Heaven on a shining disk!
The glistening red vinyl. The tubular analog tones. Let the music of Stereo Night pour over you. If there was ever a time to burn up some of your limited remaining hearing capability on a nice loud headphone listen, this is probably it. Surrender to the love, and let The Twilight Hours inside!
Read more...Let me hear your wares!We are pounding away at our songs. Getting them ready for YOU! Lake Harriet September 10.
Posted by John
The band have put a full-court press on Matt. We have him trapped in his back court and he’s responding with the full-length, baseball-style pass of recording the new record THIS FALL! There won’t be time to do much more changing, Changer!
I wrote a song!
Posted by Matt
Actually I wrote a song with the help of John and Dan. And it took full decade. And about 600 hours of doting attention. But, honestly, I think it’s one the very best songs that I’ve ever helped to create, and I only think that about every third one.
The Stone Arch Festival: GAME ON!
Posted by Manager
Someone had the chutzpah to schedule against The Stone Arch Festival with their Rock The Garden line up of bands that didn’t even take the time to come up with names that made sense… names like MGMT and OKGO, but we know that in Minneapolis and St Paul, people haven’t forgotten the meaning of the word “value.” And you can’t beat the value of “free.” Especially when you get a heaping helping of local love from the likes of Us, Zoo Animal, Black Blondie, Joey Ryan and the Inks, We Are The Willows (who we played with back during our very first shows at The Nomad just over a year ago!) and many others. Music all day, all night. Free. Beat that. You can’t.
Saturday Night = Joy
Posted by Matt
Thank you to all who attended the Guthrie on Saturday. Was an absolute highlight of our year. Pure joy.
Everything I’ve got to say right now feels trite. But I’ll just blurt it out. You were all so generous to us. It is so kind of you to listen to our songs. Thank you for even caring to hear.
Manager! Have you bungled? Ultimate Happiness winner, Jane, please contact the band directly.
Posted by Omniscient
Manager, your clumsy maneuvering has led to a SNAFU of unforgivable proportions! Somehow poor Jane collected no prizes. Know that your avatar is under review. I am considering assigning you an even more repulsive photo.
Innocent Jane, I will not allow you to be rooked by the band’s incompetent manager. Please contact John or Matt via the forum’s PM communication feature to gather your rightful rewards. Justice will be served!
We Have A Winner!
Posted by Manager
Last night under close supervision from her parents, two year old Gigi plucked the Grand Prize Winner from her dad’s straw hat. Notifications have been sent.
The band needs a shiney button!
Posted by Omniscient
The band is anxious to sell out the final tickets to their April 24 show at the Guthrie’s breath-taking, scarlet-hued proscenium stage in Minneapolis. I can’t stand to see them anxious.
Webmaster, I blame you for their pain. You will establish a prize drawing of some sort to attract attention to the show. And to make the contest irresistible, I command you to marshal your meager Photoshop skills to create the single most delicious-looking red button ever to be posted throughout the history of the internet! This button must possess an overwhelming power to force users to click on it! We’ll figure out something to give the winners.
Do not disappoint me, webmaster!
I guess it must have been real.
Posted by Matt
Over the past month I’ve been swept up to the stars on my brother Dan’s magic coattails. Now he’s returned me gently to the ground. I would almost doubt that it really happened, except that somehow we’ve emerged with a live concert album to show for it.
Dan & Matt Wilson 3/26 Minneapolis concert album available for download.
If you can get past my nervous chuckling on these tracks, you may find some music to enjoy in there. Thank you to all who attended, and to all the talented people who helped produce and record the show.
And, of course: Thank you, Dan!
Now, I’ll see you all at the Guthrie!
The Forums are Back! Updated: Comments are Back!
Posted by Webmaster
The forums are back up and running after a brief outage this morning.
Sorry for the temporary loss of service. Let’s blame it on huge demand!
Thanks for your patience.
Update: Comment “Captchas” are re-enabled as well. Recommence commenteering. Set snideness levels on “stun”!
What a Bunch!
Posted by John
What an incredible band of guys we’ve got! We just had the most ridiculous trip to New York—steady driving rain pretty much from the moment we landed until we left, a twelve hour trip getting there and 36 hour trip coming home, technical failures during our performance… and yet, not a word of complaint from anyone. Even with missing bags, freezing, leaky conditions at the airport, a journey out to Islip (even having just been there, I still don’t really know where it is… Ronkonkoma anyone?), no ill feelings or recriminations. Have we all grown up? Or do we just have the most chill band ever?
Off To Chicago and Milwaukee! Get em while they're hot.
