Wilmington

I grew up in New Jersey, but for the past two years I've lived in Wilmington, DE. You can take the boy out of Jersey, but you can't take Jersey out of the boy. Still, I've tried my best to fit in on this bank of the river, and in my time here I've put together a Delaware scene report for interested bands.

I know most bands will skip the small wonder in favor of Philly, but the diamond state would love to have you, and if you know where to look, you can have yourself a good time for cheap.

If you're interested, drop me a line at: Ryan@Glad-Hearts.com

Booking (You)

I recently started booking shows down in Wilmington, Delaware, and I'd probably love to have you come play. Before this recent spat of shows, it had been a (too) long time since I booked a show, and it's very nice to be back doing it again.

From playing in a band, I know how much I appreciate getting a show, and it's great to be able to turn around and give that chance to another band. Plus, I get to play with some great people and hear a lot of great music.

If you're interested, please drop me line at: Ryan@Glad-Hearts.com

Some fliers for past shows

These already happened, but they were fun, and I like the fliers. Enjoy:

Another Successful Band Practice

Even in the middle of playing two shows in a weekend, we make the time for a little practice:

Ag Field Day

Smell yo Dick

Fellas, if you love your lady, let her smell yo dick. Lyrics. Yea, I can't sleep.

"Daddy Not Nice"

As John described most excellently, this past weekend was the Three Day Weekend, a superfun celebration of all things New Brunswick. Many thanks to Jarrett and crew for putting together a great time. It was also Ag Field Day, The New Jersey Folk Festival, and the opening weekend for Wacky Hijinks, my brother's comedy show, so this weekend was basically totally sweet.

John covered all the bases: we got to play both days with a bunch of great bands, my brother Kevin came up from DC, I laughed my ass off at my other brother, Greg's, show two nights in a row, and I got to eat a fried Oreo.

Also, while walking through the parking lot on Ag Field Day I came across a young family with identical triplets about two and a half years old. All three were chanting with their identical little voice boxes, "Daddy not nice! Daddy not nice! Daddy not nice!" I couldn't help but crack up, and I looked at their amused/frightened mother, who replied, "Yeah...As long as it's not Mommy."

That's all for now, but I will have some photos for you pretty soon.

Cheers,
Ryan

Last Round of Shows Before Recording & Rutgers Review Comp

Thanks to everyone who helped us this weekend and who gave us a listen. We just finished up with a couple great shows: one for AG Field Day on the Cook/Douglass Campus of Rutgers University and one in conjunction with the New Brunswick 3 Day Weekend music fest. We had a great time at both.

Here's some info on a few of the other bands that we played with and who I think were incredible:

-Starfish Headquarters (could find a link or website, anyone?)
-MimiZander&MikePechter.com/ChristianAdams.htm (could find a link or website, anyone?)
-Mike Hunchback [http://www.myspace.com/mikehunchback]
-Patrick Hannon [http://www.myspace.com/patrickjameshannon]
-Half Brother [http://www.myspace.com/halfbrothermusic]
-Seal Club [http://www.myspace.com/sealclub]

If anyone's got any pics from the shows this weekend, let us know and we'll update this blog with em. I bought my digicam but forgot to charge the damn thing = Bummer-thon 2008.

We probably aren't playing anymore shows until we done recording our new album, but who knows. In somewhat related new: WE'RE RECORDING OUR NEW ALBUM. Well, not just yet but we're flushing out a few more songs, planning it out, getting our money together and putting on our working pants. We pumped to get our hands dirty and we're shooting to have it out but August/Sept.

Also, we were surprised (or at least I was) to find out that our song "Autumn Left" from our EP A Year In A Circle was included on a comp that the people over at the Rutgers Review put together in celebration of the New Brunswick 3 Day Weekend. They included the CD in some copies of the Review that were available around the Rutgers campus and the shows this weekend. Thanks for putting us on there, Rutgers Review. Here's the tracklist and some info on the other bands:

Hub City Scene: Best Of New Brunswick Bands
1. "F Sharp" - Tin Kitchen
2. "Boyfriend" - Screaming Females
3. "Autumn Left" - Glad Hearts
4. "An Immediate Discovery (ver. 2)" - Digital Habit
5. "Maybes" - Communipaw
6. "More Than I Do" - Half Brother
7. "Sleep" - Mad Elephant
8. "In My Hand" - Rapid Cities
9. "Horizon" - Seasick
10. "Aeroplanes" - Know Think
11. "House for an Easy Heart" - Brian Bond
12. "Red Ferns Grow Like Coyotes, Sometimes" - Thunder Kids

-John Valencia

Purchases

The Dubreq Stylophone is a miniature stylus operated synthesizer invented in 1967 by Brian Jarvis. It consists of a metal keyboard played by touching it with a stylus - each note being connected to a cheap voltage-controlled oscillator via a different-value resistor - thus closing a circuit. Some three million Stylophones were sold, mostly as children's toys.

