http://talkingmountain.tumblr.com/

I Feel Realistic

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:00:00 -0600

This will be the final post on this Tumblr blog.

Please check out http://www.ifeelrealistic.com or http://ifeelrealistic.tumblr.com for future Talking Mountain and related projects.

Thanks for the views and things. I’ll leave this up just in case anyone wants to get nostalgic and read the tour journal entries from when we were a real band. There are humorous photos.

Also:

Twitter: @talkingmountain
Instagram: @talkingmountain

-Jason/TM

Follow us on Twitter!

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:31:53 -0500

Our Tumblr has been, sadly, almost completely abandoned for the last year. I love Tumblr, but Twitter has become my social networking thing of choice. If you’re into it, you should follow Talking Mountain over there. @talkingmountain

We also have a Facebook page which typically has up to date show listings and things on it.

-Jason/TM

Bourbon Theatre - Lincoln, NE - 12/10/2010 Our final show of the...

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:50:00 -0600

Fuchsia Minutae does it.

The Show is the Rainbow does it.

We do it.

So long, 2010!

Bourbon Theatre - Lincoln, NE - 12/10/2010

Our final show of the year!

Our friend Darren Keen put this together as his Show is the Rainbow comeback show. If you’ve been reading our blog, you’ll recognize Darren as Bad Speler. The Show is the Rainbow is his original one man band (How many does he have at this point?)

The Bourbon Theatre has been remodeling their front room for smaller shows. The new stage will be where the bar used to be, and the new bar is where the bands used to play in the lobby. It’s really coming along and is going to be a really great place to play once it’s finished and they start allowing fog/hazing.

The show was a blast and was a great end to our sporadic run of shows throughout 2010. We’re hoping that 2011 will see the release of a handful of Talking Mountain EPs, if not another full length. Driving in the snow is the worst, and we’ll be taking the better part of the winter off to work on new recordings, new songs, and new ways to entertain the kids in a live setting.

So long, 2010! So, long everybody else! We’ll see you in 2011.

-Jason/TM

Eat Sleep Breathe Music - Song of the Day.

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:52:00 -0600

Eat Sleep Breathe Music - Song of the Day.:

Screaming into the Witches Cauldron was the Song of the Day over at Eat Sleep Breathe Music. Click the title to check it out.

O’Leavers Pub - Omaha, NE - 11/5/2010 We finally return to...

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:31:00 -0600

The Benningtons do it.

Mammoth Life does it.

We do it. Photo by Kim.

Has Dan ever looked more handsome?

O’Leavers Pub - Omaha, NE - 11/5/2010

We finally return to O’Leavers Pub. We played our 2nd, 11th, 88th, and now 111th shows here. It was a night full of reunions.

The Benningtons are a new band made up of three of the four members of Hyannis, a band we used to play with all the time when we were first getting started. In addition to the three boys, they’ve rounded out the line-up with two girls too. They sounded fantastic and I’m excited to see and play with them again in the future. No more apologizing, Tony!

Mammoth Life is one of our favorite bands from Lawrence, KS. We just played with them recently in Lawrence, and were excited to bring them to Omaha. This is the second time we’ve seen them in their new two-piece incarnation, and we can’t wait to see where they go from here.

After recently parting ways with our bassist, we reunited with the old one, Dan, for this show. We practiced one-and-a-half times with him, and it was just like riding a bike. Give Dan a bass line, and he’ll nail it every time. Definitely the most comfortable show we’ve played in awhile, for all sorts of reasons, and I feel totally reenergized for all things Mountain. Unfortunately, we’re going to be slowing down our traveling as winter sets in, but if the energy can’t be used for live shows, I’ll just have to use it to record new songs.

Vivo - Fairfield, IA - 10/30/2010 Philip from Utopia Park got us...

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:16:00 -0600

Bradley tries to sleep amongst the gear.

