The Jaguar Club: The Band, The Blog

Medals - Album and Tour

2011-03-24T11:22:00.004-04:00

Hello JC fans!

Medals (Yoi, myself, and our friend Nadia) have an album coming out on Tuesday called 'Dancing In Ceremony.' Yoi and I recorded the album mostly ourselves in Brooklyn over the summer and fall and we're very excited to finally get it out there! It'll be on Itunes and Amazon and all that stuff and we'll have physical discs to sell you ourselves. Purchase links to come...

In the meantime you can get the single 'Turn To Gold' and an exclusive B-side for free on our bandcamp page.

Medals have also started playing a few shows around - thank you to all who have come out to see us so far! - and will be playing a bunch more throughout the spring. The first tour kicks off on April 3rd in New York City at Mercury Lounge - Tickets - and then heads west and south. No word yet on if we'll be reviving the old JC tradition of food blogging, have to do something to stay sane out there but maybe it's time for a new gimmick?

April 3rd - New York NY - Mercury Lounge
April 6th - Chicago IL - Quencher's
April 7th - Atlanta GA - Wonder Root
April 8th - Chapel Hill NC - Nightlight
April 9th - Washington DC - Velvet Lounge
April 10th - Philadelphia PA - The M Room

Hope we see you out there!

Also, in related news, Mr Gavin Dunaway's band Libel have a newish EP out here. Go big G.

Medals

2010-11-30T09:35:00.002-05:00

Hello there.

Yoi and Will (that's me) have finished an album together under the new band name Medals. Still working out assorted details of how to release it and how to do it justice in a live setting, but we're really excited about it. Can't wait to start playing some shows!

You can hear a handful of songs on our semi-functional new site here

See you soon!

Goodbye --- 2 FINAL SHOWS!!

2010-09-24T11:39:00.003-04:00

The Jaguar Club have decided to throw in the towel after 5 years together. For several reasons this was just the right time to move on to new things. Huge thank yous to everyone who ever came to see us play, enjoyed our records, or championed our band. We really do appreciate the support over the years and we had a hell of a time!

The music that was being recorded by Will and Yoi as a new JC album will instead be released under a new name sometime early next year, which is fitting as it is a bit of a sonic departure from The Jaguar Club. We were actually just in the studio mixing half of it this week and it's sounding fantastic! We'll keep you all updated on that via this site until new digs can be arranged.

In the meantime we are playing two final shows as The Jaguar Club: one in our actual hometown of Brooklyn NY (which is tomorrow night!! sorry for the late notice) and another in Washington DC, which is a place that we have visited so often as a band it has sometimes felt like a 2nd home.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 25th
BRUAR FALLS in WILLIAMSBURG BROOKLYN
245 GRAND STREET between DRIGGS AV and ROEBLING ST
$7, 8pm Doors, 9pm show, JC on at 10.
With our buds Telltale and Spanish Prisoners.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 9TH
THE BLACK CAT (mainstage) in WASHINGTON DC
1811 14th St. NW WDC 20009
$10, 9pm show, JC at 9pm sharp
Opening up for Casper Bangs and Ra Ra Rasputin

Hope to see you at one of these last shows. They should be fun. Thanks for a lovely time!!!

-The JC

Working Title... Turn To Gold

2010-09-09T16:36:00.003-04:00

Here's another taste of some of the new stuff.... like the last one, this is a very rough mix that we did quickly ourselves. But it should give you the idea!

If you live in New York perhaps we'll see you this Sunday night at Mercury Lounge!

Mercury Lounge - Sept 12th

2010-09-01T11:55:00.003-04:00

A big thanks to everyone who came out to the show on Saturday!

Our next show is a biggie at Mercury Lounge on Sunday the 12th of September. We'll be test driving a few more new songs from the next record, which we can't wait to hear pumping through Mercury's lovely sound system. See you then!

Working title.... "Bruce"

2010-08-23T21:40:00.002-04:00

For anyone who's interested in what we've been up to lately, here's a very rough mix of a new song we thought you might like to hear. Enjoy!

... and remember if you're in the NYC area - we're playing at Union Hall on Saturday night. See you then!

Hard-Earned Band Photo

2010-08-15T23:39:00.001-04:00

Cyclone from The Jaguar Club on Vimeo.

August 28th at Union Hall

2010-08-11T15:46:00.004-04:00

GET TICKETS

Howdy People

2010-08-09T13:37:00.004-04:00

How're things??

We've been beating the summer heat by hanging out in a dark, windowless, surprisingly cool basement... kind of like recording an album in a wine cellar except it's stocked with bud light. It's been going better than we ever imagined and we're really enjoying captaining the boat ourselves this time around. With a little luck it'll be out this fall and we're hoping to have some samples and things for you to listen to up in the next week or two so keep you eyes here. We're keeping our eyes on the prize.

Here's a live video our main man Manny from Coyote Eyes made of us playing Blood Pressure sometime over the winter. Thanks Manny! Looks sweet.

We're also going to be headlining a pretty amazing bill at Union Hall here in Brooklyn on Saturday August 28th. Our good friends The Cloud Room, Vita Ruins, and Gold Streets are playing so come early!! Doors at 8pm. You can get advanced $8 tickets here which might be a good idea.

We love you!

It Begins...

2010-07-14T23:06:00.003-04:00

Hello. We're pleased to say that as of last night recording is officially underway on our 2nd full-length album. Maneuvers have begun in our own makeshift "studio" and will be continuing there and in a few other place over the next 2 months or so. We're pretty jazzed about it and the new songs are shaping up to be the best stuff we've ever done. We still need a name for our studio, so please address and suggestions to this site. We did manage to name our new hard drive 'VibeTron One Million' so we can feel good about that.

Here is some photographic evidence.

And in case you though Yoi was just using the computer to watch the new Star Trek movie with the commentary for the 15th time, here is a close up. I played the brown track.

Also, we'll be performing as a trio for the first time in over a year this Saturday night (July 17th)at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg. It's an early show and we're on around 8:30, so come by and help me sweep the cobwebs off my guitar playing.

Come Join Us at Bushwick Open Studios Weekend at Fort Useless!

2010-05-30T03:28:00.003-04:00

So we'll be performing at Fort Useless this saturday, June 5th, as part of their Bushwick Open Studios Weekend.

We're psyched to be playing with a bunch of great Brooklyn bands we are friends with. It should be a good showcase of up-and-coming bands that you can say you heard before anyone else. Sweet.

Oh, and we just might play a new song or two, if you're lucky. Or if we can get our act together and figure out how to perform them live. So many synths to worry about, you know. It's a different world out there.

Would love to see you all there!

Fort Useless

Street:	36 Ditmars Street
City/Town:	Brooklyn, NY
	View Map

SATURDAY, JUNE 5TH

4pm - Jonathan Pilkington Kahnt --- http://myspace.com/simpletonsings
5pm - Holy Moly --- http://myspace.com/holymolysongs
6pm - She Keeps Bees --- http://myspace.com/shekeepsbees
7pm - Gold Streets --- http://myspace.com/goldstreets
8pm – Pet Ghost Project --- http://myspace.com/petghostproject
9pm – Coyote Eyes --- http://myspace.com/coyoteeyesnyc
10pm – Quiet Loudly --- http://myspace.com/quietloudly
11pm – The Jaguar Club --- http://myspace.com/thejaguarclub

Street Date Session and other news

2010-05-11T00:47:00.003-04:00

Hello hello!!

Back in February we trudged into midtown through a blizzard to record a set at CBS for the good folks at Street Date. It was in the studio that the Howard Stern show used to broadcast from apparently and had a huge window with a pretty damn lovely view of the snow falling on some skyscrapers. We did 4 songs off the last album, specially re-arranged for acoustic guitar, casio, and drums played with hands. Thanks to Matt and everyone for having us come by! Check it out.

Sorry to be a little out of touch. We've actually been very busy getting a fresh batch of songs together so we can record a new album sometime this summer. We'll try to post some demos and things soon and we'll also be playing a few shows this summer so check back soon.

-the JC

This blog has moved

2010-04-28T23:17:00.001-04:00

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April Third Two Thousand and Ten

2010-03-12T21:58:00.005-05:00

We're playing at Santos Party House on Saturday April 3rd, opening up for Ash.

Tickets are $8 in advance from Other Music on East 4th Street or on the internet fromTicketweb.

Santos is at 96 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. See you then!

What Dreams Are Made Of

2010-03-07T13:12:00.005-05:00

FREE SHOW IN BROOKLYN ON FRIDAY

2010-02-26T01:12:00.007-05:00

Hello,
Our show tomorrow night (tuesday the 2nd) has been canceled. Which is all the more reason to come out on Friday night....

On Friday the 5th we're headlining a free show at Bruar Falls in Williamsburg. The always excellent Coyote Eyes and Serica Ux are on that bill. Show starts at 8:30 and we're on at 10:30. We're going to be focusing on writing our next album for a few months so this will likely be our only show in town for a little bit. This will be a fun one!

DC TONIGHT!!

2010-01-29T11:41:00.002-05:00

I'm still foolishly unable to update our 'shows' page on here so this is just a quick message for any passers-by that we're playing in Washington DC tonight at The Rock'n'Roll Hotel.

Doors at 8, show starts at 9:30. We're on first followed by Casper Bangs and The Vita Ruins. This is The Vita Ruins first show in something like 18months so we're all pretty excited to see what they pull out of their hats.

