Lately, its been kind of frustrating, seeing the local music scene where it is today.
A lot of bands vent this frustration, so I don't mean to come off whiney. I don't have any witty words on who's fault it is, or anything like that. Just maybe an observation.

I see more and more bands leaving the bay area.People blame all kinds of people and things for it. Its actually a mystery to me exactly what is making our "scene" , "suck" so much. Most people head to SF, which is already pretty full of bands, and in some ways has tons to offer. A lot of people try their luck by heading out to tour CA or nearby states.

There was also that Promoter Ordinance that got passed in SJ. For those of you who don't know, it was basically a shady way for the city to get its 'cut' of whatever money was being made off shows. Essentially, to book any show what so ever in SJ , you need to have a promoter's license, and need to pay the city $1,000 a year. That doesn't sound too bad, but it really changes how shows can be done. Not anyone can just book a show. I already see a lot more shows happening in the outlying towns around SJ, just to escape the ordinance.

I think the one thing though, that really sets it up, is the saturation of bands, and shows happening locally. Ryan was talking to me one day, and kind of dwelling in nostalgia. He talked a lot about how the scene used to be, and the shows that we had going on. I didn't go to many shows. I came in right at the end of the Golden Age of San Jose Hardcore that everyone remembers so vividly. The way he talked about shows, they were far and few between, and since shows were so scarce, people would always go. It was THE event. They were much cheaper, I would imagine too. I remember going to see Strata at the gaslighter with someone (before I even knew who Strata was), and they were charging $8 at the door. My friend said "Strata, charging $8 bucks at their own local show? this is a rip!". Now you're lucky if the show is even $8.

and lastly, the economy has been destroying everything. No one wants to buy expensive gas on a regular basis, which means they don't drive much, and since they have to save for Gas and such, going out to the movies or shows is pretty much becoming too expensive for the time. I hope we shift out of it soon.

This sounds like mindless complaining to anyone, but for a musician , who makes it their goal to play awesome local shows...its a bummer to see everyone being so pessimistic about local music, and eventually, it catches on. Everyone is seeing things from a different perspective. There could be a group of 15 year olds out there, who think that our scene is the most awesome thing ever. I guess its just how you look at it.

thats my rant for the month.

We're playing The Retox Lounge on August 9th, and San Jose Skate on August 23rd.
all info on our myspace.

-me

Oh damn it...we won

so my 'fear' has come true. We are opening for Coldplay at the HP Pavilion.
I don't know what that means exactly, and I don't even know when I'm supposed to be there but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I'm not sure if I'm nervous. Or excited. ok, I'm excited..but maybe not as much as everyone else. when we found out, everyone called their friends to say "guess who's opening for Coldplay next friday??", where as I called my work and said "Uhm...if its not too much trouble, could I have the 18th to the 20th off??!?". I'm very proud of this band though, and I'm very happy for my friends that they have managed to make one of our dreams come true. Don't worry, for those of you cynical sarcastic types, I'll probably vomit in the dressing room bathroom a couple times.

But yes, a thank you is in order to all the people who voted, and to the Coldplay crew for choosing us. Thank you guys!

I just back from tour. And boy was it fun. Oddly enough , I really only remember a couple shows in detail, and the places I shopped. I kept looking around for shops that might have a singing bowl. I finally found one the last day of tour, but opted for a sweet Tibetan cotton shirt, and a Tibetan bead necklace. very hippie. My sister said I look like a member of Sgt. Pepper's band.

I came back to a giant dust storm of madness. All kinds of messages in my inbox. All kinds of messages on my myspace from people I haven't hung out with in three or four months wanting to "hang out". and someone it magically coincided with us winning the Coldplay competition. Mysterious. Anyhoo,I've been seeing my family again, since I got back, and I'm feeling really good to be around them again. Especially my sisters who are too funny for words.

I've also had to chance to see my Girlfriend every day for the past two weeks. Its been awesome. She lives rather far away, and I don't always get to see her. But she came on tour with us, and is staying in town for the next weekend as well. I'm awaiting her return from a meeting for a photoshoot she is doing for Elle magazine! I'm so proud of my lovely girl. Shes an awesome make up artist by the way, who specializes, thanks to her Hollywood makeup schooling, in scars and battle wounds! The perfect skill for an Elle Magazine Make up artist.

I've also had a wonderful time hanging out with all my good friends in the band. Well, they are all my awesome good friends, so it was pretty much a huge vacation. I got to explode firecrackers with all of them (come to think of it, AT them too), and eat the worst food possible. Its funny what our bodies can run off of.

so yeah...uh...stayed tuned and all that. I'll try to work on this blog a little bit more. But we'll see.

