The Thoughts

What should we make you?

2011-03-02T22:42:45-08:00

We have a confession to make:

We've never been band t-shirt kind of people. This presents a particular problem for us, because well, we're a band and it kind of seems like we're supposed to make t-shirts in addition to making music. That's what bands do, right?

Nonetheless, we've decided to take a different approach to this whole merchandise thing. In traditional The Thoughts style, we'd like to make you something. What have you always hoped to see at your favorite band's merch table? What would be super awesome cool? What would be ridiculous but totally worth it? Anything we should avoid? And it's ok to tell us that you want t-shirts. There's no bad ideas in brainstorming.

We put a few ideas together, but what we really want to know is: what do YOU think we should make?

Seattle Rock Orchestra plays Radiohead

2011-02-15T08:16:57-08:00

Hello everyone!

If you're a fan of The Thoughts, you may be a fan of Radiohead; if you're a fan of Radiohead, and are in the Seattle area this Saturday, February 19th, you definitely should not miss this show:

Seattle Rock Orchestra plays OK Computer and The Bends

As in, both albums, in their entirety, with a full orchestra, backing-band, choir, and a cast of amazing guest singers from Seattle, including Jon Auer of The Posies, Jim Antonio of The Purrs, Rachel Flotard from Visqueen, John Van Deusen of The Lonely Forest, and more!

Katie and I have both been involved in the Seattle Rock Orchestra for the last year or so (including having them back The Thoughts last fall!), and this show is no exception; Katie is playing violin, and I'll be playing guitar in the backing band. I also had the opportunity to arrange a couple of the songs from The Bends for the orchestra.

It will be epic, and wonderful. Also, if you haven't heard the news, Radiohead is releasing their newest album, King of Limbs, this Saturday as well. You can download that, hear the future of Radiohead, and then come hear two of the most influential albums of our time in full orchestral glory. We hope to see you there!

- Ian

Marty Riemer Show Podcast/Webcast

2011-01-27T08:29:47-08:00

We had the pleasure of being the musical guests on the Marty Riemer Show Podcast! Marty, Michael, and Yaz were all super-nice, and we had a great time playing a few songs off of our new album, I Won't Keep You Here. Watch the webcast here (music starts at around the 16 minute mark) or visit http://www.martyriemer.com/01-25-2011-marty-riemer-show-podcast/ to download the podcast.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-12T21:18:31-08:00

Happy new year everyone! Sorry we were so decidedly absent from our blog for the last part of 2010. We whole heartedly promise that it's not because we were lazy, it's because we were ridiculously, seriously, overwhelmingly busy. We've since recovered from months of sleep deprivation and insanity and wanted to catch you up on a few of the things we're the most excited about:

The Thoughts @ The Moore Theatre with the Seattle Rock Orchestra

It was an absolutely amazing experience to transform songs written for three people into symphonic compositions for a nearly 70 person orchestra. Thanks so much to Scott Teske and the Rock Orchestra for having us and thank you Jason Tang for the lovely photos.

Visit Jason's Flickr Photostream for a a great show reel.

I Won't Keep You Here

The very final piece of the new album arrived today and we can finally (finally!) declare our most ambitious project to date complete. We can't wait to share it with you!

An incredible amount of work went into this record--we spent a year in the studio working on these tracks, the good folks at The Foundry Studios patiently spent all those hours with us indulging our compulsive need for good intonation, our friends, families and fans contributed to our first fundraising effort, and collaborating artists donated their time and talents to bring our music to life in their mediums.

A special thanks to all the folks who made this record possible, especially:

And, there's oodles more good stuff on the way. We'll keep you posted, promise.

Little Show, Big Show

2010-10-24T10:46:04-07:00

Hi friends. We just wanted to let you know that we’ve got two shows coming up in the next 3 weeks; a little acoustic set at The Sunset, and a REALLY big show at The Moore theater, where we’ll be joined by the Seattle Rock Orchestra! The Sunset show is on Wednesday, October 27th, and we will be opening the show nice and early at 9:00pm. Come and hear the stripped down versions of our songs, and then join us on Saturday, November 13th, where you can experience The Thoughts backed by a full orchestra! We are opening the evening with a set of our own music, and then the SRO will be playing The Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” in its entirety, along with some other great songs produced by Phil Spector, who pioneered the legendary “Wall of Sound” recording technique that was used in the recording of Pet Sounds. There are a whole bunch of great local artists singing, including:

Jen Wood
Ivan & Alyosha
Lesli Wood of the Redwood Plan
James Lanman
Alessandra Rose
Mychal Cohen of Campfire Ok
Yuni in Taxco
Michele Khazak
Ian Williams of the Thoughts
Rachael Ferguson of NighTrain

Tickets are available here. Make sure and get the good seats early, the last SRO show at The Moore was nearly sold out!

