Sneaky Surprises

So far, we have five shows scheduled for the next two months. Double Door (12/12), Drug Den (12/18), Beat Kitchen (12/23), Ian's Party (New Years Weekend, and Friendship Fortress (1/15). All of these shows are going to be special for their own reasons and all will be insanely fun. I swerdagawd.

However, there is one thing that ALL of these shows have in common. No, it is not the terrifying full-frontal nudity that will ensue. In fact, it is that we will be passing out free digital goodies regarding our new album. New tracks? Maybe. Sweet licks? Of course. Full-frontal nudity? I already mentioned it.

The point is that by attending these shows, you will be privy to some unreleased Truman snacks. It's gonna be SO EEZY.

We love you. Expect a full album release near the beginning of 2011.

We love you harder than ever.

Frank & Truman

NEW ALBUM COMING EARLY 2011

TRUMAN & HIS TROPHY. NEW ALBUM. EARLY 2011.

Beehive (Single) posted for free download

We have posted our song Beehive for free download on our Bandcamp b/w our cover of Biscuits and Groovy by our friends drmanhattan.

You can download for free at our bandcamp.

This will hopefully hold everyone over until our new album comes out.

More information to come.

Truman

YES

WE HAVE FINISHED MIXING OUR NEW ALBUM.

IT WILL SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY SOON.

XOXO

TRUMAN

we are very close

we are very close

see you soon,

truman

Fearless Radio, Schuba's, new album

Hello,
we have been busy mixing our new album. it is going well and gettin' better and better. for real.

we are playing a show at SCHUBA'S on SEPTEMBER 20TH. we really like schuba's. and they have amazing mac and cheese. no jokes.

before that show we will be stopping by FEARLESS RADIO on SEPTEMBER 16TH to talk about said show and the new album that we're mixing. we will also be playing a song off of the album, so you should definitely listen. http://www.fearlessradio.com

thanks,
xoxo

bandcamp

We now have a Bandcamp account.

http://www.trumanandhistrophy.bandcamp.com

You can now stream/download all of our music. Springinsguth is $5 while all of our other material is absolutely free. Plus, the money that you pay for the record goes straight to us, not Steve Jobs.

Truman

officially mixing new album

we have officially started mixing our new record. it is sounding great so far and we cannot wait for all of our friends to hear it. here are some pictures documenting these events:

our friend nick papaleo is mixing our record for us. in this picture he is pretending like he is working.

flaaaaaaat screen mixing. rich as shit.

jake is scared of what is to come

mixxxxxxing

hi

we are done tracking our new album. we start mixing sometime this week.

no other news right now

chris

studio love

!!!

We are happy to announce that tomorrow we will start tracking our new record with our friend Daniel Good.

We will post updates, photos, etc. on this blog.

Thanks,

Truman & His Trophy

Recording a new album

This month we begin recording our new full-length.

I think it kind of sounds like outer space. A lot different than springinsguth.

More information soon. Until then,

Truman

summer

HI,

we've been busy bees. We are excited to announce that we will be recording our second full-length album this summer. This will be followed by some long-awaited out of town shows. Dates will be posted soon enough.

This summer will be truly great. More information on everything will be announced soon.

thanks,

truman xoxo

mas Springinsguth

Our full-length album Springinsguth is now available at Chicago stores Record Breakers and Uncle Fun. We also sell physical copies of the album through our webstore.

The album is available digitally through Itunes, Amazon, and eMusic.

sort of an update

We are in it.

At the moment we are planning on four releases this year. two cool splits, a free ep, and an album of our own (hopefully) all this year!

writing, writing, writing. Should be fun.

more news to come.

xoxo
Truman

Earth to earth

Hi

hope everyone is doing great. it felt really nice out today. is spring truly on its way? we wont know until we know.

we have two sweet shows coming up:

march 11 @ mad maggie's (18+). elgin, il
w/ suns, elephant gun

march 15 @ ronny's (21+). chicago, il
w/ eagle scout, more tba. hopefully elephant gun and bust

new merch is also coming. funny shirts.

Today i watched a show on animal planet about a man who was fishing and encountered a bear. the bear attacked him and proceeded to rip apart his legs, arms, and FACE. the bear bit across his face and squeezed out his eyeballs. crazy! be careful in the wilderness, everyone.

our friends in Drmanhattan are playing at the Empty bottle tomorrow. You should go.

