MARCH 9, 2012 at 9:00 P.M. or WHO IN THE BLUE HELL IS M.D.M.A.?
MDMA. My desire, my assassin. Not necessarily THE THUCYDIDEAN THEORY but not necessarily not. A thunderous drone. Atypical lyrical content, to the extent that prior lyrical content was “typical.” More “rock (TM)” than previously expected in the sense that the underlying beats need not conform to a trance and / or house pattern in order to slot samples in betwixt grooves relying solely on a bass guitar. Less “rock (TM)” in that the compositions prepared thusfar rely more upon the piece as a standalone whole than what one might deem to be a “hook” in the typical songcraft sense.
So come to The Delancey on March ninth two thousand and twelve at nine o’clock in the p.m. Bring five whole American dollars. They used to have relatively cheap cans of beer at the downstairs bar, so assuming that said policy remains unchanged, we’ll probably be in that area. As with every Delancey show involving live music, there are booths in the back of the live room reserved for the people playing the show. As with every Delancey show involving us, however, fuck that. Come sit in our booth. Paws off of our drinks, though (unless you’re buying) and, as always, keep any conversation that you hear quiet as kept.
Come early to see FAMILY FUN and DANNY’S DEVIL’S BLUES, featuring the fucking brilliant Kevin Shaw on bass, who may look familar if you were in attendance at the last show. More bands will be added prior to showtime.
There is also a fairly decent chance that we will be able to post a demo version (or two) of new stuff prior to the show. If possible, I swear we’ll do it. SWEAR!
Be patient, guys. No need to fear change. We love you more every day.
Peace and love,
MDMA (Abbey, Alaina, Brian, Holly, and Joseph)
BLANKFEST XV or TTTHE LEGION OF BOOM BRINGS THE HEAT!
Actually, you guys bring the heat as well. More particularly, on Sunday, December 18, 2011, we are all going to The Hudson House at 134 Main Street in Nyack, as we were lucky enough to get invited to play BLANKFEST XV. This is an annual festival put on by Kenn Rowell, a longtime friend of ours and leader of New York City’s greatest wedding band, THE BAGHDADDIOS. The deal is simple: in lieu of a cover charge, everyone brings at least one blanket in any condition and thereafter gets to enjoy nine hours of music from 3:00 until midnight. According to the format we were sent, the lineup is as follows:
3:00: Bob Newman
3:30: Tim O’Donohue Band
4:00: David W. Jacobsen
4:30: Kama Linden
5:00: Home To Henry
5:30: Jess King featuring Gerry Sung
6:00: THE THUCYDIDEAN THEORY
6:30: Rew
7:30: Patti Rothberg
8:00: Joe D’Urso
8:30: Dog Will Hunt featuring special guest Frankie D.
9:00: The Horse You Rode In On (special reunion)
11:00: Johnny & The Alimonies
11:30: The Baghdaddios
We should mention that this is more than just a conventional punk rock show. The artists listed above represent numerous genres, locales, and sounds. Furthermore, most of the artists (including us) are playing abbreviated sets, as this is, as stated in the official press kit, “… about the homeless; nothing more, nothing less.” As such, we sincerely hope that everyone can make it out to pitch in, hear some music, and of course further assist with the effort if they are so inclined.
If any of you just want to hear our music, then (a) the masochism is certainly intriguing and (b) we’ve been working hard on some new ideas with new collaborators who will be joining us in Nyack, including a new song with the working title of “‘Two to Zero…’ Said the Whale” and a host of new samples that are set to undergo final edits / crowdsourcing at a house party on Staten Island this weekend. By all means, grab as many blankets as you can spare and join us for a drink or two as we collectively embrace the opportunity to hear a plethora of sounds created by people that we might not otherwise have the opportunity to share a stage with. All told, it’s gonna be a hell of a time for a good cause, and we are absolutely honored to be a part of a situation where your presence, and our presence, results in an immediate, tangible benefit for others (no matter how apparently “minimal”; there is no telling what difference a blanket could mean to someone sleeping outdoors on the coast of the Atlantic in December).
If you guys promise to donate as much as you can, we promise to do the same. See you there.
