you are reading the first ever mobile update from the sea of trees blog. i got a new phone and am geeking out about it, which is why i am making this - not going to lie - probably pointless blog post.

there are two topics of interest for today, though. the first is that ian hosted a bad ass barbecue, and i have decided that i am going to start a punk band with dylan's son luca.

ian also made some awesome turkey burgers and some sausages that mitch claims were amazing. if you ever manage to finagle an invite to one of these soirees i highly reccommend it.

the second point of interest is that we have acquired a new pa. our old pa required a generous dose of tough love via drop kicking repeatedly during our practices. dylan was also coerced/bullied/manipulated into buying something that is apparently a monitor, but looks more like something that someone once used to listen to scott joplin. (king of ragtime, look it up.)

the good news is that we now have a (hopefully) reliable pa for the june 13th Muddy Cup show with Saint Ukraine and Greg Pier.

the even better news is that i won't accidentally hurt myself anymore while taking out my anger on a crappy pa head.

New Practice Space Pictures

Sorry about the lag between updates, I'm in the process of moving and have been too busy procrastinating and didn't want any explicit evidence of my lack of progress in packing.



I did, however, upload some pictures to my computer today and found some I took of our practice space, and thought I'd share. It's a relatively new space, so we're in the process of decorating it with things we find around the attic. It's also usually not as bright - we like to practice by lamplight (we're more attractive that way). The practice space may or may not also be haunted. FYI.











That doorway behind Justin leads to our old practice space.







We write our setlist on a beloved whiteboard, which Dylan is copying in this picture. The whiteboard also features some exclusive Cecelia Martinez artwork, particularly some of my early, revolutionary work with stars, flowers, and hearts.







Ignore Just in this picture. This picture is really all about Manny, our luminescent, sexually-ambiguous mascot. He literally brightens up my day. (Sorry).







Behind Mitch is the door to this cool little room that was a bathroom at one point. It also has a hatch window leading into this random opening on the north wall of the building, which you can kind of see in the left of the picture.







A better view of the "window" as well as our sadly empty bulletin board, and a mess of storage.


Speaking of pictures, area photographer Brandon Segal took some photographs at our last show at Savannah's. They are up on our myspace.

Into the Airwaves

Friday night was a night of many firsts. The first time I paid $5 for a drink the size of those cups you use to give children cough medicine. The first time I participated in (and lost) a 40 oz Colt 45 chugging contest with a grown man. And (for something non-alcohol related) The first time I heard myself on the radio.

Remember that scene in the awesome movie That Thing You Do where they run around the appliance store turning on every radio, dancing with cardboard cutouts, and jumping up and down ecstatic? Well, this wasn't quite like that, but it was still, to put it in the classiest of terms, pretty fucking sweet.

We knew that we had been on some (meaning two) radio stations in the Albany area. We premiered on the EQX-Posure show on WEQX 102.7 two weeks ago, but nobody in the band had the chance to actually hear it. They played the song Raccoon (With a Sword-Paw) and will play it for two more weeks (including this one) before moving it into regular EQX-Posure rotation.

The other radio station we have been played on is a new public radio station, owned by the WMHT television station. 97.7 WEXT is a listener-supported station, and after a friend of Justin's heard us on May 12th, Dylan started banging on the window of Mitch's car as we were pulling away from Franklin's Tower to head to Savannah's Friday night. Mitch put his index finger to the test hitting that little radio button to get us to 97.7, and we were on the radio (static and pop-station interference and all).

While WEQX opted for Raccoon, WEXT have been playing Nunatek. Our total number of plays is only 2 (4 overall if you include WEQX), but it's still a unique experience to hear us coming through the speakers of Mitch's awesome car stereo system. I realize I'm probably supposed to play it cool, acting like it was no big deal, but my skills in 'playing-it-cool' never developed while i was in the womb, so I can't help but dork out over everything (I also saved the issue of Metroland that had our first show listed under the Valentine's ad).

And anyway, local public radio is the shit. I stopped listening to the radio almost entirely about 4 years ago, because in my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan there were no college stations and the public stations were all talk radio. Seeing as how I would rather punch myself in the face than listen to commercial radio, the second I got an iPod for my 17th birthday (and a car tape deck adapter) I left radio behind.

WEQX was the first interaction I had with independent radio that didn't use the phrases "lords work" or "liberal conspiracy". I had started to tire of the music I had been listening to on repeat for two years and wanted to find more than just what my friends were sending me and what I found by accident on the internet. Summer after my freshman year (back when I still had a car) I would listen to WEQX all the time (I even won a CD once).

