CATCH IT!!!

January 29th, 2011
Ryan at home in Champaign
5:42pm

A small update, friends.

Our trusty van, The Millenium Falcon, came home yesterday. It’s been at Joe Machens’ Collision Center in Columbia, MO since the accident. It’s fixed, it was painless, and we even got an additional payoff because they couldn’t find a plastic trim piece for the door.

And, to pile on the good news, and in addition to the progress we’ve made on “Residential Weather”, I spent the last 24 hours finishing another new song and recording an almost-album-worthy version here in my home studio. It’s called “The Thermostat, The Telephone” and it’s beautiful. Keep your eyes and mouse clicks right here for more progress and goodness.

January 26th, 2011
/ From Ryan at home in Champaign /

For the first time ever we’ve built a new song from the ground up completely together. Dave & Chris were just messing around with a drum & bass part two weeks ago as they were warming up to start rehearsal. Mark & I quickly hopped on and everyone started hearing new ideas. We ended the 2 ½ hour rehearsal by recording our progress with GarageBand. We spent the week listening individually to that recording. Then, last week we polished and structured and reworked all of the parts from the first rehearsal. Things moved a little slower, but we still ended the night with a better version of the song and once again recorded our progress.

Over the last week I’ve been brainstorming for lyrical ideas and trying to finally find my songwriting process. I’ve always just had small ideas that I pushed and pushed until something good came out without really structuring my moves or giving myself a routine. I realized that what has held me up in the past and caused each song to take MONTHS to write is that I don’t write down all of the ideas I have for each song-seed. I just let it roll around and around in my head for weeks and weeks hoping that the next spark comes quickly. Sometimes it does and sometimes it just rolls around on an endless loop. With Residential Weather I knew from the first rehearsal that the music made me feel like talking about what my neighborhood is like in the winter and at night, when everyone’s keeping warm inside relaxing in front of the television or on the couch. So, I’ve spent the last two weeks writing down how this idea makes me feel and what specifically I notice when Jody and I are out walking our dog, Rufus, or when I’m driving home after sunset. I realized that I have a lot of thoughts in my head that are interesting and definitely songworthy. The writing classes I took in college helped me understand what it is to think poetically and creatively about everyday situations. Now, I have to recognize when something I’m thinking about is good material for a song and then actually PUT IT INTO A SONG, the second being the hardest part.

The summary of all of this? We built a brand new song together and this song has helped me find, or has at least pushed me in the right direction to find, my songwriting process. All of the songs of ours that I’ve liked in the past 6 ½ years are the ones that said exactly what I meant them to say. And not so coincidentally they’re also the ones that everyone else has liked. So, THIS IS THE ANSWER. It’s simple, it’s logical. We push on.

More to come…

January 12th, 2011

Friends and faithful supporters…

We want to check in with you, wrap up the last year, and give you a few previews and predictions for 2011. Dave is continuing to heal quickly! In fact, we rehearsed on Tuesday for the first time since the accident and he was playing at almost full-steam. Thank you physical therapy and just the right kind of shoulder blade fracture. The icing on the rehearsal cake was that, without planning it, we wrote 90% of a brand new song from scratch in 2 ½ hours! Keep your eyes & ears peeled for “Residential Weather” coming your way soon.

/ Reflections on 2010 /
It was our best year yet, and that’s why these first 6 ½ years are just the beginning of what we have planned. We aren’t going to make one of those “hop off when it’s finally going really well and start other projects that are bound to land us in some world music circle” kind of moves.

Here’s what we did this year:

+ January – The Chemicals EP was released
- – - – - -(Our release show at Highdive was our biggest crowd at home yet)

+ February – EP Release Tour with We Landed on the Moon!

