Rat-Faced Rock n Roll

We had a great time, rockin' and rollin' at the Maize lounge in Eugene last Saturday.. We always have a good time when we play with our friends in BAITBALL. The room had some people in it and things were fairly jamming during Baitball's set of alt-country-meets-Cure music - lotsa hard-charging, mid-tempo rock songs in an 80's vein. The band sounded great and the tripped-out hippy projector ambience didn't hurt (that much!) I don't know why, I personally am very nervous anytime we play a new venue around town. You just never know how things will turn out. As it turned out, the sound in the room was good, people stuck around and we even had plenty of great friends drift over from a nearby party at Lane and Cara's house. The U-Lings set was loose but fun, we played a looong set, maybe 1.5 hours, which is double what we usually play, but we had to keep the party going as the closer band. The vibe was good and many noisy/shreddy/bangy moments occured. OUCH! My ears hurt! I must be too old.
We is still working on our dang CD that we made this past summer durn it these things take forever. Of course you will hear the news of it's droppage here first, so stay tuned.
Here is a pic my friend Sebastiane took of us:

The End of Summer Blues

Man, I always feel like I lost something when the end of summer rolls around. The weather is still nice but one can feel the slightly cold nip in the air, creeping in, day by day. We only get to live through so many summers as humans, and every time another summer is over I feel that much closer to death. C'est la vie!
 We the Underlings played two separate sets at Eugene Celebration last weekend. We had a blast. Friday night, we jammed at Luckeys in the early-ish 8pm slot. The opening band was called John Craig and the Weekend and they were pretty swell. Very pop they were, with a Bass/Keys/Drums + computer noise + male/female vocal interplay. It was obvious that the fella John Craig was a mighty bassist. HE threw down with a technically satisfying bass solo over his computer/drummer groove and it was fucking killer. The band reminded me somewhat of the SF band the Lovemakers, who used to tour around these parts from time-to-time. After the first band, we were entertained by the gentle removal of a tweeked-out, amped-up individual who had been verbally freaking out patrons at the establishment. Kudos to the bar-staff for getting rid of troubled folks without resorting to violence. The Underlings (us) played a decent set and tor it up pretty well to a receptive crowd. Attendance was not as dense as last year, but we still rocked our balls and folks seemed to dig it, so we were pleased. The next day, Saturday, we kicked it down at the Eugene Celebration Eugene Weekly stage and watched Tyler Fortier and his band perform their very popular local songwriter-folk-rock to a crowd that was really liking it. They seemed to be just about right for the mainstay Eugene music crowd - something that would go over well at the Saturday market or at an open-air summer gig. Up next , it was US again, rockin' balls and sweatin' tons in the heat. Dan Jones came up and played I remember the Fuzz and Vice Squad with us and it was nice to have his sonic textures floating over the top of our ROCK. We finished strong and then got the hell off the stage so that the Golden Motors could get set up, which they did and they rocked it too and had some heavy, slow numbers with a lot of feel to 'em. I manned the merch table while my kids crawled all over our t-shirts and cds. I tried to keep them away from the 7" records because kids and records do not mix.. Here's a pic of us taken by Mr. Random: (peace out! -Ed)

Mixing the new CD in P-Town

Man, I love that we get to take a few mini-vacations this year to record a proper CD up at Smegma Studios in Portland. Mike Lastra pretty much IS Smegma, which is both a band and a studio. As he puts it, "30-odd years of recording the baddest-assed bands in Portland. Yup." That pretty much sums the place up. With a great view of the Willamette river shortly before it runs into the Columbia, the peaceful old house that houses Smegma is apparently a great place to get some work done if you are a band; at least, we got a ton of work done in a very short amount of time. Nothin' to blame but location Voo Doo, an' also having an experienced engineer helps a ton, yeah.  We recorded our 10 tracks back in June and now we have just returned from a 2-day mix session and let me tell you, it sounds great. We can't wait to get the whole dang thing packaged up so we can give you and your sister a copy. Chunky, meaty, song-y - it's pretty much got everything + a badd-assed bass solo too boot. songs about sausages, tax preparation, small-town auto race tracks and doom-and-gloom, end-times chunkers, it's all done and soon to be delivered to the public at large. Stay tuned!! 

