Episode Transcript

My band, Lorenzo’s Music, has just released a remix album

Tom Ray: Before we get started today, I just wanted to make a quick announcement. My band, Lorenzo’s Music, has just released a remix album. It is the second in a series of remix albums we’ve done. It’s called Lorenzo’s Remixes, Volume 2. It includes remixes from musicians located all over the world. So go check out the album Lorenzo’s Remixes, Volume M2, and you can hear all the different tracks and reimagine songs right there. Now onto the show.

Tom Cannon plays guitar, banjo and Singh for Milwaukee band Resurrectionists

Hi, and welcome to another Lorenzo’s Music podcast. I am Tom, and on today’s show, I am talking to a person that’s in a band that is not too far from where I live. And they’ve. I’ve played a show with them. They play great music and, they’re on the show to talk about, the new EP that they have out. So why don’t you introduce yourself and tell the people what it is you do.

Joe Cannon: Hi, I’m Joe Cannon and I play guitar, banjo and sing for the band Resurrectionists.

Tom Ray: And you are based out of where?

Joe Cannon: Milwaukee.

Tom Ray: Milwaukee. So have you always lived in Milwaukee?

Joe Cannon: No, I moved here in 2008, to take a teaching job at UWM. I’m not in academia anymore, but, that was what brought me to Milwaukee.

Tom Ray: Out of curiosity, what were you teaching? What was your background?

Joe Cannon: Well, my background’philosophy? Um, but I was teaching, um, interdisciplinary seminars, uh, in what they call the honors college at uwm.

Tom Ray: Wow. All right. This just got a whole lot fancier.

Joe Cannon: Well, I haven’t been in academia for.

Tom Ray: No, I know, but it doesn’t mean you’re not an intelligent person.

Joe Cannon: O.

Tom Ray: That’s what I’m saying. Just some, you know, chucklehead like me talking to a smart guy. No, I’m kidding. But, uh, uh, now, during this time, were you always playing music? How long have you been a musician?

Joe Cannon: Uh, oh, uh, the first band I was in that ever released anything was, uh, my college band, Emily. That, um. Um, I think our first thing came out in 93.

Tom Ray: Oh, okay. What kind of music was that?

Joe Cannon: It was a punk band.

Tom Ray: It was okay. Yeah, as required by law for most people in the 90se.

Joe Cannon: Like, I was listening to, like, the, uh, hardcore and what was called emo back then, but nobody would recognize it as it now. Um.

Tom Ray: Yeah, no kidding. I swear, when I heard that emo.

Joe Cannon: Was making a come back wave, I guess.

Tom Ray: Yeah. Well, now there’s even the specific Midwest emo a genre, you know.

Joe Cannon: Oh, yeah. That existed in the 90s, though.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Joe Cannon: Because a lot of those bands I’m thinking of bands like Braid and the Promise Ring, where it’s like they’re emo, but they’re also Midwest as heck.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Joe Cannon: I don’t know why we’re talking about Midwest emo, because it has absolutely nothing to do with.

Tom Ray: No, it does not. Basically you said emo, and I know it’s got a resurgence.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, uh, right, exactly. No, but, you know, as a 20 year old, right in the 90s, I played some things that might have verged upon it.

Tom Ray: Okay, and were you playing guitar and singing at this time or.

Joe Cannon: Yeah.

Tom Ray: Ok, you.

Joe Cannon: That was the. Emily was probably the first band that I kind of seriously did that. I had played in another band before that called Smear, that later. Later got renamed Mr. Head. But, um, my songwriting, actually, my songwriting developed to the point that I can now listen to some of the songs that Emily wrote and not be angry with myself. So that’s probably where I kind of like, you know, hit a point where I could actually feel okay about what I was doing.

How did Resurrectionists come about? I used to play in Work

Tom Ray: Okay. All right. And then how did, uh, Resurrectionists come about?

Joe Cannon: Uh, well, I used to play in a band with the bassist of Resurrectionists called Work. Um, and we were a trio. It was Jeff, the bassist and I, and a fellw named Covey playing drums. Um, and we put out three albums over the course of six. Six years. And then Covey moved to Austin and, uh, the band went on hiatus. We’ve played one show since he moved. Um, when was this? When did he move?

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Joe Cannon: Uh, 2018 maybe.

Tom Ray: So this. No, no, because you and I didn’t meet in person until after 2020. Nevermind. No, I was like the person, uh.

Joe Cannon: We met at that show at Anodyne.

Tom Ray: Right? Yes, yes. No, I was mixing up the dates. Okay, continue that.

Joe Cannon: Ye. So Work ended and then, um, I tried multiple different. I tried multiple different ideas to do a successor band to it. And so Work was like a raucous little punk rock trio that would have on any one of our albums, like two or three slower kind, uh, of more through written, uh, melancholy kind of things. And, um, I was like, well, what would it be like if I had a band that was just devoted to that?

