Blog General Archive

On this date exactly 5 years ago we released the self-titled album on Roadrunner Records. The album went on to sell over 30,000 copies in the U.S alone and was supported by a big fancy video and several months on touring. Despite it being our only release for Roadrunner I’m sure we all have enough memories from this time in the bands history to last us a lifetime. From recording the album in Nashville with Malcolm Springer to doing a video that was probably a huge waste of money to the last tour date for the album in South Carolina it was all a blast (even though at the time we maybe didn’t appreciate it as much as we should of).

Just thought I’d post this to celebrate one of the many great times in the bands history. I’ll try to do more in the future.

For those of you who are wondering here’s an update on what we’ve been up to:

For the past six months or so our main focus has been writing new music for a future release. As of right now we have six songs together along with several half written songs that will either be made into future classics or shit sandwiches. For our own enjoyment we’ve tentatively titled some of the finished songs after inside jokes (as we usually do) like our song “I made Ripper Cry.” This title comes from an incident on our 2002 tour when Jamie made our tour manager Ripper cry. It’s a longer story then that but if I told you it wouldn’t be an inside joke anymore (plus its not that interesting). If you were at any of our last few shows you may of heard the song as well as “Novelty” which were the first post “Clearing the Channel” songs to be put together. While these two aren’t a very far departure from the past music we’ve assembled, other songs like “Greenlight” go in a bit of a different direction. More then ever before we’ve really been experimenting with looking at the writing process differently. This includes not only rethinking song structure but also the instrumentation in the band. Not all of our “experiments” have worked out but others have. A good example of this would be one of our half written songs where instead of playing guitar Tony plays keyboards. Nothings final yet but if our thought process continues down this path you can certainly expect some new sides of the band to be shown with our next release.

Stay tuned for more news on the writing process as we head into the studio in 2007.

First of all, let me say that there will be very little music on these lists. (Actually none.) 2006 was a pretty bad year for finding new music (for me at least). I’m sure there was some really good stuff put out last year, but I didn’t come across it and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time looking.

Having said that, I am not restricting any of my lists to things that were actually released in 2006. If I saw/heard/read them for the first time in 2006 (or late 2005 in some cases) they are eligible for my list. I make the rules around here and that’s how I’m gonna roll.

With that said, here are my “Best of 2006″ lists (in no particular order). Feel free to add your own or make fun of mine in the comments. I was gonna comment on each thing, but this is already way late as it is. There are a few things that I’ll probably devote an entire post to, but for now here’s the full list. Everything here is highly recommended so check it out if you have the time.

Best Movies/DVDs That I Saw in 2006

• Children of Men
• The Devil and Daniel Johnston
• Idiocracy
• Safe Men
• Munich
• Borat
• Beerfest
• Jackass 2
• District B13
• Art School Confidential
• Lucky Number Slevin
• 11:14
• Gunner Palace
• An Inconvenient Truth
• Downfall
• Thank You For Smoking
• A Scanner Darkly

Best Television That I Saw in 2006

• LOST
• Heroes
• Arrested Development
• The Wire
• Lucky Louie
• Comedians of Comedy
• Iconoclasts
• Dinner for Five

Best Radio/Podcasts That I Heard in 2006

• The Best Show on WFMU
• The Sound of Young America
• The Ricky Gervais Show

Best Video Games That I Played in 2006

• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii/GC)
• Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (PC)
• Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
• Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)
• God of War (PS2)
• Burnout Revenge (PS2)
• Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion (PC/360)
• New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
• Brain Age (DS)
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA)
• Prey (PC)

Best New Food That I Ate in 2006

• Jules Thin Crust Pizza
• Stuffed Olives

Best Web Applications I Used in 2006

• Backpack
• Flickr
• Google Calendar
• Google Reader
• YouTube
• Wordpress 2.0
• CD Baby

Stuff I Wanted in 2006 But Didn’t Get

• Nintendo Wii (Video Game Console)
• Okami (PS2)
• Pan’s Labyrinth (Movie)

Over the years we’ve gotten a ton of requests for guitar tabs of our songs, but seeing as I’ve never really written or read a tab in my life, sadly the requests went unanswered…until now.