Ok, so I bought a cheap re-issue for $30, not one of the cool vintage original ones. It's fun when you're playing with it, annoying when others do.

Purchases

Potential Johns / Chinese Telephones split 12" on Cheeky Git Records

Chinese Telephones s/t 12" on swirly blue vinyl (+ a t shirt, a cd version on the album, a pin and a nice ass poster all for $20! ) Thanks It's Alive Records

Dear Landlord / Chinese Telephones split 7" on It's Alive / Recess

Our Show in Philly aka "It's a Small World After All"

Last night was our first show in Philadelphia. We played the M Room (Manhattan Room) and, despite only playing to a handful of people, we had a blast. Here's why:

Ryan, who has booked all our shows so far, got us this show and I knew about it for a few weeks but didn't know who else we were gonna be playing with. A couple days before the show, Ryan emails me and Jimmy with the details, other bands, set times, etc. To my surprise on the list of other bands playing was The Feverfew. "SO WEIRD!" I played one of my first ever solo shows with Bethany, aka the Feverfew, at my old house, 120 Hamilton, in New Brunswick years ago. We've also been friendly for years through mutual friends and I'd also seen her play (awesomely) a bunch of times.

The Feverfew






























The Feverfew - Goodbye Blue Monday:


So come the day of the show, me and Ryan meet up at the venue a little early. Interestingly enough we find out that the venue portion of the bar was being used as a Polling Place for the primary election (Obama vs. Clinton '08). That being said we realized that the show was probably gonna start a little later than expected. So me and Ryan decide to head across the street to another bar/venue called Johnny Brenda's. I'd never been there but I knew that some of my favorite bands play there when touring through Philly. As I walked over to the bar to order a drink, Ryan took a look upstairs where they hold the shows. He comes back downstairs to ask me if I knew that Foals were playing tonight. "WHAT?!?" Foals are an awesome band from the UK and just last summer I had the pleasure of being one of the assistant engineers during the tracking of their album, Antidotes, with producer Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio and engineer Chris Moore.

Foals













Foals - Red Sox Pugie (Live)


Their album just came out early April. I knew they were touring the states and I actually have tickets to see them in a couple weeks at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ, but I hadn't realized they'd be in Philly that night. I go upstairs to find Jack, their drummer, doing sound check and we immediately greet each other with a simultaneous "Holy sh!t, what are you doing here?" I explain to him that we happen to be playing a show right across the street. He walks me downstairs to meet up with the rest of the band who are just as shocked to see me as I was to see them. I introduce them to Ryan and we all sit down to grab a drink and agree to watch each other's sets. We went on 9:30pm at the M Room and they went on at 11pm at Johnny Brenda's. We also actually ended up lending them our floor tom because they forgot they needed 2 for one of their songs and didn't to pack a second one.

That's basically the bulk of the story.

Ryan and I were super appreciative of the guys from Foals coming over to watch us play since there weren't many people there besides Bethany of the Feverfew and a few others. We had a great time playing, though. We got to watch Bethany kick as$ right after us then we ran to grab a bite and watch Foals across the street. All in all it was an awesome night full of crazy coincidences. We'd like to thank the dudes of Foals for checking out our set and tearing it up during theirs. Thanks to Bethany of the Feverfew for playing an incredible set. It was really cool seeing her again. Also thanks to the people over at the M Room for having us play and for helping us out.

-John Valencia

Hey there

Alright, I finally have one of these blogs I've heard so much about, which I guess means I am finally living in the future. Hello, and thanks for coming to visit. For those of you I haven't met yet, I play guitar and sing in Glad Hearts. Nice to meet you.

Hi

Here's our new home. Here are some money shots.