Tuesday, July 28, 2009

July 27, 2009 Debbie; Monday afternoon

Wow. It's been a long time since I've written anything.
We've had things backwards for the past month or so. Normally, we spend SOO much time gigging and traveling and being "rockstars"...and the minority of the time is spend doing band business 'stuff'.
But...for the past month, it's all been band business. You guys all know by now, that we do everything ourselves and we're doing the "wave of the future" thing, by NOT signing a record contract and doing it all ourselves. So, the past few weeks/months, we've all had our "business" hats on and we've been hard at work at our game plan. Here's what it looks like;
1. write killer songs...check,
2. preproduction....check,
3. Record Killer Album....check,
4. come up with album name and album art...check,
5. get top of the line music video...check,
6. get CD mastered and send off for duplication...check.


All this has taken up so much time and energy, that we've had nothing left in us to give at a show...which is why we haven't had many. Now that it's all done, we are RARING to go.

This past weekend, our shows kicked ass. It's like we're a whole new band.
Personally, I feel more professional now that we've done all we've done in the past few months. I feel like I’ve learned a lot…about music, about myself, about this band, about each of the guys, about our songs, etc. We spent so much time with these songs, that I feel like the songs are my best friends, and getting to play them just feels so much better then it used to. I feel like we have a whole new energy and freshness. We still have LOTS more 'business stuff' to do, but most of it can be done in our free time and won’t require us to lighten our gig load.
For those of you who don't know...we're releasing the album August 21st, and then going to the next step of our evil plan to take over the world...which is get our songs on the radio and sell CD's like crazy. That in itself requires SOO many things...you have no idea. But...at least we can get back to gigging. So... take a look at our gig calendar and come out and see us. We have tons of new originals, new merch...and I even got bangs :)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

7-19-2009 Mark: Can't Wait For The CD Release


So I've spent this beautiful entire Sunday prepping our website for the CD release. It's was a long day of cropping photos and editing website code. To make things a little more interesting, I was watched a Tom Petty Soundstage, a Daily Show episode, Urban Cowboy, and a Meatloaf documentary called, Meatloaf: In Search of Paradise. The Meatloaf thing was great - watch it if you have the chance.

Anyway we've got soooo many new photos to add to the website (I think we're up to over 18,000 total). Michelle's been taking photos at all the shows as usual, and Julia Zave came out to Pearl Street 2 weeks back and has got some great ones. You can check out our Tour Scrapbook page right now to see Andrew in is 4th of July Day Uncle Sam suit! The rest of the new photos won’t be up on our site for another week or so, but somehow those crazy kids at the Ten Year Vamp myspace fanclub page got a hold of some of the behind-the-scenes photos from our video shoot with director, Jeff Knight. I grabbed the photo at the left from them. Go to http://www.myspace.com/tenyearvampfanclub to see more from inside a huge Yankee Trails bus garage! And speaking of the video… Debbie and I have seen some early rough cuts and it’s looking fantastic. Watch for that coming soon too.

So now that most of the photos are done, I can move on to item #4 on our list of things to do before the CD release… there are 56 things on the list.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Previous Band Blogz from www.tenyearvamp.com

Bring That Beat Back-Andy 07/08/09

So we just got some mixes back from The “Magic Man” Mike Watts and everything is slammin. I really do think that he has tiny elves living in his Pro Tools system. Do you think they will get co-producer credits? Had a great time this weekend in Glens Falls and Lake George. Just one question for the folks who run the festivities; no fireworks on 4th of July, WTF?!?!?!? I was saddened to think that during my usual 18 minute guitar solo there wasn’t going to be some kind of explosion or colorful light display. Sure I’m over it now but it was tough to take at first. Now that would have been a good weekend for most bands but we had to have a video shoot as well. That was something. At one point during the 19 hour shoot I mentioned to Mark that I hadn’t had a break yet and his response was “Do you want me to find some other under age boy to do what you do? Get me a drink”. Michelle was on hand, not to take pictures or video, but to follow behind me feverishly, catching all of my rock and roll ideas. Sure, she could have spent her time doing something more significant but then again I did have some great ideas. Now if everything goes according to plan I will be playing guitar in one scene and be a white tiger in the next. If that idea gets shot down, the video will still be pretty cool… I guess….

