Jan 17

I have not updated in a while but I am going to leave the last couple of things I wrote on here. I am really excited about music and have just got a new job, it is not suppost to last but I hope I can keep something going in all directions. I hope you like what I am doing with the site. I was reallf discouraged for a while but I like where it is going now. The time has come for me to pay for another year, which I think I will continue, but it is still in the air and I really want to pay for a host so I don't have the annoying banners and stuff so let me know what you think cause this could all go away or it could get better.

Dec 24

Well I didn't sleep lastnight and now I am sitting listening to Elliot Smith on headphones as loud as my computer will play it at 8:45AM, I don't know if I have induced the Christmas Spirit or if it has just been a long time coming and it has more to do with the shopping lastnight and then staying up wrapping stuff (not much, lots of stairing thinking) but I feel a kind of uforia on top of that my eyeballs are falling out kind of tired (I like it). I hate shopping but it really is fun to buy stuff for other people even if you are putting it on credit because you are broke, get a job!

Alot has happened but I just haven't felt at all like putting things up on here, I started revamping the site and got really put out by the way things were coming out so I have just been really discouraged everytime I look at this mess. I am going to just put up what I have been working on and anyone who cares can send me an e-mail telling me what you think. I think alot of it is that I feel a real lack of confidence as of late, kind of like beat, sync, and the kung fu chop. It is all fine until you start thinking about it too much, people talk about stuff like that too much you can't think about it or it is ruined, but I think maybe it is helping me to understand better what makes for good and bad and crap and scrap. I don't really know what I am talking about but I am hoping you will.

I really do feel good about things though, I mean feeling bad about them sure doesn't help much (save your dispair for things that deserve it). I did some recording with Jason Kesler, Michael Butler, and Walt Entrekin. I think it turned out pretty good, it was a nice start, try, experiment or whatever. I learned alot and it was a real previledge to get to play with such a talented bunch, I really fell short on more than a couple of guitar tracks, but I hope we can work it all out in the mix when I get some money. I have been putting songs up on garageband.com with mixed feeling that are intirely to boring and unimportant to put on here right now. I have also been playing with Keary Joe Crisp again, we played at the recent Johnny Cash night at the Burrito Jones, which was alot of fun. I hope we will get together some more and work on more music of course. I will try to keep up with what is going on and what has already happened on here and see were it goes, but that is enough for now.

(late post)

The show with Jason went really well I think. Walt Entrekin said he would play some drums with us and we had already been talking about recording, so we are going to try and get together at Michael Butlers studio and get something down. Please, check out www.brefrow.com see whats happening in local music. It's better than you think and more important than you know and all it takes is for you to care.

Oct 15

I am very excited about music right now, I practiced with Jason Kesler (the local legend) last night, and he is going to try and play keyboard (fender rhodes) with me Sat. He is really a great musician as well as a hell of a nice guy. I truly feel honored to know him and especially to play music with him. I am going to try and buckle down and really start working on music like I should, and I think something good could happen I just have to do my part.,

Oct. 2

I love van Gogh, I know that is a lame thing to say but, it is true. I think he made paintings that were hard to tell were paintings and that is the coolest thing ever to me. I want to make songs that don't sound like songs, music that doesn't sound like music, noise that doesn't sound like noise, and sounds that don' t sound like sounds. I think that is what makes me so strange a musician I don't embrace the craft I embrace the creation. I know this is entirely uncalled for but who cares damit. oh, yeah after all that hot wind, I blew the show Sat. (at least I think so) I just couldn't find my groove at all. All of the sounds felts unnatural and awkward, I just couldn't feel the changes, and to top it off alot of it was newer stuff that I was hoping for inspiration on and then older stuff that I was relying on my natural feel of. So I couldn't control or ride the show it was out of control. I did make it through all 12 rounds though, well ok I made it through 11, 1of which I spent going for the corner like a sissy. There was one good moment I think, after breaking 2 strings in two songs I called a time out and Jason started playing some piano it was really cool. I wanted to play along but I couldn't get into that either, so I went into Backseat, and was more in it than I had been all night, and then Jason started coming through on the piano (Yes that's right folks the Jason Kesler was jamming with me live at the corner cafe.) For those of you how missed out on the Abilene Strip days Jason is a really good keyboard player. For those of you how didn't it was even better. I mean it may have been the moment or whatever but that was some pretty cool shit. It was like he was finding these hidden parts of the song that I didn't know were there, and it may have been easy and average for him but it was awesome for me. Probably just shows my need to play more with other musicians.

Sept 6

I love fall, it is my favorite season. I just like the way the air smells and the wind blows. I have been playing some new stuff and am getting excited about music again. I am looking forward to the 20th at The Corner Cafe, maybe it will be good. I am an optimist at heart an idealist I guess, I say why can't things be that good? and I believe life is good, hard but good.

