I Was Totally Destroying It

LIVE FROM NOWHERE NEAR YOU!

2011-06-27T22:52:00.002-04:00

Our rad label, Greyday Records, is releasing a very special charity compilation this summer- Live From Nowhere Near You Vol 2. The 3-CD comp is available now for pre-order in the Greyday Store & includes rare and/or exclusive tracks from Wilco, Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams, Elliott Smith, Daniel Johnston, The Helio Sequence, The Strokes, Modest Mouse, Third Eye Blind, Eddie Vedder, The Dandy Warhols, Mike Watt, and roughly 50 more!

...Oh, and us! That's right, with purchase of the 3-CD set (for only $15!), you also get downloads of even MORE exclusive material, including an unreleased demo from Elliott Smith(!), and an exclusive new IWTDI track, "Waiting On A Wire"! It's actually one of my favorite songs that we've ever written- I hope you can all check it out ---> all profits go to providing aid and counseling to homeless youth via Outside In.

As if Live From Nowhere Near You Vol 2 wasn't enough, Greyday is releasing yet another charity comp this winter- featuring yet another exclusive track from yours truly....more on that soon!!

JULY 31!

2011-06-26T17:01:00.004-04:00

So we were asked to play a show for a friend/fan of the band for his wedding after-party. He wanted it to be at Deep South The Bar in Raleigh, and he told us it could be a public or private event, our call. We initially chose to make it private, so as not to interfere with any other local shows we might have had around the same time...

Turns out, we didn't end up booking any other local shows this summer, and also turns out our friends from Atlanta, Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun, needed a show that night.

SO! Please join us for one of our very few Triangle area shows this year- Sunday, July 31st at Deep South The Bar in Raleigh! There will be a small party of post-wedding revelers(which of course means we're playing a very special set- IWTDI requests from the groom, plus a handful of covers!), but we invite you to join the fun for a mere $5 at the door. TTM,TTS will get things going promptly at 10:30, with IWTDI taking the stage right at 11:15.

We are in the process of booking a couple of tours for the fall, but in the meantime, our only other scheduled show is in Atlanta with TTM,TTS at Star Bar on Friday, July 15.

Hope to see you all soon!

LEAVING MINNEAPOLIS!

2011-06-12T00:27:00.003-04:00

Aaaaaaand we're DONE. Album #4 is tracked and will be mixed in a couple of weeks. I'm a bit dazed and ineloquent right now, but the whole band seems to agree that this is the best record any of us have ever been a part of- and we couldn't have done it without our GENIUS producers, Joshua Cain & Ed Ackerson. Thank you, guys.

We also owe a huge thanks to our home-away-from-home, MPLS, and the wonderful people who populate this beautiful city: Tommy Rehbein, Justin Pierre, Brittany Nelson, Lindsay Hutton, Ashley Ackerson, Amber Corbet, Jared Gudnason, Kelly Conant, Farewell Continental, Dan Mariska & his band, The Triple Rock Social Club- to name just a few!

We'll post some more pictures and some video from the session, eventually. And expect more details on the album in the next few months.

Now: we drive 20 hours!

A FEW PHOTOS FROM WEEK 1 IN THE STUDIO!

2011-05-28T12:26:00.011-04:00

Almost done with week #1 here at Flowers Studio in Minneapolis, MN. It's going great!

Video and other updates coming soon, but here's a few shots of the band, Josh, & Ed (and Wiggy!) at work!

(Photography by Joe Mazzitelli, Ed Ackerson, & Josh Cain)

MPLS!

2011-05-22T17:09:00.003-04:00

Hello dear friends! I hope you are interested in an update on the making of our latest album in Minneapolis, because that is what you are about to get!!

A lot of people ask me how/why we decided to make this record all the way up here in the Twin Cities. The story really goes all the way back to early 2008. IWTDI had just turned 1, and had a pretty uncertain future. We were a band that just started off thinking we'd make one album, have a bit of fun, and go our separate ways. None of us had a ton of time to focus on the project, but we were getting some support from some strange places- some encouragement that sort of persuaded us to keep going. One such source of encouragement came completely out of the blue. An old friend of mine, Paul Cadena, had started a new band and, the networking-wonder that he is known to be, was constantly hitting up "influential" people and asking them to give his music a listen. One day, he randomly contacted Josh Cain from the band Motion City Soundtrack, a personal favorite of mine at the time(OK, I was obsessed). Paul basically said "Hey Josh, I was hoping you could check out my new band. Also, my good friend just put out a record that is pretty cool too- check out I Was Totally Destroying It sometime". Josh listened to Paul's band and thought it was "OK"(I think he was wrong about that- Small States was the SHIT!), but listened to us and said "Hey Paul, how can I get in touch with your friend?". Ten minutes later, I got an email from one of my idols, telling me he really liked my band and wanted to work together someday, and the rest is history. Josh and I talked frequently over the years, played some shows together, etc. We wanted to make "Horror Vacui" together, but busy schedules and IWTDI's impatience and prolific nature got in the way. So finally, here we are, and we are thrilled it's finally all happening! By the way, Paul has gone on to do crazy big things since those days- now people (like me) email HIM for help!

We're almost done with week 1, which has been spent entirely on pre-production. Allow me to explain "pre-pro" to those not in the know. When working with a producer, oftentimes the primary focus will be on arrangements and presentation of the songs. We recorded demos at home last fall and sent them to Josh, allowing him to start to get a feel of the material he would be working with. We discussed various changes with him over the internet and phone during the past few months, but the bulk of the work has been done this past week- all together in a small rehearsal room. We'd play our songs and then Josh would rip them apart- telling us what drum fill didn't sit right with him, what section went on a little too long, etc. There will be more production ideas coming from all of us in the studio over the next few weeks, but this was the preparatory week- the true "pre-pro". It's an interesting situation to be in. We've never worked with a real producer before- you kinda have to open yourself up to the idea, and embrace the fact that an outside set of ears can approach your music much more objectively than you ever could. A producer can suggest an idea that completely reinvents a song, and you immediately love it - and they can also suggest a minuscule change that throws the whole composition off, in your mind. But again, it's about allowing that new opinion into the process and seeing where it takes you. It's been a great experience, thus far.

We arrived in MPLS this past Monday evening, and after briefly settling in to our lovely little rental house, we headed straight to the rehearsal space with Josh. We've been there every day since, fine-tuning our latest….tunes. Tomorrow we load in to the recording studio, get set up, and begin tracking! Wish us luck. We can't wait to share "Vexations" with you!

MAY 7 & MAY 12!

2011-05-01T13:11:00.002-04:00

Our Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) shows are going to be few and far between this year, but we have two chances to hang before we head off to Minneapolis in a couple of weeks:

-We just added a show this Saturday, May 7th at Lincoln Theater in Raleigh: The BandTogether Benefit / Third Eye Blind afterparty! 3EB, Dillon Fence, Lonnie Walker, and US Royalty will be playing a street show outside the Lincoln from 6-11pm - as soon as the main show is over at 11, we'll begin playing a special 2-hour afterparty set in the main venue. Admission to our show will be free to those who attended the street show, but if you wanna swing by at 11 just to catch us, it'll be $5. Tons more info can be found here!

-We're still pumped about opening for Thursday and Pygmy Lush next Thursday, May 12th at Cat's Cradle! Get your tickets now!

-And of course we'd be foolish to not remind our Minnesota friends to get their tickets to our June 2nd Triple Rock show with Farewell Continental!

-Summer east coast tour dates coming soon!

ALBUM RELEASE SHOW - TOMORROW!!!

2011-04-21T16:33:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow (FRIDAY APRIL 22) is the big day- our "Preludes" album release party!

We'll have the album for sale on CD and LP, admission is still dirt cheap if you buy your tickets online right now ($4 in advance vs $7 at the door!), and Prisms & Antibubbles will be starting the night off right @ 9:30! Please join us at Local 506 in Chapel Hill for this all ages happyfuntime!

We've been away for weeks and we're about to leave again, so we really want to see your lovely faces- let's do this!

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 9 (Day 20), 12 April

2011-04-13T12:36:00.001-04:00

On the drive to Medford, we encountered our first snow. And hail. And more hail. And sub-freezing temperatures. We rocked a really fun set filled with songs we really needed to work on for the upcoming Vexations album as well as songs we want to bust out from Preludes, in front of maybe three people we didn’t know/were traveling with. Weeknight in a town where no one has heard of us or really goes out at night for that matter. We had a good time and a great opportunity to work on things. We spent the night in town and set our course for Portland Friday morning.

We tried hard to not have many days without shows. Booking is the least fun part of being in a band, and while our luck has been pretty good, we had a Friday with no show, and that’s always hard to swallow. We were lucky though that Greyday helped us out with a chance to play on the radio at KPSU, Portland State University’s radio station. We busted out a fun set of acoustic songs and had the evening free to pursue our respective fancies. We grabbed some incredible food at Slingshot, and then some of us went out partying and some of us stayed at the house to catch up on things or rest.

We were lucky enough to have a great place to stay the two nights we were in Portland. An old friend Christa had some room in her cute house in town, and she let us more or less have the run of it while she set about her task of righting wrongs and making the world a better place. We crashed out Friday night and got ready for a busy day Saturday.

Saturday afternoon, we did a set of five full rocking songs for an upcoming podcast . That took us a little longer than expected, so we ended up being a little late to our load in at Mississippi Studios. We pride ourselves on punctuality and professionalism, so we were eager to get there despite our outdated GPS trying to kill us. John’s GPS is better than mine. We should have brought his!

Mississippi Studios was a blast! It was our last night with The Trophy Fire, and our last night hanging with Todd from Greyday. We rocked an early show that had us getting out of there by 10, and then we partied down and annoyed those around us for a few hours before parting ways . The next day was another day off, so we slept in, hung out with Christa for a hot second, toured the Greyday offices, helped ourselves to a few free cd’s, drove to Voodoo Doughnuts (leaving due to the prohibitive line going partway around the building), and headed as far as we could towards Salt Lake City.

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 8 (Day 18), 10 April

2011-04-13T02:57:00.002-04:00

We arrived at El Rio in San Francisco to see a building on fire a few blocks away. We took the chance to both relish the beauty of the conflagration and reflect on the obvious tragedy. We hope that no one was hurt, but at the risk of sounding insensitive, it was a fairly awesome sight. Fire crews were there from right when we arrived until right when we left. SFFD did a great job.

By the way, being in and around San Francisco inspired me to irritate the band with constant but varying renditions of the Monk theme song, one of many great Randy Newman jingles. I personally believe that to be annoyed is to feel very much alive, so I try to keep my bandmates as annoyed as possible as often as possible. Because as we all know, it’s a jungle out there…Disorder and confusion everywhere…

The show at El Rio was a lot of fun. We played with Shuteye Unison and Silian Rail, the latter of which features John’s old friend Eric Kuhn. El Rio is divided with a straight up bar on one side, a nice, open patio out back, and a stage in a separate room next door. It’s a really great setting for a show. We had played there the last time we came through, except on that occasion, a July 4th party/festival, we had set up facing the patio instead of the house of the club. It’s a fine place to play regardless of which way you face, and we finished the night ecstatic to have played in front of people again.

We spent our last night in California and headed out of town early enough in the morning to ship out a mail order (yep, even when we’re on the road you can buy our stuff!) and take Joe across the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we stopped at the Marin Headlands, and John showed us some of his old stomping grounds. Being a fan of both ruins/urban decay and old military installations, seeing some of these places was almost spiritual for me, just like the old ruins I saw at Point Lobos on the west side of town. We spent some time there and then head out of California. We had spent a week there, and while we enjoyed it tremendously, actually leaving the state felt like we were making real tour progress. At least for me, it felt like we had been stagnant for a while. Plus, I love Oregon. On to Medford. More soon!

STREAM THE NEW ALBUM!

2011-04-12T21:09:00.001-04:00

The new album, Preludes, is out TODAY on CD, LP, and digital. Pick it up from your favorite record store or online retailer. Also, you can listen to the whole f-ing album for free here: http://www.undertheradarmag.com/media/premiere_preludes_album_stream

Enjoy! Much love from the road.

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 7 (Day 18), 10 April – NEW TRAILER AND BALANCE IN THE UNIVERSE

2011-04-12T11:45:00.001-04:00

Man, it’s really hard to keep this blog up to date! We’re in the van driving from Portland to Boise, and as far as you know, we’re still in California! Oh well, better that we blog chronologically and just try to catch up. There hasn’t been a lot of time for photos or video compiling, but as we take them, we’ll try to post them! The one thing about this tour, even with several days without shows, we’re moving constantly. I think between John and myself, we’d kill for six hours with nowhere to go and nothing to do. That won’t happen anytime soon though, so we’ll just keep doing our best to keep you caught up.

We left the L.A. area to play one more show in San Francisco before finally heading out of California. We had seen a half dozen trailers and called two dozen trailer stores. We knew the exact trailer we wanted but the price was prohibitive. So we decided to head straight for the trailer dealership that had the 2600 dollar trailer, and over the course of the five hour trip, we researched and called every trailer and RV store along our route in Oregon where there’s no sales tax. We even tried to call Wells Cargo’s headquarters to see if they could tell us which dealerships had our trailer model in stock, but they close at 5 eastern and we never really got the hang of the time difference. So in the end we spent all day trying to locate a trailer that doesn’t exist outside of 101 Trailer Sales in Aromas, CA.

We got to our place and got the wheels rolling, so to speak. Our hitch was too low and our ball was too small (wah), but the wiring was righteous, and with a few small modifications we had ourselves a brand new trailer. Brad at 101 Trailer Sales was so nice that he actually arranged with a friend at U-Haul for us to leave our rental trailer at his place to be picked up sometime in the near future.

We want to thank several people for helping us through this ordeal. U-Haul was accommodating and let us hold the trailer for as long as we needed and leave it wherever we had to. Brad the trailer guy was super nice and helpful and never pushed us too hard to buy the trailer. The trailer itself is a hunk of magical awesomeness, each wheel with its own shocks, 15 inch tires, and a load capacity far greater than we will ever need. Most of all though, we have to thank Greyday Records and Todd Berry because HE BOUGHT THE TRAILER FOR US. We’re already way in the hole to Todd for everything he’s done for us, but he didn’t hesitate to get us on the road quickly, and even though we know he didn’t want to throw 2700 dollars (with tax and accessories) at a trailer for us, he did it, and it just goes to show you how great we have it right now. Todd’s the king of the world and we will remain in his debt forever!

So trailer woes solved, we rocked it to San Francisco and onward. And onward. And onward…

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 6 (Day 18), 10 April

2011-04-12T04:10:00.000-04:00

The Ventura show was pretty decent. We had a good time and played in front of some friends. Long Beach was the next day and it was fairly meh. We played with good bands, and we had a lot of fun, but the turnout was paltry and it was the first night of the whole tour that we didn’t get paid anything or sell any merch. At the time, it was a little frustrating, but looking back on it, for that to be the ONLY show of the tour so far that we didn’t recoup anything speaks well for the overall good fortune and supernatural booking abilities this band has! Silver linings are the bomb!

