In The Studio AGAIN??? So Soon?!?!?

Greetings to all my fellow Distractions!!

After a long two months of rocking the masses, KK+D have decided to take some time off and focus and things that really matter in life. You guessed it, RECORDING MORE MUSIC.

Back in January, a few freinds got together and decided to write and film a short 35 minutes horror comedy called Girls Night Out. Meredith Kotas and Chris Davis were kind enough to ask for my involvement in the project. Being a supporter of anything different and creative, I set out to write the theme song for the film. The song is of course called "Girls Night Out." A demo version has been circulating amongst freinds and relations, and we've been playing the song in our set for these last round of shows. The film is not yet finished, so we took the extra time bonus to re-record the song in its fully Distracted glory. The finished product is a fine peice of pop music, complete with spooky theremins and kick ass story telling. The song will be featured in the film and be available for download on our site when the movie is unleashed in October.

The full day session was rough, even for a well rehearsed band. I think we learned our lesson that playing two very long shows over 3 days and then hitting studio complete with blisters, hoarse voices, and hang-overs is probably not a good idea. But as always, even though we were tired as hell, we managed to not only get the job done with time to spare, but also record ANOTHER song!!

The extra time in the studio was spent not only celebrating my 28th year on this earth, but recording the Chris Freeman classic "Marsha." We have been kicking this song around in the set for almost a year. We first learned it when we backed up the might Freemanator last July. The song seems to fit the personality and humorous ideals of the band, so we recorded it to be the B-side for GNO.

So tomorrow I will head back to Gravity Boots to finish the last of the vocals with Josh in tow. After that, we will have two new tunes in the can. There isn't much on the horizon in terms of shows, but I won't be inactive. I need the next few weeks to get my head together and get all these ideas I have racing in my head down on tape before they go away. New tunes are in the work. Plus, Tha D has expressed that he wants to work on his guitar sound a bit and come up with some new "whirly" sounds. Good vibrations are on the horizon. But really, does it get better than this? We've been getting good shows, good press, and good reviews. All is good. Hopefully, we can bring more goodness to world very soon.

Riding High

I've been floating all week from the good feelings one seeks out when starting a band. Feelings of success, accomplishment. On a small scale, even respected.

Our record release show in Nashville and subsequent Nashville show were both great shows for us with great turn-outs. Our set is ever tightening, and the energy is up, way up. It's funny to think that we've taken the last two summers off from playing shows, and this summer we've hit it hard. Four shows in three weeks, and we are right in the middle.

As long as we've been a band, we've wanted to play our home town of Maryville. We just never got around to it during the era of our first record, and then we decided to wait until the new record was out. Our friends came out and rocked with us and bought bought bought merchandise. The people who didn't know us were pleasantly surprised by us and gave us positive feedback as well. Top that off with this article about us in the Daily Times, and we will definitely be going back to Maryville in a month or two.

The Maryville show was a double triumph for us. You see, Nashville venues don't pay. What a performer makes is proportional to the number of people they can bring and have pay at the door, and that's fine. Brackins in Maryville offered us a generous sum, but we had to play two sets. We had to put some work into this show to practice every cover we've ever done (well, almost) as well as all the Whimsical in Reverse songs we never play anymore. With all that done, I was genuinely worried about our ability to pull off over two solid hours of music (our previous record set length was 90 minutes). I was especially worried about Kelly's voice and Josh's exhausting physicality on the drums. But like I said, we triumphed. The practices and recent shows paid off for the 34 songs we did, and, listening to the bootlegs, I think we played our best show to date in Maryville.

Tomorrow night we follow up at Liquid Smoke. We haven't played Murfreesboro since February, so I expect good things from this show, even if it will be in toxic air. Saturday, we play a 4th of July block party that I think has the potential to be another great show spread across two sets.

And if that's not enough, on Monday we'll take all the energy and fruits of these last few shows straight into the studio to record "Girls' Night Out," a theme song Kelly wrote for an independent horror film that will be coming out in the fall. We also hope to record Chris Freeman's pop hit "Marsha," which we've been playing live and receiving rave reviews on.