Hope to see you this evening!

Kindest regards,
The JC

Single Out Today

2010-01-19T10:07:00.005-05:00

Hello hello!

Our digital single for 'Where No Wild Things Are' is released this morning. Featuring the title track, 2 B-sides, and a video. One of the B-Sides is a reworking of the title track based around acoustic guitar and casio with a folksy/gospely/basementy vibe to it, and the other is a version of our old classic 'Who Says We're The Last' that came back from the songs-we-forget-how-to-play graveyard during our fall tour. It was recorded as part of a show we did for WREK at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

It's available from Itunes or Amazon, and on Itunes you can also purchase the music video we whipped up for 'Where No Wild Things Are' if you're so inclined. Shot on film in the wilds of New Paltz NY, Robert Moses State Park, Boston's South End, and our secret headquarters in DUMBO. It's a doozy. A big "thank you" to everyone who helped us out on and off camera!!

PURCHASE SONGS AND VIDEO ON ITUNES
PURCHASE SONGS ON AMAZON

Upcoming Dates....
FRIDAY 1/22 - PHILDELPHIA PA, THE KHYBER
WEDNESDAY 1/27 - NEW YORK NY, MERCURY LOUNGE
FRIDAY 1/29 - WASHINGTON DC, ROCK'N'ROLL HOTEL

Where No Wild Things Are Video

2010-01-09T23:21:00.000-05:00

The Jaguar Club - Where No Wild Things Are from The Jaguar Club on Vimeo.

Happy Kind Of New Years!!!

2010-01-02T21:03:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!
We've all (somehow) managed to survive the end of a decade in one piece! We've been working on new material for the last few weeks and it's starting to sound like Swedish bubble gum pop from the mid 90's. Kind of like the movie "the Worst Witch" if you've ever seen it. It sounds great to us. We are also ringing in the already 3 day old new year by drinking "domestic bliss" AKA Budwesiers.

We have a lot happening this month, which makes us feel pretty good about a new year. We're releasing a digital single of Where No Wild Things Are on the 19th backed with 2 exclusive B-sides and a beautiful 16mm video we shot this fall. One B-side is an acoustic guitar and casio fueled gospel/folk re-imagining of Where No Wild Things Are and the other is a live version of Who Says We're The Last we recorded for a radio station in Atlanta this fall. It's an old song of ours that we've started playing again, a little differently, and really enjoying so we thought it deserved a wider audience.

We're also playing some shows this month, assuming the van can get any traction in the snow. We've discovered it hates winter. Those dates are...

1/11 - Brooklyn NY - Union Hall w/ The Joy Formidable
1/22 - Philadelphia PA - The Khyber
1/27 - New York NY - Mercury Lounge w/ Bear In heaven and Oh No Ono
1/29 - Washington DC - Rock'N'Roll Hotel w/ The Vita Ruins

We wish you all a happy, exciting, and peaceful new year. See you soon!

Hey there! Long time, no blog posts, eh?

2009-11-24T01:55:00.003-05:00

Sorry for that...

We're back! and the main reason we're back is to tell you that we have a big show coming up on Dec. 12th at Union Hall.

The other main reason we're back is that we missed these little conversations with, well, who know who they're with...

Anywho, this is going to be a fantastic show and it's the perfect time for a little mid-holiday season party.

Here's the lineup:

The Wooden Sky kick things off at 8pm (http://www.myspace.com/thewoodensky)

Then it's your hometown favorites, The Jaguar Club at 9pm
(http://myspace.com/thejaguarclub)

Fellow Brooklynites, Frances follow at 10pm
(http://www.myspace.com/francestheband)

and last but not least

A Sunny Day in Glasgow finish off the night at 11pm
(http://www.myspace.com/sunnydayinglasgow)

It's an terrific lineup especially in the cozy confines of Union Hall, especially for $10. So plan to come early and stay late, see some awesome bands, and spend a super Saturday evening with us.

-The Jaguar Club
Check out the event on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194942694984

P.S. Tickets are on sale already and we highly recommend snagging them in advance as this one might be a sell out.

TICKETS

Viedo Shoot Part 1 Photos

2009-11-09T00:11:00.004-05:00

Hello,
We spent an unseasonably warm afternoon/evening in New Paltz yesterday shooting a bit of film with our fried (and often producer) Kevin outside his studio in the shadow of the Catskills. In the end it'll be about 1/4 of the first video we're making for 'And We Wake Up Slowly'. We won't tell you which song yet because we don't want to spoil the fun. That info, and some other exciting news, will be revealed shortly. Maybe you can guess which song it is from the photos below...

Some Shows

2009-11-04T22:55:00.002-05:00

Hello Friends

In the process of moving I seem to have lost some files that I need to update this website properly, but rest assured we have been busy (working on new songs!!) and will be playing some shows in the region before the end of the year. We'll be adding a few more dates shortly, but for now you can mark your calendars for the following 2 nights here in brooklyn...

Saturday November 21st - Cameo Gallery
Saturday December 12th - Union Hall

We're hoping to have a few new songs ready for you all by then! Keep in touch!
- The JC

October 17th: RPI - Troy, NY

2009-10-19T20:29:00.002-04:00

It's 2pm when I come to. I have to be at our rehearsal space in an hour in DUMBO. I'm in Greenpoint. Better drag my carcass-body out of bed and hope that my head doesn't explode. I vaguely remember being kicked out of a bar around 4am. Jeremiah and our friend Adam were there. Then I jumped onto the bed of a parked semi-truck. Then I jumped down from a great height and fell to the ground. Then Jeremiah and Adam started beating me up. Did all this happen? Can't quite say.

I walk down to the G train at Nassau Ave. Transfer at Hoyt-Schermerhorn to the A train. I emerge out of the High Street station just before 3pm. Right on time. I see Gavin at the deli around the corner from our space. We see Jeremiah in our rehearsal space. He's hung over as hell. So those things DID happen. Funny.

We pack everything and carry it out on to the street, where Will is waiting with the Blue Torch. We pack everything just like we did on tour and we are off to Troy, NY. I am all of the sudden in the driver's seat. Carmen, our GPS, is being stupid. It's like she spent the whole two weeks since tour holed up in a brothel somewhere smoking crack. She wants us to take the Holland Tunnel, which makes no sense. She keeps on saying, "Recalculating," every time I ignore her directions. Then we hit horrendous traffic on the West Side Highway. Some stupid Asian dude cuts me off from the right side lane and then proceeds to cut all the way across to the left lane so he can go into Chelsea Piers. He nearly kills all of us. I shake my fists at him and cry inside that he's so stupid. We pass the Intrepid and Will comments that I didn't ask to go inside this time, like I alway do. I guess I am too hungover.

It takes nearly an hour to get out of the city, but once we cross the GW bridge, it's smooth sailing. We cruise into RPI campus a little past 7pm. We meet Shela, who setup the show for us. She's going to order pizza for us, which is sweet, because I'm still hungover and I need to eat something. We meet the other bands playing the show and then Gavin and I are dispatched to go get beers. We pick up Bud Light and some plastic cups so we can pretend like we aren't drinking beer on stage. Every since we went to the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour, I've had an insatiable appetite for Bud Light's uncompromising drinkability. God, I can't wait to sneak the suckers into the band room and crack one open. Which is exactly what I do. I head straight past the door girl, past the crowd gathered to watch the first band, go straight back to our "green room" which is just a closet with all our gear stowed away in it, and I crack one open and pour it into a cup and guzzle it. Delicious.

First band to go on is a campus outfit called The New Pioneer Society. Seems like just about everyone cool on campus is in this band. Shela is in the band. She plays bass on a song. Some dude plays the ukulele. Someone else plays shaker. There's cello. Sax. Bandanas. Everything.

Henry Gale are on next. They are an instrumental band from Boston. They remind us of another Boston band, Caspian, whose guitarist is a childhood friend of Will's. Half way through their set, Will and I go upstairs to do our vocal warm-ups. Mmm, it's ok. Not mind-blowing.

We set up our stuff and slog through our set. We have some technical problems with mics and whatnot. Or maybe we are playing way too loud. Not our best work. We feel kind of bummed about it even though the audience seems to enjoy it.

We chat with some people for a while before packing our stuff and hitting the road. Jeremiah is driving now. It's close to midnight. I have to be at work at 8am so we are driving straight back to the city. Well, not exactly. Jeremiah drives us to a Taco Bell/Long John Silvers drive thru without telling me. My mind is blown. I am about to lose my LJS virginity. Then the lady at the drive thru tells us that LJS closed at 9pm. Bummer. We settle for like, 14 tacos. We pull around to the parking lot and scarf down the tacos. I have a Volcano Burrito or something, which is horrible. I think it has Doritos in it. I also have a steak taco, which is ok. The best is the regular crunchy taco. That is amazing. We finish all the tacos and we drive through another time and order more food. The lady must think we are so stoned. I order a Crunch Wrap Supreme or something like that, which is basically a taco frisbee. It tastes weird. And it's unnatural looking. It freaks me out. I can deal with San Loco, but this is too much. I finish the whole thing.

We need gas badly. We've been driving on an empty tank ever since we rolled into town. We drive around for a good 30 minutes from gas station to station, only to find that they are all closed. We decide to drive to Albany a few miles south and try our luck there. No luck.

