1.04.09



The man above is Johnny Tocco. He owned and operated Johnny Tocco's Ringside Gym in Las Vegas for 41 years until his death on August 1st, 1997, at 87. Johnny is one of boxing's all time greatest trainers who worked with the greatest boxers of the past 50 years. His contribution to boxing and Las Vegas history lead city counselman Michael McDonald to proclaim July 1st as Johnny Tocco Day in Las Vegas, NV. Johnny was also inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, chronicled in the book "Holding On" by David Isay, and even more amazingly, immortalized in a song by me!!

My song (called Johnny Tocco's Ringside Gym) was recorded for Joe Kendall's "Boxing EP," which was released in a very limited edition this past August. You can hear the song now on my Listen Page or my Myspace Page.



I have also added the first of what I hope are many educational podcasts to my website. This installment is called The Health Benefits of Saunas. In this episode, I visit a local Arizona gym to experience the American take on the classic Finnish dry sauna, reflect on the role and medicinal uses of saunas throughout history, and of course sweat profusely. For now, you can access this podcast on my Listen Page, but it may soon have a dedicated and more professional home.



I'm proud to have one of my found sounds featured on a new noise and experimental compilation called Desertscraped: New Noise from the Neon Wilderness funded by a grant from Cirque du Soleil and curated by Jarrett Keene. The compilation includes 13 tracks, each by a different Las Vegas artist. My track is a found sound clip I call "40-Some Years." It is a recording of a woman stringing together a series of statements, observations, and half-thoughts, VERY loosely themed around the lives of several television actresses. Even that description is a serious stretch, as I really have no idea what this woman is talking about, or why this recording was made. Her statements, glued together with repeated starts and stops of the tape, are delivered in a spooky deadpan that I can only imagine belongs to a woman who is on the verge of insanity. This clip is truly strange and fast becoming one of my favorites

The CD was available for free at the release party (held in Las Vegas at the Freakin Frog Beer and Wine Cafe) on December 15th, 2008. Any interested parties can still get a free copy by writing to Jarrett Keene at jarret_keene@yahoo.com, but do so swiftly as there are only ~24 copies left.
My New Mexico CD is now available on CDBaby.com. I have also (after several years of deliberation) decided to use CDBaby as my digital distributor, meaning New Mexico will soon be available on iTunes, Rhapsody, and other online mp3 retailers. I hope that this will allow more access to my music in a period where I can't play it in person on some personal ground-breaking tour. The album should show up online in a week or two depending on the service you prefer.

Jacob


8.13.08



My recent tour with Las Vegas Club was one of the best ever. We traveled over 6000mi, played in a lot of new cities and states for many new faces, and picked up a bunch of new instruments and toys along the way. We were blessed to have Wyatt McKenzie (Mother McKenzie) from Las Vegas with us. His drumming and strumming helped us become a solid band that I was really damn proud of. If you have any photos, videos, or audio of Las Vegas Club or I playing, please get in touch, because I'd love to have a copy for my scrap book.

Some documentation was achieved however, as Matthew James Kendall of LVC brought along a digital camera, given to him by our mutual friend Kurt, of the Las Vegas band The Mapes. We picked up a 2 gig SD card before leaving town which allowed Matt to take about 600 photos (or one every 10 miles or so) of our journey. I've placed a few of these on my photographs page under shows.

We had many great shows on our tour: San Antonio, Little Rock, and Santa Fe leap to mind, but the crown jewel of our tour may well have been Las Vegas. Our show at the KGPA with Mother McKenzie and Hungry Cloud was really a triumph of sorts. It felt as if Las Vegas' entire musical community had converged upon the KGPA that night and seeing so many familiar faces in the crowd was like that final scene from All That Jazz when Roy Scheider is dying and hallucinates that he is performing for everyone he ever knew in his life... The show was well attended, promoted, and hopefully enjoyed by all. There were two very different accounts of the evening written in local papers The Weekly and City Life, which you can read about here and here, respectively.

Friend, Kevin Greenspon wrote an account of our two Southern California shows (West Covina and Long Beach) in his Port of La Puente Blog that I found laugh-out-loud hilarious, largely because I know Kevin and can hear his voice in my head when I read it.

Upon our return, Matthew James Kendall was interviewed about the tour for Joey Love's Blog and, being our resident historian, he did an excellent job at recounting and interpreting the events of our shared history. Please give this interview a moment of your time.

There was a theme of "inspired art" on this tour. There were lots of folks carrying sketch pads who took to doodling why we were playing. Several of these inspired pieces were given to us as gifts or bartered for CDs, and they are now housed in our permanent collection. The most amazing caricature was drawn on a napkin by Jennifer Perren of Little Rock, AK (see above). I was touched, and will likely frame the original soon. Another sketch was done by friend, artist, and former employer Austine Wood, who is best known for having pioneered the "polarized-light collage", or "polage". I worked at her Las Vegas studio for about four years before I graduated to ambulance attendance. She and her husband David were kind enough to catch our show in Santa Fe, NM, which was ironically, my first show within the state. Ever.

After the tour, I traveled to Texas, stayed for several weeks, and then came back to Phoenix. Nikki and I spent our fews days frantically looking for a new home to rent, and were lucky to find a really good one. I picked up quite a few found cassettes during my summer travels, and though I'm still setting up my office/studio, my plan is to listen to them all before school starts. I'm also getting ready for some upcoming August shows:

I'll be playing a single solitary show in Las Vegas on Friday, Aug. 22nd with DEER TICK!! (from Providence, RI) which is gonna be huge. John McCauley (of Deer Tick) will be playing solo, as will I. The show is at a home in Northwestern Las Vegas, costs $3, and starts at 9pm. In response to some questions I received recently: yes, the show is open to the public, so come one, come all. See my shows page for more details.

