timblane's Journal
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Sunday, January 31, 2010
I’m really glad my brother insisted I give Mad Men a second try. I’m now almost done with season 2, and it’s phenomenal. Plus now my need to drink during the day seems much more of an “homage to a previous era” than a “problem.”
Just got home from a weekend in NYC. What a relief it was to leave the biting, bitter cold of Boston for the biting, bitter cold of Manhattan. But we did manage to stay warm enough inside Rockwood Music Hall for our show on Saturday night, which was, as always, many funs.
Even more exciting was the fact that we rehearsed this week for our upcoming recording. I’m pretty excited about all the new tunes. We’ve played a couple of them live (“Mischief” and “Take 2 or 3”) but most of them will be tunes you’ve never heard before.
It’s been pointed out by my producer that I’m on a bit of an 80’s kick, songwriting-wise. Which is weird but kind of cool. Wonder how 80’s sounding the cd will end. All I know is that I’m preemptively refusing the Flock of Seagulls haircut on principle.
At this point I’ve got 8 songs I’m digging, with a few more in the final stages. So I’m thinking it’ll end up being a full length CD, rather than a continuation of our previous EP, “Trace.” But we’ll see.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Everybody is compiling lists of the stuff they liked this year. So I figured I’d add to the din with a few of mine. Feel free to ignore them, print them out and put them on your fridge, or announce them over the PA system at your local grocer. It’s really up to you.
I’m not sticking to “Top Ten” format, or any particular ordering. Just a jumble of things.
Cause life is messy, people.
Albums I liked this year:
Ida Maria- Fortress Round My Heart
Wale- Attention Deficit
Paper Raincoat- Paper Raincoat
Patton Oswalt- My Weakness is Strong
Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest
Lily Allen- It’s not me, It’s you
Coldplay- Leftrightleftrightleft
Movies I liked this year:
500 Days of Summer
Zombieland
Away We Go
Inglorious Basterds
The Hangover
In the Loop
Star Trek
District 9
TV shows I liked this year:
Community
The League
Dexter
Party Down
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Lost
Better off Ted
Bored to Death
Ok, I’m already tired from compiling this list. Brain hurts.
Happy 2010!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
I didn’t keep up on my promise to blog everyday, but I came pretty close. Here’s a recap of the last 3 days of the December mini tour.
James and I headed to Rochester for Monday night’s show, which was courtesy of our good buddy Joe Gizzie, owner of a great bar there called Easy on East. Check it out when you are in Rochester, which I know most of you are several times a year.
Of course Joe filled us with many adult beverages, including pouring more whiskey in my glass while it was still in my hand. So needless to say we had a lot of fun, made new friends, and I think managed to play some music too…
It was capped off by the famous ‘garbage plates’ at Mark’s, though to be honest I was in the mood for breakfast so I went with eggs and toast…I’m an idiot, I know.
Next was Syracuse, NY at “Funk N Waffles.” This was our first of two nights with the incredible Julian Velard (and badass drummer Adam Christgau). It was cool to share the stage with somebody who gets regular rotation on your iPod.
For the record, I had the “pulled pork waffle” there and it was excellent. Afterwards we headed to Faegen’s pub and got a concert of our own, as local Santa enthusiast “Eli” serenaded us with Christmas songs in our booth. (depending on where you are reading this there might be a photo or a video.) Head to my tumblr page for a video. (http://timblane.tumblr.com/)
We headed back to Boston for our 8th show, which was at one of our favorite spots- Café 939 at Berklee. We got to meet another great artist, Bess Rogers, who you should also check out online. My voice was pretty fried after 8 straight days of singing and talking to folks, but I managed to get through it, and James, as usual, carried the show.
Thanks so much to all the people who came out to see us during the mini tour. I’m gonna be out on the west coast for most of the December so there won’t be any more 2009 shows for us. But we look forward to entertaining you again in 2010!
Things I learned:
1. Rochester is always one hour further away than I think it is. I don’t think we’ve ever shown up on time for a gig there.
2. Touring is exhausting and fun and exhausting and fun and exhausting and fun…
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tried to post this yesterday but my phone was being weird...
What’s the best thing to do when it starts snowing and you are in NYC? Duh, start driving on the Jersey Turnpike. So that’s what we did on Saturday night. Then after melting faces with our sensitive acoustic rock in Ardmore PA, we headed right back to NYC.
Total drive time: 7 hours. Total set time: 45 minutes.
Oh, music career, you are a coy mistress.
