Yay, news!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to8j8rT4kJY
Yeah, we're pretty excited.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wow it's been too long.
Well, we were really hoping to be diligent with this blog, but I guess we haven't been doing the best job. :/ Our email newsletter remains the best way to keep up with us, so if you haven't signed up for that, do it (send an email to newsletter-subscribe@commonshiner.com). We also keep up our myspace, as well as facebook (facebook.com/commonshiner) which not a ton of people know about yet.
If you're stumbling onto this blog randomly and don't know much about us yet, probably the most important thing we can say here is that you can get our EP from last year totally free at www.SayNoToBadPop.com--I know the rest of you are sick of hearing it, but we don't want anyone to miss out.
Things are pretty great. We played Double Door here in Chicago for the first time last week, and had a show in Michigan, one in Iowa, and one just outside of Peoria. It was basically a summer mini-tour, and it felt good. We're taking a little break from bigger shows here in Chicago for a little over a month, but stay tuned, as our next show (likely in September) is bound to be a big one. I can't say anything until it's finalized, but it will be in a great venue.
Also, stay tuned for news about SayNoToBadPop. We are just in the beginning stages of turning it into a broader site (ie: one focused on good music, not just CS).
We love you all. Your support overwhelms us.
always,
mike/CS
If you're stumbling onto this blog randomly and don't know much about us yet, probably the most important thing we can say here is that you can get our EP from last year totally free at www.SayNoToBadPop.com--I know the rest of you are sick of hearing it, but we don't want anyone to miss out.
Things are pretty great. We played Double Door here in Chicago for the first time last week, and had a show in Michigan, one in Iowa, and one just outside of Peoria. It was basically a summer mini-tour, and it felt good. We're taking a little break from bigger shows here in Chicago for a little over a month, but stay tuned, as our next show (likely in September) is bound to be a big one. I can't say anything until it's finalized, but it will be in a great venue.
Also, stay tuned for news about SayNoToBadPop. We are just in the beginning stages of turning it into a broader site (ie: one focused on good music, not just CS).
We love you all. Your support overwhelms us.
always,
mike/CS
Monday, January 5, 2009
Happy New Year! and then some.....
Well let me be the first to say Happy New Year to everyone! We got back from out little stint in Columbus yesterday, and it was pretty awesome. For those of you who don't know, our friends in Columbus (we call them "the Geese") have been running an organization that basically brings together artists of all types - Music, Photography, Painting, Cooking, Crafting, Architecture, Comedy, Poetry, Playwrights,.....the list goes on. Their organization is called Wild Goose Creative. We totally support them and think you should check them out, go to their website: wildgoosecreative.com
The past 2 years they've held a New Years Festival, which we've been lucky enough to play at. And it was just 4 days of pure fun and learning about everything from cheese to woodworking to local art galleries and shops.
So, as we head into this new year, Common Shiner will be taking the month of January off to recharge, work on new stuff, and basically get our act together and plan for the year ahead (and for some of us, find jobs). But don't worry, we'll still be out and about in Chicago, we won't be holing ourselves up in our apartments.
In the meantime, if you haven't done so, you can go over to SayNoToBadPop.com to download our latest EP, "EPs Never Have Titles" for free!
And be excited, because this year we're planning on playing more festivals, having more mini-tours east, west, north, and hopefully south, and will be trying to play more shows in more places than we have ever before. So just keep us in your thoughts, prayers and headphones, and we hope to see you soon!
Jake
cslovesyou
The past 2 years they've held a New Years Festival, which we've been lucky enough to play at. And it was just 4 days of pure fun and learning about everything from cheese to woodworking to local art galleries and shops.
So, as we head into this new year, Common Shiner will be taking the month of January off to recharge, work on new stuff, and basically get our act together and plan for the year ahead (and for some of us, find jobs). But don't worry, we'll still be out and about in Chicago, we won't be holing ourselves up in our apartments.
In the meantime, if you haven't done so, you can go over to SayNoToBadPop.com to download our latest EP, "EPs Never Have Titles" for free!
And be excited, because this year we're planning on playing more festivals, having more mini-tours east, west, north, and hopefully south, and will be trying to play more shows in more places than we have ever before. So just keep us in your thoughts, prayers and headphones, and we hope to see you soon!