WEXT looks like a really promising station. I'm listening to the mp3 stream right now, and have looked up the playlists (while searching for Sea of Trees, of course). Death Cab for Cutie, MGMT, Cake, Rilo Kiley, Cat Power, Otis Redding, Wilco, Rufus Wainwright, Jackson Browne (!), Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter (!!), Dashboard Confessional (lolz), Augustana, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Shins, Rogue Wave, and Jason Mraz were all played on the same day we were. They also play a lot of local music (they pledge to play at least one local musician every hour every day) and older, classic songs as well (like Ray Charles - You Don't Know Me). Some good (and hilarious) company.

EQX-Posure
Sunday nights, 7 - 8 PM
102.7 FM

EXIT 97.7 (WEXT)
Request songs, listen online, support the station, etc.

Part II of 5 Local Bands I am Super Pscyhed/Would Love to Share a Bill With is coming soon

5 Local Bands I am super psyched/would love to share a bill with (Part 1)

Part 1: Two Local Bands I Am Super Psyched to Share a Bill With

Ashley Pond



www.myspace.com/ashleypond

Ashley Pond is one of the immediately-intimidating Saint Rose music industry-bred musicians I came into contact with my freshman year of college. I first saw Ashley perform in a pre-Starbucks Commuter Lounge on the Saint Rose campus. The female songwriter population in my hometown was severely limited, with most of them just awkwardly strumming G,C, and A minor chords coupled with rhyming lyrics. (Myself included. There are some pretty embarrassing recordings tucked away in a folder on my computer.). I don't know if it just never occurred to me, but for the first time there was a ridiculously talented musician just hanging out, like any other college student. I battled between jealousy and admiration, but quickly settled on the latter.

Almost 3 years later, she's still as impressive as ever. Her first full-length album, the ten-track Dala, was released in September of 2007. I got my copy earlier this year at a show at Valentine's - the first time I had seen Ashley perform live in well over a year. A tiny person with a big guitar and an even bigger voice, I was more impressed than ever (and maybe still a little jealous).

Catch her and us:
May 31st, 2008
Valentines (downstairs) in Albany, NY
8:30 PM, $5
along with Elias Orling

Saint Ukraine



www.myspace.com/saintukraine

As a band, we must have some pretty boring day jobs, because the members of Sea of Trees spend a lot of time e-mailing. It started out with booking info or recording ideas, and has gradually progressed to inside jokes (justin spice), shit-talking, and general useless conversation. There was a short time period where Dylan kept e-mail fowarding us various YouTube videos, but luckily he grew out of that phase. One time Mitch and I even talked on Gmail messenger, and much hilarity (and OMG LOL-ing) ensued.

I found out about Saint Ukraine from one of these e-mails. Ian introduced us to the band, suggesting we check them out to see if we wanted to book them for the Muddy Cup show. I did just that. Sirens and Packages was the first song I heard and I was instantly hooked. Great melodies, achingly subtle lyrics, simple structure with some cool instrumentation to keep it interesting.

I've always been a sucker for music you can listen to by lamplight, smoking a cigarette and just absorbing the songs. For me, along with acts like Sparklehorse, Elliot Smith, and Josh Ritter, Saint Ukraine is a band like that. They're #2 on my Last.fm Top Artists this week, right behind Death Cab for Cutie (who had a new album come out recently, mind you.) The best part is, all their songs are downloadable from their myspace.

P.S. I got to meet Matt and Joe last night at our Savannah's show, and I totally fangirled to Matt. Hopefully he isn't creeped out to play with us in June.

Catch them and us:
June 13th, 2008
The Muddy Cup in Albany, NY
8:00 PM, Free
along with Greg Pier

Listen:

Saint Ukraine - Sirens and Packages

and of course get the rest at the myspace.

Check back for Part II of this series: Three Local Bands I Would Love to Share a Bill With

In Defense of a Bicycle

This will be tough because I could never possibly string together as many coherent statements as Cecelia. So I'm just gonna lay it out there. My bike is awesome. Plain and simple. It's just science, really. If you're in the know, you know that bike is badass in its most pure and unadulterated form. It is not a mere "child's bike," no! A young one could be seriously injured on this high performance machine.

A "trick bike," sure. My sect would refer to it as a "street" bike, yes. And as far as street bikes go, this beast is creme of the crop...you just can't beat Standard, and I built it myself from a hand picked selection of the finest quality components...so step off, and respect! (It was creme of the crop five years ago anyway...I guess it's more of a legacy machine now...but it's still dope as hell!)

