home sweet home

Sorry about the lack of updates. It’s hard to get a computer for more than twenty minutes at a time when you are on tour. Speaking of tour, we are home and already missing the van. It was so great to be out with our good friends in Aficionado. They are currently recording a full length record in Omaha, that will be out on No Sleep Records at some point. It was also nice to meet Twin Killers, Zlam Dunk, Two Cow Garage, Film Strip, and HotChaCha. I could talk about tour but I think I’ll try and do a picture show instead.





































We will be back on tour in May and June. Keep an eye out for those dates. Go buy Teamwork on Itunes, Bandcamp, or wherever else we are selling that nonsense.

"teamwork" is near!

Hey guys I just wanted to let you know that we are approaching the final stages of mixing and mastering. This means that we will have music for you within the next four days probably. As you may know we are going to have a weekend of Upstate release shows (25th Binghamton, 26th Syracuse, and 27th Ithaca) before we head down to Austin to play South by Southwest. I'm hoping to keep a tour journal during that time so keep an eye out for that.

We will be working on a music video once we return home. Honestly we are trying to decide which song to do. We will be working with our friend Ashley Connor, she did the video for Broken Bones. We are trying to come up with a concept, preferably funny and insane. Check out what we did last time we worked with her:

Summer People - "Broken Bones" from Ashley Connor on Vimeo.

Our friends over at Life on an Island are going to be releasing this record on cassette. The cover was designed by my best bud Alex Gentile. He put two of my favorite films on the cover (Hawks' Rio Bravo and Ozu's Late Spring). I'm stoked about that.

We are planning on getting home and immediately going on tour again. The plan is to return and almost immediately tour up North. If you guys know any cool houses or promoters send em our way.

On this tour we will be joined by Jesse Lafian. He will be playing the drums for us and we are really lucky to have him. He plays drums in two of my favorite bands; Crime Pays and Rival Tribes. Check those bands out on bandcamp. Steve is going to be a scientist while we are gone. We are going to miss him.

Hope to see you soon.

song of the week: US!

Summer People - Great Northern Diver from If You Make It on Vimeo.

studio notes

- I vowed to never eat at Taco Bell ever again.
- listened to our preproduction tracks with Frank (below)

- went to a friend’s birthday party and raided the open bar.
- despite a late start (late night) we tracked live instruments for two songs on our first official day.
- went out again to a dance party in a practice space. Got down to !!!’s “Pardon my Freedom.”
- got up late again and headed over to the studio where we tracked three more righteous tunes.
- got to Eli’s and laid down a punk song. Took off our shirts to get in the mood. Room smelled bad.
- followed the punk song with a slow heavy song. Put our shirts back on. Room started to smell better.
- followed that with another brand new song. It came out a lot better than any of us expected.
- played a crazy game of “would you rather.” Pete is really good at coming up with ridiculous questions.
- punished ourselves and stayed in. Watched 3 episodes of The Wire season 3.
- woke up early and got three tattoos from my good friend Paul. Christmas money!
- got to the studio early. Graham was playing the cello.
- much to our delight we churned out two more hits before heading to Albany for a New Year’s Eve show.
- crammed into our best friend Tim’s Jeep. Every time we hit a bump we feared for our lives.
- arrived in Albany and immediately loaded into Valentines.
- played a killer show. Called Tara and kissed her thru the phone Soulja Boy style.
- Pete and I wished random people a happy new year.
- went to a party with our friends from Aficionado, Emmett, Emma, Paul, the aforementioned Tim, Eric and Katie
- had an epic snowball fight in the street that ended with a knife being pulled on me (no joke).
- ate some teeth.
- studied hard for the midterms.
- got up and headed back to Syracuse to make a to do list for our record. Pete donned a fake stash.
- got to bed nice and early.
- played another game of “would you rather.”
- started Howard Zinn’s War and Terrorism as well as Arthur C Clark’s Rendezvous with Rama. Hope I finish both.
- Pete and Graham finished up with some overdubs.
- went out to eat and watched “Most Shocking High Speed Chases.”
- bid farewell to Wheatstraw and Clarence.
- did some vocals and then headed down to a bar to meet some friends.
- got to see my friend Goose.
- bar refused to play my jukebox selection “I Can’t Wait” by ODB.
- vocals vocals vocals.
- sleep
- had always gotten a noir vibe from Jade. Realized that she also loves Gene Tierney.
-vocals
- Jeremy brought us Sierra Nevada because he felt bad about the quality of beer that we had been drinking for the past week and a half.
-Machete
-vocals
- went to the corner store by Justin and Steve’s house. Got grabbed by Grabby. Hugged it out then walked to Eli’s.
- built a fire in the living room.
- listened to some mixes.
- said goodbye.
- to be continued.

song of the week late edition: leonard cohen's avalanche

So we are in Syracuse recording "Teamwork." I'll do a studio journal thing once I get home. in the meantime enjoy some Leonard. if i had to make a top ten songz list i would certainly add this bad boy. it scares the hell out of me. anyone seen mcCabe and Mrs Miller? that soundtrack is great!