+ March – sold out show at Highdive in Champaign with St. Vincent

+ April – 4 shows on Record Store Day!
- – - – - -Parasol released our first vinyl single (Body of Water / Fatal Flaw)

+ May – our first sold out show at Schubas with 75% of tickets sold in advance
- – - – - – we avoided a lawsuit over the album cover with the help of Boing Boing

+ June – Summerfest in Milwaukee

+ August – Yes Yes Yes was released on Parasol Records
- – - – - -(Our biggest shows yet in Chicago & St. Louis)

+ August/September – YYY Tour: East Coast
- – - – - -(Highlights: Kalamazoo/Jamestown/Brooklyn/Philadelphia)
- – - – - -Sold out show at The Art Theater for Pygmalion Music Festival
- – - – - -Brittany Pyle’s video for “Breathing Light” was released

+ October/November – YYY Tour: The South & West Coast
- – - – - -(Highlights: Memphis/Charleston/Baton Rouge/Austin/Tucson/Portland/Seattle/Denver)
- – - – - -Zimos Ferguson’s video for “Wooden Houses” was released

+ December – Dave was hit by a drunk college girl in Columbia, MO after a 4-day Midwest
run, leaving Ryan to finish out the rest of the year playing solo sets in Chicago, St. Louis, and Champaign

TOTAL SHOWS IN 2010: (coming soon!)

/ What’s to Come in 2011 /
This year has started off unlike any other period of time since we formed in October of 2004. Because of the successful release of Yes Yes Yes we can finally turn off the touring engine for a while and focus on new songs. We get to do what the bands we love and envy get to do: sit down and write a new record. The two and a half year process of recording and releasing the two EPs and the full-length never let us really be in this situation. We just kept going and going without knowing exactly where we’d stop. This time, and for the first time, we can just write and rehearse and filter until we’ve found the songs that make us the happiest. Then we’ll record them with everything we’ve got (without taking 30 months) and there’s the new record.

/ Growing Even Closer to You /
We’re also planning on getting you, our friends and supporters, involved more with everything we do. Chris will start recording video of our rehearsals so you can see and hear what’s happening with us from week to week. In addition, we’ll be more engaging on this blog, Facebook, & Twitter because a lot goes on to keep a band working and you haven’t been able to see most of it. We’re ready to be a part of your day everyday. And please continue to send your love, comments, and ideas to us. We say it a lot, but we really need you. It bums us out when we see bands who seem to operate only for themselves and their closest friends. We’re not interested in keeping anything a secret. We need you to keep putting our music on your blogs and including us in playlists and sharing us with your friends. WE NEED YOU!

This blog is about to become a constant, so check back often. Thank you. We love you.

xo,

ELSINORE

It was late Saturday, Dec. 4th, 2010 and it felt like a T-Rex had just stepped on our van.

We were returning to The Blue Fugue in downtown Columbia, MO, which is also campus-town for the University of Missouri, or Mizzou. It was our first show in Columbia in two years and in past visits we’d always talked about how interesting it was to see city life and campus life smashed together into one big buzzing, humming hub. This is completely opposite of what’s happening in our twin cities of Champaign-Urbana. Not only is “downtown” completely autonomous from campus-town, but each city has its own thriving center. So, the action is more evenly spread in three manageable globs, like strawberry jelly on toast: good all over, but extra good in those few spots where a real strawberry chunk has survived the pureeing process.

But, like I said Columbia has it all jammed into a square of about 12 or 15 blocks. We’ve seen before that this means dozens of police cars patrolling the streets trying to keep everything calm on Friday & Saturday nights. And as we pulled up to the club to load in around 9 o’clock we had to dodge groups of half-drunk silly-walkers dressed in their best Santa, elf, & Slutty Mrs. Clause outfits out on the town despite it being 24 degrees. In winter’s chill people still wanted to get drunk and walk around.

