APRIL 2007 - Bleedin Recording Session at Q Division

The Bleedins are back in the studio, working on a new EP to be released in May/June of 2007. On April 1, 2007, they went into the renowned Q Division studio A to record a bunch of new material for the EP. Stay tuned for more info re: the EP release. Here are a few choice shots from the recording session:

Dave demonstrates his one stick exploding cymbal technique, learned from many years of cruel tutelage with Pai Mei in China.

Matt’s playing during the session was truly inspired… probably because he borrowed Jesus’s magic Rickenbacker with the photon pickups, designed by God himself. Side note: God made this bass for Jesus when Jesus was about 13 and wanted to impress the girls with his band at their Bat Mitzvah’s.

Mike, always the fashionista, searches for a new look while the band slaves away in the studio.

Amidst all the pedals and buttons, Barry can’t seem to find the “on” switch.

Always up for using the latest technologies, Dave tries out the new “templephones,” which bypass the ears and conveniently connect directly to the frontal lobe. You can tell from his expression that it’s quite a stupefying experience.

Madge has taken over the reins as the official Bleedin engineer. Her most recent credits include touring with Tortola and recording Stewie and the Scratching Bastards. Welcome aboard, Madge!

 

 

 

MARCH 2006 - A Bleedin SXSW Story

Early morning, March 15th… a plane lands hard from an Austin sky. Warm at last, can’t see our breath, but we can see our future. And that future apparently is one filled with tons of beer… oh, and music.

The Bleedins went down to Texas this year to SXSW, the biggest music festival in the US. We got in on Wednesday, March 15th on no sleep and immediately headed to 6th Street. First stop – Paradise. That’s right, Paradise… for lunch. It could only be Paradise because they had Dr. Pepper on tap for Dave’s patented Dr. Pepper/Jim Beam mix – a concoction not unlike rocket fuel in taste and effect. Not to be outdone, Shiner Bock beer actually took the weekend for highest consumption rate. Man, that stuff is good!

Wait a minute… what were we talking about? Oh yeah, SXSW… which means music. Lots and lots of music. We saw TONS of bands down there. Some of our favs were Gemma Hayes, The Cloud Room, Duke Special, The Magic Numbers, The Amazing Pilots, The Chalets, and and and… damn, so many bands. Here’s a picture of Gemma Hayes at the Music From Ireland Showcase:

We got to play a couple of times while in Austin. Our big performance was for the Full Irish Breakfast show sponsored by Music From Ireland on Thursday afternoon. (Thanks Fairy D!) Performing along side Iain Archer, Gemma Hayes, The Butterfly Explosion, The Chalets, and many other amazing acts, we rocked BD Riley’s. Well, we tried to. R2D2 (our mostly friendly Pro Tools robot) was jetlagged. And he wasn’t happy that we left him in Ireland for several weeks, all alone in a strange land with no friends. So, like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, he thought it was a great show… for him to poop on! Didn’t matter that there was a full, attentive crowd. Didn’t matter that we gave him delicious Guinness. Didn’t matter that I updated his firmware before the show (ewww). He still decided to poop on the show. BUT, being true professional drinkers, I mean, musicians, we carried on and rocked that joint. Musically, we were really on point, and even when R2D2 failed, we rocked through the songs and hopefully impressed the crowd. Here’s a picture of a rare moment during the show when R2D2 wasn’t pooping. (Thanks for the shot, Ryan!)

The next day, Mike and Dave sang and played Cinnamon Girl for Berklee’s Neil Young Tribute show. Neil Young was the keynote speaker at the convention. Apparently he’s written a few songs or something and knows a little about the music industry. Whatever. (I keed I keed) At the show, we were backed by the ever-capable Charlie Worsham and his Rockolate Factory (or rather, his Free State of Tallahatchie). Thanks boys!

After our work was done, the partying kicked into high gear. Friday and Saturday were ear-blasting, beer-soaked, pizza-fueled races against time and lines of people. In between slices, we entertained ourselves by wearing bibs and eating seafood. Nothing soaks up beer like crawfish and gumbo???

