bellflur

Super Secret Record Store Show

2011-04-09T22:15:00.001-04:00

Good evening all,

This post was given life to mention that we will be playing a show this coming Tuesday, April 12th, at Crooked Beat Records in Adams Morgan. We will be playing a short set along with another great band Tereu Tereu. Its a small space so please come and hold our keyboards for us so we dont damage any vinyl.

The show will begin at 7 o clock on the dot. Retail merchants do not fuck around will schedules. I think we may be leaving it up to a coin toss as to who goes on when. So get the early for the coin toss ceremony and take a picture to show your children you were there. Kids can spot photoshop. Please.

Have a good night,

bellflur

Tuesday, April 12th
Free Show! All Ages!

BELLFLUR

TEREU TEREU

7pm @ Crooked Beat Records
2116 18th St. NW DC
http://www.crookedbeat.com/

http://www.bellflur.com/

http://tereutereu.com/

"by tricks, by plans, by clever ideas"

2011-01-13T13:53:00.001-05:00

hello all

i am checking in to share two facts.

fact#1 - is that i had forgotten how great a movie bladerunner is. i watched it twice this past weekend after many years of thinking i had seen it enough times to never need to sit through it again. that, coupled with my less than enthusiastic feelings of it vs the source material blah blah blah.......

fact#2 - we have some shows coming up.

this saturday we are taking part in a benefit show for Haiti @ St. Stephens Church in DC. Below is a description of the event taken from the 42bus ............

One year after a catastrophic earthquake near Port au Prince, Haiti, the task off rebuilding and redeveloping a nation continues at a painfully slow pace. Many there are still displaced, homeless, need continuing medical care and generally in dire straits. Groups in the U.S. and around the world continue to try to help.

100 Shows for Haiti is one of those organizations trying to bring the focus back onto Haiti. It is an idea more than an organization. They're helping organize and publicize events all over the U.S. on and around the January 12 anniversary of the Haitian earthquake. These are shows of the musical, theatrical or puppet variety, bake sales, potlucks, film screenings and more. Venues, materials and labor are donated and any money raised will be distributed to aid organizations; two in particular: Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees and One Hundred for Haiti.

In DC, the show will be put on by Positive Force. It happens this weekend January 15 at 7pm. The location is right across the street from Mount Pleasant; St. Stephen's Church, 1525 Newton St NW, at 16th St. Playing are Belfur, Möbius Strip, Archivist and Southern Problems. The show is $8. Proceeds go to the two organizations mentioned above. Good show, great cause. Consider going out.

We are playing with Mobius Strip, Archivists and Southern Problems and hope if you, the reader, can make it out you will stop by and say hi.

Fact#2 addendum -

On Feb 11th we are again taking part in a benfit show. This time the beneficiaries will be the the Washington Animal Rescue League. the concert will be held at the Strathmore mansion and is part of their Friday Night Eclectic series. This is a fantastic place to see(and play) a show. and furthermore is only a few miles from our warehouse, so itll be an easy commute for us. happy dance balki. now.. we are going to be playing with Daddy Lion and Screen Vinyl Image.

we will be playing with a few extra musicians who we are working with on a new (soon to be named/announced) project and we will be playing a few new songs.

time to get back to work

-carlos

working on some new projects

2011-01-06T17:21:00.000-05:00

been working with tom on some new songs and....... if my patience can make it happen a couple of videos.

we have a new project in the works / working with some friends from other bands on these songs, sort of like on a few of our tracks from asleep.asleep.

i will have some new images, possibly some links soon for our new website as well. getting some help from the youngest gonzalez brother on setting it up, which means tearing him away from team fortress or fallout new vegas or some such deal

so parting words today are ------- roomba cats, look em up if you havent already.

Interesting interview w/ Roger Waters

2010-07-14T12:02:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KYrAqAZfjs

i watched this interview with Roger Waters today at work and was impressed with his thoughts behind aspects of the wall. I have always enjoyed the album to a great extent, but through the years it has drifted down my list of favorite pink floyd albums to listen to. I started to feel that the album, coupled with the movie, became too dark/dreary/sad, even for, to listen to too often. in another interview i had read with roger about the movie, he had alleged that he also thought it was too dark and didn't relate the humor, interesting, that he felt was present in the music/writing.

anyhow, i hope to have the money to purchase a ticket for his show this fall. it looks like it will be incredible from what i have read.

floyd listening chart (current) top 10

1. meddle

2. dark side of the moon

3. atom heart mother

4. the final cut

5. obscured by clouds

6. animals

7. wish you were here

8. the wall

9. saucerful of secrets

10. ummagumma

asleep.asleep.

2010-06-08T12:43:00.023-04:00

Happy Birthday ----Asleep.Asleep.

Today Asleep.Asleep. opens it's newborn kitten eyes and takes in the world for the first time. We have spent the better part of two years tracking this album and then waiting, and then tracking and then waiting, and then mixing, and then waiting, and then mastering, and then waiting, and then paying to make the actual albums, and then......waiting. And just when all the work was done and we thought it was time to let go of this baby, we had to wait again..........until today, June 8th. It was truly feeling like some absurd VH1 storytellers being directed by Franz Kafka (with no producers to reel him in). However, unlike the Castle, this story did not finish mid-sentence. NO no no. This story punctuated all of its groups of words and wrapped them in plastic and sent them out to the world.

Many of our friends helped us in the tracking of this album and we would like to thank them here, since we left no room on the little booklet that comes with the album to do so.

Eamonn Aiken has been the biggest help for many years now and he did a fantastic job recording and engineering Asleep.Asleep.. We spent several weeks tracking @ the Mansion, in Potomac, both in the ping-pong room by the pool and in the apartment over the garage. Many of you familiar with the mansion know of what I speak. Even with all the cables and cords that had to constantly be run to-and-fro, Eamonn still had time to play on several of the songs AND drink the very absurdly long pitchers/mugs(with the triple x's even) of beer that kept being refilled. We finished at the Bastille, set in Inner Ear Studios in Arlington....or Shirlington, I am not entirely sure of the difference where Eamonn brough in Nick Anderson to help with the mastering. They both had many great ideas brought up during the mixing process that hadn't been thought of before that time.

Susan and Emily Hsu once again helped us out tremendously adding vocals and violins all over this album. They have been contributing to our recordings for.....ever, and always have to re-track their parts like, seven times. They ask for payment by the hour, I believe this is a scam. If this were craigslist I would boot their ad. They also did the world a service by singing the entirety of one of our new tracks, Last Quarter of the 20th Century Blues, and letting a ragged singer take a much needed break. This track, and their performance are one of the finer points of the album, if you were to ask me. That is to say, if you were to ask me, that is what I would tell you. The Hsu's have a new project that they are working on, and it's my pleasure to give a double Happy Birthday wish to their release, also born today==========>Sounds of Domestic Living. This is a side project of the girls and I would suggest taking a listen. The child is named Gold To Refine, and I believe it is what is labeled a RE-MIX. Not sure how that speaks to the father, but.....perhaps we can get them to the Warehouse for a show and all will be explained.

Joining Susan and Emily in our make shift string section was Elizabeth Olson. Elizabeth plays with Meredith Bragg and the Terminals and was able to just sit in with the girls and learn the songs, for the most part, on the spot. She also added a great cello melody in Seven-Eight, which was, again, made up on the spot. Now she is busy answering mail for a famous political entity in DC. but I can't mention which. But it isn't Nancy Pelosi. And not Aaron Burr, if he is still running around the hill.

Next on the thank you list are former tour mates, Dan Scheuerman and Fatty Dowling from Deleted Scenes. Even after what happened to me and Tom and Dan in Brooklyn, or allllllllmost happened, Dan agreed to sing a song on our album. He sings on We Can Build You and I think everyone can tell by how the singing stays in tune and is prominent. Again, these are talented musicians. Dan learned the lyrics and the song while eating pizza with me before the recording session. Fatty was enough of a sport to also come into the studio and play some horn parts with another guy we will mention soon. I expect most people who may read this blog to have been to, or at least heard Deleted Scenes music. If not, I again have a recommendation I think you will not regret. They are easily one of the best groups playing in DC and I don't know why they aren't opening up for whoever won American Idol this past season.

Brad Johnson has also been helping us out for some time now. He has played many live shows with us despite his time being required in another great DC band, Cobra Collective. Brad has fit on tiny stages with us and we were very happy that he was able to make it on our album. I wish I had a funny story to add here, but Brad doesn't make many mistakes so it was kind of luck...Fuck You Brad. With your smug looks and perfect pitch. You belong in NOVA!!!!!!

May Tabol was the least tenured sometime-member of the Floyd.......um, the Flur. And this is not to take anything away from Dan, but May was learning the lyrics and melodies just a syllable ahead of the beat. Again, a no mistaker. But she has had lots of practice in her current band, Pree, and former band, Le Loup.(and I'm fairly certain you pronounce the "p", this isn't France). I would also curse May's talent, but I don't know her well enough to feel like i could really let loose. damn you May. I almost forgot, May sings the song Activate Your Cancelled Check, and let me also add that my dad has a little cameo on this song as well. I think the difference between their voices is somewhat apparent, but just so you know...

Andy Wass. Andy Wass. Andy Wass. I don't even know what to write here. I have known this girl forever and ever, back to Freshman year of the very first class ever held at the University of Maryland. I believe it was an English Class dedicated to the then-current Proust. Andy told me that years from now(then) she wanted to sing on an album with Bellflur. And Bellflur wasn't ready quite yet. So she relegated herself to sending out telegrams informing local townships of upcoming concerts, carving woodblocks to make posters for fashion shows and whatever young ladies of the time did to busy their hands so as not to fall prey to the mischief in men's eyes. But as of today, her wish has come true. On both counts. You can hear this songstress more clearly in her own band, Honeyboat. Besides being another up and coming band from DC/Baltimore, Honeyboat holds the distinction of being the very first band ever of all time to play the Warehouse. Huzzah!

Everyone in Bellflur would again like to thank all of these individuals for helping to create this album and we hope that somehow it makes us all rich and we can all retire to our own separate islands and meet up once a year for Christmas, on a rotating-island schedule (giving everyone an equal opportunity to show everyone else what they have done with their places). If this takes longer than I imagine, then I hope that everyone involved at least had fun doing it and we can somehow repay their kindness in the future.

Thank you all.

-Carlos/Bellflur

FREE DOWNLOAD OVER ON THE MYSPACE PAGE!!!

2010-04-21T16:14:00.003-04:00

Hey there! Rejoice! Bellflur is giving you a free download of "Insect Politics" from our forth-coming new record, "asleep.asleep." Its posted on our MySpace page (just scroll down abit when the page loads and look to the left). Just sign up on the email list and its yours!!! Don't worry... we don't bite... we love...

The new record is available June 8, 2010!!!

Hope you likes the track!! Just click on the MySpace picture below.

little longobardi...

2010-04-15T16:56:00.004-04:00

...had a birthday wish come true today... even though its not his birthday.

yes, that's wayne coyne from the flaming lips.

yes, tom's wearing a bellflur shirt.

yes, tom is a big bellflur whore!! but that's why we love him ;)

Bellflur in Space.

2010-04-08T13:00:00.011-04:00

In the grand tradition of David Bowie and Flight of the Conchords, Bellflur will be going to space on Saturday. We will be stepping through the door, floating in a most peculiar way, and sitting on our tin can far above the world. All of this will be occurring at 8 pm at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It is likely there will be trekkies, R2-D2's, astronauts and us. And you! There's even a rumor that the male portion of Bellflur will be dusting off their suits. Too bad I'm already planning on wearing this:

-Dana

We are Spring Flinging

2010-04-01T13:05:00.012-04:00

There are cherry blossom petals in the air, tourists are causing traffic jams, and the 'Flur Warehouse is reaching a comfortable temperature again. It's spring! And Bellflur is more than ready to fling music at you. We are excited about the following things:

1.) The release of Asleep. Asleep. (LP)! Our beloved (by us) new album! More to come.
2.) The possibility of meeting astronauts at the NASA show on April 10.
3.) Dana's new pog pedal (pretty please).
4.) More Warehouse shows. And Vinyl.
5.) Waffle House. For some reason, Bellflur is always excited about Waffle House.
6.) Tomorrow Night!

