9/28/07

hey everybody, i wanted to preface this update with a personal thank you to everyone reading it. this has been an amazing summer, and i know i've only played like four or five real shows and a handful of mini-shows but still. it's been such an exciting and new experience putting my self and my music out there for other people to hear and judge and hopefully enjoy. i have made some new friends and definitely experienced some new things and i personally think i'm better off for it.

i wanted to say thank you to everyone who's made a point to stay in touch with me and come to our shows and check the website and spread the word, it's really awe inspiring that you'd do that for a complete stranger, it makes me feel all warm and squishy inside to think about it :)
thanks to you guys this summer has been one of the best of my life, and it's inspired me to keep writing and keep playing. i hope you don't get tired of me anytime soon :)

well, i know that the news and the shows have kind of slowed down in the past month or so, but don't worry, we're still going strong. i'm currently looking into acquiring a sound system so i don't have to keep stealing (i mean uh, borrowing) equipment for shows, and i hope i get it figured out soon because as things stand i only have two months before my next show. the next solo show is going to be december 7th at linnaea's cafe in slo. the last show there was (in addition to being my first) amazing, both cuz of the venue, the atmosphere, and the turnout. i'm really looking forward to playing there again and i hope to see you all there :)

coming up next weekend the full band is gonna try something kind of new. you see, we're going to be the house band for an open mic night on saturday october 6th! shepherd's table is going to be celebrating their grand opening with an open house, a large part of which will be an open mic night starting at six o'clock (signups start at 5:30). since we're the house band we'll be playing two or three songs at the beginning and then playing maybe one song in between every other performer or so, as well as playing anytime there's a slow down. so this presents not only an opportunity to come see the band, but also (if you're musically inclined) a chance to play/sing/perform/whatever for other people in a really great atmosphere! i think the night should be a lot of fun, there's going to be a taco bar and a section set aside for painting, all kinds of cool stuff.
it'd be really great if you guys came out to support us, the other performers, and shepherd's table. thanks!

lastly, i just wanted to quickly mention that the site's undergoing a few minor changes. the color scheme's been changed up a tiny bit, and the links page has been pretty-fied. i'm also thinking of adding a new section called "promotion" or something like that where we'll have banners you can post on your myspace or facebook or whatever that will link back to our site so you can spread the word to your friends. that sound ok? if no one's interested then i won't bother, but it's something i know i like to see bands do, so i figured i'd give it a try :) we've set a hard deadline of the last weekend in october to finish the cd, that might be a little hard to make, but we're dedicated to getting this thing done! and fortunately recording is going well, with one song completely finished and most others only requiring a few small parts.

that's about all i've got for now, i just wanted to say thanks one last time (i can't say it enough honestly) to everybody for being so supportive of us and our music, it means a lot to me and it's really encouraging. i really hope you guys stick around to see what happens, because i have high hopes :)

thanks everyone!

-loren

p.s. oh and of course, join the mailing list!!!

9/17/07

since our last news update, sorry about that...

there isn't too much new to report, but i did have a show last night in paso robles that i think went really well. it was for the west coast songwriter's showcase again, it's only their third time being up in paso at matt's music stage and school. from oustide it's not much to look at, but inside it's cozy and they have the chairs set up nicely and it's a good stage and sound system. there was a better turnout than i'd expected, and more people came out to see me than i thought would too! it was great to see everyone who came, thanks a lot everybody :)

through a little miscalculation i ended up playing almost a half hour earlier than i was scheduled to, which resulted in lisa and alice (two of my friends who came out to see me) not getting to see my first set. well, three acts bailed on the show without giving notice, so we had some extra time and i asked steve if it'd be alright for me to go back on for a second set and he said of course. that was really really cool, i ended up playing a total of six songs instead of the three i was alotted, and they got to hear me in spite of the scheduling mixup, and i played 'story', which i haven't ever played live before, and i haven't played at all in something like four months.

anyway, that's about all. progress is being made on our cd, we're changing the lineup a little bit to account for new songs being written, and the more we work on this the more confident i am that it's really going to sound good.

i hope you guys are still enjoying the music, sorry we're not turning out new ones as fast as maybe we should be, and that we don't have many shows going on at the moment. thanks so much to everyone who keeps checking the site and coming out to our shows, it's really encouraging to see and hear from you, so keep listening! haha.

thanks again,
-loren

p.s. oh yeah, almost forgot, join the mailing list!

9/11/07

well hello there, neighbor.

i've got a few quick updates for you and a show reminder, i hope you don't mind.

first off, new videos on our youtube, only four so far, they're from our recent show at mongo's in grover beach. the sound and video quality is a little bit lower than the linnaea's footage due to increased background noise and shooting the footage on an older film camera and transferring it to digital before uploading...sorry there's only four videos from that night up so far, all of them original songs, more are on their way, it's just taking a while to capture, edit, convert, and upload the three hours of video we took on that night! i'll let you know when it's all finished, but you should check it too, just you know, to keep up on stuff.

secondly, there's a bunch of new photos in the pics section, warranting an entire second page now, with more to follow. you oughta check them out, and if that's not enough for you, check out this collection of pics of me and us on my flickr account. pretty good stuff there in my humble opinion (which shall henceforth be written as "imho").

lastly, a reminder that i'll be playing a three song set this sunday in paso robles as part of the songwriter's showcase there hosted by steve key. the show is at 6 pm, with my set starting around 7:30. this is kind of the spiritual successor to the monteleone's rock showcase in morro bay, so you can expect some incredibly talented local acts and a few headliners from out of area as well. it's quite a long drive for most of you, so you can trust that i won't be upset if you can't make it out there. oh, check the shows section for more info, such as address.

i had a little teaser, for my outro i was gonna just mention that i got my application to play at farmer's market here in slo approved last week and i'll be booking a gig sometime early 2008, but i just got off the phone with the downtown association and, probably against my better judgment, i decided to also take a booking on december 20th this year. five days before christmas. so i'll still be playing farmer's next year, but also this winter. that's pretty exciting i think

and i think that's about all i've got. oh yeah, the recording is going well, i feel like we're making a lot more progress now that we're really focusing on it. things are kind of starting to pile up on me, with dan and matt finishing their parts a little bit at a time and me kind of procrastinating. but still, the end is in sight, hopefully only another month or two.

thanks for reading and for listening, we love you all, ha!

bye,

loren

p.s. ...join the mailing list!

9/05/07

hey everyone

few new things to tell y'all about.

first off, new song! hooray! i don't usually make such a fuss when i upload a new song, but i kind of really like this one, and it's not just a demo either, it's finished and i really hope you all like it. it's in the player and the downloads section, but you can just click here to listen to it. it's called home sick, and it's for a very good friend of mine.

the second item on our agenda today is some new info on the "shows" front. if you check the shows page, you'll see some new stuff up there. the biggest one to tell you about tonight is an open mic night at linnaea's cafe in downtown slo. show starts at seven, this is the first open mic night in a while at linnaea's and it should be really good. this venue seems to have a habit of attracting some of the best local talent around. i'll be there and try to get the earliest set i can, after which i'm planning on heading down to avila for the open mic night at mr. rick's down on the beach. no promises on that second one though, i'm just hoping to make it.

the last thing i wanted to say to everyone is....join the mailing list!

you would have gotten all this info as well as links and a copy of the show schedule e-mailed to you if you were subscribed to our mailing list, doesn't that sound great!?

ok, thanks for reading, later!

-loren