Valentine's and Grammy Bliss

Happy St. Valentine's all ye out there!

This will be just a short post, tonight, but I thought it would be nice to send a quick note to everyone...here's a few highlights from the new year thus far:

College Station, TX (Jan 09): Bradley dumps the Juno for the second time in his live career...captured on film, you can see both an astonished and shocked expression on his face. Both he and the Juno made it through, but we're all wiser for the experience; there's now Velcro on the on the Juno keyboard stand to prevent any more catastrophic moments. Aside from that, the show was awesome.

Shreveport, LA (Jan 09): The good folks at KSCL (Centenary University) put a show together in one of their fabulous on-campus auditoriums for Sounds Under Radio, and we had an absolute blast rocking the radio-friendly crowd. We made good friends, had good coffee (and pie!!!), met the campus mascot (some sort of dingo type creature that was fond of our road merch girl, Lorri), and had an amazing show. Oh, and by the way, we came in #5 on their Top 100 for 2008!!!!

San Antonio, TX (Feb 09): Two acoustic shows in one day make for good times in Bradley's hometown; we played a Best Buy in-store in the early evening, followed by a wonderful Valentine's show at the fabulous Cigar Club. It was a "goodbye" of sorts for the Cigar Club, which will be closing its doors at the end of this month...but, thankfully, the club will be re-opening in mid-April under the name "The Gatsby", and will be back as a premier live music venue in San Antonio. Jacob is a good man, and he loves good music. We wish he and the club all the best, and extend our thanks for the good times at the Cigar Club thus far.

....and how have I been spending my Valentine's Day??? (well, it's Feb 15th, but, sometimes girlfriends of band members have to wait until Sunday for an appropriate V-day)...scanning the blogs for videos of Grammy performances that I missed last weekend...and let me say this: Radiohead (Thom and Jonny) doing "15 Step" with the USC Marching Band: BLISSS!!!! Amazing.

...and I feel a little weird saying this...but, JT....wow. That guy is the real-f'in-deal...singing with Al Green? Holy cow. That's right: I just said "holy cow". But it's for JT.

This weekend brings us back to College Station with Flawless Escape and Ars Supernova (dual record release), San Antonio (Sam's Burger Joint w/The Solider Thread!!!), and Austin @ Stubb's for a hometown headlining event!

Much love everyone, and holy cow!
BO

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