The Millenium is in 4th Grade

^ as of Thursday - each kitten represents a year we've lived after surviving Y2K!

We are about to pick up our instruments again to get prepared for our January Jaunt around the Ohio and to the Pittsburgh. We'll tell you how it goes, unless of course you'd like to come out and find out for yourself!

love,
buckets

We would like to thank Jeff Lipton over at Peerless Mastering for being such a pleasure to work with over the past week. He has turned this album into what we've been dreaming about since we started this process. We couldn't be any happier with the work he has done and the kind words he has given about the record. We will be highly recommending his services to any and all bands we come in contact with in the future.

There's a reason why so many artists are trusting him with their records.
His work truly speaks for itself

You can check out his site here.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Gonna Miss Her

Friends,

I'm very sad to say that yesterday I noticed one of my baby guinea pigs wasn't walking. I went over to pet her and I saw she had been seizing. She was clearly very, very sick, and its sudden onset suggested a genetic malfunction - so the only emergency animal hospital within 100 miles said over the phone. I wrapped her in a towel, let the other pigs see her, laid her down by herself in case it was a disease of some sort, named her Buttons (she hadn't had a proper name), and she died about an hour later. It was an extremely difficult/ heartbreaking thing to see, but some things just can't be prevented.

The rest of the pig family is doing well - they are here with me in Kent, OH for the holidays.

As for band stuff, we got our first masters back! I'm downloading them as I write this entry, and the sliver that I've heard so far sounds really unbelievable. Jeff and Maria over at Peerless Mastering in Boston have really taken care of us.

I hope everyone's preparations for the holidays are going well - aside from the bad news about Buttons, everything is sailing just fine on our end.

Love,
Buckets

My daily dose of musical inspiration came today in the form of a pair of goggles. Where did your daily dose of musical inspiration come from?

-Zach

In less than two weeks we'll be playing the first show back after our small winter break hiatus. Its nice to have a little time off to see old friends(see above), celebrate the season with tasty beverages(also see above), listen to new music, and think about what the future has to offer. I'm very excited to play the shows that we have scheduled next month. The last time we played in Pittsburgh we had a blast, so I'm expecting much of the same. I'm pumped to play again with Ball of Flame Shoot Fire and I'll can't wait to here their new record.

In Comforts(our next record) news, we shipped out the final mixes to Boston for mastering at the end of last week so hopefully Santa will deliver the finished product in that big red bag of his this week. See y'all later.

nog and whiskey,
Zach

Today's Rainy Day Musical Adventure:
The Magnetic Fields;
The Charm of the Highway Strip























Get yourself a hot beverage of some sort. Grab the best pair of headphones you've got, press play and listen to Stephin Merritt do what he does best.

-Zach


"Let us hope that the merits and charm of the highway strip are not so obscure but that they will be accepted by a wider public."
: J.B. Jackson 1959

Hello there.

After the release of our first album, it struck me that our album sounded like Ohio.  It was wide and unique.  After listening to the final mixes of Comforts last night, it strikes me that the album sounds like winter.  It is not easy to listen to and shows realities without distraction.  In my personal opinion, I think that we have developed quite an album and I hope that those people who support us will agree.  Though the album isn't even out yet, there is a voice in the back of my head calling out for an album that sounds like the color blue.  I guess it never stops.

The Cartographer 

Closer

We are holding the final mixes, and our young adult album will be leaving the nest tomorrow afternoon. It will be a melancholic celebration. I remember when it was half scratch tracks and trying so hard to stand up on its own, hints of fresh reverb tailing from its yelps. Now it has grown, proudly marching towards becoming a full blown adult record while wearing a suit made of compression.

The experience in the last 3 months or so has been a tiring but rewarding one. These eight tracks have been with us for about a year now, while others have come and gone. These have been through edit after edit, track after track, live shows, constant practices, and a hell of alot of work, dedication, and care. We couldn't be happier with the 42 minutes that chronicle this chapter in our band's life.

Since we're happy, we'd like you to be as well. This'll do the trick:



I found out today that our January 9th and 10th shows are FREE!
Check out our website for their info.

Also, our friends, Ball of Flame Shoot Fire, have their record available on CDBaby. You can also hear some clips - judging by those - you should buy their album. We will be joining them for their release show on January 3rd.

Today's morning music: Party of Helicopters - Please Believe It


-Buckets

Went to see Times New Viking last night at this awesome new venue in Columbus called The Summit. It's right next to Bourbon St. and is owned by the same folks. All 3 bands killed it. The Crystal Stilts and All is Love opened. TNV always delivers a powerful performance that leaves me excited about the direction that indie music is going. If you haven't seen any of these bands before I would highly suggest it. Hopefully we can schedule a show at The Summit in the future because it's easily going to be the best underground venue in Columbus and one of the best in the Midwest.

-zach

Strange Form of Life

Friends,

It's an off day for the mixing process, so we're taking our extra time to explore all the other essentials.

We got our photos from our good friend Dustin Franz. He's very talented and anyone in the area that wants some photos taken, please contact him.

A couple more photos are on our Myspace.

Zach and I went to the Casual Future show on Friday night and I remembered why I love the Athens scene so much. Amazing set, and the High Strung put out a solid performance as well.

I discovered that Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's The Letting Go is simply perfect for a gray winter morning. Also highly recommended for that particular time of the day is any of Eno's ambient work - especially Music for Airports. Simply brilliant.

Hope all is well your way, see you tomorrow.

Hey All,

Just got back from the studio, and we are slowly but surely wrestling this thing to a pin. Six days until the mixing is finished. Seven days from then until we have a master. With each session the songs fill up, warm up, and begin to truly stand up on their own two feet.

In other news, I need names for the pigs. Athens is dark and quiet. Any movement in the streets is suspect. We are moving through another period of short days and thermal socks, but by the end of it, we'll be halfway done with writing another record.

Sleep well.

-Buckets

YEYEYE

This is the first of hopefully many blog posts that follow the life and travels of the members of the band Russenorsk as we finish our record "Comforts" and play shows in its support.

New Beginnings are all around us as we complete this record. Not only in the form of this new blog, but also in the form of baby guinea pigs. Tim's pig Numnums gave birth to 5 of these little bundles of joy last week.























Hopefully these pigs will give us good luck in the coming months as we complete our record and play shows in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, and our lovely Athens. Check back here often for day-to-day updates of what we hope to be a quirky, yet intriguing look at the band and our lives in general.

-zach