DES ARK

Welcome to my awesome world of photoshop skills,...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:52:00 -0500

Welcome to my awesome world of photoshop skills, y’all.

FINAL EUROPEAN TOUR DATES ARE UP! All dates are with our bff’s Sissters! PLUS A COUPLE SUPER SURPRISE LAST MINUTE NC SHOWS BEFORE WE LEAVE!

Help us spread the word if you can, I think they say “tweet that shit.”

02.25.12 DURHAM NC @ LA SALAMANDRA w/Maple Stave, Minor Stars
02.26.12 GREENSBORO NC @ 412 N. CEDAR w/Romantic Animal
03.01.12 BERLIN GERMANY @ MARIE-ANTOINETTE w/Sissters
03.02.12 HAMBURG GERMANY @ CENTRO SOCIALE w/Sissters
03.03.12 MARBURG GERMANY @ BETTENHAUS w/Sissters
03.04.12 MÜLHEIM GERMANY @ AZ w/Sissters
03.05.12 UTRECHT NETHERLANDS @ DB’S w/Sissters
03.06.12 AACHEN GERMANY @ AZ w/Sissters
03.07.12 LUXEMBOURG @ DQLIQ w/Sissters
03.08.12 PARIS FRANCE @ LE RIGOLETTO w/Sissters
03.09.12 LE MANS FRANCE @ UNION JACK w/Sissters
03.10.12 ANGERS FRANCE @ LA CONSERVARIE w/Sissters
03.12.12 TOULOUSE FRANCE @ PETIT LONDON w/Sissters
03.13.12 GRENOBLE FRANCE @ LE 102 w/Sissters
03.14.12 LYON FRANCE @ LA TRIPERIE w/Sissters
03.15.12 GENEVA SWITZERLAND @ L’ECURIE w/Sissters
03.16.12 WINTERTHUR SWITZERLAND @ KRAFTFELD w/Sissters
03.17.12 FREIBURG GERMANY @ WHITE RABBIT w/Sissters
03.18.12 STRASBOURG FRANCE @ MUDD CLUB w/Sissters
03.19.12 TRIER GERMANY @ EXHAUS w/Sissters
03.20.12 FRANKFURT GERMANY @ TBA w/Sissters
03.21.12 WÜRZBURG GERMANY @ CAIRO w/Sissters
03.22.12 NÜRNBERG GERMANY @ K4 w/Sissters
03.23.12 MÜNCHEN GERMANY @ KAFE KULT w/Sissters
03.24.12 SALZBURG AUSTRIA @ SHAKESPERE w/Sissters
03.26.12 LJUBLJANA SLOVENIA @ MENZA PRI KORITU w/Sissters
03.27.12 VIENNA AUSTRIA @ SHELTER w/Sissters
03.28.12 BRNO CZECH REPUBLIC @ BORO CLUB w/Sissters
03.29.12 PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC @ FINAL CLUB w/Sissters
03.30.12 DRESDEN GERMANY @ AZ CONNI w/Sissters
03.31.12 LEIPZIG GERMANY @ ZORRO w/Sissters, Polite Sleeper

1st show w/@noshjee bout to happen (Baton Rouge//Red Star Bar)....

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:39:09 -0500

1st show w/@noshjee bout to happen (Baton Rouge//Red Star Bar). STOKED. (Taken with instagram)

My sister shows #howard her rock collection. “So I...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:41:58 -0500

My sister shows #howard her rock collection. “So I can’t lick it?” “No. Don’t lick that.” #drunk #nerds (Taken with instagram)

Solving the radio-less 15hr road trip crisis (Taken with...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:18:51 -0500

Solving the radio-less 15hr road trip crisis (Taken with instagram)

You can now pick up copies of the new record at Chaz’s...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:22:03 -0500

You can now pick up copies of the new record at Chaz’s Bull City Records (Durham), All Day Records (Carrboro) & CD Alley (Chapel Hill)! You can still order it online from Paramnesia Records, & it we’ll have it with us on our European tour in March. (I’m talking about WXDU V3…live mostly solo acoustic radio thing sometimes featuring johnny ward (pygmylush)…you can read reviews of it here & here.)

