Los Angeles Stripped

Courtesy of dejalu. A rare moment when you get to hear Jase discuss the songs and our heart. Forgive me in advance for the tuning mishaps.

Storytellers | the Introduction

Introducing the new series, Storytellers. Stay tuned for Chapter 1 due next Saturday.

Rutgers, Twice

We went to Rutgers last night to play some music and all we have to show for it are these photos from White Castle.







In any case, thanks to our friends at Rutgers for their warm hospitality and kindness. We hope you enjoyed our music. See you next time.

Big Wins for PA

[edit] Pennsylvania is Clinton Country, baby. Congratulations to the Flyers and their fans as well.

Got to see Eisley last night in Hoboken. Great set, cool opening bands as well (Vedera and The Myriad). Strange, though, how the most memorable part of the evening was watching the techs and roadie crews set up rapidly between sets. I couldn't help but feel some sort of renewed desire to get out on the road and play some more music. This fall's going to be a great season, and we have a lot of exciting things lined up for you.

A photo for you from Maxwell's in Hoboken. Chauntelle Dupree is a beautiful person. Do you read this, Eisley? I'm in love with your guitar player.



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Happy Earth Day, everyone. Today's is short and sweet: VOTE!

By the way, check out this link. This story is insane.

Hey Phillies

I went with Brian and his girlfriend Diana to the Phillies game last night. I know, total third wheel action. It was fun though; Citizens is a great stadium. Great way to wrap up this exhausting weekend with several hours spent playing live and tracking in the studio.

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Probably isn't clear from these iPhone pictures, but it says we won. 5-4 against the Mets. Way to snuff their winning streak! Oh, and I also decided that the Phanatic is thoroughly creepy for some reason; something about his pelvic thrusts.



The happy couple in the Hall of Fame club.



The happier couple. Totally kidding.



This week finds us returning to Rutgers and NYU. For our Philadelphia family, we'll be playing at Doc Watson's in Center City this Sunday night. Show some love!

I know we don't talk about the studio too much, and if you've missed past posts on the blog from yours truly, here's an official announcement-of-sorts: We are currently in the studio recording our next album. I think you'll be excited to see the transformation that seizes our Myspace and our merchandise when our CD releases. My apologies for the general silence from the blog: we really wanted to exaggerate the impact of our launch. Oh well. Since most of you guys know already, might as well roll with the punches and keep you guys informed.

Stay tuned for a video blog update from Jase later today. For the time being, here are some photos that I took from my iPhone while in the studio today.

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Here's the control room where we sit and record and listen and eat and repeat.


Here's the live room. We're making our way through all of the songs, finishing up the guitar tracks for each. You can see the ÷13 and the vintage Fender sitting there; it's LOUD.



Here's Jase tracking a song that'll be on the album; this one's called Trains.



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More to come soon. Sit tight for the video blog from brother Jase.

Spotlight on an Artist | miketrapp-photo.com

Clearly, we love what we do. But we're simply a tiny drop in a ridiculously huge bucket. So many people are daring to take their dreams seriously, and it's immensely reassuring and strangely humbling to know that these talented individuals (many times with so much more talent than the little we have) are taking their passion to the streets and familiarizing the world with a glimpse of rare beauty, both inspiring and tragic, that can be missed all too easily many times.

You need to redirect your browsers to www.miketrapp-photo.com. This is the new photography venture of Mike Trapp, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet that was dealt a sick guitar-playing hand, but opted to make good on his eye for photography. His landscape work is breathtaking. Please support him and show him some love.

www.love146.org

Tonight our band's visiting Bryn Mawr College for the second time. Great people there who really believe in what we're up to, so we're thrilled to be back there. But the event is really special for another reason, as it's being used as a vehicle to urgently inform the listeners about an important organization. I'll promise to write more as I find out more about it tonight from the show, but for the time being, please direct your browsers to www.love146.org. Read about it, it's very interesting and highly alarming. In any case, we'll see you tonight at Bryn Mawr College.

