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!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Monday, August 07, 2006
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
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.
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.
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