RM64 Artists Record

Hello internet world.

As I write this we are trying to put a tour together. It’s been taking over our lives but is a really beneficial experience for us. Here’s a list of dates:

2.Fri Sept 3. – Houston (Kick-off)
3. Sat Sept 4. – Denton
4. Mon Sept 6. – OKC/Norman
6.Wed Sept 8. – Omaha
7.Thur Sept 9. – Minneapolis
8.Fri Sept 10 – Minneapolis
10.Sat Sept 11. – Chicago
11.Sun Sept 12. – Chicago Area
12.Mon Sept 13. – Daytrotter, Rock Island
13.Tues Sept 14. – Ann Arbor
14Wed Sept 15. – Pittsburgh
15. Thurs Sept 16. – Philadelphia
16. Fri Sept 17. – New York
17.Sat Sept 18. – New York
18. Sun Sept 19. – Boston-
19. Sept 20. – Washington D.C./Baltimore
20. Tues Sept 21. – SC/NC area
21. Wed Sept 22. – Nashville
22.Thur Sept 23. – Memphis
23. Fri Sept 24. – New Orleans
24. Sat Sept 25. – Austin

Some of these dates are finalized, others are close, and others are nowhere close. Still, we have high hopes that it will be a great time!

We’ll have some new songs and videos posted soon. Plus, we’re trying out a new keyboard player soon and she seems great already! More on all to come.

Love,

The Eastern Sea

So school has finally come to an end for me, with the exception of one summer school class, and we now have the time to be a band again! We’ve been keeping ourselves busy with lots of shows. We had the honor of playing the first ever Local Live house show. It was crazy to say the least, seeing as it was the one co-op in a neighborhood of frat houses. The night ended with a balcony full of guys across the street shouting at us to show them our d**ks. So we did. Here’s some photos from it!

We’ll have videos from all the past shows and some other pearls when Matt brings the camera back from his vacation in Wisconsin. He’s up there right now writing for the new full length, and should hopefully bring some good stuff home for us to record and share with all of you! But I can share these- Some acoustic versions of some of our earlier stuff.  We used Record and one mic to do these one take b- sides to pass the day, and this was the result.

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In other news, anyone in the Houston or surrounding areas should come see us at the 2010 Free Press Summer Fest on June 5th and 6th (we play on the 5th). It’s Houston’s biggest musical event of the year (and this is only it’s 2nd year!) that sees great national acts, but more importantly lets local bands play earlier in the day, helping to spread knowledge of the Houston music scene, which is pretty darn good these days. And because someone somewhere thinks the Eastern Sea is a Houston band, we got asked back to play the 2nd time around! Only last year we played at 4pm on the main stage and this year we play 2:30 on the side stage, that should say something about where we’re heading! But don’t care. So come check it out:

http://freepresssummerfest.com/

We were also the featured artist of the week at the Houston Press to spread the word about the festival. We have a couple more in the works too, so we’ll post them when they’re up. But for now check this one out:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2010/05/the_eastern_sea_tv-savvy_wife-.php

We’ll post more songs and videos upon Matt’s return and maybe Tomas and I can show you some of his solo stuff until then!

- Zach

I have an hour to kill before Rhetorical Criticism so I thought it would be cool to show you some music from bands that live in our city and the city we grew up in. These cats are either good friends of ours or we play with them a lot and secretly hate them. See if you can guess which is which!

News on the March
http://www.myspace.com/notmband

We’ve been buddies with this band for nearly two years now (maybe longer). The only thing nicer than the guys who make up News on the March is the music that spills out of their amps, a sound that encompasses Rock, Western Swing, and Pop to produce some of the brightest and darkest music I’ve heard out of almost any Houston band.
Check em out!

Driver F
http://www.myspace.com/driverf
We’ve know these guys since high school (Matt has known them eveeeeeen looooooonger) and we’ve had the privilege to witness there transformation from ska band to “in your face” pop rock, although I personally wish they were still a ska band. Seriously, with nonstop driving drums, powerful horn lines, and vocal battles between front men Andy and Tyler, this is the perfect music to wake up, eat a mess of bacon and other breakfast meats, and then constantly work out all day, with Driver F blasting through those trendy, white headphones.
Check em out!