Between the Ventura show and the Long Beach shows, we managed to get ourselves into Los Angeles proper. We really wanted to show Joe the L.A. Guitar Center, we had a few hours to kill, and we needed to get the van’s oil changed and such. I waited near the van while we got the work done, and the rest of the band went over and tried to experience the vintage guitar room. Unfortunately the vintage guitar room was closed for some kind of film shoot (whaaaaaaaaaat? In Hollywooooooood?) and thus began poor Joey’s 24 hours of misery.

We met up with Todd Berry, owner of Greyday Records, in Ventura and Long Beach, and he joined us for part of our travels. He got his own hotel room in Camarillo, CA where we were staying and Joe opted to take the second bed. Little did he know, the bed had already been claimed by a very large family of bedbugs. But that’s his story to tell, and hopefully he will publish a blog post about it. Someday he will look back and laugh about the whole thing. For now, we can all revel in his personal tragedy!

On Wednesday, we hit the road for San Francisco again, and set about one more time to procure a trailer. Stay tuned!

ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT!

2011-04-10T14:55:00.001-04:00

Only two days left to get our album subscription package for a mere $25!

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 5 (Day 14), 6 April TRAILER SHOPPING BLUES

2011-04-10T13:34:00.003-04:00

Monday morning, we left San Francisco earlier than we might have wanted to, but we had trailers to buy. We had been calling all over, and Rachel had been getting some very quick lessons on trailer makes and models. We had been working with a big trailer chain called Trailers Plus or something like that, and we thought we had a plan. We drove to a town called Gilroy on the 101, expecting to buy a trailer for about 1600 bucks. Sadly (for them) the trailer store we went to had just decided to be closed on Mondays, so we were stuck with a U-Haul and nothing else. We didn’t have time to sit around though, so we hit the road towards Ventura and decided to google and call trailer stores along the way.

There are lots of trailer stores out there. And there are lots of trailers. And they are all kind of expensive, but they are also very hit or miss in terms of quality. Of course we had just lost a trailer so we knew some of that, but we must have hit six different places over the next few hours. The second or third one we hit was tucked away just off the road, but it was the kind of place you would just drive past without noticing. Somehow I saw out of the corner of my eye some really nice trailers, and so we did a couple of U-turns and came back around.

This place had the trailer of our dreams! But it was around 2600 dollars, just way too expensive for us to think about buying. But looking at it, the trailer gave us a very clear idea of what we needed to look for in terms of size, suspension, tongue, hitch, etc. We hit the road again, hearing tale of an elusive, comparable trailer for almost half the price a few hours south in Paso Robles.

We drove the two hours to Paso Robles to find a nice little 4X6 trailer, made by the same company (Wells Cargo), but the thing was crazy flimsy. It seemed like an errant stone could pierce the shell of this thing like a thin pane of glass.

Thwarted, we continued down towards Ventura, calling places ahead of us and finding nothing. It began to dawn on us that if we really want a trailer that would make the trip, protect our gear, etc, we would have to be willing to spend the money. If we had the benefit of time, we might be able to find something cheaper but we have business to conduct.

This is where our incredible label comes in. We called Todd, owner of Greyday Records, telling him that we were in trailer trouble and that we might need help affording a new one. He did not hesitate to say he would help us out. This guy is amazing, putting the same skin in the game that we’re putting. We do this together, succeed or fail. Anyway, our plan was to meet up with him in Ventura and bring him home to Portland, so he came in just at the right time to help us resolve this.

The U-Haul has been great. It has been easy to use even though it’s way too long. We can fit all of our gear into it, and it doesn’t bounce like the last trailer did. But we are eager to have a trailer of our own again. By the time we got to Ventura, we were still empty handed though, so it looked like we would still be waiting. Stay tuned for the rest of the story!

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 4 (Day 14), 6 April

2011-04-08T13:17:00.002-04:00

Saturday we got to San Francisco intact, and we played a superfun show at Hemlock Tavern with The Trophy Fire and Glass Trains. Then we split up, Joe and Curtis staying with our good friend Ben, and John and Rachel sleeping with our friend Jamie. I slept in the van, of course! Those chilly NoCal nights are right for me, and I found a spot near Diane Feinstein’s residence, which had its very own security guard. Prime real estate for van sleeping in a big city.

Sunday was a day off from playing shows, but not a day off. I woke up early and when to this amazing little spot by the water where some cliff dwellers had set up dwellings and a giant set of pools. It was spectacular and I felt all renewed and ready for the day. Then I realized that I had locked my keys in the van. I spent the next hunk of time waiting to be rescued by John and Rachel, driving a car that Jamie has graciously let us use for the day. I did make it back to Jamie’s in time for crepes and some songwriting.

Jamie McGoldrick is an amazing fellow and a very talented songwriter. He played in Io with John back in the day, and John has never lost his admiration for Jamie’s skills. Jamie has been toying around with a song called Save Your Life for some time, and John likes the song so much that he asked Jamie if we could have a crack at it. Jamie said sure, and since then we have been working out a version of the song. That Sunday morning, John, Rachel, and Jamie sat down with some acoustic guitars and started ironing out all the bugs and putting the song together. Then we did some laundry, walked around Haight Street, and picked up some pizza before heading out to Jamie’s practice space in South San Fran to work Save Your Life out as a full band.

We had originally worked off a little demo that Jamie had given us, but we got a couple of things wrong, and we got the song sounding great in a few different ways. We rocked out some, we tried quieter versions, we just played with it, something we don’t do a ton of at home. It was great working with Jamie, and we look forward to recording the song in May up in Minneapolis. We got some drinks at a nice bar near Jamie’s place, and I ate some kickass late night Thai food. We went to bed somewhat well rested and ready for our trip back down to SoCal. We still had a trailer snafu to work out…

UPDATE FROM JOHN!

2011-04-07T05:26:00.004-04:00

Hello from California! Tour has been fun, interesting, hectic, disastrous, tragic, beautiful, and rocking so far. It's all been nuts and there's so much going on in IWTDI-world that it's been really hard for us to keep up. James will continue filling our fine readers in on the day-to-day, but let's do a run-down of what's up with other thangs:

1. Our music video for our new song, "Fight/Flight", premiered on Under The Radar last week. If you still haven't seen it, check it out below and tell your friends!

2. We've had a couple of changes to our upcoming shows. The Salt Lake City show on 4/11 has been moved from Burt's Tiki Lounge to Bar Deluxe, which is a better spot with a better bill, so yay! We've also just added a live radio performance on kpsu.org in Portland from 4-6pm on this Friday, 4/8. In sad news, the awesome Party House have had to jump off our Minneapolis show, but will be replaced by another local in the next couple of days. MPLS peeps- if you have any ideas, let us know- I know a bunch of you have hit us up about this before- so if you want to play with us- let's do it! Just stay tuned to our schedule, wherever you follow it- we'll keep it all up to date with the forthcoming changes...

3. Our big homecoming performance on 4/22 at Local 506 in Chapel Hill is also our album release party. We'll be joined by Prisms & Antibubbles, and couldn't be more excited about it! We highly recommend getting your tickets in advance, and we're offering an extra incentive to do so: advance tickets will be available through local506.com very soon for $4, whereas they'll be $7 at the door. Unlike a lot of advanced sales, you actually DO save money if you pay the $4 plus service charge, so get that shit! Let's make this a party to remember, y'all! Tell your friends. (I'll post an update as soon as the tickets go live!)
EDIT: TICKETS ARE LIVE! GET 'EM!

4. Our new album, "Preludes", comes out next Tuesday, 4/12. There are only a couple more days to get our pre-order subscription package (with an instant download of the whole damn thing, right now!) on vinyl or CD for the super low price of $25ppd. That gets you our two upcoming full length albums, plus tons of free bonus goodies! After 4/12, the package will still be available, but the price will jump to $30. Get it now!

5. Thanks for reading! We love you!

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 3 (Day 13), 5 April FAULTY TRAILER BLUES

2011-04-05T20:05:00.001-04:00

Where to begin? The show in San Diego was great! We had a good crowd, saw some friends, and had a place to sleep that was comfy. We played with dogs, ate some burritos, and got up way early to make the trip all the way up to San Francisco. And then…

We went out to the van to hit the road, and we noticed that our trailer was starting to look funny. The front of the trailer was bending the tongue of the trailers hitch and while we had noticed a few days earlier, the damage seemed to have increased slightly. We hit the road anyway.

About an hour up I-5, we stopped for some in and out burger and a quick pee break. Upon going back out to the van, the trailer seemed worse than it had been. I was already looking kind of bad but we couldn’t tell if it had gotten worse. So we busted out a piece of paper and marked it so that we could check again down the road. We hit the road again.

About two hours later, we stopped for gas. The trailer looked terrible. We were about 30 minutes south of Bakersfield at this point. We got the piece of paper out again, and the front end of the trailer was a good inch and a half lower, the bottom of the trailer about 4 inches off the ground. When it was new, it was more like a foot. We decided that we couldn’t make it to San Francisco and started looking for U-Haul places. We found a place in Bakersfield, so we hit the highway with our stupid, poorly built trailer one last time, 40mph and hazards flashing.
By the time we got to the U-Haul place, the trailer was done. We scraped the bejabbers out of it pulling into the parking lot and Totally Destroyed the wiring harness. We managed to get it off the van, went to a nearby auto parts store, bought a new wiring harness and rewired the van. We paid for the trailer, a giant, 4x8 with a 6 foot tongue, loaded it up and hit the road again, now roughly the length of a city bus, about to drive into one of the most hilly and turny cities in the country. And then, we started looking up trailers to buy.

We’ll upload a few pictures of our wounded soldier (traitor?) as soon as we can get them up! But for now that’s episode one of the trailer saga.

IWTDI tour blog, Volume 2 (Day9), 1 April

2011-04-04T23:15:00.011-04:00

We’ve been crazy busy the last several days so we’re way behind on the blog posting. You’re about to get an avalanche of them, so check back!

We made it to Las Cruces and I made it to the house in which I spent two of my childhood years. It was nice, but what really drove it all home was seeing the tiny convenience store where I used to buy candy. I remember picking up discarded aluminum cans and giving them to my parents to recycle, then taking the money to Scotty’s II for candy and video games. I also remember riding my motorcycle for hours on end in the vast New Mexico desert, but not surprisingly, the area had been taken over by developers in the 27 years since I had left.

The drive from Las Cruces to Tucson was uneventful, which is awesome! We drove through a border patrol checkpoint, but were let right through. I find that odd. I’m glad we didn’t get searched, but I am surprised that our tinted van, loaded to the hilt with gear, and our little trailer with the iron cross tail lights didn’t raise a red flag.

We got to Tucson early enough to Priceline a hotel and catch some rest. I rarely nap, but I turned the AC on in my room and immediately crashed out, for nearly two hours! We played a place in Tucson called The Red Room at Grill. We got some amazing free food and some cold, tasty free beer. There weren’t a ton of people there, but we had been given a really nice write-up in the local weekly and online, and so the people that were there were super friendly and eager to spend some time with us! The room was on the small side, and they prefer a slightly quieter sound, so we set upon the task of trying to figure out what to play. I think we did a good job: Come Out, Come Out; Favorite Haunt; All Get Lucky*; Cup of Tea; Fight_Flight*; Actors**; Outside Blinds**; Save Your Life**; Blood on Film**; The Ocean

In many ways, we might have actually preferred the quieter set! I didn’t overpower anyone, everyone could hear, John and Rachel could sing without screaming. It was a nice change. For my part though, I look forward to hitting hard and building a sweat again. We’re on our way to San Diego now. More to come!

*: From Preludes, out April 12!
**: From Vexations, out later this year!

IWTDI Tour Blog

2011-04-01T12:51:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple of quick peeks inside the IWTDI touring life! Enjoy!

MARCH 30 (Day 7), IWTDI Tour Blog, Vol. 1 -

2011-03-31T12:58:00.000-04:00

Sorry we haven’t written! It has been very difficult to get into a tour groove this time around.

We’ve toured to the west coast and back before, but this time around, we have so much to do every day (our video for Fight_Flight came out yesterday, Preludes comes out in less than two weeks), and so little reliable internet access that we feel a little out of touch and therefore a little out of sorts. Starting now we are going to try to turn that around and give our friends, family, and fans some updates on how things are going! This first blog post is going to be superlong! Bear with me.

We’ve had some good shows and some minor setbacks so far. We kicked this whole thing off with an exceptional show in Raleigh at Tir Na Nog. Many thanks to everyone who came out! It meant so much to us that so many people wanted to see us off and wish us safe travels! We set out for tour “proper” on Friday afternoon and enjoyed a fun show at North River Tavern in Sandy Springs, GA, a little suburb of Atlanta. Neat venue, good food (NACHO MOUNTAIN!), and a decent built-in crowd, and the tour was on its way.

Saturday took us to Auburn, AL, and The Independent. We played here a little less than a year ago, and both times now have been a blast! Auburn folk are very welcoming, and, The Independent treats bands exceptionally well. Things were going very well up to this point, but it wouldn’t be a tour without glitches and those aforementioned minor setbacks.

Sunday was a hard day. We were just starting to get into the swing of things when we found out our venue in Houston was canceling our show because, as they told us, we hadn’t done enough to promote it. We made a facebook event, we sent posters to the venue, we booked our own local bands, and we saw numerous listings for the show online, and somehow this wasn’t enough for Mango’s. One would think that a music venue would have SOME vested interest in promoting their own events, but apparently, Mango’s has a different perception of how the business works. I suppose they think the band that lives 1000 miles away can do a better job of getting word out in their town than they can.

As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, John’s amp blew during our set in at Siberia in New Orleans. One of the staff at Siberia hooked us up with an amp repair guy and we spent Monday, our newfound day off in NOLA trying to get the amp fixed and seeking free wireless. It took all day but never quite got 100% put back together, and kept blowing fuses. We did end up making it out to Lafayette, LA on Monday to spend the night before heading to Austin, even though the hotel we reserved through Hotels.com somehow didn’t take and we had to haggle with the lady at Red Roof to give us a cheap room.

We arrived in Austin to an eagerly anticipated show at Emo’s. It did not disappoint! We had a great, enthusiastic crowd, free 22oz Kirin Lights, a sound man who loved us almost as much as he loves reverb, and another hotel that didn’t recognize our hotel reservation, this time through priceline. We’ve wasted many hours trying to hold various hotels and hotel brokers to live up to their words, and while it has eventually worked out every time, it’s a horrible way to spend 2AM in any town.

This brings us to today! First thing, we took the amp to a music store in Austin called Austin Vintage Guitars, and they addressed a laundry list of issues brought about by years of jury rigging by local technicians. I managed to score myself a pound of incredible brisket from a place in Junction, TX, and we drove through a town called Fredericksburg, which was basically a little slice of Germany cut out from the fatherland and plopped down in remotest Texas. Tonight we will try to make it to Las Cruces, NM (where I lived for nearly two years in the early 80’s), before hitting up Tucson tomorrow for our next show. Hopefully the hotel will be ready for us! I might try to find my old house!

