We Are The Beatles of Rap Metal

Well as one could surmise from Hattie’s post below, the beloved flower shoppe van named Carrie-Ann is now out of commision, which also puts myself without transportation. My bicycle unfortunately is in the back fo the van right now, which we left in Portland. Timmy gave us a ride to Lansing on Tuesday but his car couldn’t fit a  bike in it, so I am quite simply sans a vehicle at the moment. The great James Spreitzer has been gracious enough to allow us to use the Thunderchild when necessary, and getting around Lansing without a car isn’t a big deal, but as my only employment at the moment is working in my dad’s green house in Ionia, I need to figure some other stuff out. My parents are picking me up tonight and taking me to Ionia, which has left me some time to sit at Nich’s computer and do computer stuff. Like write, right here, right now!

The Plurals played a funny show last night. It was a last minute set at Small Planet to help out our friends in the band Waveburner, and there was about 12 people in the building, including the staff, the bands, and the 3-4 people that came to watch. Straight From the Fridge and Acidic Death were ther other bands, and watching such fresh young faces rocking out in a big empty room brought back fond memories of The Plurals circa 2004. We had a good time. Andy from Calliope came out to watch us and he and I had a blast watching Straight From the Fridge and filling each other in on Plurals and Calliope happenings. It’s amazing to me to have one of my favorite bands of all time be a local band whose current and former members have helped us out so much along the way – come on out on July 24 at Mac’s Bar when they take the stage again. You can bet I’ll be there, no matter what else I have to do that day (which seems to be a Break-Ups show in Hastings… I’ll find a way).

The Plurals just recorded 5 songs at Broadside Productions in Kalamazoo. They sound sweet. We kicked them out, Husker Du style, live instruments and overdubbed vocals, nothing else. The songs are “Bean,” “Plastic,” “Gaia,” “The Sun,” and “New Age,” which, if the song titles aren’t familiar, are songs that we’ve been featuring heavily in our set for the last few months. We’ll put these out as an EP or something. I’m really happy about how they sound and it’s giving me some good ideas on how we’ll execute our next full-length.

Cheap Girls are touring the UK right now. I’m really excited for them and can’t wait to hear about it when they get back.

The Break-Ups are chipping away at a “GTG Session” which we’ll be releasing as a split with the late Head and Toe featuring the last things they recorded. Head and Toe’s half consists of some of my favorite Head and Toe songs that they were playing live in the last month or so before they split. The Break-Ups half features five songs from the out-of-print album “Blush Noisette,” re-recorded, rearranged, and much much better. I think this will be a really cool release, and hopefully The Break-Ups will be putting out an EP of newer stuff by the late summer. There was a really fun house show at GTG House on Tuesday night that The Break-Ups headlined where some of the new songs were featured. The other bands that played that night were really good too… Tavo Carbon and Smallpox + The New Vaccine, both from New York, New York were the featured acts of the night, and Irwin Vega and Ahmad Naboulsi rounded out the local side. Ryan from Irwin Vega brought some sweet sound equipment and lights and stuff so the vibe was great in the room all night. I dig playing shows with those guys… they really want t strengthen the scene around here, and I commend them for their work they’re doing in East Lansing. Lord knows I tried to get something going in East Lansing, but nothing happened. AndyCalliope told me last night that the great underground scene East Lansing had in the late 80s and early 90s was the result of DIY kids from Flint re-locating to East Lansing and renting houses specifically to throw shows for the DIY touring bands of the era – including L7 and Flaming Lips. Andy said it was amazing and that it can never happen again… but I’d love to prove him wrong. The GTG House shows have been a great experience, and The Plurals always hit up some cool house shows out on tour. It’s all about bringing it together.

Summertime gives me hope that we can do all these things. Let’s get ready.

Upcoming shows –

Saturday May 16: The Break-Ups, CrookedSound (first show in over a year!), Luke Schmidt, and Jared Sims at Magdelena’s Tea House… 8 PM and a guaranteed good time.                                                    Sunday May 17: MK Ultra Culkin CD Release w/ Really Cinematic at Small Planet                                      Thursday May 22: Drinking Mercury, Frank and Earnest, and Jessi Spreitzer at Magdelana”s Tea House

Well my parents are here to pick me up. Time for a weekend of flower baskets and confusing coworkers.

tommyplural