Hey patriots,

The Golden Bubbles' CD release show is July 4 at the Uptown Bar in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. It's 21-plus, Supercollider appearing, and safer than fireworks (but just as explosive).

Here is what the local press/blogs are saying so far about our new album, "A Good Time Was Had By All." Thanks to everyone who is taking the time to share their thoughts!!

http://www.perfectporridge.com/2009/07/02/the-golden-bubbles-a-good-time-had-by-all/

http://www.mndaily.com/2009/06/23/golden-bubbles-horizon

http://twincities.metromix.com/music/indie/the-golden-bubbles-minneapolis-st-paul/1241058/content

http://borangutan.com/?tag=the-golden-bubbles

http://twitter.com/perfectporridge/status/2258620450

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20090619/ENT/306190001/1005/ent

The above link will get you all the insider's paradise information on The Golden Bubbles, the aesthetic value of disco balls, why we got kicked off the Turf Club stage, and how you can see the G'Bubz CD release party.

THE GOLDEN BUBBLES HEADLINES FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 2

New album:

"A Good Time Was Had By All" is now on CD Baby (if you want the disque) and iTunes (if you just want the tracks).

The record has been in the works since before the first Harry Potter movie, and the recording process lasted through two or three international time changes and three moves. We'll be "releasing" the album at TWO SHOWS:

For the Sioux Falls Dance Thugs on Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m. at Nutty's North (with Welcome to the Cinema and Billy Vice)

And for the Twin Cities Throbbin' Hearts Society on July 4th (more info below)



In-studio performance:

The Argus Leader has requested The Golden Bubbles to appear on their website for an online discussion and performance on JUNE 19 AT 1 P.M.  Just go to WWW.ARGUSLEADER.COM and you can join the conversation. We'll work hard to not delve into any conversations regarding postmodernism, light rail tranist, or the future of the avacado industry.

More details to come.



Minneapolis Patriot Extravaganza

We'll be releasing our album to the Twin Cities on JULY 4 FOLLOWING FIREWORKS AT UPTOWN BAR. The lineup has yet to be determined, but count on SuperCollider.

In McGovern we trust,

V

Our album release will be at Gayville Hall, in Gayville, South Dakota, a tiny town 12 miles west of Vermillion.

The link to the hall is here: http://www.gayvillehall.com/

Gayville Hall is located in downtown Gayville. To reach it from Vermillion, you'll take Highway 50 west out of town (the one that goes past Hy-Vee) and drive past Mechling till you reach Gayville. Then you'll take a right (north) and drive into town (seriously, you can't miss it). The hall will be on your left hand side as you enter town (big, white building), we'll try to get some posters put or something for directions. Then just find parking.

There is no smoking or alcohol at the show, but you can come early to survey Gayville's finest eateries--including two bars within arm's reach of the hall.

Also, the show begins AT 8 P.M. (promise this time!!) and will be done around 10 p.m. so DON'T COME LATE!!!!!

We'll be releasing our first LP Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m. at Gayville Hall in Gayville, South Dakota (10 minutes west of Vermillion).

We All Have Hooks For Hands will be opening for us.

Tickets our $6 for students, and we'll be selling T-shirts ($10), CDs ($10), and posters ($5) at the performance.

Gayville Hall is the preeminent rural concert hall in the Missouri River Valley -- if you haven't been, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime event, great bands, great album, great venue!!!

Check our next blog for a link and direction to Gayville Hall.

To all my kiddies in the Sioux Empire, we want to send out a big "yes yes" to our friend John over at the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. This marks the first time in nearly 6 years of living in this state that I haven't wanted to go deathstar on Argus Media, so thank you thank you!!

Also, it's rapturous (or something close) to see someone return to really covering local bands at the Argus. We never knew what we had in Morast till he was gone!!!! But enough with the paperback romantics, keep John Hult's blog in your online radar.

Here's the link:

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=ee8024c6ce334d99871c9ef3afe932ae&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckUserId=ee8024c6ce334d99871c9ef3afe932ae&plckPostId=Blog%3aee8024c6ce334d99871c9ef3afe932aePost%3aa377d6ca-88ad-4168-a942-4582054c2c11&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest


Music In Our Backyard
By John Hult
Unless you're one of the dozen or so people at the Golden Bubbles show last Saturday, this message is for you.

It's not that I don't understand. Weekends are busy. Some of you want to be with your families. Fine. Some of you wanted to hang out at German Fest. Also fine.

I hope a few of you blocked off time to do your Midwest duty and see the newest Coen brothers movie – "Burn After Reading." Maybe you could only find time on Saturday night.

Fine.

But for the rest of you: for shame, for shame. You missed some of the best local music around and you won't get another chance to hear it until next year.

