I recently finished creating the album artwork for an amazing band from Kansas: JUICEHEAD. The album is simply titled “Friends & Family”. Its anticipated release is early this summer. Stay tuned in for the actual release. The band features Jake & Josh Wasinger (lifelong friends of mine) and crazy drummer Jason Swart (who’ve I spent many years getting into trouble with). They are a mix of hard rhythm post-rock, with cool bass and guitar intricate shreds,  and of course a tendency to scream like angry punk rockers. I love them because they are noisy and in-your-face, but abstain from being fit into the “punk-rock” molded sound. The album artwork, I felt had to be a play on the words from the title “Friends and Family”. I wanted it to conceptually convey friends and family outside of our “normal” way of using those terms. Friends & Family reaching out to the entire animal kingdom, and the metaphysical display of animalistic traits in social gatherings through out all species (especially mammals). It needed to be humorous, wild and most of all mono-toned in color; I wanted it to be sepia styled, like old school photography, but taken from a foreign and impossible place: the bottom of the ocean. I felt a sort of surreal connection with this  dark, seemingly unknown environment and our everyday environment that we interact in during social moments. I have posted the entire album imagery here on rwruehlen.com. Please enjoy and keep your eyes and ears peeled for the release of “Friends & Family”.   

After more than six months of recording and engineering, My Uncle is a Cannibal has finally released their first (and final) full length album. The album can be purchased by clicking here: http://Kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00ZK5FBS .The album is absolutely amazing, and will allow you to swim through every emotion you can fathom while listening to it. Brett Zamrzla, the drummer, passed away the evening he finished his part on the album and has put his entire being into the thing. Support independent music and by it now. Its only one click away. Peace and Love.

Last weekend My Uncle is a Cannibal sat down with Brandon Duncan, aka, Corporate Demon to discuss their upcoming album and their dramatic discourse as a band over the last two years. The podcast can be downloaded from: www.corporatedemon.comor at iTunes in the podcast section. This is a pre-release interview promoting the final actions of MUIAC spoken through their metaphorical epitaph, the album. Enjoy.

Band Members:
Ryan Ruehlen: guitar, vocals, harmonica, voice modulator, flamethrower
Bryce True: bass guitar, fuzz bass, funk-a-tron 3000
Jake Staab: grand piano, keyboards, organ, synth, and his own personal orchestra
Brett Zamrzla: drumset, cowbell, vibes, marimba, rodeo clown

Influences:
The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Buffalo Springfield, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Chopin, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, Sergei Rachmaninav, The Zombies, The Doors, Queens of the Stone Age, Santana, Primus, Oysterhead, Black Sabbath, Mr. Bungle, The Yardbirds, The Band, Grateful Dead, Madeski-Martin-Wood, CSN&Y, The Edgar Winter Band, Du-wop and Swing Jazz, Latin grooves, Bossa Nova grooves, Reggae grooves, Wild Bill Hickok, each other and Nature.

Biography:
My Uncle is a Cannibal formed in 2005 with Ruehlen, True, and Zamrzla and was more of an experiment for a one time Halloween show. The band felt it could maintain itself and decided to continue playing together. Within the next month they incorporated their good friend Josh Connor into the band. He began to play auxillary percussion. Within the next two months Jake Staab joined the band on piano. Josh eventually parted due to personal obligations elsewhere. The band was together until December 6th 2007 where they played their last show EVER, to a crowd of highly involved wolves. The band planned on doing an occasional show whenever Ruehlen could make it back to them to play, however life changes. On January 21st at midnight Brett was killed in a car accident when his vehicle went off the road and into a tree. He had finished his part on the album that afternoon. Two of the members decided to get a real job and started their own business selling human flesh flavored pop cicles.

RIP BRETT, you will be missed.