Appendix E-J

This small speck of the blogosphere has been silent for some time. Why? Projects. Lots of projects in the physical realm…most of which have come to completion.

Also why? A lot of the people and things we share news about here have also been working on projects and surprises, which are beginning to be announced. And it starts now.

Our good good pal Ryan O’Neal who we wish were were eating at iHop with right now…he heads up the musical project Sleeping At Last. Yesterday, on the tale end of completing the daunting and extremely well-done Yearbook Project, he announced the following via Twitter:

Proud to announce that Sleeping At Last will be featured in the upcoming film “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Pt.1

Vampires. Werewolves. Musicians from Chicago. Bruno Mars…can’t forget Bruno Mars.

While this writer does not enjoy Twilight, his dear wife does, which will provide proper justification for purchasing the Breaking Dawn soundtrack without shame or scorn. You can preorder the OST (industry language for Original Soundtrack) from iTunes. On your way to that digital domain, give our Sleeping At Last friends a high five and a low five, because this is a big deal…or so my wife says.

Dreamboats

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Well, that picture up there is pretty self-explanatory.

Some time ago, we reported about a countdown that our good friends in Sleeping At Last  had started. What we failed to follow up on was that the countdown led up to the announcing of the above mentioned project. Sorry about that. We were putting in new floors and it got away from us. Remember that time we had carpet? (that paragraph was just a regular hyperlink festival, huh?)

The yearbook project is now released…or at least the FIRST OF ITS TWELVE INSTALLEMENTS IS RELEASED.

Goodness me that is a lot of music coming down the SAL pipeline. Killer idea, though. It’ll run you $30 bones for a subscription, or it appears you’ll be able to buy the digital EPs separately each month. Oh…and it’s all digital. No physical releases that these ears have heard of…though these ears may have hear of vinyl releases of  other things.

Subscribe to Yearbook. It will do you well on several levels.

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Oh, Saturday night was some magic sauce.

Whenever our friends in Sleeping At Last fill the space with their sounds, the room changes a bit. The bricks seem to move to the beat. The people in the chairs sit in complete attentiveness…as though something is moving inside of them besides the beauty of the music and if they move or talk they might miss something. Much swirling of many things occurs…and perhaps the beginnings or continuings of the healing of hearts.

The Everyday Joe’s sliver of the Twitterverse was abuzz with speakings of this and pictures trying to capture it. To follow it in real-time was special. To deliver it to you now seems necessary.

6:12 pm from @everydayjoes during soundcheck

When Sleeping At Last fills the space with sound, there is peace

8:50 pm from @spcochenour

Sleeping At Last live is like a glimmer of healing for the wounded soul

8:54 pm from @hardrock1980

Jack's first concert...Sleeping At Last...sooooooo good.

9:09 pm from @whiskeycardigan

This show is some magic. The most attentive crowd I’ve ever seen at Everyday Joe’s.

9:23 pm from @gabrielisdanger

Sleeping At Last is captivating.

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Now presenting a way to prepare your auditory system.

You may remember mention of a concert coming to Everyday Joe’s on May 1 featuring our good friends Sleeping At Last, their good friend Jeremy Larson, and our other good friends The Autumn Film.

Yes/No? Well then! How about a visual cue:

The best thing to follow a visual cue? Well, a link to a free download of Sleeping At Last’s latest effort, Storyboards. On April 7 & 8, the band will be offering the album for free at http://noisetrade.com/sleepingatlast. Until then and after then, you can still download their 6 song sampler for free.

Enjoy the sampler. Enjoy Storyboards. Enjoy your days until we see you on May 1.

FURTHER:

• Buy tickets to the show
• Sleeping At Last Official Site

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Have you ever done your heart the favor of listening to Sleeping At Last? You should, really. It would behoove you in most ways.

There are several ways to go about this, of course. Firstly, you could buy their music. This is smart, as you can have it with you most times. On the second tip, come and see the band/our friends from Chicago play at Everyday Joe’s on May 1.

The show is at 7 pm and will cost you $10 in advance (get tickets here or at Everyday Joe’s) or $12 at the door. Jeremy Laron and The Autumn Film will open up the evening with fine sets of their own. The cost of the ticket, however, will be heavily outweighed by the benefit to your personhood.

Two more things…

Killer video for “Green Screens” from Sleeping At Last’s new album Storyboards:

Killer poster for the show featuring vintage fish place mats:

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Let’s keep this brief, shall we?

This month at Everyday Joe’s, we are taking part in No Words November. It is a month to use less words and see what comes out of that. Hopefully listening to each other & hearing more than we normally might. It is exciting to imagine what we could hear.

