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News Update Satruday February 16th, 2008 We realize this is quite short notice, but this came up pretty quickly. We wanted to let you know as soon as we did. Ashengrace will be performing a one-off show this Sunday, February 17th at Asylum Nightclub in Tucson, Arizona. We will be going on first followed by Sanit Rohrschach. This will be an early show with our intent to hit the stage at 8:00 p.m. That should make it easier for those of you with day jobs, babysitters, and so on to be able to attend. If you've never been to Asylum before, it's a good place located right smack dab in the middle of downtown Tucson on Congress street, the main drag. The bartenders are friendly, the drinks are well made, lots of places to sit at, and so on. Given, most of the downtown area is under so-called 'construction', there's a fair amount of parking available close by. Also, right up the street is the famous hangover-cure restaurant "The Grill". Oh, regretfully there's no freakin' smoking section inside the club. I think the front patio is where you go but don't quote me on that. Not their fault. Anyway, this is a no-cover-charge show. A show with a purpose. Asylum is in imminent danger of being shut down. For those unaware, this is THE only alterna-whatever club in Tucson. The club can trace it's roots all the way back to the old Fine Line (bulldozed some years ago and turned into part of the parking lot for Pima Community College). Club Asylum originally got it's boost as the alternative night at what is now Club DV8. It has moved locations many times but has been situated quite nicely at it's current location for a good few years in the home of the old Double-Zero club. There are many factors contributing to the club's current situation. I could go on at length with my own opinions on that, but this isn't the place or the time. Bottom line is they need people. And quite frankly, I think we're ALL overdue for an evening out having a good time. There's got to be more to this life than sitting in a cubicle. As mentioned, admission to the show is free and they will have a number of early drink specials. Donations are very much accepted at the door. We have agreed to forgo our normal guarantee to do this appearance in an effort to help them out. Asylum is the first club that ever gave our music a chance which resulted in "Sandstorm" and "Starsong" ending up in regular rotation, so we're giving something back. We'll be performing some old stuff, some new stuff, and whatever else we can come up with. Please come, we'd love to see you. Help Save Our Ass.....sylum. xxx, daviid & ian ashengrace www.ashengrace.com www.myspace.com/ashengrace |
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News Update Saturday August 11th, 2007
Just a quick addendum to the last news update.
The track "Idolater" has been added to the audio
section from the upcoming album "The Breaking Wheel".
Aggressive, rhythmic, and on the brutal side for what we do. YES, in fact, I did. And here
comes the big, supersnazzypants udpate guaranteed to supply you with 12
essential vitamins and minerals.It's not Vitamin A.... Forgive the long update but I'm feeling kinda chatty. First off, a big thankyew to the folks who made it out to see us at Chasers on July 21st. Despite the small turnout it was really nice to see some familar faces (Loki, Suriel, Allison). Was that humidity brutal or what? Once again, The Captives showed their stuff and blew the doors off the place. Tom and Eddie were right on the ball, it was stunning. At long last I'm working myself to death getting our website all straightened out, including building a single-click site recovery module to handle the fact that our present host has a tendency to, oh, completely DUMP our website without warning. Time for a new host. Time for a new host. Time for a new host. Oh wait, I WORK for them. I oughta be able to figure this out... Anyway, some goodies to share, and a few small requests. First of all, our site address is http://www.ILoveDMXCozHeSoHarrrrrd.com
I've been working on the "Live" section of our site with our slowly-growing gig history section. So far, there's at least something from each show we've done since "Refuge" in October, 2005. I've got setlists from every show except the gig with the Cruxshadows, Ayria, and Ego "Leggo My Eggo" Likeness back in January 2007 when it was still cool enough to breathe outdoors. For the life of me, I cannot remember what we played! I know that damned setlist is around here somewheres. I think we closed with "One Hundred Years" out of spite for getting our soundcheck ganked again. Blah. Remind me to give Thom's moobs a good yank for that next time I see him. You'll find the "Live" section under the "Images" link for now, if you're interested. If you're not, well, go there anyway. Punch and pie. Two small requests for the group. I figure most of you are from the Phoenix area so maybe you can help answer some questions for us. 1. Both Ian and I could swear we