Pandora Internet Radio users and lovers:

Conshafter has its own Pandora radio station. We've been finding some great new music narcissistically listening to it endlessly ourselves. Check it out... www.pandora.com

Our official album release date isn't for another seven minutes, but being curious and fond of the refresh button I've just seen our album go 'live' on iTunes. Somehow the much-too-small thumbnail of our album cover and 12 previews of our songs has just made my night. Well, I hope some of you check it out. And I hope out of those who check it out that some of you love it and pour through it the way we poured ourselves into it making "Bombs Away, Baby!" Enjoy and please let us know what you think of the album, and especially some cool stories about where you've played it.

dave
email@conshafter.com

Happy Holidays! Here's an entertaining video clip that's best served with egg nog or New Year's champagne.  First show of '09 is at Alley Katz January 9th. See you then!

We've added a whole lot of shows for early '09. You may notice we've taken a liking to Roslyn…

We've got some Blank-Fest Richmond results to announce: We raised $505 cash, 70 blankets, and 58 pillows to donate to Richmond VA non-profit organization The Daily Planet. Thanks to Crossroads Coffee and Ice Cream for sponsoring Blank-Fest Richmond. Thanks also to the bands who donated their time and music: Susan Greenbaum, Roslyn, Earthtone, Pennyshaker, and Blue Line Highway. This is the first year Conshafter was able to give a Christmas present, and in a tough economy that felt really good, so thanks to all your donations and support at the show. 

Check out the newly redesigned Conshafter MySpace page!

==SHOW FRIDAY JAN 9^TH==

Friday January 9th/Alley Katz/RICHMOND VA

w/ Copper Sails, This Condition, TheoryCast 

ALL AGES$7

10 Walnut Alley

Richmond, VA 23223

http://www.alleykatzrva.com 

==MORE UPCOMING SHOWS==

Saturday February 7th/Rock and Roll Hotel/Washington DC

w/ Once Okay Twice, TheoryCast, Minus-One$10, doors 8:30 pm, show 9 pm

1353 H St NE

Washington, DC 20002

(202) 388-7625

www.rockandrollhoteldc.com

Monday February 16th/The Canal Club/RICHMOND VA

w/ Shirock, The Daylights, Your Vegas

Everything Burns Tour: To benefit the Freedom House

$10, show at 7pm

1545 E Cary St

Richmond, VA 23219

(804) 643-2582

Tuesday April 7th/RICHMOND VA

w/ Roslyn

Wednesday April 8th/Charlottesville VA

w/ Roslyn

Thursday April 9th/Harrisonburg VA

w/ Roslyn

Friday April 10th/Blacksburg VA

w/ Roslyn

Saturday April 11th/Chapel Hill NC

w/ Roslyn

Sunday April 12th/Virginia Beach VA

w/ Roslyn

CONSHAFTER

[  Dave Cykert, Chris Konstantinos, Sarah McCalla, Austin Tevis  ]   

www.conshafter.com

www.myspace.com/conshafter

For booking/management, email Darrell Jones at obomarketing@yahoo.com

To email Conshafter: email@conshafter.com

Greetings, earthlings....can you believe that another new annum is upon us? Bring on '07, we say. If it was anything near as exciting as '06, this should be a pretty memorable year for the Shaft. And, we must say, it's beginning on a pretty high note.

 

NEW RECORDINGS IN NYC!

First of all, we are unbelievably stoked to be going into a big recording studio in Manhattan in two weeks to begin recording a new EP with the legendary hip-hop producer Keith Shocklee! The last time we recorded with Keith in 2003, we hung out with Grandmaster Flash and Dr Dre, played lots of Playstation, and were introduced to the term "hot", which Paris Hilton has subsequently ruined for our entire generation. Oh yeah, and we recorded the song "Autopilot" for the album Fear the Underdog. We think it came out pretty "hot." Will this session be nearly that revelatory? We hope so. Some song possibilities to record include (all working titles, the ever-fickle Tinos has been known to change song titles five or six times): "Over the Hill", "California Handshake", "The Golden Mean", "White Teens/Tight Jeans/Pipe Dreams", "Lost and Gone Forever" and/or "King Midas (in Reverse)". Stay posted about our studio progress over the coming months.