The Golden Bubbles are not to be missed. I didn't really know that until Saturday, but the U.S.D.-based trio is absolutely phenomenal. The pianist Chris Vondracek was once a member of the Brickhouse Boys and still has enough catchy songcraft in his back pocket to make him sit funny in a beanbag chair.

S.D. songwriters with pop sensibility to spare ought never play for a crowd of ten. They'll move away. Spill Canvas, anyone?

His brother Leo plays bass and sings for the Bubbles, and he's a trip for reasons beyond his highwater pants and goof unit dance moves. On first brush, his vocals hit the ear like a standard issue indie-rock yelp. Listen closer and you'll hear something that sounds like a computer-generated mash up of Michael Jackson, Billie Holiday and Devendra Banhardt. Imagine Billie chewing up Michael and spitting him in Devendra's cup of chamomile.

Better yet, go to their mySpace page and click on "Vroom, Vroom." That bit at about 1:45 in when the music dies down and the vocals come up? That's Leo.

Drummer Jared Fette keeps the poppy beat in an impressive fashion without being showy. And he looks more like a game show host than most people.

The point here is not so much that the Golden Bubbles are great, but rather that such a tiny number of people got the chance to decide for themselves. Now Leo's off for a semester in Japan.

As a public service for Sioux Empire music fans, I've decided to step into a mine field and start a list of area bands you shouldn't miss I hope some of you will add to.

A few notes first: My list is limited to bands I've heard or seen. If your band isn't on the list, it doesn't mean I think you suck – although that is a possibility. It probably just means I don't know who you are. I'm not a scenester and I don't like everything, but I'll try to be inclusive.

Also, I'm limiting the list to bands that play original music and whose home base is within an hour or so of Sioux Falls. If your band is from Aberdeen, you don't qualify.

Finally, I won't bother with locals who you already know about – Soulcrate Music, Snakebeard Jackson, Pete Good, Kory & the Fireflies, etc – this list is for bands you otherwise might ignore.

Here goes:

– The Kickback: The rest of the Brickhouse Boys ended up in this band. They just released an EP and returned from a big tour so they'd probably get your attention anyway. Still, they're South Dakota's best live rock band and I'll throw rocks at you if you don't agree.

– We All Have Hooks for Hands: This Vermillion-based freak show brings everything and the kitchen sink to the show and use it all to make some fantastic indie rock. They play Canaries Stadium at Hot Harvest Nights on Oct. 3.

– Welcome to the Cinema: Ditto on this band, minus the kitchen sink bit. They're from Brookings, though, and the sound is more pop.

– The Smoke and Mirrors band: I like any band that can channel Tom Waits in one song then switch gears to make Wilco noises in the next one.

– Sinner's Swing: As the name would indicate, this band is all about 70s and 80s fun time rock. Diamond Dave would be proud. Bonus: the singer is 14 years old, which means he can start the party, but can't stay after 10.

– Foley: Fans of bands like Three Doors Down should love this band. They just finished a CD, too, and they'll play a free CD release party right at Nutty's North on Thursday after the Buckcherry concert at Canaries. If you go to that concert, go to the after party. Buckcherry has plenty of fans already. Foley could use a few more.

– Hollander: I have to give a shout to these guys. They're friends of mine, but if you're into pop punk theatrics, you can't go wrong with a Hollander show. They cover the Bouncing Souls, play originals about Twin Peaks and have been known to pull out a trombone that none of them know how to play. Fun stuff. Just watch out for flying spit and don't let them near your bar tab.

– AndRemote: If you like AFI, you should probably see this band. I know their name sucks, but they make up for the drab handle with presentation: fantastic black suits, guyliner and neck tattoos. Oh, and they bleed volume. Bring earplugs and angst.

– Solution: This funky jam outfit also falls in the "if you're into this, you'll love this" category. On Friday, they record an episode of "No Cover, No Minimum" for SD Public Broadcasting in Vermillion, then they stay in town to play Maya Jane's downtown that night at 11 p.m. Then they're off to Colorado. Maybe they're too big to need props, but this band isn't:

– Doppelgarten: This Brookings jam band apparently rose from the ashes of Electric Nectar. EN packed houses with patchouli ghoulies weekend after weekend, and Doppelgarten probably will do the same.

Some of you may see the names of these bands on the events calendar and say

"I'll see them next time."

That's a bad idea. Case and point: De Nethermen. This band of merry electro-warblers just broke up. They were great. Now you'll never know how great.

For shame, for shame.

So there's a starter list. Add your own.

There are rumors out there, there is talk, there is vicious whispers that The G'Bubz are on the shelf, that they are done, that there is no more.

Well wrong. All wrong.

The G'Bubz will be soon releasing their first album, "A Good Time Was Had By All." Bassist/vocalist and all around thubthumper Leo will be venturing to Japan for a few months in order to conquer the Japanese dance halls and learn some new phrases. While he's gone, the Bubz will be steadily readying and mobilizing material, songs, costumes, and dance moves for the start of it all in early 2009. That's when the party REALLLY begins.