This will be the first in a series of tabs I’m going to post here. Keep in mind that this is in no way EXACTLY representative of what I play. It’s really only meant to give you an idea of what’s going on so you can figure it out yourself.

Oh yeah, and I aint’ no YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, or any of these guys below in the video (the guy in red kicks all the other guys asses, btw). ENJOY!!!!

THE POWER OF SUGGESTION - © SINCH 2005

Intro
D__0__0_0_0_0_0_0_0__0_0_0_0_0_0__8___8__8__8__10__10_10_10__
A__0__0_0_5_0_0_5_0__0_0_5_0_0_5__8___8__8__8__10__10_10_10__
D__0__0_0_7_0_0_7_0__0_0_7_0_0_7__8___8__8__8__10__10_10_10__
G________________________________10__10_10_10__12__12_12_12__
B____________________________________________________________
E____________________________________________________________

Verse - Variation 1
D__0__0_0___0___0__0_0___0__8__8_8__8__/10__10_10__________
A__0____________0_________________________________________
D__0____________0_____________________________________10__
G_________7__7_________7__7_______7___7__________10_9_____
B_________________________________________________________
E_________________________________________________________

Verse - Variation 2
D__0__0_0___0________0___0__8__8_8__8__/10__10_10_________
A__0______________________________________________________
D__0______________________________________________________
G_________7__7_h9p7_7__7__7_______7___7__________9_10_____
B______________________________________________________10_
E_________________________________________________________

Verse - Variation 3
D__0___________0__________8__________/10__________________
A__0______________________________________________________
D__0__0______0___0______0___0______0____0_______10________
G__________7__________7__________7_________10_9___________
B_______10_________10_________10__________________________
E_________________________________________________________

Chorus
D__0__0_0_0_0_0_0_0__0_0_0_0_0_0_5__5_5_5__5_5_5h7_7_0_5h7_5_3
A__0__0_0_5_0_0_5_0__0_0_5_0_0_5_5__5_5_5__5_5_5h7_7_0_5h7_5_3
D__0__0_0_7_0_0_7_0__0_0_7_0_0_7______________________________
G_____________________________________________________________
B_____________________________________________________________
E_____________________________________________________________

Bridge - Variation 1
D_0_3_0_5_6___6_5_0_3/5__0_3_0_5_6___6_5_0_3/5_________________
A___________5______________________5__________________________
D____________________________________________________________
G_____________________________________________________________
B_____________________________________________________________
E_____________________________________________________________

Bridge - Variation 2
D_____________________________________________________________
A_0_3_0_5_6___6_5_0_3/5__0_3_0_5_6___6_5_0_3/5_________________
D___________5______________________5__________________________
G_____________________________________________________________
B_____________________________________________________________
E_____________________________________________________________

Bridge - Variation 3
D__0__3_0_5_6___6_0__3_0_5_6___6______________________________
A__0__3_0_5_6_5_6_0__3_0_5_6_5_6______________________________
D_____________________________________________________________
G_____________________________________________________________
B_____________________________________________________________
E_____________________________________________________________

As you may have noticed, I rearranged the sidebar a little bit and added a new section called “Linktown.” It’s basically just a list of links. Pretty simple.

On a daily basis I come across a ton of stuff that I think is worth sharing with everyone, but I never seem to get around to posting it. This makes that process a lot easier. Instead of the sporadic blog posts with a list of random links (that are usually weeks old by the time I get around to posting them), I can throw something up right away with not a whole lot of effort.

My other thought was that if I can’t use random links as an excuse for a blog post, I’ll be forced to actually come up with some real content. I’ve had ideas for what that content could be for a long time. I just haven’t made the time to sit down and write it.

Mostly I was thinking that with all the experiences we’ve had over the past 12 years, we can help other bands avoid some of the mistakes we’ve made as well as share the things that worked. And I’m sure there are people out there who’d had similar experiences and can teach us a thing or two. Whether or not they read this blog remains to be seen (at this point, probably not).

We’re certainly not music industry experts, but we have been through a lot over the years and what we’ve learned might be useful to you if you’re in a band, thinking about starting one or even just trying to get into the industry in some other way (management, promotion, etc.)

I also thought some people might be interested in getting a more “day-to-day” look at what we’ve been doing for the last few years. Sometimes I’m not really sure what it is exactly that we’re doing, but we can certainly take a shot at explaining it here and see if you find it interesting.

