Ruffian Records

In the short space of 16 hours...

2011-08-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

various members of the family were dressed as cops beating up Tereu Tereu's Ryan Little during People of the Sun's Run for Cover set:

And early the next afternoon Cephalopods played the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Luce Center (these videos won't embed for some reason) with special guest 'pod Liz Bennett:

Porque Llorax

The Holly & the Ivy

Lady K

In other news, Hume spent much of the summer writing and recording a new album with Hugh kicking off the first 2 weeks of engineering. They're on tour right now and you can get all their info here.

Cephalopods play Everlasting Life with Silo Halo and friends on Aug. 19th. More info soon.

Make it in the shade,
Ruffians

Cephalopods play at Smithsonian Museum of American Art THIS Sunday afternoon July 31st

2011-07-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Cephalopods will be playing an acoustic set at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Luce Center this Sunday, July 31st. The event, part of the Luce Center's Art and Coffee and Luce Unplugged series, begins at 1:30 with a talk on William Alvin Blayney’s Mural No. GU-43752.

The event is free and open to all ages.

We will play at 2. We are really psyched about the art talk as well as a set made up of Cephalopods originals, Sephardic ballads, Hungarian folk songs, and assorted other goodies.

For more info see the museum's page here.

Looking forward to see you there,
Cephalopods

CLITFEST Press Release

2011-05-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

Ruffian has always been keenly interested in supporting sexual and gender identity equality and we love the work that H.I.P.S. does. So we are passing along press info about an exciting event happening in July in DC. There are some notices about events that have already happened in it but it's still worth being hip to the event, which I am sorry I'm missing.

Begin transmission:

Help Support Safer Sex and Promote Women in the Arts!

Combating Latent Inequality Together Festival is now in its 7^th year, and will take place in Washington, D.C. on the weekend of July 8^th. It will be a three-day event combining music and education to promote women's involvement in the arts. We aim to stimulate conversation between folks of all backgrounds, ages, abilities, ethnicities, and genders. We aim to raise consciousness and to build a community wherein people of all genders are supported and empowered. All proceeds from this year’s fest go towards H.I.P.S..

HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) was founded in 1993 by a coalition of service providers, advocates, and law enforcement officials as an outreach and referral service. HIPS mission is to assist female, male, and transgender individuals engaging in sex work in Washington, DC in leading healthy lives. Utilizing a harm reduction model, HIPS’ programs strive to address the impact that HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, discrimination, poverty, violence and drug use have on the lives of sex workers. HIPS is a nationally recognized organization that meets the needs of sex workers and assists them in their efforts to eliminate the transmission of HIV, increase sexual health, and reduce violence and harm associated with sex work and drug use. HIPS programs serve an estimated 2,000 sex workers a year on the streets and in the organization’s drop-in center, providing a full spectrum of programs to address basic & immediate needs, long-term goal setting and life skills development.

Budget cuts in public health have forced H.I.P.S.

to downsize significantly. They need your help!

Go to www.hips .org to make a donation.

The C.L.I.T.Fest benefit series will help the fest cover its costs.

Look out for the following events around town:

3/31: Don't Need You screening at Red Emma's in Baltimore
4/3: Pharmacy Bar local business raffle

(with drink specials and items including tattoos, merchandise from Smash & local art!)
4/9: Babes & Brews

(homebrew party featuring beer by A Brewing Problem; space TBD)
4/13: Dischord: An Impression, Don't Need You, and Beyond the Screams screening

at the DC Arts Center in Adams Morgan, $7

in May/June: keep your eyes out for...
bake sale & tabling with Positive Force in June to support Planned Parenthood
self-defense training
screenings of AfroPunk and Beyond Beats and Rhymes

Other ways to help the cause: volunteer time to the CLITFest card at the Maryland Food Co-op to help feed the presenters and bands! Host a benefit of your own, promote our events, check http ://clitfestdc .tumblr .com and "like" us on Facebook. Check out our online store (coming soon!) to see all our wares!

Need more info? Have an idea? Hit us up on Facebook, or at:

clitfest -dc -2011@googlegroups .com

Help support local activism and women in the arts!

Phat Daughter String Quartet Live in Baltimore!

2010-12-28T06:41:00.000-08:00

Click Here For Video

CORRECTION: Cephalopods Rock it Collectively Saturday NOW AT LA CASA

2010-11-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

Correction all,

The house show show on Saturday has been merged with the awesome Radio CPR benefit at La Casa on Saturday. Here are the new details:

The ridiculously awesome Radio CPR benefit show we'd planned for this Saturday, November 13, just rose to a new level of ridiculous awesomeness. We now have five bands to rock your world. They are -- in reverse order -- with notes!

S-PRCSS
(hypnotic post-punk, with a 90s dischord vibe. Reminds me of Lungfish with Wire or Gang of Four for a rhythm section)
Cephalopods
(ex-Black Eyes, Early Humans, Et At It)
The Eye the Ear the Arm
(electro-awesomeness from MA. ex-La Mia Vita Violenta)
America Hearts
(stripped-down indie pop, catchy and sweet. Reminds me of the Breeders, with the grunge scoured off).
Fell Types
(early 90s style indie rock, riffs-a-plenty. Reminds me Dinosaur Jr. without the solos).