We will be playing at the Velvet Lounge as part of the District of Sound Showcase. And we would probably love to see you there. Joke! We would DEFINITELY love to see you there.

Press, Music, CMJ

2009-10-21T11:05:00.005-04:00

hello there. many things abound as of late... most important of which is our new EP.

======================================

FINALLY!!!! after years of writing, working and recording, we have a new album set and done for you guys. It will appear in 3 separate releases.

1) Last Quarter of the 20th Century Blues (EP): 5 songs to give you a taste of the full-length album (3 of which will not appear on the full-length). RELEASE DATE: November 17, 2009.

2) asleep.asleep. (LP): long-awaited (by us more than anyone else possibly) new full-length album. 12 songs of quite possibly some of the most daring and craziest stuff we've done. we likes. RELEASE DATE: March 2010

3) Vinyl/Download/DVD: to keep things interesting, we'll be releasing a new record of an as yet undetermined number of songs... completely new ones!! this release, which will be made available on vinyl and for download only, will be paired with a DVD of live performance footage, studio outtakes, and a couple videos to go along with songs from the full-length "asleep.asleep." record. RELEASE DATE: approx. June 2010.

The first release, Last Quarter of the 20th Century Blues (EP), is already available for download on CDBaby. It will be up on Amazon mp3, iTunes and Rhapsody in the coming days. Snag it from CD Baby here: CDBaby.

======================================

we'll be heading off this evening for our showcase at CMJ 2009 tomorrow in the good 'ol NYC. we'll be up there all week, so feel free to come to the showcase or catch up with us else where around the festival. our showcase will be held:

Thursday, October 22, 2009
@ Local 269 (269 E Houston Street, Manhattan)
7pm

=======================================

we've had several write-ups/interviews done in the past weeks. if you haven't noticed them and are at all interested, they are below.

1) District of Sound wrote a review of the band vis-a-vis our recent show at the Black Cat in DC. 'twas a big-band occassion (nine-pieces... full of strings, horns, projections, etc.). Read it by clicking here: District of Sound.

2) The fine folk at the Vinyl District reached 1,000 posts! As their 1,000th post, they featured 6 of the DC bands playing at CMJ this year... including us. True to the tone and focus of TVD, Patrick gave a synopsis of where Bellflur picks up their vinyl and why. Read it by clicking here: the Vinyl District.

3) Carlos just did an interview with UK-based website, Strangeglue, regarding all facets of bellflur... origins, influence, our CMJ stint, past, present, future... Read it by clicking here: Strangeglue.

=========================================

All for now. We'll get back to you with more after CMJ. If you're in New York, we hope to see you there.

- flur

Thanks and Upcoming Shows!

2009-08-11T11:45:00.007-04:00

hello der!!!

thanks to all who came out to the show at RNR Hotel on Saturday. Things went off well and it was good to see and talk to many of you new faces!! Many thanks to Gaslight Society, Sweet Interference, and Five Four as well for joining us that evening!

there were some photos taken by an as yet unidentified individual, and we came across them by chance on flickr. here's a couple:

we'll be outbound this week for a show in Brooklyn at the Trash Bar (YAY!! tatter tots) on Saturday, August 15th, and then at the Khyber in Philadelphia (YAY! cheese steaks) on Wednesday, August 19th!

come on in New York and Philly... the water is splendid...

- patrick

the goings ons...

2009-07-21T13:19:00.002-04:00

hello there.

bellflur has been mighty busy. mighty busy indeed!!

you'll be happy to know that the new album has completed mixing... done at the bastille with eamonn aiken and nick anderson at the helm! truly, truly great moments and sounds coming out of the mixing room. its nice to know there are folks out there who think and obssess about sound and gear as much as we do!

the EP and LP will be mastered by roger siebel at SAE Mastering (death cab, tortoise, cat power, pavement, pinback). incredibly excited and privileged to have his efforts and experience be the final piece to this marathon of a record!

so keep your eyes peeled and ear to the floor on all release dates and release shows!

========================

a week or two ago, i had myself a birthday! blissful moments abound! we had a show on thursday the 9th at IOTA and the 10th (my b-day) at piano's in NYC. both shows were fantastic and much fun and random shots were had. thanks to everyone for the b-day shout outs and for attending the shows. glad to see we didn't let you down.

specifically, the IOTA show was a big-band-bellflur event: suits, ties, animal masks, strings, trumpets, the big piano, etc. many thanks are due to susan, barry and nick for sitting in with us and playing their asses off! many thanks also to jess and patrick of vox pop for opening the evening and getting on stage with us for some singing!! and to our boys, the moderate... kings amongst men you are!!

=========================

at the moment, we're working furiously to finish off some ideas for our new "BELLFLURITO" sets. essentially, if you've seen us live, you know we have alot of gear and tons of sounds smacking you in the pelvis-area from all directions. 'flurito is a smaller, simpler bellflur. less stuff... stripped back... same songs... revised ever so slightly. the first performance of Bellflurito will be this Friday, July 24th at Solly's on U Street. you should come by and check it out... we'll be in close quarters, so all the better to stare you in the eyes and touch eyelashes as we try to croon you into a melodious, love frenzy... not that we're advocating orgies on the premises or anything like that... no...

==========================

otherwise, we have a handful of shows in august as we're getting ready for... well... i can't give it away yet. ;) i'll tell you when you're older (to steal a line)...

July 24: Solly's, Washington, DC (Bellflurito Set)
August 8: Rock N' Roll Hotel, Washington, DC (w/ Five Four, Sweet Interference and Gaslight Society)
August 12: Asylum, Washington, DC (Bellflurito Set)
August 15: The Trash Bar, Brooklyn, NYC
August 19: The Kyhber, Philadelphia, PA (w/ Glass Empires)

2009-06-08T12:07:00.010-04:00

Hi,

So Bellflur played Artomatic this past Saturday it went pretty well, the best part was the unveiling of my new EFX board "EL Desperado" and a new untitled song.

Here are some pics.

That's it for now! Bellflur is in the process of getting the EP mixed/mastered and Full length album should be mixed/mastered soon(ish), Full Length album is set to drop for Fall.

We have two shows this month

Richmond, VA June 17th @ The Camel

New York, NY June 19th @ Lit Lounge

More shows coming!

-FLUR

2009-05-09T19:47:00.010-04:00

Hello,

So Bellflur is done tracking the upcoming album, now it's time for mixing and mastering! WOO HOO!!!! Here are some pics of the wrap up overdubs.

This is what all overdub sessions need! Snoop Dogg and Dr.Dre stopped by for a little bit, look out for that Bellflur/Snoop mash up....no not really....No but really.....No not really, it was pretty sweet.

Nothing like a creepy mannequin head watching you while your trying to use the bathroom....."Do I need any help? No thanks mannequin head, I think I got it from here.

The new Inner Ear mascot! This kick ass jack-a-lope was caught by Tom"Bad ass Bassplayer/Synthplayer" Longobardi. Thanks Tom!

Sweet Dinosaur!!!!!! This is a portrait of EA's pet. He is a super cool Rock N Roll Dinosaur YA HEARD.

Best place EVER to drink beer while watching Sonic Youth's "The Year Punk Broke" in between recording sessions...And a little bit of MarioKart is nice too!

Carlos putting some of the final synths on the record. ROCK!!!!!

Thanks to all the additional musicians who helped make this an awesome album!

Emily and Susan from Exit Clov

Dan and Fatty from Deleted Scenes

Brad from Cobra Collective

May from Pree

Damn it I know I'm forgetting someone.....oh well I'll remember on the next blog

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!

-Hunter

Tracking of the New Bellflur Record

2009-05-05T14:30:00.003-04:00

ahhh.... completion!!

never have i felt so over (or first) to the moon about finishing anything in my life as i do this new record. just last week, we went into eamonn's new studio, the bastille, (housed over there at inner ear studios) to do the last bit of vocals, and one or two choice synth overdubs. we were joined by some close friends, em and susan (exit clov) and dan (deleted scenes), all of whom lent their vocals to a song or two and by the end of our three half-day sessions, this beast of an album, and tracking thereof, was laid to rest .

we started this shindig with eamonn (not knowing what he was getting himself into at the time) back in October 2007. we tracked three songs: brief physics, shooting an elephant, and insect politics (then called insect politician). insect got scrapped and thrown away for about a year. elephant made it through as did brief physics. flash forward to april 2009! the tracking of this thing is complete, what with 15 songs in total ready and available at our disposal. and we likes it. we feel as though all the revisions, reworkings, debates, collapses and restructurings of the songs has paid off. in total, we've had 13 people (including ourselves) perform and track on thsis record! strings. choral ensembles. horns. stylophones. marching drums. mellotrons. lord knows how many guitars and pedals. at the moment, i think we're basking more in the fact that we've finished it, rather than the fact that we likes it. but we hopes you will likes it too!

we have obvious next stages... mixing, mastering, production. we've got all of this tentatively lined-up, so hopefully, we'll get this thing done and out there without letting another year and a half go by. ;) and there are plans, plans, plans. in the meantime, we've got a lot of shows lined-up (and many more getting scheduled) for the rest of the spring and into the summer and fall... so keep a look-out... you'll find a short listing to your right!

sleep well.

Thanks To Everyone Who Came Out Last Night

2009-04-25T11:45:00.004-04:00

Hello,

Thx to all who came out last night and supported all the bands it was really appreciated! Thx to Seamonsters, Bottles/Cans and Cobra Collective! We had a great time. We are playing in the DC area again next month so stay tuned!

-Flur

BlackCat...BlackCat...April 24th Be There!

2009-04-23T18:04:00.003-04:00

Come on out tomorrow night. it'll be fun I promise. The bellflur zoo will be making an appearance.

-Flur

show show

2009-04-09T00:19:00.002-04:00

above is the info. friday night. april 24th.

bellflur. cobra collective.

what more does one need? a seamonster, you say? well...

seamonsters may be added here shortly. they're not confirmed yet, but once they are, i'll have to redo that fucking flyer!

aren't you coming?

