This will be the final post on this Tumblr blog.
Please check out http://www.ifeelrealistic.com or http://ifeelrealistic.tumblr.com for future Talking Mountain and related projects.
Thanks for the views and things. I’ll leave this up just in case anyone wants to get nostalgic and read the tour journal entries from when we were a real band. There are humorous photos.
Also:
Twitter: @talkingmountain
Instagram: @talkingmountain
-Jason/TM
Our Tumblr has been, sadly, almost completely abandoned for the last year. I love Tumblr, but Twitter has become my social networking thing of choice. If you’re into it, you should follow Talking Mountain over there. @talkingmountain
We also have a Facebook page which typically has up to date show listings and things on it.
-Jason/TM
Bourbon Theatre - Lincoln, NE - 12/10/2010
Our final show of the year!
Our friend Darren Keen put this together as his Show is the Rainbow comeback show. If you’ve been reading our blog, you’ll recognize Darren as Bad Speler. The Show is the Rainbow is his original one man band (How many does he have at this point?)
The Bourbon Theatre has been remodeling their front room for smaller shows. The new stage will be where the bar used to be, and the new bar is where the bands used to play in the lobby. It’s really coming along and is going to be a really great place to play once it’s finished and they start allowing fog/hazing.
The show was a blast and was a great end to our sporadic run of shows throughout 2010. We’re hoping that 2011 will see the release of a handful of Talking Mountain EPs, if not another full length. Driving in the snow is the worst, and we’ll be taking the better part of the winter off to work on new recordings, new songs, and new ways to entertain the kids in a live setting.
So long, 2010! So, long everybody else! We’ll see you in 2011.
-Jason/TM
Screaming into the Witches Cauldron was the Song of the Day over at Eat Sleep Breathe Music. Click the title to check it out.
O’Leavers Pub - Omaha, NE - 11/5/2010
We finally return to O’Leavers Pub. We played our 2nd, 11th, 88th, and now 111th shows here. It was a night full of reunions.
The Benningtons are a new band made up of three of the four members of Hyannis, a band we used to play with all the time when we were first getting started. In addition to the three boys, they’ve rounded out the line-up with two girls too. They sounded fantastic and I’m excited to see and play with them again in the future. No more apologizing, Tony!
Mammoth Life is one of our favorite bands from Lawrence, KS. We just played with them recently in Lawrence, and were excited to bring them to Omaha. This is the second time we’ve seen them in their new two-piece incarnation, and we can’t wait to see where they go from here.
After recently parting ways with our bassist, we reunited with the old one, Dan, for this show. We practiced one-and-a-half times with him, and it was just like riding a bike. Give Dan a bass line, and he’ll nail it every time. Definitely the most comfortable show we’ve played in awhile, for all sorts of reasons, and I feel totally reenergized for all things Mountain. Unfortunately, we’re going to be slowing down our traveling as winter sets in, but if the energy can’t be used for live shows, I’ll just have to use it to record new songs.
Vivo - Fairfield, IA - 10/30/2010
Philip from Utopia Park got us on this show on extremely short notice after a previous date of ours fell through. Prince Philip for sure! Fairfield, IA is the North American home of Transcendental Meditation, as well as home of the largest training center for it in the world. We’ve been hearing about the greatness of Fairfield for months and were excited to head that way.
As we understand it, the guys from Utopia Park either run or help run a venue in Fairfield called the Beauty Shop. For this, a big Halloween dance party, they turned to a local bar called Vivo to host it. It was mostly DJ or laptop-based acts, with us being the only ones playing real instruments. We weren’t aware of that at first, and couldn’t figure out why the bar owner was so shocked at the amount of gear we were loading in. Amps, baby, amps! He made the joke, “What? You brought your whole apartment?” to each of us.. several times.
We were so tired and beat from our previous night in Vermillion, that most of our time in Fairfield was spent trying to figure out how to nap in the confines of our van. We did manage to buy one of those air horns and visit a strange music store in which the owner clearly didn’t care if we were there or not.
The show itself was a little strange, and not really what we’re used to. Though I don’t believe they typically have shows or events like this there. We were each nearly accosted every time we had to reenter the venue, no matter how clearly we showed our wristbands. We left our merch mannequins unattended for a short time only to find our masks stolen when we returned. I think our set was well received. The kids up front were clearly having a good time.
After the show, and a nutty girl fight, a crowd of people grew outside the venue looking for the after party. Thankfully, Philip’s plan was just to return to his house, drink a beer, and go to sleep. There was plenty of space and plenty of couches for us at Philip’s, and I think we stayed up a little longer than any of us expected to. The Utopia Park guys are super nice and funny, and we definitely look forward to heading back to Fairfield and playing a Beauty Shop show.
We were very careful to not let the cats out.
VAAC - Vermillion, SD - 10/29/2010
We have some of our best adventures visiting cities and towns that are off the beaten path. The big cities can be fun, but seriously, places like Vermillion is where the action is at. The shows are always packed, everyone is so friendly and awesome, and there’s always an amazing party afterwards. Every time we go is better than the time before, and we’re always looking forward to our next visit. We’ve been driving up every few months for nearly two years now, and our hugest, most sincere thanks go out to Micah and Sheridan for always setting us up with a great show, and everyone else in town for being so supportive and fun. You’re the best!