If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see us talk about or otherwise “get into”, feel free to comment.

P.S. - Shh. Don’t tell anyone.

OK, so this supposed onslaught of blogging that I promised has produced a whopping 3 new posts in the past couple weeks. Not exactly something you would describe as an “o-Rama” type of situation. “Blog-o-Slightly-More-Frequently-Than-Usual” would be more accurate.

As far as I can tell only like 5 people read this anyway, so I doubt there was a huge wave of disappointment rippling its way through the “blogosphere” when I failed to live up to that promise. If I’m wrong, please let me know. I’d be way more motivated to post new stuff if there was more of a response when I did. I do appreciate those of you who do comment, though, so keep it up if you’re enjoying the blog. Hopefully, something I post will incite a comment riot and we’ll all be better people for it.

In the meantime, (as I finally get to the god damned point) I thought it might be interesting to list some of the sites/blogs I read on a daily basis. If I’m not getting something done, these sites are most likely to blame. All of them have RSS feeds that I subscribe to with Bloglines.

» Digg
Back when there was a channel called TechTV, I used to watch this show called The Screen Savers. In one episode the host at the time, Kevin Rose, mentioned a new site he was working on called Digg. It was supposedly similar to Slashdot, which I was reading on a daily basis, so I checked it out. It was pretty minimal at the time, but seemed like a cool idea. Instead of having the people who run the site pick the news stories that get published, they let the users of the site do it themselves.

Since then Digg has become one of the most influential “social” news sites on the web. Appearing on the front page even for just 30 minutes can send 10s of thousands of people to your site, which more often than not will be crushed under the weight of the incoming traffic.

The main focus is on “tech” related news stories, but they’ve since brached out into other areas like entertainment, sports and world news.

» Boing Boing
One of the most (if not the most) popular blogs on the planet, it’s maintained by Cory Doctorow (author, activist, public speaker), Xeni Jardin (WIRED magazine), and some other people with impressive resumes who still somehow have time to post to their blog all day, every day.

» Signal vs. Noise
A design and usuability blog by 37 Signals, the creators of incredibly simple, yet useful products like Basecamp, Backpack and Writeboard.

» Coolfer
A New York City based blog about music and the music industry.

» Kottke.org
The weblog of Jason Kottke. Or as he puts it: “My wunderkammer. Wunderkammer is a German word meaning, roughly, ‘cabinet of wonders’ or ‘cabinet of curiousities’.” Another one of the most widely read blogs around. Generally there’s some really good stuff here, although not updated as frequently as some others.

» 43 Folders
A blog about personal productivity, focusing on the “Getting Things Done” methods of organization. I seem to have adopted the “Not Getting Things Done” method, although if I follow some of his advice, I might be able to turn things around.

» A List Apart
Explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices. If you make websites, you should be reading this site. Conveniently, the latest article is perfect for those who are new to ALA - The ALA Primer: A Guide for New Readers

» Apartment Therapy
A blog about apartment living. Even if you live in a house, a garage or even an underground missle silo, you’ll probably find something useful here.

» Copyranter
An advertising copywriter who apparently hates everything. Watch as he tears into all your favorite (and probably not so favorite) ad campaigns.

» Ars Technica
Tech news, product reviews and forums.

» Aurgasm
“Aurgasm brings to you an eclectic menagerie of aural pleasures. I scout out music you’ve never heard and deliver only the finest. Expect music curiously different, yet simply enjoyable.”

» Mike Davidson
Personal blog of the CEO of Newsvine.

» Bob Donlon’s Digital Video Blog
Not the catchiest of titles, but if you do any work with Adobe Premiere or After Effects there’s some good stuff here.

» Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools
“Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. I am chiefly interested in stuff that is extraordinary, better than similar products, little-known, and reliably useful for an individual or small group.”

» IndieHQ
A forum for bands, record labels and everyone else who is interested in independent music.

» Cool Hunting
Cool Hunting: finding things in the intersection of design, culture and technology that excite the imagination and inspire creativity.

» Giantmonster
One of the more random blogs I subscribe too. There doesn’t seem to be an overarching theme to the kinds of stuff they post… it’s all usually pretty weird though.