-flur

well hello dar

2009-03-27T11:56:00.002-04:00

its seems an update is in order. so many things afoot. so many foot athings.

first, we had the grand opportunity to open for efterklang at DC9 last night. efterklang is from denmark. efterklang is amazing. efterklang is comprised of incredibly hospitable, sincere (tall) people. you should listen to them if you haven't: www.myspace.com/efterklang. if you were at the show, then you know! and if you were at the show, then thank you very much for coming. hopefully we'll have some pictures from the splendid occasion up soon.

but the show was great and we were very lucky and pleased to have emily and susan (exit clov), elizabeth (meredith bragg), and brad (cobra collective) to come on stage and play almost the entire set with us. i'm not gonna be so audacious to say that bellflur is good... but the point is that these fine folks add something mighty fine and special to our sets, so many thanks again.

bellflur has officially moved its location from a mansion to a warehouse. its a great spot and will be stellar once its done (meaning that carlos and tom and working feverishly to finish constructing some rooms and a bathroom). there will be more than just mere rehearsals going on at the warehouse (i.e., intimate shows with many a DC band) once its complete, so keep your ears open for word of that once it gets swingin'.

you may have noticed the myspace page has undergone several updates and changes. as well as managed Last.fm page, and a reverbnation page. we're gonna be a bit more proactive on that end.

shows are being booked may - july at the moment (some are getting posted as we speak... or as i type rather).

the album. ahhhhh... the album. while the actual recording of the album is complete, our dear friend and compatriate, eamonn aiken (who engineered the album), has officially moved his studio, the bastille, into the confines of innear ear studios in arlington, va. anybody and everybody in dc who is interested in acheiving some amazing sounding recordings should look him up pronto. but anyways, he's been busy wiring his studio together over there, so once he's done, we're on to mixing... then mastering... then distribution... then touring... then retiring...
haha! never! bellflur will never retire... i envision us as 82 year olds on a front porch somewhere trying to wire some crazy shit into our acoustic guitars and banjos because we've lost the strength to carry all of our equipment!

lots of more things to come from the bellflur front, including new videos and snipets of the forthcoming album. grab a chair and plant yourself in front of this page, sporadically hitting the refresh button for more updates later.

or in the meantime... go see deleted scenes at the black cat this weekend. dear friends. colleagues. incredible performers.

take care.

patri-flur

PS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2009-03-21T00:40:00.002-04:00

2009-03-21T00:31:00.002-04:00

good evening everybodys,

i, carlos, wanted to write and invite anyone interested in hearing some good music with lots of musicians to dc9, www.dcnine.com , next thursday as we are playing a show with some friends who help us inflate our group from 4 meager members to an astonishing 8!!!!!!! how can we possibly fit that many people onto the dc9 stage with all the equipment we have??? it will cost you a small entrance fee, a mere pittance, to come watch in real life/full color/surround sound/spectravision/digi-resolute-megapixel mayhem.

thsi show is going to be so much fun that my cat, p-kitty, wants to make the long trek out to dc to see it, and he hears this shit all the time. ALL the time. that is quite a compliment for a group to receive from a cat.

he doesnt like to be roused from his naps and he is almost always napping.

so come on out and catch all the boring regulars, myself, hunter, patrick and tom and the newbies, brad, susan, elisabeth and eamonn, who isnt a newbie at all actually, help us seem like we are brand new and exciting. we will be playing brand new and exciting new tyme songs. wearing new fashions. and undoubtedly be smelling factory floor new and fresh.

dont be stupid. come on out.

i didnt even mention the second best part. we are playin with efterklang, from fucking denmark. that is where legos come from. and lars von trier. so two out of the the two thinks denmark has given the world are baddass. they obviously subsrive to teh quality over wuantity theory espoused for some time now.

my cat just curled up on the keyboard while i am typing this. he wants the show to be such a success he is even helping with this posting.

have a goodnight everybody.

carlos
p-thanuel kittybottom

Plans..Plans..Plans

2009-02-23T15:07:00.002-05:00

just a quick update to let you know whats going on in the land of bellflur..

My laptop is covered in drywall dust.. that means only one thing... we are busy constructing a new bellflur nest...

stay tuned for updates..

the only way i can describe it would be.. a chucky cheese for adults and musicians...

2009-02-18T17:09:00.001-05:00

this is a video we made a while back.... it was basically a test video for making a longer video for one of our new tunes.. attached is a snippet of audio from one of our practices. enjoy!

new album + ep + dvd? out soon!!!

what! what!

2009-02-17T11:40:00.000-05:00

2009-02-16T23:04:00.002-05:00

album is done! (well sorta)

2009-02-13T16:01:00.004-05:00

here is a few pictures that eamonn had taken during the studio.

almost there....stay on target...almost there

2009-02-07T00:36:00.009-05:00

the end of day number 8 at the studio has come to an end and it has been fun

we were joined in the studio today by susan and emily, from the band exitclov, and may from Pree. they were all wonderful to work with and were good sports with my unimagined teaching techniques though i strive to be likened to a Apollo Creed /Rocky type of an image, in the coaching sense of the word. a fantastic team. Rocky has a statue and doesn't exist. quite a compliment. to all involved.

susan

emily

may

carlos

Tom!

los didnt finish this blog.. shame shame.. i post it anyway! ha!

cracker challenge!!!

2009-02-05T15:10:00.000-05:00

Day 6!

2009-02-04T02:17:00.004-05:00

why hello there....

day 6 has come and gone.

we had another productive day. It started around noon. we immediately turned our attention to "the rhythms of waking and sleeping." We had to finish laying down a bass guitar track and a rhodes part. Los went for the Rhodes part on the Suitcase MarkII.. after tracking it we tried using the Nord Electro on the MarkI setting. The MarkI had a little more bite which let it cut through a bit more..

from there we had to lay down the bass track. This is a bass line that Eamonn plays. It comes in at the end in support of the Novation BassStation line that I play. It sounds great.. Eamonn tracked it using Joe Lally's (of fugazi's) first Ernie ball musicman bass! This bass is the old 80's model and has its share of road rash. the action was terrible but the MM active bass was just the tone we were looking for..

Los had to dip out to pick up his mom from the Airport. so it was just Eamonn and I for a while. We decided to tackle some parts in "Last quarter of the 20th century blues."

Last night we layed down a Drum track from reason, los played the rickenbacker bass (ricky-bobby), I played an old Gibson parlor acoustic. It has a nice dark tone, unlike most acoustics I've played. after those tracks were set we broke for the night..

so from that I added another acoustic track using a Gibson j-45. this one was unreal. (thanks to nick for lending us his baby) a nice bright yet full tone. the 2 acoustics complemented each other perfectly.

the bridge needed some synth lines and the end needed some electric guitar. these parts were not written but we had some ideas floating around. I broke out my trusty BassStation, few octaves up, dialed up 2 new patches and layed down 2 contrapuntal lines. Eamonn plugged his sweeeeeeet honeyburst 60's gibson es330 into one of his preamps and layed down a tastey groove at the end.

we then decided to take a break and watch "over the top" only the best movie ever! i wont even get into this movie because it will easily triple this blog post.. all i will say is.. your life is not complete till you see this movie..

los and hatrick arrived shortly after and we paused the movie and went back to work. eamonn found an awesome synth plug in for protools 8. we messed with that for a while. Eamonn found the mario kart synth.. its amazing.. patrick found a nice high pitched filterey synth for the bridge and los layed down a styleophone part as well.. chock full o' synthy goodness.

hatrick also added and touched up some bell parts for some other tunes.

we broke for dinner, went to Guapos!!!!! mmm

LOS HAD AN APPLETINI! (please comment with your joke of choice)

so after we were all on the verge of vomiting from overindulgence, we went back to work..

are now all done.. EXCEPT
violins (susan and emily of exit clov)
cello (elizabeth olsen of meredith bragg)
horns(brad of cobra collective and fatty of deleted scenes)
vocals (may of pree, dave of sunchild, andy of play w/ me, and all)

onto the vocals.
Los and I had a great talk with Don Zientara of inner ear... He is a super cool guy that has recorded basically everyone.. advice from him is something you will probably listen to.

Los and I layed down all the vocals for "Bright Lights." I like to warm up my voice/prepare by singing rediculous songs, yelling or making weird noises. so im betting sneeky eamonn got sommadat.. for your sake , i hope not.

well I am finally tired..

until tomorrow
-tom

2009-02-03T11:15:00.003-05:00

and completely un-studio related, i found this pic of a show we did a while back at the black cat backstage. not too many photos floating around where you can see all of us in one shot...

... and i think that's mainly due to the fact that i'm short... and i'm blocked out by the insane number and pieces of equipment on stage... many of which are taller than me...

... as are the other flurs...

... oh, lamentable existence

Inner Ear: Days 4 & 5

2009-02-03T10:26:00.002-05:00

well into the sessions to complete this beast of a record. hunter and i have finished up all of our parts (drums, samples, the "R2D2" drums, glockenspiel, percussion, guitars, mellotron). as such, he and i are falling back into the normal (incredibly frustrating) life of work during the day while making our appearances at the studio in the evening times.

carlos, tom and eamonn are still at it strong though... even in spite of making consistent stops at the now venerable institution that is weenie beenie (mmm... bacon egg and cheese on toast... it'll get you movin' in the mornin'... and the afternoon... and as the essential last minute run to grab more of that addictive grease prior to this particular institution's closing time of 6pm). i'm not sure how one can remain "strong" eating such things with such frequency... but some things are better left untouched and unsolved. those three cats are simply beyond explanation.

so let's see:

i don't think any of us had any expectation to be as far along as we are. basically, every track for the 7 songs we walked in to record from scratch (as well as every track for the 6 previous songs we had recorded in session #2 back in the 'ol 2008) are done. this is highly uncharacteristic of bellflur. i suppose this is a tip of the hat to the pre-production and rehearsals. so we find ourselves with 5 additional days to record strings, horns, and vocals... and some extra time to screw around with things (which lord knows where that will go).

the stunner so far for me (while they all are sounding mighty fine) is we can build you. quite possibly because this was the one tune we didn't quite know how the end result would pan out. one of those walking the line songs where the recording has an equal chance of success or failure. but damn, its sounding great. hunter came in at the last minute with some incredible drum/synth samples. tom's bass line. carlos' doubling the piano with the acoustic guitar... its his own guided tour to pleasure town for all future listeners of this song (apologies, we were watching anchorman last night). AND... we had "our" cellist elizabeth come out to work through some ideas and did an impromptu recording at the outro of we can build you and, my my... it sounds like a cello (much to eamonn's relief)... and it sounds absolutely incredible.

** and by "our" cellist, i mean a person of considerable cello-ing skill who was kind enough to come record some cello on this here record of ours **

tom was able to record his long awaited quiqa (i don't even know how to spell that damn word) part on ghost ships. i still haven't heard it, but my understanding is that it somehow works well. i'm sure he'll get into it in more detail on his next posting (which should be sometime very soon and include pictures).

we're currently weighing the debate of sample clearance for two samples used in two separate songs. i'll not say which ones at the moment. perhaps that's a new blog survey... to clear or not to clear a sample? i feel i've said too much on this subject.

hunter and i did lots of percussion overdubs last night on rhythms of waking and sleeping... to include eamonn bringing down an old marching drum from the loft of inner ear studios. also a few drum overdubs on activate your cancelled check and ghost ships.

mellotron stuff on ghost ships and we can build you. lovely rhodes piano and dual guitar single note picking on fits and stops and starts.

i myself got to have some fun at the bridge of the new and improved version of insect politician. reverse reverb using what turns out to be a completely useless reverb pedal (hardwire stereo reverb) on any other setting in the pedal's sound portfolio... along with some teaspoon. ahh... the teaspoon. yes. the teaspoon is an effect pedal... and it saves my ass when i'm on the verge of fucking up a take.

anyways, things are moving along splendidly. i'll be redoing a glockenspiel part this evening, reamping a guitar part through a kaoss pad. but other than that, i believe carlos and tom are heavy into vocals today, with guest musicians later in the week. one or two special guest vocals on a couple of songs... possibly saturday the 7th!! the exit clovers (susan and emily) as well as elizabeth cello are slated to come do group string sessions on friday... assuredly an event that we will document on video as they are all better musicians than we :)

so until the next posting... take care. sleep well. keep your cute hat on.

patri-flur

Day Three Inner Ear

2009-02-01T02:34:00.002-05:00

today went great!

we tracked grey sparkle finnish pigs today.. we nailed it second take.. which is cool cause that was going to be the most challenging song to capture.. after that.. overdubbz!!

lets see..

lots of effect pedals
farfisa
rhodes
samples
ms2000
novation bass station
hatrick axe
jawbox's p-bass
cocktail kit

lets see.. eamonn made that cracker challenge his bitch..
7 in one minute. no water!!!! video coming soon..

tomorrow:
metal band day
overdubbs
string and horn section meeting

flur

Day Two- Inner ear

2009-01-31T02:29:00.002-05:00

well.. we crushed day two..