Thanks to the Independent Weekly for a nice review of WXDU...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:33:55 -0500

Thanks to the Independent Weekly for a nice review of WXDU V.3!

I’m hoping to have these in local stores by the weekend. That means All Day Records & Chaz’s Bull City Records. Out-of-towners: you can visit Paramnesia Records for online ordering. The artwork is hang-on-your-wall-able. #hangonyrwallable “hang on your wallable” kohlrabi. whatever. i’m fuckin tiiiiiiired.

More about this release here!

TICKETS BOOKED!!!!!!!!!! SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!! EURO TOUR...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:07:18 -0500

TICKETS BOOKED!!!!!!!!!! SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!! EURO TOUR #6!!!!!!!!!!!! VEGAN CROISSANTS!!!!!!!!!!! SITZGRUPPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it seems we’re still having some trouble booking a Paris show for March 8! if you have any leads, please be in touch!

maybe this is a good time to tell you that it’s probably my fault we can’t get a paris show. i seems i may have walked out of the club mid-set on the last tour. but you know, i was playing solo…people were talking…so i did what i always do—what any reasonable lunatic would do—& i nicely & very politely got up & left. i wanted to make it a REAL solo des ark show, know what i’m sayin? like the kind that communicates how crazy & unstable you have to be to get up on some stage in some country & make noise in front of a bunch of extra good looking strangers. by yourself! you really have to be nuts, i’m telling you.

but for the record, i did invite everyone to follow me outside, where we marched in procession through the starry eyed streets of Paris, until we found ourselves in front of a museum with a bunch of “cool” skateboarders & creepy night loiterers, & i played a completely inaudible set there instead. but the scenery was beautiful. if only you had been there.

then i met some of the kids who were buttering the gnar (is that lame to say? i just looked it up on the internet), sweet teenagers from california who told me all about how they ran away from home and somehow ended up in fucking paris. we totally hugged!

then everybody walked back to the club.

then i got in trouble. it was really intense! but then everybody hugged at the end too, so i dunno.

but also for the record, this is a FULL BAND show. so if you’re talking, it ain’t no thang! we’ll just turn the fuck up! we’re used to getting in trouble for that.

help?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:09:30 -0500

alright, gentle people of the internet, here are the dates we need help filling. please be in touch if you have a lead, & please feel free to forward widely!

MARCH 3: west/north Germany, or east Netherlands
MARCH 8: Paris
MARCH 11: between Angers and Toulouse
MARCH 24/25: between München & Ljubljana
MARCH 29: Praha

ok oops! here's the real post about our exciting shit!

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:25:23 -0500

hey everybody!
we’ve got some news!

we are not pregnant.

but we’d like to be…know anyone good?

jk. anyway, we’re leaving for another europe tour soon & we’re fuckin pumped!!! i just dropped an apple core in my bra. cold. we’ve got only a few holes left to fill on this tour…i lost the email that tells me which ones those are…i’ll find that soon because we’d love some help from y’all if you know anybody! all shows will be with the magnificent Sissters from Berlin!

in the meantime, we’d like to formally invite you for a round of FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!s as we welcome DRUMMER NUMBER NINE (let’s say “9 to 12”…i’m losing count over here) into des ark, Mister James-Roman Joshua Nee. i call him “m’lady,” but if that makes you wanna hurl, you can call him Josh Nee. josh currently plays in Thou, who we love. this is just super rad, because he loves to dance. i think? i actually barely know the dude, but i’m pretty sure he loves to dance.

for the record, this does not mean goodbye to Johnny Ward (pygmylush); we are looking forward to writing and recording with johnny in the conundrum of future space & time, but he’s been off surfing in hawaii (no lie, we thought we’d never see his ass again). he’s back, but has other commitments with pygmylush at this time! which means: go see pygmylush!

here’s what i know about josh, either from talking to him or snooping him on the internet (creepy, i know. please don’t judge):
-he plays in thou
-he has a cat named “Dude” (me too! i can’t believe this)
-he is an aries
-he DJs an 80’s night in baton rouge. i went to it. it was good.
-he doesn’t bring “No Surrender” (from born in the USA) to 80’s night. that part about him…ehh…not so cool.
-he seems excited about my idea to power chug a half gallon of euro coffee then go play dress up at H&M
-he loves to go on tour
-he eats meat but also enjoys eating vegan
-i bet his favorite food is pizza, since he’s late to mid 20’s/in a punk band
-he wants to play music all of the time
-he’s very nice and easy to communicate with
-he has a lot of tattoos
-he seems to like to wear a baseball cap
-according to youtube, he knows how to play at least one black sabbath song
-this man is not scared of fun.

