We set a recording date for July. Have been playing 2 new tunes at shows: "The First Time" and "End of the Line"... perhaps nice bookend titles for a new project. Hope to have 5 songs done in time to record in July. Other songs being worked on include "There is Only This" and "Small Town Rodeo." Have also been considering re-recording a couple of the tunes off of Ways of Letting Go.

Nick is going to Europe for a couple weeks. Way cool. Have fun, man.

For those who haven't noticed, we're a 3-piece again lately, with Nate having departed the band. But not to worry, there are some very cool things in store for us as a power trio. It will be a tighter, but maybe even bigger sound when we fully debut the setup on August 1 at Walnut Room. I am very excited about running my guitar rig in stereo. Early testing has resulted in an awesome surround sound effect with plenty of delay.

I am incredibly grateful to those of you who come out to see us live. Hopefully you enjoy hearing us somewhere close to as much as we enjoy playing to you.

We're looking for bands to join us in August for that show. What kind of stuff do those who come to see us like? Mellower openers or some more rocking bands? We want our shows to be enjoyable the whole way through for those of you who come out to see us and hang with us.

-Ben

So, our drummer Nick broke his ankle snowboarding today.

We still plan to play the April show, but it may be an "unplugged" thing with Nick playing his cajon (it's a wooden box you sit on and play with your hands). While we're disappointed to not be bringing you kosmøs in all its electric glory, we've had a great time playing acoustic shows lately. For those of you who haven't seen us play this type of show, expect a new and different experience from kosmøs at Walnut Room on April 4. We've found the vibe of playing acoustic to be more direct and relaxed while casting many of our songs in a different light.

Because we will be acoustic, we may play earlier in the night. So, grab a happy hour dinner at the Walnut Room and don't be late to the show at 8:00.

We are hoping for Nick's quick recovery.

Update: kosmøs will still headline this show and go on later in the evening. But, we still encourage you to come early, as this is one of the best shows we've been a part of in a while. The Trews are a Canadian band who won "Best Hard Rock Song" at this year's USA Independent Music Awards. Vonnegut won Westword's "Best Modern Rock Band" of 2008. And Sofo is impressive in their own right.

So, call the babysitter and put the kiddies to bed. Put your cab fare in your left shoe, and come out for a great evening of music. We'll make a night of it on April 4!

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government."
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury."
"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
It looks like Wall Street is getting theirs now.

700 Billion.

http://www.westword.com/2008-08-14/music/the-kosmos-saved-money-pressing-cds-and-poured-the-profits-into-better-production/



Kosmos saved money pressing CDs and poured the profits into better production
By Jon Solomon
Published on August 14, 2008

Before forming their band Kosmos, brothers Ben and Tim Tonak grew up listening to Pearl Jam and could play nearly every song in the group's catalogue. Since then, the guys have gravitated to Radiohead and Jimmy Eat World, which instilled the act with "a garage-band sensibility with arena-rock accessibility." As a followup to its debut, Ways of Letting Go, Kosmos recorded a five-song EP, which will be available as a free download from the band's website after its EP-release show. We spoke with Ben Tonak about doing the EP digitally.

Westword: Why are you releasing the EP digitally instead of releasing a CD?

Ben Tonak: Basically, our reasoning for that is because it's an EP. The cost of pressing a CD for five songs by themselves — the more songs you can fit on a CD, the more sense it makes to press them — but if you're just doing five songs, a download makes a lot more sense. People are coming around to the idea of downloads. Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have really legitimized it by releasing albums as downloads only, at least initially.

For us, that freed up some money to where if we're not paying to press CDs, we spend more money on gear or the recording itself. It is a bit of a risk. The pressed CD does give you some legitimacy in terms of when you send around a pressed CD with a barcode and all of that, it looks good, and it's a solid thing that people can hold in their hands. So it is a bit of a risk in that way. We're having Tom Baker master the album. He's done most of the recent Nine Inch Nails albums.

