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Checking in... Not Dead... 2009
Two days after the 6/7/08 "TICKS" film fundraiser / summer farewell with our friends in the music, arts, and entertainment community here in Atlanta that took place at The Alcove Gallery in Decatur, GA (which would not have happened at all if not for Chris Warner, Corie Messer (and family), Sharron & Luke Von Hoene, Patrick A. Beaulier, John Breedlove, and all of the 50+ other people that helped the show happen despite that very last and very literal minute surprise) the three of us Feeding Fingers kids started production on our second album, "Baby Teeth", still with blisters on our feet from the days before.
With "Baby Teeth" we decided to make a shorter, tighter, more cohesive, and more collaborative album with than the larger, and in retrospect, maybe a little bit too sprawling and self-indulgent previous album, "Wound in Wall" which came out in 2007. I am not sure if we have achieved this or any of our goals with "Baby Teeth". That will be up to you to tell us, but we are happy nonetheless to still maintain a sense of urgency and have the means to continue to produce this material and will start on the third Feeding Fingers album within the year along with a "TICKS" film soundtrack, which will be a lot of my own solo material on piano, chamber pieces, and some collaborative work with people such as Jeffrey Bützer and several others.
Feeding Fingers is focusing primarily on regional, national, and international exposure to support and promote the release of "Baby Teeth" through 2009. Though we love Atlanta and all of the people that we've been fortunate enough to work with here, there is simply just no audience of any considerable size for this material here, and what little bit there is… I am afraid that we've dried them up or at least made them all a little chalky. But for those of you here like James, Bill, Ken, and the rest of you that we see at almost every show… we've written a ton of new material for our coming shows here so that you don't have to hear the same 14 or so songs over and over again - "I can't breathe… I can't breathe... I can't breathe…".
At least 90% of all correspondence, press and sales for the group come from Central and
With the exception of a few scattershot shows performed here and there in the southeast since the Fall and early Winter of 2008, Feeding Fingers as a whole has been fairly shut in these past six months, working on promotional material, touring schedules, and networking as a means to support the release of "Baby Teeth" during a time when the entire planet has bankrupted itself - while simultaneously I have been working every available minute of my life on "TICKS" so as to meet the release of the film in 2011 (so far I am a little ahead of schedule thanks to people like Paul Tetteroo, Lisa, Devon Stawkowski, Stephanie Roman, Melissa & Jeffrey Bützer, Patrick A. Beaulier, Sharron Vone Hoene, Jessica Fritton, and all of the donors and supporters from all over North and South America, Europe, and even Japan recently that have helped make all of this madness that I've been cranking out for the past five years or so possible). So far… so good.
Though you all haven't seen me at a lot of shows or gatherings of much of any sort lately since I've been tucked away working on all of this stuff, I have been paying attention to you all, I know what's been going on with everyone, and I am making a lot of plans for 2009 with not just Feeding Fingers and "TICKS", but with other musical side-projects, film, performance, and some literary projects that will involve all of the people that we work with and care about, along with a lot of new guys from Florida, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago that I've wanted to bring into this little community here for the past couple of years. I know that sometimes I may look like an asshole, but I don't think that I smell like one yet. :)
Thank you all for everything and I am very much looking forward to seeing and working with you all again through 2009. All of your vacations are over.
The "Baby Teeth" CD release show will take place at The Drunken Unicorn on Ponce de Leon in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, January, 24, 2009 as part of the Stickfigure Records 2009 Showcase - sponsored by Performer Magazine. We will be performing nearly the entire new album along with a couple of things from "Wound in Wall". I will also be running some films for you all. We will be playing with Lid Emba, Tenth to the Moon, and Entertainment. We had this same bill at last year's Stickfigure Showcase, which Gavin lovingly referred to as the Stickfigure "Night of the Living Dead" Showcase.
Here is the schedule for the whole four day showcase:
The Stickfigure 2009 Showcase @ the Drunken Unicorn!
