solvents blog....

its been forever...

2009-05-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Wow~ its been a long time since i posted anything. i guess there's nothing going on.....

well, we did finish up the new album. i love it. im happy with it. its great. good job!

click on the link below to purchase...

http://cdbaby.com/cd/solvents3

here is a nice email this guy sent me about "manresa castle" he is a sweet band in portland, ore called "no go know" they are good. check the link.....

http://www.myspace.com/nogoknow

*****the email*******

Hey Jarrod,

Meg lent me her copy of Manresa Castle last night when we got home from dinner. Sitting down with the evening settling, wind blowing and rain threatening and listening quietly was more than enjoyable. The booklet itself demanded attention and I found myself reading ahead of the music as the lyrics worked beautifully all on their own. Then going back, I was blown away by how well every aspect of the album was fashioned - the songs, the words, the artwork, the production. I can't remember the last time I was so bowled over by something that just kind of crept up on me.

Needless to say, I'm quite looking forward to your new album.

Scott

karl blau, solvents, your heart breaks, the mix/georgetown/feb.5th,2008

2009-02-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

it was a fun night in Georgetown with some great tunes in a great space.we all had weird images and movies projected on us.....i liked that alot.

karl blau opened the night with some truly amazing songs, some of which were new to my ears and brain. there were a couple tunes that truly blew my mind. i like it when karl plays anything, but i really do enjoy him just singing songs with a guitar.

my best friend from grade school/ jr. high showed up. a surprise for sure. it was great to hang out with him. his name is jesse and hes the one who took all these beautiful pictures.

also in the "crowd":
matt fuller
erin skipper
dennis driscoll
forrest ??
tiffany??

solvents were up next. i think we did o.k. its so hard for me to tell when its happening... we didnt practice...people clapped and paid attention. we played a new song called "marine". we had never played it before and it worked out pretty good. the magic that is emily madden on the violin never ceases to amaze me. she can just jump in and play. i love her...

your heart breaks played last. clyde on g/v with karl on drums. it was a pretty wild set compared to the low key action from the other 2 acts. karl played the drums.
i really love clydes songs and guitar playing style. my fave is the one about "crue fans" i also like the "its not so bad" one.
clyde brought her own slide show...

after the show, erin skipper took us home and put us to bed.....

BOB'S JAVA JIVE in TACOMA! (1/30/09)

2009-01-31T13:53:00.000-08:00

we played a show in tacoma last night. it was super. you should go to our house blog and read rubys write-up of the night. follow the link below.......

http://franklinandvanburen.blogspot.com

also, ruby took all these wonderful photos....

slovents on the radio...

2008-12-20T16:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.kruufm.com/edens-hour-solvents

this is a fun radio show we did in November 08... you can download or stream...

ALSO, i stumbled on to this little gem. http://phoningitin.net/shows/87-The-Solvents

there is a radio show on the east coast called "phoning it in" where artists call in and play there songs over the phone, live on the radio! its pretty neat sounding. i did it in 2005. check it out....

you can stream it or download an mp3..

******from the web site*******

"Jarrod Paul Bramson phones it in from Port Townsend, WA. The Solvents deliver on the promise of pure expression that lo-fi made in its heyday. Aching and plaintive without being cloying, and with a voice reminiscent of Mark Kozelek, Jarrod doesn't just know how to tug your heartstrings, he really gets in there and tinkers around. I just can't stop listening to 'John Lennon', over and over again."

Nadav, BSR 06/24/2005

Songs

John Lennon
Unearth Me >
Just Like Living Alone
Psychic Visions
Stop! In The Name Of Love [The Supremes]
Cold Stares/Summertime?
You Are A Woman

winter tour: brokedown in oaktown

2008-12-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

we decided to "move" to Oakland for a couple weeks. we have some gigs in San Francisco one in L.A. and another in Joshua Tree.....

emily madden: changing lives with her violin

2008-12-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

this makes it all worth while.

we got this email today from this really nice lady.

we are super mega flattered....

I am wondering if I could buy the sheet music to "they are one" from your CD.

