As a huge fanboy, I find it extremely cool that our drummer, Vince, played for Sister Machine Gun during their final tour in 2004. Falling easily within my Top Seven Bands Of All Time and despite what everyone says about Chris Randall being an asshole, SMG definitely has a special place in my heart. With that said, it excited me to no end when Vince presented me with CR's guitar strap before we started TIT. I'm not sure why I felt the need to share this, but at least it makes a good segue into this:
Charles Levi (L) and Miguel Turanzas (R) from Sister Machine Gun, 2004
After our stay in Salt Lake City, we made the exciting drive to Boise, ID. When we arrived, we found the venue to shockingly exceed expectations. However, in the end, the crowd turned out to be smaller than Decatur, IL. We knew that it would be one of the smaller shows of the tour and it certainly didn't help that the venue got changed ten days before. Regardless, we played an excellent, full set and afterward I turned it into a full-blown Drunk Night (only the second of TIT - St. Louis was the first).
We made the Boise-Seattle drive yesterday, of which about 40% was drop-dead gorgeous. Tonight is our second of three nights here and I've been loving every second of it. We're staying with Ayria's drummer, Mike, in Capitol Hill and we've been trying to experience as much of the restaurants and shopping as possible. Last night I passed on 80's night, but I'm about to head off to Mercury for a taste of the Seattle scene.
We play El Corazon tomorrow, but with a bit of a caveat. Apparently it got double-booked with 80's metal icons, Helloween. The plan is for the mullets to clear out by 9pm, immediately followed by our load-in and sound check with the goal to start the show by 10:30pm. I'm a bit apprehensive about this, so wish us luck for a smooth transition.
Lastly, I uploaded 1100+ pictures to our relatively new flickr account. I don't have a good camera, so the vast majority were actually taken by Ayria's keyboardist, Jeff. Here is the link:
If you're interested in reading and/or writing comments on TIT:LOG, I'm cross-posting everything to my Livejournal.
:: september.30.2008 :: 04:01 pm ::
TIT:LOG, Day 20 - Corporate Sponsored.
After our show in Kansas City, MO last week, we headed over to the Kansas Speedway area to dabble in the releasing of merch income. The complex not only contained the racetrack itself, but also a rather sizable outdoor mall along with all of the typical orbiting restaurants and superstores. The mall's parking lot was home to dozens of promo booths from all of the usual corporate suspects: AT&T, JVC, Toyota, etc, etc. Half of The Immortal Tour was wandering through the wonderland of sample sizes and promo games when two booths caught our eye: Vitamin Water and NOS energy drink. After some sweet talking and sob stories, we convinced the reps of both booths to supply us with adequate amounts of each product to help us continue the journey around the country. In the end, we made off with over $250 in vitamin/energy drinks and quickly stowed it away in our vans.
If that weren't enough for corporate aid, here's a bit more. We recently were informed that we are one of 100 bands selected for Taco Bell's Feed The Beat contest. Like all online music contests that utilize "voting", the main goal is to draw visitors to the sponsor's website(s) and not "help" the "contestants". SIDE NOTE: If I get one more email from some shitty pop-punk band in California (whose name is of the form, "NOUN-NUMBER") that wants me to vote for them so that they can play the 24th stage on the Warped Tour, I'm gonna... That said, I only submitted I:Scintilla before the tour started because I was interested in the $500 Taco Bell gift certificate that is awarded to the top 100 bands. Now that we have made that cut, I really could give two shits about trying to win recording time in a "real studio" with a "professional producer". Just gimme the 7-layer burritos and shut the fuck up.
Our Salt Lake show on Sunday was good. The venue, Area 51, was definitely cool as far as alternative clubs go. Multiple floors, a cool decor dedicated to its namesake, and a staunch dedication to alternative music were all attractive features. The live stage room left a bit to be desired, but worked out well. The one complaint could be attributed to the funky scheduling for the night. There were three bands, two dance performances, and DJs scheduled for the night that ran 6pm-1am. For some reason, the powers that be thought it best to put us on at 7:30 and push Ayria and CXS back to 10:15 and 11:30 respectively. At the time, I wasn't too excited about "opening" for the dance performers, but it turned out that we played to a comparably sized crowd as everyone else. In the end, the SLC crowd was EXCELLENT and we saw our second best merch night of the young tour.
