Video From Monkeywhale.com

Little P, Emily Stewart, and myself recently did a video for a song off our upcoming album with the amazing Harvey Robinson of Monkeywhale Productions. All of the footage you see is us pretending. Even the spoken word intro. Harvey says it's good practice for making a "real" video, but to me, it's pretty real. This is an acoustic version of the song that we played in his hallway, the version off the album that we recorded at On Pop of the World Studios will be much crazier. A huge thanks to Harvey, Carolyn deBerry, and Donna Smith for helping us out and being awesome.

http://www.monkeywhale.com/sightandsound/this-was-live-once-ep-1-matty-sheets-and-some-of-the-blockheads/

-matty sheets

on the subject of recording.

We (the Blockheads) have been a band for a little over a year now. We've had slight changes in the line-up, but most of us have been playing together since March 2010. We recorded some live stuff in a basement, some of which is pretty good. We played on Radio Greensboro, and the lovely folks at WUAG 103.1 FM (UNCG's radio station) recorded it all for us, and some of it sounds pretty good. Our entire set from that performance can be found on our website HERE.

Now it's a new year. We have some new players. We are developing a sound that's, as rooted as it may be to the style of music that we started playing, different. It's like we got a better boat.

So now that we've evolved a bit, we are going to make a recording. Right now we are shooting for a seven song EP or a nine song short album.

We will be working with David Driveway Moore on this project. He's a great producer, engineer, singer, and musician. We have worked together in the past, both in bands and on soundtrack music for short films from the illustrious Monkeywhale Productions, based here in Greensboro.
Driveway and I talk about working with Monkeywhale, Harvey Robinson, Carolyn de Berry, and music in general HERE in this video from MWP (Monkeywhale Productions).

It seems like a good fit, and a natural choice. Driveway uses essentially all analog recording gear, so our sound will be warm and big.

Being comfortable and relaxed at a recording session is priceless to me. I believe that this set-up, this producer, this band, and these songs, will all come together to make something good.
And I can't wait.

Hopefully we will have this done and available by late summer or early fall, depending on our pace and finances.
Have I mentioned that I can't wait to start? 'Cause I can't.

-matty sheets

A Farewell (sort of) to James Marshall Owen. (origins of Eating the Invaders)

Years ago (three, four, five? Time goes by so fast), I met James Marshall Owen at the Open Mic I have been hosting at the Flatiron in Greensboro, NC. I have been hosting this weekly event for eight years now. This month is actually our anniversary month, which is why I can safely say how many years that was, but not how long it has been since I met Marshall.

I feel like I've always known him now. He is easily in the top five most talented performers we have ever had roll through the doors to the Open Mic. Once he started singing and playing his guitar (exceptional guitar player- and he was twenty years old at the time. Wait. He's twenty-four now, we met when he was twenty... Ok, ok, I met him four years ago. I should start over), I knew he was one of a kind.

Four years ago we met and I wanted to play with music with him. We were just starting to get to know each other when we were in Eating the Invaders, but we quickly became friends - despite our differences (me writing silly songs with a few chords, and him thinking a diminished chord would be nice under his wicked guitar solo). Seriously though, we hit it off and ended up playing music together ever since. Hopefully that will never go away, no matter which city we live in.

After getting the name Eating the Invaders from a friend describing a spider who was eating ants that were stealing the spider's eggs, I went to Nate's Place to see one of Marshall's bands perform. I parked the scooter I was driving at the time and before I could get inside, here comes Marshall.

"Someone canceled, can you open for us?" he asked me.
"I don't have my stuff, I'm on my scooter."
"Use my stuff. We need an opener."

At the microphone for the first time at Nate's Place (and so far the only time, I think), I said- "Hello, my name is Eating the Invaders."

So now I needed a band to use the name. Along with Marshall on guitar, I recruited Barry Staples (a friend of mine who used to play drums at our house back in the Deviled Eggs days. He actually bought us our kick pedal) on drums, Gael McKeon (a new friend, he started playing with Come Hell or High Water around the same time) on upright bass, and Don Ravon (now a staple performer at Open Mic. Then, a new-comer.) on vocals with me. They were all my first picks, and I was honored and excited that they were interested.

We rehearsed for the first time on a Sunday (five songs), and played our first show the next day. Our second show was the day after that.

That band went through changes over the years, losing Gael and Don, gaining Little Mikey Roohan (Gino), Jason Voss, and the uncanny Mr. David Driveway Moore. Then after losing Little Mikey and Voss, we were a four piece at the end.

Yes, the end. We disbanded last year, this month.

I met James Marshall Owen five or six years ago, and I learned a lot from him. I can sing with others now, I can hold a vocal line where it needs to be without just going all crazy and stuff, and I've done things musically that I never knew I could do. Thanks so much for that.

By the way, Marshall is moving to Austin in two weeks.

Eating the Invaders is going to play one more time.

to be continued...

-matty sheets


Eating the Invaders in Harvey's Kitchen.
JMO's farewell show 1
JMO's farewell show 2