Hey Friends,

Just wanted to give you an update as to where we are spending our time these days. Head on over to:

http://www.bluegiantland.com

We started Blue Giant in 2008 and while we spent the better part of 2009 touring Viva Voce’s Rose City record, we constantly writing, recording, mixing and working on Blue Giant. Now it’s time to put it to work!
We hope you dig the new inspiration. We sure do.

See you over there! Drop a note to say hello.
Cheers -Kevin

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had a chance to update. Because, well - frankly there hasn’t been anything worth posting. Though now, there have been some interesting year end developments:

1.) The Robinsons
That is, myself and Anita. When we came off our last tour we started taking shows as ‘The Robinsons’. Shows that wouldn’t be appropriate for Viva Voce to bring the hammer of sound too. Smaller more intimate shows that allow us to play the breadth of our catalog in a more personal manner. It’s gone over like gangbusters and we’ve even started recording an album. Since it’s appro to keep apples and oranges in separate bins, we’ve made yet another cubbyhole:

http:///www.therobinsonsmusic.com

Drop in. Say hello. It’s easy to post music there,…so I’m hoping to keep the mixtape / track love going. (oh, and we have a preemptive mySpace page that has nothing on it for now - but will….once we’ve recorded something.)

2.) Rose City Vinyl
Well this one has been a monster! News from Jealous Butcher is that the test pressings were jacked and that they had to trace the source to be remastered! Yikes. The good news is, that’s how insane JB’s attention to audiophile detail is - because we signed off on the 1st test presssing! “Sounded cool to me”,…I believe was my answer.
But they should be in by December, just in time for the best stocking stuffer money can buy! The extra tracks on the vinyl really did turn out pretty epic & am glad they’re finally going to see the light.

3.) Shows!
I’ve posted all the upcoming shows on our calendar here. We’re staying in the North West til the new year, then plan on hitting the road as soon as possible.

That’s it for now. Stay warm. Stay healthy.
cheers - kevin

pic by jason quigley.

<————–
So the summertime has passed. School’s back in. Leaves will soon be turning. It’s made me a bit reflective. This year has been a whirlwind.

And it’s not even over!

Here’s what we’ve got coming down the pike:

a) Blue Giant full length
b) Another Viva Voce Album (!!)
c) A record from “The Robinsons”

We didn’t get dubbed “the band with the strongest work ethic” for nothing.  Take that Ms. Johnson, who put ‘needs to apply himself’ on my 4th grade report card. 25 years later….burn!

Also…this Thursday - Viva Voce is playing what is our last show on the books for 2009. It is an insane show with The Builders and Butchers. If you’ve ever wanted to see two bands set up at the same time and go head-to-head in what I can only describe as ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway?’ for bands, then you mustn’t miss this.
It’s at Crystal Ballroom - Oct.1st, 8pm.

See you there,..or being seeing you later.
Take care - kevin

P.S.
Thanks for the over 3,000 people who have downloaded my summer mix! Thanks for all the kind words, I’m glad you guys dug it. Maybe an autumn mix is due?

I made you a mixtape.

DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING HERE

It’s been a cool thing to put together while enduring a massive heat wave. Nothing beats being in a studio that’s 107 degrees! So, you may / may not dig all these songs, it’s just what I’ve been into lately. Some artists you may have heard of, some hopefully not. And if you are one of those artists and want to sue me for putting your songs on a mixtape,….go for it! My tunes are all over the torrent / blog download purgatory, so you’re preaching to the choir.
Most of these songs are by artists that are long gone / out of print / never saw the light of day, so hopefully I’m just proliferating some good tunes. It’s worth downloading for The Moles track alone.
Give it a spin. Let me know if you dig.

Happy summer.
- Kevin

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!

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!