So, we unloaded our van with patience, precision, & speed, all characteristics of a band that’s played over 150 shows this year. We’ve gotten used to rolling with whatever kind of night we happen to pull up to, and the mood on the street and in the club was that slightly toasty, pre-holiday warmth you start to feel as the calendar flips to December. We settled down inside, picked a four-top, took off our coats, and met the opening band, which had one of the best names for a female-fronted rock band we’ve ever heard: Vulvette. They were sweet and all told us how excited they were to play with us and that the bar staff had been talking about us since our last show at the club. We felt loved and warmly welcomed back into the coziness of Columbia.

Vulvette started their set and the room started to fill up. They did what we hope every local band does when we’re on the road, which was bring a crowd out that wanted to relax and listen to the bands play. So, when they finished their last song and started to wrap cables and shake a few hands we felt like the stage was set for us to just get up and play to people who cared. And that’s what happened. We tore through our set and were greeted at the end of every song with applause, tinking of glasses, and plenty of Midwestern “whoops”. It was a great way to end the week of regional dates and left us feeling like we’d even neglected Columbia by not making it back in over two years. So, we promised everyone who came over to the merch table, whether it was to buy a copy of the album or just to talk to us and gush a little, that we’d be back soon. The owner, the door guy, and two bartenders all let us know that we’d been missed and that a quick return was completely necessary. These are the nights that remind us why we’ve worked so hard and so long to be a touring band. Strangers become instant friends because of the music we make.

Then, we started loading everything out of the club and into the van, which was parked right out in front. South 9th St. in downtown/campus-town is a two-way street with parking on both sides. Those drunken Christmas walkers were still out on the prowl, some of them missing their hats or having suffered a scuffed knee or elbow from some sort of shenanigans. The weaving and whipping of gear was a little tougher at 12:45am. Plus, the club next door was blasting one of those booty-dance songs that only revs up college cuties and bros. And the sidewalk was full of college cuties and bros.

A few people from inside the Fugue gave us a hand when they saw what we were fighting getting from the front door to the rear door of our van. Again, thank you for caring, Columbia! Chris, the Tetris Master of our band, started calling out what piece he needed next and within a few minutes everything was snug and safe. So, we hugged and hand-shaked and said our goodbyes. It was Dave’s turn to drive, so he walked around the front of the van and the rest of us started piling in. Then, Dave yelled “JESUS!” and the van shook in a way you don’t imagine a van being able to shake. The driver’s side window shattered and a blue, 90’s Camry slowly drove away as we all shouted and tried to figure out what was going on. A few people ran after the car to try to stop the driver or at least get a license plate number, and the rest of us quickly gathered around Dave to see how he was. It was frantic and horrible.

He was laying flat on his back next to the van under the driver’s side door that looked like it had been mauled by a grizzly bear. He had that look on his face and that sound in his voice where you know he wasn’t sure exactly what had just happened and if he was even still alive. We all got close enough to reassure him that he was alive and going to be fine. He giggled and winced and said his shoulder felt pretty bad, but that that was all that hurt. He told us he had turned around in time to see the girl in the driver’s seat swerve into the other lane of traffic with her head down and her eyes shut, and then quickly turn back to be aimed right at him, and must have been going 25 or 30 miles per hour.

Chris was at the head of the pack that sprinted off to try to stop Dave’s new worst enemy. And after about a minute or so he got back to the van, winded and letting us know he found a police officer just around the corner and that he was on his way. A crowd of concerned, 911-calling Columbians had surrounded the scene. Voices were yelling out where we were, what had happened, what they thought the license plate and make of the car were. Everything that needed to be happening was happening. We kept comforting Dave and asking him questions to make sure he was totally with us. Within two or three minutes four cop cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck filled the street. The emergency team filed out of their vehicles and started taking care of the battered Dave. We started filling in the police officers and told them the plate number and make of the car so they could start looking for the sleepy drunk. Everyone just sort of paced around shaking their heads. Dave was loaded onto a stretcher and into the ambulance as we all finished giving our statements to Officer Holtz, the one who Chris found and who showed up first.

