Thursday, January 15, 2009
Psst! New Things!
Oh, hello.
Good to hear from you.
Oh, us? Well, it's good to be heard from, as well.
I had some free-er time than my usual free time, so I figured (mathematically) that I should go ahead and pick this old dust-magnet back up and give it some new shine.
Life hasn't been too hard for us- I mean, come on- Christmas came and went, and everything's (is that contraction wrong? they're giving me a red squiggly) always fine and delish when it's the Kris/Christmish. We all received some new threads and new bands with whom's music to inspire ourselves, in order to better rock out as WK,P!. Yes! That means you will be seeing Mark in the tightest-jeans-you've-ever-seen, Dan in black leather, Tawd in Heeleys, and me in RocaWear.
Thankfully, and true to my nature- only one of those is true, and you'll just have to come to shows to figure out which.
We actually performed on the air, back onnn December...11th? 12th? The band and three girls (oh hoh hoh! I'll explain.) ventured to Charlottesville, where we performed a live set of "Caution Signs" (Yes! that one you hear all the time on our Myspace), "Room 328", and a newer one called "Blue June". We were also prompted with some questions and really the whole thing went rather swell. The odd thing was the band's physical arrangement, as Mark, Tawd, and I got to share a room, and Dan was isolated in the adjoining one, separated by a clear, sliding-glass door; so he and I faced each other (one of Dan's wet dreams for a performance gimmick) and had to play off the other's visual cues, basically, to keep the songs on track. Immensely interesting, and very memorable.
The three girls I mentioned were Tawd's girl Cat, Dan's girl Cecil (yes, that's See-sill; cool- huh?), and our latest, phenomenal photographer, Lin. They were a tremendous help and added quite a bit to the atmosphere of that night, so thank you all, if you get around to reading this. For everyone else, you can catch the photos from that night right here.
Beyond that, we played a walloping show for a walloping amount of people at - our favourite - The Camel and then proceeded on to take about a month's hiatus for that thing I spoke of earlier in the post.
Upon our return, we found it within our power- thanks to our former bassist, Steve- to get into an analog studio and do some recording for our new songs "Blue June", "Mountains", and "There's a Well". What's the difference between analog and digital recording, physically? Think cameras/camcorders- with analog cameras, you have that certain roll of film that makes the shot infinitely more precious, because you have to get it right; whereas with digital cameras, you can shoot away, see what you shot, and delete whatever doesn't work. Well, analog recording isn't that extreme, but it's still more precious- as far as getting the sound, tempo, and just overall take right. Fortunately, Steve's brother-in-law Wes' studio has fantastic acoustics, and our growth as musicians added with that to be able to say these upcoming demos are certainly something to which you should look forward.
Phew- this is a lot. I'll wrap by saying we're back in the practicing realm, as well- getting ready for our slew of upcoming shows; one of which is with Hotel Lights.
Remember that little ol' band called Ben Folds Five? The one that gave me and Dan almost the entirety of our reasons to start out our rock musicianship in the first place? Well, Dan's initial influence, Darren Jessee - the drummer for Ben Folds Five - has had his own band for a fair amount of years, and Hotel Lights is that band.
We've also got new songs that will be debuting at our show on the 29th at Plaza Bowl, so come to that. If you have to pick a show, though, wait and come to the Hotel Lights one on February 12th.
And thus, I end.
Benvolio
Saturday, November 29, 2008
All That's Left...
We've now officially finished up recording for the 5 songs on our upcoming EP- all that's left is mixing! We'll leave it to the master of engineering- Markimus Strongus- to handle that with all the brain and brawn it takes.
In other news, one of our members was "let go" from his job due to some rather violating pictures his company happened to see on the Internet...
WHAT?! No no no- nothing like THAT at all. As you all might have seen, briefly, we had some new promos up on Myspace about a week ago. Turns out the hangar in which we were shooting was private property (even though one of us was an employee there) and we were "trespassing" (even though there were attendants still working there who said nothing against our being there). The company demanded the pictures be taken down because the customers' planes' safety would be in question, even though no customers would've been able to tell if they were their planes or not. And they fired our guy. Because- I'm just going to say it- they're utter assholes and they don't know what a mere scolding for a completely harmless misunderstanding/misinformation of rules and policies is.
Whatevs, we're over it. HCA, go suck on a &^$%ing lemon.
More to come.
-Benvolio
In other news, one of our members was "let go" from his job due to some rather violating pictures his company happened to see on the Internet...
