The Victor Bravo Blog

A Night I Will Never Forget

2010-05-09T12:13:00.003-04:00

We played Arlene's Grocery last night and had such a fantastic show. We paid a pretty penny to have the video staff at Arlene's videotape (do we say "tape" anymore when everything's digital now? Ah, I dunno) the entire performance, and I'm so glad we did. My hope is that we will have the full performance available for people at some point as a DVD, and that we have a song or two from it up on YouTube fairly soon. We had a great crowd of so many fans and friends come out, and I am so grateful to everyone who was there. The happy moshers got their thing going I think right from the first few notes of the set opener, "Jagged Cross", and although the lights are pretty dim on the audience at Arlene's, I saw bodies flying and careening into each other all night, with the occasional face emerging from the darkness with a smile that could light up the Empire State Building. It is a pretty special, amazing thing to be able to be a part of something like that, and this morning I am simply aglow.

There's no way I can some up in a few paragraphs what my journey has been like since the first Victor Bravo rehearsal in Boston in the fall of 2004. We've gone through line-up changes, recorded four records and released three so far, we've played Boston and Lowell Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and throughout the Midwest U.S.. People have come up to us personally at shows, sent us e-mails from Arizona and Hong Kong, written us MySpace messages from Kansas City and Canada, bought our CD while living in Germany. We've had more rehearsals in Allston Massachusetts, Staten Island, the Lower East Side and Midtown Manhattan than anyone could possibly count. I've had so many hours, days, weeks, months and years of fun and joy from this experience it's almost overwhelming to think about.

We're not exactly sure what the future holds for Victor Bravo at this point. I will be working on my solo musical work, and both Dan and I will be heavily involved in our new band Atomic Shotgun. We have finished recording and mixing the Victor Bravo record after Hammer Meets Fire, so hopefully we'll be releasing that somehow, some way in the not-too-distant future. Make sure you're on our e-mail list (you can as always sign up at victorbravo.com) and we'll be sure to keep you posted.

Before I go, I want to take some time (I know I am legendary for my lack of brevity as a writer) to thank everyone who has made this band and all these amazing experiences over the last 6 years possible for Dan and myself. I have had more fun doing this than anything I have ever done in my life. I know none of it would be possible without Dan and myself having the courage to create music we like, and that we feel healthily proud of, the way we wanted to make it. It took us writing, recording, rehearsing, touring, promoting, keeping track of expenses, and working our day jobs to make sure we could pay for everything, in order to make the amazing thing that is Victor Bravo possible in the first place. But at the same time, none of it would have happened without the love, support, assistance and appreciation from our friends and fans. Many of our fans are people we knew before we started the band, but so many are also people we could only have met through the band. I celebrate the courage and kindness of people who took the time to listen to our music and come to our shows, and to express their appreciation for our music and how we play it. I celebrate the selflessness and generosity of everyone who lent us a helping hand, to help us make our dream of creating a kickass rock band possible.

I won't be able to mention everyone here, but I feel the need to call out many individuals who have been so important in the journey of this band. I want to thank all of the following people personally, and this public way, to in some small part express my profound gratitude to them.

My sister Kelly, the original lead singer when we were just starting out and rehearsing in Allston, Mass., for making the excitement I felt on the day of our first rehearsal possible. Dan's long-time girlfriend, and wonderful human being in her own right, Isabelle Garbani. I have to call her out especially because from day one, I'm not sure there's been anyone who has repeatedly believed in Dan's and my talent and ability, and specifically my songwriting, as Isabelle. From the very first few rehearsals, Isabelle has been a fan, a photographer, a CD package/poster/sticker/T-shirt/flier designer, an amazing sounding board for ideas and direction. She was there last night cheering us on, just as she was years ago before we had recorded a single song or played a single show. Our friend and old bandmate from college Scott Mason, who basically put "Shut Out the Sky" together for us, traveled from San Francisco to see us play in New York, and has never been more than a phone call away whenever we have needed advice or another brain to work through a challenge.

Our first two bassists, Kelly Lannen and Abby Hennesy, who allowed us to begin becoming a real band. The person I will always consider the "real bass player" of Victor Bravo, Dani Read, who wrote, rehearsed and performed with us our first seven months of shows, for bringing her energy, spirit and creativity to two "old guys" she barely knew at the start. Two more bassists, Mark Wheeler now of The Mess Around, and Suzanne Sterne of Ruby Bullet, who played shows with us while we struggled towards a new identity as a band. Our fan in Kansas City Victoria Scrivo, who found us on MySpace all on her own when barely anyone outside New York City had even heard of us, became a hardcore fan on her first listen, and has stayed in touch with us rooting us on ever since. First our fan and now our dear friend (and bandmate in Atomic Shotgun) Scott Holcomb, the first New York guy I saw at several VB shows in a row, for his undying love and support of us and our sound.

Our awesome "landlord" Pete Vassil from Ruby Bullet, who has not only rented his phenomenal rehearsal space in The Music Building in Manhattan to us two nights a week for the most reasonably rates in the city, but has helped us with technical questions, obtaining gear and equipment, and just about anything we could think of without a moment's hesitation.

Our friends in all the New York bands we have been privileged to get to know and play with - everyone in the old Don Pedro "family" - Ken "Lemon Cookie" Shadford from Runny (who also directed and co-produced the amazing video for "Binge"); Greg Gassman, Juline "J-Lo" Koken and Matt Dundas from the Whores; and George Michael Jackson and Merica Lee from The Naked Heroes.

Corynne Wilder, who we are now privileged to be bandmates with in Atomic Shotgun, but who also came to tons of VB shows, booked shows with us while she was fronting the amazing band Afterdawn, and designed the fantastic cover for Sky Full of Messages pro bono; also Steve Station and Matty from Afterdawn; Saysha Heinzman (now in The Jamies) and Ryan D'Angelo (now in No Shirt No Shoes No Dice) from Stewart; CT Tamura, Kira Leigh and Frank (now in The August Infinity) from Shadows Lie; David Obuchowski, Kenny Appell and Matt Frey from Goes Cube; Keith Bloomgarden from Redbeard, Jeff Moore and Dead Stars; Colin Simmons and Imaginary Friends; Nick Smith and Crowds and Power; Shen and Prison Pretty; CT Thomas and Paris Mancini of The Natch!, and a special thanks to Trish Naudon Thomas of The Natch!, who took amazing photos for us, and put us in touch with some great bands in the midwest to help expand our touring; Eric Richter (now in Golden City) and The 101; Jason and LD Catastrophe from Glass Doll; Jamie and Demetra; and Marla Hooch.

I wish I could write a special sentence for each person that follows, but sadly space and time won't allow it. So I'll go by group here:

The bands who have played with us, hung out with us, put us up for a night (or two) and set up amazing shows for us across the country:

In Massachuestts - Martin Newman, James Newman, Clara Kebabian and Elizabeth Ezell from Plumerai; Meredith Shantz and Hayburner; and Brian and Wendesday Night Militia.

In Connecticut - Drew and Chris Trudeau from The Stick.

In Pennsylvania - James Alex and The Cordova Academy Glee Club; and Chris and Paris from The Horrible Truth About Me (special thanks to Casey William Gallagher for putting us up in Allentown).

In Ohio - JT and Louie aka "Sticks" from Hot Ham & Cheese and Jib Machine Records in Cleveland; Russell, "Radar" Ray, and DJ from Gem City Saints in Dayton; Eric Purtle and Dark Backward in Dayton; and Cara, Chandra and Jessica from The Revulvas in Athens/Columbus.

In Chicago - Heavy Kev and Donkey Punch.

In the Quad Cities, Illinois/Iowa - the kickass punks in Negative Edge.

In Saint Louis - Moe and Scene of Irony; and Jimi and Jessica from Girl Jimi.

In Minneapolis/St. Paul - Brue, Xtina and Roe-K from Grey Matador; and all the guys in The Dry Heaves.

Our amazing, wonderful, loyal, dedicated, hard-happy-moshing New York City fans: Jenny Gibson Schechter & Rob Schechter (who first fell for each other at a VB show - true story!), Sarah "Queen of the Mosh Pit" Valeri, Matty "Best Band in New York" DiSimone, Theresa "Sniper" Kasun; Mike Wamser, who came to shows, brought people to shows, and screamed and moshed his ass off; Jake Vogel, who not only supported us, but did several incredible shows with us fronting The Stick, recorded our MySpace single "Nuclear Palin" for us, and shot the awesome "Hammer Meets Fire" mini-documentary; Billie James; Mary "M-Unit" Lopez, who played great shows with us drumming for Prison Pretty, shot many amazing photo for us, and continues to treat us like world-famous rock stars no matter how well she gets to know us; Sara Marie Heinze (now living in Philly); my former day job cohort and guitar-talk-guy Larry Ochs; the lovely Gisela; the brash, outspoken and totally sweet Kelly Jo Johnson; Kristin Sidorak; Dani's tried-and-true pals Jeannette and Vince; Kate Evans; Jeff Grow; Jesse Teeters; my dear friend and rock Julianna Tassone Forlano; Bob "Mac" McMaster; Kate Doblick; Matt Logan; Kate Kolendo; Leslie Dock Muenzen; Justin Tatum; and my good buddy and fellow indie rock addict Aaron Simms.

To our also-amazing, also-wonderful, and also-dedicated fans across the U.S.:

In Maine - Laura Lavoie, her husband Glen and their merry band of music-loving friends; Kathryn Strand for her heartfelt support; and my cousin and good friend to both Dan and myself, Dave Nicholson.

In New Hampshire - another solid MySpace supporter, Carrie Hayward; my former day job coworkers Karen Collins, Karen Andersen, Kathy Layman, Ellen Fecteau, Rori/Justin/Jacob Boyce (who helped put the cover for Sky Full of Messages together), Mike Smith, Mike Walsh, Christian Sablock, Phil Dupuis, Tina Waterman, Kathy Hebert, Steve Sobo, Jay Desmarais, Jack Calabrese, Shea Rose and Rick Decost; and my fellow couldn't-live-without-music-friend Amanda Fratturelli.

In Boston - John Scott and Theresa Singleton, who I just can't say enough about - they feed us, they put us up, they come to the show, they cheer and holler, they listen to everything we record and interview us like they were Rolling Stone and we were Led Zeppelin - thank you, thank you, thank you both SO much; also Carrie Gill; my cousin and friend Devin Worster; and Steve Wade.

In Philadelphia - Maureen Hans, who saw to it we had an amazing night at The M Room.

In Washington, D.C. - my dear friend David Johnson, for constantly listening to all our live CD's I send him.

In the Cleveland area - Lauren Smith; and Mia and Rex Radabaugh.

In Cincinnati - my dear friends John Apanitas, Keith, Ron, Susan, Daniel, David and Cher.

In Loveland, Ohio - my former day job coworkers Sandra Ko, Joyce Taggert and Sheri Neuss.

In the Marietta/Athens, Ohio area - Tasha Dill and Leslie Taylor.

In Chicago - Kristen Williams; Emily Dugan; and Lindsay Cummings.

In the Quad Cities, Illinois/Iowa - Shawn T. Eldridge and his girlfriend Casey.

In Saint Louis, Heather and Pete Escobar, for giving us the most luxurious touring accomodations we STILL have had to date.

In Kansas City - Jeremy Trezwodek and Led Astray; Emily Lopez; and Victoria Scrivo's friends Nia and Patrick.

In Miami - Dawn Ashley Cook.

In Dallas - Christine Williams.

In Mesa, Arizona - Cheryl and Spencer Kesson.

In Idaho - Elaine Spencer.

In Washington state, my old buddy Erik Melver,who continues to send encouragement by e-mail from wherever in the world he's living at the moment.

In Ontario - another MySpace dieheard Stevey Field, for his undying enthusiasm not only for our band and punk rock in general.

All the rock club and music venue bookers who have treated us so well:

Julia Darling - Arlene's Grocery, Walter - The Continental/Trash Bar, Jake Noodles - Don Pedro, Dayna Blitz (now in Florida, but who booked 3 of our first 5 shows at Kenny's Castaways in NYC), the truly one-of-a-kind Frank Wood, Cenk & Volkan at Hangman Booking, Abby Blanchard, the entire staff at The Mission Theatre in Kansas City, and everyone at 119 Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Our two favorite internet music dudes in New York, who have supported us 100% since we first started out, Dan Herman at Radio Crystal Blue and podcaster Arthur Bouie.

All the folks behind the scenes who have helped make the magic possible: Joel Chassan in CD production in NYC, publicist Jory White in San Francisco, web marketer Sarah Cerullo in NYC, bookkeeper Susan Laurenzi in L.A., and business advisor Peter Pamela Rose in NYC.

Our now dear friend and collaborator we are so lucky to have met and continue to get to work with, our record co-producer and recording/mixing/mastering engineer Ian Love.

Special thanks as well to a few key musicians we never met who have been so inspiring and influential to us - Bob Mould of Husker Du and Sugar, Julianna Hatfield, Mac from Superchunk, Robert Poss and Susan Stenger from Band of Susans, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novaselic from Nirvana, Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters and Nirvana, Ben McMillan from Grunttruck, and Courtney Love from Hole.

And most of all, I want to publicly thank my bandmate, drummer and good friend Dan Collins, for taking the leap and going on this journey with me. It's been one hell of a ride, we'll see where it goes from here.

All the Radio

2010-04-26T14:11:00.002-04:00

Interesting times for VB. We've had our new CD, "Hammer Meets Fire" played on several dozen college & internet radio stations around the country (and world!). Check 'em out below, they're all great sites. CD available at www.victorbravo.com, iTunes, CDBaby, etc.

"Hammer Meets Fire" has been played on -- Radio Crystal Blue (Brooklyn, NY); WSVN Radio (Thornton, IL); Hussieskunk (Columbus, OH); Westcott Radio (Mattydale, NY); WBGU Bowling Green State U. (Bowling Green, OH); WOZQ (Nothampton, MA); WHCL Hamilton College (Clinton, NY); WITR Rochester Institute of Tech. (Rochester, NY); WTSC Clarkson U. (Potsdam, NY); LUVeR (Berkeley, CA); NeverEndingWonder Radio (Portland, OR); Outsight Communications (Waterford, MI); RadioCasbah.com (Asheville, NC); WESU Wesleyan U. (Middletown, CT); WUNH U. New Hampshire (Durham, NH); WRSU Rutgers U. (New Brunswick, NJ); WLVC Lebanon Valley College (Annville, PA); WCWM College of W&M (Williamsburg, VA); WMBR Mass lnst. Technology (Cambridge, MA); Radio DePaul (Chicago, IL); BearCast Radio U. Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH); AiiRadio (Azusa, CA); Punkbands.com (Chicago, IL); KULT U. Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA); and Nekkid Radio (Hastings, New Zealand (!)).

Thanks, all!