Our new friends Eric & Gianna who work at The Blue Fugue said they would take us to the hospital, but first we had to unload our gear back into the club since the van door couldn’t be closed, which meant our belongings couldn’t be securely locked. Everyone helped us and it took only a couple of minutes to get it all inside. Then, we had to park the van behind the venue, but first needed to clear away the glass and other broken bits around the front of our van, including the Camry’s passenger side mirror, which was either ripped off by the van door or Dave’s body. I got in the driver’s seat and had to grab the inside handle of the door to try to keep it tucked in as much as I could while the van eeked down the alley and into the alcove at the rear of the building. After a 5-point turn I was lined up to nudge the van as close to a brick wall as possible to make it difficult for someone to get in through the mangled door. We got our backpacks and laptops and anything valuable out of the van, which we call The Millenium Falcon. It was hard leaving it there wounded and empty and cold.It’s taken us 29,000 miles this year and has only needed the bare minimum of maintenance.

We piled into Eric’s car after filling his trunk and would make the trip with half of our stuff on our laps. The University Hospital was only two miles away, which meant a quick drive for this sardined Ford Escort and for Dave in the back of the ambulance. We walked through the sliding E.R. doors and told Barry, the bearded, round-bellied attendant we were looking for Dave Pride who had been brought in just a few minutes before. He asked us to take a seat and said someone would be out soon to give us an update. Eric said he’d be right back and that he was going to take all of our stuff to his house, unload it, pick up Gianna at the Fugue, and then come back to wait with us. Amazing people. We love them.

After three or four minutes a woman with a warm smile and a clipboard came out and asked us to follow her into the inner waiting room. She said Dave was giggling and joking, the first person she’d ever encountered like that in the E.R. She told us he was being looked over and was about to get a CAT scan, and that she would be back to let us know when we could see him. Mark, Chris, and I sat there talking about the driver and what would and should happen to her. Knowing that Dave was only slightly injured let us focus our attention on being angry at the girl who fell asleep and HIT OUR FRIEND. It’s funny what you feel when something like this happens. You just want revenge and to know where the person is so you can yell at them and make them feel smaller than small for being drunk, falling asleep, swerving on a busy street going twenty-five miles per hour, and then running over your friend. Dave just wanted to drive us home.

We were led in to see him after only fifteen minutes, and as we followed the night-shift nurse through the sliding doors, we saw Dave clutching a thin, white cotton blanket with his left arm, stuck with an I.V., and dewy-eyed from a painkiller. He was smiling and just a little shaken up. His coat, zip-up hoody, favorite Grizzly Bear t-shirt, and boxer briefs had been cut off of him, but his jeans, which were brand new but had suffered a serious gash in the accident, thankfully had been pulled off and would be wearable again. He mourned the Grizzly Bear shirt, as did all of us, because it’s by far the best shirt he owns. We kept it for framing purposes, but let everything else be thrown away. He was sad to see his coat go too and told us he kept asking them to just slide everything off instead of cutting, but they didn’t listen. It was weird, he said, to be stripped clean by nine people while nursing a hurt shoulder. But, he stayed positive and full of jokes the whole time, and even influenced the male orderly to let slide a “that’s what she said” while we were standing around waiting for the final word from the surgeon.

The CAT scan revealed nothing more than a fractured scapula (shoulder blade) and the attending nurse gave Dave the rundown of what he needed to do once he left the hospital, which would happen just after they helped him get dressed and he signed a few papers. With torn jeans, a Carolina blue scrub top, a navy blue sling on his right arm, and Chris’ peacoat hung over his shoulders Dave followed us down to the front desk of the E.R. so he could sign the appropriate forms. Barry was glad to see Dave was OK and tried to make the whole process as simple and quick as he could. Thank you, Barry.

