2008 was a great year, one many of us will always remember, one some of us will never remember, and one none of us will sometimes remember to never be forgotten. The Cyanide Valentine probably won't be producing much in 2009, short of something unforeseen. To keep up with me go to zavracky.com which will be updated regularly with new music; there is already a ton of music up there including all the CV stuff and all my soundtrack work. Thanks to everyone who downloaded my stuff in 2008. Godspeed!
crazy new cv video finished
Zug Island, a film production company out of Detroit has made a strange and twisted video for "Sugar Coma" which you can see here. Thanks to them for their stellar work. To see more of it go to their website.
"the sweetest season" video made by blue skye on ms paint!
A fan who calls himself "Blue Skye" made a very sweet video for "The Sweetest Season". You can see all his other videos here. Until just now I didn't realize it was possible to make a video in MS Paint but this quite literally moved me to tears, mostly because of the idea that someone would be moved enough to take the time to do this. Thanks Blue!
the last waltz?
This Friday at Church an absolutely astonishing event will take place as CV will play it's last show for quite some time. I am moving to New York City to work more on some of the TV shows I've been doing the music for (for more information on this I will post a website link later (once I make the website)).
This is not to say however that CV won't continue to play shows in some capacity in the future. I have put together an excellent and very enthusiastic band and we have a lot of fun so it's not a matter of whether it will happen, it's a matter of when.
For all efforts going forward I will [probably] use my own name (Jake Zavracky) which is a terrible marketing move since no one can pronounce or spell it correctly but I guess I am a glutton for punishment. I am doing tons of TV work which I will compile and post and I am also working on a new album, which is meant to be a Broadway musical about the life of Pat Sajak*.
But back to this Friday, this is a great bill that Nick Blakey and I put together which we've called TWEAK - The Boston Electronic Music Festival - it's two nights and both are certainly worth attending. On Thursday I'll be playing guitar with my friends Lovewhip who I've been having a great time touring with over the last couple months. Here's the lineup:
*Hopefully you have recognized this hilarious joke. I am not working on a Broadway Musical about Pat Sajak. That would be crazy! It's about Fred Savage. JOKING AGAIN! I am working on a new album. It is tentatively titled "Blood" and it will be done somewhere around the new year.
two miscellaneous items
1. Quite a favorable write up on "Three Sides" at The World Forgot, which appears to be a very popular blog (according to my weblogs). Thanks so much to them for that.
2. The "AccountabilityNow" organization has raised 150,000 dollars in their August moneybomb. See the post below titled "please donate here today 8.8.08" for more information.
enormously huge cv show this friday august 22 with count zero
Here is the note that I sent out to our friends and fans about our show this Friday with Count Zero, Death Of The Cool, and Beats and Sources at the Abbey Lounge. Normally I write a separate post for the blog but this week I thought "naaah...":
"This will be large. So large in fact that it will probably make all other things previously considered large look small by comparison. Small things won't be considered small anymore. They'll be considered infinitesemal, medium things will be considered small, and so on. In fact if you can picture in your mind's eye the entire universe as only one tiny organism in a much larger universe, this show would be the size of all of the stars in that universe put together times a billion. Get ready to be crushed by the sheer weight of it.
Also you can always download our album "The Three Sides of the Cyanide Valentine" for free at cyanidevalentine.com as thousands of others have done, not that you'll need it after you've been pummeled to death by the enormity of the show on Friday."
Also I should mention what every Boston club-goer already knows; Count Zero is the tits.
please donate here today 8.8.08
If you're like me and you would like to see the Bush administration held accountable for essentially taking a giant dump on our Constitution and committing numerous acts of fraud in an almost flippant manner over the past 8 years, I urge you to donate even a small amount TODAY to AccountabilityNow
For a much more comprehensive explanation on what this is all about than I could hope to provide, read Glenn Greenwald's column in today's Salon here.
I would like to see one tenth of the outrage directed at Bill Belichek last season for breaking NFL rules projected on the commander in chief of the United States.
cv back in an alarmingly large way.
Once one has reached the dizzying heights of headlining TT's on a Thursday night, it's hard to imagine where one can go from there. Yet bravely we forge ahead and face the terrifying task this Thursday the 7th of August with our lovely violinist Hannah's band Copal, the Jaggery, and Molly Zenobia. After taking July off, we are bound to rock more mightily than ever.
