Preparation

December is near, and it's bound to be a doozy.

On the 10th we're playing with Population, Teaadora, and Ghost Pope at Dawson's Creek. Really looking forward to this one.

On the 14th we'll be at Pizza Works from 6-9 playing a benefit show for a friend's family. We'll be joined by The Dirty Gentlemen, and Emileilei. More details to come.

We also have plans to record a split with evil eye hOneytree sometime between now and 2012.

Tour is slowly piecing itself together. Expect a flyer in the next couple weeks. We could still use some help in a couple places. On January 1st we are looking for a show in southern IL (Springfield, Carbondale, St. Louis, MO). We're also searching for something slightly more promising for January 2nd (OK,AR). The 17th is still WIDE open. We're hoping to find something in northern UT. Get ahold of us at onesadfamily@gmail.com if you think you can lend a hand.

We'll be wrapping up the month with our tour kick-off show/ New Years extravaganza on the 31st at Nate's.

Not to mention finals...

Separate Lives

Since the beginning of 2011, a crucial dude named Rich has been giving us the live recordings of our sets at many of the shows we've been playing in Peoria. We have also had the good fortune to have been recorded by Jeff Gregory, as well as Brody Maag. Using 11 tracks from 7 different shows since January 28, in chronological order, we have compiled a collection of almost all of the songs we've ever written (excluding the newest of the new, of course).

Crippled Sound Records will be releasing Separate Lives on 75 clear purple tapes, complete with download card. Pre-orders will be up soon on crippledsound.net.

Have a listen!

Tracks 1-3 (A Flower, Nesting Insect, and Terrible Excuse) were recorded by Rich at Mate's Fest 2011, 1/29/11. Our old drummer, and good friend Grant plays drums on these songs. Track 2, titled Nesting Insect, was originally a song written for Chris, Austin, and Grant's prior band, LATEX NUNS.

Tracks 4-5 (Telephone Conversations and Don't Let These Words...) were recorded by Jeff Gregory at the Bloody Mess and the Hollowbodys show on 5/21/11. This was our first show as a three piece, and coincidentally was the same day "The Rapture" was supposed to happen. Mr. Gregory was nice enough to hook us up with a killer recording of our set.

Track 6 (Urticating Hairs) was recorded by Rich at Peoria Pizza Works on 5/22/11. This was a stressful night initially. Besides being our second show back, which happened to be the day after our first show, Pizza Werkz was also putting a time crunch on us big time. Thanks to The Oogies for kicking out the jams last minute, and bringing out a crowd!

Track 7 (As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs) was recorded at Eric's Loft, in Lincoln 7/16/11 by Brody Maag.That night we played by candle light, and did a special SadEye FamilyTree set with our friends evileye hOneytree.

Track 8 (Ordinary Purple) was recorded at Red Barn 8/17/11 by Rich. This was Cole Hollow's first show. They are awesome.

Track 9 (Six Cups of Coffee) was recorded by Rich at This is Peoria Fest on 9/10/11. This show was a showcase of Peoria area bands put together by Jake Heflin. We played with many great musicians that night.

Tracks 10-11 (Millionaire's Enlightenment Course and With Laughter) were recorded at Art Show 9/24/11 by Rich, during Christember.

Many thanks to all who helped make these recordings possible, from the great guys that recorded the tracks, to all the people talking in the background. We love you.

Tour-Spiel

We returned last night from our four day tour with Lark's Tongue. Awesome shows were played, we met some great people, made lots of age-related jokes, and smelled some terrible smells. All in all, it was the best time we could have ever asked for, and it ended way too soon.

Thanks to Nathalie, Brief Candles, and Sarah for giving us places to rest our heads, and to everyone who bought a CD or t-shirt from us while we were on the road. Without you, we would not survive. Well, we might, but we wouldn't have been able to afford to indulge in the Sad Family-sized jar of Nutella.

"And with the guitar turned off, and the gas tank empty, and the typewriter on, but my head is empty, and to really find me, I've got to look inside me."

Conniving and Conquering 2012.

Time to kick things up a notch.

Dec 31st- IL
Jan 1st- Memphis, TN
Jan 2nd- OK City, OK  
Jan 3rd- Dallas, TX
Jan 4th- Santa Fe, NM
Jan 5th- Albuquerque, NM
Jan 6th- Phoenix, AZ
Jan 7th- CA
Jan 8th- Davis, CA
Jan 9th- SF area, CA
Jan 10th- Eureka, CA
Jan 11th- Medford, OR
Jan 12th- OR
Jan 13th- Portland, OR
Jan 14th- Olympia, WA
Jan 15th- Seattle, WA
Jan 16th- OFF
Jan 17th- UT
Jan 18th- Denver, CO
Jan 19th- KS
Jan 20th- Des Moines, IA
Jan 21st- Chicago, IL

Discussed these dates last night after practice. Some of them are subject to change. If anyone can help us out, or point us in the right direction, we would greatly appreciate it. A little winter never hurt anyone.
Get in touch with us here: onesadfamily@gmail.com
or here: Sad Book

It's Happening.

