Time Flies

Hello hello...

It's been ten months since I updated, mainly because I've had nothing good to report until now. My band I was starting kind of dissolved because I joined Krsna in October, but things didn't go so well in that project. We did a three-song demo in january, and things just didn't connect. I played three or four shows with them but it wasn't working.

Anyway, I put a lot of hard work into both of those projects, and having both of them come to an end so abruptly really killed my drive for a while. I've used my time off to get back in shape, save money, and get an apartment in Tulsa. I finished my semester in school, but I'm not going back just yet. I don't want to finish school until I've accomplished everything I wanted to musically.

Still jamming with ex-Shutdown bandmates Nick and Rob in a psychedelic/prog-rock project, No Sleep Till Breakfast, but they don't want to bring in a vocalist so there's really no opportunities for that band outside of small local shows and self-released music. I love the music, but it's definitely not something you can make a career of. Which leads us to the point of this post;

After my fallout with Krsna I'm just not really up for putting a ton of dedication into someone elses project with no realy satisfaction on my end. I'm going to be 23 next month, and If I'm going to go somewhere I don't have a lot of time to get there.

After I get a strong set of demos completed I'm going to put together a band and start pushing really hard. The goal is to have a full-length recorded, pressed, lineup secured, and ready to tour by this summer. Let's see if I can pull it off.

Nov Updates

I know i've kinda let this blog wither since leaving SSG but ....

God have I been busy. I joined a group called "Krsna the Scarecrow" (love the name) fronted by my ex-bandmate and long-time partner-in-crime, Zeb Lee. It feels great working with that kid again, I have a lot of freedom when we collaborate. He has a really distinct guitar style, so I have to switch up my playing a great deal to make sure things don't start sounding same-y. We have a photo shoot Saturday morning, and should be in the studio within the month.

In addition to that I still have my own (now unnamed) band that I'm still trying to do stuff with. Now that I'm in Krsna I imagine I won't have much time for it but we'll see. Zeb and I have an agreement that he does the songwriting is Krsna, and I can use my material in side projects, and I'm cool with that.

2009 is going to be an amazing year.

P.S. The photo is from Halloween.

Like All Good Things....

Shutdown has come to the end of the road. Last month I made up my mind and left the group, and it was decided that we would disband as opposed to replacing me (which i feel kinda guilty about). We were on the verge of a summer tour and halfway through writing the next record, so it was really bad timing, but it was the right thing to do.

I really don't know what's happening next. Zeb(vox) has a new two piece band that's writing. I'm doing solo stuff, but may end up joining another band. I imagine Nick(dr) and Rob(g) are going to keep collaborating, those guys are inseparable.

We played a goodbye show to all our friends last weekend at Chandler. We played every single song we have, and gave away all the remaining copies of "Luche A La Muerte" from the last pressing. The turnout was good, but it was still a reminder of how our drawing power diminished. I'll post pics as soon as I get some.

till then; you know where i'll be


Tour Diary from Shutdown's final tour;

Chicago Downtown

New Song

Dallas

The final show of the tour was at the Red Blood Club in Dallas. After the show in Monroe I stayed up from 3:30 to 9:00 driving into and around Dallas, fuck me. I LOVED Dallas and it was awesome to finally get the hell out of Lousiana after spending five days there.

The show was at an awesome venue called the Red Blood Club. The turnout wasnt so huge because both local bands dropped off, but some of our friends in Dallas and some ex-Tulsans came out and really made us feel at home. The show went well aside from nick playing a completely different part during the pre-chorus and breakdown of "Scarecrows" (He played the bridge the entire 45 seconds!) but amazing rob and I kept up, and not only did the song not fall apart, it sounded pretty good.

We had our drinks, loaded our gear, had a little gathering at a friends apartment, and set out for home. This tour has been the most amazing, inspiring thing i have ever been a part of, and it came to an end wayyy too fast. One we have the album pressed we'll head out for a longer tour, which i'm already pumped for.

Until then this blog will be pretty dead, aside from some posts about the shows i didn't update on while we were on the road. Keep it fresh -Paul



Setlist for the Tour
Quicker Than Quicksand
Scarecrows
New Song(Born Without Faith)
St. Augustine
Mr. Blue
Jackal and The Raven
Crickets With Mile-Long Legs

Monroe

Monroe sucks and so did our show there. One place on the tour I never want to go back to. Club owner fucked us to boot.

The best part about Monroe is the two cassette tapes I picked up in a thrift store there; "Rock and Soul" by Hall & Oates and "Sign O The Times" by Prince. They helped me make the drive from Monroe to Dallas, 3:30 to 9:00. Fuck me.

Baton Rouge Show II

The second show we had in Baton Rouge was at a goth club called The Darkroom. It was a strange eperience for us. You have to understand we're from Oklahoma, and there are no goth clubs. There arent any goth people either, except one or two that never leave the house. Do we have shitty metal and emo? you bet. No goth though.

I met the drummer for the headlining band, Mankind is Obsolete, in the bathroom and we had a fourty-five minute long talk about touring, industrial music, and the music industry. By far one of the coolest people i've met in a while, total LA rock n roll vet. He was pushing thirty but looked about twenty two. Bastard.

The show went alright. It was a thurday night with only one local band on the bill, asking for trouble. Not many people watched us, aside from a five or six really cool girls and the other bands. First song in the set Zeb triped on my effects processor and fell onto his keyboard, it was hillarious.

After the local band played the entire placed cleared out, leaving just us and a few people to watch the headliners. Everyone else's loss though, because they were the best live band i've seen in a long, long time. Girl singer, industrial beats, live guitar and bass. Killer cover of "Terrible Lie", I hope we cross paths again soon.

After the show i hopped into the van and drove strait to Monroe with no sleep. Got pulled over in fucking Woodville, Missippi (or maybe Missouri?) and caught a ticket. Luckily the cop didn't search the van.