November Post-Fest XI Update

Well, hi there. Thanks to everyone who came out and saw us on our great tour down to Gainesville Fest 11 this year! You all really made this one a fantastic tour. Speaking as a longtime Fest-goer, it is often very hard to book good shows in and around Gainesville just before and after Fest, because of how many other bands are also looking to get similar shows - which thus clogs up the clubs and show spaces, ya know? Well, anyway, this tour went swimmingly! Thanks again. To all the cities that want us back: after our album comes out this winter, you'll be hearing from us for sure.

What's next in Blue Diamond Bandland? Well, our split 7" with Your Pest Band is just around the corner, and meanwhile, we're mixing our full-length right now. So, keep on hanging around, and soon you'll have some new Nato Coles vinyl for your spinnin' pleasure! We also have a few local shows coming up - keep checking this website for info, the shows end up listed here eventually.

Here's an interview our friend Aaron Lay from Gainesville did with Nato just prior to Fest. Note the prediction that the Giants would win the World Series - people, don't bet on baseball, but if you do, always bet on starting pitching and defense.

And here's an interview Nato did with the Bloomington-Normal Groove. One correction: they got the Tom Petty dates wrong in the first two paragraphs. It was 1992, and during the "Into The Great Wide Open" tour, when Nato (age 11) first saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Last thing for now: here's a photo of Nato playing guitar on top of a van in a parking lot late on night at Fest. It was awesome! Probably didn't need the sunglasses, though...

Tour Dates are here... and Karaoke is coming up!

Hello everybody, Nato here with a two-pronged Blue Diamond Band news dump. In reverse order of coming-up-ness:

1. We have officially reached our maximum number of Live Band Karaoke requests for Friday October 12th. We're sorry if you wanted to sing, but can't. Next time, jump on that football before it squirts away from the scrum.

2. Here are the days and cities for our Gainesville Fest 11 Tour (more details are available in the "Upcoming Shows" section of this website):

• Thu Oct 18th - Minneapolis, MN
• Fri Oct 19th - Milwaukee, WI
• Sat Oct 20th - Cincinnati, OH
• Sun Oct 21st - Lexington, KY
• Mon Oct 22nd - Asheville, NC
• Tue Oct 23rd - Athens, GA
• Wed Oct 24th - St Augustine, FL
• Thu Oct 25th - Tampa, FL (two shows)
• Fri Oct 26th - hangin' out at Gainesville Fest
• Sat Oct 27th - We play Fest 11 at Durty Nellys
• Sun Oct 28th - hangin' out at Fest some more
• Mon Oct 29th - Atlanta, GA
• Tue Oct 30th - Memphis, TN
• Wed Oct 31st - Carbondale, IL
• Thu Nov 1st - Russellville, AR
• Fri Nov 2nd - St Louis, MO
• Sat Nov 3rd - Normal, IL

Allright, hope to see you at one of these shows, or more! Stay free, muchachos...

p.s. we finished recording our full-length! Gotta tighten a few nuts and bolts, but a release date should be right around the corner...

Late September Blue Diamond Digest (LIVE BAND KARAOKE ROUND TWO!)

Hi there, citizens of Blue Diamond Land. Hope you're enjoying the onset of autumn, generally considered the best time of year by those in the know. We've had a lot of rumblings to report lately (not just from the burritos), our volcano monitoring equipment is starting to beep and buzz, and so without further ado, here's your late September digest (digest=those burritos again).

1. Live band karaoke is happening again! Email us your request (punk/garage/good old rock'n'roll/good old country preferred), and maybe we're not too incompetent to learn it in time for you to sing it - backed by Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band, naturally - Friday October 12th at Grumpy's in downtown Minneapolis! The list is getting up there... we're going to try and do a few more songs than we did last time (in February, if you recall), but you should really email us your song pick soon if you wanna sing! Email natopaisano@gmail.com.

2. We'll be touring to Gainesville Fest and back from October 19th to November 3rd. We're hitting some old favorite cities of ours, and checking out some new ones, too. The tour dates will be posted in "Upcoming Shows" later this week.

3. The recording for our debut full-length is nearly complete - but our split 7" with Your Pest Band (that you might not have known about?) is officially done! That should be out in November. The songs that will be on it are "High and Drivin'" and "I-94". Road songs. Drivin' tunes. Keep on truckin'.

4. We've got plenty of fun shows coming up in the Twin Cities area and the upper Midwest, so hopefully we'll be hitting the city you live in sooner rather than later. As always, if you're looking for us to play your town, please get in touch! We always love checking out new City Zones.

Well, the Brewers are now 3 games back of St Louis in this crazy new 2-team Wild Card race, so it's do-or-die time for the boys in yellow and blue. You can bet that I'll be tuned in with both ears and all nervous brain cells right up until the end, sweet or bitter, so GO BREWERS! and thanks for reading this late September digest, folks. Tacos,

-Nato/BDB