Fuzzy Dreams

Don't know you think you play it, think you know you play it

2010-04-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

Ha! I thought this blog just updated itself whenever something new happened with us. I feel like a real chucklehead. I'll be sure to manually update it more often maybe hopefully.

The gods have smiled upon you children. Your 'Fuzzy Dreams' has arrived, and it is so here. We received the real life copies of our first full-length, in the flesh and everything, today. Get them while they're hot at our upcoming shows! DIG!!

Friday, April 23

Gabe's Oasis, Iowa City, IA

w/The Sound Thoughts, Final Alibi, Midwest Trendkill

Saturday, April 24

Otto's Niteclub, DeKalb, IL

w/ Local H

AND the Big Kahuna of pants-wetting rock shows,

Friday, April 30

Schuba's, Chicago, IL

CD RELEASE!! w/ Kid You'll Move Mountains, polarOPPOSITEbear and Inspector Owl

Hoo Nancy. Not sure if your friends and neighbors have told you, but you get a heaping side of macaroni and cheese for FREE.99 if you order your tix in advance through Schuba's. It makes Kraft taste like a dump. Really!

If you're interested in reading nice things that people have said about us, or are interested in semi-coherent musings on our history/likes/daydreams you can check out some of these links:

http://chicago.metromix.com/music/article/local-q-and-a/1893200/content

http://athens66.blogspot.com/2010/04/geronimo-athens66-shots.html

http://athens66.blogspot.com/2010/03/geronimo-rock-our-fuzzy-dreams.html

Also, feel free to request 'Design Yourself a Heart' on 93 XRT's Local Anesthetic. They were kind enough to play it this past weekend. See you soon lovelies.

The band!

Sock Monkey Sound Interview

2010-03-04T17:33:00.001-08:00

Have you seen the Rock Men who safely guard the Rock River? The wooden Loch Ness monster majestically poking its head above the waves of the Rock River near the Auburn St./Spring Creek Rd. bridge? Feasted upon layers and layers of shredded beef at the Fire Station-themed Beef-a-Roo? Browsed through the used CD selection at the now-defunct Media Play?? Then you, beloved soul, are a Rockford, Illinois elite. I raise a glass of Carlyle Vanilla Stout to you.

However, you need not hail from Rockford to enjoy the interview/live performances we recorded our city's own Sock Monkey Sound Podcast. There is some wonderful silliness going on over there and Geronimo! applauds all those involved (Chip Copeland, Brandon Lutmer, Patrick Delehanty, Mark Gustafson) for giving all us Rocktown-inites another reason to swell with pride. Outta the way Panino's! Listen to our "interview" right here .

I should probably make a post about the awesome shows we have lined up, and the fact that our album is practically finished, but I'm saving that for later. As always, stay tuned ya chuckleheads.

Design Yourself a Fart

2010-01-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

So we made it back in one piece from tour. All in all, it was a giant big ball of success and fun. Can't say enough about how fun it was to play shows with our pals in polarOPPOSITEbear in Wichita and Lawrence. Any band swinging through Iowa should definitely check out Ames Progressive where the kids are cool and the surrounding bars have ridiculously cheap beer and free food. Oh yeah, we also found a kitten in Texas on the side of the highway and took him along with us. He is biting the side of my computer as I type this. His name is Mowgli.

While on our way to Wichita, we stopped through Stillwater, Oklahoma. We talked to Nathan Poppe, who tapes bands live or in their practice spaces and posts them to his blog. Since we weren't playing live and only had a couple of hours, he suggested we just set up in his apartment and play a song really quick before someone complained about the noise. We loaded our gear into his place, set up, Matt deadened his drums with shirts and socks and we did one take through 'Design Yourself a Heart.' We then loaded out and played a show in Wichita. It was a total blast. Check out the result below, the sound is all from one small handheld camera,and I was shouting to try and cut through the mix.