I feel like the goal of a local band is exposure, so we're able to give away our music — that's free exposure. Yeah, people have to go to the site. They can't exactly pick it up at our show and listen to it on their way home, which is the risk that we're taking, but they also don't have to pay $10 to get it. But if they're willing to go home and take that extra step, they'll be pretty darn surprised by the quality of what we've done. We kind of take pride in the fact that no one knows you, and they get your stuff in their hands and they're surprised that it's good — that's a good thing. But if you talk too much and you hype it and it's mediocre, then you lose. It's better to be overrated than underrated, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

I'm currently completing production, editing and mixing of our new 5-song project, to be named "The Bifurcation." We will send it to mastering early next week.

We're going to do an electronic-only release of this project, and it's going to be free. It will be available for download on August 16 through our website. All you will have to do is give us your Email address so we can get a hold of you about future releases and shows, and you get the album completely free, though you are welcome to donate through Paypal, if you feel so moved.

Though some folks (myself included) still like to have physical copies of music, it makes a lot of sense to release an album digitally right now.

1) It allows us to give you the music for free. The cost of pressing CD's adds to overhead for a band, and we felt like making the album a free download was better than charging people for a CD, when most folks will just rip the CD and put it on their iPod or computer anyway.

2) A download is greener. And we're a green-friendly band. Nuff said.

3) People will share the files anyway, so why not make it free from the start. You are hereby free from guilt. We want you to share it. Just come to our shows and buy t-shirts and consider donating.

4) The download model allows things to be more flexible and interactive. We can release music quicker without the lead time and cost of pressing CD's. This doesn't mean the music will sound thrown-together or shoddy. In fact, quite the opposite. Money we save on pressing CD's goes toward better production.

Regarding the project itself -- it's probably the best sounding thing we've done to date. I feel even better about the production on this project than I did about Ways of Letting Go. Responses to the songs at live shows have been quite positive. And we've continued to grow as musicians and songwriters. We're really looking forward to all of you hearing the music.

Over the Weekend... The Hollyfelds, Kosmos and Three Miles West @ the Walnut Room

The Hollyfelds are a country band – a fact that co-lead singer Eryn Hoerig made sure to point out. Although this was pretty obvious after the band's first song, Hoerig's charm was as beguiling as her bluegrass-diva stage presence. Her country-crooning partner, Kate Grigsby, was equally stunning. Both women, dressed in retro-country attire, led their bandmates through a moonshine-inspired tour of twangy Americana classics augmented by similar songs from Saratoga, their latest effort.

Hoerig and Grigsby are easily the Hollyfeld's greatest assets. One voice is pure West Virginia songbird, while the other fills the bottom register, sweeping as if over amber fields of grain, elevating the group's earthy sound heavenward. Just as entertaining was the act's wide-ranging instrumentation, from tenor ukulele to autoharp to banjo and guitar, which added to the down-home flavor of the show. And once the band really got going, it was a non-stop stompfest, with drummer Sam Spitzer making each snare hit snap with gusto.

Such a formidable rhythm made it possible for the bandmembers to differentiate themselves from a bunch of pickers and grinners. Maybe that's what prompted Hoerig to remind us that the Hollyfelds are a bona fide country band. This notion was further driven home by the outfit's choice of covers, songs by Dolly Parton, Neko Case and Patsy Cline. When Hoerig announced that last one, I clapped – only to discover that I was the only one doing so. "I like the way you think, sir," said Hoerig, happy to have found someone else who appreciates the classics. As for the Hollyfelds' take on the tune itself – well, let's just say Patsy would be proud.

