So to add to my NaBloWriMo failure, I ended up missing yesterday’s post as I spent the evening with my Greenfoot friends, having our last rehearsal.  After we decided last month to put an end to the project, we wanted to gather one last time and do some basic recording and play some of our songs for one last time.  Last night was a lot of fun, and hopefully I’ll be able to share those recordings soon.

I wanted to share some videos that Greenfoot has posted throughout the years, the first being one that we took after about 6 months after I joined the band:

After Julien joined the band, we started playing out again in the spring of 2008, and had the opportunity to have some more video taken at Smokin’ Joe’s in early 2009:

Over the years we played some really interesting places. One that comes to mind is getting up at 4am so that we could play at the Colfax Marathon, right on the street.

Over this summer we got to be the featured band at some farmers markets, which was a pretty fun experience as well:

Looking back, it was a really fun project and I’m really grateful to all of my friends who got our emails, came out to our shows and enjoyed our music! Now with the chapter on Greenfoot closed, I’m excited for what’s to come.

I’ve been sitting on this for about a little over a week, but I am now able to post that as with all good things, Greenfoot has come to an end.  We’ve had a good run, but we’re going to be taking an amicable split.

It’s been a fun four years. Over that time we’ve played over 50 shows, recorded 2 EP’s totaling 8 songs, have written over 20 more songs and played some really fun covers.  Both Jake and Julien – as well as Kevin – have been great band-mates, and I’ve really enjoyed playing with them.  Hopefully our musical paths will cross in the future.

Thanks to all of my friends who came out to support us over the years. We definitely had many fun shows, have played some really interesting places and appreciate all the support that you’ve shown to us – I personally really appreciate it!

Greenfoot wasn’t my first band and most certainly won’t be my last, as I definitely want to get involved in another project.  I’ve detailed some of my drumming influences and aspirations on a drumming page I created. If you or anyone you know is looking for a drummer, check it out and drop me a line!

We’ll actually be broadcasting the sessions live on UStream, so if you’d like to sit in and see us record come check it out!  We’ll kick things off around 11am MDT, but should be going all afternoon.  I’d definitely love for you to stop by and let me know what you think!

>> 5 Reasons for Bands & Musicians to Quit MySpace

It’s no secret that MySpace is on it’s way out.  The prominent rise of Facebook, coupled with our pain threshold for spam, flashing graphics and blaring noise has worn out MySpace’s welcome.  Long ago have I abandoned any meaningful time spent at the spent for my personal profile.  For my band’s profile, I still log into MySpace a few times per week, but the ROI has continued to decrease for our band and MySpace.

The biggest thing you can take away from the article is Reason #3:

Other bands are not your primary source of attendance

According to the statistics I’ve heard, there are roughly 8 million bands on MySpace, and you have 15,000 of them as friends! Unfortunately, those people are probably not buying your albums or attending your shows. While they may be good to do a show swap with, or bro down with for a tour some day-they’re not helping you pay the bills and put butts in your seats.

The 10% of users that are real people more than likely COMPLETELY ignore the “bulletins” that you can blast out to everyone. When was the last time you went to a show based on a bulletin you saw on MySpace? [Assault Blog]

I can’t tell you the last time I’ve interacted with an actual fan on MySpace.  Almost every interaction I have is with other bands, and the ones that aren’t bands are booking agents/venues – which is really only the valid communication that goes on for us on MySpace.  The collaboration is on MySpace is also a downside, because typically when these venues list you on their promotion, they link our MySpace, which isn’t our best web presence out there.

The article lists some great resources & alternatives to using MySpace.  We use some of them including Twitter and Last.Fm.  There was one omission which I think is starting to become unavoidable: Facebook.  While I agree that it’s always best to own your own content and presentation, along with the concession that Facebook is a little harder for brand outreach – but you need to be where people are at – which right now is Facebook.

Until then, I think we’re going to start to wean ourselves off of MySpace.  I don’t think we’ll ever stop posting music, pictures and show schedules there, but only because it doesn’t hurt to keep things updated for booking agents.  However, I think it’s time for bands to focus their energies elsewhere.

