Oh my head

Currently listening to: my head
Currently reading: Seattle Sound magazine

Playing at the Blue Moon always provides for interesting times. When we last played there in the fall, a couple days before Halloween, some old character and I had a conversation. And by "conversation" I mean, "beer bathed blurts of words from a toothless bearded dude and me trying not to react." It went like this (I'll call him "Chuck"):

Me: Would you like some candy? (I was giving out candy since it was close to Halloween.)

Chuck: You got any TP!?

Me: (generally doesn't have TP on hand unless in a bathroom) No.

Chuck: Where do you live!?

Me: Not anywhere near here

Chuck: You got a lawn!?

Me: No

Chuck: There's my bathroom! Your lawn!

If you've never visited the Blue Moon before, you might be surprised to learn that conversations like that are not out of the ordinary. But you shouldn't be scared. It's a charming place with equal parts of personality and grime.

Anyway, last night we played. I think the same old guy asked me to dance. But with Indonesian Junk (JUNK!), the Resets (super sweet baritone guitar and satanic vocal effects...yeah!) and A Gun that Shoots Knives (the best band name ever), it was a hootenanny. With all the stress of planning the CD release and the tour, it was nice to just let go of things and remember that I play music, I'm not really in the music management business.

Other highlights included:

1) the gift of a possible new band name bestowed upon us by the audience: Saber Tooth

2) Matt from NadaMucho sniffing my neck (during the set, I claimed to have smelled like Chinese Food and old people but, apparently, I smelled fresh and clean).

3) At some point I decided it would be more efficient to drink my beer directly out of the pitcher. Thus, the sorry state of my head this morning.

The Portland / Eugene Debauchery Tour

Check it: We played at the Tonic Lounge in Portland last Friday and Diablo's in Eugene last Saturday. It was a sweet, sweet little taste of how rad tour is going to be. We had some people from Helena in the house in Portland (then, we stayed at their house...thanks!). Then in Eugene, the Ovulators represented (and let me crash on their couch...thanks!).

It was fun. We played rock. That's about all I have to say. Here are pictures of us not playing music. It's just us looking like asses. That's half the battle. If you want to see us play, you're just going to goddamn well get yourself to a show.

I can see why people get paid for this crap

Currently listening to: mp3s on my new phone
Currently reading: tips on how not to fail when booking a tour on Righteous Pursuit

Yeah, this whole emailing / coordinating / writing letters and emails to dozens of people like I'm really personally invested in working with them and them alone is a lot of...work. I totally understand why bookers want to get paid. Booking a tour isn't as hard as writing and recording songs, but it has that mid-level Project Management type stress that I'm just not into. And, as Karen Carpenter once quipped, "I've only just begun."

This just in: H is for Hellgate seeks qualified, passionate booker. Please submit resumes to hisforhellgate@gmail.com

I suppose that it doesn't help that I'm attempting (I may or may not succeed) to book a month-long tour AND promote our (kind of) first album at the same time. But people, all aspects of my life that don't have "H is for Hellgate" stamped on them are rapidly going right down the proverbial shitter.

Tonight, I played my guitar. This is newsworthy. I've barely touched it for the last month. Why? See above paragraphs.

But, in all honesty, I'm only putting myself through this spartan challenge of administrative tasks because I believe in the music and I believe in the band and I'm so psyched to have a label that believes in us as well. Still, it's sad that I haven't written a new song in months. I'm a musician, goddammit.

Someone believes in us!

Currently listening to: Elliott Smith
Currently reading: a book about Chopin

It's officially official. I signed a recording contract and dropped it in the mail to the fine folks at Stereotype Records. They're going to pimp out our record (due out February 15th!) to the far reaches of the globe, and, goddamn, we are excited to work with them. They have some top-shelf records already out by top-shelf artists that you should check out in the meantime.

What you see pictured is the amazingly rad front cover to the record. All of the album artwork was done by Ben's better half, Emily. She's so rad. And she likes miniature cows, and that can't be wrong.

This weekend I am going to embark on a task like none I've ever attempted before: booking a 3-week tour. I wanted to go for longer, but there's this whole thing where we all have jobs to keep and bills to pay, so we're going to get as far from Seattle as we can and reach out to you, music fans of the West and Mid-West. Anyway, booking one show can sometimes be difficult so I can't wait to see what booking 18 in a 21 day period will do to my blood pressure. I've heard good things about Righteous Pursuit, a web service based of of Seattle (I think) that assists bands booking their own tour. We'll see how it goes.

That's why the good lord invented wine.