We've recorded ourselves a number of times. Infact the whole band came about because Matt had gone to a studio and recorded a 22 - 24 track CD with his acoustic songs. Today was different though. Today we'd be going into a studio, and we would be leaving as recording artists.
I know it sounds cheesy, but it's how I felt. Without any recordings of our band to this date, we had been continually denied gig's. We pretty much had to make our own if we wanted to get new fans (see: hell barn).
We spent the morning on a practice session, to make the recording go easier. It also helped warm us up as musicians. We were at the studio about 15 minutes early, and our engineer (a nice guy by the name of Terry) was shocked to see us early.
We spent the next 45 minutes doing sound checks, and listening to Terry's stories about how bands always show up late, and sometimes show up an hour before their session was supposed to be finished.
We spent 5 hours in the studio laying down tracks for 6 songs. Sticking to an "old school" mentality of recording as a band, and not as separate musicians. We hoped by avoiding this, and laying down a guitar, bass, drum, and vocals track separately that we will accomplish capturing our powerful and unique live sound.
We ended up recording: "Don't Try & Tell Me How To Live", "Fed Up", "Butterfly", "Looking Through Clouds", and "Spillway Blues".
This is such an exciting time for us that we couldn’t have imagined how well it was going to work out. Terry, our engineer and studio owner, made the experience wonderful and it felt very natural for the 3 of us to work with him.
We asked to have a master copy by the 24th, but didn’t want to cut short Terry’s time to work. However, Terry seemed to think that timetable was more than efficient, and assuredn us that he would be prepared to have it ready.
So be prepared to hear our first respectable recordings released by the end of the year!!
Check our myspace for a chance to listen to these songs.
10.29.2008
The Hell Barn:
Welcome to Mercer Mountain...
So the Hell Barn was almost the experience we hoped for. The stage was built on to making it larger, and we built a full bar that was well stocked with about 8 gallons of liquor. We had two kegs, and some awesome decorations.
See the day had started out like this. I got off at 730am, picked up Nate dog and headed north to Greenwood to get my truck and some other supplies. We actually arrived at the barn around 1130 am, and some of the party had already started. By that I mean they were outside shooting guns, and mudding with their trucks. I've got video of all of it, but it's mixed in with everything else that I have to go through. I took about a four hour nap at that point trying to sleep through the constant sound of shotgun's and pistols that blasted in the background.
Around 630pm I headed into town and finished picking up the kegs, and the rest of the liquor. I also grabbed some food, and by the time I got back the rest of the gang had gotten out to the barn and was starting to set up the drums, and P.A. equipment. We finished up the small details of the decorations by adding some hot blood to everything possible, and then started the sound checks. We were lucky enough to bring in Garrett Poortinga from California to do photo, video, and he even ended up hosting the event with Arias.
The real exciting thing about this event was being able to bring in the White Lightning Boys, Arias, and Amarye. Everything didn't exactly work out the way we wanted to. As the evening went on there was an accident in the parking lot which led to a lot of people leaving, but we made money back on the bar, we got people to travel to the middle of nowhere, and given better locations it would have a been a pretty huge event.
We ended up with some 8 hours of video, 3 - 4 hours of audio, and a damn good drunken time. I wish I could tell you more, but right around the time the first 50 people were there I had already drank so many long island ice tea's that I was hanging on to the bar to stay standing.
Thanks to: GJP, Amarye(Sorry-guys!), WLB's, and all the party people that stayed cool (wade, jimele, jess, lindsay, billy, etc.)
Kermit the frog, which spent several years inside my bass drum, was hung by a noose, and had a knife stabbed into him.
The stage was lined with hay from the barn, and another dead body sat on the front of it. Of course one of the best decorations we had was the dead deer that hung upside down just left of the stage. Once it got dark people could no longer see what it was, but the brown co. guys were making deer burgers all night with the meat from it. (I would find out later that they had chopped off the head, and placed it at the other entrance to the barn. But all this was before we even played.
The stage was lined with hay from the barn, and another dead body sat on the front of it. Of course one of the best decorations we had was the dead deer that hung upside down just left of the stage. Once it got dark people could no longer see what it was, but the brown co. guys were making deer burgers all night with the meat from it. (I would find out later that they had chopped off the head, and placed it at the other entrance to the barn. But all this was before we even played.
