@ The New Moon Cafe
the new moon is a study in contradictions--it's one of the only places for all ages local rock shows in a hundred-mile radius, but the sound system sucks, the bands don't get paid (except the door charge), and the baristas really aren't very helpful in getting things set up for a show. but the crowd is always good and the owner is cool, the atmosphere is pretty good.
we weren't supposed to play there last night, but emily, kara, and i made the trek over and set up as an opening band for some kind of fund raising show. the other bands there were made up of younger people with similar hair styles and tight vintage shirts, so i can only assume they were "emo" or possibly "punk" bands. we didn't stay to see any of them, although i would have liked to.
so we get there and we get tuned up and we played to a crowd of noisy high school kids. much like the show at the filling station in west bend, it seems like the high school audience isn't really interested in hearing live music so much as they are interested in having a noisy social experience: laughing, running in and out of the building, walking briskly to and fro, meeting and greeting other kids in tight pants. it's not so bad, but our music is a bit more complex than that and begs a closer listen which, of course, is impossible when the room noise is louder than the sound system. nobody really knew what to expect from us--a acoustic guitar, a cello, and a viola. one guy refered to us as "some jazz band". i think they were clearly surprised to hear me shrieking up there during some of the more emotional moments.
so we played through an acoustic set of material:
magnets and mediums
don't try
medicate! medicate! medicate!
ECR
my use of metaphor
she watches birds
hello, hospital
then we packed up and got out of there. clearly, the majority of people were there to just hang out. but, to be fair, it did seem like a lot of the band members from the other bands were listening to us and we got quite a few favorable comments including the succinct: "you guys are f*ckin' awesome!" which i couldn't have said better myself.
steev
5.22.2004
Recording finished!
well, friends, we've finished our recording. we went down to my brother's house and recorded and mixed the thing in his basement over a period of about 4 days. it sounds really great, too. it is by turns noisy and introspective, although not nearly as riddled with sound problems as our live performances. here is the tracklisting:
1) They found a hand, they found an unburned bible
2) Magnets and mediums
3) My use of metaphor
4) Passenger Pigeon
5) Medicate! Medicate! Medicate!
6) The golden years
7) Hello, hospital
8) Hope w/out drugs
9) She watches birds
10) At christmastime i need you most
as my brother was generous enough to donate his time as engineer AND the use of his equipment, we have decided to spend some money on packaging and whatnot. hopefully we'll get a local artist to help us with the screenprinting and/or design. anyway, expect to see it available at shows sometime this summer.
steev
well, friends, we've finished our recording. we went down to my brother's house and recorded and mixed the thing in his basement over a period of about 4 days. it sounds really great, too. it is by turns noisy and introspective, although not nearly as riddled with sound problems as our live performances. here is the tracklisting:
1) They found a hand, they found an unburned bible
2) Magnets and mediums
3) My use of metaphor
4) Passenger Pigeon
5) Medicate! Medicate! Medicate!
6) The golden years
7) Hello, hospital
8) Hope w/out drugs
9) She watches birds
10) At christmastime i need you most
as my brother was generous enough to donate his time as engineer AND the use of his equipment, we have decided to spend some money on packaging and whatnot. hopefully we'll get a local artist to help us with the screenprinting and/or design. anyway, expect to see it available at shows sometime this summer.
steev
5.03.2004
Interlude: 20 Nights, 20 Open Mics, $200 Gas Bill
well, this may be the end of the "20 open mics" tour. gas prices are soaring and i can't really afford to do this anymore. i will try and travel sporadically this summer, but it's just too expensive to do more than one open mic a week. anyway, it was really fun and etc. keep watching this site for updates on:
1 - solo dates
2 - the inkwell collective live dates
3 - coffin factory shows
4 - recording updates
steev
well, this may be the end of the "20 open mics" tour. gas prices are soaring and i can't really afford to do this anymore. i will try and travel sporadically this summer, but it's just too expensive to do more than one open mic a week. anyway, it was really fun and etc. keep watching this site for updates on:
1 - solo dates
2 - the inkwell collective live dates
3 - coffin factory shows
4 - recording updates
steev
11
well, we played a short "cocktail hour" show for my 10-year high school reunion. it was a strange experience, but no stranger than playing at an open mic. we got the establishment at 5pm and set up our gear--drums, bass, guitar and cello. in a cavernous dining area, we were shoved into a tiny corner below a giant particle board tropical pan fish. people began to trickle in and we waited around at the bar until 6 before playing. there weren't many people there when we started, but as our set went on, i noticed taller, wider, balder versions of many of my high school classmates peering cautiously at us from across the room.
this was a painful show in many ways. first, we don't exactly play "high school reunion" music. second, my voice is suffering from a month-long cold/allergy/sinus-thing and i couldn't really hit the proper notes at the proper times. finally, the establishment didn't even turn off the jazz muzac being pumped over the house speakers, so we were kind of like background music to background music. if such a thing is possible.
i was nervous at first, but then i was struck by the silliness of it all. a few of the people there had had a bit to drink before coming, others were unnaturally tan, but most appeared to be fairly comfortable with the idea that we are now all adults. our set was about 45 minutes long and consisted of the following happy tunes:
magnets and mediums
ghost story
medicate! medicate! medicate!
they found a hand, they found an unburned bible
hello, hospital
the golden years
there may have been one more, but i don't remember. anyway, it was lackluster to play essentially to ourselves and be ignored in a corner, but in that sense it was at least like my high school experience. . . i also made a horrible choice of chords to play for one song, destroying all credibility that we knew what we were doing.
something you may not know: we almost didn't play the "reunion show" because of our tight recording schedule. as it was, we stopped recording at 9 on sunday night on account of my vocals not working properly. so we have a nearly finished album (tentatively titled "falling signs") of the kind of music we play waiting for vocals. it may be a sad record release party without kara on the viola, but we may not be able to put this record out until late summer.
steev
well, we played a short "cocktail hour" show for my 10-year high school reunion. it was a strange experience, but no stranger than playing at an open mic. we got the establishment at 5pm and set up our gear--drums, bass, guitar and cello. in a cavernous dining area, we were shoved into a tiny corner below a giant particle board tropical pan fish. people began to trickle in and we waited around at the bar until 6 before playing. there weren't many people there when we started, but as our set went on, i noticed taller, wider, balder versions of many of my high school classmates peering cautiously at us from across the room.
this was a painful show in many ways. first, we don't exactly play "high school reunion" music. second, my voice is suffering from a month-long cold/allergy/sinus-thing and i couldn't really hit the proper notes at the proper times. finally, the establishment didn't even turn off the jazz muzac being pumped over the house speakers, so we were kind of like background music to background music. if such a thing is possible.
i was nervous at first, but then i was struck by the silliness of it all. a few of the people there had had a bit to drink before coming, others were unnaturally tan, but most appeared to be fairly comfortable with the idea that we are now all adults. our set was about 45 minutes long and consisted of the following happy tunes:
magnets and mediums
ghost story
medicate! medicate! medicate!
they found a hand, they found an unburned bible
hello, hospital
the golden years
there may have been one more, but i don't remember. anyway, it was lackluster to play essentially to ourselves and be ignored in a corner, but in that sense it was at least like my high school experience. . . i also made a horrible choice of chords to play for one song, destroying all credibility that we knew what we were doing.
something you may not know: we almost didn't play the "reunion show" because of our tight recording schedule. as it was, we stopped recording at 9 on sunday night on account of my vocals not working properly. so we have a nearly finished album (tentatively titled "falling signs") of the kind of music we play waiting for vocals. it may be a sad record release party without kara on the viola, but we may not be able to put this record out until late summer.
steev
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