I imagine this show will rule. It will also be chock full of human bodies. Come out and listen. Doors at 6:00, sets are short, we'll be over by 11:00 as per usual. $5 cover benefits Radio CPR. La Casa is at 3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, WDC. A few blocks from the Columbia Heights metro on the green line. Spread the word.

Just dropping a line about two Ruffian-related shows coming up this week.

First up Hugh McElroy is playing a solo set on Thursday with Tereu Tereu, Conductive Alliance, and Listen Listen. Hugh's set will be mostly solo a capella with odd bits of samples and tape-based effects. Tereu Tereu killed it at the Positive Force Punk Rock Flea Market on Saturday and is sure not to disappoint.

Then, on Saturday, Cephalopods is playing at the MVB with Tidelands, Good Offices, and The Eye, The Ear, The Arm. The Eye, The Ear, The Arm features members of Ruffian band La Mi Vida Violenta fresh off some recording and with a new line-up. Hugh saw Good Offices at their first show in September and was impressed. NOTE: This show was going to be moved up to not conflict with the La Casa show the same night but it couldn't be worked out sadly. Both shows will be awesome, so don't sweat which one you go to.

Details below:

11/11 - Tereu Tereu, Conductive Alliance, Hugh McElroy, Listen Listen
@ Everlasting Life 8:30pm $5
2928 Georgia Ave NW

11/13 - The Ear, The Eye & The Arm, Cephalopods, Good Offices + TBA
@ The MVB 7pm
two nine one eight Sherman Ave NW

Hope to see you there,

Ruffians

Cephalopods on- and off-line

2010-08-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Just a quick update: Cephalopods played a short set on August 14th at the Black Cat with The Plums and it all went fine. Mike over at Dead City DIY filmed some of the set and posted it here.

You'll notice only two of the three 'pods are in it, though. Wells, our drummer, was experiencing severe back pain that week and had to sit the show out. We're still working on music as he recovers from surgery. All's well, he'll be back behind the kit soon, but we'll be using the recovery time to try out some new instrumentation, arrangements, and ideas as well. We'll keep you posted on plans as we make them.

Hugh

Cephalopods at Black Cat this Friday

2010-08-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Cephalopods will be playing this Saturday as part of the Black Cat's Second Saturdays series and we have the honor of playing with The Plums. For those who don't know, Cephalopods is Hugh McElroy, Fiona Griffin, and Wells Bennett. If you saw us at Fort Reno with the Evens last Monday, you get the idea, though we will be playing a very different set for this show. We'd love to see you there.

The show is early, 8pm! So if you want to go dancing upstairs at Mousetrap, downstairs at Nevermind the 90s, or over at the 9:30 clubs back bar for Zack (The New Gay) Rosen's Transformer rock party, you can do those things, or anything else, after.

Cephalopods and the Plums
8pm Black Cat Backstage
All Ages
$8

Cephalopods

2010-08-08T09:47:00.001-07:00

Cephalopods have been much in the news of late here, here, and here.

The band plays Black Cat this coming Saturday, August 14th, as part of the club's Second Saturdays series.

It would be lovely to see you there.

Hugh

New Mailing Info for Ruffian

2010-07-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hello all, just as a heads up, the Ruffian PO box is no more. We get so little post there that there seemed little justification in spending the money to keep it open. We'll use the funds to keep a large amount of storage and bandwidth available for the free downloads page. There should be some more on that soon.

Ruffians

Orders Missing

2010-07-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

During the Great Ruffian Site Crash of 2010 some Paypal orders didn't get through. We've identified which ones didn't make it and we'll be shipping those out in the next 24 hours. Apologies for that, but if you ordered any records from us via paypal between April and now, they're on their way.

Ruffians

Help out Girls Rock! DC

2010-07-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

The fine folks at Girls Rock! DC just sent an e-mail asking for loans and donations of instruments and supplies for this years camp.

Girls Rock! DC is a week-long camp for girls 8-18 that "aims to create a supportive, inclusive and creative space for girls to develop their self-confidence, build community, stand up and rock out!" It's awesome. If you can help out, please do. We're donating a bunch of drums out of Swim-Two-Birds this year.

From their website:

Girls Rock! DC Needs Instruments and Supplies for Camp!

Hey GR!DC supporters! This year, we are going to have MORE CAMPERS THAN EVER! That means, we are going to need more instruments than ever. If you have any used, working instruments you would like to loan or donate (tax-deductible), it would be GREATLY appreciated. We also need items for the goody bags campers receive at camp. If you want to loan or donate, please email shelly@girlsrockdc.org, by Friday July, 30, to make arrangements. Thanks for your support–You rock!

