I am really proud to announce that the first new Mono Vs Stereo release comes out today! Matty T and I have been placed in charge of signing bands to the label and I can’t think of a better possible first release than our buds in Deas Vail and their amazing new record Birds And Cages. Unfortunately we were not able to be a part of the recording process because we signed them after the recording was completed (although Matt does make a guest vocal appearance), but our good friend and my dad-in-law Mark Townsend produced the record and it sounds great (he also produced our new album). I am not only excited about these songs, but about the amount of great music these guys are going to continue to make. I have been a fan of this band since they put out their first record on Brave New World and I have been trying to put bugs in our friends ears about taking them on tour since then because they are a great live band. Wes is seriously one of the best singers that I have ever seen and it seems so effortless for him to be incredibly accurate. The band is out on tour with our friends Mae, who is a perfect fit for the band to tour with, and it seems like things are just lining up right now. They also have a tour in Jan/Feb with Owl City and Lights, which will be great!

I will talk about the record a little bit now. I am really pleased with the sequence of the album, Matt had some ideas that I would have never thought of and I really like how the album starts with a lot of energy. All the songs have so much depth and interesting things going on, it is definitely not an album you can just figure out on the first listen. But it is one you can enjoy on the first listen…although I think the more you listen to it, more and more tracks begin to stand out. One of my favorite things about the record are these little moments of songs that are really powerful and memorable. One of my favorites happens at the back half of the first track “The Things You Were”, everything cuts out except a little delay guitar and I just love the group vocals as well as Laura Beth singing more than on their earlier albums. The song “Excuses” is a great pop song that is actually interesting to listen to…I love the Americana rock feel of the verses. Followed by what is maybe my favorite song “Cages”. The ending on this song is so powerful, it was a big question of whether it should be the last track, but we really didn’t want it to get overlooked. Matt sings on “Birds”, which is a really cool song that features a cool old 60′s organ sound that reminds me of the The Never Ending Story or something like that. The album almost seems to unfold like a book or a children’s story, which goes perfectly with the artwork.

Some bands need to be in the right place at the right time to succeed (which is why there is so much bad music in the world), but I believe that Deas Vail is such quality music that it is just a matter of people hearing the record and giving them a chance. Please check it out.

buy the album for $7.99 on iTunes!

check out the band – listen to “Excuses” and check out their tour dates!

Hello kids, I have been a little under the weather lately, I don’t think it is the swine flu, but I can’t be certain that it is not terrorist induced. I am finally feeling a little better though. I have been thinking a lot about music lately and I was recently inspired to make an all time favorite music list by my sister Ashley. I was trying really hard to make it an even 5, but I decided 6 would have to be the number. Just another note – I decided to pick all newer bands, stuff I listened to in high school and bands that have made a huge impact on me, not just one album, but the entire catalogue. I left off a few classic bands that I love like The Beatles and Tom Petty to name a few. It is weird how music just chooses to connect with people at different times, and the cool thing about picking your favorites is that no one can question it. Please leave your top 5 or so in the replies if you feel so inclined.

Something else, slightly off the subject that I have been talking about lately is how hard it is for one band to put out more than 2 great records. I mean, most bands have a few good records and then there are just 2 that are way better than the rest. It is really hard to get past that point. I think a greater number of older bands have been able to do it – The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc, but it seems hard to make a list of more than 10 bands that I like that have put out more than 2 great records. I don’t know exactly what makes this so hard, but let me know if you feel differently about this. You look at like Weezer, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, it is just really hard for me to say that they have more than 2 great albums.

Ok, just one more rant before I post my list. I recently heard from an unnamed source that (this person) doesn’t listen to Coldplay because they are the same thing as Nickelback, just vanilla radio crap. Are you serious? I just cannot respect this opinion, I feel like it is classic snobbery. Even if you said “I don’t like Coldplay”, I would say “cool, that is your opinion”, but to put them on the same level as Nickelback is just not correct. I never realized there was a negative backlash toward Coldplay, I thought everyone just liked them. I don’t think I realized this until I picked “Viva La Vida” as my favorite album of 2008 and most people disagreed. It was honestly a hard decision, and I was swayed by just seeing an amazing Coldplay concert, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is a great album and Coldplay is arguably one of the most consistently great bands of our time. All 4 of their albums are great in their own way, and none is obviously better than the others. I understand that people will always hate on what is popular, but Coldplay makes good music and I am not embarrassed to call myself a fan. (I would be embarrassed to call myself a fan of Nickelback, by the way), but enough about them…ha.

Here is my top 6 list, in alphabetical order, with my favorite album in parenthesis…

- David Bazan/Pedro the Lion (Control)

- Death Cab For Cutie (Transatlanticism)

- Denison Witmer (Of Joy And Sorrow)

- Jimmy Eat World (Clarity)

- The Get Up Kids (Something To Write Home About)

- Sufjan Stevens (Greetings from Michigan)

Also, I thought I would list a few links to what I am currently listening to. I feel like I get asked that question all the time, and I am never sure what to say. But here are a few things that I enjoy.

- David Bazan – Curse Your Branches – This is the only thing that I want to listen to all the time lately, I think it is brilliant. I don’t think that music needs to be theologically congruent because songs are feelings and ideas, not your life theology. And I really like to question things, and I like when other people do as well. I think it is the only way to really find out what you believe.

- Deas Vail - Birds And Cages (our first release on Mono Vs Stereo, coming out next week, more info to come)

- Mew – No More Stories Are Told – unbelievable album

- Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – just too catchy

- The Rocketboys – 20,000 Ghosts – great band, I can’t wait to hear more from these guys

- Sherwood – QU – Good friends and I am so happy for them that this record turned out so great.

