We've finally finished the fifth Polara album, and it's coming out for real! The album's called Beekeeping. We've been working on it on and off for the last couple of years, with several major interruptions from Life (thankfully mostly for the good) and Art (in the form of my solo record and production endeavors). But album is done, and we're proud of it. 

I'll go into greater detail about the record sometime soon. For more information, check out the Susstones site and also read the official press release from the label.

My pal Gary Louris has released a great new album called Vagabonds. He's going on tour all through Tarnation starting this month, and I personally can't wait to hear the new songs live. If you haven't heard any of the music yet, go to Gary's official site. In the "Music Video" section of the site there are live versions of a couple songs from the new album as played by Gary and our friend Jim Boquist (and mixed by me). Good stuff!

I decided to put up a new song in conjunction with this Sussedtacular gig next week. The song is called "Beside Herself". It's an outtake from the solo record. I don't know why I didn't put it on the actual record, at the time it seemed like it had too much electric guitar. Listening to it now I must remark on how damned high it all sounds. I forgot about the diminished 5th in the 6 minor chord in the verses…dissonant as the song's subject. Anyways, hope you enjoy it.

 

 Ed Ackerson - "Beside Herself": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The full lineup of the show is:

Me plus the group (Peter Anderson, Marc Perlman, Tim Oesau, Eric Lovold)
Janey and Marc
Phear and the Bullet (hot duo action featuring Phil Solem of the Rembrandts and Ryan Smith of the Melismatics)
Joe Werner (Strange Lights/First Communion Afterparty guitarist in rare acoustic performance)

I'm playing a show at the Bryant-Lake Bowl theater on Tuesday Feb. 26th as part of the 4th anniversary celebration for the Susstones-sponsored DJ event Sussed. I'll be playing a full set with the same band as on the record release show at the Varsity in November, and I'm really excited about getting back on the stage again!

Also on the show are Janey and Marc and a couple of other groups yet to be announced. There's no cover charge, and the show starts at 10 pm. More details soon.

…this time from our friend Steve Cohen. Check them out here, thanks Steve!

Sara Montour took a ton of cool photos of all the bands at the record release show. 

The local media, both traditional and electronic, have been very kind and quite extensive in their coverage of the new record. Here are some links to check out if you're interested…

Interview on 89.3 The Current with Mark Wheat (includes three live songs with the band)

Interview and exclusive live tracks from Ed+Eric with David DeYoung on howwastheshow.com's podcast 

Big review and Q+A with Rob van Alstyne from Reveille Magazine, includes another exclusive live track

City Pages' Sarah Askari did a more light-hearted Q+A… 

Chris Riemenschneider wrote about the record in the Star Tribune, but their archives are subscription only.

David DeYoung posted a ton of photos on Flickr from the Electric Fetus in-store and the Varsity Theater Sussedtacular show 

I'm happy to say that the solo album is out. There are a few different things happening this week to celebrate…

• Tuesday the 20th at 7 PM the group and I are playing an in-store at the Electric Fetus. This will be a "real" set with the full band lineup, and we're planning on playing until the staff unplugs us or we run out of tunes(we need the rehearsal time)! Later Tuesday night the action moves to Sussed at the Bryant Lake Bowl, where ace spinnaz the Guv'nor and Christian Fritz will be working their DJ magic and the rest of us will be having a drink
• Wednesday the 21st will see interviews (each accompanied by exclusive live-in-studio recordings by me and Eric) at How Was the Show.com and Reveille Magazine. City Pages also is running a Q+A with some preview tracks off the record.
• Friday the 23rd is of course Sussedtacular at the Varsity, the main event of this rock week. I'm particularly psyched about this show because a couple of my very favorite people are planning on sitting in with us on some songs. 

Since I'm in shameless self-promotion mode, let it be known that the record is available at the Electric Fetus, other local indie record retailers, and of course the Susstones Shop. I'm no breadhead, maaan, but every sale really does help subsidize this rock habit I have. I appreciate all of your enthusiasm and support and hope to see you over the course of this week!

To celebrate release day for the new record, we're playing a live in store at the Electric Fetus this Tuesday Nov. 20th at 7:00. I've always loved going to in-stores at the Fetus, and it's great that they're letting me do one too! The whole band (Eric, Peter, Marc, Tim and I) will play a bunch of songs., This is a good opportunity to pick up the new record, and the event is open to all ages and free! 

 

 To the Contrary: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

My core group for the show includes:

Peter Anderson (drums)
Eric Lovold (guitar, vocals)
Tim Oesau (keyboards)
Marc Perlman (bass)
…to be joined by special guests at various points. It's gonna be a rad night.

It's coming out locally on November 20th, with a huge Susstones show to celebrate on the 23rd at the Varsity Theater. Check out the Susstones blog for details, more info here very soon.

Ashley and I got married on Sept. 21st. We went on honeymoon to Greece, Croatia, Italy and the UK immediately after and had a truly awesome time. Thanks a ton to all of our friends who have wished us well, we're very very happy!

I'm totally in love with the Geostationary Banana Over Texas project. Spearheaded by Montreal artist Cesar Saez, the whole idea is amazing and provocative on numerous levels. Top level pop art indeed. There's also an interesting interview with Saez at Flasher. The project is funded by donations, and there is a Paypal link on the project's site. 

I'm a big fan of Steve Massey's Pro Tools plug-ins, but he's truly outdone himself this time.

Listen is part of his new Massey Tools suite. From a UI perspective it is virtually unparalleled in its simplicity. As promised on the website, it will "dramatically improve your mixes"! His new TD5 Tape Echo is also pretty boss, I've been having a lot of fun with it this week.

I'm playing three shows of various sorts over the coming days…

Friday, June 15th: Sideways is playing on the [Mood Swings->http://www.myspace.com/themoodswings] record release show at the Hexagon Bar. We're playing at about midnight. We're doing a fairly short set, but it will include some blazing new tunes! 

Saturday, June 16th: I'm playing at [Laurie Lindeen's Fakebook show->http://access.minnesota.publicradio.org/press_releases/releases/20070416_laurielindeen.shtml] at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. The publicity on this show has been a bit confusing; contrary to appearances, I'm not doing a solo performance. I'm actually playing guitar with my old friend [Steve Wynn->http://www.stevewynn.net] and his band, which also includes Linda Pitmon and Marc Perlman. The show is a celebration of the release of Laurie's new book Petal Pusher.

Monday, June 18th: Back at the Hexagon, I'm playing guitar again with Wynn, Linda, Perlman, and some other pals including Jim Boquist and John Munson. This should be a pretty informal show. We're planning on doing some songs from Steve's solo and Dream Syndicate catalogs, as well as some covers and who knows what else. Should be a blast!