Photo by: J.Quigley – click photo for full set.

Happy Cinco de Mayo folks.
While we reflect on what we’re thankful for on this holiday in which we, as Americans, get to celebrate with drunken abandon the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over the French forces  at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 – I figured it was time to do some of my own positive reflection.

And after a freezing cold, rainy, grey week spent battling the flu and watching a giant, evil oil spill creep nearer to destroying my family’s town of Gulf Shores, Alabama – I could do with a little positive reflection.

For the month of April we set up and tore down every Wednesday from 6 to 8pm at the Laurelthirst Pub in Portland. We played original tunes, covers, new songs and some guests songs. A lot of folks have been emailing about what songs we played when – so I’ll try to post our set lists over on our Tumblr blog. It’s insanely long.

Thanks to the following people for being a part of our madness:
Kate O’Brien Clarke (of Ages & Ages)
Annalisa Tornfelt (of Black Prairie)
Chris Funk (of Anvil)
Isreal Nebeker (of Blind Pilot)
Lewi Longmire ( of Everclear)

It was as fun as I’d hoped it would be, each night complete with hippie noodle dancers, drunk idiots, music fans, random wanderers, strangers, and good friends.  We’ll have to do this again sometime.
Til then – kr.

Blue Giant – the self titled debut comes out July 13th on Vanguard Records.
Click the album cover image above for a free download.

Track listing:

01 – Clean The Clock
02 – Blue Sunshine
03 – Wesley
04 – Lonely Girl
05 – Target Heart
06 – When Will The Sun Shine?
07 – Go On
08 – Run Rabbit Run
09 – Gone For Good (duet with Corin Tucker)
10 – The Game
11 – The Void Above The Sky
12 – Reasons To Cry

Note:
Some of you early listeners will recognize some of the tunes from our self released demo EP. We retooled, re-tracked (in some cases), remixed, and otherwise made good some of these songs to be released on our first record. The logic behind this is two parts: 1) These songs were never “released” in the conventional sense of the term, and we felt the world at large should have a crack at them. 2) These songs were responsible for us being signed to Vanguard and we’re damn proud of them. Get some!

I’m typing this from a back storage closet in Iowa City. We’re playing tonight, but wanted to shoot you an update about April before time slipped by.

We’re excited to announce we’ll be playing a residency at Laurelthirst Pub in Portland. Every Wednesday in April we’ll be playing 2 hour sets (!!) during their happy hour from 6 to 8pm. So mark it down on yr iCal’s:
April 7 – 6 to 8pm
April 14 – 6 to 8pm
April 21 – 6 to 8pm
April 28 – 6 to 8pm
…we’ll be there, man. We’ll be rolling out the hits, playing some new songs for open critique, some special guests, the complete works. Oh yeah – it’s FREE!!

So tomorrow is Minneapolis and it’s the last show of our tour with The Fruit Bats. It’s been absolutely amazing. The FB’s are unbelievable and I’m honored to call them friends and peers. We’ll miss ‘em.
See you all soon!
- kr / BG

So we’re knee deep in this thing. We’re already speaking our own language. At any point the phrases “cornbread stay put”, “hell strange” or “the devito clamp” are uttered, the whole place comes unglued.
The Fruit Bats are total sweethearts and crushers to boot. Making us bring our A game nightly. So far we all have our highlights and we’re not a week into the tour. Heading to Alabama tomorrow, then to Florida where we fully plan on sitting on the beach (with Corona’s & boiled peanuts) and letting the sun completely wreck our pasty Oregon faces! Can’t wait.

Thanks to everyone who’s come up, shook hands, made awkward conversation and bought our tunes thus far. It’s been great. Keep it comin’!
We’re also finalizing the album artwork, sequencing, mastering, etc… so I’ll have an update pretty soon with more record details!
Take care – kevin

Well, this one is pretty big news for us. So, let’s break it down shall we?

Q1: What does Blue Giant have in common with Merle Haggard & The Watson Twins?

A1: They’re all artists on Vanguard Records! That’s right folks we’re elated to announce we’ve  joined the ranks of the venerable Vanguard Record label. They will be releasing our eponymous debut album on July 13th. If 2010 keeps on like this, I’ll float up to heaven come Autumn! Obviously this is huge news around these parts & it’s an honor to be added to their roster of artists!
There will be more album updates in the weeks to come, but we wanted to make the official big announcement today! Hot damn, right?!?!

