The End of an Error

After several years, two CDs, and some two-dozen shows the Posters are going on indefinite hiatus. This basically means that we will be taking the rest of 2011 off, and will regroup some time in 2012 to plan our next move. That next move may be to play a show or two, or to pick up where we left off and take over the world, or to do nothing and meet again in 2013 to revisit the question. We all still like each other and we all still like music, so it's inevitable that you'll hear from us again before the last chord fades to nothingness. 

I'll still post stuff here occasionally when it seems relevant to the musical lives of Posters alums, including any new bands and anything that happens in Posters-land. I also have a lot of video and stuff that I've not posted, mostly one-minute clips of bands we've shared the stage with, so look for that. 

When we started The Hilarious Posters we had two very specific goals: to be a band that a lot of people were pretty sure they had heard at some point, and to feel like we were only a few months from finally getting the recognition we deserved. Now that we've reached those goals it's hard to see what more there is to accomplish. 

In all seriousness though, I am extremely proud of the work we've done as a band. Our songs are great and our recordings do them justice. About half the time, when we played out, we played majestically. Of course, at about two thirds of our shows there was virtually nobody listening, but on at least two or three occasions we played beautifully to a crowd of people who genuinely cared about what we were doing. I don't think there's anything in the world more satisfying than the way such a moment makes you feel. 

But even if all this had demanded only half as much time and effort as it actually did, I would probably still be wondering if it was worth it. Being in a band is an insane amount of fun, but it's an even more insane amount of work, and it's not something that can be kept up indefinitely, week in and week out, by four people who all have non-musical careers about which they are passionate.  

The Posters will be back later to play our old songs. Depending upon how we feel then, we might also write some new songs, and play those. If we all then get hit on the head and get amnesia, completely forgetting what it was like to record Cats II, we will record a CD of the new songs.

Thanks to everybody,

Sam

Playing at The Southern, Baby!

We're playing at The Southern this weekend with Nobis and Ladybug Transistor.

I'm listening to The Yummy Fur at work and it makes work better.

Check out this cool article about Nobis. They came to America fleeing a radioactive tsunami! I feel really guilty about thinking this, but that's the coolest band back-story I've ever heard!

Us and Ladybug Transistor at the Southern

Aww shit! Tell Spencer to send the zords, because we're playing a "high profile" show! (Update - and NOBIS has been added, ぴょん！)

It's going to be,  you know, full of "industry types" scoping us out, though. You should probably stay away from this one, because for the sake of your future scene cred you will want to be able to say that you stopped listening to us around March 2011, and that once we started to get famous we turned into dicks and our music suffered. I don't think they'll even let regular people in, honestly. I think you have to be somebody important.

Oh, and in the interest of completeness, here's another flier for this show...(I haven't added Nobis to this one yet. Epic zombie fail lol!) 

...and here's one for an old show that I never posted - a quickie that I threw together the day of our CD release last month.

Borrowed Beams

As promised! Here's some Borrowed Beams of Light video from when we played with them at The Southern.

Here they are sound-checking.

Then in this one they are playing a song. I don't know what this song is called, though.

I'm packing for my trip, and I'll post more when I get back!

A Few Photos

I'm trying to get stuff off my phone/camera before I go on vacation next week, so I have room to take and store lots of new pictures, so I'm going to try to post stuff that's been accumulating here in the upcoming days. First, some pictures from last Friday.s show at The Southern.

Backstage:

Borrowed Beams of Light:

The Astronomers:

I should have some videos to post soon!

We're Gonna Teach You To Rock!

I went to the future and brought back this awesome clip of us playing at The Southern this Friday.


I didn't even realize were we going to be taking attendance! I guess I'm going to come up with that idea some time tomorrow or something.

Kate and Leopold were there too! They were beating up Sam Tyler and Marty McFly.

According to UPS the cds have been delivered to Dave and Renee's doorstep! Get yours at the big show or go to the bandcamp page now and rock it digitally!

Bandcamp

This one time at bandcamp the Posters rocked you so hard it broke both your arms! Their melodies were so sweet you got diabetes, and their lyrics were so brilliant you got skin cancer!

Not long after that, you died.

Our new record is available for free streaming and paid download at our Bandcamp page, and so is our old one.

In lieu of flowers, please come to our release show at The Southern this Friday, May 27th.

Videos of Bands

If you're not familiar with any of the bands for the upcoming release show, here's a youtube style primer.

The Astronomers:

I think the guy on the left is playing through a Matchless DC30, but I can't really tell because he's standing in front of it. If it is a DC30, and it's Mark Sampson era, that's a really good amp. Supposedly one of the best ever made. 

