Apologies and a means to redeem!

Greetings Austin Fans and Friends,

We just wanted reach out and extend our most sincere and deepest
apologies to all of you who came out to Stubb's in Austin on Sunday 
night to see us on our opening engagement supporting the band OURS.
For reasons of tact and professionalism I will not go deeply in to the
specifics of what made the evening become what it did except to say
that we were invited by OURS (not the venue or promoter) to perform
Sunday evening, but due to some extremely unprofessional behavior by
the band and their touring staff, we were forced to cancel our show.

If anyone is in need of a refund for their Sunday night tickets please
contact our management at; management (at) soundsunderradio (dot) com, they will
be happy to assist you through that process. We would also like to
extend our most sincere gratitude to both Stubb's and C3 for their
support and professionalism in this difficult situation.

More than ever we are looking forward to making this up to you all
this coming Friday night (Dec 19th) when we return to STUBBS for our
own 'Hometown Holiday Headlining Show.' Again, a thousand apologies
to all that made it out Sunday hoping to see a Sounds Under Radio rock
show. We promise that this coming Friday we will more than make it up
to you!

-Lang/Bradley/Doug/Sonny

'Hometown Holiday Headlining Show'

FRIDAY Dec 19th at STUBBS

w/ Language Room and Nothing More

Doors open at 9pm

advance tix at www.frontgatetickets.com

Running Jokes and Holiday Shows

Season's Greetings, all!

I hope that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving filled with both wonderful and dysfunctional family moments (because, what are the holidays without a few reminders that we all love those around us, no matter how imperfect they are!).

We are back on the road for a select few dates before Christmas, including a bill with one of our favorite bands, Ours! It promises to be a great show. That will be followed by a special Hometown Headlining Christmas Show @ Stubb's on December 19th; not to give anything away, but, you might hear a Sounds Under Radio Christmas Carol exclusive that night...so make sure to come out and celebrate with us!!

We'll also be hitting Dallas, San Antonio, Denton, Corpus Christi, Monroe (LA), and San Antonio once again before Santa jumps on his sleigh.

So, we have this running joke in the band...when, after a couple of days of being out, road fatigue sets in, all of us have moments when we tend to forget where we are, where we're going to, when we're playing, etc... So, for example, when Bradley asks Lang "ummm, where are we playing tonight?", the answer, unequivocally, is always "It's Wednesday, we're heading to Chicago, and we're opening". Even if we're in Pennsylvania. It's meant to incentivize band members to read their daily sheets (that contain all this info), but, has turned into a fantastic way to rib your colleagues in their moments of tour vertigo.

Hope to see everyone in the next couple of weeks to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in person!

-Bradley
Sounds Under Radio

Thank you to everyone - and a few other notes from Lang

Greetings Everyone!

So it's a few weeks after the release of our long awaited debut album 'Cinematica,' and we wanted to extend a very large and a very warm THANK YOU to everyone that made it to one of the Texas record release shows last week… AND an enormous thanks to all of you that picked up the record in stores and online… you helped make us the #2 Top Seller last week at Waterloo Records in Austin TX… a feat only reachable by your amazing support… so thank you all so very much! We've been waiting to let people here this album for quite a long time now… and we couldn't be more excited to finally be sharing with all of you. If you haven't yet picked up the record… please visit www.soundsunderradio.com to find a portal to all your favorite online retailers carrying 'Cinematica'!

We're currently on tour through the Northeast and Midwest following a very successful CMJ Music Marathon show in New York City… where coincidentally our van was broken in to, yet thankfully nothing was stolen… except for a few cds, but hey… we just consider that reaching out to new fans and spreading the word! Be on the look out for new national tour dates (being added every day), if we're in your area… come out to a show! Oh and speaking of spreading the word… we have a new program called 'Clatterhead' we are debuting today! Basically… if you're willing to help spread the word and share the music of Sounds Under Radio we want to give back! Check the link below for info on how to get involved, how to get exclusive acoustic cuts, unreleased tracks, and tons of other perks for helping out!

www.soundsunderradiorewards.com

Also… please make sure you respond to the Fanbrige Confirmation email that has come to your inbox (or quite possibly your spam box)! We have changed email servers and by confirming for our list you will be assured to continue receiving news, updates and general Sounds Under Radio info from us. So please do that now… its just one click! http://soundsunderradio.fanbridge.com

Also also… if you've gotten the record on Itunes, don't be afraid to write a review… we'de love to know what you think!!

Sounds Under Radio FALL tour dates (more dates being added every day):

October 15, 2008 | The Stafford (Record Release Show) - College Station, TX

October 16, 2008 | The Cavern Club (Record release show) - Dallas, TX

October 17, 2008 | Jacks Patio Bar (Record release show) - San Antonio, TX

October 18, 2008 | La Zona Rosa (Record Release Show) - Austin, TX

October 19, 2008 | Scout Bar (Record Release Show) - Houston, TX

October 22, 2008 | CMJ Music Festival (Trash Bar) - New York, NY

October 23, 2008 | Roc Bar - Baltimore, MD

October 25, 2008 | Joclyn's (w/ Jealousy Curve) - Philadelphia, PA

October 28, 2008 | Picador - Iowa City, IA

October 29, 2008 | Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines, IA

October 30, 2008 | Sokol Underground - Omaha, NE

November 1, 2008 | Crosstown Station - Kansas City, MO

November 3, 2008 | Replay Lounge - Lawrence , KS

November 13, 2008 | Lucy's - San Marcos, TX

November 14, 2008 | The Warehouse - Shreveport , LA

November 15, 2008 | Cafe Chi Alpha - Lafayette, LA

November 20, 2008 | Lambert's (Lang solo acoustic) - Austin, TX

November 21, 2008 | Average Joes - Laredo, TX

November 29, 2008 | City Taver (Lang solo ac show) - Dallas, TX

December 4, 2008 | The Cavern Club - Dallas, TX

December 5, 2008 | House of Rock - Corpus Christi, TX

December 6, 2008 | Jacks Patio Bar - San Antonio, TX

December 12, 2008 | Blue Monkey Tavern - Monroe, LA

December 13, 2008 | Andy's - Denton, TX

December 19, 2008 | Stubbs (Hometown Holiday Headlining Show) - Austin, TX

December 20, 2008 | Cigar Club (SUR acoustic show) - San Antonio, TX

Adventures in Touring, and Awkwardly Named Roads...

It's been a while...and for that we (collectively) apologize...

Let's see, here's what we've been up to:

Independently releasing a record ('Cinematica' was released October 14th - do you have it yet???!?)
Booking a national tour
Rehearsing like mad men

Currently, we're on tour (in the middle of Iowa at the moment); here's a quick re-cap of some of our adventures:

Our van was broken into in Newark NJ...it was a clean break-in; the criminal (still at large) popped the lock off of our back door Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" style. After going through every piece of luggage, pillow, blanket, etc... in our van and finding no cash, he decided to take nothing. Nothing. No-thing...how fortunate are we? Aside from having no way to lock our back door (aside from literally chaining it on the inside every night), we made it out incredibly lucky. The dude didn't even take our Sirius Radio (thank you, cb).

We had our massive coffin-like road case fall out of our trailer while driving in downtown Baltimore.

(read that sentence again)

So, I'm driving (this is Bradley), and Sonny and Doug are in the van with me; we're leaving our hotel in downtown Baltimore, middle of lunch rush traffic. Lang is in NYC doing a CMJ panel at the time...we hear a massive "thud", and think nothing of it. 3 city blocks later, we're alerted to the fact that our trailer door has swung open by the screeching scream of a female Baltimore City Traffic Cop. Simultaneously, I glance in my sideview mirror to change lanes only to see what? The "SUR" stencil on the side of our coffin-like merch case careening down Lombard Ave in Baltimore MD. Hydrenaline pumping, I quickly slam the car into the sidewalk, scream at everyone to "get out of the car" without clarifying that, indeed, our merch case was bounding down the street (Sonny thought that we'd hit a pedestrian or something). After a couple of insightful questions from Sonny/Doug, the crew mobilizes, we get the merch case, which, by the grace of God, hit nobody/no cars/no mailboxes...while rolling a massive merch case down Lombard, a truck driver asks (in his best Baltimore accent) - "yous guysss got a gig t'night??!?".

