What We've Been Up to

So here's something from left field. "Artifacts of Sound" is featured in the new video game "Power Gig : Rise of the SixString."

Check it out:

(It's like Guitar Hero, but the controller is an actual guitar)


So let's ketchup real quick...

We had a blast playing and hanging out at LOUfest. Our set was early in the day but we had a sizable and excited crowd. We got to play a few new songs, one of which included an appearance by members of The Funky Butt Brass Band. One of the brighter highlights of the day came while watching Built to Spill form the side of the stage. At one point in their set Doug Martsch dedicated a song to his mom, who was sitting right behind us.

The week following LOUfest saw our luck take a turn for the worse. While riding his bike home one evening Nathan "dynamo'd" his knee cap into a few different pieces. The doctor and his contemporaries describe these types of wounds as "B.T.S." or "Beat to S***." It was really really bad. Three months and lots of physical therapy later Nathan is back on his feet and back and we've been getting into the full swing of things. He's been a real trooper.

The building Norm & Aaron live in also houses a studio and our current practice space. We've spent a few long days demoing a few new songs with Will, the owner of the building and Aaron & Norm's landlord. It's been lots of work but has really helped us become a better group as we continue to write for a new full length.

Last month we played the inaugural Secret Sound Festival on Cherokee Street. Our show was on the first night with Jukaboz and Ad Astra Arkestra. By the time we took the stage my mind was completely blown. The downside to playing with amazing bands is sometimes they, well I wouldn't say they made us look bad, but they set the bar pretty high and prove to be a tough act to follow.

We've got some tour dates coming up next month and a show unlike any we've ever played before coming up on black Friday. We'll post more details on all that soon.

Glad we could talk and catch up.

STL - This Saturday + Sunday!

Design by Katie Foppiano

We'll see ya'll there. 

This Day in Dynamo History

Hey friends, I know it's been a while. I had one of those reflective moments thinking about where I was a year ago today . I thought I'd share before we catch up...

We first met Harvey Danger on their "reunion tour" in 2006, an endeavor inspired by their sizable and die hard fans. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but HD fans proved themselves to be, as Stan Lee would say, true believers. They are album buyers, obscure songs requesters, completists - the kind of people who really support the artists they love. Every band should be so lucky to have even a few fans like theirs. Luckily we managed to convert a few. In fact we met one of our most ardent supporters that night at Schuba's. The tour was only 2 weeks long but it produced a lot of good times, great (fuzzy) memories, inside jokes, and embarrassing anecdotes.


After a few years of playing a scattered shows here and there they announced they were calling it a day, along with a short string of final shows. We were asked to play the only Midwest date. One of the more memorable things about the evening was Thax Douglas wrote and read poems about each group. If you've been to a well attended show in Chicago there's a good chance you've seen him before. His poem went like this

I felt it was very fitting.

This show was also Ryan's last night as a member of So Many Dynamos and/or our last show without Nathan in the band, making the evening all the more bittersweet.

So what have we been up to?

After our European tour we decided to take a little time out to catch our breath, catch up on our bills, and just take it easy. I spent the summer in Alaska and came back engaged to my girlfriend. Aaron moved in with his girlfriend and got an adorable kitty named Miso. He's been hustlin' at Mississippi Mud House. Norm moved in with his girlfriend and they took care of my cat while I was away. Soon they will have a few little furballs of joy to call their own. He did a medical study and is teaching kids to be awesome drummers at Mojo's Music in Edwardsville. Nathan made and delivered a lot of sandwiches and spent some quality time with his puppy, Tiny Lee.

We've all had time to decompress and process what's gone down over the last year and appreciated not having our lives being completely centered around the band. But now we are back in the saddle with our eyes on making another record. We've got a few new songs, one featuring my debut on keyboards. We'll be performing them at the end of this month at LouFest. We're playing the same day as Broken Social Scene and Built to Spill!

Things are looking up for us.

We'll be in touch.

UK / Euro Tour: Mar. 8th - Mar. 14th

You know how you can wait and plan and prepare for something for a REALLY long time and within a blink of an eye it comes and goes?  That's how I'm feeling as I write this post and upload these photos. 