played 3 times at that "Mardis Gras" place over in Scottsdale, Arizona. We can remember playing in December 2005 with the Capitves and Audra, and another show in July of 2006 with Reliquary, Acidica, and A Rebors, uh, Au Rebours, eh.... Aww Reviouries...um...you know, that guy who plays the guitar so well he makes everyone else suck. Mad genius he is, I say thankya. Are we missing something? I keep thinking February or August 2006 for some reason. How embarassing, can't even remember one of our own gigs... 2. If anyone has pictures of us at any of the gigs we've played, would you mind emailing us a copy? We'll credit you, of course. Email off-list to ashengrace@theriver.com. Just let us know where/when it's from and how you want to be credited on our website (email, URL, name, what-have-you). Now, for the goodies. At least I hope they qualify as goodies... Some time ago I did a collaboration with Tara Vanflower (Tara Vanflower solo, Lycia, Black Happy Day, to name a few). This was a cover of "The Top" by The Cure. I have uploaded it to our site in the "Audio" section. Tara handles all the vocal work. In addition to be one of my good friends, I think she's one of the most amazing female vocalists out there and it was a thrill to have her guest on this. Come by for a listen. As Paris Hilton would say: "Like, um, God helped me through it and stuff. I am sooooo drunk! That's HOT! (blurrrrggghh)" Also, we have a new track up on the website in the "Audio" section (plus the cover artwork for the new album "The Breaking Wheel"). The song is called "Missing". It's also up on our myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/ashengrace . I'll be posting another track from the upcoming album probably later today, as soon as I can focus.... If you want to download the audio tracks from our site rather than stream them, just right click on the link and left click on 'Save As'. Thanks everyone for listening. As I've been up for almost 36 hours, it's time for a few hours sleep before.......the day job. Hope all is well for everyone. xxx,
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News Update Sunday August 27th, 2006
Hey all, Just a quickie bit of a news update. In November 2004 I visited Richmond, Virginia to spend some time with Stacye and Randy of the everything-lush-and-beautiful band Heaven Falls Hard. While I was there, we had an opportunity to do a bit of recording togher. I contributed bass guitar, some rhythm guitar, and a bit of vocal work on a few tunes. It was great fun, very easy to work with. We recorded alternate versions of their songs "Resurrection" and "Colder", and three cover songs. The cover songs were The Cure's "Catch", This Mortal Coil's "You and Your Sister", and for total fun, a cover of the John Waite 80's hit "Missing You". I think we did a good job. Stacye and I traded off on the lead vocals. Apparently a John Waite fan site got hold of the song and loved it. Here is the link: John Waite Unofficial Fan Site
Have a listen, it's not half bad :). On the Ashengrace front, work continues on the new album and we are rehearsing the rest of the songs from "Sandstorm" for possible performance. Currently, we're working on "The Sun Dance", my favorite song from the album. A bit of a challenge to play seeing as it's written in 15/8, but what the hell :) More news as it happens. Thank you all for listening. |
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News Update Wednesday July 19th, 2006 - New
Collaboration posted Hello everyone. I've spent the better part of the evening mixing down the sequencer and drum tracks for the followup to "Sandstorm". We're looking at a list of 16 songs to pare down from. Every time I work on a record I remember what an incredibly involved process it is. I read somewhere that the Beatles recorded their first album in a single session. Go figure. A new audio track is now available in the Audio section. I've been waiting to release this (and some of you have been anticipating this) for a long, long time. In the "Audio"section, in the "Collaborations/Remixes" section you'll find a link toa collaboration done with Black Happy Day/Lycia/Solo vocalist Tara Vanflower. It is a rendition of The Cure's "The Top" from their 1984 album of the same name. The track clocks in at 8 minutes and we hope you enjoy it. The song is available for free and will not be released anywhere else. Let us know what you think, we'd love to hear it. And thank you for listening. xxx, david & ian
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News Update Thursday July 6th, 2006 - Notes on the
