come dance a little closer

So, I had been purposely avoiding the blog thing for a little while, and then I accidentally stayed away for so long that I psychologically locked myself out of it; the inertia got into me. This is a bit more personal honesty than I usually put here. We're not turning emo on you or anything, don't worry about that. It's just that some things need to be said before we continue with the self-promotion.

In the last eight or nine months, we've made some new music as a group that even I couldn't have predicted, played Abbey Pub on a Friday night, headlined Double Door on a Friday night, and somehow became quite a good live band. We got to see ourselves in the Chicago Redeye, a huge photo of us along with an article that we were really happy with. I started writing songs with Gabe again, finally, and we're sitting on a lot of thrilling new material. We've been up to great things, and if you were lucky enough to be a fan of ours on the Facebook during this time, you got to see a lot of it while it was happening.

We have always been in a state of perpetual flux as a group, both with our direction and our personnel. This is by design; for me, things are most creative when they're least predictable. Sometimes the flux creeps into my life, though, in places where I can't deal with it as well. A couple of times in the last eight months, I was totally sure that I was going to quit music altogether and pick up something else. The same force that drives me to do this music thing also drives me kind of crazy; I feel the deepest thrills I've ever felt, but I also feel very alone, like I've been left out in the cold. I considered leaving my day job to do music full-time, and thought about moving away from Chicago a whole lot too, but instead I started dancing at nightclubs, DJing again, trying to remind myself of what I love about music and why I started down this path so many years ago.

Listen. I have decided to make a go of this again, harder than I ever have before, to give Chicago a chance to show us the kind of love that we need in order to take this project to the next level. There are a whole lot of you who would like to see us succeed; I hear about it when we run into each other on the street, I read late night emails about it from you when I really should be sleeping (like now). If you are willing to help out a little bit, then I am willing to push forward as hard as I can. We're going to need your help, though, I really mean that.

Some of what we do as a group is a bit surreal, and some of it is downright frightening. I think that means that we're growing. You're going to see some experiments coming from us, some of which aren't going to work the way we wanted them to. I'm going to drown in disbelief when we play bigger venues like Metro for the first time, and freak out as I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to hand out 2500 fliers in 2 weeks. This is a necessary phase of growth. If I don't say hello to you the way I used to, I'm probably just completely frazzled; don't take it personally. If I forget to call you, it's not because I didn't want to.

I still believe in this group. If I didn't, I would have quit long ago; this is so much more difficult than it looks. At the end of the day, what we do is about you as much as it's about any of us; I sing the songs but you're the one who feels them. And I think that's how it should be. The only thing I ask of you is that you keep supporting us in all the ways that feel right to you, as long as you still believe in us, too.

a voice inside my head said don't look back, you can never look back

Almost done moving to our new studio. Tonight, the mixing room should be finished; the tracking room and live rooms are yet to be completed, but we're getting closer. This whole thing took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it's a good change, a necessary change.

We've got a very exciting show coming up on Friday, October 24 at Darkroom. As you know, we choose not to play often in our hometown, and this will be our first performance at Darkroom, which is a great space with a fantastic sound system and nice DJ booth. It's $8, 21+, and here's the flier, designed by Brock Manke of The Beta Theta:



We're finishing up a new track which we'll release in the days leading up to the show. We can't wait for you to hear it. Nilay's still working on the cover art, I'm still working on the mix, but perhaps in the next 24 hours it'll all come together. Quite exciting!

we're gonna make it right, tonight tonight tonight

Last night, we were invited to a Spin Magazine private party, where "Does It Offend You, Yeah?" and "Gutter Twins" played sets. Greg Dulli brushed up against my shoulder. I handed a flier for our show tonight to Ali Youngblood from Black Kids, and she replied, "You're pretty."

Tonight we play a surprise Lollapalooza afterparty at Reggie's main room to thank all of you for coming to the Bottom Lounge last Thursday. It's a dance party plus sets from a couple of bands who are playing Lollapalooza this weekend, plus us. (It'll be a very different performance from last time; we have a live drummer, plus a couple of surprises in the works.) The show is free for all H70s fans, so print out this ticket flier and bring it with you to the show.