» FlickrBlog
The companion blog to Flickr, almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.

» Idolatr
“When the internet came, we overthrew the pasty white tastemakers, the duplicitious music marketers and the manufactured pop idols. And then they all came back. This is Idolator. We’re so disappointed.”

» Michael Showalter’s Web Log
Do you know who Michael Showalter is? If you do, check out his “web log”. You’ll like it. If you don’t… well, you probably do, you just don’t know it. Most recently you may have seen him on the Comedy Central show Stella. That’s pretty unlikely though, since (apparently) not a lot of people watched that show. You might also know him from underappreciated films like Wet Hot American Summer and The Baxter. And if all else fails, you probably know him from the MTV show The State that aired for a couple years back in the early 90’s.

I’ll just stop there for now. That’s only a small part of my ridiculous list, but it’s mostly the good ones.

What sites do you check on a daily basis?

More random bookmarks:

»50 ways to become a better designer

»King’s Quest III Remake. The classic PC game remade with more modern graphics and sound. Available for free download!

»700 Hobos. In the beginning, there were hoboes. Then, a notable non-historian wrote some lies about them in his wonderful and wholly inaccurate almanac. That man was John Hodgman. The book was The Areas of My Expertise. Amongst the lies was a comprehensive list of notable historical hobo names, numbering 700. After Hodgman read the list into a music flattening device, one Mr. Mark Frauenfelder of the Boing Boing teletyped a suggestion that 700 cartoonists volunteer to draw one hobo each as a public service or for no particular reason. And so it was, more or less, and here they are.

»Newshutch. It’s like a bag hutch. Except it’s for news.

»Gay Sausage. One of many amazing illustrations this guy does with “biro” pens. Apparently, that’s what the British call “ballpoint pens.” Whatever you call them, the stuff he does with them is pretty amazing.

Just to get a bunch of stuff out of the way, here’s some random links that don’t require much explanation:

» Akaine is mostly likely more talented than you. And she’s only 12 years old.

» Urban Counterfeiters. Companies like Urban Outfitters and H&M are stealing designs from independent artists and designers. Fuck that shit.

» Super-long and awesome interview with Louis C.K., stand-up comedian and star/creator of the new HBO show Lucky Louie. If you haven’t seen the show, definitely check it out.

» HEAD-ON! Apply directly to the forehead! Yeah. What the fuck is right. If you think about it though this commerical is genius. Interesting analysis here.

» It/ll Be Better Tomorrow. Documentary about the late Hubert Selby, Jr., author of “Requiem for a Dream“, “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and some other books that I haven’t read yet. View the trailer here.

» Love him or hate him (or just think he’s OK), Dane Cook is probably the most popular comedian in America right now. As this Wired article points out, it’s all about connecting with the fans. And he certainly knows how to do it.

» Sensitive Floor. An interactive video projection that reacts to the way people walk on it.

» Free Spirit Spheres. The sweetest treehouses ever. If I was gonna get a treehouse (and I just might do that someday), I’d have to go with one of these.

» Lords of the Ring. Short Film about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. If you’re not a complete dork like me you can probably skip this one. Some of you might recognize the name CERN from the book Angels and Demons. Yes, it’s the same one.

Let’s face it: blogs are everywhere. Everyone and their grandmother has one. Since we’ve started this thing back up, posts have been few and far between. And most of them are just the podcast posts.

The plan has always been to keep this thing updated on a daily basis and give our fans a reason to come back to the site every day, and hopefully give everyone something to talk about. Obviously that hasn’t happened yet. I don’t want to promise anything because we all know where that leads, but for at least the next couple weeks we’ll be posting a little more frequently. Well, I will at least.

I’ve been bookmarking stuff like crazy over the past few months, with the intention of posting about it all here. A lot of it is probably stuff that you’ve seen already, if you’re the kind of person who’s always seeing the newest thing to make the rounds of the popular blogs and sites like Digg.com. But I took the time to save all of it, so I’m gonna post about it anyway. At some point hopefully I’ll get caught up and I’ll actually be posting about new stuff. We’ll see how it goes.

As with everything else we do, we love to get feedback. So if you’re a “regular” reader of the blog and you appreciate the more frequent posting, leave a comment and let us know.