The Official Blog Of THE ELMS.

ALL THAT FALLS SHALL RISE AGAIN

Hey, all.  Happy Autumn to you.

First off: huge, HUGE thanks.  "The Great American Midrange" has been out for almost two weeks now, and we were excited to get the word from MGMT a few days ago that we had the best opening week sales of our career.  Even made the Billboard Heatseekers Chart.  And... this happened WITHOUT the help of a major label, such as EMI, or even... Universal... you know.  So again - thank you.

Release Week was a bit nuts.  The 14th of September, we had a special Early CD Release showcase with our good friends from 92.3 WTTS FM at Creation Cafe in downtown Indianapolis.  Cool place located along The Canal.  Played the first of what would be 4 stripped-down little combo sets that week.

The next one was the following morning on the Bob & Tom Show.  Tom, Bob, Chick, and Christy Lee were incredibly gracious, and we were glad to be on the show for a second time.  Good, funny-as-hell people.

Two CD Release Parties at Best Buy - one on street date at their location in Castleton (NE Indy), and the other in Bloomington the following night.  Kinda shocked at how many people already knew the songs and were singing along.  If you came out to one of them, thanks for making them extra special.

We got a new booking agency as of a few weeks ago - Monterey International based in Chicago.  Already, they're filling up our calendar at breakneck speed, and we couldn't be more thrilled.  Looking forward to working hard on the road this year, hopefully seeing you all at some point.  Very much anticipating our upcoming Texas run.  If we roll into your town, come hang!  Click HERE to see the SHOWS page on TheElms.net.

A few days off here.  Everybody is still winding down from all of the record release madness.  Until yesterday morning, I still felt a bit fried from finishing up TGAMACOUSTIC, but got a chance to sleep-in, and then listened to the acoustic record from start to finish for the first time since signing off on it three weeks ago.  And now I feel like I can finally move on from it.  I'll get better at this sort of thing (recording) as time goes on, but for the time being, I'm happy with how it turned out.  Also happy that it's done, and glad that people seem to like it.  In the near future, I feel like a TGAMACOUSTIC blog is due, because there are several people that I need to give a nod for helping me out along the way. 

COLTS season is underway again here!  We're 2-0 so far.

All of the street signs in downtown Seymour got a Teutonic transformation for Oktoberfest. 

Overcast grey sky days are back.  The coffee everywhere has been good lately.  It's time to get out the Iron & Wine, Elliot Smith, and Bob Dylan records.  What are your favorite Falltime albums?

By the way... the new Pearl Jam record is fantastic.  Glad to have at least one band in 2009 that I can still believe in.

I feel like I've already overused the word "thanks" in this blog (anybody keeping an official count?), but seriously... we can't thank you enough for making our Release Week nothing short of heart-stirring.

Much love.  Talk to you soon.

-- Thom

Busy finishing the acoustic record, so here is a photoblog from Owen.

-- Thom

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Greetings, all. Enjoy a few glimpses from our last month of travel, and some other things. I can't believe the new record is out next week. -OT

This is the way they do auto sales in the Badlands.

The pride of Michigan.

Soundcheck at Dow Diamond. We shared the stage with Flo Rida that day. Really.

The heavey traffifc outside Nashville can be especially dangerous.

Our favorite place to stay when close to Philadelphia.

The view of Manhattan from the MTV offices on Broadway.

Nathan looking iconic on the "B2I" video set.

A tattoo tribute from a father who lost his son to war.

My buddy's little boy needed a lip-icing after a dustup with his brother (who's bigger).

Thom insisted that I post this one.

A look at the bold Indiana sky during the video shoot.

"Oh, the things we'll do just to play for 30 minutes."

Yo... lagging behind here, I know.  Sitting at a Starbucks in SoHo with Nate at the moment - we're playing a showcase tonight at famed NYC club, Arlene's Grocery. 

The last couple of weeks have been fantastic.  I think everybody in the band can feel the momentum behind this new record, and of course, we're all excited, and ready to work really hard for the next 18-24 months of our lives doing what we can to tell everybody about "The Great American Midrange."