Details are starting to formulate, but because Apple hasn’t been very forthcoming with details (as if that’s a surprise), it’s given away to rampant speculation.  Initially the news broke that Indie (Independent) artists trying to implement the LP solution were told by iTunes reps that LP’s weren’t available to Independents.  Not only that, but to get an LP into iTunes, labels needed to pony up a $10,000 production fee.

Apple refuted the claim saying that they’re going to release open specs, and that no production fee would be charged. The fact that they’re going to release the open specs should hopefully enable content creators to create them – but we’ll see if they really become successful.  It’s surprising that iTunes doesn’t appear to have a sense of urgency about putting these specs out, considering that these have been out for over 6 weeks and only has 16 LP’s to show for it.

My guess is that unless they open LP to include a lossless audio format, there’ really isn’t going to be much incentive to get people spend the extra money and buy these instead of a CD.  I would also guess that Apple probably put these together due to pressure from the record companies and probably won’t invest their full attention towards this – not unlike the Apple TV.

Aside from the obvious changes of the text, I made some minor changes to the foot on the bowling ball, trying to make it look more realistic.  I also added a slight curve to the our URL and add the depth to it.  I then focused my attention on the images of each of us and imposing them onto the lanes.  I would be anxious to hear any thoughts or feedback that you may have.

Also if you’re in Fort Collins and are free on Thurdsay, Oct 29, come out and check us out at Chippers Lanes!

The atmosphere brings out a good energy throughout the whole club.  The regulars are receptive to live music and definitely give bands the benefit of the doubt.  Considering that Denver went through a snow storm that left a ton of ice, and that we were playing in weather conditions that postponed the Rockies game, we had an ok turnout.  The weather definitely kept people away, but we still really appreciated those that made the trip out and made sure they weren’t disappointed.

This was our first show back from taking the summer off, and I was surprised at just how tight we played.  We kept things laid back and loose (which I know sounds contradictory), but really felt comfortable, especially with introducing the new covers that we had.  We did some fine-tuning of our originals, introducing some songs with some noticeable changes, which came off pretty well.

The owner at Signature’s is a really stand up guy, who is really supportive of live music, rock & roll, and the musician community.  He was great to us all evening and really took a genuine interest and appreciation in our music.  We are definitely looking forward to going back in the winter, hopefully in December.  Sorry that we didn’t manage to get any pictures, but I’ll share a video of us performing 1 Night Stand (from an earlier show) – the owner’s favorite song.

• Print-Outs of the Set List in big, bold type that can be seen on a dark stage
• Duct tape for the setlists and any other cords/gear that needs to be taped down
• Print-Outs of our mailing list signup form (along with pens that I’m not afraid to lose)
• CD’s to hand out
• Business Cards with our contact information
• T-Shirts to sell
• My Nalgene water bottle
• Gum (so I don’t look like an idiot when I play)

What are other things that musicians should bring with them (aside from their gear)?  What one of the things I’m on the search for is a clock that: 1) Can be seen in the dark (either with a back-lit, or front-lit digits); 2) Displays in this mode by default (doesn’t need to be touched); 3) Is (or can be) battery powered.  So far no such luck.   Would anyone have any suggestions – either for a clock or for gear musicians need to bring).

First a Friday thought.  I woke up this morning to find on Twitter that Barak Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for doing.  Maybe he got it for closing Guantanamo – oh wait, it’s still open.  Well how about withdrawing from Iraq – oh wait, we haven’t done that either and are escalating things in Afghanistan (and don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to fight on both of these fronts).  Maybe it’s for getting the Olympi-oh wait.  Ok, politics aside – can we all agree that the Nobel Peace Prize is simply the Norwegian way of promoting their politics?  Obama joins the hallowed names of Jimmy Carter (for whining about Iraq) and Yasser Arafat (for going to a meeting).

My brother-in-law pointed me to a Time.com article about this that is pretty spot on, especially in the end:

"Compare this to Greg Mortenson, nominated for the prize by some members of Congress, who the bookies gave 20-to-1 odds of winning. Son of a missionary, a former army Medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan – a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress." [Time.com]

Again, so does this award have any less credibility to it? Hell, the Grammys are now more relevant.