WHAT?! No no no- nothing like THAT at all. As you all might have seen, briefly, we had some new promos up on Myspace about a week ago. Turns out the hangar in which we were shooting was private property (even though one of us was an employee there) and we were "trespassing" (even though there were attendants still working there who said nothing against our being there). The company demanded the pictures be taken down because the customers' planes' safety would be in question, even though no customers would've been able to tell if they were their planes or not. And they fired our guy. Because- I'm just going to say it- they're utter assholes and they don't know what a mere scolding for a completely harmless misunderstanding/misinformation of rules and policies is.
Whatevs, we're over it. HCA, go suck on a &^$%ing lemon.
More to come.
-Benvolio
Monday, November 10, 2008
We Know, Plato! on Gossip Girl TONIGHT!
Hey everyone, we just found out literally like 30 minutes ago that our song, "Satellites" is going to air on tonight's episode of Gossip Girl. So for those of you on the east coast you sadly will not be able to catch it tonight but can find it in repeats and online, however you central and West Coast people it's not too late for you. So tune in to Gossip Girl on the CW and listen up for "Satellites".
Tell all your friends to tune in as well.
EDIT: We found a video where our whole song is featured...
That is all for now.
-Mark
We Know, Plato!
Tell all your friends to tune in as well.
EDIT: We found a video where our whole song is featured...
That is all for now.
-Mark
We Know, Plato!
Here comes the music
The wait is finally coming to an end.
All last week I worked on the mix for the final song on our upcoming EP, 'Mothra', I was quite concerned and was being weighed down a bit by the daunting task I had ahead of me with mixing that song. It is a monster of a song and not just in the name alone. Fortunately, I had some long, late nights free this week to piece everything together for the mammoth song and it is now coming together nicely and looks to be the first song that will be completed for the EP. 'Love Song for a Drawing' and 'Room 328' are close behind, leaving only "Sandstorm" and "Moon & The Sun" to be finalized. So it's all shaping up rather nicely now and everything is starting to really come together.
Today, Ben came by and we finished up the final vocal tracks for all the songs with the exception of "Moon & The Sun" which we will finish up sometime next week. The goal is to have the final mixes nearing completion, or at least close, by the first of December. At the rate things are progressing now that is definitely workable. After that the rest is easy.
In other news, while Ben was over we recorded scratch vocals for one of our new demos, 'There's a Well'. We wrote that one in the spring around the same time that we wrote 'Caution Signs'. In fact, the demos had already been in the works back in the spring, but then the EP got going full force and we couldn't finish the second demo. So now I'd say in a week we will have a rough demo of 'There's a Well' posted on MySpace for you all to enjoy and to hold you over until this EP is wrapped up, which again, will be very soon!!!! So stay tuned for 'There's a Well' sometime next week!
Now I would like to take this time to thank you all so much for your patience with this EP. I know you are all very eager to hear the new songs and we are just as eager to have you hear them. It has been a learning process for all of us working on this thing and has made us all the better for it. Lots of things got in the way of progress, mainly work schedules and some major technical difficulties early on. So once again, thank you all and we are almost there!
We all feel this is going to be a great collection of songs. It's a bit of a departure from our previous sound on "In Moonlit Sound", for that was just a two man project and this is the first full band effort. The mood is darker and heavier in places on this EP, but there is still the core foundation of mine and Ben's song collaboration which still carry the WK,P! sound over from the first EP to this one. Not to sound cliche, but this is a much more mature sound and we feel you will enjoy the songs and that it will have been well worth the wait.
Anyway, thanks again for your patience and for hanging in there with us, it won't be too much longer.
-Mark
We Know, Plato!
All last week I worked on the mix for the final song on our upcoming EP, 'Mothra', I was quite concerned and was being weighed down a bit by the daunting task I had ahead of me with mixing that song. It is a monster of a song and not just in the name alone. Fortunately, I had some long, late nights free this week to piece everything together for the mammoth song and it is now coming together nicely and looks to be the first song that will be completed for the EP. 'Love Song for a Drawing' and 'Room 328' are close behind, leaving only "Sandstorm" and "Moon & The Sun" to be finalized. So it's all shaping up rather nicely now and everything is starting to really come together.
Today, Ben came by and we finished up the final vocal tracks for all the songs with the exception of "Moon & The Sun" which we will finish up sometime next week. The goal is to have the final mixes nearing completion, or at least close, by the first of December. At the rate things are progressing now that is definitely workable. After that the rest is easy.