"No sir, we played last night...we're just dumping gear on busy city streets today".

For the sake of full disclosure, it was me (Bradley) that inproperly closed the trailer door the night before. I'm sure I'll live that down in 2011 or so.

So, two potentially awful incidents, and we come out unscathed. We're lucky dudes.

Good news:
'Cinematica' debuts #2 at Waterloo Records, Austin TX
CMJ (College Music Jamboree) festival in NYC was a massive and smashing success. Tour dates on the East Coast and Midwest have been equally successful/fun.
Our single "Portrait of a Summer Thief" was added to XMU's rotation. If you have XM, make sure to request it through the proper channels.


My last rant will cover the subject of the name of a road in Iowa City IA...we passed it on the way to load-in @ The Picador (great club - thanks for having us, Doug!), and I almost stopped the van...the name of the road is:
"B'JAYSVILLE RD"

No lie.

Our local Iowan friends in the band (the fantastic band) Ely Falls noted that it is actually pronounced "Buh-Jays-ville", as opposed to "Bee-jays...". You could see how hilarious something like this might be to a few road-weary out of towners.

Omaha, NE tonight with A MOMENT LOST, then KC on Saturday, Lawrence on Monday, and home for a few days of well deserved rest. Will post again soon.

Happy Haloween!
Bradley
Sounds Under Radio

Statesman Article

this was the cover article on Sunday's Austin American Statesman Life/Arts section... gives some insight in to what's been happening the past few months and whats next for Sounds Under Radio...

A deal doesn't always equal an album
Austin band Sounds Under Radio returns to where it was a year after signing and then breaking up with major label.
By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Comedian Norm MacDonald used to have a bit about how weird it is to see a homeless person with a dog. "The dog's gotta be thinking, 'Hey, I can do this on my own,' " MacDonald said. "He's out on the world's longest walk."

Guitarist Lang Freeman and bassist Bradley Oliver of Sounds Under Radio laugh lustily when they hear a retelling of that joke. After all, they felt like that hungry dog with the red bandanna for a year, learning the hard way that major labels can't do much for you unless they know you can sell a million records right out of the chute.

New album-oriented bands don't sign with major labels. Not in today's music business climate, when CD sales plummeted 20 percent during the first quarter of 2008, according to SoundScan. The bigger music corporations are looking for download sensations like "Crank That Soulja Boy," not a four-piece modern rock band that needs time to grow.

But Freeman and Oliver claim they were told it would be different at Epic, which brought in the team from V2 Records that had developed the White Stripes. "They offered to build the band up brick by brick, with a real grass-roots approach," Freeman says. "They sold us on the idea that it would be an indie label philosophy, with major label clout."

A visit to the 35th floor offices of Epic on Madison Avenue during the courting process proved intoxicating to the band of young Texans, all in their 20s. "You'd see all these platinum records for bands like the Clash and Oasis and Sly," Oliver recalls, "and you'd also see some of the newer acts (Epic has broken) like Yellowcard and Good Charlotte." Freeman says it was never the band's stated intent to sign with a major. "Our No. 1 goal has always been to get this record out and available to as many fans as possible. We really believed in Epic as the best way to do that."

But less than a year after signing a three-album deal, Sounds Under Radio announced its departure from Epic with a fingerpointing statement. "It became obvious to us that they weren't honestly interested in developing new artists as they had originally promised," the early August release charged. "It seems Epic Records President Charlie Walk isn't prepared to face the future of the record industry and step up to its new order of challenges."

Jeff Wooding of Epic (a subsidiary of Sony), who signed the band, declined to comment on the press release or other charges, saying, "I remain a fan of the band and wish them well. They made a great album."

Now free agents, Sounds Under Radio announced the Oct. 14 release of "Cinematica" on its label. The Will Hoffman-produced album was originally set to be released on the band's label in October 2007.

A rocky road
Things happened fast for the 2-year-old Austin band, rounded out by drummer Sonny Sanchez (ex-Sunflower) and guitarist Doug Wilson. Working day jobs, the members saved their money and hired Hoffman, the ex-Pushmonkey guitarist who's a budding star behind the board, to produce the band's debut LP of slightly subversive pop/rock songs (hence the band's name).

Sunflower's former manager Peter Raspler, who now handles 311, had gotten a copy of an EP sampler of "Cinematica" to a friend who's big in music placement in films. Eventually, a higher up at Sony Pictures licensed "Portrait of a Summer Thief" for the "Spider-Man 3" soundtrack. SUR were the only unsigned band on the CD, but that wouldn't be for long.

Sounds Under Radio was seriously courted by at least three labels, Freeman says, before settling on Epic. The ink dried in November and then ... nothing. "The first red flag was when we couldn't get anything done on the redesign of our Web site," says Freeman. Worst of all, there was no reliable record release date. "First it was going to come out in February," Freeman says of "Cinematica," which the band completed in March 2007.

"They kept pushing it back, and finally we realized that we had an invisible release date," Oliver says. "We were talking to our A&R guys every day and it was clear that they were not getting to do what they wanted to."

Frustration and disappointment peaked on a freezing February night in Dayton, Ohio. Rather than sit around and wait for the record to come out, SUR toured the northeast and midwest in the van that cost every bit of what the band made from the "Spider-Man 3" companion CD, which, unlike the movie, was a bit of a flop. To fill the gaps between bigger cities, the band booked "jumper" gigs for gas money in towns along the way. The gig in Dayton was in a pizza joint with about 23 people on hand and, to make the night even creepier, the band that opened broke up onstage. It was one of those miserable, miserable nights when being on the road in a rock 'n' roll band seems to be a career choice along the lines of signing up for the Army during Vietnam.

"We went back to the Holiday Inn, just as down as we could be," Freeman says. "We had just found out that our record wasn't coming out as planned, and we'd just played a pizza joint and the freezing rain was coming down and I said, 'This is as bad as it gets. Are you guys still in?' and everybody looked at me like, 'Yeah, of course we are.' "

Starting over
They all agreed that the first order of business was getting out of the Epic contract. The band just wanted to get "Cinematica" out and Epic, which owned the rights for 10 years, seemed to be in no hurry. In the band's favor was that it didn't owe Epic anything. The advance was modest, basically covering what the band had spent out of pocket on "Cinematica." A video for "Sell Out," the leadoff single that was released digitally in February, was low budget. SUR also declined tour support because it didn't want to go into debt with the label.

After three months of negotiations, Sounds Under Radio's divorce from Epic was final; it received full custody of "Cinematica," the concept album about taking control of your life (using the metaphor of directing the movie of your own life).

"There is a sense of morality at Sony (Epic's parent company),"Freeman says. The label didn't have to give the album back. "I think they know they wronged us and they wanted to make it right."

Almost a year has passed since the original October 2007 release date of "Cinematica," but the band refuses to see it as a lost year. "I'm not going to tell you we weren't incredibly upset and frustrated," Freeman says. "But we're a better band now. We're a lot tighter now, as musicians and as band members."

SUR is more ready, more battle-tested now than they were a year ago. Rock-bottom nights in Dayton can have that effect.

'Cinematica' timeline:
March 2007: Sounds Under Radio wraps up recording its debut LP 'Cinematica,' with producer Will Hoffman (ex-Pushmonkey)

May 2007: 'Portrait of a Summer Thief' lands on the companion CD to the 'Spider-Man 3' blockbuster, joining such acts as Flaming Lips, the Killers and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

October 2007: The band had planned to release 'Cinematica' independently, but after interest from several labels, SUR instead signs with Epic to release 'Cinematica' as is in a few months.

February 2008: Epic releases a three-song digital EP with 'Sell Out' as the first single. The release date for 'Cinematica' is pushed back a month, then another.

April 2008: The band and manager Will Hoffman officially ask to be let out of the three-album deal with Epic. Negotiations begin.

July 2008: The band is no longer under contract to Epic.

August 2008: Sounds Under Radio announces that it will release 'Cinematica' on its own label on Oct. 14, 2008, almost a year to the day that it had originally intended to release the album on its own label.