Pictures and movies soon, but here's a little taste!

FIGHT/FLIGHT MUSIC VIDEO

2011-03-30T04:02:00.003-04:00

Our new music video for "Fight/Flight" off of Preludes (Out 4/12 on Greyday Records!) is being hosted exclusively via Under The Radar. Please go check it out here and tell all your friends to do the same!

Thanks so much! Enjoy!

POST-SXSW

2011-03-20T02:16:00.003-04:00

I'm writing from a hotel room in Birmingham, AL. Not just any hotel room- the nicest hotel room I have been able to rent in many, many years. Priceline dot com is a real thing.

We're on our way home from SXSW- whan an experience! I don't know what to say yet, but we can definitely call it a success, and a blast because we got to hang with the awesome people who believe in us- our support system, if you will: Todd Berry from Greyday Records, Dave, Amy, and Andy from Deep South Artist Management, everyone at Team Clermont PR, and Mike Locke from Rhino/Warner Licensing. Thanks to all of you for helping make this trip possible and so incredibly enjoyable. And thanks to all the new friends we made at the festival- and everyone who watched our set! Oh, and go listen to our new friends/favorite band- Street Chant from New Zealand.

Here are a couple of pieces about our SXSW journey that were shown on News 14 Carolina in NC and YNN in Austin, if you missed them:
Pre-SXSW
Post-SXSW

2011-03-17T12:16:00.006-04:00

We are nervous and excited about playing South By Southwest for the first time! We're not big festival people, erring on the side of claustrophobia and wanting to avoid hubbub in most of it's forms, but this is a great opportunity for us to get our name out there and hopefully come away with some people of potential influence humming one of our songs.

It's difficult to talk about writing and performing music as a business. Just bringing up the idea that making music can be more than just a fun thing can make one into an anathema among his peers, but the fact that this is an INDUSTRY festival can not be ignored. If we just wanted to make music about town, play for beer and beer money, and simply have fun, we wouldn't have all quit our jobs and bought a trailer! We DO have fun when we rock out, even when we travel together, but we're here in Austin because for us, the 44 hours of total drive time for one 40 minute set and the $1500 expense are worth it if one person of influence takes a liking to the music.

We are very fortunate to have a label and a manager who have put as much work into promoting this festival with us as they have. Dave Rose at Deep South Entertainment and Todd Berry at Greyday Records have put tremendous effort into letting the right people know where and when we play. Well, the right people, business-wise, not THE right people. The right people are our friends and fans, so let us update you on our situation:

We play at the Easy Tiger, 709 E. Sixth St. at 10:00 PM. We originally said Habana Calle 6, but apparently they moved across the street from where we're actually playing. So it's Easy Tiger, out on the patio. You go in, find the stairs to the right, take them down, head out the back door, and there you are! There are lots of great shows going on, and we hope that folks consider us one of them!

To all of our peeps at home, we love and miss you, and we'll see you soon! BOOSH!

SPRING TOUR!

2011-03-09T03:38:00.007-05:00

It's almost here. That map is looking pretty outta control. A few more dates to come....

IWTDI SPRING TOUR 2011
MAR 17 - HABANA CALLE 6 PATIO (EASY TIGER) (SXSW- TEAM CLERMONT SHOWCASE), AUSTIN, TX
MAR 24 - TIR NA NOG, RALEIGH, NC
MAR 25 - NORTH RIVER TAVERN, SANDY SPRINGS, GA
MAR 26 - THE INDEPENDENT, AUBURN, AL
MAR 27 - SIBERIA, NEW ORLEANS, LA
MAR 28 - MANGO'S CAFE, HOUSTON, TX
MAR 29 - EMO'S, AUSTIN, TX
MAR 30 - TBA, NEW MEXICO
MAR 31 - THE RED ROOM, TUCSON, AZ
APR 01 - SODA BAR, SAN DIEGO, CA
APR 02 - HEMLOCK TAVERN, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
APR 03 - (DAY OFF)
APR 04 - BILLY O'S, VENTURA, CA
APR 05 - THE BLUE CAFE UNDERGROUND, LONG BEACH, CA
APR 06 - EL RIO, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
APR 07 - JOHNNY B'S, MEDFORD, OR
APR 08 - TBA, ASTORIA, OR
APR 09 - MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS, PORTLAND, OR
APR 10 - TBA, IDAHO
APR 11 - BURT'S TIKI LOUNGE, SALT LAKE CITY, UT
APR 12 - ROCK N SOUL CAFE, BOULDER, COLORADO
APR 13 - SLOWDOWN, OMAHA, NE
APR 14 - VAUDEVILLE MEWS, DES MOINES, IA
APR 15 - THE BEAT, MINNEAPOLIS, MN
APR 16 - RECORD STORE DAY ACOUSTIC SHOW, DAVE'S RECORDS, CHICAGO, IL
APR 16 - ELBO ROOM, CHICAGO, IL
APR 17 - LEMMON'S, ST LOUIS, MO
APR 18 - SOUTHGATE HOUSE, NEWPORT, KY
APR 21 - SESSIONS AT STUDIO B BROADCAST, RALEIGH, NC
APR 22 - LOCAL 506, CHAPEL HILL, NC ---> ALBUM RELEASE SHOW!!!

SXSW!

2011-03-03T17:18:00.003-05:00

If you're going to be at SXSW, we'd love to see you at the Easy Tiger Patio on March 17th (celebrate St Patrick's Day with us!) at 10pm SHARP! You should reeeeally follow this link to learn more, and oh, hear a brand new IWTDI song that you might not have heard yet!

If you're NOT going to be at SXSW, but instead you're hear in NC- we're playing a fantastic show at King's this Saturday night (March 5) w/Wesley Wolfe & Bright Young Things. Hope to see you!!

REGULATORS!

2011-02-15T05:03:00.007-05:00

We're proud to present the first single from our upcoming album, Preludes! The track is called "Regulators" and you can stream it right here:

Regulators by Destroying It

Preludes is due out on 4.12.11 and as you may know, it will be the first of two full-length albums we'll be issuing this year. Because of this, and because we like to make things cost-effective and give you as much bang-for-your-buck as possible: starting today you can join the I Was Totally Destroying It 2011 Subscription Club via our label, Greyday Records. If you're a fan of the band and had planned to purchase our upcoming releases in ANY format- then this is the way to go!

Not only does the $25ppd price get you both Preludes and the follow-up album Vexations on your choice of CD or vinyl (be sure to choose the correct option in the Greyday Store!), but you also get TONS of free extras including:
-Instant download of "Control", from the upcoming album Preludes
-Pre-release download of the digital single Regulators (due out 3.15), featuring non-album track "Halloween"
-Early download of the full-length Preludes before its release on 4.12
-A download of the video for "Fight/Flight" with the download of Preludes
-Preludes, mailed to your address, along with some special free goodies, by 3.21
-Get Big 7" vinyl single (ships with Preludes)
-Download of Vexations, the second full length album due in late 2011, before street date
-Vexations mailed to your address two+ weeks before official release, along with MORE free goodies direct from the band- such as a hand-screened/dyed tote bag
-Throughout the year, various rare and exclusive IWTDI mp3's, etc sent via download code

Standard Preludes pre-orders are also available for CD or vinyl as well, but again, you can't beat the $25.00 postage paid price for both albums (plus MUCH MORE)! Act fast on this stuff- the price will go up on the subscription packages after April 12th. Visit the Greyday Store for all the info and to place your orders!

We hope you enjoy the new music and can't wait to see you all on tour this spring/summer!

RACHEL IS 21!

2011-02-12T14:25:00.001-05:00

Motorco, Durham. Tonight. $5. IWTDI, Free Electric State, The Sammies, Wesley Wolfe. It's Rachel's birthday! Let's do this!!!

COMING SOON...

2011-02-07T23:11:00.008-05:00

A little tease of our upcoming music video....

(Awesome photography by Beth Ely)

...coming in just a few weeks...

PRELUDES!

2011-02-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

2011...

2011-01-27T15:52:00.014-05:00

Hello dear friends! We kicked off 2010 with a post telling you all of our nutty plans for the year, so I figured one year later was a good time to play catch up - sound good? Good!

I'd like to thank all of you who followed our YouTube video series throughout 2010. It's not finished yet, as the plan was to start at the beginning of writing a new album(which turned into two albums!), and follow through until its completion. We're actually very lucky to have a couple different entities -both far more talented in the field of videography than us- taking over for our upcoming vignettes. Our last YouTube post brought us up to the end of 2010, and these will cover a lot of what's to come this spring. And of course we'll be heavily documenting our time in Minneapolis this May & June- the final stages of the project! Am I making sense? No? Then everything is as it should be, child!

Before we move on, I do just want to add that I believe we've already accomplished what we set out to do with these goofy little videos. I recently re-watched the first couple of entries from the beginning of 2010. Simply seeing the evolution of what we thought we were doing and creating back then, compared to summer 2010, or now- that's exactly what I hoped to capture- the changes in the process and our intentions. I knew the story would snake out and lose focus and there would be distractions but yet it would all twirl back around into something much more concrete and viable- and here we are. We have a finished album that we had no idea we'd be making- it's called "Preludes" and it's out 4/12/11 on Greyday Records. There will be a lot more on that emerging in the next couple of weeks- a LOT more. A month after that album hits the streets, we'll be heading to Minneapolis, MN for a month to record the album we were initially working towards- "Vexations" - due out at the end of the year, also on Greyday. We'll be recording with Josh Cain producing and Ed Ackerson engineering at his gorgeous Flowers Studio. I hate to get ahead of myself and be further self-indulgent, but "Preludes" is the best album we've recorded to date and we already can tell that "Vexations" is the best collection of songs we've ever assembled. So, fuck. This is going to be a good year!

On that note, I want to tell you that we're pretty much picking up and leaving. Road warriors, we shall be. While not recording in MPLS, we plan to be mobile as much as humanly possible throughout 2011. Jobs are being quit, houses are being sold, risks are being risked. All for rock and or roll!

And none of this craziness is possible without you awesome people who are bothering to read this nonsense. This thing we call IWTDI has become so entrenched in our lives that we have no choice but to pursue it even harder, knowing full well that the music business is a rotting, fickle bitch. If you can find it in your heart to help us pay for gas on our upcoming tour, we're selling tons of t-shirts, cd's, records, etc. for mega-cheap in our merch store (Isn't it telling that spell check just changed "merch" to "mercy"?) - and all the money we make there goes straight to the gas tank! That means the money we make at the shows can sooner buy us that $5 footlong that's just mocking us from behind the Subway counter….

Anywho! "Tour?", you say? Yes! Tour!

Firstly, we just got added, last minute, to the infamous SXSW festival in Austin, TX! Sadly, this prevents us from playing our planned U2 tribute set at Casbah here in Durham, NC on St Patrick's Day (we apologize for any inconvenience- and if there are any bands in NC who want to play some fun Irish covers in our place, please let me or Casbah know!). Instead, we'll be playing that night on the Team Clermont showcase at the Habana Calle 6 Patio. 10pm! We hope to see you there, Austin! I believe we'll be adding a couple more SXSW appearances in the coming days as well- stay tuned.

But the main enchilada is our spring tour. See below! The remainder of the west coast dates will be announced soon, as well as the few other random TBA's. If we're not hitting your province on this run, fear not- as I said, road warriorz! We look forward to seeing you all this year. Thank you so much for your support, and wish us luck!

IWTDI SPRING TOUR 2011
MAR 17 - HABANA CALLE 6 PATIO (EASY TIGER) (SXSW- TEAM CLERMONT SHOWCASE), AUSTIN, TX
MAR 24 - TIR NA NOG, RALEIGH, NC
MAR 25 - NORTH RIVER TAVERN, SANDY SPRINGS, GA
MAR 26 - THE INDEPENDENT, AUBURN, AL
MAR 27 - SIBERIA, NEW ORLEANS, LA
MAR 28 - MANGO'S CAFE, HOUSTON, TX
MAR 29 - EMO'S, AUSTIN, TX
MAR 30 - TBA, NEW MEXICO
MAR 31 - TBA, ARIZONA
APR 01 - SODA BAR, SAN DIEGO, CA
APR 02 - HEMLOCK TAVERN, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
APR 03 - (DAY OFF)
APR 04 - BILLY O'S, VENTURA, CA
APR 05 - THE BLUE CAFE UNDERGROUND, LONG BEACH, CA
APR 06 - EL RIO, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
APR 07 - JOHNNY B'S, MEDFORD, OR
APR 08 - TBA, ASTORIA, OR
APR 09 - MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS, PORTLAND, OR
APR 10 - TBA, IDAHO
APR 11 - BURT'S TIKI LOUNGE, SALT LAKE CITY, UT
APR 12 - ROCK N SOUL CAFE, BOULDER, COLORADO
APR 13 - SLOWDOWN, OMAHA, NE
APR 14 - VAUDEVILLE MEWS, DES MOINES, IA
APR 15 - THE BEAT, MINNEAPOLIS, MN
APR 16 - RECORD STORE DAY ACOUSTIC SHOW, DAVE'S RECORDS, CHICAGO, IL
APR 16 - ELBO ROOM, CHICAGO, IL
APR 17 - LEMMON'S, ST LOUIS, MO
APR 18 - SOUTHGATE HOUSE, NEWPORT, KY
APR 21 - SESSIONS AT STUDIO B BROADCAST, RALEIGH, NC
APR 22 - LOCAL 506, CHAPEL HILL, NC ---> ALBUM RELEASE SHOW!!!

CELEBRATE RACHEL TURNING 21 WITH US!

2011-01-04T22:51:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, February 12th, 2011 our very own Rachel Hirsh will finally be old enough to get in to all of the shows she plays!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we've put together our main Triangle-area show for the winter/spring on her big day at the new/awesome Motorco Music Hall in Durham! Since it's the birthday that means she can finally legally hang out with us at the bars, there will of course be some drink specials... and other goodies for all you fine people(who are of age)!

We've put together an amazing bill featuring some of our favorite bands from NC: first up is WESLEY WOLFE, playing with his full backing band, followed by a rare Triangle appearance by THE SAMMIES from Charlotte, then a special secret guest band who we'll announce a little later, and finally a big headlining set by the birthday girl and the rest of I WAS TOTALLY DESTROYING IT!

DOORS: 8pm
WESLEY WOLFE: 9:00-9:30
THE SAMMIES: 9:50-10:25
(SPECIAL SECRET GUEST BAND) 10:45-11:20
I WAS TOTALLY DESTROYING IT: 11:40

ADMISSION: $5
(ALL AGES!)

Check out the Facebook event and let us know if you'll be able to attend:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=183320745020194

Thanks for reading - we hope to see you there!
Love,
I Was Totally Destroying It

Joe's best of 2010

2010-12-24T10:51:00.006-05:00

Greetings, all! Joe the bass player here, making a once-in-a-while posting here on the IWTDI blog! And it's all in the name of hopefully turning some of you fine folks on to some of the new records I enjoyed this year. While I can't agree with John that 2009 was a musical wasteland (some of my favorites from the decade came out last year) I definitely echo his sentiments that 2010 was one of the best years for new records in a very long time. I've got my top fifteen for you here, narrowed down from no fewer than forty outstanding releases I picked up and spun into oblivion over the past 12 months. There is some overlap between my list and John's, but any record from which he posted a song I have posted a different one, so listen away!