Back on August 12th, we played an ASCAP showcase at The Basement in Nashville, TN.  Since it was a showcase with multiple bands, we used most of the house gear already provided, bringing in a few things to supplement what they had.  We dis-affectionately call this type of show a "throw-and-go."  You know I'm a Marshall guy, but for this, I just dragged in my little Tonemaster head and 2x12 cabinet.  After we finished our first song, Owen tells the crowd, "This feels like an unplugged show!  It is, for us."  But hey... you embrace the moment you're in and make the best of it.  It ended up being kinda fun.

I've talked back and forth with Kyle Cook (gunslinger for Matchbox 20) for a few years - he's an Indiana boy, and we've got a few mutual friends.  Three minutes before we started our set, he walked up to the stage, and said "Kyle Cook" as I was saying "Kyle Cook?"  Good to meet him in person finally - cool of him to watch us play. 

The next night, we played the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis - a high honor for a bunch of Hoosiers.  Generally, I think the saying "A prophet is without honor in his own country" is true, but that night in Indy, we felt embraced and celebrated by the homefolk.  Jon McLaughlin and his boys played a fantastic show that night, too.  Good to see them.

Two shows in Michigan the next two days.  One near Lansing with the stage directly in front of a lake, which seemed like a good idea at first, but... well... Entomophagy really isn't as bad as I thought. 

Then a radio festival show for WIOG in Midland near Detroit - Lizard Fair - where we played to 10,000 screaming beautiful girls, 78% of which tried to molest Nate after our set.  Nate's a good-looking guy, and fortunately his wife is a confident, secure woman. 

Blew two trailer tires within an hour of each other en route from one Michigan show to another.  The first one, a lady in a convertible with one of her girlfriends was motioning us to let us know we'd blown a tire (which, we'd already discovered ourselves).  As we're pulling over to the shoulder to check things out, she pulls ahead and comes to a screeching halt about 50 feet in front of us, which, might not be a big deal if we were a car, but when you're pulling a few tons of gear in a trailer behind you, 50 feet doesn't exactly allow you to stop on a dime. 

Thanks to a little fast-thinking on Chris's part, he was able to maneuver so that we didn't smash into the woman's Jetta.  Smoke was all about from our brake-check - it didn't help that our ABS alert light had come on just minutes before.  She gets out of the car, smiling as she walks towards us, oblivious that she, her passenger, and her little Volkswagen almost made the newest Faces Of Death DVD.  I think she expected to be greeted and thanked for telling us we'd blown a tire, but instead, she was met with a, "We almost rammed into you and killed you - get back in your car.  Get back in your car.  Get back in your car.  Go.  Get back in your car and go."

And away she went.

In that moment, as an observer, I wasn't really sure if she deserved a little sympathy or not.  I'm still choosing ambivalence.

Long overnight drive from Detroit to Fayetteville, AR - 14 hours.  Played the Arkansas Music Pavilion w/ Peter Frampton.  Got to see a lot of my family, and even some classmates that I haven't seen in a decade or more.  Fayetteville is only about 45 minutes away from where I grew up in Missouri.  Anytime I get a chance to go back home, it's always good.  Made the mandatory stop into Gringo's for lunch. 

Came home for about 4-5 days, but didn't really have the option to rest - everybody had various stuff to do.  Owen put together final planning for our videoshoot, I worked with my friend Mike Petrow to finalize some "Strut" stems for Rockband, and Nate and Chris re-organized the van and trailer, which reduced everybody's OCD-induced stress by... 43.47%.  I meticulously crafted that figure.

Show in Ft. Wayne, IN on Friday, then a show in Columbus, IN (20 minutes away from Seymour) w/ Blues Traveler on Saturday.  Blues Traveler is one of those bands that I've always admired for coupling technical prowess with excellent songwriting.  It was good enough to share the stage with them, but even better that they took out the time to watch our set, and extended the offer for us to play with them more in the future.  Fingers crossed. 

