It's a Boy.
A Bottle Boy.
Available now, HERE.
Tell your friends.
Tell your enemies.
Rock.
jbg
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Crest
Why the heck am I awake?
After a week of poor sleep and stretching myself thin with rehearsals and promoting our CD release show, I capped it all off by going to bed at about 4:30 am last night, thrilled at the prospect of sleeping until Super Bowl kick-off today... only to find myself awake at about 9:30 am and not able to go back to sleep.
Typical.
The good news is this: last night's CD release show at Martyrs' was a resounding success. The club was happy, the crowd was happy... and it all pretty much went off without a hitch. Our set was... a little sloppy. I guess it's inevitable that a night meant to celebrate the 18 month process of recording Bottle Boy would wind up being a little anti-climactic emotionally. Which is how I feel this morning. But it was a great time.
The whole week, from getting played on WXRT three times, to doing an hour long interview on Fearless Radio, to getting written up in the Onion and the new monthly Wassup Live, felt empowering. Like things are really starting to happen for us at a little bit of different level. The key is (and this is probably the source of my morning sleeplessness): what now?
Well... now the real work begins. Now Bottle Boy goes off into the world and starts to (hopefully) work its way into people's hearts. Now we try to remain as pro-active as we were in booking and promoting the party last night. Now we lay out a plan and get Bottle Boy into the hands of people in the industry. And some of that is already underway.
Through our manager, we've gotten about a half dozen copies out to labels and "big time" talent scouts. So it'll be interesting to see what kind of feedback we get from that.
What does it mean, Corky? If only I knew.
jbg
The good news is this: last night's CD release show at Martyrs' was a resounding success. The club was happy, the crowd was happy... and it all pretty much went off without a hitch. Our set was... a little sloppy. I guess it's inevitable that a night meant to celebrate the 18 month process of recording Bottle Boy would wind up being a little anti-climactic emotionally. Which is how I feel this morning. But it was a great time.
The whole week, from getting played on WXRT three times, to doing an hour long interview on Fearless Radio, to getting written up in the Onion and the new monthly Wassup Live, felt empowering. Like things are really starting to happen for us at a little bit of different level. The key is (and this is probably the source of my morning sleeplessness): what now?
Well... now the real work begins. Now Bottle Boy goes off into the world and starts to (hopefully) work its way into people's hearts. Now we try to remain as pro-active as we were in booking and promoting the party last night. Now we lay out a plan and get Bottle Boy into the hands of people in the industry. And some of that is already underway.
Through our manager, we've gotten about a half dozen copies out to labels and "big time" talent scouts. So it'll be interesting to see what kind of feedback we get from that.
What does it mean, Corky? If only I knew.
jbg
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Chicagoan Splendor
Some people hate Mondays.
Some people really hate Mondays.
And some people hate Mondays in the same way they might hate someone who killed their mother.
Normally, I fall into the first category.
On Mondays after a weekend on which we've played a show or hit the studio, I fall into the second category.
And I can now say that on Mondays after a weekend in which Burn Rome Burn was played on the radio, I fall into the third category.
That's right. On Sunday night at approximately 7:55 pm, WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago played the first song on Bottle Boy, Nothing's Changed . It was pretty damn cool to hear us on the radio. The DJ, Richard Milne, even said some very nice things about us and plugged the CD release show this coming Saturday. Additionally, we've been told that on Wednesday, February 1, at 9:45 pm CST, and Saturday, February 4, at 4:45 pm CST, Burn Rome Burn will be on WXRT 93.1 FM again as part of the Local Anesthetic Capsule feature.
If anyone outside Chicago is interested in catching us on the Capsule, you can stream WXRT at their website (linked above). After we listened to the broadcast Sunday night, we walked over to the Thai Room, which is right across the street from our house, to celebrate with Barret and Aoife. So needless to say, going to work yesterday was not all the fun, a situation exacerbated by the fact that I wound up having to stay until after 6:00 making copies of a filing. Indeed.
I felt like Harvey Pekar back in the file room after going on Letterman. Just on a much smaller scale.
