So I’ve been in a local band for years now, and we finally released our first full length album this year.  I just put it online this week, so for those of you that enjoy seeking out new bands and tunes, check it out:

www.cornbeltchorus.bandcamp.com

If I have to pick a favorite track, I’d pick ‘go home,’ followed by ‘wishing well.’  But I’m really proud of the whole album.  The band is comprised of some of the best talent in Springfield, MO and I’ve always been proud to play alongside them all these years.  I’ll put a pic of the liner notes so you know of whom I speak.

Cheer up yer ears!  -TG

Hi friends.  We’re halfway through our Odd Soul 2012 tour and are taking a much needed week off to re-calibrate our machines and our muscles.  For the more animated ones (Darren, Paul, Darien “Disco Ball” Koop) it may require more than just a week, but that’s all we’re alloted this time.

The production rehearsals were really exciting pre-tour.  For many of us involved, it was our first time seeing any 3d video mapping, let alone so close-up and on such a big structure.  The technology is simply mesmerizing.  Most aspects of this tour have been well documented, so I’d be hard pressed to tell you about anything you couldn’t find on your own, but just in case- there’s a great behind the scenes video here that gives credit where it’s due.

As for the actual shows and touring, they’ve been exhilarating to say the least.  The crowds, night after night, have brought such an infectious energy to the venues, that it starts to feel like we can do no wrong.  A great example happened just in our most recent show in Minneapolis at First Ave, where only the third song into the set and around the second verse (of Blood Pressure) we lost power to the majority of the amplification, but more importantly to Paul’s mic.  So, still having our personal amps on, and of course the drums, we just kept playing through the song anyway and the crowd cranked up their collective vocal chords and sung the rest of the song for us- probably as loud as I’ve heard a crowd that size get for just impromptu singing.

Other mishaps inevitably have happened, like: the rhodes collapsing shortly after Paul stood on it, Darren stabbing himself in the eye with a broken drumstick (yes, accidentally), knobs of pedals breaking right off in my fingers, calling B3 repairmen every four days, and the temporary failure of just about every piece of gear at least once, and of each facet of the drums- at least three times.  Actually I was recently thinking to myself that it often feels like we’re professional troubleshooters first, and musicians second.  That being said, we’d be seriously screwed without our invaluable crew, who I’ve mentioned before.  Because even if we can diagnose the issue, they are usually the ones with the know-how and tools to actually fix said problem.  They are forever watching over us: (proof)…

Yes that’s right, that is Mr. Nate Lampa looming in the kick drum reflection.

Overall, I think most, if not all of us are having some of our favorite tour experiences to date this past month.  Of course it’s many different areas that can lead to this satisfaction, but ultimately it always comes down to the music.  This latest grouping of songs, which includes every track from Odd Soul, is consistently just really fun to play.

That’s about all I feel like recapping at the moment, but I’ll leave you with some of my favorite photos from the tour, which include much confetti, phantom drumsticks, honey i shrunk the Meany, and lots of jumping.  I just found most of these online, so thanks to all the great photographers out there.  And if you want even more behind the scenes pics, feel free to follow me on instagram under the name ‘grandepic’.

thanks for reading

-Gman

I recently finished a kids album called The LMNOPs, and you should ALL buy several copies for you and your loved ones.  Even if it won’t arrive in time for Christmas, you can buy the digital copy, and just promise the kids that the physical copy is coming in the mail.  Check out the whole album here: http://thelmnops.bandcamp.com/

OR at the very least, you can check out our first music video on vimeo or youtube:

The Alphabet Song by The LMNOPs

I had a really great time making the tunes with Zach, lead singer of Cornbelt Chorus, which is a local band I’ve been in for years.  He writes and sings most of the material, and I arrange and play most of the music on it.  My awesome artistic wife Laura made all the visuals for the artwork.  We have more songs on the way, so if you dig it, you can expect more in the future.  Also a big thanks to Brandon Goodwin for making the video for us- he’s done several MM vids among tons of other awesome videos.

Merry Christmas from The LMNOPs!

Both Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Leno were very pleasant hosts to us, as were all the staffers.  I can’t really pick a favorite experience though, because on Kimmel you get the huge outdoor stage, with a real live standing crowd, and then on Leno we all got our pictures with Miss Piggy!  So, I guess we’ll call it a draw.

-Tag

Other positives?  I learned how valuable our awesome crew is.  Totally saving us from danger, harm, embarrassment and any other pitfalls lurking at shows.  Seriously, they really are amazing at what they do and we couldn’t function the same without them.  The seductive hammond from the 1940s really tried hard to kill Paul, and me as well, numerous times through strong electric currents which feel like lightning bolts and leave you painfully confused and bewildered.  Between Nate taping up all metal on the organ, and specialists in several towns working on it, we eventually minimized the danger.

And I had ample time to learn the basics of my first iphone this tour, which will hopefully allow me to be able to blog a little more often.  In the meantime for those of you that are hooked on Instagram, feel free to follow me (grandepic) since many of my posts are often band related.  But I’ll still put a few pics here for kicks.  My favorite detail is from the Rolling Stone Japan shoot, where the writers didn’t even attempt my last name.  Or maybe in that country I’m just known simply as “Todd.”

So I thought I’d upload another Gman track for folks to soak up.  This is probably my favorite instrumental I’ve made to date and definitely my favorite one to play live.  There’s actually a pretty decent live video of this one from a show back round about ’06 or so.  You can find it if you can figure out how to navigate myspace since the 4 years since you logged in last.

