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From Ryan: This message was posted on my Facebook 8 times by 8 different friends: “McGlynn - Joufie is coming to NYC with his brother, me, Couden, Ali and possibly others on Friday May 22nd and we are staying for the weekend. Let’s chill man. It’s been way too long.” I love these guys. The phrase, “It’s been way too long” has been something I’ve been hearing a lot lately from my friends and family. It’s hard for me to not get lost in CARLON. Especially when we are writing new music. It becomes all I think about. That is until my best friend reams me out for never being around, and 8 of my friends send me messages to come out. Then I realize maybe it’s time to put music down for a weekend and just be a friend. That being said, May 22nd is the day my buddies come into New York and the day of my best friend’s dinner down the shore. Even if I go out to be there for one friend, I let another down. I got a hair cut yesterday. It looks pretty good.
From Mike: I began watching documentaries on HULU this week,and have tried to forget my television. I haven’t watched many clips, but today, amidst the downpour of rain we’ve been having in NYC, I watched two. One was about the ancient Incas and the other more notably was about the Buena Vista Social Club. A documentary based on the 1997 album is named after an actual music club from the WWII era where some of the involved musicians used to play. The album is a compilation of sorts, put together by American Musician/guitarist Ry Cooder and Cuban musician Juan de Marcos Gonzalez.
The film captures the happenings and lives that are the soul of the album and gives you an idea of what it was like for Cuban musicians during the 40’s and 50’s playing Cuban music. Rolling Stone (for what it’s worth) voted the album #260 in the Top 500 albums of all time. That means #260 ever! In the existence of (wo)man! Not bad considering the entire album was recorded in six days?!
If you have an appetite for latin music or documentaries check out either documentary. Buena Vista is easily in my Top 10.
From Jared: I booked a band for my wedding today. It was a rather hilarious ordeal, sifting through all these videos and mp3’s of wedding bands. They all seem to really like that “Let’s Get it Started” tune by the Black Eyed Peas. My future mother-in-law contacted all these places first and told them I was in a band, and that I’d ultimately be picking which group played our big night. Once I got in touch with them, the first 5 minutes of every conversation consisted of the same cookie-cutter questions I guess any musician would ask another musician who was trying to sell themselves. When they all got to the part where they asked if I played covers or all originals, I could sense a slight undertone of envy in their voices. It was interesting. I guess no musician really grows up and says “I want to be in a cover band.” No offense to those out there who are, but I guess it just becomes something people fall back on if their own music doesn’t prevail. If nothing else, it definitely gave me some motivation. Now is the time for us, and for me. In 5, 10, 20 years from now, I want to be booked at MSG New Years Eve, not Joe Shmoe’s wedding. Gotta head out to rehearsal now to make sure things go my way! See you tonight at Arlene’s Grocery.
From Ryan: Ahhhhhh! I want to be playing music. I’m sitting here ready to go the the rehearsal space and I can’t cos I have to blog. Can’t think of anything clever. I’m just gonna rattle off some stuff. We’re playing Maxwell’s in Hoboken tomorrow. Its rumored to be a mustachio bashio. This means that we may all have mustaches. I listened to Micheal Jackson all morning. Realized that he is a genius. One day someone will make a very good or very disappointing movie about his life. The sun is out and I still have a hard time not wearing my winter jacket. That reminds me, I started reading “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens. The setting in the beginning of the novel reminds me of the elementary school segment of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” I like it so far. Ok, out of stuff to say. It’s music time. See you tomorrow.
From Jared: “In this corner….weighing in at 210 lbs., and offering a full-time salary, health benefits, and a 401K……WORK! And in this corner….weighing in at 256 lbs,….and the hopes, dreams and aspirations of a hungry musician…..CARLON!!!!” The ongoing brawl of work vs. band in my life (and the band’s life) has recently been taken into the hands of the powers that be. I got laid off from my studio job this week. It’s so bittersweet that its giving me the shits. The suddenly more than flexible schedule and wide open possibilities are overly exciting, but the question of how I will pay next month’s rent keeps looming over me. If anyone knows how to make a descent living + health insurance + a flexible enough schedule to tour throughout the year…please, by all means, let me know. Headlining Maxwells in Hoboken tonight…..rock.
