Common Shiner Loves You

Hey everyone. So Morgan and I have tried (with nice words and then with not so nice words and then with fists) to get Jake and Vijay to blog, but I think we can all agree, they're not so good with words anyway.

(Just kidding?)

:)

Anyway, if I may be brief--that's usually a joke with me--I think we're all pretty excited about SayNoToBadPop.com and the new EP and the free-ness. Truly excited; no hype here (we save that for the email newsletters). It's exciting to have new recordings in the first place, let alone to know they'll be in anyone's hands who wants them. The goal is to get the word out in Chicago this winter as much as possible, so we can see what kind of listenership we can (or can't) get in this city.

Along with the upped PR responsibility of all this comes a break from the traditional show-each-month feel. We won't be back on the scene until February, which, if I may say without offending, feels great. It means two very major things to me:
1) The ability to practice--and perhaps write--without the pressure of having a gig in the immediate future. Often we have aimed to have more involved songwriting practices but inevitably they turn into strict rehearsals of songs we already know to "prepare" for whatever gig is coming up. This gives us a break from that pressure.
2) And I think the guys feel me on this one... No loading in and out our equipment in below-freezing temperatures and unforgiving winds. At least not for another month or two. Next time we have to do this horrendous task, we'll be able to say "hey, only a couple more months of this!"

I catch myself thinking recently how surreal this journey has been. That I would go from being a theatre major with plans for an acting career to a musician with little time realistically for such things, and yet living in the same city I always wondered if I'd end up in. We moved here just over a year ago, but to some degree (to me at least) it feels like it's been closer to three years. We've grown and pined and ached and blossomed so much in the past 13 or 14 months. I hear radiators at 6am, I've found 10 different Thai places within five minutes from our apartment, and I know all the major streets in this city.. and about a million more things that are pretty awesome/random to be able to say. Grand Rapids seems more distant than I thought it would in a year's time. But these things grow us, no? I've had thoughts like this a lot before I guess, but somehow the awareness is heightened in the past few weeks somehow.

Cold weather does that to me. My whole being slows down in the cold the same way that atoms do, and my brain has more time to process thoughts that fly around even a tad slower. Sometimes good, sometimes not so. Happy Holidays.

If anyone reads this before 10am EST on Thursday, December 11, pray / send good thoughts for Morgan's mom, who is scheduled to undergo fairly serious heart surgery today.

(This wasn't so brief, was it? Huh. Go figure.)

love always,
mike/CS