And then one day...

I just stopped reading and writing for pleasure.

Dear Wolf,

how many bands are there with wolf, or wolves in their name... a lot.

Wolf; The Wolves (Level Plane); The Wolves (or Wolves Crew, swiss hip hop?); The Wolves Band; Of the Wolves; To the Wolves; Band of Wolves; Pack of Wolves; Sea Wolf; Wolf Parade; Wolfmother; Wolfsbane; Wolf Harden; Wolf Eyes; Wolfsheim; Wolves in the Throne Room; Wolf Colonel; Patrick Wolf; Wolf Krakowski; Guitar Wolf; We are Wolves; Aids Wolf; Woelv; Ivan and the Wolves; Wolves and Ravens; Steppenwolf; (Lone) Wolf and Cub; Tiger Bear Wolf; Ketch Harbour Wolves; Fox and Wolf; Howling Wolf; Wolf Ridge Band; Wolf River Band;
Silver Wolf Band;
Raised by Wolves;
Los Lobos (ha);
Deer Wolf;

and many many more
































coming soon... "Deer is the New Wolf." hahaha.

Deer Hunter
Deer Tick
Dear and the Headlights
Deerhoof
Deerhead
Deerwhistle
Stolen Deer
Deer Tracks

not quite convinced...

Sebastian

...desperately needs someone to tell him that everything is going to be ok.

M.I.A.

So, I haven't posted a blog in like 6 months. It seems like it's been longer. I haven't had the time, or made the time. I guess I just haven't been going out much at all, for a number of reasons.

I have been enrolled in the Teaching Credential program, which pretty much accounts for about 90 percent of my days during the week. The other 10% I've been giving to playing music. I'm spread pretty thin, but have faith. I'll be back someday soon.

There once was a man...

There once was a man who thought he could do anything, who thought he was adaptable, capable, loving, and strong.

One day the man woke up in his bed alone and bitter. He had fooled himself for years. He looked around to find he hadn't been the man he thought he was all those years, and he began to wonder what happened to him that brought him to here. It seems he had poured so much of himself into the people around him, that there was nothing left. He came to find that his entire life had been a drawn out series of joyless wastes of time. He has nothing left to care about, and he just wants to go back to sleep.

Please, just let him sleep.

The National, Jaguar Love.

Tonight The National will be at the House of Blues. I will be in attendance. I like The National, but haven't gotten a chance to give a dedicated listen to the album I have.

If I can swing it, I'd like to leave the show at the House of Blues (which starts at 8) in time to catch Jaguar Love at the Beauty Bar. Jaguar Love is yet another post Blood Brothers project (to join the ranks of Head Wound City, Soiled Doves, Neon Blonde, Past Lives...) made up of Johnny and Cody from Blood Brothers, and Jay Clark from Pretty Girls Make Graves. Johnny Whitney is playing a piano and singing. Cody Votolato is on both guitar and bass, and Jay (who was the shit in Pretty Girls) is playing drums, bass, and keyboard. This sounds interesting. It must be nice when your popularity in your previous band(s) can afford you all these one time, one album, one giant headlining tour projects. It's yet to be seen whether or not this band is more than just a recording project. They're on tour right now in the US and heading to Europe in June with plans to continue through the summer. Some of their shows will be opening up for Queens of the Stone Age, but they have a bunch of headlining gigs too. They have a 3 song EP set for release next Tuesday, June 6th on Matador Records, and a full length on the way called "Take Me to the Sea," slated for late August. The Matador website has an mp3 of "Bats Over the Pacific Ocean," from the full length available for download, here. I listened to it, and like it. It's much more rhythmically straight forward than the last couple of projects for Johnny, but his familiar vocals (screech included) go well with a more driving and upbeat accompaniment.

The rest of the the Blood Brothers (Jordan, Mark, Morgan, and orginal Guitarist Devin Welch) are also in a new band called Past Lives. They've played out in Seattle already, and are booked to play the Che in Sept. They kind of remind me of Kill Me Tomorrow.

Bomb ass Memorial day Weekend Shows.