New Web Site

2010-04-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Did you notice that we've got a brand-new website in honor of our new CD? Killer design by Isabelle & Websiteforartists.com. New free tracks. Links to MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot (PLEASE add us!). Plus, the new CD, T-Shirts, and stickers are available there, too. Check it out now:

http://www.victorbravo.com/

Live Video Show Sat. May-8

2010-04-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

We've mentioned it passing before, but just to highlight it -- We've got a cool plan to video our entire live set at Arlene's Grocery NYC, Saturday May-8 at 8pm. We'll have about 3 video cameras going to catch everything. We'd love everyone we know get down there and mess stuff up. Mark yer calendar!

(If you can't wait that long to see us in person, we've got the show next Friday April 16 with Atomic Shotgun, 8:30 pm at the Delancey; benefit for Ann Arcuri. See you soon...)

Other Bands that Rock

2010-03-31T18:14:00.002-04:00

Collin here - meant to mention that I've seen several really good bands here in NYC lately. Last Wednesday I went to Arlene's Grocery and saw a band called Harvard from North Carolina, and a band called Hotel of the Laughing Tree from I'm-not-sure-where. But they were both really good, I highly recommend checking them out. Then last Thursday night a saw another amazing band from Montreal, called The City Streets. I ended up talking to those guys and hanging out with them all night, I had a total blast. I also caught their shortened set (long story) at Lit Lounge Friday night and their set at Shea Stadium (no, the little DIY art/music venue, not the baseball park which no longer exists!) in Brooklyn before they had to head back to Canada for a couple shows up there.

Dan and I went from The City Streets' gig over to Trash Bar to catch The Brooklyn What, who closed out the night with the last set of the evening. I had seen them once before at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn, and last Saturday they were even more amazing. They had a great crowd that was as into their music as any I've seen in NYC in a long time, played incredibly well with shocking energy throughout, and left everyone out of breath and in awe. I give them a "Well, done!" and encourage people to check them out.

Last night I was at Arlene's Grocery again (damn, I love that place...can't wait to play it May 8!) and saw a band I liked called Waves & Legs. It was a cool show to watch, because there were lots of issues...one of the two frontmen/singers/guitarists and the bass player were reading notes off music stands for the songs (not the first time I've seen that, but it always throws me a bit...um, learn your songs, maybe? I paid, um, 8 dollars...?). One of the frontmen (the one reading notes) broke his B string in the first song and didn't have a back-up, so the soundman ran down and handed him a Tele. Then the other frontman's guitar strap broke, and the only other one he had was too short for him, so he played the rest of the set cradling the neck of his guitar against his own neck, and playing the fretboard a few inches from his chin. But it was cool music...they used a lot of two-part harmonies, had some clever a cappella sections, and had a jammy streak that wasn't too self-indulgent and pretty much rocked. I'm also not wild about their band name, but I wouldn't mind seeing them again. They write good songs and have a great vibe on stage. Oh, I should mention the drummer was frickin' incredible, one of the best I've seen in NYC in a while.

Last night we had rehearsal for our other band Atomic Shotgun and worked on some new songs we're really excited about. I keep listening to the record we just finished with that band this past weekend and losing my mind - it sounds so good!

I'm scheduled to see our old friends in The Whores, The Naked Heroes and Runny at Trash Bar tonight. It's been a long week and I'm pretty tired. We'll see if I make it and if I do how long I last...

Acoustic Set, Live DVD Show and Hammer Meets Fire Release

2010-03-29T11:45:00.003-04:00

Hey Collin here. Just wanted to say I had a great time rushing out after Victor Bravo rehearsal and playing the acoustic night at Common Ground in NYC last night. I played "Spin Cycle" and "Scary Mary" off the new VB record Hammer Meets Fire, "Make the Escape" off Sky Full of Messages, and then was joined by my Atomic Shotgun bandmate Scott Holcomb for yet another different version of "Beautiful Wanderer," which will be on both the next (post-HMF) Victor Bravo record and the forthcoming debut LP from Atomic Shotgun. The sound system at Common Ground is just amazing, and the people there were super-friendly. I had a really great night. I also enjoyed kickass sets from Matty D, whose song "Private Ryan" is a new favorite of mine, and Scott Holcomb, who was generous enough to play "Lookout Mountain," one of my all-time favorite Drive-By Truckers tunes, and a guitar/viola set from two very talented ladies who closed out the night.

Dan and I are splitting our time these days between Victor Bravo and Atomic Shotgun, and it is so much fun to be in both these outfits that are both going full-blast. Atomic Shotgun finished recording and mixing the last 3 songs (of 10 total) for our debut LP this past weekend, and I am so pleased with what we've done. I feel like I want to thank our engineer and co-producer Ian Love every day for the rest of my life, for being so amazing at what he does, for understanding what both bands were about nearly instantaneously, and helping us sound our absolute best on these records.

On the Victor Bravo side, Dan and I continue to burn it up in rehearsals, preparing for some yet-to-be-announced touring in the April/May/June-ish timeframe, and our big blow-out show on Saturday, May 8 at Arlene's Grocery in New York City. Arlene's is one of our all-time favorite places to play and we will be filming the performance for a live DVD. We need everyone in the 5 boroughs, everyone in bus/train/driving distance of New York, and everyone who can afford to fly into Newark, LaGuardia or JFK to come into town and get to Arlene's for this one. It'll be one for the history books.

Finally, our new record and first full-length LP, Hammer Meets Fire, will have its official physical release one week from today on April 5. We are really excited to get this puppy out into the ears of the world. If you're someone we've sneak-released it to and you dig it, please help us spread the word. I checked the cover of Rolling Stone this week again and we're still not on the cover. I don't know what's wrong with those guys, they definitely need somebody to give them a head's up. :)

Until next time keep rockin', you know we will.

OurStage Quarterfinals

2010-03-25T13:40:00.004-04:00

Doing pretty well at Ourstage at the moment. "Into Debt" off the new album is in the Top 100 Punk list for the month, with quarterfinals voting starting now. If you like that sort of thing (listen to two random songs for a few seconds, pick which one is better, rinse-and-repeat) consider going to vote in their Punk category and you'll see us at some point.

www.ourstage.com

On Air at WBGU, WSVN

2010-03-23T16:21:00.004-04:00

At WBGU Bowling Green Ohio last week, our new album Hammer Meets Fire cracked the Top-5 most played albums in the Punk Department for the week. (One step behind Flogging Molly, the sons-of-bitches.) Thanks to Matt and the guys!

And, our friend Eric at WSVN in Illinois get the new CD Hammer Meets Fire on the air, with the note, "ROCKIN' as usual.. thanks guys!" No, thank you, Eric. :-)

Other radio adds for the week -- Radio Crystal Blue in Brooklyn NY, WOZQ Northampton MA, Outsight Radio Waterford MI, WRSU Rutgers in NJ, Westcott Radio in Mattydale NY, and Radio DePaul U. in Chicago. Kick ass.

Another Binge

2010-03-11T13:28:00.002-05:00

The video for our song "Binge" is currently in the OurStage Top 100 Hard Rock Videos. Big thanks to Ken Shadford who created that for us 2 years back now. Pretty great that as we release our new CD "Hammer Meets Fire", people are also discovering our older stuff. Yowza!

http://www.ourstage.com/tracks/MVVNGFBWFUVL-binge

On Air at WESU

2010-03-02T13:36:00.004-05:00

The new Victor Bravo CD Hammer Meets Fire just got added into the new-release rotation at Wesleyan University, 88.1 FM WESU in Middleton CT. We have it on good authority that the music director officially labelled the disk "two-piece kicking it like it's the 60's, 80's and 90's - for lovers of ROCK".

Yeah, screw the 70's!! :) http://www.wesufm.org/

VB Ends #8 in OurStage Punk

2010-03-01T14:18:00.001-05:00

Well, the monthly voting ended at OurStage with our song "Into Debt" finishing at #8 in Punk (out of 295 or something like that). Of course, winning would be best, but it's still a Top 10 for Feb-2010 and we like that. Thanks to anyone who went and judged to help us out!

VB Tops OurStage

2010-02-26T16:28:00.001-05:00

Today we're #5 in the OurStage Punk category with our new-CD release "Into Debt". That's a hell of a thing, because hundreds of people submit every month now. Over the weekend (between now and Mar-1) they'll choose the winner. If you like that sort of thing, go hit there and hit "Judge". You can't vote for us directly, but maybe we'll pop up in your random listening:

http://www.ourstage.com/contests/3815-punk

On Air at WBGU

2010-02-26T13:29:00.002-05:00

Just got the new playlist from the Punk department at WBGU 88.1 FM, got played a bunch of times there last week. That's at the huge state university in Bowling Green, OH, thanks to Matt and all the guys there!

http://wbgufm.com/

On Air at WCWM

2010-02-19T16:51:00.004-05:00

Quoth the WCWM music director (90.9 FM, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg VA): "I love the album! We'll be putting it on rotation this Tuesday."

Live Paintings by Theresa Kasun

2010-02-16T15:02:00.007-05:00

Our most excellent friend Theresa Kasun did some "live paintings" of us a while back (actually did the paintings while we were in action at our rehearsal space). We couldn't keep them to ourselves, so check 'em out!

Tour Show 8 (Collin Solo Acoustic): Cincinnati

2010-01-22T14:29:00.002-05:00

So Saturday night (Jan. 16) Dan got the night off, we put him up in the luxurious TravelLodge in Newport, Kentucky, right near the banks of the Ohio River and a stone's throw from the legendary indie rock venue the Southgate House (where, I'm told, the Tommy Gun was also invented). My friends Susan and Daniel put together a wonderful dinner and music party at Daniel's new house in Cincinnati. This was one of three last-minute bookings for the tour (the other two being St. Louis and Dayton, OH) and was the last performance of it for myself. The trip back East would start the next morning.

I can't really describe in words how wonderful and special that night was. It seems whenever I move in my life - and I have moved many, many times! - I intend to keep closely in touch with so many of the wonderful people I know there, and then when I get to my new hometown my life carries me away with all the activities, people and events I find there. My time in Cincinnati (I lived there from August 2000 to May of 2001 and from February 2002 to February of 2004) is and always will be very special to me. I feel like it's the place where I finally started to get my shit together as an adult and put my life on the right track. And the friends I met there were really provided the support I needed to do that - I certainly don't think I'd be where I am today without them.

But as I said like many of my moves, I lost touch with many of my good friends there, and as I also said the whole party was being thrown together at the last minute. So I had no idea how many people would be able to make it or how the night would proceed exactly. I was just trusting that it would be whatever night it needed to be, and it would all be good.

In fact it surpassed my wildest expectations...almost all of my closest pals from my days living there were able to make it, some with new significant others that I had heard about but not met yet. There were a few people - new friends of my old friends - that I had not met previously but who were a welcome addition to those gathered.

Daniel was the consummate host and had wonderful snacks for everyone, followed by an amazing lasagna dinner. He had his massive living room all set up perfectly with chairs for everyone to sit and listen to the music.

It was the first time I ever played a whole set acoustic. I have done some 2-or-3-song short sets at open mics in New York, and played a 3-song set to open a Cordova show in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania this past summer. It was a real treat. I don't remember the exact order, I sort of made the set list up on the fly. But here is my recollection of the songs I played:

Jagged Cross

Toxic Tornado

Name Today

Scary Mary

Binge

Alien Homeland

Beautiful Wanderer

Final Friend

Into Debt

Make the Escape

The Door

I suppose it's obvious, but it is quite a different experience to play the songs without the distortion, the amplifier, the screaming vocals and the thunderous crashing of drums. As many have said about other rock songs stripped down to acoustic, you do get to hear something different - the song and lyrics at their very essence, I guess. And it's nice to play and enjoy them that way. I love the full Victor Bravo experience, but I think the songs acoustically have a different feel that is great to enjoy as well.

Everyone was so attentive and appreciative, it really blew me away. I am really grateful to everyone who came, for their support and their expressions of appreciation. After many a night where Dan and I were banging away, seemingly just for the bartender and the sound guy, it was a real treat to have a room full of people locked in on every note and word. Special thanks to my friend Susan for helping organize it and to Daniel for being such an amazing host.

Sunday morning we left Cincinnati and drove to Harrisubrug, Pennsylvania, listening to the NFL playoff games on the radio as we rode. We stayed in a Motel 6 there, and then Monday morning completed the trip to NYC. I finally dropped our trusty rented Ford Explorer off at AVIS in midtown Manhattan Tuesday morning, and the January 2010 Victor Bravo Tour officially came to an end.

I feel like I could write about this tour for pages and pages. I'm really grateful to Dan for posting a photo and a summary after every show. I'm glad there's a good record here of what we did and all the shows we put on. I don't know what 2010 holds for us but I'm excited about the possibilities. I think we've grown to become a pretty damn good rock band that can put on one hell of a show any night, any place, any time. The shows were all great and special in their own way, but the Dayton show will probably go down as one of our best ever. It was certainly one of the most fun to play.

Thanks to everyone who helped us, came out to a show, took us out for dinner, gave us directions, recommended daytime activities, put us up for the night, bought a CD or T-shirt, gave us words of appreciation, support or encouragement. Thanks as always to all the venues that graciously asked us to play, all the sound engineers who worked our set and helped us sound great, all the door people who took the money and paid us at the end of the night, all the other bands who played with us and helped create a night of awesome rock music, and all our friends who helped us book the shows in the first place. We're grateful to everyone but should especially call out Trish and Abby in New York; Martin in Boston; JT and Louie ("Sticks") in Cleveland; Heavy Kev and Brian in Chicago; Moe in St. Louis; Brue, Xtina and Roe-K in Minneapolis; Ray, Russell, Angie and Eric in Dayton; and again Susan and Daniel in Cincinnati. We couldn't have done it without you all, and we thank you so much.

We've got some cool Atomic Shotgun shows coming up...this Sunday at 8pm at Otto's Shrunken Head in NYC. Wednesday Feb. 17 we're scheduled to play Fontana's in NYC with Plumerai from Boston and Brooklyn's Imaginary Friends. At the end of this month we're scheduled to begin recording with Atomic Shotgun as well, working with our good friend and co-producer Ian Love. We have a Victor Bravo show Feb.5 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and more news to come in the coming weeks, I'm sure. Let's all keep rockin'!

Tour Show 7: Dayton

2010-01-16T15:21:00.000-05:00

Last night we had a simply ecstatic show in Dayton, OH. You know, you play a lot of shows in a lot of different circumstances, and if you're lucky you get a night where simply everything fires on all cylinders and we got it Friday night here.

First I'll say we're lucky as outsiders touring around, I think it's immensely hard for anyone living in a given place to gauge exactly how strong their local scene is. Here's my insight to central OH: if I were a record label A&R guy I would just swoop into Dayton and sign everyone I could before anyone found out what I was doing.

