Sewage 2.0, or Number Two is Poo

Doktor Ross Sewage4 Comments

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything, but I’ve been heaps busy. Though I’m forlorn to have starved the masses of my keen intellect and barbed wit, it’s been a necessary evil to hurl forward with a veritable slew of projects. Prepping for my wedding, a string of album layouts, recording, art… this website is but one of those projects.

No longer bound by Google (“do no evil, unless the NSA or the Chinese ask you to”), I’ve moved doktorsewage.com entirely onto a private server. I’ve rolled up my sleeves and gotten my itty bitty typing fingers dirty in the guts of WordPress, the amazing free and open source platform for building websites and blogs. Thank Bejebus, because I’m sick of hard coding html while I should be making art. Instead, now I can sift through CSS. A lateral move, really, except for the final result is far more satisfying.

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European Bluntkrieg 4

Doktor Ross Sewage2 Comments

The Bavarian pigs sure had thrown us for a loop. On our way to Tilburg in the Netherlands, they’d made us leave our back line and our Scott behind. What bungling! We showed up for a show I’d booked just four days previous with no back line. Because I only have Skype on my phone and no international plan, I had to wait until we found a McDonald’s with free wifi one hour outside of Tilburg to inform the staff at Little Devil of our predicament. Need I have worried? To paraphrase my friend Luuk running the whole thing, “Hey man, you’re in the Netherlands. It’s all taken care of.”

 
In one hour, give or take, Luuk and friends at the Little Devil had organized an entire back line, including a five piece drum set, cymbals (which we stupidly left behind), two Marshall cabs, a Marshall 2000 TSL, some Line 6 guitar head, and a decent Trace-Elliot bass combo. This show was going to happen.

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European Bluntkrieg 3

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Our adventure continued as we left Deutschland on a reverse-viking raid into Scandinavia. We we took to the sea like savage warriors of old, bringing death and destruction. Except, our death was only of rubber monsters and our boat was a big ass ferry that had an expensive breakfast menu.


Copenhagen awaited us with just the merest of shakedowns by German police preceding at the border. We lucked out that we only got a warning for two people being up in the loft, a 70€ fine each that they waived. And somebody ate something they forgot they had, and that’s all I’m saying about that.

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European Bluntkrieg 2

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Those fucking Hall brothers. They were right. The Chunnel was pretty lame. Ya don’t even get ta see the train. But the hall we drove in looked pretty cool after we had watched Alien.

 
Escape from the U.K. 20 minutes later we were on French soil pointed towards Belgium. For me, things get more interesting once the language changes from English. Or American, as you prefer.
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Dead Alive: Ludicra 1998-2011

Doktor Ross Sewage3 Comments

From 1999 to 2011, I was in a band called Ludicra. It was a good run with four amazingly talented people. There were a lot of good times. The ending of the band wasn’t one of those good times. The feelings left behind could make one want to forget the whole endeavor. But all good things must come to an end, timely or otherwise… except the memories. Those can live on, and with music, they can live on loudly. This is what I intended.

 
In this age of information, a picture is worth a thousand lines of code. So what’s a song worth? I spent the last few months compiling all the recordings I had packed away. With the help of some websites, some free programs, and some D.I.Y. production work, I completed the total archive of Ludicra’s output over it’s 13 year existence, downloadable and free to all.

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Gross Anatomy: High on Fire poster

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Back in August / September, Yob was coming through town. I love Yob. They were playing on my birthday and I wanted to do a poster for them. I talked with the band and they were down. A week before the event, after just starting the inks, it was pointed out to me the promoter already had a poster. Shit. I didn’t talk to the promoter. I cancelled my job and enjoyed the show anyway. A month later, my friends at Secret Serpents offered me a spot in their High on Fire tour series. Well, why fucking let that art go to waste? I requested the date for the end of the world, December 21, 2012. This is what came of it.

2012.12.21 HIGH ON FIRE POSTER

Like all posters I’ve worked on, I don’t make a cent… unless I sell my own copies. This is the topsy turvy economy of the gig poster world. 35 of these bad boys went down to Santa Ana, gratis, for the band to sell. My copies are on sale on my website now. The process to get from there to here took longer than expected, but I was pleased with the results.

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Choice Cuts: Building a Lazer-saw

Doktor Ross Sewage

After taking a beating for the last four or five years, Killbot wasn’t looking so hot. Getting smooshed into a trailer night after night didn’t help. While on the last tour, we talked about a making a new one. Maestro Sean McGrath took the lead on this one and cobbled together a leaner, more aggressive looking, and tougher version of the costume. When he wants to write a blog detailing how he did that, he’s welcome to. In the meantime, I threw in the LEDs and lit the bitch up, and that’s what I’m gonna talk about here.

The previous Killbot had lighting done to its head. I detailed that in a previous entry last year. When I finally saw the lazer-saw that Sean had built, my mind started whirling with ideas. Originally, he’d planned to have electroluminescent wire wrapped around it. He tried that for one show, but it wouldn’t illuminate very well. I tried working with it, and I’ve decided I hate EL wire. It’s definitely not bright enough for a lit stage and it’s a bitch to work with. I wanted to go another route.

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