Mailing List Archive/2004-07-12

TMBG TAPES CONAN 8/9! AIRING 8/12!

FULL "SPINE" AND "THE SPINE SURFS ALONE" AVAILABLE TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT! JOIN US IN THE 21ST CENTURY! (WE'RE THE ONES WEARING BARRELS)

TELL YOUR FRIENDS! TMBG IS COMING! Texas! Washington DC! New Orleans! Nashville! Memphis! Pittsburgh! The Jersey Shore! and our big "Spine" release party at Celebrate Brooklyn! (it's essentially free with a small suggested donation!) FULL TOUR AND TICKET INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS EMAIL

BIG BIG NEWS! "The Spine," TMBG's tenth album, is in better record stores AND online tomorrow.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL DOWNLOAD SITE! TMBG's brand new Artist Owned and Operated download site (and pencil emporium) is downloading "They Got Lost," "No!" and on the release day "The Spine," PLUS "The Spine Surfs Alone" EP. In a special arrangement through iTunes, an exclusive track-a full studio production of "Renew My Subscription" will be available as well.

FLANSBLOG TOUR DIARY

7/1 Leave a marathon recording session with Pat Dillett finishing the tracking our next children's project to get on the tour bus on the far west side of Manhattan. New tour manager Keith impresses all with what appears to be a fake English accent. Troy, our lighting guy, takes the Amtrak train in the wrong direction, so we embark for Columbus an hour late. The bunks are slightly smaller than usual on the tour bus. I have a nightmare I am trapped in a small box, and wake up startled to find I am trapped in a small box. Dropped in on our pals at CD101 to play some songs live (they are one of the few FM station that don't get their marching orders from the MasterRobots in LA).

7/3 Spent the day walking around one Ann Arbor which is a big student shopping zone. Find a fantastic junk store (a "Six Million Dollar Man" paperback for $5 anyone?) buy a Weavers song book and a used copy of the Elvis Costello song book, along with a country album called "Hello Vietnam" but the clerk couldn't locate the actual disc. Got to introduce some new songs into the show, both old and new.

Attempt performing "Prevenge."

7/4 Chicago on the 4th of July. Got to perform on the big WXRT broadcast of Taste of Chicago. The gig itself, which we did 12 years earlier, is curious. There's a crowd of (what I am told is) mostly cousins of city workers in the first couple of thousand seats, while thousand of real fans remain quarantined behind a fence in the far horizon, so it is a neurotic audience response to say the least. Evidently much of it was broadcast on the radio. I wasn't sure if the word "bastard" was FCC acceptable (evidently it is) but as we were about to play "Bastard Wants to Hit Me" I gave them the heads up to our radio pals Lin and Norm that some bad words might be coming, and evidently put them into a frenzy trying to set up a delay to cover.

7/5 Flew back to NYC to feed my cats.

7/7 Madison is such a cool town, the kind of place you think you should move to when you're on the road. Got to play at one of our all-time favorite venues, the Barrymore Theater. Checked in with the "Wayback Machine" site to find our old set list on tmbg.net (is that site gone?!) from the last time we played in Madison and was excited to see most of our set is different from a couple of years ago. Even more new new songs tonight and some new old songs (Stomp Box!) which was an exciting challenge.

7/8 Enjoyed a day off in Minneapolis. People can still smoke in restaurants which seems extra gross now that it's gone in NYC. Went with Brian Speiser and Adam from Common Rotation to a road show of "Hair" which was strange and disappointing. The general vibe made the show which is super-soft seem like an episode of "Laugh In", but maybe that is inevitable with such a topical musical from thirty-something years ago. If someone wrote a pop musical tomorrow about the Iraq war it would be so strange, but that really is what "Hair" was like to Vietnam. In this show I saw two guitarists in the pit orchestra but rarely even heard one.

7/9 Played at First Avenue. This is where Prince performed in the film Purple Rain, and the stage hasn't changed much. Many familiar faces in their excellent crew. The show itself is utterly packed so it became stiflingly hot, although Weinkauf didn't sweat at all making me think he might actually have superhuman powers. Performed an intro song called "First Avenue Stage," which I kind of mauled when we actually did it in front of the crowd. Linnell wants to try to do a specialty song for every place we play for these live downloads. I accidentally swore into a telephone that a mom was holding up with her kids listening, which again leads me to think I should never play for kids.

7/10 Played for a few thousand kids outside at 11am as the last act of a 24 hour Minneapolis music festival. Very positive response from the kids who seemed to know all the songs (!?!). I didn't swear at all.

Tue Jul 13 '04 The Blue Note Columbia, MO

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/060038B9C7B35A21?brand=&artistid=736288&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=60

Wed Jul 14 '04 Mississippi Nights St. Louis, MO metrotix.com or 314 534 1111

Fri Jul 16 '04 Stubb's: Outdoors Austin, TX http://www.frontgatetickets.com/

Sat Jul 17 '04- Sun Jul 18 Trees Dallas, TX http://www.frontgatetickets.com/

Tue Jul 20 '04 Meridian Houston, TX

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C0038BE916A12A4?brand=&artistid=736288&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=60

Wed Jul 21 '04 House Of Blues New Orleans, LA

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1B0038B9BE4965C3?brand=&artistid=736288&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=60

Thu Jul 22 '04 Gibson Beale Street Memphis, TN gibsonmemphis.com

Fri Jul 23 '04 SoBro Summer Nights Nashville, TN sobrosummernights.com or 1800 594 TIXX

Sat Jul 24 '04 Live on Penn Washington, DC http://www.liveonpenn.com/