I will also be playing the following evening, Saturday, August 23rd, at the KGPA as part of Cockroach Theater's "Visions of Electric Perturbia", a series of 3 new plays, which will also feature the sculpture of Jesse Smigel, and the debut of Joe Kendall and Wyatt McKenzie's "Boxing EP" on which I have a track. Again, please see my shows page for details.

-Jacob


6.1.08


Summer Tour 2008!! w/ *Las Vegas Club*:

LVC and I are touring together once again and if you ask me what the tour is called, I would say the "Revenge of Band Nerd Love Tour 2008." That's because I have a found sound release just for this summer tour. It's not entirely new because I was making cassette copies of Band Nerd Love back in 2006, for the original "Band Nerd Love Tour" with John McCauley of Deer Tick.

Sure, I only made 27 copies back then, but one of those tapes made its way into the hands of Chris Paddock who wrote an amazing song called "tomorrow," based on the tortured monologue it contains. The recording was also featured (in its entirety) on Hollow Earth Radio several times this past May, but overall, has been a little hard to get ahold of. No more!!!



Out Now for our 2008 Summer Tour!!! is the "Band Nerd Love" CD version!!! (pictured above). Now everyone can enjoy what BNL has to offer.

Band Nerd Love is the name I have given to a love letter cassette (recorded sometime in 1985) that I found at a thrift store in Las Vegas, NV in 2006. It was authored by Martin, a know-it-all music nerd who loves to hear himself talk. BNL is an amazing artifact from the life of an American teenager of the 1980's, steeped in the type of egoism, self-loathing, and suffering that typifies teenage existence. Guaranteed to make you cringe.

BNL is available through my order page and of course at the shows I will be playing with LVC this June. Please check my shows page to see where we'll be playing. There will hopefully be some Nebrasks and Colorado additions (but honestly, not without help), so check the myspace for the most up to date information. Heck, write me at jacob@jacobsmigel.com if you can help with booking or need more information.

Jacob


3.4.08


I haven't had the chance to post any news for a while so let me start a few months back and work my way forward:

September - November - I spent these months adjusting to the challenges of medical school. This process is probably different for each student, but studying is a big part of it for everyone. I found that I had to study about 5 hours per day on average when school is in session. I've traded in my physical stamina for mental endurance, as I'm now able to study up to 12 hours a day for extended periods if necessary. I recently completed the core courses that are often associated with medical school: Histology, Embryology, Biochemistry, and Gross Human Anatomy. The latter was the most memorable of the four, in it my classmates and I dissected a human being from head to toe. No stone was left unturned, except the internal anatomy of the brain, which will be covered in our neuro class this spring. It was a truly life changing experience that I'm grateful for.

October - My brother Jesse Smigel and I recently collaborated in a way we never have before: by making a found sound sculpture. Our piece is called "Carry-Corder Confessions" (see above). In the art world this piece would be called an "instillation," but we call it a 4-foot sculpture of a classic cassette player (modeled after the Norelco Carry-Corder 150) that hangs on the wall, comes with huge tapes, and plays my new found sounds. The piece was first shown at the Hangar1018 Gallery in LA during November in their Fast Forward/Rewind group art show.

The piece is now on its way to Seattle, WA to be shown at the Dearborn on Woodland Gallery as part of Hollow Earth Radio's Magma Festival!!!

The festival has bands, sound experiments, live radio plays and more all March long. Even Dennis Driscoll is coming out so you know it's gonna be good.

The show opens March 8th to coincide with the release of Hollow Earth Radio's own collection of found sound (which is going to be great) called Analog America: A Four Course Meal in Found Sound. Jesse and I intend for this piece to keep traveling the U.S. so please get in touch if you are curating a show and are interested in found sound.

December 20th, 2007 - The staff of the alt weekly Las Vegas City Life voted my New Mexico CD among Las Vegas' 10 best albums of 2007. You can read about the best of what Las Vegas had to offer in 2007 here. I'm honored to be listed along side favorites like Lee Hazlewood, A Crowd of Small Adventures, and The Killers.

January 25th, 2008 - Thanks to the people of WebZen for including a link to Eavesdrop in their recent "found zen 3" list. This free service is an email list that sends out a few weird hand-picked links every friday. Each week has a different theme such as: breakfast zen, time kill zen, or even scary killer clown zen for example. Thanks guys.

February 2008 - The fine people of the CokeMachineGlow music blog have woven some of my found sounds into their most recent podcast. Check it out and hear some new music. I like the tone of the written intro to the show. They're not too far off with their jokes. I still assemble fresh Eavesdrops to this day and occasionally run low on the wacky personal "found" items that I stuff inside. One time I thought I was going to run out for sure, until I came across an entire photo album in the road. It had come to rest in the gutter after being thrown from a moving car and run over several times. It was a truly massive score that sustained me for several months. And just so you know, the only dumpsters that I've ever crawled into in search of "finds" are those specifically for paper recycling. It was a very clean one at a grade school by my brother's house that contained several jewels....

February 27th, 2008 - I had the pleasure of reuniting with *Las Vegas Club* this past week during a brief break from classes. I played drums in the new-ish LVC lineup. Check out a video of us performing a new Joe Kendall number called "Writing in the Snow." It's about penguins, and Joe sings all the time now by the way. Look out for more LVC shows in Las Vegas and elsewhere occurring at a frequency of about one per month. Each show will be special, so don't miss out.

Summer 2008 - I will be teaming up with *Las Vegas Club * again this June for a tour of the central US. Dates are still being hammered out but if you live in the following cities (or near by) and would like us to come to your town please get in touch: Phoenix, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Little Rock, Kansas City, Lawrence, Omaha, Denver, Boulder, Salt Lake and more.