July 1st show in Phoenix You know, I keep swearing that one day I'll be able to give these people the show I want to give them. One of these days we will. The show was quite an adventure, let me tell you. We headed up late afternoon on the first and promptly drove into a serious monsoon downpour. Horizontal rain, flooding, and hail. Visibility on the freeway dropped to zero. I was leaning out the window trying to keep my eyes on the tailights in front of me while Ian watched out the right side of the car to make sure I didn't cross the white line. Thrilling and very 'rock star'. I mean, dying on the way to the gig. How rock-star is that? We got up to the venue around 7pm and the other headliner Acidica were deep into soundcheck. We mixed, mingled, chatted, slammed beers, the usual pre-show warmup stuff. So, onto the gig. The opening band was called A Rebours. It's basically one guy with an assistant. He's one of those guitar players that makes everyone else 'suck'. I was floored with his playing ability. Tight, incredible sound, the whole nine yards. Nice guy, too. Next up was Acidica, industrial band based in Phoenix led by Jay. Jay's one cool guy, really supportive, funny, and unapologetic. I dig it. Fun moment of their set was watching my Dad trying to absorb a song called "Fuck Off And Die". Yes, my Dad was at the show. Along with my sister, her husband, my friends Mike and Tara, Dave Strand from The Strand (apparently), my girlfriend and her friend Carla, Thom (booked our first gig in Phoenix which was also our first show since 1997), quite a turnout. Next up was us. I'm telling you, we sounded great at soundcheck. Apparently our mix got messed with before we went on. Go figure. Our sound train-wrecked. Sure, I've pretty much cured the feedback problem but something new came up and after watching this video of us performing "Seven" I know what happened. Last up was Reliquary. That group had people eating out of the palms of their hands. They were stunning, energetic, looked good, sounded good, the whole shebang. Can't help but be a little star-struck when I watch them play. The link above is to an .avi file so you can right click and 'save as', if you desire. But keep an open mind. Use the same 'ears' that would allow you to tolerate an old Sisters Of Mercy bootled from 1983 or something. The sound is pretty horrendous. I am relieved to know what the fuck happened. After a few rounds of hearing this I know what went wrong. Some time ago Ashlee Simpson found herself almost booed offstage when she performed at the Orange Bowl. Watching her onstage, I can relate. When you can't hear yourself the experience can be horrifying. First problem. So much 'bass' is on Ian's bass it effectively starts to feedback on it's own. Funny considering we don't use amplifiers on stage. When the huge 'growl' on the low end quiets down I can hear the mix perfectly and, musically, we are just about dead on target. But that damned 'growl' just drowned the shit out of everything. I couldn't tell that clearly on stage as I had in-ear monitors in. Go figure. This isn't Ian's fault seeing as I handle the mix. Shame on me. Second problem. I don't sing 'loud', I never have. Having my vocals turned so far down in the mix forced me to effectively 'shout' through the whole set. I couldn't stay in key to save my own life. Even having the monitors in my ears I couldn't hear shit. So, apologies around for our continuing round of sound issues. We only learn how to deal with these in practice. If I had 200 pairs of headphones to hand out, I would. I will tell you that we gave it our all, full tilt. We hope those of you who could make it had at least a good time. We're grateful to Phoenix continuing to invite us back, because we can't get another round in Tucson to save our asses so it's good to have friends. Setlist follows: Throb (taken from the album "Awake In Semuta" - never performed live Seven (taken from the album "Surface") Aftermath (taken from the album "Sandstorm") Tantalus (taken from the album "Eve and Mistral") Chained In Starlight (new song, from the upcoming as-of-yet-untitled new album) The Wishing Hour (taken from our first album "Drawing Down The Moon", last performed in 1996) Plainsong (Cure cover, never performed live) |
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News Update Saturday June 24th, 2006 - Upcoming
Show Hey everyone, we have another upcoming show. We will be performing on Saturday July 1st at Mardis Gras Bar & Grille in scenic Scottsdale, Arizona. Doors open at 8:00 with us going around at 10:00 p.m. or so. We will be opening for local artists Reliquary, currently celebrating the release of their first cd "Winter World", and sharing the stage with industrial-artists Acidica and local artist A Rebours. Please come out and have a great time with us. Something to do on a Saturday, no? A Rebours, Acidica, Ashengrace, and Reliquary Mardis Gras Bar & Grill |
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News Update May 17th 2006 - Notes on the show in