Sept 1 - The Bishop in Bloomington, IN with Lark's Tongue, and Kam Kamma
Sept 2 - Quarters in Milwaukee, WI, with Lark's Tongue, Brief Candles
Sept 3 - Hill Valley in Minneapolis, MN, with Lark's Tongue and Lungs
Sept 4 - Rozz Tox in Rock Island, IL with Lark's Tongue

Jazz into Rock

August 6th we made our way east to Bloomington IN. We played an awesome basement, which boasted wolf spiders bigger than your average wolf. Our friend Nathalie and her boyfriend Jon fed us some spicy spaghetti and treated us to the town on Sunday. We all bought some fantastic records, had some great Soma, and ate some mediocre chineefoo. Great times were had, and a year's worth of stories were shared.

We're going to be heading back that way with Lark's Tongue on September 1st during our little Labor Day stint with those fellas.

Sad Family's first show ever was at Yardfest 2010. Yesterday we played at Yardfest 2011. We brought our dry erase board, because we wanted to make it clear that we are a serious band.

Yardfest is always fun, and this year was no exception. A big thanks goes out to the Satterfields for having us again in 2011.

As we have mentioned before, we are going to be hitting the road at the beginning of September with Lark's Tongue. We're playing Bloomington IN on the 1st at The Bishop with Kam Kamma, Milwaukee on the 2nd at Quarters with Brief Candles, Minneapolis on the 3rd at Hill Valley with Lungs, hopefully Des Moines on the 4th and somewhere in the Quad Cities on the 5th. Counting the days.

Speaking of those Brief Candles, we're going to be spending the evening with them and Cole Hollow this Wednesday, the 17th, at the Red Barn in Peoria. This is Cole Hollow's first show so come out and show them some love.

We are also going to record our new song "Arms Back" on August 21st to release as a split with evileyehOneytree. Looking forward to that, as well as another release that we will unveil in the near future.

More to come, said we three.

John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane.

We sure have been keeping busy lately! There are now a few t-shirts for sale, and we hope to have more of those and some stickers done soon. Since May, we've received quite a few live recordings from some very cool people who came to our shows. There's talk of releasing some of them, both on tape and cd... But you'll just have to wait and see about that! We will too, actually.

Recently, we played a show in Lincoln with our friends (and our drummer's other band) evileye hOneytree. The venue there was super cool, and it was fun playing a cover of Pere Ubu's "Final Solution" as SadEye FamilyTree. Also, over this past weekend, we played not one, but two Peoria gigs, both of which were a good time. Before our Brass Rail show on Sunday, we made a stop at the open field by the stock car race track, and had a nice off-road adventure whilst driving over the miniature hills in the evening mist.  It got even more magical, when we made it a picnic! (Thanks to Angel, who made this band photo opportunity possible!)

So, as for current goings-on, our next show will be with our friend Nathalie's new band Closet Burner in Bloomington, Indiana, on August 6th. The next day, we hope to also play with them in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Talk about branching out! We're really excited to do some travelin', and bring the "sad" to other states.

Some Stuff, and Things

Well, the blog is all updated and fancy-schmancy!  We have a small break from shows for a couple weeks, but will be playing in Lincoln on July 16th, with Hushpad.  More info on that one, coming soon.

Goult uh couple of new songs in the works.

<--- Also, thanks to Ron Osborn for those bitchin' snapshots.

The Peanut Gallery

Sad Family's first review(s)! Check 'em out.


Similar Kindred Souls by SAD FAMILY

   So, the album begins with Chris Wheeler naked in bed begging a question without a necessary answer...interesting. Whilst these similar kindred souls keep pounding on one another, one cannot question the exact purpose of the music...obviously disgruntled with life Chris (lead singer, bass (at this point)) proposes a toast with a shout to "shut up" to himself, or to the listener that he is not speaking prophetically in anything. While many point out an influence to the Minutemen (which is there) to this group it is only a glimpse of an influence of the groups true style. If one looks deep enough groups such as Mission of Burma and the Screamers are huge influential factors to the sound of the group.