Thursday, May 22nd our brothers from different mothers The Fever Sleeves and Hostile Combover will be playing at Bar Pink Elephant. Recognize!

Friday, May 23rd, will be Cullen Hendrix's (The North Atlantic, Dirtbag's Delight) last show with Pen and Ink before he moves to Texas to be all educational n'shit. They play with The Donkeys and Derek Papa at the Ken Club. Also fans of now defunct The North Atlantic should delight to find that Jason Hendrix and Jason Richards have teamed up with a third Jason (Clark) and a Jeremy to form Big Science in Chicago. Very exciting.

Saturday, May 24th. at Chasers. Batwings presents our very dear foreign friends from down Mexico way, Lipstick Terror, and Maniqui Lazer. They are both from Mexicali, the capital of Baja California. It's a major city of more than a million that is about 10 miles south of the shit town of El Centro, where each member of Batwings all grew up. They bring with them Anavan, and Attractive and Popular. Anavan is from Los Angeles. Attractive and Popular are from Arkansas. Both bands are former GSL bands, and both play really fun elecro-hardcore shit. They all fucking bring it. This is a big deal! I implore you, check these bands out!
CHECK THESE BANDS OUT!

Cat Dirt had this to say about seeing Lipstick Terror in their hometown of Mexicali...

and this ->

"I've been meaning to see Lipstick Terror for some time and I wasn't dissapointed. They very much fit in with the los angeles smell centered experimental vibe. It's basically hardcore with bandanas and a key board. From Mexicali? High concept if you know what I mean. Undeniably they had the crowd going. Take a note music industry- lipstick terror is your official scene opening band for your show in Mexicali. They know it, though. Expect bandanas. Some of the spirit of born against, if you know what i'm talking about. But there's no melody."

and this ->

"I want to book a show with Lipstick Terror in San Diego. Hard to find a venue. I think I may be Lipstick Terror's biggest fan."

Batwings will be playing with Lipstick Terror and our other Mexicali powerhouse buddies Cancer Bullet in Mexicali on Saturday June 7th, and again on Sunday June 8th in San Diego at Kadan.

-Sebastian

Sd Reader quotes A.C.I.F.

I was quoted by name for something I posted here, in the Blurt section of the San Diego reader a couple of weeks ago [here]. At first I was unsure whether or not the writer was trying to be a smartass by referring to me as "Sebastian Ulloa of Batwings." He made a point to say that myself and someone from VVmorgue had both said bad things about Chasers, yet both of our bands had upcoming shows booked there. I know T-bone has been trying hard to shed the old reputation that Chaser's has, so I think that was the point of the piece. My intention was not to talk shit about Chaser's. You can read what I said in its original context here. There was also a mistake in the date that the reader posted about Batwings playing Chasers. They listed us on a show for May 9th at Chasers that we had canceled. Batwings does however have a show at Chaser's on Friday, June 13th with our old guitarist Todd, and his new band, Extinct Animals, and a band called Architect Sketch.


- Sebastian

No one belongs here more than you. - A book review.

No one belongs here more than you. Stories by Miranda July

Miranda July is a filmmaker, writer, and performing artist. My first exposure to her work was in a short film called "A Shape Called Horse" from an old Kill Rock Stars video compilation that I have on VHS, and then later when she made her first feature length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. She also just did a short film with John C. Reilly called "Am I Someone's Favorite Person?"

My first impression of the book was that it reads a little bit like a Jack Handey book. Jack Handey is the humorist responsible for "Deep Thoughts," "Fuzzy Memories," and "My Big Thick Novel," from which they read excerpts on Saturday Night Live. The one-liners were always these great surreal observations. For example, "If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." In the same way, Miranda July has a great way of describing these beautifully awkward perverted perceptions of reality. Her characters live in the world filled with all the hidden meanings and things that most people don't see. Probably, because they are not there. We call these kinds of people, crazy people. You know how watching one of Ben Stiller's romantic comedies might make you anxious because throughout the movie you know he's moments away from do something stupid, or fucking something up, like zipping his balls in his fly or setting something on fire? Well, in Miranda July's stories, you're anxious because you know her character's are a page away from doing something really weird, sad, gross, or awkward and depressing. They are really sad yet charming characters, with really awkward yet funny stories, if you can imagine that.