But first, a few notables that won't be on the master list below:
Honorable mentions: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks, Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me, The National - High Violet, The Damned Things - Ironiclast, Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
Best split album: Balance and Composure/Tigers Jaw
Best live show: Autolux
Best free offering: Girl Talk - All Day
Best hidden gem: Museum Mouth - Tears In My Beer
Best soundtrack: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Social Network
Best reissue: Weezer - Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition)
Best local release: Free Electric State - Caress

Joe's top 15 records of 2010 located after the jump:

#1
Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life
The fourth full length from the pride of Minnesota, and their first with a major label, Motion City Soundtrack's newest has every bit as much momentum as the gems from their Epitaph days. This is power-pop done about as well as anyone could hope to.

#2
The Flatliners - Cavalcade
Toronto's Flatliners have gone from playing ska with hardly a hook in sight to writing one of the most anthemic records of the year. It's hard to use the word "promising" when referring to a band that has been around for eight years, but considering the monumental improvement this band shows between records one could only hope it continues. That said, it'd be a feat to top the versatile sonic offering on Cavalcade.

#3
Mogwai - Special Moves
Mogwai's Special Moves package features a crushing 17-song live album, and a DVD of "Burning", which is one of the best concert films I've ever seen. Couple the formidable "best-of" style setlist with excellent production and you have hands down the best live album of the year. An absolute essential for fans of the genre.

#4
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
A friend of mine said that Kanye West is redefining what it means to be a celebrity. Well, he's redefining a lot of things with this record including but certainly not limited to what can be done with a rap album. This one is unlike any other, in a very good way, and all the naysayers out there just seem afraid to admit that this is some real groundbreaking, next-level hip-hop.

#5
Autolux - Transit Transit
This was by far my most anticipated album of the year. As the long overdue followup to 2004's Future Perfect, there was almost no way this album was ever going to meet my expectations. That said, it comes pretty close. In addition to being some of the most gifted sonic architects in modern music, Autolux also get the distinct honor (or dishonor) of having the year's most under-rated record. I haven't seen this record on any other end-of-year lists, and that my friends is a sad, sad thing.
There weren't any quality uploads from the record on YouTube, so here's a live video of "Supertoys".

#6
The Joy Formidable - A Balloon Called Moaning
While apparently making quite a splash in Europe, The Joy Formidable have somehow managed to stay relatively under-the-radar here in the states. Shocking when you consider A Balloon Called Moaning. To call the record disappointingly short is only a testament to the virtue of it's content.

#7
Foals - Total Life Forever
The newest from Foals sees the band moving away from their more dancy moments and focusing on creating the math-tinged atmospheres (mathmospheres?) at which they excel. Doing "a lot with a little" takes new meaning within the Oxford quintet's sonic landscapes. Foals maintains a sound that is definitively their own without releasing the same record twice.

#8
The Posies - Blood/Candy
To say that a band has released their best record 23 years into their career seems strange, but Blood/Candy is at least as good as anything The Posies have done before. Excellent hooks and tasteful flourishes seem effortless to this band.

#9
Jukebox the Ghost - Everything Under the Sun
As the followup to 2008's insurmountable Let Live and Let Ghosts, the DC trio offers another batch of pop gold. Having two songwriters with very distinct but complimentary styles works in the band's favor once again, and keeps every song sounding fresh when listening to the album straight through. Guaranteed to make even your hipest friends bob their heads, the chram of this band is undeniable.

#10
Such Gold - Pedestals
With Pedestals, Such Gold treads new ground both for themselves and for modern hardcore. It almost seems like a bid to become LESS accessible, favoring musical innovation over time-tested method. Shockingly, it actually suits them well.

#11
The Depreciation Guild - Spirit Youth
On Spirit Youth, The Depreciation Guild actually chose to rely less on the lo-fi instrumental hooks and 8-bit sequences that gave their debut its signature sound. The more straight-forward shoegaze mentality employed this time around works within the framework of their songwriting in a beautiful way. The lack of buzz surrounding this record is surprising when you consider how many hit albums this year have sounded like Spirit Youth without being nearly as well written.

#12
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
While I agree that everyone is entitled to their opinions, Pitchfork really shafted these guys by sticking them in the "Honorable Mentions" for their end of the year list. To say that there were fifty better records this year than Astro Coast is simply factual error.

#13
Periphery - Periphery
In a year without a Darkest Hour album, metalcore bands are lucky they have Periphery to make them all look like musically inept rookies. Periphery's triple-guitar attack and mind-flaying, asymmetrical rhythms give them a distinct edge even over their more "progressive" brethren. Periphery is compressed into oblivion, and absolutely exhausting to listen to; what more could you ask for?

#14
Four Year Strong - Enemy Of the World
As a bid to appeal to both pop-punk fans and hardcore purists, Four Year Strong offer Enemy of the World. Some moments feel a little contrived, as the crystal clear production and studio magic hardly lend themselves to the group's self-assured grit. That fact aside, the overall listenability and youthful energy of this record make it a joy even after innumerable listens.

#15
Conditions - Fluorescent Youth
Let us be honest with each other for a moment and admit that most of the bands that identify with modern emo are garbage. Richmond, VA's Conditions would have been able to separate themselves from their peers simply putting out an album that WASN'T amazingly terrible. What they did however was record a debut full of structurally sound pop with amazing melodies, heartfelt lyrics, and interesting vocal interplay. Heavier and catchier than the competition, Conditions are the forerunners of their craft, and they're doing a damn fine job of showing their more famous counterparts how it should be done.

SECOND HALF OF 2010 VIDEO UPDATE!

2010-12-21T15:59:00.000-05:00

JOHN'S BEST OF 2010!

2010-12-14T01:20:00.003-05:00

In my opinion, 2010 was the best year for new music since sometime in the late 90's. A bold statement, I know, but I've spent the past decade struggling to get excited about lots of new artists and instead enjoyed discovering great albums from years past- 2010 changed that. In 2009 I struggled to find 10 albums worthy of a top 10- this year I struggled to narrow down my list to a top 30. So that's what you get- my top 30 albums of 2010. The first 5 or so are so good that any one of them could occupy the #1 spot and I'd be just as happy- man, it was a tough call! I thought The Joy Formidable was going to take #1, but Kanye swooped in at the last minute and won out. Not like the world needs another best-of list with Yeezy at the top, but wow, what an album/artist. Love that dude.

Amid the great new discoveries, there were a handful of albums that disappointed me a bit. I never thought there would be a year where two of my top 10 favorite bands of all time would release new albums that wouldn't make my list- but this year Superchunk & Spoon did just that. If you know me, you know Superchunk has been a top 3 favorite band of mine for about 15 years. "Majesty Shredding" is by far my least favorite Superchunk album since their self-titled debut(because, uh, I think every other one of their albums are damn near perfect. If all the rest are 9's or 10's, this one is a 5 or 6). And the Spoon album is my least favorite by that band, period(I was hooked since "Telephono"). I guess I'm extra hard on them because their previous output was so fantastic, which is unfair- maybe these albums ARE better than half the stuff on my list, but they just didn't excite me at all, which is a bummer. Both bands still make great music though(how "February Punk"- a Superchunk B-side from the "Majesty Shredding" sessions didn't make it on the album and wasn't the lead single- I'll never know!!).

Special mentions: Aziz Ansari wins best comedy album, hands down. And for best music and art collaboration in a new media format: iamamiwhoami. If you don't know what this is, go here and watch all the videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/iamamiwhoami#p/u/13/oPFM3DUVT-8

Oh, and two of the best albums I heard in 2010 won't be released until 2010- so you have Des Ark and Hammer No More The Fingers to look forward to….

Okay, read on for maybe a brief, shitty description(I'm not doing this to express myself through criticism- I hate writing about music! I'm doing this to hopefully turn a couple of people on to great music they may have missed) and a song from each release…

1. KANYE WEST "MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY"

Album of the year. Believe the hype. Some of the dumbest things I've ever heard in my life have been negative criticisms of this man and his music. Stop. Just stop! Listen.

2. THE JOY FORMIDABLE "A BALLOON CALLED MOANING"

Incredible, 90's tinged indie rock band from Wales. Amazing melodies, lots of weird time signature shifts, etc. I've definitely heard this album more than any other this year.

3. THE POSIES "BLOOD/CANDY"

THIS is THE "comeback album" by an older band that hadn't been around in a while that everyone should be talking about, not that other one! (I kid. Sorta.)

4. DOM "SUN BRONZED GREEK GODS"

Someone was rocking' the limiter & compressor hard on this recording, but man, it just adds to the charm of these incredible pop tunes. Hooks like a mofo!

5. MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK "MY DINOSAUR LIFE"

This might have placed higher on my list, but I kinda cheated and maybe sorta kinda had a copy in 2009 before I was supposed to (shhh) and wore it out a bit- before 2010 even started. It's still some of the best modern pop songwriting by some of the best dudes in the world, though.

6. LAURA VEIRS "JULY FLAME"

Haunting, charming folk music with some of the best melodic sensibilities ever in folk music, period! This song may or may not make me cry- you be the judge!

7. SLEIGH BELLS "TREATS"

You've probably already made your verdict re: Sleigh Bells, but for the one dude out there who hasn't, I give you this empirical truth:

8. SURFER BLOOD "ASTRO COAST"

This album came out in January and was so good I thought it might clock in at #1 for the year. It fell off a little for me, but it's still a near-perfect indie rock album. Riffs!

9. MATTHEW DEAR "BLACK CITY"

If you dig Bowie/Eno Berlin type shiz, you might just dig this.

10. DELOREAN "SUBIZA"

Delorean's debut EP was near the top of my list in 2009- I was a teensy bit disappointed with this full-length, but it still delivered for the most part. Fantastic dance music from Spain, and a big influence on a handful of new IWTDI tunes, believe it or not...

11. BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE "FORGIVENESS ROCK RECORD"

I never really got into BSS before, but this album did it for me- can't argue with the John McEntire production...

12. PANTHA DU PRINCE "BLACK NOISE"

I already suck at music descriptions, and the instrumental ambient and electronic music I love is even tougher to explain- just listen:

13. BUSTELLO "BUSTELLO"

My favorite local album of the year. If you don't live in the area, you likely don't know about Bustello, despite the band being comprised of some NC musical legends- so watch this and thank me later:

14. GIRL TALK "ALL DAY"

No need to explain, you can go download it for free from http://www.illegal-art.net/allday/ right now!

15. BRIAN ENO "SMALL CRAFT ON A MILK SEA"

Brian Eno is one of my favorite artists of all time. He's the same age as my dad and he's still got it. Damn!

16. FREE ELECTRIC STATE "CARESS"

My second favorite local release this year, but with songs like these, FES will be operating at a national level very soon…

17. CEE LO GREEN "THE LADY KILLER"

People who didn't like "Fuck You" tend to coincidentally be not very likable people. But there's more here- "Wildflower" is a gorgeous, classic R&B song:

18. JOANNA NEWSOM "HAVE ONE ON ME"

Such vehement feelings about Joanna Newsom from both extremes- I'm actually kinda surprised I ended up on the side of liking her. A damn impressive 3-disc album, if you ask me…

19. TRENT REZNOR & ATTICUS ROSS "THE SOCIAL NETWORK"

My favorite film of the year also produced my favorite soundtrack. Honorable mention also needs to go to Atticus Ross for his music in The Book Of Eli, which was nearly as incredible as this stuff:

20. BRANDON FLOWERS "FLAMINGO"

A flawed album for sure, but the best moments are great…

21. MGMT "CONGRATULATIONS"

MGMT are another band I actually didn't like at all on previous recordings(except "Kids", that song is perfect), but this album is bold, intricate, and compelling as fuck.

22. PRINS THOMAS "PRINS THOMAS"

Kraut-y, dance-y instrumental jams.

23. THE BESNARD LAKES "ARE THE ROARING NIGHT"

Cinematic shoegaze awesomeness.

24. DEERHUNTER "HALCYON DIGEST"

Again, didn't fall for this beloved band until this album.

25. TOBACCO "MANIAC MEAT"

Tobacco's first album, "Fucked Up Friends", is a favorite of mine, so I was pumped for this follow-up. Overall, it fell a little short for me for some reason, but it's still pretty great. This particular tune features Beck:

26. JOHN ROBERTS "GLASS EIGHTS"

More of the instrumental electronic music that I dig on so much…

27. MUSEUM MOUTH "TEARS IN MY BEER"

Good kids from the coastal NC region. Dirty pop-punk on record, but enjoy this acoustic treatment:

28. EMERALDS "DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M HERE"

Super melodic, awesome analog synth sounds on this one:

29. TAMARYN "THE WAVES"

A final bit of shoegaze goodness for you before we part ways….

30. NEIL YOUNG "LE NOISE"

Neil Young & Daniel Lanois come together to make neat sounds and Neil Young's best album in a long while…

PERFORMER MAGAZINE!

2010-10-11T19:00:00.003-04:00

IWTDI is honored to be featured in the latest issue of Performer Magazine!

The magazine is available for free nationwide, but you can also read the article here, or download the PDF of the issue here.

It's a really informative story on the history of the band and our personal relationships, etc. Check it out!

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL!

2010-09-23T03:06:00.002-04:00

We have a string of shows coming up in early October, including:

-10/3 @ Greene Street Club in Greensboro, NC
-10/7 @ 37th & Zen in Norfolk, VA
-10/8 @ Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte, NC
-10/13 @ Live Nightclub in Greenville, NC

BUT! The main event will be our headlining performance at the brand new Motorco Music Hall in Durham, NC on Wednesday October 6th. We'll be joined by NC-native Ben Flanagan(formerly of io, The Actual, & Vecordia) and his new band, The Trophy Fire. This will be The Trophy Fire's first NC appearance, as they have been based in San Francisco for the past 4 years. Also joining us from the bay area are The Hot Toddies, an awesome all-female indie folk/rock group on Asian Man Records. And opening the night will be the debut performance from Durham's own Violent Dreams - featuring Geoff Register, formerly of Sleepsound, io & Vecordia.

This show will be ALL AGES, plus if you're looking to save a little money- show up between 8 and 9:15pm to GET IN FOR FREE! Show up after 9:15 and it's $5, which will go to support the touring bands!

The schedule will run something like this, but don't be late, because we tend to be prompt and might even run a little ahead of this:
Violent Dreams 9pm
The Hot Toddies 10pm
The Trophy Fire 10:50
I Was Totally Destroying It 11:45pm

IWTDI will play a full headlining set- featuring rare old stuff, plus a BIG handful of NEW songs we'll be playing for the first time! Come let us know what you think!!! We aren't planning many other shows for quite a while....don't miss this one!

All details can be found at http://motorcomusic.com/

JULY UPDATE!

2010-08-07T17:57:00.000-04:00

Just a quick lil word on what's next for us...