Sept 5

Please, don't take me to serious, I don't. I am really not quite as much of an ass as I seem, just a wind bag with a ballon.

Sept 3

No regular events here. I had a theory the other day that I guess I could share.

I was just hangin' around at sunset and was looking at everything and thinking how the sun is really just the light given to us to look at everything else. My point being that sometimes we get to caught up in the sunset or sunrise to notice that the purpose these events serve (in my opinion) is to shed new light on everything, I think alot of painters understand this, the sun is not featured but is very much felt. I just think this is the way of alot of things in life, we get to caught up in feelings or events to realise it's there to give us perspective.

July 18

I am back and have a theory for the night. I may make these a regular event on here.

I think artist make it their job or even goal in life to understand something, that thing can not be explained so they seek it out in what they do, be it painting, writing, music or whatever, that is also I believe why we do the kind of art we do is to try and find what we are looking for. Anyway, I know this doesn't make much sence to some one who does not feel the same why, but the point is that what I believe is that the point of art is to take the person along for the ride,

Well, this is my thought for the day.

June 27

I am going to leave for Austin in about 15 min. I am scheduled to record Sunday and hope to be able to finish an album or some kind of good solid recording. I want be able to keep up the website so please, email me with any questions.

June 24

I am overwhelmed with a boyish excitement and joy just thinking of going to Austin. I am going to be going to Austin, TX., recording in as awesome studio, living the dream. Life is GREat! but at the same time I feel great sorrow and distain for myself for leaving the place I love. Life is cool that way, (" the great sadness of art is just what is too hard to deal with in the day to day") that is way mine and others art tend toward the pessimistic.

June 23

I saw Wes Dogget a few weeks ago at The Burrtio Jones, it is just shameful that this was my first time hearing any of his music (with the exception of Keary Crisp playing me a couple of Dogget songs), it was one of those truly moving musical experience. I haven't felt that moved by music in a while. My soul quivered

I have been an Ani Difranco fan for quite sometime now (5 years). I think she is an incredible songwriter not to mention a hell of a guitarist, musician, composer, and singer. I feel artistically closer to her than any other musician, even though I have been influenced much more by Radiohead. Anyway, back to the point, her political views are sometimes a bit much for me. I was reading an article about her awhile ago and she was going on and on about how evil George Bush is, and how stupid everyone who is not on the left tip of their precise wing is and how great activism is. Well, I though I would share my biased thoughts. I think activism is good, because it is usually aimed at people or issues that are far from where they should be, but the problem as I see is that the activist are usually just as far off in the other direction. So when they win the pendulum swings in the opposite direction. So the pendulum swings back and forth never stopping in the middle and whatever side you want your pendulum on the way I see is the people who are balanced, the people who are able to not spend all there time and energy fighting about who is right and who is wrong and spend that time helping those around them are the ones how really keep it all together. I want to be one of these people who can see both sides and have opinions but not care as much about them as about people.

June 5

This is an e-mail my friend Chris Laney sent me in response to the May 28 post. I think it is very insightful, and important.

The monopolizing of the media is sad. But I do not blame the corporations. This is America. They have as much right to buy up all the stations as you do to play your music. The problem lies in the lame brained citizens. They allow themselves to be spoon-fed all this crap. The reason these monopolies exist is that they do better. They play the crap everyone likes. They know we will stop listening to the radio, which I did over a decade ago. They don't make money off of us anyway. They make money off all the people that will never get your music, or mine for that point. The Jayhawks have never made it anywhere, they had money backing them. Major label support and brief radio time. But people don't like good music. Some people get fooled into thinking they like good music for a 4 year college period of there life. Then they go on to listen to Lyle Lovett, Lucinda, Dylan, The Jayhawks, some local bands, etc. Radio sucks, with or without this change. It will never get better, either way. Music isn't marketable, but they try, so it sucks. The true problem lies for Mass Com majors. People wanting to work in radio. The jobs are cut and the jobs that are there suck. But who cares about these folks anyway. They only wanted to play music and couldn't. They're about as important as music critics. Less people will get rich. I wasn't gonna be one of them anyway. This law will effect things, but it only speeds things up. If someone can be deterred by bias broadcasting, then fuck em. Let them live in anger and fear. Radio has always been evil. TV is evil. Some movies rock, I watch sports for this very reason. I have to put up with New York teams getting all the airtime. Why? More people live there to watch commercials. Some records rock, most radio sucks. Even NPR sucks. Radio programmers and DJ's don't know jack shit about music, who cares if there are less of them.

