A) New Face.
Dave Depper has bowed out of his duties on bass guitar & on this tour we’ve been breaking in the new blood W.C.Beck. We did a ’soft announce’ that he’d be with us on tour, but now since we’ve discovered he’s no bed wetter, felt safe in announcing atop the mountain summit that he is, in fact, our guy. We’re happy to have him aboard & aside from being a dear friend and smoking musician, are glad to share the stage each night with the finest silky strands of moustache you’ll ever see.

B) New Place.
Our tunes are showing up on new radio stations across America. Please call yer local station and request “Blue Sunshine”. Especially in Minneapolis, KCMP has the tune as the song of the day today!

C) New Space.
We’ve been reading some crazy stuff on this tour. I bought David Icke’s new book “Human Race”, and it’s been a daily topic in the van. Entertaining and horrifying, I’d recommend checking it out. Okay, so this isn’t really new space – but we were braced for a space encounter in Marfa, but all we got was a free stay in an 1800’s whorehouse and an all night rager with the locals singing Charlie Walker til the sun came up. Probably as close to an alien encounter as I’ll ever get.

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ON THE PLAYER IN THE VAN:

1) Damien Jurado – Saint Bartlett (I just can’t get enough of this record! It is amazing)
2) Duover – 1st untitled cd burned record
3) The Cure – Disintegration
4) Ages & Ages (final mixes of yet unreleased debut)
5) Built To Spill – There is No Enemy

I’m going to make a pact to get better at updating the ol’ blogger from the road, so stay tuned.

We’ll be eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin’ this entire year on tour – so maybe if you’ve got yr ears on we could meet up at a Flying J, Texaco, or Loves for a quick chat over some day old coffee, beef jerky & hot fries.

Today we fly out for Denver, Colorado to perform at a radio conference. Hit the vast expanse in a few days. We’ll be seeing ya’ll real soon!

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ON THE PLAYER:

1. The Electric Prunes – Release of an Oath
2. Duover – The First Duover Record
3. Beau Brummels – Bradley’s Barn
4. The Monkees – Head
5. T.Rex – Unicorn

Getting ready to leave your house for a full month (& change) begs a few questions that are seldom asked. Is this really enough socks? How necessary is shampoo? Do goth bands all wear black because it shows sweat the least? How many guitar picks can I plan on loosing in a 4 week window?

Gearing up for tour is a lot like combining music with Y2K survivalists techniques.
Which is what we’re knee deep in right now! We’re headed out for tour and the dates look a lot like this!

The album has been out for a full week now & the response has been overwhelming! Thanks to everyone who’s written, emailed, listened, and otherwise supported Blue Giant. Your karma tank should be just about full.
The only natural thing to do now is to take this show on the road.
Check the tour dates link and come see us when we carpool through yer town!

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ON THE PLAYER:

1. Damien Jurado – St. Bartlett
2. Archie Bronson Outfit – Coconut
3. Bill Monroe – Bluegrass Ramble
4. Townes Van Zandt – Live at the Old Quarter
5. CCR – Cosmos Factory

People of the world – today is the day that our 1st record comes out! Blue Giant (the self titled record by said band) is now out there in the wild. Running free. You can catch it now…

RIGHT HERE

…or where ever you dig on music. The wax version is a particularly rewarding listen.

Seattle, Portland & Eugene – we’re playing this entire week deep in your steeze, please check THIS PAGE for where we’re gonna be & make it a plan. The shows are free and the times are good, so where’s the snag?

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Tuesday Birds:

a) Early birds in Portland – this Tuesday morning at 9am – tune into KATU channel 2. We’re live on the spirit box!

b) Afternoon birds in Portland (and around the world) – tune into KINK.fm at 3:30pm to hear us making racket.

c) Evening birds in Portland – see you at Music Millennium at 7pm for Side A!

Wednesday Peeps:

a) My peeps that sleep in late in Portland, tune into KNRK 94.7fm at 3pm to hear us making sounds.

b) Evening Portland Peeps – see you at Jackpot Records at 6pm for Side B!

Thursday Folks:

a) Seattle radio folk, if you listen – tune into KNDD, we might, just might, be making a mighty noise live on air at 3pm!!

b) Dusk loving Seattle folk – come to Sonic Boom on Melrose Ave at 7pm for Side A!

Friday Love:

a) If you love Friday in Seattle, come to the Queen Anne location of Silver Platters Records at 7pm for Side B!

Saturday Friends:

a) Be our friends Eugene! We playing our full record (that would be sides A & B), at 3pm at CD World!

Aside from the fact that our album is out in about 2 weeks (!!!!), the big news around here is MFNW. We just got confirmed we’ll be playing alongside our good friends Laura Veirs & The Decemberists on the outside Levi’s stage – downtown Portland – at Pioneer Square. We couldn’t be more stoked.
Here are the vitals:

- – - -

What: Blue Giant performing at MFNW

When: Saturday, September 11, 2010 @ 5:00pm  (we’re not playing at the same time as ANYone at MFNW, so there’s really no excuse is there?)