Busy week

Been a very busy week.... good as always... but busy.  

wed aug 27 - did a photo shoot at the Driskel Hotel in Austin for the article on Sounds Under Radio that came out in the Austin American Statesman on Sunday.  Almost took some shots in front of a longhorn mounted above a fireplace in the hotel bar... but decided against it.  We went with the more passive 'leather couch' look.  

thurs aug 28- The .dB Initiative played a show... it rocked in the most spacy of ways.  We were all there.

friday aug 29- Drove to Laredo for a show at Average Joes.  It rained almost the entire time we drove... and this wasn't just any normal rain... this was the "once every 5 years in south texas" kinda rain... it was nuts.  Stopped for an early dinner at a Loves truck stop (thats all there really was for miles) and i somehow got us turned around going North (where we should have been going south) on the access road to I35... there was no turn around for 7.5 miles.  Ridiculous.  I felt like a damn idiot.

Finally got to Average Joes after a quick stop by HEB for rations... loaded in, said hello to our good friends Alpha Rev who we were co billed with.  

Laredo is a very interesting place... we've been there 4 times in the past 8 months and it has just now started to get good.  It just takes time for people to get to you know you... first time not so great of a crowd, next time was better but still not good, next time was actually quite good, and this last trip the crowd was great.  Near sold out room.  

When we got there we found out that the venue was also hosting the official  after party for some boxing match that had occured that afternoon... the champ came, he was given his belt, it was great.

We played a really good show... thanks to all that came out in Laredo.  Caught Alpha Rev's set (first of a 3 day stint together)... they were amazing as always.  

2:30am we were all loaded out, and we hit the road... decided to drive home and grab some z's in our own beds since we were playing so close to near austin the next night.  made it home around daybreak (7:30am).  Pulled in to the drive, I got in my car to go get some breakfast, came home and passed out.  Van sleep is not real sleep.  Even if you crash out for hours in the van is like you were only sorta napping... not true rest.

sat aug 30

rouse the troops around 4... every still sleepily gets in the van at 5, drive and load in to Merkaba Lounge in Pflugerville at 6pm.  This is a another show with Alpha Rev.  Load in, backline the stage, get merch set up, hand with Richard and Ian from Merkaba... great peeps over there.  By the time we all get settled the night begins with the Ars Supernova, we hit stage afterwards... do our thing.  Props to Ian Lee for sticking over on the light console.  He looked like he was about to lose his lunch the entire evening (i think he has the flu), but he ran a great light show... Ian knows all the songs from Cinematica so he always rocks the cues.  We love playing there.  Alpha Rev played another amazing set.  I jumped up on stage mid set for an impromptu duo vocal performance of the beatles "nothings gonna change my world" with Casey from Alpha Rev.  He played piano and sang lead... i floated some harmonies on top.  It was great fun.

2:30am we were loaded up and headed out to get a bit of shut eye before the follow days afternoon sweat fest.

sunday aug 31  BATFEST in Austin... the annual outdoor festival on the south first street bridge in Austin... well its generally on the S. Congress St bridge, but because of some odd politics it had to be moved this year.  Regardless... it was a bridge, it was outdoors, it was hot, tons of people, it was awesome.

We arrived for load in at 2:30pm right as The Feds (a band from Dallas) hit stage.  i've always been a fan of The Feds... and I must say, they absolutely stomped ass.  Got a chance to hang with the guys after the show... could not be any nicer of fellas really.  Hope to do more shows with them in the future.  They really were fantastic.  The Feds end at 3:30, we load on stage line check and go start downing water... its hot... i mean really hot.  By showtime at 4:30 it was 100+ degrees outside, the crowd began really closing in on the stage... to it was great, but man was it warm.  Played the show with as much energy as we could... felt like we were playing in slow motion toward the last 2 songs of the set.  the quote of the day, which I don't even remember saying to the audience... but was recounted to be by numerous people was, "its so hot out here that my feet are getting sunburned... through my shoes."  I really did feel that way though... my feet felt like they were melting.  Anyway... we had a handful of small technical difficulties during the show, but we soldiered through and I don't think anyone knew.

So thanks to all the folks that came and soldiered in the heat with us.

Following us were Alpha Rev... caught part of their set from the merch booth and the other part from our trailer whilst loading up our gear.  

Chatted with the boys from Ludo for a bit... hadn't seen them since we played with them in Omaha during our winter tour... then it was literally -10degrees... drastically different from that day.  Anyway... great guys, great band.  Fantastic to get to reconnect... hoping to see them out on the road again.  They had just wrapped a stint on Warped Tour and said that this show was hotter than anything they experienced the entire time they were on that tour.  That says a lot.  

So around 9pm we departed... navigated the odd downtown traffic of the festival and some 10k run that was happening.  It was intense.

more later

LAng

stuff and such

So i just realized that the blog here has been relatively dormant the past 2 months, ok lets just be honest... its been completely inactive... but I have to say, happily we have not.  While my online update of the haps has not kept up, we have been forging onward, driving many miles, playing many shows, sweating on many stages and doing our laundry as often as possible to keep our clothes and our van from smelling like a high school locker room.  Needless to say... I will update more often I promise.  Here though is a recap of shows and general happs and highlights of the summer... and and by the way its official "Cinematica" will be in stores OCTOBER 14th!

 

june 25 - Lang solo acoustic show at Antone's in Austin TX... song swap with some good friends.  These nights generally become a whiskey blur and sing a long around 1am.  always good times with fellow songwriters.

 

june 27- lang and bradley duo acoustic show at City Tavern in Dallas TX... did this show with our old friend Taylor Davis... I miss Taylor.  He lives in Dallas now... but (and i'm totally not joking about this) he used to live under the stairs at the Sounds Under Radio house here in Austin TX.  Short version of the story... Taylor (a singer/songwriter and road traveling troubadour) needed a place to call 'home base' while he was on tour... that place became a nook below the staircase in our living room where he had a lamp, a twin sized matress, a small box fan and a lightup, human sized santa clause (one that you would generally find in someones front lawn during the holiday season... really don't ask).  We only charged him 100.00 in rent a month and it worked well for everyone.

 

June 28- Lang and Bradley duo acoustic show in Bastrop TX.  The venue 'Big Mouth' has an amazing kitchen... best salmon dish i've ever had.  The rice is divine as well.  Great room... old building build in the 30's, renivated, hard wood floors, tall ceilings, you almost done even need a PA in that room the acoustics are so wild. 

 

June 30 -Live web inverview with Open Labs... we own one of their "Miko" keyboards and its about the coolest piece of gear a music nerd could over want to own... we talked about how we use the box, the company, etc... we love those folks.  The interview is on youtube, easily searchable.

 

July 5-  Exit Music Festival Waterloo Park, Austin TX... i'm sure if you live in Austin you read about this one in the papers.

 

July 11- San Angelo Tx... Steel Penny Pub.  What a little oasis in the middle of nowhere Texas... Steel Penny... great club, great stage, amazing people there.  Stayed at the Howard Johnson... I think the AC in our hotel room was broken.  No one slept.  Got up as early as we could to get on the road to San Antonio... long drive.

 

July 12 San Antonio TX... acoustic show at the Cigar Club.  We so rarely get to do these kinds of shows... super intimate, super interactive.  Played some old songs, some new songs and some bizzare things no one has ever heard before.

 

July 13 - Scout Bar, Houston TX... always an amazing show.  Zakk United over at the Buzz in Houston puts this show on every week... near sold out show, thanks to everyone who made it out late on a Sunday.  We had to get back to ATX for an early morning radio engagement... drove through the night, home at 6am.  Tired, but worth it.

 

July 17- back out in Bastrop for more great acoustics and salmon.

 

July 18- early morning interview on KLBJ fm... played 'Wasteland' acoustic... chatted.  Later in the afternoon went over to ME Tv for a spot on 'Tex Mix,' chatted wit Josh Shephard, played some videos... good times.  Quick power nap, soundcheck at Stubbs, dinner...

 

July 18th- ahhhhh our hometown headlining show at Stubbs.  We love everyone in Austin... thanks so much for AGAIN making another hometown show so great for us.  For the first time ever we played ALL the songs from the forthcoming "Cinematica" record in the set... plus a whole slew of others... personal highlight was finally doing our song 'Perfect Machine' live... its a 10 minute opus, but its one of my personal favs from the record... that was the first time we had ever played it live.  Ended the set with it... ahhhh.

