McSweeney’s Winter Tour
Eli Horowitz (McSweeney’s), Davy Rothbart (Found Magazine),
and John Brandon, debut author of Arkansas
A year or so ago, amid the short-story
submissions and advance review copies and Spanish-
language magazines we never subscribed to that make up our daily mail, we received, in a manila
envelope, the first 30 pages of a novel called Arkansas. In those 30 pages, two men named Kyle and Swin decide, separately, but for similar reasons, to abandon their unsatisfying pasts and join the Southern drug trade, and the lives they leave behind are quietly flayed in language so fine and so funny that we realized the book would be very good. We asked to see the rest, read it, and found that it was indeed very good, as good with the gory details, the dead bodies, and the dark-eyed nurses as it was with the rundown
southern towns and aborted idealism, and now we are publishing this book, which is still called Arkansas, and is by John Brandon; it’s his first, and it pierces you right through. Starting next month, Brandon—who’s working at a Frito-Lay warehouse now; he was delivering windshields when we first talked to him, and was at a Coca-Cola distributor before that, while he wrote—
and McSweeney’s publisher Eli Horowitz will be touring the Eastern Seaboard to spread the good word. They’ll be accompanied by Found
magazine creator Davy Rothbart and an 18-year-old who eats fire.
Let us know if you’d like to chat with
John Brandon, Eli Horowitz or Davy Rothbart.

 WHEATIE MATTIASICH

myspace.com/wheatiemattiasich

"...slothful croonings..."

HONNE WELLS

myspace.com/honnewells

"Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, Wells is the epitome of avante-blues. His performances evoke the spirit and the skeletons in the closet of blues. A truely one of a kind character, must see to believe, he'll make your frame tremble." - A Light In The Attic

"If you've never heard Honne Wells, than you should. This man is a force to be reckoned with - His voice is a raspy "I-just-gargled-drano" howl, his guitar a sliding delta dawn and his music: pure voodoo channeling." - rootscene.blogspot

HENRI LEE

myspace.com/henrilee

"...sound like a fat american."

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PRESENTS

a film by Hisham Mayet

"PALACE OF THE WINDS"

AMY PICKARD

Apothecary Hymns

Eric Carbonara

Darkling Plain

ZAIKA

VENISON WHIRLED/DOUG FERGUSON/JONATHAN HORNE

"...Venison Whirled is Lisa Cameron( ST-37, the Devil Bat, JSAS, Three Day Stubble). She uses feedback, amplified percussion, and room frequencies to methodically roast your brain with rhythmic oscillations and subterranean murmuring.. has played shows with Tom Carter, Laundry Room Squelchers, the Skaters, Susan Alcorn,Pengo, Rotten Piece, Tarantism, Pigs in the Ground, Arachnid Arcade, etc. Douglas Ferguson creates psychedelic music with ambient mood-defining textures, incorporating homemade electronic creations into layers of guitar and feedback.Has played with Rick Reed, Book of Shadows, Primordial Undermind,Tom Carter, Rubble, etc. Jonathan Horne plays guitar, has worked with Tetuzi Akiyama, Glenn Branca, Nokie Edwards( yes, THAT Nokie Edwards), Kurt Newman, Sandy Ewen, Carl Smith,Jeheri Signfelds Atropheed Sac, Nick Hennies, Chris Cogburn, Iron Kite, Tom Carter, many more. For this tour we are playing in solo,duo and trio form because we can. Lisa and Jon play as Biloxi Turpentine,Jon and Doug are Neccessity,Doug and Lisa are Semi-Permeable Membrane. the trio is Reverse Osmosis. It's all bound to confuse you, so just come to the show..."

SUISHOU NO FUNE

"Formed in 1999 as a duo of female guitarist Pirako Kurenai and male guitarist Kageo, Suishou no Fune [soo-ee-sho no foo-nay] have been making some of the most charmingly chaotic dream music coming out of Japan. Their sound contains subcutaneous elements of no-wave energy mixed with psychedelic rock a la early Fushitsusha or Kousokuya. Other songs approach balladry with oddly beautiful twinned vocals and distorted guitars. They have performed around Tokyo with a list of people who could succinctly be described as everybody and were even invited to play Scotland's Weekend festival in 2005." Holy Mountain.
"The group's sound runs from massively distended nod-outs that recall parts of the first Fushitsusha album through weird duo tracks that orbit a parallel universe where late-period John Fahey was the prime influence on Charalambides, infernal Dead C/Gate style guitar abuse and achingly beautiful comedown ballads. The twin vocalists are massively different in their approach, with Pirako singing in a high wayward style that's all throat and no lungs while Kageo works from the other end of the pipes with a ripped Father Yod/Jim Morrison/Keiji Haino polyglot. Simply one of the greatest out-of-nowhere groups to come out of the Tokyo underground in years and the undisputed stars of PSF's recent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation." --Volcanic Tongue

CARTOONIST JOE MATT

 "I think he's a real jerk, but he does great cartoons." -R. Crumb