Here's what was in the Pasty White email in-box today when we got up from our long long nap... We would like to extend an invitation for Pasty White to showcase at the 2004 Midpoint Music Festival the weekend of September 22-25, 2004. Talented artists from all over the world submitted to showcase at the festival and we’re pleased to make this offer to you. YOU MUST ACCEPT OR DECLINE THIS INVITATION NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30th, 5PM EST! If we do not hear from you, we will assume you have declined your invitation. Please follow the instructions below. To accept or decline your invitation, follow the link provided below. Once there, you can commence the showcase process by providing current artist and contact information. Thereafter, we will provide you with showcase dates and Festival information. If you are unable to attend the festival, simply DECLINE the invitation. Other artists are on a waiting list to attend and we’d like to let them know as soon as possible. We appreciate your submission and hope to hear from you next year. ...uhhmm - cool. We are pretty stoked. Obviously, we clicked on the link provided and confirmed. We will be playing Cinci again and they will bow in the presence of our pasty white underbellies. We don't know yet who 'they' are, but, rest assured, they WILL bow down - oh yes - they will - ha ha ha ha ha ha....
Wow - a new website! Well, it's a new look anyway. Nothing drastically different here, except it's easier to navigate, looks a liitle more elegant than before (imho) and uses the wonderful photography of Mark Wallentiny. Thanks, Mark, for being such a great guy and a friend to the band! Most of the backgrounds used throughout the new website are pictures that were taken by Mark on our trip to Cincinnatti. (Mark can be reached at fieldguy@aol.com - shameless promotion!).
We just played the Urban Wildlife Club again on Wed. 11/19 - we sucked. Sorry to all of you that came out to see us that night - what can we say - we had an off night. My own wife told me on the way home from the gig that the band sucked - so, we sucked. Sometimes it's just like that though. You get up on stage, start to play, and things just get muddy. Maybe the sound isn't quite what your used to hearing on stage. Maybe you didn't eat right that day. Maybe, just maybe, you had a beer too many before going up on stage. Maybe one too may Vicodins? Maybe your undies are riding a little high - who knows. We'll do better next time. I know it, the band knows it, bet on it.
Enough about sucking.
Next gig - America's Original Sports Bar at the Mall of America. This has been a strange one to get put together, from a booking standpoint. First we were supposed to play Gators on this night (11/26) along with our friends Snark. Then Steve York (a great guy by the way!) was told by the Mall Management (dut dut-dut duhhhhh) that they didn't want to have two different venues with live music on this night because The Kurt Jorgensen Band is playing at America's Original Sports Bar at the same time. The Mall Management (dut dut-dut duhhhhh) wanted to have ALL DISCO that night. WHAT!?!? So much for bringing original music to the burbs. Anyway, Steve called to tell me this and asked how much promotion we had done. Well, at that point we had about 1,000 flyers in the hands of our favorite little pizza joint in mid-town for distribution on thier pizza boxes, not to mention advertising on numerous online bulletin boards as well as the 500+ email addresses that we send out our gig schedule to. Steve went to bat for us and we ended up opening up for The Kurt Jorgensen Band at America's Original Sports Bar. Not a bad deal except that we screwed Snark out of a gig. Steve, the nice guy that he is, will be offering them another Wed. night slot at Gators in the not-too-distant future - so all is well. The best part - NO DISCO!!!!!
10/26/03
The Midpoint Music Festival was the best! We played like the little bitches
that we are - good and bad - hehe. Actually, I think
we did OK - not a lot of people though - probably less than 100. Oh well, we
got picked to play the worst slot of the festival
as far as time/date-wise - Thursday at 9:00 PM - but - what ya gonna do? We
saw some awesome bands as well - and some not so good bands. We also met some
cool peeps and met some cool musicians. All-in-all - we would do it again in
a heart-beat. We just don't want to all get sick again - that made the trip
kind of shitty.
04/30/03
Well, I (John) have nothing really to rant about right now. We just got done
playing the Urban Wildlife Club - it was great.
The folks there are SUPER nice, it has one of the best light and sound systems
in the city, what the hell more can you ask
for? I wanted to share a post that was on www.musicscene.org (the best resource
for local bands in the Twin Cities) about
driving and all of the BS associated with it. This was posted by Fritz (a cherished
;) subscriber to MusicScene.Org) - and
I hope he isn't too upset about us rehashing it here, but it really needs to
be published!
Here are some rules of the road...
If you are making a left turn, green does not mean "go"... it means, wait for
the forward traffic in the opposite direction to finish crossing the intersection.
If you are backing out of a parking spot and someone runs into you, it is your
fault.
Drive below the speed limit during snow storms.
Turn off your cell phone when you take the wheel of an automobile.
Pedetrians are not targets.
