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 Eastern Europe which is why we've made the decision to shift our resources in this direction. But, I do have plans for a two day music, arts, and entertainment festival in Atlanta similar to what we all did last year which we are looking at having during the last weekend in May, so that we can all work together and see one another again in 2009.

 

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 21^st – The Drunken Unicorn - Sorry No Ferrari, Sick Figures

The Subliminator and Harken The Hands Askew

 

Thursday January 22^nd – The Drunken Unicorn - Strezo CD Release Show, Tealights,

Envie and Nerdkween

 

Friday January 23^rd – The Drunken Unicorn - Antic Clay, Retconned Cover Band,

Backseat Dreamer and Warning Lights

 

Saturday January 24^th – The Drunken Unicorn - Feeding Fingers – CD Release Show ("Baby Teeth"), Entertainment, Tenth To The Moon and Lid Emba

 

 - Justin