I suggest that we get on I-87 and drive to the New Baltimore rest stop, a few miles south of Albany. We drive past a sign for the rest stop, 11 miles away. We start joking that we're not going to make it. I suggest that we will run out of gas a few feet in front of the pump and we will have to push the van the rest of the way. We pass another sign. 5 miles away. Jeremiah says, "good thing there isn't a huge hill that we have to climb right now." I say, "There isn't?" There is. We make it over the hill and roll down the other side. We see another sign for the rest stop in the far distance. We're going a good 65 miles per hour. Then all of the sudden, Jeremiah pulls over the rumble strip on to the curb. Will says, "is it happening?" It's happening. We coast for another half-mile or so and come to a halt in front of the sign. 2 miles. Sweet.

It's past 1am. We debate whether or not I can run to the station and back in less time than it would take for AAA to arrive. Not sure sure I want to do that. We'll wait for AAA. Jeremiah and I climb up the embankment and have a little dance party to Idlewild until it gets too cold. Here's a picture of me, I'm holding my phone to light my face. The van's in the background:

It's suppose to snow. We huddle inside the van and fantasize about how we would survive the night. We have four tacos left. Half a bottle of water. I suggest we could start burning Jeremiah's drums if it gets too cold. Jera suggests that my bass would be easier to burn. Will democratically suggests we put on our merchandise tee-shirts. We all think this is a good idea.

Every time a car drives past, the entire van shakes with the change in air pressure. It's pretty rad. But semis are scary. It feels like the vans going to be blown over every time one of those suckers zooms by.

About an hour later the AAA tow truck finally arrives. The dude is one surly fella. I'm pretty sure he's pissed at us for running out of gas. He keeps on yelling at Will. He must think his time is not worth this stupidity. He would much rather be using his jaws of life to save an accident victim. Not some stupid band that woke him up in the middle of the night so he can pump 3 gallons of gas into their stupid van's tank. Anyway, after much yelling and paper work, he says, "There's a service station two miles down the road. Get some gas." No shit. We briefly debate whether or not to keep on driving past the station and calling the AAA dude again, but we opt out and get gas.

We roll into DUMBO close to 4:30am. Probably the fastest we've ever unloaded our gear. Five minutes, six tops. Jeremiah and Will drive me to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop and I
get home by 5am. I set my alarm for 7am and hop into bed. But I can't fall asleep. Sucks. The alarm is already going off when I start dozing. See you at CMJ on Saturday!

This is the Last Stop on This Train: New York

2009-10-06T20:24:00.004-04:00

Eyes open, 11am, Saturday, October 3rd, 2009: Baltimore, MD. I'm sleeping under Felipe's coffee table. I say something about it feeling like a coffin. I feel just as dreadful. Day three of sickness, plus all the beer and cigarettes and other stuffs that went into my system mere hours ago. I don't know how I'm going to survive this day. Except this is no ordinary day; it's the last day of the tour!

We drive over with Felipe and Dainty to Top of the Hill near the MICA campus for breakfast. It's the first sunny day we've had in quite a few days and we elect to sit outside on the sidewalk. After much dawdling and eating and playing around with Wi-Fi (Which does not, in fact, stand for Wireless Fidelity, at least officially), we say our hearth-felt goodbyes to our gracious hosts and good friends, Felipe and Dainty.

Driving north along the New Jersey Turnpike, our hearts race. We start calling loved ones and friends and we can't quite believe we're really going back home. I'm deathly sick at this point. But i'm psyched to smell the dirty NYC air. That should do wonders for my mucus-filled lungs.

We arrive at the toll booth for the Holland Tunnel and it is chock full of in-bound bridge-and-tunnel folks. Carmen still thinks we'll be at Cakeshop in 7 minutes. How wrong you are, Carmen.

30 minutes later we arrive in front Cakeshop. Raise High the Roof Beam are already out front. We greet them and load everything in. Then we stand in front of van for a good 20 minutes until 7pm, when parking regulations end and we are finally able to stop pretending that load-in is taking us forever so the traffic cops will stop harassing us.

Sound check takes forever. And ever. I feel like I'm going to keel over and die. Not really sure how we sound, but no mind. We are 30 minutes late to our dinner reservation. We run out the door and sit down for some sushi around the corner. The service here is deathly slow. The food takes forever. And ever. Raise High are about to go on. We wolf down our mediocre sushi and run back to the club. Raise High have just started their set. They put on a great show. I'm hacking up my lungs in the back of the room.

Pow Wow! is up next. they've got a new guitar player. I love Eddie's voice. So manly. So cool. I'm drinking Brooklyn Lager. I'm hoping the beer will kill the evil in my throat and lungs. Not entirely sure if it's working.

We're pulled upstairs to do an interview. Actually, the other three are. I'm kind of in and out of the interview because I have no idea what's going on. I think the cough syrup is making me loopy. I have no attention span at this point and I'm being crazy.

Half way through My Teenage Stride's set, Will and I go out to the van to do our warm ups. We both sound like frogs. We decide to dedicate this show to Rod Stewart. Power through.

The show itself is sweaty. Very Sweaty. Will says that we're having a wet t-shirt contest on stage. Then the unthinkable happens. I snap a string on my bass. Ironic, because Will from Raise High is standing right in front of me and Jeremiah motions for him to go get his bass. The same thing happened in reverse at Quenchers in Chicago, if you remember. Then we power through the rest of our set. Rod is on my mind.

After the show we are exhausted. As we load our van, the saturday night crowd on Ludlow Street is out in droves. Everyone in a jovial, drunken storm. Ah, it's like we never left the city.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the show! A very special thank you to all the wonderful people we met on the road, to all the amazing bands we had the honor of playing with, and everyone who was gracious enough to put us up (and put up with us) and feed us and show us a great time. Thank you to Christine and Adam and everyone at Magnum for all the support. Everyone at AAM, like wise for all the hard work. Last but not least to all our friends and family and loved ones for putting up with us! We could not have done the tour without each and everyone of you! See you next tour!

Charm City (Friday)

2009-10-04T23:51:00.003-04:00

Baltimore has always been one of our favorite towns to play. Sure, “The Wire” might have marred its reputation – we did pass by blocks and blocks of boarded up houses – but parts of the town are lovely and for the most part the vibe is chill.

On arriving, we hooked up with our old friend Felipe at his magnificent artist’s loft. With a few hours to kill, we launched into a crazy jam featuring drums, djembe, 80s Casio, guitar, and a Korg Kaos pad. After that, Felipe set up the ol’ Nintendo and Will and Jeremiah battled evil hookers with chains in Double Dragon 2.

After grabbing some crazy barbecue, Yoi attempted to have a session of phone therapy in the trunk space of a hatchback while the rest of the band talked loudly (about the complexity of Double Dragon’s plot) so we wouldn’t eavesdrop on the conversation. This backfired as we were so loud that Yoi’s shrink heard more of our chatter than Yoi’s woes. Communication is a difficult thing.

The show was at Golden West in a new neighborhood for the JC. I think it's referred to as the "Avenue." I might be mistaken, but surprisingly enough there were bars and restaurants and hipsters galore, suffice to say it was not our typical Baltimore experience. Golden West boasted a decent sized and appreciative crowd, and an excellent sound guy / manager / superdude named Neil. Exhausted afterward, we headed back to Felipe’s. The kids were in a film-watching mood, and Jeremiah noticed “The Karate Kid” on the shelf. We sat all four of us on Felipe's big couch, Yoi and Gavin enjoyed some mind expanding tobacco, and we all enjoyed a few Natty Bohs and a little nostalgia as Mr. Miyagi kicked those skeleton kids’ asses.

At 3:00 am, two of Felipe’s friends dropped by and in typical Baltimore fashion we were completely overwhelmed by the events that followed as we were treated to an amazing display of juggling, acrobatics, and David Bowie-esque acrylic ball shit (think Labyrinth meets Cirque du Soleil). This went on for nearly 45 minutes and our entertainer was seriously talented (I wish we had pictures but we were way too busy having our minds blown). He may even be a founding member of the Blue Man Group. This, with Daniel-san’s mastering of karate as background, turned out to be quite an event. By the time Daniel won the tournament (spoiler!) 4:30 am, we were exhausted by all the entertainment. Felipe is a master host.

St. Bonnie / Pittsburgh / Somerset, PA

2009-10-03T13:53:00.003-04:00

We wake up around noon at Uncle Tom’s house and I am starting to feel a bit under the weather as well. Will is coughing up phlegm and I just have a scratchy cough. Great. I go to the kitchen and grab a slice of cold pizza for breakfast. That should do wonders for my oncoming sickness. The others drink coffee while I have an orange juice. We pack ourselves into the van and get ready to hit the road, but something is in the way. There’s a giant turtle blocking our exit.

Jeremiah tries to fight it to no avail.

I pet it like a cat but to no effect.

Finally Will charms his way out of the door and we are on the way to St. Bonnie to do a radio show with the guys at WSBU.

We arrive some time around 2:30pm at good old St. Bonnie. We love this university. They’ve been nothing but supportive of our music and they are super cool dudes. We are greeted at the radio station by Pete and Zach and the gang. We’re to do a 30-minute Q&A with Pete and Zach with a few acoustic numbers thrown in. We play “Where No Wild Things Are,” “This Summer” and “Out of the City.” We’re getting pretty good at doing this acoustic thing. Funny thing is Will and I are coughing up a storm the entire time. Hope no one else gets sick!

