Actually we’ve been in Belgium for the last week rehearsing and living on the good graces of our excellent friends in the band Maudlin. Thanks to Davy and Tim in particular for going way out for us to help us pull off the impossible. Dudes gave us their practice space, most of their beer supply, and have cooked outrageous meals for us nearly every night since we arrived. We’ve been in heaven.
Tour begins this week and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve got a few more really exciting shows to announce in areas we haven’t yet covered for late July, but we wanna confirm all the details before we put it out there. In any case, if you’re along our path, we hope you’ll come out and say hi. Got a bunch of new songs to share, and some eye-catching new merch in tow as well. Copies of the new album should be around at some point, but no word on exactly when we can expect those yet.
Please write if you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions for spots we should visit along the way: contact@cityofships.com
Hope to see you on the road!
01.06 Le Havre FR – MacDaid’s w/ Khuda
02.06 Laval FR – Queen’s Bar w/ Khuda
03.06 Lille FR – Le Detour
04.06 Aarschot BE – JC De Klinker w/ Maudlin
05.06 Osnabrück DE – Bastard Club
07.06 Würzburg DE – Immerhin
08.06 Chemnitz DE – AJZ
09.06 Hamburg DE – Astra Stube
10.06 København DK – KB18
11.06 Berlin DE – Shokoladen
14.06 Dornbirn AT – Cafe Schlachthaus
15.06 Fara Vicentino IT – Tobacco Bar
16.06 Bologna IT – XM24
17.06 Firenze IT – CSA Next Emerson
18.06 Viareggio IT – CSA Sars
19.06 Innsbruck AT – PMK
20.06 Frankfurt DE – Elfer
21.06 Mannheim DE – JUZ *
22.06 Reutlingen DE – Kulturzentrum Franz K *
23.06 Ljubljana SI – Orto Bar *
24.06 München DE – Feierwerk Sunny Red *
25.06 Leipzig DE – Zoro *
26.06 Berlin DE – Cassiopeia *
27.06 Szczecin PL – Alter Ego *
28.06 Gdańsk PL – Mechanik *
29.06 Poznań PL – Pod Minoga *
30.06 Warszawa PL – Radio Luxembourg *
01.07 Zduńska Wola PL – Club Variete *
02.07 Lublin PL – Tektura *
03.07 Łódź PL – Farbiarnia *
04.07 Košice SK – Tabacka Kulturfabrik *
05.07 Bratislava SK – Obluda *
06.07 Zagreb HR – AKC Medika *
07.07 Budapest HU – Tundergyar *
08.07 Wien AT – Escape *
09.07 Bolzano IT – Rock Im Ring * w/ Caliban, Terror, etc.
10.07 Milano IT – SGA (Arese) *
11.07 Clermont-Ferrand FR – Raymond’s *
12.07 Toulouse FR – Saint Des Seins *
13.07 Nantes FR – Le Ferrailleur *
14.07 Knokke-Heist BE – Ravelingen * w/ Maudlin
15.07 Utrecht NL – Ekko *
16.07 Tilburg NL – 013 *
17.07 Aachen DE – AZ *
18.07 Paris FR – Le Klub *
19.07 Bordeaux FR – Heretic Club *
20.07 Torino IT – Spazio 211 * w/ Neurosis
22.07 Luzern CH – Sedel * w/ Planks
23.07 Colmar FR – Le Grillen *
24.07 Rokycany CZ – Fluff Fest * w/ Ceremony, Polar Bear Club, Lemuria, etc.
12.08 Ieper BE – Ieper Fest (day/time TBA) w/ Meshuggah, Decapitated, Dillinger Escape Plan, Cro-Mags, etc.
* = w/ Rosetta
The new record is in production now. As we mentioned a while back, Translation Loss will issue the CD and Sound Study Recordings will put out the vinyl. The official release date is July 19, but we hope to have copies on the road for the latter half of our European tour.