That will mark the end of a long stretch of shows and practice, and a needed break will follow, but I'm all the more excited to see what will be around the corner for us in August when things get going again.

Rock!

Who Played What on the Record

The complete list and of whom and what you hear on the record.

"Election: 1800" (Kerr/Peach/Connatser/Williams)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass, Ebow guitar
Josh Williams - drums

"Whiskey Rebellion" (Kerr)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar, hand claps
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass, hand claps
Josh Williams - drums

"Eli Whitney" (Kerr)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, nylon string guitar
Daniel Connatser - acoustic guitar
Matthew Peach - 12 string guitar
Josh Williams - drums
Jeremy Darrow - double bass
Alexandra Deane - violin

"Commodity" (Peach)
Kelly Kerr - vocals
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass
Josh Williams - drums

"Bring Out Yr Dead" (Kerr/Peach)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar
Daniel Connatser - guitar, backing vocals
Matthew Peach - bass, tambourine, 12 string guitar, backing vocals
Josh Williams - drums
Aaron Sefton - backing vocals

"Dear Abby" (Kerr)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, nylon string guitar, bongo box
Matthew Peach - bass, tambourine, acoustic and electric guitars
Rachel Sefton - backing vocals

"Groomed to Lead" (Peach)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass
Josh Williams - drums

"Gold Rush" (Kerr/Peach/Connatser/Williams)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass
Josh Williams - drums
Daniel Rice - hand claps
Aaron Sefton - hand claps

"Bob Dole" (Peach/Kerr)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, acoustic guitar, cowbell, Casio keyboard, omnichord, Ha Ha's
Daniel Connatser - Ha Ha's
Matthew Peach - bass, Ha Ha's
Josh Williams - drums, Woo
Jessica Connatser - Ha Ha's

"The Great Stink" (Kerr)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass
Josh Williams - drums

"Let's Go to War" (Kerr/Peach/Connatser/Williams)
Kelly Kerr - vocals
Daniel Connatser - guitar, backing vocals
Matthew Peach - bass, backing vocals
Josh Williams - drums, backing vocals

"Know It All" (Kerr)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass
Josh Williams - drums

"Central Incompetence Agency" (Peach/Kerr)
Kelly Kerr - vocals, guitar
Daniel Connatser - guitar
Matthew Peach - bass, backing vocals, electric guitar
Josh Williams - drums

Album Credits (part 1)

Since the record is available now online, many people won't see the credits for the record, so I'm posting them here (in two parts) for them to see.

Kelly Kerr & the Distractions
Chronological Disorder or How to Pass History in 13 Easy Steps

Researched, Documented and Reported by
Kelly Kerr, Daniel Connatser, Matthew Peach, Josh Williams

Cover and package design by Brian G. Pitts

Recorded at Gravity Boots Recording Studio, Nashville, TN, from March to December, 2009.
Produced by Daniel Rice, Aaron Sefton, Kelly Kerr, Matthew Peach, Daniel Connatser, Josh Williams
Engineered by Daniel Rice and Aaron Sefton
Mixed by Daniel Rice

This album is dedicated to history lovers everywhere, and to Dr. Amy Sayward, for her years of counsel, patience and friendship.

Special thanks to Jessica Connatser, Angela Peach, Mary Frances Kerr, Mitchell Murphree and everyone at Tomato Tomato (r.i.p.), Jeremy Peach, Justin Kerr, our families (esp. Ron Peach--thanks for letting us use "No. 2"), Steve Cross, Wes Lewis, Samantha Blanchard, Daniel Smith, Chuck Bruner, Bingham Barnes, Street Light All-Stars, Liquid Smoke, Heaven's Basement, Seth Timbs, Tatia Rose, Seth Graves, Stephen Rutherford, Brad Baxter, YEAH!, The Southern Girls Rock 'n' Roll Camp, Jacob Spaulding, Drew Dick, Chris Davis, Jason and Crisi Manley, Chris Freeman and Matt Field

D-Day

Drop day.

