4/16 in Washington DC with Short Stack and Sons of Guns @ The Black Cat

new exciting things are afoot, stay tuned

http://bullbot.blogspot.com/2009/11/bullbot-interviews-birds-of-avalon-and.html

The full lineup for this show-

12:00 Birds of Avalon
11:00 I Was Totally Destroying It
10:15 The Pneurotics
9:30 The Ringing Cedars

Full Troika schedule here-

http://www.troikamusicfestival.org/schedule.html

More about Neill and Juxtapongo-

http://www.neillprewitt.com/yuxtapongo

We recently finished up a new song at the amazing Flying Tiger Studios here in Raleigh. It’s called Telepathic Creep and will be included on the forthcoming Hear Here compilation that’s being released on Terpsikhore Records at the end of this month. The compilation is a joint effort between Terpsikhore, Flying Tiger and 88.1 fm wknc and features a whole mess of fine NC bands including The Rosebuds, The Annuals, Lonnie Walker, Koolie High and Hammer No More The Fingers among others. Check out the full tracklist here. We’ll be playing the release show at The Cat’s Cradle on Aug. 29th with The Annuals and HNMTF. Admission includes a copy of the comp. For more info go to http://wknc.org/blog/post/hear-here-the-triangle/

We are thrilled to announce that we have been invited to play All Tomorrows Parties NY 09 in Monticello NY. Our set will be on the final day of the festival, Sunday September 13th. The absolutely stellar lineup for the weekend includes The Flaming Lips, Animal Collective, The Jesus Lizard, Boredoms, The Melvins and many others. Full lineup and details here

check out our travel blog from our recent east coast tour on our blogspot

visit emusic

They used to sell these at a gas station up the street from my job. I’d go through about 4 or 5 in a week. Then one day I came home from some tour and they didn’t have them anymore, ever again. I made it a personal quest on my travels to seek them out. I look in every single ice cream cooler in every single gas station we stop in, scouring most of the continental US in the process. It turns out they are extremely rare. In almost 4 years of searching, I’ve only come across 3 places that carry them- outside charleston WVA, off the turnpike in Northern NJ, somewhere in NB (or was it IA? there are no records…) and then yesterday outside Hartford CT. A golden calf, rolled in almonds and hidden in far flung tombs, like puzzle pieces that, if you could unite before they melted, would form a fantastic amulet through which the sun’s rays coat the entire world in ambervision.

We are three shows in and once I get somewhere with the appropriate resources we’ll have some photos/ video to share. People have been very cool thus far. Extra special thanks to Jeanna in DC, Rachel in NYC and our new friends at The Whitehaus in Boston for putting us up. Details to follow…

Now, on to New Haven CT. Our second show ever in CT.

And whoever’s ipod is playing in this coffee shop, I just don’t get.

you can now stream our new album, Uncanny Valley, in it’s entireity, on our myspace page. The official release date is next tuesday 6/23 and we’ll be touring the east coast all next week, check dates below. Hope to see you all soon…..

RCRD LBL

AOL Spinner

Stay tuned for more info on our upcoming album and east coast tour, both taking flight next week

DM

This Saturday June 13th. We’ll be playing a bunch of songs from our new album, which will also be for sale at this show for the first time ever, weeks ahead of the actual release date and our ucoming east coast tour …..

Mon 6/22/09 The Red and Black Bar Washington DC

Tue 6/23/09 Santos Party House New York NY

Wed 6/24/09 Harper’s Ferry Allston MA

Thu 6/25/09 Cafe Nine New Haven CT

Fri 6/26/09 Union Hall Brooklyn NY

Sat 6/27/09 Zumiez Skate Tour at Monmouth Mall Eatontown NJ

Sun 6/28/09 Zumiez Skate Tour at Crossgate Mall Albany NY

Mon 6/29/09 Johnny Brendas Philadelphia PA

Tue 6/30/09 Talking Head Club Baltimore MD

Anyway, if you give a toot you can find out whats rocking our individual domes here.

