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June 29th, 2009Marshall and I just finished up a late-night rehearsal. Things are coming together...still a bit rusty, but we're sounding better each time. And sometimes I even remember my own lyrics! To celebrate, we decided to get a Topochico at Epoch near the house. Finally got our friend Amanda a copy of the new album. When you only have a handful of fans, you have to take care of them!On the bike ride over here, we caught a glimpse of the big highway on-ramp from 290 to I-35. It made me miss getting in the van and driving around with nothing to think about except playing shows. But now that we're sitting here in the coffeeshop, it sure does feel good knowing that we're about to go home and get in our own beds! That's all for now...
June 21st, 2009I've been thinking about all of you...those we've met out there. Over the past year, I have taken a break from getting out on the road too much. Did I tell you guys that I got rid of my car last August? It's been nice living life at a slower pace, relying on my bike and the city bus, at least when I'm not walking. It feels good. There is a lot of stuff within walking distance from my house: the laundry mat, plenty of restaurants, public pools, music venues, etc. In fact, since Marshall and I returned home from the Parks & Rec tour last summer, I have been able to walk to the few Meryll shows that have taken place.Our record came out this past April, but I have not had time to promote it the way I would like. I've been too busy working. I really like the songs, and hopefully things will come around at some point. I've been rehearsing with Marshall on bass over the past few weeks, trying to get a good live set put together. I do feel rusty, but it is exciting again after all the time off. It might sound crazy, but I've started working on songs for another album. The problem is that there are too many, and I am a bit torn between loud and quiet. But we'll figure it out...
Talk to you soon,
May 3rd, 2009Wow, has it really been 7 months since I wrote here? Crazy! We had an album come out a few weeks ago. Not many shows, though. I've been busy recording bands. If only I had some crazy story to share. While I was walking over to this coffee-shop, a car almost got hit head-on while waiting for me to cross the street. That's something. Oh, and I saw two dead birds on the sidewalk. That's all I got for now... -Andrew
October 27th, 2008It's great recording in the Fall in Texas! The leaves don't really change color the way they do in Michigan, but still, Meryll has always had a history of working during this wonderful season. We played our first few shows and wrote our first few songs in the Fall of 2003, recorded "You've Got Cousins" in the Fall/Winter of 2004, and now here we are. Did I mention how excited I am that Jason Martin is coming over to work on the record? Do yourself a favor and go listen to "We're The Ordinary," "Fell In Love at 22," or "Your Company." That's just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. I've been working on the artwork for the new album, trying out some ideas. I've always wanted to record an album with the artwork already fully completed, so as to be inspired by it during the recording process. Not sure if that's lame, but oh well. This guy sitting behind me in this really quiet coffee-shop won't stop talking on his cell-phone. I guess it could be worse -- it's not like I am working on a big important thesis or something. Kyle will be coming back to Texas for about a week during the New Year holiday. We have a few shows in the works which we will let you know about as they are confirmed.
