One Week Late Wedding Update
January 30, 2010 05:30 AM
The couples + their grandad (my dad just turned 80) - performing the ceremony.
So... was anyone who knows this band really surprised to see a 2 for 1 sale? Hey - it wasn't my doing. Everyone knows that weddings are advanced by women. We have plenty of those around here. I think it was actually Chauntelle and Weston's doing; at least in the beginning. Practical or emotional - once the idea hit the public arena, it was like lighting a grass fire in Malibu on a hot August day.
Wedding Fodder - Anyway, as you might imagine, it was a gorgeous, beautiful double wedding... as double weddings go. What the heck - who's ever even been to a double wedding? Well... I'm sure this was the best one. It was very much like Sherri & Max's wedding: magical. Darren wasn't able to come to Sherri's and we all felt so bad/sad for him. So was he... but he was there Saturday night and I think he'd be the first to admit that he was visibly overwhelmed. So was Max. Man alive. But after the [double] wedding, Darren was verbalizing how special it was... and I said, "hey now you've basically been to Sherri's wedding too... because this WAS that wedding... seriously - all that changed were the lead actors on stage...". ha-Ha... nah, it wasn't identical... Sherri had more pink & BBQ.
It was slightly different for me too. I got to walk TWO brides down the aisle. What an honor. I fought back tears but had to be strong for Chauntelle & Jessie who came out of their girlie bridal room fanning their eyes... "dad, you've got to help us stop crying...". I was like, "ok... focus... look into my eyes... i am a rock..." But inside, i was right on the edge... fearing I would sob like a glubbery poo-baby. I didn't. Rock-man rocked it.
Coming off stage to "Wouldn't it Be Nice if We Were Married"
Credits - Everyone who came seemed to be touched. Yes - because of the emotion... the couples... the moment... but honestly - Kim and Parrish (DuPree) were to blame. They should get a huge hunk of the cred'. You don't know them; just a couple of mom's who have poured their lives into their kids quietly in the background for decades. They rose to the epic occasion... quite expectedly. Cakes and flowers and arrangements and decoration and planning and details and on and on and on... for weeks. If the couples were the magic, Kim and Parrish's work were the sprinkles that gave it visibility. All the eisley girls helped. It was spectacular... lovely. There were few dry eyes.
Sickly Stacy - Few know this but poor Stacy has mononucleosis'. Yeah, not kidding. She came to the wedding sickly... she even danced... sickily. 
Wish her well. She's still sick. She tracked some vocals today with a swollen globula. I just made that up. Her throat is swollen and she's... well, she has mono... you get tired and run down day after day after week.
Dreams - For whatever history you do or don't know, this wedding was very important. But without getting into all that, I hope it might be obvious... family is important to this band. Starting/raising families has always a part of the dream. Having stated that fact, it might be important to let you guys know that creating music & presenting it (digital, retail, live, whatever) is equally foundational. If you've peered in closely over the years, you probably knew that. It's in the DNA. And it's already working. Sherri is as passionate about her band as ever... even moreso. I know it to be true... (sherri and i emailing back and forth at 5:30am about the band. she's in LA) with all of them. Three new families... there is no wavering. Only dedication.
Behind Scenes - It was funny - that night after the wedding, what remained of our small family were hanging out basking in the aftermath of the amazing night; we stayed up til 4:30am; we couldn't go to sleep. Wired, full of joy. It's funny - all that night at the wedding, friends were joking w/ me about us being empty nesters. What? We still maintain the national average after losing half of our kids. Get real. Plus - everyone lives a few blocks from each other so it's not like things are changing that much.
The day after their wedding, we were all hanging out at our house w/ Garron's gi-normous family and about 4:00 - within about 15 minutes of each other - both newly weds busted in... followed by loud cheers, applause, hugs, frivolity. Sorta awesome. We were all hanging out, relishing the moment, reminiscing about the wedding... laughing at the fun of it all.
Brides w/ an important mom in the middle
Making it vs Living it - I said years ago, this has never been about fame or money. Eisley is unique for many reasons. Being in a family has a built in benefit. The thread that connects them is in the blood... in the mind. Bands get discouraged, get disgruntled with each other, give up; I hear it all the time: "yeah, we didn't make it... we tried but we just couldn't make it..." Make what? ($) Ok... i get that; but seriously... you have to frame this right. Even the tiniest local bands make recordings and get their music out with little or no money. They work and have jobs. They do what they believe in.
