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Hello From Tour. Papa Raccoon's Departure From Chicago and Reality

Posted on July 15, 2009 at 03:39 AM

Listening to : unknown legend by neil young, scream by A7X, the last 2 minutes of Glósóli by Sigur Ros over and over.

Netflix: Tesla Master of Lightning, Shootout Season 1 discs 1-3

Drinking: Piemonte Barbera and Layer Cake Shiraz

Eating: omega 3’s like a ninja

Twitter. I just. don’t. get it. You’re eating a bagel and renting DVD’s? you’re hungover? You’re taking your cat to the vet? That’s great! truly! But WHO could POSSIBLY give a shit? Someone tell me! Honestly, I have like 4 best friends in the world, and I don’t give a fuck what they do during the day. We are drowning in a cult of such retarded vanity that old self-absorbed prima donnas like myself are starting to feel… almost like.. regular.

One thing I do appreciate about Twitter tho is its brevity. So in that spirit, today’s blog will recap my last week in that sporadic entropic postmodern twit town style.

Saw this sign by my hotel elevator in Milwaukee. like, in case of fire, be sure to creep very quietly down the stairs.

Applied for the Chicago Croquet Club. I will be only member under 55.

Ultimate post-KH life goal: I just want an island. A tiny tiny island.

Invention: a small personal hammock that attaches underneath 18wheeler trucks. Just wait in the bushes at a red light, sprint out, hook up and travel the country for free with your ass just inches above the highway. This is a recession, people. Time to get creative.

Woke up feeling mad at my parents that they never sent me to Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland when I was a child. Their students wear these classic white blazers with emblems and have formal dinners and they sword fight and row and speak French and sail and….what the FUCK were my parents thinking??? how could someone possibly be expected to roam comfortably with the cultured class without... I mean, i didn’t even get to go to sleepaway camp. They were like, “mat, go play in the woods. Holler if you get impaled or something.” Fuck. I want a life Do Over.

photo shoot with tyler shields for album cover. 

Updating my bucket list: Places to go: Istanbul, St. Barts, Puglia, Italy, Jose’ Ignacio, Uraguay, Morocco, Goa, Greek Islands, Brazil, The Dalmation Coast.

I know it’s been years but every time I hear the words, 'Governor’ and ‘Schwarzenegger' together, in a row, I just smile and die inside a little at the same time.  

Had a horrible dream that pete wentz was trying to kill me. It was so frustrating. I was like “this sucks! Why are you trying to kill me?? Let’s just hang out!”

Sat on my balcony. made friends w a fly for a sec. Anthropomorphisized him. Little spritely personality, an accent, the whole bit.

Walked for hours downtown at night with the advance of our new album in headphones. Epic. Wondrous. This is the prize. This is the reward.

Left on 30-date tour with Lacuna Coil.

New potential song titles written on my arm; Alcoholica, and Blood Diamonds Are Forever

-been wearing the same sleeveless Smiths Meat is Murder shirt for 3 days now. Afro is insane so I tried the headband technique- just ended up looking like I'm from Galilee or some hot shitty place where people slaughter lambs.

Found a note reminding myself to research Marchesa Luisa Casati- a marvelously eccentric Italian woman known for walking naked down the streets of Venice with her 2 pet cheetahs on diamond leashes. This was in 1920. Where are the interesting people now?

Drinking in a petting zoo… every 5 min this goat says "Bahhh" and it sounds just like "maaattt". Too weird. Can’t stay here.

then Eyore tried to eat my Blackberry

My label president got swine flu, so I've promised to order pork whenever I can, in the spirit of vengeance.

Recently very fascinated by owls- need to own one. A huge one. No wait…a really small one. They are so alien.

Played show in Iowa and I already miss civilization. Met a guy named Big Meat. Your name’s Big Meat? Ok I’m completely homesick now.

Bathroom at a truckstop in Minnesota. There are two types of men in this world. men who carry knives into the shitter, and guys like me who don’t. some bumpkin was compelled to carve ‘crazy train’ and ‘brain washed retards’ into the paper dispenser. I guess we are all god’s children.