Also, as it happens we will be playing our first show in 7 years on June 13th with those crazy bastards from Athens, Dark Meat at the Local 506. Just a heads up.

Scott

More soon…..

DM

By the way, you would not believe how much confusion can arise from this seemingly innocuous situation.

But the point is this, David wrote out the potential for set songs and I got to tell you…we are sitting in the veritable cat birds seat when it comes to the ‘ol setlist session. Or maybe it’s more like the devils chair. I dunno, either way there are a lot of new songs to play live which is very exciting.

After rehearsals i got to chum it up with our bros from Venus Valient Thorr, fresh off a 2 month tour. They looked and sounded great. They did not smell good though. No one smells good after 2 months of touring. I think tonight they are playing in Greenville, NC which is their “hometown” of sorts (on Earf of course) and let me tell you something…the kids in Greenville are certifiable. We are talking batshit crazy when it comes to VT…so you can imagine the party.

Anyway, if you made it to the end of this post I applaud you.

Scott

The new Birds of Avalon album, Uncanny Valley, will be released June 23rd 09 on Volcom Entertainment. Recorded in Mordecai, mixed at Fidelitorium in Kernersville. Tracklist is as follows

Unkaany Valley
Side Two
I Never Knew
Your Downtime Is Up
Dad Cage
Eyesore
Student Teaching
Spirit Lawyer
Last Rites (Funky Slide)
Peregrinations
Micro-Infinity

Thanks to Mitch Easter for the tape, the 3M 16 track machine… everything else. Thanks Ash Bowie and Brian Quast for the microphones, etc and Kings for the board and cables.

All songs written by Birds of Avalon, Raleigh, NC… Spring, 2009.

We should have some preview tracks streaming on our website sometime soon so check back.

We will be doing east coast shows in late June, here’s some dates-
Mon 6/22/09 The Red and Black Bar Washington DC

Tue 6/23/09 Santos Party House New York NY

Wed 6/24/09 Harper’s Ferry Allston MA

Thu 6/25/09 Cafe Nine New Haven CT

Fri 6/26/09 Union Hall Brooklyn NY

Sat 6/27/09 Zumiez Skate Tour at Monmouth Mall Eatontown NJ

Sun 6/28/09 Zumiez Skate Tour at Crossgate Mall Albany NY

Mon 6/29/09 Johnny Brendas Philadelphia PA

Tue 6/30/09 Talking Head Club Baltimore MD

Scott put together some killer artwork for this release. I don’t have a preveiw for you yet but in the meantime check THIS shit out.

top that, Nurkin.
DM

Earlier this week we set up a de facto control room in the basement. It took a few days to wrangle all the equipment we needed (big thanks to mitch, ash and brian ) and a few more to figure out mic placement, run cables, etc. We are rolling now. Scott and I worked out some rhythym tracks last night. Despite the usual anxiety and confusion common to any recording session, this is a great atmosphere to work in. We are all comfortable and excited about the sounds we are getting.

The final details on the release date for our new album are just about settled. Don’t want to say anything specific before the ball is actually in the air but we should have a release date to announce in a few days here.

DM

We’ll be playing some songs from our forthcoming 2nd full length, now in the can and due out later this year. Tune in to wknc 88.1 FM (or wknc.org )today at 5 pm- Paul and I are going to have a sit down with DJ Steveo and preveiw a track off the new record.

Also in the new music category, we’ve posted a new single, (Your) Lucky Day, to our myspace page. Stop by and check it out. This is available on a split 7″ with our bros Dark Meat from the Volcom Ent Singles Club. Furthermore, within the next week, our Cytunes released Live at the Cat’s Cradle will be available at cytunes.org

hope you are all well

DM

I also just found out Greg worked on the new Antony record which is currently blowing my mind on a nightly basis.

But the crown jewel is of course a gold record for RETURN TO 36 CHAMBERS RIP ODB

Once again, we’ve just finished all production on our new record- release date, titles, etc to follow….

