I figure it’s been a while since I actually wrote something discussing what I’ve been up to. Well I’ve been pretty wrapped up in trying to make life better so that I can make better music, if that makes any sense. There were some ultimate highs and lows since Scifentology II dropped and I’ve decided nearly two years later that it’s time to take a break from touring and playing shows for a little while (not too long) to try and finish up my Gas Galaxy EP, and another project that has been under wraps for quite sometime now, before I go back out. For those that have been following my twitter and who know me personally, you may know that for about the last 6 months I’ve been putting together a small but adequate studio set up at home and getting it up and running so I can be more productive musically and literally produce, explore, and learn the engineering/software aspect of it. It’s a challenge I’ve been pretty animate about and with the help of some of my tremendously talented friends, specifically one who is not with us anymore, it’s gotten very serious. I think what will come out of it, when it does, is going to showcase a new step in the way I approach my music and one that has already taught me much more than I knew prior to going in. Gas Galaxy is almost finished but I’ve decided I had to further perfect some things and add one more song, which I’m in the process of making right now. At this stage I’ve become a lot more nitpicky about songs although now the outcome will be exactly how I intended for them to be, where that wasn’t necessarily the case in the past. I believe as an artist, getting your art as close to what you think defines perfect, is something you never stop working towards. At least for me it is. If you came to the last couple of shows, you saw I played two new songs from the ep aside from Gas Galaxy to see how they would go over and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the response from songs that people never heard prior. I mean EXTREMELY amped. 2009 was a great year for working with new people and accomplishing things that I never have before. CCWM is as strong as ever and moving at a pace that would be hard for anyone to keep up with let alone those of us who are involved. Glad those of you, new fans and old, are around for the ride and in our company as we put out new music and play shows. We just make the music and hope you continue to move forward with us as we approach the last year of another decade, and beyond for that matter. I expect Gas Galaxy to come out early 2010 now and I think it’s appropriate to wait until this year is over anyway to put out my next release. Some people have been asking about what happened to the monthly blog I wrote on Definitivejux.net. Basically I took a break from that too in order to free up some more time to concentrate on new tunes and not have to worry about making another deadline, in life. I’m going to make an effort to write more here at yakballz.net, aside from the normal video/picture updates, movie reviews etc. Expect the unexpected. I wish you all well, a happy holidays, and a sincere THANK YOU for supporting what the fuck I do.

Y

video by Damien Neva

COMING TO YOUR TOWN BIATCH!

10/08/09 in Portland, ME at Asylum
10/09/09 in Providence, RI at Jerky’s Live Music Hall
10/10/09 in Allston, MA at Harpers Ferry

photo by Damien Neva

photo by Janeworld

I went to Nick Hook’s a little while back in LES with Janeworld to wrap up some things on Gas Galaxy. Chauncey was staying at Daryl’s closeby so we got up and kicked it. I’m thinking there are still some things I want to add to this project. I’m super amped on it but I can’t just let it out without me feeling like it’s a complete and well rounded body of work even for an E.P., and I think I want to do one more song, of which I will produce myself. So we will see what happens. Since I’ve been home from tour I’ve been making beats and getting a small studio wrig up and running. A new work in progress that will allow me to make and record music whenever the fuck I want, naked.

Nick Hook plays keys for Cubic Zirconia and is a great friend of mine.

Gas Galaxy – Produced by Chapter7

Halogen Glow – Produced by House of Blow

Gas Galaxy live at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA on the DFM tour. Great show and crowd. Thanks SF! Peep Chauncey doing backups! This is the first new video from YakBallzTV featured on YakBallz.net. Click HERE to visit YakBallzTV on YouTube, the official channel for yours truly and SUBSCRIBE now.

Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of DJXP4 at http://www.djxp4.com

I realize how much of a pain in the ass it is to download Gas Galaxy for free from Definitivejux.net so here is a zSHARE link for it…go get it and share it with a lover or a FRIEND.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/639454541694cb54/

Speaking of FRIENDS, my freng Timmy Wiggins captured this right outside before the SF show. This is the first I’m seeing or hearing of this happening and I love it. Priceless/Wasted Talent. Listen to what he’s saying. Truly amazing and it’s about “friends.”

ENJOY!

