It's May already? It's been a year (almost) since the formation of The Januariez. And looking back at everything we've done in this time, I'm thinking we're moving right along. 

April, as always, is a transitional month. I don't know why that is, but crazy shit goes down in April. Tax Day, the sinking of the Titanic, Andi the Pandi's birthday (and I still need to mail her a check for helping The Januariez with T-shirts), volatile weather, allergies, jobs change, people move, etc. In the case of this April, for The Januariez, we've had some changes, and we played two super fun shows with some great bands

Check out the video from April 22nd. 

In the realm of changes, our bass player Gorilla J., has decided to leave the band. As many of you know, he has been busy with his other band and he works a lot, and there just wasn't anymore time in his full schedule. Reno and I wish him well in his endeavors. 

So at the moment, our pal Tony Rivera has stepped in on bass for the next few months, at least until our recording is complete! Tony has been playing bass for longer than I should say, ahem, and he has some cool projects going on, one being his solo project, Shai Azul. Check em out if you have a moment!  In the interim, we will be auditioning bass players. If you have any suggestions for good bass players, please pass them along! 

For this month, we have 1 super cool show coming up! 

Saturday, May 19, we have been invited to open for none other than Hedwig and the Angry Inch! We are joined by Portland band, The Quick and Easy Boys! Stoked is an understatement. 

After this show, we will be focusing on auditions and pre-production for the studio. 

Until next time!

J-kNee

April Newsletter!

Is it really April? Did we really play all those shows? Are we really back home getting ready to play another good string of shows? I think the answer is yes! 

March had to be one of the most exciting months I've experienced personally in some time. Beginning with all the awesome shows we did with Alice Bag and ending with our trip to the Mid-South. I think the best way to illustrate our shows is with some good old fashioned video footage! And thanks to everyone who donated to our Kickstarter project, we are in the midst of editing our documentary. At the moment, we are not sure when it will be finished. We're still waiting on some other footage. And there are a couple of you who are slated to be in the documentary, but we have not filmed you yet…

In the meantime, here are some highlights from last month:

Women Who Rock Conference

Women Who Rock Oral History Project

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/38791040?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="295" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/38791040">Women Who Rock Oral History Project Preview</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1848471">Angelica Macklin</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

The Babylon Death Party 

Downtown Music Hall on St Paddy's Day

The Jackalope

Hardtails

The Mid-South was great as always! I got to see so many old friends and family at every single show! And it was so warm… springtime is so hard for me in the PacNW, because the days are getting longer, but it's not really getting warmer. It's like a bad joke. This is the time of year I long to be in Texas or Arkansas or Southern California. But not Florida. I never yearn for Florida. Sorry mom. 

Next time we fly South, we will NOT play a show the very next day. The band really needs a day to adjust to the weather. It was in the low 80s and very humid out when we played The Jackalope in Austin. When we finished our set, Gorilla went outside for fresh air, and there was none! It was cooler in the venue than outside. He started feeling really bad and his face turned white and his eyes were going dark. We think he was a bit dehydrated, so we had to leave the venue before all the other bands were finished. When we got back to Natasha's apartment, Gorilla took 6 or 7 hours to recover. After that, we were gold! We hung out in Austin checking out the local scene at Trophy's, and then I hit the MEOW lunch, and then we drove to Hot Springs, then to Little Rock, then drove to Georgetown, TX the next day, back to Austin that night, and then we flew home the following day! 

When we got home from our trip, I was thinking, wow, cool, we have a couple of weeks to relax before we start playing out again. WRONG! My friend and videographer, John Dorman, emailed to let me know he was going to be in town the next week and wanted to shoot video! Remember that Kickstarter documentary we were pushing? Well, we finished filming just last night! John headed back to Boston this morning.

So? What's next, you ask? 

Well, while John is editing footage for our documentary, we have some great shows coming up this month! Here are the flyers!

We are also preparing to record this summer. As I mentioned in our last newsletter, our recording had been postponed due to my bicycle accident. I am mostly recovered, and my voice is mostly working. So we are scheduled to record with Jack Endino in July. We are totally stoked! And the timing couldn't be any better! By that time, we will have been together over a year and have over 20 shows under our belt. What a perfect way to celebrate! At the moment, we are aiming for an October release. We'll keep you posted. 

