First things first - Heather and I met up with our friends Matt and Mary at John and Peter's in New Hope this past Wednesday to catch Eric Bachmann from Crooked Fingers, probably my favorite band ever (at least for the past 3 or 4 years). He also fronted Archers of Loaf, which is how I originally found him and began to worship his music and writing, although the two bands are very different. Anyway, he was awesome as usual, and previewed material from the new Crooked Fingers album due for release in February 2005. You should definitely take the time to check out Crooked Fingers - I love it all, but starting at the first album, which is self-titled, is probably the best idea.

The band got booked for another Saturday night show at the Grape Street which is fantastic news. As I've said a million times I love it there. Turnout at the last show was lower than at the first show, so I hope we can make up for it this time to keep us in good standing with the club. Please come check it out! It's Saturday, December 11th, at 7pm. Of course I will send email to my mailing list with more details in the future.

Russ and I are heading to L.A. in November for a music conference thrown by Taxi, an independent A&R company. It's supposed to be a great opportunity to network with music industry types. I'm hoping to meet some people that can get some of my stuff into tv shows, film, etc. I've had some bites from people in this area, but so far nothing has actually ended up being used in a production yet (to my knowledge).

I saw "Garden State" the other night, which I really liked, although reviews from people I've talked to have been mixed. I thought the performances were great, and the writing way better than your standard Hollywood fare, which is usually enough to placate me. There were some cheesy moments, but nothing that ended up costing the movie any realism, in my opinion. The soundtrack was awesome and reminded me that I need to try harder to find some new music to listen to. I am checking out The Stills and a couple other artists I found either via that soundtrack or other recommendations. Still deciding what grabs me and what doesn't. Feel free to post a recommendation!

That's all for now!

I can't get over the fact that there is a really nice original music venue in this city now. I pray to the music gods that the new Grape Street prospers and is around for a long time.

On Saturday night, we opened for Malcolm Holcombe in the Grape room. Our sound guy Walt was super-cool and did an amazing job. The sound on the stage was great, and people told me afterward that it was the best they'd ever heard us sound. What a great place to play - really nice equipment, really nice venue. I hope we can come back regularly! If you haven't been there yet, it's worth a trip just to check it out, but I understand if you want to wait for out next show there! :)

Well, we're replacing the forum on the site with a blog, for a few different reasons. I initially added the forum as a place where I could post personal messages and updates, that didn't really belong in the news section or elsewhere on the site, as well as get feedback and create a community where we could keep in touch. But, I found the huge forum a little cumbersome, and it didn't end up getting a lot of use. A blog is a more simplified format where I can just post updates, and it still allow people to comment, and/or leave a note, if they so choose. So, I've posted some of my previous forum posts here, and I will do my best to post regular updates!