Pre-order your copy of DJXP4 as well as preview the tracks HERE

DJXP4 comes out September 1st on Definitive Jux Records.

It somehow worked out in my favor that I have two songs on this compilation. One of which is the title track to my forthcoming EP, Gas Galaxy, produced by Chapter 7. If you haven’t yet, you can download the song,Gas Galaxy, for free HERE. Just add it to your cart and continue following the directions to check out. If you came out to any of the shows on the DFM tour, you may have seen me play this song. The Gas Galaxy EP will be coming out on Def Jux some time in the near future. Possibly this year.

The other song I have on it is called Halogen Glow and it is produced by House of Blow (F. Sean Martin & Daryl Palumbo). I’m stoked on this song getting the chance to be released to the rest of the world. Here is a little video interview I did a few months back with Daryl and Chauncey about the song.

Really looking forward to the release of this record. Support art.

We stayed outside Boston somewhere. I woke up a little hung over. Cage woke up feeling sick. We jump in the rickety van and head out to Providence, RI. Meet in the lobby sans Sean but now we have Deefy, who jumped in the van in Boston, while Sean jumped out to ride with his girl for the remainder of the trip. Good thing because shit was getting really REL and we were seeing signs of the infamous Meltdown Martin in the last couple days. Timmy pulls over because he see’s a sign for a Picadilly’s Pub and Todd is like what the fuck is that? Timmy goes “Goot Fout Tot.” And we just kept saying that the whole time after. “Goot Fout Tot” We circle around to find it and when we do we do, it’s on because we are fucking starrvinggg. We all order. The food comes out and when Cage’s steak is placed in front of him, it’s covered in mushrooms actually looks gross, but everyone elses food looked good. He was furious and sent it back because the menu never said it came in a bowl of soupy mushrooms. It was actually funny but he didn’t find it funny in the least. Eat and dip. So we head to Rhode Island and get there a few hours before we had to and check in the hotel. While we are in the lobby waiting Chauncey and I are cracking jokes. Chauncey likes to make up fake names for places to eat like “Chachki’s, Rippers, Zippers, Flingers, Nate’s, and Jims Sandwhich Emporium.” One time we were starving and driving he told Todd to look for Jims Sandwhich Emporium and Todd actually started looking it up on his phone. The joke is so great and one of my favorite stupid jokes of his that I told him we should just start making up fake venues that we are playing at on the “Gas Galaxy Tour,” which is another joke we have because the Gas Galaxy tour obviously doesn’t exist, except in our minds, and who knows if it ever will? Nevertheless the joke is that we are on the Gas Galaxy tour at the same we are on the DFM tour. So we start coming up with fake venues and we agree that addition to playing Jerky’s tonight, we will also be playing Legends, Corner Pocket, The Furnace, and The Lilly Pad. We know that there has to be venues with these names or some of them, somewhere, but it doesn’t matter. We made them up. We’re all pretty relieved to be able to check into a hotel before the show because we’ve been running around like headless chickens for a while now and this may be one of the few times where we’ve actually made it with time to spare. We get to our rooms and I take a nap until Todd wakes me to get ready to go to the venue to check sound etc. We begin unloading and B. Dolan of Strange Famous Records comes strolling up and we kick it with him. He’s opening tonight and I know him from Paid Dues shows with Sage so it’s cool that someone I actually know is playing the show with us.