We need:

DJ Equipment:
direct drive turntables
intermediate mixers
needles (donation only, these get a lot of wear and tear)
relevant laptops (last five years),
cables, all kinds (donation only)
powered speakers
PA Systems

Drums:
drum kits
any extra drums, cowbells, mountable tambourines, etc.
cymbals
hardware
sticks (donation only)

Bass Amps

Guitar Amps

Microphones

Microphone Stands

Tuners

Picks (donation only)

Working Instrument Cables (donation only)

Effects Pedals

Keyboards

Guitars

Basses

2GB SD Memory Cards (2 or more)

2-Way Radios (6 or more)

75 Reusable bags

75 Notebooks

75 Pens/relevant goody bag items

Site down and back up, other happenings

2010-07-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

The Ruffian site has been inoperable for a bit due to a mistake on our end. It should be back to normal. Apologies if this caused you any trouble. The root cause was some funky e-mail settings that are being changed as we speak. If you wrote to us and didn't hear back between, oh, say May and now, drop a line and we'll look into finding your e-mail, order, etc.

In the mean time lots has been going on around at Swim-Two-Birds/Ruffian HQ the past couple months.

Cephalopods has two upcoming DC shows, one with The Evens at Fort Reno on Monday, August 2nd

and the other at The Black Cat, Saturday, August 14th with http://www.myspace.com/plumsband

Hume was just at Swim-Two-Birds tracking some songs for a 7" slated to be released in the fall. Vocals were tracked by Hays Holladay who mixed the two songs. They sound rad. The band heads out on the road really soon in support of their new EP on Sockets, "Penumbra".

Big ups, as always, to Sean and all the good work he does. Head over to Sockets for more on that. I hear, by the way, that there is more and more exciting news from The Cornel West Theory. Keep yr eyes and ears open.

The Chance finished overdubs and vocals at Swim-Two-Birds last week right after the Hume sessions. The record should be mixed in the fall.

BLDGS and Noon:30 have tracks mixed for the upcoming Sockets/Ruffian split 7" series. More on that soon.

Imperial China is coming in to record a track or two at Swim-Two-Birds next week for the same series.

I know we've been talking about this forever. It's coming. Good food takes time to grow and cook.

That's all for now.

Ruffians

Cephalopods this Saturday at St Stephens Church with Birds and Wires, Fordists, Body Cop

2010-04-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

Cephalopods is playing this Saturday, May 1st, at St. Stephen's Church (16th and Newton NW).

The cost is $7 and the show is a benefit for the charity We Are Family (http://www.wearefamilydc.org/).

Also playing are Body Cop, The Fordists, and Birds and Wires. Show starts at 7 pm. Check out the awesome flier here:

People of all ages are welcome to attend (that includes babies, awkward teens, aging hippies, grandparents, and everyone in between).

Hope to see you there.

Cephalopods TOMORROW April 22d at Bossa in Adams Morgan

2010-04-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Cephalopods will be playing TOMORROW night Thursday, April 22nd at Bossa Lounge on 18th Street in Adams Morgan.

8:10-8:40 Embezzlers (Jeff Barsky)
8:50-9:30 Matta Gawa
9:45-10:20 Ches Smith's Congs for Brums
10:20- end Cephalopods

Bossa
2463 18th St. NW

Hope to see you there!

Cephalopods

Hugh photographed and misquoted in Out Magazine with other interesting DC gays

2010-04-21T19:17:00.001-07:00

Hugh was part of a photo shoot of "influential gays" in DC recently. It's on their website now. Lots of other cool queers like New Gays Zack and Michael were in it as well.

Click here for the article.

We were (possibly naively) expecting there might be some ladies in the article. Ah well, nice of them to notice us nonetheless.

Noon:30 Tracks for Ruffian/Sockets comp mixed

2010-04-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

The first of the tracks to be finished for the Ruffian/Sockets comp is done after Noon:30 came in and mixed two songs Saturday. More to come soon!

Any photos of Cephalopods?

2010-04-02T12:39:00.001-07:00

Hullo all,

Thanks to all who came out to Imperial China/Cephalopods/Lo Moda/Busses last week. A blast was had by at least some. If anyone has photos/video/audio of the show please send it along.

Thanks also to those who came out to Partyline/Love of Diagrams/Beaches on Tuesday. Another hot show.

Upcoming Cephalopods action at Bossa in Adams Morgan, Thursday, April 22 and The Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Columbia Heights (within spitting distance of Swim-Two-Birds) on May 1st. More details soon.

Ruffians

Melbourne + DC + NYC = Love at the Black Cat tonight

2010-03-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Ruffian friends and fellow-travelers Love of Diagrams and Beaches from Melbourne, Australia are playing tonight at the Black Cat with DC/NYC's Partyline.

Come on out. Rad bands, good times. Hope to see you there.

Black Cat
All-ages
830pm
$10

Ruffians

Cephalopods first show alongside Imperial China, Lo Moda, Busses

2010-03-23T19:12:00.001-07:00

Cephalopods will be playing their first show this coming Friday, March 26th, at the Velvet Lounge in NW DC.

The bill is

Imperial China
Cephalopods
Lo Moda
Busses

Doors 9pm
Show 10pm
8 bux
21+ (working on an all ages show soon)

915 U St.

Take a look at the rad flyer with all the cute pulp novel cephalopods on it!