Tom Ray: Hmm.

Joe Cannon: Um, and also I started playing banjo again. Started playing.

Tom Ray: I like the adage of again to that.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, keep pulling me back in.

Tom Ray: Um, exactly.

Joe Cannon: No. So, um, I tried a couple of different ways to continue playing with Jefflck. We had an attempted band called V On, where we were both playing guitar and tried to find a bassist. And then we started doing Resurrectionists. Um, and that’s the one that kind of got legs. We had for a while we had a pedal steel player named Gavin who was pretty awesome.

Tom Ray: How do you run across kind of.

Joe Cannon: Like we’re playing this kind of like chamber Americana type stuff. Um, and then when Gavin moved to upstate New York, we figured we weren’t going to try to find a pedal steel player in Milwaukee who was, you know, a good B, like weird rock music and C was willing to be a member of a band as opposed to somebody who got paid. So we just, you know. So uh, I asked my friend John, um, to kind of take a listen to what we had been doing and see what he would do kind of in place of the pedal steel. And he’s become our sort of uh, jack of all trades, like he keys or various guitars with effects and such. We’ve nicknamed him Dr. Science. I saw that because we would have like, we would be like in practice and like Josh the drummer, Jeff and I would be like, you know, uh, nearly having a fistfight over some arrangement issue that were, you know, we can’t agree on. And then I was like, well, and then whatever the hell, Dr. Science over here comes up with John’s like dickering with his pedals. And then like, you know, it’s like without fail, well, the three of us will come up with some sort of structure and then like John will just lay these odd weird soundscapes on top of them and we’re just. Well, Dr. Science has spoken.

Tom Ray: Mhm.

Joe Cannon: Song’s done.

Tom Ray: He’s the answer to the question mark section of the Underpants Gnomes from Southnd Park. South Park. He fills in the blank. Oh, that’s what the answer is. I like that.

Were you writing songs as a team with the lineup as is

And so while you were looking for these people, you were writing songs, were you writing them, um, as a team with the lineup as is, or were you writing the songs? Like what’s the process for writing?

Joe Cannon: Well, the first group of songs were things, uh, that I had been playing around with for years. Ok. Like the first album, which is now like back in 2018.

Tom Ray: Um.

Joe Cannon: Was mostly things that I had been playing just because I had a trne of songs and once I had people to play with, I was like, well let, let’s just arrange and practice up these eight or nine songs I already have and then we can start writing once we have those, because that’s a set you can start playing. Um, and some of the songs that we ended up playing were songs, um, that from an older band of mine from when I was still living in Chicago. Uh, Named Barely American. So there was one or two songs that we played that were originally barely American songs. Um, those are long past. These are songs we haven’t been playing actively in the set in like four or five years. Um, and when John came in, the band started gravitating away from that sort of like chamber Americana feel to a rock and roll band. And so we’re now like a weirdo punk band.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Joe Cannon: And that s. That occasionally plays slow, quiet banjo, uh, tunes or a country song. I, I sort of jokingly say that this is the band. This is uh, finally this is the band. This is the band. Where I gave up on genre, I could see that.

Tom Ray: And I would even say your quiet songs go loud and quiet, you know.

Joe Cannon: Yeah. I mean, is it goingna be a hardcore song or 70s country rock? We don’t know.

Tom Ray: Mhm. Yeah. And when you were saying that there were songs that you had done from the previous, uh, bands or different writing songs or different iterations, I find that super hard. And it seems like, uh, uh, because it is. I feel like if you keep them, you can’t let go and do something new. And it sounds like you eventually came to that point. But I always have the hardest time not moving or have the hardest time keeping that old stuff. I always start from scratch.

Joe Cannon: I always just destroy and build uptyn. I like to revisit things from past. Yeah. Um, I enjoy. I’m actually in the beginning of August I’m going to be doing a song swap, uh, with a friend of mine, ah, at down at a bar in Milwaukee here called ah, Bremen. Just like it’s during the day thing. He does this every summer where, where it will sit on stage and banter back and forth and play songs you like. He’ll play song, I’ll play a song. Guy named uh, uh, Jake Wiley Hess does it out here. This is pretty cool. Um, so I’mnna do that and it’s basically it’s me using it as an opportunity to like relearn songs I haven’t played in 15 years. Um, and then, you know, and so I like doing these kinds of solo things sometimes because I can like pull stuff from like four or five different projects over the course of decades.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Joe Cannon: Um, you know, and since I’ve never been popular, these are all songs that nobody has ever heard. So they’re perpetually brand new.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

William: I typically don’t write music and lyrics together

So what is your songwriting process? Uh, I know that I always write an idea and then just evolve it from there. And for me the lyrics come last. I know a lot of People write lyrics and melody first. Do you have a specific way?

