Florida Time, Promises To Deliver re-release (with bonus tracks)...

FLORIDA TIME

Hello! As I type this, I'm about 18 hours away from getting on the airplane that'll take me to Florida for Fest 14 in Gainesville, PreFest 3 in Tampa, and PreFest Invasion 2 in St. Augustine. And that's quite a lineup of Festing! Check out the links:

Pre-Fest Invasion at Nobby's! (St. Augustine) - we play Wednesday night.

PreFest 3 in Ybor City (Tampa)! - we play Thursday at 4:10pm indoors at Tequila's.

Fest 14 (Gainesville)! - we play Sunday at 7:10pm at Durty Nelly's.

PROMISES TO DELIVER CD REISSUE ON RUM BAR RECORDS

At Fest 14 (and PreFest 3), you'll be able to get your hands on something other than coozied PBR - that's right, Promises To Deliver has been rereleased by Rum Bar Records on compact disc! And not only is this the first official release of Promises on CD, we've added some bonus tracks for ya! We collected the songs from our Play Loud 7" and our split 7" with Your Pest Band, dredged up a never-heard-before outtake from Promises, and tacked on an early version of "Julie" featuring a backwards guitar solo. Trippy! 

So, click this link to our page at the Rum Bar website to get more info, and when the time comes, get your deluxe copy of Promises To Deliver at our merch table at Fest 14, or mailorder anytime from Rum Bar! Salud!

Fest 14 Is Coming...

Hello, Blue Diamond Land! I hope your autumn is going well. The leaves are turning, there is a refreshing chill in the night air, baseball teams are setting their starting rotations for the playoffs... what does it all mean? Why, it means Gainesville Fest is almost here! Check out the Official Website and get your passes now!

This year's Fest looks really, really, really fucking good. They finally got Andrew W.K., do I need to add any more info?

Actually, I do want to say a couple things. First off, Sam Beer will be playing two sets this year - his other band, Dingus, is playing Fest! They're touring there with their/our friends Braver (also from Mpls). Go see both bands in the course of your Festing, you won't regret it!

And then there's the matter of our show. How can I explain this properly... first off, playing Fest is always, ALWAYS great. But to borrow from Animal Farm, some greats are greater than others. Some years, we have looked at ourselves in the mirror at Durty Nelly's early on a Fest Sunday afternoon and wondered just how the hell we were going to go onstage in half an hour. And every time, somehow, we pull it off. The room is full of all our friends, cheering and singing along, and it feels great to be alive! Which definitely is not how we felt when we woke up.

(And then there's the time the fire alarm - and therefore the power - went off during the fourth song one year, and that was how our set ended. Despite the fact that we finished the song unplugged, me riding on a friend's shoulders around the room, which was fun, I suppose I'll admit that I would have just preferred to finish the set with electricity and no fire alarm.)

This year? THIS YEAR IS GREAT. We play Sunday at Durty Nelly's, comfortably late enough to be assured of completely conquering our hangovers. And the lineup for our show is insane. This lineup feels like the Fest mavens read my mind and discerned the bands I would want to play with at a show at Fest, AND THEN MADE THAT THE LINEUP. Look at this:

12:10 AM - 12:40 AM	Whiskey & Co.
11:20 PM - 11:50 PM	Arliss Nancy
10:30 PM - 11:00 PM	Blacklist Royals
9:40 PM - 10:10 PM	Two Cow Garage
8:50 PM - 9:20 PM	Mutts
8:00 PM - 8:30 PM	Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires
7:10 PM - 7:40 PM	Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band
6:20 PM - 6:50 PM	Ninja Gun
5:30 PM - 6:00 PM	Brian Wahlstrom
4:40 PM - 5:10 PM	Waylon Thorton & The Heavy Hands
3:50 PM - 4:20 PM	Rivernecks
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM	The Ones To Blame
2:10 PM - 2:40 PM	Those Crosstown Rivals
1:20 PM - 1:50 PM	The Record Collection

Yes, that's our show at Fest. True, we are not on the same show as Andrew W.K., but as the late great Yogi Berra once said, you can't win them all sometimes*.

Allright, get your Fest 14 passes now, and let's party onward, straight to hell and back! In other news, our live album is still slated to come out this year. Meanwhile, the excellent Rum Bar Records is releasing a deluxe version of Promises To Deliver on CD, with bonus tracks that should be out in the next month or two as well, maybe in time for Gainesville! So you'll want to monitor that situation closely. Check out Rum Bar Records's bandcamp page where you can listen to a ton of great power pop, rock'n'roll, punk rock, garage, etcetera ad infinitum. Great stuff!

Salud,

NC&BDB

*since we're talking about Florida, gotta tip my hat to The Crumbs on that quote too...

Tour To Awesome Fest IX... And Bill!

Hello everybody, hope you're well! Here in the Twin Cities, it's the hottest weekend of the year. Yeah, but we don't feel too bad, we all still remember how it was on tour in Georgia, Florida, Alabama... yeah, we don't feel too bad!

Ok, first big item: awhile back, we announced that in the (then) near future, Kyle Sando would be stepping down from full-time bass guitar duties in the Blue Diamond Band to focus on some other projects he's got cooking. Well, the passing of the bass guitar torch is now official. Bill Rohla - some call him "The Ayatollah of Rock'n'Rollha" - has taken up the mighty task of bringing the party*! Last night, Kyle Sando played a rockin' set with us, then handed Bill the bass. Bill played a shorter set, and then we brought Kyle back up mid-song during "Runnin' From The Law" to finish the song. Then we played "The Cowboy Song" by Thin Lizzy, because why the hell wouldn't we? So, we thank you, Kyle, for making the Blue Diamond Band what it was and what it is. And you're welcome onstage with us anytime!

Second, we are about to embark upon a tour, west to Awesome Fest Nine in San Diego. We love Awesome Fest and love heading out there every year to see a billion great bands, a trillion friends from around the continent and globe, and party down! Information about Awesome Fest can be found at the official website. Click now!

And check out the tour dates, here and to the right. All dates are confirmed:

Wed. Aug. 26th - Fargo, ND. Aquarium (downstairs).

Thu. Aug. 27th - Winnipeg, MB. The Handsome Daughter.

Fri. Aug. 28th - Minot, ND. Souris River Brewpub.

Sat. Aug. 29th - Medora, ND. Boots Bar & Grill.

Sun. Aug. 30th - Missoula, MT. The VFW.

Tue. Sept. 1st - Oakland, CA. Eli's Mile High Club.

Wed. Sept. 2nd - Los Angeles, CA. The Redwood.

Thu. Sept. 3rd - Los Angeles, CA. All Star Lanes.

Fri. Sept. 4th - Awesome Fest 9!!!

Sat. Sept. 5th - Awesome Fest 9!!!

Sun. Sept. 6th - Phoenix, AZ. Yucca Taproom.

Tue. Sept. 8th - Rock Springs, WY.

Wed. Sept. 9th - Denver, CO. Goosetown Tavern.

Thu. Sept. 10th - Lawrence, KS. The Replay.

Fri. Sept. 11th - Cedar Falls, IA. The Octopus.

Hope to see you out there, and to those in the Pacific Northwest: NEXT TIME! We're sorry!

*"The bass player has the party." - Paddy Costello of Dillinger Four, one of my favorite of his many quotable quotes, mainly because it's so very, very true. Bass=party. No bass=no party.