Duckbilled DJ

Vivo - Fairfield, IA - 10/30/2010

Philip from Utopia Park got us on this show on extremely short notice after a previous date of ours fell through. Prince Philip for sure! Fairfield, IA is the North American home of Transcendental Meditation, as well as home of the largest training center for it in the world. We’ve been hearing about the greatness of Fairfield for months and were excited to head that way.

As we understand it, the guys from Utopia Park either run or help run a venue in Fairfield called the Beauty Shop. For this, a big Halloween dance party, they turned to a local bar called Vivo to host it. It was mostly DJ or laptop-based acts, with us being the only ones playing real instruments. We weren’t aware of that at first, and couldn’t figure out why the bar owner was so shocked at the amount of gear we were loading in. Amps, baby, amps! He made the joke, “What? You brought your whole apartment?” to each of us.. several times.

We were so tired and beat from our previous night in Vermillion, that most of our time in Fairfield was spent trying to figure out how to nap in the confines of our van. We did manage to buy one of those air horns and visit a strange music store in which the owner clearly didn’t care if we were there or not.

The show itself was a little strange, and not really what we’re used to. Though I don’t believe they typically have shows or events like this there. We were each nearly accosted every time we had to reenter the venue, no matter how clearly we showed our wristbands. We left our merch mannequins unattended for a short time only to find our masks stolen when we returned. I think our set was well received. The kids up front were clearly having a good time.

After the show, and a nutty girl fight, a crowd of people grew outside the venue looking for the after party. Thankfully, Philip’s plan was just to return to his house, drink a beer, and go to sleep. There was plenty of space and plenty of couches for us at Philip’s, and I think we stayed up a little longer than any of us expected to. The Utopia Park guys are super nice and funny, and we definitely look forward to heading back to Fairfield and playing a Beauty Shop show.

We were very careful to not let the cats out.

VAAC - Vermillion, SD - 10/29/2010 We have some of our best...

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:41:00 -0600

"Prepare to Meet Thy God"

The Fountain does it.

VAAC - Vermillion, SD - 10/29/2010

We have some of our best adventures visiting cities and towns that are off the beaten path. The big cities can be fun, but seriously, places like Vermillion is where the action is at. The shows are always packed, everyone is so friendly and awesome, and there’s always an amazing party afterwards. Every time we go is better than the time before, and we’re always looking forward to our next visit. We’ve been driving up every few months for nearly two years now, and our hugest, most sincere thanks go out to Micah and Sheridan for always setting us up with a great show, and everyone else in town for being so supportive and fun. You’re the best!

This trip up was a total blast. Our friend Darren joined us again as Bad Speler and brought his lovely fiance, Lacey, along for the ride. Our show started a little early, as there was another show going on at one of the bars downtown. They held the start time for that show back until our show was over, which was absolutely awesome of them to do. Bad Speler did it, we did it, and then we headed over to the bar to catch the second show of the evening. We recognized Biscuits on stage immediately upon entering, as we have played with him in the past. The second band, The Fountain, had at least one We All Have Hooks for Hands’er in it, along with 6? 7? other people, all in similar robes. The stage was packed, they were tight and awesome, and we had a great time.

After the show, we headed to Sheridan’s new place to drink a few more beers and try our best to keep up with our Vermillion pals. In the morning, the front door was blocked by a passed out gentleman, but I was able to escape out a side door which only required a small leap down to the ground. I rounded everyone up, and it was discovered that our spare van key and Darren’s jacket that he bought in Amsterdam were missing. After some frantic searching and moving of passed out bodies, we found Darren’s jacket, with our key tucked safely in the pocket. We headed for the highway, stopping at a gas station just before leaving town to grab some Red Bull, some Gatorade, and probably some popcorn shrimp or something.

Savoy - Mankato, MN - 10/23/2010 We woke up in Des Moines,...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:02:00 -0500

Michael promotes the show.

Taffee Machine does it.

Charlie gets a beer bath.