So where we played was in a very cool part of town at a bar/restaurant/music venue called Oregon Express. When we first walked in, the place was full of people sitting eating pizza and we had one of our "oh, geez, look at this" moments. But when things got going everyone in the place was completely into the music, everyone packed out of the bar area to listen, just a really intense "we f***'in care about good rock music!" vibe. That's a real treat.

Before us went the Gem City Saints, who are seriously great and rocking harder every time we see them. We played with them last summer in Athens, OH, and they're the ones who got us on the bill at very short notice. Russell, Ray, and Angie completely roared in this place, it sounded like major acts in NYC venues. Russell's vocals on his newest songs remind me a lot of Superchunk, one of our favorite bands ever. They're all great guys.

Then we went, and it was flat-out our best performance of the whole tour. Hard to describe it more than that. The sound in the place was great, the stage was practically designed for our two-piece act, we felt immensely tight and solid and on time and everything. Really pounded the hell out of everything, almost hard to recall exactly what was happening at the time. Stupendous comments afterwards, we had a whole mess of people coming up to us afterwards with really great and well-informed stuff to say about what we were doing.

End of the show was Dark Backwards, who left the both of us completely slack-jawed. Just amazing. These guys are both incredible musicians and really have an enormous, big, hard, powerful sound that they're willing to just crunch on through the whole set. Fantastic guitar structures. Eric's one of the strongest rock singer's I've ever witnessed. They just bleed a love of real, old-school rock. If you told me these guys were signed to a major label and touring nationally I'd believe it. And to top it off they're great to hang out with -- put together the overall show and supported our act and couldn't stop complimenting our stuff. That's the kind of night all this stuff is about.

Random added notes: This is actually the last band gig of the tour, great way to close it down. (Collin has an acoustic-only gig at a friend's party in Cincinnatti Saturday night.) After the show, I got told that about half the people in the packed room were other drummers (!), and everyone was super generous with saying how impressed they were with my playing. (So glad I found out afterwards, because I consider Midwest drummers to be uniformly amazing.) Also, our sensational sound guy at Oregon Express was Tim Berger, who's won an Emmy award for scoring documentaries, and may be in the running for an Oscar in music this year. That's the kind of high-powered karma we seem to be producing these days; can't wait to play again!

Tour Show 6: Minneapolis

2010-01-15T05:01:00.000-05:00

Just got done playing the gig here in Minneapolis' Club Underground. Man, what a great space for us... cool vibe, perfect stage size, terrific sound system. Probably one of the most fun sets for us to personally play so far on the tour, most everything seemed really solid and really tight. We played between the Dry Heaves and Fuzzy Machete, both of whom are really interesting bands with lots of great stuff ahead of them, we're sure.

Enormous thanks to everyone in Grey Matador, who deserve a lot of love from us. Props to Brue for setting up the show and taking care of us on the business end, Xtina for letting us crash at her place for two days and taking excellent pictures, and Roe-K for yelling at us a bunch while we were playing. If you can get Brue to hook you up with a show then you're among the lucky on Earth. Hopefully we can have those guys back in NYC this summer sometime.

Now comes a 12-hour overnight drive back east to Dayton, OH for a gig tomorrow night with the Gem City Saints. Wish us luck!

Travel Day

2010-01-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

Today was another travel day, from Chicago to Minneapolis, about 7 hours of driving. As usual I was almost entirely unconscious (see a pattern?). Playlist was heavy on L7, Raconteurs, and Gruntruck (!!!). Tonight we're staying with Christina here in Minneapolis, who plays bass in Gray Matador. (We also listened to their last NYC show as we drove into town, great stuff.)

Yesterday when we were at the art museum in Chicago, we were visiting the gift shop. One of the items is a "Pop Quiz Math Clock" which I couldn't help but pick up and point out that it has two mistakes on it. The counter girl overheard me and was really surprised. Just travelling cross-country and disturbing people, that's my job.

In other news, at some point in the last few days we caught part of "Walk the Line" (Johnny Cash movie) with commentary during the ad breaks. One of the breaks had a comment like, "These guys didn't start using speed for some 60's consciousness-building experiment... they did it because it's so hard to get out of a show at 1am and drive all night to the next city for another gig." Huh, you don't say.

Tour Show 5: Chicago (Again)

2010-01-13T05:52:00.000-05:00

This afternoon we were in Chicago with some time to kill, so we spent a few hours at the Art Institute of Chicago, most specifically in the Modern American wing. Some really great stuff there, spent some time discussing what it's like being artist... checked out American Gothic, Nighthawks, and freaky-ass stuff like Albright's Picture of Dorian Gray.

So tonight we headlined a show at Chicago's Elbo Room. Immensely cool rock venue, great atmosphere, fantastic sound system, very cool staff, great sound guy, etc., etc. If I lived in the area I could see myself actually spending quite a bit of time there. We went after T-Bird Magera and Mike Mains and the Branches... very impressive acts, Mike & co. were apparently missing two members but still very powerful, great musicians. We played pretty well, Collin in particular was really psyched afterwards and we got a bunch of great comments. Also, we had this whole set recorded, maybe we'll post a track or two from the gig later when we get the chance.

Thanks to Jen & Adrienne for hanging out afterwards and putting us up again tonight. Photos by Aaron, multitalented sound guy at the Elbo Room.

Travel Day

2010-01-12T15:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we drove from St. Louis back to Chicago for a second show here. Tonight we're headlining at the Elbo Room on N. Lincoln Ave.

I was sleeping most of yesterday, too. There was a big long slice of Superchunk followed by the latest Dead Stars record playing in the car.

Hey, how bout that whole Leno/ Conan thing, huh?

Tour Show 4: St. Louis

2010-01-11T05:56:00.000-05:00

Now, the trip to St. Louis I (Dan) basically have no awareness of. I fell asleep in Chicago listening to Cordova, I woke up in St. Louis listening to Victor Bravo, that's about all I know. I'm told in the meantime there was also a 2-hour playlist of Goes Cube, who went to school in the area where we were driving (snow-covered plains of Illinois), during which Collin saw God or something like that.

Show in St. Louis was a benefit for 10-year-old Tommy who needs multiple organ transplants. We like to help out where we can, so we opened this show that had 13 bands playing! I'm pretty sure the number of bands have been doubling each show, so by Friday night we should be on a bill with about 100 bands or so. (One band here did a half-set if you're checking my math.)

Great, big venue in St. Louis called Fubar. Lovely, big sound system, really a joy to play on. Performance space so big I couldn't even parse it as a stage when we first walked in (compare mentally to teeny-weeny NYC spaces).

People like to talk about a "scene", and I'll go out on a limb and say that St. Louis has one of the strongest actual music scenes that we've witnessed. Really great for us, a lot of younger kids into punk rock, as well as a bunch of old-schoolers, all mixing it up together in these shows that we get to take part in. That's something you don't see in many other places. A lot of thrash/metal influences, too. Ridiculously crazy drummers all through the Midwest, it's a PhD-level education every time we come here.

We really went kind of apeshit on this show, took out a couple songs for a quicker set time, completely tore through them and it felt very badass. All the kids in the (very large) space came up to the edge of the stage and were dancing by the end of the set. Collin completely took over this enormous space, running like a lunatic while playing guitar, across the stage, behind me, smashing into the kit and cymbals, leaping off the stage into the kids, rolling around on the floor, etc., etc. I think even with all these hardcore bands around we do some stuff that's fairly novel and I don't see other folks doing anywhere, like the instrmentalist hanging halfway off the stage and playing the guitar hanging out in space, etc.

Couple random thoughts. In the past we've seen how life on the road as an indie band (packing, driving for days, playing, finding a place to crash, etc.) can tax people and wear them down physically. With what we do there's also a fairly high chance of injury/ muscle or vocal strain that can happen in any show. But as we've done this more, nowadays I personally feel just stronger and stronger after every show. Today we got done and I felt like we could set up and play for a few more hours if we had to. (I think the martial arts I've been taking in the last year help, too.) This whole business is endlessly fascinating, we both love being on tour and exercising all the different muscles involved -- some of which are the mental presence and courage you need to go into all these radically different scenes and put your guts out there on a whistling precipice not knowing if the local crowd will like it or not. (See: Bob Mould's "Hoover Dam".)

Anyway, show sounded great to us. After that there was a legion of bands, raffles for the benefit, circus-of-the-damned zombie troupe of stiltwalker, evil clown, devil guy letting you staple money into his body, uh, slam dancing, guy trying to set a bassist on fire while he played... um... a lot of stuff. Staying with Moe from Scene of Irony, who is enormously generous with his time and energy, and makes a lot of the local scene happen through sheer force of personality. Give them a listen if you can. Thanks too to Shauna for taking photos tonight!

Tour Show 3: Chicago

2010-01-10T08:38:00.000-05:00

So most of today's drive was chasing the sun as we drove west across Ohio and Indiana. Snow blowing as we drove into Chicago.

The show tonight was borderline impossible to describe. Great dive bar in Chicago called the Mutiny, for the annual birthday blowout for Heavy Kev of the band Donkey Punch. Kev and DP are themselves practically impossible to understand unless you see them live. Real, honest-to-god unhinged punk rock. Kind of amazing stuff, you really need to come prepared for stuff to get messed up right quick.

May I point out that this bar in Chicago decided to skip the idea of glasses and just hand each individual person a full pitcher of beer to walk around with when they get a drink? Yeah, just like that.

Anyway, it's an intense scene and most of the bands have been playing this event for 5 years running, we're told that lots of folks kind of beg and plead to get on this bill, so we're pretty psyched that Kev tapped us to join in. Lineup was the Burninators, The Natch!, Donkey Punch, Sons of Sanchez, and Fister. Some really fantastic players and instrumentation and intensity in all these bands. The ones we'll have to work hard to see again are the Burninators and Sons of Sanchez (the rest we'll definitely run into again). Then we wrapped up the show at the end. Honestly we're pretty jacked up on how we're playing at the moment. Some broken stuff and some blood on the drum kit (thanks, Andrew from B!), we're leaving everything we've got on stage these days.

The whole scene here in Chicago is just kind of mind-blowing, a "you had to be there" moment for us & everybody else. Big thanks to Trish Naudon Thomas for taking the pictures the last two shows.

School of Rock

2010-01-10T08:15:00.000-05:00

Before we left town, Louie from Hot Ham and Cheese showed us around the West Cleveland area School of Rock. Very cool and glad we saw it - this is kind of a big deal in the Cleveland area, one sign of how dead seriously they take their rock-and-or-roll out here. While we poked around, there was a seminar of young teenagers watching and analyzing Guns 'N Roses "November Rain" quite seriously. Most excellent place.

Tour Show 2: Cleveland

2010-01-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's like 4:30 AM and the afterparty here in Cleveland is sort of partly wrapping up. Enormous gratitude to JT and Reggie for letting us crash at their fabulous pad where they run Jib Machine Records. They set up this terrific Jib Machine Holiday party here the week after New Year's... great crowd and great bands. They had us in VB, JT playing in Hot Ham & Cheese (who kick enormous quantities of ass, great new stuff, too), then fellow NYC-ers The Natch! (who rocked out; more with them tomorrow night in Chicago), then Johnny Mohawk and The Assassins (fabulous dirty old-school punk here in Cleveland). Everyone came back here to JMR to hang out and play records and more drums and stuff. We arm-wrestled over where everyone's sleeping and somehow Trish of The Natch! won the bed, I think I was distracted or something.

We've been here at the Symposium in Lakewood three times now, and this was by far our best show (we got a lot of comments to that effect, which is cool). One or two extra glitches that we didn't have at the gig in Boston, but still a pretty damn good show. Collin was thrashing all over the stage and threw in the extra-crazy spontaneous ending to Binge, which I was more prepared for tonight and did some stuff to go along with it. I got up and slammed the sticks so hard in the middle of MF that one of them shot out of my hand and hit the ceiling (I think). At the end, we got kind of desperate calls for more songs -- we almost never do encores (we're more in the "we'll tell you how many songs we're playing" camp), but this seemed really heartfelt so we threw in the old "Final Friend" at the end as a bonus. Pretty sweet.

In more in-the-car news (driving through snow-blanketed mountains of Pennsylvania today), Collin's got this simply genius playlist he put together on his iPod, that has me just expostulating "Niiice!" and "Brilliant!" over and over again all through the day when we're driving. We get to contrast and compare dozens of different guitar and drum sounds from all these great rock songs. Here's just one example that I hadn't heard in over 10 years and had me clapping with joy and playing it again: "Skydiver" from Schtum's 1995 album Grow. (This was a band from Northern Ireland helmed by Christian McNeill, whom I believe is now based in Boston). If you haven't heard it, listen to it now. THIS MEANS YOU! Seriously, I know you're reading this, I'm talking to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjS8S3HxIJo

Tomorrow's a really big show in Chicago with Donkey Punch and more of The Natch! and like a half-dozen other bands. That's at the Mutiny on N. Western Avenue. Updates may be dicey, right after that we've got a drive to an early afternoon benefit show in St. Louis. Need to really jump off it tomorrow, ha!

VB on Huffington Post Top 5 List

2010-01-08T03:22:00.001-05:00

Wow, Victor Bravo got a mention in the Huffington Post of all places. As part of their "Year in Review 2009 In Lists", we were included in the list of Top 5 Bands in Jersey City, included in the bullet-point "The Traveling Host of Rockers".

Thanks to Zac Clark of Rocker Tycoon for using his powers for good and not evil.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wires/2009/12/31/year-in-review-2009-in-li_ws_408434.html

Music Meditation

2010-01-07T05:00:00.001-05:00

One of the great things when we're on the road is that we get an opportunity to listen to other folks' music in-depth while we're driving. You know, we're driving for 5, 7, 10 or more hours in a day, and there's not much to do but listen to some new or old album, focus on nothing but the art and the scenery outside, then have a discussion for a bit about what we just heard.

I think all of our daily lives are a bit too busy to ever sit down and just meditate on a piece of music -- our touring life sort of doubles as a graduate-school seminar on music theory, performance, and recording. Not sure if other bands get that (who knows, maybe with more people someone's always irritated at someone else's choices), but it's a nice double-down, so to speak.

The other thing folks may not know is that Collin's, like, psycho-addicted to driving, while I (Dan) am a complete sleepy snoozehound any time I'm in a moving vehicle. So he drives all day, I nap a good part of the day, works out surprisingly well.

More on Boston Show

2010-01-05T11:10:00.000-05:00

Collin here. Dan covered it well but I just wanted to chime in and add my own take to the mix. I really had a total blast playing Great Scott last night. It was great to see David from Daily Pravda again - the music biz can be so funny, sometimes I don't know when I meet someone if it will be the last time I'll ever see them in my life, or if I'll play another 10 shows with them someday. So it was an unexpected pleasure to see David again, he's such a great guy and I really dug his solo acoustic set. His band Daily Pravda is opening for Spacehog in a week or so, I'm so happy for them.