Phoenix last night Hey everybody. Well, we just finished unloading our gear at the house after our performance in Phoenix at the Counter Culture Cafe's "Black Coffee" night. It's 5:45 in the morning and we are dead tired, but still very energetic after what was a very successful show. Yes, you read that right. A good show :). The fun began long before we got there. Ian headed up to the show with the gear in my car and I followed in my S.O.'s Mini Cooper. Quite an adventure, let me tell you, as we drove straight into a rather intense sandstorm about 60 miles outside Phoenix. Visibility dropped to maybe 100 feet and tumbleweeds the size of our car were blowing across the freeway. I saw quite a few of them explode in dead-weed shards underneath my car. Very intense and thrilling. All I could think was "We SO have to pull over and shoot a video in this." Sadistic I am. We reached the venue around 6:00 and checked it with Thom (who got us our first gig in Phoenix) and Nelson (DJ Aeternium from the AZGoth list, the guy who got us this show) and hooked up with the members of Reliquary, the band we would be opening for. Incredibly nice people. This time, contrary to previous performances, we specifically requested in our rider that we get an actual sound-check. We did. The dynamics between headphones (which we rehearse through) and a club P.A. system are quite different. We spent about 20 minutes ringing out our sound and got it pretty damned well on the mark. Not quite up to the standard that WE want, but pretty damned good. On with the show, we hit the stage at 8:30. That is..if you can call it much of a "stage". It was about 8 feet by 8 feet square. We were crunched! It was worse for Reliquary, though. They had to put four people up there. I couldn't tell you how many people were there (I think the final count at the end of the night was 100 or something....beats me) but a few familiar faces were there, namely Allison who has been a diehard supporter of our material for some years. I used my headset monitors this time and had a very easy time following what was going on. We got a really strong response from the audience and had an excellent time. This was a real thrill for us and got lots of compliments. We're getting there :). Anyway, for those interested, here was the set list. Intro - Newsong (improvisation). Yes, this is "Newsong" from "Drawing Down The Moon" very much rearranged and played only with bass, guitar, and vocals. Tantalus Sekhmet & Osiris Starsong Faithless Murrain Amber Sunless (b-side non-album track from "Awake In Semuta") Coldlight November (this got a really good response, I was surprised considering what a somber piece it is) The Gate (tossed out of the set due to time constraints) Aftermath (this got the strongest response of the night) Cry In The Wind (Clan Of Xymox cover, really got it right) Now, here's the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful part about the show. We didn't have one single tiny squeak of feedback the whole night and I even managed to get a small amount of vocal effecting in. Woo hoo! An 'orgasmic hypnotist' came on next. Claimed he could hypnotize people into having an orgasm. Very interesting. Some girl participated and....wow. No nudity or anything, but interesting nontheless. Reliquary took the stage around 10:30 and were simply stunning. I could only dream of sounding that crisp and clear. They were amazing. We spent most of the evening hanging out with Jay, the lead vocalist for Acidica who is currently providing some keyboard and guitar work for Reliquary. Awesome guy with buckets of stories and interesting information. Good to add a new friend to the collection. Phoenix has some pretty amazing people in it. This was an incredible show, hopefully with more to follow. Phoenix has been very kind to us and we hope we've shown sufficient gratitude for it. We'll come back anytime. Anyway, off to bed before I fall over. Thanks for listening. Pictures from the gig are forthcoming. xxx, david & ian |
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News Update May 11th, 2006 - Upcoming Performance
in Phoenix, AZ May 16th 2006 Yup, you read that right. We are headed back to
Phoenix for another show. Here are the details Details: david & ian |
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News Update November 27th, 2005 - Upcoming Show
December 2nd
Hello everyone. We have another show to announce. Ashengrace will be appearing at Mardi Gras club in Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday December 2nd. We will be sharing the stage with Projekt artists Audra and local Scottsdale Manchester band The Captives. A big thank you to Tom and Eddie of The Captives for making this possible. We are scheduled to hit the stage around midnight. This show promises to be a lot of fun. Both Audra and The Captives are incredible bands live. Tom (Captives) stage presence is humbling. He has incredible energy and charm, and the band are simply top-notch. Most anyone knows Audra. Brett has one of the most talented voices I've heard in some time and their blend of new wave with just a bare touch of darkwave and goth is sure to impress. And then, well, there's us. Hopefully you know us by now ;). We have been practicing intensely for this gig and plan on trying out a whole slew of newer material for your listening pleasure. If you can make it, please come. It promises to be a very entertaining Friday night.
Friday, December 2nd Doors open at 8:00 p.m.
