Wednesday, December 17, 2008

New Photos and New Videos

I posted a bunch of photos from our December NYC show on the MySpace page (link at right). We've also created a new page on the website just for videos. We've added two more new ones, so there is now a music video for 'Binge' and 3 live videos from the Don Pedro show in October. You can go to the website (link at right) and click on 'Videos' on the left of the home page to check all those out.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Brooklyn Show in January

We've just confirmed that we'll be playing a show we're really excited about Friday, January 9. It'll be at Don Pedro in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one of our favorite places to play. And we'll be playing with some of our favorite bands, namely The Whores, The Naked Heroes and Runny, as well as some other bands we've never played with before - Genan and Big - who we hear are totally awesome as well. Don Pedro is at 90 Manhattan Avenue.

We started recording this weekend and are really excited by how things are going. I'll tell you more about it here as things progress.

Don't forget to check out our new live YouTube of our song 'Make the Escape,' which - as it happens - was filmed at Don Pedro. It's up now on our MySpace (link at right).

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

New Live Video: Make the Escape

Check out our new live video of the song 'Make the Escape' off our CD Sky Full of Messages, played at Don Pedro in Brooklyn. On our MySpace page (link at right).

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Halloween Antics and VB on New Compilation CD

I forgot to mention...our November 1st show in Boston was a Halloween show, as it fell on the weekend just one day after the actual holiday. This was our second year playing a Halloween show - we played one in our home neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn last year at The Wicked Monk. Both times, it's felt kinda tricky...first of all, because Daniel isn't too hot on Halloween to begin with. Second, I wouldn't want to turn someone off who might otherwise love our music, just because they don't dig my costume.

Last year seemed to work out pretty well. Daniel wore a Superman T-shirt, and so did all the drummers playing that night. I went as Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings films and I think looked decent enough. Daniel couldn't decide this year between a reprise of the Superman T-shirt or to dress up as what he is in his day job, a mathematics professor. Trouble is, of course, it's tough to discern the math professor costume from a host of other teacher-ey and business-ey-type occupations without adding on things like a slide rule, calculator, and what-not. Even then you might still get mistaken for a Physics teacher or something.

So in the end Daniel stuck with the Superman T-shirt. But it was really a moot point, because he was shirtless by the second song as always. Maybe he could argue that for the rest of the set he was the naked-while-human-and-cuddling-in-bed-with-Lois-Lane from the film Superman II or Superman III, I forget which.

I decided to go as J.D. Drew from the Boston Red Sox, because hey, we were going to be in Boston, and I could never go as a Red Sox player in New York City, I'd be lynched by Yankees fans. So I got a Red Sox T-shirt with Drew's name and number on the back, and wore the Red Sox baseball cap I already had.

The problem I ran into was twofold - one, I couldn't keep my hat on because I was bouncing around all over the place during the set. Two, we had never been to the club, the Black Water Tavern in Quincy, before, and basically the place was a Boston sports bar. So instead of looking like J.D. Drew, I looked exactly like all the pre-rock show patrons of the bar who were glued to the sports highlights on the big-screen TV's. Which...was kind of creepy. Which...hey, is what Halloween is all about! So mission accomplished, I guess.

On a more musical note, WSVN Internet Radio has just come out with Volume 21 in their CD compilation series, the WSVN Radio Hall of Fame. And we are pleased to announce that our song 'Alien Homeland,' off our latest CD Sky Full of Messages, was selected to be part of the disc.

Thanks to Eric and everyone at WSVN Internet Radio for including our song on this disc. To check it out, visit one of these links:

http://www.wsvnradio.net/local/volume21/volume21.htm http://www.wsvnradio.net/local/local-21.htm

New Yorkers, don't forget our big Manhattan show at Otto's Shrunken Head on Tuesday, December 2. It'll be here faster than you can say "I ate too much turkey!"

Friday, November 7, 2008

NYC Gig Announced and New Review

After playing only Brooklyn in the New York City area for the last several months, we are excited to announce that we will be playing in Manhattan in December. The show will be:

8:00 PM
Tuesday, December 2
at Otto's Shrunken Head
538 E 14th St Between Avenues A and B
New York NY 10009

We are friends with several bands who have played Otto's and spoken well of it, so we're grateful to them for giving us a gig and are really looking forward to rocking out there. Hopefully our fans in Queens, Manhattan and our home borough of Brooklyn can make the trek out for what will likely be our last show of 2008. There is no cover, they instead pass a tip jar for us. We hope that despite the recession our trusty fans will give generously.

Folks on the mailing list may have already seen this, but I have yet to post it on the blog. So here is an awesome review of our latest disc, Sky Full of Messages, from the nice folks at IndieMusic.com:

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In the 1980s when New York's CBGB was the musical Mecca and the Ramones reigned supreme in the punk rock world – and seemingly couldn’t have cared less – the punk rock music was as raw as an open wound highlighted by angry, in-your-face (but still decipherable) vocals, crashing symbols and drums and the heaviest guitar sounds around.

Fans of heavy metal bands such as Metallica and Megadeth will no doubt vehemently argue this point, but for many music lovers punk was (and to a large part still is) the only sound that truly encapsulated youth angst, anger and in a strange way hope for change.