4 songs down today. We started around 2pm on a full belly of weenie beenie. hit it hard till around 5pm and broke for dinner at IOTA.. one of our favoritest clubs . finished up around 1am

Activate yr canceled check

7/8

we can build you

insect politics (new and improved version)

I'm tired and I left my camera at the studio.. pictures in the am (around 1pm)

inner ear day one

2009-01-30T03:10:00.004-05:00

So after what felt like years.. the day finally came. the final recording sessions at Inner Ear Recording Studios. Ill be honest, Ive never been there and knew a little about it.. which i think made the experience all the greater..

where to start...

the day started just like other random bellflur outings. A car full of gear. stairs. heavy items. pick up. put down. push. slide. you get the point..

as soon as our gear was situated i had to start exploring. First thing.. Very cool space, awesome vibe. Then the cd's, records, and posters caught my eye.. the list of musicians that have recorded there, to me, is extremely interesting and inspiring. A ton of the albums were created there were albums that i grew up listening to.. so that hit home to me.. It must be how super religious people feel when they go to a shrine or church..

we got set up and decided to tackle the song "fits and stops and starts." This one is pretty straight forward.. clean bass/los axe/ hatrick axe/acoustic-n-electronic drums/rhodes.
tracked it no click, all live w/out vocals. nailed it after running through it a few times..

growler time..

next song... I said.. NEXT SONG

(incase you cant tell.. im tired..)

and its late..

(so late theres an infomercial on selling makeup)

hmm carlos would look good in guyliner

-flur

Saltine Challenge

2009-01-27T00:23:00.002-05:00

ok....

Eamonn really thinks he can do this..

the world record is 6 saltine crackers in one minute. (no water allowed!)

that means you'd have to eat 7 to beat it....

im down for trying..but i highly doubt i have the lubrication to make it happen..

-tom

instead of working.............

2009-01-26T18:39:00.003-05:00

hello

today while i was supposed to be getting ready for the studio this week i started playing a song by the band sparklehorse and ended up making a little video.

the song is called "sad and beautiful world"

if i havent made you sick of their stuff yet you should listen to them. there arent many bands i listen to as much as sparklehorse. except maybe they might be giants. or the mars volta. and i am getting back into my pink floyd obsession again. however i find that each time i get back into pink floyd i get more and more fixed on a smaller portion of their catalogue. now i am not going any further than meddle, with maybe a hint of dark side. but then i tack on the final cut as well.

oh yeah, check out a band called mum if you have not already. they are from iceland. they are special. they have lots of toys.

have a good night and remember to vote in our bacon vote. we need to have answers!!!!!

-the black rhino

newz

2009-01-24T12:43:00.002-05:00

so we met last night w eamonn and tracked a few last demos of new tunes. we are all very excited to go into the studio and finish this album!

oh yeah..

tried to break the world record for "Ferrero Rocher's"

6 in one minute.. sounds easy.. trust me its not..
(especially when your a puker)

onto the next challenge..

-tom

2009-01-18T23:03:00.001-05:00

i decided to make a list of things i wanna do...

1- get in guiness book of world records
2- join the MLE (major league eating)
3- join a curling league
3- get a 67 mustang gt500e
4- go to iceland
5- tour japan/europe
6- skydive (and live)
7- learn how to weld
8- build a motorcycle
9- invent/patent something
10- enter the national rock/ paper/ scissor contest.
11- beat the 77oz steak challenge
12- see the pyramids
13- go into outer space
14-motorcycle tour of sicily - http://www.cimt.it/sicily.htm

i am taking advice, contributions, convo, and donations for my new endeavors.

-tom

New Hat!

2009-01-15T22:11:00.002-05:00

Allyson made me a hat! its sweeeeet!

thank you so much!
tom

dirty south pics

2009-01-10T22:05:00.010-05:00

here are a few pics from the south leg.

flur's mecca
4 times in 3 days..

sun sphere, knoxville, tn

softest cat ever.. he showers

preservation pub

gnr faces

girl scout headquarter.. closed
no cookies for bellflur

this doesnt even make sense

mmm.. food

nothing scares me!!!!!!!

2009-01-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

....least of all the dead flesh of pigs.

signed - carlos, with love

bacon warning..

2009-01-09T20:03:00.004-05:00

so our friend, Allyson, emailed me today to warn Carlos!

apparently carlos may die if he accepts the bacon challenge part duex.

her message was as follows:

Google the following....sodium toxicity, hypernatremia, before the challenge. The last video you shot shows symptoms, as in lethargy.

When the sodium concentration in the blood is extremely high, it affects the brain cells. As this occurs, the patient experiences muscle twitching, and begins to feel tired and confused. Eventually, severe hypernatremia can lead to coma and death, especially in young children and the elderly.

now..

according to the net..

30 slices of bacon (approx. 2 lbs) has:

your only suppose to have 2400 mg of sodium a day..

you do the math....

should he try 50 slices?!?!

Tennessee, TENNESSEE, Tennessee!

2009-01-08T16:44:00.002-05:00

Hello all..

So we are amidst our southern tour.. so far its been great! we left tuesday night, headed down to Roanoke, VA to stay the night.. the weather was terrible on the way down.. raining buckets! we finally arrived at the quality inn hunter and i called dibbs on beds.. los and patrick decided to hit up the Waffle house at 4am... they came back full o' bacon. los slept in the car, patrick on a towel (suckers!)

11am Wednesday! Waffle house, round 2.. All-Star Breakfast all the way around. during the middle of breakfast Los professed his love for waffle house bacon and said "i could probably eat 50 of these" LOS... didnt you learn from last time?!?! stay tuned for The bacon challenge Round II..

We arrived in Knoxville, TN around 5pm to play the preservation pub. The club was really cool.. to be honest.. i wasnt expecting much from Tennessee. We played with the boys of summer from ashville. They were awesome! (and really cool) We didnt eat anything all day and decided to go for the liquid-lunch and dinner

We went on stage around 11pm. played a set Chock Full o' New tunes..

set list:
shorty reprise (new)
brief physics
fits and stops and starts(new)
7/8 (new)
a/non-a
gray sparkle(new)
we can build you(new and improved)
rhythms of waking and sleeping(new)
insect politics

after the set we met a TON of cool people.. Alexia, Josh, Michael just to name a few..
we got to know our new friends a little bit more.
Alexia and Josh offered their house to us so that we didnt have to drive to ashville post-show. they were uber hosts and will forever be friends of the flur

Michael Dennis.. where do i start.. he missed our set but was super cool and we got talking about music and all the good things in life (gear) He's a jazz whistler, with a 4 octave range! he convinced us to play another set and we were super stoked to invite him to share the stage w/ us for our second set. kaoss pads and whisters go hand and hand...

our second set.. we went on about 1:30am
(after not eating since 11am and drinking since 5pm)

well we tried to eat the bars version of "food" which was super hard "soft pretzels" and nachos that made movie theater nachos look like they came from the ritz-carlton..

ana
5556
cancelled
first to the moon
big promises

we closed the bar down and then headed over to josh and alexias place.. when we arrived there was pizza and chocolate covered dates waiting ! (which were like HUGE rasinettes) Josh has a super cool cat, is a dj, makes art and homemade digeredoos. Alexia is a cellist and had to get up at 6 to go work! what a trooper. With a nice nights sleep we headed onward to Ashville, NC! We had a blast in Knoxville and will be back soon! we promise. word is they have happy hour in the sun sphere!

along the way we had a run-in with the law.. carlos got a speeding ticket.. but luckily the cop was sorta cool..
we were all Starving!!! and where did we stop.. yes, Waffle House... (round III) Our waitress kept playing songs on the juke box.. classics.... Sweet child o mine, barracuda, and many more....

we got to Ashville and are now at Hunters moms place showering up, eating, and getting ready for our show tonight w/ Kovaks and the polar bear at The Emerald Lounge!

sorry for the random, half written sentences.. but my head hurts and I need some more sleep.

-tom
bellflur

Dirty South Shows

2008-12-18T10:47:00.002-05:00

Hello Bloggers,

Bellflur will be playing some shows down south, Our mini-tour dates are January 7th-9th.

January 7th Knoxville, TN Preservation Pub w/ Boys of Summer

January 8th Asheville, NC Emerald Lounge w/ Kovacs and The Polar Bear and Nights Bright Colors

January 9th Durham, NC (It will be just Bellflur that night) Broadstreet Cafe January 9th

We are in preparation for finishing the recording for our upcoming album, We have some days lined up at Inner Ear Studios (WOO HOO!) with our bestest friend Eamonn Aiken at the helm of this Mad, Gigantic, Monstrosity of a vessel that smashes into ever iceberg that it sees of a ship named Bellflur.

So come on out and show some love for Bellflur because Bellflur loves you, not really Bellflur loves Bacon more than you. Sorry, It's not you really! it's Bellflur, we can still be friends right?

2008-12-14T22:23:00.002-05:00

cute cat right?

no, everyone be on guard around tom's cat yoshimi. she is vicious. she will hurt you. she will hurt your children if you have any.

she holds no regard for peoples feelings either physical or emotional. she sits like a little pudgeball looking all cute and will talk to you and want you to play with her.

then you do, and she unleashes hell on you like the spartans did in that 300 movie.

the picture above shows her reaching out being cute as can be. today was alot like this with me and yoshimi hanging out on the couch with patrick waiting for practice to begin until yoshimi's unquenchable bloodlust kicked in and she tore my lip wide open spilling blood all over toms carpet. as i ran to the bathroom to repair my damaged visage i looked in the reflection of the bathroom mirror and through the arterial spurts i saw the little devil rolling in my blood screaming that she wants all her kitten hair to be soaked in the blood of those she vanquished.

Oh HAI!!! can i has ur BLOOOOOODZZZZ?

Do not trust this cat

winter hideaway-ing??

2008-12-09T23:09:00.003-05:00

hello

whats this picture you might be asking yourself

well, i will tell you

it is a track listing of possible songs for our long awaited-by ourselves more than anyone else-new album. we are still working on a title for it, although we have some possible ones we are tinkering and tankering with.

i think eamonn more than anyone else will be pleased as punch when this thing is over with and he has time to spend the millions he has been making off of a band who make their modest living as the people being dunked in the dunk tank at the moco fair.

it's getting cold

2008-11-21T23:51:00.003-05:00

i just walked for a half hour with my puppy Floyd listening to Beck's album, the information and came to the realization that it is cold.

add to that the discovery that my argentine bones hold no favor for sort of weather. now you may argue that argentina has its share of cold weather and that it is indeed a temperate climate however i put to you this argument - i am argentine and i dont agree with cold weather. and i just asked my father to corroborate this story and.... he didnt. he claims to "like" cold weather although he admits he complains about it.

no, the picture above represents the argentina i grew up in. beaches. sun. warmth.

more news to follow.

carlos

SHOW UPDATES BELLFLUR WILL BE PLAYING A RADIO SHOW STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS

2008-09-26T14:22:00.002-04:00

Hello the Jammin Java show for Bellflur has been cancelled due to conflict of interest (to put it in a nice way) the show will continue with the other bands listed on the calendar but Bellflur will not be playing Oct. 2nd.

Now the GOOD news! IOTA the venue that is The love of my life, The shining beacon of hope , The Hall to my Oates, oh IOTA how I love thee... The Bellflur Big Band show went exceptionally well, thank you everybody that made it out on a chili, rainy night you will forever have a special place in my heart.

Thank You Brad from Cobra Collective, David from Sunchild, Eamonn from The Bonapartes and last but not least Susan from Exit Clov for being so professional and taking the Bellflur Big Band to the next level!

If you missed the Bellflur Big Band show maybe, just maybe if you are good boys and girls and don't vote republican this coming election then maybe Bellflur will transform again into the giant awesome beast that the folks at IOTA got to see last night.

Do I really honestly think The Bellflur Big Band is that AWESOME yes, yes I do.

Stay tuned for details for the upcoming radio show

YA HEARD.

-HTD

September Shows and a October Show !

2008-09-11T17:03:00.002-04:00

Hello readers of BLOGS here are some upcoming Bellflur shows, These upcoming shows are going to be dare I say better than bacon, well...that might be pushing it I don't think anything is better than bacon.

