The Honored Guests

Another year passes, literally...

2012-01-14T10:42:00.004-05:00

So almost a year to the day Russ posted on the new "something" that we were working on. That new something has turned into a couple of new "somethings" that are now plainly obvious.

JJ was working on a baby (no pun intended) and he and Jenn's baby boy will see the light of day sometime very soon (February, I think?).

Johnny got married this summer to his beautiful, wonderful, cool, exceptionally talented, etc. wife and has already secretly recorded an album's worht of tunes that may or may not ever see the light of day.

Patrick and his Aminal buddies have been absorbed into other mediums like Some Army (we'll get to them in a second) and J Kutchma's band.

Last night, Some Army, Russ, Elysse and Patrick's new band put out a 7" on our very own Breakfast Mascot Records at the Local 506. The Honored Guests were all in attendence and in the same room together for only the second or third time since we put out Please Try Again. So we got all nostalgic and started talking.

Then I got all nostalgic this morning and decided to post on a website that I'm sure only my mother is looking at now. Regardless, there is a more than minute possibility that the next update on this site might be in less than a year's time.

In short, we're still a band. We just rarely act like it. After reading all of the great press that Some Army's new 7" got this week, I am amazed at how up-to-date local journalists are on our condition. Maybe someone other than my mom is looking at this thing after all?

Needless to say, we're quite busy and we're thinking about making ourselves a little more busy. For now, why don't you all enjoy the new Some Army stuff over HERE.

what the hell

2011-01-25T08:44:00.004-05:00

are we doing?

we're making a new...something...record, EP, somewhere in between...not exactly sure yet.

lots of songs at various stages of completion. we've said that before and then not released anything for years at a time, but looks like this project will actually be finished in the next few months. after finishing so much new music last year, some of us have re-caught the recording bug.

i recently got some new toys - a suzuki omnichord, a new (used) egnater rebel 30 amp, and i've borrowed elysse's surprisingly vast collection of cheap, shitty, yet somehow awesome keyboards. so there will be some new sounds on these tunes.

we'll play some shows at some point, probably in march/april when it gets warm enough for us to actually practice in our impossible-to-heat garage.

thanks for making 2010 awesome for us. 2011 has been brutally cold so far and i haven't seen the band all together in the same room yet this year, but that should change next week - speaking of which can everyone practice next thursday, feb. 3rd?

ok, good.

Wilmington, WXDU, Durham

2010-11-10T14:06:00.003-05:00

Hi. Some stuff coming up this weekend and next:

We play Friday, November 12th at SATELLITE BAR & LOUNGE in Wilmington, NC with Aminal. Check out an article in ENCORE mag about us and the show HERE.

We play Sunday, November 14th on Ross Grady's show on WXDU - Duke's radio station - at 4 PM. I think this will actually be our first live performance on-air...or second, I think we did something live from a record store in Hattiesburg, MS a few years ago. Either way, it should be cool. You should probably listen. You can do that at 88.7 FM in the Triangle, or HERE.

We play Friday, November 19th at the brand spankin new MOTORCO MUSIC HALL in Durham with Luego and John Howie and the Sweethearts. Haven't seen Motorco yet, but everyone says it's beautiful. Looking forward to this one. We play first that night, I think around 9 or 9:30.

Also, there's a review of the Into Nostalgia EP HERE from Eric at INK 19.

Echoes in the Alleyway is 3/4 of the way to the fundraising goal for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Go there and download it for free, love our version of Doves' M62 Song, as well as some other pretty cool takes on Doves tracks, then donate a few dollars to this charity. Amazingly, The Guardian in the UK (ONE OF THE BIGGEST NEWSPAPERS ON THE PLANET) liked our track...seriously, we have proof HERE. You can also stream our contribution to this album in the Reverbnation player to the right of this page.

Rehearsal last night was good, except that Patrick and Elysse and Andrew all know how to play way too many DMB songs. After the Motorco show, we have nothing booked. Gonna get to work on finishing some demos we've been working on and figure out what the hell we're gonna do for our next release. Speaking of releases, buy our records on iTunes:

Please Try Again is HERE.

Into Nostalgia is HERE.

Thanks for listening, coming to shows, writing about us, talking about us, etc. 2010 has been a really good year so far.

ECHOES IN THE ALLEYWAY

2010-10-18T08:24:00.004-04:00

As we said before, we recorded a cover of Doves' "M62 Song" not too long ago for a tribute album to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust.

It came out this morning. It's a FREE download, though they are asking for donations through the website, and you should probably kick in a little if you like what you hear.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE.

DONATE HERE.

Take a listen in the sidebar player.

That is all.

Walter the Fish

2010-10-07T11:25:00.006-04:00

Our friend Robert Sledge came over to our studio and asked us some questions about stuff and things for Zeno Gill's new-ish blog, Walter the Fish. Go take a listen.

