Wrapping up 2012

The Year 2012 ...

What a year for Vintage Blue.   

-  Strike The Mics was released on February 14th after a SOLD OUT CD Release at Subterranean in Chicago 

-  (You have it right?  If not ... https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/strike-the-mics/id493074927) 

-  SOLD OUT show at House of Blues Chicago with our now good friends Marty Casey and The Lovehammers  

-  SOLD OUT Anniversary Party for Shoeshine Boy Productions at Double Door

-  Featured on WXRT - Local Anesthetic with Richard Milne

-  SOLD OUT Thursday night show at Schubas

-  Opened for Fitz & The Tantrums at Summerfest

-  Played VIP Event for Dave Matthews Band

-  Opened for Lifehouse at Worlds Largest Block Party in Chicago

-  Opened for Cowboy Mouth at Sheffield Garden Walk

-  Opened for The Revivalists at Boulevard Bash

-  Opened for 10,000 Maniacs at Guinness Oysterfest

-  RECORD PLAYED ON OVER 160 Radio Station across the Country

-  NATIONAL TOUR
       - Nashville
       - Sixthman in Atlanta
       - WOCM Radio in Ocean City, MD
       - Philadelphia
       - Cleveland

-  INTERNATIONAL TOUR
       - Costa Rica 

-  Two SOLD OUT Nights with SISTER HAZEL AT HOUSE OF BLUES

-  Great shows at Elbo Room, Abbey Pub, Tonic Room, Old Oak, Navy Pier, Fire on Water (WI) and special events with Ingram Hill, Greylan James and many others.

2013 ...

    -  New Record?

    -  Tour?

    -  International Round Two?

    -  Who knows ...         

    

      From all of us in Vintage Blue, we cannot thank you enough for your love and support.  2013 is already off to a great start with A HEADLINING SLOT at LINCOLN HALL!!!  Please keep letting your friends and family know about our band and our music.  We cannot do it without you and your support.  Thank you for all you do.

Ben, Brent, Caitlin, Cesar, Matt, Ryan and Will

 

Lifehouse and Old St. Pats

We should apologize for our brief hiatus from blogging ... but there is so much good stuff coming up that we wanted to have a venue for telling you that are interested all about it! This past Saturday, our band had the pleasure to open for one of our biggest shows to date ... The World's Largest Block Party at Old St. Patrick's Church in Chicago. We shared the stage with Brett Dennen and Lifehouse. We had the chance to hang with these musicians and the following materialized.

One look at current media reveals the popular view of musicians ... Tom Cruise from Rock of Ages anyone?  But our band got to spend a bit of time hanging out with the guys from Lifehouse, and we can honestly say that they were really genuinely good dudes.  While we may not have all been huge LH fans before, we certainly will follow the band from here on out, just for the manner in which they treated us.

For starters, our band always has a "rho-sham-bo" when it comes to knocking on the proverbial door to a big band's green room.  Usually good 'ole Benny has to do the honors, but has been successful so far in not getting beaten to the ground by security, or embarrassed by walking in on a greek orgy (again see Rock of Ages).  

When it came to Jason Wade from LH, Will, our drummer, caught him at the food table and just snagged the opportunity to chat with him.  Not only was Jason totally cool about it (because let's face it, he might not have heard of Vintage Blue yet) but he came over and stood and talked with about 7 of us that were sitting in sweat pools after our set.  Then he also took pictures with us and was generally just awesome.  Definitely a moment we will not forget.

So many good things have been happening for us and we just cannot help but be pleased to know that being persistent, hard-working and kind actually does pay off.  Much like it clearly has for Jason and all the guys from LH.  

WE HOPE TO SEE ALL OF YOU SOON:

---- SUMMERFEST on Friday July 6th @2:30 ----

--- VIP Show for Dave Matthews July 7th @ Alpine Valley ---

www.vintagebluemusic.com

Songwriting (How it Almost Happens)

We have a secret to tell you.  Our first record featured every song we had written as a band.  Pretty crazy.  Many musicians spend a lifetime writing songs that they hone and craft until a tenth of them are selected, carefully ordered and then produced over months and months of recording.  Why did we choose to lay down all of our material?  At the core of it, we suppose we really did not know if we would ever get the chance to make a "real" record again.  We were so fortunate to meet the people we met and make the connections we made, that we just were not sure we would ever have the opportunity to do it again. What if we never wrote another song?