 

SPIN MAGAZINE UPDATE

A huge thank you to everybody who jumped online and voted or left comments for us as SPIN Magazine's online Artist of the Day for December 13! We were blown away by the number of ratings (over 1400 at last count)…fan participation is a big part of the voting, so hopefully that puts us at least in the running for Artist of the Month consideration. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.  Considering  past SPIN Artists of the Day were bands like Arctic Monkeys, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Subways, The Stills, and our friends !Forward Russia! and Patent Pending, we're pretty flippin' honored!

 

For those that missed the article, check it out:

http://www.spin.com/features/band_of_the_day/2006/12/061213_conshafter/index.html

And you can still rate us, as far as we know…just look for the grey RATE ME dropdown box to the right of the profile. To leave comments, you must create a spin.com forum login, which is pretty easy to do. RVA represent!

 

NEW SHOWS POSTED..AND MORE TO COME...

We recently posted a bunch of new upcoming shows, and will be announcing more soon for the spring/summer, including a late March gig at Piano's in NYC, our home away from home. Keep checking back or drop us a line to join our emailing list…if you want us to play in your town/basement/ in 2007, let our Super-Manager Darrell "Strawberry" Jones know...you can reach him at obomarketing@yahoo.com or just myspace us.

 

CONSHAFTER IN THE MOVIES?

Rumors are swirling about Conshafter music appearances in two upcoming nationally released movies…we can't say anything right now, but we'll make formal announcements as soon as everything is finalized. Speaking of Conshafter in the movies, a little known fact is that 4 or 5 of our songs were used in our friend Jeremy and Vince's independent movie "I Quit", including one very prominently featured in the opening sequence and in the trailer. Watch the movie on Myspace and tell us which songs…

www.myspace.com/iquitthemovie

 

 

So, here's to a healthy, safe and glorious 2007 for our fair Murder City (in fact, let's make '07 the year we can finally pass that nickname on to some other city besides Richmond). Thanks as always for all of your love and support…it keeps us going!

 

Love,

Dave, Tinos, Sarah and Travis

Big news today for little ole' Conshafter...

On Wednesday, December 13, Conshafter will be featured at Spin Magazine online as Artist of the Day! Along with an article, you will be able to download the song "Murder City" from our new album A Slow Drive Off a High Dive, watch our video for the song "The Big Set-Up", and read some fun stuff about us.

The coolest thing is that you will be able to post comments and rate our music on that page...the artist with the best ratings each month will get named Spin's Artist of the Month, and will be featured in the print magazine!

If you get a chance, please visit spin.com and either scroll down to near the bottom of the front page, or go to the Music tab and select the Artist of the Day link. We will be featured today, but our page should be able to accessed via the Artist of the Day link for a week!

If you get a chance, please go and check it out, leave a comment and a rating and tell Spin Magazine and the world what you think of Murder City's finest...

A reminder for all of you iPodsters unlucky enough to be located in a part of the universe that we don't frequent often (California, Romania, Mars, etc):

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PURCHASE A SLOW DRIVE OFF A HIGH DIVE ON ITUNES ON DECEMBER 15! (www.itunes.com)

 

AND, FOR THOSE WITH AN MP3 PLAYER OTHER THAN AN IPOD:

You can download Slow Drive RIGHT NOW AT www.spindividual.com  (Where we are currently New Featured Artist!)

just in time for Christmas..Conshafter makes a great virtual stocking stuffer.

We just wanted to thank everybody for coming out last night to Rocks for the CD release party...we can honestly say that we have never had a better or more energetic crowd response than we had last night! Doing encores may be tough on the sweat glands, but it's good for the soul (and, admittedly, for the ego).

 And how amazing were hometown boys Dutchess of York and Red Anthem?? It makes us proud to call Murder City home. We really believe that we're on the cusp of an amazing thing here, and everyone, from the RVA bands to the fans to the journalists, is a part of something shaping up to be really special. Why can't Richmond be the next so-called "big scene"? If it can happen in Omaha or Montreal, why not right here in the dark and beautiful capital of the once-proud Confederacy? We have world class recording studios, perfect geographics (centrally located on the east coast), and some of the most well-respected talent in their respective genres (Lamb of God and Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous immediately comes to mind).

