Hey friends, we've got some big news to share.  Our new record, "Weight Of Air", is done and will be out soon!  We have a digital release date (iTunes, Amazon, etc.) set for 9/1, and a street date of 9/15.  It's coming out on Red Scare and will be distributed by the Independent Label Collective, so look for it in September.  As you can hear, we have a new song up too and will post more throughout the month. 

For more info on the new album, you can see the art and tracklisting over at Punknews.  That's about it for now...we're actually out on tour at the moment, so come pay us a visit.  Cheers!

Hey Ya'll!!

Ok so for a while now its been getting to the point where we are getting several emails a day about setting up shows at the soggy dog which is really awesome and its great to see that the word has gotten out about our humble abode.  Unfortunately there is a downside to that and it has been becoming more confusing for me to seperate those emails from our stuff band wise.  Anywho I've figured out a solution to solve this issue and hopefully it will work out well. 

Any bands or just people in general looking to set up shows at the Soggy Dog should message this myspace url.  Please don't send us messages on this profile because like i said it is getting much to confusing and to jumbled for that to keep happening.  I'm planning on checking the new myspace about 2 times a week so if it takes me a couple days to get back to you please dont take it personal. 

We are seriously so happy that things have worked out so well with the house and try to do our best to help everyone out with shows.  If we can't please dont take it personal or anything because we really want to help but sometimes between work and the volume of shows that particular month we may not be able to. 

ALSO: THE SUMMER IS PRETTY MUCH ALL BOOKED!  We are going to be gone from late July to Late August so I will not be home unfortunately to book shows. 
JUNE IS COMPLETELY BOOKED.
JULY is getting very close to being completely booked also.

In closing, Thanks so much for being so interested in our city and in our house it really does mean the world to us.  Please thank my roommates Kenny Scott and Soggs if you see them around they have covered my ass so many times when i have had to work and ran the show that I set up for me.  Kenny especially deserves the credit so please let him know your appreciation. 

Its been 2 years of us doing this and even though its tough at times we really do love doing it.  Building a community around music is incredible and we couldnt ask for it any other way. 

hope to see you soon!!

Much Love,

Matt

NEW MYSPACE URL:  myspace.com/mattsidekicks

Howdy Ho,

So here is the update i have for anyone who cares which is probably not many but im bored and fuck it whatever right?

We started recording this weekend at majic child studios in Akron Ohio with our friends Andy Cook and Eric Cronstein engineering and producing it with us! We set everything up and got tones for all the stuff on Friday, then went back to Kent slept for a few hours and woke up and headed back over.

After some technical difficulties and a break due to a play in the basement of the warehouse we finished up with the music at 1:00 pm SUnday after a nice 24 hour session.  We still have vocals and some extra instruments to do but so far it sounds great. 

We recorded 11 songs that we are all equally really excited about.  So far it sounds fucking great due to the genius of mr cook and cronstein. Thanks to them and thanks to Ian from Majic Child for letting us use his place to do this all at! I believe we are going to be doing vocals next monday and tuesday so hopefully we will be done soon!

Anywho this sounds really stupid and pro and well just lame some im going to stop writing.  Cant wait for tour this summer and for the record to be done.  Nice weather always makes you feel so much better about life doesnt it?

Much Love,

Matt

First and foremost, a pre-order for our Vinyl LP "So Long, Soggy Dog" is now up at Vinyl Collective! Pressing Info: 500 on Powder Blue Vinyl. They should be in around May so look out for that.

Also, although he has been playing with us for about 5 months now, I guess we will take this time to officially announce the addition of our good friend (the American War) Matt Schuerman as our new guitarist/vocalist.

We have been working hard with writing new songs and we are very excited to share them. We will be going in to record an 11 song, soon to be named full length during the first couple weeks in May with our friends Andy Cook and Eric Cronnstein (sp?). Updates soon! Also, check out Matt's band,American War, on tour right now!

Turn the tires towards the street, and stay sweet,

-Steve

"Hop on a sea cow and manatee up"

Blown back by words unsure, but I am sure I like the sound. 

My brain is firing at rapid speed and all I can think to do is smile.

I wish that i could commit my mind to make commitments and leave behind

All these grasping, grabbing parasites.

All these things that keep me from seeing me in the same light you perceive me.

Sometimes its so dark, give me a lone spark

♥ Unshoulder all those things that weigh me down. Boulders make brittle bones crumble to ground.

I laugh to feel reassured that I am above most everything.

But in the midst of shining light I feel unworthy.

And you, you help me to defy most of my flawed logic

In the end, I hope your diligence makes a difference

Cause now all my ligfhts burned out

I rely on shooting stars to ease my doubts.

♥

Well I Don't know what my "intentions" are

I don't know why i cry

I say "I don't know" too fucking much. Maybe theres a reason why.

Becuase under warmth of lustrous light pretending shooting stars are destined sight.

I can mkae reasons for my unreasonable sureness

I can make predesigned phrases sound so ernest. (calm my mind down)

 

"I burned the crops"

I'm holding my breath at night to try and make some sense of this mess.

My mind has got holes from knives and problems I am trying to address.

Feelings are emboldened lies coating my eyes glazed with distress.

Your heart it feels old and wise, something with which I am trying to connect.

♥ So don't let me overstep thee

our pacing keeps me alive

inject me with things to correct me.

I'll always awaken loud and in stride.

 I'm holding my breath at night in hopes that I can slow down life

To provide me with ample time to sweep away the soot i don't like.

Seriousness is seldom found and life can become a big joke.

One day you won't laugh or smile. Feelings I once easily evoked.

♥

 No, I'm not getting a feel on these feelings.

Wasting my throat lke the cold, cold night I wail

Lend me a sail, I can find a way to make movements

Away from cruel land.