I bought your CD at the San Francisco Decompression in October, mostly because I so loved the violin in your songs. I have always enjoyed the violin, but this particular song is so moving for me, I have listened to it over and over. I have never so much as picked up a violin, but I am now moved to learn to play it, in the hopes that one day I can play that song. I know so little about the violin that I don't even know how hard the song is, but I am hoping that it is possible.

Thanks for your beautiful music,

Stacey

Playing the S.F. Burning Man Decompression Party!

2008-10-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

dont ask me how we got this gig because its complicated. a tangled web of miscommunication...

Anyway, emily, my sister daija and i left pt. townsend at 5:30 am and drove straight to arcata, ca. we had a gig in a town close to there called blue lake at a place called the logger bar.

....the logger bar is rad. its

exactly what you picture when

you picture a place called the logger bar. our super cool friend megan lined it

up on the fly. it was a great time. after the gig, we went back to arcata to catch matador records newest super stars, bright black morning light,which wasn't so great. i love the record, but the live show....

not so much. i fell asleep at the front of the stage. i was really "tired".

we partied a bit more, went to bed, woke up and hit the road....bound for San Francisco................

it was good ride. we stopped at a road side attraction called confusion hill. we traded a cd for the

3 of us to walk through a tilted house that was

supposedly a vortex.

as we headed back to the gift shop, i heard our cd on. i ran through the place jumped back

in the car....

we drove and drove until we finally saw the golden gate bridge. what a beautiful sight on a totally gorgeous day. its was my sisters first sight of the city, so it was pretty special.
we drove in and went to the Haight-Ashbury district. we had to do it.... daija had never been there before. it was actually really fun. golden gate park is the bees knees! i love it there. such a huge wonderful place......

after a couple cocktails, we were off to oakland....lots of traffic and bad directions, but we made it...just in time for a party! wow! it was fun. it was really good to see the boys again. we ran

through the set and it sounded great. it felt really good to be playing with sascha and seth . a bit of a reunion. like, we all survived tour and life after tour and now were here in the o.a.k. still playing the songs. i was relieved.....
the party went on late. we went to this other party down the street and people wondered who we were and why we were in their house drinking their booze. it was epic.

the next day we fucked around forever then finally left for the burning man decompression party...............

.....we pulled in and it was mass confusion from the get go. our gig was at 4:00. it was 2:00 when we showed up. we argued with the gate lady about who was supposed to be on the list. finally, we got in and this other lady was like "oh you guys are here. good. your on in 10 minutes!". we were a little confused but jumped on stage, set up, and got to playing within 10 minutes. this wasnt the show we had booked, but it sure was fun. it was a big stage with a killer sound system. i really dont know how we got to play on this stage. no one ever told us to be there or anything. by sheer luck, we showed up at the right gate at the right time.

after we played, we figured out we had another show to get to. somebody got us a golf cart to carry the gear and we were on our way through the thick crowd of "burners". it was intense. this was my first exposure to this culture and it fucked my brain up. blocks and blocks of madness!

it truly was a scene to be had. i felt like a total hick, lost in the big crazy world of burning man....

we played our second set and it was rockin. it was under this weird little pop up tent. it was fun and people liked us.

we got tired and drove back to oakland.

we slept. then, we got up and drove straight to port townsend. i think we stopped 3 times! it took about 15 hrs.
i woke up the next day and went to work.....wow.

new recording in the works....its almost done.

2008-10-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

So i think i started laying down drum tracks, like, a year ago for this group of songs im working on. Things are starting to sound super sweet, finally.....

