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 court, baseball-style pass of recording the new record THIS FALL! You are my hero, Matt! The people in the crowd are dumping their popcorn and cokes, holding their breath in anticipation of an inevitable SCORE!
No, let’s admit that it would be stupid to predict anything regarding our output. Probably it will be three years before you actually SEE ANYTHING. But the songs are shaping up nicely. The band is pivoting in unison. The sounds are going to be great. The band is psyched. We are preparing for magic (I’m starting the Harry Potter series right now, so I’m all about MAGIC). I can see no reason that we won’t make a record before Christmas. But admittedly, I’m also ready to be disappointed. Planning on it, actually. Old habits and all that…
Prior to recording we’re going to play a show at The Lake Harriet Bandshell. It’s a Music and Movie sort of thing. First music and then, by the light of the moon, a movie. You can all blame me for choosing a movie with subtitles, but perhaps you’ll want to raise me on your shoulders after seeing The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The entire movie is sung. Every line. Bring a blanket, and bring a hankie (it’s a weeper), but please, in the spirit of hopefulness, don’t bring an umbrella.
Can’t wait to see you all!
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
We hope we see you there. Under the stars. Next to the falls. Surrounded by the sounds of the city. At twilight.
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
An additional thirty winners were chosen to receive autographed posters at The Guthrie. This whole thing has been pretty fun, if more complicated than I would have thought, so we’re going to save these sorts of deals for very special occasions. Okay? Okay.
Thanks for playing.
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. 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
After returning to Minneapolis I said to Jacques, our slinky axeman, “Sorry dude. I wish it could have been helped…” What did he say? “Funny. I’ve already forgotten about it.” That was AT THE AIRPORT, at the baggage carousel. And to that I say, “Thank you guys!!!” I know Matt feels exactly the same way.
Example numbers two and three: after having spent some uncomfortable hours biding time together at the airport, what do you imagine Dave, Steve and I did after dropping the equipment off at the rehearsal space? A couple of beers at the local watering hole, a chat about limitations creating superior art, a bit of how to make loved ones happy with you as you leave for days on end… Glory to guys! We love you!!
Off To Chicago and Milwaukee! Get em while they're hot.
Posted by Manager
PS. As the bands manager I want to encourage you all to fuel the fires. Or I’m out of a job!
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.
We came in number 4 among local records… In Minneapolis, the word local is funny. Because there are so many artists who we, as Twin Citians, claim. But by most estimations they aren’t that local. They just happen to live here. Thus, coming in behind artists like POS… well, number 4 doesn’t feel too bad. Feels really good in fact. A friend pointed out, too, that this number 4 was not just having some guy liking us and saying we’re number one. No, it was more like a consensus sort of thing. A poll, if you will. So we’re riding high on that assessment.
In addition to Stereo Night receiving local love, it turns out people like the band, too. Now, no one likes the band as well as Matt and I, but the various people that legendary rock club First Avenue polled seem to like us pretty darn well and rated us good enough to be on The Best New Band Showcase, January 15. I guess the last time that happened to Matt or I was in, like… THE NINETIES! So, we’re going to be jumping up on that stage, where we’ve rocked with other combos before, and test our new band out. That stage gives me goosebumps. All my energies, at one early point in my musical life, were focused on that stage… and many of my favorite moments as a fan have happened in that room.
On January 29th we’re playing The Current’s Fifth Anniversary Party, also at First Avenue. The line-up is going to be amazing, featuring a ton of local talent, something the station prides themselves on playing a lot of. Evidence of this can be heard by listening to us on The Local Show January 10th where we performed several songs from Stereo Night as well as a new song for a web-sclusive track, “Telephone”!
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.
But when someone says to us, “you are one of the best new bands of 2009 and will play a big show at First Ave with other best new bands of 2009,” we get thrilled. Just like we would have.
Come and see The Best New Bands of 2009 at First Avenue January 15 2010 where we will be among those very best of 2009. And in Minneapolis/Saint Paul there are annually over 3000 band births/year, so don’t act like it doesn’t matter Mr Arms-Folded!
In other words, we’re not dead… yet. Some might even suggest we’ve just been born. Come and see for yourself.
That felt good.
Posted by Matt
Our little East Coast sweep. Sometimes it felt more like a family reunion than a bona fide tour, but it did a lot of the tasks that travelling should. We returned to Minneapolis happy, victorious and renewed. The concrete feeling of bandness more set and firm than before.
