Today we are recording six drum sets and an extra floor tom for our upcoming EP. So stoked for this!
Just a brief update…
We’re deep into recording our EP right now. As we’ve decided to utilize Jared’s schooling and have him record us in our very own practice spot, it’s definitely become quite the project. Since we practice in a basement, you can imagine that we’ve had to really tap into our…
Progress. Come out to Mulligans this Friday the 13th and get wild!
This Friday. Grand Rapids, you know that Mulligan’s is the place to be to tear it up with us.
Is there an explicit moment, an exact decibel of time that indicates an evolution of a dream?
Or does it sneak up on you in blooms of yellow and bright green? Do you go from the dark, dead of winter and all the sudden, without a clear realization of how or when it happened, you’re shading yourself under a beautiful Box Elder from the sun that refuses to set until 9pm?
This weekend was truly a blessing. It all happened so fast and unexpectedly, but I really couldn’t thank the world enough for conspiring towards us to make shit happen. I feel like I owe that much more of myself, my music, my performance and my love to the people who believe in what we do. We received some outstanding compliments this weekend that have left me blushing still. I have also read a few non-stellar things about us and myself in particular, which seems that I wouldn’t be pleased with, but bad press is still PRESS! So I can deal with it.
When I am on stage with a microphone and a room full of people glaring at us, I morph into my true form. Everything you see is everything I am. I, even at my most vulnerable, adopt the strongest part of my being and let nothing hold me back. However, I’ve really got some things I need to work on after the fact. Feeling self-conscious about how I look in photographs or how I sound on recordings is going to cripple everything that I have worked so fucking hard for if I don’t find a way to change the things I can and accept what I cannot.
We’ve got some promising opportunities that appear to be in arms reach…we just have to reach a little further. I need to be sure that I prepare myself with everything that I have.
Mark My Words
Metal Evolution: “Grunge” just reinstated my excitement for music. Yeah, it was 20 years ago, but have you heard the shit music that’s been out since then?! We (as in you and your band, my band and I) are on a mission and were going to use our influences, be it punk, hardcore, metal or grunge, to change the scene.
Hearts on Hospice
so this is where we come to die
with cement walls and fluorescent lights
chasing ghosts down hallways of white
hoping God will hear our cry
we plead in desperation
as we lay on beds hard as stone
our tears fall in moderation, these days
as our bodies turn cold as stone
we speak to the angels, do they hear us cry?
will they lift our souls when our bodies die?
this is where we come to say goodbye
our fears grow stronger and hopes collapse
as the ticking clocks show no remorse
we cling to every loving hand
as we let death tread it’s course
their eyes glaze over in defeat
as the pain sinks deeper into our bones
stare up at photos of family
only to remind us that we die alone
we speak to angels, but they dismiss our cries
we won’t make it out alive, this time
we’ve come here to say our last goodbye
©Jennifer Bartlett 2011
Please check it out, if you have the time. Post-hardcore from Grand Rapids, Michigan. We’ve been working really hard in the last year and we’ve got so much more to give.
Analog In A Digital Day
We’re a product of social penetration;
our teeth grind for hours on end.
Self-disclosure becomes a mishap when
nothing is shared more frequently than
our written thoughts on the internet.
Break the surface
and nothing is broken.
Scratch the surface
and nothing has changed.
Confusing our privacy with public access:
falsifying relationships; recording failed promises.
Listen as the media grants us one more wish
and the government chuckles under their breath
while we hide behind a veil of resistance.
Find the purpose
of this decade in broadcast.
We haven’t scratch the surface
if we allow fear of change.
Big Brother is watching your every move
while our institutions continue to judge you.
This is so much more than
the tips of your fingers
and the tired letters wearing beneath them.
Click, click, clicking away
just what you always meant to say;
those words in which could not escape
the moment you needed them the most.
Our words are stolen from our tongues
and stars are stolen from our eyes.
They’ve replaced our hopes with golden lies
to thrust division between you and I.
Hello, world wide web,
you are now our only friend.
©Jennifer Bartlett 2011
Session 1 of recording in our DIY basement studio. It’s not pretty but it’s going to work. Drums tracks are solid and guitar is finishing up. We’ll possibly get bass recorded tonight and vocals will be tracked on Wednesday. We’ve got high hopes and a cute boxer to keep us company.
Yep.
I can’t begin to explain the enormity of my excitement when I’m on stage. Last night was the first time in 3 fucking years that I’ve performed original music to a crowd. I can tell you, even though I don’t know much about drugs, there is no greater high than to purge everything you have into a microphone and have people tell you afterwards that they actually enjoyed it. Wrap your heart in a warm blanket, hold it with a silk touch and enjoy while ten loving bodies embrace you and you will know what I’m feeling…and the show has just begun.
And you know, aside from my self-full-filling endeavors, the number one reason I write, I sing, I perform and I reach is not for myself; it’s so I can do what my idols did for me. They gave me the courage and the inspiration to share my word and they gave me hope when I was gracing the bottom. I want to be someone’s idol. I want to lift them up. If there is only one thing in this world I want to accomplish, it’s to bring people together.
I’m on that path.
