Texas USA
Centro-matic’s new album Candidate Waltz will be released on June 21.
We have 500 CDs and 175 LPs set aside for pre-orders. CDs and LPs will be shipped to arrive on or before the release date.
The first video features Will Johnson creating the huge painting that became the album cover art. The video was conceived and created by Christian Helms, Mike Woolf and Andrew Yates at Helms Studio and edited by Brandon Thomas Beef & Pie in Austin, TX.
Greetings from the banks of Burn Ban River. This drought won’t seem to stop, and I hope all recipients here are safe and well.
LIVING ROOM TREK SPRING 2011
The pickup truck will soon be loaded, and I’m gonna head out on another acoustic living room show joint. So far these shows have been a pretty fun experience. If you are hosting and I actually get there early, I will probably hang out in your kitchen, (maybe) stealing ideas for paint colors and home decor. I try not to look at all the pictures on your refrigerator. That is none of my business. Anyway, these shows tend to break down many of the barriers we often encounter in public venues, putting everyone on some serious neutral, residential turf. The floor is open for discussion, questions, complaints, etc., and I’ve found the architecture and lighting can define a good deal of the situation.
Wed. 5/4 – San Marcos TX
Thurs. 5/5 – Sealy TX (45 minutes west of Houston)
Fri 5/6 – Dallas TX – SOLD OUT
Sat. 5/7 – Little Rock AR
Sun. 5/8 – Fayetteville AR
Mon. 5/9 – Springfield MO
Tues. 5/10 – Saint Louis, MO
Wed. 5/11 – Chicago IL – SOLD OUT
Thurs. 5/12 – Milwaukee WI
Fri. 5/13 – Madison WI
Sat. 5/14 – Minneapolis MN
Mon. 5/16 – Kansas City KS
LITTLE RAIDER EP
I will have a new solo EP available on this trip, and available online through Undertow soon. I went to my friend Jim Eno’s house for two days back in February, and we set up shop in his living room with some great mics, various guitars, and his wall piano. We got six songs tracked and mixed in that time. Jim mixed it, Matt Pence mastered, and Dan Grissom/Sanctuary Print Shop has done the excellent letter-pressed sleeves. Track list:
Little Raider
To Coupland Lines
One More Dreamer For The Summer
To Place Me On A Stone
Tangle For The Less
Devil On The Interstate Line
NEW CENTRO-MATIC SHOWS
We’ll be heading out in June on our first full band tour in some time in full support of our new record, Candidate Waltz. Pre-orders begin May 24th, and the record will be released on vinyl, cd, and digitally on June 21st. Tour dates are here:
Wednesday 06/22 – Grimey’s Records @ 6pm
Wednesday 06/22 – The Basement – Nashville, TN
Thursday 06/23 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA
Friday 06/24 – Athfest – (in front of the) 40 Watt Club – Athens, GA
Saturday 06/25 – Local 506 – Chapel Hill, NC
Sunday 06/26 – DC9 – Washington DC
Tuesday 06/28 – North Star Bar – Philadelphia, PA
Wednesday 06/29 – Great Scott – Cambridge, MA
Thursday 06/30 – The Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
Friday 07/01 – Mohawk Place – Buffalo, NY
Saturday 07/02 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
Sunday 07/03 – Schubas – Chicago, IL
Tuesday 07/05 – Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
Thursday 07/07 – Dan’s Silverleaf – Denton, TX
Friday 07/08 – Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX
Saturday 07/09 – Cactus Records @ 1pm
Sunday 07/10 – Waterloo Records @ 5pm
Sunday 07/10 – The Mohawk – Austin, TX
24 FREE SONGS
People often ask what Centro-matic or South San Gabriel album to start with. There’s no easy answer to this, so we are giving away a couple of songs from each album spanning the band’s 15 years of making music together. Look in the right sidebar for the download link. Please share this with your friends who might not know about Centro-matic or South San Gabriel.
Thanks as always. Maybe see you on the road. -Will J.
These are totally acoustic shows (no sound system) hosted by fans in their living rooms. We’ll only have 30-40 tickets available for each show.
Wed. 5/4 – San Marcos TX
Thurs. 5/5 – Sealy TX (45 minutes west of Houston)
Fri 5/6 – Dallas TX
Sat. 5/7 – Little Rock AR
Sun. 5/8 – Fayetteville AR
Mon. 5/9 – Springfield MO
Tues. 5/10 – Saint Louis, MO
Wed. 5/11 – Chicago IL
Thurs. 5/12 – Milwaukee WI
Fri. 5/13 – Madison WI
Sat. 5/14 – Minneapolis MN
Mon. 5/16 – Kansas City KS
This summer we’ll be headed out on our first USA tour in a couple of years. We’re real excited to get back on the road and looking forward to seeing old friends and visiting some of our favorite towns. We might even have time to see a baseball game somewhere.
The always amazing Sarah Jaffe will be with us on all the shows and we are joining our old friend, David Bazan for the show in Chapel Hill.