Savoy - Mankato, MN - 10/23/2010

We woke up in Des Moines, showered, and then headed off to Tasty Tacos (you should be noticing a trend by now) to meet up with our friend Ryan and his girlfriend from Minneapolis, always a pleasure to see them. Erin came along, and Aaron and Alishia showed up as well. Did Joe and Emily go? I think so. Holy moly everyone. Bradley was able to proudly show off his Tickle Monster Mitts, quickly convincing everybody that they also need a pair. After tacos and laughs, we were off to Mankato.

We found a mall there, which we hadn’t seen on our last visit, so we got some pizza and Bradley and Michael got to stand inside a wind chamber and see what hurricane winds feel like.

Mankato Charlie was able to get us this show on extremely short notice, filling in another hole in our schedule that inevitably opened up (Thanks, Charlie!). It was held at a place called Savoy, a gyro place that didn’t appear to typically have shows. Regardless, it was total blast once we figured out where to plug everything in. After the show, we headed for the All American Bar (a bar in the basement of a house) and witnessed a guy get his penis pierced with rusty needle-nose pliers and a dirty lip ring, as well as a girl trick people into taking shots of her pee, which was florescent orange due to some sort of medication she was on. Michael and I had an uncomfortable nights sleep in the van, while Bradley managed to find somewhere to sleep inside. Oh, Mankato, we’ll miss you.

House Show - Des Moines, IA - 10/22/2010 We got invited to play...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:47:00 -0500

Cool Musicmaster bass.

Michael is sad.

Sunset tire swing.

Sums up the evening.

More swinging.

House Show - Des Moines, IA - 10/22/2010

We got invited to play a house show for our friend Jennifer’s “birthday” which was actually more than a month earlier. Bradley bought her a skull beer-bong from Nobbies. About a week before the show, we learned that there were a total of five bands, which ballooned to seven by the day of the show. This meant a start-time of 5:30pm and an end time of who knows when. Once again, we got to town early and did the typical sorts of Des Moines things we always do. This time, I got pretty serious about a 1973 Musicmaster bass at the Professional Music Center and was able to talk the guy way down on it, but just not low enough. When I told him that the condition of the original case would make or break the sale, I could see the disappointment in his face when he returned from the basement holding the remains of what was once some sort of chipboard guitar case. No sale. Our current Musicmaster will just have to do.

We stopped at a gas station to grab some Four Loko’s (terrible, terrible idea) and headed to the house around 5:00pm. By 6:30 or so, we had accomplished a lot of tire-swinging, I had finished two Four Loko’s and was ready for a nap, which our van was happy to provide. Unfortunately, that meant that I missed nearly every band, as well as most of a party. I was able to catch Nuclear Rodeo’s set, who performed quite well as a three-piece, play our set, and then hang around long enough to watch part of Superstar on DVD and make the call to head to Brian and Joe’s house.

Nothing quite as hilarious happened this time as the last time, but we did catch a pretty great episode of Spongebob and a strange episode of Cheaters. Though I’m going to assume all episodes of Cheaters are that strange.

Eighth St. Taproom - Lawrence, KS - 10/21/2010 Our friends...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:31:00 -0500

Sun, feet, and van.

Mammoth Life does it.

A fantastic painting.

Eighth St. Taproom - Lawrence, KS - 10/21/2010

Our friends Nicholas and Elizabeth from Lawrence pop band Mammoth Life were kind enough to land us this show in Lawrence. We love this town, and we’re not sure why we hadn’t been back since February. We got there a little early and spent some time walking up and down Mass street ducking in and out of shops as they piqued our interest. Bradley picked up a great pair of Tickle Monster Mitts (which I, unfortunately, do not have a photo of) and the rest of us picked up some Chipotle.

