Banda Macho!

Banda Macho!
L to R: Sam, Mike, Luke, Nato, Matt

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Karaoke New Year's Eve, January Tour To Texas

Hi everybody, Nato here. I've got a quick two-parter for you here.

Number one, we are down to our last one or two Live Band Karaoke requests for New Year's Eve at the Hexagon, so if you're planning to sing something you'd better jump on that asap! Email requests to natopaisano@gmail.com.

Second, our tour to Texas and back... it's on! I posted some info here; keep checking back for more specifics as we get closer to those dates. Not only are we excited to get out of Minnesota in the dead of winter (if only for a few days), this will be the first time the BDB has toured in Texas! So, if you're out there in the Lone Star State, keep a lookout for four scruffy guys looking for the afterparty. Oh, and Braden Franklin (Arkansas all-star drummer for our August/September continent-wide tour this year) will be filling in for Mike Cranberry, who will be busy not shovelling.

Allright, take it easy!

-Nato

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Live Band Karaoke on New Year's Eve, and other things

Hi everybody, just checking in this mid-November with some small bits of news from our Blue Diamond Land department.We've been working on new songs, and playing a few shows here and there. Nothing big is planned until our January tour to Texas and back (dates will be announced soon for that). Nothing except...

Live Band Karoke! Yes, we're bringing that back. And while it's not going to be a full night like it normally is at Grumpy's, we are definitely going to have time for 10 or 11 or so awesome requests from Twin Cities-area folks who want to sing something on New Year's Eve at the Hexagon. Yeah, that party is for real. Looks like the Frozen Teens and the Teenage Moods are playing, too. I'm pretty sure there's even another band. Party on!

So, email your song requests to natopaisano@gmail.com. Again, we have time for around 10 requests, maybe one or two more, so this will probably fill up fast.

And hey, here's something: we're starting to practice with a keyboard player these days, with the eventual goal of playing some shows as a 5-piece guitar-guitar-bass-drums-keyboard arrangement! This is some deep-in-the-laboratory stuff, however, so just be advised that we could end up surprising you with an extra member the next time you come see a Blue Diamond Band show.

Allright, have fun out there! Hasta la pasta, caballeros and caballeras,

-Nato

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Lone Justice

Hi everyone. Hope you're having an enjoyable autumn season, as the leaves turn, a pleasant chill enters the air, and Mr. Autumn Man comes out of hiding.

First off: I went and did it. Finally, you can download our new album Promises To Deliver from our bandcamp page! Click on over there and do so, if ya haven't. So as not to undercut our labels, we're asking $8 for the digi-download. And we thank you very much for that! Speaking of Promises To Deliver and the fine folks who did the dirty work of actually releasing it, if you're looking for it on colored vinyl... there are 6 copies left, which you can mailorder from Dead Broke Records. There used to be many, many more, so if you plan on getting one, you may want to act fast!

There are a bunch of shows coming up, listed over there on the right. Check 'em out, especially if you live in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Iowa, or Florida. Tonight, we're playing the benefit for Brody Sotana and Connor Dukes's families, so on the off chance that you're reading this update on the afternoon or early evening of Thursday October 17th... come to the Triple Rock tonight! You can't ask for a better cause than helping out here.

Have you bought your tickets to Gainesville Fest 12 yet? It's coming right up! We're playing Fest Sunday afternoon, opening up the Lucero/Drag the River/Whiskey & Co. rock'n'roll circus at Wooly's. We "officially" start at 3:30pm, but if we aren't too hung over and get moving, who knows? Maybe we kick off a little earlier... also, on Wednesday, October 30th, I'm playing a little ADD Records corporate luncheon showcase with the usual suspects. So, if you're in Tampa and rarin' to go, come see me and probably Sam Beer strum some tunes!

As far as long-term stuff goes, well... it might be irresponsible of me to speculate, but I am an irresponsible fellow so I'm going to do just that. It does look like we're going to tour south to Texas and back in January. And speaking of Texas, we'll eventually get a split 7" with The Distressers (ex-Occult Detective Club) released. Somewhere down the line. Last thing: looks like a very good chance of a round of Live Band Karaoke on New Year's Eve at the Hexagon in Minneapolis. When that's official, any interested parties will be made aware.

