Forward progress

I just finished burning two rough mix CDs. They're hardly a finished product, but they represent most of the songs for the new disc being at a "put 'em on a CD so we can listen over and over and decide whether more needs to be done" stage. Which is pretty exciting, really.

There's certainly more work to be done - two songs aren't on these rough mix discs at all (that's still 83% present and accounted for, though) - but it's nice to have the songs on CD finally. I apologize to anyone who rides in my car during the next month or so for the fact that you'll probably be subjected to some CST.

Matt thinks we can have the new disc out for Christmas. As long as a year isn't specified, I totally agree.

Happy Halloween!

Once I filleted my thumb while carving a jack o'lantern. This is safer:

http://www.cubpack81.com/images/carve_pumpkin.swf

Today I'm a poster post-er

Wen we're finally done with the new CD and we send it in to be printed, we'll also order a bunch of promo posters - the logic being that an actual printed promo poster somehow looks better or more professional than one printed out on 8.5 by 11 white paper. This picture was dropped by my place today - any ideas for a caption for the poster if we used it?

Take us back to summer camp, yo

The next two weekends CST will be back at Camp EWALU, leading music and doing messages for their fall junior high retreats (we're not mentioned on that webpage, I know, but we'll be there nonetheless). "Back" because EWALU is where Matt and I first met, almost thirteen and a half years ago (holy crap!).

It's a lot of fun to do these weekend retreats; there's obviously a much higher level of interaction involved in leading singalong tunes than there is in a regular concert, and we get several hours of stage time over the course of the weekend - which is nice for our performer's egos. Plus we usually get to know several of the kids and get to participate in some of the other activities and generally be part of the ministry work being done over the weekend. It's like being back at camp for a weekend (largely, in this case, because we actually will be back at camp, but we've done events like this in hotel conference rooms and the experience is pretty similar), which is lots of fun for us.

Of course, it also means that the next two weekends are shot as far as working on the new CD goes... still optimistic about a 2006 release for that!

If you're in the Strawberry Point area these next two weekends, stop by and get your feet dirty with us.

The absolute farmersest of Farmer's Markets

Why, hello there, reader(s?)!

On Monday CST will be playing at the Coralville Farmer's Market - a venue we've had a pretty consistent relationship with since they started having music for the shoppers. Thanks, as always, to the city of Coralville and to Farmer's Market director M. Hibbard for that.

We're thinking of doing a different sort of show, being the intrigued-by-variety sorts that we are. We're going to try to pull out some of our older tunes that we haven't played for a while and dust 'em off a bit. So if you're interested in hearing some little-done CST music, stop by the Farmer's Market (right by the Coralville Aquatic Center (which is itself right by the pool)) at 5:00 on Monday. Bring requests, if you like, and we'll try to play 'em or at least apologize politely if we've forgotten how they go entirely.

Storyhill

Okay, so as you know, Charlie and I are big Storyhill fans, and count them as our greatest musical influence. I've been a fan of theirs since about 1993, when I first heard their stuff. They have just finished a new CD, which for now is only available at their shows. The problem is, they don't have any shows scheduled in Iowa, so it's going to be tough (for me, anyway) to get to one.

They're apparently working on signing with a label, so the CD will be more readily available then, but I don't want to wait! So here's what I need you to do: send an email to their booking agent, Renee, and tell her that they need to add a show this fall somewhere in eastern Iowa. Another option would be to email their manager, Eric, with the same plea. Ideally the show would be at The Mill in Iowa City or at CSPS in Cedar Rapids (you could go ahead and suggest those options; they’ve played both venues before), but I'll take pretty much anything east of Interstate 35. Hopefully if Renee gets enough emails from Storyhill's Iowa fans, she'll go ahead and book something around here. Then I (and all of you, natch) will not only get to see my favorite band perform, but I'll be able to pick up a copy of their new CD. I appreciate your help!

Mud River Festival

Don't forget that we're playing the Mud River Music Festival this Saturday, Sept. 9, at about 6:00. The festival will be held at the Iowa City Izaak Walton League (take Riverside Drive south out of Iowa City, and watch for the signs). There's good music all weekend long, starting at 5:00 on Friday night.

It's really a nice way to spend a Saturday, so please, grab a lawn chair or blanket, throw a few of your favorite beverage in a cooler, and come on out!

Interesting...

This has to be the oddest profile of CST out on the web. Nice of Paul to devote webspace to us, though.

Does having it on another website actually commit us to finishing sometime in 2006, I wonder?

CST downloadable

After only four months of being told it would be "in a week or so" (sort of the same theme as our CD project, I guess), Second Whisper is now available for download on iTunes (Folksinging isn't and won't be because of copyright issues with "Catch the Wind," but the new CD probably will be... someday). I was playing the 30 second demos that iTunes offers and they seem to be intentionally selected clips - like someone listened to the song and decided what 30 second clip sold the song best. I think that's cool, although I can't really say why; nice of the Apple staff to scope our tunes, I guess.

So if you're in a buying-music-on-iTunes mood, go download yourself some CST! Now available on iTunes!

Upcoming shows

We've recently confirmed a couple shows for late summer and early fall:

On Thursday, August 24, CST will play at the Mill (www.icmill.com) in Iowa City for a Mud River Benefit show. Come downtown for some great pizza, good beer (Sierra Nevada pints for $2.50!), and good music, all for a good cause. We're not exactly sure on the time yet, but it will definitely be sometime after noon...

The Mud River Festival will be held September 8-9 at the Iowa City Izaak Walton League, just south of town off Riverside Drive. It's a great event--lots of good music in a relaxed, outdoor setting. We're playing on Saturday the 9th, probably around 5:00 or 6:00. Here's the full lineup for the Festival:

Friday (beginning at 5PM):
Nikki Lunden
Easy Tiger and the DownBoys
The Mad River Band
Saturday (beginning at 10AM):
Jay Knight
Public Property
Chrys Mitchel
Katie Roache's Reggae All Stars
Pete Ballistreri
David Zollo
Sam Knutson
Central Standard Time
Ben Schmidt
Martine Locke and Trina Hamlin
Dr. Z's Experiment
Caleb Ryder and Friends
Kevin "BF" Burt
The Mayflies

It should be a fun weekend. Hope to see lots of folks there!

Soon and very soon

So we've been saying for a good, long while now that CST's new CD will be released soon. "Soon," it turns out, hasn't meant exactly what one might normally expect it to mean. I think we first said, "The new CD will be released soon" probably three years ago. Maybe longer. Since then we've maintained that it will be "soon."

Well, over the past... so many months, we've actually made some significant progress on the new CD. We spent some time in the studio laying down tracks, and ended up with some good takes on at least a handful of our "new" tunes. I think that once Charlie is back from camp, we might actually get some more work done, and who knows... "Soon" might be sooner than later!

The problem (or rather, a problem), you see, is that with our first recordings, we had stockpiles of songs ready to go, and we didn't have that luxury this time around. Back in 1995, not terribly long after Charlie loaned me a guitar, we both had written a number of songs we felt merited recording, and we were super excited to record them! So we found some available time in a tiny studio on our college campus, went in with almost no knowledge of the recording process, and came out with a real CD! Granted, it was a pretty bad CD, and might have actually harmed your speakers when you played it, but a CD nonetheless.

As time went on, we realized that the recording quality on that CD was somewhat less than good. Heck, it was less than bad. So we decided that we were going to re-record that disc and do it right. Fortunately, a mysterious, wealthy financier came forth to pay for the studio time, so we went to This Here Studio in Milford, Iowa, and re-recorded most of the tracks off that first CD, along with a few other songs we'd written in the meantime. The results were astoundingly better than our previous effort.

A couple years later, and after we'd both continued to write songs at least somewhat frequently, we decided it was time to record again. Our mysterious financier had vanished before we could repay him, leaving us with enough cash for another trip to This Here Studio, by then more conveniently located in Strawberry Point, Iowa. We spent two full days (versus just one for the previous CD) in the studio, and again, were quite pleased with the result.

So just like that--boom! boom!--two (or three (boom!), depending on how you look at it) full-length CDs within about two years' time. Second Whisper came out in 1997 and Folksinging in 1999. Now it's 2006, nearing seven years since we release our last CD. Why the long delay for this one?

Well, life has kept us both from writing as many songs as we used to write. We just haven't had as much time. Both Charlie and I are good at starting songs, or at least at coming up with ideas for new songs. I think we both have a bunch of songs with just one verse or just a chorus, that we never got around to finishing. So it's taken us longer to build up to the number of songs we felt we needed for another CD.

I think we may finally be there, though. We both have written (or finished writing) songs within the past few months, so I think we're at the point now where we can record enough songs to finish and release the new CD.

So when will the new CD be released? Well... soon! We'll let you know when we know.

In the meantime, check our schedule (or just continue to read) for some upcoming shows. A couple are yet to be confirmed, but I think we're playing a Mud River Festival benefit show on August 24 at the Mill in Iowa City. I think we'll also play at the EWALU Alumni Weekend, probably at 7:00 or 8:00 on September 2. We're playing the Mud River Festival on September 9, probably at about 6:00, and we're playing at the Coralville Farmers' Market at 5:00 on September 25.

Stay cool and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Ever seen CST share a stage with a Christmas Tree?

I'm pretty sure we never have, so I'll assume the answer's a collective no. Which means this coming Saturday (July 22) is your lucky day, for CST will be playing a concert at Camp EWALU and lo, verily there is a Christmas tree set up on the stage whereupon we also will be. Hopefully there'll still be room for Jesse...

We played at EWALU last year, too, and it was a really fun show; good-sized crowd that seemed to enjoy our stuff and were eager to participate in the participate-y bits; camp staffs (staves?) are just fun people, in general. It's a free show at 7:30 in Cedar Lodge - here's a fairly unhelpful map showing where EWALU itself is. Hope you can make and that you're having a lovely summer and whatnot.

The River flows...

Those of you who don’t reside in the greater Iowa City area (and maybe some of you who do) may not be aware of it, but Iowa City plays host to a terrific, intimate, organic, family-friendly annual music festival called the Mud River Festival. CST has had the good fortune of performing at the last two festivals (2004 and 2005), and we’re scheduled to play again this year. We’re really looking forward to it; it’s always a really fun, relaxing event, full of great local music. As part (small as we may be) of the Iowa City music scene, we count ourselves lucky to be able to participate in these kinds of events.

The Mud River Festival is put on by a non-profit organization called the Mud River Music Cooperative, which was founded in 2001 or so to support and sustain the local music scene and the musicians in it. It’s very much a grass-roots kind of group, the brainchild of a local fan and supporter of live music, JP Claussen. He wanted to be able to go see live music with his family (including a couple young kids), and was tired of only being able to see bands in smoke-filled bars late at night. His idea was that the Mud River Music Cooperative could serve not only as a support system for local musicians, but also as a promoter of family-friendly live music.

It’s a really cool idea—music for the people, by the people, in a way. Since its inception, Mud River has hosted a myriad of family-friendly events showcasing live, local music, including monthly potlucks and jam sessions, intimate concerts at Uptown Bill’s small Mall (one of our favorite little venues), weekly open mic nights, a handful of house concerts, and of course, the Mud River Festival. They’re great events, and having people of all ages—from wee tots to grandmas and grandpas—in attendance just adds another layer of… neatness. It’s really cool to see a group of kids playing under a tree, a group of twenty-somethings tossing a Frisbee, a middle-aged couple lounging on a blanket, families and friends spending time together, all set against a backdrop of excellent music in a peaceful, outdoor setting. Sounds good to me.

Mud River—the organization AND the festival—is entirely dependent on volunteers, though. Sadly, the same small, dedicated group of volunteers has been chugging along these five or six years, and their treads are nearly worn out. There are a lot of details to attend to in order for the festival and all of these other great events to happen, and those details start to wear on a person after a while.

So Mud River needs help. Mud River needs your help. If you enjoy live music, if you appreciate your local musicians, if you’re interested in pitching in and helping an organization that has truly helped to improve our community, then please lend a hand! It could be something as simple as handing out flyers at one of our many local events highlighting live music (e.g. the Friday Night Concert Series, the Saturday Night Free Movie Series, the Iowa City Jazz Festival, etc.), or it could be helping to plan and organize a fundraising event. On more of an ongoing basis, Mud River needs folks to update the online calendar on Cultural Corridor, to send out email updates about local shows, and to write reviews of local shows. If you feel you have some time, energy or talent to offer, I’d encourage you to contact Mud River. Every little bit helps.
Thanks, everybody. Hope to see you at a show soon.

We got us a show coming up...

