Shudderfluts

Well, here's the thing, okay? It's a shudderfluts kind of thing. It requires close attention and a close cropped hairstyle.

Song Farming

It's always nice when everyone's on the same page and you get to follow that one initial idea from seed to fruit as a group of musical farmers tilling and fertilizing the soil of your collective creativity! Can't wait until the harvest! Until then we'll get together, hop on our rhythmic tractors, scoot on out to the various farmer's markets with last year's yield in tow, and sell off our crops at unbelievable prices.

Touring Band!

We're not going out for two months or anything, but we are going out of town for a few consecutive shows next week. It may not seem like a big deal to some people, but it's another step in the right direction for us. You don't have to wait for a manager and label to start making things happen. In fact, if you do, you're doing it wrong. Get out of town and put yourself in front of some new faces! Even if it's just a Friday and Saturday, hit the road and have a little rock n' roll adventure!

Have a wonderful Friday!

Nick

HELP!

Hey, guise/gowls. Here's the deal: we need your help! If you're reading this, it means you care enough about our band to willfully check further into our goings on than what we post on Facebook. I suppose there's also the possibility that you're reading this to see if we say anything outlandish that you can then take back to town and spread as gossip. If that's why you're here, you're going to leave disappointed today. Congratulations, you're appointed. I appointed you and now I'm disappointing you. Sorry.

Now then. We just released a seven song ep called Exile Boy Vol. 1: The Quiet Desert, and we're giving it away for free online. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do so just after reading this! It's very simple to download from our Soundcloud page. No signing up or anything of the sort to do if you go that route. And if you don't have the time to listen right now, just grab the tunes and keep em on your hard drive until you do!

All we're asking in return is for you to send a friend or two our way. Tell a few people why you think we're awesome and why they should check us out. Link to our video for Defector vs. The Angel of Stranglehold Crime and perhaps watch it again if you haven't done so in awhile. Leave a comment on our Facebook page or start a bullshit thread on our forum. Whatever you feel like doing to help out in any small way you can will be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Nick

It's been awhile!

This past Saturday we played the release show for Exile Boy Vol. 1: The Quiet Desert, our first ep as Sleep Star Ignition. The evening went very well. We played great, had a room full of nice people to perform in front of, and even sold a few items. I'd say the night was a success!

Earlier on Saturday we also had some new pictures taken, some of which include me engaging in a very cheap fantasy roleplay where I use sticks for swords. It was pretty badass.

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.