All day Sunday was spent in a Seymour soybean field getting performance shots for the "Back To Indiana" music video, and I think we captured some really cool moments.  The rest of the video is being shot this week.  Hopefully you'll dig.  I'll blog more about it later and post some photos from it. 

Thanks for reading.  TGAM Release Day is a little over two weeks away.  Yellz heah!

-- Thom

STURGIS, SD

What's up, party people?

The fellas and I drove to Sturgis, SD this week to play shows on two consecutive days.  I think the highlight of the trip for everybody was getting to see the scenery of The Badlands.  It's almost as if God set that part of the country aside and said, "Alright, I'm going to do something very cool here, and I'm going to make it mostly un-inhabitable so that you guys can't screw it up."  And we're glad He did. 

Sturgis didn't match my pre-conceived notions of what it'd be, but that's not at all a bad thing.  Honestly?  I'd say about half of the people there were the full-on biker archetype who could kill you with their bare hands, but because of their big hearts, they instead vow to protect and avenge you (of anybody who might do you harm) by killing that person (with their bare hands.)  The other half were doctors and lawyers in their 50s who could afford to buy a nice bike and take off to Sturgis for a week.  It's ok - I liked both types.  We had fun with them all.

We played another motorcycle event a few weeks ago elsewhere, and of that one, I'll say it fit-in a little more with my idea of what makes up a bike rally.  There are things that I saw there that weekend that still have me wishing that I could get in touch with Lacuna, Inc. 

On the way out, the closest lodging we could find that wouldn't cost us $400/room was in a little town called Murdo, SD.  They had a gas station, a hotel, and a few diners.  During dinner, Nate, Chris, and I were able to walk down the middle of the main street of Murdo completely undisturbed.  I think you're beginning to see what I'm talking about. 

For about 100 miles, we saw billboards leading up to Murdo advertising the Pioneer Auto Show, but on each sign, the "P" and "i" were close enough together that they resembled a "B," so many jokes were made, and for 100 miles, the mood in the van was emotionally erect. 

As soon as we found the Pioneer Auto Show, Owen excitedly jumped out of the van to take a few pictures for you:

Nothing rusts like a Deere.

They see me rollin'.  They hatin'.

The shows were good, but I'm going to say this:  If you work for the production crew, your responsibility is to help the artist put on the best show possible.  The artist is there to entertain the audience.  YOU are there to help the artist entertain that audience the best they can.  The crew of the second show seemed to have a much better grasp of this than the crew of the first show.  Alright.  I've griped enough. 

Twenty-plus hour drive home - got back to Seymour, IN around 11PM last night, and was glad that I could flip back to the Discovery Channel and take-in a little more of Shark Week. 

But I'm spent, and taking my Saturday evening easy.  A few friends wanted to catch a show, some others a movie, and some others wanted to just hit up our favorite watering hole for a few drinks.  I wish it was in me, but instead, I'm chillin' at home, working on a few things, and probably going to throw Goodwill Hunting on in a bit (Owen played Elliot Smith tunes on the drive back home - took me back.) 

Thank you thank you thank you(!) to everybody who pre-ordered the album, re-posted the official trailer for their friends to see, embedded the TGAM Widget on their site, and/or Twittered about the band releasing "The Great American Midrange."  Some of this stuff, we can't help but notice, and just know for yourself that it does not go unappreciated. 

I'm excited that we made a strong record that industry types are responding to, and will have an excellent team to help us spread the word via radio, retail and publicity, but there's a part of me that still doesn't want to underestimate the power of viral/word-of-mouth marketing that all of you guys do.  I know I find out about most things from the people that I trust.  So again, thank you.  If you're interesting in helping us, and if you think there's something we could do to better equip you, we're all ears.  Either leave us a comment here, or feel free to shoot me a line -- thomas[AT]theelms[DOT]net. 

Cool?  Playing an ASCAP showcase in Nashville, TN on Wednesday, and then playing the Indiana State Fair on Thursday with my old roommates: Jon McLaughlin, his bass player Luke, and his guitar player Dylan.  I've missed those guys a lot - so Thursday in particular is going to be a lot of fun.  Come out and hang with all of us.