Shuffle Magazine had some nice things to say about us this month. I think this mostly is available in print format in Charlotte, but should eventually make it's way to Triangle record stores.

Also, we play WKNC's Local Band Local Beer night at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh next Thursday, October 14th with Aminal and Brett Harris. It's free, starts at 10 PM.

Cool? Cool.

we cover DOVES for fun / charity

2010-10-03T11:45:00.004-04:00

when we finished PLEASE TRY AGAIN, we figured it would be fun to do something that didn't involve freaking out about our own stuff...so we put our spin on Doves' "M62 Song". this is the first recording we've done with Elysse, and we're pretty surprised and excited about how well it turned out.

we did this for ECHOES IN THE ALLEYWAY: A TRIBUTE TO DOVES, which comes out in the UK on October 18th and will be a "free" download, though we (and the organizers) suggest you make a donation to the UK Teenage Cancer Trust, cause fuck cancer...especially the teenage variety. go here for more info, and check back on Oct. 18th to hear what we (and everyone else) has done.

some shows coming up in October, we'll be in touch shortly. hope everyone is well.

LOCAL BAND LOCAL BEER MIXTAPE, AMONG OTHER THINGS

2010-09-16T08:41:00.006-04:00

This is a pretty cool mixtape (mixtape? playlist...whatever) put together by Mikey Perros featuring all the bands playing at LBLB at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh this fall...it's free, includes us, Aminal, Schooner, and a bunch of other local bands that are seriously pretty awesome.

Go download it at http://www.wknc.org/lblb/

In other news, go buy PLEASE TRY AGAIN either at your local record store if you live in the Triangle, or with this little BUY NOW button to the right of this text.

Also, we've been working pretty hard on finishing a Doves cover for something that looks like it's gonna happen. More details soon. SEEYA.

BUY MORE STUFF

2010-09-01T15:41:00.002-04:00

thanks to everyone who came out saturday night. if you missed the show and the free cd, Please Try Again is now available at

CD ALLEY - CHAPEL HILL, NC
CHAZ'S BULL CITY RECORDS - DURHAM, NC
OFFBEAT MUSIC - DURHAM, NC
SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS - RALEIGH, NC

also, the Into Nostalgia EP is no longer a free download. if you missed it this summer, you can now download it on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, and a bunch of other digital distributors for just under $6. Please Try Again should be available from all the same places any day now. still trying to figure out how to sell the actual cds online...we'll come up with something and get back to you shortly.

Independent

2010-08-25T20:03:00.003-04:00

Here's the piece that the Indy did on us and the release of Please Try Again:

Indyweek.com

Can't wait to see you all on Saturday night at the 506!

Please Try Again Stream

2010-08-23T06:26:00.004-04:00

It's in the sidebar player. Enjoy and let us know what you think. From all of us here, in The Honored Guests camp, we sincerely hope you love it.

Renaissance Punks

2010-08-17T17:31:00.004-04:00

Here's a little minidocumentary we did about the last four years of the band called Renaissance Punks. We're getting really close to dropping Please Try Again and hope that this might pique your anticipation of the record. Next week we're going to begin streaming the whole record for free on this site, so check back on Monday to get your first glimpse of the record and see if four years has been worth the wait.

Track listing...

2010-07-31T15:35:00.003-04:00

Here's the final track listing for Please Try Again:

1) Paper Trails
2) Empty Pockets
3) No Holy Ghost
4) Talk Talk Talk
5) Please Try Again
6) You Can Lead A Horse To Slaughter
7) Emergency
8) Last Time Next Time
9) For Solace
10) Knights In Shining Armor
11) Opportunities

Done.

2010-07-29T10:38:00.004-04:00

oh hey. we're done with PLEASE TRY AGAIN. that's pretty cool. this is what it will look like, only it'll be on a sleeve with a cd in it. the cd will have songs on it that you can listen to as much as you care to. you can get a free copy of it at our cd release show on saturday, august 28th at LOCAL 506 in chapel hill. our friends schooner and calico haunts will also be playing that night. hooray for doing stuff.

Sweltering

2010-07-26T11:28:00.003-04:00

We've been burying ourselves in Please Try Again over the last two weeks in order to put the finishing touches on things. Russ should finish the last track up either today or tomorrow and I will finished mixing and mastering the entire thing by Friday. There is so much more to come in the next few weeks but, for now, just know that our excitement is about as high as the North Carolina summer heat. The record is out August 28th, people! Get ready.

us...live...on video...

2010-07-06T17:48:00.003-04:00

we went to raleigh last thursday and played some songs at the NBC studio for SESSIONS @ STUDIO B. it looked and sounded like this:

pretty fun. finishing Please Try Again in the next 3 weeks. seriously. it's so close.

An Indy Nightlight for the U.S.A!