It will be a bittersweet occasion however, as it is the last show for our beloved bass player Brendan Reilly. He is moving to San Francisco. Come out and give him a slap on the ass to say goodbye.
philly, brooklyn, and boston this weekend.
We're off to Philly, NYC and back home this weekend for a little jaunty jaunt around the eastern seaboard. This will be a different version of the CV than the band you've seen live, since most of that band is sadly not available to do it. I've asked drummer Scott Campbell to team up with me and my laptop, and he graciously agreed. Scott is the drummer for my tightbros Heroes of Popular Wars who are doing the tour with me. So these shows will be very different to say the least. They'll be more German I think.
We start in Philly on Wednesday at the M Room, then Friday we head to Don Pedro in Brooklyn (I think their website could probably use a little work), then back home to PA's Lounge on Saturday.
Also we've had so much blog love from Germany that I have to imagine we are now bigger there than the Scorpions and Falco times a billion. Here is another blog that has written about us there called "The Last Pop Song". I know a little German (he's right over there! WAKA WAKA) and it basically says we're kuhl.
An easy way, I've found, to see most of the blogs that have written us up is to go to Hype Machine or elbo. It's an easy way to quickly check any band out actually. If someone tells me I should check out a band I just search for them on Hype Machine and in minutes I know if it's my thing or not. For whatever reason it doesn't list every blog we've been on but there's plenty to go on.
There's also an interview I did with the blog Black Sunshine here.
brendan quigley: the bizquig quizzes big
Not only is our own Brendan Quigley the world's greatest Moog player, he also writes very difficult crossword puzzles for the FRICKIN NEW YORK TIMES. (My Mom says she can't do them because they're too hard and my Mom is wicked smart, that's why I say they're very difficult although I personally know nothing about crossword puzzles). You can buy his books here on his very own homepage: brendanemmettquigley.com
weird
Two very strange things about the unreleased song "Automatik"; it was used on "The Young and the Restless" (wtf?) and it has somehow reached number 3 on the American Idol Underground Electronic music charts (wtf?!?!). You can buy the song here on soapsongs.com which specifically sells music played on soap operas.
Due to our soap opera fame Hannah and I have decided to change our look accordingly; here's a recent pic:
new cyanide valentine member: brendan quigley
Brendan Quigley, our new monophonic analog synth player, is from my hometown of Norwood. Everyone else in the band is from Maine, Vermont and Minnesota. You just can't trust those types of people. "Out of towners". They're planning something too, I just know it. Brendan or BQ as I call him has been a member of Hip Tanaka and he also started the band Campaign for Real Time. There are now two Brendans in the band so don't get them confused. Brendan is the more attractive one. See what I did there? Because you don't know which Brendan I'm talking about.
Here he is looking intelligent:
more evidence that we are the next rammstein
Or maybe there will be one more Rammstein before us but we're definitely next after that: yet another German blog has written about us; F.A.L.K., which stands for "F**k Art Let's Kill", and as everyone knows, I'm always saying that. Here's what they say, and you will find it hard to disagree: "Which so wrong I do not find times now, it varies nevertheless between Electro Dance, Indie Pop and alternative psychedelischen skirt." Or something like that, my German is a little rusty.
2/15; 2/16 - the cyanide valentine's extremely limited tour of the east coast begins friday...
We're doing two big shows this weekend.. the first is at the Pill, the internationally famous dance night that takes place on Fridays at Great Scott in Allston MA. Go to their website for more details. On Saturday, the second night of the tour we go to the Gulu Gulu in Salem MA. We will have a camera crew* ready to capture any crazy situations we might get into on tour, so look out for the documentary, coming soon.
DJ JOE JAMS myspace page is burning tiger stripes into my retinas.