Much love.  Talk soon.

-- Thom

NEW NEW NEW NEW!

I've got good news, and I've got more good news.

First off, it's Shark Week.

Secondly, we published the newest version of TheElms.net - new color schemes and content related to the new record.

Hope everybody's looking forward to our fourth album: The Great American Midrange.  A little hard to believe that we're putting it out.  This one's been in the works for awhile.  We love it.

Here's a little movie trailer put together by the band's longtime friend, Luke Renner.  If you'd like to help us spread the word about the album, hopefully this is an efficient/effective way of virally telling the people in your circle.  Feel free to post it on whichever social media haunt you prefer.

The fellas and I are packing up and preparing to make our way to South Dakota this week to play Sturgis, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the largest motorcycle rally in the world.  Having trouble finding anything online to verify this - figures to me that most bikers wouldn't want to waste their time messing around on Wikipedia. 

Almost finished with the acoustic re-interpretation of TGAM.  As soon as we get back from our trip, Owen will tackle the vocals, then TGAMACOUSTIC will be RTM.

And since we'll be back to our M.O. of traveling around, I'll be posting here a lot more often, letting you know what's up.  You might've noticed that the other members' blogs are gone - I'll probably be handling the bulk of posts here from now on, but who knows... maybe one of them will show up and have something to say from time to time.

Enjoy the TGAM trailer!  Cheers.

-- Thom

THE GREATEST SPECTACLE IN ROCK & ROLL

So our manager e-mails us all 15 minutes ago and nonchalantly makes mention of this:

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Guys,

Wording for website and e-blast:

The Elms' new single "Back To Indiana" from their highly anticipated album "The Great American Midrange" (due August 25, 2009) will premiere on ABC-TV during the national broadcast of the Indy 500 this Sunday, May 24. Race starts at 1:00 p.m. EST.

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We'll take it.

-- Thom

HEAR YE...

08.25.09

-- Thom

RE:ITERATE v2.0

ATTENTION: If you're here for a studio re-cap, please click on "The Great American Midrange" over there in the list of Categories to the left. Should return you all of the pertinent recording blog entries.

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I keep my word.

Nathan Walker from North Carolina (currently attending Appalachian State in Boone, NC) sent this video of him taking a crack at BMYT, sort of.  Not exactly a full version, but I'm impressed that he even gave it a shot.

I consider Nathan my honorary little brother, so maybe this video is way more hilarious to me than it will be to you.

Enjoy 'er.

-- Thom

MASTERIN'...

A quick word: the record has been sent off to the mastering lab, and should be tackled on Thursday.  I've been waiting on the official word before revealing who's doing it, but for now, I'll only let out two things:

1) Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd get to have something I've played on mastered by this guy.
...and...
2) If you like anagrams, try this one:  Bub Old Wig.

There you go.

Rehearsals resume this weekend.  We gotta figure out how to translate the stuff live, you know?

My car's transmission blew up this past week, so I'm a-hoofin' it until I can find something else to drive.  Been doing my research, trying to figure out what I need/want.  I think I'm zeroing in, but if you've got any suggestions/testimonies, feel free to leave a comment.  The most important thing is fuel mileage in the high 30s / low 40s.  Avoiding Ground FX this time around.  Probably staying away from rims and rubber-band tires, too.

-- Thom

RE:ITERATE

Alright... in the BMYT Tab blog, I made a subtle suggestion that some of you should take a crack at it, record it, and upload it to YouTube.  None of you jokers have taken me on yet.  What gives? 

Let's give credit to this girl though - somebody alerted me to this.  I would fully support her going on American Idol and showing all of those chumps what the score is. 

Social Justice has never sounded so sexy.

If you've covered a song of ours, shoot an e-mail to thomas[AT]theelms[DOT]net with the YouTube link and (maybe) I'll post the sucker here.

Owen promises pictures from Seattle.  We'll put them up here, too.  Stay tuned...

-- Thom