-me

No name

So I've come to kind of a snag in our tour.

We signed up for a contest to open for Coldplay. and it appears that we're winning.
I really didn't expect that.
well, to clarify, we're just assuring that we make top three, and from there, Coldplay will choose out of three bands to open.

I'm happy, so this isn't me complaining, but its a bit scary. I almost don't want to win. Its such a huge leap for us. We'll be playing to 40 people one night, and then 20,000 people in an arena. I wonder if that leap is really what we need, or if we can take that leap.

Its just a really really really surreal experience. I don't think in all my days I would have thought that we could have opened for such a large band, let alone really get to the point where we play for that many people. Who knows how it will turn out, and I'm probably thinking too far ahead to be completely honest. There are two other bands that could be chosen.

So, we're almost done with tour. We have three days left. We have a show today in San Louis Obispo, and then a day off, and then our last show at Blake's in Berkeley.

the band we've been on tour with, Hazel and Vine, are really really nice guys. I'm having a lot of fun with them, and we've gotten on so well. They've been so supportive of us as well, and they've also been very gracious.

There are so many stories to talk about, from being on the road, and maybe I'll explain them later, but for now, I'm going to sign off and say " have a good summer"

-me

Just a Penny

well
the day of our song release went rather well.
We put them up after a brief conversation on when to release the songs, and I guess we decided that right away was a good idea.
We all took bets (mainly involving me soiling my pants)on how many plays we thought we could get.

Now, I'm not one to tell my weaknesses, but guestimation is not a strength of mine. Patrick put his money on 1300 plays in one day, which we very nearly reached actually. I think the official number dropped at 1131.
I said that we wouldn't get over 1000. Well..I was wrong. And for that, this happened. Not, I'm not in the video, but I said that if we didn't make 1000 plays, I would allow myself to be "lifted" in my underwear.
I wish I had just said I would do push ups or something. If that video wasn't awkward enough, imagine it in real life...with ME!

But honestly, we received nice feedback on our two new songs. I'm curious to see what people will say when we put up another track next friday.

Anyhoo

I spent a sweet week and a half with my girlfriend as she is visiting from Fresno, and saw all kinds of homeless people in SF, most of who asked me for change. Since I'm a progressive yuppie, and only use my debit card, I had to decline. Not only was that bad, but none of them wanted prayer when I offered that instead! bummer. Well still, one man tried to sell me a newspaper for a penny...which..well..I didn't have!

Its kind of soon to be writing again, at least in my mind, but the band has been jamming on new material already. Some songs that got written during the end of the recording we did for Kleos came up again, and I showed some ideas to the band. At least the river of thought hasn't stopped!

Five to One

So, I doubt many of you will really read this. Reading blogs isn't exactly as hip and 90's as it used to be. But I thought it would be fun to write some "behind the scenes" blurbs about Picture Atlantic.

I got a call this morning from our guitarist aaron, that our final mastering of the album is done, and the songs are now officially ours, and in our hands.
Thats pretty exciting. If I had kept a blog of the whole recording process, I think you would realize just how exciting that really is. For us its obviously exciting, because our album is finished.
The band was gracious and humble..and let me name it. I assure you though, I made sure everyone agreed with the name. And that it fit , somehow, in my mind. I named the album Kleos:

Kleos (Greek: κλέος) is the Greek word often translated to "renown", or "glory". It is related to the word "to hear" and carries the implied meaning of "what others hear about you". A Greek hero earns Kleos through accomplishing great deeds, often through his own death.

Theres a lot of reasons for naming it that, spanning all the way from all musicians being pretentious boastful kids, to having a steady love of Greek Mythology all throughout my child hood.

Regardless, it is over. And finished.
We're not really sure what EXACTLY to do with the album, but selling it to people is one option I suppose. We'll also be trying to re-establish ourselves. We spent so much time away from playing shows, and so many shows far and few between, that we're definitely going to focus on promoting the album, and making playing shows a regular habit.

And just out of my own urge to fully explain myself, I just want to say that the album has no big message. There is no political message behind it. I don't claim to divulge the meaning of the "human condition through song" or anything like that through the album. I don't have anything profound to say, as most musicians today really don't. I wrote an album that I love with some people who mean the world to me. I almost positive every important person in my life thus far has had some role on the album, whether it was playing drums , all the way to simply recording claps.

Its a scary thing for me to release this album, for all kinds of reasons really, but its always scary when you try to make something important happen for you. I tried to make this album happen with my friends, and it finally did.So, with that,please enjoy the album when it is officially released, and no matter where you are in life, I pray this album can at least cheer you up in some minor way, as this album is meant for everyone who wants it to be.(hope that didn't sound TOO pretentious and boastful).

-N