But there is a larger point here about progress and reality. It's really easy to get bogged down in the day to day things you do to get by when you're building a career in the arts. It's easy to get depressed, especially when success seems to happen at a glacial pace and you've made the decision that you want to succeed artistically on your own terms making your own music.
But if I step back and look at the arc of Burn Rome Burn and how it compares to other bands I've been in and other bands I see around the scene... well, that brightens even the worst Monday.
It seems like every time I turn around, we're doing something for the first time, something I've never done, or something very few bands get the chance to do, e.g., playing the Double Door as our first show, playing Metro 3 times in the first 9 months we were a band, playing big summer festivals, getting out of town for club shows, playing House of Blues, playing Summerfest, opening up for Cracker, getting played on 93.1 WXRT, and, most important of all, recording a full length album that I feel like will still sound great 10 years from now.
When you look at it like that... we are defining success on our own terms and succeeding without compromising. Another first: tomorrow, Wednesday, February 1, at 5:00 pm CST, we'll de doing an hour long preview of the album and interview at Chicago's best little internet radio station, Fearless Radio. So that should help push us into the CD release party and we're hopeful that more press will show up towards the end of the week.
Ah hope. So easy to find, so hard to sustain.
jbg
That's right. On Sunday night at approximately 7:55 pm, WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago played the first song on Bottle Boy, Nothing's Changed . It was pretty damn cool to hear us on the radio. The DJ, Richard Milne, even said some very nice things about us and plugged the CD release show this coming Saturday. Additionally, we've been told that on Wednesday, February 1, at 9:45 pm CST, and Saturday, February 4, at 4:45 pm CST, Burn Rome Burn will be on WXRT 93.1 FM again as part of the Local Anesthetic Capsule feature.
If anyone outside Chicago is interested in catching us on the Capsule, you can stream WXRT at their website (linked above). After we listened to the broadcast Sunday night, we walked over to the Thai Room, which is right across the street from our house, to celebrate with Barret and Aoife. So needless to say, going to work yesterday was not all the fun, a situation exacerbated by the fact that I wound up having to stay until after 6:00 making copies of a filing. Indeed.
I felt like Harvey Pekar back in the file room after going on Letterman. Just on a much smaller scale.
But there is a larger point here about progress and reality. It's really easy to get bogged down in the day to day things you do to get by when you're building a career in the arts. It's easy to get depressed, especially when success seems to happen at a glacial pace and you've made the decision that you want to succeed artistically on your own terms making your own music.
But if I step back and look at the arc of Burn Rome Burn and how it compares to other bands I've been in and other bands I see around the scene... well, that brightens even the worst Monday.
It seems like every time I turn around, we're doing something for the first time, something I've never done, or something very few bands get the chance to do, e.g., playing the Double Door as our first show, playing Metro 3 times in the first 9 months we were a band, playing big summer festivals, getting out of town for club shows, playing House of Blues, playing Summerfest, opening up for Cracker, getting played on 93.1 WXRT, and, most important of all, recording a full length album that I feel like will still sound great 10 years from now.
When you look at it like that... we are defining success on our own terms and succeeding without compromising. Another first: tomorrow, Wednesday, February 1, at 5:00 pm CST, we'll de doing an hour long preview of the album and interview at Chicago's best little internet radio station, Fearless Radio. So that should help push us into the CD release party and we're hopeful that more press will show up towards the end of the week.
Ah hope. So easy to find, so hard to sustain.
jbg
Friday, January 27, 2006
Look Alive! (II)
Look Alive!
And count the days since summer died
Spring is almost here
And certainly
The rains will come and
Quietly
Wash away our fears
But it all comes back
To you
But it all comes back
To you
jbg
jbg
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Lizards on my Mind
Damn. Is it Thursday already? How does that happen?
Man... Well... I guess it's been a fairly productive week so far. BRB didn't have rehearsal this week, which is bad in terms of, you know, making music, but good in terms of getting a few more hours of sleep. Another thing that's good for getting a few more hours of sleep is Target brand sleeping pills. I should get an endorsement for 'em. We tried the Whole Foods "natural" sleeping pills... which had, like, lizard penis in them or something... but all they did was make me attracted to that Geico gecko so... back to the good old chemicals.
