Our hearts and hopes are with all of our friends from the New Orleans area. You've probably already seen some ways that you can help; we'd like to do our part and offer another avenue to donate.

Thanks to a cool promotion at CD Baby, we're now donating all the profits from sales of our latest album, Leap, to relief efforts. If you haven't bought a copy yet, why not do it now? Everybody wins - you get some new music, we get a new listener, and folks who need help in New Orleans will get it. In the words of Derek Silvers from CD Baby:

You may think that a few sales won't help, but with thousands of musicians banded together to do this, I think it will help a LOT of people get their lives back together after this disaster.

 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 8:53 PM -

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  I'm sure all of us know someone who has been affected by Hurricane Katrina. Our good friends in the amazing New Orleans band Liquidrone are safe but have lost everything. We all can help.

Donate cash:

American Red Cross
(800) HELP NOW (435-7669) English
(800) 257-7575 Spanish

Operation Blessing (800) 436-6348

America's Second Harvest (800) 344-8070



To donate cash or volunteer:

Adventist Community Services (800) 381-7171

Convoy of Hope (417) 823-8998

Mennonite Disaster Service (717) 859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response (888) 256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (800) 872-3283

Salvation Army (800) SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

Southern Baptist Convention -- Disaster Relief (800) 462-8657, ext. 6440

United Methodist Committee on Relief (800) 554-8583 

¶ posted by nuje at 10:51 AM -

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  While perusing the wares of the world's richest man, I ran into Mark Lewis. We laughed, we cried, we made fun of the silly Scandinavians. He told me that the Lewis Band, err, the Mark Lewis Trio will be throwing a party for the release of a new CD on Sept. 9, 2005. If you're itching for some Rhodes and some fantastic music then Clark's is the place. 

¶ posted by Patrick at 9:06 PM -

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  Hey all you in San Antonio. I'll be playing with the Southern Backtones tonight at Jack's. We'll go on around 11:30 and play until we run out of songs. Come out if you want to hear something completely different. 

¶ posted by nuje at 11:20 AM -

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  Patrick started playing music in the days before google searching and MP3s. And now, google searching and MP3s give you a chance to hear some of Patrick's best friends from "back in the day." John Branch rocks hard (and beautifully) - especially on a super-syncopated "Spanish Castle Magic". John Hickey is most definitely "down with the ship". Wouldn't it be great if they came to Texas for a show?

[Never fear: the live album is coming together nicely...] 

¶ posted by Patrick at 2:04 PM -

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  We are going to give the Live Archive a break for a couple of weeks. Stay tuned though as we have several tracks we can't wait to put up, including a rad improv called "Jeff Rocks." We're not playing any shows for a couple of weeks either...So what's up you may ask?

"Live At Cezanne" is in the middle stages of production. This week we will be in the studio mixing with our friend John Griffin.

Track list:
Wallawalla
LUG
Abbey Rhodes
Luna
Wreck of the Zephyr
Mothership
The Allen Smithee Show/Second First
Shelby
Wet Dog
Robot Suit
Invisible Pants

Ian will be traveling in the North East.
I will be playing with old friends.
Patrick, uh...Who knows what he does in his spare time? 

¶ posted by nuje at 10:25 AM -

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  Just confirmed our first major show in Austin in several months - a show inside at Stubbs! It'll be on Friday September 2nd, at 10:30 pm. We'll be playing with our good pals Groovin' Ground, so come out for a great night full of music!



For those of you not familiar with Stubbs, it's an Austin legend - one of the best & most well respected placed in town for live music of all kinds (just check out who else has played there recently). We're excited to play there! Come on out if you're in Austin! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:51 PM -

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  We're only doing one show in August. Amazing, no? It's because we're busy working on mixing & editing our new album, Live At Cezanne. Which is going to be really rad. But in the mean time, come hang with us for one show at the A>S>H>S warehouse, next Saturday (8/13). Here's the flyer:



Hope you can make it! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:23 AM -

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  One of our Big Dipper tracks got picked up for a German podcast recently. Nifty. :)

Hat tip to Jeff Miller for the heads up. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 7:34 PM -

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  We had an awesome time at the Watermelon Festival on Saturday night at Last Concert Cafe. It was great to see so many friends, and get to play with so many cool bands. Here are a few shots from the evening:







That fine looking fellow next to Patrick is Brad Martin, of the Psychodillos (and thanks to Brad's friend Leslie, for these photos!)

We had several other great friends join us during the evening - Citizen Doug on percussion, Adrian Zavala on guitar, Randy Wall on keys:





And a killer improv horn section consisting of Joe from Mikado, Skeets from the Buddhacrush, and Jason from Plump:






Good times were had by all. Thanks for coming everybody! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:46 AM -

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