We hope everyone is enjoying this festive time of year. We’re making our plans for the next few months. Details about shows will surface shortly. We’ll be playing a couple of local shows with Finn Riggins in January, traveling through the Northwest and beginning the recording process in February, and playing Harvest of Hope in March.
Our friends over at Band In Boston have posted the session we recorded at their house when we were on tour this fall. Check it out here. This is the first time we attempted to play entirely on their instruments. It was pretty fun, and we’d like to thank Jen and Andy, again, for having us over to play.
That’s it for now. More news soon. Take care, everyone.
We were going to, then we did, and then we didn’t, so now we’re not. Sorry for the confusion, and thank you to everyone who expressed concern and support. We just used that body-double dummy to fake our own death, even though Marge expressly forbade us to do such a thing.
More news will come along when there is something to report. Happy holidays, everyone.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Thee Parkside last night. We had a great time playing, and we’d like to thank everyone at the club, as well as Cannons and Clouds, The Wandas, and Ketman for sharing the night with us. We have one more show coming up, and it’s next weekend (Saturday the 14th) at the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen. It’s their Second Saturday celebration, and we’ll be playing with super-bros, Dame Satan. Two Sheds, also-bros, were scheduled to play, but they will be unable due to a family emergency. We wish them the best and look forward to playing with them again in the future. That’s about it for now. Take care, everyone.
We got back late last night from our weekend in Gainesville, Florida for The Fest 8. We had a great time, unlike that kid who apparently got tasered (not tased) for fighting with the police. (It’s on YouTube. Look it up.) We’d like to thank Tony, Cam, Ben, Emily, Joel, Var, Jessi, Josh, Nicole, Mary, everyone at No Idea, all of the bands that played on our show, all the bands we watched, and everyone that hung out. It was a fantastic weekend. We played two shows, one acoustic and one electric, and they both ruled. Extra special thanks go to Jared Grabb, who, in addition to playing a great set, hung out all weekend, took video of us performing, and put up with a ton of abuse from us. That guy is a trooper and we love him. He has already posted videos from our Fest performance on YouTube (I’ve also posted them on our MySpace page), and there may be some photos and other things yet to surface. We’re heading back to Florida in March for Harvest of Hope, and we are already excited.
Coming up this week and next, we have two shows, one in San Francisco and one in Sacramento. We’re playing Saturday, November 7th at Thee Parkside in San Francisco with our friends from Boston, Ketman, as well as the Wandas (another Boston band), and Cannons and Clouds (SF). The following Saturday, the 14th, we’ll be at the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen with Two Sheds and Dame Satan, and that show is already going off. Come out and say hi. We’ll be taking time after these shows to focus on writing, so who knows when you’ll be able to catch us again?
The fall tour was great. It’s been too long since the shows happened to post in-depth recaps of each one, but they were really awesome, for the most part. We’d like to sincerely thank all of our family, friends (old and new), and everyone who came out to the shows. Thank you to everyone who put us up and put up with us. Thank you to the great bands with whom we had the pleasure of playing, including Appomattox, Finn Riggins, Jared Grabb, Telegraph Canyon, Swim Party, Red Leaves, Acorns, Towers of Hanoi, Averkiou, Tom Slaughter, Mussels, Aminal, The Honored Guest, Jabberjosh, Sleeping in Gethsemane, El Toro del Muerte, Butter, and Plough Jogger. Thank you to everyone who took videos and pictures of us playing, and to everyone who bought a shirt or an album to support us. Thank you to the beaches of the southeast for giving us relief from the sweltering temperatures and humidity. Thank you to Kuma’s Corner in Chicago, Ray’s the Steaks in Arlington, and Coyote Bluff in Amarillo for making great burgers. No thanks to illness, broken equipment, and canceled shows.
We could not have done what we did, and had these experiences, without everyone mentioned above. While the tone may be light, the sentiment is sincere. Thank you all very much for making our fall tour excellent and for keeping us going. See you back on the road soon.
I know. Sorry. An extensive update will be coming soon.
For now, we’re playing The Fest in Gainesville, FL this weekend. We’ll be at Flaco’s on Friday night, playing a free acoustic set. That place has great Cuban food and coffee, so come hang out and see a bunch of bands play all sensitive-like. Saturday, we’re playing electric at the Atlantic. It’s going to rule. For a full list of who is playing and where, go here.
