A whole bunch of new Discography pages have been added, featuring cover art, reviews, lyrics, info about the recording and who the musicians are. I hope to have a page for every release with as much content as possible, so hopefully These Things Are Ours will get as many good reviews as Fifteen Feet did. It definitely deserves them. Anyway, enjoy, and there’s more to come.

Our next show is on July 11 at The Busted Lift in Dubuque, IA… and the very next night you can catch us on The Capital Backyard on Capital 106.3. A few days after that we’ve got shows in Kansas City, Omaha, and Lincoln. Dang!

Last night was another fun time in Why Make Clocks Land, or rather, at the Vaudeville Mews.

Betty Buzzkill came on first, a local band that specializes in scrappy covers of not-too-obvious Gen-X punk classics. It’s not too far off a concept from what one of my old bands, The Cactus Rats, were trying to do a couple years ago. You can’t complain about a band doing songs like “Shit List.” A guaranteed good time.

We went on second. Derek pushed the sound to just the right amount of loud. I get surprised at the number of people getting up front and checking out our set every time we play the Mews lately. I think that number’s growing, and continues to include a lot of old friends (some of whom I, as the new guy in the band, am only just getting to know). We all felt really good about how we played.

On tour out of Austin, TX, Tribella engaged the crowd in some of the most immediately endearing between-song chit-chat I’ve ever heard at a rock show, and this was far from the only wonderful thing about them. Gauzy harmonized vocals, and atmospheric guitar with a frightening array of effects pedals to new-wavey beats, delivered with folky attitude. (Jeepers, with lines like that I should write reviews for some music magazine/web site.) They’re at Big V’s in Minneapolis tonight, and moving eastward from there to then head down the coast, so if they’re coming your way, we heartily recommend checking it out.

Finally, one of our favorite local bands, Ely Falls came on. They work an emo-shoegaze wall of sound along the lines of Appleseed Cast or like what Murder By Death sounded like early on, back when they were still called Little Joe Gould. And they do so exceedingly well. Tonight they will be battling it out at People’s Court for the 80/35 Wild Card slot. Do us a favor and head down to People’s Court tonight and vote for them, you won’t regret it.

The new Why Make Clocks t-shirts debuted last night as well. They are some of the coolest looking rock shirts I’ve seen in a good while. I keep telling myself I’m going to post a photo. It will happen soon, I promise.

We’ve got a few weeks off from gigs before we trek on up to Dubuque to play at The Busted Lift on July 11. With a little luck maybe we’ll have These Things Are Ours out by then.

Yes, after making such a big deal out of the new WMC web site, I decided after it was up for only a scant couple weeks that I didn’t like it all that well and completely re-did it yet again. We needn’t delve into my reasons for doing so, as that’s all nerd stuff. If you’re interested, I wrote about it at my blog.

If this is your first visit to whymakeclocks.net, let me bring you up to speed:

I’m Chuck Hoffman, and I joined the band a few months ago on bass, making my live debut April 2 at the Vaudeville Mews, and making Why Make Clocks a trio.

Dan and Will recorded the third Why Make Clocks full-length, These Things Are Ours, last year with Luke Tweedy at the Flat Black Recording Studio in Iowa City, and it was mastered on February 20 by Doug Van Sloun at Focus Mastering in Omaha. It sounds awesome, and I’ve had a great time learning the bass lines Dan laid down and putting in a few of my own touches. Dan’s bass styling on the songs gives me a lot of great ideas how to approach songs we’re working on together.

The Ego Reflector EP is also still available — we have CD-R copies available at shows, and the digital download form can be had through our SNOCAP store, which can be accessed through the “download” page here. And of course we still have most of the back catalog available.

Also, thanks are overdue to the Des Moines Social Club for having us at their Subjective Circus event a couple weeks back. We had a blast!

We have a bunch of shows coming up this summer, and I should have them posted in an online calendar here shortly.

No, we’re not playing in Cleveland any time that we know of yet. It’s just that the song’s been stuck in my head for days:

Dan, Austin (our Sleep On The Floor label-guy), and I went down to the Des Moines Music Coalition’s Record Labels: A Perspective thing last week featuring Jason Kulbel from Saddle Creek Records. Kind of hoped to get a word in with Mr. Kulbel after the talk but some cat from Authentic buttonholed him for like an hour. Thanks to DMMC for putting it on! It was fun and I think gave us a lot of good ideas, as did the chat we had over beers after.

We’re working it hard to bring you These Things Are Ours. Cover art is still in-progress. We may end up a little late for the official release date but no worries. Just stay tuned to this page and you’ll be the first to know.

Just found out Magnolia Electric Company is playing at The Busted Lift in Dubuque on August 8. We’re rather fans of them. I first got into them when I kept hearing them on last.fm, then later Dan put on their first record while we were loading our stuff out of his place to head to a show, and then on the drive to said show too, and I think that’s when I was hooked. However, I’ve been emailing with Spicoli’s in Waterloo about a possible WMC gig on that date, so we might end up missing out

Been meaning to tell you, we got some new Why Make Clocks t-shirts and they look amazing. I’d really encourage you to come down to our June 9 show at the Mews (or any other show we play, really) and pick one up. I’ll try and get a photo of one and post it soon.