Curl Up and Dye

2010-01-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of us playing "Breed" by this band Nirvana. Our new friend Goose shot the footage in Little Rock, Arkansas at Pizza D'Action. They gave us free beer and pizza and were total sweethearts. Matt won a ping pong match against a guy named Lance. I leaned back on a table on fell on my ass during the end of a song. Goose let us stay two nights at his unbelievable semi-mansion with about 3,000 TV channels and a dog named Mabel who Matt thought looked like a warthog. The night before we also played in Little Rock at a totally rad venue called Vino's Brewpub. The kids that came out were really excited to hear music and the show was a real blast. After we went to a bar called Speakeasy with a woman named Monet. There was a jazz piano player sounding amazing and they played a jazz rendition of 'Everything in Its Right Place.'

Last night we played in Fort Worth, Texas at a really well-run D.I.Y. space called 1919 Hemphill. We played to another bunch of kids that were all excited to see music and hang out. It's really refreshing to go around the country and find these little pockets where kids are setting up shows, helping out bands and getting people out to support music. The bands we played with were INCREDIBLE. Big Fiction was a cross between The Jesus Lizard and Refused and the drummer rocked so brutally he went and puked on a skate ramp immediately after they finished. Decades played last and had one of the most energetic frontmen we've ever witnessed. When not writhing on the ground screaming into the microphone, he was running around the audience yelling his guts out and doing front flips onto the concrete. Please check out both bands because on top of putting everything they have into their music they are completely awesome duders.

We saw the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington today and it looked like something out of a science fiction movie. Seriously, big-as-hell. We're in Denton, Texas right now hanging out in a coffee shop waiting to play another show with free pizza at the Hot Box. One week left until we get back to lovely and frigid real life!!

Don't mind if I Duplex

2010-01-09T21:56:00.001-08:00

Sitting in Louisville, KY. It's almost midnight here and the boys and I are leafing through a crazy book collection (Radical Dude, The Secret Life of Teens, 500 Best Metal Albums of All Time) and drinking Kentucky Tavern whiskey. Played a show earlier tonight with a couple of bands in a living room type area with only space heaters. The heat in the place is broken, and the main room with a stage and lots of space feels like a garage. The pipes are frozen so the bathroom doesn't work, and the closest bathroom nearby is a Dizzy Whizz fast food restaurant where you have to get a key and go outside somewhere where the bathroom is. Matt just found out someone left Dizzy Whizz french fries under a chair and is looking for a microwave. Tour is good, people.

Played last night at Casa Cantina where they gave us a free 30-pack of PBR. We played last out of 3 for some reason. After the local bands no one stuck around, but by the end of the set a bunch of drunk people were up front and having a good time, so it ended up being a lot of fun. Running out of free CDs faster than we thought. Stood in line for 15 or 20 minutes at Big Mama's Burritos and it was glorious. I made the mistake of trying to replicate an Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode and put my burrito in my top coat pocket and eat it without my hands. Refried beans are difficult to wash off.

DeKalb was amazing as usual. Good friends, played some Lady Gaga and Nirvana and watched a folk band take an hour and a half to set up, play and tear down. Next stop is Knoxville, TN where we'll meet with our pal Karl Shuster (sp?) for some Pilot Light action. Oh yeah, Matt won a romance novel at the show last night! There were two really pretty people in a super intense embrace on the front.

We will be in you soon, the south.

2010-01-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

It's almost here Internet friends. It's almost here. Our butts are tingling with excitement to hit the road in a few days on our winter tour, "Crappy Songs for Jerks Tour 2010." See above for the lovely poster design done by our lovely friend, Austen Huth. Look out for this one, she's taking the design world by storm with her unique style and impeccable ability to quote The Simpsons.

The tour starts Jan. 7 in that sweet den of vanities, the 7th St. Space in DeKalb. Check out the dates!

