The Sexy Accident Mint Lip Balm!

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The Sexy Accident All-Natural Mint Lip Balm! :)



Made in the USA of natural ingredients. SPF-15 UVB/UVA protection. With aloe and shae butter!

- Jesse Kates / Download our music for FREE

Tell us about YOU!

There's lots going on at Sexy Accident central. We're making you an
awesome Christmas present. :)

But before I blab at you about us, may I ask you to take The Sexy
Accident's ...

Very Important Survey for Very Important People

That's right! We want to know all about you: your dreams, your
aspirations, and your preferences in board games. So please, take the
survey! It's very short. :)

More from me, later. We want to hear from you!

- Jesse Kates / Download our music for FREE

The Sexy Accident seeks BASS

Kansas City indie pop band The Sexy Accident seeks a new bass player.

Here's our bio -

The Sexy Accident play "forceful, even fiery power-pop" "driven by catchy melodies and smart, real-life lyric writing." (The Big Takeover) On their latest release, Mantoloking, the band "addresses the noticeable failings of leaders, family, friendship, and love" and "proffers raw lyrics and bitter memories with aching honesty" (Present Magazine) Jesse Kates, the band's singer and guitarist, writes lyrics that "are detailed, seem carefully crafted, and reflect circumstances from life as we know it." (erasingclouds) and "sings with a devotion and sensitivity that's sometimes surprising." (The Big Takeover) In the past, they've been accused of "evok[ing] the new-wave songwriters of the '80s, clean-cut pop artists like Marshall Crenshaw, Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello" and have been called the midwest's "regional answer to the Fountains of Wayne." (Ink KC)

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Things we've done over the past few years:

- Recorded a record (mantoloking) with legendary Seattle producer Steve Fisk (Nirvana, Unwound, Soundgarden, The Wedding Present, etc.) here at the Black Lodge
- Recorded a record (Kinda Like Fireworks) at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studios in Chicago
- Played about 85 shows, mostly in Missouri and Kansas
- Written, rehearsed and performed 35 songs
- Received numerous press reviews and accolades
- Had a bunch of (labor intensive) fun! :)

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Our bass player is moving to Florida, and we need a new master of the grooves. What we're looking for:

- A dedicated and professional attitude (practices outside of practice)
- Somebody who writes bass parts to serve the song
- Ability to play in odd times and syncopated rhythms
- Willingness to rehearse once weekly and play out 2-3 times per month
- Open to travel for the odd out of town show
- Somebody who can conjure a little Motown if necessary

Interested? Contact us at: http://www.sexyaccident.com/contact.html

- Jesse Kates / Download our music for FREE

The Story Behind The Song. Track 11 - Won't You Be Mine?

I love this song.

So oddly enough Won't You Be Mine? is sort of a book-end paired with track 10, All Surface. I wrote it at about exactly the same time of year, one year later. It was the last song I wrote for Mantoloking.

Won't You Be Mine? is a song that's meant to sound and feel like spring ("the sun melts the week-old snow.") It's a song about the redemptions and renewals that are necessary, unavoidable and healthy in long-term relationships. But first and foremost, this is a song for and about my wife, Stephanie. I don't write them all the time, but I do write them, and as I said - this is probably my favorite song on the record. I think it's the perfect way to wrap things up.

I love Michelle's vocal round during the choruses (she came up with the melody), and particularly the notes that we hold out together at the ends. Steve's un-hyped and unadorned approach to the production also makes me happy. My voice is completely natural and unaffected - it's just as I sang it into the microphone at Black Lodge. The guitars sound great, Chad's leads are as tasteful as always, and the drum beat is interesting (it's somehow related to something from Grease? Ask Daniel.) Like I said, I like this one.

Some more tidbits - this song is the only one on the record to feature the low C# in my crazy C#G#D#G#C#F tuning that I use on my ASAT. In fact, it's also the only song played on the ASAT on Mantoloking, despite the fact that I used it for four of the ten tracks on Kinda Like Fireworks. I tend to do that. I have a dominant guitar or two on each album. One tends to be the newest instrument in my collection - in this case, that was the Telecaster Bass IV that yielded Say Goodnight, I Tried Again, Buy Me Out and All Surface.

So that's that - the last of the stories behind the songs on Mantoloking. I hope you've enjoyed them! Now I'm off to bed so I can get up bright and early to enjoy a vacation day with my aforementioned wonderful and awesome wife. :)

- Jesse Kates / Download our music for FREE

The Story Behind The Song. Track 10 - All Surface

This is one of the better songs on the album, I think. Man is it a whopper, too. I'm listening to it as I write this and I'm remembering just how long that's going to take. :)

As to what it's about, I talked a bit about that in my interview with present magazine. Allow me to repeat myself:

All Surface was the first song I wrote after we got back to Kansas City from recording Kinda Like Fireworks. Based on more gmail searching it looks like I wrote it in early April. Winter was hanging on way too long, which is where the "float away winter" opening line comes from. I found myself floundering in a number of ways, both personal and professional. I felt I was stuck in a dead-end job. I was feeling old. I felt crippled by responsiblity. I was experiencing the postpartum blues that follow the completion of any major art project. There were other things too. I was basically just kind of bummed and feeling more than a little isolated and adrift. So yeah, it's more or less an encapsulation of the mood and an attempt to turn the feelings of hopelessness into useful angst. Angst and frustration can be powerful feelings if you take action in response to them, I think. It was tough for me, actually, letting that song out. I've always tried to make the Sexy Accident an upbeat band, and so I've censored songs that were too gloomy or serious in the past. This time I just let them out. I can't tell if it's led to a better result, to do that, but it's an experiment. :) You gotta take chances.

As for production, there's lots of neat stuff here. This is the only song on the album that we played without Daniel listening to a click track. So the tempo ebbs and flows as the song moves, and I think it works out perfectly and lets the song breathe like it should. What you're hearing is a live take with extra goodness sprinkled on top.

A few months before we recorded I got a freebie piano that a family was willing to let go of if we moved it. It's a beautiful 1903 upright grand, and it has a wonderful and full sound. I don't play piano, really, but I started to figure out how to play the guitar parts to my songs on it for fun. I became so enamored with how the two arpeggiated verse parts from All Surface sounded on piano that I decided I had to play some keys when we tracked it, which I did. Black Lodge's spinet doesn't sound quite as cool as my piano at home, but it wasn't feasible to track in my living room. :)

What else... oh, during the DUM DUM DUM parts in the pre-choruses, Daniel is pounding an extra kick drum with a rubber mallet. That was fun, too. Woot.

Next up: Won't You Be Mine?

- Jesse Kates / Download our music for FREE