Banda Macho!

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

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Xmas News Update (And Details Of Our Grumpy's Residency)

Hello, everybody! Nato here, on Christmas Day Night, taking a break from playing with the three dogs who live at my parents house to write you a big old update on the Blue Diamond Band's upcoming (and even recent) activities.

I'm playing a few solo sets over the next two weeks - in Milwaukee, Brooklyn NY, and Columbus OH. Then, the band will be popping up here and there around the upper Midwest in January, so keep an eye out.

Ok, on to the good stuff. Grumpy's Bar in downtown Minneapolis has booked us for a residency, every Saturday in February. We'll be playing two sets each night, but to make each night special, we've asked some friends of ours to join us on the various shows. And we're going to make each night a little different as well, with special events and the like. Check the show listings on the right side of the page for more info.

Most important, on Saturday February 18th, we are going to try a project called Karaoke with the Blue Diamond Band! Here's how that works: You pick a song, maybe something you've wanted to sing with a band but never got a chance, and let us know that you want to sing it by emailing natopaisano@gmail.com (put the word Karaoke in the subject line). In the message, let us know the song, artist, and particular version if necessary. Depending on how obscure your request is, it would be helpful if you include a sound file of the song - any quality will do.

We'll take the first 11 or 12 requests that we think we can pull off in the order we get them, learn them, and then on the night of February 18th, we will be your backing band on the song you've chosen! Hopefully, this will be a fun and awesome (and hilarious) kind of show, and if it works out, we'll definitely do it again.

Click the link to read some guidelines describing what kinds of songs we'd be willing/able to learn...

Friday, November 18, 2011

Quick Update

Hey, here's a very quick update for you all. First off, if you're a resident of the Twin Cities, you can look out for our new 7" as well as our split with King Friday at a couple local record stores... currently they're in stock at Extreme Noise and Hymie's in Minneapolis, and soon we'll have them in a few others.

And you should definitely click over to natocoles.bandcamp.com, because there are a few more songs up there as of now, including the outtake from our new 7" called "I-94" which is currently unavailable pretty much anywhere else...

Second, there are now quite a few more upcoming shows listed here, which we're really excited about. While Mike Cranberry is on tour with The Manix for late November and much of December, we won't be playing much, but as you can see to the right, we've got a lot of great Blue Diamond rock'n'rollage ready to go when he gets home! Also, Nato is playing a few solo shows near the end of December, including one in Brooklyn! So if you're out there, come say hi! (All requests will be honored if at all possible.)

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Back Home

Hey everyone, after a nice vacation down to Florida and back that we like to call the Grab Them Cakes Tour, Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band have arrived back in sunny Minneapolis and we're ready to get to work on a few things. First and foremost, now that our new 7" (available from ADD Records, check out addrecs.com) is out and available at record stores around the area, I suggest you buy one. And spin it. And turn it up! And then chuck it out the window and buy another one! Ok, maybe not that last part. Anyway, we're really proud of it.

In one of those crazy twists of fate, Nato was interviewed by the BBC World Service while on tour in Cincinnati! Check out the article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15549728.

Let's see... how did the tour go, you ask? Here's a recollection from each day of tour.

Friday October 21st - Normal IL at Firehouse Pizza Pub: It was a triple MPLS bill: us, the Slow Death, and Arms Aloft*! The bartenders were so generous, especially with Jameson's whiskey, that St Paddy Costello (playing bass with the Slow Death) had to be carried out, and as he was dragged away, he shouted "FUCK A PLACE THAT GIVES YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT!!!" *Arms Aloft are technically 3/4ths from Eau Claire WI.

Saturday October 22nd - Chicago IL at Street Side Cafe: The entire band agrees that this was our best show in Chicago that wasn't Windy City Sound Clash 2010. Adam from Night Brigade joined Nato for a cover of "Atlantic City" by Bruce Springsteen, and later during Night Brigade's set, Nato returned the favor by plugging in for a punk rock version of "Dancing In The Dark".

Sunday October 23rd - Columbus OH at Ace Of Cups: The Nervosas blew our minds! And later, Matt C (roadie king) accidentally broke his knife and sliced up his finger while trying to break into an abandoned school... he was fine though.

Monday October 24th - Cincinnati OH at MOTR Pub: The BBC thing (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15549728). Then we went to Peyton from Vacation's house and listened to records under the influence of many cocktails.

Tuesday October 25th - Atlanta GA at Gravity Pub: The bar didn't even know the show was happening... but with the aid of our local buddy Goose, we MADE it happen. Never say never, folks.

Wednesday October 26th - Orlando FL at Uncle Lou's: Great party with our friends in Landlord, Street Eaters, Teenage Softies, and the Cougs! And great Cajun food from down the street.

Thursday October 27th - Tampa FL at Transitions Skate Park: Well, we'd been partying and socializing all day at a house show, so things looked dicey for a second, but we think when we played our quick set we held it together nicely (we didn't hear otherwise...). And we closed out the night with delicious food from the Taco Bus at Nebraska and Hillsborough.

Friday October 28th - Gainesville FL at Fest X: Finally got to see our split 7"-mates King Friday! Great set.

Saturday October 29th - more Fest X: Day of our show! It was great and wild! Danny from Used Kids/Modern Machines played bass on "An Honorable Man", and at the end of the set, during "Running From The Law", Nato was chased by a Hot Cop (who looked suspiciously like Matt C) across the bar - literally, ON the bar at times - and around the building! Nato escaped though and came back to finish the set.

Sunday October 30th - last day of Fest X: CLASSIFIED.