Music is cultural and artistic. It should never have became economic, but it did. Most economically viable music sucks. This is the consumers fault. This is Elvis' fault. This is John Lennon's fault. They became marketable, they sold their souls to be famous. People with big pockets showed up, got their share and made them even more famous. Tom Petty, famous, rich, his fault. Even some folks I admire are at fault. But this law, this monopolizing, not the problem.

by the way I found out today that the vote was 3 to 2 to authorize media consolidation, so know it is an open market

May 28

It is often the subject of conversation I am involved in, as to what is wrong with popular music today. I think this says alot.

Protest Clear Channel Radio and the Media Monopoly on Thursday, May 29 A National Day of Protest to Stop the Media Monopoly Clear Channel Communications is the poster child of everything that's wrong with media deregulation. After the media deregulation of 1996, Clear Channel gobbled up hundreds of radio stations throughout the country and now owns more than 1200 stations nationwide, dominating the audience share in 100 of 112 major markets. Not only is the company the world's largest radio broadcaster, its also the world largest concert promoter and billboard advertising firm. Clear Channel's monopolistic practices have accelerated the homogenization of our airwaves. The company promotes cookie-cutter style radio that has urban stations throughout the country seemingly playing the same seven songs. It shuts out independent artists who can't afford to go through high-priced middlemen and is responsible for taking the practice of voice tracking to new heights. Voice tracking creates brief, computer-assisted voice segments that attempt to fool the listener into thinking that a program is locally produced, when in fact the same content is being broadcast to upwards of 75 stations nationwide from a central site. Clear Channel also uses its stations to promote its right-wing political agenda. After September 11, the company came to the public's attention when executives circulated a list of blacklisted songs including John Lennon's Imagine and Cat Stevens' Peace Train. This year Clear Channel became one of the first media companies in recent times to sponsor a political rally--they sponsored pro-war rallies in cities around the country before and during the war on Iraq. Another "Rally for America" is being organized in Huntington, West Virginia for Memorial Day weekend. If the FCC passes Michael Powell's proposed new media rules, companies like Clear Channel and Fox will be given even more control over the public airwaves than they already have. And we are likely to see in television the same type of feeding frenzy we saw in the radio industry after the 1996 media deregulation. No more Clear Channels! Stop the FCC media deregulation! Location: Clear Channel Radio, 1120 Sixth Avenue @ 43rd Street New York City New York Sponsored By: Sponsored by Citizen Works, CodePink, Democracy Rising, Free Press, Global Exchange, Media Alliance, Prometheus Radio Project, United for Peace and Justice NY, Youth Media Council, and many others.

You can go to www.moveon.org for more information.

May 27

Is music important? Why? How? I think of a qoute from the movie 'The Shadowlands' (about C.S. Lewis) "We read to know we are not alone" that is about the best I can come up with for what use art may have. OR is it just a distraction? I also think maybe art can teach use through emotions. History teaches use through actions but maybe art can help us learn how we feel and what that means. Maybe I am just trying to justify an ultiumately selfish meaningless life. Let me know what you think, Please.

May 20

I am so tired. I think I over did trying to get out to Austin, I hope when I get there I will have the energy to really make some sort of impact, even if that just means failing miserably enough that I can see where I really stand in the world of music and ability. I am still amazed at how well The BUS Demo turned out. I can't decide if I should see this as a sign that maybe I do have a future in making records, or if it is a matter of James Rabitoy's extreme turd polishing abilities, or perhaps it is just as good as it is because that is how good it is suppose to be in order for my life to move in this direction and so fort. Then there is to be considered the fact that making music for your own feelings, wants, and prepossess can lead to very unobjective music. And one last thought maybe it is not so hard to make good music, I know lots of people who have and probably will make good music maybe the hard part is doing something with it.

April 22

I have been planning to go back to Austin and do somemore recording, as well as to get involved in the local music. I was suppose to leave yesterday but I have had some extra trouble from my van so I will leave when I can I guess.

March 26

Well, where to start,. ,,,,... I did not play the Mellow Mushroom on last Wednesday, I called to make sure they were having it but then when I got there they said it had been canceled. Then I did not get to play at Eddie's Attic Monday, I thought they had it every Monday, but when I got there it had been canceled for a private party. And I am not going to make it to The Redlight Cafe Tonight because I cut my thumb pretty bad at work yesterday and cannot play right now. I am still going to try and play at The Corner tomorrow, but even if I can't I will be there trying to pedal my new demo (which is free for now, you just have to ask). I hope I did not cause anyone any trouble, and I am very sorry if I did. I am trying to figure out where and when to play next. but I want to see how I heal.

March 12

I have just added some new lyrics and taken out some old ones. I just can't seem to get into my older songs anymore. Even stuff like "Flying Things" which I still think is a really great song I just can't get excited about playing anymore. I hate to lose all these songs, but they may be gone for good. We'll see

February 15

I spent my Valentine's Day washing dishes (my first day). It was an interesting experience my mom has always said everyone should work in food service just so they can appreciate what goes into such a meal. I know understand that. I guess it beats sitting at home wishing you had a date.