In all, the weekend was amazing. We made some great friends, saw some fantastic bands, drank an ocean of beer, and played a few rockin shows. And I’m sure we’ll be back next year… only this time with an entourage of non-pooping robots and a few of those hats that hold beers. Cheers!

 

 

February 2006 - The Bleedin Bleedins Take Over Ireland


Wow… what a trip! Our fourth trip to Ireland was amazing and jam-packed. We flew into Dublin on the morning of Feb 15,2006 and went non-stop for 5 days. The first day, we stopped at RMG (our Irish distribution company) for a quick meeting about the impending Irish release of our record. The meeting went really well… we’re all ecstatic about it. Then, on our way to Cork for our first gig of the tour, we stopped by the childhood home of our own Fresh Prince of Kildare (Barry) and had some super soup with Ned and Kaye (BK’s doting parents).

Dublin to Cork via car is about 3 hours. If you’ve ever driven in Ireland, you know that there are tons of roundabouts. I’d say we went through a total of 30 roundabouts on our way to and from Cork… can’t say that did much to help car sickness. Anyway, it turns out that in Cork, we’ve taken on legendary status. So legendary that they’ve added an extra Bleedin to our name. For that show, we were The Bleedin Bleedin Bleedins! And we rocked Cork extra hard for it.

Along with the cool Cork band Revere, we played a full set to a massive crowd of 300 at An Brog. After the show, the pints of Murphy’s went down too easily. Barry was in heaven.

The next morning, we had to be up early to do a radio performance on Cork’s RedFM. While packing the car, we somehow managed to lock the key to the car in the boot (trunk). Although there are speculations on who is to blame for the incident, we managed to get to the radio station with 10 minutes to spare and record Darkest Day and Tonight acoustically.

From RedFM, we drove to the gorgeously quaint Thomastown. We played at a place called EVGB’s which is connected to Eddie Murphy’s pub. (No, not Beverly Hills Cop’s Eddie Murphy!) The pints of Guinness in this place were the best we’ve had. Before the show, Mike made friends with the pub’s most famous local, Paddy the dog. Paddy joined us by the fire all day and night for pints… and ended up eating half our breakfast the next morning. He’s a smooth operator.

The show at EVGB’s went well as we got to play with our old friends in their new band called Kill City Defectors. But, the real highlight of our Thomastown stay was the hospitality of Eva and the rest of the folks at Eddie Murphy’s. Dave learned how to pull the perfect pint of Guinness and became the honorary bartender for the night.

Pints and pints and Jagerbombs and more pints and smokes and songs on the acoustic guitar and jokes and stories and more Jagerbombs and more pints… and woah… its 7am and we were all in a mad haze.

Friday afternoon we left Thomastown (rather unwillingly) and drove to Limerick, where we played at the Trinity Rooms… same place where the Violent Femmes were playing a week later. It was a good show where we all let loose… probably because we were all still drunk from the night before. While the Kill City Defectors wrecked the hotel later that night, The Bleedins took it relatively easy by necessity because…

Saturday we had to get up and drive across the country back to Dublin for the big show at The Hub. With a good-sized crowd and help from some great press, we rocked the joint along with support acts Kill City Defectors and Trip Hazard. Late night was spent at Whelans, singing (screaming) songs along with the DJ and friends Angela, Mags, Cian, Sue, and others… and then the obligatory trip to the chipper.

Sunday, somehow we got up early for a radio performance/interview with Anna Livia radio at noon. Then, off to Tower Records in Dublin for an acoustic performance that went really well. Later that night, Angela (aka Fairy D) cooked us up an amazing salmon dinner and we headed out into the city. We eventually landed at rock n’ roll karaoke at The Village, where we ran into some of the dudes in Republic of Loose. The lead singer of R of L got up and sang Aretha Franklin and the place went wild. Back at Angela’s to crash, we got maybe 3 hours of sleep before having to leave for the airport.

In the midst of our sleep deprivation and alcohol-induced haze, we managed to pull off a successful tour, making new friends, playing great shows, gaining fans, pulling off some sweet acoustic radio sessions, garnering excellent press, and having a blast. Thanks to everyone who helped us have a great time in Ireland and we’re really looking forward to coming back there in April/May for the release of our record.