We’ve got a few shows coming up- feb 7th at the Pour House for WKNC double barrel benefit with Polvo et al. and a secret house party show mid febuary with hardcore monoliths DOUBLE NEGATIVE and the semper summer jammin (even in the winter) WHATEVER BRAINS. stay tuned for details..
DM
On a side note, I have no home internet right now (finally got the gas turned on though) and have to do all my ebusiness from the Brueggers in the broke down shopping center near my house. The music they pipe into this place is a true insult to all ears- human, animal and beyond. There is no way to qualify the extent of the affront. Then they played Feist and it was like someone taking the bamboo splints out of my eardrums for a merciful two and a half minutes before jabbing them back in abruptly as vocoders and fake tambourines reoccupied the looted wastelands of my inner ear. Just in case you were wondering.

Sadly we had to leave the session last night but will be returning to mix (phase III!) the following week. We have to get back to HQ to rehearse some old and new songs for a show we are playing at the Lincoln Theatre. This show is with the Ts and the Loners. Should be fun. SN

DM and I went back to the hotel (see below) around 3:30. I tried once again to get a remote from the clerk and guess what, they had a brand new one for us! We got to program it and everything. However this did not prevent the “maintenance” guy from finally knocking on our door at 9am to take care of our remote control issue. Ahhhh, the Dudley.

Anyway, today I’ve been working on external job stuff while P and C have been producing some of the craziest noises I’ve ever heard in the next room. It sounds amazing. SN

A word about our accomodations here in Kernersville- We are staying at Dudley Q’s School of Cosmetology. The campus also features a hotel for students training to enter the hospitality industry, with budget rooms available to the public.

The rooms are fairly large for the price, although most of the carpets look as though they’ve hosted some sort of St. Valentines Day massacre event sometime in the past. Also, we’ve been trying to get a working remote for our television for four days now with no luck. The helpful staff has reapeatedly assured us they are working on it. They did give us some replacement batteries for the remote we have but they turned out to be already dead. But hey, as I said, it’s cheap.

Today we start overdubs and various bells and whistles. And i mean we are literally putting bells and/or whistles on these songs.

I gotta add that the Fidelitorium has a nice little Kitchen and lots of nights we have been sitting down to delicious meals prepared mostly by BOA head chef CK. Last night: Pan-seared corn chip crusted Mahi with peas and carrot yellow rice and mexi-style black beans. On the menu tonight: Butternut Sqaush souffle with blue cheese and pecan spinach salad. Duuuuuuuuude. SN

We are back from the Thanksgiving holiday (most of which was spent at work) and have been working primarily on guitar overdubs and vocals. Craig and Cheetie were up late last night working out the vocal for a genuinely odd little tune, working title “Xarardheee”. This tune also gave us the opportunity to try out a wide range of guitar effects, including this remarkable synthesizer.

The Phase II, made by the Ludwig drum company (?) in the late sixties. This is a truly unique piece of equipment, capable of producing sounds you just can’t find anywhere else- especially not in any modern “modeled” synth effects.

Craig’s been experimenting with different vocal harmonies out in the front room on our trusty Tascam Portastudio 424. We’ve always relied heavily on Tascam cassette 4 tracks to demo our songs, both as a group and individually. They’re quick to set up, easy to use and often yield surprisingly good fidelity, especially for bass and drums. Did I mention they’re also cheap to come by? We currently have 3 in working order and have burned through several others.

DM

DM

Last night ran late. We got some good stuff down, concentrating on rhythym tracks. I got to play a beautiful Ric bass of Mitch’s, quite a change of pace from the P-bass I normally play. Then we sat up late watching the Shreds series on youtube. We’re getting an earlier start today as most of the set up is already in place.

We’re making some good progress today- experimenting with different tape machines, altering playback speeds, slicing and splicing and the like.