September 12 Boiler Room Asheville, NC (2 Set Show)
We will be playing a show at the Boiler Room with The lovely Kovacs and The Polar Bear "WHY" you ask, because we do what we want that's WHY you gotta problem.

September 13 The Camel Richmond, VA
We will be playing at The Camel in Richmond, VA no the Camel isn't a real Camel hah hah you are so stupid. be there or be somewhere else if your somewhere else then you obviously have something better to do.

September 20th Spike Hill Brooklyn, NY W/ Seamonsters!!!!
Thank you Blake from Seamonsters for reminding me of this one YAY!! Spike Hill w/ Seamonsters this show will be MUY IMPORTANTE do not miss this one Bitches.

September 25 IOTA Arlington, VA
The Bellflur Big Band well be debuting at the wonderful IOTA club and Cafe we will have very yummy guests.... I mean special yeah that's what I meant, special. Bellflur doesn't eat people.....or do we? doesn't matter you'll never be able to prove it.

October 2 Jammin Java Vienna, VA
It will be great you will love it, you will leave Jammin Java with a hallucinogenic euphoric feeling, probably because we will be putting illegal substances in your drinks when you aren't looking....hah just kidding....no really we will be putting illegal substances in your drinks.....I kid I kid...or am I kidding...alright I'm done that joke is so over.

In October we will be taking a quick break to finish up this beast of a cd. I think at this point we are rivaling My Bloody Valentine's Loveless except our cd hasn't cost anybody a million+ dollars to record (yet). sooo we are going to try and finish our wonderfully elusive cd(hopefully)sometime soon!

Stay tuned.

-HuntertheDrummer

recording!

2008-07-27T11:49:00.003-04:00

so we finally went back into the studio to finish our album. we are about to start our third day and already we have 5 songs done. its sounding great! (thanks to eamonn) we have been tracking alot of the songs live. it definitely makes a huge difference. here are a few pics of what we have been up to...

more to come!

-tom

Shows Shows and More Shows in July!!!

2008-07-02T15:33:00.003-04:00

Hi,

This is Hunter your friendly neighborhood drumming enthusiast. I'm at work right now and I don't feel like doing real work so I'm going to blog about some of our upcoming shows, here we go!

The Black Cat Washington, DC.
Finally back where we belong on the mainstage of The BlackCat on July 5th! Be there or be ummm.... not there or something.

The Rocket Club of Asheville, NC.
We will be playing some shows in my hometown! the first show will be at The Rocket Club on July 17th we will be sharing a set with none other than the wondrous Kovacs and The Polar Bear!

The Boiler Room of Asheville, NC
We will be playing the following night July 18th at The Boiler Room with the amazing Kovacs and the Polar Bear, Come check it out!

The NightLight of Chapel Hill, NC
We will be playing at the fantastical NightLight with Vinyl Cordova! hmmm tasty...

The Rock-N-Roll Hotel of Washington, DC.
After we make our way back to the wonderful DC Metro area we will spend some time working on the 2nd half of our much anticipated full length album with the extraordinary Eamonn Aiken! Then we will be playing a show at one of favorite venues The Rock-N-Roll Hotel with Go Home Robot on July 31st!

We hope to see you at some of these shows or all of them, preferably all of them.

-HTD

of course

2008-05-02T15:33:00.001-04:00

damn...

the links!!!

DCist

Brightest Young Things

With Windows Live for mobile, your contacts travel with you. Connect on the go.

a quick update.

2008-05-02T15:31:00.001-04:00

thought there was time and enough new things afoot for a quick update:

whilst we had intended on focusing on polishing songs and recording in May, we just booked another show... had to be done.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Rock N' Roll Hotel
1353 H Street, NE - DC 20002

w/ Snowden, Colour Revolt, the Epochs

doors 8pm | All Ages | $10 (advance)

we'll see you there.

next, bellflur had a few things written about us... and i say this for those of you who don't already know... as we've been giddy over the whole thing. kind words were said and that is always a nice aspect to things such as these.

the first is a mini-review of our show at IOTA on monday, april 28th AND an interview on DCist. it is here:

DCist

the second is a review of the same show appearing on brightest young things. many a good photo were taken as well. it is here:

Brightest Young Things

finally, an incredibly large bear-hug type thank you to emily and susan from exit clov. they were with us for the past two shows at the black cat and IOTA lending their violins and voices. as was completely expected... they sounded phenomenal!

speak to you soon. keep your pant legs crumpled and your tattoos faded!!

- p

Get Free (PRODUCT) RED™ Emoticons, Winks and Display Pics Check it out!

bellflur tonight @ IOTA

2008-04-28T10:22:00.001-04:00

Hey,

We will be playing at IOTA tonight. This will be our first time there in a very long time.. So please come on out and show some love.. we will also be joined by Susan and Emily Hsu of The Exit Clov.

details below:

Monday April 28th 2008 @ Iota Club & Cafe
THE MODERATE
BELLFLUR
& CHRIS WALKER (OF KITTY HAWK)
8:30PM $10

getting here from there…

IOTA is located at 2832 Wilson Boulevard in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arington, VA. Wilson Boulevard starts in Rosslyn, which is just across the river from Washington D.C. IOTA is just a couple miles up on Wilson, between Edgewood and Fillmore Streets.
Via Metro

IOTA Club & Cafe is located two and a half blocks East of the Clarendon Metro Station which is on the Orange Line. When you come up the escalator you are at the intersection of Wilson Boulevard and Highland Street. Cross Highland Street and walk down Wilson against traffic (it is one-way coming toward you). IOTA is two and a half blocks down on your right at 2832 Wilson.

Last trains leaving the Clarendon Metro Station:
To DC: Fri & Sat: 1:42 AM To Vienna: Fri & Sat: 2:17 AM
Sun-Thurs: 11:42 PM Sun-Thurs: 12:17 AM

This schedule may be subject to change. Check with the Metro System for accuracy.

Via Auto

From Points West:
Take Interstate 66 East. Take the Glebe Rd./Fairfax Drive Exit. The ramp turns into Fairfax Drive. Continue on Fairfax Drive for one mile and turn left on Wilson Blvd. (There is a Hess Gas Station on the corner at your right.) Stay in the left lane on Wilson Blvd. Go through a big wacky open intersection but stay in the left lane. (The road is now called Clarendon Boulevard going one-way East, but who cares.) Drive past the Fresh Fields Grocery Store and take a left on Danville St. Take a left on Wilson and we're just a block and a half up on the left.

From Points South:
Take 95 North to 395 North (toward Washington, D.C.) Continue North and take the Columbia Pike/Washington Blvd/Pentagon. exit. The ramp splits, go left toward Columbia Pike (not right to the Pentagon).The road becomes Washington Blvd. headed toward Clarendon, our neighborhood. Drive many, many blocks. Take a right turn at the third traffic light onto Highland Street. Go a couple blocks and take a right on Clarendon Blvd. Go a few more blocks and take a left on Danville St. (just past the Fresh Fields Grocery Store). Take your first left on Wilson Blvd. We're a block and a half up on the left.

From Points North:
You can take the Beltway 495 to I66 and proceed as if From Points West. Or you can go through Washington D.C. to the Key Bridge or the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. Find Wilson Blvd in Rosslyin and proceed Westward to IOTA.

From Key Bridge: Simply drive straight into Rosslyn and take a right on Wilson Blvd. Drive many blocks and watch for the Fresh Fields and we're a half a block up on the left.

From Theodore Roosevelt Bridge:
Take the Lee Highway/Key Bridge exit. This is the last exit before the start of I66 West. Coming off the ramp, take your first legal left turn into Rosslyn. Take a right on Wilson Blvd and drive many blocks and watch for the Fresh Fields. We're a half a block up on the left.

Parking

There is ample parking near IOTA, including street parking, a public garage at 3033 Wilson and a private Colonial garage with reasonable rates at Fillmore and Clarendon Blvd. There is a construction project going on behind IOTA on Clarendon Blvd so that the little parking lot/alley next to IOTA is not available. Upon completion of the construction project, additional parking spaces will become available.

Free Garage Parking at 3033 Wilson Boulevard

Arlington County sponsors free parking in a safe, well-lit garage just two and a half blocks from IOTA at 3033 Wilson Blvd (entrance on Highland Street). The garage is available free to the public:

* Saturday and Sunday: 10:00 AM to 2:30 AM
* Monday through Friday: 5:30 PM to 2:30 AM

Directions from IOTA's front door: continue driving on Wilson Boulevard (which is one way) for two and a half blocks to Highland Street. Take a right turn on Highland Street and the garage entrance is on the right.

hope to see you there!

tom

www.bellflur.com
bellflur.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/bellflur
www.youtube.com/bellflur
www.sonicbids.com/bellflur

post black cat/ pre Iota

2008-04-26T13:05:00.005-04:00

Howdey..

Hope you all are enjoying this lovely Saturday. the winter is finally leaving as i realize that i really dont like hot weather.. if i can only find somewhere that has the perfect pants/t-shirt or shorts/hoodie weather all year round.. hmmm

well anyway..

The black cat show the other night was really cool...thanks to seamonster for coming down from brooklyn as well as hundred hundred from WV. Those are a great bunch of guys/girl to hang out with.. cant wait for some future shows with them. and may i say.. i forget how funny the ped was.. he used to play with bellflur prior to his quest for knowledge and we definitely miss him. and you cant forget Dolla Bill for doing visuals for us. I really wish i could watch them while we play but i only get to sneek glimpses between double fisting keyboards..

news..

we have new shirts!!!

$15

they are ultra-comfort urban outfitters brand t's.. we buy only the best for our fans.. who wants to wear one of those cheap-o t's anyway?

i know what you are saying....

how do we charge $15 for a kick-ass, handmade t-shirt when they cost $16 for a blank one in the store??
well i sold my soul to the devil for a forbidden doughnut.. (mmmmmm)

we have plenty of sizes/colors available:
girls- xs,s,m,l
girl tanks- m,l
boys- s,m,l,xl

if you would like to purchase a shirt see us at one of our shows

-or-

if you like the design of the shirt and want something else printed w/ it on it let me know.. id be happy to make you a one-off bellflur shirt...

heres what they look like.

we also have some shows coming up.

Iota this monday... it will be our first time there so come on out.
emily and susan hsu from the exit clov will be playing with us again that evening.
they are fantasic... we love them.

Apr 28 2008 - 8:30P - Iota Club & Cafe -arlington, Virginia
May 25 2008 - 6:00P - WMUC -College Park, Maryland
Jun 4 2008 - 8:00P - The Colony Cafe -Woodstock, New York
Jun 6 2008 - 8:00P - Galapagos -Brooklyn, New York
Jun 7 2008 - 8:00P - The Lily Pad -Cambridge, Massachusetts

we will be also adding some more dates as time goes by.

ok time to refill my coffee..

hope to see you monday!
-Tom (and bellflur)

TDL028@aol.com for t's, cd's, love, etc.

Our Marathon of a day...

2008-04-20T11:36:00.003-04:00

to all..

A big thanks to everyone who came out to show some love.. sipping coffee as i sit in staten island (puke) and reflect on yesterdays rat race of a day...

our day started at 9am.. loading equipment.. now i know what your saying... big deal.. but it is a big deal.. you try moving all our stuff...2 times.. before you'd normally wake up.

we played at the Crazy Quilt Festival in Greenbelt, MD. this was a departure from our normal shows.. for one we played at noon... and it was outside.. it was a really cool setup.. except that there was TONS of pollen falling on us while we played.
that does wonders for my allergies and the resale value of my pedals.. unfortunately we had to leave early and missed least common denominator and play w/ me...