Wednesday 06/22 – The Basement – Nashville, TN
Thursday 06/23 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA
Friday 06/24 – Athfest – (in front of the) 40 Watt Club – Athens, GA
Saturday 06/25 – Local 506 – Chapel Hill, NC
Sunday 06/26 – DC9 – Washington DC
Tuesday 06/28 – North Star Bar – Philadelphia, PA
Wednesday 06/29 – Great Scott – Cambridge, MA
Thursday 06/30 – The Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
Friday 07/01 – Mohawk Place – Buffalo, NY
Saturday 07/02 – Cleveland Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
Sunday 07/03 – Schubas – Chicago, IL
Tuesday 07/05Â – Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
Thursday 07/07 – Dan’s Silverleaf – Denton, TX
Friday 07/08 – Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX
Saturday 07/09 – Ghost Room – Austin, TX
All shows with Sarah Jaffe
6/25 with Sarah Jaffe and David Bazan
Centro-matic’s 10th full length offering is mixed, mastered, and scheduled for release on June 21. Our friend Scott Solter helped us out with these recordings, and we have Christian Helms and Erick Montes (helmsworkshop.com) along for the art direction and layout. It’s taken a little bit to assemble, but we are extremely proud of this record.
Track listing:
Against The Line
All The Talkers
Iso-Residue
Estimate x 3
Only In My Double Mind
Solid States
Shadow, Follow Me
Mercedes Blast
If They Talk You Down
We’ll be starting pre-orders for CDs, Vinyl and limited edition T-shirt packages on May 24th.
Will Johnson will embark on a short run of living room shows in May. This will be a totally acoustic (no sound system) tour hosted by fans in their homes. Limited to only 30-40 tickets per show.
We need your help! We are looking for people to host shows on these dates in or near these cities.
Tues. 5/3 – Austin TX
Wed. 5/4 – Somewhere, Texas?
Thurs. 5/5 – Houston TX
Fri 5/6 – Dallas TX
Sat. 5/7 – Little Rock AR
Sun. 5/8 – Memphis TN
Mon. 5/9 – Saint Louis, MO
Tues. 5/10 – Chicago IL
Wed. 5/11 – Milwaukee WI
Thurs. 5/12 – Madison WI
Fri. 5/13 – Minneapolis MN
Sat. 5/14 – Omaha NE
Sun. 5/15 – Kansas City
Mon. 5/16 – Springfield, MO
Tue. 5/17 – Tulsa or Oklahoma City OK
Please get in touch if you want to host a show. We’ll make this as easy as possible for the hosts. All you have to do is let us borrow your living room for a couple of hours and in return you’ll get 6 free tickets for friends and our eternal gratitude.
Here’s how it works.
1. You have a house or loft space that can comfortably and safely host 30-40 people. A place with a big living room, finished basement or other indoor residential space would be ideal. There would need to be enough parking nearby and your neighbors should be cool. It would be a huge bummer if someone called the cops because of all the extra cars and people coming to your house. You probably should not do this if you live in a small apartment with a bunch of uptight neighbors or a cranky landlord.
2. The shows will not be open to the public and no tickets will be sold at the door. We will pre-sell a set number of tickets for each show on our website before the show. Be realistic on how many people your place can hold. We need to know how many tickets we can sell in advance. Ticket prices will be $15 for single shows, $30 for package shows.
3. We will provide you with a detailed list of everyone who will be coming to the show. This way the host won’t have to deal with money and will only need to check people off the list as they arrive.
4. The host can have 6 free tickets for the show. If you have other friends who want to come to the show you can direct them to the link to buy tickets on-line.
5. The shows usually start at around 8pm. We’ll ask people to arrive around 7:30pm. It should be over by around 9:30pm. We’ll make it clear to everyone that they should be out of your house by 10pm.
7. You don’t need to provide any sort of sound system. All you need is a couple of chairs for Will and Anders to sit on while playing. A small coffee table with a lamp or a floor lamp would be cool too.
8. Your home address will not be published on the web and only given to those people who purchase tickets.
9. The shows will not be promoted or advertised anywhere except our websites.
After reading all of this and you are interested please send an e-mail to: bob@undertowmusic.com and adam@undertowmusic.com
Please include a photo of the space where you would like to have the show and put “Will Johnson House Show†and the city where you live in the subject line of the e-mail.
We’ll review all requests. Once we have a routing figured out we’ll be in touch with people in the towns we are able to work into the schedule.
Thank you for your interest and support.
Bob
Matt and I will have our second group exhibition on Thursday night, March 24th at Meme Gallery, attached to Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in beautiful Denton, Texas. In the spirit of the late, great Good/Bad Art Collective, this show will be one night only. Matt will be exhibiting his always-stunning photography, this time centering predominantly on the making of Centro-matic’s upcoming album, Candidate Waltz. I will be showing a bunch of new baseball art I’ve conjured over the winter, mostly 1970’s players this go around.
There will be some original work for sale, plus limited edition, signed/numbered Roberto Clemente and Dock Ellis prints fresh from the East Austin press of Satch Grimsley. There will also be t-shirts to commemorate thanks to Pan Ector.
There’s a real fantastic bill later that night in the venue that includes RTB2, On After Dark, and Brent Best (Slobberbone, The Drams). The whole event runs from 9pm-2am, with music starting at 10:30. Cover for the whole evening will be $1 for over 21, and $3 for under 21. So… we got a good night in front of us. Stop down and ingest some photography, paintings, great music, Economy Beers and old school Denton socializing.
– Will J.
Thu, March 31 : Barcelona @ Sidecar / A Quemarropa
Fri, April 01 :Â Madrid @ Circulo de Bellas Artes
Sat, April 02 : A Coruña @ Mardigras
Check your local listings and tune in to PBS on in Saturday January 8th. Get your friends together, have a TV party for this jam. The kind folks at ACL gave the Monsters the full hour. More info at: www.austincitylimits.org.
Photo by Kyle Johnson