Hi guys. Sorry I've been away for so long, but the reason I've been so busy is that I've been planning and organizing SCOUT, a nine week series of concerts at the Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco that will be going on every Wednesday night in May and June.

Here's the deal: MCs can show up and freestyle, or bring prepared lyrics, and they get to perform with Variable Unit a band that Straight No Chaser called "The most talented band the States has to offer." We'll be recording the show every night (all nine of em) and the best tracks will be on a SCOUT CD that comes out in October.

We just landed international distribution this year, so SCOUT will be released in the UK, France, Spain, Japan, and many other countries when it's released in October.

VU's new album, Mayhemystics OutBreaks just came out today, and I'm particularly excited about it for purely selfish reasons. It's the first "real" record that I've been on -- singing background vocals on the track Black Gold, which is a song about the Iraqi war and the U.S. exploitation of Iraq for its oil. (Although based primarily on a frightening dream that Gregory Howe had one night, it was also inspired by this Bill Moyers program about the real "Iraqi Gold Rush.")

So that's the scoop guys. Email me at scout@widehive.com if you're interested.

And everybody should come to the SCOUT shows in May and June at the Red Devil Lounge.

Cubik and Origami will be opening the show every night. (More on them later.)