This idea has been brewing in the head of a member of the Everyday Joe’s family for some time now, inspired by some of the themes of Sleeping At Last’s latest album Storyboards. For the month of November, there will not be any music played on the house speakers that contains words. This is a practical application of the idea of No Words November, encouraging the volunteers to listen to what is happening in the building and to see what they might hear. I wonder what customers think, or if they even notice.

Here is an idea for participating in No Words November that we would like to pass on to you…

Pick one day this month to fast from unnecessary words. Do not ignore others. This is not a vow of silence, but a vow to quiet down. To listen more and see what we hear. Perhaps this one day will translate to two days and then a week and then a month and then it could keep going. I think we may love each other more through it.

The coffee house is a place meant for conversation and relationship. But, we often sit on the other side of the table, calculating what we will say next. Let’s listen more.

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It seems good art attracts good art…makes for some good collabos. That’s some lingo for collaborations. Good collaborations.

The new music video for Sleeping At Last’s “Green Screens” of their new Storyboards album is actually a great collabo. One that makes the beauty of the visual and the auditory and compounds them towards emotion shaking heights. It is a collabo between Sleeping At Last and Javan Ivey. I have never heard of this Ivey sir or lady before now, but I’m very into it.

Hopefully the Sleeping At Last fellas and their lovely mother will return to Everyday Joe’s in 2010. Until then, dig the video below.

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If the music entering my earholes this year gets any better or even continues to be streamed at me at its current rate, my sensory chambers are going to explode.

Sleeping At Last (one of Everyday Joe’s favorite bands/group of favorite people) has been working hard over the past few months on their new album. Rumors have been swirling and swirling and swirling over the past few days via tweets and the like that they were planning on a special immediate release. Well, compadres, that swirling has been put in the fridge and solidified into a beautiful digital download jello mold.

If you head over to the official Sleeping At Last site, you can pre-order the album for $14. You get a digital download immediately (mine will be complete in 2 minutes) and the physical disc mailed to you once it arrives from the factory…assembled ever so gently by cherubs and winged lions. Not really…but maybe.

Here, perhaps this explains things a bit better:

See how easy that is? Do it. My download just finished. Off to spend some quality time in my headphones.

FURTHER:

• Pre-order “Storyboards”
• Official Sleeping At Last studio blog

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Over on the NPR All Songs Considered blog, they recently asked readers to submit the name of the band they consider “theirs.” The band that you tell people about as soon as you get the chance, regardless of if they’ve heard of them or not.

For me, that band is Sleeping At Last. I would say I gush over them. I gush over them. The reasons are two fold:

1. I never seem to tire of their music. It has been in constant rotation in my headphones since 2006.
2. They are some of the nicest fellows I have ever come across ever and their mother is a diamond.

The band is currently putting the finishing touches on a new album (excitement overwhelms me here), and as a way to celebrate they are offering their 2006 effort, Keep No Score, as a free download for the month of June. This one of MAYBE two or three albums that has changed the way I think about things/has brought me to tears. The download is available over on NoiseTrade, which you can get to by clicking here.

Download this album, people. Then we can converse about it and I will buy you a drink. On the real. Let me know when you are available.

Sleeping At Last at Everyday Joe's, October 2008 ; Photo by Christopher Dahlman

FURTHER:

• Download Keep No Score
• Sleeping At Last studio journal
• All Songs Consider Blog Post “The Band I Love Is…”

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To me, there is not much better than when a musician’s voice is as good an instrument as the one they happen to be playing. You’d think this would come naturally, but it very often does not (names could be mentioned…but I don’t want to start any scuffles). Names that do fit the “voice is as good an instrument as any” category are Ryan O’Neal (Sleeping At Last), Matthew Perryman Jones, Nathaniel Rateliff (Born In The Flood), Karen Peris (The Innocence Mission), and Glen Hansard (The Frames). There are more, but I need to get to making my point.

Two whose voices are smooth like a nice glass of whiskey and warm my innards just the same are Aaron Espe and Gregory Alan Isakov. And looky here, they’re both playing at Everyday Joe’s on Saturday night:

I have been fairly giddy concerning this show for several months, as have you I am sure. To increase that excitement exponentially, our friends over at The Mountain Tempo have posted a new song by Mr. Isakov over on their fine, fine blog. To hear it, click on his lovely South African face below.

Further:

• The Mountain Tempo
• Aaron Espe on Myspace
• Gregory Alan Isakov on Myspace

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