We shut down our studio for good this weekend. Sadness.
Walls are patched and painted. Drum riser sold. Soundproofing gone. Gear in storage. Makes me sad.
All the cold nights when the heater didn’t heat enough. All those hot days when the AC didn’t cool enough. All the noise we made and the neighbors didn’t complain. All the rent that was so high. Sniff.
Oh wait, there’s studios all over NYC. And they are rentable by the hour! Sweet! (Insert moving, rising string section here.)
Did you know Stevland Morris wrote “Happy Birthday to You” as a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1981? I always thought it was a great alternative to the traditional happy birthday song, just like the Beatles’ “Birthday”. Over the weekend, I was lucky to be invited by my girlfriend to the taping of the BET Honors show in DC. There, in which Mr. Wonder was being recognized, it was mentioned how the song helped bring attention to the great civil rights leader and the lack of a national holiday, something he was working for at the time. It wasn’t until 1983 that Reagan finally signed the day into law, two years later.
Stevie also mentioned “My Cherie Amour” started out as a song to his then girlfriend as “Oh My Marcia”. Then he broke up with her and changed the name. Classic music trivia.
Celebrating MLK day, here’s a bit of American history.
We are giving away our mp3s until January 1! Everyone who downloads from here has the chance to win a copy of our latest record in limited edition red vinyl!
Don’t sleep on it! Free mp3s and your chance to win!
Also, showtime is here! We hope you come to our show January 3rd at Pianos in New York, NY where the record is available. Its our album release party and we’re excited to have our friends the Jack Lords Orchestra on stage too. It will be a good time in the new year!
Dear Santa,
Its been a while since I heard from you. I hope you haven’t forgotten about me. Because I haven’t forgotten about you. I’ve been awaiting your return for a long time. I don’t know what I did to force you away. But regardless, I’ve been a really good boy this year. I played a few good shows. I rocked as hard as I could. I did as many scales as I could in my jazz guitar lessons. I even released a couple of songs with the band.
Therefore, If its not too much to ask, I was hoping you could bring me a plane. Led Zeppelin had one. And with the way that indie bands these days need help, this would really be doing us a huge favor. Since its so close to the holiday, and it being such a large burden on your elves, I’ve designed a plane to get you a head start. Its a 787 Dreamliner. I didn’t get to the interior yet, but if you could include a jacuzzi and a video game system, that would really be great. Oh, and some sort of wifi. Flying is really boring and I’ll need access to write blog posts and play Halo online.
I promise that 2012 I will be an even better boy if you bring me this plane. I will figure out a way to rent a hanger at LGA, so don’t worry about that. And don’t worry about a pilot. I used to play with the Microsoft flight sim on my Apple 6100 PPC. Its pretty much like the same thing, I’m guessing.
Thanks and Merry Xmas,
Peter Jan
Scan with your phone's QR reader
The history of winter solstice is deeply ingrained into modern religions and customs. In the northern hemisphere, it marks the longest night, and the southern, the longest day. This led earlier civilizations to create rituals and build things monumental.
For us, it means a rebirth, expansion and growth. We are celebrating the work of the past year by giving it away to our friends, our fans. From now until January 1, we are giving away our mp3s for free on Bandcamp. Also, by downloading our songs, we’ll pick a winner on January 2nd who will receive a free copy of our Limited Edition red vinyl 7″ single. This album is going to be available to everyone on the 2nd here on our site.
Enjoy the holidays, the music, and good luck!
Its hard to think of what happens in war when you never see if firsthand. Movies and books are written for the rest of us who will never see any action. But drama aside, its something we will probably never know. If we could all be that lucky.
This article made me think that there are sacrifices, and then there are Sacrifices. A sacrifice of oneself over the course of one’s life is nothing like a Sacrifice of one’s life. And until you do survive a war, a wound, a trauma, you’ll never really know. And that is why, hate war as much as you want, its the people that fight that are the ones that suffer most, and should be revered.
I still think that nations should just find their best chicken and decide major, irresolvable debates with an old-fashioned cock fight. (You could flip a coin, of course, but its way more ludicrous to see world leaders in their best suits shouting around a dirt pit, cheering for a winged, flightless bird.) Two chickens vs. countless people suffering. No contest.
Happy Veterans Day, to our family and friends. Thank you.
DST is over, y’all. So when I say, “What time is it?” you say “4:30″
Eat your heart out, every jam band ever.
Guitar players, you know what this title is about. Hours spent drooling online over a customized Fender or a vintage Gibson. Its all gorgeous and lovely but very much inaccessible. Its what gets us going in the first place: wanting something we can’t have.
Well now there’s a book that is equally awesome and equally inaccessible to us 99%ers. The Guitar Collection by Epic Ink is bargain-priced starting at $1500. For that, you could of course buy your own custom-shop guitar. But then of course you can’t put your guitar on the coffee table and chat about all the cool pics you peruse in your wonderfully relaxing free time overlooking whatever city you work in from your loft or high-rise penthouse. The weird thing is, I feel like I’ve seen most of those pictures in the “1,001 guitars” books hanging on in the bargain bin at B&N. There’s a finite amount of luxe guitars out there, but apparently not enough documentation of them. And this is why I still want this book: so I can act like its a shopping catalog and not a documentary. Hard case included.
courtesy goodbyemelbournehellonewyork.com
We are jumping up and down excited to be playing our next show with the PIC crew and Red Datsun. I’ve been to a bunch of their shows before, mostly because one funks it up and the other rips it up. And if you start to look at the roots of these bands, you’ll see we start to get incestuous. Mas does it up with PIC. Eric of PIC does it up with Red Datsun. Now all we need is someone from Red Datsun playing in AM Low to complete the hat trick of double-duty musicians.
Hey Red Datsun, any of you guys want to join the band?
So come check out the fun October 13 at Arlene’s Grocery in the city. We’ll be giving away free copies of our mp3s of the upcoming single, Tiny Switches with Able Archer. But only if you show up. We’re on at 8, PIC is 9, Red Datsun is 10. I highly recommend you stay for the whole show as it is going to rawk rawk rawk.
