4/22/04
Ah, the road of it all! In the past two weeks the Czars have played all over the state:
We witnessed the the TWIN BROTHER funk onslaught of Fatback Circus in San Antonio on 4/9. These are the best musicians we've seen in San Antonio.
On 4/10 we drove 30 MPH down I-10 through a horrible rain/hail storm to play to a TINY crowd at Houston's Super Happy Fun Land. Despite our dampened spirits and clothes, we rocked SHFL's sock monkies as well as DJ Leon Lamont and the few regulars in attendance. We finally had and audience member who recognized the Specials "Ghost Town".
4/15 took us to Denton where they didn't take too kindly to Josh's "tribute" to Denton's indie-rock gurus (listen to "Forty Bucks"). However we managed to avoid being run out of town by playing out polka version of Metallica's "Blackened".
This is a good time to announce our new poll ---> Denny's or IHOP? Click here to email us your vote.
On 4/16 we pulled into the ghost town of Texarkana. We arrived around 6 PM and there wasn't a soul on the streets. We had the wrong address for the Living Room but fortunately, the Darkslide skate shop knew we were coming and directed us to the right spot. See Adam's new hat. The people in Texarkana must not have ever heard anything so zany as the Invincible Czars. They seemed quite sedate while we were playing but unleashed a near deafening "WHOOP!" after each song. One young fellow had to leave mid-set when we embarrassed him during the clapping section of "Jarba, Mare Jarba". Sorry, guy ---> some people just have poor rhythm. Go buy a metronome and we'll see you for the next one, buddy.
We've also accepted an offer to play at Austin's Pecan Street Festival on MAY 1 despite our alleged hiatus from Austin. What can we say? They offered us all-you-can-eat Garash Torte. We play on the International Stage at 4 PM.
This weekend we hit the studio. This will be the first of several sessions for our first album. We're going to record all your favorite numbers from our live set (as well as your least favorites) and throw in a few tunes we haven't unveiled yet. Rick will engineer the whole thing but we'll be consulting the guiding ears of Chico Jones at East Side Studios/Le Coq Noir. The whole thing should be done and ready for you to put in your CD players by late July 2004 after which we'll embark on a tour of the west and southwest that our mascot Simon has dubbed the "West by West South" (or WxWS) tour.
3-29-04
No post SXSW blues for the Invincible Czars:
We play tomorrow night at the Red Eyed Fly. This will be our last Austin show until mid-summer. If you missed our SXSW show, come hear some of the new material we're playing before we take a big break from playing in our hometown.
On March 27 our own Adam Kahan joined Graham Reynolds, Mike Hoffer and Laura Phelan for an impromptu Golden Arm Trio set for the Salvage Vanguard Theater benefit at Room 710.
And this very morning, Josh made an appearance on Austin's FOX 7 NEWS with guitarist Travis Curtin. Josh said the camera made his rear end look even bigger.
We also received a great review from Boulder, CO's Knot Magazine. Bryan Stevens was on-hand for our SXSW showcase and interviewed us after the show. See his entire article here.
3-22-04
SXSW has come and gone and now... we sleep. But after that we play all over the place. see our SHOWS page for our upcoming jaunts to the north and east.
Our SXSW showcase at the Hideout was quite an experience. We shared the bill with our esteemed colleagues, the Golden Arm Trio, as well as Denton's Falkon, previous known as the Falcon Project. We were interviewed by Brian of Not Magazine after the show. When this interviewed is printed/posted, we'll make sure to inform you.
Josh had the honor of hosting the one and only Stinking Lizaveta during the first 4 days of the festival. Adam managed to talk to almost everyone at the festival. Rick forced members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Secret Cheifs 3 and Estradasphere to take copies of our live promo CD.
Prior to SXSW, we had the most ridiculous gig at Trophy's. After the noisy electronic band before us drove everyone out of the bar, we played to an audience whose enthusiasm rivaled that of the old Trophy's - virtually nil.
Many of you have noticed that we've started playing a new tune: "Doctor's Excuse". Nathan of the ICS said that Doctor's Excuse was the best song he'd ever heard. Wow! We'll take that as a compliment from the keeper of the Fingers of Fury. We've received cheers and jeers since we dropped "The Immigrant Song" from the set and replaced it with a shiny, slightly more recent cover: Phil of Muppletone told us that he couldn't believe we replaced the Immigrant Song with "that crappy Van Halen" tune. We've also added a very SPECIAL cover right in the middle of "Bar Mitzvah in Ghost Town" that no one seems to recognize.
More new material is on the way. You'll be hearing more Mursketine-esque tunes and more vocals in the near future.
We will also NOT play in Austin again for some time after our show on 3/30 at the Red Eyed Fly (barring any offers we can't refuse from out of town bands).
If you are NOT from AUSTIN and would like us to come play in your town, please contact us. We're planning a tour that will take us to El Paso, NM, AZ, UT, CO, ID, WA, OR, CA, AZ and then back to li'l old Texas. We can use suggestions and floors on which to crash.