holiday

Merry Christmas. Santa has been good to me so far. . . lots of merino wool and old wood, my favorites. The kids are squealing and that's a good thing. The morning is crisp and we all want to go outside, but it's time for coffee first. And, thankfulness.

the real wrapping magic

It happens when you're up at 2 in the morning wrapping presents, you begin to get delirious, and the festive bits of foil and ribbon start to swirl and pulse in your mind, garlands of greenery swell in olfactory bloom and lift your senses. It's like a little winter wonderland in my slightly-off kilter skull. Maybe it's the pain medicine? The sleep deps? Sugar high?

It's my own little Tim Burton-esque holiday before the holidays. I'm such an accomplished escape artist, really. Time to write some songs. The mornings have been good for that lately.

curmudgeon

I have this thing with my brothers where we maintain a scrooge-like demeanor up until Christmas eve. It's kinda like that scene where Ice Cube is laughing like hell during the photo shoot and then when the photo is snapped he looks hard. It's silly, I know this. But I think it's always been the small protest. You know--way less shopping this year, and I like it. We all drew numbers, me and my people.

I'm confused though. It's still 65 degrees outside. I think Al Gore may have a point, ya'll.

The Warren Haynes festival in Asheville was cool. We played early at Stella Blue and then got down on veggie soul food at the Laughing Seed. Stayed at the Grove Park Inn, which is anything but an inn. Walk-in fireplaces.

Oh yeah, and I ordered a Vanilla. For those select few that know what in the world that means, you know that I am stoked. Merry Xmas to me. I'm glad all my shopping for others is for the most part done so I can avoid the guilt.

cracked ribs suck

Especially the coughing. . . grrr.

My son wants a sandbox for Xmas. He's a budding Brian Wilson, only more handsome.

dammit

I think I cracked a rib this morning and screwed up my wrist on the mountain bike. I was borrowing a Santa Cruz with a really wide stance and nailed the bar on a tree. OUCH. I had to just lay there for a minute or two and fly through outer space as I caught my breath. Now I am hating it. Tough guys turn into whiners fast.

We're at Stella Blue in Asheville this weekend, Saturday Dec 15 at 2pm. Been a while since I've played at Stella. Cool folks though, at least from what I can remember.

in studio

Spent time in the studio this weekend, most with synths and beats. I've been using Reason Thor and the Moog Voyager a lot recently, both of them are such kick-ass synths. Well, those and the piano of course. I've been listening to a lot of medieval chanting and early eastern music and I has me wanting to write songs with these long, arcing melodies over the droning synths. We'll see where that goes. I've found that Christmas music always influences the songs I write in December too.

Looking forward to the festival in Asheville this weekend, don't know many details but our buddies Dead Confederate will be there and hopefully Band of Horses. Love some Asheville, chilly this time of year though.

Which reminds me, the studio sessions with The Parlor Mob at Echo Mountain in Asheville over that past couple months were killer (see pic above). Great band, great studio, great producer (Jacquire King from Nashville). Look out for this album on Roadrunner Records soon. As of now we're planning on doing our next record there. Here's the studio too.

bloody mess

I had blood drawn this morning. It always makes me a little lightheaded to see the tubes fill up. I'm sure I needed that perfectly good blood for something, like remaining conscious. The wonderful woman with the needle reminded me that "God is real", and I liked it. But I'm still a little lightheaded.

bagged the studio

. . .until tomorrow night. But that's not really important.

Watched God Grew Tired of Us. http://www.godgrewtiredofus.com/

This is fucking important. Everybody please see this movie and get inspired. I am trembling.

opening up

Here it is, our/my first blog after lurking in the blogosphere for what has literally become years. I imagine this will become a place for all things involving The Houstons and some things involving me personally at times. My daughter Savannah and I came up with the name together, it's also the name of our musical project together. More on that at another time I suppose.

Exciting times in Houstons land, our new release Still has been added to over 70 college radio stations, and is starting to get a lot of nice reviews (and a few bad ones, I love it). It's cool to just see it out in the world. . . we're already on to the next one. Here is the crew: label MoRisen Records, promotions Pirate, publishing Lion's Gate, PR 1-Up. Props to these kind folks for helping us out.

I went mountain biking this morning and it was chilly, around 30' or so. You'll hear a lot of this from me, I love to ride a bike. First time on the gnarly new trails that I didn't eat it. So, that's good.

OK--In studio tonight, I'll be in touch after that. justin