Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Terrapin/Seasons Tour Photoblog #1

We got back from our west coast sojourn with Seasons

a few days ago. The time we spent together on the road

feels like it was all too brief. We covered the entire

west coast in a few days.

There are a lot of great memories that were made on

this trip. The pictures in this post were all taken by

our very own in-house photographer Vanessa.

When time permits there will be another post or two

with some more pics and recollections. There's a lot

of pictures.


This will do for now.

Adam Seasons: "Coke Mountain."
Nik Seasons & Coke Mountain
Vanessa Lynn
Grizzly Man
Rocks feel good on Adams back.
Vanessa getting closer to her element.
We also fit a complete backline of gear and 10 people in the van.
Kurt Vannegut a.k.a. Vincent Van Goooooo and Vandolf the Gray.
Why yes, those are amplifiers stacked on amplifiers between the front seats.
Alan reveling.
John Seasons: If you known John you know this is the best pic of him ever.
Pictured: Nature. Also known as the world outside of the van.
Touching down in Seattle.
Seasons
Blurry but awesome Seasons.


More pics to come.


The Terrapin
XO

Monday, May 23, 2011

Tour Dates! Local Shows, Innermachine, Interviews, Merch & More!

Let's start off with our bigger news...

The Terrapin and Seasons Tour Dates in June:

Saturday June 4th - The Makeout Room - San Francisco, CA

Sunday June 5th - Valentines - Portland, OR

Monday June 6th - The Jewel Box Theatre - Seattle, WA

Tuesday June 7th - Ella Street Social Club - Portland, OR

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186257814757349

We're really excited to be heading out on the road again.
To coincide with these dates we will have brand new merch!
We will be bringing along t-shirts and will have a limited
number of cd copies of our new record "Innermachine."

If you aren't familiar with our friends in Seasons, you should
give them a listen.

Once we're back in town we'll be wasting no time because
will be heading southbound towards San Diego to play
The Telemagica Music Festival!

http://telemagica.com

Check out their website for more information.
We will be playing on Saturday night under the stars.
It's going to be our first time playing an event like this.
If you're in the area we would recommend your attendance.

Aside from those aforementioned dates we do have a few
local shows lined up right now.

Friday May 27th - Clancy's - Long Beach, CA
with Bella Novela

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160499844006555


Wednesday July 27th - Que Sera - Long Beach, CA
with Cigarette Bums for the last night of their residency
along with Moon Pearl and Brother Cecil.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=213008008709545


Saturday August 27th - The Prospector - Long Beach, CA
with Bella Novela, The Elephant Parallax and DJ Oldboy

Other dates are pending but we'll let you know when more are
confirmed.

Our new record "Innermachine" has recently been completed
in regards to its mixing and mastering. The final mix and master
were done by Ikey Owens from Free Moral Agents/The Mars Volta
and J.P.Benzinkski from Wild Pack of Canaries/Eugene & the 1914.
It was recorded last year at Red Rockets Glare Studios with producer
Raymond Richards.

We are also planning on launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund
the pressing our our new record to Vinyl. We'l have more details
on that very soon for you.

We have also had a couple of recent interviews posted/published
with us. The first one was done by Jenny G who may know from
her work at KXLU. She interviewed us for the awesome folks at
Dirty Hippy Radio. Check it out here:

http://dirtyhippieradio.com/2011/04/05/our-hair’s-on-end-about-the-terrapin-interview-by-jenny-gee-of-kxlu-for-dhr/

Also, check out the facebook page she just set up for her radio
program, Levitation Radio

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Levitation-Radio/202720239771992

We were also featured in Dig Magazine both online and in the
print edition. The interview was done by CSULB student
Yoon Song. He did a great job and we think you'll enjoy it as well.

http://digmagonline.com/features/a-family-affair-1.2221867

If you want a preview of some the new "Innermachine" tracks
come out to one of our shows or check out some of these videos
shot by Jon Hershfield for ISGOODMUSIC.