-Andrew October 19th, 2008I took the Greyhound down to Houston to see Tambersauro play their CD release show. It really was an incredible set! I was impressed by the sheer power of the band, as usual... I would recommend buying a copy of the album right now. As far as Meryll goes, I am still finishing up the songs for the record. Jason Martin will be arriving in only a few weeks. It is crunch time. Here are some of the names of songs from the new album:
Katillus Hopefully you will be hearing these soon! -Andrew
October 14th, 2008You know, to be honest, I go back and forth on whether or not it makes sense to log on to our website and tell you all as much as I can tell you. One thing I always enjoyed about being a Huntingtons fan was that the band members would always be on their website interacting with us fans. I always thought that that was really special. I grew up a big Baseball fan, and the reality is that pro athletes are not accessible. Chances are extremely slim that your favorite player would ever reply to your email, or answer your questions in the alley behind the stadium. Those are things that bands like the Huntingtons always did for me. But don't get me wrong -- I'm not delusional enough to think that we have millions of adoring fans that are aching to know what type of microphone I sang into on our first album. But hey, if any of you are curious, I'll tell you. November 8th is growing near! It's hard to believe that a month from now, we will probably have the next album completely recorded to tape. I still remember going to Whataburger with Jeff Price on Louetta down in Spring, TX on the first day of recording for "You've Got Cousins." It was raining I think, and I felt so excited to be doing what we were doing! Most of my memories of preparing for that first album revolve around dorm rooms at the University of Texas. We actually somehow got away with practicing in my dorm room on the 2nd floor of Jester. Most weekends we would be playing in Houston or Waco, and I would have to check out one of the carts from the front desk downstairs. While everyone else used them to load clothes and computers, we would roll past with a PA, and a stack of amps. Fun times. If you have listened to "Happened" you know how obsessed I can get with the past. But I don't want to get stuck on the past right now. I'm still working on finishing up the songs for this new album. I would say I've got about 6 or 7 songs that are done. There are about 4 more that I have been working on for a while, and might be good, but with which I am still on the fence about. I took some photos last week that I am considering for the album artwork. I'm about to head over to Walgreens and pick up the prints. We'll see what happens. The pictures from "Happened" were developed at the Walmart on Brockway in Saginaw, MI. I get these weird thoughts about whether or not too much info ruins the experience. What I am getting at, is I consider listing the new song-titles, lyrics, and maybe even posting demos for you to hear, but then I worry that it will ruin the effect of putting the actual record on once it is out next year. What do you think? Maybe it really doesn't matter. In fact, it probably doesn't matter. I'm excited to make another album! :) I've been watching a ton of Pete and Pete lately. There's just something about it.
-Andrew October 5th, 2008
Friends!! Where are you right now? What are you doing with your days? Email me and say "Hi" for once! I am pleased to announce that we are scheduled to record the 3rd Meryll album for Esotype from November 8th - 14th at the studio that I run! Jason Martin (Starflyer 59) will be coming to Texas to work on the album with us. I am excited for you all to have this new batch of songs. There is no release date set, but I'm sure it will be sometime in 2009. I've been working hard on recording the pre-production demos and I'm pretty happy with how everything is coming together. Some of these songs were written on the road during the Parks & Rec Tour, while a few are even fresher than that. In other news, the Meryll tour vehicle is history! Some of you might remember the whole band pulling up to the venue in a '98 Buick Lesabre. Well, the Salvation Army towed it away as a tax-deductible charity contribution, so none of us will ever see it again. The battery was completely dead, so I was unable to eject the CD-R of new Meryll demos from the CD player before they took it. I wonder if anyone will ever hear it?
July 19th, 2008Hey everyone.. I regret to inform you that we are having to end the PARKS & REC TOUR a few days early. We are having a great time out here, but due to the experimental nature of this tour, including the fact that we are not charging a cover for the shows, we are unable to continue with the trip at this point. When I setup this parks & rec tour, I did so with the idea to do something that nobody has ever really done. After having played in 32 different cities in only 12 days, I feel that we will be going home with plenty of great memories from the most unique tour we have ever done. We are very sorry to those of you in the Southeast who were planning to come see us, but we hope to make it up to you by getting back out on the road later this year. Andrew
July 16th, 2008We've made it to Chicago. We have our first (and only) day off of the tour tomorrow. We plan to swim in Lake Michigan, go to a sweet two (three?) story used bookstore, and eat Chicago dogs. My legs are tired! I spent most of the day climbing up and down the sledding hill in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. My only regret is that I didn't stop somewhere and buy some cheese while I was in the state. Cheese is one of my favorite foods! Talk soon.. -Andrew
July 15th, 2008Way too tired to write anything about these days just yet...here is an onslaught of pictures.
July 14th, 2008
July 13th, 2008Hanging out in the driver's lounge at a truck stop in Center Point, Iowa. Leather couches and a flat-screen TV up in here!There are rabbits all over Iowa City. At the park we played in, a young child got stuck in the mud. When his Dad pulled him outta there, his shoe came off...you know, stuck in the mud. He started crying, but then a tiny baby rabbit came out of nowhere and was running all over the place. It was the size of a gerbil! The kid stopped crying and laughed his head off! Marshall begged these kids to push him on the merry-go-round. So they did.
