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

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!):

Quick Check-in

Hey there! It's snowy in Minneapolis/St. Paul, so we're going to have a real winter this year (as opposed to last year's Long Autumn/Early Spring). I haven't posted here for a month, mainly because things have been kind of dormant. We've been laying low since the tour around Gainesville Fest, getting prepared for a Huge 2013!

First things first: the album. Yes, it's really coming out in early 2013! We're working out the details for a few cool LP release parties right now.

Second, we're doing another residency at Grumpy's in downtown Minneapolis - every Saturday night in February, we'll be playing our stupid songs (and other peoples') and drinking our smart drinks (and other peoples'). The third Saturday - Feb. 16th - will be yet another Live Band Karaoke party! Please email your requested song or songs to: natopaisano@gmail.com. Lots of other surprises are in store, too (for example, we're batting around the idea of a really "boss" cover set, heh heh). Stay tuned.

Third, my Japan trip is still on! If you live in Japan... come see us play! Howdy, Gangster.

And here's your thought for the day: