The Thoughts

The Art of Putting Together a Good Show



Happy spring, everybody!  

We wanted to invite all of you Seattle-area people to a show next week that we’re really excited about-- here's a little back-story:

A few months ago, we received an email from a San Francisco band (whom we had not heard of) called Fox & Woman, wondering if we wanted to play with them on the first show of their west coast tour, which was beginning in Seattle on May 15th. We had been recommended to them through friends-of-friends and the surprisingly small indie-musician world (they recorded their debut EP at Seattle-favorite John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studio). Now, we receive quite a few emails (and hey, we send quite a few as well) from bands and musicians looking to set up shows; most of the time, the timing doesn’t work out, or something just doesn’t quite click, or it just doesn’t feel right (and we like ALL our shows to feel right -- I know, we’re a little picky).  

For whatever reason, I immediately wanted to say yes to Fox & Woman; not only did I love their expansive, folk-inflected sound, but something in-between the lines of their message just made me want to go out of my way to help them put on a great (Tuesday night, of all nights, usually avoided by local bands) show at the Comet, where they had the night booked.   

So we said yes, and I immediately enlisted one of my lovely and talented friends, singer/songwriter/harpist extraordinaire Whitney Flinn (she plays under the Hooves and Beak moniker), to open the show. Whitney is one of those rare talents, a person who I find it very invigorating to be around and make music with.  We’ve been wanting to play a show with her for ages, and she seemed the perfect fit in building an evening of unique, orchestral, vibrant, emotive music.     

As the show got closer and we worked out all of the details, I realized more and more how much I liked these Fox & Woman people. Their visual art is as great as their music; they are professionally-minded and they work hard; and they in turn have already gone out of their way to help us book a few San Francisco shows for our upcoming August tour.  We all liked each other’s work so much that we’re going to be joining each other on stage for a few songs in our sets next week!   

It’s rare when these things happen; just like with people, it always feels so good to discover bands that you feel an immediate kinship with.  All too often, you end up at a show where the music isn’t cohesive, the bands don’t get along, and it’s hard to draw the crowd into building a genuine and meaningful experience.  I think this night is going to be just the opposite!  We’re super-happy to be able to put on a show with our new friends, and some of our favorite local musicians. 

The short-version: we haven’t actually met Fox & Woman in person yet, but we’re totally in love with them. Come out and help us welcome them to Seattle !

The Thoughts/Fox & Woman/Hooves & Beak/Autumn Electric 
Tuesday, May 18th - 8pm - The Comet - 922 E Pike St, Seattle WA - $7/door

FACEBOOK INVITE - https://www.facebook.com/events/174421176006401/

 
We’ll be playing songs off of our new EP, Ghost, available HERE - http://thethoughts.bandcamp.com/.

The Secret Lives of Songs

Songs are such crazy things. Sometimes, they spring fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus. But most of the time, songs wander their way through all kinds of adventures before finding themselves on stage or on a record. 

Sometimes, our songs don’t even start out with the intention of being performed by us!  For example, the title track from Ghost originally began as a song called Wolf House that Ian composed for a dance piece with collaborators in New York City. Check out this video of our wonderful friends Dorian Nuskind-Oder (choreographer, director) and Alison Clancy (dance, voice)--you’ll hear echoes of Ghost in the opening sequence and then as the movement piece ends, Alison performs the first verse (the only verse, at the time) of the song. 

 

 

 

Years later, Wolf House became Ghost:

 

Behind-the-scenes of our new EP, Ghost

In a short behind-the-scenes video, Katie gives a nice little description of how she goes about creating both her music and her visual art.  In addition to all of the gorgeous string-arranging and playing, she designed and screen-printed the packaging for the limited-edition physical copies of Ghost, our new EP (available here).  The video features the closing track of the album, You, the Hunter. 

 

Speaking of videos, we also did a bit of filming in various locations through Oregon and Washington last weekend while on a little tour through the NW.  It will be a video for the opening track of the EP, Someday.  We can't wait to get it completed and share it with you!  Here are a couple of shots from the locales we visited...

Right next to the Deshutes River in Oregon, we had a nice afternoon in the desert before we played a show in Bend that evening at one of our favorite venues, the Horned Hand.

In the same area.  Old rail bed converted into a trail.  Saw a golden eagle, and a rabbit.  The eagle did not eat the rabbit.  At least not when we were around.

The next day we headed over to Mt. St. Helens while on our way home.  We're both science and nature geeks, so it was a fantastic way to end our little mini-tour.  We did a bit more filming, I sat in the snow and sang some songs. 

 

 

All kinds of newness

What a big week it's been for us--we've got a new EP, a new website, and a new slate of shows! We don't want to overwhelm you with all of these all at once, so instead, we'll just say that exciting stuff is on the way. In the meantime, explore the new website and enjoy this great view from just outside of Bellingham, WA we spotted on our way to our show at the Redlight last night. 

What should we make you?

We have a confession to make:

We've never been band t-shirt kind of people. This presents a particular problem for us, because well, we're a band and it kind of seems like we're supposed to make t-shirts in addition to making music. That's what bands do, right?

