the bill, helping to turn the evening into quite an evening, are: Zath (with members from Cave, Cacaw, and Ga’an) and Gushing Cloud (totally brilliant electronic/dance/performance/question mark ensemble) from Bloomington, IL. So, yes: Reggie’s Music Joint. 2105 S. State St. 9:00PM.

Boink!

http://www.reggieslive.com/musicjoint/

“No Ifs” was reviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air program today at 2pm CDT – you can hear the rebroadcast this evening at 10pm if you missed it…or check out the podcast here: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/138960380/two-experimental-rock-bands-stay-true-to-roots

I am going to say something to you that will come as a great relief: You have my complete and unfettered permission to go ahead and enjoy our music as… music. There is no need to become anxious about some “inside joke” that you may not be getting, nor is there cause for excessive worry that you might “feel something” only to find out later that what you were “feeling something” about turned out to be merely “ironic.” (We don’t really do ironic, at least not in the over/misused, beginning-in-the-90s sense of the word: Yes, irony is best left to happenstance itself.)

In other words, even though we play a lot of different types of music (and sometimes even get all conceptual on your ass), it doesn’t mean that any of these things negate one another. It is truly possible to play a “lock groove” in the park for nine hours and be able to sing a pop song with complete sincerity (no winking required). Additionally, it is possible to perform a driving rock song with a 4/4 beat and whip out a 12-minute epic with myriad changes, instrumentation and time signatures. Without compromise! Our (albeit hopelessly finite) tenure on the planet allows us these freedoms.

(You know how you can be driving in rush hour, getting all frustrated and stuff, and then arrive home to find your boyfriend or girlfriend waiting to make love with you? One minute you’re a nervous wreck on the verge of implosion, the next minute you’re bathed in ecstasy without a care in the world. Well, you’re not any more yourself or less yourself in either scenario, you’re simply experiencing a range of human existence. It’s kind of like that with music!)

I know it’s your job as a journalist to “get it” (and it’s your ego’s job to “not get gotten”), but when the concern for “getting it” starts to outweigh any content that you might otherwise be “getting around to,” I think it’s time to take a step back, live a little, and maybe see if there’s something else present besides your own blinding, all-encompassing, vocation-induced anxiety.

The vast majority of people out there (journalist or not) didn’t even need to read this. Through the miraculous act of listening/feeling/experiencing, they already “get it.” Ironically enough.

I’ve noticed several of you coming very close to dancing at our shows lately. This is good! We’ve always been a dance band. When we were in France recently, and were not linguistically proficient enough to say “We are a dance band” en francais , there were quite a few people who were actually dancing. Just because the music compelled them to. (Or maybe because there was not a culture compelling them not to.) (I’m just sayin’.) So, don’t worry! I know that there are some unfamiliar rhythms in our music. And some starts and stops. But these tendencies needn’t be obstacles toward movement. Don’t overthink it: There’s almost always a groove present to allow your nervous system the field day it so desperately craves. And don’t worry about “getting burned” by the brief breaks which sometimes occur: Silence is a beautiful thing to dance to.

Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean that we do understand it. The joke could very well be on us! Therefore, it is not an in joke, but an on joke. Thank You For Your Continued Patience!

The Hideout served as the scene for yet another release show. Such a warm room, that. We love playing there. Thanks to The Hideout and all who attended the official unveiling of No Ifs, Ands or Dogs.