Joe Cannon: I typically don’t write music and lyrics together.

Tom Ray: Yeah, neither do I.

Joe Cannon: Okay, so I write, I have notebooks, I have multiple notebooks with. And my lyric writing process is a whole lot of writing and rewriting down to the point where every. I have, um, I uh, have lyrics. Like I have lyrical ideas, you know, like a single turn of phrase or a quatrain or something like that that I haven’t been able to figure out how to finish in decades. And so I’ll just keep rewriting it and rewriting it and rewriting it into the new notebook and the old notebook. You know, it’s like. And then eventually sometimes I’ll get that second line that then opens up everything else. And so I’m like, okay, Now I’ve got 150 words. There’s a song. Um, but, um, yeah, so that’s kind of the process for lyrics. There’s a whole lot of writing and rewriting and trying to take a single turn of phrase. And I mean. And a lot of my songwriting is, uh, it’s like in certain ways it’s kind of oblique storytelling, but in other ways it’s almost like, I don’t know, tone poetry because I just like the way that certain syllables go with each other and there’actually sometimes there’s like a tension between that where I’m like, so Joe, what does this song mean? I’m like, I don’t know. It means a lot of things. I, uh, just like the way these words sound together.

Tom Ray: Yeah. You ever have that problem where you sing something, it’s a great line, but when you’re singing it, one of the words you’re like, that word sounds stupid when I sing it. Yeah.

Joe Cannon: Y o. There’s lots of things that seem smart when you write it down, but then, um, we actually place it and I mean, so a lot of the rewriting is me crossing out four different synonyms for the same word until I find the one that clangs. Right? Yeah. And so then my writing process with music is much more. It’s really literally me bumming around my apartment playing a guitar until something strikes my ear and then I start playing it over and over and over again and developing it a bit more. Um, and usually with the band, um, things have developed to a certain degree before I bring something into the band. I usually have like, you know, a half formed lyrical idea and then like probably two parts that are sort of like, you know, uh, like something versy, something chorusy. Or know some idea or two that I want to build stuff around. And then I bring those sort of like half form materials into practice and then we as a band all work them up.

Tom Ray: And do you record them yourself or do you show them to them on the instrument?

Joe Cannon: On the instrument mostly.

Tom Ray: Oay.

Joe Cannon: All right. And then in practice we do a lot of voice memo recordings where once we’ve got something to the point where we feel like ah, once we’ve got something to the point where we feel like it’s worth documenting to listen to and puzzle over, then we’ll record it and then there will be songs that we’ve kind of half finished or uh, have put on the back burner and sometimes for years. Um, because you know how it is where it’s like there’s the thing you’ve been helplessly hassling for years and then you come in and like somebody plays some dumb thing and you’re like half hour later you have a fully finished song, you’re like, well that happened.

Tom Ray: Yeah. No, that’s why I love tracking the ideas even as we’re thinking of them. Even if they’re just stupid or even if it’s like, let me try something and we track it and then later on what I can do is I can take that and I will chop it up and go, what if this note was here? What if this note was here? I do a lot of that. I’m a lot more like William Burrougs isn it? And just cut it up and make them. And now I’m like, okay, now learn this part that we just cut up from your guitar line.

Joe Cannon: Right, Right. For me the big thing is that um, I have never felt comfortable recording. It’s not a skill area for me. Find I surround myself with people who learn how to do that stuff. It like my attitude towards recording is I always like having recorded the process of it is not. It’s like I can be helpful and like sometimes I have ah, a weird sensibility. Like I’ll notice things others aren’t noticing in A M mix or something. But in terms of like the technical ability of like using the equipment and plugins and it just like it gets into that kind of rocket science feeling and I’m just like, I don’t know how to do this.

Tom Ray: Right.

Joe Cannon: I just, you know, I’mnn play this. I’m gonna write the songs and then find people who know how to do this. To do this. Yeah. And as the musician to that is I’m not going to be the guy who’s Recording my practices. Yeah. Ah, with the exception of just like, you know, on like a quick reference recording on a telephone.

Tom Ray: So knowing people who do this. And uh, your new EP that came out, it is recorded by. Right here, it says Mike Lust.

Joe Cannon: It was recorded by Mike Lust in Chicago. Uh, Mike Lust is an old head in Chicago. He’s beenk, uh, uh, and he’s been a recording engineer for decades. Like I recorded with him. I had a band called Early Risers back in Chicago, and we recorded with him in like 2006 or something. And he’s been in bands for ages. He was in um, ah, type Phantoms, Luster King, um, and other. Other. And I think he plays under his own name now. So he, he’s kind of a. He’s a well known figure in Chicago.