Writing music is hard work, nerve-wracking and exhausting, but it can also be fun, exciting and a personal psychology lesson.  Often times writing music can be as simple as writing down a simple melody and adding some meaningful lyrics.  Other times songs sweep into your mind while you are walking to work, or eating a sandwich or hanging out with someone you love.  But, turning music you wrote into a record is a whole different beast.  There are plenty of songs out in the world that are amazing songs, written by songwriters or bands, that will never become a record.  The reason is, creating a record is like creating a piece of art.  Do you think Monet would have finished one of his paintings if the first lily he painted was lopsided and looked more like a pancreas?  What would Bob Ross have been without "happy clouds"? A record is a musician's chance to let you into their mind and to tell you what they are and who they want to be.  We believe our record did the first, but probably not the second.

We went into the studio armed with a collection of songs that we really wanted on a record ... NOT a collection of songs that WERE a record.  The distinction is key.  Don't get us wrong, we are so proud of the product.  We still get huge grins every time one of our songs is played on the radio or comes up on our ipod.  But as we head into writing material for our next album, we want to grow and learn about ourselves, our band, our sound and about what we want to be.

In Mat Kearney's song "In the Middle" he rap-sings about making records when he says "one life to write one, two years to repeat."  In his own capricious way Mat describes the labor of love that is a band's first album, and the stress and pressure to repeat a process that may have taken literally, as Mat says, a lifetime to produce, within a year or two.


What we hope you hear, as we begin to foster these songs by playing them live and sharing them with all of you, is that we are growing.  We hope that you can see the development of our songwriting and we hope that eventually we will find a solid group of tunes that we will take to the studio as a record.  The result, we believe, will be a leaner, meaner, tighter group of songs that will come to define Vintage Blue.  Look out.

March: Madness, Wisconsin & Lovehammers

March is usually the signal of spring; a time of rebirth, sunshine, and a signal that the warm fun of summer is on the way.  For some March means baseball beginning with spring training, SXSW, hockey playoffs and March Madness.  For others spring just means more time by the lake, eating out, and enjoying their fine cities.  This will be our first March as Vintage Blue and we are looking forward to an amazing first spring as a band.

First off, at the end of February we had the opportunity to have our first band webcast!  It was such a cool experience and over 35,000 people viewed our live broadcast on Stickam.com.  We will be making this a REGULAR appearance every first and third Tuesday or each month, starting on March 20th!

Secondly, March will represent the first time we get to play a couple of new venues, and our first time in MILWAUKEE!!!  On March 23rd we will have our first show at the Tonic Room in Chicago, where will we be welcoming in New York City's own Deadbeat Darling as they make their way down to SXSW.  On March 24th we will be invading our neighbors to the north when we play Fire On Water in Milwaukee.

Thirdly, We are so excited to play this Saturday with Marty Casey and the Lovehammers at House of Blues Chicago.  This will be our fourth show at the most prestiguous music venue in Chicago in the last six months and we are more excited than ever.  It will be an epic evening and has already SOLD OUT!!  Hope to see you all there!

Lastly, March is the time of year when booking for summer festivals gets going.  We need your support!  Please share our music, website and info with all your friends.  We thank you in advance!!!

-Vintage Blue

Strike The Mics: Released

Over one year of creative energy, serious commitment, love, frustration, countless sleepless nights, listening and relistening, tweaking, tracking, practicing, recording, mixing, re-mixing, travelling and mastering finally consummated in the release of our first LP Strike The Mics.  We could not be happier with the result.

Many thanks go out to all the fine people who helped make the album what it is today.  First and foremost to our producer and good friend Jamie Candiloro.  Thank you so much for everything you taught us.  About becoming professionals, about listening, about focus and about becoming true writers and builders.  Thank you for your commitment to us and everything we wanted our music to be.  We cannot ever thank you enough for the work you did on this record and we look forward to working on the next one with you.

To Krista, Jason, and everyone at Rock Ridge Music, our marketing gurus: thank you for your commitment to pushing our record to every corner of the country; getting us press coverage in SOCO Magazine, on Windows Media Guide and into webzines and  blogs from Los Angeles, Nashville and New York.  Thank you also for your continuing efforts to push our music to Billboard.com and to Chicago outlets as well.

Thanks also to all of you that supported us during the making of this album.  Because of you, we have a very real shot of showing up in the Billboard Charts which would be a truly amazing next step for this band.  Not only that, but our e-mail, fanpages and mailing list has nearly doubled in size and we are so excited to continue bringing you our music on bigger and better stages here in Chicago.  We hope that you will continue to tell everyone you know about the band, about the record and about whatever songs move you.  THANKS!!!