Martin from Plumerai had told me about The Brother Kite, they did a split 7-inch vinyl single with them a while back. I haven't been able to hear it yet, though, 'cuz I don't have a record player. Did I just alienate tons of indie rock vinyl enthusiasts? Oh, well, I don't have one. Anyway, I figured I would like them, but I was kind of blown away. They're one of those bands where after one song I wanted to buy every CD they've ever put out. They played a song they haven't released on a record yet, and it made me sad I couldn't get it to listen to it again and again at home. I was also wishing my sister Kelly and my girlfriend Sarah had been there to see them, I think they both would have really liked them.

If I wasn't my long-winded self I'd be out of words for how I feel about Plumerai. I've said before I think they're one of the best bands on the planet, and as I told their bassist James after their set, I kind of forget how amazing they are after I see them play. Then the next time I see them I'm like, holy fuck, how could I have forgotten? Their new drummer is really becoming a full team player and providing a very cool element to the sound. I've been fortunate enough that I've seen Plumerai live lots of times, and I was feeling really grateful for that. They put me in a blissful state I usually don't want to come out of. I feel like some people don't even get one experience like that in a lifetime, and I've been given the opportunity many times over. But last night was surely one of their best. James' bass was fat, dark and foreboding, James' guitar was crystal-clear and heartbreakingly beautiful, and Elizabeth sang like an angel come to give humanity the secret to its own survival. It's hard for me to believe sometimes that I can have an experience like that just as a course of living my life. It's pretty awesome.

I had a ton of fun playing our New Year's Eve set at Arlene's Grocery in NYC, and for me last night's show felt like a step up even from that. As Dan said, we were just off the hook in Spin Cycle, Alien Homeland and Binge. And the improvised altered ending of Binge is something I will definitely bust out (this time on purpose!) again. More people need to see that, and I want to do it again!

I feel like as rock musicians we're supposed to act all too-cool-for-school, like we don't care about what we're doing, we don't give a fuck, the promoters suck and the record labels suck and no one gives us our due, blah blah blah. I can still get like that in my mind sometimes, but after nights like last night it's pretty astonishing that anyone who gets opportunities like we do can have one single word of complaint about it. It's the most fun I've ever had in my life, and I get to do it regularly. And yes, our songs are chiefly about anger, rage, getting pissed off, things that are fucked up and not right, people fucking us over, etc. And we mean every word. But somehow we get to release all that shit in what is pretty much a joyous party-like experience for us. Not that I necessarily feel "good" or "happy" in the traditional sense when I'm playing and singing, usually if I'm singing a song about anger (also known as EVERY SONG WE PLAY) I'm feeling that anger at some level. But the show itself is still balls-out fun. Does that make any sense? Hope it does to somebody.

Anyway, I'm truly grateful to Plumerai and especially their guitarist extraordinaire Martin Newman for all the opportunities he's helped us get, including the show last night, to Great Scott, all its staff and Reed the sound guy for making us feel so welcome and treating us so well, and to each and every person who stuck around to watch us do our thing. And Dan correctly singled out our friend Theresa. Her support, along with her boyfriend John's, has been one of the greatest gifts we received, and we will always be deeply grateful to them.

Next stop: our 4th trip to Cleveland, Ohio. HELL YEAH.

New Show: Dayton OH Jan-15

2010-01-05T03:20:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah, we also just added a new show to the tour this afternoon. Friday Jan-15 we'll be playing in Dayton OH at the Oregon Express. That's with Dark Backward and our completely insane guy-rock-crushes in the Gem City Saints. 9 PM, $5. If you're in that part of Ohio, it'll be a great show.

Tour Day 1: Boston

2010-01-05T03:01:00.000-05:00

Tonight we played Boston (Allston) at a very fine bar/music venue called Great Scott. First time for us, we've heard of it before... really cool sound system, great sound guy (Reed), worked well for us.

We were headlining after the David's (from Daily Pravda) really cool opening solo acoustic set, The Brother Kite's 5-person sonic creations, and of course our most excellent friends in Plumerai. As always, they massively bring it.

Good show for us. Getting to set up to our satisfaction & do a full sound check is kind of like mana from heaven if you get the opportunity. Frankly, we seem to be playing really awesome at the moment. We're playing probably tighter than ever before and any surprises just seem to make the show even better. Collin kind of lost his mind in a really awesome way in at least two places (opening to Alien Homeland, last verse of Binge). Near the end of Binge he just put away the guitar and started shrieking the last verse over and over, and I (Dan) had to follow along for the ride and hope I could guess what was happening next. At one point the sound guy Reed dashed onstage to fix a drum mic, just as Collin started body-slamming into the drum set and cymbals. I was trying to wave off Reed, like "You have no idea how much danger you're in!" but didn't quite get the message across with everything else that was happening. Injury-free for the night #1.

Big props to one of our biggest Boston fans, Theresa S., for roadying and taking pictures and putting us up for the night. "That was crazy! I really wish someone had recorded that!" was her opinion afterwards. Thanks to Martin & co. of Plumerai for setting up the show.

Jagged Cross Explored

2009-11-17T15:18:00.001-05:00

Before I go on, the new song for the late 2010/early 2011 record I couldn't remember yesterday is called Why Does Evil Rule? It's totally new, we haven't played it live. Don't know why I couldn't remember it while writing yesterday's post, I love the song.

I thought I'd jot down a few words about the song Jagged Cross, the first track on our LP we will release in April, Hammer Meets Fire. It's also the first song from the record we've posted on our MySpace page and on victorbravo.com. We usually play it these days as the opener to our live set - it seems to have a punishing sort of rhythm that sets the tone of our energy well live.

So I'm going to tell you about some of my process in coming up with the lyrics, but I think sometimes it's good for folks not to know much about what was going on for the songwriter. I think sometimes in that way, people can keep the song meaning whatever it means to them, without having to impose what they heard the songwriter was thinking/feeling on top of that.

So if you want to keep yourself from knowing, stop reading now! You've been warned. I'm writing this for the people who express interest in knowing more about a song than just what they hear on the record and read in the lyrics.

One thing about my lyric writing in general before I go on. I don't ever sit down and logically, intellectually produce words from my brain and slap them into a song. It may seem this way as I talk about them here, but this really is an almost after-the-fact exploration of where in my mind the words might have come from. Most times, lyrics are just sort of bubbling around in the back recesses without my conscious knowledge. Then at some time that is almost always a surprise to me, they seem to pour out like water from a faucet. They might come all at once or in pieces over time, but I never feel like I'm controlling them into existence.

The lyrics really began for me with some of my thoughts and feelings about Kurt Cobain and his suicide. And like most lyrics, I think these started with ideas about Cobain but then really became about a character who could be Cobain, or me, or lots of people. So I might reference Cobain a lot here but really it's bigger than that. I've read several books about Nirvana, Cobain's life and his death. His music affected me deeply while he was alive and continues to affect me deeply to this day. His suicide affected me very deeply when it happened and for quite some time afterward. And reading about his life and his suicide since his death has also had a big impact on me.

It seems that Cobain, like many of us, carried this feeling that his life was not good enough somehow, and he needed something - money, fame, awards, a fancy job title, better relationships - to feel like he was okay, valid as a person. But in Kurt Cobain - I'm paraphrasing and maybe oversimplifying here - I see someone who got everything he wanted, and yet that didn't satisfy this inner longing he had. Instead, he seemed less happy and drove himself deeper into addiction. I've observed several people over the years work hard for something, and when they finally get it, they sabotage it or somehow return it. I've even done this myself in certain instances at certain points in my life.

So in some people, there's this crazy idea, "I'd be happy if only I had [insert item]," but the reality is that honestly we aren't equipped to handle what we want. Anyone on earth would probably need years of working on themselves in order to accept the fame and attention Cobain began to get in overwhelming quantities so quickly in his musical career, and to handle that attention in an emotionally healthy way.

So the first verse is really about Cobain and his suicide:

A cold bullet/in the night

Venom in/ your veins

Cobain shot himself full of heroin and then shot himself in the head with a shotgun.

Those who/looked to you

Reviled by/your stain

This is really about me and people who looked to Cobain as a hero or anti-hero and felt so angered by his self-inflicted exit. Today I try my best not to judge others' life decisions too much. But at the time I felt pretty damn judgmental. I knew he had a lot of personal issues to deal with but really, here was someone who was saying so much as an artist that I identified with and that resonated with me. He became hugely successful, famous and wealthy. And his response was to check out, and in my view at the time, bail on the people who loved and supported his music. It left me with a dissonance - someone I looked up to had died, which filled me with sadness. But I was also angry at his decision. The two emotions seemed at odds with one another.

Awful screams/in the night

Cobain had a very troubled childhood.

Blood and fire/at first light

Another reference to Cobain's suicide, but playing off the possible similarity between the emotional violence he experienced as a child and the physical violence he wreaked on himself in ending his own life.

The second chorus is expanding on this theme of Cobain, as he found out the hard way that fame and fortune weren't the keys to solving his inner, personal problems:

So luscious/and so tempting

(as fame and fortune so often are)

The poison apple/is waiting

(I love it when I can combine two things like the Snow White tale and the Adam and Eve story from the Bible.)

Behind the skin lies/what's in store for us

You can read this either way depending if you're going the Snow White or the Adam and Eve route. The attractive lure can lead to unwanted consequences (Cobain's suicide, Snow White's induced sleep, Adam & Eve's exile from the garden) but can also lead to illumination (Adam & Eve being granted awareness and more self-direction over their lives).

All you had/you never earned

This was my interpretation of how Cobain might have felt and how others sometimes feel - if they harbor inner insecurity but then achieve great things. There's a feeling of "I don't deserve this" I've observed.

The sky is gone/the sea is burned

I think the world for Cobain, after the success of the Nevermind record, changed forever and would never have many of the comforts of his pre-fame life.

Desperate search/for liberty

Now you've found/your enemy

I think part of Cobain's striving for artistic success was motivated by a desire to escape the pain of his past. Ironically, once the Vanity Fair article appeared accusing his wife Courtney Love of using heroin while pregnant, in his mind he had a new enemy - the national media. But really, the "enemy" as it's mentioned here, I think, is again more his own internal strife. In my observation internal strife often looks for external actors to be projected on to. This notion that the enemy was really within himself carries over to the next line:

It came/to destroy

Found the heart/of a boy

This again references back to how most of Cobain's demons probably developed when he was a child.

Foolish war/eternal

The truth so/infernal

The foolish war is really his own war against himself, the infernal truth being many possibilities: that perhaps he had the keys to his own healing within him all along, that he had repressed the pain of his childhood with drugs and in order to heal would have had to face that pain again, that line's pretty open to interpretation, I think.

So that's the inside view on Jagged Cross. Was this interesting and/or worthwhile to you, our fans? Post a comment here if you'd like and let me know. I'm curious as to whether you want to see more of this sort of thing or not.

The New Record and the New-New Record

2009-11-16T14:31:00.001-05:00

Well the plan was to keep rehearsing the last 4 songs for the 2010/2011 record Friday night, but I got extremely ill so that didn't exactly happen. Instead in between my moans from the couch, Dan and I just chatted about the CD pre-release show Thursday night and all our upcoming plans. It was a good, useful discussion. We've got a lot of great stuff coming up soon. Our new record Hammer Meets Fire will be available on April 5, 2010, and we're hoping more and more of you will pick yourselves up a copy, and those who enjoy it will pass word of mouth along to your friends. We're relying on you, our fans, to help us spread the word on this. We sank a good chunk of dough into it, worked very hard, and had an absolute ton of first-rate, pro bono art work given to us by Isabelle Garbani. We really need word about this record to get around.

Sunday we ended up devoting the whole rehearsal to the new song Unsolicited Window. It has proven to be a tricky one to get down, but I think by the end we finally had it. That was pretty unusual for us; we tend to develop, work up and learn new songs fairly quickly. But it was actually a fascinating experience to work on this one and figure out what the tricky spots for us are, why they are tricky and how to deal with the trickiness. I think it's one of the best ones we've written, so I'm glad it seems like we've got the hang of it now and it will be ready to record soon.

So yes, update on recording for the 2010 record. We're working with our co-producer Ian Love (of the band Rival Schools) again. Ian co-produced Hammer Meets Fire with us. We enjoy working with this guy so much, and he is so amazingly talented at what he does, there was no question that we wanted to work with him again on the next record. So by this point we've laid down and mixed 8 new songs:

1. Junk

2. Angel Zero

3. Beautiful Wanderer

4. What We Deserved All Along

5. KC Writer

6. Client-Focused Behaviour

7. No Excuses

8. Party for Everyone

Most of those will be pretty unknown to most of you. Junk is one of the first Victor Bravo songs I ever wrote. We rehearsed it a lot back in the earliest 4-piece days of the band. We may have played Angel Zero a handful of times, I recall playing it at Don Pedro in Brooklyn once. We've been playing it in rehearsal for a long time and it's been one of Dan's and my favorites ever since we wrote it. KC Writer has been in the queue for a while, that one has lyrics written by our friend Victoria from Kansas City. We held off on recording it until she turned 18, which she did this October. We wanted her to be able to have full sway over copyright as a legal adult for her part of the song. It's a real fun one to play live. The rest of them are all pretty new. We played Beautiful Wanderer live just once, back at our show at The Delancey in NYC - I think that was September-ish.

The next four, which we hope to record in December, are:

9. [Oops - can't remember at this moment! I'll include next post.]

10. Impossible Reversal

11. Unsolicited Window

12. Leah's Knicks

Our Friday and Sunday rehearsals will be focused on keeping our regular set sharp for a December NYC show we hope to have with our other Kansas City friends Led Astray, and the big January tour to the Midwest and the South.

Things are also moving along with the new side project Dan and I are involved in, Atomic Shotgun. In this outfit Dan drums and I just stick to guitar. We're joined by guitarist Scott Holcomb, of the bands The Bulletproof Lincolns and Kelly Jo & The Pre-verts, and Corynne Wilder, of the band Afterdawn (which sadly broke up a while back). Dan and I love Victor Bravo with all our beings, but it's been wonderful to have another outlet for our musical creativity where we get to bounce ideas around with two more people. And we couldn't have asked for nicer, more talented, more professional people to work with. Scott and Corynne make every night of rehearsal just flat-out fun.

Our new band pages are fairly sparse, but you can check them out:

www.myspace.com/atomicshotgun

www.atomicshotgun.com

Facebook: Search Atomic Shotgun

Dan's & my next show is actually with Atomic Shotgun, the band's public debut Friday December 11 at Don Pedro in Brooklyn. We're really looking forward to that and seeing those of you who can make it there.

Hammer Meets Fire CD Pre-Release Show

2009-11-13T15:15:00.002-05:00

Man, we had a fantastic time last night. Many thanks to Abby B., who put the show together, Lit Lounge for hosting, Dead Stars and Ben Franklin for rocking everyone's asses off and being so super-nice to us, and everyone who came out.