Finishing up all album art by tomorrow’s deadline. Adderall helping.

New concept for band photo. Band members tied to posts. firing squad of models firing arrows from bows instead of rifles - vintage white suits with black KH armbands. 

end.

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Daredevil Spiders and Existential Dilemmas. PLUS the Mayans Predicted Screamo Crunk

Posted on June 30, 2009 at 02:01 PM

Listening to: Rex the dog The Knife Heartbeats remix

Eating: eggs and avocado and Vicodin

Drinking : lager mornings and Claret afternoons

Heard another crash outside my window last night. Living next to a lethal intersection, I have dreams that the ghosts climb up the side of my building 14 floors and into my room, into my bed. The sound of screeching tires, then crashing glass and sirens always sirens…

Why are there no public service announcements for Drunk Netflixing? It must be recognized as a harmful activity. Opened my mailbox today to find Twilight, Pi, and Millers Crossing. Wtf. No memory whatsoever of ordering those.

Another ticket on my ghetto scooter. WTF How? I was literally sitting inches away at a Starbucks the entire time! these crafty ninja cops are getting very Minority Report lately. Eerie. I have to say I’m quite impressed. Rode fast for a mile with the ticket flapping violently on the mirror until it tore off and disappeared. That takes care of that.

I’m in a rare pocket of time post-mix/pre-tour, and although we have photo shoots and vids to prep for this week, as well as rehearsals and a full international setup for what will be our biggest and best album ever, I’m in a strange sad existential mental state. I think it’s simply because the last few months were so fucking relentless, and the voids that follow chaos are nauseating. Sometimes its easier in a frantic state to distract oneself from real life, then when it hits you, it really hits you. I remember my first and only skydiving experience. There was a massive rush of adrenaline, then the guy strapped to my ass like a Siamese twin deployed the shoot and we floated, bored, for 3 min, we landed, I walked behind a tree and puked.

starting my mornings the same with eggs and avocado and a hacker pschorr beer. Read more about Byron's orgies and duels in Istanbul and Greece- bought a book of random facts and learned that a human head will stay conscious for 15 seconds after being decapitated by guillotine. -became WAY too preoccupied with that thought for WAY too long.  Got depressed. Started thinking of my age in terms of days, not years.. wonder why I never thought to throw a 10,000-day-old party when I was 27. Could have been the greatest party of all time. Fuck.

Watched a spider make a web outside my window for an hour. Struggling to find the meaning in anything, i signed onto Myspace, and that's when the universe punched me in the dick by immediately streaming a new Brokencyde video. Oh wow. Is this real life? I laughed. I cried. In small violent spurts. My bitter face always returning to a perma-cringe. The Mayans predicted the end of days to be 2012, maybe they were just off by a few years? 

Regardless, it’s a sign…an omen. Like a swarm of locusts, only much much more annoying. Thank you, Great Architect… I understand perfectly. my mission is clear, and there isn’t a moment to lose.  have to fix this shit. we have to return the music industry to its former glory. The golden age when the public had faith in media outlets and some songs were… actually… songs. Status: Reinvigorated.

Mentally prepping for July 4^th when our proud nation of pyromaniacs will celebrate independence and raise our glasses to honor those brave revolutionaries and original terrorists (O.T.’s) we call our founding fathers. Light match, stand away.

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Late Night Naps on Mansion Steps

Posted on June 24, 2009 at 05:00 AM

moon over toronto on my last night

A little buzzed on Masi Campofiorin. I’m finally back among the concrete giants of Chi-town standing on a balcony as the headlights of the highway rice burners shimmer like plankton 300 ft beneath me.

This morning I woke from a dream that i had a floorplan of the Stockholm airport tattood onto the palm of my hand. looking very terrorist-chic i shuffled down the block to caribou coffee to read another chapter of a Byron biography. A Korean friend perched on the wall nearby to wax philosophical for a minute. Her eyes following some unhappy moms pushing strollers of blobs, in a humorously thick accent she said, “you and me, we are not ordinary peoples. You know? You and me, we are other planet peoples.”