Tom Ray: What’s his studio setup like?

Joe Cannon: Uh, he rents studio time at a place, uh, um.

Tom Ray: Shoot.

Joe Cannon: Uh, it’s there in front of you. What was the.

Tom Ray: No, all I see on the bandamp thing. Oh, maybe it’s up higher.

Joe Cannon: I actually just have notes I’m trying to remember. I’m drawing a blank on the uh, deck. So record it. We recorded the basic tracks of this place called Jam Deck.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Joe Cannon: Um, and then he has a practice space in a place called the Music Garage in Chicago. He has a practice space that he’s converted into a studio. But, uh, you wouldn’t really be able to do a full band recording in that studio.

So basically what we did was we did basic tracks at Jam Deck

So basically what we did was we did basic tracks. We did basic tracks at Jam Deck and then vocals and overdubs, mics.

Tom Ray: Uh, interesting.

Joe Cannon: Like personal studio in his practice space.

Tom Ray: All right. And while you were saying Jam, uh, Deck and I was looking on the Bandcamp page as you were saying that Oracle Deck kept popping up and. I know, Yes, I know recently, uh, when you were on. I heard you recently on WSE in Milwaukee and you were talking about your Oracle deck.

The EP has four songs and we had this idea to create an Oracle Deck

So tell people about this Oracle Deck. That with the ep.

Joe Cannon: So the EP we just put out, uh, is called anytime you make a place for them. It has four songs and we had this idea. So it’s the eternal struggle of figuring out how to release music, uh, in the age of streaming, figuring out how to release music in ways that you don’t have to go all the way to a full on vinyl release with all the delays and expense involved, uh, but releasing it in a way that people will buy it as opposed to, you know, because it’s like you can’t sell download cards and it’s like, just like there’s this weird psychology to it where it says like, what somebody will spend money on versus not. And we’ve learned through long practice that no matter how you package it, people do not buy download cards. Um, you know, so we were like, how, you know, what are wen to do? Well, we had the idea, it was like, oh, I’m gonna have what’s four songs. I’ll have an art print corresponding to each of the songs that are like a 12 by 12. So it looks, you know, so like the package that you’d be selling would look like a record album. We ended up not doing that because the artist that we talked to about doing the art prints is like, hey, I’ve got this other idea that I want to run by you. Um, and the idea was to create an Oracle deck. Like a tarot deck, like a fortune telling.

Tom Ray: Okay, I wasnna ask that. Yeah.

Joe Cannon: Where the four suits correspond to the four songs. You know, so it’s like, you know, it’s like, it’s like a deck of cards with these, with these images that are kind of sourced from vintage encyclopedias. Um, m designed by our friend NE Horssky, who’s a, uh, talented visual artist. Um, and so he designed these s. And he has been giving readings like at shows of ours and also just he carries the cards around with them. I like that he created this Oracle deck for us. And he is also the only person on the planet who knows how to do a reading with the Oracle deck because he designed it and.

Tom Ray: Or he knows how to give a reading with it. Like it’s one of those things. Like does he really. Is he just really good at, you know, like he should being snake oil?

Joe Cannon: Right, right, right. I mean he designed it, right?

Tom Ray: Exactly.

On it’s available on tape or cd. And uh, there’s a theme too that

Yeah, yeah. And uh, there’s a theme too that uh, I wanted to ask you.

Joe Cannon: And also we gave up on. We gave up and released it on physical media. On it’s available on tape or cd.

Tom Ray: Oh, you did do it on tape?

Joe Cannon: Yeah, we did it. I was like, I was like, oh, we’re gonna. I’m like, you know, we tried, we tried. I just was like testing the orderone like nobody is going to buy it if there isn’t a physical music. Even if you give them a tape and you tuck the download code in the tape and they’re only ever going to listen to it on the download code. If the tape isn’t there, they won’t buy it.

Tom Ray: Mhm, mhm. Where do you get tape made? Where are you getting cassettes made?

Joe Cannon: Uh, we use duplication, uh, ca okay, yeah.

The clock idea originated from a video idea for a song on We’re All Ghosts

All right.

Tom Ray: And so with the artwork that he did on the cards, he also did the artwork on the album, right?

Joe Cannon: Yes.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Joe Cannon: Uh, I mean, the artwork on the album is essentially the design of the back of the car.

Tom Ray: That’s what I was going to ask because I wasn’t sure if it was or not.

Joe Cannon: And also that hearkens back to our first. Our second. Well, the album we put out on vinyl now that We’re All Ghosts, because it’s that weird faceless grandfather clock. Is.