They're thanked in the CD jacket and I thanked them last night...but extra big thank you-s to Isabelle Garbani, who designed the artwork for the CD jacket and all our new merch, which we are so excited about because it all looks so awesome. And to our co-producer Ian Love, who helped make a 12-song record we are so immensely proud of.

The set list:

1. Jagged Cross

2. Make the Escape

3. Nuclear Palin

4. Spin Cycle

5. Into Debt

6. Alien Homeland

7. Binge

8. Motherfucker

Dan and I are also in an exciting new side project, Atomic Shotgun. You can find the band at www.myspace.com/atomicshotgun, and we're also on Facebook. We're playing Don Pedro in Brooklyn on Friday Dec. 11 with Runny, The Naked Heroes and The Whores.

Victor Bravo is now on Twitter. Follow us at victorbravoband. The Victor Bravo Facebook page is under construction and should be available soon. We'll keep you posted of course.

Plans for the biggest Victor Bravo tour yet, to help generate excitement for the release of Hammer Meets Fire in April, are in full swing. Folks in Boston and the Midwest, get ready. In January, we're comin' to you.

119 Gallery@Lowell, Mass. Show Recap

2009-10-25T09:39:00.000-04:00

We had such an amazing time playing such an amazing place last night. The 119 Gallery is an art gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts, run by two fantastic people, Angie and Mike. On certain weekend nights the art is moved to safe places and the gallery is converted into a music space. This was our second time playing there, and both times we have been, the positive energy flowing through this place has been just astonishing. Everyone we met and played with both times have been just wonderful.

Local punk rockers Stale Fish opened the show and played a great set. They are an all-female 3-piece that really knows how to have a good time on stage, and how to involve the audience in what they're doing. After them, Mike, one of the co-managers of 119 Gallery, took the stage in one of his bands, Big Fat Family. They're two guys, one on vocals/guitar up front and one on drums. They played half the set with Mike on drums and then switched places and played the rest of the set that way. They were really great, as well - Mike told us they've been playing together for quite a while, and it shows in the great songs and cool chemistry between the two of them.

Then it was our turn and it felt like one of our best sets ever. Right from the start, Jagged Cross helped set the tone, the crowd was really into us, and everyone in the place seemed to be having an awesome time. Spin Cycle, Binge and Motherfucker also seemed to really get the crowd going. We felt damn good when it was all over.

The full set list:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Make the Escape
3. Nuclear Palin
4. Spin Cycle
5. Better Lives
6. Night Scales
7. Alien Homeland
8. Binge
9. Transparent
10. Motherfucker

After we were done, a local band from Bellerica, Mass., Wednesday Night Militia played a totally rockin set. We met them and shared the stage with them the first time we played 119 Gallery, and we asked them to play with us this time if they were able to. They graciously agreed and we're so glad they did. We enjoyed them the first time we saw them, but Dan and I agreed they were even better and more powerful this time around. They're also just a great bunch of people, like all the bands we played with last night, who were great to chat with before and after the show.

Special thanks to everyone in Stale Fish, Big Fat Family, and Wednesday Night Militia; to Angie, Mike and 119 Gallery for being such an amazing place to play and for having us back; for all the people who showed up to watch us, including Jen and Leann who were so nice to chat with; and as always to our good friends and superfans Theresa and John, who not only came out to see us play but put us up again at their apartment and bought us dinner after the show.

Now it's time for all our New York fans to get psyched for our CD release show at Lit Lounge on Thursday, November 12. The line-up is a crazily awesome group of bands: Ex Wife, who recently played with Screaming Females at Mercury Lounge and played a totally sick set, will open the show at 9; Dead Stars, an incredible band we've played with many times before, will follow them at 9:45; ourselves, ready to rock NYC never before, will take the stage at 10:30; and a terrific new band we just met recently, Ben Franklin, will close it out at 11:30. Plus, our new CD, Hammer Meets Fire, will be available for the first time. How cool is that?

Geno's@Portland Maine Show Recap

2009-10-24T15:06:00.000-04:00

We played Geno's at Congress Street in Portland, Maine last night and had a great time. I, Barbarian, a local thrash-punk band, opened mightily and played a great set. Then we took the stage and unleashed rock insanity.

We're especially grateful to our former college roommate Dave who showed up and our former college radio colleague Jason from the old WMEB days who also came out to see us.

Speaking of college, as luck would have it our old college friend Ben Meiklejohn, who we had not seen since we graduated, turned up fronting the band that played after us, Hoboe. They were absolutley fantastic and truly unique and original. Ben alternates betwen playing guitar/singing and playing an oboe with a wireless mic, hooked through some electronic effects. It was really awesome.

Our set list for those that are interested:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Make the Escape
3. Nuclear Palin
4. Spin Cycle
5. Better Lives
6. Night Scales
7. Binge
8. Transparent
9. Motherfucker

After the show we scarfed down a late-night dinner at the Portland Denny's. Then we hopped back in the rental SUV (thanks again, AVIS!) and drove down to our friends' place in Watertown, Massachusetts. We're staying with our pals and Victor Bravo superfans John and Theresa, who always put us up, feed us and give us great support and conversation whenever we come to play Beantown and the surrounding area. Big thanks to them once again.

Tonight we return to a venue we truly fell in love with the first time we played it, back in April of this year. It's 119 Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts. We're told an all-female punk band, Stale Fish, is opening, and a great band we met last time we played there, Wednesday Night Militia, will be taking the stage after we're done. We're really excited and looking forward to rocking Lowell again tonight.

News News News

2009-09-10T11:38:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to provide an update on what's going on these days with us.

Hammer Meets Fire CD Pre-Release Show

Thursday, November 12, we will be having our huge, massive, everybody-must-come CD pre-release show at Fontana's in Manhattan. Our first LP with 11 tracks (10 new songs plus a new version of 'Motherfucker'), titled Hammer Meets Fire, will not be officially released until April 5, 2010, but the CD is finally finished and this show will be our way of celebrating with every one of you, our dear fans, who can make it. We are really proud of and excited about completing this new record. It includes many of the songs we've written since the release of Sky Full of Messages that we've been playing live for quite some time now. We will have sneak pre-release CDs with several of the songs from Hammer Meets Fire on it for anyone who comes to this show.

We're encouraging people from everywhere to travel to NYC for this show, as it will simply be a stellar night of great rock n' roll. The line-up of the other 2 bands has not been fully settled yet, but we believe it will be soon, and we will announce it as soon as we know. You can count on 2 other amazing bands who will be well worth seeing.

January Tour

Details are anything but set at this moment, but our general plan is to depart on our biggest tour yet in January. We're hoping to return to many cities we've played before, as well as hit some new ones for the first time. On our wish list: Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Denver, and East Moline IL. We would also like to have our first southern swing, including the possibilities of Memphis TN, Asheville NC, Austin TX, New Orleans and somewhere in Florida, but we're unsure at this point if we'll be able to add those on to the January tour, or if they'll have to wait for a future trip. Any help anyone could provide in helping getting us booked will be much appreciated.

The Next Record: 2010

Yes, we need to keep your focus on Hammer Meets Fire, our brand-new record that will be released (as I just mentioned above) in April, 2010. But behind the scenes, the next record is pretty much completely written. We are in rehearsals now for recording and will begin laying down tracks in October. We have not set a release date for this one, not because we like teasing you (although we do like teasing you), but because there are so many exciting possibilities for us in 2010 we don't want to over-commit ourselves. But the hope is that at some point in 2010 or early 2011, in some way, another VB record will be available for your listening pleasure.

Rocker Tycoon Blog

2009-08-31T21:01:00.000-04:00

Friday night we played the Iron Monkey in Jersey City, NJ, with our most excellent friends in The Natch! (formerly America's Sweetheart) and Rainbow Fresh. Along the way we met Zac Clark who does the blog at Rocker Tycoon, who's an incredibly cool guy. He blogged about the show today:

Trish warned me to be ready for Victor Bravo. They’ve been touring together for a few shows. I obliged her that I’d stick around. I snagged another beverage from the roof and locked in for Victor Bravo. First impressions are so important. I go as far to say that in the music industry they are 90% of the battle. Already having the backing of my friends in Natch I suppose I could say VB had a good standing with me before they played. After their first song though I was hooked! Collin Daniels (guitar/vox)and Daniel Collins (drums) were destined to rock together! I’m not even alluding to their epithet concordance. Like the White Stripes meets Black Flag (Black Stripes …no that wouldn’t do….. Certainly not White Flag….there’s nothing White Flag about these guys). It’s pure kick to the groin writhing in agony rock! Holy Cow! Just …wow! Like the first three bites of a bowl of Frosted Flakes with extra sugar! PURE FROSTING! They were finished almost before I felt like they started! I can’t wait to see these cats again. Mark my words! These gentlemen, and I use the term loosely, are in for very big things. You must check them out!

Check out the pics and video from "Nuclear Palin" over on Rocker Tycoon: http://rockertycoon.blogspot.com/2009/08/natch-and-victor-bravo-at-iron-monkey.html

Tour Days 1-4

2009-06-27T18:54:00.000-04:00

Dan here, on the road from St. Louis to Chicago on Saturday. Was hoping that we'd write more frequently while on tour, but with just two of us, the constant cycle of driving/ eating/ navigating/ loading/ playing/ sleeping manages to pretty much fill all of our days (which is, frankly, a good thing). Hopefully I'll upload this post after the show tonight.

We started Tuesday at PA's Lounge in Boston (Somerville). Very cool space. We had a few hiccups playing out the first night, but possibly nothing anyone noticed. People were up and moving by the end of the set. Big thanks to Martin & James of Boston's Plumerai for coming out (we have plans to work with them on a project later this summer). Props to the opener Academia – we've been listening to their CD in the car, and really been digging it. Great album.

Wednesday we were in Cleveland for a fantastic show with local and touring band Hot Ham & Cheese. Cleveland floors us every time – we've never seen an unimpressive band there, and they may take their flat-out rock shows the most seriously of any city we've seen. The opener: A Slight Chill, who by Cleveland standards are crazy young and just starting out, but can still outplay a whole heck of a lot bands we've seen elsewhere. We played 2nd and got a bit better groove on than the first night. Again by the end we had people up and pushing & shoving in front of the stage, which we love. Then Hot Ham & Cheese played, and man, do they kick ass in every way (as we're learning, the very best bands manage to be powerful bookers, promoters, planners, and stellar players all in on e package). After the show, a bunch of people got our new T-shirts, and we got lots of great compliments on the closer “Motherfucker”. Exceedingly cool audience in Cleveland, we can't say enough about them. HHM will be in NYC on Aug-24 at Arlene's Grocery (with The Natch!), we'll be there to see that.

We left Cleveland and actually drove non-stop all night and day to get to Des Moines, Iowa for a Thursday-afternoon show at Vaudeville Mews. That one was kind of a blur. As it turns out, we were actually onstage playing when the news that Michael Jackson died came out – it's the first thing the next band told us when we finished and stepped backstage. I don't have much more to say about that, but this: We'll always remember exactly where we were when we heard that news.

Friday night we were in St. Louis, which is another town we've sort of fallen in love with, they treat us so well. This was at the Way Out Club, right in the downtown area, put together by Moe from Scene of Irony. Moe is like this hurricane of energy, booking and promoting shows, supporting every band who shows up, shout-outs to everyone in the room, and singing his guts in his own awesome punk band. If I lived in St. Louis, I'd ask to mentor under him, because the guy's in a whole different league. Every band was excellent – Girl Jimi (all-girl trio, sounds a bit like the Donnas to my ear, completely have the fire to get up and rock out), Vindell (5-piece from Pittsburgh, jaw-droppingly talented, I'm sure they'll go places fast), us in the 3rd slot, and then Moe's killer Scene of Irony. Everyone we meet in St. Louis is nice as hell, we rapped with the other musicians all night long. Free pizza and drinks from the club.

The other thing is that we were really wired excited by our own performance in St. Louis. Partly it's being inspired by other stellar performances, partly it's working out our kinks and getting a chance to try again night after night (and it's partly getting an XXL large cinderblock to sit behind my kick drum). Frankly, it was one of our best shows to date – we really, truly kicked ass. I think that the folks that saw us really got our best possible output that particular night, and that's a good feeling.

Here's a couple of random anecdotes:

Tuesday morning before we left NYC I had to get to Sam Ash in short order for new drum heads. I was literally sprinting across 7th Avenue against the light when I almost got run over by Collin, who just happened to be bringing the car around to our practice space at that very moment. That would have been the shortest tour ever.
Everybody really likes our new T-shirts, which it took us a while to get. We've heard it often, but it's still a real eye-opener that the merch/ apparel gets more traction than anything else. It's also mind-blowingly awesome that 2 bands so far have said they'd wear our stuff at their next gigs. We'll try to return the favor!
I got a GPS mapping system for my laptop that we're using for all our driving routes, rest areas and restaurants, etc., which is totally great compared to what we've done in the past. I'm thrilled that I can use $50 billion in military hardware in outer space to pinpoint exactly where my next bathroom target is with laser-precision.
I also got new shoes before I left town (kick drum action tends to bust my shows apart), and holy god are these the most comfortable sneakers I've ever worn in my life. I can be practically crippled after a set, but I get up and start walking away and every time say, “Wow, my feet feel great!!” (Collin's really sick of that at this point.) Converse, call us, I can give a really fantastic endorsement right now.

Okay, enough for now. We just added a show outside Davenport, Iowa for next Thursday (Jul-2), extending the tour a bit longer (tell anyone in the area to get there, we're really cooking at the moment). If anyone wants us to play date Jul-3 somewhere around the Ohio region, hit us up, we're game for that, too.

Gem City Saints at Crash Mansion NYC Thursday June 25

2009-06-23T11:02:00.000-04:00

I'm just about to head up to AVIS to pick up the rental truck for our summer tour that starts tonight at PA's Lounge in Boston. Dan and I are very excited about this tour, hitting cities we hit last year another time (Cleveland, Saint Louis, Chicago, Kansas City) and hitting some new cities for the first time (Des Moines, Iowa and Saint Paul, Minnesota). We hope to see you out on the road and rock with you...HARD.

Before I take off, though, I wanted to let our NYC fans know about a great band playing Crash Mansion in Manhattan this Thursday night, June 25. They're called Gem City Saints, and they're travelling to the Big Apple all the way from Dayton, Ohio, home of course to the legendary Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices. We met these folks on our trip to Athens, Ohio last month to play 19-South. They opened the show which also included Athens bands The Revulvas and We March, and Dan and I both really dug their music. I hear some serious Superchunk in their music, and as they are one of our big influences of course I dig that. They're a 3-piece, with a singer/guitarist, bassist and drummer. We highly recommend checking them out, and ask our fans to help support bands that help us out, as we build relationships with bands across the country that help us out when we come to their neck of the woods.