Oh, and you're probably wondering why this post is called Lone Justice? Oh, no reason, that's just the band I was listening to when I wrote it, and I couldn't think of anything else to call it. They do a cover of "Ways To Be Wicked" that is just... wicked rad! Allright, that's all for now,

-Nato

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Back In Mpls: Much To Rake In The Fall

What a summer! I can't believe how much touring we did. People were making fun of me at a show last night for being gone so much. Dang. And you know, we're not done travelling, nowhere near it, we'll be running around the Upper Midwest all autumn and winter, and we've got plans for January that would take us to warmer climes for a week-plus (can't disclose details yet, though). Anyway. After 5 weeks of road partyin', we made it home in one piece - despite the week after Awesome Fest Siete having a couple pitfalls, the tour ended on an extremely high note in Russellville, Arkansas, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri. But hey... oh, once more for the record: Braden Franklin kicked ass on drums all tour long. We were so happy to have him with us! A great guy and a great character.

Awesome Fest VII was so brilliant, people. So fucking cool! We were there on Thursday night for our Pre-Fest show, and then for the Real Deal (tm) on Friday and Saturday (and a little bit on Sunday, just hanging out before our drive to Las Vegas). Here are some photo highlights, and also first a cool video from Eager Beaver Records (not sure which member of Worthwhile Way actually filmed this, so thanks to all of you, and kanpai itsumo, itsumo kanpai!), here we go with "Julie (Hang Out A Little Longer)" and Braden Franklin on the drums!


Mike Cranberry played the second half of our set, by the way. Our set was such a blast! Thanks to everybody involved in Awesome Fest 7, and the good people at The Void (the club we played). You know, I'm sure that people took plenty of awesome action photos of us at AF7 (send 'em to natopaisano@gmail.com or just tag us or something), but there are two photos that sort of sum up everything for me. First, this picture of me eating THE BEST FOOD ON THE PLANET, that is to say Mexican food (fish tacos) in San Diego! (Photo by Dan Anguiano, thanks to Harry Jerkface for tagging me so I could remember this memory)...


Seriously, look at those fish tacos (99 cents each from Vallarta on El Cajon). Look at that IPA of some kind (it was too loud to hear what the bartender said, but he definitely poured me something hoppy). Awesome Taste VII!

And then there is this picture of Sam, which is probably going to win him TIME Magazine's Man Of The Year award...


Am I right? Anyway, thanks SO MUCH to everybody who came and saw us on this insanely long Promises To Deliver Tour Part II! And really, almost half the summer was spent on the road, trying to reach ya, so if you caught us anywhere out there, thanks to you, too. We'll be back! And right now, we're playing lots of local and a few regional shows, so you Upper Midwesters will have a chance to catch us if ya need one.

That's all for now,

-Nato Coles & the Blue Diamond Band

p.s. ADD and Dead Broke are going to repress Promises To Deliver soon. If you're the sort of person who wants to make sure you get a copy of the first pressing, you better get you one soon! Also, Dead Broke Distro still has some colored vinyl available for ya, but they're running out so head on over!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

A Mid-Tour's Afternoon Update

Hello, citizens of the Republic of Rock And Roll! Nato here, your loyal public servant, checking in from City Mouse HQ aka Miski and Mono's apartment in Riverside, CA. Me, Kyle, Sam, Braden, and Matt are having a great time! It's been fantastic out on the road this summer. Most of the shows have been top-notch. So many kind people, friends old and new, have helped us out! And noteworthy also is that Promises To Deliver has been flying off the merch table - sometimes literally (no, that was a Used Kids LP in Portland actually). Luckily, Mike from Dead Broke can re-up us in San Diego tomorrow for AWESOME FEST... Awesome Fest 7, of course, is why we're on this crazy long roadtrip in the first place!

So let me try and recap what has happened so far. On Monday August 5th, we woke up and drove all day and into the night from Minneapolis to Russellville, Arkansas. That's where we met Braden Franklin, our drummer for this tour (Mike Cranberry couldn't do this one 'cause of work issues, but he's still our number one home drumdude in case anyone was wondering - and he will be at AF7). Here's a scene from our first show a couple days later. You can almost see his entire head in this shot! Whatta scoop.