The excellent staff of one at the 939 Club in Boston made a great recording of our show there, an unexpected gift. And the following day, as we rode to New York, we did the thing I’ve almost never done, but which I always should have: we listened to the naked truth of the music we were making. And there was so much to learn, so much clutter to clear away, so much cloud to be condensed.
Our posh night
Posted by Matt
Now I’m getting a little verklempt. We’re assembling in the lobby of our posh D.C. hotel right now. Yes, posh. We had planned to sleep on couches and floors last night, and we really would have been happy with that. But a very kind patron of the arts swooped down and carried us off to two fancy hotel rooms last night. Wow! Thanks, patron of the arts.
The full Twilight Hours crew includes me and John The Stalwart, plus Jacques Wait on electric guitar, Steve Roehm on drums, and Dave Salmela on keyboards. We’re traveling about as light as you could imagine, and it’s been working great. With less gear, you lose a lot of control, but it makes packing and lugging less onerous, and it makes the whole venture economically possible.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Twilight Hours are on tour!
Posted by Matt
We are making America pay. And it does feel good. Last night was New York, and we found ourselves cuddled up tight in a Brooklyn basement called Union Hall. Lovely! All the peoples were sweet and gentle, which caused us to break our own plan and play a little longer than scheduled. In fact, we incurred a small fine from the club who didn’t seem to understand how important it was for the both the bar and the universe for The Twilight Hours to prance and sing even more. We had to go to the bottom dregs of our song barrel to find some suitable music to satisfy the grave need that everyone was feeling.
Song of the Day Download at The Current Today, Tomorrow Tour!
Posted by John
In other news, our eyes are watching the sky. And our eyes are seeing snow. I’m reminded again of why scheduling tour dates in the winter is a complete crap shoot. I love snow. I love to ski on it, I love to skate in it, I love to make mountains out of it, I love to ball it up and throw it at unsuspecting cars (while, not for a few years…), but I really hate driving van loads of rockers around in it. So… let’s hope that the snow relents in time for us to have a safe, mellow trip, arriving on time to all our shows and rocking (softly) into the nights. Peace out!
Tonight at the Nomad
Posted by Matt
Happy Holidays, my lovelies!
I always enjoy these shows around Thanksgiving and Kwanzaa because there is charity in the air. We’re all family here, right? And I will let the quality slide grievously. Ahhhh! If you’re wandering down to the Nomad this evening, do not expect a professional performance. Expect something much, much less!
Let Me Introduce To You...
Posted by John
...the one and only, Steve Roehm, drummer for The Twilight Hours. Matt and I first met Steve Roehm when he was playing with the notorious Billy Goat. Billy Goat was truly a band that deserved to have “The Notorious” attached to their name, as we learned the first night that we played with them, at First Avenue in 1991.
Systems within systems: Promises, expectations and violations
Posted by Matt
(Not long ago, John and I sat down to talk business with our label. Krista and Grant at Princess are the sweetest and gentlest, but when it comes time for an agreement, some contractual matters have to be addressed. There was talk of terms and percentages. Now you know I am a fragile flower, and this kind of subject matter starts to soak into my mind like blue food coloring into the petals of a carnation. Oh Lordy, forgive me! I woke up that night - perhaps a little buzzed on Nyquil - and this is the revelation I recorded.)
The Twilight Hours formally request expedited consideration for entry into the Pantheon.
Posted by Matt
As we work to bring wider attention to the band and our album, Stereo Night, John and I have concluded that our best path is to bypass the music business entirely, and make an end run straight for the Pantheon, a place of reward and recognition reserved for musical heroes. With this strategy in mind, we are including in our latest press packages a printed version (PDF 108KB) of this new and updated online plea for expedited Pantheon consideration. You will notice that in the new version of our letter, we have tightened the rhetoric to such a degree that the document’s conclusion is now inescapable: early enshrinement for The Twilight Hours will bring benefits to music in general, and society at large.
Twilight Hours Reach The Tippy Top of KCMP's "The Chart Show!"
Posted by Manager
The guys are not ones to crow too long and loud about it… but I thought I’d pass along the news that you have voted and made The Twilight Hours NUMBER ONE on The Current’s “Chart Show” hosted by Mark Wheat. I wish I could have been there to hear Mark say, “And this week, clocking in at number one, The Twilight Hours!” That would have been nice.
If you’re wondering how you can be a part of this fun you can go here. and Make your preference known. Thanks to everyone who voted. We love you.
The "Influences" Question
Posted by John
Matt, I think we both know that the only song you actually have any interest in creating liner notes for is “Dreams,” so you accomplished two things by posting your liner notes thread: putting up the only liner notes you really gave a damn about and putting you and I into our normal, tormented twist. Mission accomplished!