The next day we headed to Southern New Hampshire University, listening to a CD of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, Treasure Island. We arrived to find (no joke) 20 pizzas at the venue, and about 20 people to eat them. So we were a well fed band last night.
Today starts the two man acoustic portion of the tour, as James and I head to Rochester, Syracuse and back to Boston. We are opening for the kick ass Julian Velard for the last two, which I’m psyched about.
Things I learned:
1. Eating, as a band, 10 slices of pizza 2 minutes before we play isn’t the brightest idea. If there had been recliners on stage we’d have played from those.
2. Listening to a pirate based, old English language CD with a group of dudes that have an ear for sexual double entendres means there will be several hours of giggling.
3. The Bill Murray story I’ve been telling turns out to be an urban legend. This is disappointing.
Good talk… See you out there.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Just realized it's harder to blog when you don't bring your computer for part of the tour. So this is my short iPhone blog for day 3.
NYC was a rocking good time as always. Thanks Rockwood!
Things I learned:
1. One of my band members may have a slight tattoo addiction.
2. No matter how hard I try, I lack the ability to go to bed before 4am when in New York.
Tonight it's on to Ardmore, PA. Little known fact that I made up about Ardmore is that it's where canned tuna was invented. Now you know.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Thanks to construction on the Tobin Bridge it just took me more than an hour to home from Milton, MA (about 10 miles away). But I’m here and I’m blogging, dammit.
About 5 minutes after I finished last night’s blog, I cracked open a celebratory beer in our hotel room. But the beer had other plans, namely to slice my finger open. A bunch of ice, bandages and a bloody towel later I went to bed.
I’m probably missing an opportunity here to make up a story about trashing the Holiday Inn Express in Poughkeepsie, or cutting my finger while fighting a local Poughkeepsian. (Poughkeepsonite? Poughkeepsienese? Poughkeepsake?)
But honesty first…I’m just clumsy.
We made it to Boston in time to head over to Curry College for our show. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we were joined on the bill by the lovely Rachel Loy, a fellow Berklee songwriter. Check her out online.
Thanks to the Curry College Camels (just gave them that mascot) for hosting us tonight. We had good, spicy fun.
Things I learned today:
1. I’d heard Katy Perry’s singles on the radio before, but hadn’t seen her perform. So while watching “Katy Perry: Unlpugged” I learned that I kind of really like Katy Perry. Commence judging me…now.
2. Rachel Loy had blond hair when I saw her last, and now has red hair and dreadlocks. She out cooled my band by about 30 points.
3. I might finally have convinced my brother to switch from PC to Mac. Now if I can only get him to stop rooting for the Tarheels, we’ll be getting somewhere.
NYC tomorrow night!
Oh, blogging. You are so many more than 140 characters. Yet you deserve attention too…
Gonna try to at least blog each day of this tour we are on. It’s 8 shows in 8 nights. That’s 8 blog entries…Or maybe it’s one long blog entry that I write on the last night like it’s due the next day. That strategy seemed to work while I was in school, so who knows.
We are in Hyde Park, NY tonight, having played the Culinary Institute of America. Our show included surprisingly few crudités and rich sauces. But there were (no kidding) a couple dudes running around in banana suits in the halls.
It’s cool though- culinary students need to let off some steam too, people.
(A cooking pun, Tim? Really?)
Anyway, things I learned tonight:
1. At cooking school, the bakers are referred to as “Dough-Ho’s” or “Sugar-Sluts. “ Couldn’t quite tell if this was supposed to be an insult or compliment.
2. Playing at the finest Culinary Institute in the country does not guarantee that you won’t be eating late night at Applebee’s like usual.
All in all it was a good time. Thanks to the future Top Chef stars that hung out and listened to us playing tonight. Tomorrow we depart from FDR’s birthplace and head back towards Boston to play Curry College in Milton, MA.
Yes, I’m aware that curry is also a cooking spice. Let it go.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
I went to see Inglourious Basterds this past weekend- two thumbs way up.
It’s sad you can only see a Tarantino film for the first time once. I still remember seeing Pulp Fiction in the theater (we had to sneak in) and it blew my mind.
It’s been a chill month as far as gigging, so I’m psyched that we are starting our Rockwood Music Hall residency tomorrow in NYC (Thursday the 3rd if you’re scoring at home.) I’m hoping to be able to stream it on ustream.com. Just gotta figure out the technical stuff to make that happen. Fingers crossed. If not we’ll shoot for next week.