& that concludes our profile of josh nee.

i’ve updated the tour section & will keep it updated as things keep happening. there will likely be a brief 1-2 week solo europe tour to follow, so if you’d like to help with any of that, please be in touch with our pal Mika, who is setting up these awesome shows.

also, one more thing: we don’t hate drummers, but drummers just keep having babies or getting real jobs or buying houses and shit like that. i would say “…or buying houses and shit like that…not my problem!” but, it kind of *is* my problem. know what i mean?

EURO TOUR WITH SISSTERS!:
03.01.12 BERLIN GERMANY @ MARIA-ANTOINETTE w/Sissters
03.02.12 HAMBURG GERMANY @ CENTRO SOCIALE w/Sissters
03.04.12 MÜLHEIM GERMANY @ AZ w/Sissters
03.05.12 UTRECHT NETHERLANDS @ TBA w/Sissters
03.06.12 AACHEN GERMANY @ AZ w/Sissters
03.07.12 LUXEMBOURG @ DQLIQ w/Sissters
03.09.12 LE MANS FRANCE @ TBA w/Sissters
03.10.12 ANGERS FRANCE @ LA CONSERVARIE w/Sissters
03.12.12 TOULOUSE FRANCE @ PETIT LONDON w/Sissters
03.13.12 GRENOBLE FRANCE @ TBA w/Sissters
03.14.12 LYON FRANCE @ LA TRIPERIE w/Sissters
03.15.12 GENEVA SWITZERLAND @ L’ECURIE w/Sissters
03.16.12 WINTERTHUR SWITZERLAND @ KRAFTFELD w/Sissters
03.17.12 FREIBURG GERMANY @ WHITE RABBIT w/Sissters
03.18.12 STRASBOURG FRANCE @ MUDD CLUB w/Sissters
03.19.12 TRIER GERMANY @ EXHAUS w/Sissters
03.20.12 FRANKFURT GERMANY @ TBA w/Sissters
03.21.12 WÜRZBURG GERMANY @ CAIRO w/Sissters
03.22.12 NÜRNBERG GERMANY @ K4 w/Sissters
03.23.12 MÜNCHEN GERMANY @ KAFE KULT w/Sissters
03.26.12 LJUBLJANA SLOVENIA @ MENZA PRI KORITU w/Sissters
03.27.12 VIENNA AUSTRIA @ SHELTER w/Sissters
03.28.12 BRNO CZECH REPUBLIC @ BORO CLUB w/Sissters
03.30.12 DRESDEN GERMANY @ AZ CONNI w/Sissters
03.31.12 LEIPZIG GERMANY @ TBA w/Sissters

it’s real (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:08:41 -0500

it’s real (Taken with instagram)

friends getting yr new record in the mail when yr staying...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:19:01 -0500

friends getting yr new record in the mail when yr staying w/them! super cool! @robotcaptain (Taken with Instagram at Treme)

Photo

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:05:21 -0500

BRKLN 2NITE ::: FULL BAND!!!

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:54:56 -0500

NYC! SURPRIIIIIISE! DESARK will be FULL BAND TONIGHT @glasslands w/ASHLEY ARNWINE (drummr on “Don’t Rock the Boat,Sink the Fucker”) on drumzzz! Fuckkk yeahhhhh get stokkkkkkkedddddddd!!!!!!

Des Ark’s WXDU V.3 pre-orders from Paramnesia Records have...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:33:10 -0500

Des Ark’s WXDU V.3 pre-orders from Paramnesia Records have begun! Pre-ordering gets you a limited print of the cover art by Jeanne D’Angelo. You can also buy an additional pre-order GLOW IN THE DARK print by Jeanne for $5 extra (limit 50). Additional artwork by Kris Platt! For those of you in Philadelphia, please note the way cheaper “local pick-up” pre-order option.