Karl Blau has been helping me mix and iam so grateful for his ears, mind and heart. its really an amazing experience working with karl. he tries things that i wouldn't think of trying and makes things sound completely different than i could ever imagine. its very liberating.....i dont usually like to let other people in on my work, but im totally stoked that karl is involved...and i have learned a fuck load of recording tricks!!!!!

i think this might be my favorite recording yet.

working titles: "the end of the world" or "the bell tower" or "the reservoir"

track list:

1. when i saw my reflection
2. impressive angels
3. stars and waves
4. marine
5. magical h.
6. burn like weeping sons
7. cozy mo came home
8. piano/drums dub
9. everybody knows that sadness is a cold blade
10.this story's long

now that i think about it, i really like "the reservoir"

hmmmmm.........

please check out karls music. it is unreal....

http://www.myspace.com/karlblau

solvents tour august 2008

2008-08-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

the first day...the band and crowd were in fine form @ the sirens on a Thursday in Port Townsend Wa. A
true hometown tour kick-off hootenanny drunk fest.thanks to all the friends for coming out and sending
us off well.
The next day was crazy trying to get the van packed. It was fucked,really. But we made it work. And
the van is truly, truly packed to the gills. Its nice and cozy.
We said goodbye to all the roommates and friends. We left the house and jumped in the van! Ready to
go! Rock n roll! I put the key in and....the van wouldn't start. There was 15 minutes of confusion,stress
and complete shock. We tried to jump it and it wouldn't start. Panic was beginning to set in. we changed
jumper cables and it fired up. It was the first of many “spinal tap” moments to come..
Finally we got to Tacoma. We played at a place called bobs world famous java jive. It is an amazing tea
pot shaped building in south Tacoma. Its an amazing place to play. its really fucked up in an awesome way pretty weird.. We opened for a band called cave singers.
They are “hot” right now so there was a good crowd of people. We were really fucking good and sorta
rocked the place. We dropped the “upbeat” songs and kept the set pretty “dark”. People were trippin on
us.
I feel really lucky to be playing with seth sasha and emily. The band is super tight yet the songs
all ways come out in different was everynight. Its really un-boring. I love it alot......
oh, thank you ruby for selling cds for us! And of course, zack for putting us up in Tacoma! Also, to
Rachel for booking us. I wish more bookers could handle themselves the way she does. Maybe she
could teach at booking school...hmmmmm....

the next day.... We had an amazing breakfast at a place in Tacoma called southern kitchen. I had rainbow
trout(!) eggs and hash browns. Seth had a huge bowl of beans and rice that was so good.

