When I was younger, I used to love to go on tour. Now, the prospect of driving for eight hours just to play music for 6 people, lose gobs of money, then sleep on a stranger's sofa (and worse, have to use their grubby shower... ugh) only to do it again and again for ten days, well... I'd prefer to stay home. Fifteen years ago, though, I did love the thrill of a tour. To set aside several consecutive days and nights just for making the music... to hear my own music getting better and better each night... so many opportunities to try new things and get real-time response from strangers who felt no obligation to stay or talk with you or anything at all... what luxury! Total fun!

In 2004, Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre, who played together as Jazzkammer (and later, Jazkamer) joined me for a road trip. We played at a bar in Nashville with a BBQ joint attached to it. We played a weird studio space in Toronto at which the promoter forgot to tell anyone that we were coming... seriously, we watched him tape a flyer to the door as we pulled up. We rocked Rochester NY (and the local late-night dinner specialty: sloppy plates! Yum). We played a pirate radio station in Brooklyn at which John dispassionately destroyed the cheap pawn shop guitar that he bought the previous afternoon. We performed in a building in Poughkeepsie NY that used to be a fire station, and at a dance studio in Lexington KY. This CD documents part of our tour.

The first track is by Jazzkammer, recorded live in an art space in Richmond, Virginia. It's title comes from the police officer who caught us in a speed trap on the Tennessee highway and slapped us with a hefty ticket. Luckily, my Norwegian guests thought the exchange (gruff cop with hat and mirror shades: "License and registration, sir") was a charming bit of Americana just like they'd seen in movies. The next track is me alone with my mountains of cassette tapes. That show was hosted by our friend Mike Shiflet, who set it up so that everyone performed on an outdoor stage, making the concert feel like a summer party surrounded by friends. The BLD, a center for the Columbus art scene at the time, was due to be shut down. All the artists were getting ready to be evicted. Ours was to be the final concert at BLD, hence my title. I have fond memories of the space, which was the same one in which Jason Talbot and I played the set that became our "Recent Work" album a couple years earlier, and Kapotte Muziek played the best concert I've ever heard by them, the recording of which ended up as their "Columbus, Ohio" album. The last track, played by all three of us, was recorded live on a rainy night in a cozy cafe in Bloomington, Indiana. Our show was hosted by Eric Weddle, the lovely guy who runs Family Vineyard Records. The cafe was quiet, the people were friendly. We were relaxed and happy and in a perfect mood to make music in such an intimate setting. After our set, we turned to each other and hoped that the recording turned out okay.

Most of Jazzkammer's other sets from this tour made it onto another album called "Proud to Be Un American", which Mike Shiflet released on his Gameboy label. As for the title of this album... well, Lasse claims that I said it at some point on the tour, but neither of us recall when, or in reference to what. It's probably true, though.

"Springy twangs, warping scratches, and the sound of tape rolling over playheads all create a cartoon soundtrack without the music. Close your eyes and you can almost see the ACME products exploding in time to Stelzer's picturesque noise." - Pitchfork