Jan. 7 7th St. Space DeKalb, Illinois

Jan. 8 Casa Cantina Athens, Ohio

Jan. 9 Brick House Louisville, Kentucky

Jan. 10 Pilot Light Knoxville, Tennessee

Jan. 11 Tasty World Athens, Georgia

Jan. 12 Off

Jan. 13 Vino's Brewpub Little Rock, Arkansas

Jan. 14 Pizza D'Action Little Rock, Arkansas

Jan. 15 1919 Hemphill Fort Worth, Texas

Jan. 16 Hot Box, Denton, Texas

Jan. 17 Bash Riprock's Lubbock, Texas

Jan. 18 Soundpony Tulsa, Oklahoma

Jan. 19 Rock Island Live Wichita, Kansas

Jan. 20 Replay Lounge Lawrence, Kansas

Jan. 21 Bourbon Theater Lincoln, Nebraska

Jan. 22 Ames Progressive Ames, Iowa

Jan. 23 CJ's Lounge Rockford, Illinois

We've had a couple of nice write-ups in some blogs. Check this one out from Fort Worth:

http://stashdauber.blogspot.com/2010/01/geronimo-1919-hemphill-1152010.html.

We will have specially handmade tour EPs to give away for free featuring 3 songs from our upcoming full-length, "Fuzzy Dreams." Also new shirts, covers songs and other crazy gizmos and shake-em-ups! LET'S DO THIS AMERICA!!!!

Listen to an upcoming track!

2009-12-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

We've been hard at work lo these past few months working on ten songs for our upcoming full-length album, Fuzzy Dreams. We'd like to whet an appetite or two by giving you a preview of our work with the one and only Joshua Miller, who mixed and helped record all of the tracks with so much sexiness and love.

We won't have the album done by the time we go on tour in January, but we are putting together a tour EP to hand out. This track, "Thunderbattles," will be on said EP.

Please do not listen to it on your laptop. Music can't be enjoyed that way.

RAWkford Register Star

2009-12-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

Our hometown paper, The Rockford Register Star, wrote a nice little piece on us for its "Bands to Watch" feature. You can read it here.

We originally gave them a photo with all of us sitting on toilets. They didn't want to use that one. We love you Rockford.

Not the best at updating this blog

2009-11-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hi friends. There's been a lot going on with Geronimo! lately, but I have not informed you about any of it. I feel bad for this, I hope this can all be straightened out very soon. You are a lovely person.

Our dear friend Dave Setiawan recorded a horns cover of one of our older songs, "God's Hands." Entitled "Mod's Hands," the song can be found on his Myspace page at www.myspace.com/daveoka. The man is a brilliant musician and nothing more needs to be said about his sexiness, other than it is all very true. We are all pleased as punch and flattered as a pancake.

We are in the heart of mixing our record, "Fuzzy Dreams," with Mr. Josh Miller. We can't even wait to show you the results. Expect it to drop like a goddamn bowling ball onto your skull in the so distance future. Check out our myspace page, www.myspace.com/thegeronimoband for the dates we are filling in for our next winter tour in January. You need to take a road trip soon, when's the last time you did that? Here's your excuse ya chucklehead.

polarOPPOSITEbear music video and EP

2009-09-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

We've had the great fortune of meeting and playing with some great bands in our short existence, but none greater and none more creative than the band polarOPPOSITEbear from Wichita, KS. We played a couple of shows with them on our first tour in the summer of '08 and a couple more in winter of '09. They write, play, design, record and shoot everything themselves and are a real inspiration to us as a band. They also drink just a crapload of Mountain Dew which, how cool is that? It just is.

Their newest EP, po14rOPPO5IT3b34r, is available for FREE download here. Also check out a video from that EP for the song "Crewsolidate" here. They are constantly playing out, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for their next show!!

Approaching the Skyline Chili

2009-09-12T07:15:00.001-07:00

Our good friend Jason Thompson (Inspector Owl, Wolf Nation) took some footage of us at the Bottom Lounge on 9/9/09. Thanks to all that came out, and to those that did not, the Christmas card's in the mail ya jerks.