Leaving Illinois. Entering Iowa.
Making a stop to play in Durant, Iowa.
The landscape in Iowa City.
July 12th, 2008We're sitting in a gazebo out in Galesburg, Illinois. It's so quiet out here, and you can see every star in the sky! We had some time to kill today, so we hung out downtown. We found this organic bakery called "Cornucopia." It reminded me of being in Austin. It started raining, and I went and sat in the car to make a sandwich and read. After a while, Marshall told me how amazing the 3-story antique mall was... I poked through some old books on the 1st floor, but was not prepared for what was waiting for me on the 2nd floor. I walked out of there with about 10 brand-new unopened packs of baseball cards from 1988, 1990, and 1991! You know, the packs that came with a rock-hard piece of chewing gum? I felt like I had found a buried time capsule.
Quote of the night from one of the show-goers to his friend: "You need to get text messaging on your phone, so that your girlfriend will stop having to text me and have me show it to you!"
July 11th, 2008Springfield, IL was relaxing. Except for a giant branch randomly breaking off and falling out of a tree. Luckily we were a couple hundred feet away when it happened. Bloomington, IL featured Art Silva on water bottle & snare drum.
The weather hasn't been cooperating completely. We hit more storms in Central Illinois. It looked like a scene out of 'Twister' and I thought that at any moment our car was about to be thrown half-way across the county.
July 10th, 2008I need to play catch-up. First, what went on Wednesday: Eureka Springs got rained out. We trekked on to Cassville, Missouri to buy some groceries, mail some letters back home to Texas, and make some new friends down at the City Park. I wish we had some pictures of the group...a few of the other guys there played some songs as well, and told us to keep an eye out for the MC Hammer building in Springfield.
Springfield was the next stop. We met up with our pal Phil who we played with the first time we ever came to town back in 2006. Check out his band here! He asked his friends Nathaniel and JR to play with us, and they were great! We gave out some free candy and headed over to Patton Alley to hang out for a while.
And now Thursday: We had one of the longest drives so far. Springfield to St. Louis was a little over 200 miles. At one point I made fun of Marshall for the disorder on his side of the car in comparison to mine. Yes, I am a neat freak.
We played at the Arch and we made some new friends!
After we left St. Louis, we went straight to Highland, Illinois. Kyle and I played a basement show at Owen Pye's house last time we were here. I love this town! We had a fun time at the park, and then we all went to T-Sno for shaved ice!!
Time to go to bed! We're staying in the basement of our friend Lucas' house. It is freezing down here! I had to put on my Hemlock Baseball sweatshirt. Tomorrow we hit Springfield, IL and Bloomington, IL. Gotta love Bloomington. Art's parents live there, and since he is on a road-trip visiting them, he will be making a special appearance on a snare drum at the show tomorrow night! See you around..
-Andrew
July 8th, 2008I'm really not sure where to start with this one. There have been many "firsts" for Meryll on this tour, and we're only 3 days in. We were able to convince the announcer at the Rogers, Arkansas American Legion baseball game to introduce me for a performance between the 1st and 2nd inning. Obviously, I played "278 In Left Field" and planned to cut it short, but made it even shorter when I looked behind me and someone was digging into the batter's box even though I was only into the 2nd chorus.
We got to try out my brand new tent with a night of camping at Redding Campground in Cass, Arkansas. We invited everyone at the campground over to our campsite for a concert under the stars. We even got our camping neighbor Tyler to play.
Here is Marshall and I in front of our tent. His camera has about 10 different flashes, so I have no idea how I was able to keep my eyes open. And those are our new Canadian friends. I am attempting to shine on a flashlight on the 3 of us.