It’s entertaining when I think about the crazy stuff I attempt to add into tracks all the time.  I remember adding to the intro a voicemail that a friend left me and all I could hear was just crazy strong wind gusts happening.  So listen for that.  Not as easy to hear as something like in my track ‘passe’ where I inserted a nextel two-way walkie talkie sound byte as the whole intro.  Anyone remember that feature?

Enjoy!

-Todd

My first music video with the band is finally out and about and all over MTV and such, and we’re quite proud of it.  Darren and I were both bleeding at different times of the shoot.  Apparently that’s a requirement for all Mutemath videos- someone’s gotta try something crazy enough to draw blood.  I believe we’re putting out a making of/blooper reel which should be really entertaining as well.  Anyway, here’s the link and I hope you enjoy.   -todd

This one/two combo below makes me want to ask you to insert your own captions.  I just can’t believe I acutally made this face at all:

We’ve never tried to have a staring contest during a live show, but It’d be a challenging game I’m sure.  And then this next one (also from the Mercury Lounge NY show just looks like the rhythm section is just screwin around in soundcheck or something, but it’s actually during the show:

And here’s a funny one as well.  You might have to look carefully…

The light spot is just in a very strange area- like maybe I was playing with my fly down and they had to blur it out.

So since I just now figured out an easy way to make animated gifs, I’m gonna do one more.  Here’s a warning to parents what can happen to your cute little toddlers if you aren’t careful:

I’ll end with this super cute drawing a Japanese fan made of us.  Feel free to post your own funny pics if you come across any.

“Uhhhhhh, yeah…..sure. I could probably do that.”

It’s been seriously hectic these first few weeks as new guitar guy. And it’s not even like we’re playing shows every night, but somehow I’ve still found myself exhausted numerous times. These are some highlights (with some illustrations):
—Toward end of practices- accidentally fell face down in a rainy, puddle-ridden gravel lot (cuts and bruises)—- darren and roy said it looked like a penguin dive.
—Tulsa storm destroys our stage as we’re starting show (which I posted earlier)
—Amazing first shows in Tokyo/Osaka @ Summer Sonic

—Did some deep thinking here…

—Ate the most painful ramen noodles (click the pic bigger)…

—Time travelled back to the U.S. (left right after eating lunch in Japan, arrived 12 hours later to L.A. just in time to eat lunch on the same day)
—Played to a slammin crowd @ The Troubadour…..(while Paul BLEW my mind on the rhodes)

—Got pizza on hollywood blvd, and while carrying leftovers back to hotel, had THREE completely separate guys on different blocks ask me if they could have a slice. The last guy offered to rap freestyle for a slice. SOMEONE please order that street some pizzas!! Hollywood Blvd is hungry…
—Stayed up outside all night shooting a music video for blood pressure- until the sun actually came up- which you’ll prob notice in the video when it’s released.
—While sprinting back and forth in said music video shoot- tried sprinting backwards while holding my guitar and proceeded to fall, completely laid out, backwards onto the pavement right in front of Paul and the main camera, which was still rolling. I held the guitar up in the air the whole fall, and kept the it and my precious noggin from hitting the ground. Popped right back up, and did some more sprints. What’s a few bloody cuts and a sprained wrist in exchange for a sweet music vid?
—Rocked with a really fun audience at the lovely Saenger Theatre in Mobile, AL. Then this happened….

If you can’t tell- I got on my knees to get to his level, and he promptly one-upped me by dropping to HIS knees. Touche little man. And +1up for the stylish ear protection.
—Got to come home for a day and a half break to relax, and write this, and now it’s off to the Mercury Lounge in NY. Really looking forward to playing more shows, and trying to get hurt less often. I hope this post finds you well and in a pleasant surfing mood. Thanks for reading,

Todd

Schweeeet

So this has been brewing for many months now, but I’m proud to say that I’m officially the new guitarist for MUTEMATH.  It’s an awesome time to join them, for many reasons of course, but especially because their newest album, Odd Soul, is some of my favorite stuff they’ve done to date.  And it kicks all kinds of tail, all over the record.  We’ve rehearsed for several weeks now, and the new songs have an incredible energy live.

My first show (and their first show with the new material) was supposed to be in Tulsa, Ok for a festival with The Flaming lips just a few days ago, but right before we finished our soundcheck, literally just a few minutes before we kicked it off, a crazy thunder/hail/sideways rain/g-force wind storm sprung up on us and pretty much destroyed the stage, along with a bunch of The Flaming Lips gear, including a massive video/lighting rig (which crushed a fence as it fell).  There are several vivid videos on youtube documenting the crazy….
Us setting up while the roof blows away:

—-that huge metal tower to my right completely blew over just a few mintues after this video was shot- i was right next to it.

And then this (skip to 2:00):

Needless to say the show was cancelled.

So instead my first show with them looks to be in Tokyo/Osaka, Japan for the Summer Sonic festival in just a few days.  The rest of the band has been there a handful of times already, but it’s my first time visiting Japan, so I’ve got a lot of newness to take in over the next week.

I’m honored to be playing with them though, and I’ve been beyond impressed by their musical prowess.  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of fun updates for you in the near future.  For now, here’s a picture of our recent practice space, and one of me getting a little too hyped up and destroying one of darren’s drums.

Stay tuned.