Saturday, June 30, 2012

What a mess

Our thoughts go out to all the families affected by last nights storms. Turns out more than a few people lost their lives during the event. I can't imagine what their families are going through. There was no question about the rain coming through but I didn't hear once about hurricane winds, tornadoes and the rest of the destruction headed this way. What happened there? Why is the state of emergency always after the incidents occur... did we not see this coming? I know the weather's inconsistent these days but to be so far off in predictions and forecasts; we're better off looking at the satellite images ourselves. Or, we need to alert each other in a more efficient manor.

We left the venue at a little after 1am and hit several road blocks, detours and flooded areas... at one point I saw section of guard rail totally ripped off and missing. Up the road a driver was being checked out in his car (after hitting the guard rail or a tree? I'm not sure) but it didn't look good. There were trees, leaves and debris everywhere and it sounds like millions of people have lost power completely. Just hope that people get the help they need at this point.

Here's a setlist from last night's show. We wanna thank Thaylobleu for playing an amazing set. They put on one incredible performance and sounded insanely good (yours truly got to run sound). They are professional dudes with some crazy talent. We're looking forward to playing more shows with them and can't wait to hear their upcoming LP. We'd also like to thank Mr. Kevin Brown (writer for Examiner.com) for checking out the show.

At the end of our set we jammed on a few tunes together and swapped instruments for even a few more songs. Thanks to everyone who made it out to the show, you guys are why we do this. We hope you all had a good time. I kept seeing the lights flicker during both sets thinking... is the power about to go? Luckily, we made it through both band's sets without any technical difficulties.

Was sort of wild seeing the storm barreling around behind us while we played. But in hindsight, probably not the safest thing to have been doing at that time.

So here's the list of songs we actually played. The original setlist was similar but we dropped a few of the slower, quieter songs. I'm including the extra songs we played at the end, although I don't know the names (the guys in Thaylobleu might remember) and if anyone remembers the correct order let us know... we were in a trance.

Next to You - Police
Anyone
Colorblind
9th Song
Pin on a Dime
Do You Wanna Dance - Bobby Freeman (Beach Boys version)
Kitsch
Creature in the Sky
Turning Glass to Sand
Favorite Words
At The Gazebo
Telepathic Love - Wipers
Evil Twin
Kegan Leonard (w/ Thaylobleu)
Lonely (w/ Thaylobleu)
Nobody (w/ Thaylobleu)
Pulse - Psychedelic Furs

unknown jam (Thaylobleu w/ The Velvet Ants)
unknown jam 2 (Thaylobleu w/ The Velvet Ants)
freestyle (Thaylobleu w/ The Velvet Ants)

Chipmunk King/Drop a Bomb on Hollywood (w/ Thaylobleu)

corrections welcome! Thanks for coming out.
[We'll try to post some pictures soon.]

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Here's the deal (#1)

So, a few months back we posted tracks from our new album 'Advantage' on Noisehead and got around 300 plays (for each track!) within a week or so. This is probably the biggest spike we've seen since joining the site. We went and re-uploaded mastered versions when they came back from SoundLAB (so they'd be the same quality all around).

Here's the deal: If you can help us reach 300 plays or over (on each track) by the end of June we'll giveaway a free covers track in July.

Deal?

We've got a head start today because Noisehead.com has made us featured artist for the day! We're right on the homepage!

Click here to visit the Velvet Ants on Noisehead...

Click here to just visit Noisehead

We'd like send our thanks to Todd at Noisehead for making this possible.

Let's go!

Monday, June 4, 2012

One hell of a weekend.

Congratulations to Roscoe and Jessica, they tied the knot and had a big old shindig this past weekend. The weather couldn't have been better and the air was full of bubbles. Later in the night we ran through some old songs in the pavilion. There was only 2 guitars laying around so we constructed a drum set out of tubs, used a couple of snapped branches for sticks and mic'd everything else. As the night went on, the DJ (who turned out to be an avid Doors fan) sang and Ian went to the drums. We played 'Love Me Two Times' & 'Roadhouse Blue' before going into a jam for the next 10 minutes. Good times, hope to have more of those. Maybe we'll record it next time. As for the covers album, our schedules (which are now almost completely opposite) haven't allowed much time for completion but most of what's left is done. I think (with fingers crossed) we'll have something finished by the end of the summer. Shows are being booked though so maybe things aren't so bad. Either way, here's to Jess & Roscoe and hope to see you soon. Next show is June 29th @ Axum Lounge in DC to RSVP visit http://facebook.com/events/319636841449889/