- We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls – I am normally not into thick accents in music, but I love the Scottish brogue and great songs, and guitar sounds…

anyway, let me know what you are listening to lately, as well as your all time favorites. Isn’t it cool that Owl City is blowing it up right now? I love that guy and I wish him the best. Have a wonderful day friends.

I am so glad that Stella loves music! She is an amazing singer.

So the fateful day has finally come when we are able to release our new album into the wild. I am honestly really excited for my friends to hear it, and I am really proud of how it turned out. I feel that this is by far the best thing that our band has ever recorded, and that is not necessarily something I think every time we put out a new record… There is definitely something different about this time around, and I hope that our current fans will enjoy it, but also maybe people that have written us off will give this record a shot.

Amazon MP3 for $3.99!

Well, down to business first. If you are considering purchasing a digital copy, then I’d your best bet is to head over to amazon.com, where you can buy the entire album right now for only $3.99! This is for one day only – Monday, October 5th, which is also one day earlier than it will be available in stores. It will include a bonus track called “Terminals”, which is a fairly catchy little number, but just didn’t quite fit as far as becoming an official piece of the album. In addition to being sold at the usual places you can still find compact disc, we also plan to release an LP (vinyl) version, and I am personally really excited to see and listen to this album on vinyl because it just makes sense, with the packaging, as well as the recording. I am also so excited about the album cover. Matt’s uncle is an amazing painter and I am honored to use his work as the cover. I am really glad that once you open the packaging, that it doesn’t even say our band name on it, because it is an amazing piece of art.

There are so many things I could talk about the recording process, I will probably add some more information in later posts as I think of it. The first thing I always tell people when I talk about recording is that it was the most relaxed time that any of us have ever had in the studio. There were many late morning starts and early evening endings, which I think helped keep us from getting burned out. It was also great to work with Mark Townsend again (my father-in-law), who encouraged us to take breaks to play basketball, baseball, frisbee, and whatever other else we could do to get outside. But besides the easy schedule, there was just more of a laid-back attitude while we were recording, and I think it really helped that there was no pressure to impress anyone, or to stick to hard deadlines. We originally recorded the album to be released on Mono Vs Stereo, and RCA/Jive came on board just weeks before the release date. We are looking forward to working with them, but in a way it just made things easier to be on our own for the recording process.

One of the things I am most proud about is that we were somehow able to get the record mixed by Andy Wallace. He has done some severely incredible albums such Nirvana “Nevermind”, Jeff Buckley’s “Grace”, Thrice “The Artist In The Ambulance”, and Coldplay “Viva la Vida”. I really like his mixing style in that he doesn’t use a lot of modern day tricks, and tends to not over-compress, or add too many effects, rather just create a great balance of what was actually recorded. I am huge fan of this style, as I am sick of so many bands using over-produced slick records that are just all harsh and too loud and compressed.

On recording guitars, we took a little bit of a different approach. We really tried to not record too many guitar tracks, which is something that sometimes comes a little too easy for our band. But we didn’t go overboard on recording too many rhythm guitar tracks or using too many different multiple amps for each pass. I also made it a point to try to not use too many overdrive pedals, but to try to just use the amp’s natural gain structure as much as possible. I did end up use a variety of overdrives (mostly for overdubs), as well as boost pedals, which work well for driving low-wattage amps. It seemed like somewhere along the line, Mark noticed that it was becoming a very Fender guitar heavy record. I have used Les Pauls mainly on all of our previous records, but I really liked the attack and clarity from the singly coil Fender guitars. I have been really into the Jazzmaster and Telecaster (and Tele-Deluxe) lately. We used a lot of amps, but mainly a few old 50 watt Marshall heads and small class-A amps. My TopHat Vanderbilt, a Vox AC-15, and a Fender Deluxe Reverb seemed to be the favorites go-to amps. I am so excited about how the guitars sound on the recording, I feel like this is the most thought out that the sounds have ever been, because I really thought about each section and had an idea for what I wanted the guitars to sound like in each section, and many times we used what I thought would be best in my head.

Overall, we had such a fun time doing this record, and I will continue to update more dorky stuff like talking about my pedalboard setup and what kind of tubes I like to use what not… photos taken by our bud Cale.

We are getting all our ducks in a row to head out on tour yet again. I am very excited to hang out with our friends in Copeland, as well as get to hear their music every night (I am a big fan). You’d think that we would have toured with them by now, but surprisingly, this is our first tour together! Also joining us on the tour is another band that I am excited about hearing live for the first time – Barcelona. So, there are a few more days to get in a few last minute bike rides and do some laundry, which has been piling up since I got back from Australia. Also, we are making a list of possible songs to play, and we are thinking of playing some older songs from our catalogue. So leave me a comment if you have any requests, or let me know if you celebrate our entire catalogue…ha. Here are the dates, I hope to see you there!

• 10/1 New Haven, CT Toad’s Place
• 10/2 Philadelphia, PA Theatre of Living Arts
• 10/3 Farmingdale, NY Crazy Donkey
• 10/4 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
• 10/6 Towson, MD Recher Theatre
• 10/8 Knoxville, TN Bijou Theatre
• 10/9 Charlotte, NC Amos’ Southland
• 10/10 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
• 10/11 Nashville, TN Rocketown
• 10/13 Chicago, IL House of Blues
• 10/14 Minneapolis, MN The Cabooze
• 10/15 Kansas City, MO Beaumont Club
• 10/16 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
• 10/19 Dallas, TX Palladium Showroom
• 10/20 Houston, TX Warehouse Live
• 10/21 Midwest City, OK Rose State College
• 10/22 Tulsa, OK Cain’s Ballroom
• 10/23 Des Moines, IA People’s Court
• 10/24 St. Louis, MO The Pageant

The Original Three Hour Tour

I am not really sure if I am even excited to hear this album, but looking at this cover just makes me so darn happy!