Monday, August 12, 2013

Radical Face "The Branches" + Tour (incl Minneapolis!)

I know this info isn't too new given the tix for Mpls went on sale in June and the blog posting from Ben Cooper is from July 18th, but it's cool to find out about however how late, regardless.

the "Branches" record it sounds like isn't far away from being released.

Also they have some upcoming tour dates this Fall, including a show in Minneapolis that I can't see myself missing.

Oct 09     Sixth & I Historic Synagogue     Washington, DC   
Oct 10     World Cafe Live Philadelphia, PA   
Oct 11     Le Poisson Rouge New York, NY   
Oct 13     The Sinclair     Cambridge, MA   
Oct 15     Lincoln Hall     Chicago, IL   
Oct 16     Varsity Theatre Minneapolis, MN   
Oct 19     Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, Canada   
Oct 20     Tractor Tavern     Seattle, WA   
Oct 21     Mission Theater Portland, OR   
Oct 23     Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA   
Oct 24     Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Los Angeles, CA   
Nov 09     Colston Hall 2     Bristol, United Kingdom   
Nov 10     The Deaf Institute     Manchester, United Kingdom   
Nov 12     Union Chapel     London, United Kingdom   
Nov 13     Point Ephemere     Paris, France   
Nov 15     Crossing Border Festival Enschede, Netherlands   
Nov 16     Crossing Border Festival The Hague, Netherlands   
Nov 19     Kulturkirche     Cologne, Germany   
Nov 20     Lido     Berlin, Germany   
Nov 21     Uebel & Gefaehrlich     Hamburg, Germany   
Nov 23     HAFEN 2     Offenbach, Germany   
Nov 24     Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg, Germany   
Nov 25     Backstage     Munich, Germany

http://radicalface.com/

July 18, 2013

I'm done!
I finished The Branches. It's tracked, mixed, and awaiting master. So far, every other Radical Face record has been released unmastered. In that, I had them mastered, but liked the raw mixes better and released those instead. But I think it will help this current one because of how I recorded it. Worst case scenario, I'll do what I always do ... which is waste money. Hahaha.
I am sorry for my hiatus these past couple months. I have not been online, or checked my e-mails. Sometimes the only way I can finish recordings is by cutting off from as much as possible and just locking myself away. This was one of those scenarios. I was really just working on it to the point of burning out (and not sleeping, but that always happens), and then driving to one of the springs around Florida for a day of swimming, then getting back to it (I've really fallen in love with springs here thanks to a friend of mine ... it's one of my favorite places to be now). So if you sent me a message and didn't get a response, I just want you to know that I was not ignoring you in particular. I was ignoring everyone. And now that I am finished, I will be playing catch up. If there was something urgent I missed, feel free to send it again.
So now that all the recording is done, I'm starting the artwork for the vinyl and CD. I already have the covers for the whole Family Tree set, so it's really just the booklets and posters and inserts. The record will be coming out in October, so I really gotta be quick about getting all my manufacturing in. Last album I was about 4 months late on the vinyl because I had no idea what I was doing. I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure it's here on the release date this time. Wish me luck.
Speaking of October ...
As I mentioned in my last update, I booked a US tour. I don't tour often, and especially not stateside. It's interesting having something like this booked when you don't play often, because no one really knows if people are really gonna show up. Myself included. So we guessed, and we'll see how it goes. I'm sure it'll be fun either way. I'll be adding those dates to the "Shows" tab later tonight, and they've already been posted on my Facebook page. So that makes two weeks stateside, a break, and two weeks in Europe. It doesn't cover a ton of ground, but it's what I've got. And I'm sure I'll tour again and hit more places. It just might be a year or two. Hahaha. Oh, and I forgot to mention before, on the European tour my good friend and collaborator on Clone, Rickolus, will be opening. It'll be fun to tour together again. I think the last time we did so with our respective solo projects was in 2003. Ten years. Holy crap.
Other than that, I will be putting together a live set for everything over the next couple months. It's always an interesting process, coming up with a show. Whenever I record, I do so without any thought beyond the record. I never consider how I would play the songs live and I can go a little apeshit on my track counts (my recording process isn't super streamlined). So it's a bit of a challenge figuring out how to get the music across with just a handful of people. In truth, it's very rare that I can play the songs the way I recorded them. I typically rewrite them completely. I take the chords, the melodies and words, then figure out how to get the general idea across with a small group. Sometimes they wind up a lot louder, or a lot more distorted. Other times, they become a lot simpler and streamlined. The live versions are definitely different, and occasionally, drastically so. I actually enjoy doing this, so it's not a problem personally, but I also realize that some people expect to hear something very similar to the CD when they go to shows. If that's the way you lean and you plan on coming and seeing any of these, I apologize in advance. Hahaha.
Also, I lied about something in my last post. There's going to be another delay on Clone. I'm sorry. I've laid out everything I need to do for both that release and for The Branches, and there simply is not enough time. I'd end up shortchanging both releases if I tried to get them both out before the year's end. So Clone will happen at the very beginning of next year. Once I'm back from tour, I can focus on just releasing that. Oh, and Alex and I will be starting another Electric President record soon. I need to take a break from the Family Tree set for a little bit and we've been talking about making some kind of dance record for a while now. So we're gonna start once I have some free time to record again. But I will post more on that as it comes.
I also have a couple music videos I wanna shoot for The Branches, but I will start on those once all the manufacturing is in. It'll be a couple weeks at least.
Well, I better get back to work. I should be a little better about updating things now that I am not losing my mind and recording non-stop. Sleeping again will be good too.
I hope everyone is well.