 

July 19th- Bums in Temple TX with our good friends and musical cohorts Mothers Anthem.  I absolutely love playing shows with these guys... its always going to be a good show.  Thanks to everyone in Temple for making our first outing in your city such a success... we will be back soon!

 

July 24 - Lang solo show at Flipnotics with Johnny Goudie... this room is amazing.  Its a tiny little space, sells out with 50 people, but its so intimate that its worth the discomfort.  I had to do a quick set and bolt out... but thanks again to all that made it out.  Such a fun time... got to play some new things I'm working on and see how people react... good testing ground for new material in front of friends and fans.  Had to jet quick and meet up with the rest of the band and the van... headed to Dallas that night to cut our drive to Tulsa the next day in half.  Rolled in the my parents house at 3:30am to find my mother still awake and ready to great us... we always try to stop by and stay with them when we roll through Dallas.  No hotel can beat a mothers hospitality!

 

July 25- Long drive to Tulsa... spent an hour just trying to figure out how to get our van near enough to our venue to load in.  Finally worked it out... we were one of the festival headliners which was both a blessing and a curse.  We had a fantastic crowd... mid sized rock club, but the other headliners on our night were Austin's Ghostland Observatory and Paramore... both of whom I had interest in seeing at least some part of... alas we were sweating it out on stage.  Bradley knocked over his rolad Juno 60 ( a 30 year old analog synth keyboard) and time almost stoppped as we saw it go crashing to the floor.  All was ok though... those things are built like tanks. 

 

July 26- Bradyfest in Ft Worth TX... been awhile since we've been back to Ft. Worth... near sold out crowd, could not have asked for a better time. 

 

July 29- taped a live show at ME tv... might become a DVD or something at some point... saw some rough cuts... its looks amazing. 

 

July 31- .db Initiative show at the Lucky Lounge... who are these guys?  They rule.

 

Aug 1- Laredo TX... Average Joes.  Got to mile marker 2 in I 35 (could throw a stone in to mexico), go stopped by the border patrol on the return drive to Austin (had to drive back after the show... early load in the next day at Merkaba Lounge in Pflugerville, just a few miles N of ATX).  We love Average Joes... Laredo is actually a really cool place... people love their rock n roll music there! 

 

Aug 2- Merkaba Lounge... this place has the coolest sound system and lighting rig in the area... we love playing here.  Our good friend Ian ran lights for us... Ian has had a copy of Cinematica for a while and has memorized all of the cues... he rocked an amazing light show.  Bradley got fogged out a few times by the fog machine which was on his side of the stage... it kinda looked like something out of 'Spinal Tap' from where I was standing... I saw it happen once, and laughingly almost missed a verse of Wasteland.

 

Aug 6- Antones in Austin TX... opening for Blind Melon.  Seriously... people generally only know this band for their song 'no rain' and the sad passing of their lead singer... but really... they are one of the most underrated bands of the 90s.  new front man... did a great job, crowd was stellar.  thanks austin for another great evening.

 

Aug 8- Fitzgeralds in Houston TX... played with a band called Hypernova... all the members just 9 months ago moved to the states from Iran.... they reminded me (in a pleasing way) of Joy Division... although I had just watched the bio pic 'Control' about joy Division the night before... so that was fresh on my mind.

 

Aug 9- Lake Charles LA... Rikenjaks.  First time in Lake Charles... there is a massive bridge leading in to the city... its insane.  Lovely place though.  After our show we were all at the merch booth and we saw what could only be described as a swarm of police officers roll in to the bar... we didnt know what the hell was going on.  we counted 10 of them... they asked for the bartenders licenses etc, and then as quickly s they came, they left.  very bizzare.

 

Aug 10 - looooong drive to Dallas.. but it was well worth it, opening slot for Need to Breath at the House of Blues in Dallas (one of our absolute favorite rooms around).  Near sold out show... great energy, great everything.  My parents came out to that show... I got an email from my dad the next day that said, "That show kicked ass!" Thats not language he generally uses so it had to have been good... we thought it was too.

 

Aug 15- Cavern Club in Dallas... did a headlining show on the tiniest stage on the planet.  10x10... we squeezed all of our gear and persons onstage and made it happen.  Actually one of the better shows we've played in a while... just good punk rock synergy.  Opening the show were Jet Black Stare whom our old tour manager Ryan now tour manages... great to catch up with him, AND Congress of a Crow from Tulsa... I had caught 1 of their songs at D fest weeks before... super nice folks.  Got their trailer stolen the next night though... uggg.  We stayed a few blocks away with my old friend John... he has the coolest house in Dallas... or at least thats what I think.  We watched DVR'd versions of "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia" till 5am... that has to be one of the funniest shows on television.

 

Aug 16- made the long haul from Dallas back up to San Angelo to the Steel Penny.... this place is getting better every time we go.  Love it.  the .dB Initiative was supposed to open the show, but last minute could not make it... but to our good fortune (and slightly to theirs as well) our good friends in the band Nothing More had their evenings engagment in Odessa cancelled last minute due to flash flooding (crazy huh?).  We found out about it early in the afternoon and told them that they should come down to San Angelo and open the Sounds Under Radio rock show at the Steel Penny (only a few hrs drive from where they were and in the direction they were heading).  So they did... it was fantastic.  I love that band. 

 

Aug 21- Lucys in San Marcos... been a while since we've played San Marcos so w didnt quite know what to expect... but man, you folks brought it out... thanks for coming and supporting, filling the room and making us want to return again as soon as possible.  thank you.  I do have to say though... Lucys has probably THE WORST load in we have ever encoutered.  Its on the second floor... one staircase up, super skinny staircase, no midway landing... miserable to haul roadcases up and down.  Woke up the next morning more sore than i have been in a long time.

 

Aug 22 Northgate Music Festival College Station TX... its like a mini SXSW in College Station.  Absolutely wonderful event.  Been a few months since we've been back to College Station... and again, you people were amazing.  We were getting stopped on the street for pics... it was maddness in the best of ways.  We played a great show... had an amazing time.  Ohhh... best story of this event though... mere MOMENTS after we get in to town I'm driving the van and trailer and am backing up our beast of a vehicle to load our gear in for the show... up a bit of an incline in to a drive behind the venue... I make a few turns and adjustments and all of a sudden.. POP, the trailer tongue slides straight in to a crack in the concrete of this driveway... total one in a million chance this would happen... one hole in 100 square feet of driveway and i somehow landed our 2 in in diameter trailer jack 3 inches deep in concrete... and no matter what I did I could not get the van to move... so after 10 minutes of trying to rock forward and back (mind you... this is a big ole van with a tandem axle trailer loaded with 3000 lbs of gear), i was getting no where when out of the blue a man in overall comes over and offers to get us out of our predicament for a small fee of $10.00.  We had to make a move so we payed the good fella 5 before he did the job and 5 after... 2 minutes and a few cranks of a jack later... we were free.  Needless to say, we loaded our gear from the street after that... I wasnt about to try again.  Thats what wheels on cases are for anyway.

Ok... home for a few days, doing laundry writing songs, etc etc... more to come!

