[wp_bandcamp_player type=”album” id=”3972605101″ size=”grande” bg_color=”#FFFFFF” link_color=”#4285BB”]

This is a crude, digital facsimile of the Awesome e.p. by Small Awesome.

The limited-run, hand-made, hand-spray-painted CDs (thank you, Beth Wiedner) with hand-cut, hand-silk-screened wood covers (thank you, Jay Ryan) and hand-cut wood-grain tray cards are available from the band.

write faiz@stockyardinstitute.org for details.

credits

released April 15th, 2011
the AWESOME e.p.

Written and played by SMALL AWESOME
Faiz Razi (throat, ukulele, guitar)
Jim MacGregor (bass, guitar)

Recorded and mixed by Matt Engstrom
with John Barlow (lap steel)
and Jim Birch/Vanessa Smetkowski (love)
at Caffeinated Recordings, 2009-2011

***********************************************

A Review from Forest Roxx’ site:

“this little thing? it’s fucking golden. it’s so subtle. so smackdown sweet. this record. by way of reference. my first and immediate and only analogue for this upon initial hearing was goosebumps and the serpentine similar (which ranks right up there for me) [is it “serpentine” or “serpenteen?”]. but that’s relatively irrelevant. this stands (on four legs) via it’s own perfectly realized vision of ms. merit. someone should point out that this party is a duo. PS: they also put on one smoking show, should you ever be in town, when they are on stage.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRTi0eL6Xd0
Small Awesome is pleased to announce the release show
for our Awesome e.p. on Tax Day.
it is our one year anniversary as a live band,
and this show should be pretty grand.

*****************
Friday April 15th
Mike Watt and the Missingmen
with Small Awesome

10pm, 21+ @ Schuba’s
*****************

as an added bonus, Schuba’s will be screening the exceptional documentary
We Jam Econo: the Story of the Minutemen before the show @ 7pm
with a Q&A with Mike Watt following.

tix and details available for both events here.

for anyone interested in attending both the show and the screening, if you order the show ticket online, the price for the screening/Q&A is only $5.

you can pay for this at the door with your will-call for the show.

thanks!

Small Awesome has just completed the recording of our debut long-player, Still Awesome.
Still Awesome was recorded by the talented Matt Engstrom in the lovely home of Jim Birch and Vanessa Smetkowski between 12/12/09 and 12/12/10

It looks like we have a label releasing a vinyl-only pressing of the record, more on that as it’s set in marble. until then, it shall be set in manila:

we presented a round-robin show
@ Quenchers Saloon (Fullerton and Western)

featuring:
Small Awesome
Lines and Terminals
Transmontane

all 3 bands will took turns playing their fine musics
over two sets with a break in between.

Mark Oster of Union Rock Yards videotaped the whole thing. it is here. For our closing number, all three bands combined forces for L&T’s “A Little Late for Lenny”. it looked and sounded like this.

2.
secondly, the PRF Singles Club subscription series has closed and will be releasing eight 6-band, vinyl-only compilations over the next two years,.

We will be comp-rades on record #6 with
Walking Shadow (NY)
Half-Mile Fox Fur (TX)
the Gary (TX)
Police Teeth (WA)
Blood-Sucking Fiends (PA)

I have seen all of these bands live, save HMFF, and let me tell you, this will be fantastic.  very excited.
every band is submitting an exclusive song.

We will have 10 extra copies of our slab when it gets pressed, but other than that, all the records are spoken for.
thanks to those who subscribed!

We played @ Klas’ Restaurant in Cicero  Saturday, October 15th
as part of the 3-day PRF Auktoberfest.  Mr. King took this photo:

Jim Birch, Matt Engstrom and Rich Fessler did the A\V for the entire event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWvPxPrYSHw

Klas was gorgeous.  like playing inside a cuckoo clock. The rest of the show is here.

Show starts @ 2:00, Sm.Awes. will be playing @ 3:40
$15 for 11 bands, delicious lunch catered by Kitchen Sink, grilling in the evening, photo booth by Mr. King, and other incredibilites.
tickets are at the door, and it will most likely sell out, as Klas’ room isn’t huge.