The record is available on iTunes, Amazon mp3, Napster and Bandcamp today.

In some ways this is the end of a long journey. Casting my nets into various media sources these days has shown me that the journey of getting the record out there is just beginning.

It's been a great ride, and it's been hard to believe that this moment is now here. The way we do shows is different now since we'll have something to sell readily. No show that produces record sales can be a complete waste of time.

I wonder how the response is going to be. Who all will want to buy this? Several people say they do, and my confidence slides between thinking we'll sell well or not at all.

I woke up early and began the promotion for the record. I flipped the "ON" switch at Bandcamp. The iTunes company tends to do what it wants with release dates. I was afraid it wouldn't be available today, but I checked last night and it was already up. Better early than late in this case. Amazon had clips up weeks ago, and it's available there too. I don't have a Napster account, so I can't check that one.

"Expect the worst and hope for the best," is my motto in all of this, adding, "Work my butt off," to that as well. Lots of shows coming. Practice is going well for the record release show, our next huge hurdle.

Album Eve

Tomorrow the album will be available for the world to enjoy. Hard to believe that day will finally come tomorrow.

Pressing Matters

I've blogged on here somewhere about how we've been banking all along on a particular pressing deal. It would have gotten us 200 pressed CD's in DigiPaks for a great price. We set the release date and declared that the May 22nd show would be our record release, thinking that we could have it all in time. We were a little later than we'd liked getting the masters, and I uploaded them to all the online stores as soon as I got them. I also e-mailed the company and asked about the special price.

Then I waited.

And waited. Three days later, they e-mail me to tell me they had forwarded my request to their pressing department. The next day, the pressing department said they aren't taking new orders as they are closing down and to use someone else. I found a company with a comparable deal and hastily paid to get it done.

Then I read the fine print.

The 15-20 day turn around starts after you send them the discs and artwork and after they approve it and after you approve the artwork.

We need the CD's by Saturday, May 22nd. That's 21 business days from today. If everything gets there on time and they approve it as fast as they say it will (two big if's), the 15-20 day pressing period will begin. That will be 18 business days before the show if all goes according to plan. That will be a close shave to get the record for the release show. Can we do it?

This begs the question of whether we should pay more to get it pressed faster. How much is it worth to us to get the record that fast? That's where they stick us on the price. I guess we'll have to wait until everything is approved before we look at the shipping date.

In the meantime, we have kicked the practice into high gear for the release show. We're working up the three songs from the record that have never been played live. The rest are getting infused with new energy now that the record is completely behind us. We've sped them up, tightened them up, and really learned how to PLAY them, and it's so much more fun this way.

After the release show, we booked the closest thing we can do to a tour with our work schedules, booking four shows in three weeks for the mid summer. Hopefully we can generate some sales. We are most excited about finally playing Maryville, the hometown for Daniel and Josh and me. That's going to be a very wild night.

Activity

It has been a while since I have made a post. So here we go!

The past few months have been one interesting rollercoaster ride. The early response to our new album has been quite nice and we can see the results to the hard work we have put into this project.

When we decided that we going to do this, I think I knew how the end result of the album would turn out, but also didn't know that I knew. Normally I keep all my notebooks and random note, but this past weekend I decided to scale some of them down and throw out alot of pieces of paper that had random stuff written on it. I came across several pages with reminders and time notations for cassettes I was using for the home demos I was doing. I made a note on a certain riff and also noted "slow song for album/possible female back-up." That riff eventually became Dear Abby. That note was made in Feb 2009. Kinda weird? Not to mention all the other random notes I wrote myself, but never remembered. Some of those ideas were made by other members of the band. Also kinda weird.

The track listing was rough because in the end, there were 8 really good possibilities. They all sounded good. I don't think last January were ever expected Election: 1800 to be the first song or turn out the way it did. I remember all of us thinking it was a good song but tried very hard to not discard it. Election:1800 is a good example of why having producers is good and creatively stimulating. They had us do stuff we never would have thought about. Sometimes, real simple stuff.