We bid farewell to the fair gentlemen at WSBU and head for Pittsburgh, where we’re playing Howler’s Coyote Café. Carmin directs us through the Allegany National Forest, which is ridiculously beautiful. We roll in around 7:30pm and load in. They’ve readied Chinese food for the bands and all the bands get a free pitcher. Then they come back with four pizzas for the bands. How can we eat any more? Amazing! We greet Aushua and Civil Twilight, two other touring bands on the bill. Aushua are from L.A. and Civil Twilight from Nashville, via South Africa. Weird. They turn out to be pretty amazing bands. Both of them have a pretty big Coldplay vibe, which makes this billing the most serious (somber may be a better word?) lineup we’ve played with this tour. I am blown away by both bass players. I have some serious practicing to do if I hope to be like these guys.

At the show is the music director of WWVU, Daniel. He’s a super cool guy and he digs the music. He wants to set up a show with us at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown. I’ve been down there once to visit my friend Bob. Beautiful place. Can’t wait to play there.

We leave the club and drive part way to Baltimore to Somerset, PA. We’ve stayed in this town before, the last time we played in Pittsburgh.

I wake up in Somerset, PA and my throat is killing me. I am definitely sick. Will seems to be on the verge of recovery. We are here for one reason and one reason only: The Summit Diner.

Buffalo

2009-10-02T03:06:00.003-04:00

We’re driving east on I-90 toward Buffalo and all of the sudden on the left-hand side we spot a huge expanse of steel gray water. Lake Erie. It seems much sadder than Lake Michigan. Something about it also seems wilder. I can almost see the buffalo that must have roamed these shores a millennia ago.

We enter New York state for the first time in two weeks and we’re overwhelmed with joy. Another hour and we’re in the outskirts of Buffalo, where we head straight to Ted’s for some hot dogs.

After our quick snack, we head for Tom’s house (Jeremiah's uncle) in North Buffalo, where we will spend the night. We have enough time to drop off our luggage before we head to Mohawk Place, where we will play the middle slot, sandwiched between two local acts, Patrons of Sweet and Johnny Nobody.

We backload our equipment on to the stage and settle in at the bar. It’s Gavin’s birthday. We enjoy a few Old Vienna's and Labatt's. I feel very close to Canada. In fact, it’s right across the water. I can see it. Buffalo has a very Northern feel; cold, with gray skies, gray buildings. Will is definitely sick now. He’s sleeping in the van wrapped in his sleeping bag.

The place starts to fill up with the Joyce clan. Jeremiah introduces us to so many people it’s hard to keep track of who is who. Patron of Sweet plays through their set as Gavin rocks out. Their music is right up his ally. A little birthday treat for our DC man.

I wake Will up toward the end of their set and climb into the back seat with the acoustic guitar so we can warm up our voice. We warm up with 'Oh, Yoko' by John Lennon and 'Dishes' by Pulp, two of the few songs we know how to cover. We declare the vibe of the show to be 'Do it for Jarvis.'

We burn through our set, sprinkling in some requested songs we haven’t playing in a while ('Beat of My Heart' and 'This Summer'). The vibe is good. The crowd is really into it, which always lifts up our spirits.

After us are Johnny Nobody. Great sound. Jeremiah thinks they sound like the Archie Bronson Outfit. Anyway, they rock. I also think that the singer looks like Eamon, Jeremiah’s brother. But I keep that to myself (except for Will, who I tell immediately after the thought comes into my head).

After the show, we go back to uncle Tom’s house to eat chicken wings and pizza. Well, all of us except the birthday boy. He goes off with some new friends and takes my phone with him so he can get in touch with us later (he left his own phone in DC the first night of the tour). I keep on reminding everyone that we need to catch up with Gavin, but they keep on telling me that that will not be happening. I don’t understand why. He’s just hanging out with some girls, and it’s his birthday.

Really late at night, Jeremiah and I play Frisbee in the street. Jeremiah is holding a beer in one hand and I don’t have shoes on. This is how the night ends. For those of us at uncle Tom’s house, at least. Thanks to everyone in Buffalo, especially the Joyce family for all their support and hospitality. See you next time!

Columbus, OH

2009-10-01T11:44:00.003-04:00

A straight shot southwest from Chicago to Columbus. Well, not exactly straight but an insane zig zag of small highways and towns that our GPS, Carmen decides to take us through in order to get there the fastest. We pass Gary, Indiana and we have a moment of silence for Michael Jackson. Well, not exactly a moment, nor silence, but poor guy. Afterwards there was pretty much nothing but cornfields and gas stations the entire way. We pass American, Ohio, which seemed to be the quintessence of Main Street, USA. Which is to say, boring. Then out of nowhere we see the Columbus skyline. A city! A beautiful sight to behold in the dark Ohio night.

We drive into the parking lot of the Treehouse, a quirky little club near the Ohio State University campus. There’s actually a full grown tree in the middle of the venue, which goes straight through the roof and outside. Weird.

We have quite the time setting up the PA (there is no sound guy) but with the help of Wing and Tusk, our host band from Columbus, we get the thing rolling around 11pm. We burn through our set and immediately afterwards I drive Will to our motel. He’s quite under the weather and he needs his rest.

I get back to the club just in time to catch the tail end of The Seedy Seeds from Cincinnati. What an explosive trio! And the drums are flickering all crazy-like to the beat. They’ve wrapped these string lights around the kit and attached them to some sort of trigger that goes off every time the dude hits the drums. Pretty Rad.

Wing and Tusk are on next. It’s the final show of their residency at the Treehouse, and though they said that no one would show up, quite a few are in the crowd. The members of the band were at the bar moments before being rowdy and slamming whiskey. Their music, in comparison, was surprisingly delicate and subdued. Gorgeous harmonies. That juxtapositioned the keyboardist Roseanne shooting off swear words between songs. Bad ass.

Past midnight, it’s Gavin’s birthday. Happy birthday Gavin! He enjoys gratis drinks. We’ll do it again in the morning.

Thanks, Columbus, we’ll be back!

Aunt Connie’s House

2009-10-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

After the Elbo Room on Monday nihgt, we head to Jeremiah’s aunt Connie’s apartment, where we are staying for the night. Cindy, who we saw at the show, is also staying here. She offers me a beer but in a surprise move, I turn it down in favor of a delicious diet ginger ale. She also gives us these enormous “pancake” cookies, which are about the size of my face. We settle down on in the living room and watched “wall-E” on TV. What a wonderful movie. It’s probably Pixar’s finest work in my opinion. Probably has something to do with their collaboration with Studio Gibli, who in my opinion makes the best animation in the entire world.

Then we watch “Half Brothers” with Will Farrell. I think everyone else dozes off halfway through the movie so all my comments go unanswered and I just laugh myself to sleep.

In the morning, we scramble to get laundry done and I take my first shower in five days. All the while, Cindy is making us a wonderful breakfast of French toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs two ways, one with pepperjack and the other with beef. There’s tomatillo salsa, hot sauce, and freshly drawn maple syrup. There’s coffee and there is orange juice. A truly wonderful breakfast. Thank you Cindy and Connie for your generous hospitality! Next stop, Columbus, Ohio.

Weekend Roundup - Northwestern, Quenchers, and the University of Southern Illinois

2009-09-28T21:58:00.015-04:00

Ok, we did a whole bunch of shit over the weekend and there are plenty of people who must be mentioned. So here we go:

FRIDAY:

We spent an ungodly amount of time on the main drag driving across the Chicago Suburbs to our radio show at Northwestern, but it was worth it as our in-studio performance was solid. The room itself was a bit like an icebox, literally, it was freezing.

The session turned out great though and we were given red t-shirts with “Chicago’s Sound Experiment.” Thanks to Lori and everyone at WNUR!

Despite Quenchers’ diminutive stage, our Friday night show went over well. The room was near packed and the crowd was quite enthusiastic. We shared the stage with Raise High the Roof Beam, who will join us at our homecoming show at Cake Shop on Saturday, Oct. 3. Energetic does no begin to describe these guys; wildly kinetic is slightly more appropriate. They were almost exhausting to watch. The set climaxed with a barrage of paper airplanes launched from the stage – this prompted a dogfight of catastrophic proportions. Busted and trampled paper planes littered the linoleum after the audience departed.

RHTRB also invited us to an after-party around the corner. Will and Jeremiah played the dad-role and went home but Yoi and Gavin gladly accepted. Yoi had already taken advantage of one new fan’s homegrown mind expanders and was very chilaxed. He was a riot at the party, dropping full beers (those PBR cans are rather slippery). Gavin started up a blues jam and Yoi jumped on one of two drum sets – at 2 a.m. The neighbors seemed not to mind. It was such a good time that when Will called Yoi in the morning he had no clue where he was or how he got from the party to where he ended up sleeping.

SATURDAY:

On Saturday Jeremiah fly back to New York for a wedding, so the three of us who play stringed instruments decided to walk around Chicago after devouring an excellent breakfast at a family friend’s restaurant, Ina's. We were going to go to either the aquarium or the natural history museum, but admission was over $20 – that’s not feasible for a group of starving musicians. I mean, how are we supposed to buy beer if we wasted all our cash on looking at fish? Instead we wandered through Millennial Park, taking tons of touristy photos which you can look at here.