The Buick Lesabre is loaded down pretty heavy with food, water, acoustic guitars, CD's, a tent, sleeping bags, and books for the road. But we are NOT to blame for this:
Fayetteville, Arkansas was lots of fun! Some kids that hung out with us had just found a bunch of kittens down the street. That's why their heads are down -- kittens are cute and fun to look at! Then we had really good gyros with Luke & David at Kosmo's.
This whole two and three "performances" a day thing is pretty intense. I can't believe we still have 20 days to go. We have played in 8 cities in only 3 days! It makes it seem like we left Austin a year ago! -Andrew
July 7th, 2008
So far, so good. My mom brought a bunch of friends out to Bowman Springs Park in Arlington. A few kids saw our name in the newspaper and came to see us play in Texarkana. And Little Rock welcomed us with fireworks a-plenty! We'll be camping in the Ozarks tonight! -Andrew
July 6th, 2008Today is the day. United States tour number 6 for Meryll. I wish all the rest of the band could be here with me, but I think the acoustic sets will make sense in the locations I am playing. Last night, I taught Marshall a few songs so that I would not have to play alone the entire time. We are staying at my mom's house in Kennedale, TX and there is a brand new park just out back. We figured that would be as good a place as any to rehearse. We need to prepare ourselves for having to play in front of people that are really just there to shoot a basketball around, or take their kids to the playground! It did not take long before we had some company. A guy came up to us, and said he couldn't help but notice the guitars. His son can play pretty much any Van Halen or Steve Vai lick. He told us about his guitar -- an Esteban. He asked for a song, so I played him "278 In Left Field" and we parted ways. A few minutes later a car pulls up in front of us, and the same guy gets out with his guitar. I thought it was cool that he drove home and came right back with it to show us. I got a couple mosquito bites, and that was that. We still need to make some sort of sign, I think, so that people will know that it's OK to come listen to us. Today we are hitting Arlington, TX, Texarkana, TX, and Little Rock, AR -Andrew
July 4th, 2008We left Austin today and drove up to Arlington. The "Parks & Rec Tour" begins in about 36 hours. It's weird to think that it is really happening. And it's always sad to leave all your friends behind. In summary, this is going to be a solo acoustic tour in parks. No venues. Except for one in Foley, Alabama. Our friend Marshall has decided to come along with me to keep me company. Art and Kyle had other prior obligations this summer, but we're hoping to reconvene later this year to make a 3rd album. Ok, end of summary. I will be wearing an Atlanta Braves hat at all the parks so everyone can look for that. It's a red and blue hat with a giant cursive 'A' on it. Oh, and we aren't charging money at the parks because we don't want to break any park rules. But since some ofyou were asking about it, anybody that wants to make a free-will donation can do so through Paypal. The email address is andrew@meryll.net Or, you can buy a record at esotyperecords.com, iTunes, or from the trunk of my car.
-Andrew
June 22nd, 2008Hey pals! A lot has happened since I last wrote to you. Art has finished his work at the University of Texas, Kyle worked on a film with Heather Graham, and I recorded an album for The Sword. Go see them on tour with Metallica! The Parks & Rec tour is almost here! I really hope some of you come see us. It might be a lonely road out there. And a hot one. But I think it will be fun. I have been telling people that it is going to be more of a social experiment than an actual tour. I don't plan to set up a merch table at the parks because of restrictions on selling products in city parks. Therefore, I urge you to go to esotyperecords.com and order our records there instead of planning to buy them at the tour stops. I'll have some in the trunk of my car though, you can be sure. I have been so busy working that I haven't had time to record new Meryll stuff as much as I would like to. But at least I like my job. I run a recording studio here in Austin called Premium Recording Service. I have had the chance to work with some great bands. Balmorhea, The Sword, The Howling Hex, and Fastball. Since I am in the studio all day, I rarely feel compelled to record my own stuff during my free time, but I think that might be changing. I do have a lot of songs in the works already for the 3rd Meryll album, and last night I sat down and did some demos for two of those. Art is on his way over to my house right now to figure out what's going to happen in terms of drums. Anyway, I just wanted to check in. I hope you're all enjoying your summer. I need to go buy my own scanner. My camera isn't digital, so it takes me a while to post them. See you out there! -Andrew
