don’t believe everything you read about the boom out here unless you hear an actual explosion.

Folks,

We’re happy to announce a whole mess of upcoming gigs (with and without strings)

If you are one to believe what you read: San Francisco is once again under siege by predatory tech nerds, drones, plutocrats and wiz kids. Not to mention Mr. “Condo-Condo-Condo” Supervisor Scott Wiener. (Sorry I couldn’t resist, there should be a “Condo Line dance”). Still, people: don’t believe everything you read about the boom out here unless you hear an actual explosion. Trust me, there are still plenty of folks without healthcare, unemployed or stuck working shitty low-wage gigs to pay for that overpriced shoebox.

It’s enough to make you want to lay down in front of a google bus and use their wifi to upload your own end to YouTube in real time.

But there’s other stuff going on here too. Always is. This is real life. I have to remind myself (and John Murry) that it just *feels* like The Real World Season 37; that the cameras aren’t *actually* there. Though John insists (in an homage to Katy Perry) that he “knows life isn’t like reality TV but it should be. literally, man.”. John and I wrote a tune or two for his upcoming EP and, loving the weirdo as I do, I let him hijack this paragraph so that he might include a link to MOJO’s site where they’re premiering one of those ditties today! Check it:

http://www.mojo4music.com/13466/john-murry-glass-slipper/

After two years of sending out these newsletters packed with gigs, pimping the Temple Beautiful across the U.S and the globe, last Thanksgiving, me and my band played the LP start to finish in sequence with a string octet (scored and conducted by Brad Jones) in a one-night-only filled to capacity performance at the Great American Music Hall (Itself a former bordello and a deco SF institution).

It turned out to be a pretty cool gig. Honestly, [SPOILER ALERT] it was &$@!ing awesome!

Now we’re taking it on the road to select cities.

To coincide with the dates, Yep Roc is releasing a Temple e-book. (See what I did there? I’m being published, folks. Knighting coming soon? I just want the dress sword… Looks swank.) The e-book is an iPad-ready collection of writings, essays, and pictures related to Temple Beautiful and the “making of”, all stitched together and wrestled into shape by Steven Drace. It includes hand drawn original lyric sheets, videos for every song, marginality, ephemera, alternate song demos, placeholder titles, digressions, production notes, and more. It’s heavy. Not in weight, obviously. In content. In heart. In spirit. You get the idea. The printed version would be something like a third the size of the San Francisco phone book.

Okay, that’s enough, babies.

See you out there,

-CP

June 7 – St Louis – Twangfest – Off Broadway

June 8 – Chicago– City Winery (TB with Strings)

June 9 – Ann Arbor – The Ark

June 11 – Sellersville, PA – Sellersville Theater (TBA)

June 12 – NYC – Bowery Ballroom (TB with Strings)

June 13 – Arlington, VA – IOTA Club

June 27 – Santa Monica – McCabe’s with Peter Mulvey (TB with Strings)

June 28 – Santa Barbara – Lobero Theatre (TB with Strings)

June 29 - TBA

July 18 - Newcastle UK - Sage Gateshead (TB with Strings)

CHECK OUT OUR SXSW CAR FRESHENERS

Where did I leave off?. Been writing away. Praying to the record gods. Out loud. Looking forward to getting back in the studio. As for gigs, there’s SXSW and a show at Rancho Nicasio on Friday, March 28th. Then it will be almost summer.

Meanwhile, been fussing around with the upcoming “Maximum Temple” package that’s gonna include a DVD of the Strings in the Temple show at the GAMH … and … more! [Getting into the artisanal spirit, I’ll be test-marketing a batch of Temple Beautiful Jello? Temple car fresheners didn’t make it past the first focus group.] We’ve been away from the merch table for a few weeks and our team mascot John Murry has been over in the UK, so we’re having to improvise. We were thinking maybe a CP 24 hour merch booth. Can you dig it? Like a vending machine that has burritos, socks, underwear, shaving kits and CP related product. Is that something you’d be interested in spanking buttons about in a focus group?

Okay, enough brainstorming on your clock. The reason for this blast is to tell you I’ll be at SXSW as part of the TRIBUTE T LOU REED at The Paramount Theater on March 14 organized by Alejandro and Richard Barone. Happy to be included. But I have to say I already have a problem with it. I mean, there are just too many great Lou Reed songs, and it kind of pisses me off to know we won’t get to them all.

The band includes Lenny Kaye, Clem Burke, Ivan Julian “to name just a few.” (At this rate I might not even play guitar). And the guest artists are looking rather healthy too. (Garland Jeffreys, Lucinda Williams, Alejandro, Spandau Ballet(!!!), Cheetah Chrome, Steve Wynn, the Baseball Project and … more…)

Oh, and the The Fleshtones. The Fleshtones, people!

I’ll be hanging loose at SXSW. So, tweet at me or whatever if you want to hang.

My new years resolution was to watch more TV. People love to tell me about all the great stuff I’m missing. We’ve got cable! We’re living like grad students as opposed to community college drop-ins. I did see this kind of interesting show about male depression. I think it was called Louie. Big potential.

That’s all for now.

Hope to see you out there somewhere on the Hillbilly Highway,

-CP