Check out our album artwork!

2010-10-07T20:39:53-07:00

As many of you may remember, the album artwork for our first record, Consider the Bear, garnered nearly as much recognition as our music did. How on earth do you plan artwork for the next album when that's the standard that's been set?

Luckily, contemporary realist painter John Rizzotto helped solve this puzzle for us. Much like our collaborations with the artists working on short films for our songs, we asked John if he'd be willing to listen to early tracks from the record and respond through his medium. And...

...OH MY GOODNESS, he created this beautiful scene pulled from Ian's lyrics and the overall sentiment of the record:

Gorgeous! We are working on a new constellation logo that will be laid over the upper right hand corner of this image and embedded in the night sky. And, much like the Consider the Bear artwork, this image will be the cornerstone we build our website and other materials around.

John has a wonderful exhibition up for the month of October at Hallway Gallery, and you should absolutely go see it. John's work is witty, nuanced, and unbelivably communicative--I can't encourage you enough to go and see it in person.

You can also see more of John's work at www.JohnRizzotto.com.

Photo Shoot!

2010-09-19T20:22:51-07:00

Last week we had the pleasure of working with photographer Justin Nunnink, who, along with filmmaker Erinn Clancy, have recently launched Shot and Cut Productions. Erinn recently completed one of the short films for our new album, and we're excited for you all to see it soon!

Justin and Erinn made a special trip up from San Francisco to work with us, and we couldn't be more excited to have worked with them. We donned our shirts, ties, and dresses, and headed out into the wilds of Seattle. The picture above is from a session we did where we were lucky to get some beautiful early evening sunlight... a rarity for a Seattle September. The weather continued to cooperate and we had a night shoot out under the moon and stars. We should have something to share with you in a few weeks!

Erinn and Justin are now on their way out to Brooklyn to set up shop, and we wish them the best of luck on the other coast.

Here's a few more pictures of pictures being taken...

In other great news, we're on to mixing the new album! We are also very happy that we were chosen to open the Seattle Rock Orchestra's 2010-2011 Season, with a show at The Moore in Seattle on November 13th! We will be backed by the full orchestra! After our set, the Rock Orchestra will be playing The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" in it's entirety!

See you all soon,

The Thoughts

What do you think?

2010-09-02T21:08:04-07:00

As some of you know, I'm of the opinion that there's nothing you can't accomplish with a can of PBR and a hot glue gun.

I've been putting both to good use working some design ideas for hand made packaging for a set of The Thoughts' b-sides (this five song collection is a special gift for folks who helped us in our fundraising campaign for the new album). The current idea involves paper cut art over a rugged cardboard shell. Here's how it's shaping up:

So, what do you think? Keep working or go a different direction?

A free song and a special opportunity

2010-05-29T11:11:54-07:00

We are plugging along in the studio producing our second album, I Won't Keep You Here, and just couldn't wait to share our work with you—we've posted a free download of Orange Sky on our page at Kickstarter.com. While we act as our own record label and self-fund the costs of making and producing a record, we've teamed up with Kickstarter.com to raise funds to go further with our next album.

We want I Won’t Keep You Here to be more than a listening experience. We want to hand our stories, our sounds, to a group of super-talented filmmakers and artists and let them create what THEY see. We have some really talented filmmakers, choreographers and visual artists lined up and ready to get to work, but we need your help! Visit our MusicArtMovement project to see how you can be a part of the project.

And of course, while you're there, download a free copy of Orange Sky. Orange Sky will be the opening track on the new record and it's luscious strings, tender vocals, and hint of tambourine make for an epic listen. Enjoy!

Harp!

2010-05-02T22:57:55-07:00

We debuted "You're Not Happy Here" at The Comet last week and received rave reviews, so we thought we'd share a little video. Enjoy!