Q2: Who are those adorable new faces on stage with Blue Giant?

A2: Those two mugs you see in the pic above are the new recruits. Everyone say hello to Dave Depper (on right) and Jesse Bates (on left) – our new bass and pedal steel players respectively. To wit:

Seth recorded with us and toured til now, but has this beautiful thing called, a child, that encumbers the desire to pick up at the drop of a hat and play a show for pennies in BFE. Something we’re foolish enough to love doing. He’s taken up some local duties & is just happier at home these days – understandably so. So what do we do? We go and nab Portlands finest (with perfect pitch no doubt) Dave Depper. He’s a dear friend and total crusher. We’re honored to have him aboard!

Funk is now a casualty of war. A war of axe slingin’. The guy is really off the charts. We recorded a metal band together in December (ahem,…Red Fang!), and since then has found a new home for his bluegrass project – Black Prarie, toured Australia, mixed said metal band in Nashville, started a monthly kids variety show, plays in this tiny little band called The Decemberists, and has a 2010 google calendar that looks like a rorschach test. I know busy. I know insanely busy,..but this guy is like lesbian busy. You know what I mean, right? Every gay woman I know has 20 jobs and makes me feel like one lazy sunnovabitch. Funk is lesbian busy.  Point being – we needed a pinch hitter.
We got a knock out of the park! Jesse was in Portland for 3 days. We played together on the 4th day and he was in the band on the 5th. Bing, bang, boom!  No lie! It was magic from the start. Add to the fact that we have a shared love of MST3K, and you’ve got a match made in heaven! Jesse is a great new addition – an absolute crusher – and we’re happy to have him aboard!

So that’s the big news around these parts. Totally nuts, huh?! And we’re not even through with February yet! Can’t wait to see what’s comin’ round the bend!

Take care ya’ll – Kevin

We’re getting strings, sticks and clothes all packed up and ready to load into ye ole van. Tons of dvd’s, lot’s of iPods, loading up on horror stories of shows gone wrong to keep each other awake and amused for hours to come.
Oh, the joys of touring.
We fire it up tomorrow with a home town show, then hit the trail to meet up with The Fruit Bats in Michigan. Head over to the tour page and check out when / where we come through yer town. We’d love to see ya.

Also – just an FYI – for some towns we’ll be giving away some guest list spots, so please sign up for tour twitter shiz so you can keep up to date & you can get the scoop. I know twitter is lame, but it’s the only way we can keep ya’ll up to date mobily without wasting this valuable bloggin’ real estate!

Hope yr well and warm. Spring is on the way & so are we!
Cheers – Kevin

As for the show itself – it’s going to be a full on rocker of an evening. Here’s the line up. Doors at 7 – show begins at 8pm with…
1) Ages and Ages: Tim from Pseudosix’s new band. Pretty much the best thing since sliced bread.
2) Hosanas: Formerly Church, but name change ensued after getting tapped by,..y’know, The Church. These guys are fantastic. I mean like Gold Afternoon Fix fantastic!
3) Lewi Longmire Band: This guy is like blood with us now. The coolest cat on earth & tightest band on the planet. We toured California together last month & can’t say enough bout em.
4) Minus 5: Scott McCaughey’s force majeure.  One of Portland’s greatest musical gifts to the world.
5) Blue Giant: ..ahem…
6) ?!?: with all this talent on one stage, it would be a shame not to do some collaborative playing. So who knows what to expect.

Hope to see you there! and if you’d like to contribute, see the link above.
Cheers – Kevin

Well, here she is folks.  Pretty fancy new digs huh? It has everything a man could dream about in a website, and then some. Rather than me just go on and on about it, take’r out for a spin, try it out- click on stuff. It totally works!
We have a lot of things going on right now, but instead of clogging up my first post with newbie blog blathering, I’ll hit the 2 broad strokes:

1) Tour:
Yep, we’re doing it. We’re touring with The Fruit Bats in March. Check out the full dates link over yon and come see us when we’re through yr town. We just added a few here in Feb as well!

2) Record:
Yep. Inches,…mere inches away from making a very exciting announcement about our debut album. Not to be coy, but I’m being completely coy.

So…as you can see, there’s lots to be excited about around here. At least enough to keep ourselves excited. Hope to see you soon. Thanks for dropping by our new house.
Really, I mean it.
- Kevin