See the day had started out like this. I got off at 730am, picked up Nate dog and headed north to Greenwood to get my truck and some other supplies. We actually arrived at the barn around 1130 am, and some of the party had already started. By that I mean they were outside shooting guns, and mudding with their trucks. I've got video of all of it, but it's mixed in with everything else that I have to go through. I took about a four hour nap at that point trying to sleep through the constant sound of shotgun's and pistols that blasted in the background.Around 630pm I headed into town and finished picking up the kegs, and the rest of the liquor. I also grabbed some food, and by the time I got back the rest of the gang had gotten out to the barn and was starting to set up the drums, and P.A. equipment. We finished up the small details of the decorations by adding some hot blood to everything possible, and then started the sound checks. We were lucky enough to bring in Garrett Poortinga from California to do photo, video, and he even ended up hosting the event with Arias.
The real exciting thing about this event was being able to bring in the White Lightning Boys, Arias, and Amarye. Everything didn't exactly work out the way we wanted to. As the evening went on there was an accident in the parking lot which led to a lot of people leaving, but we made money back on the bar, we got people to travel to the middle of nowhere, and given better locations it would have a been a pretty huge event.
We ended up with some 8 hours of video, 3 - 4 hours of audio, and a damn good drunken time. I wish I could tell you more, but right around the time the first 50 people were there I had already drank so many long island ice tea's that I was hanging on to the bar to stay standing.
Thanks to: GJP, Amarye(Sorry-guys!), WLB's, and all the party people that stayed cool (wade, jimele, jess, lindsay, billy, etc.)
8.15.2008
To busy to blog:
Too bad...
Somewhere in this mess of random functions, practice, and my day job I've been unable to keep up with what's been going on.
As a recap: We played a party called Summerfest. It went well, but after the 3 of us waited for our turn to play a second set I think we all got a little frustrated at each other, and ended up taking about a 2 week break.
By the time we got back together we were setting out on a new venture: Throwing a massive Halloween Party at the site of the original Barn Party...
Welcome to Mercer Mountain.
As a recap: We played a party called Summerfest. It went well, but after the 3 of us waited for our turn to play a second set I think we all got a little frustrated at each other, and ended up taking about a 2 week break.
By the time we got back together we were setting out on a new venture: Throwing a massive Halloween Party at the site of the original Barn Party...
Welcome to Mercer Mountain.
7.10.2008
Uncle Festers House of Blooze:
Playing the bar scene...
It's funny to me [now] that I spent last Sunday hanging out thinking how funny it would be to get in the Herald Times newspaper. My brother John joked we should go cause some chaos in downtown Bloomington to get arrested and make sure that it got reported as "band members from American Syndrome," and you make up the story from there. However to me the real story was a lot better.
I got off work Thursday morning around 7:00am., and I got the phone call from my brother, "Have you seen the paper yet?" Nope. "You're on the front page!" WHAT?! "Front page of the 'getting out section." Oh. But still WHAT?!?
I'll be honest – it's small to a lot of people, it's nothing to a million people, but this meant the world to me. I spent the drive home from work laughing and crying, and then stopped by Matt's work to show him the paper. Personally I've only been in the paper 3 times. My birth, my dad's death, and when I was 16 years old and a drunk driver hit me and two friends and almost killed us. I've had never had any real good story in the paper.
Here we are halfway through what should be my weekly show blog, and half of it is about that morning. Well let me move on…
Around 8:00pm I met up with Eric, and Matt who were over at Nate's prepping by hanging out with Nate and Larry, two of our weekly fans. If you see a mosh pit at our show; these guys started it. We decided we should all get down to the venue early, and find out when we were playing exactly. We waiting outside of festers in the parking lot for almost an hour and half before someone finally opened the doors and let us start setting up. After setting up we were informed we would "headline" the show and so we put our stuff off to the side. This is where things start to get heated up.
Everyone we told about the show was told the show was at 10pm [which is not our fault, we were not informed real well on any times, or anything really] so everyone showed up ready to see us, and a lot of them had to leave early because they had to work early in the morning. Turned out music started at 11pm, and we didn't play until almost 1am. I spent the time before hand getting completely trashed at the Jungle Room as my awesome co-workers came down to support me. I got cheers after cheers as we downed Jaeger Bombs, Buttery Nipples, Chocolate Cakes, Three wise men and their dirty cousin [Jim Beam/Jack Daniels/Johnny Walker/Jose Cuervo], Power Bomb [Hennessey bomb], and at that point I stopped remember the names. I stumbled on back over to Uncle Festers and found that we were about to go .. a few more songs.
I've got to admit the actual show went quite well. My drums happened to malfunction quite frequently, but stuck together enough to get me through the night. I had to stand up at one point, and then still sent a cymbal stand crashing to the floor. Bloodied and knuckle, got to drink a lot of beer, yell at the crowd, and see some good friends who came out to support us. It was truly something special, and we appreciate EVERYONE who came out. If you stayed for 5 minutes, or if you stayed the whole time, thank you so much.