Well, after nesting as insects (i.e. Latex Nuns) for a few years Sad Family raises it's defensive stance to God knows what...and it's jazzy! The album becomes an epic atonal jazz/punk fest which is something I need to stab me in the gut on a nearly daily basis. While half-naked dreaming of being Henry Rollins brother in 1983, Chris questions if his thoughts are from someone else in a lonesome, neurotic way. I think he had too much coffee and had his palm read or something. I don't know though. The music still kills! And that's all that matters with Sad Family....they're talented.

   Grant (drums) proves himself as an amazing musician in this project. I had the pleasure of performing with him and Austin Vice (guitar) in a previous project(s) (Opium Den Massacre/Saget/Drafted). Brenda's keyboards are solid and leaving nothing out of the group besides a solid addition. Very well performed and produced.

   Telephone Conversations is an awesome bridge for songs that cannot be called a filler by any means because it's awesome as crap.

   Then, Terrible Excuse comes where Chris lays on the line what he views as a "terrible excuse" in an almost optimistic and empathetic fashion. Proclaiming the "the future is behind us." The full stop with the bass building up is awesome.

   The album ends on a bittersweet humorous note with "In Laughter" in which it is hard to tell if Chris is being sarcastic or not about someone being worthy of his attention. Regardless the song is intense and filled with unique talent from all four band members.

   I don't feel like I need to rate the album of this supergroup...it wouldn't make sense. I could say 5/5 or 9.934234234/10 but it wouldn't matter...what makes the group is the unique display of audio stimuli that leaves a hole in history that may only matter twenty years from now (like all of the best groups) if any of them/us live that long. The ending is epic much like the end of the first song...so angry yet with a weird feeling of care and love and compassion from the group.

Odd? Yes.

Good? You decide.
I say "Yes, very good" but "you decide" is what the group probably expects, so go ahead.


SAD FAMILY official E.P.!!!11

   The new E.P. has a much more urgent and serious feel than "Similar Kindred Souls." Opening with a feel of Mission of Burma, Sad Family opens with a desire for a "name for this war" that they are fighting....and a desperate youthful need to fix it. Brenda Burger now performs back-up spoken word and plays bass which only expands the talent of the group. While originally scared of Grant Behrens (amazing drummer) leaving the group...Chris Wheeler moves to drums in a way that captures ambiance of the group much harder than before. This E.P. is so different in approach it's hard to call them the same group. With the new version of "Don't Let These Words..." projected in a freshly understandable way...Chris' emotions inflict the listener harder than before. In a speed which was originally planned for Sad Family the group plays this slightly older tune in a way that cannot be compared to its' old version. It is very distinguishable and more intense with the decline in speed. Pushing the listener to a new extreme in a Flipper-esque fashion. "Millionaire's Enlightenment Course" seems like a very well played joke at first, but possibly pointing the group in a new direction. Near the end the song sounds much like a fine ditty from "The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull" by the awesome drone/ambient band, Earth meets old Modest Mouse. Sad Family sure sounds like they have something fresh and new to offer. Which, in this writer's opinion, is a good thing, but only with fresh talent....which these guys/gal have to offer. Soak it in and rejoice for Sad Family.


- 6/10/2011 - Kyle G. Swansong

JUNE!

Here's the flier for the show we will be hosting at Peoria's Red Barn on June 16th!

Adult Books is John Menchaca's (guitarist of Maltross) new 80s Hardcore band, hailing from the CU.

Also, View From the Mothership will be there to take us into the outer reaches of the Universe with some energetic Post-Rock.

This will be our last Peoria show for a while, since we know you are all sick of us now anyway!  We will be playing in Champaign with Adult Books at The Dude Ranch on Saturday, June 18th, which we are all excited for.

Silverfish Falling from the Ceiling Fan

This past weekend was a totally awesome blur.  Saturday night at the Brass Rail went swimmingly.  Sunday night at Pizza Works started out pretty stressful, but ended up being a really good time.  In Defence were taco-rific!  Today we discussed touring the Midwest this winter, and hope to make a stop in Minneapolis to play another show with those dudes.

Also, we have all of our designs for the Sad Family EP that we "released" this weekend printed up... But unfortunately, some of them are STILL in the process of drying.  I mean, we just printed them a week ago, so what can we expect, right?  Aside from that minor annoyance, we are definitely very happy with how it turned out.  Come out to one of our upcoming shows, and grab one for $3.

Bottom left by Austin, Top left by Brenda, Top right by Chris.

Keep in mind, we will all be offended if you don't choose our design.  We are constantly in competition with one another, this is no exception!

You can also feel free to have a listen, right here!





We are getting prepared/pumped to play at Eltoro's cd release show at the Brass Rail this Saturday, the 28th!  Come out, and party hardy.

After that, our next show will be June 6th at the Red Barn with Tina Sparkle.  Also, June 16th we will be at Red Barn again, with Adult Books, Cole Hollow, and View From the Mothership.  Expect a flier soon!