Today, everything is pretty quiet around the house, which is nice. A chance to get a couple more advance CDs mailed out to people in the business. A chance to maybe take Hendrix for a walk to the park to play some frisbee. A chance to sit down a do a little bit of writing.
Writing... it's been a bit hard to find time to write lately. One of my unspoken (the best kind) New Year's resolutions was to get a little more disciplined about writing. I've been better about it at work (teaching) and those occasional half of an hour breaks have proven quite fertile. But at home, I still have to get better. And the thing is... I feel like there's something good coming down the pipeline.
We have a group of songs we'd like to record in March for a quick little EP... and then there's another group of songs I wrote in the fall/winter 2005... but what's been coming out lately seems like it's of an entirely different character, one I think I like more than anything else I've written. It's more honest, more direct, but still poetic and pretty sophisticated lyrically. Musically, it all seems simple, but I think once the band gets its hooks in it, there will be tons of room to overplay. I mean, explore.
So I'm thinking of junking the fall/winter 2005 songs for scraps, and trying to really focus on this new group of songs... try to expand them into enough for a full-length album while maintaining the character in the original 4 or 5 I've got started. The other thing that's striking me about these new songs is that the lyrics seem to be very cohesive, very thematic. What's the theme?
Dunno. Can't quite tell yet. But so far, all the songs have an almost... religious imagery that I seem to come back to over and over again, trying to frame it in a slightly different way. It all has a very searching, honest quality that I really like. And the nice thing about scrapping the old group of songs is that I can use some of the old lyrics in the new songs. I can see where I was already thinking about some of the current stuff I'm writing about, so the older lyrics, although nascent, should work well in some places thematically. Anyway, enough of that.
Our new website is up by the way. You can hear the entire album there. I like it that way. Now... why can't I stop thinking about those sweet sexy Budweiser lizards?
jbg
Man... Well... I guess it's been a fairly productive week so far. BRB didn't have rehearsal this week, which is bad in terms of, you know, making music, but good in terms of getting a few more hours of sleep. Another thing that's good for getting a few more hours of sleep is Target brand sleeping pills. I should get an endorsement for 'em. We tried the Whole Foods "natural" sleeping pills... which had, like, lizard penis in them or something... but all they did was make me attracted to that Geico gecko so... back to the good old chemicals.
Today, everything is pretty quiet around the house, which is nice. A chance to get a couple more advance CDs mailed out to people in the business. A chance to maybe take Hendrix for a walk to the park to play some frisbee. A chance to sit down a do a little bit of writing.
Writing... it's been a bit hard to find time to write lately. One of my unspoken (the best kind) New Year's resolutions was to get a little more disciplined about writing. I've been better about it at work (teaching) and those occasional half of an hour breaks have proven quite fertile. But at home, I still have to get better. And the thing is... I feel like there's something good coming down the pipeline.
We have a group of songs we'd like to record in March for a quick little EP... and then there's another group of songs I wrote in the fall/winter 2005... but what's been coming out lately seems like it's of an entirely different character, one I think I like more than anything else I've written. It's more honest, more direct, but still poetic and pretty sophisticated lyrically. Musically, it all seems simple, but I think once the band gets its hooks in it, there will be tons of room to overplay. I mean, explore.
So I'm thinking of junking the fall/winter 2005 songs for scraps, and trying to really focus on this new group of songs... try to expand them into enough for a full-length album while maintaining the character in the original 4 or 5 I've got started. The other thing that's striking me about these new songs is that the lyrics seem to be very cohesive, very thematic. What's the theme?
Dunno. Can't quite tell yet. But so far, all the songs have an almost... religious imagery that I seem to come back to over and over again, trying to frame it in a slightly different way. It all has a very searching, honest quality that I really like. And the nice thing about scrapping the old group of songs is that I can use some of the old lyrics in the new songs. I can see where I was already thinking about some of the current stuff I'm writing about, so the older lyrics, although nascent, should work well in some places thematically. Anyway, enough of that.
Our new website is up by the way. You can hear the entire album there. I like it that way. Now... why can't I stop thinking about those sweet sexy Budweiser lizards?
jbg
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