Nonetheless, we've decided to take a different approach to this whole merchandise thing. In traditional The Thoughts style, we'd like to make you something. What have you always hoped to see at your favorite band's merch table? What would be super awesome cool? What would be ridiculous but totally worth it? Anything we should avoid? And it's ok to tell us that you want t-shirts. There's no bad ideas in brainstorming.

We put a few ideas together, but what we really want to know is: what do YOU think we should make?

Seattle Rock Orchestra plays Radiohead

Hello everyone! 

If you're a fan of The Thoughts, you may be a fan of Radiohead; if you're a fan of Radiohead, and are in the Seattle area this Saturday, February 19th, you definitely should not miss this show:

Seattle Rock Orchestra plays OK Computer and The Bends

 

As in, both albums, in their entirety, with a full orchestra, backing-band, choir, and a cast of amazing guest singers from Seattle, including Jon Auer of The Posies, Jim Antonio of The Purrs, Rachel Flotard from Visqueen, John Van Deusen of The Lonely Forest, and more! 

Katie and I have both been involved in the Seattle Rock Orchestra for the last year or so (including having them back The Thoughts last fall!), and this show is no exception; Katie is playing violin, and I'll be playing guitar in the backing band.  I also had the opportunity to arrange a couple of the songs from The Bends for the orchestra. 

It will be epic, and wonderful.  Also, if you haven't heard the news, Radiohead is releasing their newest album, King of Limbs, this Saturday as well.  You can download that, hear the future of Radiohead, and then come hear two of the most influential albums of our time in full orchestral glory.  We hope to see you there!

   - Ian

Marty Riemer Show Podcast/Webcast

We had the pleasure of being the musical guests on the Marty Riemer Show Podcast! Marty, Michael, and Yaz were all super-nice, and we had a great time playing a few songs off of our new album, I Won't Keep You Here. Watch the webcast here (music starts at around the 16 minute mark) or visit http://www.martyriemer.com/01-25-2011-marty-riemer-show-podcast/ to download the podcast.

Happy 2011!

Happy new year everyone! Sorry we were so decidedly absent from our blog for the last part of 2010. We whole heartedly promise that it's not because we were lazy, it's because we were ridiculously, seriously, overwhelmingly busy. We've since recovered from months of sleep deprivation and insanity and wanted to catch you up on a few of the things we're the most excited about:

The Thoughts @ The Moore Theatre with the Seattle Rock Orchestra

It was an absolutely amazing experience to transform songs written for three people into symphonic compositions for a nearly 70 person orchestra. Thanks so much to Scott Teske and the Rock Orchestra for having us and thank you Jason Tang for the lovely photos.

 

Visit Jason's Flickr Photostream for a a great show reel.

I Won't Keep You Here

The very final piece of the new album arrived today and we can finally (finally!) declare our most ambitious project to date complete. We can't wait to share it with you!

An incredible amount of work went into this record--we spent a year in the studio working on these tracks, the good folks at The Foundry Studios patiently spent all those hours with us indulging our compulsive need for good intonation, our friends, families and fans contributed to our first fundraising effort, and collaborating artists donated their time and talents to bring our music to life in their mediums.

A special thanks to all the folks who made this record possible, especially:

 

And, there's oodles more good stuff on the way. We'll keep you posted, promise.

Little Show, Big Show

 

Hi friends.  We just wanted to let you know that we’ve got two shows coming up in the next 3 weeks; a little acoustic set at The Sunset, and a REALLY big show at The Moore theater, where we’ll be joined by the Seattle Rock Orchestra!  The Sunset show is on Wednesday, October 27th, and we will be opening the show nice and early at 9:00pm.  Come and hear the stripped down versions of our songs, and then join us on Saturday, November 13th, where you can experience The Thoughts backed by a full orchestra!  We are opening the evening with a set of our own music, and then the SRO will be playing The Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” in its entirety, along with some other great songs produced by Phil Spector, who pioneered the legendary “Wall of Sound” recording technique that was used in the recording of Pet Sounds.  There are a whole bunch of great local artists singing, including:

Jen Wood
Ivan & Alyosha
Lesli Wood of the Redwood Plan
James Lanman
Alessandra Rose
Mychal Cohen of Campfire Ok
Yuni in Taxco
Michele Khazak
Ian Williams of the Thoughts
Rachael Ferguson of NighTrain 

Tickets are available here.  Make sure and get the good seats early, the last SRO show at The Moore was nearly sold out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out our album artwork!

As many of you may remember, the album artwork for our first record, Consider the Bear, garnered nearly as much recognition as our music did. How on earth do you plan artwork for the next album when that's the standard that's been set?

Luckily, contemporary realist painter John Rizzotto helped solve this puzzle for us. Much like our collaborations with the artists working on short films for our songs, we asked John if he'd be willing to listen to early tracks from the record and respond through his medium. And...

...OH MY GOODNESS, he created this beautiful scene pulled from Ian's lyrics and the overall sentiment of the record:

Gorgeous! We are working on a new constellation logo that will be laid over the upper right hand corner of this image and embedded in the night sky. And, much like the Consider the Bear artwork, this image will be the cornerstone we build our website and other materials around.

John has a wonderful exhibition up for the month of October at Hallway Gallery, and you should absolutely go see it. John's work is witty, nuanced, and unbelivably communicative--I can't encourage you enough to go and see it in person.

You can also see more of John's work at www.JohnRizzotto.com.