Hello friends,
It has been a little while since we’ve written to you all and we hope that everyone is doing well. Our Mercury Lounge shows were a huge success and since then things have been winding down a bit while we get ready to make some changes.
About a month ago, Andrew Samaha, our longtime friend and bassist decided that it is time for him to leave the band and to move on to new things. Like the rest of us he has devoted a lot of his time and energy into getting A Million Years to the place it’s at now, but has hit a point where what he wants and needs is not going to work with the life the four of us have been leading. Since we know what the stresses of being in a band are, we completely understand and support his decision to move on even though it saddens us. After all, our friendships with one another are what we value most in all this.
So on behalf of A Million Year and our team, we want to wish Andrew the best in all his endeavors.
Though this news is unfortunate, the rest of us are excited about the future and where things are going to go. We are currently searching for a new bass player and are willing to explore any leads if anyone has any. We’re not only looking for a talented musician, but someone who believes in our music, is willing to give huge amounts of their personal time and energy to the band, and who will have a great time doing it. If this sounds like you or someone you know then please contact us so we can talk about it.
Aside from that, we are moving forward with our remaining 2011 schedule, including our upcoming 9/24 festival date in Albany. We have friends who will be stepping in to fill the bass position while we search for a permanent member. We are also going to finish up sending out our Kickstarter rewards very soon. The last few months have had us sidetracked but we have not forgotten about you all.
We want to say thank you one last time to Andrew for being such a central part of what have been the best times of our lives so far. And we also want to thank everyone who has supported us. By the time we enter 2012 things will certainly be different but we’re hopeful because we know we’re going to work harder than ever to push through.
Cheers,
-Keith, Andrew V., and Nick
As you may know, we’re about to play two headlining shows at the Mercury Lounge July 21 and 22 with a few great bands. Bellevue’s Finest, Whale Belly, and the Canon Logic are going to be joining us on that stage and we all got together and thought it would be really cool if we put together a mix for our friends and fans to check out. Just tunes that we really enjoy and think others should to. So, after hours huddled together in a room and deliberating over which tracks to put on it, we present you our Mercury Lounge Podcast. Let us know what you think.
Back in May we did a live acoustic session with Yahoo Music, and the videos have now gone live. Check them out.
As some of you may have noticed, our single is getting some play/posts on blogs so we figured, why not just release the thing early. So here it is. Our new single ‘No Distance’ for free download. All you have to do is give us your email address and you’ll have the mp3 blasting through your speakers in no time.
To celebrate our upcoming 2 nights in a row headlining the Mercury Lounge (7/21 and 7/22) we are releasing a new digital single. No Distance will be available for free download on July 5, 2011. We recorded it in NYC and it was produced by Shannon Ferguson (who also produced our debut Mischief Maker).
All that we ask of you is that you sign our mailing list so that we can keep you updated on everything A Million Years. Keep your ears to the ground for this one.
Our 2 night in a row Mercury Lounge headlining event is still a little while away, but we thought we’d give you all a sample of what to expect that night by uploading some tracks from our Southpaw show back in early May. This is the first time we’ve ever released live tracks so we’re pretty excited about it. Included here are a couple of newer songs as well. You can listen below but be sure to download it for free at our bandcamp page: amillionyears.bandcamp.com
one last california video since we had it kicking around. featuring another installment of the Andrew Games. it’s noteworthy that we had to play NBA Jam for hours on end to get the audio we needed.
Hey all.
On this, the night of our Bowery Electric takeover, we are ready to announce that we have been asked to headline two nights in a row at Mercury Lounge on July 21/22. This is a huge milestone in the growth of the band and we’re excited at what could happen for us. Here’s the info:
We’ve been invited to play the Mercury lounge, not once, but twice after that sold out crazy night back in February. Some details must remain secret, but what we can tell you is that we are going to play two different sets and make the two day event our most memorable to date.
If you have been paying attention to your Facebook events we are throwing a party tonight at the Bowery Electric. And you guessed it, that will be the FIRST OPPORTUNITY for you to buy tickets.
The Ticket Deal:
We are offering two day passes that cost less than the individual tickets. The catch? There’s only a limited number of these passes, so if you want one you have to get on it early!
Tickets to a single night are $10, but if you get in touch with a band member for a two day pass you’ll be getting both nights for $16.
Remember boys and girls, last time we played Mercury there were no tickets to be had over a week in advance. So definitely speak up if you want to be there.
Here are the details:
Thursday, July 21
Doors at 9:30pm
21+
Friday, July 22
Doors at 10:30pm
21+
Many more details to come soon. Including the awesome friends we will be playing with.
We all hope to see you tonight at the Bowery Electric @ 9pm.
sorry for the delay in posting about our trip to california but we’ve been a little busy lately writing new tunes and regrouping after our Southpaw gig. and now we have our Bowery Electric takeover to look forward to on May 18. but about LA…
the trip came at a time when the four of us definitely needed to get out of nyc so the gorgeous California sunshine that greeted us when we got off the plane was excellent. we made haste to pick up our rental car and get lunch at In n out burger, which if you didn’t know, is a well known fast food establishment that can turn your food into “animal” versions of itself. i’ll leave it to you to look up what that means.
we had a day before the Musexpo so we treated ourselves to a Dodger’s game. the Dodgers did not win, but we had a great time nonetheless. we learned that Andrew V really likes to do the wave.
the next day we hit the stage at Musexpo and all went well. SIR studios is just 100% professional and everything was smooth as butter. Our first west coast show was made up of mostly older Mischief Maker stuff (can I call it older? too soon?) and from what we could tell the room was completely packed. not a bad way to start off in LA.
the rest of our short time there was spent going to 80s hair metal shows, hanging out in swank hotels that we didn’t belong in, and being sung happy birthday by a tambourine playing man in an Obama mask.
we also spent a ton of time listening to really cool music so here is a playlist with some of it. starts in one place and ends up in another.
Over the next few days we’re going to be posting things from the last few weeks. To begin, here is California Smile. Performed in California. Go figure.
On May 18, we’ll be taking over the bar and the DJ booth over at Bowery Electric in NYC.
While Andrew V serves you up some drinks, I’ll be spinning some of the bands favorite music.
Nick and Andrew S will be using their time to chat with those who join us to the event as well as distribute Kickstarter rewards to those people who have yet to pick them up from us.
There will be free drinks from 9pm-10pm. I think that pretty much spells it all out.
-Keith
Some changes have been made to our tour schedule due to last minute vehicular complications and we’ve dropped some shows. We will however still be in LA this upcoming weekend for Musexpo and we’ve still very much looking forward to it.
For those of you who still need tickets to Southpaw on May 6, we’ll be here a couple more days so let us know.
Hey all,
We’ve have in our hands physical tickets to our Southpaw show. They are $10, which is less than they would be if you got them on the day of the show or online. Get a hold of your nearest band member to buy them. There is a catch though: we’re leaving for tour on the 26th of April and won’t be back until the day of our show. So that is your last chance to get them! hurry!
We’ve been invited to showcase at the 2011 Musexpo (http://www.musexpo.net/) in Los Angeles so at the end of April we are packing our bags and heading west.
We’ll be playing shows along the way but this will be the first time that A Million Years has gone this far west in the United States. Check our tour page for info on where we are going to be.
When we return we will be playing a homecoming headlining show at Southpaw (Friday, May 6) in Brooklyn with lots of friends’ bands. You can purchase tickets for that show here: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3513515
These are exciting times.
