http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcT7cRXgMMc

The first of several new lives videos to be released, dig in and enjoy!

Happy Summer everyone!


So Lollapalooza has come and gone once again here in Chicago, and once again mother nature responded to our attempt at a good time with unbelievable heat & humidity.  Didn't stop some amazing musical performances though, especially our fellow Chicagoan Andrew Bird - we'll produce a total recap one of these days, after recovering, but Andrew's first night performance was nothing short of captivating. . .


In HFtA news, we'll have some new pictures & video up soon - this has been delayed a bit because we've been so busy performing as of late!  Most recently big festival slots at Taste of Lincoln, and the 101.9/Budweiser Party in the Park, and a headlining slot at a little venue here in town - The Abbey Pub, that was some of the most fun we've had in a long time!


Hope everyone will take a minute at upcoming performances (alot of you already have, thanks!) to say hello to the new man on drums, Kyle Brown - Kyle has been playing since he was 4 years old and cut his teeth performing with numerous church bands in addition to several regional/nation tours with a number of artists you know and love. 


Keep an eye out for the fall schedule, some regional tour dates as well as a number of great big shows right here at home in Chicago - as always reach out anytime the mood strikes you with questions/comments/complaints and we'll get right back at ya!




Take it easy y'all!




-Tate

It's a beautiful day in Chicago, at least it looks like it outside the windows of HFTA HQ (got a better name for our base of operations?  Let me know!  We'll likely use it and not give you credit publicy, but in private you'll receive a nice pat on the back and a luke warm PBR from our sometimes-working mini-fridge).

We've been busy playing a few shows with our new man on the bass, Martin Farrelly - in just a few quick shows Marty has proved to be the generally awesome; beer swilling; dirty joke telling; super-Irish; often mistaken for Tom Cruise type of guy we have really needed in this band for quite some time.  Oh, also, he plays the bass quite well.

On a little jaunt down to our favorite Bloomington, IL bar Maguire's (big "ups" to owner Mike Hill and his crew, they keep the cold beer and warm Templeton Rye flowing during our sets and it's always appreciated) we had the opportunity to play for not one, but two bachlorette parties, the "holy shit that's hilariously ironic and these girls don't even realize it" award goes to the bride-to-be from one of the parties leading a choreographed dance with several of her bridesmaides-to-be to the song "Betterman", about a girl staying with a guy just because she can't find someone better.  Awesome, while we don't typically do alot of covers, we will play that song every show from now on and dedicate it to all the brides-to-be out there. 
We also talked after the show with a big crowd of Navy Coremen (for those not up on your military lingo, these guys are the bad ass doctors of the military) who made our show the last big event before they headed back to base the next day - and then on to Iraq.  It was an honor to entertain those guys & gals and I'm looking forward to doing it again after they return safely to the good ol' U.S. of A.


No other stories to share right now, working on some new music that won't be released for a while yet, but it's really exciting stuff - not as exciting as, say, a backstreet boys reunion tour, but pretty darn exciting.

Make sure to check out CHICAGO ROOTS COLLECTIVE, you can find the link in our top friends - this is an amazing coming together of 10 Chicago bands that we are extremely proud to be a part of.  We'll have our inaugural show on September 19th at Cubby Bear - more details to come and alot of very cool collaborations among the bands as we all look forward to working & growing together in the Midwestern music scene.

Ta Ta for now,



-T

Just got in last night from a 2 night stint in Iowa, and let me tell you Iowa is a utopia of the friendliest dancingest good time lovingest people ever. I no longer understand what slipknot could have been so upset about.

we met a ton of outstanding folks who made us feel down right giddy to rock and/or roll.

Beware the Yacht club green room, it has the ability to make you play a really tight set and get really hungry later and if you ever stumble into Mahoneys bar get the delux pizza, it has bacon on it.

Shout out to all the Grenell (sp?) folks and our gracious host Cori (sp?) we'll see you all again soon.

-paul drums.

see you at cubby bear Friday!

Hey gang, so we got ourselves all hooked up on Twitter at long last!  Head over to www.twitter.com/howfartoaustin to start following us, we'll all be checking in regularly so you never who you'll get tweeted by, is that even what it's called?  I'm sure someone will let me know, right?
I popped on to UIC Radio earlier this week to talk with Stretch 1, and Fanfound.com founder Chris Bauman - great dual interview with myself and Detagoh frontman P.J. Anderson.  I'll have some pics of that interview up real soon, in the meantime go visit us at Twitter and start following and learn more than you ever wanted to know about the members of HFTA!