Jacob


8.20.07


It feels like I have been traveling for several months now, and actually, I have. I've been living out of a bag since May 15th, having only recently fully moved into my new home in Phoenix, AZ. Besides embarking on a US Tour, I visited the great state of New Mexico this past July. There I rode on a historic narrow-gauge coal-steam train called the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad that runs from Chama, NM to Antonito, CO. I bathed (three times) in one of the oldest natural hot springs in North America in Ojo Caliente, NM, went high mountain stream-fishing in the middle of nowhere, and of course camped at my family's cabin for a time. I have added photos from my recent tour and some of these other exploits to my "camping, etc..." page.

Now that New Mexico is behind me (the state and the album), I found the time to listen to some home-recorded cassettes that I collected in the Eavesdrop days, but never got the chance to listen to. A bit of what I found will be featured on a downloadable found sound compilation put together by JRC of the Trunk Space in Phoenix, AZ, called "What I Did On My Summer Vacation." The compilation features tracks by myself and other sound artists/enthusiasts. I submitted 7 new tracks, including: a Texas girl's tape-letter from 1986 in which she tells-all about the mall food court she works at, love songs from recordio-disc, some strange legal advise regarding "spousal support modification," and more!!! Please visit www.onewordlong.com and download this album because it's absolutely free. You have nothing to lose.

My brother is very participatory in the YouTube thing, and I too have caught the bug. I recently uploaded a score of videos including "How They Were Made," which is a behind the scenes look at the printing of my New Mexico CD, miscellaneous live footage, and a tour video from 2005 of myself with the band My Sexual Dad.

All this uploading and updating is partly an attempt to get my "affairs" in order before I begin medical school on August 27th. I don't mean to imply that medical school will be the death of me, but it will put a limit on my free time. I've spent most of it sorting through the many live recordings that I made on the road with Deer Tick. I played the best shows of my life on that tour, and I am proud to have some of them on tape. I recorded most of the shows with my Marantz PMD-221 3-head mono tape recorder, but others were captured through soundboards, or on DVD video. With luck, the best tracks will find their way to a Deer Tick/Jacob Smigel Split Live CD in the near future.

I love mail,

Jacob


7.24.07


I'm gone. I packed up my stuff, returned the items I borrowed, and collected the items that I lent out. I carefully placed my belongings (primarily books, CDs, papers, tools, and camping equipment) into cardboard boxes and drove them to Phoenix, AZ, where I now live with my girlfriend Nicolette and her two cats: Georgie & Tula*.

* A note about Tula: I like animals and have from time to time invented cute names for them to better express my fondness. One of my favorite names for Tula is Tula-Bula. I didnšt think much of this name until recently. I played a show in Charleston, SC on the recent Deer Tick tour and stayed with some very nice people who had a cat named Bula!! Upon hearing this I made a confused face and exclaimed Bula-Tula!! This didn't make sense to anyone but me and was soon forgotten, but what I had realized in this moment is that some pets have counterparts that live in other parts of the country, world, or possibly in other dimensions. I had met Tula's counterpart, her yang, her other-half. Please be sensitive to this in your own travels, because I believe this phenomenon to be indicative of some unknown cosmic force.
My US Tour with John McCauley of Deer Tick was an amazingly awesome adventure. There were four of us: John McCauley (RI), Joe Kendall (NV), Dennis Ryan (RI), and myself (NV). John was kind enough to put 6000 miles on his van, lug his amps and drums, and book most of the shows. I silk screened shirts for us both and sent out posters and sampler CDs. I toured roughly half the US with Deer Tick (from Bennington, VT to Los Angeles, CA). In retrospect, the shows in the North East were great, along with Charleston, SC, Panama CIty, FL, Austin, TX, Las Vegas, NV, and San Diego, CA to name a few. We made a concerted effort to document this tour and made live recordings of 20 or more shows, which will hopefully be released as a split live CD some time soon.

We spent most of our time on the road listening to the collected works of Longmont Potion Castle. LPC is a brilliant collection of prank phone calls (dealing mostly with lamb, Radio Shack, UPS, squid, dog bowel, jerky, etc...) that has absolutely taken over my mind and personal lingo. I can't help quoting it. Most times I don't even know I'm doing it. LPC's comedy even worked its way into our live shows, so I apologize if you couldn't understand us while we were in your town.

My friend and drumming-phenom Dennis Ryan has been working on a new album of music inspired by Eavesdrop (my found sound album). Dennis is the epitome of a high-productivity individual, as he writes his music while touring the country. As the van speeds along the interstate (or through the night) Dennis pulls out his shiny white lap top, takes a few gulps of fountain soda, plugs in his oversized head-phones, and writes a song beat by beat, and note by note. He now calls himself Rhinosaurus Rex (though the name changes frequently) and you can hear a song or two here.

In July, I was interviewed by Andrew W.K. for his new TV Show. We drove around Vegas, ate Ethiopian food, rummaged through my room, and listened to found sound together. The new TV show is called the SMOKESHOW, look for it to drop sometime this fall.

My cover of the They Might Be Giants song Snowball in Hell is on a new double tape compilation on JK Tapes. This sprawling compilation also includes the *Las Vegas Club* track The March of Baby Jesus from the new album In Gods We Trust, and is available now for just $7 mail order from here.

Eavesdrop was featured on an episode of ABC Sydney's radio show The Night Air, which aired this past June 24th, 2007. You can download the episode called Collectors, for free by right-clicking (or ctrl-clicking for Mac users) this link.

Jacob


5.16.07


"I always wondered how they were made."

My new album of music in almost two years is out!!! Available now from my Orders Page, on tour, and in selected stores in the coming weeks.

This is largely thanks to my friend Corlene Byrd in Las Vegas. She works for a local CD manufacturing plant and helped me get the CD manufactured. She not only involved me in every aspect of production, but also gave me a tour of the factory, and invited me to watch New Mexico being printed.
Corlene is the force behind The Corlene Machine, which is an amazingly good band.