We stuffed ourselves on Geno’s East deep dish pizza (OK, maybe we’re not starving musicians) before bartering a 30-pack of Miller High Life for the use of Raise High the Roof Beam’s couches. The night turned into another great party as Yoi and Gavin set up dating profiles on OKCupid and took profile shots with of the Roof Beam member Thomas’ large collection of hats which you can check out here.

Later Will and Yoi performed a few acoustic tunes in preparation for our radio show in Carbondale, Illinois. We can’t thank the Roof Beam kids enough for their hospitality and general awesomeness.

SUNDAY:

In the morning, we hit the very straight road south for five and a half hours to Southern Illinois University, home of the Salukis (an Egyptian dog – there are many ancient Egypt references around Carbondale related to the town’s ability to prosper in droughts) and WIDB, where “And We Wake Up Slowly” is no. 4. During an enjoyable interview with music director Ben, Yoi and Will pulled out a Southern gothic version of “Antarctica” and Will delivered a remarkably precious solo version of “This Summer.”

Afterwards, for a change of pace, Will, Yoi and Gavin hit up a local bowling joint advertising $1.50 games. Will was the speed champion, breaking 20 mph several times, while Gavin consistently broke 100 (using light balls and averaging 12 mph). Yoi rolled 242 – his cumulative score over four games. After grabbing a nightcap at local dive PK’s, Dorian James invited us to stay at his bungalow with his sweetheart black lab, Achilles. Not only did Dorian offer us his bed, he made us an incredible breakfast of bacon, eggs and taters – forget Southern hospitality, the people of Illinois are saints.

MONDAY

Driving back up to Chicago on scenic (“Look – corn!) Rte. 57 for a special show at Heave Media before hitting the Elbow Room, the wind attempted to blow us into Ohio.

Yoi and Gavin picked up hot new kicks at a Nike outlet store.

And the group bought an early 80s Eddie Murphy comedy album on cassette. There was much rejoicing.

Hanging in the Gateway

2009-09-28T21:52:00.004-04:00

“I need to a day off to recover from our day off,” Will said and all were in agreement. Feeling a little weak from the previous night’s exploits, we set off in search of lighter fare than the heavy meals of the past days.

We drove through Forest Park, stopping to take a picture of the van outside the art museum.

The park is gorgeous and includes a free zoo, which seemed to be closed because of the rain – we were still able to seem kangaroos and flamingos bouncing about. It was hard not to be impressed by the regal architecture on Washington University’s campus. Driving through University City and its various curiosity shops, we all commented how charming we found this section of St. Louis.

After consuming some delicious Middle Eastern cuisine, we stopped at Meshuggah coffee house for a some wicked strong cups of joe and free wireless. Then it was onto the Anheuser-Busch brewery, an experience better served by pictures. However, we must note that we had the pleasure of tasting Bud Light Golden Wheat, Bud’s version of a summery wheat beer like Blue Moon, and were quite surprised how flavorful it was. It will be launched in October, but you heard about it first from The Jaguar Club.

On the town in St. Louis

2009-09-28T21:42:00.003-04:00

First off, huge apologies for the lack of posts. We decided to take the weekend off, but don’t fret, we’re back and better than ever.

As soon as we arrived at the Red Roof Inn in St. Louis, we hurriedly brushed teeth, reapplied deodorant, washed faces and changed into party shirts – we were going out on the town. It was the first time in the Gateway to the West for three out of the four of us and our first night off after playing six shows in five days.

We departed our sweet hotel room – certainly the nicest we’d had all trip – and walked journeyed across a sketchy bridge over a massive muddy ditch through the section of town known as “The Hill” and into Dogtown. Jeremiah gave us a little history lecture – apparently Dogtown was residence to poor English, Irish and Welsh immigrants that had many dogs. The road cutting through Dogtown was used by the upper classes to get to their large houses in their hoity-toity carriages and the dogs would run wild, howl and bite the horses’ ankles.

We saw one black dog sleeping. Will forgot that maxim about letting sleeping dogs lie and it gave us a nasty glare.

Jeremiah had scoped out the hot prospect of Seamus McDaniels, which had a huge (and empty) back porch.

He also said we had to try Budweiser on tap because it’s far better in St. Louis – he told no lies. The king of beers lacks that brutal aftertaste one finds in bottles out East and instead was sweet and extremely drinkable. So drinkable we downed five (cheap) pitchers.

Close to 1 a.m., we were the sole patrons and joined the bartendress and owner for a last round. We chatted real estate (it’s also cheap out here) and the flooding in Georgia before stumbling out – quite lovely people at Seamus McDaniels. It is Jaguar Club approved.

Drunken munchies struck as we tried to find our way back to the hotel. Many band meetings were held in huddle form, some just to admire Gavin’s loud and amusing drunken hiccoughs.

We decided on Denny’s, which was also closing but offered to make us something to go – just about every fried option on the appetizer menu. More band meetings were held outside, though the outcomes were ultimately forgotten. Gavin decided to roll barrel-style down a sharp embankment nearly into the street. Attempts to buy beer were thwarted by Missouri law.

Back at the Red Roof, we dug greedily into our feast. During this time a ketchup battle erupted – the catalyst is a bit hazy, but probably could be summed up by intense wastedness. Countless packets of ketchup were fired across the hotel room with only a few exploding. The room was filled with moans and the sound of plastic whipping bare flesh. It was an every-man-for-himself brouhaha that devolved into wrestling, whipping with shirts and rug burns before we all passed out from the perfect combination of exhaustion and drunkenness.

As we groggily checked out of the Red Roof the next morning, Yoi realized he had forgotten his favorite shirt. He sheepishly searched the room as the housekeeping woman cleaned up bits of tortilla chips, ketchup wrappers and other pieces of carnage. War is hell.

LIVE in-studio @ WNUR 89.3 Chicago TODAY at 5:15 CT.

2009-09-25T15:36:00.001-04:00

We're doing the radio thing again, but this time we're live. Maybe we'll take some calls, that would be fun!

Listen in online at http://wnur.org

Five State, Eleven Hours

2009-09-25T11:32:00.001-04:00

We leave Atlanta and head northwest toward Nashville. The plan is to spend our off day there to soak in some of the lovely cultural sites the city has to offer. We zip through northern Georgia and enter Tennessee. We see a glimpse of Chattanooga and we all secretly sing the song in our heads though no one admits to it. Then we are suddenly back in Georgia as the highway curves briefly south, and our hearts sink. No more than 15 minutes later, we enter Tennessee again, and this time, all our phones suddenly turn back an hour. We are in Central Time; a first for the band. We beep the horn and roll on toward Nashville. We stop by the Tennessee welcome center and pick up a bunch of brochures. Dollywood. Studio B. The Country Music Hall of Fame. The Nashville Aquarium. The options are endless.

The countryside becomes a vast expanse of rolling hills, grazing cattle and burning barns. Actually, one burning barn. Pretty sure it was a burning barn. Smelled like it. We drive past the Jack Daniels Distillery and everyone has to strap Yoi down so he won’t jump out the van.

We roll into the parking lot of the Nashville Motel 6 in the afternoon. It is in a sketchy, desolate part of town far removed from the glitz and the legend that led us here. To top it off, we’ve arrived too late to enjoy any of the attractions we wanted to see. We idle in the parking lot for a good five minutes and deliberate about what we should do, The vote is unanimous, nix Nashville! Drive straight to St. Louis and hope to get there in time to enjoy a bit of nightlife on our night off. Done. We book a Red Roof Inn within walking distance from bars in St. Louis. A splurge for sure, but one we feel we deserve.

We drive out of the sketchy lot as a security guard scrutinizes us with a suspicious eye. Driving past downtown, we do a hello, goodbye and jet northwest.

All of the sudden, we are in Kentucky, Completely unexpected. Never been to the Jayhawk state. Is that what it’s called? Birthplace of Lincoln. Of Jackson. The countryside here is all rolling hills and farms. No burning barns here. We roll into the Kentucky welcome center, which we discover has WiFi. We take our computers in there to check email and whatnot. Gavin and Yoi squeeze in some quality ‘bee time. ‘bee, if you don’t know, is Frisbee. It’s the official band sport.

We’ve been driving for some time when we realize we haven’t had anything to eat. We surrender ourselves to the fact that nothing worthwhile will be found in this desolate stretch of land, and settle for the Wendy’s value menu. We all manage to spend less than $5 for dinner. Pretty sure Will spends $2.46. At this point, Yoi takes over the driving. We climb in the car around 8pm and our beloved Garmin GPS, which we’ve named Carmen, indicates that we will arrive in St. Louis at 10:42pm. Will declares a challenge: Arrive in St. Louis by 10:30pm and he will buy a drink for Yoi. Game ON!

Now, there is a trick to doing this. You don’t want to go too fast that you will get pulled over, but you want to go fast enough that a minute is shaved off the ETA every 12 minutes or so. You speed when it seems reasonable. Yoi’s strategy is twofold: follow fast cars and avoid trucks. That means making sure you are clear of any trucks before a long incline. It also means choosing the right car to follow. The pickup truck driven by a 16 year-old going 85 mph is not the right car. The mini-van driven by a middle-aged man going 71 mph in a 65? Golden.