Wednesday, January 21st – The Drunken Unicorn - Sorry No Ferrari, Sick Figures
The Subliminator and Harken The Hands Askew
Thursday January 22nd – The Drunken Unicorn - Strezo CD Release Show, Tealights,
Envie and Nerdkween
Friday January 23rd – The Drunken Unicorn - Antic Clay, Retconned Cover Band,
Backseat Dreamer and Warning Lights
Saturday January 24th – The Drunken Unicorn - Feeding Fingers – CD Release Show ("Baby Teeth"), Entertainment, Tenth To The Moon and Lid Emba
- Justin
For More Information Contact:
Justin Curfman
TephraMedia / Stickfigure
2193 Warren Drive
Austell, GA 30106
Email: justin@justincurfman.com
Phone: 770-317-5439
FEEDING FINGERS SHED BABY TEETH
Post-punk/new-wave trio, Feeding Fingers, set to release their second album, Baby Teeth (a follow up to their 2007 release, Wound in Wall), in association with Stickfigure Records on January 27, 2009. Stickfigure Records Showcase 2009 prepared to kickoff a much anticipated tour for the group.
Finally, the group has collaborated and recorded a collection of music whose initial intent is to stand on its own two feet as a work in its own right and not as a by-product of Curfman's over-reaching ambition. Baby Teeth is the first proper Feeding Fingers album.
Feeding Fingers was formed in 2006 when musician & surrealist stop-motion puppet film animator, Justin Curfman, found himself with a catalog of music that he had written with the intention of someday as a film soundtrack that never found a home. Curfman realized that he had more music than films to marry it to. Rather than scrapping it, or locking it away in an anonymous notebook, he decided to form a band with the support of multi-instrumentalist Todd Caras and percussionist Daniel Hunt, with whom he could push the music out into the live arena.
One and one half of a year later: 40+ regional live shows with radio, press, and television support revolving around Feeding Fingers' first album, Wound in Wall (2007 - Stickfigure Records & Tephramedia). Two days after an exhausting arts and entertainment showcase in Atlanta in June of 2008, organized to help raise funds for the production of Curfman’s upcoming feature-length animated film, TICKS, Feeding Fingers put themselves under a rigorous recording schedule in their west Atlanta studio for the subsequent four months, where they produced their second album, Baby Teeth.
Being frequently compared to Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, The Chameleons, Bauhaus, and the like, within the darker spectrum of the post-punk sub-genre, Feeding Fingers "... has a definite appeal to those who crave an element of dark surrealism in their music." A U.S. tour to support the album is being organized now and will last throughout 2009. There are also international touring ambitions amongst the group with the aid of Stickfigure Records and their recent collaboration with German distribution and promotional company, NetManagement Musik Verlag and Netherlands-based distribution company, Sounds for Sure.
Feeding Fingers' Baby Teeth CD release party and first show in the tour will take place on Saturday, January 24, 2009 at The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GA. They will be headlining the Saturday night installment of the Stickfigure Records Showcase 2009 with support from fellow Stickfigure recording artists, Entertainment, Tenth to the Moon, and Lid Emba.
###
Press and media outlets please download the press one-sheet with graphics .PDF here:
www.justincurfman.com/feeding_fingers_ba
Feeding Fingers will be performing Saturday, January, 24, 2009 at The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GA as part of the Saturday evening installment of the Stickfigure Records Showcase 2009. This will be the "Baby Teeth" CD release party. If you want a copy of the album before the Jan. 27, 2009 street date... this is the way to get it.
Feeding Fingers will be headlining with support from:
Entertainment
Tenth to the Moon
Lid Emba
This will be an 18+ ages show.