Here's local darlings Borrowed Beams of Light:

Here's local ne'er-do-wells us. Note that Youtube metadata points out This video has no honors:

Get Ready!

It's going to get real on Friday, May 27th 2011, at The Southern. Buy your tickets in advance, homie!

Borrowed Beams of Light open, and then us officially releasing our new fifteen-song opus Cats II, followed by The Astronomers unleashing their new record Size Matters. Not to pick a fight, but if size really matters you may want to note that our cd is fifteen songs and theirs is ten. Borrowed Beams' cd, released last year, is like five songs, which is so short it's practically an innie!

Everyone's going to be there, and it'll be the place to be seen in Charlottesville. If you don't go then in September people will be all like "Dude, you weren't in town for that?!? That was like the best show of the summer!" Then in December they'll be all like "Dude, you weren't there?!? That was like the best show of the whole year! I thought everybody was at that one!"

Release Show

We're playing at The Southern on May 27th.




More deets soon!

Feedback Session

[Edit: False alarm -- looks like he's back on, folks!]

Addendum to the last post: Krull has mysteriously been taken off the nailgun listing for the show at DUST. Has Dylan finally begun to retract his blades into his starfish-like metal housing?

There is now a video of us posted on Andrew Cedermark's Feedback blog on the C'ville's website.We play Geniuses, Not the Strut, and The Fists and the Fighting. We also recorded Face Without An Eyes (aka Haunted Drumset) but it's not in the video, I guess to keep it under ten minutes so it's youtube friendly. Thanks to Gary for setting that thing up, shooting the actual video, and getting it on Andrew's blog!

April Geniuses!

We'll be playing at DUST this Friday, homie! Mss., Krull, and Rommate (from Chicago) will also be playing.

I'm hoping it'll be as much as possible like this:



Later, Dowg!

Kuchar Madness

It's been sort of quiet in Posters land lately. We've been working on the record, and getting closer to done. Lots of trumpet recording, which is basically done (I think). I took a picture of our new microphone. It's a ribbon mic and I got it mostly for trumpet, though Dave claims, paradoxically, that it sounds less good than and indistinguishable from the SM57 we normally use. Anyway, I think I'm going to keep it because it's the first mic I've found that sounds good on the Stang Ray - the amp we use live. That amp sounds magical when you're in the room with it, but until now I've never found a mic that could capture its sound on record.

Anyway, I thought I'd post an update with something non-Posters-related but still important, which is that I found a blog the other day with a bunch of George Kuchar movies posted, including the elusive Pagan Rhapsody, which I'd been dying to see for a long time. This is a real find, as George Kuchar (unlike his brother Mike) doesn't want his film (that is, non-video) work released on DVD, so some of these movies are tough to see.

I'm glad to report that Pagan Rhapsody is every bit as good as I'd hoped. What an ending!

Capstan Shafts

Here's some video I shot of two partial Capstan Shafts songs. I don't know what they are named. Capstan Shafts were really good though! I totally agree with the comment James made about them sounding like early Green Day covering Guided By Voices, though I think there's more than a little Milky Wimpshake thrown in there, too. (James's confusion over where everyone was I think shows him underestimating his own taste-making power, because an afternoon post on Nailgun, had there been one, would probably have delivered the crowd who's absence he rightly bemoaned).

There are only two things I didn't like about the Capstan Shafts. One is that their guitar player / singer is left handed, and the other is that the bass player had a five-string bass. Other than that they were straight up awesome.



I hope we get to play with those guys again. They were nice.

Set List January 5th

I just found this while cleaning up my room.

It's the setlist from our show at the Taphouse last week, here flanked by some major works of German romanticism.

What was the mystery opener? All I can tell you is, next time we play a cover, I hope we practice it first.

Whoa, I just sold something on Amazon. Awesome!

Upcoming Show at Tea Bazaar

We don't seem to be listed in any of the usual places, but Jacob assures us that we are indeed playing with the Capstan Shafts on the 22nd, which is a week from this Saturday. [Edit - we're on the Holy Smokes page now. Thanks, Jacob!]

No word yet on the third band. Do you want to play?

Nilsson's Popeye demos = Genius.

That Was Fun

Wow! It's been a month since anything has been posted here. I have some videos of bands we've played with recently that I keep meaning to post.

Here's some pictures of last night, though.

The Ha-Rang

The Ha-Rang again

Marie from Corsair's kickass plexi head

People outside

Gull also played, and I have about thirty seconds of video of him, but I didn't take any pictures (it was too dark). Gull, The Ha-Rang, and Corsair were all really great. It was an evening of really good local bands that are all really different from one another. Something for everybody!

RIP The Taphouse. It was a good place.