Big Pain in the Higher Brain

Murphys Law - "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". Given infinite time all possible occurances will eventually take place. This mathematical law cannot be dictated by any human and while I sit down to share my thoughts I have to admit that I do not wish it away. After all, what is life without variable? Change is the same whore dressed in different clothes. One day she will love you and the next day she will leave. Whether or not you want to, you always take her back.

So these last few weeks have been ironic, comedic, and tragic. The holy trinity of art. So for the record I am not complaining.

Things are moving along as well as they can be for us right now. We have hit a few road bumps which will hold us back a week or two in getting started full swing on this record, maybe more. In no particualr order of annoyance there have been quite a few things that have kept us from getting traction...

Outside of the obvious frustrations of recording a record, there also is the self humiliation process and the different beast that the studio is compared to the live setting. On top of this there is the relationship of the band to deal with and the relationship with yourself.  Going from the stage to the studio is similar to crawling back into the womb. It can be quite unenjoyable on the journey back up the canal but sure is nice once you are back. We currently are elbow deep at best. Our live show obligations that remain, Murphy's law (see above) and our lives in general have their hands gripped on our ankles saying... "No No No... Not yet".  We have discussed our goals for this record and made a rough track list and started kicking these monsters in the face. I personally cannot wait to be inside.

On our second day of recording my speaker on my amp blew. This was a drag but a minor hiccup in my opinion. We weren't actually going to be doing actual takes for awhile and the damage was hardly noticeable unless I pushed the amp to hard.

While setting up to do pre-production, on only our 5th day of working on the record,  I noticed a strange burning in my right ear... I didn't think much of it and proceeded to try and lay down scratch vocals. The vocal takes were wretched and over the next few days as things progressively got worse.  I had come down with my first ear infection! Although I was able to perform live with it this past Saturday (you can read about that show HERE), I have been unable to get going on the vocal front in the studio. My vocal confidence is down and my stamina is worthless for the schedule we are running. Too worsen the already delayed progress I woke up on Sunday my chest, nose and throat were all clogged up. It will be at least a few more days before I am well and a few more after that until I get my voice on track. Regardless of my health in the vocal area we have been getting into the studio and putting down scratch tracks, analyzing, feeling, adjusting, and it is going well but has been slowed down at nearly every turn.

This past Friday, before our show on Saturday, we were doing an overnighter in the studio. This way we are able to get twice as much time in compared to our weeknights. Our warehouse where we are working on pre-production has some issues with heat so it was quite cold. Already having an ear infection these conditions were not ideal for me to spend 14 hours in, but I am into doing this record as much as anyone in our camp. I still  have not figured out how this happened but in between guitar takes my amp suddenly stopped working. No power was getting to the tubes and the next thing I knew I was playing my guitar through Kevin's bass rig!  We woke up stiff and cold and got back to work on doing some pseudo mixes to hear how our arrangements were working out, packed up and headed off to the show.

Big changes are coming and the obstacles that continue to appear are nothing that will keep me or anyone involved in this record up at night. My intuition tells me that a broken voice, a broken amp, and a broken plan is the perfect starting point. This is a downward spiral, the worst part isn't over yet. After all possibles occurrences take place we will be provided with new tools to make a better record than the one before, getting the downswing out of the way now is just perfect. After all, what is life without variable.

I hear talking in the clouds... surprisingly I am almost tapped in. I have been dizzy for days and WE have been tired for months. We will push and we will push and we will push and we will push and we will push.

Thanks for Reading!

~Stephen

Tour Summary Stats - Immeasurable

Miles driven - 3,119
States visited/played - 10
State Capitols visited/played - 7
Load - ins and Load - outs - 30
Shows performed - 15 in 16 days
Songs performed - 240
Guitar strings broken - 1
"Free Bird!" shouted - Lost count
"Free Bird" played - 0
Hours on stage - Over 27
Hours in van - Over 70
Nights in van - 3
Times Van Battery Died - 3
Gas + Oil - $423.52
Pounds lost - 26
MySpace/Facebook friends gained - Over 450
Tee Shirts sold - 20 (out of 29)
CDs sold - 52 (out of 56)
Boobs signed - 3
Random floors/couches/futons slept on - 12
Total pairs of pants worn between Kevin and Coate - 2
Showers - 5
Hot meals - 2
Chipotle burritos - 7
Deli sandwiches made out of back of van - 22
PB&J sandwiches - 32
Peanut Butter jars spilled - 1
Bottles of water - 72
Red Bulls - 24
Coca Colas - 36
Bags of ice for cooler - 14
Shots of Red Stag - 16
Shots of Jameson - Lost count
Beers - Lost count
Bottle of wines opened - 2
Bottle of wines opened with a corkscrew - 0
Vomits out of windows - 1
Genitals drawn on Brad because he fell asleep with his boots on - 4.5
"Jiggle Joints" visited - 1
Civil War graveyards visited - 1
Russian Mobsters met - 1
Stores Coate visited in search of "Throat Coat Tea" for Stephen - 17
Pockets Coate used to store money in - 9
Extra time spent in Pittsburgh trying to find the right exit - 36 minutes
Head injuries - 1