In other news, while Ben was over we recorded scratch vocals for one of our new demos, 'There's a Well'. We wrote that one in the spring around the same time that we wrote 'Caution Signs'. In fact, the demos had already been in the works back in the spring, but then the EP got going full force and we couldn't finish the second demo. So now I'd say in a week we will have a rough demo of 'There's a Well' posted on MySpace for you all to enjoy and to hold you over until this EP is wrapped up, which again, will be very soon!!!! So stay tuned for 'There's a Well' sometime next week!
Now I would like to take this time to thank you all so much for your patience with this EP. I know you are all very eager to hear the new songs and we are just as eager to have you hear them. It has been a learning process for all of us working on this thing and has made us all the better for it. Lots of things got in the way of progress, mainly work schedules and some major technical difficulties early on. So once again, thank you all and we are almost there!
We all feel this is going to be a great collection of songs. It's a bit of a departure from our previous sound on "In Moonlit Sound", for that was just a two man project and this is the first full band effort. The mood is darker and heavier in places on this EP, but there is still the core foundation of mine and Ben's song collaboration which still carry the WK,P! sound over from the first EP to this one. Not to sound cliche, but this is a much more mature sound and we feel you will enjoy the songs and that it will have been well worth the wait.
Anyway, thanks again for your patience and for hanging in there with us, it won't be too much longer.
-Mark
We Know, Plato!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Java Jive
Where oh where do i start? How about from the very beginning of it all?!
About a month ago, Todd had the idea to play Java Jive -(Java Jive is a 'benefit' concert for the music department at Atlee High School). It's mostly comprised of a bunch of bands that go to Atlee, but they have had bands like The Never and SNMNMNM play too. So I told Todd to work it all out and make some calls.
A few days later and a bunch of phone calls to Melissa Sunderland, the strings teacher/Java Jive leader/and violin player for Moruza who we have played some shows with in the past, we were in!
Since she was the strings teacher, we thought that we would get some of her students to sit in on a song during our set. After a few more calls, it was a-go! The following Monday, Todd, Ben, and I went in and started to teach the class 'Hollow Bird'. Or rather, Ben taught and we just rocked out. We then went back once more to work with the 'chosen ones' and run through it a few times. Mark was there this time.
Then came Friday, the day of the show. We (Ben, Todd, TK *known as 'Roadmaster K' to most*, and I) arrived at Mark's place to load up the PA System, the Keyano, drums, amps, and tons of cords. On second thought- Todd, TK, and I all arrived early and loaded it all up so that Ben didn't have anything to do when he came. Because he's that awesome. Soon after, we left for the school and arrived a little early (about 4 o' clock), so we ended up not having much to do til about 6:15. While Roadmaster K and I started to set up all of our gear on the left stage (there were two, so one band could set up while the other was performing- anyone remember Roanoke College?), Mark, Ben, and Todd went to get foods and beverages. Once they got back, we sound checked while all the helpers and other bands watched (and ever-so politely played their own stuff in the background). After a short excerpt from 'Love Song', everyone cheered and clapped. It was just a sound check and we got applause! Pretty sweet.
Once the acts started at 7, we were all sitting at our merch table with all of the shirts Todd and I made and all of our cds. All these new people came over and chatted, bought shirts and cds, got us to sign everything from pieces of paper to cds to shirts to shoes. I signed 3 shoes!
Once the band before us ended, the whole crowd shifted over to our side. They surrounded us and stood about two feet away.
Our set was..
'I Hope You Like Ice Cream" (which is a working title. I'm not sure what Ben has named/will name it)...'Blue June'
'Mountains'
'Hollow Bird' w/strings
'Caution Signs'
'Love Song for a Drawing'
'Moon and The Sun'
The crowd was into us almost immediately. The two things that stuck out the most for me were: My stick flying out of my hand and hitting a girl standing in front of me. She was OK and she got to keep the stick, which made her happy. She actually hung out with us until the very end of the night. Oh fourteen year-olds.
The second was the end of Moon and The Sun. I had no plans on how to end it, I just went with whatever I wanted to on the spot. I ended up knocking over my snare and hi-hat while turning to the right and knocking over the floor tom. I then grabbed the ride cymbal stand and picked it up and played it while pounding on the bass with my left foot. I then thought it would be a good idea to get on top of the bass drum while holding and crashing on the ride. So I did. The crowd went nuts. As the end approached, I jumped off and threw my ride down. it broke the stand.Then someone's HEAD exploded.
It was over. I didn't want it to be, and I don't think the crowd did either.