BONUS:  On the release date we were on Fearless Radio here in Chicago.  We performed two songs live and acoustic in studio.  You can download the podcast here in case you missed it!  http://www.fearlessradio.com/index.php/component/k2/item/2502-vintage-blue.html

Kill 'Em With Kindness

Recently the band was interviewed by SOCO Magazine and Trevor, the interviewer, asked what advice the band would give to aspiring musicians.  Initially our answer was the old cliche about working hard, practicing and being persistent.  While this holds true generally, our band has found that another rule applies in such a more meaningful way.

Kill 'Em With Kindness

2011 has been a lesson in the value of building relationships, making lasting connections and treating people with respect.  Very early on in the history of this band we met a lot of musicians at all levels of success.  But it was the musicians with humility and that took the time to talk with us about the craft, their equipment, etc. that really had a profound effect.

So we took it to heart.  We started paying attention to every person that crossed our path.  Whether it was a sound engineer, a fan, or a generally unfriendly booking agent, we made it our goal to treat everyone with kindness, knowing that it would come back to us someday.

2011 has been a lesson in just how effective this strategy can be.  Recently the band had a chance to play with Sister Hazel at The Bluebird Bar in Bloomington, Indiana and the House of Blues Chicago.  That opportunity was the result of 2 years of pursuit and networking and it could not have worked out better.  We met so many great new people, new fans and new friends.  And to all those new fans out there, we will show you the same thing that got us to the stage in front of our current friends ... kindness.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving.  This is our opportunity to look back at the past year and give thanks for everything and everyone that has positively impacted our life.  2011 has been a whirlwind for our band as we played our first summer festivals, completed our first full-length professionally produced album, and played the House of Blues.

None of it would have been possible with out the contribution of some very key people.  First and foremost we need to thank our producer Jamie Candiloro.  Jamie aided us in producing our album due out on Valentine's Day 2012.  In the process of recording this album, we learned a ton as musicians, grew as people and gained a true friend.

Next we should thank Paul Farahvar of Shoeshine Boy Productions.  While he is ornery and difficult (because he is an attorney) Paul has been an essential piece to the growth of our band.  Most recently Paul enabled us to play the House of Blues and next Metro Chicago.

We also need to thank our current publicity machine that is aiding in the press surrounding our album release.  Krista Mettler of Skye Media LLC has been not only a great publicist, but has been both engaging, funny and helpful in explaining the current state of the music business.  Also we thank the folks at Ariel Publicity who are helping us streamline our online presence and expand our network of online media contacts.

Lastly we can't thank all of you enough!  All of you who follow, tweet, like, comment, and read all of our material.  All of you who come out to our shows, listen to our music and support us both as fans and friends ... THANK YOU!!!

2012 is going to be absolutely amazing ... stay tuned.

-Vintage Blue

All Worth It

This band, in one form or another, has existed for about 3 years.  The things that we have learned as a group about social media, marketing and publicity are pretty insane.  When we had our first show we played Silvie's in North Chicago and didn't even have a Facebook page or Facebook invite.  We printed little flyers and handed them out at the door ... yes, at the door.

Today if we want to book a show, we go through our promoter Paul Farahvar from Shoeshine Boy Productions, we create a Facebook invite, update Reverbnation, update Myspace, tweet, re-tweet, find the other bands on the bill and follow them, like them, etc.

As we move towards February 14, 2012 ... our band finds itself taking yet another enormous leap forward in our marketing efforts.  In order to prepare for our first full-length record release we have employed Krista Mettler of Skye Media and Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity.  These two agencies have us lean, mean and focused on building our brand in an effective, fun and meaningful way.

The reason we do all of this work?  Because when we step up on stage, or close the door to the recording booth, we think about YOU GUYS!!!  When the curtains open and we see all of you yelling, pointing and getting excited we realize that all of our efforts to practice, market and promote our music culminates in getting to play for you ... and that time on stage is all worth it.

The Tale of An Independent Chicago Band

Welcome:

We are Vintage Blue, a Chicago band rock band that is currently gearing up to finish our most successful year as a band (2011) and launch what will be a 2012 to never forget.  We want to use this blog as a way for fans, old friends, and L.A. Reid to keep track of our band.

The Short:


We are a five-piece band that officially started in 2008 as the band Tanglewood.  We started as a cover band banging out classic tunes at Wise Fools Pub, Lilly's and Silvie's in Chicago.  Fast forward to 2011 and we have completed work on our second album, due out in 2012 ("Strike The Mics") that will soon be followed by a regional tour and national press.

What to Look For:


This blog will be about telling the story of an independent rock band and the behind-the-scenes work that it takes to book, promote, market, manage and phsychotherapize a band of dudes.