I also just discovered “Children’s Hospital” a web-only series featuring lots of funny people you already know. It’s pretty amazing. Apparently it’s from a year ago- not sure how I missed that one. But head to http://www.thewb.com/shows/childrens-hospital to check it out. Each episode is like 5 minutes long, so it’ll make for a good break from work.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Just finished up a great writing weekend with singer/songwriter/manabouttown Patrick Thomas, and got to hear mixes of a couple of his upcoming releases. They sound dope, not to worry.
We also recorded an episode of our new podcast, "Pat and Tim's Hodgepodge Podcast," which will be released as soon as we feel like it. Not sure what kind of podcast it'll be (hence the "Hodgepodge" in the title) but our thinking is that it'll be the two of us talking/singing/playing/interviewing and whatever else comes to mind. So, stay tuned for that.
What else have I been up to?
Well, for starters, I upgraded the dress code in my fridge to "Formal."
(The strawberries are the most enthusiastic so far, as seen below)
I also had a fun show opening for the talented Angel Taylor in Philly last week. It's always cool to have my own green room and fruit plate awaiting me, even if I'm still just "Opener." Now I've just got to get these guys back to my fridge for tuxedo and gown fittings.
That's it for now. It's Sunday, and I've got a crossword puzzle to finish. later!
-tim
Thursday, July 30, 2009
I'm holed up in my apartment with several bottles in front of me:
Bottle of Antibiotics for strep throat: Check
Bottle of Tylenol: Check
Bottle of Numbing Throat Spray: Check
Bottle of Ice Cream (Well a carton at least): Check
Bottle of Whiskey for fixing everything: Check
So now seemed as good a time as any to update the old blog. I had to cancel two shows today (Sorry MD and PA!) which is never a good option for a musician. But it had to be done.
Fortunately I didn't get sick until after a really fun string of shows this month since we released Side A of our new album, Trace. Still available 100% free at http://www.timblane.com/download
We got to play twice in DC at the Bullpen, a beer garden next to Nationals Stadium. One was before the Billy Joel/Elton John concert- I'm told that 10 minutes into that show Elton's piano was acting up, and he started complaining. So Billy jumped on stage and started looking under the piano to try to fix it. Here's a youtube link to a fan's video of that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HreiJNKKYyk&NR=1
We got to play the Acoustic Long Island Summer Festival, which included a trip on the LIRR from NYC. James, as you may know, has a tendency to fall asleep in pretty much any moving vehicle and usually in odd positions. So Reuben and I noticed that he was pointing down the stairs...
Then I headed into NYC for the 4th of July, and got to see the fireworks from the west side with some of my family and friends...
We had a great time in Rochester playing the East End Festival, despite the fact that a DMB cover band was playing with its speakers directly pointed at our stage. But life is short but sweet for certain, so we carried on. (A wink to the DMBophiles)
After the Rochester/DC trip, my car's transmission, as an homage to the current unemployment rate, decided to stop working. Nothing like going 10mph with your hazard lights flashing on a Massachusetts highway to cap off a 14 hour drive home.
We finished up the month with a great show at the Paradise in Boston. My favorite photo so far was this one taken by Fred Rupp. The best part is the girl yawning in the front row. We are truly a captivating band...
OK, that's all for now. Happy end of July!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Hello blogosphere. It's Wednesday, July 8th, and I have new music for you. The FREE kind.
We finished our EP, "Trace (Side A)" and it's now available for download.
If you guessed that it's the first half of a full length album called "Trace," then you've got more smarts than your coworkers give you credit for. (And yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition. Don't get snooty on me, Smartypants.)
But, as I was saying, this new EP is ready for you to download. We so badly want you to download it, we put the word "Download" right in the link.
Observe:
www.timblane.com/download
And yes, you've got plenty of things to do this week...bills, tweets, laundry, and that picture of you and Uncle Murray at the lake that needs hanging. But we'd love if you took the time to also download the album.
AND...there's a feature built into the download page so that after you download it, you can enter all of your friends' email addresses, and they'll get an email directly from us!
So, in conclusion... I love you. And will love you even more if you download this EP and tell all of your friends about it. Even that creepy lady from Human Resources that smells like cough drops.
www.timblane.com/download
Good Talk- see you out there.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
If you are gonna take some time off from touring, it's nice to have a
good reason. So I'm happy to say that my November and December were
well spent, even if I wasn't playing shows. I got a chance to do a
really cool project for Apple. We filmed a bunch of beginner lessons
for learning guitar and piano that will come with each Apple computer
sold, as part of their recording software, Garageband.