Next weekend we're off to Rockford for more recording shenanigans.

Nothin' at the top but a bucket and a mop

2009-08-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Wowee wow wow. Sometimes you try so hard not to crap your pants with excitement, but when we found out we would be playing with THE MEAT PUPPETS we just let go. (Deets at the bottom) We are thrilled to death to get this opportunity and we hope everyone out there in Internet dream land will come on out and see it go down.

We also have two other ridiculously fun show announcements in Chicago for the fall. The first is a show with one of our favorite bands, our good buddies in Wolf Nation. It is also with our other good friends, the Secret Colours. It will be one of their first official shows so we are really happy to be part of their rock history when the big leagues come knocking at their door to say "We want you. Come over here." And we can say that we knew they were sexy all along. We played with them for crying out loud. At the Bottom Lounge. (Deets at the bottom, getting this?)

The next show we have lined up is just a whopper of a hootenanny (removed as an official word from Webster's). I (KJ) will be performing double duty that night for the first time when we team up with the secret lovers in the other band I play in, Picture Books. Also, our great buddies from back when they played as a two-piece at house shows with Corey Wills on guitar and also playing a bass drum at the same time and this other guy that played after them who kept prefacing each song he wrote by saying that it "came from a really emotional place" and then also screwing up the songs making it a really weird thing for someone SITTING RIGHT IN FRONT, Inspector Owl. Can you even stomach how much this rules? Just barf already! (Look at the bottom of the page for full show details ya chucklehead)

In the midst of everything, we will still be diligently writing and recording for our full-length album, tentatively titled 'Hotel Awesome,' or 'Geronimo! Gets Really Pissed and Shreds.' We will be heading back to the G! Cave for some more recording with the phenomenally pleasant Joshua Miller (if he's reading this, please bring your dog for us to pet).

Wednesday Sept. 9

Geronimo! w/ Wolf Nation, Secret Colours

Bottom Lounge

1375 W Lake St., Chicago IL

21+, 8pm

Not sure bout the clam sitch

Sunday Oct. 18

Geronimo! w/Picture Books, Inspector Owl, A Million Years

Double Door

1572 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago IL

21+, Doors at 7pm, show at 8

ONLY 5 BUX ARE YOU SERIOUS? YES!

Wednesday Nov. 13

Geronimo! w/ The Meat Puppets

Otto's Niteclub

118 E. Lincoln Hwy., DeKalb IL

21+, 9pm

$15

Buddy Bars and broken bottles

2009-08-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Rockford again. Our good friends in Wolf Nation played a raucous rock show at our favorite Rockford venue, CJ's Lounge. They stayed over at Ben's parents house with us along with two other really great bands from North Dakota. Laughs aplenty amongst shards of pizza, Sun Chips and Buddy Bars.

While not relaxing in front of the 10-inch television watching Eastbound and Down, we got down to BIZNASS, slammed a few Heineken lights (HEINE SLAM) and laid down some vocal tracks. We used Ben's reel to reel to record the takes and are very happy with the results. We are sending 6 tracks to our main man Josh Miller to mull over and make us sound like we know whats what. The picture above was taken in the aftermath of our broken bottle recording session. The picture below was me using the picture taking excuse to not have to help clean up. We also have some shows for the fall in the works with our buddies in Inspector Owl. We also have a crazy/insane/how the crap did this happen show announcement in the future that we can't tell you about at the moment. STAY TUNED

Pobody's Nerfect without a lil' practice

2009-07-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick snapshot of our lovely practice space. We share it with our pals in the band The Gunshy. It is small, but it used to be smaller with the ratty old hand-me-down couch that some guys gave us across the hall. They also gave us insulation panels adorned with some of the best posters Spencer's Gifts has to offer, i.e. College John Belushi, The Periodic Table of Alcohol and a woman bent over in a bikini grabbing a beer out of the bottom of the refrigerator. Some nights, if we are lucky, we are treated to a lovely bombardment of faux thrash metal on either sides of our walls. More reliably however, we are blessed with a rendition of the one song that the grindy nu-metal band across the hall knows. Yes! There is a breakdown with a bell ride. There is also a stolen barricade near the entrance of the hallway that used to read "Children Crossing," but now reads "Children Pooping."