Then it was time to roll out! We headed over through Chattanooga, had a late-night Jack Palance Band dance party loud enough to wake folks from there to Dalton GA, and went on down to Florida. Braden was drumming GREAT. Every show in Florida was awesome in its own way. I've really been digging the "Dale And The Careeners" album, so it was great to see the metamorphosized Grabass Charlestons turn into The Careeners and rock it! We had wanted to hit the southeast this summer in case we were pressed for time around Gainesville Fest later this year, so to those of you who came to see us in Gainesville, Tampa, St. Augustine, Atlanta, Athens (Happy Birthday, Derek!), and Asheville: thank you so much, and hopefully we can do this again in late October/early November, but if we can't - you made the right decision! And we will be back in the southeast as soon as we can. Here's a picture of the tattoo Sam Beer got in exchange for a gift certificate with which someone purchased a copy of Promises To Deliver.


Yes, that's Princess Leia done Sailor Jerry style, or thereabouts. He got that in Gainesville. Meanwhile, in St. Augustine a couple days later, we met friends at a Mexican restaurant called Playa Chac Mool, and I ended up jamming on guitar with the owner, Javier! We did "Here Comes The Sun" and then a 12-bar blues. Maybe my favorite set of tour?



We played Chicago's Township Bar, and then drove all night to have a full day in Minneapolis! It was nice to chill out for a moment. And then it was time for Dave Strait Fest, also known as Fuck Dave Strait Fest. We were only there for our Saturday show at the Triple Rock, but a ton of bands played, including the Future Virgins! I love that band. It was a fantastic party all-around. Here's a picture of us, playing Dave Strait Fest! Look at Braden, he's pretty damn good...



Onward to Sam's old home: Grand Forks, North Dakota, where we played possibly the coolest dive bar in America - The Hub. Minot was next, and trust me, if you're ever passing through Minot, make sure you check out the Souris River Brewpub - great pizza and craft beer! We have so many friends in Minot, that night was a true highlight of tour. Braden made this happen:



Then came Montana, perhaps the most beautiful state in the union. Billings, then Missoula. Missoula! We had such a great time, at the show (maybe the best show I ever played in Missoula in any band I've ever been in), and then Marty's house for an afterparty hootenanny. Townes Van Zandt definitely was rolling in his grave that night.

The Pacific Northwest welcomed us with open arms - our buddy, CJ Frederick, put on not one but TWO spectacular shows in Seattle for us, plus we got to reunite with old buddies Big Eyes (played with 'em) and some of the Trashies (did not play, just hung out). Seattle in the summertime is probably the best place to be, weather-wise, on the entire planet! Bellingham, WA was a fun time too, and it was nice to get back to a town I'd not been to since the Modern Machines days. Here's some jerk blowin' harmonica onstage at The Kraken in Seattle.


Down in Portland Oregon, we played with Divers, who are one of the best bands around right now. No exaggeration. Highest recommendation. Club 21, the place we played, looked like a bar in the north woods of Wisconsin! And Jon Hanson, that old dingus, was seen live and in person! After that was Chico, where we stretched our set out and worked up a couple new ideas and songs (including "I Miss My Records", which we were getting requests for and were up to that point not sure we knew. Braden knew it without a practice. Whoa.). And then the Bay Area...

We drove to San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge, and went straight to the beach (it was cold!), where we celebrated our arrival by donning jackets against the "cold summer night" breeze and blazing one in a small cove accessible only through a dark tunnel and treacherous climb. The Knockout treated us wonderfully, as did the Mission District burritos. The next day, we walked around the Mission, then went to the Muir Woods and marvelled at it all. Redwoods are impressive, folks. Oakland was fantastic, Max "Jesse Cody Trashie" Nordile made a great flyer!



Yes, like the flyer says, we played with Courtney & the Crushers, and the Chuckleberries. And Russell Quon, their drummer as well as iconic icon of punk rock, had this to say to us:

"You are a breath of fresh air."
-Russell Quon

Wow. Also, Danielle Bailey took this picture.


The next night was Awesome Fest Pre-Fest in Pomona, CA. Vince Lombardi High School never lets us down! We played an all-star lineup with Shellshag, Lipstick Homicide, Upset, and Crow Bait. Marty Ploy is THE MAN. What a rad night! And we stayed in Riverside, and we woke up, and I wrote this, and now you have just read it! Who can say what awesomeness awaits in San Diego? Stay tuned to find out! See you down the road...