Oh yeah, and please come out and see us at the Eugene Celebration, August 26 @ 8pm @ Luckeys in Eugene and August 27 3pm @ Eugene Celebration / Eugene Weekly stage. 

later dudes and dudettes!

-Underlings

SUMMERTIME BLUES

Ha ha I always love it when things fall over. The only thing better is watching your drummer pick up the mess...errrr... I mean, watching your drummer tell his "underlings" to pick up the mess. Summertime and the living is dreary. Those of us in Central Western Oregon ain't getting no summer this year - the season jumped straight from winter to fall, skipping spring and summer - at least in our neck of the woods. At least we have found time to fire up the barbecue in between rainy, overcast or (occasionallyt) sunny days. As most of the world knows (and undoubtably cares about), the Underlings have finished tracking our second full-length music release,. due for a winter release. No title yet has been adopted pending band negotiations. We will keep you posted. Next Underlings appearance: August 26 @ Luckeys in Eugene. Have a nice day!
-Underlings

Fasters live at Luckeys 06 04 2011

Dig it our bros from PDX the Fasters can't stop jumping around:

back from the weekend

Uuuuuuggggnh I love coming back to work Monday after having a blast all weekend long. It almost takes more work, having fun, eating food, playing music, mowing the lawn, chasing kids - coming to work is almost a break. Now if they only had a nap area at my job...

 Here's a cool blog post from Exiled in Eugene that features a bit about Underlings: exiledineugenezine

here is a great song about weekends: Dictators: Weekend

next shows: August 26 at Luckeys in Eugene / August 27 at Eugene Celebration Eugene Weekly stage


rock on,
The 'lings

the Underlings News:

This is going to be a killer show. Not only do we get to kick out the jams with our good buds Long tall and Ugly, but effin' Fasters are gonna rock your world with their contemporary New Wave / Punk / Pop music. Check them out they make for a great listen: Fasters Myspace. Hope to see some of you Eugene slugs there - we'll be waiting in the alley with a big jar of salt.
- the 'Lings

Hair Shop Rock

We had a smokin' fun time playing inside Perk coffee shop last night as part of the Dawn Baby salon 3d anniversary party. Perk and Dawn Baby are neighbors on Willamette street and they are partly responsible for re-vitalizing a crummy, boring old half-block of Eugene.I've been to a few parties at Dawn's place and it is always a hoot, with vintage records playing on an old jukebox and a plethora of sweet and cheesy snacks. This time, she even had a vintage punch bowl with matching glass punch cups. I had some, but I was afraid of busting the nice cup, so I put it back carefully and stuck to beverages in cans after that. The Soothesayers played a solid and raw set with great vibe and good sound. It's funny that everyone just stood outside and looked in on the band through the glass, but it was nice that folks didn't have to bust their eardrums to get their rock jollies and plus, what is better than drinking a beer on the sidewalk in a town where all the police go into hiding after dark. Anarchy! Drink on the street! Party on the sidewalk with no parental oversight! If that is anarchy, Eugene must be the sleepiest anarchy town in existence, 'cause no one really gives a rip. The Underlings went on after a bit of a hustle. During our set, it felt like we were playing in the window of a donut shop - which we basically were, duh. We haven't been doing quite as many gigs lately, but last night it felt great to turn it up and blast off - we really kicked some booty and the energy level was high. We debuted 2 new songs - I feel edgy + Affected, a song we recently recorded for a local compilation CD that our friends Stagger and Sway are putting together. Anyway, we blew the roof off and it felt great. Several folks wandered through to get some coffee and most of 'em stayed to watch. A fun night, can't wait to do it again.

Here is a vid of the Soothesayers I took:
-Ed

Cool poster! For our first hair salon show. I think this party is going to be off the hook, so I hope all of Eugene shows up. Remember: everyone looks better with red hair.

Hey Rock and Rollers

Welcome to the new "the Underlings" blog. Being that we are cheap, we can't see shelling out any more dough for a proper website since we are saving all of our pennies to go to the studio in early summer to start tracking our next collection of songs. We've been rehearsing like mad dogs, breaking in new material and working on complex arrangements of notes and chords followed by angelic harmonizin' and coffee swillin'. We are very excited to start breaking some new stuff out to our friends and fans, so check back often as we might have some fun surprises and challenges to post soon.

later dudes and ladies,

-the Underlings