And come to the show.

-Ruffians and Cephalopods

BLDGS tracks at Swim-Two-Birds, Ghost Light at Inner Ear

2010-03-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

BLDGS tracked two songs at Swim-Two-Birds with Hugh this past weekend for the forthcoming Ruffian/Sockets 12" comp series. Pictures to follow.

The weekend before, Hugh was holed up at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA recording Ghost Light, a duo made up of Steve Scarlata (late of The Mirror Script) and Josh Padgett (also of The Chance). Josh's other band the Chance will be tracking a new record with Hugh (produced by Chris Grier of To Live and Shave in LA, et. al.). More on all this soon.

Ruffians

Birds and Wires Review in Maximum Rock 'n' Roll

2010-03-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

The Birds and Wires EP which Hugh recorded at Inner Ear and mixed at Swim-Two-Birds got a nice review in MRR with some kind words on the sound that emerged. Just for kicks it's below:

BIRDS AND WIRES -12" EP
This record starts with the most amazing guitar tone-super clean and
inviting. The riff it plays carries the song right along with the busy
drums trotting into a manic frenzy - the music building and building
to an intense crescendo that lasts just long enough to appreciate it.
A great opener to introduce an incredible EP by four scene vets from
DC. The sound of this record is one of the most amazing aspects, and
the heavy vinyl and superb production really paid off as each
instrument is immaculately represented. For good reason. too--these
songs are well written and powerful as shit. Some have the genteel
approach of, say, INDIAN SUMMER or SHARKS KEEP MOVING. while others
have a more assertive sound like AMBER INN or FUGAZI. From what I
understand. there are members of 1905 and LOTUS FUCKER in the band.
Really solid indie/ emo-beautiful packaging, thick vinyl, strong
release. (RM) (Amor y Lucha)

Imperial China Tour Diary

2010-03-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

March 5, 2010: Frederick, MD @ Café 611.

We kicked things off tonight in Frederick tonight sandwiched on a bill between two aquabands, Spermwhales and Troutzilla. Spermwhales is a solo guitar/electronic act that plays a mix somewhere between ambient and noise.

Here’s a picture with him playing. I love the scenic painting on the wall behind him.

Troutzilla was a lot of fun. They successfully incorporate horns and flute. They got people moving and who can’t appreciate an attractive flutist. (I still don’t know if its pronounced flootist or floutist) or this drum head.

Picture reminds me of the asian crap that are invading the great lakes, and if they can throw down against a CNN reporter, they could probably take our beloved Bert, as well.

Frederick was a good time and Café 611 is a good, open space for shows. Memorable characters include Nate, the booker, who is the second person to compare us to “the Blueman Group,” which really spoke to my inner Tobias Funke, Ben the plumber, and the guy at the merch booth after we played who said, “That was awesome, now sell me some shit.” Thanks for helping put gas in the tank.

March 6, 2010, Lexington, Kentucky @ Brick Alley.

Q:Why would we drive 8 hours to Kentucky, you ask?

A: Because we booked our tour and have no idea what we’re doing.

On the way to Lexington, we stopped at a Long John Silvers/A&W .

Q: Who’s got 6 thumbs and loves a papa wrap washed down with a rootbeer float?

A: Imperial China, that’s who.

March 7, 2010, Lexington, Kentucky @ Al’s Bar

“Candy Machine” was a phenomenal band from Baltimore in the 90’s fronted by Peter Quinn. Peter put out the first Pontyail album on his label, Creative Capitalism, and is currently in the band, “Lo Moda.” The Candy Machine record, “Modest Proposal” has been the soundtrack for the tour thus far. One of the best songs on the album is “Rotodome.” None of us knew what a rotodome was so we texted Peter, who Patrick knows from his Pitchblende days.

Here is the text exchange:

Matt @ 2:03 a.m.: “What the hell is a rotodome?”

Peter @5:42 a.m.: “It’s like a superdome. But less popular.”

Peter @ 6:06 a.m.: “Or a Bar in Kansas City.”

Peter @ 6:08 a.m.: “Or a strip joint of the mind.”

We asked Peter to play a Candy Machine song with us next time we’re in Baltimore. Hopefully he takes us up on the offer.

________________________________________________________________________

Tonight was the most fun we’ve had so far. Al’s Bar is a great. Free food. PBR and rail drinks for bands. Can’t beat that. Thanks to Audra behind the bar, who took care of us. I recommend this place to any band going through Kentucky. We played with the Gudwalls. They have this great psyche/Dinosaur Jr./Husker Du thing going.

We made a couple discoveries in Kentucky:

1) Ale 8, a ginger ale made in Kentucky, is quite possibly the best soda on earth. It’s even better with Bourbon. It’s even better than that when it’s free.

2) Bike Polo exists. Never heard of it before this, but it’s big enough here that a bunch of people came to the show after playing all day. From what I understand, It’s 3 on 3 polo played on bikes with a bunch of homemade equipment. Sounds badass. Drew and Scott from the team hung out, gave us one of their homemade polo mallets and some lessons and did some break dancing.

