Rushad Solo

Marquee at Catalyst in Santa Cruz

Then we drove down 101 to Isla Vista, CA, a small community right in the heart of UC Santa Barbara and almost entirely populated by UCSB students. After the hectic energy of San Francisco (and all the late nights dealing with our trailer), Isla Vista, full of besotted college students roaming in packs through the mild night air, was laid-back and carefree. Biko Garage, a DIY, donation-based venue attached to a commune of artists and activists, was also quite a sea change after bars and ticketed concert venues. Haroula Rose played a beautiful set of originals and covers, and we were followed by a group of cycling shadow-puppeteers.

Saturday night at Echo Country Outpost was tons of fun – old and new friends hanging out in what must be the most laid-back venue in Los Angeles. It’s more than a venue, really – it’s playing some music in Chris and Erica’s dope pad (with free PBR, ping-pong, and pup tents) and inviting the whole neighborhood. Leslie Stevens and John Elliot played brilliant solo sets, and John was very helpful in assisting with what might have been Ben’s finest trailer back-up yet.

Kristin, Cole, Ben in Isla Vista, CA

California Tracks and Pacific Ocean

We finished up the weekend playing an early set at The Lost Leaf in Phoenix and enjoying some crepes. On an unassuming street full of houses converted into small businesses, The Lost Leaf is an awesome little bar and venue with outdoor seating, good beer, and a tasty coffee and crepes joint next door. Ben has been overcoming a slight cold, so we called in an early night and crashed in our first motel rooms since Idaho.

As we ascend into the crisp mountain air of Flagstaff, Arizona, we bid farewell to the west coast and head back to spring on the east coast.

Pascale Haft, mother of our occasional and much esteemed violinist Max Haft, presented us with some pozole upon our arrival in Sacramento, which is the second time on this tour that we’ve been fed this delicious Mexican soup dish. Fresh and plentiful avocados are clearly one of the great joys of the west coast.

Tonight will be the first of two Rushad Eggleston sandwiches (Rushad solo, Cuddle Magic, Tornado Rider). He’s is a volcano of funky energy, and these performances will certainly be all that and a bag of chips.

Here are some pictures from our brief sprint through Wyoming:

Colin's Colorado Vista

Rawlins, WY at Day's End

See you soon.

Here are a couple of photographs from the first leg of our journey:

The Quarrier Diner in Charleston, West Virginia

Gilberto Serna Plays Our Deagan ElectraVibes at Century Mallet

Extreme Wind Gusts Force a Pit Stop in Wyoming

Cole Practices

After having a bit of trouble with our Deagan ElectraVibe on the first leg of our tour, we had a chance to meet the vibraphone’s maker and have it serviced. The great Gilberto Serna of Century Mallet and his wonderful children were able to squeeze us in on very short notice and do a thorough once-over on the vibraharp. He worked for Mr. Deagan at the Deagan Factory in Chicago until 1980, during which time he built this instrument and customized it for Harry Sheppard. Mr. Serna is pictured above with the instrument: “The black bars look really, really nice.”

We are beginning to become acquainted with the rhythms of touring. Dave dons goggles for a lap swim every other morning, or whenever he can find a local YMCA. Ben, with his semi-weekly half-marathons, has finally shamed Alec into breaking out his 7-year old running shoes. Though we lost our first frisbee atop the roof of Mockingbird in Staunton, VA, our back-up disc comes out once a day at the first available scenic overlook.

Further west, we travelled to Rock Island, IA, where we recorded an awesome session for Daytrotter, and to Fairfield, IA, where there is, surprisingly to us, a strong contingent of followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his world of transcendental meditation. In Fairfield, we sadly had to say goodbye to Anais Mitchell and her Young Man Band, with whom we’d been touring for two weeks. In Kearney, NE, on our way to Denver, we incurred a flat tire, and subsequently had an awesome unexpected stay at a Ramada Inn that featured a sweet tiki bar. The show Denver was loud and fun, and we met some great new fans and old friends alike.

Now we’re finally on the west coast. We’re currently heading south from Portland to stay with friends in Williams, Oregon, about halfway to our gig tomorrow in Sacramento. We were very warmly welcomed by the McGoverns in Seattle, and our Portland show last night at The Side Door was intimate and invigorating. The northwest has been every bit as green and rainy as we could have hoped. We’ll be back soon. California, here we come!