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News Update October 19th, 2005
Really quick update. More pictures from the recent show at Asylum in Tucson, AZ have been added to the gallery. Apologies for the motion blurring in the shots, we used a lower-light film. xxxx, david & ian |
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News Update October 17th, 2005
The show at Asylum went very well. Big thank you's to all the people who came out. We were told there were about 80 of you. Some of you had to go to work early the next morning. Some of you had to hire babysitters. Some of you never ever go out, but you came out for this. thank you so much. Overall, it went really well. We're getting better at resolving sound problems. I just need to do a better job of explaining that "louder does not mean better sounding". We're not the Jesus & Mary Chain. Our sound is not improved by being painful. A few pictures are up over in the gallery section. There would be more but the person who took the rest of the shots tells me that she can't find the cable for her camera. So no go. Hopefully more shows in the future, November-December-ish. This little state hasn't heard the last of us. xxo, david & ian. |
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News update October 1st, 2005
Well, we did it. Played our first show in 8 million years in Phoenix tonight. How did it go? Good question, because we couldn't hear a thing on stage. Have I mentioned just how HOT it is under stage
lights in Phoenix? A huge thank you to all the people who came out for the show, and we hope you had a good time. Our next scheduled show will be at Club Asylum in Tucson, AZ on Thursday October 13th. Hope to see you there! xxx, david & ian |
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News update September 19th, 2005
Well, it's long overdue but we'd like to announce one confirmed and one just-about-confirmed live appearance. Here's the confirmed one: Yes, you read that right. After 8 billion years we
are playing out. Photos will most definitely be taken at the event and we plan to tape our appearance there. We'll have some mp3's up for you all when this happens. xx, david&ian |
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News update August 08.2005
Hello all. Two new live tracks have been uploaded to the site from recent rehearsals. Featured are "Anastasia" from the "Eve and Mistral" album and "Sekmet & Osiris" from the "Surface" album. We hope you enjoy these renditions, especially "Sekhmet" as it has never been performed before. The latest issue of "Gothic Beauty" magazine features an interview with us as well as an excellent review of "Sandstorm". A HUGE thank you to the magazine for the press and opportunity :). This publication is available in most, if not all, Hot Topic stores nationwide. Check it out. xxx, david & ian |
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News Update June 13th, 2005
We finished rehearsals a few minutes ago and recorded a VERY succesful live rendition of "Aftermath" from "Sandstorm". This song has been quite a challenge in rehearsals because it is very different from the style of music we're used to playing. I've added it to the audio section if you'd like to hear it. Song rotation is next week so grab what you can before we rotate a few more songs out of the list. xxo, david & ian |
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News Update June 7th, 2005
A few minor changes to the site. The opening page of the site will now tell you when the site was most recently updated. This saves you time spent digging around, and keeps me reminded of how long it's been between updates (a habit desperately needing to be broken). I also have the email form working properly now. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do right now about the response page (the one that says your email was accepted) so accept my apologies on that. I'm working on that guestbook next. I hate popups more than you do. xxx, david |
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News Update June 2nd, 2005
Hello again, happy listeners. Ian got back from a trip to Minnesota to attend his younger brother's wedding. A big congradulations to his brother and wishes of success in his new marriage. :) How time flies.... With Ian back it was time to get back to rehearsals. We thought this would be a good time to share a piece of our accomplishments. A new track has been added to the audio section of the site. The piece featured is a live recording of us performing a cover of New Order's "Your Silent Face". We're quite the New Order fans and thought this would be a fun song to play. We hope you enjoy it (and forgive a few mistakes during the performance). Hop over to our audio section for a listen. Our plan is to rotate out songs weekly. Sometimes they will be songs from other albums, sometimes they will be live takes. Either way, variety is GOOD. Also, in light of the recent release of the full re-recording and remastering of the "Awake In Semuta" E.P., I have placed the Wasteland Mix of "Confession" from "Drawing Down the Moon" on the audio page to give you a taste of the E.P. It's a rather toned-down interpretation of how aggressive the original piece was. We hope you enjoy it. The E.P. has also been added to the merchandise page. Thank you all for listening. xxx, david and ian |