The artwork kicks ass. Nuff said.

We've been playing shows here and there for the last few months. We played at the Basement, and hopefully will get another show there this summer. We did a birthday party for Aaron Sefton, and we also managed to play at the YEAH! center. All these little performances have been getting us ready for the biggest show of the bands career, our record release show!

Daniel Rice got down and dirty with all the mixes and even the mastering. He was a bit hesitant to accept the role of mastering after having spent the most time with all the tracks, but we managed to talk him into doing it. There were only a few hang ups with his final tracks and those ere easily solved by the adjustment of a knob or the push of a button. I think we listened to the tracks 3 times a day. I know I did.

Another bit of news that is not related to the album is that I managed to get the band featured in an upcoming horror film called Girls Night Out. This is a DIY project done by several friends of mine. I asked to write the theme song and they said yes. I spent a few weeks recording the tune at home on my computer and recently presented the final mix to the director. The song will be available through our site soon.

After all the recordings, rehearsing, overdubs, mixing, and mix approvals, we will finally be able to present the world with our history album on May 11th.

Ladies & Gentlemen, The Tracklisting

1. Election: 1800
2. Whiskey Rebellion
3. Eli Whitney
4. Commodity
5. Bring Out Yr Dead
6. Dear Abby
7. Groomed to Lead
8. Gold Rush
9. Bob Dole
10. The Great Stink
11. Let's Go to War
12. Know It All
13. Central Incompetence Agency

The record will be released May 11, 2010.
The first single will be "Election: 1800," which will be available for download for free this Tuesday, March 22, 2010.
I have a first draft of the mastered copy in my hand right now. Pressing and all that is not too far away after we approve the masters. Stuff is happening, but in some ways, the work is just beginning.

More good stuff to come.

It's Almost Here!!

Wow! There is a lot going on here in Distraction-World.

We recently got some press! We were features in the Murfreesboro Pulse and its seems to be getting a huge response! We know this because our tracker on the website has jumped since the article ran. Thank you to Kerry Vance! You can read the article HERE.

Our friend Joseph Truckovich (the guy that took the photos at our first show) also wrote a lovely piece on us in the Blog of Sound. Truck has been one of our biggest supporters since day one, thanks to him for his time and effort! You can read the opus HERE.

We now have all we need to get this thing pressed and in your hot hands. Everything seems to be on schedule to hit the May 22nd release date! We will celebrate this with an awesome show at Foo-Bar in East Nashville!

Stay tuned on our website for some cool stuff! We will have some downloads and an opportunity for you to pre-order the album.

Thank you all for your time and patience! And get ready for the rock and roll hurricane known as Kelly Kerr and the Distractions to invade your favorite dive bar and deliver the greatest history lecture known to this continent!!!

Beating the Pavement

It really feels like it has crept up on us, but the record is almost completely finished. "Gold Rush" was scheduled to be mixed the night before last, leaving only the mastering to be done. It's so strange to think that we won't have the process of making this record anymore. But since it has crept up on us, there is still plenty to do. We are all meeting tomorrow night to discuss the next steps. Pressing, promoting, marketing, and especially money--these are all big things we have to consider.

I've been out working to get some shows. Strangely, the results have been slightly more favorable than the last few volleys of e-mails I've sent. We've been given a New Faces night show at the Basement, and we've gotten an invitation to return to fooBAR. I guess both of these are because the emails I've sent have all mentioned that our record is about to come out and that we now have a website. (http://kellykerrandthedistractions.com) I think our own URL adds a bit of legitimacy to our work as a band, which is really the main reason we bothered putting up a website. Check it out if you haven't already. This blog has an RSS feed over there, so you really don't have to visit this blogger site anymore.

We're looking at a possible date for a record release show. I'm nervous to call it that since there's no telling when we'll have pressed copies of the darn thing in our hands. It's still good that it's time to start planning. I have lots of work to do to launch this record.