March 6th, 2008I feel like barely anybody reads this; certainly not enough to warrant the time it took to get these pictures scanned right. And you can still see my fingerprint smudges on some of them. Ah well. :) We played a show down in Houston for the 2008 Esotype records showcase. All the bands played great, Hemyah, Clairmont, Ethan Durelle, and I think that was the best Tambersauro show I have ever seen. At one point there was a miraculous drum-stick toss from Jeff to Lance in the middle of a drum fill. The people that were there were great, but I would be lying if I said I didn't expect to see more people there that were at the showcases from previous years. Are you getting bored, or what? I think about 3 people in the crowd bothered to come look at the bands records that are out. I just find that weird. When I go see bands I like, I wanna check that kind of stuff out. Eh, I guess we can always count on our friends up in the Midwest. I'm planning a lot of touring action to take place in 2008. We're going to be making our first trip to the west coast, and trying a new style of touring later this summer. I'm not ready to give out all the details just yet, but it should make for a busy year. Two words that I'll leave you to wonder about: "Parks & Rec." A couple weeks ago we had a chance to get the full band in the studio all together live for the very first time. Art on drums, Tiffanie on bass, Alex on piano, Kyle on electric guitar, with myself on acoustic guitar and vocals. We tracked a demo for a brand new song of which I'm still deciding on a title. Possibly "My Favorites" or "Cass, Ark". I think I like the latter better. What do you guys think? Anyway, this was the first time everyone had even heard the song. I'm really happy with the parts that everyone added to it. Here are a couple pictures from the recording session.
Anyway, I thought it might be nice to give you guys a little update. I hope we see you sometime soon! -Andrew
February 4th, 2008I just sneezed so hard, that I think I hurt my shoulder. We're currently riding along I-10 on our way back to Texas! We're still about 200 miles from Houston, but it feels really close! I have to tell you guys, we made some new friends in Foley, Alabama over the past couple days. I don't remember the last time an audience has treated us with such open arms. We had a great time at the show, and then had a full day of rest in Foley. We went for a walk in the park, looked at turtles, ate at Lambert's Cafe (where they throw dinner rolls to you from across the room), slept in beds on a porch in the cool summer breeze, bought binoculars and a deck of playing cards, and I can't remember what else. I'm really not doing the whole experience justice here, but oh well. I tried. I can't wait to go back there. A big thank you to our gracious hosts. You know who you are! We played tonight in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras no less! Unfortunately, we didn't have the energy to be a part of any festivities. We pulled up to the venue at about 6pm and immediately slumped down on the couches in there to restore our energy for the last performance of the tour. From the distance I could hear a parade. It beckoned me, but I could not muster the strength to answer its call. We made some new friends at this last show from Austin called "The Blue Hit." They sounded great, and I hope to see them again once we're back in Austin. It was a coincidence that we were on the same bill in New Orleans, and yet, both from the same town hundreds of miles away. Small world, huh? I had a great time on this trip. It's always fun to sit back and think about all the different people that we spent time with day in and day out. And the first show always seems like a century ago! Little Rock, Arkansas...wasn't that show back when I was still a teenager??? Man! I hope to see you all again soon! -Andrew
February 1st, 2008From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search The article Meryll has been speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This was done because the article seemed to be about a real person, organization (band, club, company, etc.), or web content, but it did not indicate how or why the subject is notable, that is, why an article about that subject should be included in Wikipedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not indicate the notability of the subject may be deleted at any time. If you can indicate why the subject is really notable, you are free to re-create the article, making sure to cite any verifiable sources. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable, and for specific types of articles, you may want to check out our criteria for biographies, for web sites, for musicians, or for companies. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. NawlinWiki (talk) 15:38, 1 February 2008 (UTC) We didn't want to be on Wikipedia anyway. We just played in Pensacola. I was wondering if some of you guys that we met over a year and a half ago would show up. And you did! Thanks a lot for coming out, and we even met some new friends as well. Only two more shows until we're back in Texas! -Andrew