Our day continued w/ another equipment-van load in and we headed up to nyc to play at Spike hill in williamsburg. despite the size of the stage it worked out great!!! it was a great place to play because there was no cover and there was alot of street traffic on bedford ave.. thanks to all who came and showed yr support. i met a bunch of cool new people and look forward to future endeavors.

ok time for a NYC bagel w/ bacon egg and cheese....

speaking of bacon...

carlos has been talking all this smack that he can eat 30 strips of bacon in one sitting. the bacon challenge will happen today..

there may be no more bellflur if carlos has a heart attack.. wish him/us the best.

-tom

howdey

2008-04-08T23:56:00.002-04:00

thanks to all who came to the show at jammin' java. that place is awesome! Cant wait to play there again. Also thank you to the Society Of Art Rockers for putting on the show. we met alot of cool people and hope to see you all at the next shows. speaking of.....

Upcoming Shows!

Apr 19 2008 11:00A
Crazy Quilt Festival Old Greenbelt, Maryland

Apr 19 2008 8:00P
Spike Hill Brooklyn, New York

Apr 23 2008 8:00P
The Black Cat Washington, Washington DC

Apr 28 2008 8:30P
Iota Club & Cafe arlington, Virginia

more to come....

also...

we made this video as a small preview/ glimpse into what has been going on while we are not playing shows.. we are in the Midst of recording a new album w/ Producer/engineer/photographer/international man of leisure, Eamonn Aiken. Most of the recording has been taking place at the bellflur mansion. We are also super excited to be working w/ Emily and Susan of the exit clov. We have worked w. them in the past but they will have a much more substantial role in the final product.. we are very excited.

enjoy
-bellflur

Last Nights Show

2008-03-15T14:27:00.004-04:00

Hey!

Thanks to all who came out last night to the Rock and Roll Hotel. We had a great time playing w/ greenland, the coats, and the shakes. Big ups to Fritz at the R-n-R hotel for stepping up his game.. bigger/better stage, new speakers and a some new staff to control lighting and sound.. all in all made the whole show that much better. (for us) We definitly look forward to playing there again.

I, Tom, had the pleasure to meet some cool new people last night.. hope to see you all at the next few shows! speaking of..

Upcoming Shows:

April 5th- Jammin Java- w/ Spiraling

The Society of Art Rock is pleased to bring the airtight musicianship and explosive live show of New Jersey based Spiraling (www.myspace.com/spiraling) to Jammin Java for the first show of our Spring 2008 concert series. Local favorites Bellflur (www.myspace.com/bellflur) will open with their sonic layering and beautiful melodies. This All Ages show will begin at 6 PM at Jammin Java in Vienna, VA. Tickets are $15.

This All Ages event will be held at: Jammin Java
227 Maple Avenue East
Vienna VA 22180
For tickets: www.jamminjava.com OR 703.255.1566 x8

The Society of Art Rock (SOAR), a 501(c)3 not-for-profit educational organization, was established in 2004 to advance the education of non-commercial music that mixes elements of classical, jazz, and contemporary rock styles into a musical form called Art Rock. Further information on SOAR is available at: www.dc-soar.org.

April 19th- Greenbelt, MD (early show)

April 19th- Brooklyn, NY w/ Seamonster (late show)
more info soon!

April 23rd @ The Black Cat- Washington, DC

bellflur
Hundred Hundred
Seamonster

::cough:: old shool bellflur super-set reunion?

April 27th- @ IOTA Club & Cafe- Arlington, VA

w/ The Moderate and maybe the Beanstalk Library

Thanks and hope to see you soon!
-bellflur

New songs

2008-02-12T16:18:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

Tom and I are on the way to record with eamonn at the Bastille. We are just about finished recording some new songs, some of which will be on a new EP we wil releasing in the very near future. The rest of which will be on our new album which should be coming out in the little bit later future.

The new website will be up next month as well and will have some nice treats on it as well.

We are listening to the new Mars Volta album right now and I love it and Tom ahs most of the drum lines memorized right now..... oh oh oh, he just switched it up to Vicktor Vaughn. Nice call.

The new Will Ferrell movie is going to be amazingl funny, which has nothing to do with the blog, but there it is. And it will be funny.

Video News

I posted a blog on our myspace about a new video we are working on and figured I would put it up here as well. We need anyone who likes to dance, you know, in the formal way. Wearing a suit and tie or a nice dress. It will be a nice waltz sorta deal and should only take a few hours to record, hopefully. More info will be available soon. If anyone is interested or knows anyone who might want to dres sup and dance for a bit please have yourself or them write to Carlos at Bellflur@bellflur.com

Will write more soon

i was going to leave a few nice pictures or so, but tom informed me there are no photos on this comp. So instead, just picture yourself with a nice slice of pizza and a front row seat at a Sigur Ros show. thats what I do when I am at work.

'cordin' 'cordin' 'cordin'

2007-12-19T10:55:00.001-05:00

wow. we bellflur kids are amazingly flippant when it comes to regular posts on the blog. so, while i'm working (actually... avoiding working) on a few things... i figure why not??

so what's been happening? let's see.

well, last week we did a show with the most serene republic at the rock n' roll hotel. i, personally had a great time, helped significantly by amicable nature of a) all the folks in the most serene republic and, b) fritz, the r n'r hotel manager. fritz is a king amongst men in terms of club-managers who are willing to actually listen to the bands, respond and help and to always be on top of things. as for the most serene republic, i've never met a group of more congenial folks. all members (individually and collectively) of that band are incredibly good at what they do and incredibly fun to play a show with. so that one went well... thanks to the most serene republic (and well wishes to them) and the rock n' roll hotel folks and everyone who came out and seemed to enjoy the show.

we also debuted 2 new songs at that show. the first is as of yet untitled and i'm not sure if we can actually classify it as a song. i'm sure at some point we will... but for the time being, it feels categorized to a lovely warm-up piece. then there's what is probably bellflur's most simplistic, straight-ahead rock tune ever... currently dubbed "fits and starts and stops". we likes it. we hope you did (or will too). and speaking of new songs, we've been recording alot of them.

'cordin, 'cordin, 'cordin.

so for the past couple of months, we've been tracking songs for the next album with our ally in noise and atmospherics, eamonn (who you may recognize from other DC/NYC-bands that have since, unfortunately, departed). eamonn brought with him several things to this venture... namely, a comparable (if not surpassing) level of gear whore-dom (but, luckily for us, a whore-dom that gravitates towards the recording gear variety), tons o' ideas, and a willingness to track just about damn near anything that we or he can think of. so far, i would say its going incredibly well. things sound amazing actually. eamonn may have his own take on it as his eyes and ears are accosted (and damn near destroyed) on a daily basis. but he's a champion and doing well. until tom pegs him in the ass in a paintball challenge!

we've been extraordinarily lucky with our recording venue - though many of you reading this will know exactly the location to which i'm referring, i'm going to remain silent as to where we are doing this... just in case. suffice to say however that the afore-mentioned venue has provided some of the best room characteristics for recording (i.e., room reverb, outdoor open smack, etc.) any of us have experienced before. proving to really be an asset.

so far (leaving vocals, certain samples, extra percussion out of the equation for the time being), we've got solid (close to completion) headway on 3 songs and about 1/2 to 3/4 the way through 3 others. i believe our buddies from exit clov (emily and susan) will be coming in to do some violins and vocals as well. then we'll be off to the rehearsals again to solidify some other new songs that will probably show up in the album... which, by the way, is going to be pretty incredible from a packaging stand-point. JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE!!!

so i leave you with no pictures. however, you should definitely go visit eamonn's blog as he's been providing recording blow-by-blows for each song (will be a great read for you equipment junkies) along with some great photos of the process (when eamonn emerges from the superman phone booth following recording, he comes out a photographer). his blog is here (click it now): http://bastillesound.blogspot.com/

and with that, christmas is upon us in less than a week (if you're into that sort of thing), and shortly thereafter, 2008. its been a chaotic year - 2007. but things have certainly come into their own in the land of bellflur within recent months. we hope you've had less chaos than we this year. certainly, a mighty "thanks" for all of you who have been giving the support, coming to the shows, helping with artwork, visuals, ideas, recording, catching us on tour, posting comments and porn (you know who you are) on our myspace page, etc. it always means and helps more than you would ever actually think.

so cheers, kiddies.... bellflur loves you.

patrick

Share life as it happens with the new Windows Live. Share now!

Hey everybody I'm the new guy!

2007-10-17T10:02:00.000-04:00

Hi my name is Hunter and I'm the new drummer for bellflur I've played a couple of shows with the bellflur kids but if we haven't met yet here's a little bit of info about me.

I'm an Aries, I like sushi, I have 8-10 nicknames some I like some I don't, I like to sleep, I like to drink beer, I like good beer but I'll drink a forty if I have to, I like summer fall and spring but I hate winter, I like artsy movies but not too artsy they have to have some intergrity, I like to play drums, I like bleeps and bloops, I like a lot of different kinds of music, I like the bellflur drinking team, I like food, I like tabasco sauce, I like zombie films,

Oh yeah I like Carlos,Pat and Tom they're nice.

hello neighbor..

2007-10-16T16:24:00.000-04:00

well.. hot damn. I know we've said it a million times. BUT sorry for the delay in updates. there are a few thangs going on the the world de' flur.

1- A big thanks to all who came out to our caribou show! We had a great time and are looking forward to getting back out to play more shows.. speaking of..

2- A new show announcement! hereyee! hereyee!

October 28th @ the black cat
bellfur
w/ XYZ Affair
Small Sins

3- we are also looking to whore ourself out around the east coast a bit.. you know some Mini-weekend-tour kinda thing. so if you or someone you know can help.. well then step up, playa.

4- our rehersal space has been vacuumed. i know what you saying.. "big deal"
well..thats right, it IS a big deal.. our space now smells like purple rain.

5- speaking of rehersal spaces..Here's a small glimpse into where "all the magic happens"

thats all for now..
we have practice tonight!

-DA Flur

hello and good morning

2007-09-25T13:34:00.001-04:00

agghh... t'ain't nuthin' worse than going to work the next morning after a show!!

anyways, a big thank you to all of you who came out to the show last night... taking a stand against the voice in the back of your heads that says, "are you crazy. its monday. you don't want to leave the confines of your home do you? really?" so a thank you to you and to len bias for opening up the evening. great band, len bias... its always fun to share sets with those guys... and by "always", yes i do refer to the two times we've played with them, including last night! but they do not disappoint!

so yesterday evening marked a return after a several-month hiatus of sorts. granted, we've been busy working on new material and equipment and plans, plans, plans (as always) while were out, but it was good to be back playing (with a "streamlined" stage set-up (don't know if anyone caught that)), and with new drum-'flurian, hunter. mighty fine job he did last night.

so, thank you again. hopefully, we'll see you all again on tuesday, october 9 at the rock n' roll hotel, when we will be sharing the bill with caribou and born ruffians. until then, take care and sleep easy.

Make your little one a shining star! Shine on!

so nice

2007-09-11T12:52:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone,

We had a visit from a friend of ours from Minnesota, John Grider, who is a fantastic artist. He was in town setting up a gallery exhibit in Baltimore @ the Maryland Art Place. http://www.mdartplace.org/exhibitions/current.html

While he was in town he waskind enough to make some of our equipment more pleasing to the eye. The first picture is a stencil he did on my guitar amp. The second is one of his paintings which you can find at www.brokencrow.com.

I would definitely suggest checking out his website and, if you can make it to the Maryland Art Place, to check out his pieces on display and those of the other artists in the exhibit.

a bellflur update...

2007-08-20T09:59:00.000-04:00

well.. its been a while..

dont worry, we didnt forget about you. Alot has been going on in the land o' flur.

new tunes,
new album,
new gear,
new drummer! (yet again)

I'd like to welcome our new friend Hunter to the group. He's picked everything up very quickly and is itching to play a show... with that being said..

new shows! (coming soon)

so check back soon for more news..