Drew is in a band called “Latin Heat,” which is an amazing name. At their first show, the latino community of Lexington came out and was disappointed to find out they were a punk band. I can imagine a similar reaction in Mt. Pleasant.

Apparently there is a DC bike polo team. Drew and I began planning an all day outdoor show/bike polo tournament with some Kentucky and DC bike polo teams/bands. I sincerely hope it happens. That would be a blast.

3) Gumbo Ya Ya in Lexington is an awesome creole restaurant. Ross, who set the show up, manages the restaurant and was nice enough to treat us to some Gumbo and White Bean Chili the day after the show. Go check out his restaurant!!!

We’re on to Louisville well fed and in good spirits.

March 8, 2010, Louisville, Kentucky @ Skully Alley

Louisville is a great town. Good food. Good beer. Good Bourbon. Good Record Stores. We got to Louisville with enough time to walk around and meet up with Patrick’s old friend, Eric. Eric, Chris and Johnny (pictured below) took us around and showed us a good time.

We played a venue called “Skull Alley.” It’s a great art space run by Jaime. It reminds a little of the Hexagon in Baltimore. Louisville has produced some great bands such as Slint and Bastro. Don’t say My Morning Jacket, because My Morning Jacket sucks.

Skull Alley has a crazy pink bathroom. It had the usual bathroom scrawl on it, but it’s much more political than the average bathroom. Reminds me of DC bathrooms, where in between writing, “Pete is gay,” the author decides to voice their opinions on Nancy Pelosi. I decided that the only thing that the right and left can agree on is the unalienable right to write dumb shit on a bathroom wall.

We played with two of the best bands we’ve shared a stage with, “Fork in Socket”.

and “Rest Assured.”

Rest Assured is playing the Red and the Black on March 17, and I recommend everyone go check them out. Think Pele meets Maps and Atlases meets Don Cab. They have one of the nastiest drummers you’ll ever see, and he’s only 23, so he can go straight to hell in my opinion. He’s one of those players that you’ll never be as good as no matter how hard you practice. Whenever I see players like that I always think of Gregory Hines’ line from History of the World while he’s tap dancing for the Romans…”Born to do it.”

The show went well. A bunch of kids came out and were really supportive. I injure myself fairly often when I play, and tonight was one of those nights. It’s funny how you never notice you’ve cut yourself until after the set is over.

Brian’s lost his voice a little, so Patrick’s been sharing vocals duties, which has worked out well.

After the show, we went out to the Nachbar. Great beers. Great jukebox. Apparently we’re Arsenal fans.

March 9, 2010, Columbus, Ohio @ The Treehouse

Tuesday nights are tough no matter where you play. The treehouse was no exception. It’s a great venue and gets it’s name from the giant tree the bar was built around. The logo of the bar, which looks like the bonsai logo from Karate Kid, is arranged in lights on the wall of the stage. See the tree and this lamp alone are worth the price of admission.

My friends, Emily and Kyle put us up and brought some people out to the show. At dinner, we all got to enjoy possibly the worst open mic performer of all time. God love him, he tried and I give him credit for that, but he followed up George Michael’s, “Faith” with a song “he wrote in the sixth grade” for which the chorus was “VH1, VH1, VH1.” Thanks Emily and Kyle :)

As we were leaving Columbus, I got this text from Kyle, “FYI Corey Haim is dead.” He was the original Lost Boy and badass in “License to Drive.” First we lose Kirk Cameron to Jesus and now Corey Haim to drugs. Slowly but surely, the world is taking my childhood away from. What’s next, Alf is off cats?

Imperial China record out, um, yesterday!

2010-03-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

In a lapse of monumental proportions we forgot to tell you the Imperial China album "Phosphenes" was released yesterday. It's out. You can order it from us. You can order it from Sockets, you can order it from Dischord, you can buy it online. Yes, my friends, it's out.

There are also some great tour updates from Imperial China (now on day 5 of their tour in support of Phosphenes) up over at Sockets. We'll pe posting them here too but for the time being head over there for them.

Happy spring,
Ruffians

Imperial China Remixes In Time For Spring Tour

2010-03-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

To celebrate Imperial China's tour in support of "Phosphenes", we're posting these remixes fresh from Swim-Two-Birds.

The tour kicks off tomorrow in Frederick, MD. Shows are listed below and at their new site www.impchin.com.

Imperial China - Go Where Airplanes Go (Swim-Two-Birds Remix)

Imperial China vs. The Magic Cephalopod - Gently Dubbed Dirigible

We hope you enjoy them!

Ruffians

Remixes, Recording, Hugh in Out Magazine

2010-02-27T16:24:00.000-08:00

Things have been abuzz here since the Laughing Man "blizzard sessions". As Imperial China prepares to hit the road a couple remixes are in the works. Laughing Man and Noon:30 are nearing completion of their tracks for a Ruffian/Sockets joint 12" comp series. And Hugh just came from a photo shoot for Out Magazine's May issue, which should be on stands mid-April if you're curious what that's about.

More soon, keep warm.