We're in the midst of a two-day vacation in Salt Lake. Yesterday was Mountain Day, which consisted of hiking and tramming up to 11,000 feet with Ay:scintiria and our gracious SLC hosts. Below is my mighty arrival to the mountain base:
Tomorrow we're on to Boise, followed by Seattle on Saturday.
:: september.27.2008 :: 03:48 pm ::
TIT:LOG, Day 17 - Things to do in Denver when you're a hippie.
Welcome to TIT:LOG (The Immortal Tour: Life Of a Guitarist). I had the full intention of kicking this beast off a few days before leaving, but the stress that is preparing for a tour of this magnitude got the best of me. I also found that while on tour, both free time and wi-fi access are available, but rarely at the same time. I will certainly make every attempt to keep the LOG updated at least on a semi-daily basis. That said, let me provide a quick overview of the last 17+ days:
There have been challenges met, challenges failed, and challenges ignored.
There have been crowds that exceeded expectations (Tulsa, OK), those that disappointed (Decatur, IL), and those that blew us away (Chicago, IL).
There have been shows where we played exceptionally well (Minneapolis, MN & Kansas City, MO & Denver, CO).
There have been venues that were absolutely beautiful (Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN) and others that needed improvement.
There have been promoters that killed us with kindness and professionalism (Tulsa, OK & Kansas City, MO) and others that needed improvement.
There have been only minor technical inconveniences.
There have been two shows where the sound crews were awful and Rogue ran sound for all three bands (Tulsa, OK & Fayetteville, AR).
There have been too many crossings of the Mississippi River.
There has been a lot of downtime and gaps and that will continue for the next eleven weeks.
There have been many times where we lost all conception of space and time.
There has been no better band to share a van with (Ayria) and no better band to support (The Cruxshadows).
There has never been a better experience than this.
I am currently sitting at a Denny's in Denver, CO. Last night we played at a place called Owsley's, which is part of a five-venue hippie conglomerate that requires Grateful Dead music to be played at all times. The place didn't completely suck, but it definitely ranked amongst the lower tier of the venues we'll see on the tour. Nevertheless, the crowd was excellent, we played a great set, and we had a great time. Today is a Drive Day through the mountains to Salt Lake City. Many more words and photos to come!
:: april.18.2008 :: 11:22 am ::
There have been numerous reports of Rock Face appearing on television screens and computer monitors across Germany. Experts agree that the increased number of Rock Face sightings is a direct result of the newest DVD compilation from Sonic Seducer:
01. The Birthday Massacre "Red Stars" (live 2007) [bisher unveröffentlicht!]
02. VNV Nation "Perpetual" (live 2007) [bisher unveröffentlicht!]
03. The Retrosic "Maneater" (live 2007) [exklusiv vorab!]
04. Clan Of Xymox "Farewell" (live) [M'Era Luna 2006]
05. The Crüxshadows "Winterborn" (live) [exklusiv M'Era Luna 2007!]
06. In Extremo "Spielmannsfluch" (live) [exklusiv M'Era Luna 2006!]
07. Schandmaul "Drachentöter" (live) [exklusiv M'Era Luna 2007!]
08. Crematory "Höllenbrand" (live 2007) [exklusiv!]
09. Unheilig "An Deiner Seite"
10. Nightwish "Bye Bye Beautiful"
11. Atrocity "The Sun Always Shines On TV"
12. I:Scintilla "Salt Of Stones" (live) [exklusiv!] 13. Straftanz "Tanzt kaputt, was euch kaputt macht!" (Video Cut)
14. Ladytron "Sugar"
15. Crisk. "Beute"
16. Ayin Aleph "Hamlet"
17. Stoneman "Wer f***** will"
18. The Pussybats "Dead By Dawn"
In other Germany-related news, I had to remove our Wave Gotik Treffen video clips from YouTube, etc. Apparently the production company that filmed the festival won't allow bands to post anything unless they pay out the ears. I don't know if they can legally do this, but at the moment I don't feel like fighting for it.