-tom

"A Collective Confession"

2007-06-14T13:24:00.000-04:00

In this section of the blog, each member of the band will post one event from tour that stuck in their mind. Whether it be magical, stressful, hilarious, painful or delicious. If you were part of the tour in any way, shape or form..please add one of your memories for our viewing pleasure.

tour blog 5

2007-06-14T12:44:00.000-04:00

this is a new tour blog from Ben! Thanks dude!

tour photo album

2007-06-12T18:04:00.001-04:00

MyPhotoAlbum free photo and video sharing

The Rock N' Roll Hotel B&W's

2007-06-12T14:57:00.000-04:00

Here's Tom & Catherine manning battle stations at the merch table. We didn't do as well as Toronto but we are getting a good response to the new shirts. I think we would do better if we have Jessica & Catherine model the shirts, what do you think?

"It's right outside your door, now testify!"

2007-06-12T14:32:00.000-04:00

So, on our day off in Minneapolis, Bill and I decided to take a drive around town to see the sights. As we were driving, we saw something that made us slam on the brakes while saying, "What the Fuck?". I said to Bill, "Get your camera". We approached Mr.X (He wouldn't give us his name & he would not shake my hand) with cautious wonder. So, I got him talking and once we got on the subject of government...that was all she wrote. His public display of protest was all about....I don't know. He really didn't have 1 point, maybe like a blend of mis-directed anger, crooked facts and maybe even a little racism. Nonetheless, still an impressive use of his front lawn. I have to respect a man with something to say even though I couldn't follow what he was exactly saying. Well, he did tell us not to trust any country that has a predator (A bald eagle) for a mascot. Stay tuned for a video clip of our conversation, maybe..that's if the CIA doesn't stop us from publishing it first..
-casey

Minneapolis in Black & White

2007-06-12T13:48:00.000-04:00

Here is Bill sitting at our favorite morning coffee spot in Minneapolis. I do not know if he is pooping or sharting..looks like a little of both.

Tour Blog Video #4

2007-06-10T17:21:00.001-04:00

Deleted Scenes make things fun

2007-06-10T17:18:00.000-04:00

This is what we got to enjoy every night for two weeks on the road.

Kawl-fee talk part duex

2007-06-10T16:58:00.001-04:00

As I was writing the last post (Riding in Tom's car) I got cut off. Anyways, the Annex, cool bar, hip location, but that's about it. Manhattan is like the southern coast of South Africa, very strong current, rocky shores and full of sharks. If you're in a band and you want to play in Manhattan, the best thing you could do is get everyone you know, put them in a bus and drive them up to the club that you're playing at and install them as your audience. I hope that explains the scene there. O and try to dress like you're in Interpol.
West Chester, PA..It's a small town right outside Philly. Cool little town that reminded me of Annapolis. The venue was Rex's and the place was serving up $1 PBR's and for $3 you got a PBR and a shot of whiskey. They kept the bands happy with 3 free pitchers and I think Rex's had a small built-in crowd that obviously came there for the cheap booze. The show went well, good response and the load-in/load-out went pretty easy. As for the accommodations, our good friend Alli was nice enough to let the whole band stay at her place like 5 minutes away. We got pretty lucky this whole tour with kind people that would let us stay with them. Whether it was old college buddies, relatives, friend of a friend or best of friends. The tour would have been very expensive without all of you. Thank You. I would do it all over again.
-casey

The Kawl-fee is great in New Yark!

2007-06-09T16:01:00.000-04:00

I think the highlight of the Boston show was seeing a monster raccoon run through the streets and under the deleted scenes van. I freaked out when I saw it and Carlos and I chased into an alley. It was about 24" tall and maybe 3 ft. long. But besides the wildlife, the show was pretty cool. After we played our set, we found out that we had the next night off. So, with mixed emotions, we drove about an hour south of beantown. We found a Rodeway Inn. Patrick pulled a miracle out of his ass by getting us 2 rooms for the price of one. Thanks be to a trucker that had to leave immediately after paying for his room. OK, so we slept like coma victims and woke to a day of driving. Our destination, Manhattan, NYC.
Once we arrive Staten Island, we prepared ourselves for a day of R N R at Tom's parent's house. I will sum up our visit in 1 word. NEEDED. The Annex waits. A bill of 4 bands has packed the house. They were not there for rock, they came for friend rock. Which was bad for us because everyone left after the 2nd band..well almost everyone..

an ode to chicken parm in the form of a haiku

2007-06-06T01:55:00.000-04:00

A slice of heaven
chicken parm made by toms mom
i will eat some more

h'allo

2007-06-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

oh... man, i can't even remember where we are right now... somewhere in a motel... in... massachusetts or connecticut... its about check out time and back on the rhode to rhode island (did you see my play on words??). our bruise count at the moment is Patrick (3), Casey (4), Carlos (18), and Tom (1)... but you should see the one on tom... it looks like he was kicked by a horse.

let see, since i last posted, i believe we've hit burlington and boston. burlington. beautiful. everybody in burlington, i'm convinced, has a congenital affliction of congeniality and helpfulness. casey ran into one of the DJs at The Point (big radio station in vermont)... which is always interesting meeting folks as such - there's that big slap in the face moment of "hmmm... this seems like an opportunity here... what to do what to do..." - and then you either act or you don't. casey... casey acts.

boston. ah, boston. carlos (once again) managed to drive us right into the middle of the city on newbury and parked the car getting us all excited thinking that we were playing in the cruxt of downtown boston. at which point came the famous c-love stick to the gut... "soooo, we have the wrong address." so we load back up and drive over the bridge, out of the city (or at least out of downtown boston) and into cambridge to arrive at our cosy "abbey lounge". we were very happy to see that there was indeed a stage and that the amplifiers were actually going to be mic'd this time. good folks at the abbey so many thanks to them and the other bands. mike, i hope your equipment recovers (i haven't seen anyone go sonic youth on their equipment in ages - was really spectacular).

so the deleted scenes... ahh... may good things be written about them one day and soon. doesn't matter if there's 10 or 100 people, those cats bring it every night - something all bands trying to carve out a little spot for themselves should take a note from... if you can't bust it out each night... its that much of a longer road ahead. perhaps the scenes could start educational clinics or something ;) at any rate, if you're reading this and haven't seen the deleted scenes as of yet, you're missing out. and for the next several days, you're lucky enough to see us with them too!!!! heh, heh!!

we'll speak soon darlings.

video blog 3

2007-06-05T04:31:00.000-04:00

video by Ben Rowny

whoa... I know Kung Fu

2007-06-04T13:18:00.000-04:00

so.. according to 'Los and Hatrick, when i awoke this morning i looked like Keanu Reaves in a Scanner Darkly..

hmm..

-tom

Tour pics- Bill Risen

2007-06-04T03:41:00.001-04:00

by cky3k66

check em out....
-tom

colt 45 swims in the veins...

2007-06-04T01:13:00.000-04:00

so as it turns out... tom was once formally known as "stang". we discovered this fact when we pulled into albany and were greeted by several of his cohorts and former associates from the days when he attended the university of albany. before i get to that though... kudos are due...

CANADA... OH, CANADA... I LOVE YOU! with a full (and heavy heart). toronto is, quite simply, a swell place... a vibin' town... a hood o' blue cool. i've made it to montreal once and it was equally fantastic - thus leading me to the final assumption that canada, in many regards, is were americans are destined to go when they die - realizing that america, again, in many regards, is kinda stupid sometimes... (cough, cough). thanks for the good turnout and show canada, titty driven, hal's ballroom and its fine employees. bless ya...

so, albany. didn't know what to expect from albany. as it turned out, we had to do battle with a hardcore show in the venue upstairs from our venue. i remember distinctly one of those "bellflur-esque" pause for thought moments in one of our songs, and then - BOOM! - the bass and drums from the hardcore show upstairs rattled my stomach and vomitted with its heaviness. no, actually that didn't happen. much respect to the hardcore kids... they're committed and driven! anyways, albany was awesome. every once in a while you have a show where everything just falls into place and it feels unstoppable. that was albany. great show, great people, great $2.00 schaeffers and so on. had a great time. and LunaSea, the words touch... oh yes they do... and to pat & pat, thanks for allowing both bands to crash at your place... its people like you that make these things flow more smoothly than they normally do.

and speaking of "both bands" - DELETED SCENES ARE THE BEST!!

we left albany this morning (actually now i guess it was yesterday morning) and drove through upstate new york and vermont to arrive in burlington. i think that may have been the most beautiful drive i've been on in these united states. burlington is a great place. smaller than i imagined... but fantastic none-the-less. and its nice and cool, which i dig. if you've seen me, you'll know i have my own personal insulation system, and cold weather definitely agrees with me. we played a shorter than normal show, but good regardless. not as killin' as albany, but good all the same. off to boston tomorrow. i'm sure we'll wake up feeling battered and bruised as always.

and now... my ode to coffee:

A CAFFINATED HAIKU:

Oh, Black cup of death...
drink the magic elixir
See you tomorrow!

-patrick
-------------------------------

thanks to all my friends who came out to the show last night. It was great to see all of you, i had an awesome time. Here are a few pictures..

-Tom (formally known as: Stang, The Stang, Stang-a-rang, Stang S. Stangerson & Stizzle)

video blog 2

2007-06-03T14:57:00.000-04:00

carcast

2007-06-03T14:54:00.000-04:00

Hey..

check out this video by bill risen..
-tom

Roy Rogers: A Lament

2007-06-02T14:45:00.000-04:00

Roy Rogers sign post on the road
My head begins to spin
And see the tasty chicken
Dipped into the mashed potatos and gravy

The gravy

The gravy

One more mile.
Soon my stomach will feel the satiation.

1/2 a mile left.
My head reels with apprehension.

WAIT!!!
There is to be no stop.