Tom Ray: That’s what I was getting at, was the grandfather clock.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, it’s kind of become our thing.

Tom Ray: Okay, all right. And is there any specific meeting or. It’s just because that’s what was on that album.

Joe Cannon: The clock idea originated from a video idea for one of the songs on now that We’re All Ghosts. Yeah, Um, I had. And the video was actually made. I mean, that album, we had a video made for every song on it. Um, yes, and three of those videos were made by my friend Brian Tyson. One of which was, uh, the first was sort of the reason why I acquired the clock that became the COVID star of the album.

Tom Ray: Oh, you acquired it? I didn’t know that.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, no, no, it lives in my. It lives in my, uh. It lives in my front room.

Tom Ray: Nice.

Joe Cannon: I mean, it doesn’t function as a clock anymore because it got carted around various places in Milwaukee.

Tom Ray: The picture is in the middle of a field.

Joe Cannon: Ye, yeah, yeah, well, and so midle. The middle of the field picture came from. So. Okay. Uh, one of the songs in the red was called the Rest Cure. And I had this idea for a video where the band is walking through a forest and comes upon this clock in the middle of a forest. Because I was really enjoying this kind of like, you know, like a clearing in the forest and there’s this fucking grandfather clock just sitting thereeah. Know, and then in the video we notice that it’s two minutes to midnight. We get freaked out by this because, you know, the old nuclear devastation meme. Uh, and so we go and we run off. We come back with like surgical devices and stuff and we do like weird surgery on the clock. And then when we’re done, it’s three minutes to midnight.

Tom Ray: Mhm.

Joe Cannon: So we declare victory and leave. Um, but once I had the clock, we just started having all these other ideas for ways of using the clock. And so, uh, we also did a video that was during the lockdown period of the pandemic. It was like early 2021. That was Brian filming me like, walking around my neighborhood with all. All the buildings closed and stuff like that. Um, and then the video ended with the members of the band carrying the grandfather clock up Reservoir Hill, which is a big park in river west in Milwaukee, Carrying it coffin style up the hill and then putting it, you know, then standing it up, having. And then like having beers with each other, you know, around the clock. So this. And so when we were filming that video, I was like. And we had the clock on the hill with the city in the background. I was like, okay, this is cool. I need to take a bunch of pictures of this. And so the, you know, some of the pictures that I. One of the pictures that I took, I was like, this absolutely has to be the album cover, because this is like, you know, an album cover.

Tom Ray: I’ve had moments like that where I’ve taken a picture and I’m like, next time we do an album, this is going to be a perfect picture for it. Oh, and I want to add, too, you said, like, how weir would it be? You walk into a field and there’s just a clock sitting there as just a point. I had a similar. Not as cool, but similar experience where, yes, it is weird. So there are places around here in Madison where their fields, but for some reason they’re like, I know, let’s build miles and miles of bike trail out here. Like, cemented. But it’s like nothing else is around. I was riding on one one time, and all of a sudden, in the middle of nowhere, no roads around, just fields, marshland, all this kind of stuff. There was a bookshelf just sitting on the side of. I’m like, who took the time and effort to put this here? Why is it here? Who brought this? Like, what the hell? It is weird. It’s unraving to just go. This took time and effort.

Joe Cannon: Well, it also reminds. It also reminds you of the, um. Oh, God. What? It was like one of those sort of like, Reddit memes that gained traction where it was like, uh, finding a stairway in the middle of a forest.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Joe Cannon: And always. It always being this, like, weirdly ominous thing where it’s just like, yeah, don’t interact with that fair way. Because it’s like. Because it’s probably evil.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

There is a song on the new EP that has a weird rhythm

Now, there is a song on the new EP that I want to ask you about. It’s a song. Jokers and Their Jokeseah. Now it’s one of those songs. Where is it in a weird time signature or do you just have a weird rhythm?

Joe Cannon: No.

Tom Ray: Okay. Uh. And to you, it’s probably not weird at all. But when I first hear it, there’s this guitar hit and it’s like, where the hell does it go?

Joe Cannon: No, it’it’s. Uh, a 12, you know.

Tom Ray: Uh, okay. Uh, see, I was thinking it was a seven. And also, by the way, to most normal people, those are weird time signatures.

Joe Cannon: I, I use 12 a lot.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Joe Cannon: I like, like, uh, I like the. Because basically what you’re doing is it’s a four, but you’re. Yeah, you’ve got that three pulse going on through the whole thing. It’s one of those. It’s one of those rhythms I like so much that I have to remind myself not to use it.

Tom Ray: Just, uh, like PJ Harvey in her 11 4. Um, so I was curious about that. Okay, so it is kind of a weird time signature.

Joe Cannon: It’s just very normal.

Tom Ray: Go to for you.