We said goodbye to ruby and drove to portland. We hooked up with our friend jake kelly and made a
couple drinks. Vodka tonics. ahhhh...super nice after our “long” drive from tacoma.
We had amazing Ethiopian food at a place in north pdx.please go there if you get the
chance. Two incredible meals in one day!
We played at a place in s.e. Pdx called the chaos cafe. It was a fun place to play. The highlights for me
me was hearing jake play his songs,and hearing this girl play who calls herself chica y los gatos. She
was really great. its like hearing ariel from the little mermaid sing really heavy break up songs with
totally skilled guitar playing antics. Like a show tune kinda vibe. Really,really great.
Our set felt weird to me but i guess it was pretty rockin. You cant argue with the fans,i guess..
speaking of fans, this girl named amber drove up all the way from eugene just to see us play. I thought
that was really nice.
We crashed at jakes and i woke up on the floor with a sore neck.....life on the road.
Right now we are on our way to Florence,ore. Sasha is driving and we are listening to townes van zandt.
Feeling a little bit sad....its townes fault i think......the next day...florenece oregon is a true blue rock n roll town!!! you may not belive me but its true. I was
there...heres the story.
We had night off and decided that we were gonna play somewhere. We ended up walking into this
place called china bay. It was a Chinese restaurant with a bar. We told the guy our deal and he told
us to load the gear in. sweet! Emily and seth made some hand-bills and headed down town to try and
gather some people. Sasha and i stayed behind and set up the gear. I was having a super hard time
because of my stupid fucked up neck and i was feeling pretty down. It really didn't help that some hick
dude was yelling for me to play “SLAYER!” before id even plugged in my guitar. I didnt think this was
going to be any fun at all. I was wrong.
We decided to get a hotel across the street from the bar. I NEEDED to sleep in a bed. My neck and
shoulder were hurting pretty bad. The idea of a bed after the show,then a hot tub in the morning raised
my spirits alot.
We started to play. We opened the set with an ultra butchered version of “free bird”. We kinda like
learned it on the spot. Then we started playing our own songs. It was going pretty well until i opened
my eyes to see this blond haired little coke head looking bitch screaming”TURN IT THE FUCK
DOWN!!!!” i think she wanted to fight emily or something. I dont know. It was a trip. Half the room
wanted us to stop and the other half was super into it. We played a few more and took a break.
We met some interesting people. For instance, there was “megadeth mike”. Hes a house painter and
his painting company is called MEGADETH painting co.(!!!!!) he had a sweatshirt on with the logo
and everything. His work van was covered in SLAYER,MEGADETH and DIO decals. Imagine hiring
a painter and dude showing up in a van like that. Sounds pretty awesome.
megadeth mike(this is what he called himself,by the way) is a super cool guy. He used to be in a metal
band until their practice space burned down and the guitar player committed suicide.
Anyway, we drank up and rocked the house. People were super into it and bought stuff and gave tips.
We eneded up playing 3 sets! (the last one was pretty blurry!) we even signed some autographs! Not
bad for a show thrown together on the fly. We were feeling pretty great until we got our bar tab. Pretty
much all the money we made was drank throughout the night. Bummer.
Speaking of sucky bars, if you are a band DONT PAY AT THE LITTLE RED LION IN EUREKA!
There a bunch of lazy pricks. We showed up to find out that we had been bumped for karaoke night!
Picture walking in to a dive bar in tweeker ville to find a 4 people singing shitty versions of evenesence
and huey lewis. While some booker is apologizing because she forgot to write yr. Show on the calendar
while the bar tender is being a total dickhead. They told us we could go on at midnight and we walked
the fuck outta there. It truly is a long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll She did buy us a pizza at
least.
Fortunately, we had a good friend who put us up for the night. Her name is sara and she is rad. She is
into aroma therapy so we ended up sitting around “smelling”essential oils. It was actually really rad
and it really,truly “cured” my neck ache.
We are on our way to willits ca right now. The road is really windy and im gettting sick as im typing. I
think i might vomit...uhhggggg...
later.....last night was pretty rad! We played an ultra mellow set in willits ca at a super coll pub
called shanchies. We got free beer all night! It was great. We played with a ukulele band from portland
called kingnik. They were good.
Some highlights: free beer
free weed
crazy people
we met a magician who blew our minds with a couple tricks
after the show, we basically had to “whore” ourselves out after the gig to sell some shirts and cds. I was
kinda working these girls for 20 bucks,trying to be cool or whatever. It was funny. They asked me if i
was single and then the conversation ended pretty quick. I did manage to secure the money beforehand.
Pretty soon they started talking about “needing big cocks” and we knew it was time to leave town. At
one point this girl was standing with us, rubbing her breasts saying dirty stuff. It was scary
and funny.
I drove us out of town. It was an amazingly scary drive. We were driving straight into lightning and
heavy rain while listening to Danzig! I smoked some weed and just drove off into the night.
I think we did 3 hours after leaving willits. I was ultra wrecked when we pulled into the motel 6. it felt
good to lay in bed.
We are in route to grass valley to play at the grass valley fair. I think we get to see a rodeo today!
the next day.... Well we didnt really get to see a rodeo but playing the grass valley fair was quite a trip.
We got to the place and it was really big and crazy. A true redneck/Americana vibe. We walked in and
saw a big stage with lights and everything. I started to get nervous. Luckly, that wasnt our stage. We
walked on through the fair. It was crazy. We saw lots of pigs with babies and sheep and cows. We
found another stage(the place had quite a few stages) it was medium sized and it wasnt ours. We
walked on through the throngs of people. Found yet another stage that wasn't ours. Feeling very spinal
tap at this point. We had to get a map of the fairgrounds. Finally, we found the stage. It was modest at
best. Perfect for us to do our thing.
On the stage was a big sign that says TONIGHT! 8:00 THE SOLVENTS ( JAM BAND ALTERNATIVE MUSIC)

they had a guy in a golf cart pick up all the gear for us. That was nice considering we were like a half a
mile deep in crazy fair land.
We drank some beers and got set up. Our set was actually a live broadcast for the nevada city radio
station kvmr 89.5. it was a pretty great set. we Rocked for like 2 hours! It was hard as hell. We did
pretty well financially speaking. And the tunes were ripping as usual.
Luckly, sasha has an apartment in grass valley. We loaded up the gear and went back to the pad and
crashed out super hard. We slept in super late.
We woke up and drove to the yuma river. It was so fucking amazing! There were like all these big
rocks to swim under and around. The water on my skin was magically cleansing. I didnt want to leave
the water. Its ultra hot down here.

