The “Texas Hold Me” release party last night was one of the best shows we’ve ever played, for a hundred reasons. Thanks to Will Ethridge of Eternal Otter Records for helping us make this happen, to South China for opening and joining our mini-orchestra, to everyone else who shared the stage (and floor) with us, to Blainor at Mayo St. Arts, and of course to the incredible audience.
Our lives have become a constant flurry of activity. Meaning that we had a few drinks after the show, went to bed and will begin packing out for two (2) shows in Bangor tonight. Next week we head to NYC for Portland Music Foundation’s CMJ showcase at Sullivan Hall on Thursday with some of our favorite Portlanders. The poster is above. The night before, we’ll make an appearance at the What Blog?! Free CMJ Party, with our sister band Mango Floss.
:D
This is the last time I’ll announce this, because it’s finally the appropriate time to announce it. On Thursday, October 13th, we will be releasing “Texas Hold Me” (b/w “Little Bird”) on vinyl via Eternal Otter Records. The show is at Mayo Street Arts on Mayo St. (!) in Portland, ME. Here’s the “Event”. It starts at 8 and South China will be opening, setting the tone for what will be a more refined set than we often play. Members of South China, Butcher Boy, Patter Cubs and Jaw Jems (as well as many others) will be joining us in fuller orchestrations of our songs. The set will consist of the usual suspects, plus one or two old ones and one or two new ones (including one never once played in Portland, designed to make you WEEP).
Once this is over, we’ll breathe for a second and then dive right back in. Touring begins in earnest again in late October and gets thick and heavy in November. I’ll write another post soon about that whole thing, even though I said the same thing last month and never did. Okay bye!
It’s been one year since Peter and I moved to Portland. We’ve met so many incredible musicians that it’s really just baffling. In fact, I think that more or less every one of the friends I’ve made is a musician, or at least very involved in the scene (i.e. sleeping with musicians). So now’s the time for a brief looking-back, a frank self-appraisal and then a willful push into the enormous cluster of shows/recording sessions and video shoots that are already inked- (or penciled-) in on our calendar.
Alex “Nando” Hernandez has moved to Brooklyn and will not be playing shows with us anymore. We’re very grateful to him for his time (working around a full-time job), the selflessness with which he allowed me to use his equipment, despite my propensity for breaking it, and his general willingness to deal with our considerable foibles.
Last night was our first show with our new bass player, Jeff Beam (pictured). We’re very very excited to have him on board. In my mind, he makes the best pop music in Portland, so I feel genuinely guilty about taking him from his solo career to the degree that we will. But he seems as excited as we are, so we’ll just encourage him to play whenever we’re not and we’ll have him open shows. Listen to him yo:
I’m gonna do another post in a few days about our upcoming shows. A pretty extensive tour with Brooklyn’s Cuddle Magic is in the works as well as at least one showcase at CMJ (hopefully more) and, of course, the now perhaps overly announced October release of the “Texas Hold Me/Little Bird” 7” through Eternal Otter Records.
H.
The most urgent part of this post:
7/28 at The Oak and The Ax in Biddeford, ME w/ Brenda and Boy Without God
7/31 at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn, NY w/ The Grown-Up Noise, Boy Without God and Whale Belly
Come to these shows if you can!
There are lots of things coming up in August and (hopefully) every month following it. In fact, we have so many shows coming up that I’m just gonna link to the tour page, which is now updated, after falling into considerable disrepair. One will notice four (4) dates with Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (including my solo opening slot at the Oak and the Ax on 8/17), which all fortuitously line up nicely with our next release. This has been mentioned before, but never with proper ceremony: “Texas Hold Me”, our song with Lady Lamb, will be released on Eternal Otter Records by early September on 7” vinyl with “Little Bird” as the b-side. So that’s very hip. Beyond that, we’re working on “The Golden Room EP”, which is put in quotes as opposed to italics (this is analogous to the same distinction surrounding short stories vs. novels — take note), and that’s going slowly but pretty well. It will be five songs, most of which were written shortly after Roads In. Trying to keep things a little chronological, so the next LP can reflect where we’re really at. That’s all! Hope to see you at some of these shows.