Admission:
18 - 20 = $8
21+ = $6
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| from BLACK & WHITE Birmingham City Paper (Birmingham, AL) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| September 04, 2008 It's Sunday night, and Coyote J. Calhoun is pulling up to the offices of WZRR—Rock 99.5. His car stereo is blaring a Skinny Puppy song from 1990's Too Dark Park album. Coyote just got the CD back from his adult children. He loaned it to them about six years ago, when they were teenagers. "Listen to that," says the veteran Birmingham disc jockey. "Skinny Puppy still holds up after all those years. That sounds like it could've been recorded last week." Well, maybe. Coyote J can get a little too enthused about a band—but that's okay, since it has taken lots of enthusiasm to keep his show, "The Edge," on the air for more than 20 years. The forty-something DJ has built a reliable Sunday night franchise over the years, always finding a home on Birmingham radio for several hours of new wave and alternative rock, in all its forms.
"I usually drop that off my résumé," says Coyote, settling in his studio at Rock 99.5 with armloads of CDs. "That keeps me from looking so damn old. I was in high school when I started out in Nashville, and then WERC hired me away in 1975 to take out Chris Fox [a.k.a. "Superfox"], the evening guy on WSGN." That was when WERC's management turned young Jim Battan into Coyote J. Calhoun, the DJ with a cartoonish voice backed by plenty of funny sound effects. Calhoun quickly stole Fox's audience and remained a popular Birmingham radio presence through the decade. Birmingham radio was pretty interesting back then, but in a quirky and mild way. Nobody was expecting a clown like Coyote to end up as Birmingham radio's sole innovator. "I first left town in 1981," says Calhoun. "By then, the whole Birmingham market had degenerated. I was playing things like 'Boogie Wonderland' for the 16th time. That wasn't my music. I got the chance to go out to California to be the new-wave guy for a San Diego radio station. They brought me in to raise hell and get on the air and call people whores and bitches and play new wave and punk. What they didn't mention was that at the end of the road, they'd can me publicly. It took a year and a half, but I finally got fired for pissing everybody off." A smart DJ could have landed in a major market. Coyote came back to Birmingham, where he surprised himself by getting to play the music he wanted. "I came back with all my alternative rock and new wave and post-punk in tow and got a show called 'Inside Tracks' on what was then 95 Rock. They let me play alternative for two hours. None of the bands had broken through, and the reception was less than enthusiastic." Coyote survived by playing alt-rock in Birmingham on weekends while working in Mobile as a drive-time afternoon DJ. "Post-punk started building," he recalls. "U2 started to break, and there were acts like Psychedelic Furs and Echo & the Bunnymen. It wouldn't be much longer before Pretty in Pink came out in theaters." Calhoun laughs, grateful for the charms of Molly Ringwald. "That's when I started to come out of fagdom, and began to be perceived as the masculine man that I am." Those changing times briefly brought Coyote to New Orleans, where he enjoyed a run as a DJ whose tastes were actually in fashion. By 1987, though, he was back in Birmingham. "The Edge" debuted on Z-102 in the spring of 1988, providing an alternative for alt-rock fans who'd rather drive around than spend Sunday night watching "120 Minutes" on MTV. The stint with Z-102 eventually ended with Coyote being fired on the air (for not "sticking to the format") during his regular weeknight shift at the time. (He lowered the volume on a song by Boston so that listeners could hear him getting the ax from his program director.) "The Edge" then began a nomadic, syndicated life through the mid-1990s on whatever radio stations would give Coyote airtime on a Sunday night. Over the years, Coyote's cartoonish delivery gained some control. Today, he mainly sounds like an overaged college-rock DJ who got stoned before his shift. That's a welcome alternative in itself. Too many similar DJs trot out the aloof tones of a professional hipster. Coyote didn't go into radio to be aloof or hip. He has fond memories of the glory days of Birmingham radio, when local stations launched national pop stars. "Nowadays," notes Coyote, "a disc jockey has no input. The corporate office in some other city chooses the playlist. The DJ is supposed to do the weather, do the traffic, and let the computer play the music. Back in the '70s, we could have regional hits. 