7" Release Party Tonight at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh!

2010-08-05T10:28:00.003-04:00

Come to Tir Na Nog and dance your ass off as DJ Johnny B spins the 80's jams and four rock bands melt your spine!

The music begins early at 9pm with the indie/garage rock of Museum Mouth from Wilmington, followed by the post-punk Jews & Catholics from Winston-Salem, the upbeat jazz/hip-hop of The Beast from Durham, & I Was Totally Destroying It headline with a set to celebrate their new 7" record!

The IWTDI 7" is 80's themed, so... we're going all out: dress up with us in your favorite 80's gear & dance to 80's classics and rare cuts before, in-between, & after the live music!

THE SHOW IS COMPLETELY *FREE*, so please join us for this epic throwdown in Raleigh!

LOCOPOPS will be on-site selling their tasty popsicles, and they're even making A SPECIAL CUSTOM FLAVOR specifically for this release party! Tir Na Nog is at 218 S. Blount St in the heart of our beautiful capital city. Be there!

TRIANGLE LIVE PERFORMANCE!

2010-07-27T17:23:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend, we teamed up with the new & awesome Triangle Live website to perform 3 of our songs acoustic for their cameras and fancy microphones.

We performed "Turn My Grave" from Horror Vacui, but we decided to make the shoot extra special by performing two brand new songs for the first time ever. "Outside Blinds" & "Actors" will not be available to listen to anywhere else for quite a while, and you likely won't hear them in concert for a while either. So please, head to Triangle Live now and enjoy these special exclusives!

http://trianglelive.tv/

"GET BIG" NOW AVAILABLE DIGITALLY!

2010-07-20T12:08:00.000-04:00

Our new single is NOW AVAILABLE on iTunes, Amazon- whatever you favorite digital music retailer may be- for only $1.98. Please please help us out and pick it up- that's chump change! If you prefer the physical medium, we'll have the vinyl 7" versions with us today at the Blind Tiger in Greensboro and tomorrow at the Pinhook in Durham- come see us!

PRE-ORDER THE NEW 7"!

2010-07-09T01:17:00.004-04:00

Our new 7", "Get Big", is now available to pre-order from Greyday Records! Get it now for only $4, and you'll receive both songs from the 7" and the bonus track INSTANTLY for download:
http://bit.ly/d7izNy

Want a taste? the A-side, our cover of "In A Big Country", is now streaming via our Reverbnation player---> right there, to the right!

JUNE VIDEO UPDATE!

2010-07-04T10:29:00.001-04:00

IWTDI IPHONE APP!

2010-07-02T04:21:00.001-04:00

I Was Totally Destroying It & SoundAround have just launched a free iPhone app! Go here & get it: http://tinyurl.com/2wyemuf

Test it out- let us know what you want to see more of from the app, let us know how it works, etc....because we don't have iPhones :(

Enjoy, and thanks SoundAround!
-IWTDI

NIGHTSOUND STUDIOS MUSICAL CHAIRS COMPILATION!

2010-06-29T22:23:00.004-04:00

I Was Totally Destroying It is participating in this rad local music covers compilation CD- but we need your help! Visit http://kck.st/cdq1g5 to donate $5-$500 to the project on Kickstarter. Take a moment to read the details & contribute what you can! $5 gets you a digital download of the album, $10 gets you the album on CD, and so on.

Really, you're not donating, you're pre-ordering- so check it out! IWTDI is going to be covering a great song by North Elementary, and you'll also get to hear Puritan Rodeo's take on one of OUR tunes! The compilation also features: Birds and Arrows, SWASO, Soft Company, Butterflies, Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores and Pecosa, Erie Choir, Luego, New Town Drunks, The Pneurotics, Lizzy Ross Band.

MAY VIDEO UPDATE!

2010-06-07T04:50:00.001-04:00

Raleigh Downtown Amphitheater!

2010-06-04T09:28:00.000-04:00

We are beyond honored to be a part of the Grassroots Grand Opening of the Raleigh Downtown Amphitheater featuring The Connells! I (James) was there when the Connells helped open what was then Walnut Creek Ampthitheatre in 1991. Hell, I was there when the Connells played a Harvey Gantt fundraiser in Winston Salem in 1989. And nineteen other Connells shows! Now we get to make some history ourselves as we join Willard McGee, The Small Ponds, Sleep Control, Old Avenue, and Mosadi Music for the Grand Opening of the venue!

There has been a lot of debate over the sponsorship of this place, over its looks, costs, and just about everything else. There are somewhat varying perspectives within our band as well. We agree in that we hope it does well, and to us that means that hopefully it will be friendly to local bands and promoters, offer music fans an aesthetically pleasing and affordable evening on the town, and prove to national touring acts that the Triangle is a MUST STOP area. The degree to which any of that rings true is up to the operators, bookers, and crowds. So we hope you come out and help open this place up.

We will do our best to test the structural integrity of the stage and sound system if you do your best to scream and dance till they can feel it inside the convention center! Here is a video with John, Rachel, and Curt from WRAL!

APRIL VIDEO UPDATE!

2010-05-09T20:50:00.000-04:00

MARCH VIDEO UPDATE!

2010-04-06T14:53:00.000-04:00

"GET BIG" 7" VINYL & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE JULY 20TH!

2010-04-05T16:25:00.002-04:00

On July 20, 2010, Chapel Hill, North Carolina's I Was Totally Destroying It will release "Get Big" digitally & on limited edition 7" green vinyl through Greyday Records. "Get Big" is IWTDI's over-the-top tribute to their love of the 1980's- from the ridiculous cover design and photography, to the infectious music within.

The A-side is a faithful but inherently IWTDI cover of Big Country's 1983 hit, "In A Big Country". Replete with soaring harmonies, pulsing energy and chiming guitars, the band brings one of their favorite songs of all time to the present and makes it uniquely their own, without losing any of the original charm.

The B-side is "The Big Rock"- an updating of a track from singer/guitarist John Booker & drummer James Hepler's old band, En Garde. "The Big Rock" is quintessential hair metal pop- a tongue-in-cheek thunderous barnburner, with all the right cliches to capture the mood...and of course, IWTDI's usual melodic knack.

The 7" will be limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, all on green wax and SPECIFICALLY MASTERED for vinyl. Each copy comes with a full-color 11x17 poster, featuring more 80's photoshoot silliness from the band- and a free download code for digital masters of both tracks, plus a bonus track: "Mona Lisa Overdrive", the final leftover to be released from the Horror Vacui sessions.

The vinyl will only be sold through Greyday Records webstore, at IWTDI concerts, and select North Carolina record stores.

Get ready to Get Big with I Was Totally Destroying It this July.

NEW SHIRTS!

2010-04-02T17:25:00.002-04:00

IWTDI has new t-shirts. They are so dumb. But awesome. This image on black t's. Tons of sizes. Hit us up if you're interested. Send us an email to iwastotallydestroyingit (at) gmail.com for mailorder info!

"COME OUT, COME OUT" IN VIVO BRAZIL COMMERCIAL!

2010-03-09T15:43:00.002-05:00

We are very excited to announce that Vivo, a cell phone service provider in Brazil, has used our song "Come Out, Come Out" in their new ad campaign.

I have to say, as a musician, it's a very flattering thing to have a large company believe that a piece of material that you wrote can help them sell their product. Fun stuff!

Below is the full-length, minute long version of the commercial- featuring more of the storyline- and below that is the 30 second edit. Enjoy!

FULL VERSION:

30 SECOND EDIT:

VIDEO UPDATE #2- FEBRUARY 2010!

2010-03-04T17:30:00.002-05:00

WOOT. Second video update is here, y'all. Still working out some kinks with making these the best we can, but feeling pretty happy with the final product- there's a lot of interesting little tidbits for ya, I hope!

We've got a handful of little adventures coming for the month of March- stay tuned!

VIDEO UPDATE #1 - JANUARY 2010!

2010-02-04T13:33:00.002-05:00

It begins! If you don't know what "it" is, read the post below. We hope you enjoy this first installment in our year-long video doc project. I hope for each installment to have a different tone & focus- the video next month might be put together entirely differently (which is actually very likely because I believe we're going to have someone special making it FOR us!)...

So yeah, this is our first attempt. Hope you like it.

2010: The Year We Make TOO MUCH Contact

2010-01-04T03:05:00.002-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR FRIENDS & READERS!

So 2010 is upon us, which in itself, is a relief. 2009 was, for most members of IWTDI, the worst year we'd ever experienced. Whether it be intense breakups, the passing of loved ones, the fucked economy, personal illness, whatever- it all just piled up, end over end, and somehow managed to crash down on us for months at a time. There were certainly high points- some colossal shows (playing in front of 14,000 supportive Joan Jett fans was a milestone- as were shows with some of the best NC has to offer- Polvo and Birds Of Avalon to name just a couple), a tour than included an unforgettable day and show in Minneapolis, MN (in which events unfolded that will later be revealed to be specific and important to the context of this very blog update), and most importantly- signing to our record label, Greyday, and releasing our vinyl "The Beached Margin/Done Waiting" and our CD "Horror Vacui", both through the Portland, OR based label. All those great moments aside, we're very happy to be done with 2009 and on to better, saner times.

Last night was an interesting night. We played another one of our "I Was Totally Destroying U2" tribute shows to a very healthy sized crowd at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh. In the opening moments of the third song in the set- somewhat ironically, "New Year's Day"- I completely and totally lost my voice. I am not kidding- I was reduced to a mousey squeak on even some not-too-crazy notes. This was understandably horrifying, given that it was the third song and we had about 30 left to go. I was left there, trying to see if I could push the catch out of my throat, during the epic yelps of the mid-section of the song. No dice. Then, In the final stanza, my voice cracked *back* into place. I (mostly) had my notes again. The very kind audience seemed to rally behind me, or at least tolerate that the operatic moments weren't gonna be happening for a bit. The problem persisted off and on for the following 5 or 6 songs, and then during "Bad", probably the second hardest tune to sing in the entire set- I was fully able to hit the high notes again and really didn't have the problem anymore for the rest of the night. It's kind of a mystery as to why that would happen- lose your voice, then suddenly un-lose your voice (although I'm sure the multiple cups of hot tea courtesy of Chris Tamplin had their hand in it) - but that brings me to my next thought in this longwinded story. During those awful moments in the middle of "New Year's Day", I noticed that the lovely Karen Mann was videotaping us. And videotaping us ONLY THEN. She shot THAT song, and stopped. Because of the candid, frightening, "snapshot of a moment" nature of what Karen was recording- I was reminded of something I want to try with IWTDI in 2010....

Let's call it "2010: The Year We Make TOO MUCH Contact". Many bands before us have documented the process of recording an album on film- whether it be feature length documentary, or YouTube updates. I've always loved these glimpses into the process- but they've always been just that- glimpses. Now I don't mean I'm gonna make some 75 hour documentary here- but my biggest qualm with these candid portraits is what gets left out. It always feels like you're walking into the creation of an album halfway through- or leaving before the final touches are applied. I always crave more context. I feel like IWTDI is in a unique position at the moment to open a window to the viewer from an albums inception, to it's completion- which we're hoping will take roughly a year- January until December, 2010. This month we're kinda starting from scratch- our only goal is to make something that sounds nothing like what we've sounded like in the past, and something that is strikingly compelling and still "catchy", whatever that means. We have tiny bits and pieces of *potential* songs, but nothing much really. We plan to spend the month of January sifting and cataloging/demoing our best ideas that have been laying around unused, then jump right back into the full band process in February- see where those stray ideas go, and try to create many more from scratch- a very different approach for what has basically always been a singer/songwriter type of band. The spring and summer will be spent creating true songs out of these ideas, more demoing, pre-production- and then we have plans to record the album in a very special place in the autumn/winter. And we plan to film all of this. Band practice, songwriting sessions, bedroom demoing, album discussions, the studio process, etc. We want you to see the metamorphosis of the songs and the concepts, still without giving too much of it away. Like that footage Karen Mann was shooting, I want to capture the temporary moments- but see how they evolve over time, stacked next to their counterparts from the future. So yes, this is all a very longwinded way of saying "we're gonna post a bunch of videos throughout the year letting you in on the process of creating I Was Totally Destroying It album #3.

Lately (always?) I can't get enough of Kate Bush, Bear In Heaven, Cocteau Twins and watching documentaries on Krautrock and immersing myself in the world of Brian Eno- most recently finishing and thoroughly enjoying a book about his "Another Green World" album. You should check it out- there's many thought processes and concepts explored on different approaches to music making that I hope to *somehow* mold into the IWTDI experience (Oblique Strategies, anyone?). And once again, that's what this whole 2010 project is going to be about. Today, Rachel and I would probably say we want the next album (which has a working title already, one I am quite fond of- but it's far too soon to give it away) to sound like "Hounds Of Love" meets "Achtung Baby" meets the five of us. I'm gonna guess we're way off the mark right there, but let's see what I say in December.

