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Thank You, Frostburg State University! We Love You!

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Braving the near freezing temperatures of the upper elevations inherent to the Appalachian Mountains, Stereoreel traveled to Frostburg, Maryland to participate in a campus-wide, genre-crossing worship event at Frostburg State University. That was the easy part.

Have you ever tried to find a specific building on that campus? Better question: Have you ever heard of this college? Due to my humble upbringing in a small town about 40 minutes away, I had heard of it. I also had the full understanding that nobody else outside of a 20 mile radius knew or cared about its existence. Whether or not you know about a place of higher learning has no bearing on its academic offerings. You can almost guarantee that the educational experience you will be subjected to is only as good as the campus’ road signs. If you can’t put in the time and effort necessary to point people traveling your roadways in the right direction, how can I expect you to put any more passion into the curriculum you offer to the future leaders of the free world?? Maybe you’ve come to the conclusion that you won’t be churning those out anytime soon…

Seriously, we spent nearly 45 minutes trying to find the building we were supposed to play at! It’s not because we are horrifically stupid, either! We offer this as evidence: everybody else who was supposed to play that night spent 45 minutes trying to find the same building. No joke. One sign sported an arrow pointing in the supposed direction of the place we were looking for, which brought us to… a random house.

After some slight maneuvering through one way streets, with every new turn a new exchange of the phrase “Your guess is as good as mine,” we eventually came to the Lane Center. Once we manage to find the parking lot (colleges make you PAY for parking on weekdays!?!?), we got down to business.

We rocked the house for God, and had the pleasure of enjoying several worship acts which included a worship team from Johnstown, PA, and a pretty cool Christian rap artist. We all agreed that he had the flow.

Glory.

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In other words.

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Re: Thank You, Leesburg! We love you!

For those of you without access to the lexicographical resources my esteemed colleague from Winchester, (ie. Seth has a large vocabulary and/or a dictionary; you have neither…) I offer this summary of Friday evening:

We had a party in a parking lot…the toddler in the Darth Vader outfit was quite cute and seemed to really dig our music…worshipping God outside on October 31st is pretty cool…Chipotle makes really good burritos.

Caleb

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Thank You, Leesburg! We love you!

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

     It was a dark and spooky night! The children had become crazed with an insatiable thirst for all things sugar. Adults walked aimlessly along the sidewalks and roadways; the unwitting puppets of these jaggery zombies. From house to house they walked with their miniature captors, looking upon the throngs of insurmountable children roaming the streets in search of sweet crystalline delight. Was there any hope for the night? Any respite from the torrent of ghoulish children, whose bloodshot eyes were the result of roisterous consumption of confectionary nirvana???

HARK! What doth mine ears perceive? It is the sound celestial! Stereoreel the angelic herald!

     Slicing through the bitter twilight, the triumphant sounds of Heaven pervaded the night air, breaching the bastions of the embattled progenitors. The stranglehold of the children began to wane, as did their fiendish appetite. Both parents and children, now released from the unforgiving grasp of chocolate bloodlust, curiously trekked towards the source of the magnificent melody. 

     And lo! Not soon after they came, all of them, to the lot of Crossroads Baptist Church, whereupon their arrival they were greeted with immediate gratification. Fulfilling both their initial aspiration and their newfound yearning, the masses, ever increasing, were blessed by the otherworldly instrumental inspiration of Stereoreel, and were also rewarded with an ample supply of candy.

     Awesome as none had ever witnessed was this band of young men! With breathtaking virtuosity they conquered the chords pioneered by great men before them. But, these were not merely chords; this was the once comatose ramblings of the uninspired, now unfettered by divine manifestation in the greater days of our Lord for the edification of all who would hear and to those who would listen! Moment after astounding moment passed by, each one greater than the one before it. To those who watched on bated breath, few dared to speak, afraid that they may halt the collective doyen and cease the wondrous symphony. The music rose on the wings of the moon, growing more expressly beautiful as the night lingered on. 

     And then, at the stroke of 8, all was still.

     Stereoreel played no longer, and slowly the people dispersed. It was widely rumored in the town that later that night the band disguised themselves in tin foil and visited the local Chipotle to enjoy the grandiose craft of their burrito makers. Even to this day, it is said that if you visit a Chipotle, you can see the band called Stereoreel, and if it is your good fortune to happen upon them, ask them for a chair and a song. They will always oblige your request, and you shall be blessed eternally.

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We played all weekend and all we got was this giant jar of mayonnaise.

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

I’ve been working on this gig report all day.  Unfortunately, Seth beat me to the post.  Fortunately, our reports don’t overlap much.

As have most musicians, I’ve often left a gig with food.  Sometimes with left-over veggie trays.  Sometimes with as many cookies as my pockets will hold.  Sometimes with still-wonderful green beans inadvertently placed in the dumpster.

