Blasting Satisfaction Announcement!

Bam! This is the cover to our next album, Blasting Satisfaction! The album will feature around 10 tracks of pure rock n' roll fury. We're embracing a certain tone we struck on Great and putting out a very fast, wild, and upbeat album. That's all we're saying about it right now, but know that it's coming!

Easing Into Stage II!

Kicking off the start of Stage II with a redesign of the blog! New fonts and colors are upon us as our new mascot, Donald the Elephant, graces us with his presence on the side! Gearing up for announcements soon...

"Great" to the End: Postmortem Reflection

Just thought I'd post a few of my thoughts on "Great" to the End now that everything is done. Overall, I'm content with how it turned out. The release was relatively smooth and everything for the most part went as planned. It's crazy, but this album has been floating around for about 8 months. We first came up with the idea for Great back in September. From September to early December, I was writing Great while we were still a relatively young band. We were just starting out, and working with a group again was a major change of pace for me. I remember having some adjustment issues and frustrations while trying to get the new songs down. I finished writing Great in early December, and that for the most part made the anxiety go away. It's weird to look back now and know exactly where a certain song came from and what I was feeling at the time. I remember writing "Paralyzed Ghost" about these terrifying sleep paralysis episodes I was having back in November (at LEAST 3 times a night there) and writing "Jaimie" about a girl who just 2 months ago became my girlfriend (hi Julia). We originally planned to have Great release way earlier than it actually did. We would get started on a single, release it, and then take a break... a long break. It was just really difficult to balance what was going on outside the band with our shows and practices. Adding recording time to that was a pain, so we had to wait for little windows of opportunity to get work done. It was pretty spaced out though, and we only ran into a little bit of a crunch in the last week of edits. Unfortunately, I think that both "Grind Work" and "We Are Alive" were negatively affected by that. I love both of those songs, especially Grind Work, which was mostly Andrew's Composition. Given a little more time, I know I could have done something, but right now the recorded versions fall short. I'm pretty happy with the overall Great mix, but I believe there are things I could have done better. Next time around, I'm going to really focus on the vocals and making sure they really stand out. On Great they could have used a boost and maybe a little less reverb. We'll be making  a few more show rounds to support Great and sell the rest of those CDs, but we're pretty much done with it and ready to move on. I'm very excited for what we'll be doing next. We've already been working on it for some time. We're nicknaming it "Stage II" for now. The goal is to adapt and evolve our sound; to create something different but still familiar. That's all I'm going to say about that for now, but it's important for us to keep trying new things: that way we avoid getting stale. That's the blessing of being indie though right? Being able to try something new dammit.
-Nelson

"Great" to the End is out now!

Hey guys, "Great" to the End released today! You can download the album through Itunes, Amazon, or pretty much any other online music store. If you want a physical copy, hit up CDbaby.com (limited). To celebrate, you can listen to the full album below :D

The End Is Near My Friends

So... you might have heard that our new album is coming out this Tuesday. "Great" to the End will be out on Itunes, Amazon, CD Baby, and pretty much any other digital distributor you can think of. Anyone who pre-orders is guaranteed a physical copy, so it's not too late to do so until Tuesday. However, anyone who hasn't pre-ordered by now will not get the free track previews; those were sent out yesterday. To get you a little more excited, the first official review from JamSphere is below. Enjoy my pretties.

First Review!

-Nelson

"Great" to the End Official Synopsis

So we've officially wrapped on "Great" to the End! Here's the official synopsis:

“Great” to the End is a modern day revolution story following one leader’s fall and struggle to save what he holds most dear to him. Early on, stricken with tragedy, this carefree leader finds himself in a maddening battle between his desire to remain in the past and his duty to build a future for his nation. Distracted from his duties by a downward spiral of depression and romance, he neglects his people's needs and fails to soothe the problems of a dying nation. When his decisions come back to haunt him, will he run or finally learn to let go? Mistletoes and Warheads unleashes an epic rock opera leaking with political commentary, crazy love, and chaotic youthful bliss.

I'm so proud of how true we stayed to the vision during this whole process. We set out to make a rock opera that tied in all of the above, and we did it. Remember that Great comes out May 21st, 2013. Love you all - Nelson X]

Epic Unplugged Performance!

Just thought I'd put up our recent performance at our high school. It was hella fun, so here!

I've also updated some dates, so check those out. Hang in there, the album is shaping up nicely!

Drop The Key

The third and final single, "Drop The Key", is now available! Check it out below! Look for the album to release this Spring...

 

Updates!

So we've been hard at work doing band stuff for the past couple of weeks and I can safely say that I am exhausted out of my mind. We released the first single from "Great" to the End, You Say I'm Bad, for free on this blog as well as Itunes. I'm humbled by the warm reception it's been receiving so far, and it's the perfect indication of what's to come from Great. I've been hard at work writing the release and working on test recordings for a while now. It's been and is going to be a grueling process for me. I'm extremely proud of what we've been producing so far as a band and I'm excited for the new direction we're taking. Plenty of fans got a taste of the new music from our first live appearance at the Teen Center last week. It was a fantastic set, and I'm once again humbled by all the buzz after. We'll be playing a show come November 10th (@ the IPR release party) as well as a huge one in December. More info on that will be made available soon. As for other things, I'm also going to take this moment to announce our new single: "EVERGREEN HEARTS". Look for it to come out sometime this holiday season. As for the album release, look for that early next year. Peace out world.

-Nelson

First Live Performance!

We played our first live set last Friday! The set consisted of You Say I'm Bad, Rebound, and a cover of Little Black Submarines! Check it out below, filmed halfway through...

Bad News :(

So if you didn't already know, What Am I (my new album) comes out on the 31st! That's in like, two weeks! I would get pumped for that! Nearing release, I will be uploading videos of every song so you can sample them before you buy! 3 a day (except for the last day where there will be 4)! Also nearing the release, there will be a special blog post detailing the themes and meaning of the album. This is my proudest work yet, and I want people to see it the way I saw it when I wrote it. Now for some bad news! The Ocean On Tap has been removed from retailers! I just couldn't keep up with the cost and honestly, compared to What Am I, The Ocean On Tap fails in every category. The songs are still pretty dear to me and I realize it was my first effort, but now it just feels lackluster compared to What Am I. The album will still be available through my store, not anywhere else. Now for some worse news! The third and final music video in the Punk Project has been cancelled/put on near permanent hold. I honestly need to take a break from making these videos. That's not to say it's totally out of the question, I'm still considering. Right now I'm just way too busy. Yeah, that's a lot of bad news! But don't worry, What Am I is coming and it will knock your socks off.

-MW