Listening:
Beach House- Teen Dream
Talking Heads- Speaking in Tongues/Fear of music
Marvin Gaye- What's going On
The Zombies- Odyssey and Oracle

one more thing, Ryan always talks about listening to Stars of the Lid when he goes to sleep and how awesome it is. While i agree with him, I have started listening to them while i read which is really soothing and enables me to concentrate and become one with the text. either way, go for it.

chris

Frank's Daily Song #4

I missed a day, it's true. Here is #4. I'll post #5 a little bit later.

---

A Tribe Called Quest - "Award Tour"

A Tribe Called Quest are easily my favorite hip hop act of all time. The first time that I had ever heard a Quest song was when I was 16 or 17 years old. I was driving around with a friend of mine in the suburbs and he had put "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" on a mix CD. I remember saying to him that I hated him for not showing it to me earlier in my life. The very next day, I went to Borders and bought two Quest records, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm and Midnight Marauders, the release that contains the track featured in this post.

"Award Tour" was always the stand-out track to me on Midnight Marauders. The production is so smooth. The electric piano loop in this song is so infectious that it gets stuck in your head by itself. Q-Tip rhymes the first verse on this track and I feel like it is the best instance of his vocals on the entire record.

"Award Tour" does not hold enough water by itself to really convey how great of a record Midnight Marauders is. I strongly suggest picking up this album.




A TRIBE CALLED QUEST -"AWARD TOUR"

We are getting closer to the future

The new songs are coming along like crazy. i really like them and cannot wait to record and release them.

we're going to be demoing more on Friday.

In late march i believe some of us will be going on a retreat to a lakehouse in peoria, il to have a writing/recording session. we're gonna do a bunch of crazy drugs and find ourselves and stuff.

hope all is well. we are playing next friday, the 26th at the Boiler Room. many new songs will be played.

take care,

chris

Frank's Daily Song #3

Stereolab - "Mass Riff"

Stereolab has an immense catalogue. It's not even the volume of the material (which is still pretty hefty...) but it is the incredible dynamic that the "groop" is able to create between songs and albums. I was thinking about how I wanted to post a Stereolab song but I was having trouble in deciding which track to upload.

Stereolab has an ability that many artists lack. They are able to craft songs that are so wildly different from each other while never losing the aspects that make them unmistakably Stereolab. We can say this about a lot of artists, yes. Stereolab is just one of them.

I chose "Mass Riff" from Instant 0 in the Universe for no real reason, really. Instant 0 in the Universe is the first Stereolab record that I purchased and I believe that it represents their career very well. "Mass Riff" is a good example of their attitude, arrangement dynamics, as well as the overall mood of the band.

I don't have much to share about this one. It's a really good track. I suggest buying anything that you can find by them It is all worth it. On top of that, all of their EPs are super cheap.


STEREOLAB - "MASS RIFF"

Frank's Daily Song #2

It's technically Tuesday. Here's number 2.

---

Monsula- "Razors"

Monsula is another East Bay punk band. They had their heyday back in the time that bands like Operation Ivy, Jawbreaker, Green Day, and Fifteen were all playing at the famous 924 Gilman Street club. The first time that I ever listened to Monsula was sort of an accident. I was really into Cringer and Jawbreaker and I had just happened to purchase this strange record. It was just four bands covering each others' songs.

I was totally sold on Monsula only after hearing them cover another band's song. So, I went ahead and purchased the Sanitized release. This was a good idea. It has a lot of decent tracks on it...but there is definitely one stand-out song. "Razors" is too much fun. It's such a perfect example of the late 80's - early 90's East Bay scene.

So, here is "Razors" by Monsula. Enjoy!


MONSULA - "RAZORS"


Also, if you can find that "Brouhaha" 7-inch anywhere. Totally buy it. It's a great weird punk collection to have laying around.


-Frank

Frank's Daily Song #1

I like a lot of music. When I listen to a band, I like to think about what music that band enjoys. So, I thought
that I would present 1 song a day for all Truman likers. Does that sound good?