We soundcheck and I have a feeling it’s going to be a lowkey night compared to last night in Boston. After soundcheck, Chauncey and Deef hang around the venue and I take a ride with Todd to drop off Cage at the hotel. We drop him off and Todd and I hit this spot down the block from the venue called Roadhouse BBQ. It was really good. We head back to the venue and there is time to kill. Sean is hanging out with Jessica as well as Deef, Chauncey, and Andy from CT. I don’t mind if I do have a couple spritzers with Chauncey before the show. Just to kill time. I had a couple spritzers too many and now it’s showtime. Walk upstairs to a lot more people than I thought and I’m actually a little concerned because I got carried away. It was the last night of tour and we were celebrating. I get up there and basically go really hard because there are no more shows and I figure I might as well kill myself. It turned out to be a surprisingly great set. We were cracking jokes and laughing with the crowd. It is big enough for a show vibe and small enough to connect with the audience. There is a bittersweet feeling amongst us as it is the last show and it seemed like a fitting atmosphere for it to end. When I made it downstairs to the backroom, Cage had a cup of tea in his hand and was obviously under the weather. He said he threw up a few times before he got there. However, if you saw his set it wouldn’t be easy to tell. I was sick on this tour for a few shows and playing a show is one of the most difficult things to do under those conditions. When I’m sick, it is written all over my face. Cage came on and actually delivered maybe the most sincere set I’ve seen on this tour and I think most people felt the same about it. We greeted the fans for one last time and I had some Blue Moons to cap off the night. This tour was one of the most fun, self fulfilling, and challenging tours I’ve been on. It put all of our abilities to the test and I think everyone met the challenge and proved themselves. I learn a lot about others and myself on the road. LIFE TOUR. This one will go down in history as a great one. Congratulations to Cage for a successful kickoff tour and I want to thank all the fans for supporting and following us on our adventure through America. You make it all possible. Tomorrow will be spent traveling home. When I get there, I will be doing a lot of laundry.

Yours,

Yak Ballz CCWM

I’m late. I had to finish packing yesterday officially because I slept home the night of the first show so I don’t officially count that as being on tour, yet. It didn’t matter anyway because I didn’t miss anything. The time before shows are kind of boring; hanging around, waiting to soundcheck, forever. It’s ten minutes to eight and I still haven’t checked yet. Apparently someone told someone else that “Yak was good” and didn’t need to soundcheck. I got a little annoyed when I heard this info and told Todd Cameron Westphal that I hadn’t checked and he handled it by pushing back doors. Speaking of Todd, I want to apologize to him about yesterdays post bc some people said it might have been offensive. Finally I’m free to go and I hit up this Tai spot down the road called Song that I ate at the last time I played Southpaw and will always eat at from now on when I play there. So good. Back to the club. New York shows get awkward sometimes because I end up seeing a lot of different people who I might know, but not really, and want to have the deepest of convo’s and don’t really pick up on me actually trying to get mentally prepared. I prefer not to go down that road before I have to play but somehow it happens time and time again. Anyway, it’s showtime. The crowd is chanting so loud I don’t even hear where I’m supposed to come in. I suspect the same thing happened last night. Sure enough I didn’t hear it but I caught it, barely. For round 2, the crowd was also super into it. It seems like a lot of people got Scifentology II and downloaded Gas Galaxy. At the end of my set I noticed some people come on stage from behind. It was some of my Cardboard City brothers, Daryl Palumbo, Jarvis, Julien Gilbert. That was awesome. My dude Nick Hook of Cubic Zirconia was also in the building. EL broke a month of sobriety. Also I met so many fans that mentioned they have been following us for a long time and I can’t explain how much that means to me. Cage, F.Sean, and Chauncey killed of course. I think one of my favorite new Cage songs live is Hell-Oh. It’s Bonkers. The boys are back.

Enjoy the free download of Gas Galaxy live from the first show

UPDATE
For a few more photos from the past two days click HERE

Just got back from Chapter 7’s studio. Today/tonight we pretty much wrapped up all the vocals for my Gas Galaxy EP coming out later this year on Definitive Jux. Chapter 7 engineered and produced the whole EP front to back including the title track. He is responsible for production on songs from my last album Scifentology II such as Nuclear Society and Trust is a Timebomb. Definitely an amazing producer.

MYSPACE
TWITTER

On Friday 6/12 Definitive Jux Records leaked the first song from their upcoming compilation due out in the fall, Definitive Jux Presents 4 (DJXP4). That song also happens to be the title track to my new EP, Gas Galaxy, slated to come out some time later on this year. The song is up for free download via definitivejux.net at the following link…
http://www.definitivejux.net/store/catalog-product/US-V2X-08-06100.html

Artwork from the Gas Galaxy EP is featured above and was done by AdamRGarcia

Since the process to download the track isn’t that easy to understand…

1. click “add to cart”
2. once you add it you are taken you to the next screen, click “checkout”
3. fill in the info and checkout
4. it will take you to a screen with an invoice, at the bottom of the invoice underneath “product” there will be a link that says “download,” click it
5. Welcome to Gas Galaxy