Ruffians

Imperial China - Phosphenes now available on iTunes

2010-02-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

Click here to buy.

Spinning plastic disk release on March 9th.

For live audio of their set at the Sockets showcase in January click here.

Also always worth checking out Sockets any old time. Ruffian and Sockets go way back and work together frequently. And generally Sean is 10x more on top of getting news out than I am. There's a link on our sidebar to take you right to all that goodness.

ruffians

Video downloads now available

2010-02-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

You must be thinking, "this is an awful lot of Ruffian news...what is he, snowed in or something?"

It's true, being snowbound has allowed me to get a bunch done around here (much aided by the folks mentioned below).

The newest one is that the first of many (we hope) video downloads is available on the downloads page. It's Sentai at Shinjuku Jam in Tokyo in November of 2006. More to come soon.

ruffians

Imperial China Spring Tour

2010-02-10T10:21:00.001-08:00

Here is the poster and tour dates for Imperial China's spring mini-tour:

Some more photos from Sunday's Laughing Man session

2010-02-10T08:13:00.000-08:00

Listening to the playback

Copperphone

The whole band (-Luke; there was a blizzard)

Been some time

2010-02-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the lack of news. It's not for lack of things going on.

1) Sockets threw a showcase at the Black Cat which included a number of the bands with releases coming up on Sockets and Ruffian, including BLDGS, Imperial China, and Hume, as well as Big Gold Belt (Sockets) and the indomitable Cornel West Theory (Sockets). It was a blast and alot of people turned up. We also had the forthcoming Imperial China album Phosphenes (Sockets/Ruffian) for sale. It will be available digitally soon and they will have copies on tour. Street date for the CD release is March 9th. Tour is early March with dates posted soon.

2) As I'm writing this from the control room at Swim-Two-Birds, Laughing Man is warming up in the live room for some very live recordings for the forthcoming Sockets/Ruffian comp. There's a viola player in there. I'm excited.

3) Ruffian now has a facebook page and a twitter feed. Look out world! I actually have no idea
how to direct you to them as they're totally new and I am terrified of the internet (as you may have guessed from the frequency of news posts here over the years). More on that soon.

4) They wouldn't have been possible but for the efforts of Liz Bennett, stalwart interfacer with technology who will be Ruffian social media secretary.

5) Also back on the team is Andy Aylward who will be handling the website and posting new downloads. Some records that are out of physical print will be made available for free and taken off iTunes, etc. There may be some video footage as well.

6) Keith Midkiff is now Ruffian's agricultural consultant. More on what this means over the course of the year.

7) Yes, there are secret plans.

8) DC is a really wonderful place to be right now. There is snow on the ground, Swim-Two-Birds has been full of good people lately, and there are more good bands playing than you can shake a stick at despite what some sour layabouts and voyeurs might say. We're glad to be swimming around in all this good creativity and to be doing it with such good folks as mentioned in this e-mail and countless others. I often wonder where the "DC sucks" sour grapes comes from. Things may go underground from time to time but I've never feel that the communities of creative artists, musicians, activists, and supporters flag in their work, communication, and support of each other. Difficult fun is hard to find, and empty fun is easy. So if you are here, enjoy it. If you're elsewhere, come visit.

9) Cephalopods has our first show booked. March 26th, Velvet Lounge DC, w/Imperial China.

Back under the blankets,
hugh/ruffians

New Downloads finally! Sockets and Ruffian team up to release Imperial China album and local comp

2009-11-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

There's some big news around here (some of which you may have hear over at Sockets -- Sean, please bring me back a krar from Ethiopia). First is the old new news:

There are a few new downloads available on the free downloads page (http://ruffianrecords.com/downloads.html). It's 1996 revisited! The first is the tracks from a never released split 7" between Hugh and Saran's old band A.K.A. Harlot #1 and the second is some unreleased Vestpocket Psalm tracks from a basement session engineered by Hugh on a cassette 8 track back in 1996.

UPDATE! We've added the Exaspirin sessions from Invisible City in Cleveland from 1999. Enjoy!

More soon.

The bigger news is that we're teaming up with Sockets to release the Imperial China album "Phosphenes" next spring. More on that soon.

We're also teaming up with Sockets and some of the finest bands in Washington to release a local compilation LP. It's gonna be beautiful and we're already plotting with the bands in mad potluck brainstorming sessions.

Space is the place,
ruffians

News at last

2009-10-26T16:37:00.001-07:00

Hello all,

Apologies for the terrible delay. We've been busy and running around. We're also a bit behind on orders so if you're waiting on something, don't worry, it will ship this week.

So the big news:

We will after all be getting a bunch of new free downloads up soon. We've scoured the vaults and found some out-takes, unreleased tracks, and live shows for you. There will be some special surprise additions to this as well.

The next big news is that we are teaming up with Sockets to release a couple exciting records soon. At least one will be a compilation of DC area bands and musicians we find exciting. Recording for this comp begins this fall and we hope to have the record out in the first half of 2010. More on who's on it to come. We have some exciting plans.