To check out the band before you go, visit them at www.myspace.com/gemcitysaints. Crash Mansion is located at 199 Bowery in Manhattan. You can check the venue's website at http://www.crashmansion.com/. Gem City Saints go on at 8:00 PM.

All right, I gotta get outta here. See you at the show.

More Shows, Plus NYC

2009-06-19T00:21:00.000-04:00

So here's the final list of shows -- we added a date near Kansas City, plus a homecoming show in NYC on Monday Jul-6 (which includes Kyle Bobby Dunn, The Natch!, Crowds and Power, and Prison Pretty). We'll be taking off next Tuesday for the first show in Boston, and posting here from the road when we can.

6/23/09 9:00 PM PA’s Lounge Somerville MA
6/24/09 9:00 PM Symposium Lakewood OH
6/25/09 5:00 PM Vaudeville Mews Des Moines IA
6/26/09 10:00 PM Way Out Club St. Louis MO
6/27/09 8:00 PM Penny Road Pub Barrington IL
6/30/09 8:00 PM Big V’s St. Paul MN
7/1/09 7:00 PM Mission Theatre Mission KS
7/6/09 8:00 PM Otto’s Shrunken Head New York NY

Summer Shows

2009-05-25T12:29:00.000-04:00

The VB summer touring schedule is about a month away. In late June we hit the road for New England & the Midwest. Confirmed dates are listed below (likely more to come later; if you've got ideas for other places/parties along the way - or even just a place to crash one night - send us a comment/message). More complete info on the website "Shows" page. Tell yer friends.

6/23/09 9:00 PM PA’s Lounge Somerville MA
6/24/09 9:00 PM Symposium Lakewood OH
6/25/09 5:00 PM Vaudeville Mews Des Moines IA
6/26/09 10:00 PM Way Out Club St. Louis MO
6/27/09 8:00 PM Penny Road Pub Barrington IL
6/30/09 8:00 PM Big V’s St. Paul MN

Dan's New Band Crush

2009-05-20T00:29:00.000-04:00

So Saturday night we played a party in the courtyard behind Paris Manicini's (The Natch!, America's Sweetheart) art gallery/ thrift shop EPOH OWL in Brooklyn. Great space, great lineup, and great sounding, too (thanks for the audio setup, Chris!). Lit-up cars driving into the parking lot directly behind the stage was a nice touch.

Evening started with beatbox/ guitar work by the Young Boys (boy?). Unfortunately, he left his iPod onstage and we destroyed it during our later performance. Yeah, ah, sorry about that.

Then came The Natch! (formerly America's Sweetheart). We love these guys to death, and they're writing songs like crazy and getting stronger with every show they play (and they were top-notch performers already!). Watch them take over New York (again).

And then came a band I hadn't seen before. Royal Pink: Four chicks take the stage in pink 50's poodle skirts. We're like, “Wait, how does that make sense as an opener for VB?” Well, for starters they're just flat-out awesome. Two bass players (no guitar). Great rock-solid drummer. Singer with incredibly strong pipes. And they're playing these sweetly 50's-tinged songs about protesting, getting naked, layin' pipe, jizz on the wall, having a gay boyfriend, etc., etc. They're playing and dancing their hearts out. And I'm like, “Yeah, that's EXACTLY the ideal VB opener!”

So then we take the stage and do our usual thing, and it was one of the best audiences we've had lately (and we're on a good jog recently), great sound all around (as I said above). May I say how ludicrously awesome it is to have chicks in pink poodle skirts jumping and throwing down in our mosh pit? Hell yeah. That may be central to our next music video, you heard it here first.

The VB Touring FAQ

2009-05-11T11:18:00.000-04:00

1. What's the name of your band?
Victor Bravo.

2. There's just two of you?
Yep.

3. How many mics do you need?
Just one.

(One hour later...)

4. Holy god, how are you guys so LOUD!?
Ha.

Listening to Dead Stars

2009-05-08T12:07:00.000-04:00

I really like the band Dead Stars. The last time I saw them at Europa, I got a copy of their upcoming CD (no art or title yet, but you can hear many of the songs on their MySpace page, here: http://www.myspace.com/deadstars ).

I played the CD, like, 4 days ago, and I'm finding that I've got multiple of their songs stuck in my head as I wake up in the morning, get around town, etc. On the one hand, it might be a bit lighter than a lot of the stuff I usually listen to. Jeff on guitar/vox feels pretty poppy to me, but Jaye & John (on drums and bass) have the capacity to bring a furious prolonged beat-down whenever they want to. So, it feels like they can swing from achingly-beautiful to monster-rock at a moment's notice, with complete confidence.

I think it's the songs "Break the Tide", "The Party's Over", and "Fade Away" that I've got stuck in my head, but the whole album is incredibly solid. That's one great sign for these guys, in that every single song the disc is really satisfying and really belongs there. Other great sign is that they both sound great on a recording, and they also kick massive ass live (something that a lot of bands seem to find hard to accomplish).

They've got shows in DC, Chapel Hill, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn listed on their MySpace page, check 'em out if you have the chance.

New England Tour Recap

2009-05-04T14:32:00.000-04:00

We had an awesome time playing New England this past weekend. We left NYC Friday and headed up to Maine to play Slainte on Preble Street in Portland. Our good friends in The Natch from NYC played first and gave everyone an amazing set. This band consists of the 3 surviving members of the recently-broken-up America's Sweetheart. They only had a few weeks as a 3-piece to get ready for this show, and you could never have known.

Then we took the stage. We opened with our new song "Jagged Cross" and right from the first chord and beat the crowd seemed really responsive. We had a total blast playing. Slainte is kind of small and intimate, but it ended up suiting us wonderfully. The set list for those who need it:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Make the Escape
3. Sarbanes-Oxley
4. Spin Cycle
5. Better Lives
6. The Door
7. Night Scales
8. Alien Homeland
9. Binge
10. Motherfucker

Apparently we were the loudest band to ever play Slainte, which of course delights us to no end. Huge thanks to Laura and Rob, and all their friends for coming out, to Ian of Slainte for assisting us and being such an amazing host, and to Trish and The Natch for setting up the show and inviting us on to the bill.

The following day we went to see X-Men: Origins in Newington, New Hampshire, then booked it on down to Lowell, Massachusetts to play 119 Gallery.

We fell in love with this combination art gallery/music space immediately. It had been recommended to us by our friends in Runny, who played there a short while back. The booker Angie was super-nice to us from the first e-mail I sent her asking if we could play, to the moment we left after the show. And it was an awesome bill of local bands that preceded us: 1,000 Paper Cranes kicked the night off in grand rockin' style with their third show ever as a band, Wednesday Night Militia revved it up a notch with their first show ever, and Hayburner nearly blew the roof off the place before we had our shot at it. Folks in Wendesday Night Militia and Hayburner stuck around for our set and were very complimentary and supportive. We really liked everyone we met and hope to play with all of them again at some point. Again, it was a great crowd who shouted, jumped around and gave us a fantastic response after every song, and even demanded an encore (which we rarely grant, but for these special folks we made an exception!).

The set list from that show:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Make the Escape
3. Sarbanes-Oxley
4. Better Lives
5. Into Debt
6. Alien Homeland
7. Binge
8. Transparent
9. Motherfucker
10 (Encore). Name Today

Thanks on this one first off to Lemon Cookie of Runny for giving us the low-down on the place, to 119 Gallery, to Angie for booking us and Mike for helping us out with sound and set-up, to all 3 of the amazing bands that played before us, to our Boston-area superfans John and Theresa for coming out, rocking out, giving us a great place to crash afterwards and feeding us so generously, and to everyone who came out and stuck around for our show. We love you all, and can't wait to go back.

We're gearing up now for our trip to Ohio this weekend to play 19-South in Athens, Ohio (home of Ohio University) with the totally-rad, all-female punk band The Revulvas. We are PSYCHED.

Crappin' On Songs of the 80's

2009-04-18T19:14:00.002-04:00

Hey (Dan here). Sometimes I walk into some public establishment and they've got some pop songs from the 80's playing overhead, and it gets a reaction out of me one way or the other. Let's see if you agree or it's just me. Here's two songs from the 80's that both hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in the day:

First of all, "Human" by the Human League. I would like to nominate this song as possibly the #1 worst song of all time. Everything about it aggravates me, disagress with my system, and begs to be destroyed somehow. I think I was in a store last week forced to listen to it, and it's been bothering me ever since. The tempo is way too slow. The sound is way too soft, frail, and lacking passion. The mix has all the music practically inaudible, so all you can hear are the damned voices. The singing sucks. Blech. But worst of all is the message of the song -- A guy meekly begging forgiveness for cheating on a chick:

I'm only human
Of flesh and blood I'm made
Human
Born to make mistakes
I am just a man

You know what? I say screw that crap. The narrator never even comes out and directly says "I did it with someone else", it's all this re-directed referential crap. I recommend the following. (a) If you did something wrong, come out and say it directly, don't equivocate like a freaking loser. (b) Take responsibility for your decisions, don't act like being "just a man" is some unrelated mental disease controlling your actions. (c) Likewise take responsibility for what you like, and if you find pleasure in multiple partners, come out and say that, and don't act like it's some frickin' accident when it happens. That's bullshit.

To my esteemed colleagues in the Human League, I offer a countering theory of humanity, by quoting the author Neal Stephenson (from Cryptonomicon): "Like every other creature on the face of the earth, Godfrey was, by birthright, a stupendous badass, albeit in the somewhat technical sense that he could trace his ancestry back up a long line of slightly less highly evolved stupendous badasses to that first self-replicating gizmo — which, given the number and variety of its descendants, might justifiably be described as the most stupendous badass of all time. Everyone and everything that wasn't a stupendous badass was dead. "

Secondly, let me rant a bit on "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. This one isn't totally evil, even if it's not the kind of music I would search out. I was in a resaurant with my girlfriend a little while back, and realized that this one does get stuck in my head whenever it's played (it's also been covered by a whole lot of artists of different stripes), but at the same time there's something about it that aggravates me. I think I finally found what it is. Let's say that the song is generally well-written, but then there's one part of the lyrics that go like this:

And she'll tease you
She'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious and she knows just what it takes to make a pro blush

Ummm... "What it takes to make a pro blush?" Ewww, that's, like, completely cringe-worthy (once I became aware of the lyrics in that section). Every time I hear that song and that section comes by, I honestly flinch a little bit. Someone was locked into a rhyme for "precocious" and "knows just", and, frankly, didn't spend enough time thinking about their options at the end there.

Personally, I would recommend changing that line to "What it takes to look ferocious", which is the best thing I could come up with in a bit a half hour after listening to that song last time. This is one of these things where I wish I had a time-fax to send back to Weiss and DeShannon (the writers) when they were writing it 35 years ago, so I don't have to listen to the glitch in that song for the rest of my life.

Cleveland Show Recap, New Shows, Compilation CD

2009-04-16T13:48:00.000-04:00

Hey Collin here.

CLEVELAND SHOW RECAP: So after our visit to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame the afternoon of Friday, April 10, we went to The Symposium for our show. This was our second time playing Cleveland and my good friend Justin was nice enough to show up early and stay the whole night. Big thanks to him for coming out. The Symposium is a great place to play. The sound techician Lauren was just fantastic to us and the sound was really solid on stage and in the house. The night started off with 2 songs from Nightmare Mode, followed by one song done solo by Tom (of Nightmare Mode and Thashantos). Then Thrashantos (who, like Nightmare Mode, are from about 30 minutes outside of Cleveland) took the stage and played some of the most awesome speed metal I have ever witnessed. After that, the Detroit punk band D.A. took over, and played a blazing, fearsome set. This ended up being the heaviest bill ever put together by someone other than us, I think, and we could not have been more pleased.

We finished out the night with a 9-song set that was really fun to play. The crowd was a fun group of people to play for, we're grateful to everyone who came out. The set list for those interested:

1. Make the Escape

2. Toxic Tornado

3. Sarbanes-Oxley

4. Better Lives

5. Into Debt

6. Alien Homeland

7. Binge

8. Transparent

9. Motherfucker

Thanks so much to all the other bands we played with, Trish from America's Sweetheart/The Natch! and JT at Jib Machine Records for helping get us on the bill, Michele at PhantasyConcertClub for putting the show together, and Lauren and the entire staff at The Symposium for being such great hosts.

After packing up and hanging out with Justin (who is an amazing actor and appearing in a play at the Cleveland Playhouse as I write - check him out!), we rolled over to our local IHOP for a now-somewhat-traditional post-show snack/meal/debrief/cool-down kinda thing. Then it was back to the EconoLodge for some much-needed sleep.

The trip back to New York on Saturday was almost as wonderful as the trip out - brilliant sunshine and smooth travelling the whole way. Except for two of the most awful 18-wheeler wrecks we had ever seen! One trailer upside-down and crushed in the grassy median, another whose cab looked like it had just exploded spontaneously into pieces. Looked like the drivers were both all right. I turned Dan onto Metric by playing their CD "Live It Out" for him, and we both listened to the full record of fellow punk rockers The Brooklyn What for the first time (I picked up their CD "The Brooklyn What for Borough President" when I caught them by chance at Goodbye Blue Monday a while back). We both totally LOVED the record.

NEW SHOWS: So the out-of-NYC bookings have been rolling in lately to our utter delight. Check us out if you're near one of these:

+Saturday May 2 at 119 Gallery in Lowell MA

+Thursday June 25 at The Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines IA

+Friday June 26 at The Way Out Club in St Louis MO

Also, one line-up change of note, the Friday May 1 show at Slainte in Portland ME will now be with The Natch! (replacing America's Sweetheart on the bill) and The andWutz.

Brooklyn Punk Rock Compilation CD: We're excited to tell people that we have been selected to be a part of the new compilation CD produced by Brooklyn Punk Rock. You can buy a copy on eBay for $12 HERE. It features our new song "Scary Mary" which will be on our upcoming new record, plus lots of other great Brooklyn punk bands like the aforementioned Brooklyn What, Money/Paper/Hearts, and The Filthy Animals. If you're unable to attend our show in Athens, Ohio on May 9, there will be a kickass show that day in Brooklyn with most of the bands featured on the CD (we are a bit bummed that we have to miss, but are psyched for our show in Athens!). I'll pass on details on that as they come in.

The (Aforementioned) New Record: The recording and mixing is DONE. Done, done, done! 11 songs, ready to go. We now have some mastering work remaining to be done, then it's on to the artwork, packaging, etc. So at the moment it still looks good for a release in September as we were planning. Dan and I are both really pleased with how it's come out, we hope you will all enjoy listening to it and much as we enjoyed ourselves recording it. And remember we will have sneak-peaks ahead of the official release date for tried-and-true VB fans, so stay tuned.

WHEW! All right, I think that's it for now. I'm off to see my friend Larry in The Damn Lovelys who are playing tonight at Hill Country Barbeque in Manhattan. Should be some good fun. Keep rockin', we'll see you in your ears.

