April 30, 2012 - 10 Year Anniversary of 1st "Hearsal"
As our esteemed bass player Hen3ry Q Vines says, "How can we RE-hearse when have not yet hearsed?"
Well, we actually did have a first "hearsal". I (Josh) have forgotten the exact date but wanted to make note that sometime in April ten years ago, trumpet player Rick Redman and I first met and played through Iron First of Stalin,Fanfare of the Imbeciles and Mursketine II. The seeds of The Invincible Czars were planted that day.
(And yes, that's right, we played Mursketine II before Mursketine.)
It took the rest of the spring and summer to find people who would/could play with us. Having a rule requiring everyone to be able to read sheet music didn't exactly have Austin musicians lined up outside waiting for an audition. Neither did the idea of playing spooky, whacky instrumental music. In August we finally got a break and Tom Kimzey joined us on bass.
By November 2002, we had a full line up - guitar, trumpet, bass, drums and pump organ/accordion - and chose the name The Invincible Czars.
But here's why we're waiting until 2003 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the band:
As if foreshadowing our Spinal Tap-esque future relationship with drummers, it only took two weeks for our original drummer to flake. We played our first show at the new Ruta Maya on a concrete floor in front of a sheet metal wall with Tom Bowman on drums sometime in Dec 2002. Then we found a permanent drummer, Corbin Flint, whose personal life exploded. He lasted 3 months. Tom Kimzey had a similar dramatic life event and bowed out. Organist Manda Clair Jost was booted very shortly thereafter (thanks, Rick!) because my relationship with her had deteriorated to the point that I wouldn't even speak to her (she couldn't make it to practice at her own house and, yes, she is the subject of the song Doctor's Excuse).
So one year after our first "hearsal" we found ourselves practically back at square one. In May 2003, it was back to just me and Rick but that's when Adam Kahan joined and he stuck it out for 8 years. That was the beginning of some real traction.
Aaron Lack drummed with us at this time but didn't join the band. Accordionist Shirley Johnson joined us that summer and Tom Bowman came back on drums. Both of them lasted about a year and this when we started playing shows with regularity at clubs like Emo's and Room 710 and even playing out of town. We parted ways with Shirley in the summer of 2004 and recoreded the demo Tigris Pauxillus. Bill Petersen joined in summer 2004, learned all our songs and went on tour with us two weeks later and never left. Tom Bowman scared the living %&*! out of us on that tour and when we dropped him off upon our homecoming, we never heard from him again. Tommy Holton followed in October 2004 and that's when we finally had ourselves a real line up of The Invincible Czars.
It's not as if 2002 wasn't a significant year for us. It was. It's just that things didn't really get started here for about year after that first get-together.
In those ten years, we've had a ton of people come and go. Eventually, even Rick left - or more accurately was forced to. I'm still not happy about how that went down. On a recent road trip, I was sitting in the back of our van looking at the backs of everyone's heads and thinking, "I've seen the entire band turn over two or three times."
So what did I learn in those ten years? Don't quit. And I learned that lesson from Rick in 2002.
April 17, 2012 - 1812 Overture CD Update:
Yes, the 1812 Overture CDs are done but... no, they're not available yet. The official release won't happen until later this spring and the album won't be available digitally (iTunes, etc.) until then.
Meanwhile, contributors to our kickstarter project to finish 1812 have already downloaded the digital album and are slowly but surely receiving their rewards including CDs, signed copies of our 1812 score, t-shirts, etc.
If you contributed to our kickstarter project and have not heard from us, please contact us. It probably means we have an old or incorrect email address for you.
April 16, 2012
What we do whilst travelling:
April 12, 2012
Big thanks and hellos to all our new and old friends in New Orleans and Mobile. We had a lovely time performing Martyrs of the Alamo in these towns and ate some great food on our journey.
Best of all, Halaska drummer Gonzalo Ramos played extraordinarily well and has agreed to perform 1812 Overture with us this summer. He's also joining us for Austin's Gullett Elementary School Fundraiser this Saturday (4/14) at 6PM and in Houston at Rudyard's on 4/20 (dude!).
This may be your only chance to catch Gonzalo with us before Fourth of July: We'll be taking our first ever extended break from performing to tie up some loose ends and prepare for what is shaping up to be a busy autumn. We're also not-so-secretly hoping that Gonzalo will stick around...
March 28, 2012
We’ve been performing our new silent movie Martyrs of the
Alamo all over Texas and now we’re going to venture outside
the state for the first time in a long while to bring the
show to our friends in New Orleans and Mobile!
As you may have heard, drummer Dave Irish announced his
departure midway through our run of silent movie shows.As you can imagine, it was a little scary for a
minute there but Halaska drummer Gonzalo
Ramos stepped up to the plate and learned the whole
movie score!
He’ll be with us in New Orleans and Mobile… and possibly
beyond!
In other news, our 1812 Overture CD is practically
finished and should be available in May.Backers from our
Kickstarter Project last year are already downloading
mp3s, wav files and graphics files this week and will
receive advance copies of the disk before the general
public.We truly
appreciate your support, Kickstarters!
What else is brewing?A lot, but sit tight.With Dave’s departure, we’ve decided to take a break
to figure out where we want to go next.We have tons of loose ends that we need to decide how
to address like the 4+ hours of silent movie material that’s
never been recorded or released, our work on Pictures at an
Exhibition with Bee vs. Moth, our Iron Maiden tribute that
keeps getting derailed, and even more original material
that’s been sitting there for years, a complete 70 minute
score for Gary Chason’s theater piece Christabel and our
latest challenge – Carmina Burana with Texas Choral Consort!
So yeah, we’ve got some planning to do.
Meanwhile enjoy this picture of us looking like we’re ready
to kill.This
was taken at the Bob Bullock state history museum where they
had an actual buckskin suit backstage that Josh wore for the
show.Plus video
from that performance.Last but not least – major thanks to our friends at
Houston Public Radio KUHF FM
for the lovely show at Discovery Green!
January 18, 2011 - NEW SILENT FILM !
We are very excitedly working our 5th silent film. This time, we're creating new music for the DW Griffith produced Martyrs of the Alamo. We'll be performing live with the movie all over the state in March with a debut performance at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum on March 6 - the anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Alamo. Click the image below for details.
Dallas, Houston and San Antonio: sit tight, we're working on shows in your area!