Use your blinkers.
Check to see if someone is in the next lane BEFORE you move into that lane.
Hold the steering wheel straight and slowly guide the car to the shoulder of
the road if you experience a flat tire.
Pump the brake pedel if it loses resistence.
If you are stopped on a hill and the brake pedal loses resistence, then quickly
jerk up on the emergeny brake (that one saved me from rolling into on coming
traffic at an intersection in Duluth.)
If you are stranded, stay with your car.
Beer must be in the trunk of a car or at least in the back seat of the car.
If the beer is in the backseat of the car, then it must NOT be open.
Do not let your friends drink in your car.
Smoking weed in your car is better when you are parked. You need one hand on
the wheel, one hand to hold the bowl, and another hand to spark it... assuming
you have 3 hands.
If a maniac is tailing behind you, then move to the right lane and slow down
to let them pass.
Some people will ram into you on an isolated road to make you stop so they can
assault you.
I like the color blue for some reason, I don`t know why.
Remain calm. Do not get upset with other drivers. That wont help you in any
way.
If you are going to pass someone, then pass them. Don`t drive beside them for
a mile.
When stopped at a red light, keep a safe distance in front of you and car in
front of you. If someone rear ends you and pushes you into the car in front
of you, it is your fault. Keep an even bigger distance in front of you during
slippery conditions.
While driving, there should be 1 second of space between you and the person
you are following for every 10 miles/hour you are traveling. If you are traveling
at 50 miles an hour and the car in front of you passes a road sign, then you
should not reach that same road sign for 5 seconds.
Keep in your lane. Do not ride the center line as the road curves.
When turning at an intersection, turn into the proper lane. If you are in the
left lane, then you should end up in the left lane upon turning. If you are
in the right lane, then you should end up in the right lane.
If you are the first person in line at a red light. Take the second to look
both ways to look left and right before entering the intersection upon a green
light. This has saved me from getting into a bad accident more than once.
If you are stopped at a red light, do not look in your purse and do not apply
makeup.
If a guy tries to cop`a`feel at a drive-in, do not pour soda on his lap. It
is your seat and you will have to clean it up.
Be careful if someone tries to flick a cigarette butt out your window while
you are driving fast. It can often end up on or under your back seat. Those
sort of fires don`t start quickly, but they can start a large fire.
Do not park near the U of M if any of their athletic groups are in a tournament
of great importance.
I`ve only gotten into 1 accident. Nothing happened to my car and I fucked her
car up real good... but she was driving without insurance, so fuck her.
Slow down for construction crews.
Do not pass on the shoulder.
If it is obvious that you must merge into a different lane due to construction,
do not speed ahead of the line and butt in.
If you are stopped by a police officer. Turn the car off. Do NOT get out of
the car. They may shoot you. Turn off the radio. Do not make any jokes about
drugs.
If you buy gas, don`t forget to pay for it.
When filling your gas tank, do not get back into your car while it is filling.
That could build up static electricity and you may catch on fire when you get
back to reach for ther nozzle.
When filling your gas tank, turn off your cell phone and ground yourself by
touching a metal object connected to the ground.
If you get into an accident, never admit or imply any kind of wrong doing in
any way, shape, or form.
Have fun driving!
Cheers,
Fritz (from Musicscene.org)
04/01/03
It seems appropriate to have a little therapy session here today - seeing's
how it's the 1st of April. Ok - here's the news. The band is breaking up. We
don't know why, it just seems the right thing to do right now. No reasons, no
arguments, no in-fighting, nothing. We have just had it.
Frankly, we're sick of playing original material.
What we all want to do, except Chad of course, is play cover songs. For the
rest of our lives. Until we are dead, casters up. Seriously, think about how
much enjoyment there would be in playing songs that someone else came up with,
got completely overplayed on the radio for years and years and were so prevalent
in some cases that they defined your moments in life. Wow - it makes us sort
of giddy at the prospect. So there you have it. We are gonna form another band
called the Boogie Wonder Dweebs and we are gonna mop this town up! Check back
for updates...
Oh yeah...
April Fool...
12/24/02
First of all, a very merry Christmas and happy new year to all of our friends
and family - you know who you are...
Pasty White performed 30 shows in 2002. Not bad for a bunch of hippies! Oh -
and Chad - a wanna-be hippy - he's unfortunately, not old enough to qualify
for the 'real hippy' label - hehe!
But all-in-all, it has been a great year for us as a band. We have learned what
we can and can't do as musicians and what we can and can't get by with on stage.
We have also gone through our share of internal grief and strife and lost a
member along the way. It's all good and it's all part of what it takes to be
a band. Most of all, it's all about the music and if you can't figure that out,
you can't play in our band...