2010-06-24T13:28:00.004-04:00

Here are some more nice words about our new EP, Into Nostalgia, this time from the Independent Weekly. If for some reason you haven't gotten your copy of Into Nostalgia yet, head over to the VR Presents site and hit that ish up for Freetown, Sierra Leone.

All of this, of course, is in anticipation of our show on Saturday, the 26th at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill. The show starts at 10:00 p.m. and we will be playing shortly after Western Civ gets done. Pros and Cons to follow shortly after us. We hope to see all of you there, as Landon Donovan's goal in injury time has restored our faith in sports.

Furthermore, we still have goose bumps:

Secret Ninja Review Patrol

2010-06-21T21:47:00.003-04:00

Check out what Secret Carrboro Ninja Patrol had to say about our new EP, Into Nostalgia. As stated before on this Honored Guests stream of consciousness, they have the coolest blog name ever. Beyond that, they do a pretty great job of keeping up with the crazy scene in this town that we love so much, so you should probably start following their every move.

Oh yeah, we have a show on Saturday, the 26th at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill. We'll be the second of three bands with Western Civ opening and Pros and Cons headlining. We would really love to see you there. We promise to play songs off of the EP. You might even get to meet a new Honored Guest while you're there. We'll let the suspense kill you as to what that might mean.

Here's some Pavement from the Toronto Island Festival that I (Johnny) just went to this weekend. It was the first time I had seen them in 10 years and, yes, I am rubbing it in.

To all those other stations...

2010-06-02T19:10:00.002-04:00

You can call and request for songs off of Into Nostalgia to be played at everyone's favorite NC State radio station, WKNC 88.1. And if you missed Russ's interview from last week, you can catch the whole thing archived here:

Guests Radio Takeover

Also, I hope that you enjoyed that old school Flaming Lips reference in the title. Don't know it? Get edumucaitid here with a very young Wayne Coyne in 1995: Turn It On.

The internet is amazing, right?

Be sure to turn on your Nightlight

2010-05-19T15:27:00.005-04:00

We've decided that it's time that we go out into the world and play some of the new tunes off of Into Nostalgia. The show will be Saturday, June 26th at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill, NC (The Skylight Exchange for the old-timers) with Chapel Hill's own Pros and Cons. We'll be the second in a three band bill, going on at 11:00 p.m., followed by Pros and Cons at midnight. We'll let you know as soon as we do about the first band on the bill. For more info you can go here:

Nightlight Club

or you can go hear here:

Pros and Cons. If you're not familiar, Pros and Cons is Stevie from Transportation's other band. We hope that you're as excited as we are.

And please don't forget to get you some Into Nostalgia before you get to the show. It's free and we think that it's the bee's knees.

We've done something and it's out there.

2010-05-03T08:25:00.002-04:00

INTO NOSTALGIA is out as of this morning at www.vrprsnts.com .

It's free.

That's pretty cool, right?

More Details on the Into Nostalgia EP

2010-04-18T12:15:00.006-04:00

Here is some more info on our upcoming release, Into Nostalgia:

Into Nostalgia EP

1. Hey Jude Law
2. Chasing Some Wild Sheep Chasing the Wasp Dream
3. Jimmy's a Cop Now
4. I Want You to See Through Me
5. Boy
6. Paper Cuts

The 6 song EP will be released on May 3rd. We'll have more on exactly how you can get your hands on a copy in the next week or so. The online cover of the record is above and was beautifully constructed by our favorite artist, Mr. Jerstin Crosby. If you're familiar with us, you're familiar with Jerstin, as he has done all of our artwork from day 1. Here is his site if you're interested in what he's doing: Elves Are Watching

The physical release will look slighty different because it is being done as a limited edition, hand made screen print by Jerstin. However, it will have the same general feel. We'll post that once a photo shows up in our inbox.

Please Try Again is still on the agenda and we're hoping to be done before the end of 2010. This doesn't make any sense, you say? You're right. We don't know what happened either. But we hope that you enjoy the new material. We'll be back soon with some more fun.

INTO NOSTALGIA EP

2010-04-14T23:48:00.010-04:00

We're a couple of days away from being done with a new 6-track EP. First time we will have been done with anything in a long (long) time. Feels good. RE: this pic - more people should see Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. RE: this video - Hey Jude Law.

A Short History of a Small Place

2010-01-20T21:09:00.002-05:00

Here's another videographically enhanced exerpt from our upcoming record. This time the music is from the title track, aptly entitled "Please Try Again".

Free Association

2010-01-05T19:19:00.003-05:00

We're getting creative again. Russell knows movies. I know Canada. Notice another new track, "It's Not Me You're After", playing in the background. Two parts artsy, one part fartsy.

CHASING SOME WILD SHEEP CHASING THE WASP DREAM

2010-01-02T16:02:00.005-05:00

We've put up another new track from our new record in honor of the new year. Happy 2010 - the year of the flying car! It's gonna happen!