Need to clear my head, came home, cranked some old school nyc hardcore, then Brittany If You Seek Amy, tegan and sarah’s cover of Dancing in the Dark, A7X scream, Peter Gabriel Mercy Street, and our new album in its entirety, burnt some toast, had a breakfast beer and dove back into the tempest that is KH post-studio pre-tour frantic beautiful chaos where my blackberry just vibrates relentlessly til the battery dies.

this was my skyward view as i napped on the steps of a mansion down the street

Last week, after Toronto, I made another detour to the big apple for label meetings, then headed to CT for a long-overdue family visit where my adorable grandma fortifies me with 127 pounds of fried chicken for the drive home.

westbound, the roadside carnage was more diverse. An endless rigamortis succession of North American fauna: beavers, coyotes, skunks, deer, raccoon, rabbits, foxes. Thought of another t-shirt idea: (I'm Not Here Right Now), and a contender for my growing list of imagined band names that could be worse than ours, (The Sixth Annual Crawfish Boil).

Things I learned from the journey

1. if you are bored in a public restroom, a little white tape over one letter can turn a sign for a Baby Changing Table into a sign for a Baby Hanging Table.

2. There is an Exit 0 in Indiana

3. greatest street name ever is the 299^th Combat Battalion Parkway

4. this woman looks like E.T.

i attended greg's bday sushi dinner where i presented him with a giant bottle of tequila in the shape of a tommy gun -which BTW he was rightfully mortified to be seen carrying around the city all night. it's now permanently displayed above the downstairs bar at Angels & Kings

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Global Cooling

Posted on June 15, 2009 at 05:39 PM

Mixing is just about completed. Haven’t had a minute to breathe or post blogs, but the finish line is within sight. -been eating every day at a lesbian bar down the block called The Beaver and at a shack off the park called Chippy’s where they sell fried fish and blast death metal. I promise to post in more detail in a couple days.. in the meantime, here’s a pic of a local drifter whom i befriended. i call him The Maharaja and i promised not to disclose his exact location to certain area doctors or police.

see, let this stand as exhibit A. 

When certain sects of our counterculture claim to be 'anti-fashion' or 'utilitarian', they are 'full of shit'. When one expends just as much effort to appear as though you aren’t making a statement, then you are making a statement. –and ironically you are probably more self aware and trend conscious than any uptown fashion plate. Trust me, if you were dressing purely for function, you wouldn’t be wearing a Misfits Tshirt. Chances are, youd look more like this guy, holding a plate of tabouleh wearing a fucking eskimo poncho.

Oh and i urge you to start each day, as i have lately, with a viewing of this masterpiece

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Counting Dead Deer, Cabin Fever in Toronto

Posted on June 8, 2009 at 07:21 PM

Listening to: NPR

Eating: my signature raccoon sandwich (swiss and mayo)

Drinking: mitolo jester cab, too many old fashioneds at the bowery (tradition)

Reading: canadian news… hockey mostly

Do I have time to go puke?

Can you watch my bags while I go puke?

Things I've said this morning to airport employees, while waiting for my flight back from a 24hr mind erasing trip to NYC. 

left my blackberry on during takeoff. -didn't crash the plane as i had hoped.

5 days ago I drove from Chicago to Toronto in solitude to assist in the mixing of the album. Very meditative experience. Counted corpses along the way. 44 deer plus 3 severed deer heads. 11 Raccoons, 6 opossums, 1 bloated hairless stiff thing (wombat?), and one quick black field mouse who I personally equalized with my front left tire. I was surprised at the sorrow I felt afterwards.. maybe cos we are all rodents deep down – food for hawks.

listened to an NPR piece about the collapse of GM while coincidentally driving thru Flint, MI. 

-driving alone after several hours your mind starts to play tricks. i started reminiscing about the best summer of my life. I was 8 the first time the gypsies kidnapped me, and thats when i was taught how to dance and play the lute and steal spoons and cuff links. i learned how to stay warm for days by setting huge piles of rubber tires on fire. Then i started to think about when i was a fly... how i used to love drifting in the wind by the landfill. i'd land on an eggshell or on the eye of a dead squirrel, barf on them, suck it up, lay some larva, that was my thing. Delirium I guess you call it.