Of course, that could also just be the beer talking. Between sets, I had a few cold ones on Three Miles West's party bus parked outside the Walnut Room. In honor of the release of the band's long-awaited new disc, Dead Reckoning, lead singer Russ Christiansen charted the bus to transport fans to the gig. The band, which actually opened the bill, served up its own unique brand of twang-infused rock. After a year's hiatus, Christiansen and company came back swinging. "I listen to the Joshua Tree," Christiansen enthused. And sure enough, the harder edge of Three Mile's songs were smoothed by echo-laden Edge-like guitar flourishes that gave the songs an added depth. Elsewhere, the act did an equally noteworthy job making the lone cover in its set, Springsteen's "State Trooper," its own, by adding a good amount of fuzz to the guitars. Rowdy and yet melodic, Three Miles West's sound is worn and comfortable, like a favorite pair of jeans.

Sandwiched in between Three Miles West and the Hollyfelds was Kosmos. And the moment the band took the stage, as each member quietly set up his gear like he'd done it a million times before, it was apparent that the group's output would be different from the rough-and-ready music presented by Three Miles West. Indeed, a more reserved approach came through in the music: Kosmos was careful not to overwhelm, letting each song unfold in its own time. With little stage banter, the act let the music speak with songs that were bouncy and fun and at times bordered on dreamy and ethereal, recalling Radiohead with a little Everclear thrown into the mix.

-- Kevin Galaba

We recorded drum (and other) parts for 5 new songs a couple of weeks ago.

Work on recording guitars and vocals has begun. There is currently no solid timeline for an official release of the songs, but we're so excited about them that we'll undoubtedly post some rough mixes of things here when they get put together a little more.

Overall, the vibe of the tunes seems to be a little more rock than we've been in the past.

We'll be playing the new tunes at our next gig at Walnut Room in Denver on May 2, including a never before performed tune under the working title "(Land of) No Regret" which is starting to become a favorite of ours... think Dave Grohl meets Elliott Smith... :-)

You might have noticed, or not noticed, the absence of any shows on our page for a while. We've taken December off from playing live, and will probably take January off as well. In addition to our holiday schedules being busy, we've been focusing on writing some new material and getting it ready to record soon.

We released Ways of Letting Go over a year ago now, and to be honest we feel like we need some new material to keep ourselves, and everyone who comes to see us on a regular basis, interested.

We've got a few new songs in the works that I'm personally pretty excited about. I'd describe our current writing trend to be leaning toward slightly more upbeat tunes. We've felt like our live set could use a couple of shorter and faster songs, so we've focused on keeping things upbeat and really working to trim any extra "fat" from the tunes.

One new song under the working title of "Apocalypse" is faster and more aggressive than anything we've probably done before. Elements of it kind of remind me of Radiohead's "Ideoteque" or Chemical Brothers' "Block Rockin Beats." I've had the beginnings of the lyrics lying around for months and a few weeks ago Nate came in with a riff that we just really enjoyed jamming on. I took it home and was happy to find that my "Apocalypse" lyrics fit perfectly with his riff.

So, Happy Holidays. Not sure when it will be, but the next time we play live we'll be trying out some of the new tunes. We hope to see you there. And we hope to have some new recordings of the tunes for you by Spring.

-Ben

ps. The movie below is one of the best I've seen it a while. Check it out.

I'm going through a bunch of old receipts since I'm moving over the course of the next month.

So far, I have found receipts for $7098 worth of music equipment before I even turned 20 years old. That doesn't count a $1500 computer and a lot of smaller items that I never kept records for. The total is probably really over $10,000 between the ages of 15 and 20.

Thankfully, I've stopped saving so many receipts. Between the ages of 21 and 29, I'd guess the number to be in the range of $25k. It's probably a good thing I'll never know.

I did find the receipt for the very first guitar I ever bought. A Gibson Les Paul that I still have. $850 in 1996. When I'm famous, just the receipt will be worth that much on Ebay... ;-)

"The Diamond Sea" by Sonic Youth is the best 19 minute and 35 second song ever, though it does get a bit gratuitous with the noise at the very end... that's only like 4 minutes out of over 19, so...

It only bears listening about once a month, but man that one time...