This trip up was a total blast. Our friend Darren joined us again as Bad Speler and brought his lovely fiance, Lacey, along for the ride. Our show started a little early, as there was another show going on at one of the bars downtown. They held the start time for that show back until our show was over, which was absolutely awesome of them to do. Bad Speler did it, we did it, and then we headed over to the bar to catch the second show of the evening. We recognized Biscuits on stage immediately upon entering, as we have played with him in the past. The second band, The Fountain, had at least one We All Have Hooks for Hands’er in it, along with 6? 7? other people, all in similar robes. The stage was packed, they were tight and awesome, and we had a great time.
After the show, we headed to Sheridan’s new place to drink a few more beers and try our best to keep up with our Vermillion pals. In the morning, the front door was blocked by a passed out gentleman, but I was able to escape out a side door which only required a small leap down to the ground. I rounded everyone up, and it was discovered that our spare van key and Darren’s jacket that he bought in Amsterdam were missing. After some frantic searching and moving of passed out bodies, we found Darren’s jacket, with our key tucked safely in the pocket. We headed for the highway, stopping at a gas station just before leaving town to grab some Red Bull, some Gatorade, and probably some popcorn shrimp or something.
Savoy - Mankato, MN - 10/23/2010
We woke up in Des Moines, showered, and then headed off to Tasty Tacos (you should be noticing a trend by now) to meet up with our friend Ryan and his girlfriend from Minneapolis, always a pleasure to see them. Erin came along, and Aaron and Alishia showed up as well. Did Joe and Emily go? I think so. Holy moly everyone. Bradley was able to proudly show off his Tickle Monster Mitts, quickly convincing everybody that they also need a pair. After tacos and laughs, we were off to Mankato.
We found a mall there, which we hadn’t seen on our last visit, so we got some pizza and Bradley and Michael got to stand inside a wind chamber and see what hurricane winds feel like.
Mankato Charlie was able to get us this show on extremely short notice, filling in another hole in our schedule that inevitably opened up (Thanks, Charlie!). It was held at a place called Savoy, a gyro place that didn’t appear to typically have shows. Regardless, it was total blast once we figured out where to plug everything in. After the show, we headed for the All American Bar (a bar in the basement of a house) and witnessed a guy get his penis pierced with rusty needle-nose pliers and a dirty lip ring, as well as a girl trick people into taking shots of her pee, which was florescent orange due to some sort of medication she was on. Michael and I had an uncomfortable nights sleep in the van, while Bradley managed to find somewhere to sleep inside. Oh, Mankato, we’ll miss you.
House Show - Des Moines, IA - 10/22/2010
We got invited to play a house show for our friend Jennifer’s “birthday” which was actually more than a month earlier. Bradley bought her a skull beer-bong from Nobbies. About a week before the show, we learned that there were a total of five bands, which ballooned to seven by the day of the show. This meant a start-time of 5:30pm and an end time of who knows when. Once again, we got to town early and did the typical sorts of Des Moines things we always do. This time, I got pretty serious about a 1973 Musicmaster bass at the Professional Music Center and was able to talk the guy way down on it, but just not low enough. When I told him that the condition of the original case would make or break the sale, I could see the disappointment in his face when he returned from the basement holding the remains of what was once some sort of chipboard guitar case. No sale. Our current Musicmaster will just have to do.
We stopped at a gas station to grab some Four Loko’s (terrible, terrible idea) and headed to the house around 5:00pm. By 6:30 or so, we had accomplished a lot of tire-swinging, I had finished two Four Loko’s and was ready for a nap, which our van was happy to provide. Unfortunately, that meant that I missed nearly every band, as well as most of a party. I was able to catch Nuclear Rodeo’s set, who performed quite well as a three-piece, play our set, and then hang around long enough to watch part of Superstar on DVD and make the call to head to Brian and Joe’s house.
Nothing quite as hilarious happened this time as the last time, but we did catch a pretty great episode of Spongebob and a strange episode of Cheaters. Though I’m going to assume all episodes of Cheaters are that strange.
Eighth St. Taproom - Lawrence, KS - 10/21/2010
Our friends Nicholas and Elizabeth from Lawrence pop band Mammoth Life were kind enough to land us this show in Lawrence. We love this town, and we’re not sure why we hadn’t been back since February. We got there a little early and spent some time walking up and down Mass street ducking in and out of shops as they piqued our interest. Bradley picked up a great pair of Tickle Monster Mitts (which I, unfortunately, do not have a photo of) and the rest of us picked up some Chipotle.
The Eighth St. Taproom has a PA and cozy cove for bands to play in down in their basement. Small venues like these are always fun to play in, but with our ever-growing amount of gear needed for our live shows, it can get a little cramped. Not a problem for Mammoth Life, who is down to the core husband and wife duo of N+E. They sounded fantastic and I’m excited to see where they go from here. The turnout was modest, but everyone was up and dancing. After trying with very little luck to find a Thursday night party, we headed back to the Mammoth Life house for some late night conversation and some comfortable sleep on their many couches. Hopefully we’ll be headed back soon.