LAng

Sounds Under Radio on MTV's The Real World Hollywood

Greetings All,

Tonight (Wednesday June 25th) Sounds Under Radio's 'Portrait of a Summer Thief' from the forthcoming Cinematica release will be featured on MTV's "The Real World-Hollywood" episode #2011. You can tune in at 9, 10 or 11 ET/PT to see the show and hear the soundtrack! If you miss these broadcasts... have no fear, there will be many re-broadcasts! find out more info at www.mtv.com

ALSO... don't forget to check out the Sounds Under Radio online store by visiting;

http://soundsunderradio.bigcartel.com/

To celebrate the inclusion of 'Portrait of a Summer Thief' on MTV's The Real World Hollywood, the band will be giving away FREE 3 Song preview EP's with any online purchase for the next 10 days!

indiana jones, Dallas, CC and moving

indiana jones... i just have to say it... i was disappointed for the most part.  while the ten year old boy in me who's favorite movies are and forever will be  'raiders of the lost ark', 'star wars,' 'rad' and 'the goonies' was absolutely satiated... the older, more mature (and more cynical i must admit) 20-something person i am today, who much more prefers watching 'films' than 'movies' felt like i was watching an older and greyer harrison ford star in a B level parody film poking fun at the movies that the 10 year old in me loved so much in the 80's.  anyway... bradley and i discussed this on the van ride to and from Corpus Christi this past weekend and we came to agree... you just can't make those kinds of movies anymore.  that kind of humor... that kind of campy action and general style of film making that was acceptable and flourished in the 80's... well... it just doesn't work anymore.  audiences are conditioned for different things.  while we can watch movies from the elder 'vintage' and enjoy them as they were then... its difficult to enjoy a new movie with that same motif (and oh ya... an obnoxious amount of CGI) in the same way.  you just can't.  same thing with why the newer 'star wars' films just didn't hold up... same idea... and oh ya, Jar Jar Binx was the most annoying character in the history of film.  that didn't help those films.  people said that the Ewoks in the original star wars trilogy were annoying (i beg to differ actually), but it can't be argued that Jar Jar Binx was exponentially more aggravating of a character... i almost walked out of the theatre on that one.  wow ya.  so ok... indiana jones wasnt THAT bad, but i was a bit let down regardless.  

ok the shows... 

Acoustic show in Dallas... just Bradley and I made the trek for this one... very intimate, very interactive... we had a lot of fun.  I think someone posted a few clips on youtube... search out if you're interested.  went down a day early to spend an evening with my parents... two of the absolute best people on the planet hands down... i wish i got to spend more time with them.  I missed my now florida dwelling older brother by a day as he was in town for a golfing expedition earlier in the week... he's the one who introduced me to led zeppelin, pink floyd, the beatles and this whole rock and roll thing... so you could say he's to blame for all the things i do :)  haha

Coprus Christi... flag day celebration.  Good to get back out with the electric guitars and turn our amps up... which we did.  it was loud and raucous and just completely enjoyable.  got a write up in the Corpus Christi Caller as we found out when we got there and a handful of folks said that made it out to the show because of the paper... pleasant suprise for us!  Bradley got a new case for a lot of his gear... it cuts his stage set up time in half, but required to design an entire new trailer pack for all our our road cases... which wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been 110 degrees while we were doing it.  2 hours playing human sized tetris on a 6x12 trailer with a few other guys is not my definition of fun... but we did it, got all of our gear to Corpus and I have to say... this new pack (even with the addition of the new case) is actually a better pack than the old.  What strange things I find satisfaction in these days.  

Drove home after CC... short weekend of shows... made it back to home base around 7am just as folks were heading out to their sunday morning church services.  We pulled in to the SUR house driveway, parked the van and were exhaustedly stumbling towards our beds just as our neighbor Bernie (a super nice fella actually) was walking out to the street to get his sunday paper... i think we startled him for a second... but our neighbors know what we do... they know the hours we keep and actually are really great about being accepting of us, watching the house when we're on tour and keeping an eye out on everything when we're away.  Our house is in a very 'family oriented' neighborhood in Austin and I think when we moved in many of the neighbors were afraid that we were going to be throwing wild parties in to the wee hours ever night of the week and i'm sure they put the police on speed dial the moment they heard what we do for a living... but the truth is, we're actually quite tame when we're at home... we are home so infrequently that when we're here we just want to rest... quietly write songs and enjoy a little life outside of the dingy rock club... however much we do love them... when we're home is nice to kind of turn that off for a bit.  i actually think the neighbors like us now to be completely honest... we even get invited to neighborhood events and have notes put in our mailbox that generally begin with something like, "Dear Band Guys... you are cordially invited to..." its actually quite amusing.  

ok so tonight marked the next to last rehearsal we are going to have in our current rehearsal space... its actually quite sad... this little 12x18 room has been good to us... its gotten us ready for tours, its helped us write a great many songs and its helped us grow as a band in more ways that we could have ever imagined... its been the place that we've spent almost every waking hour of our lives when we're not on the road... yet its time to change the scenery... mix things up a little bit and see if a new environment will spawn some new creativity and tell us some new and interesting... so goodbye room 62... you have been the good to us.

alright... san antonio this weekend and actually a webcast interview on sunday with our good friends at Open Labs who make an amazing product called the 'miko' which we own and are soon to integrate in to our live show... if you're in to checking it out visit www.openlabs.com  -alright thats all for now... 4am and i need to try and sleep.  we shall see if it actually happens or not.

quiet... the nothing more guys are sleeping downstairs

Greetings all... so its monday at 1am... or technically tues at 1am (it is the morning now i guess) and I'm quietly working away in the upstairs studio in the Sounds Under Radio house in Austin Tx.  Been writing a lot lately and Ive actually taken recently to gaff taping (gaff tape for those that don't know is like over glorified duct tape that is used on stages because of its durability and also ease of removal) pages from my writing journals to the walls of the studio... I have also gaff taped a sharpie on a string to the same wall so that I can stand in front of what i've now deemed 'the word wall' and make swift edits and changes, combine things, fracture things, break them down, build them up... so on and so forth.  I've been challenging myself recently to exploring some new ways to write... and this method has actually been quite helpful and inspiring.  There is something i'm finding to be rather powerful about just standing in front of these words... words that hold great meaning to me... and in a way confronting myself again with these themes and ideas... I can't close my journal, I can't escape it... anywhere in this room the words are all around me... I have to face them and I have to be honest with them and myself.  Its been brutal sometimes... but again, a great means of catharsis once i've gone through the process.   I wish I knew how to post pics on this thing because the 'word wall' is actually quite amusing to see... I'll try to figure it out and get something up soon.  

So downstairs right now (and thus why i am 'quietly working upstairs') are sleeping our good friends in the band 'Nothing More'  who are staying with us for a few days while they begin tracking parts of their new record in a studio here in Austin with our much loved producer Will Hoffman.  I can't wait to hear what comes of this collaboration... I've been hoping Will and Nothing More would work together for quite some time now... glad its finally all going down.  But needless to say... they have an early morning, so are fast asleep and the rest of us here are trying to respect their need for quiet...  although I keep hearing what might be a smoke detector beep every few minutes... probably need to go investigate when i'm done writing this.

so road updates... once again, been traveling a great deal in the great state of Texas... I believe in the last week we saw almost every mile of IH35 in Texas... Laredo Tx took us too the Mexican border and a trip in the the DFW metroplex took us about 50 miles from the Oklahoma border on the north.  IH35 really is an aweful highway... constantly under construction, traffic jams at every corner... I once heard 35 referred to by a fellow musician as a 'work horse' highway, 'no frills... just lots of pavement and potholes.'  that is the damndest of truths for sure.  From border patrol stops and drug dog at 4am heading out of Laredo, to 10 mile long roadjams in Waco (which we hilariously found out to have been caused by our good friends in the band Alpha Rev and their broken down mini bus), 35 has been a good... yet painful road companion the last few weeks.  

Last weekends show at the Cavern Club in Dallas (a tiny room modeled after the Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles found their start) proved to be an amazingly intimate and suprisingly fantastic show for us.  We in the 11th hour had to strip back and perform the show as a trio acoustic (or acoustic in the way that we do acoustic i guess) as Sonny had some last minute family issues to attend to... but we soldiered through and had somewhat of a 'VH1 Storytellers' evening in the Cavern Club with a few hundred of our closest Dallas fans and friends all packed in to a room whos capacity I could only imagine to be no more than 50 or 75 people.  It was hot and cramped... but it was amazing show... stellar sound in the room a wonderfully attentive audience... also my folks (who live in Dallas) got to come out to the show which was just great for me... always such a blast having them there at shows.

Heading back to the metroplex actually later this week for a bono fide acoustic show and a little writing sabbatical... light week of touring so it'll be a good opportunity to kinda get out of my element here... do some fresh thinking and some fresh writing.  Been doing a few of these acoustic dates recently and have a slew of them lined up for the coming months.  Been really cool to hang out with some friends and fellow songwriters... don't get to do that much with how busy we are these days... so its been good for us to be working and also be hanging with friends.  Did a show with a good friend Johnny Goudie in Houston 2 weeks ago... we traveled together to and from the show and I can honestly say... I haven't laughed that much in a long time... I'm thinking about inviting him on the road with Sounds Under Radio every now and again just to keep us entertained.... ha... and oh ya... he's a BRILLIANT singer and songwriter as well... that doesn't hurt at all.  Also had Casey McPherson travel back from Dallas to Austin with us this last weekend (his band Alpha Rev as well as our other good friend The Soldier Thread played at the Cavern with us), such a good time hanging with Casey.  Another BRILLIANT songwriter we are fortunate enough to call a friend.  