As with our last session here at The Fidelitorium, we’ll be keeping the computers turned off (well, in the studio at least) and working only with tape. Anyone who has burned their eyes out staring at the cold colors of pro-tools for hours on end can appreciate what a relief this is.

Suffice to say our first record came out in 2007, we toured the US and Europe, released an EP and went back on the road. We spent most of spring and summer 08 on the road, almost four months straight. We got home in July and took a month off. When we reconvened in August we started from scratch on a new batch of songs. There were a few demos circulating of songs one of the other of us had been working on but the bulk of the material was developed out of whole cloth during extended improv sessions. Since we had pretty much finished touring for the year there was no need to rehearse the older material. In any case, we had pounded those songs thoroughly into the ground and needed to get away from them for a while. At practice we would just play. There were no vamps, no riffs, not really even any discussion at all. The music would just start without anyone even saying go. We’d generally play in 20-30 minute blocks; sometimes on a single theme, sometimes cycling through several. We recorded everything on a Panasonic RQ-340 handheld cassette recorder that somehow managed to capture all the necessary elements in the room. We made edits from sections of these tapes and put them to cd and slowly parsed them into songs. We then demo’d the living shit out of everything. And now, for our next trick…..

DM

DM

Pick it up here!

The other show everyone should know about is a benefit for our friend Cy Rawls who has recently been diagnosed with brain cancer and is currently undergoing chemo. Cy has been an active member of the musical community here in NC for over a decade and, chances are, if you’ve been to a show here he was there. Obviously this treatment is costly and he is without insurance so folks throughout the community are organizing to help Cy and his family. The benefit we are doing is at the Cat’s Cradle on August 29th and will feature us, The Rosebuds and Superchunk.

For more info and updates about Cy, visit cyrawls.blogspot.com.

The next night we were in Atlanta at The EARL, one of our favorite clubs in the southeast. This was another great show. The locals, Anna Kramer & The Lost Cause were hot shit. And, again Mudhoney killed it. Their set, a good mix from their newer records and classic stuff from the recently re-released Super Fuzz Big Muff is melting faces nightly. The next night in Gainesville was also a good show and we made some new friends who were gracious enough to put us up for the night.

Then we played Churchills in the Miami neighborhood of Little Haiti. This was a super fun show, packed and frenzied. Churchill’s is an English Pub and we had fish n’ chips. And beer, there was beer. Then we headed up to Orlando, where we played a charming little club called The Back Booth. We had a great crowd, though I can’t help but wonder if the turnout was at all hindered by the free street festival going on a few blocks away featuring Eddie Money and The Spin Doctors. Probably not.

So, anybody ever been to Pensacola Florida? Way up north, almost to Mobile Alabama? Well, let me tell you, it’s HOT there, especially with the awesome turnout we had at Sluggos- and on a Sunday! Do I really need to tell you how frickin great Mudhoney was?

The last night of the tour was in New Orleans at One Eyed Jacks- another of our favorite clubs in the southeast. OEJ is right in the center of the french quarter, in an old theatre with a fine collection of black velvet nudes adorning the walls. Not only was this the last night of our tour with Mudhoney, it was the last night of their entire tour and they burned extra bright as a result. We all had ourselves a time hanging out after the show with Mudhoney and the OEJ crew.

Now we’re headed north to meet up with Polvo for Boston and NYC shows this weekend (at the Middle East, Bowery Ballroom and Maxwell’s). Yeah that’s right, I said it. POLVO!

See you there.

If you read this message in time Birds of Avalon are playing live on the “Internet” at 22:00 Amsterdam, Holland time (for those in the States, that’s 1pm PST and 4pm EST). If you are near a computer then you can check it out. You will also be able to check it out later, but it won’t be live and it won’t be like being there.

Tune in here (click the “Live Web Radio” link).

The four songs we recorded are Measure Of The Same, Shakey Tiger, Superpower, and Turn Gold.

Download all four songs here.

They are now posting new recordings up five days a week so it’s pretty good chance that you will find a bunch of other good stuff, check out their archive of recordings.