Keep your eye on space,
Hugh

Downloads

2009-08-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

We've been combing the vaults and have come up with some good stuff for free downloads. There are some live recordings of The No-Gos and AKA Harlot #1 as well as some unreleased Exaspirin tracks recorded at The Invisible City in Cleveland in 2009. Also recordings of The Betty Fraud Clinic, a pre-Exaspirin/Early Humans/No-Gos/Black Eyes band, and maybe a couple of records that almost got released but didn't (like the Trooper/Epson Energy split LP). A Samuel Beckett play with music by Hand Fed Babies and a collaboration between Hugh and Bernard Keenan (of Belfast's The Killing Spree among many other bands) are also in the pipeline along with the Bird Noises session at Inner Ear for the DC Free Recording Project. We may post some old DC band recordings as well just because alot of them are tapes that may be lost to history otherwise, but that will be a secondary project. Oh, speaking of, if anyone has a clean copy of the Bubble Jug tape from 1994 or so send it my way. Likewise if anyone has a copy of the material they recorded after the split 12" with The Vestpocket Psalm on Nervous Wreck Kids.

Hot swampy August benevolence,
ruffians

Black Eyes and No-Gos on Pukekos

2009-08-05T09:16:00.001-07:00

BJ at Pukekos has posted a Black Eyes Entry here. There will be a No-Gos one soon. The Black Eyes post has the second half of a story begun in the No-Gos post to come. I know it's odd, but there you have it.

Pukekos, by the way, is rad.

-ruffians

DC Free Recording Project

2009-08-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

The DC Free Recording Project is a collaboration between Dischord Records, Inner Ear Studios, and Ruffian Records/Swim-Two-Birds Studio. The project gives young bands who have not recorded in a professional studio short (5 hour) sessions at Inner Ear, engineered by Hugh McElroy. Bands must be from the DC area, play original music, and half the members must be 18 or under. For information on how to get in touch, go here. We are planning on doing a few more sessions after the 10 we did in 2006 and 2007.

-ruffians

HUME TOUR IN AUGUST!!!

2009-08-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hume will be touring the Northeast and some of Canada this month with I'm-not-sure what line up. In the middle of it they'll be at Inner Ear Studio with Hugh recording a new piece. Rumour has it that this involves two drummers, two bassists, and three saxophones. This may or may not be their lineup on tour. I don't think the giant Octopus is coming along this time, sadly. But with Hugh's new band being named Cephalopods, maybe it's due for a revival...

Anyway, here are the dates:

August 14th @
LA BRIQUE

6545 Durocher atelier 402 in
Montréal, Quebec

August 15th @
The Danger Danger Gallery w/Make A Rising + Zevious
5013 BALTIMORE AVE. PHILADELPHIA, PA
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

August 16th @
BABY SISTERS w/ Coald Toast

517 S. Laurel St. Richmond, Va

August 17th @
Bo Bo Gallery
Asheville North Carolina

August 18th @
Atlanta Georgia

August 19th @ The Secret Squirrel 766 w. broad st. Athens, Georgia

August 20th @

Lamont Park w/ Anthony and Janel, Juffage

Washington D.C. NW Mt. Pleasant

August 21st @ Green Line/Sherman Arts
4426 Locust Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

August 22nd @

The Copy Cat w/ The Snails

Baltimore, Maryland

August 23rd @

Silent Barn w/ Angels in America, Special Noise

Brooklyn, New York

August 24th @

AS220

115 Empire St
Providence, Rhode Island 02903

August 25th @

TT the Bears Place

10 Brookline Street, Central Square, Cambridge
Boston, Massachusetts

August 26th @

Monkey House

30 Main St.
Winooski, Vermont

August 27th @
Hot Shot Gallery Augusta St. in the Kensington Market
Toronto, Canada

August 28th @ Garfield Artworks
4931 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania August 29th @ ALL OUR NOISE FESTIVAL Washington D.C.

Go check them out if they're coming to your town. It'll be worth it.

If you have been, at once!
-ruffians

Website down! Upcoming Shows!

2009-07-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

UPDATE 2: Looks like it's all fixed but if you see anything funky let us know.

UPDATE: The site's back up but there is something preventing some of the graphics from displaying. I'll hopefully get it sorted today or tomorrow.

Apologies to everyone but a friend in Japan tells me by way of Sean who was in Berlin that the parent website of this blob went down some time before independence day (the parents are always the last to know...and from abroad, no less). This seems to have been a result of the upgrades we did. I am working on getting it back up today. It will be awesome, for real.

Also awesome, Sonic Youth tonight (and tomorrow) at the 9:30 club. But if you can't go there, Fort Reno has a show tonight as well (lookee here).

Also at Fort Reno on Thursday is the very awesome Imperial China. In fact, go to Fort Reno every Monday and Thursday you can until July 30th when the sadly short season ends, just don't bring alcohol, drugs, glass bottles, balloons or arsenic. Kids, dogs, frisbees, blankets and sweethearts encouraged, though.

Keep the faith, and spread it gently,
ruffians

Downloads!