Until then, we want to thank everyone who contributed to the success of last month's events:

Alice Bag Medusa Women Who Rock Community In Arts NW Collective Tony James Kook Teflon Steve Dave Starr Harris Ashanti Sarah Huxold Scott Walker Luke Papineau Linda Scott Thomas Valle-Guatemala Christina Radocha The Mabry Family Melody Danford Heather Pierce Ron Mabry-Smith Gloria Staggs Jay T Conrad

Texas peeps Arkansas peeps Natasha Marilyn Bircho Birch Melissa Lane Kristen Counihan Shannon Harris Samantha Allen Witchburn Transfer LIFTOFF! Glittercore The Many Persian Z's Seeing Blind In Cahoots Furniture Girls Sightseer Darrius Willrich Rob Marcus Lucifer Darrell's Critical Sun

Home Alive Documentary Steven Sterne Tony Rivera Julia Hensley Marcy and Ed Harrington Tim Daniels Richard Reynolds Kari Asadorian Fluke Fanzine Scott Reynolds Rob-O Connor Andi Stracner Ana Mae Cupcakes Kyle Caldwell Jonathan Seeber Neil and Nancey Martin Brenda Scallon Amy Denio Heather Ward Troy Lund Tanya and Devin Briggs Steve Goodin

Much love! 

J-kNee

March Madness (and I'm not Talking About the NCAA)

March! You're here!  I wasn't certain we were going to make it. The days are growing longer, 3 weeks away from the equinox, plants are budding, I feel more alive, and The Januariez have A LOT going on!  I meant to get this email out Thursday morning, but I've been so swamped! As mentioned in the last newsletter, The Januariez were slated to back Alice Bag on her Violence Girl book tour. Those dates began March 1rst, when we were her backing band at the Babylon Death Party at the INartsNW Collective! I'm still reeling from the event! Big thanks to Kook Teflon and Tony James for putting on the event!  And it was awesome to share the stage with Gaydolf Hitler, Jackie Hell, The Witches Titties, ArtStar, JT Hooker, and of course, Alice Bag!   The next night, I joined Alice and her friend and former bandmate, Angie, for an acoustic set at Left Bank books. It was a completely different vibe, but amazing and fun nonetheless. Gorilla and Reno were playing with A Sic End, so they missed out.  The following day, we backed Alice again for an afternoon show at the UW Women Who ROck Conference. I don't think I've ever been this nervous before. There were no lights in my eyes to hide everyone, and the folks in front of the stage were sitting down. And then, right before we were supposed to start, we learn that Medusa was going to get on stage, too! IN the middle of the show, I look up and I see Ann Powers from NPR taking a photo with her phone and then tweeting it! OMG!  It was a really cool event, even if I did almost shake apart on stage. Perhaps this is just a precursor of bigger things to come… WHEW!     and then…. We get ready for SXSW!   March 8th we play the Critical Sun SXSW send off show at the Sunset in Ballard, and the next night we play NOT NXNW in Bremerton at the Hi-Fidelity Lounge! All you Tacoma and West Sounders will have a chance to see us and wish us well before we head out of town!  Then LOOK OUT AUSTIN!  We play the Critical Sun Showcase at Jackalope the afternoon of Wednesday March 14th. The show already has almost 1500 rsvps. I'm not sure what to think of all that…I'm trying not to think about it. I made a little mantra to help me not think. Anyway, the show is benefitting the Williamson County Regional Humane Society! Critical Sun has also released a compliation CD to raise money to support the all the artists while in Austin. You can download it here!  Now we've left the 15th and 16th open for the unexpected. Throughout my life, I've found that if I leave room for chance, opportunity finds me good and well. And I'm at a point emotionally, physically, and spiritually where I believe I am ready to create and establish a space for myself and The Januariez in this industry. I've spent years watching other people make mistakes as well as make success. I've taken notes. I've practiced. And most importantly, I've learned how to work with other people without compromising myself. And now I'm ready to follow through. Ready to walk through that door! So we're headed to Austin, and we're gonna play, we're gonna hang out and relax, and we're gonna document the whole thing.  We've set up a kickstarter page to help us fund our documenting of SXSW! So far we have reached 25% of our goal! We have 15 days left! Every little bit counts! We even have rewards for $5 pledges! And you don't have to pay now! All you need to do is make the pledge!  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thejanuariez/help-the-januariez-blow-the-lid-off-sxsw?ref=email

LITTLE ROCK HERE WE COME!

