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

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!

That cover you see up there is our new record! Today is the big announce. Our new album, Rose City, will be out on Barsuk Records here in the US on May 26th. We’re very excited for this one!
Here’s the track listing:

Viva Voce “Rose City”
1. Devotion
2. Die A Little
3. Octavio
4. Midnight Sun
5. Red Letter Day
6. Good As Gold
7. Rose City
8. Tornado Alley
9. Flora
10. The Slow Fade

Here’s the official press send out!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

VIVA VOCE TO RELEASE ROSE CITY ON MAY 26TH ON BARSUK RECORDS

TOUR DATES AND SXSW SET IN ADVANCE OF THE RELEASE

Since the 2006 release of their Barsuk debut Get Yr Blood Sucked out, Portland, OR duo Viva Voce toured non-stop for nearly 2 years, both as headliners and supporting fellow Portlanders The Shins in the US and abroad.

Band founders Kevin and Anita Robinson took an entire year off from touring (unheard of for them) to finish their hand-built backyard home studio and gig around town with country rock band Blue Giant, and have since become
something of a hub in the Portland music scene:
Kevin has spent time producing and recording bands like Tu Fawning and Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. Anita sang harmonies on The Shins’ Wincing the Night Away album, and performed with them on SNL and on tour. With Blue
Giant, Kevin and Anita made it a habit to incorporate a broad cast of Portland musicians to their live ensemble - and now the Viva Voce band itself has grown, as Kevin and Anita have welcomed Corrina Repp and Evan Railton to the
official line-up.

Now Viva Voce are back with Rose City, an album they wrote, arranged, and recorded themselves all in one furious month - choosing not to deliberate over every little thing but living purely in the moment musically and lyrically. Immersing themselves in sonic experimentation, it was truly spontaneous and cathartic. The result is an angular,
immediate record that pulses with the palpable urgency of a band yearning for a return to the vagabond life of the working, touring musician - a mode in which Viva Voce feels truly at home.

Viva Voce on tour:

March:
12 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
13 Visalia , CA Cellar Door
15 Tucson, AZ Plush
16 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
18 Austin, TX SXSW
19 Austin, TX SXSW
20 Austin, TX SXSW
22 Denver, CO Hi-Dive
24 Boise, ID Neurolux
28 Portland, OR Aladdin Theatre

April:
10 Seattle, WA Chop Suey
11 Salem, OR Elsinore Theatre

For more information, contact:
Ever Kipp / ever@barsuk.com/ 206-322-7785

Mastering is the final layer of lacquer you put on a record. My initial thoughts were that I’d master the new Viva record, something I’ve been doing a lot of lately. A thought that I quickly tossed out the window. Spend enough time listening to the same tunes and you start to hear cats meowing instead of singing.
Write a song, record the song, balance and mix the song, and sometimes it’s best to let someone else have a crack at applying the final glue. The good and patient Tony Lash mastered the new record today here in Portland & it sounds fantastic! Very excited about this one & send it off to the label tomorrow.

It’s on.

I’m giving my ears a vacation for a few days, have a good weekend!

p.s.
I broke my “no cymbal” rule on 2 songs. I guess that’s why you make rules right?

Today I’m setting up to do the final mix on the new record. We have a mastering date set for this Friday,….then we get the art back on Monday,…then voila! it’s done.

It’s exciting and a little nerve wracking the closer you get to being done. Mixing alone can take it’s toll. The closest thing I can compare it to, is like working on one long difficult math problem for 12 to 14 hours a day. May not move more than 50 yards all day, but it’s pretty taxing.

It just occurred to me that this is the 1st Viva Voce album we’ve done in our studio. Every record we’ve done to this point has been a home affair of amps in the bathtub and drums in the kitchen. Since we’ve built and finished our studio we’ve recorded two Blue Giant records, a Tu Fawning EP, a couple songs for Thao Nguyen & The Get Down fellas, scored some commercials, but never a Viva Voce record….until now!

Alright, back to the board for the last long math problem.

When the out-board gear doesn’t do the trick, it’s nice to have lil’ toys like these. Chandler audio makes the EMI “Abbey Road Plugins”, and they deliver the goods. It’s an emulator of the EMI limiters that we’re familiar with on the Beatles recordings, like the piano squash at the end of “Day In The Life”. That sort of thing. Very, very cool.
I enjoyed the piano squash today.