The Eighth St. Taproom has a PA and cozy cove for bands to play in down in their basement. Small venues like these are always fun to play in, but with our ever-growing amount of gear needed for our live shows, it can get a little cramped. Not a problem for Mammoth Life, who is down to the core husband and wife duo of N+E. They sounded fantastic and I’m excited to see where they go from here. The turnout was modest, but everyone was up and dancing. After trying with very little luck to find a Thursday night party, we headed back to the Mammoth Life house for some late night conversation and some comfortable sleep on their many couches. Hopefully we’ll be headed back soon.

Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines, IA - 10/16/2010 After having a few...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:20:00 -0500

Cashes Rivers does it.

Bradley does it with Cashes Rivers.

We have some fun with Brian.

Brian has some fun with Michael.

Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines, IA - 10/16/2010

After having a few dates fall through, our good buddy Chris Ford (Christopher the Conquered) was able to get us on the Cashes Rivers CD release show in Des Moines, a band that he plays trumpet in. I can’t even begin to say how thankful we are to Mr. Ford and the rest of the Cashes River kids, as this was one of the most fantastic shows we’ve ever been a part of. Our only concern was the possibility of not fitting in with the rest of the bands and not appealing to the crowd. No need for concern at all!

We did the typical Des Moines things while in town, Tasty Tacos, ZZZ Records, music stores. After the show, we headed to our friends Brian and Joe’s house for some hanging out and some sleep. Brian is a fantastic drinker, which in turn makes him fantastic at losing consciousness. After some impromptu fist pumping in the middle of his living room, he was out like a light in one of the living room chairs, beer still in hand! We went ahead and took his beer (which he had a sleeping death-grip on) and replaced it with a sausage from the refrigerator to great comedic effect. We got some decent sleep and headed back to Omaha, realizing that we’d be back in less than a week to play a house show.

The Slowdown - Omaha, NE - 10/15/2010 We’ve been traveling...

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 12:14:00 -0500

The Slowdown - Omaha, NE - 10/15/2010

We’ve been traveling a bit more than usual lately, so it’s nice to get to stay in Omaha and play a packed show at our favorite venue in the world. Dan B. is the A+ king of sound, and Val is the best show-boss a band could ask for. The audience was great, the other bands (Flesh Eating Skin Disease, The Power, Pharmacy Spirits) were great, everything was great.

Sorry to everyone who got hit in the head with a giant, glowing, inflatable eyeball, and thanks to Kim for the cool photos!

Upcoming Shows!

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:51:00 -0500

Updated 10/14/10

10/15/2010 - Omaha, NE - The Slowdown - FREE SHOW!
10/16/2010 - Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews - w/ Cashes Rivers
10/21/2010 - Lawrence, KS - Eighth St. Tap Room - w/ Mammoth Life
10/22/2010 - Des Moines, IA - House Show
10/23/2010 - Mankato, MN - Savoy
10/29/2010 - Vermillion, SD - VAAC - w/ Bad Speler
10/30/2010 - Fairfield, IA - Vivo’s - w/ Utopia Park

11/5/2010 - Omaha, NE - O’Leavers Pub - w/ Mammoth Life

12/10/2010 - Lincoln, NE - Bourbon Theatre

Lincoln Calling 10/01/10! This is our second time playing...

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:53:58 -0500

Pre-show Chipotle and margaritas.

Thunder Power does it!

Carrot Carrot does it!

The Envy Corps does it!

Photo of us by Heather!

We met our #1 fan.

This guy played outside.

Bradley let loose during the Envy Corps.

...then he took a nap at a hotel.

...then he woke up and made a friend.

Lincoln Calling 10/01/10!

This is our second time playing Lincoln Calling, and the first time we’ve ever played at the 12th Street Pub. A wonderfully small venue with tons of character, the 12th Street looked to be one of those places that was going to be just perfect for us. Through no fault of their own, a bunch of people who love peace and quiet live above the bar. Those people also love to complain about noise, and do so regularly. Every band was continually asked to turn down, and it certainly cast a sad shadow over the entire night.