 Anyway... after writing in Dallas early this week, acoustic show on Thurs, we are back in Austin late week... rehearsals (working in some new material) and then a rock show in Corpus Christi this weekend... busy as always.... but busy is good!  more soon

so many shows and not a lot of blogging

so apologies for the lack of communication as of late... we've been spending a lot of time on the road and a lot of time locked away in a rehearsal room writing and rehearsing new material.  its nice to be back in texas for a bit... its quite hot here as the summer has crept in upon us a bit early this year.  we've been touring all across our great state for the past two months... spending a few precious days at home locked away in our studio in between mini tour bursts.  admittedly its nice to get out for a few days, then come home and sleep in your own but... BUT to be honest we are really beginning to miss the elongated road travel... there is something so wonderful about getting out, getting in a groove of momentum... the machine (musically and mechanically) just seems to flow so well after a few weeks.  i miss that.  but again, i can't complain that much... good austin texas style mexican food and sleeping in my own bed 2 nights a week rather than sleeping in a row of the van or in a dingy hotel room is pretty boss.  and yes... i did just use the term 'boss,' ... it among several other forgotten words are creeping their way back in to my formal and informal dialogue... im trying to bring em back!

so we've had some amazing shows, have met some amazing people and have seen many miles of this great state of texas the last few months.  after sxsw (which it appears was my last blog entry), we just started pounding the highways here and have hit every city you can imagine and everyone that you probably can't... the most remote and interesting thus far had to have been Tomball Texas... where we played an amazingly enjoyable show at 'Garys Spot' with our good friends Mothers Anthem.  This was an establishment where the owner (kindly and graciously) per our request removed what could only be described as a stripper pole from the center of the stage.  Kirk from Mothers Anthem and I both agreed that it would be a far better situation if the pole was removed as we mutually felt that potential bodily harm would come to he and I if the pole remained.  Gary (the club owner) was very kind and minutes after our request for the poles removal he had a staffer on stage with a tool kit removing the pole... but not before Kirk and I took pictures with the pole... we simply couldn't resist.  Anyway... it turned out to be a fantastic show... amazing crowd, amazing energy.

the largest 2 shows that we have done in the past few months both took place in Austin TX our hometown and homebase... one opening for the band FILTER at a sold out show at Emo's Outdoors... a stage that we had suprisingly never played in all of our time in Austin.  The guys in FILTER could not have been any kinder to us and could not have put on a better show themselves... i think it was their first live performance in like 6 years... and they slayed it.  We did out show in front of a hometown audience that was full of many folks that had never seen us live before, which is always a frightening thing... but we just did our show the way we do it... sweaty, loud and full of rock fists (a now Sounds Under Radio trademarked stage move), and the audience was fantastically responsive.  that night could not have gone any better.  

The next time we hit Austin was for a close to sold out headlining engagement at Stubbs... it had been 4 months since we played a headlining show in our hometown... far to long for our comfort and wanting, but it just happened to work out that way with our touring scheduel for the past 1/4 year.  Anyway... the night went smashingly and was a huge booste of morale and energy for us... so thanks to all the folks that came to that show... it meant a great deal to us, you really have no idea.  

so... forthcoming the rest of the summer... a few festivals, lots of touring in the southwest and our record 'Cinematica' WILL be coming out toward the end of the summer... its been a long time coming and it will soon see the light of day!!!!  

final thoughts:

go buy the new Death Cab for Cutie record 'Narrow Stairs' its brilliant and in constant repeat in the Sounds Under Radio van cd player

check out the new band 'The .dB Initiative' ... a new local austin outfit... ambient and spacey rock maddness.

the new Indiana Jones movie... i cant wait to see it.  

alright... hope to see you'all soon at a show.

LAng

as SXSW 08 descends upon us...

SXSW 08 descends on us... and my story So the SXSW music festival has to be one of the most energetic times of the year here in Austin Texas (our humble home)... we have SXSW in the spring and ACL Fest in the summer... both events just completely infuse the city with an energy that doesnt exist any other time of the year... and honestly its amazingly refreshing. For one week during the spring we rock n roll kids are able to reclaim the downtown district of Austin which used to be full of music and life and is now sadly over run by shot bars and human meat markets. For those of you that don't know... the famous 6th street in Austin texas is no longer a haven for live music... there are 1 (maybe 2) bonofide venues on 6th... the rest have either closed or moved elsewhere... BUT during the SXSW music fest the musicians and artists reclaim the territory and reinfuse the city with what makes Austin special... with what drew me to this fine city in the first place. Good bands and great music can be found billowing out of every doorway and every window... enthusiastic and energetic people can be found running to and fro in search of that great unknown band that they're going to see and brag about later... i will digress and tell my story of just that;

5 years ago Bradley was playing a SXSW showcase with another band and i was guitar teching for the show (this was just as we were beginning to dream up the idea of Sounds Under Radio mind you)... and I remember it quite vividly... we were at Hickory Street Barbeque, a little place down on S. Congress Ave that held maybe 50 people... a place that was and still is 360 other days out of the year NOT a live music venue, a place where the 'stage' was cut in half by a tree planted right in its middle... and a place where you smell like bbq after you leave for many many days later.

anyway... Bradley played a great show with the band he was showcasing with and we decided to stick around for the next band... I had met the lead singer Karen earlier in the evening and she had humbly given me a copy of their EP for free which i thought was very sweet of her to do... i tried to pay her for it, but she wouldnt accept my 5 dollars. So we decided to stay for their show.. she was a very shy and very modest woman... and I remember really liking the hat that she was wearing.

Karn had a 3 peice band (which i remember in the beginning thinking was rediculous because... how could any band play a show without a bass player right?), there was a super skinny guitar player with 2 little amplifiers and a kinda geeky drummer with thick horn rimmed glasses and he appeared to be playing a jazz kit. interesting.

So they set up quickly and Bradley, myself and a few other friends (with about 20 other folks) crowded around the front of the stage just to see what it was all about... and mere moments later we were all having our heads absolutely ripped off by these amazing sounds, this fantastic energy and this brilliant front woman who became an entiery different person when they began playing... singing, screaming, yelling, chocking herself with the mic cable, spitting beer and slinging sweat everywhere and on everyone... it was without a doubt, hands down, one of the most amazing live shows that I have ever seen and for the rest of my life probably will ever see. The PA cut out twice in the middle of the set... but it really made no difference... everyone in the place... absolutely everyone had their eyes and ears glued to the stage.

So 40 minutes later they played their last song and this quaint little front woman said to the crowd in a very soft and shy voice, "ummm sooo thanks for listening everyone... we drove a really, really, really long way to get here... from New York actually... so thanks... i hope everyone liked it... we're called the Yeah Yeah Yeahs."

4 months later I picked up a copy of Rolling Stone with them on the cover. Thats right folks... I saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with about 25 other people at a crappy BBQ joint in Austin TX... and it was one of the most amazing musical experiences of my life.

These are the moments that I search out every SXSW... that to me is what the festival is all about.

So yes folks... we will be playing the festival this year (several times actually) and hope to have some more discoveries and more stories to tell by next week... we couldnt be more excited for the weeks events... and if you are by chance in town for the festival, come out to a show... we have a few--

Sounds Under Radio SXSW 08 Show List

Wed March 12
SXSW Official Showcase (wristband or badge required)
Blind Pig Pub Rooftop
317 E 6th St., Austin, Texas
8pm

Thurs March 13
Planetary Media BBQ/ Day Party (must RSVP)
Maggie Maes (upstairs stage)
6th and Trinity.