Enough pontificating...for those that came to the afterparty at the Border Chophouse, you were treated to some of the most ridiculous hip-hop DJ'ing by DJ Throdown...that kid is nice on the wheels of steel! The next step is clearly the Conshafter vs Jay-Z mashup....thanks to our girl Ashley York (the dutchess herself!) for setting the party up.

Incidentally, please drop us a line and let us know what you honestly think of the new record. When we record, we do so in a vacumn of sorts...we're never really sure if what we're writing or recording has any merit, because the musician themselves is way too close to the process and in the end loses all objectivity. So feedback is really important. What are your favorite songs? Least favorite songs? What do you like about the record? What do you hate? And please be forthright...don't be afraid to hurt our feelings...in the end, honesty is the best policy.

It will take a while to come down from our high from last night...but indie rock has a way of bringing you back down to earth. Maybe it'll be us pushing our broken down van up a hill (that actually happened two weeks ago) or being on the road in some city playing for  15 apathetic people (that happens all the time), but it keeps us humble and our heads screwed on straight. But thank you, Richmond, for allowing us to feel like rock stars for one night...

Here it is ready for dissemination, gesticulation, and heart palpatation...Conshafter's A Slow Drive Off A High Dive is NOW AVAILABLE for download at http://www.spindividual.com. Check out Spindividual as they're currently featuring Conshafter on their front page! New logo T shirts available at shows. A Slow Drive Off A High Dive available at shows and on iTunes December 15!

Friday November 17th/ROCKS/RICHMOND VA
18 and up.
$9 cover includes your very own A Slow Drive Off A High Dive CD!
8:30 PM
Conshafter on at 11 PM
w/ Aircraft, Red Anthem, Duchess of York

Conshafter's Richmond VA CD Release show and afterparty for A Slow Drive Off A High Dive will be held Friday November 17th. Conshafter will be hosting a CD release show at ROCKS (Shockoe Bottom RVA!) beginning at 8:30 PM, with Conshafter taking the stage around 11 PM. Following Conshafter's set there will be an afterparty at The Border until 2 AM featuring DJ Throdown. So plan to make a Conshafter night of it...(ROCKS is located at 1814 East Main St. Richmond VA and the Border is located at 1501 W Main St. Richmond VA)

Well...check another childhood fantasy off the list...we got to play CBGB, the birthplace of punk rock and roll! To make the evening even more emotionally charged, it one of was Rob "Bass" Teague's last shows with us...and CBGB is sadly closing next month for good...at least in NYC (there is a vicious rumor going around about Vegas? Say it ain't so...). So it was a night for endings as well as new beginnings.

Thanks to our Long Island friends UHF and the New Rivals for setting the show off, and thanks to everyone that showed up to make it a packed house (including a certain group of amazing fans who came in from RVA and a girl who flew in from Ohio!) I have so say that, in my humble opinion, it was our best NYC set ever...the band was tight and on fire, the house sound was to die for, the setting was historic, and the crowd was beautiful. We'll try to get some pics up from that night...we also have some bad quality video of our brand new song "California Handshake" that may make it up to myspace at some point if we get around to it.

We then stuck around and did the NYC party thing...no celebrity sitings, even though it was the night of the VMAs. Unless you count our boy Leigh from Billionaire Boys Club, who has joined a brand new band called Band of Theives with the lead guitarist from Midtown...check 'em out, they WILL be epic.

We awoke the next day a bit groggy and went out NJ to have a meeting with our friends from the Syndicate, the nation's biggest radio promotions company...exciting stuff! We had a super-productive meeting with head Syndicate member Jon Landman, who loaded us up with 18 promo CDs for the long drive back to VA (listening verdict: check out the North Atlantic and the new Murder by Death and Thursday records...hotness! New record by Under the Influence of Giants? No thank you..wack wack wack.)

We then braved Hurricane Ernesto on the trip back...that was interesting. At one point in Delaware we thought Dave's Jetta was going to completely fly off the road and go airborne like it had Flubber or something. Spooky. All's well that ends well as we made it back safely and got some much needed rest and relaxation.

We'll be back to NYC on Saturday, Sept 30 at Crash Mansion...with Darryl from Run-DMC! I'm already practicing my Steven Tyler lip pout for "Walk This Way.."

-Tinos