The big unveiling was at the MacWorld Expo in San Fran, and I was
lucky enough to spend a couple days there soaking in all of the Mac
related fervor.
I got a shout out in the Keynote speech from Apple Sr. VP Phil
Schiller- here he is talking about our "Learn to Play" software.
Then we had a surprise performance by Tony Bennett, which was really
great- not surprisingly he sang, "I left my heart in San Fransisco"
I did a huge double take as I then walked over to the main convention
area, as I saw this giant poster of me (playing an E7 chord) that hung
above the entrance.
Inside was pretty wild. Apple had a giant presentation that included
rows of computers for people to test out their new software.
And 100's of other companies showed off their latest and greatest
goods. There were tons of iPhone cases, data recovery services, new
games, etc.
Even Berklee had a booth, where I got to reminisce with John and
Mike…I was an intern in their Berklee office for a while. They
admitted to being the only people laughing out loud during the Keynote
speech: "Didn't that Garageband guy used to make copies for us?"
There were some good ideas… who wouldn't want a SEXY laptop bag?!
Some bad ideas
And some that were seemingly at the wrong event, like this Delorean
pimped out to look like Doc Brown's time machine.
Oh, and Sinbad was there. Naturally.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
More than a year ago (3/30/07 at about 6pm to be specific) my friend Ben pitched me an idea for a music video for “Me Being Me” from our about-to-be-released album.
It was, I thought, a million dollar idea, and we agreed to get to work on it.
For various scheduling reasons, we didn’t start filming until this April in NYC. Ben then came up to Boston and we shot a bulk of it two weeks ago. And we are supposed to finish the shooting this month.
Things were looking great, and I was so excited to get the video out there this summer.
Then we got TOTALLY SCOOPED.
Weezer’s video for “Pork and Beans” came out today, and it’s almost the exact same thing as we are currently shooting. Same idea, same references, everything.
Eff.
I’m sure all of you will see the Weezer version soon, cause it’s about to spread like wildfire. But I guess I just wanted to assure those of you who read this that we arrived at the idea independently of them, (and most likely way before them.)
I love Weezer- they are a fantastic band. And I have no reason to think our idea somehow got floated to them.
It’s still frustrating.
But we are gonna put out our video anyway. And maybe in the end Weezer’s video will help spread ours on youtube. At least, here’s hoping…
Friday, May 2, 2008
The next week we had a quick swing out to Syracuse and PA. In Syracuse we played at Upstate Medical School and beforehand hit up our favorite roast beef joint and brewery, Clarks. We were sitting enjoying our roast beef sandwiches (touring rarely equals eating healthy, btw) when a dude walked in carrying a satchel of beers. Turns out he was entered into the world beer cup in San Diego, and he had samples of his beers. So naturally we made friends with him immediately and got to try the official entries. I don't know how he fared in the competition, but he came in 1st place at the Tim Blane Band beer cup.
The next day Adam had to fly back to Boston, but James and I then headed to Pennsylvania for a cool bus tour with the Clinton campaign. We started out at Central Penn College with a show at around 9am. And considering the common bond that musicians and college students share- late wake up times- I imagine it was a struggle for not only the band. But the Dunkin Donuts coffee perked us all up and after we played we got to hear Erika Alexander (Maxine from "Living Single" and Pam from the "Cosby Show") speak, as well as Jehmu Green (founder of Rock the Vote) and Chelsea Clinton.
Then it was on to Franklin and Marshall U. in Lancaster, PA. Here are Misters Franklin and Marhsall.
By the time we played it was noon and sunny and warm, so there was a big crowd…
At both stops Chelsea spoke for a bit and mainly took questions from the students. She's already been getting rave reviews for her performances at these college stops, and I heartily agree. She was poised, funny, and clearly knowledgeable about all the issues and her mom's take on them. Well done, Chelsea. :)
Here's a pic from F+M.
Finally it was on to Philly, the site of the Obama/Clinton debate. Unfortunately timing issue meant our show was cancelled there, but we got to walk around the streets and hang with all the supporters of both candidates as they chanted and cheered and held up banners.
I'm not sure, but I don't think that's actually Hillary…
James doing his impression of the big inflatable arm guy…
Ted Danson working the crowd a bit…
And couple of other assorted photos from Philly..
Thursday, May 1, 2008
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