At the Hall of Fame

2009-04-11T02:47:00.000-04:00

So here we are in Cleveland for a show tonight. To kill the afternoon we go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I (Dan here) have mixed feelings about it, but I'm glad we went. There's some cheesy parts to it, but overall it rises above the threshold of “somebody at least gave a shit”. The architecture is stunning, I really love the building – big glass pyramid, tall, very postmodern overlapping levels inside, balconies that don't connect to anything, big atrium you could drop down 6 stories in. This by the side of Lake Erie, near the football stadium, WWII submarine museum, and a skate park next door. A lot of families inside, somewhat cooler/hipper moms & dads in their 40's, with kids all in their tweens or teens, clearly getting more cultural education than I was at that age. A bit touristy, but not completely exploitational, either.

You know, it was like 10 years ago when I saw a Superchunk show in Boston – and this particular night, Mac comes onstage all fired up because the band just saw Bruce Springsteen at the Boston Garden (Fleet Center, whatever). Probably the best Superchunk show I ever saw, they were really completely inspired that night.

So currently the special exhibit at the Hall of Fame is devoted to Bruce Springsteen (upper 3 floors devoted to him). Guitars, posters, clothes, albums, listening stations, videos, magazine articles, the desk where he writes, etc. One of the freaky things is there's this thick scrapbook under glass, opened to a page reviewing a show from 1973 (in Crawdaddy Magazine). And this show happens to be in New York, at the club Kenny's Castaways. (We played our first-ever performance as Victor Bravo out at Kenny's Castaways a couple years ago now). And part of me is thinking, “oh, well I'm sure Springsteen had a hundred people packed in there”, but the article goes on to describe a crowd of only about 30 people, with maybe 12 knowing who Bruce is. Which is a jarringly accurate description of some of our early shows there.

So here we are now coming from a Bruce Springsteen exhibit, playing a show later that night. Am I as jazzed up as Superchunk was that one night? Well, not so much, I kind of have tangled-up feelings about it. Honestly, Springsteen's zenith was just a little bit before my time. And in some ways the whole celebrity-flash of the Hall of of Fame is pushing some of my bad buttons along with my good ones. I saw a video of Joe Strummer saying re: the Clash, “Man, when you have the right people making up a band, that is a miracle, do not screw with that under any means. We learned that lesson bitterly (shakes head)”, and I could applaud and hoot for that. But I can also see the handwritten lyrics to “Because the Night” by Springsteen and Patti Smith (one of my major, early eye-opening artists) and have a lot of my confusion and jealousy and frustration rear up, too. If this is what they got huge for, if someone could sing “Because the night belongs to lovers”, well, I'm up all night all the damn time and that's the polar opposite of my experience. It feels like there's a whole lot I need to do and say, and it's the opposite of what gets said by a lot of music, and it confuses and perplexes me. So I've personally got a lot of work to do – that's what I seem to be taking away from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there's a whole lot in there, and yet there's a whole lot to be said that's been left out so far, too. So I'd better get off my ass and get in this club tonight, stretch out, and lay down as ferocious set of beats as I can, and I'd better get up tomorrow and get back to work and writing, too.

Funny thing, this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's both nourishing and challenging and somewhat difficult to process right now. We'll see how that works out tonight.

Road to Ohio

2009-04-09T22:46:00.000-04:00

Dan here. Collin & I are on tour from New York to Cleveland to headline a show there Friday night at a hard-rock/metal club. The trip is mostly a big 370-mile drive across the length of Pennsylvania. That can be tough, but today seemed to slide by really easily. Beautiful weather, sunny and warm, with just a few puffy clouds in a bright blue sky. (Meanwhile, we're getting Twitters that it's snowing in Boston). Also, no tolls in PA, we like that.

You may not know this, but Collin & I can both talk for a pretty long time if we need to. So between the two of us swapping stories the 7.5-hour drive seemed to fly by in a snap. Now we're in Ohio as it gets near dusk; hope the place we're staying at isn't too sketchy. Tomorrow we're considering going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bad idea? Dunno, but it's something to spend the day on.

I'm being told that Collin considers himself to be an "astonishingly talented front man" if I ever need to describe him here. Yeah, I'll keep that in mind.

New Shows and Radio Appearance

2009-04-02T13:07:00.000-04:00

We have four new shows confirmed:

Friday April 10 at The Symposium in Cleveland (Lakewood) Ohio

Friday May 1 at Slainte in Portland Maine - This show is with NYC's America's Sweetheart and Boston's The AndWutz

Saturday May 9 at 19-South in Athens Ohio - This show is with Ohio's The Revulvas

Tuesday June 23 at PA's Lounge in Boston (Somerville) MA - This show is with In Endeavors

We will also be appearing on the RewBee*s World internet radio show at 4:15pm sharp on Wednesday, April 29. Thanks in advance to RewBee*s World for having us on. Go to www.arizzmaradio.com a bit ahead to make sure you know how it works, then tune in on April 29 to listen in. They'll be interviewing us, and we'll be playing a song live in the studio, and one or two more from our records. Should be fun.

Keep on rockin', we'll see you in your ears.

Boston Show Recap

2009-03-30T15:05:00.000-04:00

Dan and I hopped in a rental car Saturday and made the trek up to Boston to play Precinct in Somerville. It was a beautiful day for the drive, and one of the highlights was listening to the CD of Teeth of Mammals. They are an amazing band from Reading, Pennsylvania taht we played with when we played Philadelphia many moons ago. I really dug their set and was psyched to pick up their full-length CD and their new (at the time) demo. Dan hadn't heard the CD, so we listened to it and it just blew us away. It has one of the best ending to a CD I've ever heard, with a great song that brings the whole album to a thunderous, complete finale.

We got to Somerville a bit early so after checking out the stage we walked up to a comic book store and checked it out. There was a really cool dog who lives in the store who was very friendly and came over to have me pet him several times. We then headed over to a Subway sandwich place so Dan could get some dinner.

We sauntered back over to Precinct, which is a really nice bar with a great little stage in the back bar area. We got set up, chatted up some folks who had come out and then took the stage to play. A bit of a rough start with "Jagged Cross," as the mic died somewhere around the first chorus. But James, the bassist for Plumerai, replaced the mic in the break between the first chorus and the second verse, and after that we were good. "Better Lives" and "Into Debt" went particularly well. We also played our first slow song ever, "What We Deserved All Along," live for the first time. I think people were a bit thrown by it, but it seemed like it captured everyone's attention in a way our other songs don't, which was a cool feeling. By the way, the song is slow, not light...we still rock fairly heavily with it, even though the tempo is slower and the melody and vocals are a bit "prettier" than the usual VB fare. "Motherfucker" got a great response at the end, with people emerging from the shadows in my field of vision, dancing up a storm.

The set list:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Kick You Out
3. Sarbanes-Oxley
4. What We Deserved All Along (live debut)
5. Better Lives
6. Into Debt
7. Alien Homeland
8. Binge
9. Motherfucker

After our set the cool Boston band The Daily Pravda took the stage and played several great songs. We had never met them before, a great bunch of guys and really great musicians. They have a new album coming out at the end of May, we wish them all the best with it.

The headliners for the night were our friends in Plumerai, and this was going to be a Plumerai show like no other for us because for a short period we were going to be in it! Martin, the guitarist, asked us to play with them on their crazy-rock-out ending of their song "Avernal" towards the end of their set. Dan and I were game but there was no time to rehearse to we were just going to wing it and hope for the best.

Plumerai's set was just amazing. They started with a brand-new instrumental that blew me away, and then went through a bunch of songs new and familiar. These folks are one of my favorite bands, and it was just a sheer joy to watch and hear them.

Then it was time for our bit, they got to the ending of "Avernal," I pikced up my guitar, Dan went to his snare drum and cymbal, and along with Mark, another guest musician, all eight of us tore the shit out of the song's finale. It was literally one of the highlights of my life, some of the most fun I've ever had playing on stage.

We hung around for a bit and then said good-bye to everyone, headed to the local IHOP with our friends/super-fans John & Theresa, and had some damn good pancakes. We crashed at John & Theresa's place in Watertown, got up bright and early on Sunday, and made the drive back to NYC. All in all, another great trip to Boston.

++Collin

News

2009-03-10T16:09:00.000-04:00

We had an AMAZING photo shoot in Brooklyn this past weekend with Mary Lopez, who is also the drummer for the insanely good band Prison Pretty. Mary was incredible to work with and we got some really great shots. We'll be posting them on the website and the MySpace page soon.

We've been booked at PA's Lounge in Cambridge, Mass. for Tuesday, June 23.

We are working on 3 new songs at present in rehearsal, titled 'What We Deserved All Along,' 'Unsolicited Window' and 'Party for Everyone.' We are really digging them and are looking forward to playing them live at some point.

We have been rehearsing like maniacs the next (and final, we think) 4 songs for the new record, which will be laid down this month.

Congratulations to our friends in Goes Cube, who got signed to The End Records last week. Dan saw them give a killer show at Glasslands in Brooklyn last Thursday, and they blew the power no less than 4 times. We wish them all the best as they head out on a killer tour with Valient Thorr.

Between Dan and myself we saw 3 shows at Glasslands last week. I saw Renminbi who gave a great show Monday and blew the power only once (but that's still respectable). Dan saw The Naked Heroes burn it all down on Saturday night, hats off to those crazy fuckers.

I've bought the new U2 record and haven't been able to listen to it enough to know exactly how I feel about it. There are some excellent tracks on it, though.

I've been listening to a live set of The Whores recorded by Jake James (now of Jake James and the Sexual Freedom Riders, and formerly of The Stick, who hosted us all that night) from a show they played with us at Seaside Tavern in Stamford, Connecticut back in Feburary of 2008. I can't stop listening to it, it so rules. I've also been listening to the 4 new tracks they have up on their MySpace page, which also rule. www.myspace.com/hotgodlesswhores

This Wednesday (tomorrow) night at The Cupping Room Cafe, at 359 W. Broadway in Manhattan, from 7-9pm, VB SuperFan/Mailing-List-Signer-Upper/Free-CD-Giver-Outer, brilliant artist and Dan's girlfriend Isabelle Garbani will be having an opening reception for an art show her work is appearing in.

Good acoustic music and live art this Saturday night at Teneleven in Manhattan this Saturday night, my girlfriend Sarah Valeri's two bands, Kate-Matt-Ben-and-Sarah and Snazz Mammoth, will be performing with some other cool folks. Music starts at 8pm.

That's it for now.

Update

2009-02-24T15:15:00.000-05:00

Rehearsals have been going really well lately. We're getting the next set of songs for recording ready, but we're also writing some new material as well. We've written one just recently called "What We Deserved All Along" that we're digging quite a bit, and personally I can't wait to play it live. It's slower and less venomous than our usual fare, so it might sound pretty different on first listen. But we go nuts and rock out toward the end of it, have no fear.

Maybe I've mentioned this before, but we're shooting for a September release for the new record. That keeps seeming really far away to me, but I've witnessed in the past with our two EP's how long the art, promotion, etc. tends to take.

We're ramping up our pursuit of a label. We really want to be on a decent label that will treat us right, so we're hitting up some of our contacts in the business and sending copies of our new demo around. Anyone who can help us out on this, all assistance is much appreciated.

I'm also working on booking, but I haven't had as much time as I've wanted lately. I think starting this week this will be more my focus, and hopefully we'll have some new dates to post soon.

Congrats to our pals in the band Runny who we hear had a very successful tour through New England last week.

I'm more excited every day to play Precinct in Somerville, MA, just outside of Boston, with our good friends in Plumerai on Saturday, March 28. That promises to be an amazing night.

I have been listening to a LOT of music lately...Interpol, Kings of Leon, R.E.M., U2, Bob Mould, and Sugar primarily. I got R.E.M.'s 2008 record Accelerate, Interpol's Antics, and Bob Mould's 2008 release District Line recently and I am seriously digging all of them. On his website Bob says he'll be releasing another record in April of this year and touring somewhat in support of it. I'm hoping I can catch him again with a full band. I saw him a few years back solo electric at the old Northsix in Brooklyn. It was an awesome show but I'd really like to see him with a band behind him.

I'm planning on heading out to see Renminbi at Glasslands in Brooklyn next Monday night and both my girlfriend Sarah's bands, Kate, Matt, Ben and Sarah and Snazz Mammoth will be performing at Parkside Lounge in Manhattan next Tuesday. Both will be pretty awesome shows, I think. I keep listening to and enjoying Renminbi's latest record The Phoenix. I've only seen them live once and they've been on a break from performing, so I'm psyched to see them again. Of course I'm biased, but I like Kate, Matt, Ben and Sarah and Snazz Mammoth more every time I see them. Really original, intricate songs played with some serious heart and passion. And an extremely attractive gal drawing amazing pastel drawings while the musicians play.

Thanks for reading, keep rockin.

Trash Bar Show Recap and News

2009-02-20T10:38:00.000-05:00

Hey hey.

We played one of our favorite haunts, Trash Bar in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn on Wednesday, February 11. After a cool opening set by Blueberry High Heels, we took the stage and did it up Victor Bravo style. At Trash it's hard to see the audience if you're in the band, because they put bright lights on the stage and turn out the lights in the house. But when I could see people it looked like everyone was having a good time. During the always-set-closer 'Motherfucker,' figures kept emerging from the dark shadows as they were hurtled toward the front of the stage by the other people jumping around and acting crazy. Our new song 'Jagged Cross' has become the one we like to open with now, and after that one we played three relatively new ones that will be on the upcoming album. I wondered how 'Into Debt' and 'The Door' would go, because I think we may have only played them live one or two other times. But they went really well from our perspective and they were really fun to play.

The full set list:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Into Debt
3. The Door
4. Name Today
5. Binge
6. Alien Homeland
7. Transparent
8. Motherfucker

After we got done, our friends in Imaginary Friends went on and just tore the place up. Those guys are so frickin' good. We really wanted to stay for Dead Stars and Gulf of Michigan, but unfortunately Dan and I were both recovering from major flu bugs and I had an early morning commitment the next day. So we had to bolt. But hopefully the rest of the show was as good as the start felt to us.

We want to thank Trash Bar and all the staff there for having us back, everyone who came out, all the other bands, and a special thank-you to Abby, the manager of Imaginary Friends, who added us to the bill and treats us like gold. We love you, Abby.

Work on the new album continues to go wonderfully. We are working with Ian Love of Rival Schools and have developed an astonishingly good working relationship with him. We have 8 tracks completely finished and are set to record the last 4 or 5 in March and possibly April. No title or artwork as yet, we're going to get on that as soon as we can. We're shooting for a September release and really excited to share these tunes with you. We're planning to sneak-release some of the tracks to our diehard fans ahead of the official release, so stay tuned for info on that.

