A few years ago, I went to see Metallica in Charlotte with Bob and DJSK from Red Bull. It’s the most money I’ve ever spent to see a band but it was awesome. Like really awesome. Way more awesome than I was expecting from those old farts. Anyway, Richmond, VA’s Lamb of God opened up for them, and I wasn’t getting down to their set at all, but right at the end they gave a shout out to Wrightsville Beach and played the theme from the movie Cape Fear. Being the proud North Carolinian that I am, I was pumped on it and kept thinking how bad ass it would be to use that song in something.

Fast forward two years later: Nick and Clay have been gathering clips over the past few months and wanted to do a quick 2011 wrap up. As we were logging the footage, I remembered that Fantomas had recorded a version of the Cape Fear theme, so I threw together a completely unnecessary opener which totally rips off the title sequence from the movie. Add that to a bunch of riding, shooting guns, and the song Wires (my and Clay’s top song of 2011), you got yourself a f__kin’ party.

Things have been kinda slow around here, and I’m not sure when that’s actually going to change since we’re officially into the winter months. But for now, sit back, watch the boys kill it,  and enjoy the last few days of 2011.

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“End of Year” Playlist

1. Fantomas – The Directors’ Cut
2. Red Fang – Murder the Mountains
3. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
4. Tombs – Path of Totality
5. Sleep – Jerusalem

If you’ve seen this site at all over the past three years, chances are that you’ve seen some photos by Jason Hudson. Jason’s one of our best friends and he has some serious skills behind the lens of a camera, so he started coming out and shooting photos around the time we were working on No Name Losers. He’s stuck around ever since and he’s taken a ton of great photos of all the boys around the region. He’s had photos run in Alliance, Unleashed, and he has a sweet blog of his own that he’s constantly updating with new stuff (not to mention the fact that he’s hands down the best Facebook profile picture photographer I know).

Jason has an art show coming up this week at Bottega Art and Wine here in Wilmington, so I sat down and spoke to him a little bit about his photography and what we can expect at the show itself. He’ll be exhibiting work with local photographers Keith Ketchum and Ross Rogers with background jams provided by The Goldie Hahn Solos. I helped him take his artwork to the gallery a few days ago, and I’m here to tell you that it all looks incredible.

The show is this Friday, December 2nd. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Wilmington and you don’t go check it out, you are seriously blowing it. Jason is a really talented photographer and one of the best dudes I know, so be sure to head downtown Friday night, check out some unreal photography, drink some booze, and give him a high five. I guarantee that you won’t regret it. Hell, bring some cash and scoop up a piece or two. You know that your living room could use an artistic upgrade, am I right?

Check out www.kellerphoto.net and www.bottegagallery.com for more information. And thanks for everything over the past few years, Jason. We’re stoked for you, buddy.

For the past two years, Clay and I have been talking about starting a Misfits cover band. We’d practice all year and then only play one show on Halloween night. We always talk about how we’d get super drunk and all our friends would come out to see us and it would be the time of our lives. Then every year, we never actually do it and this night rolls around and we’re left with only our dreams of how epic it could actually be.

So we’re doing it next year. You hear that, everybody? It’s on the internet now, so we kinda have to follow through with it. Stay on us about it and we’ll see you guys in 364 days.

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Halloween Playlist

1. Misfits – Static Age
2. Misfits – Earth A.D.
3. Misfits – Walk Among Us
4. Misfits – Legacy of Brutality
5. Danzig – S/T

Okay, so it may have taken a bit longer than I initially promised, but let’s be honest: when have I ever been good at meeting deadlines? This is just a short little sequence, but we’ve been sitting on this footage for a while now and figured we might as well do something with it. All this went down when Mark and Nick were in Orlando for Memorial Day weekend and got a chance to ride with Jeff House and Ben Greenwood.

Jeff’s a good friend of ours and I was really pumped on this footage because it was good to see him riding again after a bad knee injury last summer. Well, after I finished editing, I sent a link to Jeff so he could check it out and he informed me that he had just blown his other ACL and was out of the game for a little while longer. It’s a huge bummer, so pour one out for Jeff. Hope you have a speedy recovery, buddy.

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While we’re on the subject of pouring one out for shitty knees, you might as well pour out a little bit more for our very own Mark Rugala and Geoffrey Barnes. Both of them have had surgery recently to fix a busted knee, so they’re out of commission for a little while as well. From what I hear, Mark is already giving the stationary bike hell and Geoffrey has his own personal nurse keeping him company via Skype, so I’m sure they’ll make physical therapy their bitch and be back in action before too long.

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In other news, I’ve still got some leftover footage to go through, although I know better than to provide a timeline to expect some kind of finished product. Just stay tuned…

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“Get Well Soon, Everyone” Playlist

1. Future Islands – On the Water
2. Witch – S/T
3. Mastodon – The Hunter
4. High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
   
5. Kids and Explosions – Shit Computer

Our buddies at Aussie Island are in the process of updating their website, so I went digging through the archives trying to find some footy of the team to put on the new site. I just found  Clay Martin’s remix section from the No Name Losers DVD bonus features, which is fitting because tomorrow is Clay’s birthday. So in the spirit of celebration, here it is. Between you and me, I’m pretty sure his better than his official section in the movie.

Happy birthday, dood…

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“Clay’s Birthday” Playlist

1. Metallica – Master of Puppets
2. Misfits – Collection I and II
3. Snapcase – Progression Through Unlearning
4. Young Jeezy – The Inspiration
5. Chris Brown – I Can Transform Ya

Exactly two years ago right this minute, I was sitting on Justin Sellers’ couch fighting a strong urge to either pass out or throw up or both.

