(this will be short, as I accidentally just deleted a LONG entry and am very very unhappy with myself and myspace at the moment)

Anyhow, PLEASE join us for a funtastic Halloween show FRI, OCT 30TH, at one of the very best venues in all of Chicago -- Schuba's! This show means a lot to us as we've been trying to play here for a long time.  Also, it may be our last show for a couple months so please stop by if you can! 
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Playing with 2 other great bands!
--Dead Stock Audio (Chicago) http://www.myspace.com/deadstockaudio (headliners)
--Family of the Year (California) http://www.myspace.com/familyoftheyear (open at 10)  Note: 21+

If you had the pleasure of seeing us last Halloween at Flatlander's, you already know that bringing a camera might be a good idea.  Also a good thing to bring: a friend or two!  Bands will likely be in costume, as will lots of fans, but it's definitely not required (for you shy-types)
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Tickets are 7 in advance, and 10 at the door for this special event. 
You can save a buck or two by purchasing your tickets online in advance from schuba's.
Also, we will be giving away lots of free stuff for you if you stop by the merch table and say hello! 
Also, I think they have some beer specials that night if that matters to you.
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Lastly, I know it's been a very long time since I've posted a blog on Myspace.  The truth is, with the rise of other social media like Twitter and Facebook pages, I have neglected this corner of the net (a once-gigantic corner, at that) in favor of the other places that I can interact quicker and in a more fun manner with all of you - so click the links above and become a facebook "Fan" or a twitter "Follower"... it's fun, you'll see.

Thanks for reading! See you soon!

-Mike /  The Innocent

yes yes, you don't have to tell me.  I haven't updated in a very long time.  True enough.  The whole truth of the matter is that besides just being lazy, I've been neglecting this beautiful myspace page which I'd previously put so much work in to.  I have, however, been updating the Twitter account and The Innocent Facebook Page very often.  Check out those fun places if they pertain to you and you have a moment. They have videos, song clips, downloads, etc. yum yum.

Now the main course...

MONDAY, JULY 13th -- Double Door (Dirtroom).  This show has been on the schedule for a long time and I'm excited that it's so close! It's a special acoustic show in the downstairs bar of the famous Double Door in Chicago.  I've played the DD a couple times, and it's an amazing place, but I've actually never played the dirtroom. It's very stripped down and ALOT of fun.  Best part?  There are 3 other great songwriters and it's only 5 bucks!! Here's a link. See. You. There. 21+

FRIDAY, JULY 17th -- Goose Island (Wrigleyville) 3535 N. Clark Ave, Chicago.
  FULL BAND show , headlining with 3 other great bands. Show starts at 10, we play at one to tear the house down!  Another excellent reason?1?!?!? Only 5 bucks!  It must be $5 week here in The Innocent land.   Catch it while it's hot. 21+

Other very exciting things on the way.... 2 brand new songs, especially. uh ohhhh.

You can still download the EP for free from here or you can order a copy (or sweet T's) from The Innocent Merch Store! Free Shipping!

 

Hey there, long time no talk... lots has been going on!  Just moved into a new place, so that made this past week crazy.  Also, there has been yet another line up change for The Innocent live band -- seems like there's one every week now -- so that's been a bit of a challenge as well.  But onto the main course:

Discount fliers are now available for the big headlining show at Cubby Bear this Friday.  Sorry it's such late notice, but better late than never. Follow this link for the flier and print it out and present it at the door. It's really that easy. There is no limit to how many you can print. Print 1, 5 for friends, or 100 for the neighborhood! With the flier, admission is only 5 bucks. That's right. 5.  Should be an excellent show with a couple surprises. Show start at 9, we play last.  Here's the Facebook Event Page for other details.

Anyhow, more shows are starting to pop up, especially some special acoustic shows, remember these are all listed on the calendar on the main page, too.

Sun, June 14-- Back for another solo acoustic show at Uncommon Ground (FREE, ALL AGES  7pm).  I love playing here and people in the neighborhood love going to the shows here... very stripped down and relaxed.. probably get to hear some never-before-heard tunes.  Also, it's with my friends Surstey and Zach Pietrini.  Zach is local and an excellent songwriter and Surtsey are some excellent dudes from near St.Louis who I've had the pleasure of playing with before!  Always a great time.