Thanks this week go to: The 5th floor crew (Brandon, Dennis, Chris, Misty, Candy, Sam), Uncle Festers, the promoter Josh, S-Boom S-Bam, Stef & J Nev, my family, J Ship, Jimmy Brown, and really everyone who was there, seriously everyone that was a lot of fun, and we hope you all come out again!!!
I got off work Thursday morning around 7:00am., and I got the phone call from my brother, "Have you seen the paper yet?" Nope. "You're on the front page!" WHAT?! "Front page of the 'getting out section." Oh. But still WHAT?!?
I'll be honest – it's small to a lot of people, it's nothing to a million people, but this meant the world to me. I spent the drive home from work laughing and crying, and then stopped by Matt's work to show him the paper. Personally I've only been in the paper 3 times. My birth, my dad's death, and when I was 16 years old and a drunk driver hit me and two friends and almost killed us. I've had never had any real good story in the paper.Here we are halfway through what should be my weekly show blog, and half of it is about that morning. Well let me move on…
Around 8:00pm I met up with Eric, and Matt who were over at Nate's prepping by hanging out with Nate and Larry, two of our weekly fans. If you see a mosh pit at our show; these guys started it. We decided we should all get down to the venue early, and find out when we were playing exactly. We waiting outside of festers in the parking lot for almost an hour and half before someone finally opened the doors and let us start setting up. After setting up we were informed we would "headline" the show and so we put our stuff off to the side. This is where things start to get heated up.
Everyone we told about the show was told the show was at 10pm [which is not our fault, we were not informed real well on any times, or anything really] so everyone showed up ready to see us, and a lot of them had to leave early because they had to work early in the morning. Turned out music started at 11pm, and we didn't play until almost 1am. I spent the time before hand getting completely trashed at the Jungle Room as my awesome co-workers came down to support me. I got cheers after cheers as we downed Jaeger Bombs, Buttery Nipples, Chocolate Cakes, Three wise men and their dirty cousin [Jim Beam/Jack Daniels/Johnny Walker/Jose Cuervo], Power Bomb [Hennessey bomb], and at that point I stopped remember the names. I stumbled on back over to Uncle Festers and found that we were about to go .. a few more songs.
I've got to admit the actual show went quite well. My drums happened to malfunction quite frequently, but stuck together enough to get me through the night. I had to stand up at one point, and then still sent a cymbal stand crashing to the floor. Bloodied and knuckle, got to drink a lot of beer, yell at the crowd, and see some good friends who came out to support us. It was truly something special, and we appreciate EVERYONE who came out. If you stayed for 5 minutes, or if you stayed the whole time, thank you so much.
Thanks this week go to: The 5th floor crew (Brandon, Dennis, Chris, Misty, Candy, Sam), Uncle Festers, the promoter Josh, S-Boom S-Bam, Stef & J Nev, my family, J Ship, Jimmy Brown, and really everyone who was there, seriously everyone that was a lot of fun, and we hope you all come out again!!!
6.14.2008
The Barn Party:
Building a foundation, and a stage
"Eric is going to have to start helping with this night shift part of the job!" Or at least, that's how I feel when it's 4am, and Matt and I are the only one's unloading equipment. My annoying dog doesn't help - it would be nice if she would carry something!
I've been up since around 11am Saturday morning waiting for Eric, and Matt to come over and pick the equipment up then head out to Brown County. I've got a headache, but at this point I really don't care. I'm lucky that Jessika microwaves me 3 burrito's, and turns out my lights. I'm unlucky that I got Herbal Ben Ben so drunk that he can't help unload anything.
Matt and I quickly unloaded everything, but I still have barely had any time to look back on the night, however I can tell you it was one of the better show's we've done. We played everysong at least once, a few twice, and even put in a crazy rock version of Rocky Raccoon.
The night before I had got a call from Matt telling me his brother had finished the banner for us. It's an awesome peice of artwork, and definately helped with the vibe in Brown County.
All week we had worried about rain, and Friday we were unable to get out to the show to help set up because of rain. By Saturday morning, our 4 hours of road crew work from the days before had been swept away. It would now take a truck, or a damn good driver to manuver out to the show. Thank god we were playing in the county where everyone owned a truck.
At 3pm. no one was at the party that was supposed to be all day. Around 5 I started getting drunk. Really drunk. That kind of drunk you get when you try to throw a party, you're afraid no one will show up - so you start drinking all the alcohol you spent your money on. It made me feel better...kinda.
