As promised, a post-Labor Day bit of bloggage...although, in the interest of full disclosure, I am actually typing this ON Labor Day, with the windows open in the house for the first time in months. We've apparently been granted a reprieve from the heat, at least for the remainder of this holiday, which I'll gladly accept at current face value.
OK, while you wouldn't know it unless I volunteered the information, I walked away from my keyboard for nearly 15 minutes, to run to the corner store in the interest of procuring a caffeinated beverage. I accomplished my mission, and I will now proceed; hopefully sans interruption, with my recap of the past week's events.
There has been so much going on that it's going to be hard to cover it all without losing my train of thought, but I think I'll start with the most left-field development, regarding the impending release of a new Bombshell Crush CD. For those of you not in-the-know, Bombshell Crush is the band I joined when I left Best Of Seven, and moved to Nashville in 2003. We had a great 2-year run, that unfortunately spiraled out of our control, due to personal issues and the resulting lineup changes they spawned. By the end, we were operating at such a diminished capacity that our singer's sudden departure was, in effect, a mercy killing.
Our "final show" was played with only one original member on stage, ME, along with my former Best Of Seven bandmate Shane Tassart filling in(and doing a damn fine job, I might add) on vocals, along with the other 3/5ths of BC's short-lived MKII lineup: JD Garner, Henry Go, & Phil Kring. This was not the way any of us wanted to "go out".
Still, out we went, and fORMER was born, first with Henry, Tony Higbee(on guitar) and Daniel Braswell on drums for a Nashville Rock: Stripped show, then Henry, Patrick & I along with my buddy Jason Herndon for a couple of shows, and eventually with Billy & JD Garner in the fold for our first EP and a long stretch of trying to make the name stick. We went through a few more growing pains, rotating guitar players in and out and back again, with even Billy & Patrick being "formerly of fORMER", before settling in with the current(+Lee Coram) in 2008, and we've managed to not kill each other since, instead opting for the occasional full-band hiatus to keep us friendly.
Ultimately though, we knew there was a contingent of folks anxiously awaiting a Bombshell Crush reunion, and in 2010, through a strange series of events that even I can't recall in much detail, it was arranged. The rehearsals went off without a hitch, water passed under the bridge with surprising ease, and we delivered a show every bit as good as we ever had, if I do say so myself. Personally, I figured that to be the end of it, but as usual, something came along, a year and a half down the line that had us up there again, this time for a quick, show-closing set at the Jessi Baker benefit. In my attempts to assimilate with the crowd during a ridiculously drawn-out midsection of the evening, I drank enough to ensure that I would be the last one to reveal any details of our supposed performance. In other words, it's still a haze to me, but fun seemed to be had by all, and no threats of any kind were leveled at me, so I'm pretty confident we were either competent enough to deliver, or so unintentionally hilarious that we entertained for all the wrong reasons. I'm cool with either option, although I would prefer door number one.
Talk of doing another show was immediately bandied about, but with work on the new fORMER record nearing completion & eventual release, and Tony's band Caprice about to bid adieu to the masses, it seemed like the wrong time to take on the BC ghost. In spite of this, I contacted Johnny at Demon Doll Records, who had handled releases for some friends of ours, and inquired about his company re-releasing the first Bombshell Crush self-titled full-length, with 6 or 7 additional, unreleased tracks from the Broken Down EP(along with a possible "lost" track that we never completed), as a single, remastered CD. He bit, and contracts were signed, with an eye toward a late 2011/early 2012 release. We're still mulling over title ideas, and getting artwork together, as well as waiting to see if the tracks from the "lost" tune "The Urge" can be recovered and converted to ProTools, so Michael, Tony, & I can add vocals and whatever other embellishments may yet be needed. Whatever the outcome of such sonic archaeology, this stuff will finally see the light of day in a few months, and we'll most likely do a show around that time to promote it, if we can get our schedules to jive. Everyone seems game for it, so I'd say it's a safe bet it'll happen.
In other release news, "The Kids Deserve Cable" from fORMER has hits the streets. We received them just in time for our show at Mercy Lounge this past Wednesday, and we moved some pretty healthy numbers at The Warehouse(Thanks, Clarksville!) on Friday, during night one of Souzapalooza. Now, speaking of Friday, I would like to address one nagging issue. This bill was originally set to include another act that our bassist Henry also playED for. There were some reservations on said act's part about Henry performing with 2 bands in one night. Why? I'm not exactly sure, as we would have had to deal with the same scenario, and none of us were concerned. Whatever the case may have been, Henry was made aware of their displeasure, in no uncertain terms, and was inspired to tender his resignation as a member of their band....but not before making it clear that he would be willing to finish out any and all commitments on the book, which would be the PROFESSIONAL way to handle such a situation. Unfortunately, that professionalism was not reciprocated, and they cancelled their appearance, citing their Henry's resignation as the reason they COULD NOT play. This excuse was again floated via email, to a production company filming a documentary about the festival, calling Henry out as "unprofessional". Now, I've been playing music for a long time, and in my experience, airing the kind of dirty laundry I just did is completely uncool, but I thought it might serve to illustrate a little more fairly just what Henry's side of things was, since he was pretty much thrown under the bus by his ex-"bandmates" for no good reason, other than what appears to be some weird from of possessive, childish jealousy, over a guy playing occasionally with a group he's been a part of for over 7 years. These are my 2 cents, if you need a quarter, call Hank's old bosses.
Back to the CD, the reviews we've received so far have been great, and our online sales are kicking ass. Digital availability is right around the corner, so stay tuned for status updates on that. We're already well ahead of the game for our next release, and I've been writing and demoing a few things this week to keep on the shelve while we work this record for a few months. Like I said in a previous blog, we're even pulling a few things from The Great Affairs catalog and cranking them up a notch or two, so we can make sure every set is unique. It looks like we're headlining our next local show, on October 1st at 12th & Porter, so we may play long that night, and throw some curve balls, if everyone seems to be feeling it. Get your requests in now, and we'll see what we can do about dusting off an oddity or two....or 6.
Between now and then, I might start my new job as an "official" blogger for Times Newspapers, in Illinois, and I'll let everyone know where and when my musings will appear. My column will focus on music, and life in music, so apparently I won't have to apply myself too hard to drum up content. This is a cool opportunity, having barely graduated from high school, and I'm really looking forward to this "independent journalist" gig....plus, my Mom is proud, so that's always nice.
Speaking of Illinois, The Morton Pumpkin Festival is on my radar, and I'm headed home to partake in pumpkin delicacies for a few days next week. You can most likely find me in the beer tent. I'll be the guy trying to keep his brother from getting thrown out.
We're coming back to Kentucky in November, Bowling Green, to be specific, and we're looking into Cincinnati dates, but we've got plenty of open slots, so bands & promoters hit us up, 'cause we've got swag to move, so we can buy more swag to move, and so on......where do we need to play? You tell us, and we'll try to get there.
Alright, I've gotta run, and try to make the most out of this overcast finale to our 3-day weekend.
Be good to yourselves,
D.