Jeremiah mixes a balls out dance party on his iPod to push Yoi through to the end. It’s a heady mix. New Order. Peter, Bjorn and John. Bloc Party. Franz Ferdinand. Magnetic Fields. Pulp. Band of Horses. The hits just keep on coming. Soon we are in Illinois. The ETA rolls back. 10:40. 39. 38…

Will and Gavin are playing an intense game of chess that last most of the drive. There are occasional bursts of cursing as someone slips up and gives up a rook or knight. Will periodically shouts, “Yoi!”

“Will!?”

“ETA!”

“37!”

This goes on and on every few minutes over the blaring music. Every time the ETA rolls back, Yoi shouts out the new number and there is a burst of applause. Around 9:45, the ETA finally rolls back to 10:30. Big applause. By the time we enter St. Louis city limits, the ETA is a whopping 10:28. Yoi is nervous however. We get stuck at a long red light a block from the Inn and we lurch into parking lot right at 10:30pm. Victory!

Atlanta Day 2: WREK and House Party!

2009-09-24T14:10:00.002-04:00

We leave the amp in the good hands of Doctor Will at Orange and we go to our hotel room and watch a marathon of the reality TV show “Colony”. It’s a really stupid show. We also find out that a house party is a go for tonight at the residence of Hannah Barbarian (another local band), and Small Reactions will most definitely also be able to play tonight with us. Great!

We drive to the Georgia Tech campus at 6pm to record a set for WREK. We set up in the middle of their student center and bang out a set while a million mikes record everything. It’s a surreal experience. Jeremiah and Gavin are set up on an elevated circular stage while Will and I are up front a few steps down. I keep on running up and down the stairs to be able to hear Jeremiah, who is set up some 30 feet behind us. We’re invited up to the radio station afterwards to have a quick listen to the recording. It sounds amazing! We thank everyone at the radio station and go grab a quick bit to eat.

It’s about 10:30pm by the time we arrive at the party. There are quite a few people there. Some faces we recognize from the night before, but most are strangers. We grab a few beers and check out Hannah Barbarian, the host band. They’re like a mix between the Allman Brothers and Spoon. Or maybe Phish. Well, it’s all those things. They say “thanks for joining us for our practice tonight” and tear through their set.

Next up are Small Reactions. They are an amazing band. Very poppy, very catchy songs grounded by Sean and Clint’s powerful rhythm section. I especially like Clint’s bass playing which we talk about at length after the show. Our music goes well together.

We set up after them and tear through our set with pumped up energy. We throw in a couple more dance numbers in there and play a party set. I make sure to keep all beverages far away from my gear. The set is a hit! We have a blast with our new friends. Toward 3am, we pack up our stuff and crash in our hotel room.

Wednesday morning, we drop by Orange Headquarters to meet with Doctor Will. He’s done a superb job fixing my baby! She’s actually better now than before her accident. She’s got new clothes and a new set of teeth. Amazing. I can’t thank Doctor Will enough for his splendid work, and for rushing the job when he was so busy. Actually, we can’t thank everyone we met in Atlanta enough for making our stay so splendid. Thanks to Sean and Clint and all the guys in Small Reactions for their help and hospitality. Thanks for Hannah Barbarian, WREK and WonderRoot for letting us play. You guys all rock. Cheers!

Durham, Raleigh, rainstorms, post-apocalyptic Altanta

2009-09-22T14:57:00.006-04:00

Sorry, I know we're long overdue on this side of the JC blog-o-sphere. We have been eating well, as you know, but we've also been playing some excellent shows too!

In Durham, NC on Saturday night we played what was probably our best show of the tour thus far at the Pinhook. I don't think any of us had been to Durham before and what limited knowledge we had amounted to several combined viewings of Bull Durham. Well, for those of you, like us, who are unfamiliar with the Bull city, it's pretty nice. Like most southern cities, it's eerily empty at night but that didn't stop a loud and well-numbered crowd from coming out. The sound on stage was terrific and we gave a very loud, very energetic performance. Our hosts, the Huguenots played an excellent set as well, including an amazing cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl".

The next night took us just down the road to Raleigh, NC. We played at Slim's Downtown. It was a nice little place with a really cool layout and a super cool bartender. It was also the first venue that allowed us to smoke inside, which was a huge blast from the past for us Northerners. It definitely makes you smoke a whole lot more, and your clothes smell a whole lot worse. We played with Death to Details and Left Outlet. We'd known Betty from Death to Details since last time we played here so it was sweet to actually get to see her play live. Good, high energy guitar pop with a lefty drummer. Lefty drummers are always a trip to watch. Left Outlet were an entirely different trip altogether. I can't really describe their music. It's definitely something to be experienced in the flesh. You need to be immersed in the elaborate manifests of their aura to fully grasp what they are going for. Think Sid Barrett era Floyd meets Andrew WK meets Southern Gospel. Something like that. And that's not even the half of it. Our own set was right in there as one of the sweatiest. I think we're getting on a roll here, getting things really tight and making sure we can perform to the best of our abilities night after night.

Until the rains came...

Not sure if you've seen the front page of the New York Times, but rolling into Atlanta yesterday was like landing in a war zone. 72 hours of intense rains have caused severe flooding all over Georgia. We got to drive through a small lake on the way into town passed an overturned car.

Even Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles had closed due to the rain and given the way Sean from Small Reactions (our wonderful hosts in Atlanta) was talking we weren't really sure the show wouldn't even happen. But arriving at WonderRoot it was clear the that no one there was going to be deterred by any amount of rain. WonderRoot is kind of an arts collective/rehearsal space/venue/pottery studio/anything really. It's very cozy and comfortable, kind of a cross between something vaguely collegiate and something like camping. We played for an audience consisting almost entirely of members of the other bands, but they seemed to really like it despite some technical difficulties from Yoi's side of the stage. If you've ever wondered what a fried Orange amplifier smells like it's kind of a mix between plastic, soy sauce, and vaporized beer - the last ingredient making sense because Yoi spilled an entire cup of keg beer into his amp vent.

The verdict is still out on what exactly is going to happen to his amp, but he definitely did have a bit of good luck in choosing to blow his amp up here. The US headquarters of Orange Amplifiers is here in Atlanta. So I guess Yoi's amp is in the best possible hands.

This is definitely a long post so thanks for sticking with us! But there's no way I can wrap this up without a huge thank you to Sean from Small Reactions. His guitarist's basement was severely flooded so they couldn't even play last night and yet he still was generous enough to sacrifice his own room to give the JC a place to sleep. Not only that, he lent Yoi his bass head for our radio show tonight! And he has a great dane. Basically, the guy is awesome.

Well, we're heading over to Georgia Tech now to do our radio show for WREK 91.1. But before we go, enjoy this photo of Yoi in front of the US headquarters of Orange Amplifiers.

Washington DC - the more things change, the more you stay the same.

2009-09-19T13:36:00.000-04:00

As I sit here, feet up on the dash of the Blue Torch, hurdling through Virginia, I find myself amazed that it's not only possible but entirely routine to blog or email or Twitter or facebook etc. from a large van travelling 70+ miles an hour.

There was a time in the not too distant past when, after a show like last night, we would need to search for wifi in order to spill our excitement throughout the interweb. There was something nice about having to work a little to communicate. It made a blog entry seem like more of an event maybe. But there's also something nice about this too, I suppose. In some ways you've never been closer to us then you are now, right here in the passenger seat of the van, heading to Durham NC. Kind of makes you feel cozy huh?

Well times definitely have changed and continue to change faster and faster, but some things do remain the same. Looking out last night at all the familiar DC faces is a wonderful sight and your continued support means so much to each of us.

It's nice to see all the new faces too, of course. We couldn't have asked for a better show to kick off the tour. We secured a dream parking spot. We Were Pirates and Gist rocked. We sweat through our shirts. There were times Will's vocals were nearly drowned out by some serious audience sing-a-longs lead by Greg, who impressed with his memorization of all the new songs already. All in all, it was an awesome night.

A big thank you hug from all of us to all of you. Until next time, DC!

Tour Starts Friday!

2009-09-16T22:25:00.006-04:00

Hi Friends,
We've been busy getting physically, emotionally, and musically in shape for the next couple of weeks. We've also been doing lots of work on our new van the Blue Torch... actually the jury is still out on the name. We'll have to see how well we get along together.

Also of possible interest is our new side-blogging career exploring just what it is we do with our free time in all these towns where don't know anyone. We'll keep updating this blog here regarding music and shows but we'll also be doing daily entries on our new one 'Eating, Drinking & Thinking with The Jaguar Club' where we'll keep you updated on the flavors and sensations of low budget touring.

Check the tour page for the latest dates... though once we leave town the most current info will probably be on myspace for technical reasons.

Hope we see you out there!!

Album Streaming At Spinner dot com

2009-09-08T14:14:00.002-04:00

Hello. If you haven't taken the plunge yet and gotten your own copy, you can currently stream our new album over at Spinner.com for the rest of the week. Go hear what you're missing.

Europe, we did not forget you!!

2009-09-03T11:17:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to say hello and let our friends across the ocean know that our new album 'And We Wake Up Slowly' is available from ITtunes all over Europe.

In addition, the Amazon special edition (13 Tracks) of the new album is available for download in the following countries...

The UK

Germany

France

Enjoy!! Hopefully we'll be able to see some of you in person in the near future!

ALBUM RELEASE DAY!!!

2009-09-01T10:56:00.003-04:00

Hey People. Our album 'And We Wake Up Slowly' is finally out today after a few years of effort. We're pretty damn excited. If you'd like to do us the honor of purchasing a copy you have a variety of choices but here are some of our favorites...

