Monday, July 26, 2010

Chasing the moon

I took the graveyard shift again last night, and in no way am I bitchin. There's nothing like an empty interstate at night....the last time I drove graveyard was on our recent trip back to Wisconsin, so I took it again last night on the way back to Washington. This time instead of a sky full of diamonds I had a nearly full moon riding with me throughout the night.
Driving at night is amazing enough, but when the moon lights your way it is eerily comforting. Mountains, valleys, rock formations, animals, trees pop out of the landscape like opaque glass statues. I truly felt like I was on the dark side of the moon....it probably helped when "time" came on my rotation in the iPod, nonetheless it felt like I was on another planet.....and I wasn't on no wacky neither!




I don't know how far away Gilette, Wyoming and Butte, Montana are from each other, but that was my graveyard......my constant: the moon.



(the moon at dawn...heading down)
So my auggested music listening pick this time has to be anything from "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd....cliche, I know, but listen to an entire song and think about driving 8 hours in the dark high desert.......and pick a good song like "Breath", or "Great Gig In the Sky", or "Brain Damage".....especially the last one since I haven't had solid sleep since Saturday night......and look at a map....driving from Madison, wi to Mt. Vernon, wa is comparable to driving accross Europe, or equatorial Africa......or South America.......laterally, of course........bye!



(the sun sneaking up on me from behind)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday, July 16, 2010

Brava Article

This is a bit of old news, but in case you havn't seen the May issue of Brava Magazine here is a helpful link:

http://bravamagazine.com/article.jsp?department=8734&id=9674

Thanks Mollie and all involved! 

Summer Tour 2010: Hotter than ever!

Had you told me that when we headlined Everett, Washington's 4th of July festival, i would have smacked you.....prebably not, that's just not me....i would have smirked, then turned away so you couldn't see how I really felt, and continued to drink the sweet, sweet local brews that Washington has to offer.  Let's just say it was cold; and an equally if not greater than cold wind was blowing off the puget sound onto the stage.  Acouple beers and a spring coat later, The Lucas Cates Band was off and running(it was still really cold).  Accually the Summer 2010 tour began six days and six shows earlier in Madison, WI.  We drove about 10 hours each day to our show; unloaded, set up, played, broke down, slept(most of the time), and drove.  Our week in Washington began as a cloudy windy holiday, but ended a cloudless beautiful northwestern adventure as we had 7 days of total sunshine beginning July 5th. 
The tours have been great as the crowds are multiplying and merchandise is flying off the shelves.  The Pacific Northwest as been offically labeled (by me, so really not that official) a "hot spot"(but official enough for quotations) for the band.  There is a lot of excitement for the music and amazing response from concert goers which is why we will return to Washington and Oregon in 10 days to wrap up the summer tour. 
One cool band thing of note happened about a month ago.  We will soon(which means hopefully soon) be in "E-Cast" jukeboxes around the country as an unsigned band.  Both All the Pieces and Live at Sullivan Hall will be in the data base for all ecast boxes....pretty cool.  We are working with Touch Tunes currently to secure the same type of deal.  So say you are on vacation and you want a drink.....no brainer....go to the bar, BUT let's say you are on vacation....at that very same bar and you say "I'd like to make everyone in this bar listen to what I want to listen to," so you go over to the sweet juke box, AND you've already decided that like an unhealthy addiction you NEED to listen to The Lucas Cates Band.......NOW........well damnit you are in luck, cause we'll be there for you.  Now if it just so happens that you are staring a Touch Tunes Jukebox in the face, make sure you write them or your local congressman(or woman) and tell them we should be in Touch Tunes as well......simple, delicious, fish.

Suggested Music Listening:  Caravan (Single) - This is some serious new stuff from Rush.  You won't believe what you are hearing.