At Nashville's GemsOnVHS with Natalie Prass and Many Others

Ben Gives Mogwai the Gift of Flight

We love dogs. Kristin really loves dogs. If you are a dog and you’re interested in joining the band, and perhaps even doubling as a roadie, please contact us with the phrase “Inquiry About Tour Dog Position” in the subject line. We are especially interested in dogs with experience in live sound. Thank you.

Here are some little ditties that Ben and I put together on iPhone GarageBand on our tour last fall. That’s Alec Spiegelman singing background vocals on “My Song”.

Keep an eye on our Twitter account for updates to our tour and other exciting goings-on.

See you soon,
Dave (and Cuddle Magic)

It has been wonderful to be playing our music just about every night, and sometimes in the afternoons, too. We’ve driven our van and trailer to some pretty remote locations, such as Upper Jay, NY and Thomas, WV. The Recovery Lounge in Upper Jay is just about the coziest and best-upholstered venue I can recall visiting, and the accommodations are second to none. The same goes for The Purple Fiddle, except that what they lack in upholstery is more than made up by their remarkable tomato soup.

So many people have bent over backwards to make us comfortable along our journey. Dave from Frederick, MD’s Café NOLA graciously allowed us to crash at his place with his adorable kitten. Bloomington treated us very well: Dan the Abandoned brought a bunch of friends and some pretty great songs, and then Rick Dietz put us up very comfortably and walked us through a tasting of remarkable homemade meads.

The Bohemian Coffee Shop in Baltimore has an awesome little piano and just enough room to squeeze us into the corner by the window. We liked it at the Bohemian so much that we’re coming back for another early show in November.

Uplifting Words from the Krystal in Knoxville

Pengy Sunbathes on the Roof Deck at Preservation Pub

We had an awesome time in Knoxville, playing at both the Relix Variety Theatre and the Preservation Pub, as well as on the air at WDVX. Thank you Jenny, Michael, and Seth for putting us up! Above is photographic evidence of our time in Tennessee.

There’s so much more to tell, but it’ll have to wait until the next post. Also, The Deckers are awesome.

Pawtuckaway State Park was host to the Pawtuckaway Music Festival yesterday, and we were lucky enough to be able to join in the festivities with an afternoon set of music. We arrived just in time for Alec to join our friend Audrey Ryan on a couple of tunes and were able to stay for most of the afternoon and evening, enjoying some tasty chili, delicious baked goods, and sets from Gramafoma, Minor Revolution, The Jonee Earthquake Band, and Fire Tower.

We capped the evening off by achieving what we believe may be a historic moment in the history of Pawtuckaway State Park: we fit nine people on the boulder behind the picnic shelter. Yes, that’s right. We did it. Props to Trevor for his bold vision and his brother Jeremy and Katrina Pratt for topping off the whole shebang. Here is photographic evidence of our achievement:

Alec’s Aunt Amy and Uncle Jim put us up for the evening and treated us to some tea and freshly picked Vermont apples. Thanks Aunt Amy and Uncle Jim!

We’re on our way back from Upper Jay, NY after a beautiful day of ferry riding and foliage in the Adirondacks. The audience at Recovery Lodge was really incredible this evening, and Scott and Byron have created a wonderful, intimate performance space. We hope to come back to Upper Jay very soon indeed.

See you in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

By the way, this Kickstarter campaign is the only way that you pre-order the new album. For a very reasonable price, you can help us reach our goals and reserve your very own copy of Info Nympho as a vinyl album, signed CD, or digital download. Thank you!

Quite a lot has happened since our last blog post, much of which has been covered either in our Twitter feed or in one of our newsletters. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter, take a moment to do so now: go back to our home page, scroll to the bottom of the page, type your email address in the white text fields and press Join. You’ll then receive an email, and when you follow the link in that email, you’ll have signed up for our newsletter. We don’t send them out too often and we won’t be too hurt if you ever decide to unsubscribe.