2009-06-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone who's been downloading the free EPs we posted this month. We, um, used 180% of our traffic allowance this month which has necessitated upgrading our web hosting. The bad thing is that this is a little pricey (cough, cough, buy records, ahem). The good thing is we will now have tons more space and a really big traffic allowance so look forward to more free records online. It may take a wee bit because we're doing some big work in the studio (there's a 1969 Ampex 8- track and a mono record cutting lathe that need setting up and some new monitors and a PA speaker repair to attend to and...) but I'm hoping to put up some records recorded here or elsewhere that never saw a commercial release or only saw a limited CD-R run. There may be some live shows as well. We'll see what turns up in the vaults as we dig through them (and my boxes and boxes of cassettes under the coffee table).

All best,
Ruffians

Raw Meta TONIGHT at Art-O-Matic

2009-06-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

From John Moon (of the amazing Cornel West Theory) some info on the Raw Meta show at Art-O-Matic. They've been practicing in our studio and I can assure you this will be worth seeing.

Ladies and Gentlemen and Otherwise Good People of the Planet,

Rashad Dobbins (Vox), Sam Lavigne (Drums) and John Wesley Moon (Electronics and Vox)

of the Cornel West theory will be performing tonight as Raw Meta.

Raw Meta is nasty drums and cubistic voice between electronic earth and sky.

An electronic punk voodoo sound painting with soul might describe it best.

Or maybe imagine this sonically...?

Tonight. Wednesday. June 24th. 8pm to 9pm. On the Electric Stage.

at ArtOMatic.

55 M Street, S.E. (at the corner with Half Street)
Washington, DC 20003
Metro stop: Green Line, Navy Yard, Ballpark exit

(directions?)

AOM is an amazing month long art festival.

If you haven't checked it out you should.

Tshuvah

2009-06-15T19:30:00.001-07:00

If you've heard it, leave a comment here.

Long-overdue link to Gas & Go by Kellee Hughes

2009-06-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

Nearly 5 years ago, filmmaker Kellee Hughes asked Hugh if he would compose a soundtrack for her short film Gas & Go. After a really inexcusable delay on Hugh's part, he finally did it. Although it's been done for a while, Hugh is a total slacker about these things (however look for quicker action on the Tshuvah project he and Kendall Nordin have recently finished).

Hugh finally wrote and recorded the soundtrack in his living room with 4 gongs, a drum, a length of PVC pipe, a bell, a saz, and some chimes. The film is short and sweet. Go have a look there.

Enjoy,
Ruffians

Free Hume and Horses Downloads Available now!

2009-06-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Good news! The newish Hume Wyfe EP and the old Horses EP are available for free download on the Ruffian site here.

Hume is the ongoing, ever-mutating project of Britton Powell. The recording preceding the Wyfe EP, "Hume Presents the Phat Daughter String Quartet" is a suite of four pieces for string quartet (two with vocals as well, record available to the right or on iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, and Rhapsody) backed by wicked dub re-interpretations of the pieces. This EP is a more rock affair with elements of prog, post punk, noise freak out, motorik kraut evident in the mix. Both were recorded and mixed by Hugh at Swim-Two-Birds studio in picturesque Columbia Heights, Washington, DC.

Horses was one of the bands formed by members of Black Eyes after they split up in early 2004. While Jacob and Daniel (who are now blowing minds in Mi Ami) formed a free-improv group called White Flight, Dan, Hugh, and Mike teamed up with Fiona from Et At It and formed Horses which stripped off some of Black Eyes' percussive/dub/free improv layers and came up with a more minimal, angular sound.

We'll get some cover art up soon (cover art is in the .zip files) and probably find some way to integrate the downloads page with the rest of the site better. You can also get there by clicking on "Free Downloads" on the right.

All best,
Ruffians

New digital releases, some of them free

2009-05-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

All of the Ruffian catalogue is now available online through iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, and Rhapsody (including the Hand Fed Babies album "Line of Control" which is only available through these online stores).

We're also going to make some obscure and/or out of print recordings available for free through the website. Keep an eye out. Currently planned are the Horses EP and Hume's Wyfe EP neither of which received an official release. We'll probably keep 'em coming as we dig through the archives...

Also the "Hume Presents the Phat Daughter String Quartet" LP comes with a coupon for a free digital download with purchase. We'll be working to expand these to older releases and will include one with all new releases on vinyl.

"This is probably music", or: our new blob

2009-05-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Welcome to the Ruffian blob! This is likely to replace the news page of www.ruffianrecords.com in the coming weeks as it makes life a little more organized and easy for us around here. Three things to mention:

1) This blob is under construction. We are working to make the blob complete but knowing us that will happen in a haphazard and piecemeal fashion. Like any other blob it will not take over your city immediately, but ooze out slowly in multiple directions. Photos, etc., may be missing for a while.

2) I found a white label 12" on 18th St. in Adams Morgan last week. Someone had scrawled in sharpie on either side of the sleeve "This is Probably Music". This is our new unofficial motto.

3) There will be more news soon, I swear, and probably a separate blob for Swim-Two-Birds.

That is all,
Ruffians