WXDU V.3 is the third volume in a series of live solo records recorded by Ross Grady at WXDU 88.7fm in Durham, NC. I have been spray painting covers & burning CDs for these fucking things since the first volume was released in 2007…it is a mega pain in my ass, not to mention a serious health-hazard to my already slim resource of brain cells. And I always make my bandmates help me assemble them in the back of the van before shows, and I think they hate me for that. Mike Brennan, you are making it possible for my friends and family to like me more. YR THE BEST!!!!!!!!!

This is an LP-only release. It’s a bunch of quiet songs, mostly about break ups and cancer and suicide. There are even a couple suggestions of hope (very subtle), but these are generally overshadowed by relentless descriptions of extremely sad stuff. Hilarious in-between-song banter has been cut out to ensure maximum self-loathing!

WXDU v.2 was the Independent Weekly’s Album of the Month in 2008…check out a review here.

There’s a release party in Philly on November 19…we will be playing as a full band, featuring Ashley Arnwine on drumxxzzzxs!!

LAST MINUTE SOLO SHOW SATURDAY NOV 5!

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:53:09 -0400

finally, a show that lets me go from my house in the woods…to somebody else’s house in the woods. all my hermitic dreams come true.

tomorrow’s show is a benefit for Circle Acres, an intentional community located in silk hope, NC. the fun goes all day & night, w/a show starting at 6pm. i play at 7pm.

in case i think today is friday but it is actually thursday (which has been happening a lot lately, like how for instance i had a 20 minute long conversation with an old friend yesterday & managed to never wish him happy birthday because i thought it was still october), i should just say that when i say “tomorrow,” what i really mean is “saturday, november 5th at 6pm. i play at 7.”

DAYTROTTER SESSIONS ARE UP! 4 FREE DOWNLOADS, recorded live...

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:56:42 -0400

DAYTROTTER SESSIONS ARE UP!

4 FREE DOWNLOADS, recorded live in-studio, during our spring tour with pygmylush.

thank yous:
-sean moeller, johnnie cluney & patrick stolley @ daytrotter
-pygmylush for letting us drive out of the way in between shows so that this could happen
-i can’t believe this guy actually put the accent on my name. my mom is going to flip her shit & try to be his bff, i just know it!
-my bandmates, for not yelling at me when i was like “hey guys, wanna learn some songs on two hours sleep in this parking lot right now ok but let’s play them SUPERFAST because we only have about 4 minutes to learn 4 songs before they come get us to record ok i love you guys omg i’m so sorry actually hold on i gotta pee, brb, yeah cool sounds great err good enough whatever who cares…let’s do this!” & then “shit, where’s my god damn travel mug.”

sorrys:
-sean, for making you so sad…please don’t send invoice for therapy bills…not my problem. drinking should work, just be careful not to combine drinking with other dangerous things like MMORPGs.
-pygmylush, i’m really sorry for believing brian lovitt when he said “it’s only, like, an hour out of the way.” duh, when else have we ever listened to that guy. jk, thanks brian. you made a good scapegoat in the van.