Some highlights from the last several months, lifted from our newsletters:

In late March (actually before our last blog post, but never discussed here), we collaborated with Ran Blake for a sold-out show at Cambridge’s Lily Pad. This performance included a spell-binding solo piano set by Mr. Blake, followed by a set of our music and a couple of collaborative performances. One of the pieces on which we collaborated was an unrecorded piece by Mr. Blake arranged by Cuddle Magic with lyrics by our long-time collaborator Tim Davis.

We were all very sad to hear of the death of our friend Donald Miller in March, whose art graces the cover and reverse back of our first album, and we’d like to take a moment again to remember his kindness and generosity. Thank you for everything, Mr. Duck Beer.

In late May, we debuted “a set of music written for the combined ensemble of ourselves and [toy piano virtuoso] Phyllis Chen“, including pieces by our own Ben Davis, Kristin Slipp, and Alec Spiegelman, as well as a compositions by Phyllis Chen and Wes Matthews. We played the music to packed rooms in Brooklyn (Barbés), Cambridge (Lily Pad), and Saratoga Springs (Caffé Lena), and it was a pleasure and an honor to work with Phyllis Chen. There’s a video of Wes’s piece from our Lily Pad performance, thanks to Alex Chaloff. We’re hoping to record some of this material in the near future.

We played a couple of really great shows in July, visiting Maine for the first time at The Oak and The Ax (with The Deadly Gentlemen, Greg Jamie, and Patter Cubs, all of whom were a blast), and swinging by Club Passim (with The Capitalist Youth), our old stomping grounds, for a reliably warm and welcoming audience.

Finally, we just got back from playing a set at The Wassaic Project‘s Summer Festival. We were up there earlier this summer, and we just can’t emphasize enough what an amazing undertaking it is and how awesome the people are who make it possible. Alas, inclement weather nixed our camping plans, but we’ve already pencilled in next year, either as performers or friendly experiencers. We were able to peep Ghost/Light and Acrylics, and they were sick. Great sound, great suroundings, great people!

That brings us up to date. We’re playing a late show at Rockwood Music Hall this coming Thursday, and a rare, drummerless performance at the Lily Pad on Friday with Cleek Schrey and Steph Coleman. We’re also planning a tour in October and November, and we’ll have more details on that in the upcoming weeks.

Don’t forget to tell your friends about the Kickstarter campaign, too! Just send them the link to our Kickstarter project page – that’s kickstarter.com/projects/cuddlemagic/cuddle-magic-to-release-info-nympho-an-analog-reco - and they’ll be able to take it from there.

All of these songs will all be appearing on our new record, which we’re working hard to get into your hands sometime this summer. In the meantime, enjoy Kristin’s weird dream and our Brautigan and Pancake sandwich, both of which appear below.

Special CD Day with Denji Poops

We thought we’d share this old photo of Ben Davis, our singer/songwriter/bassist/guitarist/ukuleleist, from back when we had just received copies of our first album in the mail at the Gartland Street house in Jamaica Plain where a few of us used to live. Alas, we’re sold out of it now, but we’re going to be selling it as a download from the FYO Records website soon enough (in your choice of mp3 or lossless audio), and you can get it from iTunes in the meantime. We’re also thinking about printing some more copies, but more on that later.

We have two New York City concerts coming up in February. We’re playing at the Knitting Factory in Williamsburg on the 10th with Nat Baldwin, of Dirty Projectors and an awesome songwriter and performer in his own right, and In One Wind, a band that’s new to us but pretty much kills it if the video and audio that we’ve gleaned from around the web is any indication. We’re also playing at Temple Beth Emeth in Ditmas Park on the 27th as part of Mike Winograd and Richie Barshay’s ‘Ditmas Acoustic Series’. The series has been putting on top-notch, intimate shows in this space for a while now, and we feel privileged to have been asked to play. It will be quite different than our Knitting Factory performance, to say the least – an opportunity for us to play a quiet, unplugged set for New Yorkers and revel in the acoustics of this beautiful synagogue. Annie Lynch will also be playing some of her stunning songs in the sanctuary that evening.

Also, speaking of past blasts, we’ve sent out very few emails to those on our mailing list. In fact, we’ve sent out one. However, we’re getting ready to send out another, so if you haven’t joined our mailing list at one of our shows or through this website…well, you get the idea.