Explosions in the Sky

We saw Explosions in the Sky twice this week. What an amazing experience. Photo (and tickets!) courtesy of Carol Hong. Thank you so much!

Culture Wars

Two evenings ago, I stumbled upon an interview that featured Art Caplan, Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Caplan was responding to the interviewer's frustration over a given incident where a US couple employed the use of embryo selection to check for a rare cancer in the DNA. The couple successfully became pregnant; that wasn't the issue at hand, naturally. The interviewer appeared to be upset simply over the general use of embryo selection and the implications that the use of the method presented.

This will not become an issue of morality here. I simply found the matter fascinating.

It's considerably easy to understand both sides of the issue (On a somewhat relevant tangent, I find it amusing when people confess an inability to understand the other side and use that as ammunition to debase the quality of the arguer's character. Really, people, both sides of a debate will always be reasonable and well-thought. Calm down a little!). In any case, both sides make a clear case. Take advantage of our increasingly aware technology and science to lessen the chances that our offspring are void of any harmful cancers and terminal illnesses. Or find the entire process heinous because the future parent arguably "weeds through" embryos that are potential lives until s/he finds the desired one, denying the undesired embryos a chance at life.

Interesting stuff, isn't it? But what's at stake here? I feel thoroughly uneasy that culture somehow found a way to pit science and faith up against each other. It's as ridiculous as this Republican versus Democrat debate. The guiding assumption for a Republican is that the person represents the uptight, conservative, social welfare-hating breed. That's a bit sad to me. We certainly do live in dichotomies, don't we? Black or white and gray is out. It's undoubtedly convenient and makes it too easy for us to judge others. But what happens to the fringes that hide out in the middle, watching intently while the left and right battle it out? I'm not sure. I suppose we become songwriters.

Fascinating. I know where I stand on issues like this; I hope you do too, friends. The unacceptable cop-out in this progressively dangerous day and age would be apathy.

To Boston and Back

What a weekend. Definitely one of the more draining ones, but things are getting pretty exciting lately. Jase, Brian, and I spent all of Friday night through Saturday evening working in the studio for our second album. We finished four of the songs that'll be on the upcoming album: (TEASER ALERT) Marry Annette, Makebelieve, Goodbye Los Angeles, and Your Finest Moment. The tracks are sounding really great, and we're absolutely thrilled with the progress so far. We'll update the blog periodically with regular news on our sessions.

Immediately following the sessions, me and Jase headed up to Boston to play a set over at MIT. First time at the school; real nice people over there. We got to meet the talented brothers in the Boston-based band, Forget the Girl. They got a cool rock sound going on; check them out. We played a few acoustic/electronica songs that evening and it seemed to go well. In any case, we had a great time playing them. Many thanks to MIT for your kindness and your support.

Also, a special shout-out to Ada and Leonardo. Whether or not you guys ever read this, your kind words were deeply moving for us. Thank you both, especially.

It's Monday now. We'll update soon. Remember to purchase Runways off of iTunes if you haven't already!

"He could always go back to being a shepherd. He could always become a crystal salesman again. Maybe the world had other hidden treasures, but he had a dream, and he had met with a king. That doesn't happen to just anyone!" - The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

"Runways" on iTunes

Friends, the "Runways" EP is now on iTunes.

April Checkpoint

We've had some fun shows these past few weeks and got to meet a lot of great people. Thanks especially to the generous and loving friends at Emory, Rutgers, and NYU. You guys are all wonderful and your support is invaluable. Thanks for continuing to believe in us.

If anyone has any pictures from these events, can you flood our manager's inbox with them? We'd love to scrapbook these together. He's over at eddo@spiralnoterecords.com.

It looks as if we'll be at MIT this Sunday. Jase and I will be rocking the electronica/acoustic set while Brian and Colin take the weekend off. Hope to see you guys there.