The City Veins

Just a quick note, but our Sunday show at DC9 has been canceled due to a booking problem. You should probably be having dinner with your mother anyway.

In an effort to make amends, the latest version of Toe the Line, with real drums, is now available. Please download it below. We are currently working on getting a CD printed with the latest version of Cultured Capital, Strike Up the Band, Don’t See it Coming, and Toe the Line printed to hand out at shows. Our next concert is May 24 at the Red and the Black, and we hope to see you all there.

 Toe The Line [4:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.

I would like to first thank those who came out and stayed for our show at the Brass Monkey:  Suze, Sabrina, Lisa Marie, and the boys.  Yes, I remember the girls names and not the guys…surprising.  It was also very professional of Frontwise and The Skydivers to stay for the show, even though it meant that they had to stay until last call.  Check them both out on myspace.  They were good to us.

And I’d like to put the members of a certain band on notice, and they know who they are.  I think on-going tumroil between bands adds to the cosmic ballet of being in a band, so I’m starting it up right now with those Boxcar people.  They couldn’t remember our band name, they treated us like novices, and they didn’t stay for our show after they overplayed causing us to go on late.  My ego will not allow this.  We always talk up the other bands, we are not novices, and we don’t destroy great songs that should never be touched by shitty 40 year old bands attempting to recall the CBGB’s days that they merely lived through but were not a part of (Television–See No Evil).  In all walks of life, but especially in the world of artists and musicians, some people try to assert their dominance by acting like they’re ahead of you–that they were there first and are showing YOU the way, regardless of the result on stage.  It’s irritating, so they’re on notice.  Maybe one day both of our bands will be large enough for me to hold a press conference in order to call them out, like Eminem and Fred Durst.  I hope that makes me Eminem.

Yes, the trip to Baltimore was awful.  Yes, we were witness to several felonies on friday night/saturday morning.  Yes, I forgot boxers and slept in a mix of my own sweat and filth on the far end of a small double-bed in order to avoid Adam’s gentle touch (I just wasn’t in the mood).  I though we played great, primarily because my ego was properly stroked after the show by members of the other bands while the rest of the guys packed up our equipment.  This is what defines a good show for me.    

Yes, Charles is right. Being in a band is 10% playing a show (or less perhaps), and 90% waiting around trying not to get drunk. 15% trying to find something good to say about the place you are playing, or some of the bands you are playing with. Luckily the last few shows we’ve played with some great bands and some generally nice people. The sound guys have all been good too.

So, adding to Charles’ writings about the inappropriate nature of our email interaction, I must admit I initiate many of the topics or keep the ball rolling on others. Mainly, this is just a way to make it through the work day without going insane or falling asleep. The best emails are the ones where uncontrollable laughter ensues and you have to explain to your coworkers or students (two of us are teachers, scary) why you are laughing. The explanation, of course, is always a lie.

Baltimore was an interesting place, we saw two robberies, one of which was an attempted purse snatching right in front of our well-lit hotel, and the other was at 9 am—a luggage theft directly out of the trunk of a parked car.

Back to the show, Charles and I literally did sit at the bar for 4 hours, occasionally getting up to use the pisser or to check another clock to see if the clock in front of us was actually correct. I can’t really complain though, that’s just part of the deal. I did complain of course. Even though our set was cut short by 2 songs because the bar was closing, I think we played our asses off. We were all drenched in sweat and exhausted, probably a combination of it being hot and it being 2 am. We packed up our stuff and somehow ended up with a Penthouse magazine–solid payment for a night’s work. We also got to hear a really good local Baltimore rapper, Pike’s Villain, check him out on Itunes.

After the show was the real reward, sharing a bed with Aaron and drinking luke-warm Pabst Blue Ribbon then passing out around 3. It’s amazing how a 50 minute drive home in the morning goes by much faster than a 2 hour and 45 minute haul up to Baltimore on a Friday afternoon.

I’m looking forward to a relatively home-based show tonight at TT Reynolds. We go on at 9:30 and will play for about 40 minutes. Hope to see you all there.