Oops... We're The Greatest!

You never know what it's going to be like to go from being small time to larger than life until that moment creeps up and you're The Greatest. It's something, man. It's something.

We're Just Here To Play

There's a reason it's called "playing" music. It's supposed to be fun. We're going to have fun. No. We're not going to watch the entire set of every band we play with. No. We're not going to stay until the end of the show every time we play. If someone in our band is into a band we're playing with, they'll show that by watching. If we don't watch or if we take off after we play, don't take it personally. We're not going to bullshit anyone. We're not going to pretend to dig what you're playing if we don't. And we wouldn't want anyone else to patronize or humor us by doing anything similar.

I've come to realize that striving for a unified brotherhood of musicians is not the way to go about it. I think these things arise in a natural way when they do happen to congeal into something cohesive, but not by the concerted efforts of people standing around and watching bands they aren't into and talking to people they don't feel compelled to talk to.

It's tough to get this across without sounding like a prick, and if you think I'm a prick for my sentiments here, that's fine. You are entitled to that. Believe me, I would love a big merry band of friends to go hang out with every time we play, but I don't believe this band has found it's niche yet. We aren't a hardcore band. We're not cock rock. We're not metal. We're kind of post-hardcore-ish. I don't know. We're weird. People leave the room when we play. Not all of them, but I guess you like us or you don't. And those who don't like us... again, I wouldn't want them to stand there and watch just because they're our buddies or because they feel some responsibility to do so. If you keep playing long enough and you're persistent, you'll find your little following. Maybe it will turn into a big following. But I don't desire a fake following.

It's easier to be energetic and really bring it when there's a crowded room of people who are also bouncing off the walls. It's easy to feed off that. But you should never play and feel like that has to be there for you to get it up musically. Reliance on a supportive crowd is a form of impotence where the packed house and the enthusiastic audience become a sort of inspirational Viagra. Learn to cultivate your own heat and bring it every fucking time you hit the stage. Play the same way for three people that you would for a thousand; out of your own center.

Don't pay attention to who stayed and watched and who didn't. If they didn't show up or they left early, consider it their freedom, but also their loss.

Nick

"Don't cover Buffett at singer/songwriter night."

Wednesday night, Zach, Bob, and myself (Nick... I'm usually the one writing these and I'll be better about clarifying that in the future) went to the local pub. We played some darts, drank a few beers, downed an entire bottle of honey mead, and oh yeah, played an acoustic set.

We opened the collection of four songs with a cover of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. We had fun. The musical acts were more or less there for background noise, so I can't say exactly what everyone in attendance thought about it, but they clapped after we finished, so at the very least they didn't hate our tunes. Or maybe they did and were simply humoring us. Whatevz. 

The whole evening was more or less just for fun. We weren't going out to try capturing a gaggle of new fans or anything of that sort. I said our band name a few times in between songs, but I don't believe anyone went home and looked us up. Like I said, it wasn't about any of that. We hit the downtown Lebanon scene looking for a laid back hangout and that's what we got. In a nice, rusticly decorated bar with a fine selection of wines and craft beers, we enjoyed ourselves and hopefully provided satisfactory ambiance for the local patrons. 

There was one hangup, however. The guy running the show told us we shouldn't have covered Jimmy Buffett. Why?! Why not?! He didn't even elaborate! Come on, man! Now I'm going to push for us to prepare a set made up exclusively of Jimmy Buffett songs which, if all goes my way, we will perform live at singer/songwriter night next month at The Village Wine Cellars (where we played Wednesday). 

And one last thing... I am a Parrothead. If you ever see us live and we cover Buffett, we're not being cute or ironic. I genuinely love the guy's entire catalogue. 