I didn't do anything impressive? I also haven't swung a foot over the saddle of a self propelled machine in about five years. Riding up Madison from Broadway on a single speed was trick enough. Not to mention, I did do the riding on the handlebars thing, which Ian could not do, once again affirming my position as the more manly part of the rhythm section.

Anyway, I do plan on getting a proper road bike. And I'll ride on the handlebars of that one too!

Next Step: Spandex

Seemingly unrelated anecdote #1: This past weekend was band hangout weekend, and the venue was Tulip Fest at Washington Park. Friday night, when the city of Albany decided to say 'fuck you' to Dutch people everywhere by burning down a giant windmill in the middle of the lake, we decided that we had to be there, if even just for the lolz. It was cool, I got to meet Dylan's son, and the weather was good. I also got to see Mitch ride a tiny bicycle. Clearly, this was the highlight of the night. He kept mumbling something about it being a trick bike, but the only trick I saw was him riding while on handlebars, and that was only after the 25th person asked him why he was riding a bike obviously made for children. Ian, who showed up too late to see The Burning of the Windmill, heard that Mitch was clown-biking it up, and decided to bring his own posse of guys-on-bikes (full-size bikes, though). Dylan and the fam left, leaving me bike-less with a group of biked individuals. Woe. My shins were not happy with me the next day for trying to keep up with 4 bikers while on a castle-quest wearing flip-flops (an entirely different story, one that will mostly likely - hopefully - never be told).

Seemingly unrelated anecdote #2: Craigslist, the same slightly-creepy marvel that brought together your third-favorite indie-folk-rock band, also has section where people sell bikes.

Okay, so the second one wasn't really an anecdote, and the two are obviously related, seeing as they both clearly discuss creepy things (Mitch on a tiny bike, craigslist). But, they are also related in that I am most likely getting a used bike today via Some Chick Off Craigslist. My old bike was stolen last year from behind my apartment, and I'm looking forward to having one again, especially after my lack of bike was made so glaringly obvious this past weekend.

Seemingly unrelated Google image search picture:



Seemingly unrelated anecdote #3: Ian likes to go on bicycle pub crawls with his friends.

Actually unrelated picture #1:

Website

Mitch, our bassist, best known as the more macho member of our rhythm section, also knows his way around the old computer. He has been diligently wasting time at work making our new band website: www.seaoftrees.com. I'm still trying to pay off my $0.12 a week share of the cost of the website domain, but after all, I am just a lowly college student/amateur indie-folk star.

Anyway, the website, (which, if you're reading this, you probably already know about. Also, who is actually reading this?) is semi-live, with music, lyrics, and a sweet slidey-picture-thing that is only going to get more kick-ass because Mitch has a polaroid camera and I fully intend to use it at our next practice.

My favorite part, though, is the plethora of inside jokes. All the quotes that show up above the menu on the right side of the page have indeed been said at one point. You totally got the scoop here. So now you can impress your friends with your insider Sea of Trees knowledge. Here's some more for bonus points: Ian loves rocks. Like, has a deep, passionate, love for rocks. So I think people should start bringing him rocks. Seriously. It'll be the new thing. Just try not to throw them on stage because, well, that may cause some damage and Dylan hates getting his hair messed up by flying limestone.

So, SeaofTrees.com. Live it, love it. or something.

Show

The second show of Sea of Trees is now upon us, this Friday, at Savannah's on Pearl Street in Albany. We're playing with two very awesome acts: Palatypus, who have had some serious rotation in my iTunes playlist recently (seriously, just check my last.fm) and Jared Funari who I've heard does some sweet things with a loop.

I'm personally excited because May 16th is also the birthday of not one, not two, but THREE of my good friends. Justin, our guitarist, will be celebrating his Friday night, as well as Lacy (our official first fan) and my friend Chrissy, who was my very first roommate when I moved to Albany and is still managing to put up with me 3 years later. So, long story short, I will be buying lots of shots this weekend, so if you come out, chances are I'll buy you one by accident. Sounds like a good deal to me.

For those of you who went to our first show at Valentine's, we'll be mixing it up this show with a new set list that includes our newest and recently-named song, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. I'm really excited for this song, I think it's one of our best yet, and Ian is doing some sweet drum stuff that I wouldn't really even begin to know how to explain.

We'll be playing last, but make sure you get there early (is 9 PM considered early? am I just getting old?) to check out Palatypus and Jared Funari, and of course, to have a few birthday shots.

p.s. yes, I did make the name Palatypus into tiger stripes. you're welcome.