Jake
cslovesyou
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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
(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
Sunday, November 9, 2008
From the Casino
Sorry for the lack of posting recently. We've had a pretty crazy month and a half, however, after this, things should slow down a little bit for the next few months. I'm typing this from our room in Turtle Creek Casino, and it's snowing like crazy outside. Our first snow of the year, and we're not even in Chicago to experience it, though it is lovely here nevertheless.
We've decided this year to take a Winter break for Christmas and the month of January. We've been going at it pretty hard for well over a year now (close to two even), and we wanted to take some time to recharge our batteries, and also give us a chance to practice with a little less urgency. Most of our practices recently have been with the intention of getting songs ready for a particular gig, so we all agreed that it would be good for us to just play music together, develop some new songs, and re-develop our sound. So take a look a the next few shows we have coming up and make sure to come hang out with us before we take a break.
I also realized that we never really updated you on the end of our tour. We capped it off playing at Little River Casino in Manistee, MI and then headed back to our hometown to play our first show at Martyr's.
Can I bare my soul a little bit? One of the really frustrating things about trying to really make it in a band is that your worth from the persepective of industry people and venues is completely based on how many people you draw out to the shows you play. This does make sense in a way, but it's hard to not assume that your talent is not linked to your draw. And getting people to come out to shows is really hard to do, especially with 4 guys who aren't PR experts by any stretch.
I'm never stressed out these days about how we play, but I am always nervous about how many people come out. With each show that we have poor attendance, it's hard for me not to think that that must be a sign that we're just not that good. Even from our friends these days, it seems that about 5% of the people who say they will come to shows actually come. And I can't blame them, really, as I don't go to a lot of stuff that my friends are in either. But I do find myself being very jealous sometimes of people who do not have to rely on so many other people to be deemed successful.
One thing so refreshing about being on tour was that there wasn't really an expectation on us to bring people out to shows, and instead, we made fans with people who were there.
So with all that in mind, we've decided to change our PR mindset a little bit, and actually for real advertise. We're not sure exactly how that will look yet, but we'll probably use the month of January to do that, so keep an eye out.
And just so it's clear, regardless of whether or not you're able to make it to our shows, we love you and hope that our music has brought you joy, hope, thoughtfulness, or just something meaningful.
We've decided this year to take a Winter break for Christmas and the month of January. We've been going at it pretty hard for well over a year now (close to two even), and we wanted to take some time to recharge our batteries, and also give us a chance to practice with a little less urgency. Most of our practices recently have been with the intention of getting songs ready for a particular gig, so we all agreed that it would be good for us to just play music together, develop some new songs, and re-develop our sound. So take a look a the next few shows we have coming up and make sure to come hang out with us before we take a break.
I also realized that we never really updated you on the end of our tour. We capped it off playing at Little River Casino in Manistee, MI and then headed back to our hometown to play our first show at Martyr's.
Can I bare my soul a little bit? One of the really frustrating things about trying to really make it in a band is that your worth from the persepective of industry people and venues is completely based on how many people you draw out to the shows you play. This does make sense in a way, but it's hard to not assume that your talent is not linked to your draw. And getting people to come out to shows is really hard to do, especially with 4 guys who aren't PR experts by any stretch.
I'm never stressed out these days about how we play, but I am always nervous about how many people come out. With each show that we have poor attendance, it's hard for me not to think that that must be a sign that we're just not that good. Even from our friends these days, it seems that about 5% of the people who say they will come to shows actually come. And I can't blame them, really, as I don't go to a lot of stuff that my friends are in either. But I do find myself being very jealous sometimes of people who do not have to rely on so many other people to be deemed successful.
One thing so refreshing about being on tour was that there wasn't really an expectation on us to bring people out to shows, and instead, we made fans with people who were there.
So with all that in mind, we've decided to change our PR mindset a little bit, and actually for real advertise. We're not sure exactly how that will look yet, but we'll probably use the month of January to do that, so keep an eye out.