Together


Innermachine

If you still haven't seen the beautiful video director
Donovan Vim Crony did for us for the song "Birthcake"
from our first EP watch it now:


We're planning on making some more videos as well.

Good times right?

XOXO

The Terrapin







Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Terrapin at Pehrspace: Saturday, April 23rd


The Terrapin had the chance to play Pehrspace last night for the first time
in a couple of years. The only other time we've played there was in our early
days right after Bill joined the band when he was still playing sax. He couldn't
make the show and it became the last show we did as a trio. We played with
The Weather Underground that night before they changed their name and
became Red Cortez.

The first band on the bill were our dear friends in C-Horse. If you don't know
who they are or haven't heard their music you're missing out. They write and
play some of the catchiest pop music around right now. Their set included a
few new songs that had a more driving guitar sound. If you looked near one
of the PA speakers you would have seen me air drumming to most of their
set.

I think there were a lot of things running through all our minds last night
as we began to set up our gear after C-Horse. Alan was in the midst of
celebrating his two year anniversary with his girlfriend, Vanessa's mom
was visiting in town visiting and seeing us play for the first time, I was
getting to play my new drum set for the first time and any number of
other things. We also had our good friend Donovan Vim Crony on
Team Terrapin last night running the live visuals for us. They looked
absolutely amazing. He is also the man behind this music video:


The guy is seriously talented and we are proud to work with him.

Remember how we said Alan was celebrating his two year anniversary
with his girlfriend? Well, we started the night by playing a song dedicated
to her. This was the song:


We totally covered Weezer.

The set felt like a wonderful blur of light and sound.

For the end of the set we played a song called "Sweet Carl." Last night
marked the third time we've ever played it. The original version
of it was written in the period when we were a five piece with our friend
Vince Phung on bass. It does require a two guitar assault so we don't
have many chances to play it live. With that being said we had our friend
Lindsay from C-Horse join us on bass so Bill could switch over and play
guitar. Needless to say we ended the set on a blissed out high note.

Our set list in order from last night:

El Scorcho

Kill

Franjelica

T-Rex/Goat Adventure (see below for video)

Bawdy Politic

Driving Drone

Know/More

Moonage Daydream

Sweet Carl


Up next were the face melting gents of The Elephant Parallax.
Those guys were off the walls impressive, we'd never seen them
before last night. They made us think of some of our favorite
Prog bands and you know we like us some Prog Rock in case
you didn't know that already.

Closing the night were one of favorite acts from the Long
Beach music scene: The Bellhaunts. It was their first time
playing Pehrspace and they kept the crowd there til the
very end.

You may have also noticed the unusually good music being
played in between bands last night. That was due to the
turntable skills of DJ Oldboy a.k.a. Chris Lynch. If you were
at the first night of our Casey's residency this year in January
then you will remember him from that night as well.

Some other details: Matthew Teardrop from Manhattan Murder
Mystery was there working the sound for all the bands night.
It sounded great, so a big thanks to him(Nailed it!). Also, thank
you to Laurence who gave me the beer during our set. It was much
appreciated. The lovely flyer you saw at the top of this post was
done by the skillful hands of Courtney from C-Horse.

Not sure what else to say other than we had a great time with
great people. We soldier on to the next gig and hope you'll
continue to enjoy the ride with us.


"It's Just A Ride."

XOXO
The Terrapin

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

March 2011 Terrapin Gig Schedule

Hey all,

we've been keeping busy behind the scenes with scheduling gigs
and getting the gears turning on upcoming things for the next
few months.

In the meantime you can see us live and in person at the following
shows that we have currently scheduled for the month of March:

Friday March 11th
Riff Haus Studios
1150 E Valencia Dr.
Fullerton, CA
with:Moon Pearl (irvine)
Bellhaunts (santa ana)
One High Five (HB/LB)
Lockdown (younger OC punk band, )

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=184940144870978

ALL-AGES!

