As promised earlier in the week – Beard Rock vid number 2…
Mat Ward sent us the link to the above vid… and he wrote, “The Beards in excellent 80’s rock mode. And a video parodying Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up vid.” Yes indeed, bring it on we say.
Recording news:
Just heard another mix of the next single. Scary. Need to go away for a little & listen in prep for that last round of changes tomorrow. Agonisingly close…
Checkya later,
Fires out.
Sitting in line today at the Chinese consulate waiting for our turn at the visa counter. The place was packed – lunch time crowd… A swing and a miss. Got to the counter, didn’t have the relevant details (they never told us to have said relevant details) and the girl at the counter seemed thrilled that we’d have to come back and do it all again. At least she was happy. Nice way to blow a coupla hours & parking fees for a smiley bureaucratic ‘don’t argue’.
New Release Saga:
Ya know, we’re nearly there: Heard the first mix last night & sent it back for some adjustment. That said, it sounded huge. Dave Carr is a genius (producer). We’ll have to wait a couple of days for the next proof though. Dave’s main computer died yesterday. And thus, he was expressing a desire to smash it into small pieces. All in all, it’s been an expensive recording session on both sides. One dead computer, another one on the way out, a dead hard-drive costing over $2000 to fix, a blown out Marshall head needing complete valve replacement, and we’re not done yet…
Checkya tomorow,
Fires out.
Long live the beard rock…
Mat Ward sent us a link to the video above. There were a couple of videos he drew our attention to – so we’ll feature the 2nd one in another post this week. Ahhh, bring it on we say here at TOF HQ.
Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.
Our good friends The Vagrants played the Hard Rock Cafe, Gold Coast on Wed night – and won the night, making it through to the finals to be held next week. So they’ll be back at the Gold Coast Hard Rock next Thursday for the big one. Go for gold guys – we’re rootin’ for ya.
Renata of The Vagrants – live pic from their Facebook gallery.
Back at TOF HQ:
We’re in preparation to shoot an ‘outrageous’ video for the latest single, due for release on the China tour. Filming starts next week. We fly out to Beijing 3 weeks from Monday.
Have a great weekend.
Fires out.
Max posted this article on our Facebook page yesterday. The ‘Banyule Weekly’ photographer was around last Friday taking shots in our living room during vocal recording (vocal mic in the foreground re the pic below).
Click on the pic above to read the full article, recalling the beginnings of Max’s performance career & the birth of TOF. She talks about a melanoma scare while recording the Betrayer album in LA in 2008, and what inspired her in the beginning to start making music.
Checkya later.
Fires out.
Our friends the mighty Vagrants are playing a show tonight on the Gold Coast at the Hard Rock Cafe. They put out a Facebook message yesterday – if you’re in the area, come on down.
The Vagrants live – pic from their website gallery page.
It’s the Vagrants’ first time on the Gold Coast. The press release on their site says they’ve played the Hard Rock in Berlin 7 times – and now they’re bringing it to the Hard Rock, Surfers Paradise. Hellyeah!
We’ve played a lotta shows with the Vagrants – both locally & overseas and I’ve gotta say, It’s been a while. We seem to be in different locations when the opportunity arises. If you haven’t seen em yet, they’re a great, fun, entertaining band with a big classic rock sound. If you’re hanging out in Brisbane or the Gold Coast, looking for something to do tonight – drop in & say hello.
Checkya later.
Fires out.
Official China tour dates landed this morning. 14 shows starting in Shanghai at the Foreign Studies University on the 19th of April, with festivals in Zhenjiang on 29th April & Beijing on 1st of May. Full tour dates on the poster below – soon to be announced on our Shows page.
Checkya later.
Fires out.
Spent this morning in a recording studio with producer Dave Carr. Put down a lead break for one of the new songs & finished off the recording process. Dave takes the sessions off to mixing this week. Nearly there…
Tom (tour promoter in China) emailed earlier today. We’re doing an interview in a Beijing rehearsal studio for Global Times, an English language newspaper in China, the week before the tour starts (next month).
Just finished laughing at this for the 400th time…
Checkya later,
Fires out
Our promoter in China (This Town Touring) sent this through last night. The first official tour poster featuring the first show at Shanghai Foreign Languages University, 19th April.
Might actually finish recording today for the new release – due out for the China tour.
Ukraine On The Blower:
Had a great chat on the phone last night with Sasha Seminova, our friend & tour manager in Ukraine. It’s been a while since we’ve spoken. I called to say hello & see how the Kiev crew were going these days. We have some great fond memories of touring Ukraine, hanging out with Sasha Seminova (drinking too much vodka) & living with local punk icon, Sasha Pipa, friends & family and cats (and drinking too much vodka). Back in 2008, we were on a tour tour bus with Sasha Pipa & his band Atraktor for an intensive 3 week tour of Ukraine. It all started the year before when we did a show in Kiev with Sasha’s band Borshch. Here’s a classic Borshch video below –
We haven’t toured Ukraine since 2009. We’ll get back there one day (soon we hope)…
Have a great weekend.
Fires out.
TOF’s official photographer, Mat Ward, just sent us a link to the video below. Dresden Doll’s Amanda Palmer gives us her take on the future of music and the music industry. Palmer is currently spending a lot of time performing in Australia – Mat was an official photographer at one of the band’s shows last month.
China Tour News:
Things are hotting up at TOF HQ as the China Tour draws closer (kicks off next month). We’ve started doing interviews to appear in China’s on-line media, with new songs scheduled for release before the tour.
Checkya later,
Fires out.
