The Long Winters

Well, they burned up their amps is what they did. And then after they burned up their amps by using an instrument cable instead of a speaker cable they learned their lesson and never did it again. Same with ohm ratings. I used to run my Traynor through a 1x15 cabinet that sounded like god, until I m...

Now you see where Colin Meloy got his "look".

My fascination with them was deeply conflicted. As an idealistic teenage boy I was not above finding armed insurrection glamorous, nor was I immune to Marxist rhetoric at age thirteen, and the RAF were rock stars of a type. The European terrorist underground, from the IRA and ETA to Carlos the Jacka...

The new movie "The Baader Meinhof Complex" is about the group of proto-terrorists for whom I wrote the song 'Cinnamon". I've said before that one of my rock band regrets is that I didn't do more to tie the lyrics of that song to the actual story I wanted to tell--I shied away from literalism, then a...

Lets see: Sean and I played there numerous times as a duo, but I don't know how that would be listed. Maybe Sean and John? Also we had a band called the Tennessee Valley Authority where we played Aaron Huffman's songs, in which I played bass. Then there's The Unrelentless, which had a rotating line-...

I used to take co-eds down into the Ethnomusicology archives, so I already feel a part of it.

That "Hurricanes" show was a comical reunion, sans Stephanie, for a few poorly played impromptu songs. Doesn't count. Is there nothing before 2000 in his tapes?

What about Western State Hurricanes and Bun Family Players shows? These would be true treasures if they exist. True. Treasures.

We've been auditioning drummers for the last several weeks and have played with a large handful of great players and super-nice fellows, resulting in the enviable position of having too many qualified candidates. Auditions are ongoing but, with the Doe Bay festival and Bumbershoot looming, we've cho...

Oh, we're huge in Bilbao. I've always had the best time in Basque country, the best food, the nicest people, but I've been hoping for twenty years of going there that I would ever see two guys in hoodies spray-painting ETA on a building and never have. That's a genuine moment of witness to a (hopefu...

I'm super-bummed to miss De La Soul. Still, it doesn't seem like they're doing the old trick of scheduling all the indie rock bands at the exact same time, then all the hip hop acts at the same time.

Well, it's not like I'll do just ANYTHING. But this seems like harmless fun. I played the Rockband game once. I wish my guitar only had four buttons.

Reading IS fundamental.

Wait til it's revealed that Eric Elbogan from Say Hi is playing guitar in Dave Bazan's new kickass band.

Michael Lerner is Erica's younger brother, drummer and singer of the band Telekinesis. The guitar player of Telekinesis is Dave Broecker, formerly of Vanderslice's band, originally the bass player of The Prom. Telekinesis are on Merge, but they're managed by Josh Rosenfeld of Barsuk. See?

There was plenty of LONG-Distance love for Sour on his birthday. Jonathan had a family reunion in Atlanta to attend, but he's back in Seattle tonight and we're auditioning drummers all this next couple of weeks. We'll hopefully have a new drummer soon, and they'll have a lot of work to do with us to...

Secret show tonight at the Sunset. We're only playing a few songs but it should be fun. It's a birthday party for Barsuk Grant.

love
John

Oh, I long ago decided the Long Winters will never break up. We'll just slowly morph into a video production company making Mountain Dew commercials. But that day has not arrived yet. New album shaping up!

If you want to have a party, have a party! You don't have to get all DRAMATIC.

This is a very good question and has to do, I think, with the folks at our record label trying to navigate the best way to participate in the music business without getting shafted. I don't actually know the answer, however, so I'm going to copy your letter and send it to my peeps.

I'm slightly dubious about this whole "breaking up" business. I've actually talked to various members of Harvey Danger over the years about the difference between breaking up the band and just gradually playing fewer and fewer shows, fading into the mist. What's the point of declaring a break-up? If...