Ground Floor Stage
12.00 Plushgun
12.35 Throw Me the Statue
1.10 The Shackletons
1.45 Gran Ronde
2.20 Leopold & His Fiction
2.55 Portugal. The Man
3.30 Elf Power
4.05 The Dykeenies
4.40 South

Roof Stage
12.10 Mostly Bears
12.45 Edison Glass
1.20 The Red Romance
1.55 Cloud Cult
2.30 American Princes
3.05 Sounds Under Radio
3.40 Look See Proof
4.15 Longwave
4.50 Starsailor

Friday March 14
Sure Fire Media Day Show (RSVP at www.do512.com)
5th and La Vaca
10:30 AM ­ Run Run Run (Los Angeles, CA)
11:15 AM ­ Jets Under Fire (Austin, TX)
12:00 PM ­ The Soldier Thread (Austin, TX)
12:45 PM ­ The Mercers (Austin, TX)
01:30 PM ­ Johnny Goudie & The Little Champions (Austin, TX)
02:15 PM ­ Dremnt The End (Austin, TX)
03:00 PM ­ Mothers Anthem (Austin, TX)
03:45 PM ­ Sounds Under Radio (Austin, TX)
04:30 PM ­ Alpha Rev (Austin, TX)

burritos and tacos

so we are home for a short bit... back in the warmth of the texas winter. i noticed its been about a week with no blog updates... well lets recap;

Wilmington NC- played a great show at the Laundrolounge... Wilmington is a great city. Kinda like a mini Austin in many ways. Played with a band called Jackaroo... the guys in this band were all in high school... but they rocked unbelieveably hard.

Jacksonville FL- played with the band Retardobot... great crowd, great room. very good close to the tour. ate at quiznos twice that day... the sammies at quiznos are genius.

drove 8hrs to New Orleans (about halfway home), pricelined a hotel in the French Quarter... cajun food and drinks a plenty... stayed up super late, made our next days 12 hr drive not th emost enjoyable thing ever.

drove home... it took 12 hrs to drive a normally 8 hr drive. it too 3.5 hrs to drive the last 30 miles of Louisiana... road construction and a massive traffic jam. that was miserable... all we wanted to do was get back in to texas and it seemed like some unknown force was keeping us at bay. finally made it back to austin near 10:30pm... found that we had blown a trailer tire at some point on the trip and had not even noticed... we must have a stellar pack in our trailer... good weight distribution.

about 10 min after returning home, dropping our bags we all jumped back in the van and headed to our favorite mexican food restaurant for a good ole fashioned tex mex throwdown. ohhhhh how i had missed a good burrito, a good taco and a good enchilada. see what you have to understand is that living in austin, about 95% of ones meals are served in some form of tortilla... its just how it is... we missed that.

so back home for a short bit before sxsw... writing a lot of new material, rehearsing a great deal... enjoying the non sub zero temps. ahhh the midwest and the northeast... how we miss you, but i must say... i do not miss the cold.

been busy...

... sorry... been bad about posting the last week. its been quite busy. i'll do a brief recap;

nyc day 1- day off... it was so cold that we were forced to stay in doors all day. coldest day in nyc all year from what we heard. snow snow snow.

nyc day 2- GREAT show at the mercury lounge. we love that venue... such an amazing place. played with some great bands... God or Julie opened the show and were brilliant. their guitar players amp exploded in sound check so he used out back up amp... we try to be the band with a backup for pretty much everything... amps, cables, even socks.

anyway... love nyc, wish we could have stayed longer. only bad thing about nyc is having a big ole van and trailer... its a bit of a pain but we managed. our tour manager ryan knows someone in every city and was able to secure us a great place to stay with his friend (and now our friend) Lea who has a great little apartment in queens with a driveway where we were able to park our big beast of a van and trailer. she also has charpe dog... awesome day, but never seemed to warm up to us... it was unfortunate. she had an amazingly schrunched face.

washington DC... great show at the rock n roll hotel. very enthusiastic crowd... also some old friends came out to the show... great getting to hang with folks. after the show we loaded up and went to a bar called tattoo that Sonnys friend (and now our collective friend) Patrick owns. This was an amazing place... VIP treatment... im not normally in to DJ's, but we went and hung out up in the DJ booth and watched this guy spin... he was sick... just sick... he amazed us all. When we walked in to the bar the dj started blasting 'portrait of a summer thief' and then scratching etc on top of it... it was actually really damn cool.

philly... it was valentines day. not many folk go out to rock clubs on valentines day so it was a meager crowd. we played a great show though regardless... we just love being on stage no matter what.

day off... drove to richmond VA... did laundry, ate bison burgers and took it easy. and yes... i did just say ate bison burgers... they were great.

today... drove to Wilmington North Carolina... right now we're just chilling in the venue (which doubles as a laundromat... yep... laundromat... we should have waited to do laundry till today). interesting place.. should be a good night regardless though. Several of the guys watched the second episode of this seasons LOST and said its amazing... im watching it in the van tomorrow on the drive to Florida. I cant wait... im obsessed with LOST. i think my time travel theory has been blown out though... we shall see.

ok my chic file dinner just arrived... im going to go and do some eating. more soon.

i found the culprit... smelly converse

so something was stinky in the van this morning as we drove from albany to boston. it is worth noting that bradley drove in what could only be described as blizzard like conditions... 10 ft visibility,traveling no more than 30 miles an hour on the freeway. it was intense. anway... back to the smell. so my converse got wet somewhere in ohio, i cant remember exactly where... there was a load in to a venue in the snow and i forgot to put on my boots. soooo... i dried out my cons and didnt realize how badly they smelled after they had been dried. something was stinky in the van today and no one could figure out what it was... i then realized that it was my cons as i lifted my foot up to cross my leg late in the afternoon... sadly. i love those cons... they're not normal cons either... they are quite expensive so i cant throw them away... but what do i do, they smell??

ok... important things. played a show in boston tonight at the middle east upstairs... which one might think is actually UP a flight of stairs... well its not... its actually on the surface level. the middle east downstairs is on a basement level, thus the upstairs is on street level. we were very relieved to find this our when we arrived to the venue. up stairs load ins are never fun.

heading in to nyc tomorrow... excited about that... we love new york. show at the mercury lounge on tues... love that venue. going to spend the day tomorrow driving, then at guitar center (buying things to replace things we have broken while on the road), meetings, fooding and enjoying the city. nice relaxing monday.

waffles

so we played in syracuse ny last night... it was the first time i have ever stepped on to a stage to play a show and have been overwhelmed with the smell of waffles... yes you read that correctly waffles. not beer, whiskey, or the normal dank smells of a rock n roll venue... but waffles. the venue, a room called 'funk n waffles' hides no suprises in its name... between sets they play old 70s funk music on the PA and the also serve waffles and other food items. ryan our tour manager got a plate of fried chicken and waffles... this is a combination of foods that i will never understand. i mean when presented on a plate... it is just that... friend chicken atop waffles... its served with both syrup and hot wing sauce. i dunno about it all... still seems strange to me.

ohhh also... the night before we had a day off and we stayed in Erie PA (it was halfway between where we were and where we needed to be). we walked to a bar across the street from our hotel to find ourselves entering in to a country karaoke bar... yep... a country karaoke bar in pennsylvania... it was comforting to find the fruits of home just a few paces away.

Lost

some highlights from the past few nights...

Omaha... our tour manager Ryan flying in to meet us and walking through the door of the club mere moments before we hit stage, running to the front of house console and mixing a damn good show! good job Ryan. Opened for Ludo... that is one crazy ass and entertaining band.

Minneapolis... we played on the same stage where parts of Prince's 'Purple Rain' was filmed. how cool is that?

Chicago... sold out show at the Double Door opening for Buffalo Tom.

Colombus OH... rush on to stage for our middle slot opening for Year Long Disaster (fronted by the son of Ray Davies of the Kinks), line check, begin show... at the first downbeat of the show the power on half of the stage goes out. Lucky our amps were still function so we all quickly plugged our guitars and basses in to our amps directly (bypassing all of our fun effects and noise secrets). got through the first song and then took a moment to suss the problem. Fault wiring on the stage. Danger zone.

Toledo OH... showed up for load in at 7pm to find that an early metal show had been schedueled and we had not been informed. Came back at 10pm... loaded in to the venue in the cold and pouring rain. we were wet and exhausted but had a great show. One of the bartenders spit fire during the middle of our set and scared us all shitless. Ya, you read it right... spit fire. It was intense.