Matt found some weird pills outside of the practice space and decided to eat them before we could talk him out of it. I'm not sure if he was trying to get rid of a headache or what, but he was in a very smiley mood most of practice. He was playing the bongos half of the time and I'm not even sure where he got those bongos.

Summer gets a thumbs UP

2009-07-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken by Matt last summer on our first tour out west. We played in Fort Collins, CO at an abandoned school house called "The School House." It may or may not have been the last show held there, because all of the amazing people living there were moving out. It had a giant working school bell and was just perfect for throwing big sweaty rock shows. They made us pancakes in the morning and taught us how to train hop. The picture above is Ben and I watching the local ska band play to a bunch of kids un-ironically skanking and enjoying the shit out of it. I know I can speak for the rest of the fellas when I say this image captures the feeling of the whole tour.

We're still holing up and scheduling in practices to iron out our new songs. We have 3 main ones that we are kicking into submission and will hopefully be recording again in the next few weeks. Two of them have stoner rock grooves. One of them has a drum solo. One of them has trumpet. One of them sounds like The Fast and the Furious. All of them have Big Muffs. We want to play them for you so badly.

Where there were eyes, there's only space

2009-07-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

Pixies.

They will always have a big chunk of my heart set aside for them. I owe a severe debt to Joey Santiago's guitar playing and I'm sure I've blatantly ripped it off many times. I've always wanted to cover the song "Broken Face," because it may be my favorite song by them (or maybe 'Tame'). It is not their best song. It is not their most well-composed song. I like it best because it is a stripped down and straight-ahead rocker, which I think is Pixies at their peak. It contains Black's awesomely nonsensical but evocative lyrics, which so many bands try to mimic and fail. It has the hyper-spastic catchiness to match any of their best work.

When Geronimo! recorded the "What Happened to Your Face?" EP last summer, we recorded our own cover version for fun. And it was fun. You should go learn a song by one of your favorite bands. You'll also have fun.

...And we all felt a deep warmth

2009-07-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

I had most of the day off from work today. Seeing as the rain has squashed my plans of bathing in the sun with a PBR, I'm now bathing in the glow of the computer screen with a PBR. Not really though. PBR is more of a night time drink ya chuckleheads.

What do we have here you ask? Oh! It's the new blog for Geronimo! I get questions sometimes from friends asking if we are up to anything COOL and sometimes we are. This is one of those times. Now you don't have to ask me anymore and make me feel awkward for wanting to talk for like an hour about our band and you can just ch-ch-check this mega-sweet blog from time to time. No one really looks at myspace these days. It's kind of a drag going over there.

We just got done recording this past holiday weekend. We holed up in Ben's parents home in Rockford for 3 days and recorded 7 full band tracks with the help of our mentor and sexy confidant, Josh Miller. He took that picture of us recording. He also brought his dog, B.A. who chased us in the backyard and bit us and stuff. He was SORELY missed on Saturday and Sunday. We love B.A.

Special thanks to our friends in Kid You'll Move Mountains who let us steal some of their gear and Matt Gunshy and E-Van Estwing who let us borrow their nice things. Not to mention the one and only Nick Papaleo who let us borrow some SERIOUSLY nice crap. I wasn't familiar with the Neuman microphone before this recording, but it made my guitar tone sound like a Tyrannosaurus stomping through the jungle. I wanted to take the mic to bed with me but Ben talked me out of that.

So we aren't playing much this summer and are busying ourselves writing, writing and recording for our upcoming full-length album. Not sure when that will be available but we are losing sleep with ideas running around in our heads. Hopefully sometime in mid-fall to winter. BLAWG!