Signing off for now, and calling the bug guy tomorrow.

Sad Family EP

It's here!  Our new EP is now ready and waiting for you to shove it in your ears (and butts).  Come out to one of our shows this weekend, and grab yourself a copy!  We will be doing three different cover designs, and will possibly have a few shirts available as well.

We can't wait to start playing again, and hope to see everyone either at the Brass Rail on Saturday, May 21st, or (for those of you who survive the Rapture) the next day at Pizza Works!

Click on the link below to have a listen!

Sad Family EP

One More for May

Just set up a show at Pizza Works for IN DEFENCE on May 22nd.

Its going to be a good time. There will be tacos. You must purchase them.

Shows N' Things!

Just thought we should post a little schedule for our upcoming shows, at which we will have our new EP finished and ready to go!

May 21st @ The Brass Rail on Farmington Rd.- with Bloody Mess & The Hollowbodys and SICK

May 28th @ The Brass Rail- CD release for Eltoro

More to be announced soon!

We hope to get the sweatshop up and running again, so we can put out some shirts as well.  No time to lose!

REC.

Last night, our friend Max recorded a couple of our new songs for us!  Needless to say, it was a very fun and productive night/morning. All in all we did three songs, two of which are so new, they don't even have titles yet!  We look forward to getting them out for everyone to listen to, and are excited to play at the Brass Rail on May 21st with Bloody Mess & The Hollowbodys and Sick, where we hope to have everything on CD and ready to distribute.  Also, we will be working on shirts and stuff for our upcoming shows as well, which will probably result in another awesome late-night fun session for us.  We can't wait to start playing shows again, and look forward to showin' ya'll what we been cookin'!

Thanks for the beers, Elton!

Tonight, after a nice dinner at Pizza Works with our friends Emily and Jacob, we decided we were all going to go meet Elton John at the Civic Center.  While marveling at Elton's multiple tour buses and Miller Lite trucks, Austin just happened to stumble over three unopened bottles of Rogue Ale, sitting on the sidewalk by one of the many buses.  We took this as a sign that we should venture into the Civic Center to go thank Sir Elton for the fancy beverages, ourselves.  After a few minutes of standing in the lobby and listening to "Tiny Dancer" and ogling at his $40 tour shirts, we decided to get bold.  We all walked around a little bit, and Jacob found a door through which we gained access to the arena!  Inside, there were many sights to be seen; not limited to, but including a drunk man who had peed his pants, and an old couple making out to "Rocket Man."  After getting kicked off of every open stairwell, and enjoying listening to Elton John play several of his many millions of hit songs, we decided to venture out and enjoy our found beers.  Upon exiting the arena, Emily got held back by a small security troll, who asked her for her ticket.  After it was determined that we didn't need a ticket to exit, we happily went on our way to the Riverfront to relax the night away.


On a different note, we'd like to mention a cool new record shop called Ribbon Records that just recently opened up in downtown Peoria!  We picked up some neat stuff there on Saturday... So check 'em out!

North Pekin's Finest

Looks like we're going to have trouble leaving the pod-bay door open when we practice in the Mothership from now on.  Whilst having one of our awesome late night practices out in North Pekin tonight, we thought we had averted another "Angry Dad" incident.  (A couple weeks ago, a red-faced, Harley Davidson shirt-wearing dad stormed into our practice space, because apparently they could hear us at their house that was over a mile away; who was followed by several strips of bacon.  At least they all complimented us after they reamed us for being loud.)  Anyway, tonight at about quarter til 3am we had 3 strips of bacon, with a side of shut the fuck up.  Well, they were a little nicer than that.... And they also told us we sounded good!  So I guess we make music that pigs enjoy; go figure.  We only regret that we didn't get a shot of them all set in place holding our instruments.  Next time, boys... Next time.

Similar Kindred Souls

Sad Family was born in the summer of 2010.  Up until this time, we have played a handful of shows and recorded a seven song EP as a four-piece.  Our good friend and amazing drummer, Grant, left the band to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming the president of Des Moines, Iowa's Slipknot fan club.  We all wish him the best of luck in all his endeavors.  The band is continuing as a three-piece, and things have been changed and rearranged.  We are excited to say that we will soon be playing shows and recording a fresh demo.  It puts us in a weird position, because we have an EP that we recorded in our previous form, and it was never released.  We don't want to release it now, because it's not what we are now.  Nonetheless, it is something that we want people to hear, because we all hold it dear to us.  So here it is; listen to it and/or download it for free via Sound Cloud!  And then, in May, come to our first show back in the saddle.  We can't wait to see you!

Similar Kindred Souls by Sad Family