Nick

Good Bands Do Posters

Good bands do posters, don't they? You don't see many good bands without posters of themselves for sale. You also don't see many good bands without signed 11 x 17 glossy prints. I think what we might do is go ahead and sell our van and all of our musical equipment, take the money we get from our combined sales, and throw in on some "Hi-Q" glossy prints of our band having lunch. We'll charge $15 for the glossy print and then $5 per signature from each band member. Of course, we'll be wearing dark sunglasses while we sign your print because we don't want to make eye contact for free. If you get everyone's John Hancock, we'll knock off $5 from the total. So, the total package or "Lex Luger Edition" with everyone's autograph would look like this:

Glossy print of Sleep Star Ignition having lunch - $15
Bob Tallman's signature - $0
Zach Madden's signature - $0
Max Moon's signature - $0
Nicholas Randal Villars's signature - $15

What about shows? How will we play without instruments? Ever heard of a capella, ya slapnuts? I'm going to bring this up at tonight's practice and see if I can convince everyone that this is definitely the way to go in moving forward. We had been kicking around this "Boss Fights" idea for the next EP, but I think we should go with something like "Harmonious Existing in the Key of Us".

Prepare your walls for Sleep Star Ignition a capella posters and signed glossy prints.

Monday Morning Cheese Sandwich Factory

Welcome to the official Monday Morning Cheese Sandwich Factory. If you're just getting your week started and things are feeling a bit sluggish, read on for inspiration concerning life.

This looks like a pretty tasty cheese sandwich. Notice the way the cavernous gulf in the center of the top piece of the sandwich seems to be oozing a savory mixture of a melty blend of at least two unique cheeses? It looks like a very high quality French bread was used in the construction of this particular sandwich, as well, which only does more to cement its place in cheese sandwich history. What does any of that have to do with Sleep Star Ignition? Well, it may not seem so apparent at first glance, but if you look closely, you will find that this picture sums up our band pretty well. How is this? How can this be? Well, you see, obviously, people take pictures of cheese sandwiches. Now check this out...

Have you made the connection? If not, allow me to literally spell it out for you. People also take pictures of us! So now you understand. Sleep Star Ignition is a band just like a cheese sandwich has cheese on it. Let's face it, a cheese sandwich with no cheese is like Sleep Star Ignition with no band members. The logic here is  flawless, my friends. It's a match made in heaven, really. Us and cheese sandwiches. We play music while cheese sandwiches get eaten. If you want a special edition Sleep Star Ignition cheese sandwich, let us know on our Facebook page and we'll see about bringing cheese sandwich supplies to our next show.

One day we will open the console and put in a command to fill Bogart's with cheese wheels and we will play music for them. Sorry, no humans at that show besides us. We won't even have a sound guy. Gotta make room for cheese.

What a Show...

Last night's show was hands down the most intense and  personally rewarding show I've ever had the good fortune of playing. Why exactly? Because when it was over, I knew with absolute certainty that there wasn't one thing I could have done to a higher degree with what I had in me.

I've played some really fun shows, but something about last night's was different. Maybe it was the fact that we played over an hour, which is something I don't think I've done since the farewell show The Great American Beast played in 2010. Last evening was different because there was total immersion in what was going on. I looked out and it was cool to see the people who stuck around for the whole thing, but at a point in the set, after most of the people who were there for the first song had wandered away either because we scared them, they thought we sucked, or they were bored, it was all about us.

That may sound a bit harsh, but when I say it was about us, I mean that it became an event of inner-band responsibility. Any thoughts about how we were coming across vanished. There was no consideration given to how we played compared to the other bands. When I say it was about us, I mean the only benchmark that existed was the one that we knew internally as a slightly abstract arrow pointing to a truth that said you can go THIS hard. At that point, you either go in the direction of that arrow at a full sprint or you watch it disappear and allow yourself another "decent" performance.

The way to get the most out of yourself is to do what you do to the best of your ability. It doesn't mean going out and trying to outdo another showman. You can't. That doesn't work. There's always going to be something you didn't think of that this guy or that guy ends up doing. Good for that guy. When you were playing, did you let it go and become your own performance or did you look out at the eyes on you and wonder what they were thinking? There's no time for questioning when you're up there, but sometimes I've made time for it. Last night I did not. And when I got home I was bruised, hoarse, scabbed, and fucking proud of it.

Suggestions

We will always do our best to reply to your comments, whether they're compliments or criticisms. Take this one from our Youtube page as an example.

You see, we want your input. We thrive on it. It helps us to be a better band and more importantly, better people.

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Free show tonight in Northside at Mayday! Directions and all that on our FB event page!