:: march.25.2008 :: 05:14 pm ::
In case you can't read the flyer, here are the details:
Thursday, April 3 @10pm
Kinetic Playground, 1113 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago, IL
$7 cover, 21+ to enter
with Accessory (Metropolis/Out of Line) and Virtual D3scent (St. Louis)
plus DJ's Easy E, Mister Entropy, Noir, and Pathogen
In terms of transportation convenience, this is about as easy as it's going to get in the city. The venue has a large, free parking lot directly behind it. If you're taking the train, it is located directly next to the Lawrence Red Line stop. We're looking forward to it, so come on out!
:: march.25.2008 :: 04:17 pm ::
What a long and busy weekend...
THURSDAY: The I:S crew went out to Darkroom to check out Seabound/Iris. There were so many people that I knew that it was difficult to keep up with conversations and the performances. The Iris boys did great and Seabound was, well, Seabound. I picked up Hydra and Double-Crosser and also booked a show. I'll provide details in my next post.
FRIDAY: We headed down south to our old stomping grounds of Champaign. There was a full-blown blizzard brewing in Chicago when we left, but by the time we arrived in Champaign it was 60 degrees and sunny. We spent the afternoon bumming around the downtown shops. Although I wanted to walk away with some new threads, I opted for a big stack of discs instead (Tori, Siouxsie, and Ministry just to name a few).
The Highdive is one of the best venues we've played (or been to for that matter). We always have good shows there and this one was no exception. I definitely played the loosest of the four of us (shockingly, I was a bit tipsy), but we were repeatedly informed that this was the best sounding I:S show to date. DJ SorceryKid, DJ Hal0n, and some other dude (I forgot his name) did a phenomenal job with visuals for our set. They had extra lights, lasers, projections, graphics, and live video going and it made the stage look beautiful. Mankind is Obsolete was solid as usual and it was great to meet up with them again.
We headed over to Mike & Molly's afterwards for an unofficial afterparty. This allowed me to catch up with all the Champaign peeps. After that I kept things going at our friends' crash space by listening to Willie Nelson on vinyl and passing out on the kitchen floor.
A significant number of attendees inquired about the playlist I had running before, between, and after the bands. Here it is (alphabetically):
Angelspit - Girl Poison (I:Scintilla Mix)
Angelspit - Vena Cava
The Birthday Massacre - Looking Glass
Blaqk Audio - Snuff On Digital
Combichrist - Electrohead
Curve - Missing Link
Cylab - Heart Shaped Box
Faderhead - Dirtygirrrls / Dirtybois (Modulate Mix)
KMFDM - Light
Manufactura Vs. I:Scintilla Vs. Destroid - Deep Waters (Ophelia's Descent Mix)
Massive Attack - Inertia Creeps
Nine Inch Nails - Meet Your Master
Nitzer Ebb - Getting Closer
Panzer AG - Monster
Rotersand - I Cry
The Secret Meeting - Shiver X
Sister Machine Gun - Hole In The Ground
Skinny Puppy - jaHer
Stromkern - Night Riders
VNV Nation - Carry You
SATURDAY: The drive home was long and difficult. I crashed when I got home and opted to stay in. This was a very good decision.
SUNDAY: I returned to Darkroom to watch Wade's band, The Atomica Project, for the first time. Well, it was a partial performance consisting of Wade on bass, Lauren on vocals, and a laptop. It was very cool and chill. Lauren has an amazing voice. The rest of the bands made noise while I kicked back and laughed with the Darkroom crew.
if you noticed, i switched back to my old blog scheme...i will resume updating this one in parallel with my livejournal...both will have the same content, so feel free to frequent either...i'll turn comments on this one asap...
many thanks to dj vlad for the excellent work he did on the site and graphics....more cool features will be popping up in the coming months!
