Getting to Know Us: The Farthest Shore Players!

You can't just make music out of sunbeams and leftover soup. You need ideas and you need "instruments" and you need know-how and you need hustle. And you need people.

Because without people not only would music not be listened to, it wouldn't be played. And what is music when it's not played? I'll tell you what it is: it's not much.

So over the years the people in National Eye have called up other people and said, "There's this music sitting here not being played so would you please come over to the house and play it and if you do I will give you some pizza and beer and possibly wine if you're picky."

And they did, a lot of the time. So here today we're going to give you the rundown on all the people who helped in making our new album The Farthest Shore the thing it is. Which is: a really great album for you to enjoy.

So let's meet the musickers!

Will Baggott: A millionaire in his own mind, he played bass and guitar and shook things and engineered and all kinds of other things.

Gianmarco Cilli: Go see him play with his band at Johnny Brenda's on Oct 17th and when you do go up to him and say "The blog told me to tell you that you're super and you did a great job playing bass, guitar, singing, and drumming on your album The Farthest Shore, available from Park the Van Records on October 14th which was just a few days ago because we're talking in the future right now." If he doesn't believe you, buy him a scotch.

Richard Flom: Him is me. We played ball together in college, but I forget which ball. Sung, strummed, etc.

Douglas Kirby: Oh the keyboards he played! Oh the singing he did! Oh the guitars we'll go! His favorite old time saying is, "An indictment is not a conviction."

Jeff Love: Sang and played some guitar and also did the cover art and lots of the art you see on this blog and some of the blogging you also see on this blog. Speaking of seeing, this guy looks great in a tuxedo!

Gretchen Lohse: She did violins and violas and viocals and broke down barriers by being the first Gretchen ever on a National Eye album. Some call her "The Phantom" due to her impeccable manners.

Sir Kyle Lloyd: When not playing drums on this album and in the fabulous Capitol Years, Kyle Lloyd enjoys bicycling, acrostics, and being surveilled by the FBI!

Shai Son of Eli: As they say, "Time flies when you're having fun." And "flies" is the word I would use to describe my friend Shai, who's also in the aforementioned Caps and played guitar on TFS. Oops, I meant "fun."

Charlie Hall: Did drums and the electric wurlipianitzer. Also Head Coach of the Philadelphia Silver Ages, winners of the 2007 Sadly Cup.

Thomas Bendel: Drummed on TFS because he's a drummer but he's many other things as well, such as a great human being and the very model of a modern Major-General.

Todd Starlin: Blew trumpet and vocals. You'll remember Mr. Starlin from his appearances on Who Wants to Marry The Queen of England? and Top Waiter. Just kidding he's never been on TV.

Joshua Newman: Every good boy deserves Josh! Which might just be my opinion but 10,000 guitars agree! Particularly the one that he played so well on our album. He also sang on a song.

Rory Connell: Along with Flom and Newman, Connell plays in western swing combo Mitch Fiction and the Shirts [sic] and starred in the legendary rock group Raccoon. Sometimes he gets that starry look in his eyes.

Nathan Lohse: Played the cello which if you don't know what that is you're in luck because I'm about to tell you: it's a long tube with smaller rubber tubes coming out of it and the whole thing resolves into a skull at the bottom where a tiny whale lives and shoots water out of a window which makes a sound like this: "Bzzzzzzzz." It's almost impossible to tune, but sounds great when Nathan plays it because he's a pro.

Zach Miller: This guy has been known to play keys in Dr. Dog but he's also great at playing gypsy-style guitar even though you'd never guess it because he doesn't look like a gypsy, he looks like a heckuva person, which is exactly what he is.

Janka Perniss: A rabid sports fan, Ms Perniss also loves movies. She went to see 15 of 'em last week and that's not including the ones she watched at home. She played a lovely violin on the album and teaches karate to the homeless.

Adam Arcuragi: A is for A. D is for damn. A is for alright. M is for man. A is for and. R is for really. C is for croons. U is for unlike. R is for Rod. A is for Argent's. G is for giant. I is for iguana.

That's all of them, I think. If you played on The Farthest Shore and were not mentioned here please write a nasty letter to:

Rhino Records
4567 Easter Dr. Suite #5
Eau Claire, WI 52554