We have some local shows coming up, too, and I’ll write about those when we get back. Take it easy.
Well, sort of. We’re actually at home right now, because the most recent show of the tour took place here, and tonight’s show at the Sacramento Bike Kitchen was canceled because some stupid idiots trashed the place at the last show…but, we’re on tour. We actually started on Thursday in L.A., at the Silverlake Lounge. We drove south at an ungodly hour but succeeded in avoiding traffic, so it was worth it. We hit up the La Brea Tar Pits, which aren’t nearly as cool as we thought they’d be, and skipped the museum for the gift shop. After cruising around for a bit and seeing the singer for At The Drive-In/The Mars Volta, we drove to Venice to meet up with Appomattox, who are playing a bunch of shows with us this fall. We walked along the boardwalk for a while, then wandered across the sand to the filthy, filthy water. Eventually, we made our way over to the Silverlake Lounge and played the show. Thank you to Sam, Cameron, Mike, Meg, Will, Denise, and everyone who came out and watched us play.
We drove out to Anaheim after the show and stayed with Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, who are almost all in the throes of various debilitating illnesses. We managed to get out with our lives intact and our stomachs full of breakfast burritos. Thanks to them for putting us up, and best wishes for speedy recoveries. We love them.
Friday found us in San Diego, where we spent the pre-show hours at Shannon’s new place. She’s pretty much the best hostess ever. She let us work out in her building’s mini-gym, fed us, and let us play Wii. We headed over to the Kensington Club for our show, which was organized by Rosie and San Diego: Dialed In. Rosie’s great, and so is her site. She’s doing for San Diego what the Bay Bridged does for San Francisco. Once again, we had a great time playing, and we’d like to thank everyone who came out and watched us play. We packed up and drove out of town after the show, cruising through the night to make it back to San Francisco in time for our happy-hour show at the Hemlock (discussed in the previous post).
Sunday, we played the second Rock Make Street Festival, and it was awesome. Huge thanks to go Lynne and Brian from Tartufi, Ben and Christian from the Bay Bridged, and WhizBang fabrics for organizing the event. Some of the Bay Area’s best local companies and vendors rubbed elbows with 15 bands, including Tartufi, Two Sheds, Geographer, and Silian Rail. The event ran wonderfully thanks to the hard work and dedication of the organizers and the volunteers, and we are honored to have had a part in it again this year. Look for the festival to return again next year, undoubtedly bigger and better.
And now it’s Monday, and I’m sitting here, updating our site and heat-setting t-shirts. We were supposed to play in Sacramento tonight, but whoever played there on Friday night trashed the place, so they’ve decided to cancel all of their shows from now until forever. Awesome. Thanks, whatever-band-you-are.
Tomorrow, we’re in Portland, at the Doug Fir. If you’re in town, come on out and say hi. The rest of the dates for the tour will be posted on the site and on our MySpace page. Check them out. We’ll check in again soon.
We are happy to announce that our second acoustic EP is now available. We headed into Hyde Street Studios on July 17th with Scott MacDowell and recorded four songs, which were recently mixed by Mike Sempert. We’re very happy with how they turned out. We are making the songs available digitally, accompanied by an 8.5″ by 11″ print based on the lead song, “Queen Esther.” The print is black on silver, hand-screened on recycled, composite stock. Featuring hand-written liner notes on the back, it is limited to 333 copies. The artwork is below:
We celebrated the release with an acoustic show at the Hemlock on Saturday. We were joined by the always-awesome and sometimes-traffic-delayed Appomattox, who will be playing a number of dates with us on this tour. Thank you to everyone who came to the show and sang along with us. The EPs will be available with us on tour and through the Ghost Mansion Records store. If you’re curious, the whole thing is streaming on our acoustic MySpace page.
We have placed Dog’s Hymns in its almost-entirety on our MySpace page for everyone to hear. I know the album is almost a year old, and everyone who wanted to hear it probably already has, but…I had some time to kill yesterday, so there you go. I know no one uses MySpace anymore, but screw it. Just go to the page and listen to the songs in another tab while you update your Facebook page. Let’s see if we can get those other 7 songs as many plays as the first 3!
