To much questioning and asking I give this answer - yes, vinyl is on the way! September will find the 180 gram vinyl release of Rose City on the Jealous Butcher record label.
We worked with Jealous Butcher on the release of the Blue Giant EP last year and we were thrilled we got to work with them again on this release.
As par for course, the vinyl release will include 2 additional cuts not on the CD or digi. Wax only my friends!
I won’t spoil the surprise, but the tunes turned out quite amazing and we’re happy they’ll have a home on Jealous Butcher.

And that’s that then.
The guitars are slowly getting unpacked in the studio, as we’re gearing up for recording some new jams. We have quite a pile of tunes to sift through for the Blue Giant album, so we’ve begun that whole thing.
I’d like to thank everyone who came out to see us on this tour, it was by all definitions a good one.

See you soon!

We’re a few show deep in the tour. So far so good.  I opened a twitter account today (God help my soul), and will try to take a big steaming twit each day on the road. I’m told people like to read twits or tweets, and though I can’t fathom publishing every brain wave, I’ll do my best to keep you abreast of the latest and greatest.

Til then, your twit - Kevin

HERE’S MY TWIT!~

Two great tastes that go great together.

I’ve been using EHX pedals since I was a kid and I figured out how to make my shitty guitar playing sound “cool”.

The Big Muff was the first pedal I ever bought and when I plugged it in, the light bulb went off. Yea, verily I say unto you, distortion covereth a multitude of sins.

So when I was contacted by Electro Harmonix and asked if I would be the new (bearded) face for their bass guitar pedals, needless to say I ’stomped’ on the chance (horrible pun intended).
They sent me a copy of their “Bass Blogger” distortion pedal and I made a video for it!
Check it out at the link above!

I’m not much of a noodler / wanker guy, and this was my first forray into this sort of thing, but I had fun with it. Next time I’ll wear a sweater and sit with legs crossed slapping and popping. I mean, you can’t start out with Empire Strikes Back you know?!

We leave for tour this weekend. I’ll be playing the hell out of this pedal the whole tour. Come see me not slapping or popping in your town.
For now: yours, sweaterless and legs akimbo - Kevin

That scary looking mo-fo you see over there is ME!

That’s how I look when I blog.

It’s actually a screen capture from our fresh, new video for “Octavio“. The video is rad, very Lynchian - we spent two days breathing the decay of a rotting Masonic Temple to bring you the haunting, stoney vibes. Without doubt the coolest video we’ve ever done! We’ll be screening it May 19th at a free party here in Portland at Mississippi Studios, as well as having the record for sale….a few days before street date.
We’ll be there,…but not performing. CD release shows - for bands - are pretty lame, so we thought this would be a fun night for everyone…including us!!! Come down to Miss studios, have a drink or two with us, watch our new video and maybe give the new record a spin!
Sound cool?
Here’s the facts:
VIVA VOCE  - VIDEO PREMIERE/ALBUM RELEASE PARTY
featuring the World Premiere of the new music video “Octavio” directed by Alicia J. Rose
and Special pre-sale of “Rose City” by Music Millenium
Tuesday May 19
Doors 7:30, Show 8pm **this is not a performance show!**
FREE

…maybe see you there? Or maybe I just keep blogging all pissed-off looking?
cheers - Kevin

So we’re exactly a month away from our new record coming out in the states. Very exciting for us. So much so in fact that our label and we thought it might be cool to give an exclusive little download.

Our good friends at eMusic are releasing the first single from the record called “Octavio” with a few remixes from friends and family. That cover you see up there is the one.  I’m pretty sure you can find it here on Tuesday of this week.

We’ve just announced our spring tour, check out the dates and come see us if we come through your town. Very excited for this one!
Hope to see you soon.

In retrospect, I think blogging on the road was a bit of an ambitious plan. When not driving, I’m usually on the phone, advancing shows, emailing, sleeping (!), or trying to find a clean place to #2, which doesn’t leave a lot of luxury time to “blog”. I just got an iPhone, so i think I’ll be able to do this blog thing a bit more fluidly,…but I’m still figuring out how it works.
So here’s what went down:

Loaded up and took a drive day from Portland to Corning. Stopped along the way for Olive tasting and taxidermy museum. Only open restaurant was a steak house, so we slept “drunk on beef blood”, as Corrina coined it. Next day was San Fran, which I wrote about below.

Next day was Los Angeles. The Regent Theatre staff were still cutting the price tags off the speakers when we rolled in. The load in was a little third world-ish, as there were human sized bones dropped all along a long chained dog-run that went along the entire wall opposite the theatre. There were also random displays of garbage that were made into little shrines and organzied piles of shit displayed as works of art.
awesome!
The show was a death defying. Hands were shaked and we were off to….oh, forgot Visalia was between San Fran and LA. It was a riot. Playing Visalia reminds me a lot of where I grew up. Small town, not a lot to do. Great folks.

Driving through the desert we got to see “The Thing”, which is essentially, a torture museum in the back of a gas station.
When the insanity of it sinks in, it’s too late - and I’m already buying a slim jim and coke.
AZ was a whirlwind.
Shows were awesome - we even had enough time to drive through the Sequaro (sp?) national forest and look at thousands of spikey phallic green things. Pretty cool.

Then….well….the rest of the tour is a bit of a blur….and I think it’d do best if I just stuck to the pictures.
Here goes:

All of Austin, TX and SXSW can be encapsulated in this photo:
Bloody Beef Ribs
Random Condom
Way to much free booze
More Bloody Beef
Sleep deprivation
Even more bloody blood beef.

Oh, and we almost died coming home.

Drove through a freak blizzard across the tip of Wyoming. Serpentine belt started slipping and draining alternator / battery juice. Had to drive like Apollo 13. Wipers, or Lights? Can’t have both. Like a video game.
Stressful.

Kinda phoned in this entry, huh? It’s been way to long and I needed to write. So, we made it home and it was a great run down to Austin and back.
We’re gearing up for another big spring / summer tour and will make the announce pretty soon.
Again….sorry for the lag in updates…but would your nerves be calm enough to “blog” after driving through a blizzard? i think not.

More updates on the way!

Had our 1st show last night as the new formation of the double v. Righteous!!
The show was a blast - but the real treat was that I discovered that there is a Viva Voce cover band in Oakland. Members of “cow girl” came to the show last night and blew my mind. Next time we play San Fran fellas, you’ve got yerselves a gig!
Rafter rocked.
Going to be a great tour!

We leave for tour in a few days. Very excited. It’ll be nice to head south on the I5 where it’s a bit warmer than home.  Been getting a bunch of emails about the new record & thought I’d post a few facts about it here:

a) Anita and I built a studio in our backyard. We recorded Rose City in 3 weeks - from pen to paper to final master. This was deliberate.

b) All photos (and cover image) were taken at a show here in town by Megan Holmes ( a pdx photog and general mover and shaker). The guitar on the cover is Anita’s Les Paul Custom Lite, a rare little number.

c) Obviously tried to make a conscious effort to keep all elements of the record based out of Portland. It’s not really a concept record, but it’ll make sense when you hear it.

See you out on the open road. All the venues with pre-sale ticket links are up at our concert page & all of our confirmed SXSW performances are listed.
See you soon.