The Blakes

Here it is:  The long-anticipated Ramshackle Hearse video, directed by Chase Jarvis and featuring cameos from several Seattle bands.

Our entire new album, Souvenir, is now officially available to download on iTunes. For real, look it up.

So we are finally on the east coast and it is beautiful! We are heading into NYC tomorrow for a live in studio at  KEXP we will be live on John in the Morning show playing select tracks from the new record.  It will be live on the air at 7:00 am PST and 10 pm EST. It is going to be fun. We also have some  CMJ showcase shows as well so check  ‘em out if you are around. We will be sticking around the east coast for a while playing all over from  RI to Chicago to  possibly a week in Florida in November. This is going to be a whole new chapter for us  as we have only played a couple of shows on this coast.  There seems to be some hold up on Itunes for our record but it should be up next week! We will let you know the second we do.  In the mean time it available from us at www.theblakesband.com, digitally from www.cdbaby.com, and at live shows!

Our little Texas excursion has turned out at least as bizarre as we’d anticipated. We opened it with 2 penny pint night at Bash Riprock’s in Lubbock, where we struggled to play above the sound of Texas Tech undergrads vomiting. Nice kids, really. The next day a bearing went out on a trailer wheel fifty miles out of Austin. We pulled over and promptly telephoned our mechanic friend in San Marcos, who helped us out last time we broke down fifty miles out of Austin. He was receptive to our plight, if amused at our ineptitude with vehicle maintenance. We transferred our gear to the back of the van and had AAA haul the trailer to San Marcos while we hightailed it to the gig at MoHawk. We sat out a local band who didn’t know when to stop and finally took the stage after 1pm. Garnet had a few too many and ended up puking out of the passenger window of the van all the way back to the hotel room.

We have all sorts of new shows booked for this tour we’re currently on, including the CMJ dates and shows in Toronto, Philly, Pittsburgh, DC, etc. Check out the tour page.

The Bottom of the Hill in S. F. was great we finished up our run with Music for Animals and ended up staying after hours with the guys where some of us crashed for the night. Snow and I never made it out of the van. We ended up in LA later that day, it was our first day off  and one which we desperatly needed to catch up on mailouts showers and laundry!   The next Morning we did a  live session  for  Future Sounds and WOXY. Three,  new songs from the record; Basket, Tommy and Wolf .  Besides getting stuck in the cargo elevator for a while before getting bailed out we had lots of fun. 

from the control room.

 We played the Sunset Strip later that night at the Viper Room. We were scheduled to be playing before Joe Perry( Aerosmith) but we were shocked to find out how crazy it was all ready there at our  6:00 load in. A line of old school rockers hanging out side of the club. The funniest thing was the Steven Tyler look a like. Kinda weird but very normal for these parts. Anyway a star studded cast from, Slash and Nikki Six, to Perry Farrel were there 

.. it was sold out. We played a set  but I couldn’t remember the words to the beginning of  at least 4 songs. i mumbled through it… I don’t know what happened, lack of sleep I guess. The stage was tiny,  especially with all of Perrys’ guitar pedals each gtrst had at least 12 pedals. i have 2. The sound was great and the show went down well. Later, we hand delivered our cd  to Joe on the tour bus after the show.  Nice people. 

 Hermosa Beach was last night. The crowd, other bands, and venue were all great . It is on the PCH so the view wasn’t too bad either. The local surfers did get a little nervous when we got into a little scuffle on stage halfway through the set. We quickly reassured them that this happens often and that it was going to be fine. We came back on and did another 5 songs before we finished. One more show in LA tonight, a Rumble show for Future Sounds and WOXY radio….  Vegas tomorrow, stay tuned!