Sat, June 27th - at Flatlander's in Lincolnshire w/ Marty Casey and the Lovehammers, and Van Ghost.  Check both of these bands out- This is going to be a GREAT show. Special pre-sale tickets NOW until Saturday at noon. Get tickets for half the door price! After saturday they go up to 10, then 12. Get em! (21+, 9pm)

Mon, July 13th - Acoustic at Double Door (Dirtroom) - Below the Double Door's mainroom is a very cool bar/lounge area called the Dirtroom. I'm proud to share this evening with other excellllent songwriters: Kevin Prchal, Scott Sweeney, and The Yearbooks-  Only 5 bucks!


More details and updates coming soon.... AND a super big surprise, some new material.. keep your eyes peeled.

-Mike /  The Innocent

Hey friends,

It's suddenly April... cold as hell in Chicago... but April, nonetheless!
This blog will touch on (not in this order):
  -- New Layout
  -- The podcast from the Fearless Radio interview last week... in which we talked about Music, iPods, Michael Phelps, and Taylor Swift (among other things.)
  -- Other ramblings I remember to mention.

NEW LAYOUT -- hopefully you noticed (because you're SO observant) the brand new layout on the page.  I had the old simple black one up for about a year believe it or not, and it had become WAY to jumbled and messy.  I  wanted a new one for a long time but I have ZERO (0) technological skills.  Some friends of mine, however, DO have skilllls and are fabulous people and happy to help out.  One such friend and local Chicago songwriter, Derek Nelson (who is a graphics/designer partner at Clique Studios ), came to the rescue and created that very spring/summer look that I find quite refreshing and not quite as depressing as the old noir layout.  Check out that link above and use his sweet services.
   Anyhow, let me know what you think and post your own bulletin all about it.

PODCAST MANIA--
   Ok, so remember how I'm tech-tarded?  Because of this chronic condition I still haven't put up a blog from the WGN interview and session last month.  However, you can find some of the interview on the YouTube channel, here. Check out some of the live videos there while you're at it! 

  The Innocent did hang out and play a new song at a recent FEARLESS RADIO interview!  In fact, that podcast is RIGHT HERE.  If you don't know Fearless Radio, you should. It's a popular internet radio station that's operated right here in the Windy City.  Tons of great bands roll through during tours, and best of all?  Internet radio means no rules--screw the FCC!  Check out the "Podcast" tab for a whole bunch more interviews that you'll definitely want to listen to!

RANDON NOTES--
   Be on the lookout for some new recordings soon. You will like them.  Also, check the "upcoming shows" often in the next couple weeks for a bunch more show listings... summer should be super-fun.
Please stop by these pages for some very cool stuff -- especially the Facebook page, which includes cool videos, pictures, and constant updates!

---  The Innocent Facebook Page (invite your friends to join, too!)

---  The Innocent ONLINE MERCH STORE (really cool rare stuff that you can only get at shows and on this site... and the high-quality goods won't hurt your wallet. (shipping is free, too! omg!)

---TWITTER!    The Innocent is now on Twitter and needs friends (and an instruction manual, really.)

Ok, that was a long post.   If you live in Chicago you should come to Cubby Bear this saturday in wrigleyville - it's going to be a GREAT time.  See you.

xoxo,

-TheInnocent

This blog post is for all you Twittering/tweeting fanatics out there.  After denying it for so long, I have finally given in to the dark social networking force known as 'Twitter".    Yes, I still feel like this is just a fad and will swiftly be swept by the wayside... but 'til then....



you can find The Innocent  at www.twitter.com/theinnocent

I'll try to keep the posts as interesting as possible... but if these blogs are any indication, that might be tough.   So hey, while it's still up make sure to follow me and I'll follow you.. and we can all follow each other! is that how it works?  Ok, good. got it.

See ya!

xoxo,
Mike / The Innocent

The Innocent is delighted to headline the Double Door on Thursday, March 12th!  And, of course, I hope that ALL of you reading this can find a way to make it out for the show.   You can even sign up with Chicago's very own 93.1 WXRT and win tickets to the show through their XRT Giveaways promotion!  Pretty sweet, eh?  Go here and sign up before they give away their limit!

***UPDATE I've received word that the allotted tickets have been given away! thanks for signing up! Maybe they'll give away more throughout the week, call the station and ask or keep checkin the site!***

Here are some of the details:

-21+  ,   9pm,   $10 at the door.
- We are playing with 3 other EXCELLENT BANDS. Our good friend Mike Mangione and his band, Miles Nielson (really really good tunes), and Chico Fellini.   Visit their websites and give em some love!

We need alllll the support we can get, so please come on out and bring some friends along - they will thank you!

Ok, I think that's all - thanks for reading, make sure to check back often for show updates and more.