Six hours later people began showing up. All of a sudden it seemed like 40 or 50 people were there. We had played 2 small sets, and stopped to let the White Lightning Boys do their thing - which by the way if you've never seen them DO IT.
Around 10:30pm I think is when we went back on stage to play. We were introduced by Justin Smith, and really got into the show. I can say honestly I've never played better (though I had plenty of mistakes). We played until around midnight, and then again around 12:15pm, and didn't stop until 2 or 2:30am. Every muscle in my body ached, and my ears were ringing so bad that 2 hours later when I layed down in bed they were still ringing.
From behind the drumset I can't ever see much of the crowd. I can't see how many people are listening, how many are even there, or how many even are paying attenion. But if you didn't hear it, I tossed a chair at the end of the show to let everyone know that we just threw it down.
I've never put so much into an event. We didn't make money. Hell we basically paid people to come get drunk and listen to us play. We made some money back, we got to rock, and it was fucking awesome...But one thing came very clear from this weekend.
It will take us a long way to the top if we want to rock and roll...
Thanks this week go to: Larry and John M! Herbal Ben Ben from Texas, Nate Dog, Matt's brother Ian, Jessika, Crystal, the White Lightning Boys, Sadie, Sally, and Sammy, and anyone else who came out to check us out!!!
I've been up since around 11am Saturday morning waiting for Eric, and Matt to come over and pick the equipment up then head out to Brown County. I've got a headache, but at this point I really don't care. I'm lucky that Jessika microwaves me 3 burrito's, and turns out my lights. I'm unlucky that I got Herbal Ben Ben so drunk that he can't help unload anything.
Matt and I quickly unloaded everything, but I still have barely had any time to look back on the night, however I can tell you it was one of the better show's we've done. We played everysong at least once, a few twice, and even put in a crazy rock version of Rocky Raccoon.
The night before I had got a call from Matt telling me his brother had finished the banner for us. It's an awesome peice of artwork, and definately helped with the vibe in Brown County.
All week we had worried about rain, and Friday we were unable to get out to the show to help set up because of rain. By Saturday morning, our 4 hours of road crew work from the days before had been swept away. It would now take a truck, or a damn good driver to manuver out to the show. Thank god we were playing in the county where everyone owned a truck.
At 3pm. no one was at the party that was supposed to be all day. Around 5 I started getting drunk. Really drunk. That kind of drunk you get when you try to throw a party, you're afraid no one will show up - so you start drinking all the alcohol you spent your money on. It made me feel better...kinda.
Six hours later people began showing up. All of a sudden it seemed like 40 or 50 people were there. We had played 2 small sets, and stopped to let the White Lightning Boys do their thing - which by the way if you've never seen them DO IT.Around 10:30pm I think is when we went back on stage to play. We were introduced by Justin Smith, and really got into the show. I can say honestly I've never played better (though I had plenty of mistakes). We played until around midnight, and then again around 12:15pm, and didn't stop until 2 or 2:30am. Every muscle in my body ached, and my ears were ringing so bad that 2 hours later when I layed down in bed they were still ringing.
From behind the drumset I can't ever see much of the crowd. I can't see how many people are listening, how many are even there, or how many even are paying attenion. But if you didn't hear it, I tossed a chair at the end of the show to let everyone know that we just threw it down.I've never put so much into an event. We didn't make money. Hell we basically paid people to come get drunk and listen to us play. We made some money back, we got to rock, and it was fucking awesome...But one thing came very clear from this weekend.
It will take us a long way to the top if we want to rock and roll...
Thanks this week go to: Larry and John M! Herbal Ben Ben from Texas, Nate Dog, Matt's brother Ian, Jessika, Crystal, the White Lightning Boys, Sadie, Sally, and Sammy, and anyone else who came out to check us out!!!
6.06.2008
The Basement Party:
Where our band starts...
Some might use the word soiled, but after having so much fun we could only call the mud on our gear "character." 12 hours after setting up I finally got home and got to get some sleep. A few hours later Matt woke me up and reminded me that we had to go get our equipment.
The night had been intense, beginning with a race against time as a storm rolled in and we packed our gear, and prayed we could get unpacked before the rain. We arrived at the same time as the beer, and began setting up in a basement that already had a wet coating from the rain the night before. We set up the rug, P.A. drum set, and guitars. We were unsure of the schedule, but no one was there yet, so while Eric dipped out to go get cleaned up, Matt and I went to the store and grabbed some red bull, and water.
