Last weekend we were excited to be invited to the 2nd year of the "Let Feedback Ring"
Festival. In it's first year it was a one day event that took place around July 4th (hence the play on words) but, this year it spanned over three days and several venues.
We played the early Friday evening spot with Poncho's from Peru from Wilmington and Jews & Catholics from Winston Salem.
This was our first show in Raleigh. It was kind of a homecoming for me since I spent most of my early band life playing shows there. There are a few songs on SS's first CD that are leftover
tracks from my Raleigh days (Moore Square Station, Schrader Properties).
I was pretty surprised how nice Sadlack's looked these days. They competely re-did the porch. They added a small drum riser, a vocal PA, and heat lamps for cold nights!
I'm not going to go in great detail about the show but, overall it was a great night I had listened to Poncho's from Peru online for years and it was nice to finally see them live and meet those guys in person. This was actually the third time we played with Jews & Catholics but it was the first time it was in an intimate setting and not a 10 band fest!.
I came back the next day and caught part of day 3 of the fest. I showed up just in time to catch
Were the Buffalo Roamed. This was my first time seeing them though I have played several shows with Corbie's other band "Battle Rockets". I was surprised to see that they had a bass player since their CD was guitar & drums only.
Next up was Blag'ard. This was another band that I had heard online for a while but had never seen. They filled up quite a bit of sound for a guitar/drums duo! I picked up their CD after the set.
Last band that we saw for the day was "The Last Tallboy". It's fronted by my old Raleigh friend and the event co-organizer Bart Tomlin. They are a really tight band and I'm looking forward to getting a CD when they put one out.
So that was it for us show wise for a while. With nothing on the calender for months I started putting together plans to finish recording the vocals for our third CD. I had contacted Ian from Pistil about doing a show at The Pinhook in July when he came back and asked if we wanted to do a show next weekend! Just like that it was on! SS's first back to back weekend blowout!
I was the first to arrive at The Pinhook that night. I scored the front parking spot to unload which is rare. I'm guessing it was because the Duke game was about to come on and everyone was at home or at a bar near campus getting ready to watch the game. The bartender at The Pinhook had it streaming on his laptop.
Soon all the bands and folks started showing up and Anna Rose Beck hit the stage first.
This was the first time I had ever heard her music so it was a treat for me. She set up with another guitarist and a keyboardist. After a few songs the keyboardist stepped behind my cocktail kit and played with brushes. I talked to him about it after his set and we laughed about how he had never played drums standing up before.
Soon afterward we hit the stage. We haven't changed our set in a while but that will soon change when we start bringing in tracks from our new album.
The surprise of the show came afterward when the nights "secret guest" hit the stage. It was Deb doing a solo set with her cello hooked through a distortion pedal. Lots of fun songs including a cover of "Human fly" by the Cramps.
Soon after Pistil hit the stage. We love these guys. great songs, great people. Their just an over all fun band to play with. I'm looking forward to getting their new CD when it comes out. hopefully soon!
----SS 3rd CD news----
Hot off the heels of "Doomed lucky Day" we have been working hard on another new full length album! It already has a title! "Maximum Apartment" titled after the first track on the album. I feel like this will be our first true album as a three piece since Junko came on board a 1/3 of the way into our last album. So far it's looking to be about 10 songs or so. there are a couple of tracks were we split the vocals and there a couple of tracks were just one of us does the vocals so were mixing it up. Lots of the usual genre bending going on including an orchestral/show tunes type song. A 70's prog sounding track, and even some strange island instrument stuff going on. Were in the final part of writitng vocals now so expect a sneak preview track sometime soon down the road.
Thanks so much if you've read this all the way to the end!!
Paul G.
