Happy Summer,

After many months (years?) of threatening, we can finally say with real certainty that our new record, “Black Clouds,” is recorded, mixed, mastered, packaged, and almost ready to be sold.  We’re very excited, so we hope you’ll indulge us in a longer-than-usual email update.

First, (Julie Christie) the rumors are true.  Our new record and second official full-length album, “Black Clouds” is finished and will be available August 18th from Kiam Records.  Kiam is the label run by our dearest friend in this world, Ms. Jennifer O’Connor, and we are very excited to be working with her.  Besides direct order from Kiam and the occasional physical record store, and of course directly from us at shows, bars, or our places of employment, we’ll be on a variety of download sites (iTunes and such) beginning August 18th as well.  We’ll obviously keep you informed as things get closer and we certainly hope you’ll consider giving the album a spin when the time comes.

“Black Clouds” has been several years in the making; so many in fact that more than a few movie franchises have lapped us in terms of production.  Still, we couldn’t be happier and we consider it time well-spent.  We did all of the recording and mixing and writing and singing and playing (with some noteworthy exceptions) in our little basement hovel in Roxbury; sweating out several summers, recording until dawn on a few occasions, and getting ourselves snowed-in at least once.

To celebrate, we have three CD Release shows lined up.  First, we’re convening in Philadelphia at the amazing Johnny Brenda’s on Tuesday, August 18th to open for the great Amy Ray.  Most people are aware of Amy as half of the Indigo Girls, but we wholeheartedly recommend looking into any of her excellent solo albums.

Next up, we’ll be at PA’s Lounge in our beloved Somerville, MA on Friday, August 21 w/ three great local-ish bands, The Big Disappointments, Boston-by-way-of-Baltimore’s Impossible Hair, and our very faves The Operators, who we arm-twisted into reuniting and traveling 100’s of miles to help us celebrate.  We’ll have more to say on that show soon but we encourage to mark your calendars.

Next up, we’ll go back, jack, and do it again on Saturday, August 22 at the lovely Union Hall in Brooklyn with Kiam labelmates Clint, MI, Dump (James McNew from Yo La Tengo!), and Jennifer O’Connor playing a special acoustic set.  Union Hall is a truly wonderful venue and if you can’t make it, we really hope you’ll help us spread the word on the show.  You can check all of the Kiam bands out at kiamrecords.com.  You can also read up on Clint, MI with Jon’s article over at Pop Matters.

We’ll have more information in the coming weeks on ordering information, show details, a new video that’s on its way, and more.

We hope everyone is having a great summer and is getting to spend it with loved ones.  We remain kneedeep in James Brown songs and red wines of varying quality, trying not to let the days pass by too quickly.

Yours,
Vince, Chris, and Jon

Hi to everyone,

It feels like it’s been such a painfully long time since we’ve sent any kind of update, let alone had any worthy news, that we’re excited to have some things worth saying, finally.  First, we hope things have been well with everyone.  Things in our collective and individual worlds have been just fine, thanks.

On Thursday, Feb 26th, we’ll be at the Middle East Upstairs on a bill with New York’s Mascott (who have a fantastic new record out now called “Art Project”) and our dear friend Jennifer O’Connor, who has been toiling her trade over at Matador Records for two excellent albums over the past few years, including 2008’s “Here With Me.”  We of course still have copies of the “Little Airplane Heart” 7″ that we split with Jennifer, out on her Kiam label, and those can be had here.

More happy news for us is that, after years of threatening, we finally have a new album that is finished and, though in desperate need of a cover, almost ready to see the world outside of our smelly studio.  It’s called Black Clouds and it has 10 new songs; some of which you may have heard at our shows in various permutations, others which you have probably never heard at all.  We’re very happy with it and can’t wait for some other people to hear it as well.

We’ll have information on the release show, ordering information, etc. as we figure it all out.

Three songs off the record, “Honey Shove,” “The Relentless Money Love Blues,” and “Under the Icy Moon” are now up on our MySpace page, so please put a quarter in the Wurlitzer, push three buttons, and make that thing whirr.  Also, we have a new Facebook page.

Finally, in April, we’ll be at Cake Shop in New York for a bill with New York’s legendary Antietam, as well as The Collection Agency, featuring Tim Bracy from the Mendoza Line.  That evening may very well end up melting quite a few faces and we’re very honored to be a part of it.

We apologize for the thesis but we’re just so happy to have some news to put out there that we just can’t quite contain ourselves.  More to come.

We hope that you’re having a great start to the year and hope to see you soon!

Jon, Vince, Chris