This Saturday night, Central Standard Time provides the pre-movie entertainment for the Saturday Night Free Movie Series on the UI Pentacrest in Iowa City. They put a big screen up on the front of McBride Hall (at least I think it's that building) and show a movie. But before this Saturday's movie, my friends, you're in for a treat! CST! Charlie, fresh (?) from camp, and Matt, fresh from... elsewhere in Iowa City. We play at 7:30, probably until about 9:00. Bring some lawn chairs or a blanket and some friends and make a big evening of it! After we wrap up our set, stick around for the free showing of Blue Hawaii, starring Elvis Presley as a guy who returns to Hawaii after a war and wants to surf. Or something. See you Saturday!

The statistical likelihood is that one day civilization will again arise...

...blah blah lemon-soaked napkins. I forget the exact quote, alas.

I was watching a video of the concert we played last summer at EWALU, and I noticed we referred confidently to the CD we'd be releasing that winter. Which is something we've been doing for a while now - I didn't check, but I'm pretty sure we've been referring to the upcoming CD in "any time now" sorts of terms for a few years now. Certainly we've been working on recording it for at least that long.

And that's the reason for our misplaced confidence, I think - we've been working on recording it for a matter of years, and we're not used to that being a long process. We recorded Whisper of Wind in an evening, Second Whisper in a long day at This Here Studios in Arnold's Park, and Folksinging over a couple of long days at This Here Studios in Strawberry Point. New disc (I've been using Fourth Whisper as a working title) has eaten up easily a week's worth of days in the studio, and we're at best halfway done. There are a couple of reasons for that.

First, "in the studio" for Fourth Whisper means recording in my new (and still being developed) home studio. So instead of having Rich Colligan's nicer studio equipment and significant experience and expertise at our disposal, we're figuring things out as we go, and that takes quite a bit longer. We've scrapped entire sets of tracks as we've figured out ways to make them sound better.

There also isn't a clock running and no $45/hour fee for studio time, so there's much less incentive to work quickly and minimize unproductive time (and we're very good at maximizing unproductive time, left to our own devices), and less reason to call an only-okay take good enough and move on. I like Second Whisper quite well, but every time I listen to it I hear things I'd have done differently, given more time. An entire day on each song is much more usual in the larger world of recording than the 13-songs-in-10-hours pace we kept for Second Whisper. Tying into that is the fact that we're very familiar with the music we're recording right now - we've been playing some of these songs live for years, so we have a clear idea of how they should sound and we're unforgiving of anything that doesn't quite match up.

Still, as has been pointed out, we're badly off our pace. Whisper of Wind was released in 1996, Second Whisper in 1997, and Folksinging in 1999; our first 21st-century disc is a bit overdue.

No worries, though. I'm sure we'll have it done in early fall.

You know you like you some Soul Hug!

Well, I’ve already asked about your favorite CST items from our store. Now I’d like to know which Soul Hug items are most popular. Take a gander at the Soul Hug store, which features an assortment of goods far funnier than our own stuff. Most of the items bear the likeness of Jesse, who performs with CST for our ministry events. He’s quite the pianist, and I think you’ll agree, trés smooooooooooooth!

Hey, sharp dresser!

So I’ve been wondering, basically since we put the site up, how many people have actually perused the lovely merchandise available in our CST store. I can look to see how many items we’ve sold, but that doesn’t really gauge interest or general curiosity, etc. I’d be curious to know which items are your favorites (whether or not you’ve actually purchased anything is beside the point). So do me a favor, if you don’t mind: go to the store, admire the wide array of stunning merchandise, and then come back here to tell us your favorites. Maybe we’ll send you one of whatever it is you like. Probably not, but you never know.

Well, if you're gonna do it, I will, too.

Seems like we might as well post a States-CST-has-visited map.



At first I was going to do a States-in-which-CST-has-performed map. This one's a little better, though. It includes states to or through which CST has traveled for official band stuff. If we included states we have sung about, we could add Tennessee, Montana and Colorado.

Valpo Heads

This weekend, as some of you likely already know, we're performing at Valparaiso University. I'm quite excited about the show; it presents us with a good opportunity to expand our fan base (ffffaaaannnn bbbbaaaasssseeee...), as we'll hopefully be playing for a bunch of folks who've never heard us before. That's an exciting prospect! If you're in the Valpo area this weekend, please stop by and catch the show! 8:00 p.m. on Saturday in the Union Roundtable (I think). It's better than watching King Kong, right?