Corlene also filmed some of the process and I edited the footage into this short film which shows the printing process in action. Watch our movie "How They Were Made," here.

Joe Kendall and I are currently in Providence, RI making preparations for our US Tour with John McCauley of Deer Tick, which begins on May 17th, 2007. We will be crossing the US over the next few weeks, on what may be our last tour together. The most up-to-date show information can be found on Deer Tick's myspace page here.

Two other albums also came out on my label yesterday. Firstly, In Gods We Trust by Las Vegas Club, and my live album called Jacob Smigel Live (2004-2006). They are both handmade, and cheaply. You can hear sample tracks from these albums both on my Listen Page, and my Myspace Page.

Joe and I have been working on these albums for a long time and we are really excited to share them with people. I hope to see you a one of our live shows over the next two months.

Jacob


3.3.07



If brevity is your thing, check out these bulleted news items:

- I'm playing a Mini-Tour of Arizona with new Vegas-resident Drew Danburry, March 8th, 9th, and 10th. See shows page for details.

- Eavesdrop was reviewed in the Feb. issue of Zia Record's ZiaZine and is now available at all Zia Locations (AZ and NV).

- Dates are being booked for my upcoming US Tour with Deer Tick. Many shows in the East and South, look out!!

If you like long stories, read on:

"Las Vegas is a working class town." I've been saying those words lately. People move here specifically to find jobs and raise families. Finding work is easy enough, but making a sufficient amount of money is a challenge. Many people work part-time jobs, side-jobs, or one-time schemes...

This past Valentine's Day I noticed several families whose homes lined busy streets, selling gift baskets from their front lawns. "That's a good idea," I thought. They must have gone to a swap meet or craft store and picked up the individual items necessary to make Valentine's Day Gift Baskets, and then spent a Sunday afternoon putting it all together. The finished product is hard to miss: pink cellophane, white teddy bears, and helium-filled heart-shaped foil balloons tethered with pink streamer flipping in the breeze. It sells itself.

All this working isn't necessarily healthy for us, or the city. I suspect that most people struggle to support their quality of life. Whatever the motive, it is still very fulfilling to see an entrepreneurial endeavor through to completion (especially when there is a fast-approaching deadline, a finite supply of white teddy bears in town, and lots of competition). The expected costs and potential profits have to be worked out before hand, with no way to know for sure how things will turn out.

I've been thinking about odd jobs lately because I've had a few myself. As usual I've been selling music and found sound CDs, slinging used books online, and now: scrapping metal. Yes!!

When I was a child, scrap Aluminum was worth 37 cents/lb. Watch out!! It's 50 cents/lb now (for aluminum cans and unpainted extruded aluminum). Steel - $110/ton, Insulated Wire - 60 cents/lb, Brass - 80 cents/lb, Soft Lead - 0.05 cents/lb, and king of em' all: Copper - $1.70/lb!!

I have spent much of the last month cleaning out my mother's back yard where my father housed his mind-boggling collection of antique car parts (Model A and Model T Fords mostly). He also collected firewood, construction grade lumber, old appliances, tires, tools, cardboard boxes, date palms, other plants, bricks, construction materials, and yes... scrap metal. Since my father's passing I have been working to put these things in their proper place. My brother and I have been selling car parts, taking trips to the city dump, cutting up and stacking firewood, and sorting scrap metal.



Another odd job of mine begins in just a few days. I'm lucky to be doing a mini-tour of the state of Arizona with Drew Danburry. This is especially well-timed, as I'm moving to Phoenix this Summer and will take this opportunity to explore the state. We will be playing in Phoenix, Tucson, and Lake Side (near Pine Top), Arizona on March 8th, 9th, and 10th, respectively. Follow this link to the "Shows" page for more details.

Eavesdrop was just reviewed in the February issue of the ZiaZine, the in-store music magazine of the South Western (mom & pop) music chain Zia Records. In a similarly well-timed stroke of luck, all Zia Records locations (including six locations throughout Arizona) now carry my Eavesdrop CD. Watch out AZ, we're about to bond!!!

Joe Kendall and I are working on new recordings that we MUST have ready for our upcoming US Tour with John McCauley of Deer Tick. Shows are being booked as we speak, with many dates in the East and South. The whole thing kicks off in Bennington, VT (a town I really never thought I'd see again) at Bennington college's 24-hour music festival: Sun Fest.

See you in Arizona.


11.18.06


Wow!! Our North East Tour with John McCauley of Deer Tick was top notch. We played in living rooms, basements, record stores, colleges, bars, and clubs. We fed off eachother's intensity until I was backed by something known only as the "Jacob Smigel Band," and John ended his performances either rolling on the ground or ripping the strings off his guitar. Special thanks to Jana Hunter for having us on some shows and being so down (to earth, for whatever, with the clown, etc...).

Eavesdrop, my found sound album, was recently featured on the bizarre news site Boing Boing, as well as in a piece for CBC Radio (Canada's National Radio Station) for their afternoon music and culture show Freestyle. A track from Eavesdrop can be found on the just finished issue #2 of the Greek Art/Music compilation Dynasty Zine, and lastly, Eavesdrop will soon be featured on an upcoming episode of NPR's Weekend America. It was my intent to make an album that focused on people and the folk art of personal recording that was both accessible and uncompromisingly strange, and so I am grateful for the recent exposure and acceptance. Eavesdrop: a wealth of found sound is available from my "Order Page" as well as many retail stores that are listed there.

Note: While in LA I had lunch at the original Hamburger Hamlet location. All I had was a bowl of clam chowda... actually they don't serve clam chowder anymore so I had the French Onion Fondue Soup with garlic toast. It was good, but expensive. Soup, Ice Tea, and a tip came to around $13.