It feels quite surreal to play two shows in the same two week period with H70s. We've become such studio hermits; it feels great to be getting out in front of people and getting the immediate feedback that's so valuable to the direction of the group. So many of you are coming out to show your support, which encourages us to keep going.

Last Thursday at Bottom Lounge went smashingly well. Over 200 of you came out to show your support, and we're so glad you did. All the other bands were incredibly professional and polished-sounding; we countered with a mixture of energy, presence, and catchiness.

Speaking of the live experience, Nilay keeps bothering me to "ditch the glasses" and "get rid of the flashlight"...of course, I wholeheartedly disagree. what do you think? Let me know.

radio, live transmission

It was radio weekend.

Last night, Chris Payne played "Coldest Day of the Year" on his show on Q101. This was the first time The Heaven Seventies have been played on major radio, and since Q101 was my favorite radio station when I was 13, it felt crazy and exciting to finally get airplay. You can hear that here for the next couple of weeks (we're at about 12:50 in part 3, 07-20-08): myspace.com/local101

Also, on Saturday afternoon we did an interview on WCRX, the 100 watt station run by Columbia College in Chicago. In my opinion we did quite well. We got video of it, so we might post an exciting moment or two from it if we get some free time.

Mike Miller, one of the owners of Bottom Lounge, wears chelsea boots. Good taste in shoes, I say. I went to check out the place before our show there on Thursday, and man, it's huge. I'm excited to see all of you fill it.

you know we love you, mariah

To promote our show next Thursday, July 24 at Bottom Lounge, we made a mixtape-style "remix" of the Mariah Carey single, "Touch My Body". I heard it on the radio and immediately "alternate lyrics" started flowing out, so I knew we had to do it. We were fooling around in the studio with our cinematographer friend Kyle Kramer, and he started taking some shots of us...one thing lead to another and before we knew it, we had a video to go along with the audio!


download the mp3

You can see the video here:



or click here to watch it on facebook...it looks and sounds best there. (You don't need a facebook account.)

This one's on us, but if you want to show your appreciation, come see us at Bottom Lounge on Thursday, July 24. Our next show after this one is at Darkroom in late October, so mark your calendars.

who's to say it isn't right?

Working in the studio four nights a week (two with the other members and two more alone) on more projects than we can keep track of:

1. "A Sudden Ocean" official release. (almost finished)
2. "Seventeen" official release. (finally!)
3. "If I Leave Without You" h70s version and corresponding video.
4. "In the Morning Light (Remix)" ... totally mindblowing, I can't begin to explain it.
5. new song "Complicated" in two different versions... version 1 produced by h70s, and version 2 produced by Tek.

Also in the works:

6. putting together our first full length CD, working title "Singles, Vol. 1"
7. shooting a secret new video for our secret new remix track... we just finished the track, finally.
8. nonstop practice for July 24 show at Bottom Lounge, Chicago.

And in the meantime, some challenges:

9. Moving to a new studio space in August.
10. Computer crash (no data loss, luckily).

I'll update with some deep thoughts in a little while; right now I'm just trying to keep my head on straight.

Next show July 24 at the Bottom Lounge

We just confirmed our next show in Chicago at The Bottom Lounge (managed by Brian Peterson of mpShows) on July 24 with Welcome To Cambridge, White Hot Knife, and another band that WTC's Alex Kramer mentioned over the phone but I can't remember. Stabbing Mercury? Something like that. Bottom Lounge is brand-new (again) and seems pretty slick, so we're excited -- hope they've got insurance for those nice new subs!

Booking shows in Chicago is hard if you're an in-town band, but people have been really receptive to our pop action, and we're working on quite a slate of shows -- we're working on dates with the Double Door, Schubas, the Metro, and the Darkroom right now, so you'll be seeing us all over in the coming few months. Plus we're probably going on our first little tour soon, so get ready.