February 10

I recently got back from the big recording trip to Austin, TX. I must say it was probably one of the most life altering events of my life. It is hard to really explain, so I will just say I see now some of what I could not see before. To be honest I was actually quite close to giving up (quitting my pursuit of music). So I must thank John Sundling and Jim Rabitoy very much.

December 4

I have been listening to The Pixies, Local H and Chris Whitley (especially 'Din of Ecstasy') alot. My writing has also been more aggressive and electric. I don't know, I guess I am somewhat tired of playing the acoustic guitar in the open chord songwriter kind of fashion. I have also been thinking about the fact that I am quite young and if ever there was a time for me to be loud and obnoxious it is know. I am planning to go to Austin, TX and try to get some recording done. So I am also trying to get some songs together that can fit together in a way that will compliment each other and flow naturally. So all of this together is causing my music to be more in the vain of rock/punk kind of sound than it has ever really been before. It is really interesting I am growing alot as a songwriter in ways I never even really thought about before. I still have plenty of folk in me so don't expect me to come out playing all power chords.

September 21

Robert Frost said that there are two types of realist. There is the kind that has to have the dirt on the potatoes to prove that they are real potatoes, and there is the kind that is happy to clean the dirt off before presenting them. He felt that is what art did, was to strip life to form. I like this idea, but I think sometimes you need a little dirt to remind you where the potatoes came from. Yet another thought, I think people often think of artist as people who somehow have some superior ability to say something special. I find it more commonly relevant to say they are babbling fools who can't express themselves in their day to day lives. So they take all that pent up frustration and make these neat little explosions. Maybe that is just me though

September 20

I made what to me was a very interesting realization yesterday. I was writing a letter and thinking about how little context there is in a letter. How little that person has to go on just by your words, and how easy it is to read anger instead of excitement or confusion, and so on. I think that is the great thing about music. You take someone to the place you where in when you wrote the song through the music. Even if you can't understand it or there are no words, you can feel it. I think that is pretty cool. I think a good poem should do that too. You kind of have to bypass all the unnecessary language and make something so common you can feel it. That leads me to my soapbox. I really do not like this view of poetry and other types of art. Where usage and complexity and creativity measure its value, and emotion, meaning, expression, and feeling don't really count. If that is the way you feel, buy a dictionary and a thesaurus and leave me alone. All those little technical thing are just tools to use when needed. I believe any time you strip a language down to a set of rules, no matter how complex that set of rules may be, that language becomes dead, and I for one am not interested in speaking or writing in a dead language. I will leave that to the scientist.

September 19

I just put up several lyrics and poems. I have been writing alot lately. I don't really know what to do with myself though. I was working on a recording of 8 or 9 songs, but as usual I bit off more than I could chew and I abandoned it a while back. I should try to get back to it but I don't want to. As I told my mom a while back, I write to keep myself from going insane. Then I record and play out, and drive myself insane until I have to start writing again. Well, it is writing time. I do need to develop some sort of balance though.

August 31

I am putting up a poem. I have been writing poetry since I was 13 (before I started playing music). By the time I was 14 I wanted to be a poet, but I got sidetracked on music.

August 21

I have just put up some pictures from the show on the 17th. Thanks to John Sundling for taking the pictures. Here is the setlist.
I Do. and You? (Third Coming)
Shadows
Sober Up
Upstream
Restless Trail
Naked Wet and Trembling
Worse for the Wear/Water in a Bag
Nature Spell
Monsoon (Lean)

August 15

I guess I should explain the Mulekin thing. My grandmother used to call me mulekin when I was young. I never asked for a definition, but from context and the word itself, I would say it refers to a young mule or the kin of a mule. You could say it is a reference to the stubbornness of a mule, as in making music on ones own terms. Another way to look at it, would be to say mules are sterile creatures, therefor lonely (few in kin). Or you could just say I was at a loss for a name and thought of mulekin and liked its relevance to me and my past, as well as the crude southern poetry kind of a feel.

August 10

My name is Christopher Walt Sundling, everyone that knows me calls me Chris, but I like my full name. I think my mom did a good job, and occasionally when I play somewhere I will use Walt or Christopher. So, call me Bill, call me Bob it really doesn't matter to me. I have been thinking lately about the kind of music I play, and how I would describe it. The best I can come up with is experimental folk/blues. My main influences are Ani Difranco, Radiohead, Chris Whitley, and probably Gillian Welch (I have just started listening to her, but it is already something that I love very dearly). I listen to all kinds of music though, I love the new Wilco Record. There are also a lot of local artists that I think are incredible (Chris Laney, Jason Kesler "Jason Kesler and The Outlets", Keary Joe Crisp,Gregory "DJ Train Wreck", and many others). Well, I guess that is a start.