You can hear a live version of my song "New Mexico," and John's awesome cover of "What Kind of Fool am I" on Jen and Andy's weekly Boston-centric pod-cast Band in Boston we are on episode number 21 titled, "Hey, Let's Never Hang Out." (Hint: 57 minutes or so in...)

We recorded these tracks while touring through Boston, MA. Jen and Andy took us into their beautiful home, cooked us delicious food, gave us air mattresses to sleep on, let us play with their dogs, etc... basically made our travels especially comfortable and then on top of that recorded some of our songs for their show. They love music and they are very kind.

I'm back in Las Vegas (aside from a Thanksgiving trip to Texas) and looking forward to our next big show on Tues. Dec. 19th. We are playing with the Microphones/Mt. Eerie (WA), Thanksgiving (OR), Woelv (WA), and Dreaming of Lions (NV) at the best kept (all-ages) secret in Vegas: The theater inside Denny and Lee's Magic Studio. This show is going to be a formal affair, so please plan on dressing up. This will also help everyone stay warm, as it will likely be winter by then and the theater is inside a large warehouse with no insulation. We are working on getting a portable heater, but it may still be cold in there.

I would like everyone reading this to know how grateful I am to John McCauley of Deer Tick for inviting us to the East, booking all the shows, supplying the amps and drums, and traveling us all around in his nice van. It would not have happened if it were not for him. Buy his new album when it comes out.

Thank you to everyone else who helped set up the East Coast shows, made sure we had places to sleep, picked up blankets for us from their dad's house, gave us directions, threw eggs at us, came to our shows, gave us donations, and bought our hand-made merchandise.


At this point I would like to forgo the formality of my usual "News Update," and talk about my experiences in the East. This tour was my first chance to really explore the East Coast and I'm brimming with discoveries right now.

I learned that there are some awesome things happening in Rhode Island on the dietary front. I visited a weiner shop (several times) called "New York Systems Hot Weiners." This diner/restaurant/weiner shop has been serving weiners in the same location for over 80 years!! My band mates and I concluded that this was the oldest American restaurant we had ever eaten at. Both the RI and a location in New Jersey claim to be the oldest "Hot Weiner" place. But check it out, David Byrne used to work at the RI location, so which one are you going to visit??

Wait there's more!! Rhode Island also has a great drink: Coffee Milk, (to learn how this is not a latte, and how serious RI is about this stuff, click here. Most amazingly, Coffee Milk was proclaimed "The Official State Drink of Rhode Island," by the state legislature on July 29th, 1993.

I also learned first-hand about the efficiency (and efficacy) of Toll-Roads, Waffle Houses, a $2 egg breakfast, Dunkin' Donuts (in real restaurant form), and all variety of pizza (the Mexican food of the East!!).

I was totally floored by a little store in Worchester, MA (pronounced whoo-sta) called the HBML (Happy Birthday Mike Leslie) Junk Shop. It is about the size of the average bedroom and filled with more warmth, creativity, and cool shit than I've ever seen in a single store. Jacob Berendes is right, "Radical Wingnuts Never Die!!" To learn more about this really unique shop please take a few minutes to read their mission statement.

Jacob Berendes also runs a label called Fujichia that has released a tape by a man known only as "Snow Ghost". This 4 song cassette has real promise. The first song "The Legend" is immediately loveable.


9-12-06

Eavesdrop (my found sound CD) is doing well and slowly moving into new "markets" and hearts across America. In fact, the album was #1 on KDVS (90.3 FM) in Davis, CA for the last week of August. Incredible!! Much thanks to Daniel at Amoeba Records, LA and Andee of Aquarius Records, SF for their help and enthusiasm regarding the project.

Las Vegas Club and myself have returned from our West Coast/North West Tour!! Davis, CA and Seattle, WA were particularly memorable, thanks to the efforts of Sean (+ the KDVS crew!!) and Beth, respectively. The experience strengthened us as friends and as bands to the extent that we have decided to do another. I will be touring with Deer Tick (sorry, no LVC) in the East Coast this Oct. 23rd ­ Nov. 6th. I will post all the details as soon as they are confirmed.

In the event that you missed our West Coast shows or didn't know we were in your town, some documentation was achieved. Our friend Mike took some beautiful photos of Aly and our San Diego and LA shows, which are now on his flicker page. Check them out here. LVC and myself played a few songs live on KDVS in Davis, CA which are archived on their web site here.

I'm free. I've been cut loose. That's why I've finally begun recording my (new) New Mexico album (I use the word 'album' loosely, as it will likely be an EP). I hope to have it finished this fall, but these things take time. I intend for this album/EP to come in some handmade packaging with a lengthy booklet of detailed track notes. As with any long-term project, it's interesting to see how the look/feel of the finished project compares to the imagined version.

I would like to issue a formal correction concerning the liner notes of Eavesdrop: a wealth of found sound. You may recall that in track number 14, entitled "Jingle Guy," a man is singing about a casino called the "International." I wrote in the liner notes that he was likely singing about The International, which existed in the place of the modern-day Hilton. For this to be true the recording would have been made sometime before 1971, and while possible, is somewhat unlikely. It has come to my attention (thank you Kristen) that Jingle Guy was more likely singing about (as he says...) the Holiday International Casino and Hotel which existed at 300 N. Main Street from 1977 to 1980. Here is a photo which Kristen also unearthed to help set the record straight:

6-8-06


My found sound CD called Eavesdrop: a wealth of found sound is out now!!!!. The CD is available at shows, selected stores, and through my Order Page as of July 1st, 2006!!!

Eavesdrop is a collection of (mostly) anonymous recordings that I found at thrift stores, yard sales, and in trash bins over the past four years. Many of the tracks on the CD come from standard audio cassettes, but I also found recordings on micro-cassette and home-recorded records called recordio discs.

What did you find??