'I Go Crazy' by Paul Davis first broke big in the Birmingham market. Starbuck's 'Moonlight Feels Right' was a Birmingham hit before it went national. I've got a gold record for 'Ring My Bell' by Anita Ward. That was during one of my rare corporate jobs, when I was a music director at WERC. I remember saying, 'I can't stand the damn thing, but it's going to be a monster if we play it.'" Coyote laughs and makes a quick disclaimer: "I'm not saying it was all good music, but you could make a song a hit. Birmingham and Louisville were the only cities that played the Buckingham/Nicks album, before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were in Fleetwood Mac." It should be noted that 1970s-era disc jockeys had motivation for breaking bands; Coyote was around for plenty of payola. "I never had cash handed to me," says Coyote, "or drugs, but promoters used to come to town with their cars full of stuff. They would leave the music on your desk, and tell you to come down to their car. The trunk would be full of VCRs and cameras and all the fun gadgetry of the day. They'd say, 'Take what you want'—except for the guy from Warner Brothers, who said, 'If you ever stick your hand out, I'll cut it off.' The smaller labels couldn't wait to give you a little gift. Back then, of course, an outfit like Elektra was considered a smaller label." Coyote eventually found one station in Birmingham that felt like the right fit. He was a natural addition to the staff for the late and lamented WRAX—better known as 107.7 The X. Coyote began his time with Birmingham's former big league alt-rock station in 2003, during a brief period when "The Edge" went on hiatus and almost wasn't needed. "It was the highest rated alternative station in the country back in 1996," recalls Coyote. "That's when Dave Rossi was the program director. He had really good ears in the '90s. There were stations in Los Angeles and New York that were following what he was doing. WRAX broke Sponge, Train, Counting Crows—all of which was sold as 'alternative.' To me, that was like telling people that trees were purple." The X was still a station where exciting new bands were welcome on the playlist. Sadly, Coyote was around for Rossi's departure and WRAX's downfall. "From 2001 on," he recalls, "The X was in its dying days. I couldn't get bands like Interpol on the playlists. I could only get The Editors on 'lunar' rotation, which meant they were played around 5 a.m. Then the station was moved to 100.5 on the dial, and I told everyone there that was going to be the end. The signal couldn't get over Red Mountain. We were losing half the listening population." Things got worse: "We had a meeting where management announced they were going to re-create the glory days of The X. I was thinking, 'That sounds great. The DJs will have input again, and we're going to get back on the edge of the alternative music scene.' Then they explained how they were going to take the station's 1998 to 1999 playlist and put it back into rotation. We were going to play Train and Sublime and Everclear five years after the fact, like they were new acts—and everyone in that room was sitting there and nodding their heads. That was April of 2005, and I made bets with everyone at the station that we'd be gone by December of 2006. They pulled the plug on December 3, 2006. Everyone there took that bet, and they all still owe me $50." That's a believable story. Most DJs never work in a town long enough to really become a local. A proud resident like Coyote is the rare on-air talent with an informed view of Birmingham's radio history. You might be wondering why he isn't running a station himself. "That's a damn good question," declares Coyote. "I ask myself that all the time—but the answer is that I don't play the corporate game. I'm a very poor bullshitter. When someone brings you in their office, they want you to compromise and work with them, and I say things like, 'You're out of your freaking mind.' And then there's my on-air persona. Some people can't believe it's an act. In reality, I barely drink. On the radio, I sound half drunk all the time. That's worked out sometimes. There have been people who didn't fire me probably because they just didn't want to confront me. And I have been known to throw chairs at people who disagree with me." Coyote—along with "The Edge"—also stirred up controversy over the years. The show was taken off I-95 back in 1991, after the Focus on the Family watchdog group caught Coyote playing a song with a refrain of "Sit on my face" late one Sunday night. To his credit, Coyote also once retired "The Edge" on his own in 2003. He wouldn't shill for an alt-rock scene that he couldn't endorse because he felt the scene had stagnated. "I didn't have the music," says Coyote. "All the new bands were pretty damn weak, and I pulled the plug. Then I got excited about the scene again in 2004. I still think industrial music