One listen to Victor Bravo and that uninhibited, "we’re the new order and anything is possible," feel is back. "Final Friend" may well be the stand out song on this disc, just because of the superb, somewhat muted vocals and under produced feel. Don’t let the heavy drums and guitars get in the way – listen closely and you’ll hear these two guys who hail from Maine but in their words "escaped" to NYC have a remarkable, fresh sound.

According to the band's reps, "Alien Homeland" is the members' favorite song on the disc. The sound is splendidly harsh – something like The Clash meets The Sex Pistols and they all discover Red Bull. While I can understand the excitement the track produces, it's just a bit too jangly for my taste, teetering a bit too close to the line of wanna be Ramones. That's not to say it’s not well played, only that it’s not the stand out to me.

Some reviewers note a strong flavor of grunge in Victor Bravo’s sound. Certainly "Motherfucker" has hints of Kurt Cobain-type grunge, but it still seems like New York City punk circa 1980s to me. And what a welcome sound that is.

Review by Nancy Dunham

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Internet Radio Play, Interview, and A Big Award

Westcott Radio, an internet radio station in Syracuse, New York, has played tracks from out latest CD, Sky Full of Messages. Thanks to all the folks there for putting us out on the cyberwaves. Check them out at:

http://www.westcottradio.org/


Anti-Music.com has run an interview with Dan and myself, asking us about each of the tracks on Sky Full of Messages. You can read the full interview here:

Victor Bravo Interview on Anti-Music.com

And Dan Herman and his internet radio program and website Radio Crystal Blue continue to support VB and trumpet praise for us in a big way. Dan played 'Binge' on his August 24 program, and on his Sept. 27 show, he played both 'Final Friend' and 'Alien Homeland' off Sky Full of Messages, featuring us in his Future Stars series, 8 weeks of shows where he put the spotlight on his favorite CDs. He played us again on his Oct. 26 program, and then selected us as a Gem artist in his Dedicated Airplay feature, where the artists chosen receive featured airplay during one show, as well as permanent and highlighted placing on his show and website. VB will be featured on his show Nov. 30. And if all that weren't enough, VB charted in a tie for 4th for overall airplay and exposure on his program and website for July through September, 2008. Not too shabby.

To listen to archived shows go to: cblue.lunarpages.com

To see us featured as a Gem artist on the Dedicated Airplay list, go to: www.radiocrystalblue.com/gems.html

And to see our chart position for the Fall of 2008, go to: www.radiocrystalblue.com/chart.html

Big, big thanks to Dan Herman, his show and his website for all the expsoure and praise. We are so glad he digs our music and so grateful for helping us get the word out to more and more new VB fans.




Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Back to Bashin in Beantown

Hey I created this blog on Blogger/Blogpsot because I'm tired of spending an hour writing a blog on MySpace only to have the damn thing erase it completely! Hopefully this will work out better.

Well, here in the States, Dan and I are pretty excited about the election of our new President-to-be. I wish we could play a show tonight so we could play 'Kick You Out' in Dubya's honor. At least our incompetent stumbler-in-chief inspired the VB songs ‘Make the Escape,’ ‘Final Friend’ and ‘God Bless the USA,’ and McCain’s hapless running mate, aka Bible Spice, inspired our newest tune ‘Nuclear Palin.’ So we managed to carve some good out of all these years of evil that are thankfully now OVER.

Exciting things are happening for us...we are planning to head into the studio this month to record again, hopefully producing at least a new 3 or 4 song EP. AND we're soon going to start work to book a tour out to the midwest in January and/or February. We'll keep you posted on all of that.

This past Saturday we trekked up to Boston, with superfan Sarah tagging along, and played the Black Water Tavern in Quincy, Massachusetts. This was our first time playing this place and everyone involved had a great time. We were entertained by some very colorful, and very DRUNK characters while setting up. These included and older gentleman from the staff who talked to us non-stop although we could not understand a word he said (and it was not a language barrier we were facing there), and even older gentleman walking on two canes who played Buddy Holly songs on the jukebox in an effort to keep us from playing (missed the logic of how that would work), and a positively ancient (and VERY drunk) lady who asked me if we took requests. When I told her we didn’t (I figured she didn’t own a copy of Sky Full of Messages) she left the club immediately. Probably for the best.

Once we kicked off the show, though, the rock took over and the fun began. Our Boston Street Team co-captains John and Theresa showed up and moshed the night away with us. The club is kinda small but in a great way. Tucked into a corner we were able to bust out and make some serious noise. Those who showed up seemed to dig us, as well. The set list, for those interested:

1. Make the Escape
2. Nuclear Palin
3. Scary Mary
4. Better Lives
5. The Name Today
6. God Bless the USA
7. Alien Homeland
8. Binge
9. Motherfucker


Unfortunately we were only able to stick around for the very beginning of the set of the band that played after us, The Great Buriers, and we had to miss the entire set of Tara White, the headliners. We apologize to these two bands for having to fly out of there. We're really grateful to Brenda from Tara White for putting that show together and inviting us onto the bill.

We'll probably be doing a show somewhere in Manhattan in December, so stay tuned for time/date/place on that. Now that the election is over, we should have a fair amount of news on radio play and reviews coming up, also. So keep checking in, and as always, keep rockin'.