Where: Levi’s Stage @ Pioneer Square – Downtown Portland at SW Broadway & SW Yamhill

More info & ticket links are at THIS LINK HERE.

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ON THE PLAYER THIS WEEK:

01. CCR “Green River”
02. Bob Dylan “Desire”
03. Gram Nash “Songs For Beginners”
04. Ciccone Youth “Ciccone Youth”
05. The Black Keys “Brothers”

The photo you see above is from Terminal 5 in New York. Our dressing room view before playing. While not every venue we’ve performed at is as extravagantly filled as this giant warehouse – it has occurred to me that we’ve met a hell of a lot of people while doing our thing.

One topic that seems to be a revisited theme with handshake discussions after the show is our upcoming record. It is a cool and strangle phenomenon to meet so many strangers in such concentrated blasts. You meet all kinds.

It seems that some of these cool people we’ve met are just so excited to hear our upcoming record that they’ll go to great lengths to rip / encode / zip / then upload the files to the internet at large to let other people hear it. This kind of enthusiasm is unbelievably awesome! But undirected it can be confusing and seem “illegal” or almost as if they were posting music up online in some malicious way. Which they totally aren’t – I mean, we shook hands! So….

Since it seems that some of our friends have already sipped from the cup – we figured we’d share the drink with everyone. The whole record is now streaming. Over yon on the toolbar you’ll be able to preview the entire shebang a full month before it comes out. This will give you over 3 weeks to decide in what manner of physicality you would like to enjoy the record when it comes out in July. I would recommend the vinyl version.

So there you have it. Blood, sweat, tears and some loss of hearing poured into every waveform. Hope you enjoy them. We’re down to a month before album release, so maybe next time we meet and shake hands we can talk about the record that is – not the one that is to come. Or maybe what you did this summer.

Til then – Kevin

It’s “technically” spring – but I’ve yet to see the sun for more than one consecutive week. That’s what it’s like living here in Portland. So all you bands who I’ve met on the road who say, “..we’re thinking of moving there…” – ask yourself; does living like a cave troll sound good to me? It’s true. However…

July is on the way and with it will bring the sun, the summer fun and some cool news about the band. We’re playing a really unique style of shows to celebrate the album release on July 13th. We’ll be playing the album in it’s entirety, but broken up into A and B sides (just like the record!). The shows will be in-stores, so they’ll be free, all ages, and open to the public! How’s that for accommodating? Details are:

Tuesday, July 13th
7:00pm
Music Millennium – Portland, OR
Performing side 1 of ‘Blue Giant’

Wednesday, July 14th
6:00pm
Jackpot Records – Portland, OR
Performing side 2 of ‘Blue Giant’

Thursday, July 15th
7:00pm
Sonic Boom – Seattle, WA
Performing side 1 of ‘Blue Giant’

Friday, July 16th
7:00pm
Silver Platters – Seattle, WA
Performing side 2 of ‘Blue Giant’

Saturday, July 17th
3:00pm
CD World – Eugene, OR
Performing all the songs from ‘Blue Giant’

Hang on all you other states, countries, islands & provinces – we’ll get to you soon enough! Thanks for being patient, but we gotta show a little local love first!
Take care – kevin

When Anita was 7 years old she won first place at the Wrangler Star Search Talent Contest in Lakeland, FL. Her prizes included 12 hours of studio time at a local recording studio.
Her father was insightful enough to keep the reels of tape and to transfer them to CD.

What we have here is 7 year old Anita singing “Wildwood Flower”. Enjoy!
Wildwood Flower

When Anita turned 10 she asked if she could have an electric guitar. Her folks said “Sure”, and that was that.

ADDENDUM:
Seems I got my facts wrong. While the above info is all true, the recording above is actually a home recording done when she was 4 years old. Here is a radio spot outtake done from the same session!
Radio Promo

Since it seems the sun is never – ever – going to come out in Portland, I’ve taken my grey-skies woes into the studio to try and demo up a chunk of new songs. The chaos you see above here is the top floor of our studio.

Downstairs, the band is set up, so we can go over new ideas, bang on the piano, record “for reals” or whatever. Upstairs, our control room is normally reserved for making tea, writing songs, mixing tunes, mastering records, or throwing darts. It’s my room for a while. I’ve made a mess, mainly because it’s easier just to move a few mics around and get some ideas down quickly rather than futz with things. And yeah, I know – that kick mic is nowhere near the hole. Meh.

I just got a flip camera today and (once I figure out how to use it) will start posting some video diaries of our studio sessions. At least until the sun comes out.
- kevin