Roy Rogers in my rear view mirror.
Nothing in my stomach.
Roy Rogers in my rear view mirror.

~~~fin

carlos: current mood: sad and hungry : (
currently listening to: my stomach cry

New treat from Ben

2007-06-02T14:25:00.000-04:00

Along with num-chuck skills and computer hacking skills, Ben has got mad editing skills.

3 cheers!!!!

OOOooooo Canada

2007-06-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

Dear Canada,

Please forgive us for all the bad things We've said a-boat you in the past. Turns out all those rumors were totally false! Bellflur <3's our neighbors to the north. Toronto is an awesome town! Everyone at the show was super-cool and was really into our music.. which, well.. makes this all worth it. We ended up hitting the streets and handed out about 100 cd's fo' free. We did not want to leave. Thanks for all the support, love and food. mmm.. Hal's Burgers.. until next time (and there will be a next time)

Adios!

Da Flur

here are some pics from last night.

Border Crossing..Canada, eh...

2007-06-01T14:52:00.000-04:00

so we finished up the show in detroit last night and headed straight for the border. It turns out we were only 5 mins from canada. From talking with numerous bands we have heard lots of horror stories about bands trying to cross the border. we were all stressing the thought of having to unpack all of our gear, unhook pedals, getting taxed on merch, and getting strip searched at the border. All of our worrying was for nothing, they let us pass right through. So far canada is pretty cool except for the damn metric system.. ahhhhh

we drove up to london, ontario to stay w/ ben's friend Cali. The town she lives in is a real cool place. she had an awesome cat "cecil" who could pick things up w/ one paw and throw them.. Her band "titty driven" will be playing w/ us this evening...we are all looking forward to our arrival at Hal's Ballroom. Pat and myself are going to hit up "paul's boutique" as soon as we step foot in toronto.. its a vintage/boutique music store and has nothing to do w/ the beastie boys.

until later..

-Bellflur

Detroit Rock City

2007-05-31T18:15:00.000-04:00

hey hey hey..

so we arrived in the B-E-A-utiful Detroit rock city.. and when i say beautiful i mean GHETTO! the drive here was ok.. we stayed at a shadey motel last night..
we immediatly checked for cameras, 2-way mirrors and dead hookers.. all clear.. except for lots of random stains. so.. our shoes never came off.

i slept way to late which meant no shower for you! which is a fair trade for a good nights sleep w/ AC.

and to think i made fun of Bill for showering before bed..

-tom
----------------------

so chicago went well... in several respects. had some great mexican food from whole in the wall place called "panchos". mmmm...red beans and rice will always bring you back to life. ronny's bar is a crazy place. it was nice. the live room sorta harkened back to some old school days of practicing in the parents' garage when i was in middle and high school with bands past. so, i guess i would say it was a nostalgic (energy-filled) show.

then the hotel, which tom talked about above... i would give it 5.5 out of 5 stars!!! the A/C in our room didn't work... so it was like sleeping in a sweatshop... our shower towels had these mysterious, brown (fecal) stains (which casey noticed just as he was about to dry himself off with one), and then there was the distinct appearnce from the state of my bed sheets that "someone was fucking in my bed too!!" but, for $40 when you're tired as all get out, you're willing to look past those things. and so now we sit waiting for someone to show up at the club in detroit so we can start the load-in. i took a quick drive around and its a shame about detroit... lesson to all... don't let the automotive lobby run the economy in your town! i've never seen so many consecutive blocks of once ornate and grand, now hollowed and dilapidated buildings.

speak to you all from canada. very much looking forward to toronto!

- patrick

Road Stories

2007-05-31T16:51:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone reading this,

We are on the road about half an hour from Detroit, and a few hours more from our third show on our tour. The first two have went swimmingly except for technical issues on my end. Now that I think of it, most of the "issues" we have had I have the pleasure of being the one responsible for. I will relate a story....

We decided to leave DC and drive right to Minneapolis without stopping to be able to spend all day roaming Minneapolis which is a fantastic city.

I was driving our van and was new to the gas mileage it received and thought that I had it all planned to reach our next gas station. Anyhow, as we were all heading down a nice long hill I felt the gas pedal no longer responding. This discovery led me to what became perhaps the worst 12 seconds of my life. The moment where I realized what I had done and was already living with not only the problem but the fact that I was the only one who knew what was going on. I was debating in my head how break the news with the least amount of shame while simultaneously trying to; A)Remain calm and not let on we were out of gas in traffic and, B)How to get us the hell out of harm's way while waiting for a miracle to get us the last little jaunt to the gas station.

I was able to make it over to the shoulder, without power steering, get out of the truck and explain to everyone that No, I did not miss an exit, but rather had stranded on of our 2 vehicles.

The shame. The shame.

And to top everything else, the van gently rolled up and stopped in front of the sign informing us we were less than 2 miles from the gas station.

Bill pointed out the extra irony of our situation which was that we were in a gas guzzling van stranded on a highway directly next to a series of sky-high windmills doing their job of making life better for all through clean fuel.

I will leave what is left of my self respect intact for now and not tell the next story. For now.

Be sure to stay tuned to see how that wascawy Carwos leads the team into harm's way again. Next episode: Border Crossing???

Carlos

Bellflur @ the 400 bar

2007-05-29T21:40:00.001-04:00

hello-

so after chillin in minneapolis for a day its finally show time. Ben
Rowny has met up w/ us and is along for the remainder of the tour.
Here is a video he filmed of us setting up.

enjoy

-tom

Day Two

2007-05-28T13:10:00.001-04:00

Hello--

well... we made it. after 20 hours..and one breakdown because of lack of gas..thanks carlos.(next time he will listen and not say.. "we can make it..trust me" well.. we were so close.. not close enough. and carlos keeps losing the keys every stop we make...
----------
coffee is a glorious (and simultaneously terrible thing...) on the road. i had burger king coffee, sheetz coffee, Ella's Country Inn Restaurant (a really nice way of saying "multi-use gas station") coffee, subway coffee, black coffee, brown coffee, solidified coffee, textured coffee and the "pass-right-through-you" coffee. you can tell alot about a state by the nature of its coffee service via the gas stations. so far, minnesota has good coffee.

also, as a side note - i spent a good 45 minutes updating my itunes library to have a slam-packed ipod for the trip. i thought to myself - "self, you have 15 hours of consecutive music on your ipod now... i think you are good." as it turns out, 15 hours of consecutive music only works if you have a 15 hour trip or less... for a 20 hour drive... eh... not so much...

working on a couple of hours of sleep at the moment, so suffice to say that we made it to minneapolis and we'll be starting the tour "officially" tomorrow. pictures and videos are going to be updated on the blog nightly (of course we're aiming high with a statement like that) and also on myspace and youtube... once we've managed to wake bill from his coma. so you'll be able to keep tabs on the antics and shananigans and chaos of a bellflur-road trip... officially dubbed the "tetris-tour '07"... a throwback to our needed figuring of how to place 20 cubic feet of equipment into a 15 cubic feet capacity van...

... fyi - it doesn't work well...

casey, carlos and bill (if he were awake) send their love.

until tomorrow!

- patrick and tom

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Tour Update

2007-05-27T13:05:00.001-04:00

Hello-

thanks to all who came to the show last night. It was a great time. So after a late night we finally managed to to get up and get on the road. Minneapolis here we come. our ETA is approx 4:23am.
keep checking back for updates, picutres and videos.

-da flur

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2007-05-25T11:41:00.003-04:00

so...as you may or may not know, bellflur is playing a show this Saturday night. It will be the first date of our tour, so come out to the Rock and Roll Hotel to send us on our way!! also if anyone could help us out w/ any support/info for the tour would be awesome... you know.. kinda like.. "Don't forget to see the worlds largest ball of twine in Minnesota"

we will be bringing Bill Risen and Ben Rowney on the ro-ad w/ us. You may know bill the projector/visual guy.. also ben has helped us in the past w/ video work etc.. They will be helping us document the whole experience. we will be updating a video blog daily and our reg blog as well.. just go to bellflur.com

also-Its Ben's Birthday on Saturday so come out and have a drink or twelve w/ him...

May 26th @ the Rock and Roll Hotel 8:30pm

Bellman Barker (cd release party)
The Subjects
bellflur (9:30)

-tom
-------------------------------------------------------------

Upcoming Shows
May 26 2007 9:00P
The Rock and/or Roll Hotel Washington, DC

May 29 2007 8:00P
400 Bar Minneapolis, MN

May 30 2007 8:00P
Ronny's Bar Chicago, Illinois

May 31 2007 8:00P
The Corktown Tavern Detroit, Michigan

Jun 1 2007 8:00P
Hal's Ballroom Toronto, Ontario

Jun 2 2007 8:00P
Valentine's Albany, New York

Jun 3 2007 8:00P
The Monkey House Burlington

Jun 4 2007 8:00P
The Abbey Lounge Boston, Massachusetts

Jun 5 2007 8:00P
Penalty Box Bar Providence, Rhode Island

Jun 6 2007 8:00P
The Annex New York, New York

Jun 7 2007 8:00P
Rex's Bar Philadelphia

Jun 8 2007 8:00P
The Low-Fi Social Club Baltimore, Maryland

Jun 9 2007 8:00P
The Trash Bar Brooklyn, New York

Jul 3 2007 9:00P
The Black Cat DC, Washington DC

Jul 13 2007 9:00P
Lit Lounge New York, New York
---------------------------------------------------------

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It's!!! A TOUR!!

2007-05-25T11:41:00.001-04:00

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sneek peek

2007-04-21T00:22:00.001-04:00

howdey,

heres a few pics that will give you a small glimpse into what makes bellflur tick.

-Tom

View full size

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a bit o fun...

2007-04-12T11:44:00.001-04:00

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a bit o fun...

2007-04-12T11:42:00.001-04:00

Mortgage refinance is Hot. *Terms. Get a 5.375%* fix rate. Check savings

gratitude is in order...

2007-04-02T13:12:00.001-04:00

thanks to all who came up to "the mansion" on friday night to help celebrate tom's b-day. he's an elderly man now... he's like 39 or something... ;) kidding. contrary to popular belief, he's the youngin' of the band. and fyi (not to be too tardy on formal introductions)... that was our new bellflurian - casey - on drums. he's swell!

anyways - been ages since i've been to a party such as that... much less play one. we had deleted scenes, firedancers, crazy lights, good sound, several beverages, grills, firepits... and i'm amazed i can remember all of that. and indeed, a thanks to all is in order: beth for taking the photos (and schooling my ass in ping-pong), haley and jalin for beatin' the pots and pans on our opening song (kids can be so damn cute sometimes...), deleted scenes for opening and making things start off on the right foot (very much lookin' forward to the tour), all the firedancers, tom (not birthday tom) and Scenes for providing lights, chris for keeping the grill moving, everyone else who lent a hand in the set up and preparation (sorry, i'm terrible with names), and all the friends... and complete strangers... who came out to enjoy it...

... perhaps next time, we can avoid having the fuzz put the kibash on the festivities and mess everything up ;)

a special thanks and relief to "Mouse" (myspace name - sorry i haven't officially met you yet and am not aware of your real name), who walked away from the party with two staples in her head after trying to tackle the sharp end of ping-pong table (or was it the fireplace mantle??). at any rate, thanks so much for being in such good spirits about the "ping-pong accident." you can read about her wounds (and see them if you're so inclined) here http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=4521919&blogID=248069051&MyToken=28bbc29c-ed37-41f2-9765-2dc86da01416. we were worried about you and we're all very glad you're okay. free entrance to the next show for you! and a t-shirt! perhaps a button! we'll keep you away from the ping-pong table next time ;)

thank you all.

-patrick (on behalf of the other boys as well)

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new pics and tour

2007-03-19T23:32:00.000-04:00

Hello-

We have some new pictures and also a tour in the works. check out our myspace page for the tour update. In the meantime...heres a sneak preview
-tom

View full size

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the way things go...

2007-03-14T13:17:00.001-04:00

generalized update...

there are several reasons why cubicles are bad. at the moment, i think its because its making feel a bit nauseous. sometimes its because you realize that you make a concerted effort on a 5-days a week basis to be boundaried and baracaded. and what is a cubicle today, is going to be a cubicle tomorrow, and 5 years from now, and 25 years after that it'll still be the same cubicle (until they're updated to fall into further conformance with the latest trends in cubicle fashion and accessorizing or something)...

... which is why moments like last night are like chicken soup... they warm you up and move you on. we did the rehearsal thing last night - ran through three or four tunes - a few steps, cancelled check, we can build you, brief physics (the latter three being new(ish) songs) with little twists and revisions here and there. flavored accoutrements if you will... i've enjoyed bellflur since my entrance into the world d'flur - however there seems to currently be an invigoration and just complete no-holds-barred aggression and fullness while playing... er... at least as aggressive as you can be with this music. and that certainly seems true on all four [persons'] accounts. there's a general push... feels like if you were to fall over a cliff or tumble down the face of a building and suddenly realize that regardless of the speed of your descent, you're not going to smack into the concrete... but rather it just keeps going and after a while it becomes more exhiliarating than anything else. (heh, heh... holy failed metaphore, batman!!!).

anyways, i think much of it may have to do with the fact that casey is now with us ('cause the kid has talent... to say the VERY least) - and just seems to seamlessly fall into a song... which is VERY nice. i think much of it focuses on the fact that the new songs are coming along splendid-like - and push all of us to branch out and listen (which amazingly seems to be one of the main things bands and/or musicians seem to fall short in consistently... like their worst enemy... used happen to me all the time).

tom is double-fisting keyboards, percussion, bass, and vocals from song to song. c-los' new CP-70 i think has brought much inspiration from the keys end of things. i don't know... sometimes you need to purchase new equipment or exploratory instruments to push you along (as i was discussing with a friend last night just before rehearsal incidentally). but the bottom line is that i think something is happening within the ranks of bellflur... something that should be abundantly clear and obvious to you all soon. and thoughts like these are the good ones... moments like these are the cherished ones... aspiration and determination such as this is the essential one... because the cubicle is no place for anyone... i tell you this to be true, kiddies.

- patrick

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