I was thinking about a different way into the music, other than the “This song is about such and such,” thereby wrecking the song for all eternity for everybody (debateable as this thread demonstrates). How else can we penetrate the creative process? How do we account for these wonderful tunes aside from dreams? The “influences question!”
There’s a few ways this can work. One is to explore favorite records of all time and remark on what stands out about them. Another is to talk about what we’re listening to now. And a third is to talk about what we were listening to as we conceived the music.
I’ll start by exploring two records, one a recent release that I think is really cool and one an old chestnut that I go back to over and over: Night Beat by Sam Cooke and Wilco The Record by Wilco.
I love the silliness of Wilco having a song about their band on their eponymous eighth recording. Of course it reminds me of our new song, “Soundwaves,” which is less about some fans thoughts about the band and more a dialogue between us, but it’s cool nonetheless for there to be a song “Wilco (the song)” on Wilco the Record. For a band, naming your record the band name signals a certain kind of “we did it” triumph. Or perhaps more accurately, “Eureka! After so many false starts, here it is, finally, the record that really says what we’ve been trying to say all along!” That’s got to be a great feeling. Of course it could also be the sinking feeling of “all my good titles have been used up… waaah.” But in this case, I think it’s definitely the former.
What do I love about this record (got it on vinyl btw!)? I love the tunes, especially the duet with Feist, “You and I,” which echoes (consciously?) the great Beatles tune, “Two of Us.” I love the communal recognition of “Wilco (the song).” A song that identifies its fans as “dabbling in depression.” Funny. It’s holding up the song as a mirror to it’s audience. It also holds music as our possible savior. And it is. It definitely is.
I love Nels Cline’s guitar playing. I’ve had friends put him down for getting all over the tracks in a way that’s distracting, but to me: no way. I can’t really get enough of him, quite honestly. He loves the same guitarists as me. I’m thinking particularly of Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine from Television here. He uses a lot of finger vibrato, which I love. He plays in the upper reaches of his instrument, but never sounds shrill. I’m a fan.
I love the B-3 on “I’ll Fight” as well as the overall arrangement and the sentiment. It speaks to the necessary passion it requires to hew to the line as you make a thing whatever it is.
There’s a naturalness to the sound of Wilco’s records, especially post-Jay Bennett (RIP) that really appeals to me. I love Being There, at least one of the discs, but I love the last two Wilco discs even more than that for the inevitability of the sound. I think it evinces an aesthetic that Matt and I share, actually: plain rock. The sound is about the plain sound of each instrument. And not a lot of layering. Sometimes it’s nice to pour it on, but more and more lately I want clear, beautiful sounds and simple perfomances that feature each instrument. There is a ton of nice ensemble playing on this record and you can really track that playing because of the mixes, arrangements and all.
Which brings us to Night Beat which shares some of these qualities. Have you ever heard it? It will make you believe in the power of rhythm and blues again. But this is the plainest sort of R and B: double bass, super plain drumming (Hal Blaine!), piano, really groovy rhythm guitar, Billy Preston on B3, and of course Sam Cooke’s stunning voice soaring over the top. I’ve listened to this record countless times. It’s like an old friend to me.
The record was conceived as one which would have a late-night vibe to it. There is a little bit of an “after the after party” sort of energy to the band and especially to Cooke’s voice, slightly raspy as it might be after a gig, but also really warm and flexible, a result of the same.
The arrangements are revelatory in their simplicity. But the songs, along with the voice, are the centerpiece for each recording. And what a set of tunes! The record starts with “Lost and Looking for My Baby.” I might be particularly fond of this one because it is JUST bass and high hat and vocal. The arrangement feels the title in a deep way. “Mean Old World” and “Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen” sound great as does every single track on this disc. “Red Rooster” breaks the spell, but only a very little bit, and it’s worth it for how expressively Billy Preston plays the organ, imitating a whole barnyard’s worth of animals with his axe.
One thing that I feel a real sense of simpatico of with this one is that Cooke picked his faves for it and just ran them down over the course of a few days That reminds me of my other band’s approach (though we tend to stretch a little bit in terms of the arrangements!). It’s fun to hear Sam Cooke’s hand-picked favorite tunes rendered in this way. I can’t recommend this record highly enough. It has been deeply influential on me and every time I hear it I think, “I want to make a record that sounds that good some day!”
How about you, Matt? Got any good ones you want to talk about? I know you’re aching to reveal your abiding affection for “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald” and Juice Newton.