January 31st, 2008Only a few shows left, until we're back home in Texas! It's always funny how the first show of the tour (in this case, Little Rock) feels like it was eons ago. Maybe even back when I was still a teenager. I'm very happy that I brought a camera along on this tour. I've got a photo album that is completely full with all of our friends along these highways. Sorry I haven't been uploading the pictures. I admit it, I've been lazy. We're really fortunate to have made so many pals along the way over the past few years. I can't imagine doing a tour and not having anybody to talk to everywhere we go. And some of you drove a ways to see us which I am eternally grateful for! Hopefully next time you see us, we'll have Art along with us, and maybe even some more friends. Help us come back to you. If you have a burned copy of our albums, and you have decided you like them, then it's about that time. :) I've gotten into sending postcards on this trip. If you want to send us a postcard, use this address:
Meryll -Andrew
January 30th, 2008Last week we were in a foot of snow in Grand Rapids, MI. Yesterday we were standing in the Atlantic Ocean in Cocoa Beach, FL. I had a couple from France take a picture of us with Europe in the background. Way, way in the background. At one of the shows, they were having a problem with the PA system. It sounded like a tweeter was blown in a speaker, there was no high-end. One suggestion that was offered from someone: "Try talking in a higher-voice, see if that helps!" -Andrew
January 25th, 2008Ok friends, we've made it as far as Greenville, SC without incident! We're at our friend Austin's place right now. Her brother is none other than our pal Alex Dupree. I think we're all going out for a night on the town in nearby Asheville, NC (Am I spelling that right?). Anyhow, we played at The Tower Cafe on the campus of Furman University...at....2pm in the afternoon. It was interesting for sure. You know, the whole passing out flyers thing an hour before the show, hoping that you don't get caught by the campus police. I think it was the quietest show we've played on the tour. I brought the PA in, but after being warned about "watching our volume" I think I barely had anything coming out of the speakers. It was fun though, and we made it out of there alive. I wish I could post more pictures from this tour right now, but I haven't had a good chance to get more pictures developed. Not to mention that if I wait until I have 3 rolls to get developed, they'll give me the 3rd for free. So I'm holding out for now. We've been doing a LOT of reading on this tour. I'm in the middle of "Knight: My Story" by Bobby Knight, "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton, and "New Worlds to Conquer" by Richard Halliburton. I finished Bob Dylan's "Chronicles Vol. 1." and "Nothing Feels Good" by Andy Greenwald. I've got a book about The Ramones that I'm looking forward to getting to as well. One might ask, "How did you keep all the different story-lines straight?" Well, it's been pretty easy because all the books are so different from one another. Bobby Knight constantly talks about all the players that he played with and coached over the years, Jim Bouton has a lot of short, funny stories about his antics in the minor leagues, Richard Halliburton talks about jumping 70 feet into a crazy pool of water that was used for sacrifices by the Mayans who knows how long ago. So I've been skipping from one to another pretty easily. I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish all of them before the end of the tour, but we'll see how that goes. I took Reeve and Jessie's dog for a walk in the park in Chattanooga. That area was pretty cool. Lookout Peak was really high up there...I kind of wish I could have seen the view. But I was down in the valley. We're about to get into the last leg of the tour: Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana. I hope all of you are going to come out to the shows! We've had some pretty good crowds so far, so we'd love to see our southern friends again before we go back home! -Andrew
January 22nd, 2008We're at Uncle D's New York Pizza place in Bloomington, IN waiting to load in to Uncle Fester's. There's a lot of uncles who are business-owners in this town! Tomorrow we head further South. I'm hoping it keeps warming up. I've had enough snow for the year, even though it was only like 3 days-worth. Thanks to Kyle Sowash and Joe Kile for playing with us last night in Columbus. That town missed out, but that's OK. It happens... Oh yeah, we never did get to see the Home Alone house. There was no time.