Well, I found all kinds of things. Usually mix-tapes of bad pop and young country, recordings of church, music/music practice, really quiet sounds (static or room noise), and the sounds of parties or other public events.
I also found very personal recordings which take the form of audio diaries, tape-letters, the audio of road trips, fights, crying, family moments, telephone conversations and messages, and the amusements of children or the mentally handicapped.

Eavesdrop focuses exclusively on this type of material. I did not write music for the clips. I did not play or sing on the album. Instead, I worked as preservationist or curator to present to the listener the most powerful moments that I came across. The clips are all very personal, and very real. Some are funny, some are ridiculous, others make no sense, and a few are so "perfect" I can't believe I actually found them.
Eavesdrop is a scattered documentation of what I call "the golden age of personal recording" (1965 - 1986). It is about the wonder that is putting our experiences, feelings, and lives down on tape.

Amongst the CD's 40 tracks you will find:
-A mentally handicapped teenager's tape-letter from camp to her boyfriend, in which she sings Country Roads by John Denver.
-Two LA socialites discussing the downfall of the once prestigious Hamburger Hamlet restaurant chain.
-The audio-diary of a 70's art student named Carol who binges on Jack in the Box and masturbates to a mental image of Mic Jagger.
-A mom tells her daughter (who is babbling about organic lemons) to "just bring me some fuck'n pepsi now!!"
-Personal interview with nobel prize laureate (he discovered Vitamin C) Albert Gyorgie.
-Young rappers "flow" in a "dirty ass shack."
-AND TONS MORE!!!

Eavesdrop is almost 80 minutes, comprised of 40 tracks. It comes with a lengthy booklet of track notes that explains the back ground of each track, my own thoughts, and other notes about the clips. Album art is a collage of "Found Photographs" I collected over the past two years on a fold-out six-panel digi-pack. In addition, five of the album's tracks spawn whole other albums that are available as CD-Rs by mail order/paypal from myself. (I'll explain later).

And hey!!! You can hear tracks from Eavesdrop on my Listen Page


-Jacob



2-21-06


There are new MP3s on my LISTEN PAGE. Listen!!
I now have a really real ORDER PAGE !! I currently have my first two albums, buttons and the first *Las Vegas Club* album for sale, but I will add more items soon. Several people have already placed orders, but it seems others have been getting 404's when they try to load the page. I have checked and double-checked the script and it seems fine. If it gives you any guff, I can only suggest that you try a different browser. It doesn't seem to like FireFox.
Well, the picture above probably looks like a pile of junk to you, but it's actually a very colorful lab that I work in. I have been testing Grumpy Pill Bugs three days a week (>30 hrs.) in this flow-through respirometery cell. Depending on your age or the part of the world you live in you may call Pill Bugs, Rolly Pollies, Sow Bugs, or Wood Lice. My research project is about Pill Bug conglobation, that is, their ability to roll up into balls.
I have been working with Pill Bugs a lot lately and I'd like to tell you about them:

Pill bugs are very grumpy. They hate light. They hate being touched. They hate dry soil. They especially hate being held in a rolled up position by orthodontic rubber bands. I have checked their faces under a dissecting scope to be sure. It's true, they're pissed.
When I'm not measuring their CO2 or H2O release I try to make it up to them. I keep them in a moist 18 C soil and feed them slices of sweet potato. They do like that.
. Since I was a boy people have been telling me that Pill Bugs roll up in to balls to protect themselves from predators. This makes sense, but I have been the proud owner of cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, a mole and a horned toad, none of which would eat pill bugs. It turns out that Pill bugs don't get eaten very much because they taste bad. According to one crazy guy "they taste like strong urine." If Pill Bugs don't get eaten very much, then there must be another reason that they still roll up into balls after living on land for 1 million years.
It turns out that a Pill Bug's biggest enemy is dehydration. They can live to be 5 years old if they don't dry out. That's why they spend all their time hiding under rocks and logs. My hypothesis is that pill bugs have continued to conglobate because it helps to protect them from transevaporating through the respiratory structures on their ventral surface.
30 hours a week has given me plenty of time to scheme about my found sound album and other planned releases but has also left me with little time to realize them. In truth, time is not as big a factor as money. I am saving up for my found sound release which should come out early this summer.
Also, I have been playing with Joe and Matt Kendall in *Las Vegas Club*. We have definitely benefited from our recent live shows and are pumped to play some more. Matthew James Kendall is freshly graduated from college and has never been so ready to play music in his young life. We will post some new shows soon, so check back.

-Jacob


11-8-05



First, allow me to apologize. It has been far too long since I last updated my webpage. I have been busy with everything except music lately and the stagnancy of my website reflects this. So, with this update I proclaim an end to stagnancy, and a celebration of activity.
There have been some website changes. I had to find a new home for my website and in the interim started a MySpace music page. Though the site you are on now has changed little in outward appearance, take note that it has moved from its previous domain (www.notnotfun.com/jacobsmigel) to www.jacobsmigel.com. I have enough webspace here that I will soon host more MP3s and some short videos if technology allows.
Check it out!! Besides my own music, I also play drums IN and record the music OF a band called *Las Vegas Club*. I am excited to say that the new *LVC*'s full length CD called: Whiskey Flats (released by Not Not Fun Records) is done and will be available on November 20th at our Las Vegas CD release show. That is:

November 20th, 2005 Las Vegas, NV
@Balcony Lights Music and Books (4800 S. Maryland Pkwy)
*Las Vegas Club*, Jacob Smigel, The Gift Machine (WA), Nate Ashley
*Las Vegas Club* "Whiskey Flats" CD Release Show!!
7:00pm $6

We will also have new *LVC* T-Shirts as well as NEW JS shirts, pillow cases, and hand bags with the OLD "baby and silhouettes" logo for sale.

