Back in October, when Jack and I first arrived in the Pittsburgh area our friend Art Noose put on a house band show—being a show that features bands formed expressly for one event and composed of individuals who live together. As Jack and I were the only ones who had moved yet we gave our shot at writing music as a two piece; we wrote three songs, practiced them a few times, played one show, and promptly forgot the songs. About half a year later we have the video proof:

And the Youtube version.

Our friends from DC, Broken Bodies, hit up the Braddock contingent for a show and it seemed like a good opportunity to give our first shot at setting something up in our new home. This show will also serve as the debut of the full lineup of our new band Blood Red and from the My Idea of Fun Artists’ Collective we will be joined by Drought as well as tables from Art Noose’s Letterpress Distro and Cake or Death Baking. The show will be hosted right in Braddock at The Garage and if you’re curious about Blood Red here’s a short preview.

If, for some reason, you prefer Youtube we’ve got that too and if you’re the type that is inclined to RSVP, you can do that right here.

We’ve had the privilege of previewing and hanging out with some of Tamara’s gorgeous—not to mention meticulous—pieces, if you’re in the Brooklyn area late March do yourself a favor and stop by her show.

Oh yeah, you can also go visit her over at No Guts, No Glory.

Since my last update I haven’t personally set foot in 2 Wood, mostly because I work 40 hours a week and audit 3 classes at Pitt. However, from what I’m told serious progress has been made. We have the trim down in all 3 floors and the plaster down in all of the attic and most of the second floor. I can always tell when I get home and people have been working on the house because they look like coal miners — apparently there is a lot of soot inside those walls.

In other news, SIC has gone legit and started a bank account. Unfortunately we haven’t gotten our check card in the mail yet and have therefore not been able to set up online banking, but hopefully soon enough we will enter the 21st century.

And of course, the big news: SIC is in the process of buying our second house. Yeah, that’s right, we are multiple-homeowners. All doubting Thomases have my permission to put that in their pipes and smoke it. Bill Daniel, the owner of the house we’ve been living in through the winter, has decided to pack up and take his operation somewhere else. Of course his presence is a loss for many of us here in Braddock, but on the bright side we will own a house that stays warm and has running water and electricity, and in which we can continue to live while we work on 2 Wood. It looks pretty crummy, but once we’ve tackled one major renovation we can start planning a second. This also means that once Trey, Flynn, and Kiki move here we will have bedrooms for everyone. And speaking of Flynn and Trey, they made a guest appearance at 2 Wood for a day of demolition, and Flynn somehow managed to look like a chimney sweep even after several attempts to wash his face and hands. Having them around for a day was a nice reminder of what life will be like when the everyone gets here.

Welch and I have drafted a proposal for the overall structure of SIC as an umbrella collective that will embrace a wider circle of our friends and their creative endeavors and once I’ve had a chance to hear back from a few more people we will hopefully begin putting together something a little more official, and once this site goes live there will, if all goes well, be content on this blog pertaining to all sorts of things far more exciting than my ramblings about home-demolition.

Once Welch and I finally got inside there was only about an hour of daylight left, so we trudged up to the attic, grabbed a handful of screwdrivers, and inaugurated the use of Welch’s DeWalt boombox by jamming everyone’s favorite construction-and-demolition-themed hardcore band: Count Me Out. We got all of the electrical fixtures off of the trim just in time for the sun to disappear behind our good buddy Edgar Thomson, and in the process managed to snap a few pictures of ourselves in matching boots and jackets (expect that this will be a consistent theme in the unfolding tale of 2 Wood). Sadly (for several reasons), I have work tomorrow morning, but hopefully now that we’ve set things in motion I’ll come home to find demolition well under way, in accordance with Newton’s predictions regarding diy home renovations (see Principia Timallenica). No one in the world thinks I’m as funny as I do.