New album - 11

After much struggle and a final triumphant push to finish getting it tracked and mixed, we are proud to announce the release of our new album, simply titled 11. It is 11 songs, and we have the benefit of being able to release it on 11-11-11, which gets us all excited, numerologically speaking.

It was mixed by long-time collaborator Jason LaRocca and mastered by the ever-giving Erick Labson. To make it even cooler, the artwork was made by amazing actor/artist Joe McKay, who happened to have done the artwork on Broken Social Scene's Rock Forgiveness Record. Joe has made us look very good.

You can buy the album on iTunes or Bandcamp, but we make more money off the latter.

#70 Down and Out on 10-19-11

We were invited back by Darin and Heather of the Hangout Group, this time playing with Dark Furs (great mood/vocals) and Heather's band Lady Katherine (washes of guitar/flowing melodies). Jason LaRocca on keys. We had just released the video for Famous For Dying and coincidentally a zombie movie was playing on the TVs at the bar. 

New Video: Famous For Dying

We teamed up again with video director Lior Molcho to make this deliciously gory and over-the-top video. He had long wanted to do something like this with us. We also had special effects support from horror icon Walter Phelan. So here it is:

#69 The Whaler on 10-14-11

We were quite eager to play the Whaler again, and this time Hello Vegas actually got to play as well. We once again had Jason LaRocca on keys (though his laptop tried to not work just before we played) and the show was a sweaty fun fest. There was a crazy dancing man (always a plus) and lots of positive shouting. We won over Venice a second time.

#68 Silverlake Lounge on 10-13-11

This show was planned well in advance and we made a point of getting in touch with the other bands ahead of time to cross promote as much as possible. This made for a great evening of camaraderie. We played with Old Monk (from NY), Small Hours and Worrier. Worrier had a great lighting setup on stage, and were an impressive live act. I spent a lot of time talking to the other bands and it was quite enjoyable. The other amazing part of this show was Jason LaRocca (old band chum of mine, from the Briggs) played keys with us, adding a lush supportive element that really belongs in our music ALL the time.

#67 TAIX on 9-28-11

TAIX is a French restaurant in Silverlake. We were invited by Lost Marauders to play this show. They are a bit of a 'hard rock' trio. Sadly Francis was deathly ill, so he stayed sleeping in the car until the last possible minute. It was a mostly female audience, but could have been more well-attended. It reminded me that there are 10,000 places for a band to play in Los Angeles, and some are better than others. The show went off well, but an inter-personal freak out by one of the women at the show left a bad taste in our mouths.

#66 The Whaler on 9-16-11

photo by Deuce Janisch

We were invited somewhat short notice to play this show. Hello Vegas invited us as they couldn't play themselves, however one of them di some DJing.

The club has a lot of windows and I was told we were playing downstairs, but it doesn't look like a rock venue. Surprisingly, men came in carrying large black pads and began covering all the windows. It was very official. Suddenly it became a dark, enclosed rock cave, ready for bands. I played with glasses, but they fell off early and didn't stay through the set. It was very loud in the room, and an older sailor-looking man danced right in front of me for most of the set. Sweating happened. We tried 'Counting Down Your Life' again in all its drum-track glory, but it didn't work out so well, at least in my mind.

"We thanked Hello Vegas for the invite, and they paid us." We met a fun outspoken 'internet mogul' who was very chatty and refused to let me go without doing a shot with him, but let me get away with a shot of water.