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Mark - July 7, 2009

Well I’ve been crying for the past hour… watching a TIVOed Michael Jackson memorial. I missed it as it aired live. Debbie and I had one of our regular “band meetings” this afternoon at Chili’s in Clifton Park. We asked Andrew to come by and help us figure out how we’re going to improve our live show and bring the new originals to life. The TVs were on behind us… Kris Jansing from MSNBC was navigating the events of the day. I can remember back when Kris Jansing was Kris Kapistachi (sp?) here on WNYT channel 13… back when I was lying on my bedroom floor listening to my 45 single of Rock With You. I’m sure I didn’t really understand the words but the groove of that song just went through me - it still does. I can remember pulling my Thriller record out of the gatefold sleeve. The record had this plastic sleeve around it instead of the more typical paper sleeves. It really bothered me that the plastic sleeve would just never slide into the album jacket correctly. I loved that album. I can remember several of my friends gathering around the TV with my father and brother to watch the world premiere showing of the Thriller video on MTV. That was so cool… mixing movies and music together - what a crazy idea!?!?! I never would have guessed that 26 years later I’d be playing an acoustic guitar in the front room of the Bayou CafĂ© with some crazy girl who couldn’t stand still and sing at the same time :) - and that’d we’d be playing an acoustic version of Thriller. I guess there are probably very few people in the world who don’t have Michael Jackson memories. It’s just sad that it takes this to remind of all of those good times.

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Debbie: June 29th, 2009

So I had to sign on and just say how excited I am about this album being done (we finished recording on Thursday of last week). I was thinking this morning, I don't think I've been this excited my whole life. I can't wait to have this CD. You know when you're going on vacation, and like you're supposed to be excited as you get closer and closer to the trip, but you're really not excited until you get to the airport and are sitting on the plane. Then it all sets in. That's how I'm feeling right now. The excitement is just starting to kick in. All the recording is done, and we're just waiting for our amazing producer to mix and produce everything. We're going down to Long Island for one last trip later this week to pick up the CD. Then we send it off to be mastered and copied....then we can get it to you guys (late August). I just can't wait to listen to it. We've only heard the songs a few times...as we're recording our parts...so even WE haven't heard the completed songs yet. What I HAVE heard has been sooooo good. I just want to get a copy so I can listen to it in my car with the windows down. My excitement is so intense. I'm sincerely counting down the minutes until we go get the CD.

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6-16-09 Mark: Vocals Day One

So before I start this blog entree, please scroll down and read Bill’s last entree. It’s so freaking funny. I’m still laughing like 5 hours after first reading it…

Today was “day one” of recording vocals for the new album. It’s now after midnight in Freeport, Long Island and I’m sitting in the studio lounge watching the History channel. Debbie is asleep on the leather couch next to me, under 2 blankets and wearing this ugly ski hat with the flaps that cover her ears (I think Scottie gave it to her). She has her Blue Blower next to her, blasting on the highest setting to drown out the house music leaking through from “Studio A”. Yup, you all know the “Blue Blower” - that thing on stage each night that keeps her hair floating in mid-air… Well not only does it keep her hair from sticking to the sweat pouring down her face, but it also allows her to sleep in all the paper-thin walled hotel rooms we have to stay in.

Anyway, we arrived at the studio this morning around 10:30am after a 3 hour drive from Albany with 30 extra minutes of lovely Long Island traffic. Our Producer, Mike Watts, was hoping to get through 3 songs, maybe 4 if we were lucky. You see, Debbie has got to sing through all the parts of each song like 4 or 5 times perfectly, so they have plenty of “good stuff” to choose from when piecing together the final vocal tracks. Well not only did Debbie get through 3 songs, but she got through 8! Yup, 8 songs. Our engineer, Rich, said that he’s never worked with anyone who’s gotten through that many songs in such a short period of time. I’ve been saying for over 6 years that Debbie is a true “rockstar”… and today, in her most un-rockstar peronsa and attire, she proved it 150%. Yes, we all know that we (Ten Year Vamp) go a little overboard marketing ourselves using Debbie as the sexy woman lead singer with the big boobs; she takes A LOT of flak for that. And she deals with it all knowing that we have to do what we have to do in order to get noticed. But today… BUT TODAY…. Today, Debbie proved what every person who regularly comes to our shows already knows - that beyond our marketing “gimmicks,” Debbie is bursting with honest talent, and she is exceptional at what she does… period. This album will finally prove that fact, once and for all.

Debbie and I have been working towards this point for almost 6 years, through over 460 shows, and I couldn’t be more proud of my “little sister” than right now… even with her snoring over Blue Blower and the flat vocals leaking from “Studio A”. I just hope this album gives us the opportunity to go further… so she can really show the world all that I know she has inside.

I should sign-off now so I can get some sleep so that I’m fresh in the morning… but I already know I’m not going to be able to fall asleep for hours…

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6/13/2009 - Billy: LAND SHARK!

Has anybody noticed how desperately un-photogenic I am? Good lord. Most of the time at the microphone I look like a huge underwater beast with a commercial-weight fishhook in my mouth, getting pulled to the lake’s surface by some unsuspecting angler. (“Pickerel?” asked Larry, hopeful as Earl dragged the lumbering beast toward the bow. “Nope,” Earl replied with disdain. “Percussionist.”)
When I was a longhair, I could at least partially obscure the fact that I bear an uncanny resemblance to, oh, Freddy Krueger. Or the guy from Midnight Oil. Or the guy from The Hills Have Eyes. But alas, these days are long gone. Good thing I can sing.


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Previous Blog Entrees at www.tenyearvamp.com