Hey gang,
 
Hoping everyone had a blast this weekend celebrating St. Patrick's day early - I know we did!  Wanted to say thanks to the crew at McDunnas, especially sound man "W" (pronounced "Dub-ya") who I had a chance to talk with a bunch.  I am fairly certain that sound guys as a species are some of the most interesting people to talk to, try it some time. . .
Show was great, the bar was a mad house as expected, actually the whole neighborhood was - we were standing outside talking with some folks and a woman driving by in a mini-van practically leaped out the window to scream "Happy Fucking St. Patty's Day!!!" at the top of her lungs - driving with her right hand, and in her left hand was a bottle of beer, which she slugged down just for effect.  I'm fairly certain she thought this was a really cool move, guessing everyone else in their cars on the busy street would disagree somewhat.
Back inside the bar, the room was already jam packed when we showed up, and got more packed when the party buses arrived from the parade - Detagoh put on an excellent set, it's rare to see a band with even more people than us on stage!  We're really looking forward to the Cubby Bear show in a few weeks with those guys, it's going to be an amazing night of great music . . .
 
That's the news for now, everybody have a great week - and for all you wonderful folks in Iowa, we'll see you this Saturday night in Iowa City, and Sunday night in Cedar Rapids!
 
 
-Tate

Hey everybody, hope all is well!
Just checking and trying to be more blog-gy since it looks like a whole lot of people are checking in on us!
Things going well, tons of big shows upcoming - and lots of acoustic shows in between!  Having a ton of fun doing these acoustic things - alot easier set up and alot more intimate environment than the bigger full band shows.  Speaking of full band shows, we just announced April 3rd co-headlining show at Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville.  We'll be sharing the bill with Detagoh, and are really excited to have opens JOHNNY & ROBBIE, as well as newcomers MOLEHILL.  Tickets are $7, and show starts around 9 p.m.  It should be an excellent spring evening, so hopefully you'll see fit to help us sell this venue out for the 2nd time!
 
We've also been working on some new tracks, looking to take those into a proper studio setting later this spring, more updates on that as we get closer and decide what songs to do.  Brand new one "Goodnight Madison" has been getting a great response at shows and is a definite first choice, also considering "Don't Get Me Wrong", a whole batch of new tunes in the "working it out" phase that we'll start breaking in at shows over the course of the next few weeks.
 
That's all the news for now, we're announcing a ton of regional tour dates, so keep checking the myspace regularly to see when we'll be through your town.  Also, if you've got a venue where you live that you think we should play - shoot the information to us at
booking@howfartoaustin.com
Had some great suggestions lately that have led to a few really great shows . . . keep 'em coming!
 
-Tate

Hello everyone!

Hope you all had a great holiday season, and a safe (if intoxicated) New Years Eve.  We're taking 2009 by storm - (sorry Chicago music fans, thats probably bad tasting considering the blizzard raging outside as I type).

Plenty of great news, we'll be busying with tour dates all over the midwest - we've teamed up with the excellent folks at Paperwork Media for all of our booking which is turning out great - now we have more time to post fun blogs on myspace and watch videos of cats doing backflips on You Tube, you know, important musician tasks.

So since we'll be playing out quite a bit - we've decided to overhaul our myspace, and bring on some new music.  Can't say much at this point, mostly because it's more fun to keep things hush hush - but we'll be in the studio in the near future cutting a few choice tracks that you will hear sooner than later - more to come on that.

In the meantime, come on out January 24th to Martyr's - we're opening up for our good pals Breakers Broken, we start the night out at 9:00 - come check out our set and then plan on sticking around the whole night!



Cheers,



-Tate

I just wanted to take a minute and express sincere thanks to the folks behind the CBGB FESTIVAL which we were a part of this past Saturday.  The owners of Congress Theater, the masterminds at King Tello Presents, and of course all of the other amazing acts on the bill - everyone pulled together and it was a blast for us to be a part of such a big day at such an amazing venue.

For those of you not there, we changed up our set to fit the day a little better - I took up the acoustic guitar; Colin switched up to mandolin (Phil Amerson took over bass duties for the set) and we sweetend up the set with some very cool arrangements of our tunes.  It went off so well, we'll certainly look at doing the "unplugged HFTA" whenever the right situation comes up again.

Keep an eye out - we've been promising it for a while, and at last a new myspace design, logo, and new merch are all in the works.  Still a little more time, but I can't keep my mouth shut as we get closer and closer.


Come on out Thursday December 4th to the Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville - we'll be back in full on plugged in fashion playing a FREE SHOW for all of our industry friends who rarely get to see us on the weekend.  To help matters - there are $2 you call its, which will be nice considering the current economic climate.  We'll go on at 10:00 for an hour, and will be followed by our good pals ELI JONES - get there early and come ready to enjoy yourself!



Tate