-Mike / The Innocent


 

Yeah, so that's my feeling after joining two very sweet bands, Oso Closo from Denton, TX...  and Parachute Musical from Nashville, for a few shows (as part of their much longer tour together).  They were very kind and the shows were fantastic... thanks to them for asking us to join them downstate and in Chicago at Reggies.   You can tell they play SO much together and their chemistry onstage says more than the sound sometimes.  And the sound? Ohhhh the sound. Both of these bands are very tight and I've had their songs in my head for days!

We've had a crazy busy past few weeks playing shows and now we have a week off or so before more shows start popping up.  But the "downtime", sometimes, is the busiest time.  When I get to plan everything for the next couple months.  Planning shows... media stuf... new songs... the silly business side of everything... all that.  

The last few weekends we've been really lucky to play shows for brand new listeners because we've played with some more established bands from all over the musical spectrum.   Some highlights:
--Feb 6th --we played with the band Cracker , who you may remember had the mega-hit "Low" in the mid-90s.  That was a sold out show at one of the Chicago suburbs finest clubs, Durty Nellies.  So a few hundred people listened to us play a fun opening set and I think we left a good impression.

--Feb 13th-- exactly one week after that, we went to the other end of the spectrum and played with local Chicago dudes Lucky Boys Confusion .  Once again, it was just the two of us, so we were able to make an impression on some new people. Very fun gig again.
--In between there we did an interview with WGN ("Overnight with Brian Noonan")  radio here in Chicago.  We got in-depth over an hour, played some acoustic tunes, and had some good laughs.  I'm trying to add the mp3s somewhere so you can listen to the whole interview or just each indivudual song but I'm tech-tarded and don't know how! Anyone know?  Maybe I can make it a podcast or something?  Anyhow, it was fun.

Coming up...
--Mark your calendars for March 12!  We're playing Double Door again with Mike Mangione and a couple other acts as well!  I don't know all the details yet, but make sure to keep checking the show calendar on the page for updates. 
--Not a "fan" on Facebook yet?!  Get on the train... you can see tons more pictures and videos.. and you can post your own if you have em!  The site is basically fan-run. 

 


--Also, we've got NEW MERCH!! A couple new t-shirt designs that have been flying off the merch table at the past few shows... make sure to grab one. We still have most sizes.  For a limited time they're only 10 bucks! That's just crazy.   go HERE FOR THE STORE!

Love you all - see you soon.

-Mike / The Innocent

Hello friends,

Two main points of interest on this ridiculously cold Chicago night. 

1.)  The Innocent now has a brand new online merch store!  For the longest time, all sorts of people and fans and strangers have been asking how they can get an actual copy of the EP.   Yes, there are still people that would rather have something REAL in their hands that they can touch and feel and throw into their stereo (or out their car window, if needed) instead of downloading the EP on itunes, amazon, Rhapsody, Napster and more (see what i did there?!) .  Previously, there were some roundabout ways to get gear from The Innocent... but those were a bit sketchy and cluttered and somewhat black-market-like. 

It has just opened and is hosted by bigcartel (which means that all transactions are 100% safe and processed through PayPal, which is the best.) "What is currently available in this merch store?" you may ask. Well, as of today:
--The critically acclaimed debut EP!  There is a limited amount available of this first (and maybe only) pressing of the debut record, so get one while they're hot!
--T-Shirts!  The popular shirts that we've been selling exclusively at concerts are now available in the merch store in Black and Gray!  There really aren't very many left, and in the short time that the store's been open we've already sold out of some sizes. 
--NOTE-- If you don't want to use PaylPal, there is an alternative option listed for each product in the merch store.  Or, you can message The Innocent on myspace at any time and we'll work something out!

wow, that took up more space than I expected, but one to numero dos:

2.)  The Innocent is featured today in the international webzine PopMatters.com !   The article (a story about our Double Door show in December)  was previously published in other places around Chicago, but popmatters has a gigantic readership following. Click on that link to check out the story, LEAVE A COMMENT! , and then check out the rest of the site if you're not familiar with it... it's pretty rad.

Alright, I think that's about it for now. Lots of good stuff on the horizon, though... and get ready for a new look to the page! 

Leave a comment and let me know how your day's going.

hasta luego ,

-The Innocent

Howdy! Merry holiday season and all that. It's been busy around here so I haven't written a "blog" for a while, sorry about that, and my dad said that he reads these and "why haven't you written one for a while?" so hear it is! Lots of juicy information for you today... so I hope you're bored and desperate for something to read! Where to begin?...