Memories and lessons learned - immeasurable

Who Wants A Beard Ride?

So tonight was quite an adventure in Des Moines. We headed into the main strip around 10 or so to do a little promo for our show at Vaudeville Mews Sunday night. So we swung by Vaudeville Mews and met a band that was playing there tonight called Larry And His Flask. They're from Oregon and in the midst of a midwest tour as well. The first thing we appreciated about them was their amazing mustache hair. If you're not sure why we appreciated that, you might want to check this out.

Later on in the night, Larry And His Flask took their gear out to the patio/beer garden area for an impromptu performance and put on quite a show. We want to you get a taste of it, so here are some clips Kevin took on his phone:





There are more photos to upload, but in the meantime take a look at one of their shirts:

Manager's Blog: Great Things From Our Past and Great Things For Our Future

Well,
Coate here, welcoming you to the very first Reverie update from the tour.

We hit Milwaukee's BBC Upper Level good and hard last night, though we found a few CDs and a camera bag missing by night's end. The joke's on the camera thief though because I had the actual camera on me at the time...unfortunately that means you still need to wait a few days until I can come across a charger for it and can post some of the video I have for you. Sad.

As I'm typing this we're somewhere in Iowa on our way to Des Moines. We have a show at Vaudeville Mews tomorrow night. We decided to head into town today and do some promotion work for the show and dig up some more information about the scene there for future reference.

Aside from letting you know what we're up to, I wanted to fill you in on an interesting conversation we were just having in the van, regarding Reverie's achievements so far this year, and in particular how amazing it was to be a part of something like I AM FEST. For anyone out there who's unfamiliar, Reverie cofounded The Chicago Noise Machine back in November 2008, as one of 9 bands who decided to create better unity in the local scene. Kevin was actually interviewed in a Paste Magazine article about it HERE.

After the overwhelming success of that (sold out) show, the group got even more ambitious and decided to produce I AM FEST which featured 25 bands on 2 stages plus 25+ visual artists and filmmakers as well and saw over 2800 people through the door.

The reason I bring all this up is because Stephen was actually just sitting in the back reading Martin Atkins' fantastic Tour:Smart book and brought up a segment about Jeffrey Swanson who created Gothicfest a while back. When asked by Atkins if the event was successful, Swanson replied, "A major success! We made history and did something that many industry people thought could never happen. There were over 1,000 attendees..." He also mentioned the event was a year in the making. In a later interview one of the filmmakers at the event described that 1,000 number as a bit inflated when considering the bands, crew and vendors made up about a third of it. However the event, was also considered a success by the filmmaker because SPIN Magazine did a write up on it and from there the event has blown up.

Looking at that, without meaning any disrespect to Swanson and the other organizers, the four of us - Stephen, Kevin, Brad and I - couldn't help but point out the numerous ways that I AM FEST was a far greater accomplishment - considering we put it together in a third of the time, with far more elements and people involved to take care of, and that we did it all completely by ourselves!

That got me reflecting on how exciting of a year it's been for my personal creative endeavors in the Chicago music scene, but moreso how exciting it is to be working with Reverie right now. Here we have a band who not only has had an amazing year themselves, playing a huge Metro show last August, putting together Chicago Noise Machine launch party and I AM FEST, playing the Taste of Chicago (video here) and Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR event a few weeks ago, all the while playing small weekend out of town shows across the midwest. Add in the tour we're currently on and any shows ahead of us in 2009 still, and I don't know about you, but I'm ready to be a part of what's next, eh?

All right, so it took me long enough to write this, we're in Des Moines. It's time to wake up Brad and I need to pee. More later!


`Coate

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