Never though, have I left a gig with a culinary delight as delectable as the one I was given this weekend.  (I’m sure you can see the photo.  If not, try Firefox or check your computer for viruses.  Or, if you’re inside Facebook, click ‘View original post.’)  There are no photographic tricks involved in the taking of this picture; no illusions of perspective, no mini milk cartons.  No, my friends, what you have here is a genuine GALLON OF EXTRA HEAVY MAYONNAISE.  (Yes, the real thing, not the white rapper from Philly.  Ba-da-bum.)

Extra Heavy!  Did you notice?  I assume this means it’s already more consistent with the fat it’ll eventually become.  ”How much does a gallon of mayo weigh?” you ask.  I’m not sure.  I’ll weigh myself in a month and let you know how much I’ve gained.  Have a favorite mayonnaise recipe?  Comment back.  I’ll need all I can get.

I’ve found some promising options here: Mayonnaise Recipes.  I think I’ll start with the Tuna Spooks or the Lobster Asparagus Mousse.  For dessert I’ll be trying the Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.  I can’t wait.

And just for the fun of it.

Caleb

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Thank you, Extreme Reality! We love you!

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

This past weekend, the current incarnation of Stereoreel was invited to play at Extreme Reality’s Inside Out Youth Retreat held in Cross Junction, VA. Admittedly, this specific youth group holds a special place in our hearts, seeing as how the youth director is related to 3/4 of the band. However, she’s only willingly related to 1/4 of the band. 

What did we glean from this event? What nugget of wisdom could we bestow upon the eager minds of the thronging public? 

Make sure all band members are awake for at least 1 hour before the set.

The entire retreat was a blast and we enjoyed getting to meet a lot of new kids who had never heard of us before. God’s presence was really apparent for the entire time that we were there. We are sad to say that mornings just aren’t our time to shine, though. That’s the sun’s job, and we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. Caleb and I drink coffee to get our brains up and jogging on the sunrise road. Ethan, who doesn’t drink coffee and who had awaken only 20 minutes prior to our Saturday morning set, tried a far different approach to a morning pick-me-up.  When everyone had been gathered to the morning session (held in a barn inhabited by old airplane parts rather than animals and deer antlers), he began to focus all of his energy into a Bass playing version of the Super Collider. 

What happened next can best be described as a scene from Dragonball Z where Vegeta begins screaming until he turns into a Super Sayan and your eyeballs are suddenly bombarded with seizure inducing imagery. Ethan had successfully channeled the personalities of a bass playing Keith Richards and a shirt-wearing Iggy Pop. During most of the set list, we could look up from our instruments and find Ethan wandering through the crowd, jumping up and down, or standing on the wooden benches in an effort to entice the young campers into a worship crazed frenzy. Then, he lost his balance and fell on his back. At this point he more resembled a turtle than anything else, and waited for the next break in the song to get back up, where he promptly began a more cautious array of sleep-kicking moves.

Afterwards, he didn’t seem to be any more awake than before.

In all fairness, he did manage to finally harness his energy into an electric force for our final set on Saturday night, where (by Ethan’s prompting) all the kids began shaking the rafters by jumping like rabid kangaroos on “Dance” and other songs. One of these days, the world will realize that they can run 10 cities off of the amount of fuel they could sap from the overflow of a Worship concert inspired to dance by a Super Sayan Bassist.

In case you were wondering, Dustin wakes up before the sun does.

-Seth

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Thank You, Rhodes Grove! We Love You!

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

Last night at 2100 hours, Stereoreel appeared in Southern Pennsylvania to play a show that was vastly considered to be the most anticipated event in pop culture history for 2008, narrowly beating out the Dark Knight by the slimmest of margins. For those of you at the show, you really didn’t have much of a choice. 

That’s right, we played at Rhodes Grove Camp in Chambersburg, PA to a crowd of 40ish which included teenagers, camp counselors, camp administrators, and at least one lifeguard. The venue was outdoors on one of the most pleasant evenings of the summer, and save for the off-handed mistakes we like to make from time to time, we had a blast! Indeed, the night was filled with worshipping God, the playing of music, drinking of coffees, meeting new people, remembering old faces, and watching in awe as everyone partook in some sort of activity which involved a microwave oven that shrunk tiny pictures to become even smaller. Sort of like something you’d find in Willy Wonka’s factory, except it would not shrink children or turn them into tiny edible confections. It would only set them on fire…

As far as the music went, it was excellent for not playing together for 2 months! Even I was definitely feeling what we musicians fondly call the Vibe. This can also be used in such cases to describe the moving of the Holy Spirit, or getting run over by Dave’s car. Any way you slice it, I was moved by some means. It’s after nights like this when we get together afterward and say things like, “Hey! With a little practice, we could start a band!” Or, “One of these days, we might be able to make records!” Whodathunk? 

So, thank you all for your warm welcome and delightful company last night! It was great getting to see a few of you campers that I knew from years past (Yes, I still have the flag of Rohan waving mightily o’er my kingdom), and it was great getting to meet a lot of you new people! Thanks for the encouragement and enthusiasm, and hopefully we’ll see you soon!

(Psssst!) In order to make that happen sooner, shoot Dave an email at booking at stereoreel dot com

Ta ta!
-Seth

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