Best, TTT
P.S. Although perhaps forseeable due to current economic realities with respect to emplyment I was somewhat surprised that NINE OF YOU sent emails chiding me for not posting a flier for the last show in Greenpoint despite all of the pertinent information being included in the blog post that (admittedly, falsely) stated that a flier would be posted shortly thereafter. Is it because of the imagery? Those are just photographs ripped out of European fashion magazines that you can get at this place on the northeast corner of 14th and Sixth when you exit the F stop. You’ll see it. Anyway, my bad. There are extra hard copies on the dining room table and if you want to be a completist, I’ll scan it and send it to you - JD
Saturday, November 12
8:00 p.m., The Place in Brooklyn. More specifically, 269 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn. With SOUL REBELS, THE FRAGGS, DOWNWARD DOGS, and KROCTOPUS. Five bones. This is sort of a last second thing, but there are extenuating circumstances and we will be happy to explain same over a drink before or after the show. We’ll put up a flyer and / or something else later this weekend.
Peace and love, TTT
TRADE REYES IMMEDIATELY!
NEW YORK - Members of a Queens-based punk rock band announced their intention today to endorse and participate in a “Trade Reyes Immediately” rally set to take place at an upcoming Mets home game in the near future. Jason Nielson, D.J. and producer of The Thucydidean Theory, summarized the group’s intent. “Darren Meenan, those Seven Line dudes, they get to say their piece, but what about the rest of us? What about the opposing view? It’s not like Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz own a cable network that takes in $15 million dollars a month from subscribers. They only own 65% of that! That’s only $117 million a year! So when you hear people talk about ‘drawing 2.5 million fans every year’ or ‘charging an average price of $35 per ticket’ or ‘getting $400 million to call New Shea by that stupid name,” it’s sort of infuriating to have to explain things like ad space. For instance, I was at the Phillies game last Saturday. Apparently, you can only fit 26 different corporate logos between the foul poles!”
“Meenan and his supporters, they’re missing the big picture, and it’s so obvious” added bass player “More” Stu Fleishman. “Reyes is clearly exploiting the fact that he’s an incredible player by demanding an above average salary. I get the YES network, so odds are I’ll be able to watch him become a Hall of Famer on channel 631. But live, at the ballpark, I’m more interested in seeing 21-year-old, 175 pound Ruben Tejada become the future of this team by adding value that significantly exceeds his compensation. It’s so exciting watching him evolve into the next Joe [expletive]ing McEwing!”
Seeing Reyes play in home games is apparently an issue with keyboardist Abbey Mills as well. “YAWN! I mean, six straight years of an OPS+ over a thousand. Uh, we get it, dude. It’s played out” she said, pausing only to pretend to yawn and roll her eyes in an exaggerated manner. “And Christ on a bike! You and your [expletive] .354/.398/.529 slash line. Have some class. Derek Jeter, now that’s how a shortstop acts. Maybe if you had numbers like his [.267/.326/.345], you would be worth $17 million a year!”
According to Nielson, Reyes’ style of play is another major catalyst for the rally. “It’s like, enough already. Shane Victorino has a point. What sort of monster smiles and celebrates when he excels at something he loves?” Fleishman echoes the sentiment. “Give me Mike Bordick any day,” he said. “Yeah, he’s a lifetime .260 guy, but at least he had the decency not to break up every damn beer run with another [expletive]ing triple.”
An estimate of the expected crowd was not available at press time, but sources close to the band indicated that internal discussions focused on achieving a higher turnout than their 2005 “Don’t Trade Mo Vaughn” rally, a small but raucous affair that ended after team officials and surrounding fans informed the participants that Vaughn had, in fact, retired two years prior.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]LA INFANTA EULALIA
There’s gonna be a time
When you will regret this
I’ve read your diatribes
The points of which I’ve missed
No one ever dies
But these things they will fade
And what did you do here
Before you went away
I don’t wanna be the next you
I just wanna be the first me
La Infanta Eulalia was the Duchess of Gallieria. We wrote it after reading a book about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Everyone made a huge deal about her arrival and the president greeted her, and all manner of pageantry and special treatment was arranged. However, she skipped everything every day so she could just hang out with the public and eat hot dogs and drink beer, because she could blend in anonymously, unlike in Spain. So there you go.
Stu Fleishman: Bass; Joseph Dugan: Drums; Abbey Mills: Keys; Jason Nielson: Samples; Renata Paolercio: Vocals; Yu-ling Sung: Other vocals
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]LEARNING TUMBLR, LESSON THREE or THIS IS IN NO WAY AN ENDORSEMENT OF THE QUESTIONABLE ARTISTRY OF TUPAC SHAKUR
A few years ago, a few of us were associated with a recreational sports team that sarcastically pledged allegiance to both TUPAC SHAKUR and THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. I think we were in the middle of recording something else at the time. As such, everything was already run through a “Boss BR532 Digital Studio,” which was, functionally speaking, just a four-track because we could not afford (or they no longer manufactured) compatible memory cards, so one night after practice we wrote a “theme song” for the team. Hence the riveting title “Hit ‘Em Ups Theme II.” “Hit ‘Em Ups Theme I” may have featured one of us rapping, an idea now safely ensconced in the Pantheon of terrible ideas we have had over the years.