has seen its day, and I can give you a long list of bands that suck in the screamo/emo/hardcore genre. From Autumn to Ashes is good, Thursday is good, Thrice is brilliant. The rest of it bores the hell out of me. I know where it's going before it gets there. If you're 14 years old, and you're in the suburbs, then that's your music. It's aggressive and it's kind of snarling, and it's all pose and bullshit." That's some refreshing honesty from a disc jockey heavily invested in a genre. Of course, it helps that Coyote's chosen genre is something as vague as "alternative rock." A typical night of "The Edge" covers everything that's ever been crammed into the alt-rock niche, with Coyote drawing the line at genres such as overblown metal or earnest power pop. This helps to explain how he has kept going as an older guy playing new music. "Most people want to be part of a scene," says Coyote. "That's why I haven't been replaced. The new blood comes along, but they always pick a genre. They want to be the industrial guy or the goth guy, but then that genre dries up for a while, and they've got nothing left to say. I want to hear it all. Maybe I don't like hardcore, but I'll listen to it to find out what's being done well—even if listening to most of it is like having nails driven into my ears." The big Edgefest concert won't be nearly as demanding. Despite a generally glam-gothish mood, the line-up is as eclectic as Coyote's show. His financial motivation is also pretty much the same. "If the show sells out," Coyote explains, "I still lose money. I haven't even made a profit off 'The Edge' in the past five years. It's been a labor of love since 2001. My contract with this station's up in December, so one way or another I'll probably fold up my tent around then. That's partly what Edgefest is all about. What's the worst that can happen?" & "The Edge" can be heard every Sunday night on Rock 99.5 WZRR, and at www.wzrr.com, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. For information on the Edgefest concert visit www.theedgefest2008.com. Playlists for recent Edge shows can be found at www.myspace.com/104295722. The Playlist Goes Live Coyote J. Calhoun on the edgy artists of Edgefest. "This is all about that enthusiasm of seeing great bands play live," says Coyote J. Calhoun, "and it all started with seeing IAMX in Atlanta. [Band leader] Chris Corner started out in England with the Sneaker Pimps in the '90s. Now he's on his second album with IAMX called The Alternative, and that's the one that really got me. The stage show is great, too. It's like glam dance music. I contacted their manager about a Birmingham show. We agreed on a date, and that's when I knew I was going to do Edgefest." IAMX is a fitting choice for lots of reasons, including that blatant album title. The music reflects both Coyote's and Corner's devotion to bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode—as well as the devotion that one segment of the alt-rock scene has to drug use and kinky sex. Coyote also sees the show as a tribute to the other pioneering acts that played Birmingham clubs early in their careers. "IAMX is selling out stadiums in Europe," Coyote explains, "so this is where you get to see a band like them outside of a big venue. I'm also bringing in all these American bands, like a dark-wave, post-punk band called Feeding Fingers, and Black Tie Dynasty from Dallas, which is dark-tinged new wave. I've also got Kristeen Young, who's been opening for Morrissey. The whole bill is like my radio show. In the '80s, 80 percent of my playlist was from Europe. Nowadays, 80 percent is from the States." The evening also includes several other bands who—no surprise—have all been recently featured on "The Edge." It's still nice to see Coyote's enthusiasm for introducing Birmingham to some new alt-rock acts. On a Saturday night, too, with the promise of a very personal experience. "They're all great bands," Coyote says, "and you'll be able to see them eye to eye and touch their shoes." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Feeding Fingers: Baby Teeth, the new album, has an official release date of Tuesday, January 27, 2009. It will be a split-label release between my company (Tephramedia) and Stickfigure Records. We are accepting pre-orders at http://www.justincurfman.com from now until it's release to help cover production expenses. If you decide to pre-order it you will receive access to downloads of unreleased music not found on either Feeding Fingers album, access to a full free download of a track from "Baby Teeth", and you will be entered into a drawing that will take place on Monday, January 26, 2009 where you could win a Feeding Fingers T-Shirt, a DVD compilation, and some other goodies (posters, etc.). The drawing will be a videocast!
