One of the most amaz­ing things about spring in Min­neapo­lis is how quick­ly it sets in. One sec­ond, you’re try­ing to fig­ure out where you’re going to put this new foot of snow on your side­walk; turn your head and—blam­mo—there’s grass and leaves and cou­ples walk­ing their dogs and flow­ers and pollen.

Of course, I’d prob­a­bly enjoy the mir­a­cle of spring a lit­tle more if I was actu­al­ly in Min­neapo­lis. These days I’m spend­ing most of my time with the Alter­nate Routes, which is to say I’m spend­ing a lot of time on the road. Weath­er notwith­stand­ing, I’m hav­ing a great time play­ing with these guys, and hope­ful­ly there will be new music com­ing your way soon.

Back home, I’ve been slow­ly (but sure­ly!) putting the fin­ish­ing touch­es on Dave Olson’s record. We start­ed the record just over a year ago, and as much as I’d like to say we’ve been slav­ing over it every day since then, the truth is we’ve both been out of town more often than not. Regard­less, I’m proud of the record so far and some things, as they say, take time.

Speak­ing of stu­dio-type endeav­ors, I’ve also been putting some fin­ish­ing touch­es on my lit­tle project stu­dio. There are a few nice mics here, and among oth­er things on the way are a pair of Avedis MA5s I’m excit­ed to work with again. When it’s all said and done I’ll be able to pro­fes­sion­al­ly track drums à la casa, as well as pack things up eas­i­ly for mobile over­dubs. I might need a stu­dio name, you know, for that extra-pro­fes­sion­al touch. Any suggestions?

In drum-geek­ery news, I’ve been real­ly into these Istan­bul Agop cym­bals late­ly, and just got a new 19” Mel Lewis that I’m going to total­ly lay into inap­pro­pri­ate­ly on every song at a ses­sion tonight with Mol­ly Maher. The word on the street is there’s some sort of record com­ing out in the sum­mer. Stay tuned.

The amp is a very impor­tant tool espe­cial­ly for rock music the more the amp is good the more the sound you make will be perfect!

– words of wisdom from a fan

Be reg­u­lar and order­ly in your life, so that you may be vio­lent and orig­i­nal in your work.

– Gustave Flaubet

I don’t know if I even agree with this quote, but I know that I have sort of a reg­u­lar and order­ly life, so it’s reas­sur­ing to know some­one has rec­om­mend­ed this as a lifestyle.

I had an incred­i­ble amount of fun in Feb­ru­ary with the Alter­nate Routes. Here’s a vid from our Feb 12^th show at Daniel St. in Mil­ford, CT. (about one sec­ond into the song my ride cym­bal stand implod­ed, mak­ing 2:12 pret­ty fun)

For­rest chills back­stage at Sun­set Sessions.

I’ve been enjoy­ing this album by my new friend via the Alter­nate Routes, Mike Sem­bos. Vis­it­ing the Band­camp link above allows you down­load the record for free, yet some­how no one goes to prison and Mike actu­al­ly encour­ages it. So, you know, go get a free record.

I spent the night before the new year in a friend­ly for­est (our nick­name for the Cre­ative Work­shop stu­dio in Nashville, TN). I’m in my old home­town once again, this time gear­ing up for a short run with the Con­necti­cut-based Alter­nate Routes. We’re head­ed into the ocean to play a four-day cruise-type-thing called the Rock Boat, which should be a ton of fun and a much bet­ter way to spend the first weeks of Jan­u­ary than back home in the arc­tic tun­dra of Min­neso­ta. While I’ve been here some friends and I have been putting down fin­ish­ing touch­es on Dave’s record, which will hope­ful­ly be ready to mix this spring.

If there are any lessons I can car­ry into 2011 with me, it’s that I’m lucky to know, and be friends with, such tal­ent­ed and kind­heart­ed peo­ple. It’s pret­ty damn inspiring.

Don’t both­er try­ing to jog to this album. I tried recent­ly, and instead of burn­ing calo­ries, I end­ed up sit­ting on a bench, whit­tling, and pet­ting stray dogs.

My favorite review of All Birds Say so far.

One foot should be inves­ti­gat­ing the past; the oth­er one shouldn’t know where it’s going at all.

– Jeff Watts