Friday, August 27, 2010

Pictures From A Busy Weekend

Here are some pictures from the weekend of traveling to Ohio and back up through Detroit ending on Sunday at the beach which was PJ Hoffmaster State Park. All pictures were taken with my Samsung phone camera and edited in the cheapest photo editing software I could find years ago in the store. Yes, I still use Paint Shop Pro 6 from the 90's. I would thank you not to judge me. The pictures are in reversed order chronologically, but you get the point. (A few of the beach shots feature Miss Jessica Young and her hairy squirrel/bat-like companion Jetset. He is a very tiny Chihuahua.)


As the sun sets, this is something I feel lucky to have. A fresh water lake 45min-1 hr away from where I live with amazing coastlines.

B & W Beach

Killer sunset

Killer sunset again

Killer sunset with birdseye view

B & W beach

Killer sunset again(sorry for the repetition, couldn't help it)

Sunset starting

Beach with moon sliver

Came across a giant piece of driftwood and dug a hole to root it in the ground. Wished I had put a pirate flag or something on it before it went up.




Glassy beach water action

Ebb and flow

Glassy with color

Washin' them feets!

Colorized beach

Regular colors









Three pictures put together





Just after arriving at the Friday night Columbus show. Jarrod, Josh, Jeremy and his wife Suzi enjoying a much deserved Founders brew behind the Summit after the long drive.

Justin scoping out the Michigan map while in Ohio.

Train on the way down through Ohio.

4 or 5 pictures put together. This was farmland behind a rest stop somewhere in Ohio.

This was a picture taken with my phone's camera then heavily altered to look like an old polaroid. Mike wanted his picture taken in front of this hilarious hotel in Lansing, MI. It used to be a Days Inn chain, but was obviously bought out. The new operating owners must have not wanted to change much, so they opted for "Dads Inn." Genious. Hilarious.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Busy Week and Then Some...

I took Friday Aug. 13th and Saturday Aug. 14th off from work and went with Chance Jones to play a show in Columbus, OH Friday night and Detroit on Saturday night. Columbus was a small place called The Summit. The Detroit show was at the Belmont in Hamtramck. Both shows were pretty low in attendance. Very low. However we did have a great time over the weekend in general.

After we got back into town from that, we had a show at Frederick Meijer Gardens and it was a great follow-up to the low attendance shows. There was probably somewhere between 1,400-1,800 people in attendance at the gardens. There were tons of kids dancing and screaming like crazy in the front and the crowd in general was fantastic. Possibly the most fulfilling show I have ever played with any group I've played in over the years.

Next up was the show in Grand Haven for the Indie Rock Invitational. This was essentially a "battle of the bands" type thing with the winner from both nights playing at the end of the whole shindig Saturday night. We weren't able to make it out Saturday night, so we would not be competing, just playing. Got to see most of Lazy Genius' set as soon as I got there which was great. We had a perfect break in the rain and a good turnout provided for a great show. Between this and the Frederick Meijer Gardens show, we were able to reach fresh sets of ears that might not have otherwise been found. Very cool. What was even cooler was that AB! & Coconut Brown were playing a show about 2 blocks down the street from the Indie Rock Invitational, so we finished up watching Chip Fundy(From G.R.) and headed down to catch the last half of a killer set(as usual) by the A.B! crew at the Rosebud.

At the Grand Haven show I finally acquired an A.B! disc. I've been wanting one for some time now and was able to catch them with one for sale. On top of that, I also got the new Apostles album off of amazon.com a few days ago. It sounds great. Great music, great mixing all the way around. The physical copies should be coming out in the next week or so and I'll be picking up that as well. Two desperately needed albums in one week?! Righteous!

Next up on Saturday was our friend Ben's wedding. Ben is the drummer for the Total Blam Blams and we played one song outside before the rain really started to come down. After a little bit we moved the equipment from under the tent to the lodge building. Once we got everything dried off and set back up, we played the rest of the set and had a fantastic time.

I went to the beach with Jessie on Sunday for some much needed relaxation. I needed it after that marathon week plus stint. Doesn't help the exhaustion factor with a a 45 hour work week/band practices on top of it.

Expunk recorded an interlude for the next album yesterday. Very ambient piece that will make for a nice transition. Also booked a show with Lazy Genius on September 10th which I'm really excited for. We already had a show booked for September 16th so we're trying to keep busy.

Heavier Than Air Flying Machines has practice tonight and hopefully we will be working on some new material to get an album worked up. Life is good in G.R.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Last Minute Show and Recording

Heavier Than Air Flying Machines and Chance Jones are playing tonight at Jukes for a birthday celebration for Jessie. Should be cool as I'm looking forward to playing the new HTAFM jams. There will be a jam session with a few Chance Jones cats and Jef from Expunk after that. Looking forward to the shindig. Twill be a fun time.

Recording on two new tunes went well as drums bass and guitar were completed last night. Not sure as to when they will be finished, but I'm eager to hear them. The new Chance Jones record is going to be a hot one!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Recording.

Last night, Josh, myself, Justin, and Jeremy worked on restructuring certain aspects of a kind of new song "Maria" at the practice space. Josh's friend Matt from Portland brought some gear when he came to town and recorded us working on it. We are going to be recording parts for two songs while he is here through Wednesday and Maria was the first to get worked on heavily. Tonight will be a full on session of nailing down the drums with a proper microphone setup after ironing out the part. I assume we will begin working on the other tune as well and probably be recording the majority of that on Wednesday.

Hopefully I'll be getting a couple groups to play at Jukes for Jessies birthday gathering on Thursday.

Hopefully the weather is nice on Friday to jam out to the beach on her birthday.

Busy week. Life is good.