DIGITAL - Amazon.com is carrying an exclusive MP3 version of the record with 2 bonus tracks for $8.99 which is probably the best deal going. Plus Amazon's mps are high quality and no one tells you what you can and can't do with them.... i can say all this in good conscience because i truly buy most of my mp3s from Amazon (they can send me free stuff via this website if they want to!)

PHYSICAL - Insound.com is currently carrying the luxuriously packaged compact disc album for 10.99 The package is made from all recylcled cardboard too.

Finally - If you live nearby we're having a little album release night bash at Satellite Lounge in Williamsburg tonight starting at 9pm. We'll be DJing some songs we like by other people and at some point listening to our own new record Prince-style. Also apparently they give a free shot with every beer, whcih seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

New Album Presale from Insound!

2009-08-21T15:48:00.003-04:00

Howdy!

The Compact Disc version of our new album is now available for pre-order from the lovely folks over at insound.com, order it now and it'll be shipped to you on or before September 1st. Nice!

IT APPROACHES!!!!!!

2009-08-20T22:01:00.004-04:00

Get Tickets!!

Latest Tour Dates...
08/29/2009 - Brooklyn NY - Union Hall ALBUM RELEASE SHOW!
08/30/2009 - New Paltz, NY -Rhino Records (outside)
09/01/2009 - Brooklyn, NY - Satellite Lounge (Album Listening Party/DJ Set)
09/05/2009 - Boston, MA - Great Scott w/ The Living Sea
09/14/2009 – Brooklyn, NY – Cameo with TBA
09/18/2009 - Washington DC - The Red and the Black w/ Gist & We Were Pirates
09/19/2009 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook w/ Huguenots
09/20/2009 - Raleigh, NC - Slim’s w/ Death to Details, Left Outlet
09/21/2009 - Atlanta, GA - Wonder Root w/ Small Reactions
09/24/2009 - St. Louis, MO - Cicero’s w/ Sleepy Kitty, Ill Ease, Old Lights
09/25/2009 - Chicago, IL - Quenchers w/ Raise High the Roof Beam
09/29/2009 - Columbus, OH – The Treehouse w/ Wing and Tusk
09/30/2009 - Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place w/ Johnny Nobody, Patrons of Sweet
10/01/2009 - Pittsburgh, PA – Howler’s Coyote Cafe
10/03/2009 - New York, NY - Cake Shop w/ My Teenage Stride, Pow Wow! & Raise High the Roof Beam
10/17/2009 - Troy, NY – RPI (GZ Basement) w/TBA
11/3/2009 - Ewing, NJ – College of New Jersey WTSR 91.3 Presents Show

East Village Radio

2009-08-16T11:42:00.001-04:00

Hello!

We will be appearing on the guilty pleasure show on eastvillageradio.com tomorrow night The show airs form 8 to 10 and we'll be popping by from 8:30 to 9:00 t play som songs off the record and other tunes.

Click the Listen Live link at the top left corner
http://www.eastvillageradio.com/shows/djprofile.aspx?uid=208

WXPN and Sleepwalking

2009-08-12T00:07:00.002-04:00

The good people at WXPN in Philadelphia have kindly chosen 'Sleepwalking' as their Morning Download for today. You can grab it on their blog here....

http://wxpn.blogspot.com/

CDs Are Here! Tour dates!!

2009-08-10T22:13:00.005-04:00

Hello. Sorry to be out of touch for a bit, we've been keeping busy with lots of things as we get ready to release the album in just a few short weeks. We'll fill you in on all the release-week excitement when it gets a little bit closer... in the meantime we've announced the first batch of dates for our fall tour, so have a look and see if we'll be playing anywhere near you. More of those to come. OK. See you soon!

08/29/2009 - Brooklyn NY - Union Hall ALBUM RELEASE SHOW!
08/30/2009 - New Paltz, NY -Rhino Records (outside)
09/05/2009 - Boston, MA - Great Scott

09/18/2009 - Washington DC - The Red and the Black
09/19/2009 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook
09/20/2009 - Raleigh, NC - Slim’s
09/21/2009 - Atlanta, GA - 529
09/24/2009 - St. Louis, MO - Cicero’s
09/25/2009 - Chicago, IL - Quenchers
09/30/2009 - Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place
10/01/2009 - Pittsburgh, PA - Howler's Coyote Cafe
10/03/2009 - New York, NY - Cake Shop

ALBUM RELEASE SHOW!

2009-06-30T18:28:00.003-04:00

We'll be throwing a big old fashioned album release show/party for ourselves on Saturday August 29th here in Brooklyn at Union Hall. Also on offer is a shockingly good lineup of some of our favorite bands and buddies - Coyote Eyes, Spanish Prisoners, and pow wow!

Pretty awesome. We'll be playing 2 more shows prior to the release, but this is the one we really can't wait for... probably because it means our album will finally be out!

Advanced tickets have just gone on sale and we're going to be giving away a special lyric&photo booklet to people who buy the album that night and who purchase their tickets in advance. You'll need the confirmation number/email you get from Ticketweb... so just print that out and bring it along to the merch table.

You can get your $8 tickets now through Ticket Web

See you soon!

RCRD LBL + Club NME show!9

2009-06-25T14:32:00.004-04:00

The nice people at RCRD LBL wrote a pretty sweet preview of the record and you can download Sleepwalking there as well!

Check it out!

Also, we're playing Club NME at the Annex tonight. It's another early one. We're on at 7:30 sharp. See you there!

The Album

2009-06-24T05:04:00.003-04:00

Hello Hello

So today Jere and I went and dropped off the masters of our album for manufacturing. A year of our lives spent recording, and a year before that spent writing, all distilled into 44 minutes of music and a fancy cardboard package. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but now it's 5am and I just got home from work and i'm tired and it seems pretty important. The thing is completely out of our hands. I've always wanted to make an album. I'm the sort of person who still buys CDs and vinyl and listens to them from start to finish. I guess that makes me old fashioned and also sentimental, but that's fine. I consider recorded albums to be a very special, important, and beautiful things -especially when they're good- but until now have failed to create one myself. Every band I have ever been in has only made EPs or singles. Actually, that's not true, my band in High School made a full album that I recorded on a 4 track cassette recorder called "Mile 71 Saves Christmas" (Mile 71 being the name of the band.) But that doesn't really count, so i'm still going to consider this one a landmark..

Anyway, what i'm trying to say is ... our album is called 'And We Wake Up Slowly, it'll be released on September 1st, and i'm pretty fond of it.

Blood Pressure live

2009-06-10T15:32:00.005-04:00

Thanks to our pal Derek for this live mp3 of the song Blood Pressure from a recent show. Not bad for the third attempt to play it live. The sound is pretty good considering I think he recorded it with a spy microphone hidden in an ice cube.

Mercury Lounge Tuesday Night

2009-05-25T00:46:00.002-04:00

Hi there.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Union Hall last night. We had a lovely time playing for you! If you're still not satisfied, or missed Saturday night's show, you can come by Mercury Lounge on Tuesday the 26th where we're playing bright and early at 7:30m sharp kicking off a pretty solid bill. See you then??

Leo Maymind and Myself Interviewing Each Other

2009-05-20T13:40:00.004-04:00

The people over at the blog Ear Farm were kind enough to post a beautifully rambling back and forth interview between Leo from Spanish Prisoners and myself. It's solidly entertaining, and you just might learn something.

http://earfarm.com/features/daily-feature/wednesday/3201

Our bands are both playing this Saturday at Union Hall in Park Slope. Doors are at 8.... I believe Spanish Prisoners play at 10 and the JC at 11. See you there.

We are living in Spicy Times people

2009-05-14T21:39:00.004-04:00

'This Summer' now on myspace

2009-05-11T23:20:00.002-04:00

Hey all,

We just posted 'This Summer,' a new track off of our upcoming album 'And We Wake Up Slowly' up on myspace. Have a listen! It's one of my favorite tracks.

Also, we have two shows coming up at the end of the month: Union Hall on Saturday the 23rd, and Mercury Lounge on Tuesday the 26th! More details to follow! Come one, come all!

Yay!

Out of the City on Myspace

2009-04-06T22:19:00.003-04:00

So unbeknownst to me, Will went ahead and posted Out of the City a new track from our upcoming album on our Myspace. Like, two weeks ago. I didn't know. But you should check it out.

Myspace.com/thejaguarclub

Thanks for the Cake Shop!

2009-04-06T12:34:00.003-04:00

Thanks for everyone who came out to Will and my acoustic set this Saturday! It was really fun.

Special thanks to The Living Sea and Dead Leaf Echo for being amazing! We really look forward to playing with both of you guys again in the near future, with Jeremiah in tow this time.

For those of you who missed the set, we played:

Where No Wild Things Are

Future Sounds

Out of the City

Antarctica

This Year

This Summer

Perfect Timing

I just noticed that This Year and This Summer have really similar names. Weird. Well, we made a recording of the set so maybe we'll put some stuff up soon if it sounds alright. Sweet!

A Bit Of The Road

2009-04-02T23:07:00.002-04:00

Hey all,

I know this is a bit late in coming, but we wanted to thank each and every one of you who came to our shows this past weekend!