Here's to a wild ride, please tag along!
-John & IWTDI

JOHN'S BEST OF THE DECADE LIST! (51-75)

2009-12-27T03:18:00.002-05:00

#51-75

51. Torche "Meanderthal" 2008

52. The Sea and Cake "Everybody" 2007

53. Beulah "The Coast Is Never Clear" 2001

54. The Wrens "The Meadowlands" 2003

55. Radiohead "Kid A" 2000

56. Rival Schools "United By Fate" 2001

57. Ani Difranco "Reveling/Reckoning" 2001

58. Sorry About Dresden "Let It Rest" 2003

59. Pretty Girls Make Graves "The New Romance" 2003

60. Wilco "A Ghost Is Born" 2004

61. The Faint "Danse Macabre" 2001

62. Arcade Fire "Funeral" 2004

63. Fugazi "The Argument" 2001

64. Frou Frou "Details" 2002

65. Dave Matthews "Some Devil" 2003

66. M83 "Saturdays=Youth" 2008

67. The National "Alligator" 2005

68. The Sea And Cake "Car Alarm" 2008

69. Push To Talk "S/T" 2006

70. Minus The Bear "Highly Refined Pirates" 2002

71. Office "A Night At The Ritz" 2007

72. Arcade Fire "Neon Bible" 2007

73. Cursive "Domestica" 2000

74. Hot Rod Circuit "Sorry About Tomorrow" 2002

75. The Killers "Hot Fuss" 2004

JOHN'S BEST OF THE DECADE LIST! (26-50)

2009-12-27T03:16:00.004-05:00

#26-50

26. The Actual "In Stitches" 2007

27. Hey Mercedes "Loses Control" 2003

28. Beck "Sea Change" 2002

29. Jets To Brazil "Perfecting Loneliness" 2002

30. No Knife "Riot For Romance" 2002

31. Rocket From The Crypt "Group Sounds" 2001

32. Sleater-Kinney "One Beat" 2002

33. Sorry About Dresden "The Convenience of Indecision" 2001

34. Challenger "Give People What They Want In Lethal Doses" 2004
Dammit! Nothing. :(

35. U2 "No Line On The Horizon" 2009

36. Phoenix "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" 2009

37. Portastatic "Bright Ideas" 2005

38. Metric "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" 2003

39. Bear In Heaven "Beast Rest Forth Mouth" 2009

40. Nada Surf "Let Go" 2003

41. Coldplay "A Rush Of Blood To The Head" 2002

42. Rooney "S/T" 2003

43. Sleater-Kinney "All Hands On The Bad One" 2000

44. Joanna Newsom "The Milk-Eyed Mender" 2004

45. Joanna Newsom "Ys" 2006

46. Desaparecidos "Read Music/Speak Spanish" 2002

47. Marnie Stern "This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is it and That Is That" 2008

48. Radiohead "Amnesiac" 2001

49. Spoon "Gimme Fiction" 2005

50. Hot Water Music "Caution" 2002

http://iwtdi.blogspot.com/2009/12/johns-best-of-decade-list-51-75.html

JOHN'S BEST OF THE DECADE LIST! (1-25)

2009-12-26T23:11:00.009-05:00

This was super-hard to compile, but I'm pretty happy with the results. Below are my top 10 album of the past decade, and after the jump you'll find the rest of my top 75((along with a song/video from each to get you started). And while we're at it my top 3 films of the 2000's are as follows: #1- Zodiac, #2- Inglourious Basterds, #3- There Will Be Blood

TOP ALBUMS OF THE 2000'S:

01. The Sea And Cake "Oui" 2000

02. Jon Brion "Meaningless" 2001

03. Motion City Soundtrack "I Am The Movie" 2003

04. Saves The Day "Stay What You Are" 2001

05. The Dismemberment Plan "Change" 2001

06. The Strokes "Is This It" 2001

07. Outkast "Stankonia" 2000

08. Zwan "Mary Star Of The Sea" 2003

09. Coldplay "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" 2008

10. Spoon "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" 2007

11. At The Drive In "Relationship Of Command" 2000

12. Stephen Malkmus "S/T" 2001

13. Silverchair "Young Modern" 2007

14. Joe, Marc's Brother "Around The Year With" 2000
impossible to find stuff to embed by these dudes :(

15. Superchunk "Here's To Shutting Up" 2001

16. Sufjan Stevens "Illinois" 2005

17. Feist "Let It Die" 2004

18. The New Pornographers "Electric Version" 2003

19. Motion City Soundtrack "Commit This To Memory" 2005

20. Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" 2002

21. Criteria "En Garde" 2003
Dammit! Again, nothing to embed from this album so here's something off the second album:

22. Spoon "Kill The Moonlight" 2002

23. Ben Folds "Rockin' The Suburbs" 2001

24. Spoon "Girls Can Tell" 2001

25. Pinback "Blue Screen Life" 2001

Continued in:
http://iwtdi.blogspot.com/2009/12/johns-best-of-decade-list-26-50.html
http://iwtdi.blogspot.com/2009/12/johns-best-of-decade-list-51-75.html

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-17T10:03:00.006-05:00

However you choose to enjoy this time of year, IWTDI wants to wish you warmth and happiness. We've had a very busy year with lots of ups and downs. We're happy to have survived it! Mostly, we're looking forward to a little time off, and eager to come back in Late January with a renewed sense of vigor.

MEANWHILE, please enjoy this little holiday song that John and Rachel put together for you. The more or less traditional song called Coventry Carol has a very interesting history. If not for some luck and maybe a little divine intervention, this song may not have survived to this day. The short version is that back when the Vatican had outlawed English versions of the Bible, people would use "mystery plays" to tell Bible stories. This song was part of a play called "The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors" and is about how King Herod, after hearing about the birth of a new King of the Jews, sent out a decree that all male children in Bethlehem under the age of two be killed, also known as The Massacre of the Innocents. The song itself is a lament, sung by a mother about her doomed child.

Read all about it at the link below and listen by clicking on the player on the right sidebar.

http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-CoventryCarol.html

Listen, download, pass it around, enjoy it, and we'll see you soon!

JOHN'S YEAR-END TOP 10 FOR 2009!

2009-12-08T04:21:00.004-05:00

It's that time of year, y'all. I've been making these "top 10" lists for as long as I can remember. I was THAT kid. It's also the end of a decade, so yep, you'll be getting a "best of the 2000's" list from me soon as well. Also keep an eye out for a general IWTDI year wrap-up & forecast for 2010 right here on this website very soon...

But let's get to it! Let me preface by saying two honorable mentions that I didn't "get" at first but I'm just now starting to like more are Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors. Also, the best album I heard in 2009 actually doesn't come out until January 19th- Motion City Soundtrack's new album "My Dinosaur Life". Oh and the best movie I saw in 2009 was Inglourious Basterds- actually it's in my all-time top 10. OK!

JOHN'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2009:

#1. U2 "No Line On The Horizon"
For me, any U2 album is an EVENT, and this one happens to easily be the best they've released since 1993's "Zooropa". "No Line On The Horizon" definitely wasn't a singles record(apparently that one is coming in 2010), but each song sets its own mood- and the greatest moments are certainly the most daring, which hasn't necessarily been true of U2 over the past decade. I am very biased on this one- any year U2 releases an album, it will be in my top 10- but it's been a loooong time since these dudes have seen the #1 spot. "Cedars Of Lebanon" features what are some of Bono's greatest lyrics ever, give it a listen:

#2. Phoenix "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"
Who doesn't love this album? What's there not to love? This is a triumph for a band that has been making some great pop singles under the radar for a number of years. Now they've made a perfect pop record. There's not a lot to say to do it justice, just listen:

#3. Bear In Heaven "Beast Rest Fourth Mouth"
This album kinda sounds like the soundtrack to murdering someone in the dead of winter on an icy, frozen-over lake. But they totally deserved it, so it's not TOO dark, dig? Joy and pop and mystery mixed with icy cold synths that creep you out JUST enough. I am currently in love with this record- it hasn't left my car CD player in weeks.

#4. Polvo "In Prism"
Polvo basically inspired my first band to do what we did. Who would've thought that 12 years later, they'd come back and make their best full length ever? Yep, I said it. Nothing will ever top "Celebrate The New Dark Age"- my #2 album of all time- but that's an EP, so "In Prism" wins the LP category. There's some lulls on this album, but songs like "Lucia", "The Pedlar" & "A Link In The Chain" are some of their best ever. We got to play with Polvo earlier this year, so yeah, that's another thing on the list of "things I've done that the 16 year old version of me would never believe".

#5. Delorean "Aryton Senna" EP
There isn't a ton of info out there about this Spanish indie dance-pop band, but this is one of the best EP's I've heard in quite a while. Dear Delorean: please make a full length like this NOW.

#6. Paramore "Brand New Eyes"
Yeah, ok, settle down. I didn't think I'd ever put a Paramore album on a top 10 list either(although I've always thought that they write great singles), but "Brand New Eyes" is a classy album, with some real emotion and intensity crammed into simple powerpop-punk tunes. I even really enjoy some of Haley Williams lyrics on here. Fun fact: I believe this is on Joe & Curt's top 10's as well- plus even James said he really enjoyed what we made him listen to in the van on tour, which is...surprising. They've released two of the last songs I would've released as singles so far, but what do I know? This video looks pretty dumb at the onset, but watch 'til the end- shit gets fucked, y'all!:

#7. Set Your Goals "This Will Be The Death Of Us"
They don't make pop punk bands like this anymore, and that's part of what drew me in to Set Your Goals. It's like it's 1995 for these dudes. There's a lot wrong with this record- largely in some questionable lyrics(and the album needs about 90% less "gang vocal" overdubs)- but the utter lack of pretense(dig the video below) and awareness of current trends or fashions- makes Set Your Goals very endearing. Fun Fact again: these guys most likely make Rachel, Curt AND Joe's top 10 lists as well.

#8. Dananananaykroyd "Hey Everyone"
This Scottish six-piece are doing what so many mathy indie rock bands have done for the past decade or so, but they bring a strong sense of melody and kinetic energy that few possess. "Black Wax" is one of the best singles of the year:

#9. Animal Collective "Merriweather Post Pavilion"
Way too much has already been said about this album. You already know about it. I liked it. That kinda surprised me. That is all.

#10. Micachu "Jewellery"
Micachu creates a perfect blend of noise and melody that makes for some extremely catchy abstract pop music. "Golden Phone" wins:

Thanks for reading, y'all! I think it should be obvious I am not trying to get a job at Pitchfork doing this shit. I put no effort into these descriptions- I just want you to go listen to this music- and I want you to tell me YOUR top 10!!! Comment away with them, please!

Love,
John

DIVE PARTY!

2009-12-03T09:50:00.004-05:00

Dear World,

We are so excited to be coming up to our third anniversary of rock! For those of you who don't know your anniversary traditions, that's the LEATHER anniversary! We like the sound of that.

Looking back, we've done a lot of stuff over the last three years. Two large scale, national tours. Shows with some exceptional talents like Conor Oberst, Cursive, Joan Jett, These Arms Are Snakes, Portastatic, etc. We've released two full length records and two EP's. And we've struggled through some very tough times, focusing hard on keeping it all together even as relationships within the band have taken hits. None of this really makes us special. Every band goes through much of the same stuff we have. It's just a good time to pause and reflect.

Yes, it's been FREAKING AWESOME for the most part. But we've been working hard with no real breaks for three years and we've decided to take January off! Yes, for the month of January, you won't have us to kick around. We'll be ready to hit the ground running come February, though, and we will rock your socks off some more!

THAT SAID, we will be playing our last local show until February THIS FRIDAY NIGHT at the Diversions party at the Local 506. It starts at 10, and it won't cost you a dime to get in (but you should buy beer and tip heavily!). Aminal will kick things off at 10, followed by IWTDI, and Lonnie Walker will bring it all home! It's going to be a blast, so get there early and stake out a spot in front of the stage so you don't miss anything! It's the party of the year!

To celebrate this event, the kickass Jordan Lawrence et al, met up with all the bands and shot video of some scaled down performances. They are embedded below in order of the bands performing. Thanks Jordan for all of your hard work! We hope you enjoy. We'll see you Friday and then who knows? You might have to visit us in our relative points of convalescence if you want to see us before February!

IWTDI & The Design at Lincoln Theater!

2009-11-18T14:22:00.002-05:00

Hey folks, sorry it's been so long since we've updated this thing. The tour left us pretty worn out, and there have been some slackness mixed with non-band-related issues and all sorts of other stuff. We'll get back on track directly!

This Thursday, November 19th, we will be rocking it out with The Design! The show is at 8pm at The Lincoln Theater in Raleigh, NC. Also playing are Skywire and Silver. We're really looking forward to this show! Make sure you come out and see the festivities, and make sure you come up and say Hi to us!

WATCH US LIVE ON SESSIONS @ STUDIO B!

2009-11-02T19:36:00.002-05:00

Last week we stopped by the NBC 17 studios on the day we got home from tour and recorded a live performance for Music.MyNC.com's Sessions @ Studio B - watch & enjoy the video below!

THANKS!

2009-10-14T21:49:00.004-04:00

We want to take a moment and thank everyone who came to our CD release party last weekend. We had a blast, all the bands kicked ass, and well, Mike Casey should be burned at the stake!

The big tour starts tomorrow! We will try to blog from the road, and some of us might even create our own blogs so you can gfind out what we're doing, thinking, and whining about at any given moment. Should be a blast! Tour dates are right here:

Cup of Tea!

2009-10-09T13:29:00.002-04:00

Cup of Tea is easily among the most honest song on the record, if not among the most metaphorical. If you've been reading recent reviews of Horror Vacui, you are well aware of what the song means. I prefer to delve into what I think of the song.

Cup of Tea is incredibly delicate. Being the ferocious, open mouthed drummer that I am, I found it no small task to plant roots in the delicacy of these three and a half minutes.I recall the advice of my band mates, "chill!"

I am absolutely smitten with Rachel's versatility as a singer. When I hear this song, I'm not sure if I am supposed to console her or put her out of her misery. What's certain is that she is not afraid to apply her feelings to her songs. The early verses exude vulnerability, but by the end of the song, her tone has changed to something far more pleading. As usual, John's vocals fit perfectly, matching the softness in the beginning as well as the forcefulness of the vocals toward the end of the song.

Making a record isn't like painting by numbers for us. We don't know exactly how songs will turn out when they are first introduced to the full band. This one started out with Rachel, a guitar, and a verse or two. John uncannily applied a catchy and emotional chorus, undaunted by what the song was actually about. By the time we listened to the playback in the studio, it was one of our favorite songs.

Come out to the CD release party, get a copy of the record with your admission, and feel free to talk to us about Cup of Tea or whatever else you want. We look forward to seeing you!

Lonnie Walker!!!

2009-10-08T10:21:00.001-04:00

The first time I heard Lonnie Walker was the first time I played a show with them, and I don't remember paying a lot of attention to them that night, honestly. Something about seeing a band play Americana-based rock music in a well known punk/metal/whatever venue like The Brewery didn't add up to me, and I was probably the only one in the building that didn't go crazy over them.

Man, im stupid. I should have watched their set. Ear Farm got it right, Lonnie Walker is most definitely one of the best bands in North Carolina.

I can't quite place what it is about them that I like so much, but after listening to their cd, I was hooked. When people (or music journalists, at least) talk about them, they seem to always mention Bob Dylan or Bright Eyes, among others. But I don't really listen to much Dylan, and I never really got into Bright Eyes. Something about Brian Corum's hooks just draw me in so much more than a lot of the bands/artists that he and his bandmates are compared to.

When we first started throwing around ideas for our CD release show, Lonnie Walker was one of the first names that came up, and they actually ended up being the first band (other than ourselves, of course) that was confirmed for the show. As soon as we had them on the bill, I knew the show would be epic.

Obviously its not just Ear Farm and I that think they are amazing: they were also chosen as one of the News & Observer's Great 8 in 2009, and Terpsikhore Records offered to put out their cd before the band was even fully formed. Plus, sometimes they have a dude onstage with them that paints a huge picture during their set. Is there anything cooler than that?

Des Ark!

2009-10-07T13:53:00.005-04:00

I was a founding member of Des Ark. Yep, you heard right. It all started on a gorgeous June night in 2000, at a house show put on by Eric Crespo(at the time in a fantastic band called Question Rig, but you might know him now as Portland, OR’s Ghost To Falco) in Burlington, NC.

My band at the time, Strunken White, had been playing a lot with Aimee’s mind-blowing two acoustic/one electric guitar ensemble, known as Rubeo(good luck finding any recordings, kids- their 7 inch is one of my prized possessions and those two Rubeo tracks are a couple of all-time favorite musical moments for me)- and we shared yet another bill that night in Eric’s basement, along with his Question Rig. It was looking at the time that Rubeo was coming to an end: that night in Burlington they were reduced to a 2-piece, just Aimee and Beth Hoskins- guitarist Robin Landy had been heading in a different direction and had less and less time for the band(Robin now plays in a 2-piece called Silian Rail in San Francisco with my old bandmate from io, Eric Kuhn- just to give you an idea of how incestuous this music world can be if you’ve been doing it as long as someone like me). That night in Burlington, in the Crespo family driveway, I asked Aimee & Beth if they would like to start a band with me on drums. We got together for the first time the following week.