My cousin (this is John ranting) plays in a band called 'The Trigger Locks'.
They and another band called '5 Foot Tuesday' are both from the West Coast.
They tour frequently out there and have decided to pull a tour through the midwest.
We will be sharing the stage with them on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at Lee's Liquor Lounge
in Minneapolis. This is going to be a great show and one that you should not
miss!
Our debut CD is almost done being remixed with new backup vocals thanks to Joe
Cincoski's wife Mary's hard work in the studio over the past few weeks. Kudos'
Mary! Still don't have a release date yet, but it won't be much longer now...
12/5/02
Hmmm - a curious amount of non-rants on this here page. Let's see if we can
rectify that. Not alot to rant about except the usual; The band doesn't get
paid enough. We can't agree on the artwork for our CD. Too many gigs, too much
work at our day jobs, wife and kids miss us. We argued about one note on a song
the other night at practice. One note. The next practice, everybody agreed on
the note. We have less than $1,000 in our band account and our CD is gonna cost
WAY more than that to release. Joe's new midi pickup keeps popping up and hitting
his strings because the double-sided tape isn't holding it down like it should.
We tried to super-glue it but we just got glue all over his fingers and strings
and picks and pick guard and.... man what a mess...next time we won't use a
caulking gun.
We finally got into First Avenue...well, 7th Street Entry - but, that's still
First Ave - dammit! Needless to say, we are ummm, thrilled, goosepimply, really.
There was a post on Musicscene.org that said something to the effect that we
got the gig because we are such good ass-kissers and have little if no talent.
Well, I can tell you that not a one of us are very good at ass kissing and furthermore
we have no talent to speak of - so what the hell is your point? Actually, Chad
is pretty good at making a bug-like chirping sound come out of his hand right
next to your ear - MAN - it scares the living heck out of you, especially on
a warm summer night, outside, a few lights attracting bugs here and there and
then....BZZZZZT - that sound right in your ear! I guess you could call that
a talent...
5/27/02
Well, the Festival is over. It seems like our whole life led up to this one
event and then it cam and went - and way too fast. Anyway, it went great if
you didn't get to attend. We were treated like rock stars by the festival staff.
We got our own personal stage coordinator assigned to us and we had people that
carted our gear all over the place in little golf-carts. The 'green room' was
awesome as well. Complete with M&M's! Some of the members in the band had dinner
in the artists food tent with some of the members of War. How cool is that?
John got to shake Joan Jett's guitartist's hand after the show. We also got
to do some autograph signing on t-shirts and CD's that we sold in the merchandise
tent. Well, back to reality - we are taking a few weeks off in June and then
back in 'show-mode' again. Check out our show schedule in July - it's pretty
full!
We now have merchandise for sale; click on the 'Merchandise' button to see how
you can purchase a Pasty White Tshirt or one of our 6-song sampler CD's.
We are back in the studio in June. While we take a little break from the road
as a band, we are working on some new tracks in the studio to complete our first
CD. The CD is slated to be released in August at this point. No specific date
yet, but just as soon as we know - you'll know.
We Love You All!
Pasty White
4/23/02
The gig at O'Gara's went great on Thursday 4/18. We had a really huge crowd
and a really good band ('A Band Called Delicious') to warm the crowd up. If
you haven't been there before, O'Gara's is really nice - one of the best restaurant/bar/music
venue's in the Twin Cities IMHO.
If you haven't done so already - check out the new pics on the 'Pics' page.
Get ready for The Lab on May 10 - it's a Friday so you have NO excuse for not
being there. Plus, we are playing with Concentual, which is a REALLY GOOD BAND!
Get out there about 8:00, have a beer or two and then hang on for the show of
your life! You won't regret it - we promise.
Save a spot on your calendar for Sunday, May 19 - A Festival of the Heart and
Soul at Bunkers in Minneapolis. We are the fourth band to perform Sunday afternoon.
Music starts at 2:00 so that puts us on at about 4:00. Don't miss this show!
There are some fantastic bands performing inside Bunkers and on the outside
stage as well all evening.
We now have four songs in the top 40 on ALL of www.Ampcast.com !!! There are
over 4,000 artists and over 50,000 songs on Ampcast and we are proud to have
gotten enough exposure to make our way up the charts there. Thanks to all of
you who have played and rated our songs. Ratings are the ONLY way we get chart
movement on Ampcast. We have had over 6,000 total plays of all of our songs
and we have only received 98 ratings total. Now granted that has been enough
to move us into the top 40 with several songs, but imagine what would happen
if every person who played a song left a rating! Wow, it boggles my mind! So,
everybody, please, if you are going to play or download a song, please, when
you are done, leave a rating - just press the little red button on the screen
that says 'Rate this song'.
We Love our Fans!
Pasty White