Saturday October 16 @ Klas Restaurant in Cicero IL

2:00-2:30: Wereworm
2:50-3:20: Red Swan
3:40-4:10: Small Awesome
4:10-5:10: [BREAK]
5:10-5:40: Walking Shadow
6:00-6:30: Infrasonics
6:50-7:30: ZOOM
7:30-8:30: [BREAK]
8:30-9:00: Blacks
9:20-9:50: Mayor For Life
10:10-10:40: Minutes
10:55-11:40: Five-Eight
11:55-12:40: big’n
12:40-Close: DJ Panther Pants & The Ants In Pants Disco Dance Panther Dancers

***********************************
PRFAukBBQ (catchy, innit?) begins this Thursday and Friday at Quenchers.
On Friday, October 16th I will also be MC’ing for the Hype!, Live Band Karaoke Band that features,
among other incredible musicians, guitarists Brian Pennington and Peter Bardouniotis of Faiz Zeppelin.

Thursday October 14 @ Quenchers in Chicago IL

8:00-8:30: Light Coma
8:40-9:10: The Cell Phones
9:20-9:50: The Ethyl Mermen
10:00-10:30: Population
10:40-11:10: Slander Cannon
11:20-11:50: Phantom Works
12:00-Close: Lines and Terminals

Friday October 15 @ Quenchers in Chicago IL

8:00-8:30: Death Valley
8:40-9:10: Cmn ineed yr hlp
9:20-9:50: The Conformists
10:00-10:30: Red X Red M
10:40-11:10: Victory and Associates
11:30-Close: The Hype! (live band karaoke)

***********************************

Small Awesome is also participating in the PRF Singles Club, a subscription series, vinyl only compilation
with 48 bands over 8 12″ records.  each record is a limited pressing of  300 with 6 bands per record released quarterly over two years.
There are over 100 subscriptions already.  if you are interested, there is more information on the site.

We are also almost finished with our first full-length record.  details forthcoming.

We played a show with two incredible bands, Post Honeymoon and Coins
@ the Hideout. Post Honeymoon got the talented Karen Tisel to make the mindblowing flyer:

we all had so much fun, there are talks of doing duofest yearly, as well as a future collaboration with all three bands. Videos by Thomas Banks:

Faiz co-curated an exhibit through Stockyard Institute called Nomadic Studio at the DePaul University Art Museum.

Nomadic Studio was a four and a half month exhibit about the artist and non-traditional studio spaces. For the month of July, we are focusing on the musician and the home studio. As part of the exhibit, Faiz, Brian McNally and Beth Wiedner recreated the Rumpus Room, the space where, among other things, Small Awesome would rehearse. Kelsey Moher took the following picture:

We played with onono and bric-a-brac, both bands who also have recorded and rehearsed in the original Rumpus Room.  Steve Albini opened up the evening discussing his home/studio, Electrical Audio, the joys of anvil  ownership and the difficulty in scoring adobe from new mexico.

Jim Birch also video taped the show. The video for “Song #1” shows the Rumpus Room in its glory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osIXKysPyY

The full show is here.

We played with the exceptional Crooked Fingers @ Schuba’s it was exciting and fun.

Crooked Fingers were also a duo that night. it was a duo of duos.

We played a show at Beat Kitchen on May 20th:

thanks to our friends BBGS for setting up a great evening, and a positiviely civilized dinner beforehand.  cheers.

while sound checking, we ran through “the Ivy Twines” with John of BBGS and Columbines on Lap Steel.  he guested on the forthcoming LP for this song.

Jim Birch of the Infrasonics also recorded us playing “the Ivy Twines”.Here it is on the you tubes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlzooQhrdyI

We played our first show at Quenchers in Chicago on 4/15/10.

we played with some excellent bands.  there were two flyers:

Born on the Floor did not play that night after all.

Our good friend, Jim Birch, of the Infrasonics recorded the show.  here is one song:

I Don’t Think Any of them Do (live at quenchers)

you can find the rest of the show here, on Jim’s site.