$8, 6:45pm doors, show at 7:45pm


Thursday March 17th
La Cave
1695 Irvine Ave
Costa Mesa, CA
with: Brother Cecil, Cobalt Cranes, DJ Oldboy
FREE 21+


http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146301508766486



Saturday March 19th

Space 2710 /\ 2710 W. Avenue 34, Los Angeles, CA
with: Kissing Cousins, Buffalo Electric
$5 All Ages

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=132167003518910

Tuesday March 29th

Lot 1 Cafe: 1533 Sunset Blvd
$5 9pm
with: Seasons, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Modern Time Machines

Thursday March 31st
The Prospector
2400 East 7th Street
Long Beach, CA 90804-4637
$5 21+
with: Seasons, Dona Nicha


From what you see, we are going to be playing some new
areas we haven't played before like Costa Mesa and
Fullerton. Plus a couple of All Ages shows.

Come hang out with us one of these nights.

It'll be fun.

Expect some major announcements soon.

Thanks!

The Terrapin

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

More Shows, Record Update!

Hey all,

since we wrapped up our Casey's residency we have been keeping
ourselves busy back here in the anthropomorphic world of The Terrapin.

Our first post-residency gig was Thursday February 10th with
The Studiofix who frickin' rock and Killola who rocked that place silly.
Seriously, this was a show of unrelenting rock from start to finish.
Do yourself a favor and look them both up.

We have a handful of shows happening that we'd like to let you
know about so here they are:

SHOWS
Wednesday, February 23rd at 5 Star Bar in Downtown LA
w/TBA

Saturday, March 12th at Riffhaus in Fullerton
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184940144870978

Saturday, March 19th at Space2710 in Eagle Rock
w/Kissing Cousins


We played 5 Star Bar last November for the last night of the
Modern Time Machines residency and we're sure it'll be a fine
time in the old city. We've also never played Fullerton, nevermind
an All Ages house party in Fullerton. So that's going to be a
new experience. Then we'll be playing again with the lovely
ladies of Kissing Cousins who you may remember played
with us for the third night of our residency in January.

Come by to any of these shows if you can make it.

We just recently wrapped up mixing with Ikey Owens
who you may recognize as being the Keyboard player for
The Mars Volta as well as leader of his band Free Moral Agents.
We met up with Ikey and his engineer J.P. in Long Beach
and got to see and hear some of the finishing touches to
our Inner Machine record. There are just a few more things
we're sorting through but we'll have some more info regarding
the record fairly soon. It's going to be totally worth it.



Well, there you have it for now.

We'll see you soon.



The Terrapin

Bear, Cat, Koala, Ferret





Friday, February 4, 2011

Casey's Residency Night 4: January, 28th 2011

Night 4 of our residency brought back to a place we have quickly learned
to call our home in downtown. To say goodbye in style we brought along
Jeff from Dirty Hippy Radio and Jenny G who DJ's at KXLU to play some
songs. They spun a great mix of obscure garage rock both new and old
you really couldn't beat. If you weren't there for the awesomeness they
played you should make sure to tune in to 88.9 KXLU if you live in
Southern California or online at KXLU.com , their program plays on
Thursday afternoons from Noon to 3pm so check it out.

Seriously, you'll love it.

For this last show we picked the gentlemen in the band Seasons.
If you aren't familiar with them you should be (just like all the
bands and DJ's from all the other nights). Seasons play a blistering
mix of Psychedelic Rock tinged with a pop heart. We're big fans
and were excited to have them on this last night of our residency.

How about you just watch them play their song "Always" ?



How cool is that?

Yeah, exactly.

And we're going to be doing a lot more shows together come
end of March into early April. An official announcement will
be coming soon.

For our final residency night we felt pretty well into a good
solid groove after having played all month long. It was great
seeing so many friendly faces, old and new, that night. Even
though we've had to delay plans for releasing our new record
this month, it's because it looks like we're going to be releasing
it on Vinyl! Andrew Wilson who did the amazing residency
poster is doing our record cover as well. We think you're going
to love it.

We played the entirety of the forthcoming 'Inner Machine'
record plus a bevy of other goodies.