From Ryan: SXSW was a week of loud noises and drinking in the morning. “These are a few of my favorite things.” I noticed that it is impossible to stand out in Austin. Certainly not from any lack of trying. My favorite brand of band was the “Guns n’ Roses Hipster.” Low cut t-shirts down to belly button and tight jeans that strangled their exposed calves. I’ve never been one to hate on any social trend, but this one left me scratching my head, and singing “I guess I just wasn’t made for these times,” in my best Brian Wilson falsetto. I will say though, everyone was amazingly friendly. All of those people were drinking all day and all night, and I never saw one fight break out. I didn’t even see anyone get angry. That really impressed me. Playing down in Austin was treat. I can’t wait to go back.
That being said, I went to Piccolo’s in Hoboken to get some soup when I got back. The owner Pat said to me “Hey, how you doing?” I replied like a wise ass, “Awful. You want to talk about it?” Pat responds, “Go fuck yourself.” Home.
From Mike: The Fire in Philadelphia is an unassuming venue, on a quiet shadowy corner with two signs out front. I don’t know what the one says but the other (smaller one) says “The Fire”. We played there this past Friday. The stage is set in the back of the second dimly lit room and lacks any sort of conventional stage geometry. It looks like a living room turned long ways. This, along with the railroad car shape of the rest of the room, makes for an almost vaudevillian like venue. The gypsy-like acts also add to this mystique.
Long story made shorter. The Fire is warm and great. The sound is not ideal nor the best we’ve had by far, but the charm and attentiveness of the audience almost makes you careless, without playing like you care less. I haven’t had a beer on stage in, well, I can’t remember how long. To be honest, I’d imagine one would feel a little strange without one at The Fire. Within the first song of the set, the room fell silent, something that is so removed from shows in NYC. The people wanted to be entertained and wanted to hear something new. They weren’t on their cell phones or talking about their week. They were trying to forget all of that.
This is what makes the Fire so special. Something like sitting around an actual fire with your friends. As it were, the allure of the now infamous “beer” was what might have led to our demise in this newly depicted utopia. Four songs into the set, my amp stopped working. It didn’t just sound bad or start to crap out. It just stopped working all together. Luckily Ryan played a couple of songs he’d been working on to hold the set together while the sound guy and I trouble shot resorting to running the Acoustic in DI in time to close out the set. I hope we play The Fire again really soon.
From Milo: Pick up the phone. We are in Austin, Texas and it’s nice and warm here. The dog outside our spacious apartment keeps barking because it hears Ryan’s voice and it dosen’t like his tone. It’s really getting annoying. We played a show for a website by the name of tumblr. Through this website you can post tidbits about your life that others can read. An example of a tidbit would be “I’m sitting at my computer right now”. The show went well. People were sitting through the performance and many of them were posting blogs on their phones about us or texting each other about how cool we looked. I appreciate that. Last night we were minus Jared. He works for the man and the man told him he couldn’t have any fun. The three of us (Ryan, Mike and I) went out on the town. I figured out that it’s not a good idea to drink tequila, whiskey, gin and beer. It makes for a bad after party. Tomorrow morning we have to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to be at Fox Austin at 7:50 AM. We are going to do an interview with them, then play really loud music. This will be broadcast on television. If I drop a stick it will be hilarious. I think the show will be incredible and people will realize that even at 8 in the morning we are still really good. Stay tuned for a video of that performance. I look amazing at that time of day so it’s worth waking up for.
From Ryan: The tumblr party! Yeah, we played that shit! Yes…we met a lot of good tumblr peolple: John, Josh, Jacob and Bianca. The feedback after the show was great - they even asked us to play another set. After the party, Mike and I sent the wounded home and pressed on. We met up with a friend of mine, Anthony, at the Side Bar. He gave us some local insight into Austin and SXSW. Later we went to the after party of a psychedelic music festival at The Beauty Bar. Lots of weirdoes and beardoes. I loved it. The cab ride home was an incredible failure. We took a hour long detour to Carey Drive as opposed to Cary Drive. Just a little $147 miscommunication. We did make friends with cab driver. He’s our guy now. Pio is his name. Today we’re all just resting up for Good Day Austin tomorrow. Pretty pumped to play on TV.