Shifting to football: Historically people think throwback jerseys are cool, and I love the Broncos Orange uniforms (either from the late 60′s, or the ones from the 70′s to mid-90′s).  This weekend the Broncos are going to prove that Throwbacks can be ugly.  To celebrate their 50th anniversary, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the AFL, the Broncos are going to wear their "mustard & brown" striped-socks uniforms.  Frank Schwab from the Colorado Springs Gazette captured the first look on his blog.  If you notice Jabar Gaffney (#10), he twisted his striped socks to look like a barbershop pole.

To make matters worse, I think the refs are again going to be wearing their cream-sicle colored uniforms again.  I think I’m going to avoid eating anything before the game, because all of these colors are going to make me sick.

Staying on the Broncos, I have to say I’m really nervous about the amount of press coverage Denver has gotten.  I wasn’t complaining when Denver wasn’t getting any respect for their first three games, I was completely fine with them flying under the radar. I think under-rated teams thrive when they have the "nobody believes in us" attitude in the locker room.  Now a week has passed, and the next thing you know everyone is talking about the Broncos and Daniel Graham is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. This is a little too much attention for my comfort level.  The only thing we have going for us is the national media’s infatuation with Tom Brady and the Patriots, and still don’t give Denver a chance.  Let’s hope the Broncos prove them wrong again.  My guess is that we’ll win 2 of the next 4 games to be at a very healthy 6-2.

My Rockies Prediction this weekend is that at least one of the games will get postponed or canceled.  It’s going to be a cold one this weekend, and far be it that baseball players face any kind of adversity when it comes to weather.

Lastly, I’m very pumped for Greenfoot’s first show for the fall.  We ended up taking time off in the summer due to my wedding and Julien working in California for a few months.  We’re really pumped to be playing a full night of music on Saturday night.  We’ll be over at Signature’s Night Club, which is a place that is gaining some really positive reputation around Denver for being a great place for bands.  If you’re in Denver and looking for something to do on Saturday night, come check us out!

Aside from the travel and family time, here is what was keeping me from blogging this evening – a new Gig Poster for Greenfoot’s show at Signature’s Night Club next weekend:

I decided to go with something that looked a little more simplistic, yet attempting to be eye catching.  The specs of black and white on Jake’s shirt and guitar are meant to be more abstract rather than me not coloring them in.

Yes, I realize that I’m not in the poster. Aside from my hesitance to have my face plastered across Denver, I thought that vectoring the drum set would have added too much noise to the poster.  I would definitely welcome any feedback!

Hey, if you’re in the Denver area and would like to spend an evening listening to great music, come out and check out my band on Saturday!  Get all of the details here.

The first one was for our show last Monday at Chipper’s Lanes.  Since this was a bowling alley, I decided to heavily incorporate bowling into the theme.

This next poster is for the DNote, I had a little bit of a hard time coming up with a theme for this one, so basically I mixed a bunch of different elements and hope they didn’t clash too much.

We have a show at the Little Bear coming up later this month, so I’ll be making a poster for that one too.

We’re also creating some wedding stuff as well, but I may be a little more selective about putting that on – want to make some things a surprise.

If you do happen to be in Denver/Evergreen, I’d love for you to come check out my band!

Amazon Mp3 is my favorite on-line music store by far, so I’m really stoked to have our music available here!

See Greenfoot on the AmazonMP3 store.

We went through the TuneCore process to get our songs up and running, so Amazon Mp3 is the first of many additions, including iTunes. Watch in the coming weeks!

We’re happy to present the final of our four new songs: 1 Night Stand. 1 Night Stand is one of the most classic and popular songs at our live shows. As you can tell from the title and lyrics, this Rockabilly groove depicts the story of the singles night-life in Downtown Denver. Listen to the verses and see if you can pick out the street names.

Thank everyone for giving our songs a listen! If you’re interested in download them, you can do it for free at our web site.  Also if you’re in Fort Collins/Northern Colorado on Sunday, come out to our benefit show!

Also if you’re in Fort Collins/Northern Colorado, we’d love for you to come out on Sunday night and support a great cause with us!