The City Veins

After our last show at TT Reynolds on May 1st we realized it would be more than 3 weeks until our next show. As a new band (or a band starting up again), sometimes we forget what we should be doing with our time. Usually, when the ball is rolling, there is a routine: practice 2-3 times a week, try to half-assedly write some new material or tweak our set, then play a show on the weekend, reflect on how it went for a day or two then forget it happened and start over. However, since we have only played 3 shows and haven’t really had any breaks of more than 10 days or so, May 24th seems like eons away.

We’re still working on getting our free 4 song EP out to everyone, and stickers should be in the mail this week. We are hoping to get press-kit photos finished soon and out to some clubs, luckily the places we’ve played haven’t required them….mostly due to the fact that our old bands played these places and had relative success there. So, the 24th has a little more importance than the other shows. Hopefully we will be a little more seasoned, a little more polished, and generally have our shit together a bit more than these last few hectic and tiring months. (I can’t believe we’ve only been together since late March). I wondered where all my tv-watching time went and now I realize it’s been spent on booking shows, trying to bother my friends and acquaintances about coming to see us play or listening to our music online….Aaron on the other hand, has caught up splendidly with all the Boston Publics, The Offices, and Liverpool Football Matches he can get his hands on. Just kidding, it’s an obligation to make fun of the singer and his “soaking up the glory of his greatness” activities….whether they be reality or mere fiction. So far he still isn’t referring to himself in the third person or with a “THE” before his name. (For example: “The Aaron doesn’t drink Diet Coke, The Aaron only lets Coke Zero pass delicately over his vocal chords and larynx.”) Ok…that got off track quickly.

Anyways, the point of this post is to let everyone realize that there are certain things you have to do during certain weeks of being in a band. The first part is very important because it’s the beginning of your existence that shapes how others view you, which unfortunately is pretty important in the long run. This is shaping how we are thinking about cover songs, the clubs we want to play, and why and how adamantly we argue with anyone who mentions our band in the same context as the words: “Nickleback, Widespread Panic, Fall Out Boy, or “why don’t you play any Dave covers?”

So, hopefully this three week break will be a watershed 3 week period in the band’s existence. We are working on new songs, lyrics, and arrangements for songs already in our set. We are trying to get all the initial business type things out of the way so we can concentrate on writing and performing, and we are all looking forward to when Aaron’s baseball is finally over (it is now thankfully) so he can clean my house and buy some groceries (he went shopping yesterday). Ok, I am looking forward to that a little more than Charles and Spencer, since I share the same squalid quarters as the aforementioned lead vocalist.

Practice ensues tomorrow night and we’ll be working on a few new songs to debut on May 24th at the Red and the Black. Since we wrote and recorded the previous songs pretty much on the spot during a few 12 hour marathon sessions at Charles’ house, and without Spencer no-less, the new stuff is a little more exciting, and we view the new songs moreso as “projects” that we want to sound live the same way they sound in our heads. We didn’t really care or think about how the other stuff sounded all that much, it just sort of happened and we were happy with the result. In sum, stay tuned and be patient with us, we’re working hard to get our shit together. For the short amount of time we’ve been doing this again, we feel we’ve been pretty productive.

ps—If you see “The Aaron” at a show, he favors Amstel Lite and a few slices of cheese, but will not refuse a hearty Pabst Blue Ribbon, but just be sure to leave the can.