My Found Sound album is done, but its release will be delayed until the new year at least. It touches me that several people are excited about this release. Thank you for the interest, and your patience. I'm sorry for the delay, but much of it is out of my control. For now, I will post some new MP3s from the album on my listen page.
-Jacob


7-4-05



Keep Punching Joe!! Joe Kendall is long-time friend and band-mate. In friendly fashion I also play music in his band which is called *Las Vegas Club*.

Joe Kendall's new album "Whiskey Flats" is done and slated for mastering (by the master) Mark Kane at Terminal Management. For this record, Joe and I abandoned the all-inclusive-band concept and opted instead for a more focused approach. I recorded the album, wrote/played one song, and drums on many others. Friends Joe Webb and Seth Barkan contributed one song each while Joe Kendall wrote the other songs and played all the parts. It is his most serious musical effort to date, and in a small way, his gift to the music-listening world.

"Whiskey Flats" is the soundtrack to a fictitious spaghetti-western film. That is, it's the soundtrack to a 60's western that doesn't exist. The tracks are named after the scenes in the film, to which several musical themes are cyclically treated. This album has much in common with other movie scores/soundtracks, except that it has no companion film. For example: It's mostly instrumental. There is a main theme, then that theme is reworked in a more tender way, before being reborn in a triumphant reprise. We even added clips of dialogue from some of our favorite 60's/70's westerns as if they were from the nonexistent film.

The album will come out on Not Not Fun Records in early fall. Until then you can hear a track from it that I just added to my Listen Page.

I have also placed a link there to the archives of Brown Student Radio (88.1 FM) in Providence, Rhode Island. Alethia and I played a 30 minute set on the show Phoning It In this past Sunday. This is a great radio show where the host Nadav calls up musicians at home, in hotel rooms, in cars (anywhere there's a phone) for lo-fi performances. Other guests, in just the last 6 months, include: The Mountaingoats, The Microphones/Mt. Eerie, Dennis Driscoll, Thanksgiving, Daniel Johnston (!!), Jad Fair, Karl Blau, R. Stevie Moore, Little Wings, John Vanderslice, The Watery Graves, BARR, and Weirdo/Begeirdo.

I played on 7/3/05.

Thank you to all my friends in Las Vegas who came to my recent local shows. I really appreciate your attendance. I'm trying hard to keep my shows interesting.

Let's see..... I also added some live shows to my Shows Page, but they are a ways off.

-Jacob


6-10-05


The fans are out there!!! Here's one at the 2005 Coachella Festival. Actually this is my friend Deanna, but that counts too.

Shows page has been updated. Look.

I have been pluggin' away on a new album. Not my own. The new *Las Vegas Club* album, to which I contributed, called "Whiskey Flats." It was largely written by my friend Joe Kendall. He is the nucleus (band leader) of *LVC*. Joe and I are done recording, and have finished the mixing, but just as we were about to do the dialogue tracks Joe took off for Montreal for two weeks. Good luck Joe.

I played what turned out to be a "secret house show" this past friday. That is, a secret show at a known house. It was more of an art exhibit than a music show, and more of a crazy party than an art exhibit. It was such a pleasant experience that another (not so-secret) one is planned for June 25th in Henderson, NV. Check the Shows Page for more info on this. I also hope to be coming to Boulder City, NV some time soon.

I have a song called "The Funeral of Enkidu" which can be found on the new literature-themed Not Not Fun Records double tape compilation called Tape Worms Eat Book Worms. For more new music check out my Listen Page as I have just updated it.

-Jacob


5-17-05

The heavy rains this spring have awakened insects I have never seen in Las Vegas. I was having late night coffee a few days ago and the blue fluorescent lights on the facade of the diner attracted hundreds of insects. It was some kind of insect war. The grasshoppers were kamikaze-bombing people getting out of their cars, while large black (tank-like) ground beetles had dug themselves in around the front door. I stood and watched a minute before entering and witnessed several Jet-Plane-Sphinx Moths pass by at low altitude in a tight V-formation.

Early summer is gentle and broad, and I too have been awakened. I have spent the day preparing for my upcoming shows in California. I am hitting the road in about two hours. I expect to see greenery of all kinds. Ivy dangling from freeway over passes, grasses and flowers mingling with wild honey bees. Nature's silent orgy all around.

I am a Silver-bellied Beetle (of the family Buprestidae) who must leave my birth place (silver-belly all stuffed with wood-pulp) to wander and sing. My name is Jacob. I will be traveling with a mini-tour manager named Currin. She is a Lepidoptera of some kind, who will hover close and feed my companions and I sweet nectars.

My musical companions are the members of the band My Sexual Dad. First is Big Evan, a red-cheeked Potato Bug from the East. Joel, a slender click-beetle fond of temperate climates and sonic vibrations. Little Evan, a False-Chinch Bug, not to be mistaken for the true Chinch. And Annie, a Velvet Ant (actually a wingless wasp) from the deserts of Arizona that loves to sleep on dimes. We are definitely a motley crue, in that we show incredible biological diversity, and we also play rock and roll music.

Check out my Shows Page for more info regarding these shows. I will soon confirm several shows in June, and may be on "Phone-it-in," a live show on Brown Student Radio in Rhode Island.

-Jacob

4-28-05

I have been keeping to myself these days. Spending afternoons and evenings in the library looking over my books and making notes. When I get tired, I just put my head down. I am really good at sleeping with my head down. For instance on an airplane, I drop the food tray -form a simple nest with my arms- and then sleep face-first. These naps can last 10 minutes or 2 hours. This is part of the reason I hang in the library so much..... but there are others:

I have spent the last 3 thursday afternoons volunteering with the Friends of Southern Nevada Libraries at their book warehouse. This non-profit organization categorizes and sells discarded library books to the public. Most books are 50 cents, and having volunteered on and off for several years I have collected many more than I can ever read. This organization was modeled after others around the country so check it out, there may be a warehouse in your area too.