We called ourselves Pequeno for a bit, we were a quartet with Matt Tomich(The Scaries, Sorry About Dresden) on bass for a bit longer, but by the end of the summer of 2000, we were playing shows as a 3-piece around town at GO!, house parties, etc- as Des Ark. I have some amazing boombox practice cassettes with fantastic ideas by Aimee and Beth- gorgeous interlocking guitars and melodies that no one will ever hear- I still go back and listen to these about once a year and get all nostalgic and wonder how such cool shit could end up on the cutting room floor. These things happen when working with talents like Aimee Argote.

Alas, the first incarnation of Des Ark played around Chapel Hill for the remainder of 2000 and on into 2001- staying busy, drinking beers while watching Felicity, attempting to play Playstation games but getting distracted by the vibrating controllers, using band practice as an excuse to hang out and talk shit, etc. In mid-2001 I told Aimee I had decided to move to San Francisco with my new band, io, but that I wanted to make sure Des Ark kept going so I suggested our buddy, Tim Herzog, who often ran sound for us at GO!, take over behind the drums. That summer, I switched from drums to bass, because I wanted to play as many shows with these friends as possible before heading west in the fall. Tim took over behind the kit, things got loud, Beth and I both decided to bow out at the same time- Des Ark became a 2-piece, Aimee & Tim fell in love- the rest is pretty much history. I guess you could blame me for the rough personal times that ensued once I left NC, or you could thank me for doing so- because without it there might not have been a “Loose Lips Sink Ships”…

I left a lot behind when I moved out west, but leaving Des Ark and not being able to stay so close with Aimee and Beth was always a big regret. Such a big regret that the week I moved back to NC in 2005, Aimee and Beth and I started jamming again- it didn’t last long due to all our wacky schedules, but it was proof of how important those beginnings in 2000 had been to us.

Flash forward to now. A LOT of people have come and gone through the Des Ark ranks, through many different incarnations. I’ve seen almost all of them, and been in a couple of them. Let me tell you- nothing beats what we’ve got now, and what you’ll see on October 10^th at the Cradle. We’ve got Aimee, of course- seasoned and focused like never before- she’s driven and passionate as always, her newest material bringing back those guitar melodies & intricacies that made me love that early Rubeo and Des Ark material so much. On drums: the powerhouse that is Evan Rowe. The first time I saw him with Maple Stave I simply said to him “I think you’re the best drummer in NC right now”. And I’m pretty certain there is no drummer around here more enjoyable to watch- dudemans limbs wave around like Jello but there is nothing flimsy about the attack that they provide. And lastly, Noah Howard- the greatest secret weapon you could ever ask for. Hmm, should I mention Noah was my bandmate for 5+ years? In Strunken White, that little band I mentioned at the beginning of this essay. He was there, standing with me the night I asked Aimee and Beth to form Des Ark. Eight years later, he joined the band. Again, incestuous. But man, Noah completes it. Never has their been a guitarist more well matched for Aimee- this truly is the trio Des Ark was always meant to be. I really hope this one sticks, I’ve got a feeling it will.

You really don’t need me to tell you that Des Ark is important or that they are one of the top bands in the region or that you won’t want to miss the onstage interplay between my dear friends Aimee, Noah, and Evan- because everyone else already has told you. And they were right. Come see for yourself Saturday October 10^th at Cat’s Cradle.

-John Booker

Rat Jackson!

2009-10-06T15:35:00.001-04:00

From the desk of Broseph Mazzitelli:

We folks in I Was Totally Destroying It are a lot of things. We are musicians. Some of us are students. Some of us work crap jobs. Some of us are really introverted, and some of us love meeting people. We all like to party, but to be completely honest, we're not very good at it. October 10th is fast approaching, and when you wish to throw an event of this magnitude, one that needs to party as hard as it rocks, you need help. We in the IWTDI camp however, novice party-throwers as we are, needed a special kind of help. That is when you call the Rat Jackson Band. Having Rat Jackson on your bill is like bringing a missile to the proverbial knife fight of CD release parties. Every band playing on this special evening brings the rock, there is no questioning that, but Rat Jackson brings the party like no other.

Rat Jackson plays a blend of what can only be described as garage rock grit meets boisterous bar rock swagger. The unholy love child of Andrew W.K. and The Hives, but injected with special steroids that made them somehow more epic. Steroids made, most likely, out of beer. This band is after all hot off the heels of the release of "Beer Y'all", a film documenting a nine day road trip on which members of the band and others visited 27 breweries. They also played some rock shows during their trip. They partied a lot. They removed the seats from their van. Why? Because seats get in the way of partying. (You can learn more about the film and pick up the DVD at http://beeryall.com)

This is exactly what I'm talking about when I insist that we have called upon the right people to make October 10th special. The second band of the evening made a documentary film about beer! Just think about what the world would be like if every bar band you ever saw, instead of playing Skynyrd covers, played rock music with the same self-aware braggadocio as Rat Jackson. Rock clubs, and subsequently the world, would be a little bit better places to be.

Rat Jackson are one of those groups that actually puts their band name into the songs they write. The thing however that sets them apart from other bands attempting that trick is that they actually pull it off. The entire Rat Jackson persona operates under the assumption that no band in the world rocks as hard, parties as hard, or looks as good as they do. So beware of standing too close during their set: you might end up agreeing with them. I think I do.

Lake Inferior!

2009-10-06T00:10:00.001-04:00

The first thing you should know about Lake Inferior is that their music is dreamy, youthful, and triumphant.

The second thing you should know is that their drummer has a glass eye.

We saw Lake Inferior for the first time at Local 506 when we played with them for the Cancer Sucks benefit. The sounds they made wrapped around me like silk scarves and spider webs; they were beautiful, abundant, and a little eerie.

The vocals are boyish and endearingly self-conscious. Their melodies invoke memories of Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers. The rhythm section maintains simple but solid foundations for the shimmering guitars and ethereal synthesizers to ebb and flow around. There is fan fare and there are gang vocals, but they are genuine and they do not posture.

While some might argue that they are merely students of the Arcade Fire School of Anthemic Indie Rock, their songwriting suggests otherwise. Their modal tendencies are darker, the instrumentation is sparser, and the dynamics are not as grandiose or overblown. Lake Inferior is unpretentious and manages to be intimate even in their largest moments. Every song has a feeling of camaraderie; every word is weighted with the wide-eyed wisdom of a worldly twenty something.

We’re very excited to have them on board for the show, and we all think that you will love them. Because their drummer has a glass eye.

And apparently he takes it out at parties.

MAGIC MIKE CASEY!

2009-10-05T17:13:00.002-04:00

"There's something about growing up your whole life with people telling you that most everything is impossible... getting to watch Michael do magic makes me glad I never believed them!" - Brian Venable, Guitarist, Lucero

I feel like I've known Mike Casey for years, and I'm not sure why. But that phenomenon may tie in with what makes him such a wonderful performer. You're comfortable with him the moment he engages you.

I marvel at the skills of someone who can make the impossible seem possible, and life on this big blue ball of confusion would certainly be worse without the wonder that someone like Mike Casey inspires. Even the most jaded person can't help but fall out when Mr. Casey goes to work.

We don't know many people as friendly, as talented, and as engaging as Magic Mike Casey, and we're beyond thrilled to have him perform at our CD release show this Saturday night at the Cat's cradle! Come around, say hello, and let Mike revitalize the child within. You will thank him for it!

Turn My Grave!

2009-10-02T14:49:00.002-04:00

Anyone who has seen me play drums knows that I love it. Creativity and catharsis combine, my eyes get big, my smile stretches all the way across my face. And it's not for show. I really AM having that much fun up on stage!

I love playing drums in the studio, too, but it's not the same. In the studio, the German in me takes over, and efficiency rules the day. Not to take away from my love of the instrument, I'm not there to have a good time. We're paying for time, so I get in, get out. Get a good take, get on to the next song. In that sense, recording isn't quite as much fun as writing or performing songs.

To make life more fun in the studio, and to break up the tedium, I find myself listening to takes and trying to come up with ideas for how we can flesh them out, make them sound more interesting. Turn My Grave is an interesting case study in that. You'll notice there aren't a lot of drums. John stomps on the tambourine, making Turn My Grave one of the several songs in which I don't handle all of the percussion.

What I do get to play is the xylophone! And I love it! Ask anyone I've recorded with, I annoy the living bejeebers out of my bandmates always trying to play this or add that. This band is no different. Every once in a while I get an idea that works and I'm allowed to run with it. And that's my favorite part of recording.

Turn My Grave is one of my favorite tracks on the record, not because of the kickin' xylophone part, but more because of the way John and Rachel's voices go together, Curt's guitar interlude, and the big, roomy feel when the drums come in. This song is the delicate counter to Caterwaul's semi-grating urgency, a departure from the heavy-pop hooks, and a demonstration of our desire to elude pop-punk pigeonholes. You can hear it on the right sidebar. Keep checking back, as reviews are beginning to trickle in. We have a lot of unfinished business before our CD Release Party on 10 October at the Cat's Cradle!

Bootleg Magazine!

2009-10-01T09:32:00.007-04:00

Many many thanks to Brian Tucker at Bootleg Magazine for their review of Horror Vacui:

Horror Vacui digs deep, far into places most are familiar with – failed relationships and failed personal constitutions. On the surface Horror Vacui is sonically similar to IWTDI’s fantastic self titled debut and last fall’s Done Waiting EP. Horror Vacui is up-tempo, moving and exhilarating. It’s also far more dynamic than its predecessor that concentrated mostly on catchiness and powerful hooks. It made for something incredibly fun and relative, but it bore few skeletons.

Horror Vacui does. It’s filled with songs about mistakes and complaints, a confessional during and after the fallout of a relationship. What’s under the surface is harder to absorb than the sugar coated high wire act the band puts on. After taking it in lyrically the album shows its layers, making the album more relatable, more effective, than one might have intended. Pain makes for great art at the sacrifice of its creators. Horror Vacui is no different, as it was constructed around a romantic relationship on the outs. But the album bears no finality; it’s as much about the storm as how two people deal with the aftermath of it all.

The album is rich with needing and needling, of trying to communicate without actually doing so. On ‘Former Boy Wonder’ vocalist John Booker bears confession as he sings “Through trials and blunders/As a man I'm not enough.” It’s rare that we get anyone to fess up anymore, let alone in the gut wrenching frankness Booker gives here. I haven’t heard anyone say there weren’t man enough this way since Kravitz’s full album apology Mama Said. On ‘Cup of Tea’ you feel for Hirsh when she sings of trying and regressing, “Cause you're my cup of tea/And it may burn my tongue, the flavor might be wrong/But I guess it's what I want/Yeah, stuck with what I’ve got.”

Booker and Hirsh go back and forth on ‘Caterwaul’ and Booker declares in a muted speaker-toned voice “And I cannot find an emotion/To keep us safe from the wolves at the door.” It’s a frantic, nightmarish number built on crazed, tribal drumming and near psychotic keyboard playing. ‘Done Waiting’ and ‘Come Out, Come Out’ are standout tracks here and ‘Come Out, Come Out’ pleads for untamed youth and exploration, easy on the nautical metaphors and strong on wants and desires. Hirsh sings blatantly, “I want to be young/To be a wreck and wrecked upon/I want to get out/And be a ship without the anchor.” To be a wreck and be wrecked upon says so much more lyrically than prurient lyrics by the Katy Perry’s of today. ‘Come Out, Come Out’ comes off like a party anthem blend of Bow Wow Wow and The Replacements where the narrator wants for experience, of freedom on the sea but unaware of the wrecks already sunk there. But it’s the acoustic number ‘Turn My Grave’ that finds the band exploring, not relying on sonic extremities, and finding tenderness in their singing strengths.

IWTDI throws many shots in the summer night air with their new album, but several echo the melancholy of fall, no matter how much punch they put in the recordings. It’s a great rock record, one that hits the heart as much as the adrenaline button. What’s better is that it fails to take sides, leaving the listener feeling for either party. Horror Vacui is a step forward for IWTDI, for its growth as musicians and for their personal measures.

Brian Tucker
Bootleg Magazine
Wilmington, NC
July 7, 2009

Thank You Deckfight!

2009-09-29T16:18:00.002-04:00

Deckfight has put up a review of The Beached Margin/Done Waiting dual EP's! Thanks, folks, for the hard work you do!

A Reason To

2009-09-24T22:18:00.005-04:00

While finishing up the debut IWTDI record, John found himself wandering around Warrior Sound, strapped to a guitar. It was at that moment that "A Reason To" was born.

Finishing up the first record wasn't like the end of our more recent recording process. We were writing new songs pretty soon after finishing our self titled debut (We played Get in Line, available here, at our CD release party). Either "A Reason To" wasn't ready, or new songs were coming in so quickly that John worked on the song mostly by himself until much later. We had long since finished recording the first chunk of Horror Vacui when the rest of us got to hear it.

As soon as we started working on it, we knew that it would definitely be included on the record. A more straight up pop song, "A Reason To" features more of John and Rachel's sweet harmonies. The catchy melody and the driving sound of the song has made it a staple in our live performances for the past several months.

Of course *I* like the song, but I am particularly fond of the second half of the second verse and the bridge. And we're ready for the Wilson-Phillips comparisons, assuming I'm not the only one who hears a similarity. As always, we're more than excited to share this song with you in advance of our kicking CD Release Party on October 10. You can listen by going to our player in the right sidebar.

And keep your eyes peeled! Subscribe to the blog or check back frequently. We will be focusing on the great bands we'll be playing with at the CD Release, featuring pictures from our trip to Long Island, catching up with the Sponsored Songs Program, and much more!

Live Action!

2009-09-21T09:35:00.003-04:00

I Was Totally Destroying It from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Many thanks to Karen Mann for shooting and posting video of our recent show at the Rollergirls afterparty! Karen has been a fixture of the local music community for years having been in the seminal gal-punk band Chew Toy and writing for the Independent Weekly and now her fantastic blog. Thanks, Karen for kicking all that ass!

The Ocean!

2009-09-18T10:26:00.004-04:00

As you know by now, the new IWTDI record is called Horror Vacui. Also known as cenophobia, Horror Vacui is a fear of open spaces. This week's featured song, the album closer, while not the title track per se, might as well be. Perhaps we could call The Ocean the albums descriptive track!

I will probably say that every track we preview is one of my favorite tracks. Duh! That's why we're featuring them! So let me skip that declaration and go right into why I like it. I think the dynamics of this song are more apparent than in many others. I absolutely love the intertwining and overlapping of vocal and instruments. Everything is simple in this song, but it all goes so well together. There's a lot of flow to this song.

My favorite part of the song starts at 2:07. We really tried to create an eerie interlude for this already somewhat eerie song. The band might disagree, but I find the combination of Rachel's piano, the stick-tocks (I made that up!), and the creaking and moaning to be dare I say moving. It was meant to be creepy, maybe even some sort of descent into madness, being trapped in the one situation you find most disconcerting. By the way, those creaks = my fat ass leaning back and forth on my drum stool. Don't tell anyone.