Life in the van.....wow! We are crammed in this mini van tight. We are always together.
Everything revolves around the van. All our shit lives in it. Im always thinking about it. Checking the
oil. Checking the water. The tires. Trying to keep her as happy as possible.
We are a weird family.in a mini van.
So far, everyone has kept it pretty cool. No total freak outs yet. Im wating.....
we are driving to San Francisco right now. We need to get ready for our “big city” gig tonight. Like hair
gell and tighter pants........
another day...last night in s.f was an awesome show! we played with maya dorn and campo bravo. both groups were great. we ended up going on pretty late. we kinda rocked the place pretty hard.

the venue is called grant and green. if you have a band,you should play there. its in the north beach area.

lots of highlights for me but the best was selling a cd to this total gangsta dude with a "gold grill" and everything. he frickin loved us.

right now were kickin back in oakland at someones house. i dont know whos place it is. sasha lined it up. its nice to relax,but i wish we were playing tonight. i guess were having a bbq....

another day..... we are in a motel 6 somewhere outside of santa cruz. 2 nights ago we played a super rocking show in oakland at a place called mama buzz. people were pretty excited by our noise. the weirdest part was this old man sitting right up front,kinda secretly taking pictures and recording us with digital recorder. as soon as we were done,he disappeared.
so yeah, we ruled oakland and hit the road. we sorta tried to pick up a gig in santa cruz, but it didnt work out. it really sucks having nights off. its like you have no reason to exist or something......
were on our way to pismo beach.......
another day comes and goes.....and goes...and goes....
lots of groovy stuffs been going on. right now were sitting in the green room of some club in ventura. ventura is seedy. seriously.
yesterday was crazy. we drove hwy one from montery to san luis obispo. it was crazy. huge cliffs and crazy roads. we stopped by the henry miller memorial library. it was a great little spot in the woods right by big sur. super great place to stop and get coffee.
the road was hard on our stomachs and mental state.
luckly, we pulled off at a beach that was covered with elephant seals!!! it was the best thing ive seen in a long,long time. it rejuvinated us!
after the seals, we drove to pizmo and picked up a gig at this crazy bar called mongos. we ended up playing 2 sets plus an unreal free jam at the end of the night. it was good. the open mic guy put us up at his place. we slept in the most comfortable ive ever had the pleasure to pass out on.
we woke up and found out that we had left emilys fiddle at the bar. it was really scary for a second. we called the place and they had it. we hauled ass and picked it up.
back to now. we just found out that we are opening the gig. bummer. maybe. really,really bad pop punk playing loud on the p.a....sometimes i truly wish i could go home. its time to load the gear in.....fuck. feel the pain.

fuck me........if yr. in a band and want to play in ventura,ca. DONT book a gig at mais cafe. its not really the place thats bad, its this guy named pete who books. he is the worst booker ive ever encountered. fucking asshole. he told us that he was going to make a flyer. he didnt. he told us we were going to go on second between 2 other bands. he made us open.he rushed us to get on stage to play to a COMPLETELY EMPTY ROOM(see pic).then he decides not to give us any money. just a fucking useless dude,basically. HE WILL STEAL YR. HARD EARNED CASH. HE IS TOTALLY UNTRUSTABLE. DONT WORK WITH HIM...EVER!!!!
also, a big thanks to the other bands for showing up on time to see us play. such pricks.....

best part of the show: we did an on the fly cover of "divide and conquer" by husker du. also, sasha pulled a pretty insane drum solo at the end of the set.