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News Update May 29th,2005
Back in 1999, some time after the breakup of the original lineup of the band when I was just starting to write again I recorded a short E.P. of songs called "Awake In Semuta". It was basically four remixes/remakes of songs from "Drawing Down The Moon", one from the "Blue Ruin" sessions (there's a funny story behind that), and one totally new song. Well, it was dreadful. I did not know what I was doing when it came to performing and recording it. It came out horribly and this has always really bothered me. So I pulled a George Lucas and spent 24 hours of studio time re-recording the whole thing. I went back to the original sounds and rebuilt everything from scratch. There's no change to the track listing but the three or four of you out there who have it (ha ha) would be quite stunned to hear the difference in the new version. All future copies of "Awake In Semuta" will feature this vastly improved mix. There's no change in the album pricing. Since it's a shorter E.P. (running time around 36 minutes), it's only $6.00 US. Speaking of albums, just in case anyone didn't notice, we no longer charge for shipping and handling. The price you see for the discs is it. xxo, david |
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News Update March 28,2005
I have posted a new mix of the track "Seven" on the audio page. The same link used for the old version now points to the new version. I think this particular mix is a heck of a lot better than the one actually recorded for "Surface". We have set up a music page on myspace.com The actual link is: http://www.myspace.com/ashengrace It's still a work-in progress with respect to graphics, but we have a few songs up and a (hopefully) growing list of friends of the band. xxo, david & ian |
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News Update March 23, 2005
Just a brief note here. We just finished an all-night rehearsal session that went very, very well and I'm so tired I could forget my own name. people keep calling me David so i assume they are right. Morbid Outlook has printed up a nice snippet on "Sandstorm". I've posted a link to it in the Reviews section if you'd like to read it. xxo, david |
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News Update March 20, 2005
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News Update March 13, 2005
Hey everyone, I've updated the "Bio" section to make it more complete and included a picture from our photo-shoot last night. I am also uploading more pictures from the photo-shoot to our "Gallery" section xxxx, david and Ian |
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News Update March 09, 2005
Hello all, A couple of updates for the website. As you can see, I'm rearranging the 'news' section by year. Everything prior to January 2005 is offline until I'm done. This is much easier to deal with. I've also posted a very detailed review of "Sandstorm" provided by Mike Ventarola of the new Hidden Sanctuary. HUGE thank you's to Mike for doing this. Mike knows his stuff so if you're looking for a nice track-by-track review of the album, this is the review to read. Apparently the club here started experimenting with spinning the closing track "Sandstorm" but I have yet to hear it. Interesting. I'm working on sequencing all the pre "Eve and Mistral" material we plan on playing live. Unfortunately, due to the crappy equipment I had for the "Surface" sessions and back I have to basically re-do everything from scratch. At least from an equipment standpoint we have everything we need. The big question would be...would anyone show up? I'm also working on our listing on myspace.com in their music section. I'll post the link as soon as I'm done. I also got the priviledge of writing up the one-sheet for Tara Vanflower's new solo album "My Little Fire-Filled Heart". I'm honored she asked and liked what I wrote up. Her album is simply amazing. Some of the best experimental-ambient music I've heard in a long, long time. I'd strongly recommend getting a copy from Silber Records. Speaking of Tara Vanflower, there's something really awesome coming out in the world of Lycia. Mike Vanportfleet is issuing remasters of several Lycia-catalog items. The first of which is the album "Estrella". Mike is remastering the audio and it will be released with what was intended to be the original artwork for the album. It looks stunning. Silber Records is currently taking pre-orders for this release which will come out very shortly. While I'm on the subject of kudos, you almost might head over to the website for Heaven Falls Hard and check out some of the songs I got to record with them back in November. They are also finishing up work on their new album "Solace" which looks to be simply mind-blowing. They are some of my favorite musicians in the world, and great friends. While I'm on the subject, I'm going to quote them and wrap up this posting "It falls around my shoulders but
not enough to keep me warm until next time all.