Tacos,

-Nato Coles & the Blue Diamond Band

Monday, July 22, 2013

Tour Dates Are Up

Hey hey! The dates for our second-half-of-summer tour, which we're calling Promises To Deliver II: To Awesome Fest 7 (and beyond) And Back, are up now. In fact, they're over on the right hand side of this website! Check them out.

Are we coming to your town? Well, this tour goes from Arkansas to Florida, then back up to Minneapolis, across the north to Seattle, south along the coast to San Diego, back across the mountains to Denver, and across the plains back to Arkansas. There's lots of America there. Hopefully we'll get to see you and hang out! If not... let us know that you want the BDB to come through wherever the hell it is you live, and we'll try and hit your city, town, or island manor next time we jump in the van.

For this tour, our good buddy Braden Franklin from Russellville, AR will be subbing for our home drummer Mike Cranberry. Braden's the man! We met him when he was playing in Half Raptor, who were an excellent band and who are missed. Keeping us all in line will be our man Matt Campbell, who has roadie'd, merch'd, and otherwise been awesome on most of our previous tours.

Last but not least, don't forget that all Nato Coles & The Blue Diamond Band shows are doubly enjoyable when you know the songs on the new album. Yup! Get that thing from ADD Records, or Dead Broke Records, or wherever you like, really. Download it for free if you must! You're taking away our spiced salmon cakes and handing us dumpstered bagels when you do that, but dumpstered bagels still get the job done and the most important thing is to ROCK OUT.

Allright! Hope to see you on the road this August and September. Stay free, folks. Tacos forever,
-Nato

p.s. some people were asking me to link to my recent interview Minnesota Public Radio interview. Not many; some. Here it is: Nato Coles interview on MPR

Friday, June 28, 2013

A Quick Bit Of Download Codes News

Hey everyone, real quick: if you bought an album from us and it didn't have a download code, well that was our fault. But now! We have them.

Email natopaisano@gmail.com for a download code, if you bought an LP and want one. If you didn't buy an LP, it would be unethical to ask for a free download code, wouldn't it? Not that we'd hate you or anything, we've all cut corners here and there in our lives... just be nice to us, ok? Thanks.

Tour's awesome! See y'all out there,
-Nato

Friday, June 21, 2013

Summer Is Here, And So Are We

Hey everyone! Nato here, on this hot summer afternoon, writing to you from a bunker buried in the heart of Dinkytown, Mpls. We have our new LP available now - Promises To Deliver has arrived!


On Saturday June 22nd, we're playing two record release parties: an early one at Hymiue's Records (3820 E. Lake St, Mpls. 3pm. All-ages. With Lutheran Heat), and a later show at the Turf Club in St Paul (1601 W. University Av, St Paul. 9pm. 21+. With The Frozen Teens, and The Right Here). You'll be able to get your copy of our new album on LP at both shows.

The CD version, which Eager Beaver Records from Japan (along with ADD here in America) is putting out, will be available soon. For now, we have a ton of download codes which you can use to put a digital version of PTD on your computer or iThing or whatever.

There's been a little bit of cool buzz around this thing, as well. Yikes, Minnesota Public Radio even took the time to talk to me! In the "Press Box" section of this blogspot/website (on the left side of the screen), I've added a couple links to interviews and reviews. But for the sake of convenience, here they are, front and center:

MPR interview with Nato and article

Hymie's Records reviews Promises To Deliver

CityPages's Gimme Noise interview with Nato and article

Anyway, enjoy the weather, get some good outdoor stuff in when it's nice, maybe find a porch to watch the thunderstorms from at night, and we'll see you soon - after all, we're touring the nation this summer and we know you're out there. Thanks for supporting this band, everyone. We really appreciate it and we love you all. Be excellent to each other, follow the Bent Outta Shape Code Of Ethics, and I'll see you in hell.

Tacos!
-Nato

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Bent Outta Shape Code Of Ethics

As you might be aware if you've listened to it online, we cover a song by the late great Bent Outta Shape on our new album Promises To Deliver called "Rudes And Cheaps". All well and good. Today, while doing whatever it is I do, I stumbled across something I had all but forgotten: the Bent Outta Shape Code Of Ethics. I highly recommend adopting it as your own... at least for the Summer of 2013...