The Ocean is a fitting ending for the album, both sonically and thematically. Just like with the other songs, we loved making it! We hope you enjoy it as well! Click on the player on the right sidebar to play the song! Also, Beneath You All The Way is now available at myspace!

Look Out Brooklyn!

2009-09-13T22:00:00.003-04:00

We want to thank everyone who came out to Tir Na Nog last night and helped us celebrate the beautiful brutality America’s rollergirls. All the bands were great, and the folks at Tir Na Nog were generous and accommodating as usual. Good times were had by all!

SO

Even though we’ve been rocking for nearly three years, we have avoided traveling to the northeast. Booking New York, Boston, DC, etc can be really tough, and the tour can be expensive. Tolls, parking, security for your gear and lodging can drive a band crazy. Shows tend to be hit or miss. Crowds can be really ambivalent. One could reasonably argue that there’s no point in playing the big cities of the East at all unless or until there’s a big draw on the bill.

BUT

Here we go! We’ll be playing The Trash Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tonight. Then we’ll be doing a two day stint in Amityville, Long Island. We will be at The Broadway Bar in Amityville Monday and Tuesday nights. These are apparently theme nights. Monday night we’re supposed to wear red, Tuesday is formal night. On one hand, it kinda sucks to have to think about wardrobe when you’re going out of town, but we’re gonna look GOOD!

We wanna give a shout out to our old friend Paul Cadena and his band The Sleeping for hooking us up with these Long Island shows. You may remember Paul from IWTDI predecessor En Garde. He’s an absolute sweetheart who went back home to Long Island a few years ago and took his rock skills to a whole new level. We’re looking forward to seeing him.

I will say this, for what it’s worth. I love Brooklyn. I’m not always very comfortable there, as apparently smiling at strangers is out of fashion, but there’s a great feel in Brooklyn, and I’m looking forward to hanging out there. But I’m MOST excited about Strong Island. I’ve never visited but I’ve come to have certain, shall we say expectations about the cultural offerings of this fine place. Don’t let us down, Amityville! The band is armed with cameras. We will report back!

Carolina Rollergirls!

2009-09-12T14:51:00.002-04:00

Come out to Tir Na Nog tonight! There will be four bands rocking for you at The Carolina Rollergirls' Wicked Wheels of the East Tournament! Spend your afternoon and early evening watch one of the most exciting sports known to man. Then shower up and come on out to 218 S. Blount St. in Raleigh for some sweaty-ass rock and roll!

From the facebook event page:

Pink Flag will kick it off with their all-woman Punk-pop fun. West Virginia's The Demon Beat are next with Indie/bluesy Punk that wowed people back in July. I Was Totally Destroying It are in the hammock slot with their duel vocals and guitar Inidie-pop. Closing out the night is our road-tested heroes Red Collar with their passionate Blue-collar ethics backed by sweat drenched leave it on the floor indie/punk/rock. This night will rock your face off!

Five bucks gets you more rock than you could ever hope for, plus a special cocktail called "The Rolling Red Flag of The Demon Destroyer", designed by Nobel Prize winning mixologist Chris Tamplin. You WILL have fun or the rollergirls will hurt you. And not the way John Cougar Mellencamp likes it.

Beneath You All The Way!

2009-09-11T09:57:00.003-04:00

Horror Vacui was done, finished, in the can, ready to go! We had twelve songs. We were pretty happy with everything having done quite a bit of tweaking. We had spent months working on this record, trying to figure out which songs should go where, which songs should go on the vinyl. But it was done! I had four or five CDR's ready to send out to people for consideration, for advice, etc.

And then stupid Curtis wrote some lick, some part, and next thing I know, I come to practice and we have a new song! Normally a new song is great, but in this case we were just coming out of a songwriting phase that led to a couple dozen new tracks. We were trying to sort of move into a phase where we would focus on performing and promoting the new stuff, so the timing for a catchy new song was kinda bad. Instead of keeping the new song on the back burner until we record again, we decided to take a few days and hammer it out in the studio and see where things go.

Enter Beneath You All the Way. Obviously we liked the song and the recording enough to put it on the record. Not only that, but we liked it so much we decided to open the whole album with it! A pretty straightforward track, we had a lot of fun toying with it to see what we could do to make it stand out as a song that sets the tone for the album. I'm particularly fond of how Rachel sounds when it gets real quiet towards the end. Mitch and Al at Warrior Sound did a terrific job squeezing us in and making this song happen. We're really excited about sharing it with you, and we hope you enjoy Beneath You All the Way!

As usual, click the player on the right sidebar to play the track. Also, Come Out Come Out has been posted to myspace, so feel free to listen again here or cruise on over to myspace!

Windows Media Guide!

2009-09-06T13:23:00.004-04:00

There has been no shortage of talk surrounding the Sponsored Songs Program, an experiment brought to you by Reverbnation, Microsoft Windows, and 1001 bands, known and unknown, local and not local. The program is in it's final few weeks, and from our end, we can honestly say that the vast majority of people who downloaded our song have been people that we have sent to the download site. This means we asked friends to help us out and they did (thank you friends!). It also means that there weren't very many people who happened upon our music and downloaded it.

Such is the nature of experiments. The downside is that a lot of the time you don't get the outcomes you hope for. The upside is that you learn as much if not more from the let downs than you do from the successes. This is how we got post-it notes and teflon. So while any bump we saw with RN from the program was short lived and somewhat artificial, it opened the door for new ideas.

A few weeks ago we got an email from Jed Carlson at Revebnation. They asked us if we'd like to submit our sponsored song to Windows for inclusion at the Windows Media Guide website. The terms wouldn't change from the sponsored songs thingy. No new money, but potential exposure. We submitted our song thinking that we could see how it would affect the numbers we (I) had been watching for a few months.

I don't know how many bands submitted, but we were chosen, and Microsoft has been featuring us at their media guide for just about the past week. We mentioned the inclusion on facebook and twitter but we didn't push it nearly as hard as we had the original sponsored song since all of our friends had already downloaded it, and we really wanted to see what kind of attention it would bring from the outside.

Feel free to take a look at the site. Hit up the media guide, mouse over "music" and select "free downloads". Or just click here. It's an old song, nothing you haven't heard before if you've been listening to us for the past few years. But it's an interesting idea. We will report back when it's all done and let you know how well it worked.

Requests for a free copy of Windows 7 as compensation have gone unreplied.

Come Out, Come Out!

2009-09-04T09:12:00.003-04:00

It's time! We're very pleased to share the lead single from our new album, Horror Vacui! We had a lot of fun recording this song. To listen, simply click play on the player located on the right sidebar

Most of the time in the studio we have a good idea of how the song goes, what we want to do with it, what it should sound like in the end. With Come Out, Come Out, we took a different direction. John and Hep each recorded two tracks using makeshift drum combinations. There were lots of group vocals, a lot of fun.

There were countless directions we could take with the song, and we decided to enlist the skills of the Hercules Europe Brass, who you might know from seeing The Wusses or D-Town Brass play around town over the years. Also, Justin Pierre from Motion City Soundtrack loved the roughs we sent him and contributed the lyrics and melody that we used in the bridge. Perhaps one of the most collaborative songs of the new album, Come Out, Come Out is catchy and upbeat.

We hope you like it! Leave a comment and tell us what you think! And don't forget, you can get a free copy of Horror Vacui at our CD Release party October 10th!

CD Release Party Is GO!!!!!

2009-09-03T11:04:00.005-04:00

On October 10th, we will be rocking the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro with four great bands, and one outstanding magician! For a paltry sum of ten dollars, you will get into the show, you will get a copy of Horror Vacui, and more! That's cheaper than you can actually buy a CD at a store!

The show will feature the mind-boggling illusions of Magician Michael Casey, on stage and working the crowd; the Eno meets The Church pop awesomeness of Lake Inferior; the spectacular, spleen-splitting rock riffage of Rat Jackson; the adjective defying Des Ark (really, there aren't words in the English language to adequately express my love for Des Ark); Lonnie Walker's melange of "equal parts sweetness and brutality, equal parts country charm and rock swagger" (Ear Farm really hit the nail on the head with this, I can not improve upon it); and of course IWTDI, whom are we. We're so excited about this event that we will be throwing out little features of each band as we approach the show date.

Doors open at 8:00 pm, the show starts at 8:30. The cover is $7 in advance and $10 at the door. The show is ALL AGES, and everyone who comes gets a free copy of the new CD. Tell your friends! The more people that come out, the more fun everyone will have! Woo Hoo!

Fall Tour, Coming Along!

2009-09-02T09:11:00.002-04:00

Chris Williams makes some of the best screen printed posters we've ever seen! He did the posters for our vinyl release in August, and his Cy Rawls Benefit poster for Colossus, Grappling Hook, and Tooth is the centerpiece of my rock art collection. Thanks, Chris for your incredible work!

Our Fall '09 Tour is coming along nicely! We'll be headed out with The Story Changes to the midwest and back, rocking kids in Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, and all sorts of points in between. Check out our dates on the right sidebar, and if you live in one of those towns, hit us up and we'll send you free stuff in exchange for helping us get people out to the shows. You can email us right here.

Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled for the first of six song previews from Horror Vacui, our next record. Come Out, Come Out will be posted first, one of my personal favorite tracks, in part because it features The Hercules Europe Brass, courtesy of Wuss-Tone records. You can read all about them at The Wusses' website. You will be able to listen simply by using the player on the right sidebar of this blog.

Who Wants a Taste?

2009-08-31T12:48:00.002-04:00

In an effort to promote our second full-length album, Horror Vacui, IWTDI will be releasing a song a week until the release date, October 13th! Starting Friday, you will be able to stream one new song each week via the player on the right sidebar of this page or on our ReverbNation page. Then, a week after each song is introduced, it will be made available for streaming via our myspace page.

Check back, subscribe to this page, tell your friends! We're proud of this record, and we can't wait to share it with you! The first track will be put up this Friday.

And keep your eyes peeled for news of our CD release party, October 10 at the Cat's Cradle! It's going to be a blast!

IWTDI Update: Do You Like Parties?

2009-08-27T16:01:00.002-04:00

We like parties. We like parties a lot. We like parties so much, we're throwing one on October 10th. We aren't quite ready to release all the details yet, still putting some finishing touches on the event, but this is a party you will want to attend! Keep checking back, or feel free to subscribe to our blog using your favorite reader!

Also, we're booking our fall tour! Take a look at our show listings widget on the right and tell your friends in those towns! We'll be offering free stuff and guest list spots to folks who help promote our shows!

There's been a slight lull over the past few days, just the calm before the storm, friends. We're going to have a lot to talk about very soon!

Kind words from Bootleg Magazine

2009-08-20T16:31:00.001-04:00

I WAS TOTALLY DESTROYING IT

The Beached Margin/Done Waiting EP

If their debut was about celebrating youth and having fun while exploring sonic power-pop ideas then I Was Totally Destroying It's follow up EP's (and October full length release Horror Vacui) are about coming to terms with adulthood and relationships, that life stops being a party.

Compiling unreleased material and a previously digital-only free release, The Beached Margin EP and Done Waiting EP as a vinyl release by Greyday Records is a success, and a hard won one at that. After leaving a local N.C. label for greener pastures, IWTDI finally gets these energetic and emotional tunes out.

Growing can be a struggle and it finds light here yet with IWTDI continuing to distill high energy power pop on both EP's. Done Waiting is seven songs that feel less like leftover tracks from their debut than varied takes on familiar ideas. Done Waiting is mostly wild-eyed, a blast of energy on the title track and ‘Teeth’ is just as explosive, more immediate and troubled. John Booker and Rachel Hirsh continue to be outstanding vocalists, whether together or apart. Everything here illustrates a growth spurt, taking on new shapes, architecture and flavors. Half way in the band begins to experiment, infusing late sixties melodies or electronic beats on ‘I’m Broke and So is Everything I Own’ – a bouncing and murky song that’s theatrical, spooky and, briefly at times, a party. ‘The Masquerade’ opens with a The Who-like acoustic melody recalling ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ but it’s an ethereal track, brief at two minutes, but gutsy for its spare qualities and restraint. ‘Radar Song’ may weight Done Waiting, sounding indifferent to the whole and like another band entirely, hinting . But as the longest track, it’s the most at risk yet has much to offer.

The Beached Margin collects four songs, either larger in scope or decidedly spare, notably 'Me and My friends' which has an acoustic Neil Young quality. 'Fences' navigates between careful pacing and explosive, punchy rhythms, clearly showing how the band can craft memorable songs with delicious melodies. As a vinyl release (on muted purple wax no less) the tracks have a thicker, more alive feel than their free download counterparts. The sound is heavier, almost as if the band is playing in the room - the vocals more crystallized and crisp.

IWTDI is a righteous combination, blending rock, harmony and pop sounds with a bounty of ideas. The band scorches down the middle of the American highway, negating clichés. IWTDI has a lot of territory in which to cover, hopefully they’ll keep exploring.

- Brian Tucker

http://www.myspace.com/avenuemagazinepresents

From Garage to Couch

2009-08-19T11:04:00.003-04:00

On July 30, we played a ridiculously fun show at The Garage in Winston Salem with Rat Jackson and Lovely Houses. Check out the show review in Yes Weekly, and if an old Hepster might opine, I'd say Rat Jackson stole that show and engraved their name in our hearts that night!

Meanwhile, make sure you catch the next screening of Beer Y'all, August 27 at the Local 506!

Deckfight: Friday Five

2009-08-18T10:13:00.005-04:00

IWTDI are proud to have been included in Deckfight's follow-up to Earfarm's "Ten NC Bands You Should See" We happily share the list with The Never, Nathan Oliver, Dylan Gilbert, and Red Collar. Follow the link below to find the write-ups and links to songs by all of these great bands. And many congratulations to Lonnie Walker for heading a great list of bands over at Earfarm.

http://www.deckfight.com/2009/08/friday-five-5-more-north-carolina-bands.html

Limited Edition Vinyl is Out!

2009-08-13T11:18:00.003-04:00

On August 7, we held our 12" release party at The Pinhook in Durham, NC with Goner and Free Electric State. A good time was had by all! We introduced our very own cocktail, known as the "I Was Totally Destroyed" which contains gin, blue curacao, grapefruit juice, and sour mix. Pinhook went through SIX bottles of gin that night! We also introduced The Beached Margin/Done Waiting, our 11-track dual-EP on colored vinyl, which you can purchase online using the link to the right, at shows, at CD Alley in Chapel Hill, Schoolkids Records in Raleigh, and in Durham at Chaz's Bull City Records as well as Offbeat Records. If you're not into vinyl, you can purchase the whole thing or just your favorite songs at your favorite online outlet such as Amazon or iTunes. The vinyl comes with a free digital download which includes a bonus track which you can also find at said online outlets. Exciting!

Greetings!

2009-08-12T17:09:00.002-04:00

Hello and welcome to the new IWTDI blog style web presence thingy! We hope you will come back and check out our updates frequently, as we have many fun things going on. Woo Hoo!