A "Baby Teeth" tour is being booked right now. We will tour the U.S. as a definite, and we are working on some dates in Europe and possibly in Canada. The tour will last throughout 2009.
The first show of the tour will take place on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at The Drunken Unicorn (Atlanta, GA). It will be a CD release show and at the same time, a part of the Stickfigure Records 2009 Showcase.
Until then... come see Feeding Fingers on:
Friday, September 5, 2008 @ Sweetwater Live in Atlanta, GA
Saturday, September 13, 2008 @ Matthew's in Birmingham, AL as part of EDGEFEST 2008
http://www.justincurfman.com
The producers at PeopleTV (Channel 24 - Comcast - Atlanta, GA) are editing Feeding Fingers' performance now and should be available toward the end of the week online and then will be broadcast on television soon thereafter.
The show can be found here:
http://www.moviescreams.com
And here:
http://www.myspace.com/moviescreams
It was one of the strangest experiences of my life... feels like "Top of the Pops".
Here are some photos of the show from photographer, Ken Lackner:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kosmicken/
Bands that don't sound like The Kinks and Sonic Youth in a blender!
Everyone go here:
http://www.walktorunrecords.com/podcast
and download the podcast
And then go here:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu
and add them as a friend and keep up with what they are doing.
I won't name any names, but we all know who I am talking about when I say that there are a certain few radio stations around here that basically rotate the same certain 8 or so local bands and have been doing so for about two years now.
Well... Walk to Run is your answer to that. Check them out.
We're performing a live set for a television show at the PeopleTV station in Atlanta THIS SATURDAY at 3PM. It is free if you want to attend. We would love to have you. You'll be part of a live studio audience.
This is the address:
People TV
190 14th Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
More:
In-studio performance by Feeding Fingers
Saturday, JULY 26th!
3:05PM
People TV/Movie Sreams
190 14th Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
Please read this blog for more info.:
http://www.myspace.com/moviescreams
Also... the new album, "Baby Teeth", is about 75% finished!
from Performer Magazine (Southeast Performer) June 2008:
TICKS Benefit...
Justin Curfman has his hands in many pies throughout Atlanta. Many know him as the frontman for post-punk trio Feeding Fingers, but he is also involved with puppetry, stop-motion film, and animation. On June 7 at Little Five Points' The Five Spot, Curfman will be hosting a benefit to raise money for his latest project, a "surrealist animated film" called TICKS.
"It's in the vein of a surrealist comedy," says Curfman. "It's called TICKS because it's about a group of people who were incubated inside of a photo booth."
Curfman's film work and music have often gone hand in hand, with many of the compositions written for the movies having since been re-tooled for Feeding Fingers' live shows. This event is an extension of that idea, with Curfman hoping Atlanta's two communities of film and music will join forces to work on projects together.
"I'm gathering together all of the people I've worked with in Atlanta, all the art and animation and music people just for one night under one roof," he says.
"So many people just don't really know one another and they can even make music videos together - they get in touch with people in other states when they have someone in their backyard that they don't really know about."
Eleven bands will play in the event, including Slow Motion Crash, Can Can, and Misfortune 50. There will also be screenings from local and international filmmakers, as well as representatives from IMAGE Film & VIdeo (the organization sponsoring TICKS) and Stickfigure Records available for networking opportunites.
- Leila Reagan-Porter
That's It,
Justin
- Location:Atlanta, Georgia
- Music:Feeding Fingers
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