“You will feel like you’ve been through a lot at the end of a Des Ark record. Really, Aimée Argote makes you feel like you’ve been through a whole fucking lot after just one song. You’re not just listening to one young lady’s issues and problems - some that are about as serious, scarred and damaged as any that you’ll ever hear - but they are pawned off as your own quickly. You’re not really sure how it’s possible, but in rapid succession, you’re destroyed. You want to cry - hard. You want to curl up into a ball or you want to find the girl from these songs and tell her that you’re so sorry, that you couldn’t possibly known what she went through (even after hearing about it) and that there’s certainly no way that you could be of much help at all, other than offering a hug and saying, “If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.” What you really want to do is have Argote sing her problems to you the same way she just did. You want her to sing to you in this vulnerable and hurt way, always. This is something that you want forever. It let’s you feel that, by hearing these sad, no, super sad moments of life, in the way that she writes them, you might not ever go through anything half as serious. It’s possible that every sort of relationship problem will feel like something so much smaller, so much less of an issue than what you just heard on “Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker.” Anything pales in comparison to the beautiful, but ugly episodes that Agote writes about. You just hope that if all of these stories are real that they at least even themselves out over time and that they don’t all just hit at once cause that would be an unbearable tragedy. It would take a soul and it would darken it. The hurt that’s gotten into Agote is stunning, a thing of genius, if there were such and accreditation given for such a thing. She should be marveled at for being able to operate at all, for the pain that she sings about is excruciating. It’s enough to kill you and yet these are the lines to her pages. These are her babies. Someone who sings, “It’s a given that you love her, but what would you think if you fucked her and she cried, ‘Your love is poisoning me to death,’ which is exactly what I meant when I said it/It’s the only way I know to say I love you,” as she does on the “Battle of the Beards” song, “Lord of the Ring & His Fascist Time Keepers,” is poetic, but not in the least stable. She worries about the pain that she might pass along to any future children that she might have on a new song, “Peace To You Too, Motherfucker,” “If I ever have a child and in her eyes I see the same kind of hurtin’ that I have in mine/I know the devil don’t come once/He came twice.” Really though, there seems to be more beauty than hurt in Des Ark songs. The pretty parts stand out so much more. They grab you by the hand at the ends of songs and those pretty parts are the ones that you walk away with, silently, to think about what you’re walking away from, exactly. You’ll want to sit down soon though, it all just being too much to handle. You’ll need a drink.” Sean Moeller/Daytrotter.com

Hey. I like your last record a lot. The "About" section and the old Wordpress page made me laugh. I hope you have an opportunity to come to Central NY at some point (if you want, I could book it for you) we'd love to have you up here. I was also wondering if maybe I could interview you for pmpdblog[dot]com ? Let me know, thanks for being cool and stuff.

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:21:54 -0400

jeeeez i suck at this part of having a blog! first off, you’re welcome for being “cool and stuff,” but i’m probably more “stuff” than “cool.”

we’d love to come to central NY…the band or solo…you let me know. desark[at]gmail.com. & yes i’d love to do an interview for your blog! also email!

Hey Aimée, how's it goin'? I wondering when did Loose Lips Sink Ships come out? I wanna add the year on discogs database.

I love your music!

Thanks!

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:42:18 -0400

LLSS was released in the spring of 2005!

marckrause: Aimée Argote / Des Ark

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:15:47 -0400

marckrause:

Aimée Argote / Des Ark

My friend Emily seems to think this is the funniest thing...

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 03:27:46 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

My friend Emily seems to think this is the funniest thing she’s ever seen in her life, but I keep trying to tell her that it’s not, & that the only reason she thinks so is because she’s been stuck in a car for two months on tour. Like this one time when my cousin went to see Billy Joel when she was fourteen and she was in the front row and she filled her little fourteen year old lungs with as much air as she could get and then she screamed “OMG I LOVE YOU BILLY JOOOOOOOOOEL!!!” and he just looked down at her from that big tall stage and he said “You need to get out more.”

DES ARK

Welcome to my awesome world of photoshop skills,...

1st show w/@noshjee bout to happen (Baton Rouge//Red Star Bar)....

My sister shows #howard her rock collection. “So I...

Solving the radio-less 15hr road trip crisis (Taken with...

You can now pick up copies of the new record at Chaz’s...

Thanks to the Independent Weekly for a nice review of WXDU...

TICKETS BOOKED!!!!!!!!!! SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!! EURO TOUR...

help?

ok oops! here's the real post about our exciting shit!

it’s real (Taken with instagram)

friends getting yr new record in the mail when yr staying...

Photo

BRKLN 2NITE ::: FULL BAND!!!

Des Ark’s WXDU V.3 pre-orders from Paramnesia Records have...

LAST MINUTE SOLO SHOW SATURDAY NOV 5!

DAYTROTTER SESSIONS ARE UP! 4 FREE DOWNLOADS, recorded live...

Hey Aimée, how's it goin'? I wondering when did Loose Lips Sink Ships come out? I wanna add the year on discogs database. I love your music! Thanks!

marckrause: Aimée Argote / Des Ark

My friend Emily seems to think this is the funniest thing...

Hey Aimée, how's it goin'? I wondering when did Loose Lips Sink Ships come out? I wanna add the year on discogs database.

I love your music!

Thanks!