We all piled into Eric’s car again, Dave in the front seat, Mark, Chris, Gianna, and I crammed in the back like high school lunch hour. Dave needed Percocet ASAP to minimize the pain once the morphine wore off. So, at 3am we walked into the Walgreens near downtown and had his prescription filled. It’s funny how skeptical the late-night pharmacy worker was despite Dave wearing a scrub top & a sling, and having the appropriate emergency room prescription form. But, she got over it, asked him a few questions to verify he was who he said he was, and within minutes we had the goods. We left the parking lot and headed toward Eric & Gianna’s to finally settle down and get some sleep. Dave’s wife, Kelly, was debating about driving down immediately or in the morning, and finally it was decided that instead of her making the four and a half hour trip, Dave’s dad, Norel, who lived just two hours away in Collinsville, IL would come at eleven the next morning with Kelly’s dad’s van to pick us, and all of our equipment, up. Everything was starting to feel better. Dave was happy and joking about being hit by a car, we had a warm house to sleep in, and a rescue pick-up was scheduled for the morning.

After getting some sleep we woke up, deflated our air mattresses, packed our bags, and hopped in the van with Norel. Eric & Gianna led us back up to the Fugue and unlocked the front door. We played Tetris with our gear in the new van and then double-checked The Millenium Falcon for anything we might have missed. We hugged and thanked Eric & Gianna for everything, and started the trip back to Champaign-Urbana. Norel has spent many years of his life as a professional bus driver, so we felt safe and able to nap and just relax. After two hours we reached Collinsville. We dropped Norel off and Dave went inside to see his mom and let her know he was ok. Then, the four of us, in our silver rescue van, got back on I-70 and headed north.

Later that night Dave called Officer Holtz to see if there had been any progress and he said that with the help and cooperation of her family the girl who hit him had turned herself in. I’m sure his shoulder felt just a little bit better as he heard those words. Now, he’ll spend the next two or three months healing and strengthening. And we’ll spend quite a bit of time dealing with her insurance company to have Dave’s hospital bills and our van repairs covered. Come on American justice system!

This is the kind of thing you never imagine happening to you. But, it happened to Dave and we’ve all added another tally to our book of life experiences. The girl will be punished for what she did, and in the future Dave will undoubtedly look over his mended shoulder with jungle-quickness just in case something’s coming his way. All he wanted to do was take his coat off.

Click Here to Visit the Elsinore 25% off Holiday Sale

/ NEW YEAR’S EVE @ MIKE ‘N MOLLY’S /

On Friday, December 31st, we will celebrate the end of the decade at Mike ‘N Molly’s with Santah and Common Loon. Expect surprises, merriment, tiny hats, those loud things that make terrible noises! Only 100 tickets will be available for purchase directly from the venue starting TODAY, Thursday, November 18th for $10 each. Due to capacity demands for both show and venue, advance tickets can be purchased ONLY at the venue, but ticketholders will only be guaranteed admission from 8pm – 10pm. Admission is NOT GUARANTEED after 10pm.

/ New Year’s Eve! /
Friday, December 31st
Mike ‘N Molly’s
105 North Market Street
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 355-1236

http://www.mikenmollys.com/

21+ / $10 / 8:00pm

Doors Open: 8:00pm
RYAN SOLO(updated) w/ Santah & Common Loon!

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

/ Directed & Photographed by Brittany Pyle /

Elsinore – Breathing Light from elsinoremusic on Vimeo.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

And we have a special thank you gift for all the love & support you’ve given us. If you don’t have all nine Yes Yes Yes Remixes, we’re offering them as a package on our BandCamp site. You pay what you want, including nothing. We just want to be sure you have everything we’ve got!

///CLICK HERE FOR YES YES YES REMIXES ///

Thank you for loving and caring.

xo,

ELSINORE

Related show

• Artist: Elsinore
• Date: Saturday, October 16th 2010
• Time: 9:00pm
• City: Elsinore in Memphis, TN
• Venue: Buccaneer
• Address: 1368 Monroe Ave
• Venue phone: 901-278-0909
• Country: United States
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Pre-order the new record and you get FIVE exclusive remixes as a warm-handed thank you for your love & support.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW!!!