As I read the book, some of the elements therein began to feel strikingly familiar. It reminded me of an almost surreal experience I had as a teenager. When I was a freshman in high school, my by-all-other-measures-insignificant existence came the the specific attention of a girl in the upper class. I believe she was a senior. I didn't know a whole lot about her. I knew she was a cheerleader, and that for some reason or another she decided to take a liking to me. Apparently, it doesn't take much more than that to constitute a relationship at that age. So, just like that, we were dating, or "going out," which ironically has little to do with actually knowing one another, or dates, or going anywhere. We spoke on the phone a couple of times, and from what I remember, the conversations were brief. She was the same age as my older sister, so she knew where I lived. She decided to stop by unannounced on a Saturday morning before she went to cross country practice or something. She was directed to my bedroom where I was still sleeping. She came in and sat on the bed beside me and just watched me sleep. After she woke me, she told me she had been sitting there for 10 or 15 minutes just watching me sleep. Now, "awwwww," this might sound really sweet or romantic, but we had only been "dating" for a couple of weeks. It really creeped the shit out of me. This was the first of many things to creep me out. A couple of weeks later we broke up. So, maybe before we broke up, I might have possibly told some people, that probably knew her better than they knew me, that I thought she was a crazy person. I may have even said I was afraid of her. This is not a nice thing to say about someone you are dating, and for future reference should be considered a mistake. So, when I finally got up the gumption to break up with her, I bore witness to some of the most unnatural, almost painful contortions of reality. She very quickly managed to convince herself that I was just as upset about "breaking up" as she was, that it was for the better, that we would always be friends, and that she knew in her heart of hearts that I was not a person that was capable of having used the word "psycho" to describe her. I was. I did. Truth be told, not only did I refer to her as a "psycho," I told several people that I was afraid that if I broke up with her, she would do something crazy like Misery style, and tie me up and torture me, or sit up on the rooftop of a building at school with a sniper rifle and take out the next girl to talk to me. I really was afraid of breaking up with her. In my own flimsy defense, I was freaked out. She had already given me an incredibly annoying cutesy-wootsey nickname that I instantly hated. She used it at every opportunity, publicly and privately, and I dare not ever repeat it. She wasted no time buying Christmas gifts for me that she was absolutely sure I was going to love. It was like the first week of November for fuck's sake. I barely knew her. We only dated for about three or four weeks, two of which I feared her, and during which we didn't actually do anything together beyond briefly making out a couple of times before she walked home from school, and sharing a handful of brief phone calls. Maybe I'm a prick. Ok, I know I'm a prick, but maybe my deep seeded and irrational fear of commitment started even as far back as freshman year in high school. All I do know, is that the characters in Miranda July's stories remind me of this crazy girl and of my vividly imaginative fear of the fallout of one of my very first relationships.

All of the stories are written in the first person, and if you've seen her movie, Me and You and Everyone We Know, the style feels familiar. The people in her movie do a lot of talking like no one is listening. Many of the conversations are not so much exchanges, but alternating monologues. Like the movie, some of the subject matter in the book is shockingly perverse, but poetic at the same time. It deals with some dark, ugly, and awkward situations with acceptance and light hearted sense of humor. It's fun and sad at the same time.
Definitely a recommended read, especially if you enjoyed Me and You and Everyone We Know. There is a really charming website for the book here.

Here are some of my favorite quotes.

From How to Tell Stories to Children "Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed."

From Majesty "Get down on your knees your highness, and ask my vagina, that ugly beast." "Let me in, Let me in."

From This Person "Teachers of subjects that this person wasn't even good at are kissing this person and renouncing the very subjects they taught. Math teachers are saying that math was just a funny way of saying "I love you..."


Here's a scene from the movie.

"Fuck old People, Fuck Children, Fuck Peace"

Thank you Alexis, for letting me borrow this book, No, making me read this book.
-Sebastian