Automation For The People.

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

July In The Pacific Northwest.


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

Brace For The Cuteness.


A little bit country & a little bit rock & roll. Ladies & Gents, what we have here is the first recording ever of Anita Robinson.

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

Studio Sessions: Demo Time

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

Residency Recap:

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 – self titled debut: July 13, 2010

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!

Blue Giant April Residency

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

Hotels, iPhones & the hunt for decent coffee.

Hey Folks,

We’re roughly 7/8ths done with this tour with The Fruit Bats. It’s been pretty epic. Night after night of amazing sets – can’t thank everyone enough for coming out to see us play, shaking hands, getting us sick.
It’s been something else.
Technically – this is the first Blue Giant tour ever & what a way to break it in!

Album stuff – We just wrapped the album artwork and have mastering rolling for the album – we’ll have an update on that pretty soon. So excited to break it out to you guys.
NYC was last night, so suffice to say – we’re a bit wiped.
Short and sweet today.
- kevin R.

Checkin’ in from Florida.

We’re nearing the halfway point of this tour. It’s going fantastic! Highlights so far – for me – are Chicago and Kentucky. They’ve all been killer, but these were standouts. Someone posted some pics from the Chicago show

…here.

So after tomorrow, we have two days off in Florida. I already fulfilled my boiled peanut fantasy. I bought a brown bag of salty slop from a toothless dude off the side of the interstate. Crazy delicious.
Corona’s and the Atlantic are in my near future and I am stoked!

See ya soon – kevin

Hello from somewhere.

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