at the foot of my bed EP

Instant Kafka · at the foot of my bed EP

So this little EP/demo is finally out!  I'm really happy with it overall.

My favorite song on this is At the Foot of My Bed.  It's a really old song.  The singer wrote it back in the nineties but at the time I wasn't interested in playing anything that wasn't pretty fast and/or aggressive, and we played it a handful of times but it never caught on.  The drummer recalled it fondly, however, and with the passage of time, it "clicked" for me this time around.  It's still quite different from what we typically do - almost Beatles-y?  Not quite a ballad but somewhat softer than our typical fare.

I mentioned this in my last post, but I think people who are familiar with this blog might enjoy the song called Viaticum. Our singer wrote the lyrics after reading a short story of the same title here.  I wrote that after making a city state from the generator at Grand Commodore.  I love the way inspiration can spin out like that.

The other songs are just little ditties - a faster (170 bpm), almost punk rock thing (MI13) and a pair of songs about ashtrays (Ashduck and Ashduck Too which are about as far apart in musical character as you can get).

If anyone wants MP3s of these, just drop me a line.  They will also be available streaming (Spotify etc)  in the next couple of weeks.

Next up, we are going to start playing out as much as we can.  There's a fairly small theater here called the Cabaret Metro (it might just be the Metro nowadays) that we all really want to play.  To the four of us in the band, it is a kind of holy place.  It's the kind of club where it's not out of the question for a local band to play, but which has also hosted lots of amazing bands over the years, especially in the more underground / alternative circles.  Nirvana played there, as did the Smashing Pumpkins, Mudhoney, Ministry, Naked Raygun (not well known outside of Chicago, but extremely well known in the city - I really miss Naked Raygun shows!), Mr. Bungle, Prince did an after-party show there, shit Metallica played there in 1983, the list just goes on and on.  But I've also have friends who had smaller DIY local bands play there.  So that's the next goal - we want to play the Metro!

This release is digital only, but I still wound up putting together a few graphics that emulate a CD or record sleeve.  Here they are:

Front Cover - Instant Kafka at the foot of my bed EP

Rear Cover - Instant Kafka at the foot of my bed EP

Liner Notes Page 1 - Instant Kafka at the foot of my bed EP

Liner Notes Page 2 - Instant Kafka at the foot of my bed EP

I hope you listen to this and that you enjoy it.  I hate asking for likes because I detest social media in general (I miss antisocial media) but I'd be much obliged if you would stop by the SoundCloud and maybe hit like on a couple of things - from what I understand, the way the world currently works, that stuff apparently helps bands get gigs, so as much as I feel like a spotted whore for asking, I'm asking.  Once again, here's our SoundCloud link.