January 18th, 2008It's cold up here, and it's only going to get worse! We're in Chicago right now hanging out at Letizia's on Division. I'm hoping to get a quick tour of a recording studio that is right down the street, then we've got some more time to kill until we load in at 7pm at The Note. I'm debating on whether or not I want to drive 25 minutes north to go see the Home Alone house in Winnetka, IL. What do you guys think?? Is it worth it? I mean, I can see a picture of it online, or just watch the movie, right? But you gotta admit, it would be cool to go see. I haven't told Kyle how far away it is. I think after I tour that studio, I'll just get in the car and drive that way and see what he says.Tomorrow night we're playing at my old school in Hemlock. That's going to be a special night. We've been playing a new song on this tour that isn't on either one of our albums. I'm liking it. Maybe you guys will hear it at a show sometime soon? Email us and say Hi! -Andrew
January 17th, 2008It's snowing up here in Bloomington, IL! A nice welcome-back I say...this might be our first Meryll show in snow actually. It snowed the night before we played in Mcallen a few years ago, but that's about it. Hmmm...I haven't written in a while and need to play catch-up. Stillwater: nice place. The highlight was eating at the Rib Crib and watching the Oklahoma State Cowboys beat Bobby Knight's Red Raiders (Thanks Bradshaw family!). Wichita: Playing here usually goes well. We always get to see friends that we met on the first couple tours. This particular night had a good turnout. We met up with Emily and had some pizza and talked about the dangers of road rage in Wichita. We got to see our friend Aaron's new band "Sun Songs." Candice P would have appreciated the fact that they had a Hello Kitty electric guitar! Thanks for the lodging Aaron! Thanks for the great show Emily! Kansas City: Olympic Size and Tree played with us. They were both good, and I felt lucky that I could trick someone into letting us play with quality acts like that. Thanks to Greta for a memorable Bingo game before the show, although I didn't win anything. Highland, IL: A really cool basement show. I'm jealous of that basement: it has about a thousand books, and 3 bedrooms down there! Thanks John and Owen...I hope we can come back there soon! Edit: I forgot about our show in Colorado. There was probably snow there, too.
January 13th, 2008The Colts and the Chargers are on TV. I can't even remember the last time I saw an NFL game from start to finish. Strange how your interests can change over the years. As a kid, I remember having to turn up the TV louder and louder when people would be talking during a game. Now I don't even know who the quarterback is. Except for Peyton Manning. I do know who he is. I wonder about the random people that work at stadiums. Just like I talk to my friends about how work is going these days. Some guy up in Indianapolis tells his friends how it's going up in the locker room. His job is to keep all the towels clean. There's probably a huge laundry room with tons of washers and dryers. And there's probably someone in charge of those. They have to deal with it every time one breaks. We played at The Monolith in Tulsa last night. I liked the starkness of the room; empty all except for a carpet to set the drums on, 2 PA speakers, and a couple of microphones. You guys that ran the place were great -- friendly and helpful, and I could tell that you cared about what you do. The crowd was great as well. When we started, you were all so quiet and so close to us. Definitely a fun, intimate show. I got some good pictures that I'll post as soon as I get them developed. We opened up the show, then Scales of Motion played afterwards. We have played with these guys 3 times now, and they always put on a good show. They're a 3-piece band, sort of with that Fugazi-Dischord sound, with plenty of melody. True White Brother played next. I had no idea what to expect as I had never heard them before. They were a 4-piece with hints of The Mars Volta. They seemed to be pretty young, and were quite good at their instruments. The drummer broke about 5 pairs of sticks -- we couldn't give him any. All we had were brushes. Ghosts played last. It was kind of a bummer that they were running late, but I'm glad I got to see them. They were all dressed up in Tyvek painter's suits. The lead singer went by the name of Jack Frost. At least on the back of his painter suit he did. I got some pictures of these guys as well. I loved their set.
Stillwater tonight. I hope this town is ready for us!
