Posted by Shane Becker on
<p>months and months ago, my dear friend, James Miska, was playing house shows at boing! pretty often. so one of the times i borrowed a camera from my <em>friend </em><a href="http://crashycrashy.blogspot.com/">stef</a> and recorded his show. i <a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2005/9/19/1/james-is-the-cutest-ever/">wrote about and uploaded the songs</a> forever ago.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/59550082/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/29/59550082_692a7f1085.jpg" alt="hugs not drugs." height="375" width="500"></a></p>
<p>i love these songs. i listen to them <em><a href="http://homestarrunner.com/vcr_hs.html">like every single day</a></em>. seriously, there's a real magic to them. and like all art, music should always be free. so continuing in that spirit, i'm more than excited to do the same with the record he finally recorded. but, first a little back story...there was a band called trial. they were swell, but broke up, like all good bands seem to do. they decided to play a few reunion shows [seattle, wa and two in europe]. kids flocked from all over the country to sing those words one more time as if their lives depended on it. a handful of us from salt lake went there. enter, james and i.</p>
<p><a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2005/10/5/1/the-northwest-passage/">he and i hitchhiked there together.</a> that was his first time hitching at all and my first time not going solo. it was <a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2005/10/13/2/trial-reunion-show-trip-day-2-rursday/">an </a><a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2005/11/2/1/trial-reunion-show-trip-day-3-friday/">awesome </a><a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2005/10/13/1/trial-reunion-show-trip-day-1-wednesday/">trip</a>. [look, i know i know. i'm sorry that i haven't finished blogging the rest of my travel journal. <a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2005/11/18/2/trial-reunion-show-journal/">i'll get to it.</a>] one of the highlights was getting a ride from a kid named krist kruger. he plays music under the moniker Southerly. he picked us up at a flying j in boise, ID, where we slept the night before, and took all the way to pendleton, wa where he was playing a show and invited us to come along. AWESOME!</p>
<p>james and i were both stoked to have the ride and go to see a movie with him and share our food and to see him play out. but if he's no good? guh! [pulls on his collar] what will we do? fortunately, we didn't have to cross that bridge, because he blew us away.so fast forward 5 and half months to valentine's day 2006. southerly is playing a show here in salt lake at kilby court. james talks to the dude and gets on the show and surprises krist. it was real great. but in addition to the show james released his new / first record title "Saol, Ceol". camillo recorded him in his kitchen. it sounds real good. profesh.</p>
<p>i had approached him a few weeks before about me wanting to do a small record label again, but this time internet only. [in the past i have done small labels called Pen15 records and riot.nrrrd.records]. he was downs, but still wanted a real cd. so... sure, i threw my hat into the ring on that one too. we busted our asses on it, i stared at my computer for like 40 hours on it, james did some handwriting, emily did some velcro and staples and we put together a nice little cd package.</p>
<p><a href="http://audio.theresistancearmy.com/">the resistance army audio project</a> will be built out further later. but for now, here's james two records: <a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2005/9/19/1/james-is-the-cutest-ever/">live at boing</a> and <a href="http://veganstraightedge.com/articles/2006/3/7/2/james-miska-saol-ceol/">Saol, Ceol</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/653534295/" title="saol, ceol front cover by veganstraightedge, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1193/653534295_dfabd0a8df_m.jpg" alt="saol, ceol front cover"></a></p>