I was collecting used library card pockets for Not Not Fun's new Literature themed double tape compilation called "Tape Worms Eat Book Worms," coming out on May 21st. I also got some books on the history and architecture of the adobe homes of Northern New Mexico, and lots of nature books with full color pictures I plan to use as flyers for upcoming shows.

May-time is Show-time. I am very proud to be embarking on a mini-tour with My Sexual Dad into Northern California and then back to LA for the Literary Comp. release show and another show in LA on the 23rd. So that's:

May 19th Modesto, CA - MSD, JS and lots more......
May 20th Davis, CA - MSD, JS and more....
May 21st LA, CA - MSD, Weirdo/Begeirdo, Robedoor, and tons more....
May 23rd LA, CA - JS, Whitman, & Girth (members of Lightening Bolt)

I feel I have been blessed with press this month and should present some of it here. Las Vegas City Life (a local alt. weekly paper) promoted my show with Thanksgiving and a John Henry Memorial with this Citypic. The Boulevard Sentinel in Eagle Rock, LA wrote a really long and positive review of "Full Grown...". Finally, the "Lovers & Drunkards" 7" was just reviewed in the April issue of WIRE magazine which is just now hitting the US news stands. If large print is more your thing, check out this bigger scan of the same review. I am grateful for this awesome review written by Byron Coley. Please, I'd like to send word out to Byron Coley. Thank you

-Jacob

4-10-05

Two weeks ago my friend Lily said she wanted to get out of town. I said I knew about a music show we could check out if only we could somehow be in Riverside, California. Then she showed me her car.

We got into Riverside on the 26th of March in the late afternoon. We climbed a (holy) mountain, came back down, and then drank Horchata. The music show I mentioned was a Not Not Fun Records Showcase at the Pixelpalace featuring, Hello Astronaut Goodbye Television, my buds Weirdo/Begeirdo, Bobby Birdman, and FootVillage in that order.

I smiled a lot during the HAGT songs, I jumped around and blew a horn when W/B played, I played drums with my eyes closed for Bobby Birdman's set, and plugged my ears with my finger tips during FootVillage. The show was entertaining, but so was the new Joel/Evan/Megan/Molly/Little Evan House I stayed at. As usual, I felt really welcomed in California, and I was sad to leave. I saw most of my friends there for at least 30 minutes, and that's better than nothing. Thank you everyone.

I returned to Las Vegas all pumped up on live jams and started rehearsing with Ally (my new friend and new drummer) and Joe Kendall (my old friend and old drummer). I bought a keyboard stand, contact mic, new cable, and a condenser mic for recording. All this was in preparation for my show with Thanksgiving and A John Henry Memorial that just happened this past Thursday.

I made many calls and sent many e-mails encouraging friends (and friends of friends) to come. I am grateful that so many people showed up and I hope everyone enjoyed all the performances. Davis (of A John Henry Memorial) was really "freaked out" during his set, but he managed to calm down later that evening when my brother and I got some White Russians and Ethiopian food into his stomach.

Adrian (Thanksgiving) played drums, guitar, and sang all at the same time, and then shared his thoughts on dead dogs, dead deers, and staying up all night. If you are unfamiliar with either of these artists please investigate them further at www.marriagerecs.com.

I am working on setting up some more live shows for May and Early June, so check the SHOWS page in the next few weeks for details. And listen for a new literature themed song called "The Funeral of Enkidu" on NNF's new Double Tape Comp. coming out in April.

-Jacob



First. Thank you to (my Brother) Jesse Smigel for making this rad web page!! Now that I have one, I will let my instincts take over........

3-14-05
I am really looking forward to the next two weeks. I have a generous break from my school schedule and some prodigious plans of my own........ I can feel the relaxation kicking in........ as I am right now eating Animal Crackers and was just a minute ago was walking around the house talking to myself with unusual vigor.
This (spring) break came just at the right time as I have many loose ends which need knotting / knitting:

-1.) Firstly!! Finish recording with my friend (of long-standing) Joe Kendall. His band is called *Las Vegas Club* (of which I am proud to be a casual member) and his new album titled "Whiskey Flats," will be released by Not Not Fun Records by early summer. I recommend that interested parties check out the first album by *Las Vegas Club* called "Alien and Starship Specifications." It chronicles Joe's earlier work and is also distributed by Not Not Fun.

Lately, Joe has been writing the soundtrack to a 1960's Classic Western Film which does not exist (except in his mind's ear). The songs are named after the scenes of his "imaginary" film and suit it very well if you ask me.

-2.) I am recording a song for the next Not Not Fun Compilation Cassette due in May with my (music) friend Nathan Fairbanks. I am also going to be randomly recording some of his own songs over the next few months. My favorite thing to say about Nathan is that, "he was once in a band called "Deef" (pronounced like "beef" but with a "D") and it was once voted the 5th worst band in America by Spin Magazine." Men as infamous as this never quit, and so Nathan continues to write and record to this day.

-3.) I am rehearsing with my new drummer, and multi-talented friend Ally who has a really big drum set and stacks-upon-stacks of bass cabinets, whoa!! I'm gonna beef-up (Deef-UP!!) my slide show for our first performance together on April 7th with Thanksgiving and Cains&Abels in Las Vegas, and maybe in Carson City or Reno the next day. See "Shows" page for details.

-4.) I am recording some new songs of my own which are inspired by (and in praise of) a dilapidated old cabin in NWern New Mexico that was a playground of my youth.

-5.) And I am always thinking about (and sadly, rarely working on) my album of Found Sound called "Eavesdrop: A Wealth of Found Sound." A track from this forthcoming Not Not Fun release can be found on the "Listen" page of my site. I am the first to admit that this project has been on the back burner for too long!! Well, I recently moved it forward and turned up the heat. I listened to my umpteenth batch of dusty (and always provocative) home recorded cassettes and was blown away by some of the finds.


---- Jacob