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