After lots of delays from illness and various personal life-type stuff, I am looking to get into booking a ton of shows in Arpil, May and over the summer. Dan and I really want to be on the road playing a LOT more in 2009, so I have a bunch of work ahead of me. It can be tough to get booked outside of NYC because club bookers often don't want a band that is not as well known and might not bring a lot of people. But I'm hopeful we'll get this ball rolling soon and good things will come of it.

On the less-distant horizon, we are thrilled to be going back to Boston to play Precinct in Somerville with our good friends in the band Plumerai. I am totally in frickin' love with Plumerai and their music, even though they are very different from us genre/style-wise. When Martin, their guitarist, e-mailed me to offer us a spot on the bill I was really psyched. We'll be playing Saturday, March 28, which should make it accessible not only for our Boston fans, but for any of our New England fans who don't mind a little travel on the weekend (if you live in New England, you should be used to travelling to get to things!).

That's the news of the moment, thanks for reading and keep rockin'.

Lighting it Up at Lit

2009-01-30T11:27:00.000-05:00

Hello, woooooo am I tired. But it is definitely "good tired." Last night we played Lit Lounge on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. This is one of the coolest clubs in the city. Dan and I have both wanted to play there for a long time, but we were patiently waiting for the right opportunity. Our new friend Abby, who manages the incredible band Imaginary Friends and is putting a whole bunch of great rock shows together these days, gave us that opportunity by inviting us to play with Imaginary Friends last night at Lit.

When I got the e-mail from Max, the house booker at Lit, confirming us on the bill, the instructions were for all bands to load in with their gear at 7:15 PM. The music was to start at 9:00PM, 4 bands, with us going on last. Now, some of you know this, but both Dan and I are originally from Maine, and sometimes we can't escape certain things we learned growing up there. Some of these things are not especially helpful navigating life in New York City. One thing about people in Maine is that most of them like to get to things early. I don't know if this comes from the old days of farming when everyone was up at 4AM to milk the cows, or what originally caused it. But I have a nasty habit of arriving at things ridiculously early. I once went to a rock show in Maine with my sister. We got there at the published start time, and the show was already over. I am not making that up.

So when I saw 7:15PM load-in, I had a voice in my head that said, "This is a rock club in New York City. No one will be there that early." But of course I got there around 7:30 - pretty late by Maine standards. And of course I was the only musician there for what seemed like several hours. Dan was meeting me there later because he had to teach class at his day gig. Luckily for me, my girlfriend and Victor Bravo SuperFan Sarah got her signals crossed with Dan's girlfriend and Victor Bravo SuperFan Isabelle, trying to meet her for an artistic co-adventure. So she came to Lit, and we just sat on the couch for a long time, chatting and having a little private date while the other bands showed up and started loading their stuff in.

Sarah got hungry, so she went to get herself a slice of pizza and while she did the first band began playing. They were called Broccoli Destroyer and I thought they were fantastic. They were a 2-piece like us, 2 guys, one on guitar and the other on drums, but no vocals. They played a short set that was fun from start to finish. When they were done, Sarah came back and Dan and Isabelle showed up. The next band, Birthing of Millions, went on, and blew me away as well. They were a 4-piece, again all guys (it was an all-male performer evening): bass, 2 guitars and drums, and again no vocals. All instrumental, which I really enjoyed.

Then it was time for our pals in Imaginary Friends to go on, and man did they kill it. We played with them once before at a party in Bushwick, Brooklyn and they really amazed me then. It was so great to see them play again. Really original music all around - bass, drums, lead guitar and a rhythm guitarist/singer. Good, solid rock.

Some people disagree with me but I find that most bands in New York are pretty darn good, but occasionally we do get booked in with bands we don't know who just don't do much for me musically. This was such a great night to me because all 3 of the other bands really impressed me and put on one hell of a great show. In our earlier days of shows such a line-up might have intimidated me a bit, but today it's more like a great challenge, like, "Hey they all did great sets! Let's do a great set, too!" Okay, I used two exclamation points there and that's not very rocker-cool of me. Apologies. I know as a rock frontman I need to be very cool. I meant: "Hey man, they really rocked. Let's do this." Yeah, that's better. Way more cool.

So we got up there and at first it felt like some of the people who might not have seen us before didn't exactly know what to make of us. But it was a show where we just seemed to build a connection with audience more and more with each song. The cheers and yells got louder after every one. After "Alien Homeland," I had a bit of a gaffe when I switched guitars. First I couldn't find my guitar cable to hook up the new guitar, then I found the cable but I had flipped some switch somewhere so my amp wasn't making any noise. Eventually I figured it all out and told the crowd, "Just so you know, I am a complete f***ing idiot, which you would know if you saw what just happenned." Someone I did not recognize shouted back loud and clear: "Hello, f***ing idiot!" And I think that's when I knew the crowd and us were on the same page.

We launched into "Transparent" and suddenly the crowd seemed to triple in size and everybody started jumping around and hurling themselves at each other with wild abandon. It was so cool. I felt like the show wasn't about us playing for people anymore, the audience and the band were like one crazy ball of energy flailing around together. We finished up with "Motherfucker" as always, and things got even crazier. We finished the song, I took my Fender into the brick wall a few times, and that was that. The set list:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Binge
3. Better Lives
4. Alien Homeland
5. Transparent
6. Motherfucker

After the show we hung out with friends new and old for a while, then dropped off the gear at The Music Building, and then finally headed back to Brooklyn. I got home around 2:30AM, hence my present state of fatigue.

We had a really good time playing last night, and we just want to thank Max and Lit Lounge, Abby and Imaginary Friends, Broccoli Destroyer and Birthing of Millions, Pete from Ruby Bullet, our former bassist Dani now from the new band The Bad Nights, Corynne from Afterdawn, and everyone who came out and stayed to see our set. None of what we do would be possible without all sorts of people doing what they do to make it possible. Thanks to you all, you are the best.

We are playing again Wednesday, February 11 at Trash Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, again with Imaginary Friends, and this time also with Dead Stars and Gulf of Michigan. That should be an unbelievably great night of rock music. We'd love to have you come and share it with us.

And I am getting back on track with tour booking, so you folks outside New York City - who we love - stay tuned, we may be coming somewhere near you soon.

Oh, a few last things - if you're looking for more great live music this weekend, our friends in Afterdawn are playing what is being billed as their last show tonight at Bowery Poetry Club at 10:30. This is one of my favorite bands of all time, we've played with them several times and I am sad to see this amazing musical entity come to an end.

At the other end of the lifecycle-of-a-band, Victor Bravo SuperFan Mr. Scott Holcomb leads his new kickass country-rock band The Bulletproof Lincolns tonight at 8:00 in what I think is their third show ever at Mehanata Ice Cage (new venue, don't ask me, Google it). I saw their last show at FatBaby and they are terrific. And aforementioned SuperFan and my girlfriend Sarah will be performing with both her bands, Kate Matt Ben & Sarah and Snazz Mammoth, at the Return to Roccoco night at Teneleven Saturday night beginning at 8:30. That show will also include period costume, fire dancers, burlesque, free pastries, and all sorts of crazy s**t. All those shows are in Manhattan, and we wish all our fellow musician friends wonderful shows.

Okay, be well. I've gotta go take a nap now.

Another Top 50 and Don Pedro Show Recap

2009-01-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

Hey hey.

Our song "Drain on Me" off Sky Full of Messages was picked for the Top 50 Songs by Airplay by Westcott Radio. Ends up that we actually tied Sugar (Bob Mould's band) song "If I Can't Change Your Mind" from the 1990's. Pretty cool. The whole list is presented as the Jan-4 podcast you can access HERE.

Friday night we played a great show at Don Pedro in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The night was kicked off by Genan, who we sadly missed (we were late showing up) but we heard she played an amazing set. Then we did actually get there in time to see the second band, Big, a great all-female rock trio from Brooklyn. I had heard about this band but this was my first time seeing them live, and they really blew me away. The drummer Carrie and guitarist Monica traded off lead and back-up vocals with each other to create a great mix. And bassist Terry had really creative, kickin basslines. Really glad I caught them. After them was an awesome duo called Prison Pretty, who played crazed indie rock. Singer/guitarist Shen shredded on rapid, unique riffs, alternatively singing sweetly and screaming his head off. Meanwhile drummer Mary was smiling throughout, which did not disguise the fact that she was pounding the hell out of her kit with fury and abandon. It was pretty awesome to see such two amazing bands I had never seen before back-to-back like that. They set up the whole evening very well.

After Prison Pretty, one of my all-time favorite bands, The Whores, took the stage, and proceeded to play one of the best sets I've ever seen them play. Drummer Juline was slamming out the beats, guitarist Greg was on fire, and bassist Matt was holding it all down. I was in the front jumping up and down and head-bopping for the whole thing. They were just awesome.

Then came Runny. A few seconds before they were to go on, singer/guitarist/sometimes-male- stripper Lemon Cookie ran up to me and told me to jump up on stage and introduce them. So I did. Then LC, singer DJ Phlegm, drummer/singer Colonel Creem and masked bassist Cracker Dap proceeded to lurch into the music and mayhem. They played a blazing, we-don't-give-a-fuck-what-you-think, but we-want-everyone-to-join-in-our-fun-god-dammit! set, as usual. But about half-way through, LC - who used to get pretty naked when I first began seeing Runny live, but who had not gotten even slightly unclothed in quite a while as far as I knew - began to auction off his disrobing. A few souls banded together to raise $5 for him to take off his shirt I think. But he wanted $10 for the pants. I ran up and gave him a 20, which allowed everyone to see him once again in only a rainbow thong. He played most of the rest of the set thus attired, much of that rolling around on the floor amidst the audience. Nice.

When Runny was done messing with everyone, we took the stage. The set list for those interested:

1. Jagged Cross
2. Binge
3. Night Scales
4. Better Lives
5. Name Today
6. Make the Escape
7. Alien Homeland
8. Transparent
9. Motherfucker

We had good fun and I got pretty worked up by the end, took my guitar into the brick wall that backs the stage there a few times, then into my amp. My amp is now missing some pieces. But it still works.

After we finished, East-West Quintet closed out the night. These 6 guys (yeah, I said six) are really amazing. Individually they're each some of the most skilled musicians I've ever seen play, and together they are just a force. Their music starts out as cool, toe-tapping jazz and then rockets straight into full-out rocking. I have yet to see another band like them. It was the second time I've seen them live and they were just as incredible this time around.

All in all it was a fantastic night of great people and great music.

Our next show is Thursday, January 29 at Lit Lounge in Manhattan. We're playing with a great band, Imaginary Friends, who go on right before us I think.

More later...

SFOM in Top 5 CDs of 2008 and Open Mic Night

2009-01-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

Hey-llo. Collin here.

I mentioned recently that we got picked for the Top 50 artists of 2008 by Radio Crystal Blue internet radio in Brooklyn, we just found out that our CD Sky Full of Messages, which we released this year, got picked as their #4 CD of the year. Thanks again to Dan Herman and RCB for the nod, we really appreciate it. You can see the whole chart HERE.

I did a 3-song acoustic set at Lilly Coogan's in Manhattan last night, sorry I didn't tell anyone before-hand, it was kind of a last-minute thing. If I do it again I'll try and let people know. It went pretty well I thought, I played 'Final Friend' off SFOM and two new ones, 'Night Scales' and 'The Door,' first time those two have been played live, and both will probably be on our new LP.

I saw and met some other great musicians there as well. I went with my girlfriend Sarah, who's in the bands Kate, Matt, Ben & Sarah and Snazz Mammoth, and who also wrote the lyrics to 'Night Scales.' Trish from America's Sweetheart was there, it was great to see her again. I've been listening to their two CDs, Firecracker and Rainbow Party, a lot these days and really digging them. They just got back from an awesome mini-tour to the midwest so it was great to hear all about that.

I also got to chat with Minnie from the band Swoon, who I have yet to see live but I hear are awesome. They're playing Crash Mansion in Manhattan on Jan. 15.

The open mic was kicked off by JC Cassis, who plays with a band normally but was doing her solo thing. She had a hilarious song 'Texas Boys' to start it off that had me on the floor laughing. She's playing Jan. 30 at Public Assembly in Brooklyn.

Next was Natalie Gelman, who I had actually seen in Battery Park this past summer. She's a great singer-songwriter, beautiful voice and wonderfully-crafted songs. It was nice to see her perform again. She's playing a free show tonight at 6pm at the American Folk Art Museum at 45 West 53rd Street in Manhattan.

Following Natalie was Jeneen Terrana, another wonderful singer-songwriter with heartfelt tunes. I am especially grateful to Jeneen because she let me borrow her guitar to play my set. It was great to meet her, she seems like a sweet person in addition to being a great musician. Jeneen is playing this Sunday (Jan. 11) at 8:30pm at Lucky Mojo's, 514 51st Avenue in Long Island City, Queens.

After those three great folks, I got up there and did my thing. Thanks also to Jakki the bartender at Lilly Coogan's, for hosting and setting the whole night up. Trish and I were sad she didn't play a set, she's an amazing singer/songwriter herself.

All right, I've got to get off here and put some new strings on my Strat for the show tonight at Don Pedro in Brooklyn. Maybe I'll see you there.

Another Best of 2008/Show/Tour/Recording

2009-01-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

Hey hey.

Thanks to Radio Crystal Blue internet radio in Brooklyn for putting us in their Top 50 of 2008. This is the second Top 50 list we've made for the past year, on this one we're #16. You can see the full list HERE.

We just confirmed another Manhattan show coming up. We'll be playing Lit Lounge on 2nd Avenue on Thursday, January 29. We're playing with two other awesome bands, Imaginary Friends and Redbeard. Should be a great show.

We are continuing to work on booking a tour back to the midwest in late February. No definites yet but we'll keep you posted.

Also, we decided we are going to record an LP for release later this year. The timeline is not set yet, but we're shooting for some time in 2009. We finished 4 songs last month and want to add some more to end up with 10-12 total.

Happy New Year/VB in Top 50 Songs of 2008

2009-01-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

Hey happy new year to you.

WCH Radio has put our song "Alien Homeland" in their Top 50 Songs of 2008. You can read the whole list HERE. Thanks to everyone at WCH Radio for the nod. We appreciate it.

Reminder, we're playing Don Pedro in Brooklyn this Friday.

New Photos and New Videos

2008-12-17T13:03:00.000-05:00

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.

Brooklyn Show in January

2008-12-15T14:13:00.000-05:00

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).

New Live Video: Make the Escape

2008-12-10T10:10:00.001-05:00

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).

Halloween Antics and VB on New Compilation CD

2008-11-11T14:05:00.000-05:00

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!"

NYC Gig Announced and New Review

2008-11-07T11:50:00.000-05:00

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:

------------------------------------

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

Internet Radio Play, Interview, and A Big Award

2008-11-06T15:19:00.000-05:00

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.

Back to Bashin in Beantown

2008-11-05T15:19:00.001-05:00

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'.