The Sammies / NYC / CMJ 2007

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The Sammies/NYC/CMJ 2007

It’s 7:45pm, on 10/17, the Enid (photog) and Josiah (navigator) just got dropped off at the “House of the Rising Sam” to catch a ride to NYC for CMJ. We’re packed, instruments, clean clothes, other personals, dunk-a-roo’s, check; so we hit the road. I think we have allowed enough time to get to NYC by 9am so we can be prompt for our KEXP performance, plus if you are late for a radio show you just miss it, and that would suck. The plan is for the Sammies to drive to around Manassas then the other two can take over so we can sleep and be ready to wake NYC and Seattle up with our early morning performance. I catch some zzz’s on a palate I made on top of the amps, the others are also finding places to bed down, the best you can in a crowded van.

We got into the city with plenty of time to spare, so we park the van, and walk down the street to a diner to get some breakfast. In very uncharacteristic NYC fashion we have already met two strangers who have been more than helpful in telling us where to park, how to pay a ticket if you get one, and where not to smoke reefer, informative I must say. We get back to the Gibson Showroom where KEXP is broadcasting and sound check.

The Gibson showroom is actually in the same building as the old Hit Factory. Supposedly the last place John Lennon was before he was murdered, not to mention the studio where many of our favorite albums were recorded back in the day. Throw in the fact that Gibson has every guitar and amp known to man and we are happy campers!

Ohhh yes the show room- lets make Gibson angels!

Click here to download our KEXP performance!

It is great to be back in the city, and beyond awesome to be playing live for KEXP! I must say, everyone associated with KEXP are class acts. You couldn’t be around nicer people, and they have been so kind to the Sammies since day one. KEXP, THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING, AND ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK IS APPRECIATED MORE THAN YOU KNOW. It is colder than a well digger’s ass in there so I grab a jacket, and get the countdown to going live. Once that hit it was over before we knew it, and was so much fun. I could do that everyday! After messing around with all of the Gibson equipment a little longer we had to part ways with the nicest people in the world and go pick up our CMJ badges, and Freedom’s Uncle Carl.

Enid and Josiah get out, ready to make their mark on the city for the day/night, and we get Carl and head to his house in the Hamptons. We had never been to the Hamptons, so we kind of were curious to see what that was about, plus we figured it would be a safe place to park the van for the night. NYC is fun, but not so much fun when you have an oversized vehicle full of equipment you can’t afford to replace. A bit of a drive but who cares, we’re used to it. We get there, grab a bite to eat, and have all intentions of getting some sleep since we drove all night. We hit a snag though, Carl has a tennis court, seems like a great time to build team spirit with a little competition. I took it easy on everyone though. The rest of the day consists of showers, relaxing, some great Indian food, a drink or several at Rowdy Hall, and then bed.

It’s now Friday, 10/19. We get a brief tour of the Hamptons larger houses by the beach. Drove past Spielburg’s palace and were tempted to ring him to talk about how our album cover was shot on the same farm he shot The Color Purple, but the large hedges and security deterred us. After getting a look at why we try and work so hard we depart the Hamptons and head back to the city. Now I will briefly tell you about how we went 10 miles in two hours due to the road flooding. I have not been that mad in a while and will leave it at that so I don’t get worked up again. Just unfortunate I guess.

All thoughts of stopping by H&M are out the window as we barely have time to eat at Acme right above where we are to play the MoRisen showcase at the Ace of Clubs. Our fellow southern friends from GA, Dead Confederate, are to open the night, and boy did they. Those guys came up to NYC and kicked some serious ass this year and we couldn’t be happier for them, so here’s to a great band, and genuinely great people, ya’ll keep up the hard work!

Donnie and Jason from Dead confederate.

Go download their performance on KEXP from their myspace page, well worth it. Elevator Action, and The Houstons follow, both bands taking names as they played, and then it was our turn.

We played a fair amount of new songs, slated to be on the upcoming album, and I think they went over well. I hope to post a list of songs on the new album in the coming weeks; maybe we’ll even leak one. It was great to see all of our friends who came out; you know who you are, and our new friends we met this time around, we hope to see you again before too long. Ace of Clubs has always been nice to us and the sound that night was amazing! Babyshaker finished off the night, and created a new Olympic event called “guitarist toss into drums.”

We could have stayed in the city, dropped what little money we had on a room, and partied with the best of them, but we’ve done that before, so we headed south, back to NC. With thoughts of stopping for sleep at some point I awake to Enid still driving! She made it from NYC to the NC line in the dead of the night! That’s how you drive! Another NYC trip done, and successful I might add.

We all need some serious sleep now but can’t wait to get back up to NYC before long, maybe Boston too, fuck it, the whole NE. We will in due time, now let’s finish the album.

PS: To our new friends from across the Atlantic, the Foxes, thanks for showing up, we hope you have been having a great time in the States, keep kicking ass while you’re here, and stay in touch with the Sammies!

Click here for the interview and review by Miriam Lamey and see photos taken in the studio by Doron Gild!

http://depts.washington.edu/kexp/blog/?p=3671