You do what is within you. A painter paints. A writer writes. Quitting on the talent... the God-given gift you've been given is just pure (vocabulary mishap). Right? I'm not saying that bands should stay together forever. I'm just saying that you can't stop being who you are... you don't ignore what is in your bones... what runs through your soul... for any reason. I just wanted you guys to know - for a band like Eisley, getting married doesn't mean giving up on what is in them. Perhaps just the opposite.
Finding the Wood - Not sure if many read this buried little Trolleywood blog anymore. I don't care... it's an outlet. Insiders only. I see a jillion blogs out there without ANY comments. If we get a few, it represents 100's if not 1000's of reads. And no - you don't need to re-assure me. "We found the wood, we unfound the wood". And yes - "Trolley's still drive".
And Tweets are so limiting; mostly news chunks when you're a band. Ya'll... Eisley is in this nifty place; news is funny to us right now. Probably doesn't seem like there's much of it but we're laughing at a few things behind the veil. Yes, we're easily amused and we tend to laugh at things others don't so... whatever; you read whatever u want into that. When I say expect news soon, I mean it. We have sxsw coming up, a show coming up and even more... obviously more; trust me, there's more.
bd
manager/designer/web/coffee drinker
p.s. Jamie took a million pics (professionally) at the wedding. So did another photographer. We'll post more for fun when he/she delivers them. Thanks and stay tuned for important news.
Baton Rouge Show + Ramblings
January 13, 2010 12:43 AM
CLICK THE LINK FOR TICKETS TO THE SHOW.
This Show. Many or exactly none of you might be asking - "why do a show right now?... or why do this show when there's all this other important stuff I'm sure you're doing although - we don't know what the h_ll that might be since no one is saying anything and to be perfectly honest, it's kind of weird..."
Simply, a promoter in Baton Rouge persisted (since way back when we were out w/ SA) and we finally accepted. FACT: Louisiana got totally passed over on every Eisley headlining tour since 2005. We had an unexpected international gig conflict...then hurricanes came, levy's broke... then agents weren't booking shows because of the sad path of destruction in New Orleans, etc. We figured we were past due on an La. show.
Now, if you're in Montana, yep... we dissed you too, but there aren't any Eisley fans in Montana except the Marlboro Man. He is real and he is Chad Kroeger's dad. He is a fan, as I said, but he rides his horse all the way to Boise, Idaho for Eisley shows... so we don't need to tour Montana. Maybe a few other states will complain. If they do, I am prepared.
btw - the openers are local to Baton Rouge and seem vibey and soft and musical and quirky. I think this will work. The promoter seems cool and wants us back on our next tour. New markets, here we come. Some of you Texans should make the trek... or how about some Mississippians.
Again, if you want to go: http://tinyurl.com/yf47nd7
Sherri shooting a Wes'/Jes' shower
What is going on?! Everyone already knows: a double wedding. If that isn't enough, I don't know what is. It certainly is enough. And if anyone has is dark-sided or distrusting enough to think that the band is over their band simply because there's some hitchin' goin' on, think again. You should read the emails, hear our conversations. The inactivity is driving them bady... bonkers... whacko. They are chomping... no for real - like actually 'chomping'... things like sticks and even those chewy dog bones in the back yard. It's pretty bad. But it's better to have this delay happen now then to have an album out and not be able to tour/promote it, right? Ok.
Oh, and plus - we had those holidays after that long tour... and now it's a few weeks before the wedding. Soon we'll be on a faster track.
Gumbo lures church folk to afternoon showers for both couples on different
dates. The first was a huge success. Kim's S. Louisiana Cajun gumbo rules.
Even Paul of Mute Math said it was the best he'd ever tasted. He's from New
Orleans. The man knows his gumbo. So do I.
Being in a band - I recently tweeted a stat I read in RS magazine: "In a year when the last major retailer, Virgin Megastore, shut down, CD sales sank another 19%...". The rest of that long quote read: "...and even though the long-booming touring business started to slide, the music industry got a much-needed boost from a couple of it's biggest-ever acts: Michael Jackson and the Beatles. After his June 25th death, the King of Pop sold 7 million albums, 10.2 million song downloads and 1.3 million DVD's, not to mention more than $72 million in tickets for his movie, This is It. The Beatles followed in Sept. with... 2 million records... 1 million copies of Rock Band. but to many in the industry, this was foreboding news. "The music these artists made has stood the test of time, "... The bad thing is there aren't new artists whose careers have transecnded the changing habits of consumers."