So if you're jonesing for some Bubz, or hear talk that the Bubz are on their way out, fret not, for it's the exact opposite. 2008 was just a warm up kiddies.

-Guild of the Bubz

Jake Mohan of Reveille Mag compiled this nice Q&A of the boys. Thanks to Reveille and Nomad World Pub for the rockin' publicity!!

Here is the link,

http://www.reveillemag.com/content/view/825/55/

Here is the text:
Golden Bubbles is the well-dressed quintet that scandalized their native Wells, Minn., before bringing its irresistible brand of piano-driven pop to the Twin Cities. It's also part of the Minneseries, a month-long musical residency hosted at the Nomad World Pub throughout August.

Pianist/singer Chris Vondracek, who leads the band with his brother Leo, was kind enough to answer a few questions and rhapsodize about the best clothes to wear onstage, his rural upbringing, and Hannah Montana.

How did you get involved with the Minneseries?

Neil Zumwalde, of ZibraZibra, is working with us on our upcoming album and played with us in a few shows; he got us the gig.

A couple of local acts like you—Seymore Saves the World and Coach Said Not To—seem to be reviving piano-driven power-pop with a vengeance. Or did it ever go away?

Of course we're bringing piano-driven power-pop back with a vengeance! It goes away like every six months, just long enough for us to forget that piano is a really cool instrument, so when someone is piano-driven it once again seems like a novelty—never mind that Chubby Checker practically invented rock on piano. That said, thank you for mentioning us in the same question as Seymore Saves The World and Coach Said Not To; they're Saturn and Jupiter to our Pluto.

How does a pop band with relentlessly upbeat songs carve out a niche in the hipster-dominated indie scene?

That's a toughy. But here's a zinger in return: How do hipster indie bands make it in a music world dominated by the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana? Actually, that's a sad defense, never mind. In seriousness, we did the whole darker, "thoughtful" music with our old band, Brickhouse Boys (kings of the competitive southeastern South Dakota scene!), but with the Bubz we feel like we're doing something more original and, hopefully, intriguing.

You look quite dapper in your band photos. Do you wear the "white jeans, ties, shoes, and vests, coupled with canary yellow pearl-button shirts and socks" every time you play live? Do audiences react differently to a well-dressed band?

Nirvana was awesome. But when they killed disgusting 80s hair metal, they were like an over-active fertilizer and killed a lot of good things, too—including the "showy" side of a band's stage performance. When we take the stage in our homemade duds, we feel like we put on a whole 'nother persona—it's our best Ziggy Stardust—and audiences react positively. Some are disappointed when they see us setting up without the uniforms on and we have to reassure them, "Yes, yes, we're wearing the uniforms tonight."

Your bio suggests that aesthetics beyond music play an important role, referring to '50s kitsch and small-town life. Do you make a concerted effort to incorporate these ideas into your songs and shows?

Our MySpace bio probably takes the aesthetic mapping too far: I can say with a fair amount of certainty that our sound doesn't revive Eisenhower political dreams. But, oftentimes a sound or melody can become lifted when contextualized with visuals or some other representation. But then, sometimes it can get squashed, too. Did you see "Across the Universe"? How disappointing. I guess all I can say is that most likely the verbose prose on our MySpace was determined by an overcharged imagination.

The band formed in a relatively rural area. How do those origins inform the music? Or do they?

Rural revolution baby! No. There were two or three radio stations where we grew up: country, classic rock/oldies, and Christian. Sometimes the first and the last would get intermixed. So, a large chunk of our musical influences are from over 20 years ago. Plus, we just played a parade in our hometown where we played under a giant American flag. All we really are intimately familiar with is small town life; our sounds and lyrics reflect that upbringing.

That being said, we're not yet pulling a Montgomery Gentry and banging our chest about living in a small town. We're not going to pretend that because we walked beans we're somehow better human beings—there's this perverse pride out there you gotta watch out for. On the other hand, kids in a shed will dance more than kids at the Turf Club.

You're playing a few more regional dates in August and September and are hoping to release an EP this winter. What else is on the horizon for Golden Bubbles?

My brother Leo is studying in Japan for a few months this fall and winter, so when he gets back in February we'll release our LP, tentatively titled A Good Time Was Had By All. After I finish school in May, we plan on taking the world by storm or playing long enough to hear our music played on LOVE105. I mean, they're broadcasting from the freakin' top of the IDS Tower—how badass is that?

COMING UP: Golden Bubbles is performing in the Nomad World Pub's Minneseries on Thursday, August 21 (w.r{}***) and Thursday, August 28 (w/the Wrights).

The Golden Bubbles will be playing the Minneseries at the Nomad World Pub in Minneapolis every Thursday of August - details forthcoming.

Also, we just finished recording "Annie" at SuSuStudio last week- look for it on the page very very soon!!!