LA Guitarra release show ruled

Thanks to everybody for coming out as well as to the Bye Bye Blackbirds for playing with us.  Alanna took some photos of the event (I’ll post more soon).  The Make-Out Room was quite filled.  I hope we get to play there again sometime.  Awesome venue.

We did 9 songs, 8 from the new record (Matchbook was the only track we did from the first disk).   I was quite nervous beforehand as the sound guy didn’t show up until about 15 minutes before the door opened, leaving us with no option for a  sound check.  In a normal rock band situation, this is normally fine, but when you have 2 cellos (celli), 2 guitars, bass, keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel and drums, it can be a little more tricky.  Regardless, the sound guy did a great job and I really had nothing to worry about.  The strange thing was that the Make Out Room’s stage has two levels.  Right behind my head was my guitar amp, which meant, I was able to hear my guitar drums and that’s about it.  According to those that were in the crowd, it sounded fine, so I am satisfied.

Next show: July 13th at Don Quixotes in Felton, CA.

Final album release show rehearsals were last night

They went well.  We rented at studio for the evening at Lennon Studios in the SOMA district.  The first half of the rehearsal was pretty rough, most likely due to all of us getting used to the room and getting warmed up.  The second half sounded great though.

We added one song at the last minute that none of us had ever played (and I had not played since it was recorded actually).  I think, assuming I can pull off my guitar part decently, it’ll be a great intro to the set.

OK, now I just wait until Friday…

 

 

La Guitarra album release show this Friday (6/6)!

The CD release show is all set for this upcoming Friday at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco (22nd in between Mission and Valencia).  The Bye Bye Blackbirds will be opening.  The show starts at 7:30.  The Make-Out Room is probably my favorite small venue to see live music in the city.  It should be a fun night.   We have two rehearsals left until the show… tonite it will just be myself and the two Cellists.  Tomorrow night will be the full band.  After that, hopefully, we’ll be ready for action.

Incidentally, the release show is doubling asJoe Finlaw’s birthday party (more on Joe here).  The actual date of his birthday is today (6/2).  He is turning the big 3-3.   Today, he is celebrating by staying at home and listening to one of the best albums ever, This is Hardcore by Pulp all day in all sorts of different formats (I am curious if he’ll play the cassette version).  The concept of the album has to do with an aging Casanova turning 33 (perfectly conveyed by lead vocalist Jarvis Cocker), hence the all-day celebration.  

Here is a great video from said album:

 

 

This cello goes to 11.

This is some serious celli.  Ruth sent Steve the below notes this AM for L’enterrment.  Looks pretty good to me. 

We are talking some serious business folks.

 

Album comes out on Tuesday.

I’m stoked.  Last step = waiting for it to be available on iTunes before really promoting it (I guess it will be there any day now).  It is available most other places, which is cool.  

This week, I’ll be sending the record to radio stations and to blogs/websites/magazines for review.  Hopefully people will give it the time that (I think) it requires to get the record.  If not, it’s OK.  I am happy with it, and that’s what counts (of course, it is always nice if others enjoy it too, but you can’t have everything).

We started rehearsals for the album’s release show this past week.  Things went smoother than I thought… they are still very rough, but I think it’ll shape up in no time.  It was great to be playing again and to see Joe and Steve again… it had been too long.  Our next rehearsal is Tuesday. 

The set will consist of mostly songs from La Guitarra, with a couple from the first record.   

Absinthe Glow - La Guitarra album release show confirmed

 We’ll be playing on Friday, June 6th at the fabulous Make-Out Room in San Francisco.  Opening up with be Oakland’s fabulous Bye Bye Blackbirds.  The show starts early a 7:30.  If you haven’t been to the Make-Out Room before, I highly recommend it.  It is possibly my favorite place to see shows in the City.  More later on this… 

La Guitarra is available for pre-order…

… at Isota Records, CDUniverse, Target, Amazon, and Amazon UK.

It should be available on iTunes and the rest of the bunch very soon.

Stoked.

La Guitarra is here!

Absinthe Glow - La Guitarra is here.  I got 800 disks in the mail yesterday.  NAIL distribution got another 200 (new release catalog here).  I can’t believe how amazing it looks.  Officially, it is a 6-panel digipak with matte finish and a 20 page booklet set inside a panel 1 corporate pocket.  All pages are 4 color.   It looks way better than I could have hoped.  In May, it will be available on iTunes, Amazon, absintheglow.com, and stores that you have to use your feet to get to. 

I am very grateful for all of the hard work that people put into the project.  The layout and package design was done by Frank Weidemann.   The artwork was done by Andrew James Baldwin.   The mastering was done by Gary Hobish. 

Joe Finlaw, a man I have not posted about in a while

Joe Finlaw (former South Jersey resident) got married to Alicia Peterson (former Lookout! employee) a month or so ago at the Madonna Inn in beautiful San Luis Obispo, California.   I went to the wedding and it was rad.  I got to meet most of the Finlaw clan (who had flown out from South Jersey) and they were great.  Here is a photo of Joe on his honeymoon cruise, which was taken right after Alicia told a funny joke, and right before he had another sip of his refreshing beverage:

Yesterday at work, Joe was wearing a red sweatshirt.  More updates on Joe later…

La Guitarra album cover

 May 2008 suckas…