We're also forced to examine shows. I've always been one to say we play every show we get, whether we're offered it or whether we solicit it. Two band members don't quite see it that way, and a recent show offer at a venue in which we can't pick the other bands on the bill has me agreeing with them slightly more. I feel like our friends will come out to shows pretty much regardless, and where we are, we don't need to play shows just for them. Instead, we need to bring in more new folks by playing shows with bands whose followers might like what we do. Therein lies the greatest in the realm of my frustrations: I just don't feel like we're getting anywhere other than to reach our friends. Sure, they like us, and to play a show for them is still great fun. On the other hand, I really don't want to leave it at that. Hopefully the record will truly expand our horizons, but right now I'm not even so hopeful that we can get it out there enough to satisfy our cravings for recognition. Only time will tell I guess, and I'm going to continue working to make it so.

He's BACK!!!

Last night we got a huge surprise at band practice!

Daniel Rice is back from New Zealand!! He managed to survive the battle of Helms Deep and not get eaten by any Orcs. No elves were harmed during his trip.

It seemed as if he stepped off the plane and got right to work on finished our record. Last night he showed up with two more final mixes. "Groomed To Lead" and "Bring Out Yr Dead." Both sound tasty and satisfying. Just two more to go and then some mastering.

Practice was good. I was tired but made it through. We also played CIA and Groomed to Lead for the first time since October 25th. It's all coming back to us. Both run throughs weren't bad at all. It seems everyone still remembers the songs but timing and qeues just need to be sharpened a little. I was impressed.

We have a tracklisting. Sort of. It's the closest thing to one we've had the whole time. We plan to sleep on it for a week and then wait to hear the rest of the album after its mastered. I think it works. But time does help.

Our snow show has been rescheduled for Feb. 12th. Please come and rock out for the under-agers!

Also Snowed In

I started writing this entry and then realized that Peach posted one earlier today. He pretty said everything I was going to say....so......

Yeah we got snowed out. I wasn't bummed until about two hours ago. I was bummed because I realized if we had been playing tonight, we would be playing at that moment. What was even more bumming about the snow situation is even if we wanted to get together, we couldn't because of the damn weather. Snow is nice, but not that nice.

A sneak peak of the back cover was sent out to us. It looks cool! I like the colors. I think we should put an outdated bar code on the back that rings up a sale date of 1793.

It dawned of me after this last show at Liquid Smoke that it has been almost a year since we started down this road. It always weird playing a song for that long. "Whiskey Rebellion" was written on January 2nd of 2009. Do the math. This record has more lasting flavor than the last. I honestly feel tired of playing Paid in Cocaine. Right now, in this little bubble of a set we've been doing, it doesn't seem to belong. Neither does I Married A Zombie anymore. I really only enjoy doing the "old" songs off the cuff. You know, a situation thats like "hey! why not?" Make sense?

If I didn't have my Wii hooked up, I probably would have written the entire next album today. I went back and forth to the guitar and piano in between games of Wii Sports and Zelda. Yesterday I was granted an early day off and went home and hammered on the piano for a few hours. I worked on some new stuff but nothing work talking about yet. I don't feel rushed right now, so i can take some time and really put alot of thought into some of my newest creations before anymore gets to hear them. I've been tinkering with a new Midi controller lately. I got it so I can trigger casio samples for a possible series of songs using casio keyboards but lately i've been using it to program drums. now I can set a solid beat to work with and make better demos. Still using the 4 track though. I've decided that stays for now.

I've been listening to the Replacements all week. Makes me wish we were playing "Gone To Texas" live. The more I think about it, it sounds more like Paul Westerburg than Roger Clyne. Glad it's not on the record though. There are too many upbeat songs. We should have added one more slow song.

Snowed In

Saturday. The snow caused our show tonight to be cancelled. We hope to re-schedule, hopefully for March. Maybe we can make it our release show? Who knows?

At any rate, I'm home today, not wanting to go out and do anything in the snow. This gives me a chance (esp. since I doubt I'll have school on Monday) to work more on the website. I'm very unhappy with it in its current state. I modified this blog to match the new url, but I think both are about to get a big change.