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News Update January 29th, 2005
Howdy howdy howdy. Through the people at PayPal, ashengrace can now accept credit-card or bank-transfer transactions through PayPal. A PayPal membership is not required. The merchandise page has been updated with Shopping Cart options, etc. This will cover all available releases, including the new album. Hop over for a look. Last weekend I made a trip to hang out with Mike VanPortfleet and Tara Vanflower (whom most of you know from the band Lycia) to have a mutual-listening session of each other's albums. It's quite an experience having these two brilliant folks give it a listen. We listened to the new Ashengrace album "Sandstorm" and Tara Vanflower's upcoming release "My Little Fire-Filled Heart". I am happy to say they liked Sandstorm a LOT, and Tara's new album is simply jaw-dropping. It comes out in March on Silber Records. There's an mp3 of the song "I Lost The Moon" available on their website. you want to hear it. Oh yes, you do. We also got a really nice kick from DJ Knills at Club Asylum in Tucson, who played the track "Starsong" during this Thursday night's mix session. There were only a few people in the club, but it was a real treat to get to hear the song on such a loud sound system. I'm pleased to say the mix is quite suitable for a club. Also, two people I've never seen in my life were dancing to it. THAT is a good feeling. One of them bought a CD from us. I couldn't be happier. We also have our friend Kat working on the artwork for the Amber single. Both Ian and I are totally stunned with what she has made. I guarantee you it's better than what I would have come up with. We'll post some screenshots of it as soon as we have the single pressed. We also have a question for those of you who are familiar with our back catalogue material (basically, anything before 2002's "Eve and Mistral". Ian has suggested we re-record four songs from way-back-when. We know that at least one of the songs we're going to do will be from the pre-ashengrace days. The question for all of you is, is there any one song you'd like to hear completely re-done? Drop us an email and let us know what you want to hear. Whatever gets the most votes will be the ones we do. Tracks for consideration can be from "Surface", "Blue Ruin", and "Drawing Down The Moon". I'm already planning on re-recording the "Awake In Semuta E.P." to make it a bit more 'tight'. Also, a bit of a remastering has been done just recently. I received an email from a listener in Fort Lee who wished to return a defective copy of Eve and Mistral. I went to press him a new disc, but in giving the tracks a listen, I was really dissapointed with studio and production errors on the album. So I remastered it. Entirely. The songs "The Penitence of Tantalus" and "Exile" were remixed from the actual studio tracks themselves and sound a million times better. The rest of the album was giving some equalization and volume improvements. Now I'm much happier with the release. All future copies sold of "Eve and Mistral" will have this mix on it. If you are a listener who purchased the album previously and would like the remixed version, drop us a line and we'll see what we can do to get you a copy promptly. I'm VERY happy with how "Exile" came out. Quite an update, no? There will be more coming so please keep listening, and thank you very much. David & Ian |
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News Update January 18th, 2005
Hello all, yes, more news updates. The merchandise section has been updated and rearranged. "Sandstorm" is now added to the catalogue and the general layout of the whole page has been changed to make it easier to navigate. One thing that should be mentioned. The shipping an handling fee is per ORDER not per ITEM. This is a bonus for you. Example: if you want US Priority Mail Shipment, whether you order one disc or 10, the S&H is $5.00 (US). The lyrics section has been updated to include all the lyrics to "Sandstorm". And last but not least, the audio section has been updated as well. A few songs taken out, a few songs added in. Some of these additions include "The Wishing Hour" from our first album "Drawing Down The Moon", "November" from "Surface", and "Lament" from the "Blue Ruin" demo collection of 1998. Also included is a link to a recording completed with our friends in Heaven Falls Hard when David had the opportunity to guest on a new recording of their piece "Resurrection". I have also fixed any broken links to the tracks at hand (thanks for bringing this to my attention Cat :). Since we don't have a means of tracking what files are being hit, we'd like to know what songs you like and what you don't so we can better pick pieces for rotation. Drop us a line and tell us what you think! Next on the block of things-to-do is to complete touches on the six b-side tracks we ended up with during the recording of this album. Two singles are planned and will be added as soon as they are done, which should be this week. xxxo, david & ian |
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News Update January 15th, 2005
We've been waiting a long time to announce this, but now is as good a time as any. "Sandstorm", our seventh release, is finished. Ian and I completed the final mixdown and mastering a few days ago and have spent the past few days going over and completing the artwork. Time to tell you all a little bit about the album. "Sandstorm" is our longest release yet with a running time of just over 79 minutes. This release spans 14 very diverse tracks showcasing what we feel is our best effort yet. In additon to the album, we will very shortly be releasing two CD singles from the album which will include six tracks that didn't quite make the cut for the album but are excellent B-sides. This album also boasts our longest recorded song, a spiraling piece called "Crystal". We really went over the top on this one. I logged over 300 hours of studio time in the composition, recording, and production of this release. If it's not already listed by the time you read up on the news here, the merchandise page will have the album added in a few hours or so. Several mp3 files from the album are available to give you a small sampling of the release, but they in no way truly sum up just how diverse this record is. xxo, david & ian |