Setlist:

1)Inner Machine
2)Franjelica
3)Together
4)Bawdy Politic
5)Know/More (1-5 are the songs comprising 'Inner Machine' in order)
6)Moonage Daydream (Bowie cover dedicated to Nik from Seasons)
7)T-Rex/Goat Adventure (New Song)
8)The Party (New Song)
9) SWEET CARL (New Song, special guest Vince Phung on Bass)

The first 5 songs mark where we have been musically over the last
year or two and Moonage to the end mark where the follow up to
'Inner Machine' is going. We saved the song 'Sweet Carl' for this show
because Seasons heard an old demo that they loved, that gave us the
kick in the butt we needed to rework it and finish it.

Vince Phung is our former bass player before Bill took over full time.
We've always been on good terms with him since his departure and
thought this would be a great time to have him join us for one night.
That does mean bill switched over to guitar for the song as well.
So for one brief moment we became the Megaterrapin as a 5 piece.
Will we do more shows with Vince? Perhaps, the future is yet written.

The Casey's residency has been one of the most positive experiences
we have had as a band and would like to say a big THANK YOU to
Dave Freeman at Casey's for booking us and letting us have this
opportunity.

Massive Thanks to

Bombon:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bombon/142447085804892?ref=ts

Hexham Heads:
http://www.facebook.com/hexhamheads

Kissing Cousins:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kissing-Cousins/51337431990

Seasons:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seasons/200675546070

DJ Oldboy:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110566172313420

CMYK:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CMYK/188605392865

Jeff at Dirty Hippy Radio:
http://dirtyhippieradio.com

Jenny G from KXLU:
http://www.kxlu.com/playlists/jmmngjen.htm

and visual artist Zach McGinnes for running our visuals
all month long.

Less talk, more AV content from that night
(pic 1 taken by Vincent Roque, pic 2 by Amy Fortunato,
Video by Jeff from Dirty Hippy Radio.):








Hope you enjoyed the new song.

SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

and


THANK YOU for your support.


The Terrapin
BEAR, CAT, KOALA, FERRET

XOXO

Friday, January 28, 2011

Casey's Residency Night 3: January, 21st 2011


Night 3 of our residency saw us joined by the ladies in Kissing Cousins.
Prior to this night the last time we played together had been about a year
or so back. If you aren't familiar with Kissing Cousins, they are a female
piece of some of the heaviest music being played in the LA music scene.
Imagine if the Melvins and Black Sabbath had a musical lovechild, it's
sort of like that but better. It was a definite pleasure to have with them
again after such a long time.

CMYK whom you may remember from the second week of our residency
returned to DJ this night as well. They laid down some great beats and
tunes that night that had butts shaking. What more can you ask from
a DJ duo? Not much. A big thanks to them for joining us for two
consecutive weeks.

By the time we hit the stage the floor seemed pretty filled as we launched into our
first song that night. Unlike the first two fridays where we ended with a cover, we
decided to start this week with one. Our cover song of choice this night was
'I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts' by legendary LA band X. We reshaped the song
into out own image. That is to say we sludged out certain sections while keeping
others closeish to the original arrangement. If you were there to witness this
cover then we suppose this description makes more sense. We played what we
consider to be a new and thorough reworking of a song called 'More'. That song
has been a staple of our live sets the last year and a half or so and is typically
played as an extension of another song called 'Know'. We slowed the tempo down
quite a bit and added an extended first half that is spacier and prettier. In this
version the song takes on a life of its own that we think is very separate from the
way we have been performing it.

What was the set list you may be wondering?

1) I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts (X cover)
2)Franjelica
3)Kill
4)T.Rex/Goat Adventure
5)The Party
6)Birthcake
7)Bawdy Politic
8)Driving Drone
9)More (New Arragement/Song)

We don't have any pictures of this night but you imagine
it was loud and darkish with trippy projections.

Or catch these videos if you haven't already:




On to Night 4!


The Terrapin

XOXO