Joe Cannon: It is a four, but it’s just a four. That’s like, that’s, you know, got that kind of like pulse three pulse. Oh, and I mean, and I do, um, I often like, uh, to play the. And the. And before the. And after the beat. I have. It’s like me. You know, my Phil line at worship, uh, manifests in that way.

Tom Ray: Gotcha.

Your attic has been your practice space for about a year now

Now, when you guys practice, what is your studio setup? Do you guys have a place? Do you go just the house? Like, where do you guys get together and do this stuff? It’s your attic.

Joe Cannon: It’s my attic. Uh, and it has been for about a year. Prior to that, we had a practice space that, uh, Jeff had for ages. It was actually the practice space that work used. Um, so. But then, uh, the rent just kept climbing up and climbing up. And at certain point Jeff was like, nah, I can’t do this anymore. And so we migrated it to my attic, which has worked out pretty well. And I’ve actually now hosted a show. Uh, and we have at least one show scheduled to host in that attic coming up in August.

Tom Ray: Oh, really?

Joe Cannon: Yeah. Now it’s nice. When I bought my house, it was a real selling point because it’s the footprint of the entire house. Just. Wow. And the full ceilings. It’s like a 15 foot ceiling at the apex. So it’s a nice space. Um, had a friend, like, I had a friend, you know, put a separate circuit in there so that I didn’t have to worry about running it off of, uh, you know, my downstairs. And you know, so it’s a full. It’s pretty well set up. I mean, it isn’t like I didn’t Rehab. It. It looks like an attic. It’s exposed rafters and stuff.

Tom Ray: But um, that’s literally what I was picturing in my head.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, no, I. It’not So we have to be a little bit careful because it’like it’s not sound. It’s not sound treated or anything.

Tom Ray: That was what I was going to ask. Okay.

Joe Cannon: No.

Tom Ray: So how are nobody’s complaining about it especially even having shows?

Joe Cannon: Uh, well, we haven’t had many. We’ve only had one. Uh, and you know, and so it’s certain kinds of things we can’t do. But you know, but as long as it’s on a weekend, you know, and I live in a neighborhood where it’s like this kind of thing happens.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Joe Cannon: You know, it’s like it’s the river west neighborhood of Milwaukee. It’s like you got. There’s weirdos playing music.

Tom Ray: Yeah. Okay. It took me a second to. Because I’m like most people. That wouldn’t be a normal thing that goes on. It’s like, ah, now Bob’s over there doing a show in his attic, you.

Joe Cannon: Know, well across the alley from me is the place that I used to live. It was that place of the house I lived in, uh, prior to buying the one that I live in now. And um, they do shows.

Tom Ray: Mhm.

Joe Cannon: So like I call my venue the Library because I have this like floor to ceiling bookshelf. That’s the first thing you see when you get to the top of the stairway in the attic. And their place is called Tsunami. And so we’ve always joked about like, do a show. We should do the shows at the same time and call it Attic Fest.

Tom Ray: That’s fun. You should. I mean, why not? That makes sense.

Joe Cannon: It sell itself. Well, Attict Fest will eventually happen.

Tom Ray: Okay.

How do you manage booking shows with multiple bands

And now with that, uh, how do you manage booking shows? I know that you’re also in other bands and how do you organize that with not only the people in the band, but also several bands? Like are you the one booking the shows? Is someone else doing it for you? And how are you organiz?

Joe Cannon: So the Resurrectionists is uh, I’m the primary kind of like contact person for Resurrectionists. O I also played a band called Star Jelly, which until recently was named Delicious Monsters. M ok. Um, the other members of the band are kind of like dialed into the scene that that band operates in a bit more and so I do less. Um, and then I’m just. I started a band very recently named Gore Area 2. Um, that’s kind of like weirdly organic. Sounding kraut rock, maybe. Um, okay, yeah. I jokingly say it’s Coctko Twins doing lines with Demo Suzuki over at Noise Place. And it’s noi. So you think it’s go going toa be like all antiseptic brutalism, but it’s surprisingly cozy. There’s hammocks and shit. That’s my description of that band.

Tom Ray: Um, so, like, that it’s also a discussion.

Joe Cannon: Ye. Well, you know, I did name the band Gore Area 2.

Tom Ray: Gore Area 1 was taken.

Joe Cannon: It came from. We had a lineup change early on, like, like after. Like, basically somebody practiced with us once or twice who was like, n, I can’t do this. Um, and then the drummer who was like, managing the text thread that we use to organize stuff, changed the name of the text thread to Gore Area 2 with the Roman numerals. And I was just like, well, we’re kind of sort of kut rock, so it’s kind of on brand for us to name this band something weird like Gore Area 2. And so I was like, ye. That’s the name of the band now, Neil. Oh, NE Horsky, the guy who designed the oracle deck, is the drummer of Gore Area 2.