My comment is not so much about why other artists are not transcending trends or surviving 50 years... it's that CD sales dropped another 19%. Try lopping off 20% of your body parts... then go get a check up. You're in bad shape... but to get a real diagnosis you have to subtract more other limbs; remember there has been high loppage happening for years now... percentages taken away from that 100% whole. You're barely alive.
But you're actually doing fine. Because the "you're" in this story isn't you... or even bands... it's labels. Remember - they still have to sell those physical plastic compact disc thingies... well, unless they're one of the majors who have shifted their business model to the 360˚deal... which is nearly 100% of them. I'm quite sure those labels think everything is back to normal... that everything is fine... that they'll get big chunks of everything that bands make... and they'll survive. But I don't think they will.
Found this on line. Appears in several sites.
"The Re-tooled Industry". This is not going to be profound; it's old news... but I'm always thinking of a way to articulate ideas that seem easy to understand but lack profoundness. Music has always been accessed by a tangible/physical thing but for the first time since the evolution of music storage (cylindrical Edison recordings > vinyl disc records > tapes > cd's) the tangible has been replaced - not by a new thing - but by a distribution method. The mp3 is just X's and O's. It's a digital thing, not a tangible thing. With the birth of the mp3 and iTunes, labels lost both the tangible thing to sell and the distribution to sell it. Apple put the tangible case into the hands of every music lover on planet earth... then they sold the intangible to that audience. Labels could have grabbed up this real estate but couldn't see it.
All they're doing now is trying to recover from a fatal mistake. They were accused of taking too much from the artists they were stealing from... but now they're taking way more. In my opinion, this is just another cycle... it has a fuse and a timer.
This is one of my favorite quotes: "we literally come into the office every day, scratch our heads and try to figure out how to compete with free". No source but it's an accurate paraphrase from the president of a major label.
Gotta get back to work. Stay tuned.
bd
Christmas Card and hey!
December 24, 2009 07:49 PM
Click for Christmas goodies download
Hi everybody. Just wanted to say Merry Christmas - at least to the some of you who celebrate this Holiday. For those who feel left out... well Happy Holidays!!! 'Tis the season no matter what, right? We hope you guys are happy instead of sad during this season. Sometimes people get sad at the end of the year. That makes us sad. So it seemed right to try to do whatever we could to brighten up your day (eve). It snowed here today so we all felt like we got the White Christmas we've been dreaming of - even though it didn't stick. I'd say we're pretty happy. Everyone is here and we're hanging and doin' our thing.
Digital Christmas Card
Anyway, on all this - we put or egg noggin head's together and thought - 'why not do something... no matter how small'. You guys deserve so much more but... we typically do something silly every year but this year we couldn't get everyone together (Garron in Houston, etc.) so...
So the girls just got together over at Darren's house down the street & tracked this traditional Christmas song! Darren had Logic, an interface module, an xtra bedroom, an cool old piano he bought Stacy to bang on - plus some other cool gear. We had mics, guitars... voices... and a song. Then, last night the girls simply gazed into Sherri's Mac and pushed the button, videotaped a bunch of un-rehearsed, unscripted iSight out-takes. I threw it together fast and furious.
Thanks Nothing is meant to be hi-fi... Mr King did a great job on the lil' track. Much appreciation for his help, love and talent. I threw the design together in a few minutes, our friend Nico Osborne - in sub-zero temps in Canada - coded the page (+ thought of the initial idea to do a digital Christmas card; he helps me with SO much... what a guy), Jamie Maldondo (long time fan/friend and photog' extraordinaire) shot the pic (for Taylor guitars so I should thank them too). Anyway, not pumping this small offering up to be a big deal. Just thought I should give cred' where it's due.
WHAT?
Wait, so what did the girls say?! ha ha. We didn't really want to do say anything this years end... we didn't want to come out of the cave since 1.) we just got back from a tour and 2.) well... why talk about what we don't know yet (that damn record). We're just trying to be transparent and forthright and out of the cave-like. The record really isn't finished. The band is questioning some of the songs, song selection, edits, etc. There are just all kinds of wonderful, beautiful, awesomeful complexities.
Soon I will post a fat one and give you an ear ful. O yes... will I ever.
For now, that is all. It's Christmas eve and I've worked on this all day and am beat. Chauntelle and Todd want us to come over to his place and eat delicious snacks... I think the entire fam' is going. Glad we're leaving for a few...cuz I need to get out. Plus our house is over-run with wedding stuff and all kinds of crap and food for tomorrow and dogs and who knows what else. Wouldn't change it for a million dollars. I will, however, sell 3 dogs for $3.00 (total) jk.
Love you all. Merry Merry.
boyd