Hello Children,

Click on the link above Bob's head (and then on "Dylan Goes Twang) to hear a version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" that I sang on at the Bob Dylan Birthday Show put on by Rolling Stone a while back.  The Rolling Thunder Reborn Band consisted of members of The Pierces, The Blues Explosion, and Albert Hammond Jr.'s band.

Also, if you haven't checked out When You Awake, do yourself a favor.  It's a great blog about the Indie-Country (Cindy?) explosion currently happening in NY, LA, and throughout this great land.  The blog is mostly about music and style, but they also do cool things like recipes and fun date ideas.  And they're cute.  The whole mixtape is great, too.  Thanks, WYA!

In other news, the record's sounding great.  Russell is ruling our lives with a strong but gentle hand.  More like a caress, really.  We've recorded all of the basic tracks and now we're adding things like pedal steel, harmonies, horns, etc.  Can't wait to play it for y'all.

Love,

Grant

Hello All,

We're heading into the studio this week to work on our debut album, a follow up to The Company You Keep EP. We will be working with drummer/producer Russell Simins from the John Spencer Blues Explosion. In addition to his decades with The Blues Explosion, Russell has worked with Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, Beck and recently produced works by The Tiny Masters of Today and Men Without Pants (a collaboration with Dan The Automator).

Release details will be posted soon.
 
Also, catch our last show for a while TONIGHT, as The Morning Pages share the stage with Alana Amram, Andy Friedman and Alex Battles as part of the Rebel Spirit Music Showcase at Rockwood Music Hall! Show Starts at 8PM Sharp and it's FREE.
 
8pm, FREE
Rockwood Music Hall
(Just below Houston on Allen st., Lower East Side)
 
Love,
Matt

Hey Everybody, here are some pictures of the gig Alec and I played up in Woodstock with The Smoking Section, a one-off band featuring an all-star cast of fantastic musicians.  From left to right we have Alec on keys (not shown), Alex Levy on guitar, Matt Romano on drums (plays with Albert Hammond Jr., toured with The Strokes), myself on acoustic, Austin Scaggs on bass, Allison Pierce (one-half of The Pierces) on vocals, and I think you can see part of Reno Bo's head there on the right (plays bass in The Mooney Suzuki and has his own extremely awesome solo project).  Anyway, we had a great time, despite the fact that we almost killed Sammy James Jr.'s van.  We opened for Tracy Bonham who played her beautiful violin-driven tunes and then had us over for a BBQ at her and her husband's cool, old stone farmhouse.  Very classy couple.  Hopefully we'll do it again sometime.

Happy New Year!
Grant

We went to see The Pierces at Mercury Lounge last night.  They were incredible as usual.  Such great singers, real, honest-to-god songs, AND they are quite visually appealing.  An unbeatable combination.  Their synchrnized dance moves are pretty entertaining, too.  The place was packed and a lot of people were almost dancing despite the fact that I've never actually seen anyone dance at the Mercury.  I think there must be some kind of "no dancing allowed" sign hidden somewhere behind the bar.

The band was fantastic, especially the rhythm section of Russel Simins (of John Spencer Blues Explosion) on drums and Sammy James, Jr. (of The Mooney Suzuki) on bass.  Nice dudes as well.

Anyway, these ladies are seriously superstars waiting to happen.  Check them out if you haven't yet.  You'll like them, I promise.

Grant

Hey All,

We just got back from SXSW in Austin and we had a great time.  It was like hipster Spring Break down there, and I mean that in the best possible way.  Some of my personal highlights were The Pierces, Alana Amram, Nomo, The Walkmen, Golden Bear, Goldrush, the Squeak E Clean/NASA party, These United States, and The New York Howl.  Also, the Tex-Mex and Shiner Bock were fantastic as always.  Can't wait to do it again next year.

I'm really looking forward to our Friday night Residency at Pete's in April.  We're going to take the opportunity to stretch out a bit and try out the new batch of songs we've been working on.

Other than that, we're busy booking some out-of-town dates for June and July so hopefully we'll get to see some of you out there on the road.

Grant