Category Archives: GTG Activity

TommyPlural here. Lots of cool stuff happening. Nich and I spent last weekend on tour with The Cartridge Family. The show we played in Rockford, IL at CJ’s Lounge on April 18 was one of the all time great tCF shows that I have witnessed. I spent the bulk of the show in the turtle costume, and the crowd was rowdy and awesome. I got my ass kicked in that turtle costume… it was amazing. It was incredible to parade out of the venue into the streets of Rockford singing “Hungry Heart” a capella, the next Lansing mayor Ben Hassenger clad in naught but a jock strap, myself in the turtle suit, and everyone else sweaty and in various stages of costumed/ undressed. The show was so great that the fact that our stay that night fell through and we had to drive five hours back to Lansing didn’t really matter. When the world seems too heavy or complicated, just play a tCF show. When life gives you lemons, make a mess.

Prior to this tCF adventure, Hattie, Loren, Johnny Unicorn, and myself went to see Jeremy Quentin Rizik perform a set at (SCENE) Metrospace on April 16. Jeremy played some really cool new songs as well as most of the songs recorded at the last Head and Toe recording session, which will be released this summer, I so solemnly swear. Breathe Owl Breathe headlined the show and they were amazing… I’d seen them before and liked them, but they seem to have embraced their zaniness more or something and the show was awesome. It was nice having Jeremy around for a night… the second he’s around it immediately feels like no time has passed since we all lived in Lansing together. There just seems to be even more friends now. Yay… friendship!

The last Plurals shows we played have been really cool. We played a show at (SCENE) on April 10 where we brought out several new songs and had Loren and Johnny Unicorn guest on some songs with us. Then on April 15 we played an extremly unique show at Schuler Books where we played a set after Michigan author Michael Shilling read from his new book Rock Bottom; free PBR in a keg was available at this show. It was strange and fun. I’m looking forward to the show this Friday at Basement 414… we’re playing with those cats from A Paschal Circus for the first time in several months, so that’ll be fun. Both bands should post accounts of the night and we should see who’s more delusional.

There’s a lot of good GTG stuff coming out this summer. We haven’t put anything out since Bermuda Snowhawk 3, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s going on. Jason Alarm have recorded an EP, Too Much Too Fast Too Soon recorded most of an EP with us and have started an album, Jeremy’s recording an album, The Plurals are recording a bunch of stuff for a bunch of releases in addition to that live album we need to put out, The Break-Ups have recorded a “GTG Session,” the Head and Toe “GTG Session” is close to being ready, Jessi Spreitzer recorded some stuff just last night, Abbey Divine is recording an EP, A Paschal Circus is recording an EP, and Stargrazer is recording as well – with Eric “CrookedSound” Merckling no less. Really Cinematic really needs to record something soon what with the rave reviews they’re racking up in Lansing and Chicago. Timmy and I are also really trying to get this Drinking Mercury album off the ground, but… eh, 9 years in the making… let’s not open that can of worms right now. Lots of stuff coming this summer… and… GTG Fest is scheduled for July 11. Whatever you know will make my head explode. Happy Earth Day!

tommyplural

So, We were thinking about some of our all-time favorite music videos (you know, “You Can Call Me Al”, “Dancing on the Ceiling”, “Never Gonna Give You Up”) and we decided that we wanted to see some of the excellent, high-quality music videos that the people on our label have made. We typed in all of your names and picked out our favorites–sometimes We couldn’t see you guys in the video but we’re sure you are probably just in the background somewhere.
LOVE A PASCHAL CIRCUS
p.s. we are also premiering our first music video in this post!

The Plurals:

The Break-Ups:

J. Quentin:

Too Much Too Fast Too Soon

A Paschal Circus:

Jason Alarm:

Jessi Spreitzer:

Really Cinematic:

Drinking Mercury:

Stargrazer

CrookedSound

Abbey Divine

Wow, that was fun! You guys need to make more videos so we can post about how we like them!