Tom Ray: Got.

Joe Cannon: Because Milwaukee is not incestuous enough. We have to.

Tom Ray: Right? Yeah.

Joe Cannon: So, yeah, soe. Um, Gore Area has played two shows so far. Um, and yeah, so are those bands. I’m kind of like the main booking guy. Um, and with the two of them right now, it’s sort of like somebody will ask me and I’ll figure out which of the two projects has everybody available.

Tom Ray: Okay, so you really do just check in and go, can you guys do this date? There’s not like, calendar syncing up or anything like that. That’s the biggest problem I have.

Joe Cannon: No, I don’t, uh. The times I’ve attempted to do use a calendar app and have everybody pre participate in. It’s just like. No, you just. You be the switchboard.

Tom Ray: All right.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, I mean, it does involve a lot of me chasing people around, especially people who have like, like hectic work schedules or who are allergic to cell phones. Um, you know, so it’s like there’s a bit of like, you know, per my last seven text messages, are you available on this date for a rock and roll show?

Tom Ray: Case in point. We were all set up until the third day before I was doing that show with you in anodyne. And then my drummer goes, oh, wait, no. My daughter has a recital out of town that day. I can’t do the show. And I’m like, you’re kidding me. So that’s how I ended up doing that show by myself. I just had them record all their parts, or we did a live take in our studio and I just didn’t record my part. And then I played along with it and that was the show that I did. But up. Up to the third day before that show, the full band was coming, and then I had to, uh, pivot.

Joe Cannon: We’ve had reasonably good luck. I can think of only one time that Resurrectionists has had to cancel a show for that reason. And it was basically like, ah. Our drummer had gotten a day off from work, and then they had a stag crisis and that day off was rescinded. And he was like, there’s nothing I can do about this. And I’m like, all right, yeah, I get it.

Tom Ray: Okay. Oh, I thought you meant he didn’t show up because he got a day off for work and he was like, oh, I have free time.

Joe Cannon: No, no, was. It was like, I got it. He had confirmed that he could do it because he had gotten the time off work. But then later on they had a staff in crisis and he wasn’t. He was pulled in.

Tom Ray: My favorite is we played with a band here in town and their drummer couldn’t do the show because he got Taylor Swift tickets.

Joe Cannon: Ok.

Tom Ray: So he went to go do that Super Ro Roleah. That was one of my favorites anyway. So, yeah, that’s why I ask it. Just because I’m always looking for new ways to figure out managing booking. Because seriously, more often than not, it will be like only three people are playing the show, I’m playing it by myself, crap like that, so. And I know that you’re in several bands, so I was very curious how that works for you.

Joe Cannon: Yeah.

Do you have videos coming up? Because I know you did that

Tom Ray: All right. Now, um, basically, with this video, uh. Or, sorry, with this EP that came out.

Joe Cannon: Yes.

Tom Ray: Do you have videos coming up? Because I know you did that.

Joe Cannon: We have one made and I am working on another one. We had plans to do one for each of the four songs, but, um, two of them have gone sort of back burner because of just logistics issues of getting. We’ve got this ambitious idea to do one of them that involves creating puppets of ourselves. And the puppets are taking a long time to get made. So it, you know, it’s kind of gotten vague when that one’s gonna happeneah. Uh, uh. But yeah, we have one that’s ready, but I want to have a second one so that I’m not just, you know, like, releasing a new thing. And then like not having something relatively soon thereafter to follow it up with. Um, so’m actually when we’re done here today, I’m going to be going to uh, shoot some footage for that video.

Tom Ray: Oh, cool. Yeah. Okay.

Joe Cannon: Uh, so Neil, who had been talking about a lot, he actually made the video for um, the song so Make a Place for Them, has a video which I have not yet released. Um, because I want to have a couple of things so we can have a rhythm of, of things to promote, um, to publicize. So yeah, he’s created, he’s done a video. Um, and then T.W. hann, who did two of the videos for the album, did the video for Blue Henry and the video for Ghost this time, uh, is working on that. Then that video is going to be for the song Ditch Gospel.

Tom Ray: Okay. And that’s the first song on the album, right?

Joe Cannon: Yes.

Tom Ray: Okay. That one, I recognized you had been playing that one out. I think you had been playing the other ones out too. But when I first listened to the ep, I’m like, I know this song.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, four of those were, um. All four of those songs have been in the set for a while.

Tom Ray: That’s what I figured. Okay. And are you working on, uh, not that it’s not enough you’re working on videos, you just released an EP and things like that. But do you have plans in the works for.