The sample is, of course, from the legendary “Freestyle ‘93” show that has been used and remixed countless times on mixtapes, seemingly since the day the subject words were spoken. B.I.G. had a verse right before Tupac and even if you have not heard B.I.G.’s live freestyle, you’ve heard it over the top of a beat before. It’s the “seven MAC-11s, about eight .38s” verse. It should be made known that certain of us absolutely despise the deification of TUPAC SHAKUR. It is improper to speak ill of the deceased, but that is a subject for another day. Suffice it to say that the Tupac sample was only chosen because those two bars were acapella, and we were putting the thing together with popsicle sticks and chewing gum anyway.
It was fairly easy to produce the keys in a manner that evoked early-90s hip hop, as the keyboards we used then (and still use) were manufactured at that time. We burned the track onto a compact disc that was then given to the team and otherwise shelved it, because it would be inappropriate to expect anyone to pay for a song that was essentially a gag gift (unlike, say, “Kelly Said to Justin”) and truth be told, one of us always hated it anyway. If it ever made a live set, it would have been when we were booked to play with CHANES. We doubt it ever will again.
Better music later, we swear.
-TTT
LEARNING TUMBLR, LESSON TWO or VISUAL EVIDENCE INDICATING THAT LIFESTYLE CHOICES HAVE REPERCUSSIONS
For some reason, tumblr keeps insisting that someone upload a photograph. So for no good reason whatsoever, here is a picture that was taken right after what I believe was the band’s second ever live show on December 2, 2006. It took place at the Spoken Words Performing Arts Center, which was run by a really nice guy named Chief Dayo, who “booked” the space by hanging a calendar on the wall and letting anyone in the world come in and write their name on a day. The purpose of the cafe was to “bring all people together regardless of their ethnicity or race. To be able to share our experiences and knowledge together. To bring unity, peace and understanding among all people through music, visual and performing arts. To be able to bring awareness and help inform each other of the opportunities in our cultural diversity.”
Despite that, he was not the least bit angry when we cleared out the place inside of eight minutes.
Dayo’s records are here: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8180098
Conspicuous Silence or Why Liquor is Oftentimes Absent from Sport
There have been no live performances in the calendar year 2011 and an album that was initially spoken of in 2009 is not complete. No new music has been officially released or forwarded since “Chapter III: World Reclamation.” The “official” myspace and reverbnation pages have not been updated for over one year. These are facts.
However, new songs were written, rehearsals were held, and commitments were kept for both the annual New York City Marathon show on November 7 as well as a double bill with THE UNDEAD on November 12, 2010. Rehearsals have since been held, discussions and / or collaborations with various vocalists and producers have taken place, and offers to play some shows in the Southern United States were accepted. Two different vocalists were studying and re-writing lyrics in anticipation of finishing the aforementioned album. These are also facts.
And then Abbey broke her hand.
It was a bizarre accident witnessed by members of the phenomenal ORANGES (see www.theoranges.org) and came about at a bad time, if only because the aforementioned performances were scheduled and any plans to record had to be scrapped. Mind you, this was not a minor break, but a fairly extensive spiral fracture that separated tendons from the finger and required corrective surgery with fixation hardware. Thus, resultant difficulties with keyboard operation (and, of course, pistol firing, rotary phone dialing, accusatory pointing, “we’re number one”-themed touchdown celebrations, etc.)
Thankfully, the surgery went well, the pins have been removed, and a four-piece lineup has been decided upon for (New York City-only) live performances later this summer. Rehearsals are to recommence after the July 4th holiday. Thereafter, as soon as song structures and vocals are finalized on two tracks, (a new song tentatively titled “The Astoria Lesbian Hot Sauce Company” and a rewrite of “Cheese in the Hospital”) the same will be released on this very page, along with information on where the shows will take place.
Please don’t think us to be absentees. We’ve missed you. We are about to make it up to you in spades.
-TTT
P.S. If you take an interest in THUCYDIDEAN THEORY music, shows, releases, and the like, this page will probably be the best source for current, accurate information in the foreseeable future. Management and associates handle the twitter, myspace, and reverbnation accounts, but everything posted here is verified with either J.D. or S.F. or both.