Well this is our first time on this thing, so here goes…

Some cool shit on the horizon:

1. As of Saturday, April 11, 2009, we’re going into the studio to cut our very first record…again…for the third fucking time   As a congregation, or shall I say congre-gay-shun, of like minded folk with good taste and equal scruples, if there are any suggestions to a name for this thing, we’d be all ears.  We’re thinking Fresh and Tight with a scared looking young, impressionable female on the cover.  We already have Dana on board, so any suggestions better be good!

2.Might we say that we’re very excited to come and rock with the goodtimegang and constituents and whatnot.  We’ll hopefully be hitting Chicago the night before, and playing this lil ol festival yall are doing.  Never had a bad time in Ionia…corndogs, mmmmmm…

3. Really looking forward to meeting the new guys, well new to us, such as Jesse Speitzer, A Paschal Circus, Really Cinematic (although I think there’s a couple of farmiliar faces),  and Jason Alarm.  Hope to see you all real soon.  Hopefully The Plurals will come out once more before we get to you all.

dIm

I am sitting here at school once again. I am in the midst of getting a cold I think. Fucking stress from school and work is really getting to me. Just like two more weeks, I can’t wait. But these two more weeks are going to be hell. Major stressful hell. I have so many projects to do plus a stupid group project and paper for my Natural Science class. By the way and I will go on record here and say it, my Nat. Science Prof is a fucking douche bag. That’s all I am going to say about that. 

I find myself getting depressed if I don’t go to Lansing a lot. I haven’t been there in well over a month and a half. I just have been so busy that I have had no time for musical projects lately. I’ve never been this busy. It’s like every day I wake up, go to class, go to work, come home work on projects, sleep. Wake up. Repeat. It’s tedious and exhausting. I’ve been in piss poor moods lately because of it. I got a little refresher the other day when I went and saw Genocya, Cavalcade and A Paschal Circus at the Corner Bar in Kalamazoo. It was great because I was around Lansing people, so it was sorta like I was there. 

Anyways, this weekend I will be going out to Lansing for 3 days, Thursday through Saturday. It will be wonderful. There is a Plurals show on Friday and a Cartridge Family show on Saturday. Nothing like a Plurals set and a Cartridge Family set. Also, I am hoping that the Break-Ups could possibly do something productive as far as maybe starting GTG Sessions or demoing some songs. I’m itching to do something musical and I had planned for about two months to make this weekend the Drinking Mercury recording weekend, but like every other time it fell through. It’s alright though, I’m used to it. But I have to do something productive this weekend or I might probably die. Fall flat on my face and die from musical starvation. I’ve been so busy that Zach and I, who are in a project called Abbey Divine, can’t even get together to hang out and jam. It’s hardcore. Two more years of this shit than I am out to Lansing. The GTG House has a ever-evolving roommate situation so I know I’ll be good. Otherwise I’ll just do the Loren and sleep on the couch until a room opens up. 

I urge everyone to take part in the GTG Swap. So far its awesome and The Break-Ups are covering one of Head and Toes songs from their EP “Let The Air In”. That is my personal favorite batch of recordings that Head and Toe released and it’s probably my favorite Line-up/era.

On the note of covering songs, I have to decided to assemble a KISS Tribute CD. It’s something I have wanted to do for a while. Tommy is going to help me with a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that I don’t know, which is a lot. It will be sort of a debut release for the KISS cover band that will hopefully take shape soon involving Ryan Horky and Heavy Metal Brad called The Struttin Deuces. Anyways, I’ve asked The Plurals to take part in it. If I am going to be a part of it, so will The Break-Ups and Abbey Divine. I’d like most GTG bands to take part in it (aka I’d love to here a Quentin KISS Cover). I invite anyone who thinks they could do a good cover to contact me via myspace or facebook. I’d like some BMP bands involved so I’ll have to talk to Cale (Cale, if you are reading this I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this for some time being). 

Well class is going to start. And I’m starving. Hello Chicken Flourentine and painting class.

I wanted this to be a surprise, but I am working on this song and there’s a syllable or two that I can’t seem to tease out of the three recorded versions I have, can you let me know how close I am?