---

Go Sailor - "Ray of Sunshine"

Go Sailor was a short-lived East Bay pop trio with a totally awesome lineup. It was fronted by Rose Melberg (The Softies, Tiger Trap), Amy Linton (Henry's Dress, The Aislers Set), and Paul Curran (Crimpshrine). Awesome, right?! It was probably a good thing that this band ended as everyone in it had better things to do. On top of that,all of their songs sound exactly the same. I love this quality in minimalist pop bands. There is no beating around the bush when it comes to songwriting. They get right to the point in making fun music that you don't have to think about for a moment.

The first time that I had ever heard Go Sailor was when I was fourteen or fifteen years old when I happened to come accross this bizarre Lookout! Records compilation, Heide Sez. I was wandering around in Record Breakers (back when it was in the suburbs...) for cheapo punk comp discs. I loved the goofy, Hanna-Barbara styled illustration on the cover and bought it without a second thought. Also, it was $3.00.

In retrospect, this was a really awesome punk comp. There some great tracks from The Queers, Mr. T Experience, Pansy Division, etc. But this Go Sailor track, "Ray of Sunshine" always stuck out to me.

A few years later, I rented the movie But I'm A Cheerleader (check it out if you haven't seen it). The soundtrack to this film has a few fantastic pop tracks and I was shocked to hear this random Go Sailor song on this soundtrack. It was then that I knew that I had to buy a Go Sailor record. I purchased the Don't Go EP solely for this track.

If you're into twee/jangle pop, you'll love this. Then again, if you are a twee person, you probably know the song... ;-)

Enjoy! I hope you like it.

GO SAILOR - "RAY OF SUNSHINE"

-Frank

Springinsguth availble in the uk

Our album Springinsguth is now available through strictly no capital letters distro in the UK.

Tell your Aunt Margot!

FLOAT

Everything is weird

I have never really lived by any saying or quote. over the past few months this one certain sentence has been just rolling around in my skull and I can't stop thinking about it.

EVERYTHING is weird

Isn't it? A lot of the times i will be walking on the sidewalk and i will look at something and say to myself "hmmmmmm that's weird." i am then suddenly sent through a strange neon vortex that brings me to the conclusion that EVERYTHING IS WEIRD. everything is weird. what is not weird? nothing. what is weird? Everything. our lives are weird and that's really all i can live by. so, if you are having trouble finding something to live by, feel free to take that. It is helping me out in many ways.

otherwise, things are all good. everything is beautiful. all is well. life is a dream//

some albums that you might like that i've been listening to:::

Talking heads- Fear of music
Deerhoof- Offend maggie
Paper mice- paint it pink
Jookabox- dead zone boys
the Heligoats- Goodness gracious

also, there are too many things to do!!! so little time!!! i want to eat a banana, while reading a book, while my headphones are on, while going to the bathroom, while hanging out with my girlfriend, while playing balderdash, while sleeping, while laughing. time is so precious!!! i want to do everything!!! blast off.

ongoing brain freeze,

chris

fight test blog

hello to all,

I am not sure how many people will read this, but I have made a truman blog.

well, I will fill you bloggees (those who read blogs) in on what we have been up to in the past weeks and months.

1. We have started to demo new songs. They are weird and fun. None of us are really sure if anyone will like these songs, but they're fun, nonetheless. i'm hoping we release something sooner than later. maybe a 7 inch? an ep? i don't know.

2. last June we released an album called SPRINGINSGUTH. it is available now, physically through paypal (via-facebook) and digitally through itunes and amazon.

3. i'm obsessed with that album "voodoo" by d'angelo. also, with the band Deerhoof. you should check them out. (www.myspace.com/deerhoof)

4. Jake starts student teaching this week, which is delightful and slippery. he will change the world.

5. ian's party was awesome. thanks to everyone that watched us as well as all of the other bands. paper mice killed my brain and then birthed it again.

6. we are playing at the EMPTY BOTTLE on january 17th with the mystifying Jookabox (formely Grampall Jookabox). it is $3. more information at emptybottle.com.

7. thanks to everyone that made 2009 great for us. we released an album, went on a tour and met some really great people. 2010 should be great also.


thank you for sitting through my blog test. successful? who can say?

Don't let the future scare your souls!

-chris