Asher is moments away from picking me up in the new tour van. This time we’ll be rolling across the country with a DVD player on board. I’ve of course packed three seasons of The Simpsons, One season of Arrested Development, Super Troopers and Spaceballs on DVD. Below is a more comprehensive list of things to bring when touring with a rock band:
Tent
Industrial strength velcro
Soldering Iron
Cut-off jean shorts
Baseball glove
Adam Sandler CD’s
And a mascot
Here’s a nice write up of our Montreal show happening tomorrow.
Before I we start filling these pages with pictures of fast food, mountains, and new friends we meet on our North American tour, I want to share something special.
I have started another blog. It’s called Things The Real World Williamsburg Should Do. Hope you like it.
We’re going on tour again! This time we’ll be hitting several cities in Canada, as well as most northern US cities (apologies to our southern US fans … we’ll come see you again soon too).
New York NY, Montreal PQ, Toronto ON, Chicago IL, Madison WI, Los Angeles CA, San Francisco CA, Portland OR, Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Winnipeg MB
Check out our tour section or myspace for dates!
We’ve met some great music fans these past six months or so since Reichenbach Falls came out. Many of them have come to us Ravens with their minds and arms open to dig into what completely freaks us out and turns us on. So here it is, a Mixtape of the Ravens’ favorite hits curated by yours truly.
Crystal Castles – 16-tell-me-what-to-swallow Brit saw this band with Health last month. I love the vocals at the end.
Sharon Jones – 01-100-days-100-nights I think we all secretly want to be in her backing band.
Prince – 05-darling-nikki Prince is undeniably one of the best American songwriters. The last 30 seconds of this song get me hot and bothered.
Crystal Castles – 01-untrust-us
Nocarsgo – quest-to-canada Asher loves this guy. So will you.
Genghis Tron “Arms” We saw this band at SXSW. I think Hamilton can outplay anyone on guitar.
Alan Lomax Field Recordings 02-no-more-my-lawd, and The Osborne Brothers 01-ruby Listen to both these songs with the lights out and the volume up. Your brain will melt.
Velvet Underground & Nico – 04-venus-in-furs
T Rex – Cosmic Dancer – This song lives on Mike’s iPod. I always request it.
Basia Bulat Asher really likes this folk singer. She recorded at the Hotel2Tango right around the same time as us.
Beck – 03-lazy-flies Nora sweats Beck, and with good cause. He’s a genius.
Camper Van Beethoven – Take the Skinheads Bowling Avery grew up listening to this band. I thought it would make a good closer for the mix.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Before the Trip to Austin, ribs for breakfast, and a Texan sized governer’s hotel party (really, it was rad) a few Ravens performed acoustic versions of the hits for a new blog called Songs About Knives.. Dig the video:
Tech Note — Avery says: If you’re trying to view this in IE … please consider switching to Firefox, Opera, Camino, Safari, Netscape, or Konqueror … or killing yourself.
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
We’ll be playing at the following parties next week. Come drink PBR and eat pulled pork with us.
Wednesday, March 12, 2pmish
Soundcheck Mag Party at Spiderhouse (2908 Fruth St)
w/ Son Lux, Project Jenny Project Jan, Home Video, Chris Bathgate, Birds and Batteries, and The Antlers
Thursday, March 13, 1pm sharp
SESAC day stage (Austin Convention Center)
w/ YB, Les Aus, The Hood Internet, Cadence Weapon, Billy Bragg, White Williams, The Cool Kids, and The Blow
Friday March 14, 8pm sharp
Big Shot Touring Showcase at Club Deville (900 Red River Rd)
w/ The Builders and Butchers, Bobby Bare Jr., Longhorn Slim, White Rabbits, and White Denim,
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Download Ben Britten – Lies
Ravens & Chimes are joining bearded Brooklynites, coffee drinking Portlanders, and blackberry addicted Los Angelinos on the great pilgrimage known as SXSW! So far we’re playing shows at Club De Ville and at the Convention Center (day stage). Of course I’m not really a fan of too much downtime when touring with Ravens; we love playing shows and are always thrilled to set up in crazy venues, houses, street corners, and dorm rooms. So, If you’re throwing a party in Austin and want us to come hang out, play some music, or just eat some ribs all you have to do is ask.
In other news, I’ve been working on a few insane music projects: Most of my time has been eaten up by a sound design gig for a theater in New York. It’s been really fun mimicking a giant’s footsteps, cow moo’s, and wolf slayings. Last night I put the MXL 990 in my apartment building’s stairwell and recorded the sound of dropping a suitcase down a flight of stairs. I definitely captured the feeling of a fifty foot woman falling to her death. check it: Sound Q
A couple of weeks ago Ben Britten came up to my studio from Lancaster, PA to work on some demo recordings. He had spent a few days at The Sugar Tank tracking some songs and thought it would be cool to try his material out in a different studio. The guy had just recorded on a Neve console, a huge open loft, and crazy vintage mics and preamps. And there I was trying to rig 50 feet of microphone cable in order to get a decent sound out of my kitchen. The work was cut out for us and I think we did a pretty decent job.
www.myspace.com/benbrittenmusic
Stay tuned for some more of the session along with me and Avery’s ghetto hip hop record.
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Next Monday, January 7, we will be playing with our friends The Art of Shooting at Mercury Lounge in New York. It should be a pretty fun show as per usual. Last time we all wore tuxedos and formal dresses. This time we’re wearing 70′s ski lodge attire.
Mercury Lounge (Houston and Essex)
1st: Fire Flies
2nd: Art of Shooting
3rd: Ravens & Chimes
the show starts at 7pm and we play at 9. $8
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Last weekend it snowed too and we were guests on WNYC’s Soundcheck program. You can download a podcast of the episode here
In other news it’s very cold in the Northeast this weekend, so spend your nights inside with the warmest hearts in new music, Ravens & Chimes. We have some shows this weekend. They are our last of this fall tour, so then next chance you will have to see us in the flesh is, uh, early January for the Winter tour.
:::Thursday, Dec 13 @ Haverford College
:::::Friday, Dec 14, 8:30PM @ Washington, DC – Rock and Roll Hotel (w/ Mobius Band, The Epochs and Middle Distance Runner)
:::::::Saturday, Dec 15, 10:30PM @ Brooklyn – Galapagos (Deli Magazine holiday party)
In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak of our live show. The video is from our performance last month on WOXY radio in Cincinnati.
Click here to watch on YouTube.