Cul-de-sac with neighbors’ eyes
And a land line
In case there is a call

It’d be the first sense
Be the first sense
Be the first sense

There’s a river in the park
Of (blankets?) and broken cars
There are

It’d be the first sense
Be the first sense
Be the first sense

Oh, hi everyone! This is my first post. I’m going to be recording for a full-length CD with Eric Merckling (who did the last Plurals record) in a couple weeks. There will be more on that as we get rolling.

– Peter

Hey everyone,
I just threw my version of The Break-ups’ smash hit, “The Bodyguard,” up on myspace. Hopefully it does as well in Europe as the original version did.

Myspace.com/quentinsong

-J. Quentin

Moving in to the GTG house was the greatest thing I ever dun.  These nice folks brushed me off, hosed me down, and taught me how to play an instrument!  They even let me join one of their music-playin’ bands!

I am the current drummer for the previously 3-peice band, Really Cinematic.  The new line-up features Plurals/Break Ups drummer Hattie Danby in her first band playing a git-ar!  Boy-howdy she’s writing some great stuff!  Jo Taylor sings words and plays this other guitar, and Loren Pudvay plays one of those four string guitars that’s like bump bump bump.  Our first show was at the GTG house a couple of weekends ago.  We played at a really fun show with the Plurals in Chicago on Sunday,  and we played at Mac’s bar last night.

Anyone who says the Lansing music scene is full of elitists should hear the story of the poor little boy who wandered into the GTG house and became a drummer.  Sadly, I will be leaving these hallowed halls this summer, but I will always consider myself a part of Good Time Gang.

Love,

Jimmy Cinematic

Dear Ladies and Babies:

We don’t want to turn this blog into our myspace account, because on our myspace account we endlessly spam people who don’t care with no positive result whatsoever.

But, We Feel We Would Be Remiss In Our Duties To You, DeaReader, if we did not mention that we are playing a show with our boyzzzz in Cavalcade (GTGish) in Kalamazoo tomorrow night (4/3/9) at the Corner Bar. If you, our friends, live in Kalamazoo, come to this show and we will spit in your face. If you don’t live in the area, please tell your friends to come to this show and mention the blog and we will offer them the same amenities, amen.

Also, in case you guys are working on “It Was Barren And Then It Died” for the song swap (or you otherwise foolishly appreciate our band), We Have Provided A Video Presentation For Your Educational Viewing:

We posted the exact same thing over at THE EUREKA FLAG so there just wouldn’t be any point in going there.
LOVE A PASCHAL CIRCUS

Hey everyone,

I thought I’d just check in and let everyone know what’s up. It’s 3:30 A.M. and a cloudy night, here in the greater islands of Boston, MA. The fog hung so heavy today,  I could barely see my neighbor’s yard, thus I decided a bicycle ride around my island and the neighboring sanitation plant was not the best idea. Instead, I got back to work on this summer’s bicycle tour. The dates are really starting to come together. Check out Myspace.com/quentinsong for the tentative schedule. I’m also in the works of launching the official J. Quentin website which will feature the upcoming release, “Read me May,” for free download.

Don’t forget that I will be in Michigan in a couple of weeks.

April 16th- Scene Metrospace (East Lansing, MI)
April 17th- Albion Coffee House (Albion, MI)
April 18th- Short’s Brewery (Bellaire, MI)

I hope everyone is well back home. I miss you all dearly.
-J. Quentin

Oh yeah,,,, Jeremy Cassar is getting married. Awesome.
I’m covering a GTG song, for the song swap.

Alright, since suggesting the thing is never enough for you people, we here at A.P.C.H.Q. have decided to allow you to have the cake AND eat it before diving into the water yourself,  to mix a metaphor.

SO, we give you our version of “I Figured” off of The Plurals debut, Professor Nanners. Still our favorite record of last year, and the year before that. Maybe even the year before that.

What else do we have to do in order to get this ball rollin’, because we are ready to do what it takes. We will roll up our sleeves and donate our Casios, Epiphones, Rogues and Peaveys for this project.

Well, maybe not the Peaveys.
LOVE A PASCHAL CIRCUS

P.S. ALSO NEW THINGS ON OUR BLOG THE EUREKA FLAG.