The album runs 41:30 over ten songs:
01 Clotilde
02 Subrosa
03 Low Countries
04 Tantric Engineer
05 Darkness at Noon
06 Easy Way / Hard Way
07 Celestial Navigation
08 Sweet Delirium
09 Chainman
10 Low Lives
Last year Pop Up Records invited us into the fold of their Hum tribute project. Initially we hoped to record the cover of “I’d Like Your Hair Long” we’ve been playing live since late 2009, but another band grabbed that one before we could jump on it.
Instead we dug into another favorite of ours, “I Hate it Too” from You’d Prefer an Astronaut. We finished tracking this week at Radar Studios in Connecticut with our friend Will Benoit.
Aside from thoroughly enjoying the process of working out another song by one of our all-time favorite bands, we’re proud to be included among a list of great friends and talented bands who share our intense appreciation for Hum.
The label says the CD/digital format of the release should be available in July. No word on a vinyl pressing, but we’ve heard some whispers about that, too.
Wound up vocal tracking last night at 1am. Put out the flames on my shredded vocal chords with a few celebratory cold ones. Today we’re back at it for round one of mixing. Hoping to walk out with two songs done and steamroll through the rest before the close of this week.
Remember how I mentioned a while back that between us we’d lost a few jobs and found a few more? Well we’ve since lost two more and picked up another one. Keeping a collective account of our band’s employment or lack thereof seems to help keep it all in perspective. Laugh at the misfortune and rejoice in the victories.
We spent five days last week tracking drums, bass, and some guitar. Today we reconvened for more guitar, and next week we hang for a few more days to finish guitars and vocals. Mixing a few days later.
Once again Andrew Schneider has been such a pleasure to work with. All good times, easy exchange of ideas, and creative energy through the roof with this guy. Just listening back to a few rough mixes has us so stoked there are hardly words. Check out his studio if you’ve got a minute.
Still hashing out a name for this collection of songs, but the art is in development. Whatever the record is called and/or looks like, it’ll be out in June. We can say this with as much certainty as can be expected from three guys who have lost three jobs in the last three days (two of us) and picked up three more in the same amount of time. This is not a joke.
During our few days off from Translator Audio the dudes in Rosetta asked me to lay down some vocals on the Soundgarden cover they recorded with Schneider this past weekend. Andrew and I showed up and hung with them while they laid waste to one new song and said cover. Both tracks will wind up on their side of a split with Junius later this year. Looking forward to that release in a big way.
Rob and I spent six of the last seven days destroying our bodies and chipping away at our sanity in 12 hour shifts. That is to say, we’re making money moving furniture in icy New York City. Probably shaved a good three months off our lives, but we made it through by keeping our eyes on the prize: A new record!
Andrew flies in from Florida soon so we can resume our guerrilla-style practice sessions between NYC and Boston. Got a few weeks to fine tune these 11 or 12 songs before we begin recording February 25th. We’re excited to return to the loving arms of Andrew Schneider at Translator Audio in Park Slope, Brooklyn. His ears and audio know-how presided over the recording of “Look What God Did to Us.” The calendar says we’ll have everything tracked by March 10th and mixed a couple weeks later. So psyched to move forward with this.
On the touring front, Mike Persil is hard at work on what is shaping up to be a mammoth European run this summer — and we need help with some of the dates. Please put the word out and write if you’ve got any ideas or want to organize a show: mike.persilbooking@gmail.com.
The plan from now on is to use this website as our primary means of direct communication, so we’ll post here more often this year, that’s a promise.
Feel free to write about whatever, whenever: contact@cityofships.com
Started to write some kind of recap of 2010 giving thanks for all the good times, but it got kinda long-winded so I decided to give a quick update here and move ahead with the year’s plans. Last year was one to remember, but I guess they all are in some way. So many friendships born and so many more nourished. Thanks for the smiles, hugs, and shared beers. No thanks to the Eyjafjallajökull volcano for trapping us in Germany last April and forcing us to blow what little money we had leftover from the tour.