Monday October 31st - no show in Athens GA: Our show fell through, but Sam and Nato did some people watching at Three Kings Bar in downtown Athens GA. The best costume? Maybe the guy in the Tron suit with helmet, complete with working lights. Or "The Comedian" from The Watchmen graphic novel? Hmm.

Tuesday November 1st - Carbondale IL at PK's Bar: We played every song we knew, and some we didn't. Nato played a short solo set too, including covers of Johnny Cash and the Groovie Ghoulies. Lots of draft beer and a damn fine time.

Wednesday November 2nd - Cedar Falls IA at The Space: Last show of tour was tight and cool, with a fun crowd. When we left Minneapolis, we had exactly one sweatshirt for sale... and at this show someone bought it! We drove home afterwards.

FIN

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Play Loud!


Hey everybody, our new 7" has arrived! This is the front cover, of course. It's a two song record, the A side is "Play Loud" and the B side is "Runnin' From The Law". In addition to the tracks on wax, there's a download code included with every copy with which you can download a third tune "I-94", our ode to the most relevant interstate highway in our lives up here in Siberia.

If you'd like to order a copy of this record, visit the ADD Records website at www.addrecs.com. There are still copies of our split 7" with King Friday available too.

And in other news, our tour starts tomorrow, and we're ready to roll! See you down the road, my friends.

Tacos,
-Nato

Monday, October 17, 2011

Meet Matty Awesomeless, our Temporary Bassist For Tour!



This is Matty Awesomeless. He plays in some other bands you should check out, such as Serenghetto (Mpls), but for the tour we're about to embark upon, he will be subbing for the scholarly Kyle Sando (who is busy being studential and stuff like that). So, if you're gonna see us
soon, you're gonna see him soon! Say hi, buy him a taco, whatever. He rules!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Grab Them Cakes

Hey, we're ready to announce our tour dates between Minneapolis and Gainesville and back! Well, most of them. We're still working on a couple "tba" dates, but hopefully we can erase those in the immediate future.

So, without further ado, here's where we're gonna be, when we're gonna be there...

10/20 - Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis MN
10/21 - Firehouse Pizza Pub, Normal IL
10/22 - Street Side Bar, Chicago IL
10/23 - Ace of Cups, Columbus OH
10/24 - MOTR Bar, Cincinnati OH
10/25 - tba
10/26 - Hoops Tavern, Orlando FL
10/27 - Prefest at Transitions Skate Park in Tampa FL
10/28 - partying in Gainesville!
10/29 - Durty Nellys, Gainesville FL (official FEST X show)
10/30 - partying in Gainesville!
10/31 - tba
11/1 - PK's, Carbondale IL
11/2 - The Space, Cedar Falls IA

GRAB THEM CAKES!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Can't Complain

Hey everybody, here's an update for ya. While the world goes to hell in a shitbasket everywhere else, Blue Diamond Land is actually a relatively sane and sanctuary place to be, if you don't mind the occasional hangover. In other words, I don't have much news to report. But I can recap what's been going on already...

Our new 7" ("Play Loud" b/w "Running From The Law") will be out on October 18th, and conveniently we're playing a release party/show at the Triple Rock Social Club on Thursday, October 20th for it (with Frozen Teens and Braver). That's also going to be our tour launch kickoff, because we're starting a two-week tour that night down to...

...Gainesville Fest X, where we play on Saturday October 29th at 9:30pm at Durty Nelly's. Yeah!

The official tour dates will be posted some time in the next few days. But if you live between the Twin Cities and Florida, you will probably get a chance to see us. Anyway, drop us a line if you're bored, maybe we can detour on over to your town! (Hint: if your town is in northern Georgia, this is extremely likely).

Later!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

New Website Time

Hello, everyone. Nato here. The time has come - hell, the time is way overdue - for an official Blue Diamond Band website, and in the words of either Michael McDonald or Kenny Loggins: This is it. But in case you actually want an explanation, here goes...

For the html-ignorant folks such as myself, there was a time not so long ago (starting in about 2002) when Myspace worked quite well as a band's main internet home. Sure, the design was flawed, but it wasn't so flawed that the casual user couldn't visit a page and hear a song or two, read a band's bio and info, check out photos, and other stuff like that. Almost more importantly, the ubiquity of Myspace among bands allowed those bands to easily communicate with each other using the Myspace messaging system. And so, for awhile, things worked well. I recall hearing (and making) many, many complaints about Myspace, but the bands kept on using it to meet, greet, make friends, book shows, book tours, and all the rest. The system sucked. The system worked. And so it went.

Then along came Facebook. I think you'd have to be pretty insane to argue that Facebook wasn't about one thousand times better for person-to-person communication than Myspace, so I won't go into that. The problem that arose for bands, however, was that Facebook was and is awful for the specific kind of internet activity that bands need to do. Although the ability to communicate has been varying levels of decent, the actual online pages that bands can create on Facebook are absolutely insufficient. Worst of all, bands can't write messages specifically to other bands on Facebook. All in all, for bands and musicians, Facebook fails mightily. Meanwhile, in Myspace's attempts to keep up with Facebook, it has become an utter and complete mess, a pain in the ass to update, and since people and bands check their pages far less frequently (if at all anymore), useless for band-to-band communication.

So, I created this website. It's not perfect, and right now it's pretty bare bones, but it'll hopefully become a much better way for fans and friends to keep up to date and in touch with Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band and my other projects, plus provide a better online resource and experience for anybody who is destined to check us out for the first time somewhere down the line.

Bear with me. (Hope it doesn't maul me).

Tacos!

-Nato/BDB