In case you can't read any of them, that's:

  1. Just Gotta Level (with 'em)
  2. Stick to your guns
  3. Don't tread on me
  4. Don't tame/be tamed (no taming)
  5. Let your true colors shine
  6. Sometimes, ya gotta get ripped (off)
  7. Must yearn
  8. Don't make a stink
  9. Smetimes you gotta make a stink
  10. Gotta get a grip
  11. Roll with the punches

Tacos,
-Nato

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Free audiostream of PROMISES TO DELIVER available now

Hi, here's a quick check-in. For those of you inclined to such activities, you can now stream our new album, PROMISES TO DELIVER, in its entirety for free courtesy of Scene Point Blank!

Just click the link, and you'll sail away into relatively uncharted sonic waters (uncharted 'cause not too many people have heard the record yet...!)

PROMISES TO DELIVER on Scene Point Blank




Monday, May 20, 2013

Promises To Deliver

Hi, Nato Coles here, representing Nato Coles & the Blue Diamond Band (naturally).

It's official! Promises To Deliver, our first proper album, is ready to go! The record will be available on LP and CD, and is a three-label release split between ADD Records (who have done all our 7"s thus far), Eager Beaver Records (in Japan!), and Dead Broke Rekerds.

And I am very excited to announce that the third of the three labels, Dead Broke, has created your go-to page for streaming some of the songs from Promises To Deliver. Click the link to hear two new tracks: PROMISES TO DELIVER!

Now, here's a picture of us pretending to be a totem pole, at the Turf Club one night.



Allright, all that aside, let me say one or two more things about this album. Promises To Deliver is a nine-song, 36 minute record made up of songs I've written over the past few years - some newer than others. It's the first proper album I've made in a "Nato-and-the-band" context (as opposed to albums with the Used Kids, Modern Machines, etc.), but it shouldn't be treated as a solo project. Mike, Kyle, and Sam all had tremendous input and impact on the record, and we would have a very different (and I think inferior) final result if it had been made by session musicians who weren't truly part of the band. We already want to make another.

Counting Promises, I've now been a part of five full-length albums, as well as an 8-song 12" 45rpm (record fans can argue over whether 12" 45's count as albums or not, it's one of the classic rock'n'roll arguments). This one took longer to make than most, and cost a little more, too. I don't regret that - I've never played on a record that sounded so good! (Thank you, Jacques Wait.) I guess I wouldn't have minded some Hammond B-3 on the tracks, but the Blue Diamond Band didn't have a keyboard player when we wrote and recorded this, so we decided to stick with the instruments we actually play live. Feel free to add your own keyboard parts to the thing. We might one day, too.

If you count yourself in that population of folks who consider themselves fans of my music over the years, then I sincerely thank you for that, and I hope that you like our new album, and I hope to see you singing along with some new songs in some basement or bar out there, not too long from now. We'll be touring a lot this summer, and we're going to make it to just about every region of the USA. See you then! As always, stay free and be excellent to each other, and I'll see you in hell. Tacos,

-Nato Coles


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Maytime Update (and album news)

Hi everyone, Nato here, chirping like a spring songbird with some random May news for ya. It's finally warmed up in the Twin Cities (no more long underwear at the ballgame), and everyone's going nuts! So are we... in the near future, we're playing a show at the Hexagon on May 17th (it's someone's birthday party, who what why?), and then a really cool all-day party that functions as part of Nordeast Mpls Art-A-Whirl at The Plex: PER PLEXED FEST! Here's the facebook event link: PER PLEXED FEST!

And we've scheduled an official album release! Holy moly, the beast is finally coming out, and we have some details... it's going to be nine songs long, and the title is Promises To Deliver, which is a song on the record that sort of ties the whole thing together real nice.

There will be an all-ages record release show at Hymie's Records in Mpls at 3pm on Saturday, June 22nd. And later that night, we'll have the big rockin' record release night time-is-the-right time party at the Turf Club! Bands playing both will be announced soon. We're also in top-level negotiations to have a pre-release party somewhere special on Thursday June 20th, too, with all manner of surprises in store.

Last but not least, as you can see on the upper-right-hand portion of this website: we need a touring drummer for our east coast tour, which begins June 23rd in Milwaukee and ends July 7th in Madison. If you're feeling like this is something you'd be into, please get in touch! Email natopaisano@gmail.com.