Posted by Manager
Yes. It’s in the tour dates. But looky here: there are going to be about five more chances to see this band on this cycle: Chicago,Milwaukee, NYC, and a pending Minneapolis show… and after that… well, who the hell knows? Life is long and we’re planning a new record, but life is also uncertain and this band is pretty darn great and peaking as we dial in the new songs for our fresh recordings. We’d love to see you!
Our most vulnerable citizens
Posted by Matt
Though I try to keep myself distant and disengaged from the debauchery of the forums, this latest excursion by this site’s cyber-rebels into the hidden and private lives of children forces me to speak up.
I think we all agree that the Love Monsters were a college band. And I’m sure we will all acknowledge that the college they attended was a private college. You see where I’m going with this. The Love Monsters were a private band. Think about that. Also, I’m sure that none of the hell raisers on the forum has ever stopped to consider that the Love Monsters at the time of these recordings were, for all practical purposes, children. By linking to this gangly and awkward music, you are exposing the private poetry and musings of children.
Dicey
Posted by Matt
Well this tour is over, except for this increasingly harrowing ride home across Iowa through sleet and snow. Dave has been our preferred pilot since things got perilous earlier this afternoon. He truly does have a way with machines, and, as I mentioned a few posts back, he really is cool under fire.
We’ve been traveling caravan style for this little tour, and throughout it’s been Steve and John, “the rhythm section”, driving in a white minivan, and Dave, Jacques and I, “the talent”, in a little black sedan. We haven’t bothered to stay close together because it’s so easy to coordinate with the phones. We in the sedan have adopted the strategy of driving like grannies in the left lane where there’s less ice, and we’ve been passed at high speed by countless cars. We’ve also seen a few of those Steve McQueens spun out in the ditch with an Iowa squad car parked nearby, colored lights going crazy.
Earlier in the day our little car exited to gas up at a “Kum & Go” (Yes, that’s really the name of this convenience store chain.), and, just by chance, who should we encounter amid the flurries at the gas pumps but our friendly band mates in the white minivan. That really struck us as a marvelous coincidence. Filthy comments were exchanged with a smile and we went our separate ways in the snow.
Bargain Hunting in Lawrence
Posted by Matt
We got into Lawrence with a few hours to spare, and suddenly flurry of music retail tire-kicking broke out. Within minutes of penetrating the business district all members of the band were scouting for local music stores with an eye to taking advantage of the countrified locals with their innocent country pricing. Unfortunately the interweb has ruined that game and Minneapolitans no longer have an edge. All the amps and keyboards that we were vulturing around for were priced at perfect parity with their big city cousins.
Are there no more yokels to be exploited? Has the internet turned us into one humongous city where everyone knows what amps had previously been undervalued?
Damn you, democratizing interweb of knowledge!
Waiting backstage at the Waiting Room
Posted by Matt
We’re all gathered backstage in Omaha. The Waiting Room. Steve’s sleeping in a comfy chair. John and Jacques are chitter chattering about the show we played in Brooklyn when the club charged us money for playing too long. Jeez.
Somewhere between our last rehearsal and this afternoon, the electric piano that Dave has been playing must have taken a nasty spill. It’s a shining web of metal on the inside. A delicate, complicated machine, and some of the little pickups were just broken right off. Dave is such a cool customer, he went out and bought some Krazee Glue and has set about fixing it up.
And the Press Page was good.
Posted by Omniscient
Once again, webmaster, your work has sufficed. I am pleased with the Press Page. It’s fruits are damn tasty.
You may rest.
A Press Page has been born onto the site
It has been decreed onto me that there shall be a Press Page wherein evaluations of the band’s work, both positive and negative, shall be listed and enumerated. And also, it has been heaped onto my back that there shall be a place on the Press Page for the band to post “Press Releases”.
It has come to pass. And there was a Press Page. And the reviews were fairly excellent.
I just became a blues musician.
Posted by Matt
But better New Orleans than anyone else.
Localism
Posted by John
You buy local. You eat local. You rock local. Yes. You rock local. We rock local, too. It’s been a nice year for us around here. We love our towns. It would appear that’s a two way street. Recent evidence came in a couple of year-end wrap-ups.
Accolades
Posted by John
Of course we care what you think. What you think is important in so many ways. When you stand with your arms folded we try to act like we don’t care. We dominate our broken hearts with minds of steel.
And on those nights perhaps someone comes up and says, “lame audience tonight,” or something like that, we die a little bit inside, because we know that maybe we could have made the audience not lame somehow.