mobile 9.26.08

the blind mule. day 1.

The people at The Blind Mule are always so nice, after waiting for the opening band to finish their hour and half set we finally set up at 1am. We played surprising well, after a horrible final practice in which we couldn't even finish one song. The real adventure started just after we loaded out and started for New Orleans. Incapable of keeping my eyes wide open we ended up in Biloxi, chased down a few motel leads that were too expensive and finally rolled into New Orleans at 6a.

I woke up this morning on a hardwood floor off Rampart, with a hoodie for a pillow and vague recollection driving through the night.

The Charred Heart of the Tin Woodman
Untitled Song for a City in the Wake of Recent Flood
Mustard Seed Boat
Asleep in Winter Sleeves
The Catamount Waltz
The Wrestling Palm
Devil in my Bed

destin log article

Here's a cool article. Unfortunately the Funky Blues Shack show was canceled. The Funky Blues Shack is remodeling this month, but didn't return our calls or emails until late last week to tell us they could not do the show ... nice article though.

Paper Scissors Rocketpack: To Destin or 'busk ?'

Sep. 20--For guitarist and singer Chad Bishop, playing music professionally was a last resort when he had no other way to make a living in Europe.

"When I was 20, I moved overseas, and it was the only way I could actually make any money living in Scandinavia and London," Bishop, 32, told The Log. "I didn't have a work visa; I did have a guitar -- it worked out really well to extend my stay."

Now Bishop, a Pensacola resident, plays professionally by choice, as the guitarist and vocalist for Paper Scissors Rocketpack, which is tentatively scheduled to perform at Funky Blues Shack Sept. 25.

Bishop, who took up the guitar in his teens, said that in Scandinavia he found people to sponsor him in clubs, but in London he'd had to "busk" -- playing guitar on street corners for donations.

"I didn't have a busking license so I had to busk with one eye looking for the cops. It was fun. I learned quite a bit: I learned you're not entitled to people's attention. I learned to get out there, screaming at the top of my lungs."

Getting attention for a new Pensacola band -- both for their tour and their first CD, "escapist vs. exit" -- is also a challenge, Bishop said. He told The Log that Pensacola has an enthusiastic music scene but "it's a really small scene -- once you play the three viable clubs in town, you've done the circuit.

"We don't have a lot of funds to do our own promotion," Bishop went on. "We have to reach out and try to get as much promotion as we can before using our limited resources. We have to network with other bands: If they come to Pensacola or near, we set them up for shows" and look for help in return.

The name of the band, Bishop said, was chosen to create a "surreal environment" for their music. The name of the album, he said, refers to a choice between finding a way to escape a bad situation and simply exiting without dealing with the problem.

Touring is important for promoting the CD, he said, because even small gigs give the band exposure: "Even if you don't play for a lot of people every night, the fact is, you're popping up all over the place, talking to people at the radio station and the press, finding all the opportunities you have and just using them."

Bishop said being small is an advantage on the Internet, where the band maintains a MySpace page: "Getting reviews on blogs helps quite a bit, at least with an independent album. Bloggers love anything obscure, even if it's obscure because it's only been out a day."

As a promotion for the current CD, the band has released a couple of songs on a vinyl record that comes with a download ticket authorizing buyers to download the group's songs for free. Bishop said he'd been initially doubtful about going vinyl, but the idea of releasing such an old-fashioned record was too appealing to resist.

"I think most musicians want one -- it definitely lends a nostalgia to your music right away," he said. "Most of the kids I know grew up listening to their parents' vinyl records and buying their own CDs, so we still had some connection to it."

Bishop said Paper Scissors Rocketpack has their second album written, and plans to do a nationwide tour in the spring.

"If gas is really expensive, we probably won't go past the Midwest," he added.

http://www.destin.com/

everything is going into warp speed just before tour. packages arrive in the mail, new albums, new merch, phone calls for double, triple confirmation. this upcoming tour is only 8 dates, so between you and i we'll call it a run. the amount of work put into booking, and promoting the best we can on a shoestring with the small amount of disposable time we gots is insane. you got to be totally in love with life and completely out of your mind with no sense of the practical to write, record, release and tour, to do this music thingey (and repeat infinitely). i revel in the opportunity to travel and play our songs for people everywhere (in the southeast in this case), away from p-cola for a time.

we have a 7" record coming out on The Cottage Records. Pre-Order here at this link:

http://www.iheartuproductions.com/KODstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=351

PSR: passe, sordid and rident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym
http://worldofstencils.blogspot.com/

8.13.08
I was nervous again, with a new line up. We played with mr. gnome last night, a two piece band from cleveland ohio. They're really good, i haven't played with a band that tight in a while. It was very inspiring.
today is...not so inspiring, a hot september sunday in florida.

set list 4 last night:

The Charred Heart of the Tin Woodman
Untitled Song for a City in the Wake of a Recent Flood
Mustard Seed Boat
Dresden
Asleep in Winter Sleeves
Henry Darger Fights the Weatherman
The Catamount Waltz
The Wrestling Palm
Devil in my Bed

It was nice to mix in some cripple lilies songs, a much needed change of pace. We are currently working with two electric guitar players which is really interesting. They both have different styles, personalities etc. One likes to kick the door in and rock. The other chooses murky textures laying behind the band with layers of ambiance. The current line up for the fall tour is a lot of fun. We plan to record each show on tour, then Aaron and I will sift through the wreckage for salvageable material for posting and download.

-c

http://www.myspace.com/mrgnome

learning to let go

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

I am haunted by waters.

Norman Maclean's writing haunts me, i've read his novella a million time and it still blows a breeze past the tiny pinwheel located in the middle of my chest. the adventure will begin soon.

being able to play music is such a privilege, its always been a labor of love. i hope to hear some of the words under those rocks someday.

-c

we didn't fall apart

sept tour is approaching... exciting. the beta run before the big tour in the spring to support the album release. i love being in a different place everyday, the smell of concrete after its rained on a hot day, meeting the sound guy at every club, finding backyards to camp in, eating pbjs, granola bars, truck stop coffee, polaroids from lifted packs, postcards to grandma, seeing grandma, visiting uncles in the hills in georgia. the islands on the east coast, reading books with a flashlight. wanderlust its the best and worst of me, i suppose its the death of all of us.

-c