My other project is that for the first time in months, I have a new song that I really want to write. I don't know what to do with it at this point, but I'm going to mess with it over the next few days. It probably couldn't be a great live rock song, but I may make an acoustic demo of it. If I can add a history theme to it, I may send it that way to help bolster the waning force behind making a bonus history EP. I figure, I don't know what else to write it about, so why not make it a history song? We'll see what happens.

The other good news is that being snowed in gives Rex L. Camino, the newly commisioned artiste for our artwork, more of a chance to get that finished. I saw a draft of the back cover last night, and I immediately knew he was the right choice.

Daniel Rice returns Monday. It's hard to believe how fast this month went by, but I'm happy that the artwork may be finished about the time that the record is.

Preliminary Feedback

We now have 8/13 mixed tracks completed and just received updated mixes (at various stages of mixing completion) of the other five completed tracks while our mixer extraordinaire Daniel Rice is in New Zealand until February. This has given us enough to really get a feel for what the record is going to sound like, and we now have enough of it to begin to play it for close friends.

Daniel said that he will be happy with this record if only his longtime friend and collaborator likes it. Said friend was rather pleased with what he heard. I wanted my dad to like what he heard, and he immediately went on and on about how much more listenable it is than the last record and how good everything is.

Kelly was at a party over Christmas where they asked about it, and since he had it in the car, he played the completed mixes. Their response was positive, adding alongside it that it sounded like R.E.M. With all the styles we've flirted with on the record, that one is the most consistent. I pointed out that the 7 he had were the ones that most exemplified our R.E.M.-ness. The comparison between Michael Stipe's voice and Kelly Kerr is always more apparent on our records than live, and I think that is the other grounds for their comparison. Musically, we did little that sounds like R.E.M., but his voice is what carries that image the most. Kelly's responses: 1) "There are worse bands to sound like." 2) "They're due for a revival."

We got feedback of a different sort last night at our show. I was looking forward to playing the venue for the first time since the sound guy there was once at another venue where I saw some great shows. His working relationship with Mike Watt and Fluid Ounces and other bands was enough to make him someone I was hoping we could impress and turn into another ally in town. Well, he completey pissed us off first thing, and that didn't help. As the show was ending and he was helping to un-mic the drums, he told Josh, "You had me until Eli Whitney." Three songs in. It left a bad taste in my mouth since I was hoping he'd receive us like the guy at the French Quarter. It was also interesting because it was the first time we really got hit by negative feedback, especially bluntly, in any real form. Plenty of people come to see us and tell us how great we are after the show. Plenty of people clap and all, but we never get much in the way of criticism, good or bad. Some work friends of Kelly's have some problems with some technical aspects of our show, but it was the first time we faced anyone who either treated us like an asshole in a show setting or gave us negative feedback. I guess it shows that we're all going to have to develop some mighty thick skin if we're going to play more shows and try and push this record out to the far ends of the earth.

It All Sounds Good To Me

We have final mixes for 8 of the 13 songs!

The first 8 sound quite wonderful and only a few minor details need to be changed or looked at. Other than that, those are ready to be mastered.

The other 5 is a different story. Daniel Rice tried his best to finish what he could before taking off to Middle Earth. He has done quite alot of work on the other 5 songs and they sound delicious. The levels are all off and tracks are buried behind others. This is a sign of someone who has been putting alot of attention to every track. Kudos. Personally, the other 5 songs sounds great and just need the levels adjusted and panned out. It sounds as if he has finished all the editing and just needs to find the right balance on the tracks. As we have said before "this sounds great! and its not even mixed!!"-

I imagine the final mastered version will be in our hands in Feb. We are still looking at a digital February release and a march/april physical release. Just in time for my graduation! Weird isn't it?\

I cut my finger doing some work on my house and had to get stiches. This has kept me from playing guitar. I hope this won't impact our upcoming show next friday. It certainly didn't impact our practice. We were pretty kickass minus a guitar!

There are 3 shows for the month of January! Check our facebook and myspace for details!