We’re working on new songs everyday and loving every minute of it. Getting pretty fierce with the demos; hopefully it sharpens the final result. We’ll see. This is the first time we’ve operated outside the realm of recording live into a tape deck, so it’s nice to hear a little fidelity when playing back our unfinished ideas. Our friend Rob Motes is playing drums this go round. You might know him if you’ve hung with us at all during the past year — or if you’ve run into our buddies Constants at any point since 2007. Great guy, great drummer, lover of a good goof.
Talked to the dudes at Translation Loss this week and we’re shooting for a June release date. Sound Study Recordings will again issue the vinyl version. Really stoked about that. Never know how these things will pan out, but that’s the best guess for now.
Seems like no one’s got any money these days. Nothing new for us, but I’m surprised to look back at the last 5+ years of City of Ships and realize the deeper we get into this band’s story the more difficult it becomes to maintain any sort of sanity or financial viability. I know that seems backward, but I’m certain this echoes the sentiments of many of our best friends and contemporaries. Life’s a trip.
Been listening to lots of Swervedriver lately. Maybe I should get a motorcycle.
EJ
PS: European tour in the works for June/July. Get in touch with Mike Persil (mike.persilbooking@gmail.com) if we can visit your city and make some memories together.
As expected, The Fest was an excellent time. We’re fortunate to have a tight network of friends and co-conspirators, and meeting in Gainesville each fall is like a giant family reunion that we wish would never end. Thanks to the always amazing Nicole Kibert for the photo above.
At present we’re scattered about the country working on the next full length record. Some of us are using Pro Tools to craft ideas, some of us are immersing ourselves in the daunting and fantastic world of drum software, and at least one of us is using his shitty cell phone to record guitar ideas late at night after a few too many drinks.
Plans are in motion for recording in February at Ryan Williams’ Black Bear Studio, where we tracked and mixed the recently released 7″. This place is just outta the gate but already has an impressive pedigree, having helmed records for Chris Wollard (Hot Water Music), Gared O’Donnell (Planes Mistaken For Stars), Young Livers, Liquid Limbs, and a slew of other projects whose company we’re proud to share. Since we get a kick out of announcing vague plans and watching them burn a few months later, we’re shooting for a spring release for this beast. More on that as we stumble through it.
It’s unlikely we’ll play anymore shows in 2010 as we focus on clawing our way out of a black hole of perpetual debt. But we’ll be back in action next year, likely playing scattered dates and a festival or two early in 2011 before we hit the road in earnest in support of the new LP. This will certainly include full US and European tours, and maybe a few adventures in other far away lands depending on how that whole getting out of debt plan pans out.
Constants and Irepress are on tour for 7 weeks in Europe starting tomorrow. Go check those guys out if you’re along their path.
This project was an insane amount of fun and came to fruition with the help of our closest friends and most fervent supporters. Tracked and mixed by the talented Ryan Williams and Matt Finch in Gainesville and featuring art from longtime friend Jonathan Gann for Tolerance, AL, the record marks the first material recorded with original drummer Eric Soelzer since late 2007.
Lyrically the songs pay tribute to the formative years of City of Ships in Pensacola and Richmond. Side A is titled “Three Mile Bridge” — the trans-Pensacola Bay monolith we traversed hundreds of times going to and from practice, to shows at Sluggo’s, and to all night drunken parties on the beach. Side B, “South Laurel,” is about the street we lived on in RVA in 2007-2008 where one of us was arrested on our front porch, a homeless guy broke into our van and lived in it for 3 months, and shows in our basement consistently demonstrated how incredible people in that town really are.
The 7″ also includes a digital download of an M83 cover we’d talked about recording since our days practicing at the mattress factory in Florida back in 2006.
Finally, if you have yet to pick up “Look What God Did to Us,” Sound Study is offering a package deal including the LP and the 7″ for $14.