From the food, to the languages, to the roadways and the architecture, I know I can speak for all of us when I say our trip to Europe was surreal and filled with many moments of culture shock.  However, on the other side of things, there was a moment in Paris where I felt like we could have been in San Francisco.  We were outside the venue, and there were young people drinking and smoking and laughing and I had this realization that no matter where you are and how different places and people seem to be, there's comfort in knowing that everyone is working towards the same common goal - and that's enjoying life.

 Gent, Belgium

Belgium Chocolate Cake with Espresso       

We found this kitteh peaking over the stairs in the café.

Café Video - Gent, Belgium

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Clock Tower in Amsterdam

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

The French Countryside

Window Decal Inside of a Café - Paris, France

I was SUPER stoked to get a picture of this.  

On the Way to The Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel Tower

Underneath the Tower

The Courtyard Next to the Tower

Proof That We Didn't Make Any Of This Up

I feel we learned a lot on this trip; and not just about other people and different cultures, but about ourselves.  We came to many realizations during the course of the month, some that may bring forward big changes to Camp Dynamo in the near to immediate future.  (Don't worry, it's nothing bad.)  If anything, we're more excited and more inspired to do what we've always wanted to do, and that's making music that we love and that other people can enjoy.  

I'm sure we'll be chatting soon.

 

USA! USA! USA!

We made it back to St. Louis yesterday at 7:30pm CST.  The weather is ABSOLUTELY wonderful.  St. Louis looked marvelous from the airplane yesterday.  Seeing the Arch and Busch Stadium made all of us ready for baseball season.

So, we're headed down to Austin tomorrow for SXSW.  Here are the details on our showcase.

We'll be posting more pictures from the Euro portion of the tour within the next week or so.

We're stoked to be back home!  Let's hang! 

UK / Euro Tour: Feb. 22nd - Mar. 7th

We've been to a lot of places over the course of eighteen days.  It's weird getting in the van and driving somewhere and then waking up the next day and being in another country.  Back home, it takes eight hours to drive from St. Louis to Atlanta; while in that amount of time over here, you can drive through about three different countries.  Most of the pictures below were taken during The UK portion of our journey.    

China Town, London.

The British Museum.

 Ceiling Inside the British Museum.

London Eye.

We've tried to make food as much as possible.  We've made Dal twice now.

We made some new friends who let us stay at their seven-bedroom house out in the English countryside for four nights.  They had chickens in their backyard.  Nathan is vegan.  This is funny. 

Tour Manager, Daniel Pooley.

New Friends.

In The UK, instead of a bunch of cattle along the side of the road, they have sheep.

The Dover Cliffs, southeast coast of The UK.

I still have never seen Titanic, but I imagine it would look something like this...

This was aboard the ferry from Dover to Calais, France.

Photo by Dan Pooley. 

Today, we're leaving Amsterdam.  I'm writing this from the bar in the hotel where we played/stayed last night.  We only have three shows left of this tour and then the long journey back home will take place.  We'll be getting back to St. Louis on Monday evening and on Wednesday morning, we'll be making the thirteen hour drive down to Austin, TX for SXSW.  We'll post pictures of the Euro portion of the trip soon.

Waffles, Beer, and Chocolate.

BELGIUM RULES.  We've only been here for less than a day and the fair city of Brugge has already been too kind.  I'm writing this from a hostel in said city.  We're sharing a room with a Spanish couple.  At least I think they're Spanish.  I overheard them talking to one another and that was the assessment that I made.  I wonder how the two of them felt when they thought they had the room to themselves, and then five un-showered doods came strolling in.  Sorry to ruin the moment guys.  I can't think of anything less romantic than sharing a room with us.

Tomorrow begins the first day of our European portion of the tour.  I know I can speak for everyone when I say that I wish we could have planned more shows over here and played less in The UK, but now we know what to do for next time.

Oh, I'm not sure if we've mentioned, but we're playing SXSW this year.  We're playing at Emo's Jr. on Thursday, March 18th with our VERY BEST BUDS, Maps and Atlases.  A lot of other really great bands are playing, too.  If you plan on being in Austin that week, you should come out.  T'will be a hoot.

And like I said before, UK photo blog coming soon.  I just have to change out the batteries in Alison's camera - the one she was gracious enough to let me borrow for this trip - before I can upload anything.