January 10th, 2008Yesterday I got stuck at a railroad intersection for over 20 minutes on Oltorf Street in Austin. I was going to Rock N Roll Rentals to pick up a powered mixer and a monitor to complete the PA system that we are travelling with on this tour. All the other cars got impatient and did a U-turn but I tried to hold out. Bike-riders were tossing their bikes over the tracks between the rail-cars, and other people on foot were ducking underneath the couplers. Pretty funny-looking, but I was hoping that the train wouldn't suddenly lurch forward and squash someone before my eyes. I finally did a U-turn and went all the way up to Barton Springs, but when I came out the other side, the train was moving! We're in Arlington about to head up to Little Rock for the first show of the tour. It's just Kyle and I on this trip, and I miss Art and Tiffanie already! They're both finishing up school, but since we're trying to promote this new album we knew we had to make the trip.
It's going to be cold up north. I'm hoping to go skiing while I'm in Hemlock. Come see us!
December 30th, 2007
Oddly enough, I found this really old journal that I had written when I was designing this website. Even though it's a year old, I thought I would leave it down below. I'm going to try to post on here from the road as much as I can! Keep me honest, people!
January 31st, 2007Well, the time has come, folks. We have begun work on Meryll album number two. This past Friday night Art, Kyle, and I packed up the van and drove down to Spring, Texas -- home of Esotype Records headquarters. It was only two years ago that we were sending off the master of our first album to be pressed and yet it seems like a lifetime. So much has happened since then...a few tours, three different friends on bass, craziness in Japan, playing for my middle-school buddies in Hemlock. The list could go on and on -- and yet, to many people none of that is all that important or special. There's a lot of people out there doing significant things, and as serious as I take this stuff, I realize that it's finite. Got to enjoy it while I can... Anyway, that's enough philosophy for one entry. Let's talk recording. So far we've been in the studio just over one full day. We loaded our gear into Hill View Studios on Friday night, drooling over the revamped studio that we were about to use. Jeff Price, the engineer who recorded our first album and the other releases on Esotype, has been making major construction upgrades with his Dad over the past year or so to his studio. I forgot to get some good pictures of the new iso room, and the main tracking room. I'll try to remember to do that over the next few weeks. On Saturday morning, we woke up around 9am and began setting up drums. It took us a little while to get settled in and get everything working properly. We started with the song "278 in Left-Field." Many of you might have heard an early version of this song that we released during our summer tour last year. It is also up on our Myspace site. Art used pretty much all his own drums for this one, other than giving his cracked cymbal a rest. Don't tell Tambersauro's drummer, but we used one of his crash cymbals and some of his sticks for this song. We went through about 5 takes before we decided we had it. Art took a nap on the couch while Kyle and I started work on the guitars. I threw down a quick bass track, but we're going to have the one and only Tiffanie come down to the studio in the next few weeks to track the real thing. After a sweet dinner break that involved New York strips courtesy of Jeff's parents, we came back to the studio to put down the vocals. I did about 2 takes, and we realized that I needed to take a different approach. We solo'ed my acoustic guitar in the headphones and I sang the vocal as if I were on the couch in our living-room singing to my pals. It made all the difference, and I think the vocals came out sounding better than we've ever had. We went ahead and printed a mix and called it a night. We planned on leaving for home at about noon on Sunday morning. Lacking an alarm clock, we slept in until around 10pm, leaving us only a couple of hours to record. We began work on a song called "Brother, the Hunter." This is one of my favorite songs on the new album, mainly because it's such fun singing the words. I don't want to give away too much too early, so you'll have to wait until the record is out to see what I mean. The setup in the studio is such that Art and I are facing each other while playing so that we can feed off each other's energy as much as possible. For this song, I love looking Art in the eye (which only happens at practice) because he can be such an intense drummer. We did one too many takes and almost lost our edge, so we went outside for some fresh air. We came back in, turned on the home video camera, and fired out what will probably be the take you hear on the album. We packed our clothes and pillows, said goodbye to the Price family, and hopped onto Highway 290. 
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