 I'm leaving these things by the door.

They have no use for me anymore.

 They'll grind up with the worms and the waste and the gravel

I'll run past with the wind in my hair

And a new outlook.

 

"Bryant Gregstg (gets nervous)"

 My eyes seem dazed

Been weak for days,

this feeling encompasses everything I've felt in the past year.

Despite my wearing thin

I strike the wick to this piliot light

flickering in my depths within

 Focus just magnifies everything I've been thinking.

I'm more or less uninterested with all my interests

So I'll spectate, and then chime in.

(witty comment then fall back into place).

 Pacing

complies these days of walking

all of this talking

but nothing to show for where I've been

♥ Etching on black walls

I'm sharing long phone calls

I'm begging my honesty to come back.

 

"The Island"

 When this horrid sea started boring me

thats when I knew these days would get longer.

When my own inventions became common place

I realized i had become a bit ordinary.

When out of breaking clouds, came a brighter sky

I realized i should probably look up more often

When my insticts order me, I always give in.

Cause no matter how much I dress myself up, I'm still an animal.

♥ And I inch myself towards let go

I inch myself like a wrecking ball into shaddows.

 When missing you became normal state

Thats when I knew these days would get much longer.

When you come to stay and then you go away

I usually only remember the goodbye.

But I've got years to waste and I'm plenty wasteful.

I've got a bomb for every structure that I've crafted.

And I'm thankful, I'm plenty cynical

With a giant question mark placed after my every statement.

 So on this island

I hold close to me

a few things that I wont let go.

Clutching them so they won't wash away.

 

The End.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 7 inches are in!!! 
Click here to buy "Sam"!

It comes on some gnarly grey marble vinyl.  Also, with the 7" you get a free download of the mp3s of the songs. Yeah!

Side A:
Hop On a Seacow, and Mannatee Up
I Burned the Crops
Side B:
Bryant Gregstg (gets nervous)
The Island



Pressing info: 500 on Grey Marble vinyl
Released by Whoa Oh Records

So we recently went in to Ante Up Audio to record 4 songs that will be on a 7 inch on Whoa Oh Records!!! If all goes as planned (which it rarely does) we will have it done for Berea Fest. Ive got my finnngerss crossed Freddy. Ive got my fingers crossed. Crooossed? Crooosssed. ya.

Also we are about to embark on a 2 week tour with our good friends in Ghost Town Trio. Max Stern (you might know him as the heartthrob from the Skatastrophes) will be playing guitar for us as well. Needless to say we are all very excited!

Brendan Kelly says this is what press looks like. I dont believe him but here it is:

A BIO BY BRENDAN KELLY

The Sidekicks are young kids from Cleveland. Real young. I mean, they're not old enough to drink, and if they were stupid, they could still be in high school and it wouldn't be that weird. In fact, if singer, guitarist Steve Ciolek was the one who knocked up Jamie Lynn, it would be legal. Just sayin'. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. The Sidekicks are young kids from Cleveland. Actually, they're from outside Cleveland which is even worse, but it apparently makes for good rock and roll. I mean, fuck. How do these kids have any fucking perspective at all, much less enough to make a record this fist-pumpingly, finger-pointingly kick ass? I know what you're thinking…and I asked. They say they've never listened to Hot Water Music. I call bullshit on that, but you never know. I mean, when "No Division" came out, these kids were still doing long division. Am I right?!?! Seriously! I'll be here all week, people. Okay, what's this about? Yeah, the Sidekicks have recently released their debut "So Long, Soggy Dog" on Red Scare Industries, and it's somewhere in the neighborhood of the most exciting record around the Midwest, AND they're gonna be touring on it, so hide your sons, because these dongthrobs are coming to a town near you.


"So Long, Soggy Dog" is one of those records that seems like it could only be made by kids. I'm not saying it's on point with Operation Ivy's Energy, okay. That's for the music journalists to say. I'm just saying that it captures that same, well, energy and enthusiasm. What does it sound like? It sounds like a bunch of bearded pissed off guys in the Midwest having the greatest goodbye party of all time. It's the soundtrack to the "Breakfast Club" if it was set at the Fest in Gainesville and everyone was drinking Pabst.
It's like if you could understand the words to a Hot Water Music song, or if Against Me! was catchier. It sounds exactly like Cleveland and the outlying areas should sound when filtered through punk rock kids and crappy punk house shows. It smells like Cheeto farts and sweaty balls, but you probably won't get that through the record, thankfully.

You will, however, smell them this summer when they hit the highways to promote themselves as only they can, by playing the songs on this record in the live setting, in crappy houses and crappier clubs all over the contiguous 48. These guys are, not to belabor the point, young, and they're just getting started, and if "So Long, Soggy Dog" is any indication of where they're headed, it would be a good idea to check out the Sidekicks as soon as possible, so when your friend is bragging about seeing New Found Glory in a donut shop in '99, you can finish laughing and tell him about how you saw the Sidekicks back when they were just little kids, before everyone loved 'em. And finally, yeah, we know that there are tons of bands called the Sidekicks. These are the best Sidekicks though, and the only ones worth a shit. Believe me, we checked 'em all out and picked the best, because dammit, I've always wanted to write a bio for a band with that name. Next stop Bungee jumping!

Hey out of state people or really anyone.

If you would like a copy of the new cd you can send 7 bux (5 for cd 2 for shipping) to this address.

The Sidekicks
14613 Clifton Blvd
Lakewood, OH 44107

You can send a money order (made out to matt climer) or well concealed cash (you can hide it in a note or somethin).

Please try and make the return address as legible as possible

If you would like more than one copy just indicate so in a note and we will hook it up.

Thanks to everyone for their support, it makes me smile.