Tacos,
-Nato

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Back From Japan

Hey! We just got back from Japan, me and Logan did. And it was a blast! We played a ton of rad shows, enjoyed hanami (celebration of the cherry blossoms in spring, with booze) under the sakura (cherry blossoms), saw a million great bands, enjoyed a puro yakyu (Japanese pro baseball) preseason contest between the Yokohama BayStars and the Orix Buffaloes, ate a bunch of sushi (sushi) and tempurah (tempurah) and other stuff, climbed Bizan (Mt. Eyebrow) above Tokushima... well, there'll be some photos soon. Maybe even a tour diary.

But in the meantime, the Milwaukee Brat Fighters have disbanded... for now... but one day, we will ride again! Across Japan, or across the USA, the Brat Fighters will never die.

(l. to r. Shotgun Satoru, Kaibutsu, T-Boy, Horace Wilson)

In other news, our split 7" with Your Pest Band is out now. Get it from us at shows, or from ADD Records. And the LP is completely mixed and off to be mastered! That's pretty cool, eh?

Allright, spring is here, let's party! Later dudes.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Hello From Japan!

Logan Stang and myself have landed in Japan! Hello there. We're just chillin' out at our friend's house (T-Boy from Your Pest Band - Satoru is here too), eating rice clumsily with chopsticks and listening to the Parting Gifts and Otis Redding. Today is our BIG PRACTICE. It's really big, because if we suck, we'll be banished to the island of wind and ghosts.

Here is a picture taken by T-Boy of me, Logan, and Satoru. Satoru is holding up our special "Milwaukee Brat Fighters" t-shirts. You can't quite see it... but anyway, here we are


Check out our tour, on the right hand side of this page. We're pretty much sticking to central and southern Japan. For this tour, we are adopting the Seibu Lions are our puro yakyu team of choice. Gambare Lions! Gambare Hiroyuki Nakajima, #1 Shortstop In Japan!



See ya later...

Friday, March 1, 2013

March News - Brat Fighting The Man (and more)

Evening, everybody. I hope you're all having a good March. Me? The jury's still out regarding the overall month, but the first day was pretty cool. Anyway, I've got plenty of Blue Diamond Band News to report this time around. So, read on up and take notes if you need to. We've been busy, folks.

First off: our split 7" with Your Pest Band is officially OUT! You can order it from ADD Records (www.addrecs.com), and I do recommend doing so if you don't live in the Twin Cities region (for obvious reasons), or whatever particular part of Japan that Your Pest Band are from (possibly Tokyo? Tokyo is huge, that's not specific enough). And, if you want to hear it, well, here ya go - click away!

Four sweet jams by bands with the word "Band" in their name...

And here's the cover art:


Let's see, what else... Our album release date has been pushed back to May, and it'll most likely coincide with some TC-area show or other. The gears of justice grind slow, but they do grind fine albums. (Fine grind albums, even.) The mixes we have sound awesome!

Once the album is out, we'll be hitting the road for a week or two in June, mostly to points east. Ohio, NYC, those kinds of places. Look for a much longer tour - including our first real West Coast road trip - in late July and August.

And, that does it for this update. Thanks to everybody who came to our Grumpy's residency shows - we all had a great time (and so did the bar)! Looks like we'll be back for the next Black History Month. And expect another Live Band Karaoke in the not-too-distant future...

Tacos,
-Nato

Monday, January 21, 2013

Achtung, St Louis!


Hi there, everybody! Happy MLK Jr. day. It is very cold in Minneapolis, which means I'm sitting inside at my computer, and it seems like as good a time as any to talk about some cool stuff we've got coming up. Specifically: this upcoming weekend, we're going down to St Louis to play this funky weekend jamboree! This "Stay Retarded Weekend" fest was put together by Dudes Magazine, and features a ton of great bands including Masked Intruder, Tight Bros, Sass Dragons, Lipstick Homicide... well, just look at the flyer, you can read can't you? The shows are at Lemmons, which is a great club and has excellent pizza, too.

Anyway, Friday night's show is really cool (although that night we will be in Normal IL, because St Louis is far away and we wanted to play a show en route), and we're playing Saturday night. If you're anywhere near the area, I recommend getting a two-day pass and going to both shows! But since you're technically reading the Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band website, which means technically you are interested in our goings-on, then be aware that we are playing Saturday night, right after a Bruce Springsteen cover band (because Nighthawk understands irony), and right before Masked Intruder.

In other news, our Grumpy's residency is right around the corner, and here's the official art (looks great, Haze - the resemblance is uncanny!):