I'm pretty sure I can say that is was the best performance and the best drumming that I have ever done. It was definitely the most fun and exciting show too.
I'd also like to thank my band-mates for everything that they did. They helped make it awesome too!
We still have some shirts available too. I'm not sure which designs since they are at Mark's place, but here are some examples and if you want one, contact us and we'll send you pics of what all is available.
Also, don't forget about the FREE ALL AGES show Friday night Oct. 17th at Highwater Restaurant with At The Stars. We go on at 9pm!
over and out!
.daniel
and
We Know, Plato!
with additions by Benvolio
About a month ago, Todd had the idea to play Java Jive -(Java Jive is a 'benefit' concert for the music department at Atlee High School). It's mostly comprised of a bunch of bands that go to Atlee, but they have had bands like The Never and SNMNMNM play too. So I told Todd to work it all out and make some calls.
A few days later and a bunch of phone calls to Melissa Sunderland, the strings teacher/Java Jive leader/and violin player for Moruza who we have played some shows with in the past, we were in!
Since she was the strings teacher, we thought that we would get some of her students to sit in on a song during our set. After a few more calls, it was a-go! The following Monday, Todd, Ben, and I went in and started to teach the class 'Hollow Bird'. Or rather, Ben taught and we just rocked out. We then went back once more to work with the 'chosen ones' and run through it a few times. Mark was there this time.
Then came Friday, the day of the show. We (Ben, Todd, TK *known as 'Roadmaster K' to most*, and I) arrived at Mark's place to load up the PA System, the Keyano, drums, amps, and tons of cords. On second thought- Todd, TK, and I all arrived early and loaded it all up so that Ben didn't have anything to do when he came. Because he's that awesome. Soon after, we left for the school and arrived a little early (about 4 o' clock), so we ended up not having much to do til about 6:15. While Roadmaster K and I started to set up all of our gear on the left stage (there were two, so one band could set up while the other was performing- anyone remember Roanoke College?), Mark, Ben, and Todd went to get foods and beverages. Once they got back, we sound checked while all the helpers and other bands watched (and ever-so politely played their own stuff in the background). After a short excerpt from 'Love Song', everyone cheered and clapped. It was just a sound check and we got applause! Pretty sweet.
Once the acts started at 7, we were all sitting at our merch table with all of the shirts Todd and I made and all of our cds. All these new people came over and chatted, bought shirts and cds, got us to sign everything from pieces of paper to cds to shirts to shoes. I signed 3 shoes!
Once the band before us ended, the whole crowd shifted over to our side. They surrounded us and stood about two feet away.
Our set was..
'I Hope You Like Ice Cream" (which is a working title. I'm not sure what Ben has named/will name it)...'Blue June'
'Mountains'
'Hollow Bird' w/strings
'Caution Signs'
'Love Song for a Drawing'
'Moon and The Sun'
The crowd was into us almost immediately. The two things that stuck out the most for me were: My stick flying out of my hand and hitting a girl standing in front of me. She was OK and she got to keep the stick, which made her happy. She actually hung out with us until the very end of the night. Oh fourteen year-olds.
The second was the end of Moon and The Sun. I had no plans on how to end it, I just went with whatever I wanted to on the spot. I ended up knocking over my snare and hi-hat while turning to the right and knocking over the floor tom. I then grabbed the ride cymbal stand and picked it up and played it while pounding on the bass with my left foot. I then thought it would be a good idea to get on top of the bass drum while holding and crashing on the ride. So I did. The crowd went nuts. As the end approached, I jumped off and threw my ride down. it broke the stand.Then someone's HEAD exploded.
It was over. I didn't want it to be, and I don't think the crowd did either.
I'm pretty sure I can say that is was the best performance and the best drumming that I have ever done. It was definitely the most fun and exciting show too.
I'd also like to thank my band-mates for everything that they did. They helped make it awesome too!
We still have some shirts available too. I'm not sure which designs since they are at Mark's place, but here are some examples and if you want one, contact us and we'll send you pics of what all is available.
Also, don't forget about the FREE ALL AGES show Friday night Oct. 17th at Highwater Restaurant with At The Stars. We go on at 9pm!
over and out!
.daniel
and
We Know, Plato!
with additions by Benvolio
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Featured on OurStage's Daily Blog
I was just informed today that randomly and out of the blue, We Know, Plato! are featured in the daily blog on OurStage.com.