We’re sorry, 12th Street Pub, but despite your volume guidance during our sound check, we turned everything up to normal volume and never looked back. I hope the upstairs neighbors didn’t complain too much.

Special thanks to Dani and Heather for coming along!

Cool photo from Ames the other night! Thanks, Emily.

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:19:08 -0500

Cool photo from Ames the other night! Thanks, Emily.

Mankato, MN - The Sugar Room - 9/18/10 We woke up in Ames...

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:42:00 -0500

Local artwork.

Bad Speler's shirtless boys.

..and again.

Mankato, MN - The Sugar Room - 9/18/10

We woke up in Ames on Saturday morning to find that the cats in the house we stayed at had really done a number on two of our own during the night. Darren’s cat allergies were in full effect, and Michael had inadvertently spent the night on a couch soaked in cat urine. We gathered our things and split quickly.

We left so early that we figured we could stop at any goofy roadside attractions, antique stores, or general points of interest. Sadly, we came across none of those things and arrived in Mankato, MN at about 1:00 in the afternoon. We parked at a Walgreens and immediately noticed a crushed White Castle fry box near our van. After some frantic Google Maps’ing, we were unable to come up with any White Castle location nearby. Super bummer. We did, however, find “Retro Ron’s,” a small bookshop, a cool pawnshop, and an interesting glass shop. With a little further exploration, we found a really cool music store that had a ton of awesome vintage stuff, as well as a Mexican restaurant and cantina. I can’t remember what it was called, but feel that it may have simply been called “Mexican Restaurant and Cantina.” We all got margaritas and ate lots of chips.

We met up with our host for the evening, Charlie, and hung out at his house for awhile with his friends. We watched a bunch of Adult Swim shows that I hadn’t seen before (I ditched out on cable a long, long time ago) as well as the new Kids in the Hall show, that I can’t remember the name of. When we were all ready to fall asleep, we realized it was time to head to the venue.

The Sugar Room was tiny, but extremely awesome. There was a stage area approximately 8’ wide by about 3’ deep. It was almost big enough to fit our lighting rig and speakers. I got my own 4’x4’ platform to play on, and Bradley and Michael played on either side of it. It was the most cramped show I can ever remember playing, but it was great. One of my favorites, for sure. Darren was up after us, and his set eventually erupted into a chain of shirtless boys. Local heroes, The Style Biters, closed out the night and put on a show that you would not expect from a small town in Minnesota. Good job, boys.

We went to a cool party after the show at a house that had a bar in the basement. Not just “a bar,” but an actual bar called The All-American Bar where you could order drinks and everything. We split our time upstairs and downstairs and noticed a very strange trend of extremely tiny bathrooms everywhere we had gone this weekend. No legroom 2k10. Things started to quiet down around 4am, and we headed to a friendly kids house to get some sleep. Darren and I shared a hide-a-bed, as one of the couches was already occupied by an unknown local. Early in the morning, Darren noticed that kid had disappeared and decided to snipe his spot on the couch. Big mistake! That kid was gone because he peed all over!

So we had finally found a couple of cool music stores, got some margaritas, played some excellent shows, made some new pals, and Bradley and I even avoided being covered in urine the whole time. Not too shabby.

-Jason/TM

Ames, IA - DG’s Tap House - 9/17/10 We met up with...

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:05:44 -0500

The poster.

Bad Speler does it.

The dollar is still strong at DG's.

Bathroom graffiti.

Mark Mallman does it.

Good haircut, Tiger.