So this is Canada. 14 hour days in the studio. no social life, no daylight. It’s like I put myself in a witness protection program. Songs are sounding incredible tho. Chibi from The Birthday Massacre came by to sing in the chorus of Mouth2Mouth. Blew us all away.

Here i am trying to biodegrade into soil outside LaGuardia. only worked halfway.

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Lemon Pledge Tastes Amazing

Posted on June 1, 2009 at 02:01 AM

Listening to: Ministry –Stigmata, Catherine Wheel - Chrome

Eating: instant oatmeal, vitamins

Drinking: Super Tuscans exclusively from newly gifted KH challis

Reading: old journals

After all these sleepless nights we have finally wrapped up the recording of the album. Now I’d like to wrap myself up like a pharaoh’s sarcophagus and bury myself under my sand-colored blankets for about 200 years. I haven’t felt this dizzy since I was little, when I used to spray Lemon Pledge in my mouth whenever my mom asked me to dust the piano. 

Sleep and bio-rhythms are such foreign concepts, and at this point I just. can’t. turn. off. Semi-fortunate since there is still a great deal left to do. Tomorrow I go to Toronto to assist in the mixing with David Bottrill who just finished working with our friends in Placebo and AFI.

Last week Amanda Palmer lent her vocals to one of the new songs, and it’s mind-blowing. In this climate of economical collapse, it’s so cool when bands can collaborate in the true spirit of art. She’s a genuine visionary and I hope I can return the favor one day.

Speaking of art, in the process of building off a previous cover concept I googled ‘children pirates’, which didn't give me any useful images, although I’m pretty sure instantly added my name to the FBI sex crime watch list database. Then, after hitting a mental wall, in an act of desperation I simply searched ‘cool image’. that's when the universe sent me this:

i defy anyone to tell me why snowflake sweater white socks and these minorities could possibly be looking for instruction on 'awesome' from an arian dude who looks like the protagonist from every 80's ski film ever made, and who BTW is wearing stone washed Canyon River Blues and has man toe. 

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Final Studio Days

Posted on May 26, 2009 at 12:04 AM

Listening to: daisy chainsaw- hope your dreams come true

Drinking: hoegaarden, throat coat tea

Eating: Cabo shrimp borritos 

Thank Allah for urban dictionary.com. Just realized I’ve been referring to loose women as ‘dumpster chickens’ all this time, when in actuality they are simply ‘chicken heads.’

I was in the studio lost-and-found looking for a charger, and grabbed this gigantic shirt left behind by a member of Kanye’s posse. Been wearing it when I sing for good luck.

We are in the final days of recording in Chicago, while simultaneously sending songs off to David Bottrill to mix in Toronto. The pace is furious, and whatever margin for error may have existed 2 weeks ago, is gone. 12-hour days of constant multi-tasking. in addition to album title, legal, artwork, photo and vid plans. Yesterday felt beyond burned out. –like, you know what?  I’m just gona take a couple Russian brides and go live on a fucking yak farm for the rest of my life. that’s what. –but then I heard the final mix of Acid Rain and my adventurer's spirit was fully renewed. 

The Chicago Children’s Choir came in to sing on two songs last week, and it just melted me. Working for a few hours with the conductor and over 20 trained and soulful vocalists, then hearing the lush angelic harmonies- it was like nothing i'd ever heard, and by far one of the most fulfilling and artistically rewarding experiences of my life.

Just bought a Bluetooth headset for my Blackberry--so funny when things are designed specifically to look futuristic, as if all people in the future somehow look like extras from Judge Dredd or professional Laser Tag players. For my own entertainment tho I’ve begun to confuse the assistant engineer, Jeff, by locking eye contact with him for the full duration of my Bluetooth conversations with other people. Try it, it's messed up.