:: october.20.2006 :: 03:02 pm ::
i no longer update this blog...visit iscintilla.com and click 'blog' to see the new scheme...
today i needed to get my political blog fix...as usual, i went to myspace to browse through the most popular political blogs...upon arrival, i noticed that i could not filter the most popular blogs by category...i could only browse through all categories...this seemed odd, so just for kicks i went to the blog editor and noticed that i could not choose a category when publishing a blog...
myspace has removed blog categories!
i sat around and thought about if for a while....then my conspiracy theory light bulb popped on:
myspace, as well all know, is owned by news corp. [aka fox [aka state-controlled media conglomerate]]...in the past, the most popular political myspace blogs were dominated by liberals...with midterm election season in full swing, why not make it nearly impossible to find those crazy lefty blabbermouths?
so when you browse the most popular myspace blogs now, you get nothing but the slut/comedy garbage that the website is best known for....tom, why have you betrayed us???
Top 10 Sellers
Week of September 10, 2006
01 Rabia Sorda · Save Me From My Curse
02 Velvet Acid Christ · Lust For Blood
03 Velvet Acid Christ · Wound
04 Unter Null · Absolution EP LIMITED EDITION
05 Terrorfakt · Teethgrinder
06 Unter Null · Sacrament EP
07 Combichrist · Everybody Hates You
08 Various Artists · Industrial For The Masses Vol. 3
09 VNV Nation · Pastperfect Special Edition (2DVD/CD)
10 I:Scintilla · Havestar
:: september.8.2006 :: 05:36 pm ::
work is progressing nicely on the new album...one thing we're doing differently this time is tracking midi drums...tomorrow we will hook vince up to his electronic kit and record all the midi data that makes up his percussive being...we can then plug those events into whatever drum samples we want...the live drums will then be layered with programmed drums, which will result in a wall of beating...
we're also tracking vocals tonight for one of the new songs...wade will be getting his greasy fader fingaz on this one next week...why so soon?...we will be shooting a music video for it in october...chris folkens will direct/edit/mystify again [he did our 'capsella [toxin mix]' video]...we'll actually have a budget and crew this time...it will be shot in high definition [the same cameras as the new star wars trilogy] and the sets will be loaded with cranes, tracks, jibs, and other sorts of strangely named production hardware....we are very excited...
oh yeah, the song for the video?....it is drop-dead amazing...i can't wait until it's released...
in other news, we recently received excellent remixes from clan of xymox, mortiis, and stochastic theory...artists that will hopefully deliver remixes include kmfdm, die warzau, and das ich
overall, we are on track to deliver our album to the record label in january....the release should be in late march...
peace!
:: august.28.2006 :: 04:36 pm ::
below are the journal entries from the first two dates of our recent mini-tour:
we are currently resting in omaha, nebraska at a days inn...the hotel is a steal at $60/night: 2 queen beds, wi-fi, pool/hot tub, etc...we'll stay here tonight as well...
everyone currently has a 'digestive' bug of varying degrees...needless to say, i've been spending too much time in the bathroom....
st. louis, mo [august 7]
the venue was a decent place, but its location was awful....we've always played in the downtown area of st. louis and this place was certainly off the beaten path...the sound system was definitely sub-par and the sound tech looked and moved exactly like the slow turtle from bugs bunny cartoons...we were riddled with technical problems all night, most notably with the laptop and the sound tech's failure to comprehend that sound comes out of it...our performance was one of our worst and we were very rusty....we're glad the turnout wasn't great...we knew it wouldn't be through the roof considering the venue and it being a monday night, but we didn't think it would be as slow as it was...luckily, our merch sales were excellent and it saved our financial ass
we met up with mankind is obsolete for the first of seven shows with them....they were very tight, energetic, and professional....their set was excellent as well....we make a great match...
