RM64 Artists Record

I wanted to pull you guys in by showing you some skin. That’s us, in Joshua Tree, looking awesome. Hope you like it!

Anyway, now we’re in Portland, and I’m sitting in the Doug Fir Lounge’s green room, which is larger than some of the rooms we’ve played in on this tour. Tonight is one of the more anticipated nights of the tour, at least for me, as we’re playing w/ an awesome band called Odawas. I’m not sure how many of you have been to this venue, but this is really one of the best (if not the best) places we could ever play. Awesome place to play, awesome place to watch a show. (more…)

So here we are again. It’s Walt with The 54, and I gotta say… we’ve been somewhat taking it easy since we’ve gotten off tour back in April, at least as far as shows go. So far we’ve but performed a charity show about a month ago called 500 Songs For Kids, which was great, as it always is. It’s a big event in Atlanta; we performed last year… but it’s not a full show, even though I personally managed to headbang a huge knot into the back of my neck (which I couldn’t go to the doctor cuz of freakin  health care! It’s all good now though)… I mean, the whooole tour and no injury amongst the whole band, and then we perform one song for this charity event… Anyway, sorry I’m off topic.  So we haven’t by any means been inactive, but we’ve been off the stage for several weeks now- which is cool. We did see a lot of each other for those two months. Honestly, it was a lot of fun- being out on the road seeing new cities, meeting new fans. Performing with Janelle Monae for 10 dates was great as well. And ya know, ever since that tour ended, she has been really tearing up the talk show circuit!… Yeeeep it’s really great to see how her young career has blossomed after getting a boost from being on tour with The 54… But ya know things like that are what The 54 is all about- so good for her.

So what’s going on with The 54??? We’ve been in Atlanta, composing, recording demos, a little practice to make sure we don’t get rusty, and honestly trying to take care of a bit of band business… but we’re all really excited about hitting the road again! Which brings me to my next point…
The 54 is hitting the road again! That’s right! Black Betty (our van) is in the shop right now getting ready for her next trek. This time- we’re heading back to the Big City- New York, New York. We’re getting our toll and parking lot money ready and we’re puttin it in a big ole pot cuz we’re goin to Gotham. Yeahh word son. From 3:00 to 3:30 on June 26th we’ll be performing in Commodore Barry Park in Brooklyn on day one of The 2010 Afro-Punk Festival! We’re going on a few slots before Bad Brains- pretty cool right? So if you’re in the NYC Metropolitan, check it out! It should be a pretty awesome return to action. And that’s what The 54 is aaaall about.

Thanks for reading. Till next time!

Well hello everyone! Suzie here. Typically, I’m responsible for the lovely Narrative video content you see on RM64 every so often, but the past few weeks have left little time to sift through footage of the 3 of us trying to take ourselves seriously. Apparently, we can’t do that when there’s a video camera present (without multiple takes). However, we do take ourselves very seriously when it comes to the business side of our band.

That being said, we are getting ready to SELF-RELEASE our first full length record. Yes, self-release. We kept telling ourselves we’d sign to a label if we got an offer that made sense, but I’m not quite sure anyone knows what makes sense when it comes to putting our records these days. If we put all that work into a full length, paid out of pocket for all expenses related to that endeavor, does it then make sense to go and give 90% of that to a bunch of people we probably could only get to know over the course of a few weeks, or maybe just one fancy dinner at Nobu? I guess maybe? Maybe if they promise to really promote our record, you know, “push it” and really get it out there. Or mayyyyybe we’ll sign our contract, give up ownership of the record and then 2 weeks later someone else will be having dinner at Nobu and we’re leaving 10 messages a day with the secretary. What’s our recourse? Suing them? We’re artists! We’ll never have the money to win that battle. Sigh. The music industry is a weird place so here at The Narrative camp, we’re taking things into our own hands. (more…)

Shall we?  If you’d like to come, we’re leaving half an hour ago.  At least we were supposed to, but then everything took longer than planned and I’m still doing things I meant to this morning, including making this post.

But once these things are done we will drive to Las Vegas maybe?  Really we just need to be in Tempe tomorrow night, and wherever we decide to stop tonight is just a sidenote to that.  Some people call this “touring,” and that’s what begins today and ends a few weeks from now.

Backtracking: we had a wonderful weekend.  We played two shows that were advertised as “CD release shows,” and so we released a new record. This new record has also garnered us our very first ever Journey comparison which makes me happy to a level that my three semesters of college and 1.8 GPA don’t allow me to articulate.

We were joined on Saturday by our friends the Future of the Ghost and some friends from Seattle called the Head and the Heart. They were both fantastic and everyone loved everyone and by the end of the night I was feeling like this. Which is the best way to feel. We will reconvene w/ the Head and the Heart folks in just a few short weeks in Seattle, WA (July 9).

Also, my refrigerator gave me its two week notice today. But luckily I’m going out of town!

I wish I could make this longer but I really need to be going. The good news is, just a few hours from now, my life will get more exciting than normal, so hopefully in a few days I’ll have a nice story or two to share. Five of us in a 4-Runner. Things are bound to get weird. How weird? We shall soon find out.

Photo by Courtney Swarm

It’s the eve’s eve of our last show for the summer and i can’t help but be a little bummed. Ordinarily, summer provides an excellent opportunity for bands to tour, play festivals, and have water balloon fights without worrying about their fans not showing up due to it being a school night. For us however, it means writing, demoing, working, and vacation, which is all well and good, but going two months without playing shows makes me anxious to get back out on the road! Due to circumstances described in my last blog will prevent us from the typical summer festivities.

So as I munch on these Sweet Chili Rice Chips (part of my midnight dinner) (oh wow, I can’t stop munching!) (okay, okay, I’m wiping my hands off)… crap I lost my train of thought. Anyways, our last show until the fall is this Sunday in Chicago. We are playing with some awesome bands such as The Fold and A Kidnap in Color so we hope to go out with a bang.

On tap for me for the summer includes: going to Philly for a wedding, going to Tennessee for family, potentially going to LA for band-related things, engineer/produce my friend’s EP, get inspired, write songs, get inspired again, and write lyrics. Should be a good summer. I’ll keep in touch.

-Daniel

P.S. Like our new promo pic? Check out our friend and photographer @ www.courtneyswarm.com

Hello, internet! I love you.

I spent the last ten days in my home state of Michigan w/ parents, siblings, in-laws, nephews, niece. Do yourself a favor and google image “Pictured Rocks,” and you’ll how see how amazing northern Michigan is. That’s where I was for a good part of the trip. Camping, hiking, pontoon boating, shipwreck searching. While doing the last of those two activities a storm rolled in and frightened me into thinking we’d be a tiny forgettable version of the Edmund Fitzgerald. But as fate would have it, we survived! A surprise ending to me, but not to the rational mind or the reader (you). (more…)

time seriously flies… seriously. it soars. i have no idea how it’s 3 am, and i also have no idea how it’s june 2010. it’s hard to believe that it’s been months since our trip to good old austin texas… even harder to believe that we’re so close to completing this full length album after spending well over a year developing every last detail so that it could be everything we wanted it to be and nothing less. the day that record comes out, we are going to seriously, seriously need to celebrate.

in the meantime, here’s a bit of footage from our travels back in march – we’ve got some great shows coming up this month so we’ll be sure to document them for you all. we’re always looking for shows too, so if you’ve got them, send them our way. but now it’s bed time. seriously