Our main boy DJ JOE JAMS out of Minneapolis used a couple pieces of "The Reprise" in his mix/mash "CAN I GET A WOOP WOOP". We'd like to let Mr. Jams know he most certainly can get a woop woop as far as we're concerned! You can hear it on his myspace page.
cyanide valentine on XNDRadio.com :
Tune in Friday January 11 at 4PM ESt to hear songs from "The Three Sides of the Cyanide Valentine" on XNDRadio.com, a British web radio show hosted by DJ Smithy.
cyanide valentine on obscuresound.com
Check out this nifty article on "The Three Sides of the Cyanide Valentine" from obscuresound.com. These guys obviously have great taste in music and probably better taste in music than everyone in the history of the world combined times a billion.
cyanide valentine on pasta primavera
We have picked up the endorsement of Pasta Primavera (pastaprimavera.com), not only a great blog but also a delicious meal. This endorsement is really crucial to us. They were going to endorse Mitt Romney but then they came to their senses. Thanks guys!
cyanide valentine in several other languages
Here's an article on us from Germany. You probably won't be able to read it unless you speak German but what it basically says is that our album is the best thing they've ever heard and we're going to be the most important band in Germany since Rammstein. Really there's no need to even read it, just take our word for it, that's what it says.
Here's another article on us in Portuguese and one in Italian. So danke, obrigado and grazie!
-Posted by Jake-
new cyanide valentine member: hannah theim: violin
We are pretty damned thrilled to have added an excellent violinist to the current lineup of the CV: Hannah Thiem. Hannah is from Minnesota. When she and I were working together to learn the set, which includes a cover of "Stand Back" by Stevie Nicks, she admitted she didn't know who Stevie Nicks is. SHE DIDN'T KNOW WHO STEVIE NICKS IS! I thought that was so cool. Hannah's first show will be a show we just added at the last second: Thursday Dec 6th at Harper's Ferry with The Vital Might. Be pals with Hannah and/or her other band COPAL (a cool and weird melding of spanish gypsy music over hip hop beats)
kate's art show at the smfa
Here is some shots of Kate's show at the SMFA, where she studies art. She has a brilliant and sinister vision of a girl's young childhood, the show was dark and hilarious.
3 of Kate's screen prints; Kate and Jake.
-Posted by Jake-
free downloads of both cyanide valentine albums
We don't want your money. We just want your ears. Not literally of course. Please don't send us your severed ears. Below is a zip file of the new album "The Three Sides of the Cyanide Valentine" and below that is the 2005 debut album "Let it Rot". Just click on it and the download will begin. That's all you have to do, it's free. Below that is a list of links of places that DO need your money. Thanks for listening!
Click HERE to go to a FREE DOWNLOAD of "THE THREE SIDES OF THE CYANIDE VALENTINE" and HERE for a FREE DOWNLOAD of "LET IT ROT". The download will begin as soon as you click the link.
THE LIGHT FOUNDATION
3 time superbowl champion New England Patriot's OT raises money for youth programs in his spare time.
VIDEOS FOR LOOKIN' AT!!!
Here are some video for you to look at if you like lookin' at stuff. Flash is required. If you don't have Flash you probably don't have computer at all, you're not even sure what one is, and you're totally happy with your typewriter that runs on direct current.
#1 video for lookin' at:
It's for "Nosferatu", made by Jake, and it tells the story of Jonestown. Of course the song is too short to tell the story with complete accuracy, so if you're looking to find out more, rent the PBS documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Times of the Peoples Temple". Enjoy.
another video for lookin' at (provided you like lookin' at stuff):
This video is for "The Reprise", the last song on the new album. It uses videos from various pop metal acts of the 80's like Cinderella, Dio, Bang Tango, Y&T, Extreme, Rainbow and the Scorpions and mixes them all up into a crazy hairy bowl of fun.
yet another video created for the sole purpose of lookin' at :
The song "Megafauna" is loosely based on "The Incredible Hulk" TV show I grew up watching. The verse is based on the theme song, and some of the lyrics echo the storyline. Here then is a video for "Megafauna" that uses scenes from the show. This video (and every other videos) is totally unauthorized so watch it now before I get sued by Universal.
listen to "the three sides of the cyanide valentine" online:
Below is the player for the new album, "The Three Sides of the Cyanide Valentine". Click HERE to open it in a new window (recommended). (Flash is required, click HERE to get it.) Just click on the song title to play a song.
listen to "let it rot" online:
Here is the player for the debut CV album, "Let it Rot" (2005). Click HERE to open it in a new window (recommended).
