Fall Tour Florida Style

First off I want to thank everyone who has been actively searching us out on Pandora.  We received confirmation on the night of our CD Release Party that we are IN!  woo!  thanks guys.  The music is up there as of today, but it takes awhile to get our music....but...when you do hear it please give it a thumbs up so that we get more plays, oh and also we are currently under the Lucas Band Cates...which is par for the course since lucas's name is spelled incorrectly all the time...this time its just out of order....don't worry we and the kind folks of Pandora radio are working on it!
Second, thanks to everyone who was at the CD Release Party.  It was a bonafide success and we owe it to you guys for making it great!

Ok on to the tour.....so far its been filled with uninvited guests in good ways for the most part.  The first night was Wednesday; we drove from Madison to Atlanta and stayed in an old district with Luker's cousin.  The street was a narrow old street and used to be a drive through crack house....more of a crack block since all the homes were old run down and filled with history.  Now within the last 10 years developers have plowed the crack houses to the ground and built beautiful homes in what is now a blossoming district.  I slept ok that night, but my dreams were filled with angst and feelings that ghosts were around me.  At about 4 or 5 in the morning I was rousted by the sounds of someone in the Kitchen downstairs making breakfast and causing a ruckus.....Kenny was in another room and heard the same thing....Lucas was on a couch adjacent to the kitchen and also heard the breakfast making......he thought it was me and Kenny, we thought it was Luker's cousin.....turns out...no one was up at the time.   Yup, weird.  It also turns out that Luke had the same dream that I did...also weird.
Last night we played our acoustic show at Creekside in St. Augustine....on a deck....on the inter coastal waters....it was a nice first show of the tour..very relaxing.  During the show a furry little raccoon kept creeping next to the stage toward the tables with the hopes of a snack, but was scared back a number of times before climbing the tree next to us to watch the show.  We sold a ton of discs and felt pretty good about the start of tour.
Today Kenny and I were boogie boarding outside of the condo when I looked over his shoulder and saw a set of fins poking up from the water.....now the first thing i did was soil my swimsuit....that's a given, right?  I started calling to Kenny; "Kenny!  swim this way...now!"  Kenny:"What?"  Me: "Swim here, toward shore....NOW!" Kenny: "What?" Me: "Fins!"  Kenny:  "Oh shit!"  Well we hauled to the shore were we were told by a worker that was setting up chairs that they were dolphin fins.....whew.....awesome.  So we swam back out and swam with the dolphins getting as close as 50 feet...it was amazing.  So I think I'll get back to that ocean and relax....we play a street dance tonight in St. Augustine and are really looking forward to it.  I'm excited to see who will show up tonight.

Shamless Self-Promotion

Hey kids.  As you may have already seen (the bar on the right) somewhere on the interwebs, we are trying to get into rotation on Pandora Radio.  The first step is to request that we be on there....but WE can't do that....cause everyone would want themselves to be on Pandora......so YOU have to do it for us. 
Simply:
1.  Go to www.pandora.com/#/stations/create
2.  Type "The Lucas Cates Band"
3.  Hit Enter or click Create
4.  Do it somewhat frequently.....not like 50 times in a row...just like once a week.....IF everyone did it once a week we will finally have representation on one of the fastest growing and coolest Internet radio stations....there is tons of new music from unsigned artists like us, and plenty of classics too!
Thanks for all of your help and continued support, guys.

The Pearl

8/15/10(probably 8/16 already)
Inside a wharhouse on the northeast side of Minneapolis, Minnisota is a gem of a studio: The Pearl.  Aptly named, this studio is the creation of our most recent engeineer Zach Hollander and his brother Noah.  The space has been used for 40 years as a recording/rehearsal space.  Soul Asylum rehearsed here in the 90's, Tweedy from Wilco has played here with the Jayhawks, and many other talented Mineapolis artists have expressed themselvs between these walls.
We are mixing....which means we take all of the stuff that was recorded and determine the volumes of everything....from guitar, bass and drums....down to the strings, shaker, and other tidbits of layering.  It's tedious, but the best part of the whole process!  Essentially we are finishing the project....finally.  Woo!  So hold the showering....we're sleeping here and gettin 'er done.

