So, you can finally hear (and buy) the new record. All of it. Go ahead and press play, then I’ll write some more stuff below while you listen.

As we’ve already said lots of times by now, we’re playing two shows this Saturday September 18 to celebrate:

1. You can either catch our FREE 3 pm show at Cactus Music (refreshments provided by St. Arnold). Cactus will have actual, physical copies of the record on sale.
2. Or you can hear a longer, louder set at Rudyard’s where we’re playing with fellow band of old guys, Orange is In. Jim Beazy opens that show and he’s apparently turning his set into some kind of video project. You can’t say we didn’t make things interesting. The show is $8, but you get a Free Download card with every paid admission that entitles you to a high-quality digital download of the new LP.

Special Guests

To make a special show even more special for us, Jonas Wilson and Jenny Gacy from The White White Lights will be joining us on several songs. Jonas recorded our record at Blue Train Studios in Austin. And Jenny sang on the record. Thanks to them, you’ll be able to hear things we normally wouldn’t be able to do with only 3 guitars.

How to buy the record

First, you don’t have to pay a dime. If you grab a digital copy here, you can name your price. Including FREE if you like. To get a vinyl record, one of only 250 copies, you have to fork over $10, but you get a digital download with purchase. As I said above, it will be on sale at Cactus starting this Saturday. We’re hoping to sell copies at Sound Exchange and Vinal Edge, too.

When you do buy the record, you’ll probably wonder who did the amazing album art. That would be Rene Cruz. We want to thank him again for donating his art and for inspiring us to change the name of the record.

Finally…

Thanks to our friends, family, and fans. We’re excited to share this with you and we’re even more excited to be done with it.

So we can write more songs. And record more stuff.

So we’re finally releasing our new record, Fired, on September 18. And we’re celebrating with two shows that day. First we’ll be doing an in-store at Cactus Music at 3 pm (refreshments provided by St. Arnold’s). Then we’ll play a late show our favorite venue, Rudyard’s, where we’ll close down a show with Orange is In. You have no excuses this time. You’ll have to come out and see us, because you can’t say it’s too early or too late. We’ve covered all the bases.

As for the record itself, well, I’ll confirm what I’ve said before. We are not making this record available on CD. You can either buy one of 250 vinyl copies or download the record in the digital format of your choice for whatever price you want to pay (including FREE, if you like). The records will be available at Cactus / Sound Exchange / Vinal Edge. Anyone who pays $10 or more for a digital copy can get a vinyl record for free (while we have them). Anyone who buys the vinyl record will receive inside a card/code they can redeem for the digital files. All the digital distribution is done through our Bandcamp site.

We’ll make the record available online starting September 15. And you can buy a physical copy the following Saturday. We’ve shared the record already with a few friends and local music writers, and early feedback seems pretty positive. We’re excited to share it with you. Thanks for listening.

It’s taken us forever, but we finally are just about ready to send our record off for manufacturing. We’ve got 14 tracks recorded, but we’re only putting the best ten on the physical product. Which will be vinyl, by the way.

There’s really no reason to put out a CD anymore. Instead, you’ll be able to download lossless tracks from us and build your own if you like. In a few weeks, when we can nail down a release date for the LPs, we’ll begin allowing name-your-price digital downloads of our MP3s via our Bandcamp site. All orders $10 and over will get an LP in the mail. And if you buy a record directly from us, we’ll give you a code for the downloads. Sound good?

We’ll let you be the judge of that. We’ll also be streaming the entire record, so you can try before you buy. Until then, we’re able to share with you the first tracks from Side A and Side B of Fired. We can also share with you the fine cover art Rene Cruz did for us.

Download here, or at Myspace. And let us know what you think.

We had an abortive start several months ago, but this weekend we’re finally starting our third record (counting our earlier CD, when we were called Chasmatic). We’re recording with my wife’s brother Jonas Wilson, who is an enormously gifted musician, producer, and engineer. We’re very, very excited.

The photo above includes a lot of the songs we’re recording. I took a picture at the space last night so I could make a list at home. With that all done, I’m about to leave for Austin.

We’ve started recording our next record with Chris Ryan at his Dead City Sound studio in North Houston. He’s recorded lots of other bands and artists more well known than us (check out that link!), but we’re using him because he did such a great job on our last record. Today we wrapped up basic tracking (rhythm guitar, bass, and drums). Our two good guitar players, Chris Kahlich and new arrival Ben Murphy, have yet to work their magic. But we hope to make some progress over the next few months, and maybe we’ll be done by the end of the summer.

We may have just started, but the record does have a title: Air & Electric. It’s named after a now defunct tool service/repair shop right next door to our practice space on McKinney. We shot a picture of the sign before it was repainted by the new tenant. The only thing left is going to be this record. Speaking of, here’s a track listing.

1. What the Devil

2. Sidewalks

3. One That Matters

4. A Heart Is Not Easy to Find

5. Far and Away

6. Left Behind

7. Sports in America

8. Perfect Attendance

9. Air & Electric

10. Blue Jean Bomb

11. Your Brave Mistake

12. Champion Sound

13. Help Me Out