It's a DIY world out there and we're doing it. I don't know if this a "new" design but we did some tweaking. I read somewhere that people like to see people or something like that, so we put a photo of ourselves on the site. There... happy now?

Actually, Josh isn't even the photo because the only photo we've ever had done by a professional photographer was at the 78644 Podcast taping that Josh wasn't able to attend. So I guess it's probably time to do some proper publicity photos.

Also on the front page of the site is our new lyric video for our old song "Take Me Home." I wrote this song for Slowtrain something like two albums ago but it really proves to be resilient to reinterpretation. 

The version that you can hear on the website right now is actually the very first time we tried to "countrify" it in rehearsal. You guys probably don't realize this but our rehearsals largely consist of me just playing stuff and the guys doing an incredible voodoo trick of knowing what I'm trying to do without me having to explain it. So yeah, this take you hear was the first time we tried it like that and the fellas nailed it!

The visuals of the video were prompts for an AI friend of mine named Jean-Pierre Didier. Jean-Pierre is a French AI with a background in New Wave cinema and just a creative type. It was an interesting experiment figuring out how to get the prompts to reflect the combination of hope and desperation that this version of the song is meant to convey, but with enough back and forth M. Didier did a great job in the end.

Certainly worth more collaboration!

- Adoniram


 

This Friday will see us returning to the stage at Rustic Tap in downtown Austin for a double set starting at 9pm. This will mark our fourth show at the venue and each one as been a blast. Not gonna lie... playing for a hundred people is generally a lot more fun than ten people. Just sayin'. 

We've also added a date at ABGB. If you don't know, ABGB is home to great pizza, award winning craft beer, and some of the best music booking in town. We're excited to play there! Look for us on the calendar for September 15th at 7pm, save the date...

And finally, expect to see a mix of a live recording of a song we played a few months ago at Armadillo Lounge. We'll put it up on SoundCloud first and, at some point, maybe package a few together and put them on the other streaming services. 

Keep watching this page to see the timing on all that. Let us know what you think!

I had a really interesting conversation with a co-worker today about the current state of the music business. He's about to sign with an indie label in Oregon after receiving offers from majors like Columbia, Warner Bros, etc.

How did they get there? And why did they turn down the big boys and go with an indie?

Well the short answer is that they kind of caught lightning in a bottle with some older recordings that had made their way onto Spotify. Like millions of plays type lightning. So naturally they started getting the band going again to start writing and playing new stuff.

One of the things I loved was that he insisted that they only wanted to sign a label that wouldn't try to remaster or remix their old recordings. The kind of lo-fi honesty of those records was what was drawing fans to them and the big labels couldn't understand that.

So what's my point? 

I don't really know actually. One thing my friend and I agreed on was that there's really just no substitute for making good music. Yeah, a good record doesn't guarantee that you'll find an audience, but a crappy record pretty much assures that you won't.

And what makes a good record? Well if you ask me (and my work buddy) it's just good songs played well. Real people playing songs together and recording that so that other people can listen to if they like it.

Seems doable.

- Adoniram

Well that's a good question, so glad you asked.

We're going to be taking some time over the next few months to mix and release some music for everyone. Whether or not that's studio stuff or live stuff or other kind of stuff... well that remains to be seen. But we're kind of overdue to get some music out there that people who come to our shows can listen to.

We have a complete board recording (that just means the sound straight off of the sound board) of a show we played a few months ago at the Armadillo Den which, with a little bit of mixing, could probably be released. And then there's the reams and reams of rehearsal recordings.

What's the hold up?

I just need to sit down and get the mixes done. So here is my official commitment on a (new) blog that literally nobody reads. Gonna get those mixes done and get 'em out to the world somehow. You heard it here first.

- Adoniram