Thanks to everyone for coming to the Double Door show on the 3rd. It was the first real heavy snowfall of the season here in Chicago, so OF COURSE it had to happen during rush hour on the day of the show. Oh well... people still made the trek and packed it in and had a great time! This was really a dream come true for myself and most of the guys in the band. The Double Door has so much aura and history in it, and it's one of the places I set as a goal to play when I started this project. I notice myself saying that a lot lately, so that's a good sign! oh and there will be some really nice concert photos/videos posted soon.
If you want to read a unique review of the Double Door show (plus a bit about the EP), check out this link for Lumino Magazine . It was written by a great music writer here in Chicago, and has a bit of a different tone than most cut-and-dry concert reviews. Make sure to leave a comment at the bottom, you don't have to sign up for anything!

What's next? Well, if you live in the chicago area or the NW suburbs, we are playing a very special holiday show at Durty Nellie's in Palatine on Tuesday, dec 23rd w/ Andrew Ripp . He is a great musician and his band is bad-ass, too. I love his style and tunes, and our 2 bands are going to make this night FUN. Andrew Ripp and co. play at 10, we will play right after. This show is special for us personally because it's going to be in front of a whole bunch of people we went to high school and middle school and grade school with (so long ago..). Come on out if you're in the area, it should be a great time. Check that link above for details and to buy tickets ahead of time.

For you city dwellers, we will be headlining at the Bottom Lounge on January 2nd. This is a fannnntastic venue on Chicago's near west side. Follow that link to buy tickets before the show and save a couple bucks. Please come on out if you want some live music the Friday after new years... it can be your decompression night. We're playing with 2 other great local bands, Land of Lincoln and Nimoy Jackson... check the BL site for their links right under ours. See you there!

What else?.... hmmm... if you'd like to buy me something for X-mas, I accept gifts - no hesitation. I probably won't even try to refuse it first. That's how classy I am.
---If you could have just ONE thing in the entire world, what would it be? Leave me a comment below.. i want to know. And don't put boring stuff like "world peace" or "no more hunger in the world". Come on, that's just ridiculous. Here, I'll start: I want a new scarf, a sweater... and one of those Big Wheels things I used to ride when i was a kid, but I want to be sized to my scale NOW. haha, could you imagine? ya, that's what i want.

Keep checking the calendar for new shows throughout January and Feb... February is already shaping up to be nice and busy, with some great surprises coming your way! We're actually playing an acoustic show with Lucky Boys Confusion (at least Stubhy and Adam, i think) which should be a BLAST... at Flatlanders in Lincolnshire. That might seem like a strange combination, but when it's all acoustic everyone's on a level playing field, and I personally can't wait for this show!

Alright I think that's all for the moment.. I know there's more I wanted to write, but it's not coming to me at the moment. oh, right - SUBSCRIBE to this blog. If you have a myspace account, just click "Subscribe" above the blog entries on the main page.. if not, you can subscribe to the "feed"... that link is also on the main page by the entries. Alright that's all for now. How are you? Happy Holidays!!

Always,
Mike / The Innocent

Hello fellow Americans. This is a very important time in our nation and our lives. Just one week since a truly memorable day, we have come upon yet another. This is due to the fact that The Innocent has received a couple real nice reviews of the EP! haha. What were you thinking? Shit, get your priorities straight.
Here are some pages you can check out, but there are 2 reviews total. One is short and sweet and the other is much more extensive and, well, also sweet. Please enjoy and make sure to comment on these pages and give 'em some love!

Scott Sweeney wrote a review for Review Chicago and the Chicago Indie Insider ...

while Frank Krolicki is the Chicago music critic for Examiner.com and also runs Windy City Rock, a real cool blog about, well, chicago rock music.

ALSO... after taking a short break from shows after the great run last month, we have a few already in the works. The ones I can tell you about:

11/21 - Underground Lounge ... we are part of a real cool artist showcase evening called "Collaborate". I played a few of these a long while back, and they are a really cool way to check out what local musicians/poets/comedians. The new version of this showcase will debut on the 21st. We are supposed to play a full band set around 10 or so. Check the page for details as they change.

12/3 - DOUBLE DOOR ! ... we've played some cool Chicago venues in the past few months, but we've yet to play Double Door, so we are VERY excited about this and want YOU to be part of it. It's only 8 bucks and we're playing with the EXCELLENT Mike Mangione. If you are not familiar w/ Mike, you need to check out his stuff! Sorry young lovers, this one's 21+.

Always keep checking the page for up-to-the-minute updates!

-Mike

One more thing! you can now subscribe to The Innocent blog. do it. do it.

 Subscribe to The Innocent Myspace Blog!