A Thousand Torches (tumblelog)

After 14 straight show days, today is our first ‘day off’!
I put the phrase in quotes, because we do have an 8 hour drive to Vienna, where tomorrow’s concert will be - not what everyone would consider a day off — but at least this morning is free, and not in the van!

Things are interesting here in Europe, on the HoBoLeMa tour - not only because we’re challenging the audiences and ourselves each night with a totally improvised concert, but we’re watching the news, hoping, like everyone in Europe, that the airways clear up - in just a week this tour will be over, and we’ll either fly home, or try to book some more shows, if we’re to be stranded without flights.

I’ve used this morning to bring my tour pages up to date, with a new one for the Milan and Zurich shows.

And I’ve got plenty of e-mails flying, to try to get our new StickMen CD printed up and ready for the tour that starts May 9th. The music has been mastered (sounds great!) and the package artwork is done, so it’s just a matter of getting the cd’s manufactured and shipped to us… then I’ll put up excerpts of the music, and probably a page about the cd release.

What to do for the rest of this ‘day off’ … ah, I see it’s almost noon, and time to check out for our drive.


HoBoLeMa tour pages up now:

Berlin & Hamburg, Amsterdam & Zoetermeer,
Munster & Groningen, Limbourg & Bonn,
Ludwigshafen & Eindhoven, Karlsruhe & Dornbirn, Milano and Zurich.   

Posted on Apr 16th 2010 12:00PM by Amy Sciarretto

After separating from and then re-upping with Metal Blade, who released 2005’s ‘Wake Pig,’ 2007’s ‘The End is Begun’ and 2009’s ‘Revisions,’ Woodstock, N.Y.’s 3 have offered Noisecreep an exclusive update on their next album and the tumult that defined the last year — which saw them looking at offers from other labels, only to return to their longtime home.

“Sure, we had an interesting roller coaster ride in 2009. But it wasn’t a total loss, because in ‘Revisions,’ we made a great album that would otherwise not exist,” singer/guitarist Joey Eppard, the brother of former Coheed and Cambria drummer Josh Eppard, told Noisecreep. “It was an important record for us, because it let people know we are a progressive band that is not afraid of writing melodic music with potent arrangements.”

With ‘Revisions,’ 3 were able to take their old songs and give them second chances and a new look. Eppard said, “It was also a chance for me to finally do justice to some great songs from our past. Somehow, the whole process has freed us in a creative sense. The record we’re making now is very different. We’re taking our music to new levels every day. That is all we really can do and want to do.”

The band is also toying with the idea of releasing songs from the new album like episodes, like a television series, if you will. “We were bouncing around the idea of releasing our album one song at a time and I had thought of releasing them with video as episodes,” Eppard said. “The songs themselves are already telling a compelling story complete with musical cliffhangers. The idea of adding a visual element to enhance this concept is exciting. I was imagining something akin to a musical ‘Lost.’ We have a lot of great ideas, but we’ll have to see what these seeds grow into. This is not the only innovative idea we’re kicking around right now either.”

Eppard is further embracing innovation by allowing 3 fans a chance to partake in the record themselves. In their latest video for ‘Rabid Animals,’ which was originally from 2000 and redone for ‘Revisions,’ 3 put out a call to fans to submit their own videos as well as participate in real-time direction and brainstorming with the band during the shoot. For the new album, Eppard and 3 are going a step further.

“I want to invite fans to actually sing with me on one of the new songs,” Eppard said. “I’m going to make a chorus available for download and accept tracks from fans singing along from their computers, their iPhones, their studios. I’ll mix them all together to create a massive chorus. The best part is that people all over the world will actually have the opportunity to be part of this record.”

Eppard will also do solo gigs in April.

“Rabid Animals” music video features members of Elysium Theory, The Ricochet, Chris Bittner (CJB), Josh Eppard (Weerd Science), Gangstroph The Baptist, Ant Masington (Session 606), Chase Pierson (Mechanical Bull), Clip (Parliament Funkadelic), Rachel Marco-Havens (Naked, Uncle Birmy’s Dirty Foot Choir), and a slew of other family, friends and fans.

Woodstock, New York’s 3, one of the world’s most innovative rock bands, has signed a new deal with Metal Blade Records. The group is currently working on a new album for a late 2010 reelase.

3 has previously released “Wake Pig” (2005), “The End Is Begun” (2007) and “Revisions” (2009) on Metal Blade.

3’s entire discography now spans over a decade, going all the way back to “Paint By Number” (1999) and “Summercamp Nightmare” (2003).

Over the course of its career, 3 has toured with the SCORPIONS, PORCUPINE TREE, DREAM THEATER, OPETH, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, and many, many more.

3’s Joey Eppard comments: “We are well on our way to making our greatest 3 album yet.” 

After looking at several horrific offers from other labels, we decided to continue with Metal Blade Records because they actually care about our music and truly believe in what we do.

We were tossing around the idea of releasing [the new album] one song at a time, each with a video. Basically like episodes. Let us know what you think.

In other news, Eppard has scheduled the following solo dates:

Saturday, April 10, 7:30pm
w/ SELFISH STEAM
@ The Powder Mill Barn
32 South Maple Street
Enfield, CT 06082
860-749-4494

Saturday, April 17
w/ BERGKAMP BROS
@ Woodstock Harmony
52 Mill Hill Rd, Woodstock, NY