This is a 2-part blog:

8/17/10(again, probably 8/18 already)

We just finished mixing "My Way" which was the last track we had to mix....woo!  The album sounds so good, kids, its unbelievable.  We are so happy with how everything turned out and The Pearl is truly going to make its name as a world-class studio....and likewise will Zack Hollander go on to do amazing things (starting with our project ;-).  So here are a few sneak preview items about the album:

1.  The track listing will be as follows: Epic, Heaven Can Wait, Not the Right Catch, Crucial Tactics, Undersexicized, Enemy Lines, Cougarville, Chump, My Way, To Life, and Turn the Light On.  We chose to leave Shoe String Fox off of the album....many of you may wonder what Shoe String Fox is since we don't play it live too often, but it's a song of ours and there is talk of releasing it for download only or as a B side to a future single...who knows, but its ready to go when the time is right.  I may even be willing to share it soon, we'll see.
2.  The CD RELEASE PARTY is SEPTEMBER 25th at THE BRINK LOUNGE!  Be there in case I never mentioned that :-)
3.  Album Cover:  (you will have to wait until the CD RELEASE PARTY on SEPTEMBER 25th at THE BRINK LOUNGE to see the rest)

It's a self-titled album for a few reasons....i guess most simply is cause we couldn't agree on a great title....but honestly it's nice because this is the Lucas Cates Band.  We have a new line up since the last album (the addition of yours truly), and this is the music that you are used to hearing.  Self titled really says it all....and so do the pictures.

4. We slept at The Pearl every night of mixing.....no showers....it got real........kenny didn't even change......its cool though, he's right next to me and he smells terrific.

5.  We are the first band to work at The Pearl.  Zack and his brother Noah along with the intern(soon to be on the payroll) Jordan built this space from the ashes....finished the hardwood floors....built the control room and made it awesome....we are honored to be the first of what i'm sure will be a long tradition of making music sound great.......kenny just said, by the way, "how much does it take to make me sound awesome?  About four grand...thats how much."  Awesome.

So, your music listening assignment:  In the spirit of a set of studio monitors that we are using(the same monitors Quincy Jones used to produce all of Michael Jackson's stuff)(also, we are using other monitors so all you engineers out there don't scoff) I want you to check out Michael Jackson, "Billy Jean" from Thriller (Produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson)....and really listen to it....listen to everything in it....skip the voice....check out the shaker, or the claps, or the back up guitar, or for the more experienced listener.... listen to the room......................i'll be proud of you.

out of control dinner

So tonight I made meatloaf.....yup....I did.  I'm not shameful, nor will I take it back.  I made what I made and I loved every ounce of it......sure most people don't mix brown sugar, saltine crackers, onions, and tomato sauce(plus other items)....but that doesn't mean it doesn't taste like heaven.....i mean who are you to say meatloaf isn't delicious....cause it is.....it's damn delicious, in fact I don't blame Michael Lee Aday for taking the name: Meatloaf.  It's masculine, old school, and brave.  Do I have a picture of my dish....hell no!  I ate it.....and it was good!  Oh I might have leftovers, but why do you care?  I mean, do you want my meatloaf leftovers, cause you can't have any.  I'm not selfish, I'm protective.....like a father would be of his teenage girl.  Are you looking at my meatloaf?   You better not be.....punk.  My meatloaf is classy and deserves someone who will appreciate it; someone who will do anything for it; someone who won't ever eat, but eat rational amounts so as to conserve the leftovers.......like meatloaf sandwich, re-heated dinner, or cold meatloaf breakfast; how 'bout meatloaf smoothie, or meatloaf on a salad....no?.....then what about ground meatloaf in potatoes, or meatloaf balls?....wait...that just doesn't sound good at all....but the others...yes the delicious other options for meatloaf....well, i can't wait till tomorrow.

recommended listening:  Meatloaf, Dead Ringer For Love from The Very Best of Meatloaf (even though we all know I just made the very best of meatloaf)

Shasta, more than soda

What a month. July was our busiest so far in 2010 and I felt, last night during our last set, that a vacation will be just what I need. Eight hours after that though crossed my mind....it turns out I was 100 percent correct. Like, I dont feel weekends anymore...and Mondays are some of my favorite days, so knowing I get a week to kick it in Colorado makes feel like a school girl....well...wait, what?.......,what did you hear?....maybe not, I feel good.
The tour closed pretty strongly in Ashland, Oregon. Fans always show up in serious numbers and bring every ounce of energy. Dancing all night, singing the songs, wearing shirts.....now that I take a step back from it all, it's pretty crazy.......crazy, sexy, cool(thanks tlc)!
Wait, you have to see Mt. Shasta; we are driving past it right now!



Don't mind the bug in the middle of the shot.

Anacortes, WA was pretty cool too. Jesse to this pic of me taking a picture.

Last night we got real wester and stayed in an open air, no screen log cabin on a 105 acre ranch in the high desert of northern California. Kirsten's mom's house.













Notice Chet and tickle me Elmo....i don't know who had more fun in that bottom bunk...Chet or Elmo....I honestly couldn't tell who was laughing more.

Oh yea....ur listening assignment; how about a track from one of the records I scored while I was out here. Queen, Radio Ga Ga off of "The Works". It's one of those songs you forget about, then hear it and think first of the 80s, but listen to the words and how brilliantly the song is put together.

All in all it's been a great first half of 2010. Thanks everyone for making our expirence in Madison and otherwise memorable.



Or lackthereof.


-mark

Location:I-80

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

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!