Heck, even if you're not in the area, gasoline is certainly cheap enough that you could load up the car for a road trip. You could call yourself a... well, I'm not sure what. I was thinking of something along the same lines as "Dead Head" or "Hill Head" (followers of the Grateful Dead and Storyhill, respectively, in case you didn't already know that). What would ours be, though? "Time Heads?" "CST-Heads?" "Timers?" Hmm... None of those sound particularly cool. Any other suggestions? "Charliegans?" I kinda like that one.

Write us a set list!

Howdy. Well, in case you haven't already noticed, we have a couple shows coming up later this month. The first is on April 22nd at Uptown Bill's small Mall, a nice lil' venue in Iowa City (show time is 7:30 and cover is $3, by the by). The second is a week later, April 29, at Valparaiso University in Indiana. You should totally go to both of them!

The first of those shows will be pretty relaxed and informal, as our past gigs at the small Mall have been. It's a cozy, living room-like space, which makes a nice atmosphere for music. It's almost like a house concert, only not in a house.

Anyhoo, since it is such a relaxed environment, and should be a pretty laid-back show, I thought we should invite you, our faithful fans and readers, to create our set list. Sounds like fun, eh?

Now, I suppose it would be prudent to make some sort of disclaimer stating that we may not follow the set list exactly as its laid out for us. For instance, we might say that we reserve the right to change the order of songs. And of course, if someone decided it would be fun to add a song we don't know or can't play... well, then we might not play it.

Anyway, suggest a song. As the date approaches, we'll compile the list of suggestions and post it for your perusal. Then you can look at the list and say to your friends, "Hey, I suggested they play that song!" and your friends will be duly impressed. Good stuff.

I told John Hermanson I wanted a musical career like his and he laughed at me.

Sad but true. I was talking to him after a Storyhill show at The Mill and he asked what sort goal I had in mind for CST and when I replied that I'd be thrilled to have CST provide a Storyhill-like experience for Matt & I he laughed at me and told me I'd seemed smarter than that. Shows what he knows. Ha!

Matt and I have often discussed where we see CST going, but rarely actually brought the discussion to any sort of conclusion. If it was possible to have playing & selling music (speaking of selling music, I got an e-mail from CD Baby today telling me that the tunes from Second Whisper can now be purchased as ringtones. I'm not sure what I think of that, but I think I'd find it pretty neat if I heard someone's cell phone start telling them that a steady anchor was all that they needed) be a significant part of making our livings we'd be thrilled, but the reality of the music world is that there's a tremendous amount of legwork to be done before a band can reach that point, and most of that requires things we're either unwilling or not in a position, rest-of-our-lives-wise, to do. On the other hand, CST has occasionally brought in some money and we have a lot of time and cash invested so I have trouble thinking of it as a "hobby" really.

I don't have a point I'm trying to work towards here - as much as anything I'm just trying to get into the habit of posting - this "what, exactly, is CST, anyway?" question is one Matt and I have devoted thousands of words in e-mails to and never come up with anything. It seems immensely fundamental to the idea of calling ourselves a band, though, so it seemed an apt post subject. If anyone has any thoughts they'd like to weigh in with I'd love to read them. Meanwhile, enjoy the properly-sized picture of Matt and I (thanks, Joel, for the HTML fix). Check back in for some thoughts and updates on the recording process and hopefully (if I can convince him to sign on as a contributor) some posts from Matt!

Trying something different...

I've read a few times that people enjoy reading band-related thoughts by members of bands - that a good way to connect with people is to send out a regular newsletter or have a blog or barrage people with phone calls. Newsletters are expensive and barraging people with phone calls is time-consuming and seems likely to annoy, so by way of experimenting with this process I present here the Central Standard Time blog, wherein Matt and I (you should be an activated poster, Matt - let me know if it doesn't work) can share news and thoughts about concerts, CDs, etc. - and where you the loyal fan/indifferent listener/confused random surfer can chime in with comments of your own! Plus, regular readers of Matt's and my blogs will certainly agree that our prolific-ness lends itself to a second blogging project.

I stole this URL from myself since it seemed so apt for the theme - those of you interested (for whatever reason) in finding "Meaningless Musings," my blog, can find it at yxelf.blogspot.com.

Posts soon to follow about actual Central Standard Time-y things! Happy Ash Wednesday, if that's not too oxymoronic a wish!