And just so it's clear, regardless of whether or not you're able to make it to our shows, we love you and hope that our music has brought you joy, hope, thoughtfulness, or just something meaningful.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Unauthorized Biography
I had a rather transcendent moment today. I was watching the almost-gimmicky "Front to Back" reunion of Ben Folds Five. (Front to Back is a new mypspace-sponsored thing where a broken-up band gets back together for one night to perform the songs from one of their CDs--you guessed it--front to back). BF5 performed probably their most critically-acclaimed album, Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner for the show, which was recorded just over a month ago in Chapel Hill where the band started, and the video is now on myspace. Folds joked, "If I had known about this gig ten years ago, I would've sequenced [the songs on] the record a little differently."
Anyway, I was watching this performance of this downright amazing album and there was something so melancholy. Not terrible, just melancholy. I think I usually find it a bit depressing to watch a group who did (past tense) something immensely successful try to do (present tense) it again. Sometimes it just feels like a sad attempt to relive it or something. Not that I think in this case that it was at all a narcissistic endeavor on their parts--proceeds went to charity after all. But when they were performing "Don't Change Your Plans" at one moment I realized that Ben's voice was still conveying enough honesty to suggest this song still held something for him. That ten years later, this could still be quite a song to perform. And even with all the gimmicky, publicity stunt-ness of it; even with a trumpet soloist apparently from the college they were performing at and a cheering girlfriend in the audience; even with a crowd probably full of people who didn't even know who Ben Folds was when the original album came out... a song stood out as transcendent art. Every once and a while I seem to need to be reminded of the power of a song.
Let us write music that will still be something in ten years. And let that always, always, be our prayer.
Does anybody read this blog?
Anyway, I was watching this performance of this downright amazing album and there was something so melancholy. Not terrible, just melancholy. I think I usually find it a bit depressing to watch a group who did (past tense) something immensely successful try to do (present tense) it again. Sometimes it just feels like a sad attempt to relive it or something. Not that I think in this case that it was at all a narcissistic endeavor on their parts--proceeds went to charity after all. But when they were performing "Don't Change Your Plans" at one moment I realized that Ben's voice was still conveying enough honesty to suggest this song still held something for him. That ten years later, this could still be quite a song to perform. And even with all the gimmicky, publicity stunt-ness of it; even with a trumpet soloist apparently from the college they were performing at and a cheering girlfriend in the audience; even with a crowd probably full of people who didn't even know who Ben Folds was when the original album came out... a song stood out as transcendent art. Every once and a while I seem to need to be reminded of the power of a song.
Let us write music that will still be something in ten years. And let that always, always, be our prayer.
Does anybody read this blog?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
East Coast tour comes to a close.. Homecoming bash at Martyrs this Sunday!
Well, I'll leave it to one of the other guys to really put the cap on this.. but for the most part, our time on the road is over for this one. It was a fantastic tour though; you hear horror stories from other bands about stuff getting stolen or cars having problems or booking contracts being broken by managers/venues... and we didn't really have any of that. Other than Morgan, Vij and I being sick at points, it went incredibly smoothly. So we're pretty grateful.
In case you're in Chicago and hadn't heard, we have our big Tour Homecoming show coming up on Sunday at Martyrs. We don't really want to get in the habit of using this blog for show announcements or whatever, but this is a bigger show for us (arguably the biggest we've played in Chicago yet). It's been hard to really promote it at all because we've been gone and working on a lot of other stuff, so.. we just wanted to get the word out. :) We fully stand behind the other acts playing on Sunday too, they're really great. Sherri-Anne & Bird we met at an open mic, Micah Walk Band we played with at Cubby a couple months ago. Good times.
In other news, the lyrics "Pizza of my eye" and "BMX bike of my life" completely ruin a couple Motion City Soundtrack songs for me.
In case you're in Chicago and hadn't heard, we have our big Tour Homecoming show coming up on Sunday at Martyrs. We don't really want to get in the habit of using this blog for show announcements or whatever, but this is a bigger show for us (arguably the biggest we've played in Chicago yet). It's been hard to really promote it at all because we've been gone and working on a lot of other stuff, so.. we just wanted to get the word out. :) We fully stand behind the other acts playing on Sunday too, they're really great. Sherri-Anne & Bird we met at an open mic, Micah Walk Band we played with at Cubby a couple months ago. Good times.
In other news, the lyrics "Pizza of my eye" and "BMX bike of my life" completely ruin a couple Motion City Soundtrack songs for me.
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