Fans of former Blonde Vinyl band Writ on Water rejoice! The band has released a new EP called A Charcoal Night: “Writ on Water returns with A Charcoal Night, an EP that includes “Wicker” in its original arrangement, a studio recording of “Windsor” (which had originally been demoed for The Greyest Day) and 4 new tracks.”
You can download on BandCamp: https://writonwater.bandcamp.com/
An oddity in the Blonde Vinyl / Michael Knott catalog. Passion to Pass was led by Chris Lizotte. According to Lizotte, this was a self funded record. The band was friends with Michael Knott, who had a dream of starting a record label at this time. Knott asked if they would stamp the Blond Vinyl label name on the record, and they did. Other than that, it seems Knott was not involved with much else. The record label is spelled “Blond Vinyl” and the songs are copyrighted to Knott’s TTONK publishing name, but there is no other mention of Knott on the album. The band members are listed by first name only on the jacket, while the songs are only credited to last names. “I Ask You Ask” was re-written as “I Pray You Pray” for the Lifesaver’s Kiss of Life album in 1986, credited to “Chris Lizotte, Bill Robinson, & Jim Arkin” as song writers. These three are assumed to be the part of Passion to Pass, leaving Marc as a mystery member.
I probably sound like a broken record always talking about the website being down and needing to be fixed. To be honest, it is going to be a long time before I can get everything fixed that is wrong here. I was able to find a fix for the comment problem, and started working on the Blonde Vinyl section…. and that took forever. The part of the main website that needs to be fixed is much, much larger. So, I decided to put a stop gap in place while I keep fixing. The comments may not work on the older pages on the main site, but at least I should be able to keep the spam out with the new Captcha. You can see the direction it will all go in the future by looking at the Blonde Vinyl section.
It’s been weird hearing the occasional bit of gossip about why this website was “gone” (never gone, just down for repairs) from people that don’t even know me. I think it is important to reiterate that this is just a fan website, with no official connection to Michael Knott or anybody connected with him. I don’t know Knott or anybody around him, and have never even met any of them. I can’t speak for him, get messages to him, or tell you inside information about him. Heck, what few people even remotely connected to Knott I did have some connection with have pretty much cut all ties with me for, well, I never really could find out why. Could be no reason. People just ghost some times.
Most of the small number of people that follow this website have been very cool about my need to take it offline and regroup. But there has been some negative push back. Enough of it for me to say this: I don’t owe it to anybody to keep this website up. It is just a hobby, and if it goes down it is basically because I have a life like everyone else and I have to pay the bills as well. This website makes me no money. It actually costs me some money and too much time. Only two people in the whole world have spoken to me personally about the website being down, and neither of them would have anything negative to say about me. So if you do hear someone saying something negative about me, they are gossiping at best, lying at worst. I would encourage you not to participate in what they have to say. Again, this is my website that I do on my own time, and I have every right to take it down or put it up based on my needs, and no one else has any right to get mad at me for that. If they do, that is their issue that they need help with.
Oh, and I guess I should point out none of this pertains to Michael Knott himself. He has been laying low for a while as well, so I don’t even know if he is aware this website was even down or not. Like I said, my somewhat loose connections with him have disappeared. Hopefully not for good, but out of my control. I just get emails occasionally saying “did you know so-and-so is pissed the Knottheads site is down?” and my reaction is: “Why? Why are they wasting emotional energy on things they can’t control?”
But, hey, the website is back up now, and those that claimed it would never be back up because I was getting back at somebody for something… well…
I know – hard to believe all this drama over a simple website.
Former Blonde Vinyl recording artist Steve Scott has been teasing us with tracks from a new album called Cross My Heat for years. The wait for that project is finally over: “Pre-orders for Steve’s new full-length, Cross My Heat (first new material in nearly two decades!), will begin on Friday, 09/15. Steve will be taking copies with him for his upcoming dates in Australia. Look for the CD to be available stateside in October. Keep an eye on Harding Street Assembly Lab on Facebook for details: https://www.facebook.com/the-harding-street-assembly-lab-424268960516/
For the Veil of Ashes fans, Sean Patrick Doty is planning on recording and releasing a new solo album. On top of that, several people have agreed to write music and record with him, including Michael Knott. So far, the list of people collaborating with Doty includes Knott, Michael Roe (The 77s), Ric Alba (Altar Boys/Undercover), Jerry Chamberlain (Daniel Amos), Brian Healy (Dead Artist Syndrome), and Derri Daugherty (The Choir). No release date yet, as the songs still need to be recorded, so stay tuned for details.
Ryan Kennedy offers up the bizarre and awesome cover of Michael Knott’s “Double” embedded below. From Kennedy:
“Michael Knott is probably my single biggest musical influence. If you watch this video and wonder what amazing song I’m ruining, its called Double and it appears on the record Graceshaker by Mike’s band LSU. Do yourself a favour and look it up. It’s on Spotify kids, no worries. Thx to the Flavour crew & Film Kelly for the cool vid.”
For those that missed the Kickstarter for CDs or Vinyl of Songs From the Feather River Highway, but waiting to buy one… the wait is over! Go to the Young Earth Records Bandcamp page to purchse limited edition CDs, Vinyl or Combo packs now. Be sure to grab this awesome EP while there are still copies left!
Interested in an in depth examination of L.S.Underground’s 1992 The Grape Prophet album? Listen to Michial Farmer discuss the album with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour on episode 214 of The Christian Humanist podcast. They dive into everything from the real life story of the Kansas City prophets that the album is based on to the musical influences to the cover art and more.
Just released from the vaults by Blonde Vinyl: Michael Knott – Live At The Viper Room 3/4/1998. From the old Knott page news section: “Mike’s second “official” post-Aunt Bettys solo project show was held on March 4, ’98 at the Viper Room in Hollywood. The show attracted a large crowd, including many of the industry reps invited from labels such as Atlantic, Interscope, and significant smaller labels.
Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and the bass player of Live were also seen in attendance. They were there to see bands following Knott, but they heard Knott nonetheless.”
Knott’s backing band includes Andy Prickett, Eric Campuzano, Robert Meyer, and Ed “Giles” Benrock.
If you are planning on being at Joshua Fest next month, be sure to catch Michael Knott and band (Joshua Lory on bass and Jim Chaffin on drums) on the main stage on September 2nd and the acoustic stage September 3rd. Or if you are on the fence about going, maybe this will push you over the edge 🙂