Dayton OH... there was a guy at the bar who was so intoxicated that he kept falling asleep on the bar... on the pool tables in the back... on our merch table. it was hilarious... and kind of annoying... but funny nonetheless.

Erie PA (day off). the highlight of this day... watching LOST. We are all absolutely obsessed with this show... obsessed. I have some new theories after tonights episode... it has to do with time travel... i need time to gather my thoughts, maybe i'll share them later.

heading in to New York state tomorrow... ahhhhhhh we love New York.

LAng

The Great Upper MidWest

Rock Poses backstage before our show in Minneapolis at First Avenue...Ryan, is, of course, the consummate tour manager, even during these moments.
Sonny, backstage at First Avenue, prepping before the show


Snowy drives notwithstanding...

We rocked Minneapolis last night with Buffalo Tom at the historic First Avenue...why historic, you might ask? Well, it's the location where part of Prince's "Purple Rain" was once filmed. Not to mention, everyone from Death Cab to NIN to Wilco has played there. All around fantastic venue, great crew, and, of course, everyone had the "Minnesota Nice" accent - which was exciting for the for Central Texans.

I'll keep this post short, as Lang, Doug, and Sonny are sleeping - but I wanted to add some video and photo footage for ya'll, to give you more images, sights, and sounds of the road, as we see them. Granted, we're novice video makers at best, and trying to do this all with an oft-dodgy wireless card in rural Wisconsin is, well, challenging.

Lang is feeling better, though, and everyone is looking forward to a day off in Chicago (starts with a "C", ends with an "O", and in the middle, there is a "HI-CAG") tomorrow. I'm sure we'll be watching the SuperBowl, though we'll show no particular patronage. One of our managers is from Boston, the other, a born and bred New Yorker - so, the band will stay neutral.

Go Giants...

-BO

indie rock motherland (omaha nebraska)

so we spent the day today in Omaha Nebraska which is what i would say is the current 'motherland' of the indie rock scene. home to artists like bright eyes, home to saddle creek records, home to indie rock super producer mike mogis... we are all huge indie rock fans so its quite cool for us to be hanging out in omaha... unforunatetly though mostly holed up in our hotel room as the outside temperature plummeted below zero. Honestly... i cant tell much of a difference between anything below say 20 degrees... its all just really damn cold to me. but the wind... ohhh the wind... when that starts kicking its all over... that'll do some damage. I dont know how you folks in the midwest hang with this... although im sure ya'll (and yes i did just use the texas colloquial term ya'll) think its crazy that we texas folk go out and do functional activity in the 100+ weather. honestly, i think thats crazy too.

anway, the show in lincoln was great last night... wonderful room... i saw some posters on the wall for a show that had happened a few nights before with one of my favorite singer songwriters Martin Sexton... man i bet that was a good show. He's amazing. If you've never heard him... pick up his record called, "the american" its a great driving and traveling record. ok so the show.. we debuted a new song last night called "The Arsonist." We've played it at a few soundchecks recently and then for the first time last night in front of a live audience... it went over smashingly so i think we're going to start integrating it in to the live show when we can. very excited about it... hopefully any and all of you out there will hear it at a show in the near future.

so, big news... next week on Feb 5th we will be releasing an Itunes exclusive 'Cinematica Preview EP'. It's just a little taste from the forthcoming record... it'll feature our first single 'Sell Out' (which the video for said song will be appearing all over the place very soon... be on the lookout) as well as a select other cuts from the 'Cinematica' full length. We couldnt be more excited to start getting that stuff out to folks... its a long time coming!

So the rest of the boys are out having dinner with some friends in Omaha... i again am resting in the hotel trying to get to feeling better... the sickness is subsiding, but slowly... still trying to take it easy when i have the chance. We all did a phone interview earlier with a new and upcoming publication called Soundcheck Magazine... should be a piece on us around sxsw (mid march), very nice folks at Soundcheck. Ok... tomorrow we have a show in Omaha at the Waiting Room with the wonderful band 'Ludo.' Our merch manager Kelly was tour managing a band a few years ago and they were on the road with Ludo... said that they're amazingly nice guys. Can't wait to meet em and see their show... I hear they are quite entertaining. Alright... i'll report more later.

LAng

blizzards in the midwest....

We had to drive through a blizzard or sorts today as we were leaving Kansas City heading toward Lincoln Nebraska... it was intense. 30-40 mile and hour winds, snow, slick roads, etc etc... Bradley did the majority of the driving he was a soldier.

Currently sitting in a Scooters Coffee shop in Lincoln Nebraska looking at a bank time/temp meter across the street... its 8 degrees... and thats without wind chill. its cold. its cold. its cold. we stopped at a gas station earlier to fill up and there was a guy rolling out of his truck in jeans and a short sleeve shirt... rediculous.

anyway... spent 2 hours in a doctors office yesterday (yes... definitely the way i had hoped to spend our day off in KC), got some meds... its official.. sinus infection. the other guys went and saw Cloverfield last night with mixed reviews... i slept, i needed the rest.

anyway... we're playing Knickerbockers in Lincoln tonight... looks like a great venue, we're excited about the show. We once again stopped at a Guitar Center when we rolled in to town to replace broken things... I wonder if Guitar Center proper would offer a proper artist deal? I doubt it. Anyway... off to brave the cold. more soon

LAng

sinus infections will be the death of me...

so luckily our show last night was in lenexa kansas (a suburb of kansas city), and was only a not so hefty 6 miles away from our hotel. i think i have a pretty nasty sinus infection right now... that was a tough show for me to get through. small small small venue... but very cool and intimate. like austin there is a smoking ban in the bars in lenexa... now i know some people really have a problem with this, but from the vantage point of a singer... this is an absolute life saver. so much more difficult to sing in smokey bars than in 'fresh aired' ones.

we actually called an audible on the show and did some material from the vault that we thought would be more fitting for the room and the audience... our assesment was spot on and the set went over very well. sonny stripped down his kit, doug played his small pedal board, bradley busted out the glockenspeil and i dawned an acoustic guitar the entire evening. it was a great show... we had a lot of fun and still managed to bring the energy that we pride our live show on.

got to the hotel relatively early and watched 'the assasination of jesse james' ... thats a great film. casey aflec is a brilliant actor... as is brad pitt. his acting skills are often overlooked because of how the media has publicized his private life... but really at the end of the day, hes a damn good actor.

alright... day off in Kansas City today... im going to get some rest, work on a new piece of gear that we're trying to integrate in to our live shows, we're thinking about going to see 'cloverfield' at some point too... looks like a pretty stellar movie.

sick city

so sonny was sick 2 days ago... and now im sick. i'll be ok though, took some theraflu last night at about 5am and slept like a rock... still a little groggy today, but i should be ok by show time. we were in columbus missouri last night... our show was after a guitar hero competition... doug and i picked out our contestant early in the evening... he just seemed to have this look of a champion in his eyes. and yes... he beat out 250 other kids... he was brilliant. an absolute phenom.

tonight we play in lenexa (or kansas city) kansas.

Cold in Kansas

so we were delayed in getting in to Lawerence KS yesterday as we spent an hour and a half in a panera bread in Tulsa waiting on a tire on our trailer that had gone flat to be repaired (we somehow drove over a big nasty nail that decided to flatten the only 2 week old tire).

that combined with our GPS device (which we have named Karen... as the Brittish accented voice that gives us directions is well... just named Karen) kept giving us fowl directions... which was aggrivating. I think Karen is mad at us for some reason... it'll be ok, we'll apologize and buy her some flowers or something tomorrow.

we made it though in time for load in and in time for the show... really wish we had gotten in early though as Lawerence is a really killer town. I had some friends that lived in Lawerence for a time and they always told me how amazing the city was... well Simon and Melinda... you were right.

Great show in Lawerence... the folks at the Jackpot Saloon were amazingly nice. Cant wait to come back. Nice intimate venue... very cool place. There is a venue in Austin called Trophys... and if one was to invert the sides of the bar (ie flip the walls and flip the bar) the Jackpot would be an exact replica of Tropyhs... in think they are Dopplegangers of one another... i havent yet decided which one is is the evil one!

alright... we're at our hotel in Kansas City right now... heading to Columbia Missouri tonight for a show... i think the opening act is a guitar hero tourneyment.... this should be fun interesting...