The last couple of months have all been about releasing our new CD! After recording our tracks and then going through the mixing and mastering process, we had to create the album art. Devin and I went to the craft store and got some masks, and then Devin burned them.
Early in the burning process.
Each of the three masks is symbolic of something, but you'll have to figure that out for yourself ;)
After the masks were finished, Devin, Bill, James, and I went out to the desert to photograph the album art. We brought out two giant jugs of water to wet the desert floor.
In this picture, James poured water from one of the jugs into the mud to create splashes.
The picture from the back cover of our album.
Before text...
After!
The finished album!
On December 2nd, we had our album release party at the Marquee Theatre. Bill took some awesome pictures for us:
Setting up.
Radio:
We've started to get some radio play! Check us out on DJ Cynfully Luscious' show on www.hardrockradiolive.com on Friday nights from 8 to 9 p.m. EST (6 to 8 p.m. Arizona time) . She'll be doing an interview with us on January 20, 2012 9 p.m. EST (7 p.m. Arizona time). You can also request us at www.progrockandmetal.net, a www.live365.com radio station! Keep checking back to our site as we add more stations!
iTunes:
Our album is officially up on iTunes and Amazon Mp3! We are very excited to be able to share our music with people from all over the country and all over the world!
PoorWater has entered 98 KUPD's yearly contest for charity called Playdio. This is a contest where local bands make a donation to this year's charity (the Arizona Humane Society) in order to have the opportunity for their song to be played on the radio for at least a minute. The contest is happening on November 21st and 22nd on 98 KUPD's morning show, Holmberg's Morning Sickness. The DJs are required to play at least one minute of the song, after which they are allowed to "gong" the song out if they don't like it. Once all three DJs have "gonged" the song, they turn it off. From the 30 bands entered in the contest, they will chose five to play a concert on the night of November 22nd opening for Steel Panther (the guys who do "Death to All But Metal"). The band who receives the most money for the Humane Society that night wins a slot in a KUPD festival in 2012. We're hoping to be one of the lucky five! Or even the lucky one!
This is the song we've entered in the contest:
Album
We have an album coming out! We have been hard at work recording songs and working with our sound engineer to get the perfect mixes. Our album release party is going to be on Friday December 2nd at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, AZ. Check out our album promo video:
No set of recording videos would be complete without a blooper reel (Warning: some strong language--but hey, you'd be cussing too if you'd played and messed up on that same part thirty times!).
Last week Rock (one of the guitar players in my band) wanted to have a barbecue. The leaves are turning colors and it is just
starting to snow in northern Arizona, so Bill and I suggested that we have the
barbecue up in Payson. Bill and I headed up on Friday. Rock and his family, Devin
(the other guitar player in my band) and his friend Daniel, and Devin’s parents
came up on Saturday.
When Bill and I drove up on Friday night, there was no snow
on the ground. It was cold and windy and a storm seemed to be blowing in. On
Saturday morning we woke up to freshly falling snow. It kept falling for a
couple of hours.
Bill walking up the cabin driveway.
The cabin front yard.
The cabin.
My car covered in snow :)
The backyard of the cabin.
Bill took these awesome pictures of the squirrel and birds on the bird feeder.
The back of the cabin when the clouds parted.
We met Rock, Melinda (Rock’s wife), and their three kids at
the Safeway down in Payson and drove back up to the cabin. As soon as we got to
the cabin, the kids started playing in the snow. The snow ball war didn’t stop
until halfway through Sunday!
The snow ball carnage.
While we were waiting for Devin, Daniel, and Devin’s
parents, we headed down to the Tonto Fish Hatchery:
Leaves frozen to the sidewalk.
One of the trees that had turned colors next to the creek.
Some of the fish in a young stage in one of the tanks.
Beautiful view from outside the fish hatchery visitor's center.
The different buildings in the picture are the holding tanks for trout in different stages of growth.
If you look closely, you can see several big trout in this pond. You can buy food to feed these ones and they all swarm around the food in the water. This pond is right next to the creek where they release some of the trout for fishing. They also use the trout they raise here to stock a lot of the lakes in Arizona and the Lee's Ferry area of the Colorado river up by the Grand Canyon.
The creek right by the hatchery with snow.
A picturesque view on the way back to the cabin.
Everyone else arrived right when we got back from the
hatchery, and Bill got to grilling steaks:
Daniel and Devin by the grill.
A tree that had turned colors for fall down the street.
The two below are Bill's. Notice anything interesting in the first picture? Comment below if you see it :)
When the snow started to melt, it fell in giant sheets off the roof onto the front planter area. This then became premium snow ball ammunition :)
After a day out in the cold we had an awesome dinner:
This corn was made using this crazy shucking technique found in this video:
Steak!
Devin's mom made a potato cheese bake. Oh, how I love cheese! She also made an AMAZING Tiramisu, which I unfortunately did not photograph.
After a huge dinner we took a walk and then came back for
some jammage. I played the pan flute. Yep. Anybody who took woodwind tech with
me in college probably has a good idea of how that went…
I also played the box drum. Literally a drum made out of the
space heater box. Drumming is also not my forte either LOL.
Devin and Daniel jamming.
The cabin seemed to be the room without time that night. I’m
not sure if it was the overcast, snowy weather, the early winter dark, or just
the mountain air, but we all kept thinking it was 11 p.m. when it was really
seven. Time passed incredibly slowly. Somehow, though, we still managed to stay
up until around one in the morning.
The next morning, we woke up and had elk roast for breakfast
(AWESOME!!). After that we headed up to the Mogollon Rim.
Elk roast!
A snowman someone had built up on the rim.
The rim with snow.
The view of the highway below.
Ice crystals on a tree.
One of the semi-frozen ponds by the roadway.
The rim is extremely windy all year round. Devin and Daniel decided to walk with their backs to the rim so they could hide their faces from the freezing cold wind.
One of the strange twisted and stunted Ponderosa Pines on the rim. The trees closest to the edge are shaped by the constant wind.
The same tree in July.
Frozen grass.
White trees against a gray sky.
Part of the path along the rim was frozen.
Some more gnarled trees.
A close up of the ice on a Ponderosa Pine.
Snow ball fight in the parking lot of the vista point.
Rock and Daniel
Rock just threw a snow ball at Devin.
Devin throwing a snow ball at Daniel.
The rim road.
I was sad to go back home, but happy to be warm. Devin's parents headed back to Phoenix on Saturday night, so Devin and Daniel had to cram in my Honda Fit on the way back. In order to fit everyone and all of their stuff in the car, Daniel and Devin had to sit in the back seat first while we handed them things to cram around their feet, between them, and on their laps. In the picture, they have two guitars laying across them. After loading them in, I sat in the passenger seat and Bill gave me things to cram around my feet. That's the trash on my lap to take down to Payson. Awesome. I think it's time for a roof rack!