Earnie Banks
http://www.myspace.com/earniebanks
I think it’s unfair to say that this is my favorite band to ever come out of Houston, Texas, seeing as it is made up of 4 of my best friends, but I don’t really even care. This is my favorite band to ever come out of Houston. Spacey keys and guitars, fat bass lines, and the most technically gifted drummer I know made up this Rock, almost Shoegaze at times, band. Another fun fact is that Robbie and Rohan, of E.B., played with Tomas and myself in “Playground” before this band was made and we hooked up with The Eastern Sea. Although they were waaaay too short lived, this band will always be a favorite. You can even see a 2006 version of me sitting on the ground watching them in this next video.
watch?v=B3e2bipIZTU

Old Coyote
http://www.myspace.com/oldcoyoteblood
These guys are what I hope people think of when they think of “Texas” music. Two members grew up playing with Matt in their old band “Alaska is for Players” (Come to think about it we have played with a lot of band members on this list.) These guys have such a great dark, twang to their music, think about calm moment right before they picked up the bloody mess of a girl in “Texas Chainsaw Massacrer”. Listen to the second song in the video below, you won’t be disappointed.
Check em out!

Look up these great bands too, I just gotta get to class!

The Wild Moccasins, Houston
Papermoons, Austin
No Mas Bodas, Austin
Young Mammals, Houston
Penny and the Pupoholics, Houston and Austin (depending on if she has a broken leg)

We’ll have some of OUR new songs and videos up this weekend/ next week too, so check back!

GOODBYE

First, I made a new music video

So we have finally gotten to the point where I am good enough at Record to actually start demoing our new record.

Right now we have our eyes set on about 10 to 12 songs,
and we are not sure about how many will actually end up on the record but we are planning it out to fit respectably on vinyl so it may turn out to be shorter than what we would first be inclined to do as CD generation artists.

Right now we have been playing 3 songs live pretty consistently that will without a doubt be on the future LP:

The Match
Santa Rosa
Central Cemetery

There are also some songs that we have been working on
that aren’t as much live type songs, even though we have played them at certain shows.

Here’s one:

Say Yes

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This is an old tune for those of you reading that have heard anything I recorded
during the first two years of college. But we are bringing it back from the dead
to be a nice droned out summertime tune. Though its very incomplete,
note the long space at the end of the track with no melody, this recording
is somewhat close to what I would want for the finished product.

The other track is yet to be titled,
but as we have discussed putting together the record,
this song has come up many times as an opener.

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So the reason we have been absent from the blog is because SXSW has taken over our lives
and since I’m the only one I can convince to memorize the login information for this blog,
I found my self exceptionally spread thin.

We played 6 shows in 4 days, all of them unofficial, and had an amazing time in front of
hundreds of awesome people who came out to drink free booze and have a blast,
with us and our friends. We have tons of videos to post so look forward to that.

Just because we havent been posting doesnt mean we havent been recording at the house.
More than ever, we have been working on new tracks and getting ready to record a full length
record. New demos will be coming in the next few days.

Sorry there hasnt been anything from us lately, I have had really bad computer problems, but I definitely recovered all my Record and Reason stuff so I’m back on for the blog.
So here’s a new softer demo of a song we put on our second release, its called The Name

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The biggest advice I could give to anyone trying to do anything (yeah, I know…really broad) is to know your strengths. I’ve said this many times to my friends, my family, my fellow students, etc… who were in one way or another in need of help or advice. This time around, I say “know your strengths” to a group of people who have never asked me for words of wisdom and probably never will, but I feel inclined to give it anyway.

To be specific, my audience is the city of Austin, a little quirky nook in the heart of Texas with a local music industry that, while conjuring up images of vastness and notoriety, oftentimes falls short of its pompous nickname, “The Live Music Capital of the World.” It has become very clear over the past few years that unless the city can either readjust its priorities or be honest with itself, it deserves, sadly, to be stripped of that, now empty, title. (more…)

I recently heard a rather life changing story on PRI about the proliferation of carbon emission labels on foods in the UK. Not life changing in the content of the story, but life changing in the way it made me think about a number of related topics. In short, a company called TESCO, which is a large grocery chain in Britain, is beginning to label more and more of their products with labels that show measurements of CO2 emissions from the farm to the store, and while it is not available on all products, it is beginning to gain popularity.

Check out the story HERE

You may be wondering what this has to do with this blog or my experience as a musician recording from my home, but if you think about it, this blog in itself is its own unique attempt at a “farm to market” label of sorts. The carbon usage label that TESCO is using on its products is a direct result of a growing need for people to know more about the things they purchase and consume. This blog and my own personal posts serve a similar purpose.

To use an example, check out this song I created from the ground up in Record this week.

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(more…)

We would like to share our first official music video with you all at the link below, just copy and paste. It was directed by our old friend Samuel Rush Geer. Keep an eye out for Penny, she makes a few appearances. Big thanks to Sam and anyone who watches it.

The Mountain from Samuel Geer on Vimeo.

Love,
The Eastern Sea