– - -

Yes Yes Yes Release /// Summer/Fall 2010
Tue, Aug. 10th • OFFICIAL NATIONAL RELEASE DATE
ELSINORE HOUR ON WPGU 107.1 (3-4pm)
PARASOL RECORDS IN-STORE PERFORMANCE (6-7pm/ALL-AGES)
Fri, Aug. 13th • Firebird (St Louis, MO) *BUY TICKETS*
Sat, Aug. 14th • Canopy Club (Urbana, IL) *BUY TICKETS*
Thu, Aug. 19th • Black Sparrow (Lafayette, IN)
Fri, Aug. 20th • Lincoln Hall (Chicago, IL) *BUY TICKETS*
Sat, Aug. 21st • Radio Radio (Indianapolis, IN)
Wed, Aug. 25th • The Bishop (Bloomington, IN)
Thu, Aug. 26th • Blind Pig (Ann Arbor, MI)
Fri, Aug. 27th • The Strutt (Kalamazoo, MI)
Sat, Aug. 28th • The Brass Rail (Fort Wayne, IN)
Sun, Aug. 29th • The Crofoot – Pike Room (Pontiac, MI)
Tue, Aug. 31st • The Treehouse (Columbus, OH)
Thu, Sept. 2nd • Lemon Grove (Youngstown, OH)
Fri, Sept. 3rd • Howler’s Cafe (Pittsburgh, PA)
Sat, Sept. 4th • Labyrinth Press Co. – EARLY – (Jamestown, NY)
Sat, Sept. 4th • Mojo’s – LATE – (Jamestown, NY)
Sun, Sept. 5th • Bug Jar (Rochester, NY)
Wed, Sept. 8th • TT the Bears (Cambridge, MA)
Thu, Sept. 9th • The Space (Hamden, CT)
Fri, Sept. 10th • Union Hall (Brooklyn, NY)
Sat, Sept. 11th • M Room (Philadelphia, PA)
Tue, Sept. 14th • Tea Bazaar (Charlottesville, VA)
Fri, Sept. 17th • Southgate House (Newport, KY)
Sat, Sept. 18th • Deadbird Studios (Louisville, KY)

Also, here’s a killer remix below we debuted at Muzzle of Bees a few weeks back.  If you missed it, download it now!

CHEMICALS – SCARECROW ADAMS REMIX

xo,

ELSINORE

LISTEN AND DOWNLOAD HERE:

Friends & loved ones…
The digital single for the song “Yes Yes Yes” is out now, available for download, and streaming right here!  It’s the album version and a remix by our massively talented friend Scarecrow Adams, who is also about to deliver an equally amazing remix of “Chemicals”.  Click to download this 2-songs-for-$1 deal now via the Parasol web-store. Thank you for your continued love & support.

xo,
ELSINORE

If you’re a Twitter user we’d love your help building buzz for the new record. Right now, thank you to My Old Kentucky Blog, the album version and the Eric Enger/Gentleman Auction House Remix of the song “Yes Yes Yes” are being offered as a free download for a limited time. Please reTweet this post and help us move up the chart on The Hype Machine. So, click on this link and work some magic for us!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN AND RETWEET!!!

xo,

ELSINORE

The good people at The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein have decided that they’re ok with us using our album cover image. The power of the internet and collective thought has won!!! Thank you for your love and support. Let the album pressing begin!

Out August 10th on Parasol Records
///LP/CD/Digital///
June 12th – Indianapolis, IN: Independent Music and Arts Festival(12pm)

June 12th – Champaign, IL: The Taste of Champaign-Urbana(4pm)

June 24th – Milwaukee, WI: SUMMERFEST!

August 14th – Urbana, IL: Yes Yes Yes Album Release Show | Canopy Club