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.

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.

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!

We’re at the Belfast Free Range Music Festival this Saturday, with a cadre of awesome bands. The whole day promises to be baller and, just when it’ll seem like it’s over, we can head over to the Hillytown after-party, where Mango Floss, our sister band (featuring Peter on drums and our roommate Sarah on vox) will be playing, while we all drink responsibly.

Then it’s on to May, which is looking a little less busy than April, but not really. I’ll announce more dates later on (and put them on the tour page), but here’s the first and perhaps most important one: MAY 3RD at CLUB METRONOME in BURLINGTON, VT with Canadian pop stars WINTERSLEEP. They really are stars by most standards (They won a Juno, played Letterman, opened for Paul McCartney etc) and they’re also good, so you should definitely come if you live in or around VT.

That’s what’s up!

Oh, and vote for us in the Portland Phoenix Poll, if you haven’t. Or even if you have.

Our next mini-tour is just around the corner. If you’re in Portland, you should take a good hard look at the poster above, take in what it says and, you know, come to the show. Here’s a feature on Hillytown about us: http://hillytown.com/news/video/the-milkmans-union-interview-exclusive-video/

Here are the upcoming dates:

4/21 Divan Orange, Montreal, QC w/ The Wind-up Radio Sessions + Grand Splendid

4/22 The Monkey House, Winooski, VT w/ Milagres + Husband&Wife

4/23 One Longfellow Square, Portland, ME w/ Milagres + Husband&Wife

4/25 TT The Bear’s Place Inc, Cambridge, MA w/ Milagres + Husband&Wife

Some other odds and ends: The Portland Phoenix Poll is running through May and you should vote for us as Portland’s Best Indie Act.

Also, Kegan Zema wrote a very nice review of the “Telos EP”, which is streaming on our Bandcamp. You can read the review here. Just scroll to the bottom.

That’s all!

H.