The first of them is this Saturday the 28th at the Turf w/ Communist Daughter. This is great because they are great.

The second one is the following Saturday the 4th at Cause. This is great, and a lil sad, because it is a send off show for The Icy Shores. Last chance to see this awesome three piece. Good reason to come out!

The third is Friday Feb 17th at the 331. This is great because it is with Unguided who are celebrating the release of their new record that night. Party.

We play 2nd to last all of these nights. So come early, stay late, you know the bit.

What else? Well our instrumental record is done! We are just finishing up the other non-instrumental album and then our double record will be up for adoption. Anyone who would like to help us put this thing out is encouraged to get in touch. This means you Merge!

Love you,
Ian

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON D.C THIS WEEKEND!

Above you will see the posters for the two shows we will be playing on the East Coast this weekend. If you are in the area, we hope you will be able to attend.

There are a few other shows that we will be playing before the end of the year as well. See Below:

Friday, November 18th, at the Turf Club with The Tisdales, 22-20’s(London), and Brother Jack and the Dearly Departed. $6 See Facebook

Friday, November 25th, on the First Avenue Main Stage. A TRIBUTE TO THE REPLACEMENTS

Friday, December 2nd, at the Rochester Art Center in Rochester MN. FLUX: Late Night Art, Performance & Music

Friday, December 16th, at the Turf Club with Valet (Reunion show) and Magic Castles.

So we have 6 shows before the end of the year to make up for lost time. If you live in Minneapolis, NYC, or DC be prepared to be rocked. If you live in California, you are one lucky SOB. It is always sunny and you have some very nice beaches. Don’t even get us started on the great vineyards in the north part of your state. Count your blessings.

November 11 – Red Palace, D.C. w/ Bells and J. Robbins
November 12 – Dead Herring, Brooklyn w/ Bells, Diehard and Chumps
November 18 – Turf Club, St Paul w/ The Tisdales
December 16 – Turf Club, St Paul w/ Valet and Magic Castles

All told,
Ian

First let me say thanks to Mankato and Duluth peoples. Thanks Mankato and Duluth people. The shows last weekend weʼre some of the best weʼve had in each respective city. They were also our first shows back as a trio which we are quite stoked about. Return to form if you will. Adam got a new Les Paul, I got a new snare drum and John got new shoes thus improving our live sound. And sight.

Mucho progresso has been made on our instrumental album. It is so close! It shall be a treat to thine ears start to finish, that is if you like music without words. Actually there will be some words, just not any that are sung. There is also a little something else up our collective sleeve as far as the release goes but more on this at a later date. Letʼs get on to more urgent matters.

Shows! Well, show rather. We have one on the books and it is with none other than Buffalo Tom! Man did we ever, and still do, love that band. Total summer time soundtracks to many a summer, their albums. I believe itʼs just us and them this coming Wednesday, April 13th at the Varsity Theater in Dinky Town. Thanks to First-Avenue for having us on the bill.

If youʼre reading this, which I know that you are, know that we love you.

ian of the sea

So it is back to the three piece for us. We will work hard to fill the gap left by Andy’s departure and you will be able to see the fruits of that labor in April at the following shows.

April 1st: Mankato Minnesota, The What’s Up for the POST HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA IV

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=186728418027518

April 2nd: Duluth Minnesota, Luce, with Atlas Mtns and Jenny Dalton.

Also, we hope to have our instrumental album done for a release show by this summer. It is in the mixing stage and we are excited!

And one other thing….I am going to be a Dad in August with my beautiful wife Jessica, for those who did not know.  I am not going to lie, there was band pressure to have a child so that Oscar Prince had someone to be in a band with in the year 2026

I hope to see you all at these upcoming out of town shows.

-john of the sea

Speaking of new albums, we are almost done recording our full length instrumental record. We are in the process of adding some final touches and then it is off to mixing. If all goes as planned we will release it and perform it by early summer.
We also have new T-Shirts. They are long sleeved, yellow, with blue writing on them. Here is a picture of Adam’s fiance wearing one proudly:

How sharp!

They are $15 and we only made 30 of them (for now), so get em while the gettin’ is good.

We also have a show in two weeks(Feb 11th,  10PM). It is at the 331 Club with our pal Jenny Dalton.  Jenny Dalton sang on the Lunar Co. track “Sway”. If we play our cards right, maybe she will sing it with us at the show! I asked my friend Erik Farseth to throw something together for a poster, and boy did he!  Check it!

Feb 11th!

Hope to see you at the show!

We are playing a show on January 14th at Nick and Eddie and we would love for you to come on out for some Rock and Roll! I don’t know a ton of details at this moment. I know we are headlining, so we will play later than the other bands. We will have a flyer soon, but until then please enjoy this pro picture I took of Ian where I made him pose like he is on the cover of Modern Drummer.

"Drumming is all about drums" -Ian Prince

I know it has been a long time since I have written (JUNE!) but we have been busy busy bees these last couple of months. Let me count the ways.

1) Ian and Jenn had a child.  His name is Oscar and he looks like this:

His hobbies include: eating, sleeping (sometimes), and being an ADORE-A-BULL.

2) A while back we were asked by a company called Zivix, to write music for their videogame “Jam Party”. Jam Party is like Guitar Here and can be played with your GH guitar(or on your computer), but unlike GH you are creating the song from many different pre-recorded tracks thus making you the producer of your own songs. Basically you have five different drum tracks, five different bass tracks, guitar tracks, etc. and they can all work by themselves or together..You decide!  So we ended up writing two songs with two sections each. Basically we recorded 100 separate tracks for these two songs. It was the most challenging thing we have ever worked on, and for a while I think Ian and Adam and I were second guessing why they ever started playing music in the first place.  But it really paid off. They liked our material and it is now in the game. You can try the trial run or just spend the money and get the game. We are a $1.99 add on once you purchase the game. I’ve played it a few times and it is fun. The link for all of this can be found here. We are proud of our work and hope you enjoy it too.

3) We didn’t play too many shows since Ian was adjusting to having the kid, but we did go out to Denver a few weeks back to play the Underground Music Showcase, or the UMS as all the kids are calling it. It was a great time but we learned a valuable lesson. Story of the Sea is way too loud for an emptied out infant apparel store. Everyone, including the people running for the door, seemed to agree. We also agreed that 38 hours in the van in four days can really bring a band closer. Which brings me to my next point….

4) We have a new multi-instrumentalist in the band. His name is Andy Mark. Andy plays keyboards, guitar, bass, vocals, drums, tambo, you name it! He is a talented guy. We have been playing with him for a while and brought him with us to Denver. He got to experience the good and the bad, and he still showed up at practice the next week. I guess he is into it! So are we. Andy will be playing his first in-town show with us this Saturday, so come on out and make him feel welcome.

5) Our next show is this Saturday, August 28th at 6PM-10PM. I think we go on 2nd, around 8 bells (I think). It is outside on the patio of Club Jager downtown. Enjoy the nice days while we have them. Here is the poster, sorry it is so small:

I’m sure I will let you know what is going on in our world within the year! I kid, I should do this more often..updating is FUN!

John of the Sea