The clouds were dark, and as they rolled in, so did the party. People stood outside watching the storm roll in. Clouds formed funnel shapes, but never spun. Wind howled, but never damaged. Lightning lit up the sky in the background, and finally around 11:00p.m. the night kicked off with Elliot Denning playing some acoustic solo songs such as, "I always fuck up in the 4th quarter," and "zombie." If you've never seen him, check him out!
It's at that time we found out we were going on second. I think Matt, Eric were ready to play, but I was honestly exhausted. I had been in Indianapolis all day, and been up since 8am. However as we got up to play, Matt stated, "I guess the party moved upstairs – lucky for them we're loud enough for them to still hear us," and we got to playing 'Don't tell me how to live,' a song that we tossed around many times as being a set opener that worked quite well as the party returned quickly to being downstairs. Followed by 'God only knows' we started the third song, 'Country cruising,' and quickly smelled some herb being smoked in the small dank basement.
From then on I would have thought it would be smooth sailing, but Matt broke a guitar string – as he always does in practice – and then a second guitar string on our backup guitar. As the crowd wanted more we ended up getting an electric guitar (something we are not used to, because Matt has always played with an electric acoustic) we played about 3 more songs to end the set on a high note.
Considering that the 3 of us have only worked together for less than 2 months, it was an amazing accomplishment that made every ounce of work towards it worth it in the 1 hour set that we played. We were followed by 'Methlab Explosion' who sounded pretty decent, but I was unable to actually stay downstairs and watch because we snuck out to go smoke. We returned downstairs to watch Arias' very tight rhymes, and his lead in to Metal in the Microwave.
We had a blast – it was great first show, and we have to thank Nicole, Rachel, and Stephanie, Methlab Explosion, Arias, Metal in the Microwave, Elliot Denning, Jessika, Nate, the crowd, the beer, and the weather for holding off just enough rain to not electrocute us, or the crowd. None of us got home until after 4am, it was one hell of a party.
-[Woozie] Will
The truth is that possessions and status can fill the emptiness of our dwelling and the emptiness of our ego, but do little to fill the emptiness of our soul. -Brian Austin Whitney..
The night had been intense, beginning with a race against time as a storm rolled in and we packed our gear, and prayed we could get unpacked before the rain. We arrived at the same time as the beer, and began setting up in a basement that already had a wet coating from the rain the night before. We set up the rug, P.A. drum set, and guitars. We were unsure of the schedule, but no one was there yet, so while Eric dipped out to go get cleaned up, Matt and I went to the store and grabbed some red bull, and water.
The clouds were dark, and as they rolled in, so did the party. People stood outside watching the storm roll in. Clouds formed funnel shapes, but never spun. Wind howled, but never damaged. Lightning lit up the sky in the background, and finally around 11:00p.m. the night kicked off with Elliot Denning playing some acoustic solo songs such as, "I always fuck up in the 4th quarter," and "zombie." If you've never seen him, check him out!
It's at that time we found out we were going on second. I think Matt, Eric were ready to play, but I was honestly exhausted. I had been in Indianapolis all day, and been up since 8am. However as we got up to play, Matt stated, "I guess the party moved upstairs – lucky for them we're loud enough for them to still hear us," and we got to playing 'Don't tell me how to live,' a song that we tossed around many times as being a set opener that worked quite well as the party returned quickly to being downstairs. Followed by 'God only knows' we started the third song, 'Country cruising,' and quickly smelled some herb being smoked in the small dank basement.
From then on I would have thought it would be smooth sailing, but Matt broke a guitar string – as he always does in practice – and then a second guitar string on our backup guitar. As the crowd wanted more we ended up getting an electric guitar (something we are not used to, because Matt has always played with an electric acoustic) we played about 3 more songs to end the set on a high note.
Considering that the 3 of us have only worked together for less than 2 months, it was an amazing accomplishment that made every ounce of work towards it worth it in the 1 hour set that we played. We were followed by 'Methlab Explosion' who sounded pretty decent, but I was unable to actually stay downstairs and watch because we snuck out to go smoke. We returned downstairs to watch Arias' very tight rhymes, and his lead in to Metal in the Microwave.We had a blast – it was great first show, and we have to thank Nicole, Rachel, and Stephanie, Methlab Explosion, Arias, Metal in the Microwave, Elliot Denning, Jessika, Nate, the crowd, the beer, and the weather for holding off just enough rain to not electrocute us, or the crowd. None of us got home until after 4am, it was one hell of a party.
-[Woozie] Will
The truth is that possessions and status can fill the emptiness of our dwelling and the emptiness of our ego, but do little to fill the emptiness of our soul. -Brian Austin Whitney..
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