we went to one of st. louis's goth/industrial events after the show...it was at an unbelievably beautiful venue called dante's....we had a great time and the dj spun combichrist's remix of 'havestar'...
setlist: the bells, taken, imitation, bolivia, translate, havestar, capsella, scin
lincoln, ne [august 8]
we didn't get to bed until 4:30am after the club in st. louis...we had to hit the road by 10am and make the longest drive of the tour [~8 hours]....
the venue in lincoln was average...it reminded me a lot of champaign's cowboy monkey, but a bit larger and not nearly as swank...however, the sound and stage were much better than those in st. louis...the sound tech was a freakin' audio genius and made us sound great on stage and in the club...as a result we had one of our best peformances despite the fact that attendance was about equal to the night before...the crowd responded well, but merch sales weren't quite as good...
the headlining band, the god project, joined mkio for a cover of rammstein's 'engel'...later on, mkio joined the god project for a cover of skinny puppy's 'worlock'.....both were interesting interpretations, although i preferred the former over the latter...
some teenagers were slam dancing outside the club and it was downright hilarious...
setlist: the bells, taken, translate, havestar, scin, imitation
we're now getting ready to go to the omaha venue in about an hour...i hope to see some of you at one of our upcoming dates!
:: august.24.2006 :: 05:47 am ::
pssssstt....you can now purchase the havestar e.p. from shop.iscintilla.com....free shipping to the u.s.!
:: august.17.2006 :: 11:01 pm ::
bakersfield, ca will have an i:scintilla lane....no joke...the city planner is a huge fan and names streets after his favorite bands.....it will take about a year before everything is finalized, but as soon as we have a picture, it's going up here....
i'll post my mini-tour journal very soon.....it was unbelievably fun.....extensive details to come...
:: august.2.2006 :: 06:38 pm ::
:: july.25.2006 :: 06:05 pm ::
random thoughts as they pop into my head...
i'm still swamped with everything...on the musical front, i'm finishing a remix for neikka rpm and starting one for stochastic theory...this is in addition to working on new i:scintilla songs and finalizing live backing tracks...i don't think we'll have time to add brittany's vocals to three of mind:state's [alfa matrix artist] songs...
the tour is 100% booked and confirmed [it better be, it starts in 13 days!]...it's about 65% promoted, so i need to continue to chug away at that...
one of our new songs is absolutely phenomenal and we'll be playing it on the upcoming tour...brittany completely shocked us with some amazing lyrics and vocal melodies...vince also added the perfect live drums...i can't wait to see how the audiences react to this one...i also can't wait to get back to work on fully recording it...
i recently sold my korg trinity plus synthesizer...i owned it for five years and no longer had a need for it...next up on the block: korg dtr-1 rackmount tuner, ibanez bass guitar, ibanez acoustic guitar...next up to purchase: gibson les paul studio, martin or taylor acoustic guitar...
i think i'm going to purchase civilization iv to have on the mini-tour...i like to refer to the civilization series as 'digital heroin' because i get pathetically addicted to playing them....it got so bad with civ iii that i had to uninstall it and destroy the installation cd...i've been game-free for three years now, so why do i want to go back?
i'm currently in week two of the [unofficial] henry rollins diet...this is what i eat every weekday:
- breakfast: met-rx protein bar
- lunch: can of tuna, large glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice
- snack: yogurt, two bananas
- pre-workout: met-rx protein shake
- dinner: bowl of soup [or turkey sandwich], handful of organic blue corn tortilla chips
it's not as bad as you'd think and i feel great...however, it still takes a bit of work to choke down those met-rx protein bars...
new album status: 2 songs completely finished, 5 demos finished, 1 song written [no demo], and 7 songs to go....can we finish by january?
brittany and i have been bombarded with interviews over the past few weeks...we will be featured in all four goth/industrial magazines in germany...each of these magazines comes with a compilation cd that will include [at least] one i:scintilla song....we have also done interviews for magazines based in italy, france, and the united states...