And even more to my surprise they are featuring "Hollow Bird". Out of all the songs they chose to feature they picked what seems to be our least popular song, at least by fans. However, myself, Todd and Ben are all fans of this song. It's an enigma.
But yeah head over to OurStage.com check out the blog and be sure to sign up with the site so you can vote for us in future competitions as well as discover great new bands and win awesome prizes for yourself. It's an amazing site and lots of fun. Check it out if you have yet to do so,
That is all for now and thanks for voting for those of you that did.
Mark
& We Know, Plato!
And even more to my surprise they are featuring "Hollow Bird". Out of all the songs they chose to feature they picked what seems to be our least popular song, at least by fans. However, myself, Todd and Ben are all fans of this song. It's an enigma.
But yeah head over to OurStage.com check out the blog and be sure to sign up with the site so you can vote for us in future competitions as well as discover great new bands and win awesome prizes for yourself. It's an amazing site and lots of fun. Check it out if you have yet to do so,
That is all for now and thanks for voting for those of you that did.
Mark
& We Know, Plato!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
More Updates for October
Ok Everyone,
It's me again writing to update you on how progress is coming with the EP as well as other news.
First, the EP is coming along pretty well. We are almost done tracking. A little behind schedule but nowhere near how behind we were way back when we had to record the drum parts over and over and over again. Love Song and Sandstorm are close to completion with the exception of the final vocal tracking and bass tracking which shouldn't prove too difficult or time consuming.
I still feel the Ep will be ready to go before October's end. The biggest obstacle now that could delay the project is just coming up with the insane amount of money it costs to get a CD mastered and printed. So hopefully by time everything is done we will have that all sorted out too.
Next, we have two shows coming up in October, at least as of right now. The first show on October 7th will be at our favorite small venue, The Camel; with our good pal alexENGGIST and the California band, Run, Run, Run. Should be a great show so come on out if you can.
The next show is at Highwater Restaurant in Toad's Place on October 17th. This will be with our friends and amazing band, At The Stars. If you like old school U2, Coldplay and Radiohead come on out and check out At The Stars and of course definitely come out to see us open the set that night.
Oh yeah, we will have TWO NEW SONGS to unveil to you at both shows, we might even have a few more than two by the 17th, we'll see how that goes. We will also have a few other little surprises at the shows.
And lastly...
T-SHIRTS!!!! We will finally have them!!!!
Yes it's true, We will have We Know, Plato! t-shirts for sale at our next shows.
We are aiming to have them done in time for the October 7th show but DEFINITELY by the October 17th show.
So there you have it, you now have even more great incentive to come to the shows we have lined up for the month of October!
Everyone come out, show your support, hear some old and new songs and get yourself some WK,P! T-Shirts. Don't forget to bring all your friends too.
Thanks for stopping by!
Mark
& We Know, Plato!
It's me again writing to update you on how progress is coming with the EP as well as other news.
First, the EP is coming along pretty well. We are almost done tracking. A little behind schedule but nowhere near how behind we were way back when we had to record the drum parts over and over and over again. Love Song and Sandstorm are close to completion with the exception of the final vocal tracking and bass tracking which shouldn't prove too difficult or time consuming.
I still feel the Ep will be ready to go before October's end. The biggest obstacle now that could delay the project is just coming up with the insane amount of money it costs to get a CD mastered and printed. So hopefully by time everything is done we will have that all sorted out too.
Next, we have two shows coming up in October, at least as of right now. The first show on October 7th will be at our favorite small venue, The Camel; with our good pal alexENGGIST and the California band, Run, Run, Run. Should be a great show so come on out if you can.
The next show is at Highwater Restaurant in Toad's Place on October 17th. This will be with our friends and amazing band, At The Stars. If you like old school U2, Coldplay and Radiohead come on out and check out At The Stars and of course definitely come out to see us open the set that night.
Oh yeah, we will have TWO NEW SONGS to unveil to you at both shows, we might even have a few more than two by the 17th, we'll see how that goes. We will also have a few other little surprises at the shows.
And lastly...
T-SHIRTS!!!! We will finally have them!!!!
Yes it's true, We will have We Know, Plato! t-shirts for sale at our next shows.
We are aiming to have them done in time for the October 7th show but DEFINITELY by the October 17th show.
So there you have it, you now have even more great incentive to come to the shows we have lined up for the month of October!
Everyone come out, show your support, hear some old and new songs and get yourself some WK,P! T-Shirts. Don't forget to bring all your friends too.
Thanks for stopping by!
Mark
& We Know, Plato!
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