H.
LL the heavy days are over;
We’ve been recording “The Golden Room EP” very slowly. So I know we said we’d have an EP by mid-summer, but we’ll have to push that approximate date back to September or so. It’s better anyway; we don’t want to over-saturate, sell ourselves short etc. Gotta make this good.
We said we wouldn’t play Portland until August and it was true. But we do have some other things happening, mostly in Maine. We were asked to play Dispatch Magazine’s stage at Kahbang in August, which is DOPE. We’re also playing Arootsakoostik in New Sweden (six hours away?) on July 9 and hitting Bangor on the way for an awesome bill that Sasha and Chris from When Particles Collide put together. Here’s the “event” for that. We’re also playing at the Oak and the Ax (our favorite place ever, forever) on July 28th with wonderboys Brenda (to whom we were runner-up in the Portland Phoenix’s “Best Indie Act” poll) and seven(?)-piece Gabe Birnbaum-led New York pop outfit Boy Without God, who’re both great, though I may dispute the tenability of the latter’s metaphysics (unless he really is an all-out nihilist, in which case I’ll let it go). And then we’re playing a bunch more shows but I’ll tell you about them later!
H.
(via jurassicgun)
SUP SON!
It’s June 1st and we’re staring at a bizarrely empty calendar. One show is scheduled (June 10th at Slainte) but we are otherwise left to our own devices. Assuming we can stop drinking Bud Light Lime and throwing the football, we will be recording most every day. We hope to complete an EP by mid-summer and an LP by late fall. This means we will be recording around 20 songs and culling the two releases out of that pool. It also means a more or less constant headache for all of us, so be really nice to us if you see us around, because we may be on the verge of tears, pushed to the edge by the click track, the heat, the dearth of true human contact and the click track. See you guys later. Always brush your teeth! Kapwingggg
Henry’s bout of solo shows is over and the band will resume its usual activities this week. YEAH! Our first show is at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA on 5/25 with Modernist and Ruin/Renewal. Then we’ll be putting one or two new songs together for a weekend of shows at two of our favorite venues in Maine. On Saturday (5/28) we’re at the Oak and the Ax with Wes Hartley and the Traveling Trees and Good Kids Sprouting Horns, for the latter’s CD Release show. Then we join Dirty Dishes and In the Audience on Sunday for a show at SPACE Gallery in Portland.
Barring some last-minute booking, these shows will be our last for a little while. We are dedicating all of our time in June to intensive recording sessions and hope to release an EP by mid-summer and an LP shortly thereafter. Our most imminent release is a two-sided “Texas Hold Me/Little Bird” vinyl single, which we will release in the coming weeks. Details on how to buy this will be divulged soon.
I (Henry) will be playing three solo shows in the coming weeks. Here they are:
5/12 at Blue in Portland, ME with Jose Ayerve
5/13 at the Oak + the Ax in Biddeford, ME with South China/Dan Blakeslee and Moons of Jupiter (Burst and Bloom “Spring” comp release show)
5/21 at Positive Pie in Montpelier, VT with The Devil Makes Three
I’m very excited about all of these. I’ll hopefully be getting pretty weird at these shows, a la Samamidon. Taking “busted” guitar solos, winking at the girls, stroking my beard… Nope. I shaved my beard and I look like a baby rat OR Parsifal (pictured). The band proper has some shows coming up as well. Jose Ayerve will be joining us on bass for a Boston show at Precinct on the 15th. Then we’re at Midway Cafe on the 25th (also in Boston), the Oak + the Ax on the 28th with Good Kids Sprouting Horns and Wes Hartley and The Traveling Trees and then at SPACE Gallery on the 29th with Dirty Dishes (a band from Boston, not the naked girls) and In the Audience. Word!