4-17-10

Ah Austin Texas, how I love thee... We performed at the HighBall, on South Lamar. What a nice club! Gorgeous retro bowling lanes on one side, private karaoke lounges upstairs and a lovely music room on the other. The crowd was super energized and made for a great show.

Someone once described Austin as "floating 3 feet above Texas". I'm starting to believe this. Austin is like no other place in Texas and its due to our great friends and fans that continually make us feel so welcome. Adam, Cindy, Michael and Kathy, we were so spoiled by you folks. Thank you so much for all your help, food, humor and endless patience. I can't wait to visit again. Dallas is tomorrow.

4-13-10

Wow! Gainsville Florida is now my favorite town in Florida. It is home to Florida University, tons of alligators, our great friends, Star and Mitch and this fun little venue called the Laboratory. We packed the house, rocked and inspired set of Hip-Hop and enjoyed consuming beverages which were served in 500 Ml beakers. One has to be careful when drinking beakers of beer, as I found out.

And the alligators!! After a great breakfast Mitch took us to this wildlife park on the outer edge of town. We parked and hiked in amongst the drooping Spanish moss and dense vegetation. As we followed the path we came to this swampy pond that Mitch referred to as a "sink" which was basically an area where water drained in from neighboring tributaries down into the earth. The area was lush and green, with lots of water fowl feeding and swimming. As we rounded the edge of the sink, we could see alligators sunning themselves on the far side of the water. We were hoping to get a closer look at them and then Brandon spotted one near the shore on our side. We all crept slowly to the edge and peered over to look. It was incredible! An 8 footer, just floating around in the shallows, soaking up the sun and snacking on the occasional guppy that swam by. I'd never been that close to a live gator before and it was quite a treat. Many thanks again to Star and Mitch for offering their home and hospitality. Tomorrow is Jacksonville.

4-12-10

Well we have had a wonderful stay with our incredibly patient and accomodating friends John and Dori Nolt. We're also sorry we broke all their shit and threw jam-session ragers that scared their friends and families. Although I must say I particularly enjoyed the jam-raging! Song Fight Song is done! Ready for John's Mega-Mixing. Excited for the final. On to Athens GA for the next show. Missing my bed, my cat, my friends and families. Hope you are well.

-S

4-7-10

Greetings from Chapel Hill,

Things in Frontalot land are well, kinda nerdy. We've endoured some terrible booking catastrophies along the way but with the help of some gracious fans and friends, not to mention the great tour management help from Blak Lotus, things are looking up. Our new keyboard wizard is Ken Flagg AkA Vic-20. He's doing a great job while GMinor 7 makes musicals in NY.

Charlotte tomorrow!

-S

3-10--10

Hello friends,

Things have been good and busy for me lately, with some great local shows with the Ryan Hommel Trio, Jeff D'Antona, the Beau Sasser Trio and Jamie Kent. I also had the pleasure of playing with local hero harp man, Wailing Dave Robinson, featuring: Tommy Filiault, Klondike Kohler and yours truly. Thanks to everyone for attending!

I'm expecting a visit from none other than, everyone's favorite Internet Celebrity: MC Frontalot on Thursday, as we rehearse and prepare for a few performances in Austin TX for the South by Southwest Music Conference. When we return we will be joined by the rest of Front's famed band to begin rehearsals for Front's 5th national tour, which is slotted to start with a performance at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston for the Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East). This performance is the evening of March 26. Tickets for PAX tend to sell out very quickly so make sure to check the link for show info. After PAX, Front and the band will be heading west for the month of April. Hopefully avoiding any bad weather and enjoying themselves immensely!

I will be playing a few local shows after I return from Texas. Check the calendar for listings and info. Hope to see you out there.

-S

11/10/09

bye bye fall!

Hello friends, are we ready for the snow? In some strange way, I'm looking forward to it. It probably has something to do with the fact that some friends of mine are living up in VT near my favorite ski mountain and now I have a good excuse to go snowboarding!

Last week I was at the Slaughterhouse Studio with my long time friend and fellow drummer Jeff Sarri. Jeff was recording the audio and video portion of his DVD project which focuses on poly rhythms and practical uses for the working drummer. The DVD is geared towards intermediate players and was really interesting to be a part of. Special thanks to Mark at Slaughterhouse, Jeff and valley go-to bass man, John OBoyle for a great job!

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of joining many of the valley's finest musicians as we played for a cancer awareness benefit. It was a wonderful time filled with incredible music and great friends. Thanks again to all who attended.

I'm excited to be working with Ryan Hommel and Alex Chakour again while Ryan is on a break from some lengthy touring with Seth Glier. We have been working on new original material in preparation for a new record.

I'm also pleased to be preparing for Alex Bartletts CD Release show which is coming up on November 20th at P.A.C.E. in Easthampton. The band consists of Anand Nayak (guitar) Paul Kochanski (Bass) Rob and Damia Stewart (vocals) and myself (on drums of course!). If you like really unique arrangements and beautiful singing, this is not to be missed.

Hope to see you around the neighborhood and thanks for checking in!

-Sturgis

07.08.09

Hello Friends,

So I never thought I would live in the rain forest but the weather around New England is giving me a taste of what it might be like.

I recently had the pleasure of playing the first official gig with Ryan Ordway and The Full Band in Wolfeboro NH for 4th of July weekend. The crowd seemed to really connect with Ordway's catchy originals. We also played a handful of classic tunes by the Beatles, the Band and Tom Petty to name a few. Ordway, a New Hampshire native assembled the band with help from guitarist Ryan Hommel, my close friend and musical soul brother from Amherst Mass. Hommel and I work together on lots of other projects including backing Seth Glier. Alex Chakour holds down the bottom end with his classic P-Bass and completes the Full Band. We are excited for the next string of shows and will be going into the studio to track the new material that we are co-writing with Ord sometime in late August. Check the calendar for upcoming dates!

In other news I've been recruited to drum with a high energy rock outfit named Auto Climax Control. Featuring the valley's own Chris Croteau: Lead vox and rhythm guitar, Kurt Fedora: thunderous bass, and Joe Boyle: face melting lead guitar. I've been really wishing for a solid riff-tastic band over the years and I'm glad to have gotten the call. We are currently rehearsing the material and working on arranging some new tunes as well. A.C.C. will be booking the late summer and into the fall.

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you at the shows!

-Sturgis