luckly for us, there was an open mic at a super cool dive bar next store called billy os. it was a great gig! we rocked like 3 sets and sorta blew some minds. we even managed to sell 40 bucks worth of cds...the last set was a classic rock jam freakout featuring "dreams" by fleetwood mack "get into the groove" by Madonna, 'feels like making love" by bad company "going hungry"-temple of the dog(people LOVED this one) baba o riely-the who,"space cowboy"-steve miller "the end"-the doors and "tush"-zz top. it was terrible. it felt good to be playing for our people once again.

this girl took us home and we slept on her floor......mission accomplished....

the next day we got up and drove to Venice beach and did the boardwalk freak show thing. it was fun and totally overwhelming. i highly recommend it.

los angeles is crazy! we played a strange show in echo park @ a place called echo curio. everything was going well with the music. i was playing with my eyes closed the whole time just running the set. i hadnt noticed that there were like 3 cop cars and a bunch of police men on the sidewalk,shining flashlights in to the venue. from my point of view, it looked like we were in the middle of a riot or something. i thought they were coming for us. i didnt know what the fuck was going on. i didnt know what to do so we just kept playing the songs. i felt protected in the music.

turns out, there was a fight outside. no big deal,but it made me realize how terrified of cops i am.....

after the show we went to a dive bar up the street. it was packed to the gills with bearded hipster dudes. it was "country d.j. night". emily was walking around saying "wow,i really like your beard!" or "beards and country music are really in right now arent they?" it was pretty funny. dudes were pretty dumbfounded. they didnt really have shit to say.....

oh, to leave los angeles.....

so the next day we went to Joshua tree. we had a show at a place called water canyon coffee. it was a fun show. we played really quiet to an older crowd who listened intently. i sorta lost it before we played. this guy who opened for us played the harpsichord and sang sad songs. it kinda fucked me up. i started crying and had to go outside.

after the show, we headed up into the j.tree national park to set up camp. it was night when we arrived but the moon was bright so everything was bathed in this strange illumination. it was stellar. we climbed some rocks and tripped out on the stars. so good to be out of L.A......

the next morning, we did some more climbing until we were to tired to do much else besides jump in the van and drive to Tuscan.....

and we drove and drove and drove....

Tuscan turned out to be a total nightmare for me at least. the show started off great until emilys violin pick up broke during the 3rd song. things got weird. i got pissed,we put out bad vibes and it sucked. i took a walk and sat down in some nasty alley.all i wanted was to not be where i was. then this guy appeared. he was Mexican, with no shirt,covered with prison style cholo gang tattoos. i wasn't sure what he wanted and i really didn't care. he bummed a smoke and asked we what my problem was(i obviously looked fucking totaled) and i told him the the whole deal....all the frustration with shows, being in the van,playing badly, making no money, missing my family.....just sorta unloaded. he said he understood. then he tells me he just got out of prison after doing 20 years! as soon as i heard 20 years, i knew i was face to face with a killer. i got a bit nervous,but some how i knew the guy wasn't there to hurt me. as it turns out, he killed someone while driving drunk right after he turned 18. he told me about the guilt and about trying to get back into society. he told me about the prison people dropping him off at the greyhound station with no money or shoes. then he tells me he saw our show and that it wasn't so bad!! i guess he was watching through the window. he also said it was the first live music he had seen since his return to society! kinda helped me put in into perspective......i came back to the and tried to tell the band about my new outlook. they were like "yr. still an asshole,dude".

our friends Chris and Myra from the band Low Ones put us up for the night. they also put the show together. thanks guys!

we woke up and went to the music store to find a pick up for emilys violin. the place is amazing! loads of vintage gear piled all over the place....
we thought we were going to drop 150.00 bucks on a damn pick up but we ended up spending 15.00 on a contact mic instead! the people there were totally helpful. one of the employee guys even bought Emily some new strings because he felt sorry for her and loved her playing style. you could easily call our time in that music store a religious experience....

gotta move.......from Tuscon, we headed for Phoenix. it was hot as fucking hell. the air was like an oven...over and over breathing in the heat. it was sick,but radical feeling. we stopped at a rest stop and smoked. it was hard to be away from the a.c.... native people were trying to sell their arts in crafts, in the direct sunlight no less...i didnt buy anything.