Let's just recap:

Day 1

We met up at our rehearsal space in DUMBO around 1:30pm on Friday afternoon with our bright red rental van in tow. Actually, I was the first one there so it was my job to move all our shit out of our room and down a long hallway without anything being stolen, which was rad. We made it down to Baltimore at around 6ish and loaded into Metro Gallery, where we met up the rest of the bands. It was great to see the boys from FFHH again and a pleasure to meet E. Joseph finally. We went out to dinner with our friend Felipe who took us to this crazy ass restaurant called XS, which is built on four levels. Yeah. It must suck to be a waiter there.

Baltimore is a strange city. We were standing outside the club with some of our friends when this random dude came up to me and gave me a plastic bag with two Natty Bo's in them. That's National Bohemian - a Baltimore beer that's like Genny Light if you are from upstate NY. Anyway two of our friends just cracks them open and starts drinking them on the street because the police are "too busy preventing real crime." Sweet.

After the show we went out to eat again, because we are like that. We went to this crazy ass diner with toys and mannequins glued to every conceivable surface. It was raining pretty hard at this point, but I didn't really give a damn because I'd been drinking. Then we went to Flippy's house to sleep. And by house, I mean gallery because Felipe actually lives at an old factory that's converted into an art space. A band had just played a show there and all their stuff was still set up on the stage, which had thick carpeting. We decided to sleep on the stage because the carpet looked so inviting. Jera decided to put on some Band of Horses to go to sleep to, but Will kept on telling him to turn it down. That's all I remember.

Day 2

We woke up on the stage, which was really weird. Will said something like, "In my life I always wake up on the stage" or something like that. We drove to DC and Jera and Will walked around for miles and miles while I had lunch with some friends. We met up around 3:30pm with our friend Kyle and the four of us went to the National Geographic museum, which is basically like, if you took a bunch of photos out of back issues and blew them up and put them on a white wall. It was pretty sweet.

We were supposed to load into the Red and the Black at 6pm, but when we got there, they wouldn't let us in until 7. This sucked. Then, while we were trying to find a place in front of the club to park the van, and I got told to fuck off by some girl who stole our parking spot. I hate her.

Special thanks to Mary Bragg, Paperhaus and Loose Lips for putting on an awesome show! The place was super packed and it was super rad! I again got kind of drunk (well maybe super) at this show. It seems to be a trend. Anyway, the best part of the show (well no, the worst) was right at the very end of the last song, Will's pedals freaked out and there was no sound coming out of his amps, so Will threw his guitar on the ground! Sounds so rock and roll and sweet but actually, it's his favorite guitar and he broke the neck off of it... sucks. Oh and you know what else sucks? driving from DC to Olean, NY. Yea. So we drove to Hagerstown, MD to rest up for the night. I believe I fell asleep while watching Three's Company. Did I mention that it was still raining?

Day 3

Ugh. Wake up hung over. It's my turn to drive. And it's raining. Sucks. Drove through MD and PA. Somewhere along the way, we drove through fog for a good bit and I couldn't see a damn thing. Everything was white. Then Will took over the driving and I fell asleep. Then we were at St. Bonuventure. Totally rad. We are playing with Ra Ra Riot. Thank you so much to all the dudes who helped us unload our shit! I hardly had to carry anything. I felt like royalty.

We ate dinner at the dining hall, which really was a flashback to college days. Same food, same decor.

We were super psyched to play with Ra Ra Riot. Sweet band. But they were kinda cold to us. Can't explain. Well ok, so one of the members asked me if we went to college there. That's all she said to me. That's it. Did I mention that the bar had 75 cent beers? Did I drink? Hell yes.

It was great to be able to play a full set for the kids tho - last year we play for about ten seconds before a hurricane destroyed the stage and threatened to kill us.

We drove to Binghamton to stay the night at yet another motel 6. We actually ran into Ra Ra Riot at a gas station somewhere along the line, but that part of the night was a bit hazy for me. I think I chugged a beer at that gas station... I fell asleep while Jera and Will drank beers. I think Will was dry-humping me at some point.

Day 4

Wake up. It's still raining. We went to a drive thru Starbucks. Weird. And we stopped at a whats it called? It's like a crackerbarrel but it's some dude's name. Anyway, we get back to DUMBO around 12pm. We unload everything and I hop on the subway back home. Weird. It's like none of it happened at all.

Sleepwalking/Blood Pressure EP!!!

2009-03-31T20:12:00.008-04:00

Howdy!

We're pleased to be able to tell you about our fine new EP, offering you 4 brand new songs by The Jaguar Club. In physical format it is presented as 2 separate CD singles - each with their own amazing never-before-heard B Side. The two A Sides are both taken from our forthcoming album.

The packaging was painstakingly (and lovingly) crafted by us over many late nights. It's a cloth bound miniature book type of a deal. Very classy.

There are only 100 copies of the double CD format and while supplies hold out they can be obtained at shows or right here...

Order straight from the source using PayPal or credit cards and we'll send it straight out to you promptly. CD's are $9 including shipping via USPS.

If this is all a little too 20th century for you, then please feel free to purchase the songs digitally from our friends at AmieStreet.com

Enjoy!

Bell House Etc.

2009-03-18T23:47:00.004-04:00

Hey so if you don't know yet, we are playing a show at the Bell House tomorrow. Come one, come all!

Sorry about the laughable state of our Facebook page. They are giving me some shit about trying to prove that I have the right to post music on the site.

Anyway, we finally mastered our new album this past weekend. It sounds pretty damn good. It should be finalized in the near future so we can finally be done with it and and show it to the greater world outside our very limited inner circle.

Be very excited about this...You can finally stop listening to to our last EP and telling your friends that we are "working" on a new album. yay.

We'll see you all tomorrow evening!

The Shop Is Open!

2009-03-18T03:23:00.003-04:00

I've just realized my lifelong goal to sell something online... well, as soon as the first person buys something I'll have realized it. Let me just tell you that nothing feels quite like building an online shop at 3:30 in the morning while listening to American Beauty. Pretty sweet...

So far we have our classic "Ceci n'est pas..." Jaguar T-Shirts in stock and very soon we'll be adding some more shirt designs and CDs. All products are of high quality and will be priced competitively I assure you.

a show and a song

2009-03-12T01:48:00.003-04:00

We're playing at The Bell House here in Brooklyn next week, which is a lovely newish place from the good people at Union Hall. Show is a week from today, Thursday the 19th, and is part of a series they do called Chirpy Chirpy Cheap Cheap - which roughly translates to "3 bands, a $5 cover, and free Brooklyn beers from 7:30 to 8:30." Not too shabby at all.

The Bell House's website is also currently the only place (outside of Yoi, Jere, or myself's itunes) where you can hear a brand new song from the new album called This Summer. It's in the fancy little player thing on the front page. Check it out.

OK... lots of good stuff in the works that we can type about real soon!

http://www.thebellhouseny.com

We are now on Facebook

2009-03-04T23:28:00.002-05:00

So I'm in the midst of putting together our Facebook page, which is going to take a few days because a) I'm technologically devolved and b) because Facebook made me send them a copy of my driver's lincense so they can a) let me post our songs and b) they can steal my identity.

Stay tuned...

Some March Shows

2009-03-03T23:48:00.003-05:00

Hard to believe it's march already, but apparently it is. We've get a handful of shows coming up this month that we're pretty excited about:

3/19 in Brooklyn at the Bell House
3/27 in Baltimore at Metro Gallery
3/28 in Washington DC at The Red & The Black
3/29 at St Bonaventure University w/ Ra Ra Riot

See you soon!

Mixing 101

2009-02-25T17:10:00.002-05:00

Here's a lil' video from our recent trip upstate to finish mixing the new album. Its called Mixing 101, but it's really more of a "how to stave off the bitter cold with fun and beer 101" Enjoy.

The Jaguar Club on iLike - Get updates inside iTunes

Finished Album????

2009-02-25T03:36:00.000-05:00

hey all,

been a long time in coming but we just finished mixing our new album up in new paltz this weekend. aside from a few minor adjustments and mastering, we'd say this thing is damn near completion! which is a big huge thank fucking god for all of us because we've worked oh so hard on this album and put so much time and money and mind-numbingly cold temperatures and beeramids to finish it. we're waiting for jeremiah to get back from upstate with the mixes so we can all huddle down in a dimmed room with candles and cheep beers and critique the shit out of it before we send it in for mastering.

we had a very exciting weekend with malone upstate mixing the final eight songs and eating progresso soup and almonds and i think managing somehow to consume 66 beers. will and i had the complete opposite sleeping schedule since he works night and i work days...it's like being in a marriage where one spouse gets up to leave in the morning while the other one is getting to bed... i missed him.

jera was busy overdubbing some honky-tonk piano while we managed our domestic disputes. and he kept on calling the bass a "dad guitar" which is apparently from TV.

will and jera played an epic game of chess which ended in a stalemate because jera apparently doesn't know how to kill a lone king.

i was prone to falling asleep at the most inconvenient moments, like in the middle of the day.

we'll keep you posted on the album!

yoi

Bloggy

2009-02-25T03:23:00.003-05:00

Hello,
So this blog page is the first step in a larger-scale website fixer upper project. The inks should all work, but most of them still go to the relevant pages from the old site. Everything should be up and going and new within the next week or two though so keep coming back! We just got back from the studio with a more or less finished record, so now I don't have any more excuses to not get this site in top shape. Hopefully in the end this new site will let us be a lot more active on the interweb, wherever we may be.