In less than three hours, we were supposed to premiere No Name Losers in downtown Wilmington and I was a complete wreck. I was convinced that we had a bunch of our friends and family showing up to a placed called Club Diesel to see a giant piece of shit movie that we spent the last year of our lives making and no one was going to like it. So we did what any respectable men would do in the face of adversity: we took Bluto’s advice and started pounding PBR tall boys as soon as we got to the venue.

Everything that could go wrong, did. A hard drive failed, a cable was missing, the DVD player wasn’t outputting sound; you name it, it didn’t work right. Everything finally fell into place right before we were supposed to start the movie and I don’t know if it was the nerves or if it was the fact that I had only gotten about 12 hours of sleep that entire week, but I was pretty much hammered by the time the opening sequence began. From that point on, everything went off pretty much perfect and it turned into one of the best nights of my life. People seemed to like the movie and we went on to have an extremely large time for the rest of the evening.

Two years later, the movie has been played over 13,000 times online. I know this is a really low number when you compare it to the Leprechaun in Alabama or the video of the 7-year-old car thief, but to us, it’s f__king crazy. Thanks so much to whoever has watched it or bought a DVD. I still really hope you don’t think it sucks.

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“Two-Year Anniversary” Playlist

1. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “S/T”
2. Black Lips – “Arabia Mountain”
3. Baroness – “Blue Record”
4. M83 – “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”
5. Rwake – “Lift”

The dudes over at Humanoid have started to slowly release some goods from their team trip to Lake Powell earlier this summer and they just dropped a new video called Feed the Machine, Episode 1. It’s features a few of the Humanoid guys, and I know I’m biased, but I’m happy as hell to report that our very own Mark Rugala was one of them. Mark and the boys were definitely throwing down, so click here to check it out and be sure to keep an eye out for future episodes.

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On a somewhat related note, if you’re not concerned with good riding as much as wanting to see someone just get f__ked up, click here to see our new buddy Bob Sichel almost dying on the Lake Powell trip. And be careful out there, kids.

(And just in case anyone was wondering, like usual, I shamelessly stole that photo from the Humanoid website. It’s how I roll.)

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“Humanoid Media Blitz” Playlist:

1. M83 – “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” (!)
2. Various Artists – “Stax Records 50th Anniversary Celebration”
3. Sleep – “Jerusalem”
4. Trans Am – “Surrender to the Night”

]]> http://telepromptedanthems.com/2011/09/07/feed-the-machine/feed/ 0 telepromptedanthems homepage-mitch http://telepromptedanthems.com/2011/09/03/log-and-capture/ http://telepromptedanthems.com/2011/09/03/log-and-capture/#comments Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:53:44 +0000 telepromptedanthems http://telepromptedanthems.com/?p=1267 ]]>  

Too busy for an official post because we’re working on some new jams as we speak. Wheels are in motion. Gears are turning. Things are happening here at TA HQ. Keep an eye out early next week. Or maybe late next week. Hell, it might even be week after next. Just know that new stuff is coming soon…

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“Digging Through Footage” Playlist

1. The National – “Boxer”
2. Entombed – “Wolverine Blues”
3. Crime in Stereo – “…is Dead”
4. Deafheaven – “Demo”

What started off as a pretty average day just got a whole lot better because thanks to the dudes at Humanoid Wakeboards and my local Fed Ex guy, I just unwrapped my first new wakeboard since 2007.  The board looks unreal, so I’m planning on trying to bum a ride behind Capt. Martin’s vessel to give it a whirl later this week. A bunch of people have made fun of me in the past for still using a pair of old Liquid Force Ultra Suction bindings, but I have to say that it seems like the Oracle was destined to be paired up with them because they look amazing together. Big thanks to the guys over at Humanoid H.Q. for the updated ride. My stokemeter is officially at Matt Schrier levels right now.

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And just in case you missed it, click here to check out Mark Rugala and Bob Sichel riding this board way better than I ever could.

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“Brand New Board” Playlist

1. Tombs – “Path of Totality”
2. Dr. Dog – “Shame Shame”
3. Mondo Boys – “Desert Island” Mixtape
4. Britney Spears – “I Wanna Go” (Been in my head since Thursday. Seriously.)

]]> http://telepromptedanthems.com/2011/08/29/new-ride/feed/ 0 telepromptedanthems Oracle http://telepromptedanthems.com/2011/08/19/a-weekend-with-humanoid/ http://telepromptedanthems.com/2011/08/19/a-weekend-with-humanoid/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:18:36 +0000 telepromptedanthems http://telepromptedanthems.com/?p=1256 ]]>

Okay, so I’ve got good news and bad news. You know how every summer, there’s about a month-long period where nothing gets posted and there’s no activity on the site whatsoever? Well the bad news is that this year, that month turned into about three months. The good news is that it’s finally over!

A while back, Nick and Mark went down to Orlando for a weekend and met up with Mark’s Humanoid teammate Bob Sichel. As soon as they got down there, they got right to work and banged out a few quick sessions before heading back up to NC.

We’ve been sitting on the footage for a while now, and that video up there is what came of it all. We’re hanging on to a few more clips from some other dudes, so stay tuned to see what else went down. I mean, it’s not like we could release it all at once. It’s been three months since the last post, so we kind of have to pace ourselves here, you know?

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Speaking of Humanoid, after you watch the video, be sure to head over to their site and check out the goods. They have some snazzy new boards for 2011 and they’re putting together an impressive team of riders. Plus, Mark just got back from a big team trip out west and he says that the stuff they have up their sleeves for 2012 is looking sick.

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Rest easy, people. Regular posting has returned. I know you missed us.

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“Return to Blogging” Playlist

1. Sleep – “Jerusalem”
2. Jay-Z and Kanye West – “Watch The Throne”
3. Death From Above 1979 – “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine”
4. Snapcase – “Steps” EP