Clear Days Always is Levi Bailey, a self-described, "big, fat, nobody from Grand Rapids, Michigan," who likes to write songs and record them on his computer. Over the past five or so years, Bailey has compiled what he considers to be 34 "uncut albums" worth of material. One of those albums, Ten Fingers: Five Yours, Five Mine and Habits Like Self Love, was recently released on Grand Rapids-based Friction Records, which also put out two releases by Bailey's other band, Spit For Athena.

Ten Fingers... which clocks in at just under 80 minutes, is a collection of what Bailey considers to be his more accessible work, featuring primarily acoustic pop tunes, deranged folk songs filled with images of sex and death and a few silly-sounding songs about monkeys and pizza, leaving the harsh noise experiments, skits and hardcore/metal he's recorded for self-released CD-Rs or possible future releases.

While Spit For Athena has grown to be one of Michigan's more popular punk sensations, Bailey said he needed more ways to express himself than the menacing pop rock of his main act.

"Spit For Athena has a shitload of fans, and I'm really proud of everything I've done with that band, except for releasing that piece of shit, Extermina (Spit For Athena's second album, on Eyeball Records), but that band isn't very experimental. It's all straight-ahead rock stuff, with very few surprises. With Clear Days Always, I was hoping to explore other avenues," Bailey said.

Bailey is touring as Clear Days Always in July and will play the DAAC in Grand Rapids on July 6. For more information, visit www.frictionrecords.net.

July 2005