OK, so the Elbow Room show in late July is effectively null and void due to sudden surprise developments, but JLR/TGT are still gigging at the Lager House this Saturday night, an evening that also heralds the sixth anniversary of my nuptials ... June 26th, 2004 is when Lori and I exchanged public vows in Swartz Creek MI (with Deming presiding), and we've promptly forgotten the anniversary every year since then -- both of us, this is no sitcom husband talking here, the date is inscribed on the inside of our wedding bands but we forget to mark the date nevertheless. One of us invariably remembers either a week before or a week after said date, and it's not the first time I've scheduled shows on our special day without realizing ("Hey baby, we got anything going on June 26th? Probably not? OK, we're gonna play someone's nephew's graduation party."). Anyhow, JLR/TGT will be opening the show (meet us there around nine or ten) and for the rest of the night after that Lori and I will fight ANYONE who has a problem with our relationship, we will FISTFIGHT YOU in the parking lot or street, whichever is most convenient. We dare you to question our love. Find more details here or here. Same show, different Facebook.

My new job in the microfiche industry proves endlessly challenging. I've spent days cutting and cataloging microfilmed editions of Newsweek, Playboy and Modern Psychological Disease (among hundreds of other popular magazines and trade journals). It's refreshing to know that nearly-outdated technology can still thrive in Michigan ... not a scanner in the joint, everything captured straight to real film on dusty 1970s-era equipment. It's a highly-classified secret government contract we're working on, so I can't give you any more details than that (I've already said too much), but I'm learning valuable skills that will translate well into civilian work at digital watch factories or some kind of post-doc pager technology work.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The preceding joke would also work with "Polaroid's Betamax division," "8-track tapery" and "typewriter repair." )

Updated logo and Lager House gig info.

Some upcoming shows upcoming for JLR/TGT, including the gig postered above with the thought-they-were-dead-but-they-ain't VOLEBEATS ...

June 26, 2010 -- The Lager House, Detroit MI
July 10, 2010 -- The Belmont, Hamtramck MI
July 30, 2010 -- The Elbow Room, Ypsilanti MI
October 16, 2010 -- Mac's Bar, Lansing MI

Yeah, that's what a happening joint Mac's has become, they're booking five months in advance. There are other shows being worked over that we'll be announcing soon enough, including (fingers crossed) my hometown of Flint, where a recent unexplained murder spree resulted in many panicked residents demanding the mayor call in the National Guard. He didn't. Here's hoping!

Anyhow, we'll have some new songs from the pen of Ms. JLR, more spooky laments about corpses and curses set to outlaw rhythms and wrapped up in barbed wire. Maybe a few more dusty leftovers from the Clutters era too, since I'm still trying to recover from my Seattle hangover and everything I write these days is either too true or too false.

"I want to play every show as if it's my last."

You wanna hang out in Lansing tomorrow night?

Jeni Lee Richey and The Great Tribulation opens for Wally Pleasant at Mac's Bar.

First time I've played Mac's since 1999, when the inaugural End Times lineup was invited to an Etch Magazine-sponsored music festival (did they actually call it Etchfest? Or course they did). If I remember correctly, we had two fans drive all the way from Grand Rapids to dig it, but circumstances demanded that I play the whole gig with my back to the audience ... I promise that won't happen this time, because I sit down to play now and no matter how angry I get it just won't be convenient. I guess I did the back-to-the-crowd routine once before for a typically neurotic Clutters gig, opening for my then (and still) heroes Mike Ireland and Holler (whose rumored claim to fame is making the worst-selling Sub Pop LP of all time -- also one of the best countrypolitan records of all time, so I guess you just can't have it all), and I don't even remember what the problem was that night ... jeez, maybe I should be scared. Fuck it, the point is that I'll be playing Mac's for the umpteenth time since my debut there in 1996, and we're gonna be fucking great, I swear to god. Then you can dig Flatfoot, a married couple who play ukuleles and no less a man than Wally Fucking Pleasant. We go on first, so show up early, get loaded and stay as long as you're able.

I did visit Mac's a few weeks back to watch Scarlet Oaks play and I'm happy to report that while the bar still has a dozen TV sets mounted at various vantage points, they no longer broadcast strictly sports-oriented programming, unless you can call vintage Asian martial arts films "sports."

I'll meet you at The Best Steak House beforehand if you contact me in time ...