Ames, IA - DG’s Tap House - 9/17/10

We met up with Darren Keen/Bad Speler at my house around 3:00pm and got an early start to our travels. After having to stop for bathroom breaks twice during the two hour drive to Des Moines, we decided on a whim to stop at the Guitar Center there with the hopes that it magically wasn’t awful anymore. We took the wrong exit and ended up at the Professional Music Center instead, which has taken many steps for the better and even had a 1973 Fender Music Master bass that I may have to pick up on our way back to Omaha. Guitar Center was, in fact, still awful, but I bought a Korg Monotron. It’s a small, mostly worthless, analog synthesizer that isn’t much bigger than a iPod. You can run external audio through it, which is exactly what I plan to do. In the meantime, we hooked it up to our van’s stereo and made annoying sounds while we drove over to ZZZ Records to visit Aaron (our record was their #4 best seller for August!) and then Tasty Tacos to visit some tacos. After a couple hours of Des Moines hangout time, we were off to Ames.

DG’s Tap House is on the other side of town from the Progressive Space, where we usually play. Ames isn’t particularly large, but it was still nice to see some unfamiliar territory. DG’s is a great venue, but it’s also on the second floor. Loading in up a bunch of stairs was the physical challenge of the evening, but they’ve got some nice guys on staff who helped us out. Darren played great, we played great, and Mark Mallman was fantastic, spending most of his time standing on top of, or riding on his piano while never missing a beat. There was a free Best Coast show in Grinnell that we were worried might suck away all of the attendance, but a bunch of our friends from Des Moines and Ames made it out, and the show was well attended in general.

Huge thanks to Nate from the Progressive for setting up the show, as well as DG’s for being one of the friendliest and most hospitable venues we’ve ever played at. All you need is gloves.

-Jason/TM

Minneapolis for a Day - (9/10-9/11) We typically try to be more...

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:51:00 -0500

Sensory/Smoke Deprivation Chamber.

Anna arrives in Minneapolis.

We play a good show.

Anna and Brad get Devilocks.

We all get White Castle.

We drive home.

The sun sets in Iowa.

Minneapolis for a Day - (9/10-9/11)

We typically try to be more efficient in our weekend traveling, but our friend Ryan booked us a show in Minneapolis on short notice and we rather like heading North for a quick visit. There are a considerable number of music stores there, and I can never pass up a chance to get some White Castle.

Our show was at the Acadia Cafe. A charming cafe/restaurant/bar with a stage just barely big enough to fit all of our gear on it. I’m usually terrified of shows like this, because it often means that I’ll get hit in the face over and over again by flying guitar/bass headstocks. After threatening Michael’s life should such bass-to-teeth contact occur, we played our greatest 101st show ever. We headed back to Ryan’s house after the show to watch A Very Restless Pancake for at least the third time, and to get a little sleep for our big hangout day in Minneapolis.

Hanging out in Minneapolis consisted of visiting two Guitar Centers, a Music Go-Round (where I bought a new bass fuzz pedal), a very strange locally owned music store (where we were each able to play with a Qchord), White Castle, and an Urban Outfitters. I suppose it’s funny to make jokes about how bad White Castle is before you eat it, but I actually really like it! Granted, I only eat it once every few months and only eat the Chicken Ring sandwiches. Several chocolate milkshakes were ordered, which turned out to be a strange consistency and a very dark-brown color. I did not sample one.

We had considered staying an extra night, but given the option of having an entire Sunday back home, we hit the road around 5:00pm. Michael had to drive the van for the first time and performed admirably. We stopped in Des Moines to pick up our friend Lisa (who wanted to visit Omaha for a few days) and Anna took over driving. Even with a busted leg, she drove excellently despite consistently trying to set the cruise control above 70mph (we drive at 60-65mph to keep our gas usage down).

All in all, a fun and successful trip. We’re looking forward to this coming weekend, where we’ll find ourselves in Ames, IA and Mankato, MN with our friend Darren Keen who has recently been signed to Illegal Art (home of Girl Talk) as Bad Speler.

-Jason/TM

The latest video from our LP The Nature of Magic and the Magic...

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:30:00 -0500

The latest video from our LP The Nature of Magic and the Magic of Nature.

Our video for “I’m Kind of Leaves” from the...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:45:53 -0500

Our video for “I’m Kind of Leaves” from the Nature of Magic LP. Directed by Harrison Martin.