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Studio Update ; lyrics

Posted on May 18, 2009 at 02:58 AM

Eating: V 2410’s, 50-day dry-aged bone-in rib eye rare + (oscar style)

Drinking: green tea, vino nobile di montepulciano

Listening to: smashing pumpkins machina, new KH rough mixes

Netflix: Taken 

Reading: Papa Hemingway

I don’t actually remember chewing and swallowing a cup full of razorblades, but judging from soreness of my throat, I must have. To stay the course on this album, I’ve had to record vocals for about 4 hours every day. Funny how “the right take” always seems to occur on the verge of total collapse.

My regular schedule continues noon til midnight, but some of the team are even pulling all-nighters. i could not possibly be more pleased although my fucking cab this morning smelled like creamed corn and Lou Ferrigno’s dick. Attended the opening of the modern wing at the Art Inst of Chicago. So desperate was I for a drink that I nearly tried Absolut Peppar.

Had an incredible day with the talented benji maddon, who generously came in to slay backups and harmonies on four songs.

Tomorrow the Chicago Children’s Choir is coming in to the studio to sing on a ballad entitled Living In Misery:

“You and I, we are the sons and daughters of kings

and I want to live for centuries

Joan of Arc and Josephine

Now you’re one of us

so this is your new symphony

This is the tempo and the key

This is the song we have to sing

We are living in misery

We are living in misery

but we have to hold on

Yes we have to hold on”

as always, a couple random pics from my blackberry:

irony.

‘Taken’ is a dazzling revenge film in the same vein as Bourne, and Man On Fire. However, hands down, the absolute worst ‘special features’ menu in history: just a trailer for Notorious. Wow. Thanks.

my new painting by Wirrow  -restretched and framed.

Recent gift: a Napoleanic coin from 1811.

My arm.

 

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Vital Sounds Part VIII: The Cure Featuring Milla Jovovich

Posted on May 11, 2009 at 07:31 PM

I can trace the origins of my taste for darker music back to early childhood when the only vinyl in the entire house was The Carpenters The Singles 1969-1973. Commonly misperceived as wholesome and disposable saccharine pop, in truth much of that album is unbelievably deep and sad. Looking back I think my mom may have unknowingly raised me with sort of musical training wheels for the goth stuff that I’d be drawn to in 8th grade.

Cut to present day, the Notorious M.A.T. is 4’ taller but still staring at bedroom ceilings, still connecting on a deep level to strange emotive songs.

Case in point: Underneath The Stars by The Cure.  This remix for the Underworld soundtrack features haunting vocals by milla jovovich and is guaranteed to melt your cold little raccoon heart the way it did mine

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OP ED: Same Sex Marriage.

Posted on May 8, 2009 at 10:06 AM

Believe it or not, Miss California is STILL KINDA the subject of controversy for her conservative answer to Perez Hilton’s loaded question on the subject of same sex marriage.

Under that much pressure, it must be difficult to improvise an articulate answer to any question, let alone one with so much gravity and consequence. -but in the seclusion and comfort of the studio here, I’d like to think I could do better job…

Perez Hilton: “Mat, Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?"

Mat Devine: “Perez, let me answer that question with another question. Do you know any married couples? Do they seem really happy to you? Does it look like something 'sacred' that’s worth fighting for?  I don’t know… -to me, fighting for the right to get married is like fighting for the right to give blood.

I kid. I kid. The answer is simple.

I think that for all of our modernity and progress, we as Americans still sometimes cling to principles that are outdated and obsolete. While I understand the importance of preserving one’s heritage and maintaining certain traditional values, there comes a point at which common sense must prevail. It wasn’t long ago that women were prohibited from voting, and African Americans were prohibited from owning land. In hindsight these things seem silly and even barbaric, though at the time they were debated with great intensity. Likewise, I HOPE there will be a day in the near future when we as a country look back on the year 2009 with a sense of embarrassment and shame, that the subject of same sex marriage was ever “controversial” to begin with.. -because some of us were still too mired in an antiquated moral code to see the simple truth: that discrimination in any way whatsoever for sexual orientation is so fucking passé its disturbing, and that love and happiness are all that actually matters.”

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