Joe Cannon: We’ve record. We’ve recorded basic tracks and vocals for um, a new four songer, which is um. Basically we’re clearing out the last of the songs that we had written and not released before. We’ve got this ah, concept album that we’re working on or that I’m working on and the rest of the band has bemusedly following me.

Tom Ray: Um, I know that goes. Yeah.

Joe Cannon: Um, yeah, so no, we have a new set of four songs. Uh, with the pace that this is going, I will expect that it will probably be released in early fall. I’m going to guess like September.

Tom Ray: Ish.

Joe Cannon: Um, because we’ve got like, we’ve got to kind of take inventory of what we’ve got, do a little mixing session of our own and then give it over the recording engineer to do the final mixes. Yeah. And just knowing how long things take, it’s going to take a little while. So. Yeah. Um, and that’s two banjo songs and two guitar songs. Ah, it’s an interesting kind uh, of like contrast because the four song EP that we just did is kind of a rocky pe where like, if you listen to our other things, there’s like more of a mix of, uh, there’s someck. There’s some punkin rock songs on there, but then there’s like quieter banjo based things, um, and that kind of thing. And then the four songs on Anytime you make a place for them are kind of all rockers. And then this next one that we’re about to put out or that we’re working on finishing is two quiet or banjo songs. A country song. Um, yeah, like a straight up country song about drinking and everything. Nice. Yeah. And then a kind of, I don’t know, swampier kind of song that’s about bad things.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Joe Cannon: About bad things in small towns. You know.

Tom Ray: All the swamps in Milwaukee inspired you.

Joe Cannon: Exactly. The Fens.

Tom Ray: All right. And then if people wanted to learn more about Resurrectionists or hear more, where could they go do that?

Joe Cannon: So, uh, we have a band camp which is, uh, uh, it’s resurrectionists, mke, m.bandcamp.com and then our, uh, Facebook. I mean it’s always Resurrectionist Mke.

Tom Ray: Okay. Yeah, that’s always EAS MK Y.

Joe Cannon: So, uh, and the only, the only stumbling point that a lot of people have is that the band name is difficult to spell.

Tom Ray: Yes. Rel on.

Joe Cannon: So the rules of the band name are there is no the. It’s just Resurrectionists. And Resurrectionist is spelled with 1s and 2rs. R e s u r r m. Mhm. People have tendency to think it’s 2s’ 1r. But it’s not. It’s 1s 2 r’yep.

Tom Ray: Yep. And if we were ne. Remember the 1s? I always forget the 2 Rs.

Joe Cannon: Yeah, if we were nerdier, we would have. We would put out an album or something named 1s2rs.

You could change Resurrectionist to use a tinier font on T shirts

But we’re not, uh, quite that nerdy.

Tom Ray: Close. Or you could do.

Joe Cannon: Could do.

Tom Ray: But not quite a version of Aretha Franklin’s R E S B E C T. But just spell out Resurrectionists. Make it catchy, you know, like phonetics.

Joe Cannon: Right, right. Yeah, yeah, never. And also for those of you following along at home, it is not a good idea to have your band name be a single 16 letter long word. No, not a good idea.

Tom Ray: Especially all.

Joe Cannon: We did the experiment so you don’t have to.

Tom Ray: Your other bands were literally named like Workeah. And you know, you went with this. Yeah, even the Grok. Uh, I forget the name, but even that one like, you know, rolled off the tongue.

Joe Cannon: Gore Area two.

Tom Ray: Gore Area two. I wanted to say GRE for some reason. No, Gore Area two.

Joe Cannon: Well, Delicious Monsters was a reasonably cumbersome name, but that band has now been renamed to Star Jelly.

Tom Ray: I could see people misspelling delicious. Yes.

Joe Cannon: Right. I mean, it’s just more. It’s also the thing where it’s just like. It’s a long word. So it’s hard to place on like a T shirt or something and have it be. It’s hard to place on T shirts and flyers and stuff and have it be. Like. The thing that was nice about work is that you could have a 256 point font and have it be this, like, massively iconic thing on the top of a poster or a T shirt or something that.

Tom Ray: I just got an idea. Much like your text chain that you talked about how the band name changed. This one could be. You could change Resurrectionist to use a tinier font on the T shirt.

Joe Cannon: Y. There you go. Right? Exactly.

Tom Ray: I like that.

Joe Cannon: I mean, I like the band name. It’s just, uh.

Tom Ray: No, it’s a great band name, but.

Joe Cannon: I get that it poses certain challenges.

Tom Ray: Yes. Yeah. But it does auto correct very well. I’ve typed it in, misspelled several times, and it does go. Did you mean this? And it does show up.

Joe Cannon: That’s good.

Tom Ray: You got that going for you. All right, well, I want to thank you so much for talking with me today.

Joe Cannon: That was funw.

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