Next, we're headed to my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. We're playing St Paddy's Day at theDowntown Music Hall with the sparkly Glittercore and one of my oldest and best friends Jon Teague and his band The Many Persian Z's. This event is ALL AGES!  For our final show down South, we head out to Hardtails in Georgetown, TX where we will meet up with Critical Sun for another showcase benefitting the Animal Shelter. This is a Sunday, so all you folks that couldn't make the Jackalope show cause it was on a Wednesday can make the drive and see us here! A word on our album:  I'm not sure if you all know or not, but I was in a bicycle accident in late September. I was riding my bike through a green light when a van ran the light and I hit him. I hit the ground pretty good and suffered some severely bruised ribs. The compression on my ribcage has made it difficult to sing, and so I've been unable to record. The doctors believe I should be recovered by the end of April, at which time we will re-schedule our recording. I hate that we won't have a new CD with us while we're out of town, but we have the remaining copies of the EP, which when they're gone; they're gone. There will not be a re-print. And we'll have T-shirts.  I can't tell you how much we appreciate all the love and support we've seen from everyone! My hope is that we repay it every time we play! Until next time! xo J-kNee

February NEWS!

Hello All! We want to thank all the new peeps for joining our mailing list and all the messages we've received! Been trying to keep up with all the mail, but as we mentioned in our last newsletter, we are prepping for a big trip! We will get around to answering everyone, but first, let us fill you in on our trajectory! TONIGHT! We are playing the WhereHouse in Wallingford with Seeing Blind. Here is the event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/313703292000594/ Mermaids vs Dragons? There's just too much going on for us to spell it all out here!  The next order of coolness begins March 1rst! The Januariez will be the backing band for legendary and ferocious Alice Bag at the Babylon Death Party presented by KOOK Teflon and Tony James! For those of you who don't know, Alice Bag was the lead singer of The Bags, the first female fronted punk band to play the Masque during the West Coast punk revolution of 1977. These early punk visionaries starred in Penelope Spheeris’ documentary The Decline of Western Civilization. Here is the event page for Babylon Death Party $5 all ages --$1 off with striped socks or a bag The Witches Titties, Jackie Hell, Gaydolf Hitler, Artstar, and //HOOKER// 12 Hour Notice https://www.facebook.com/events/171975819579932/ The fun with Alice Bag continues March 3rd at the Women Who Rock Conference at the University of Washington. The event is FREE, but you will want to register to reserve your spot! Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/234288983309705/ The following weekend, we begin the Critical Sun Recordings send off shows for SXSW! We will be playing with Furniture Girls, Sightseer, and In Cahoots on the following Puget Sound dates: Thursday March 8 @ the Sunset Tavern in Seattle Friday March 9 @ Hi Fidelity Lounge in Bremerton And then, March 13th, The Januariez hop a plane to Austin, TX. We will accompany the Critical Sun Recordings folks, featuring Furniture Girls, Rob Marcus, Sightseer, In Cahoots, Seeing Blind, Darrius Willrich, and maybe a few others for a couple of shows in the area: Wednesday March 14th @ The Jackalope Sunday March 18th @ Hardtails Bar and Grill Werd! In addition, we will be traveling to J-kNee's hometown of Little Rock, AR for a special St Paddy's Day show! We will play with our good friends in Glittercore and The Many Persian Z's at Downtown Music Hall. Here's the event page!  Needless to say, we're totally stoked about all these events! We're still trying to raise money for the trip, and we are working on a Kickstarter video to help us reach our goal. Please consider donating! We should be launching the official Kickstarter video in the next few days!  For now, here's the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nti2LwnowxE&feature=g-upl&context=G29078c0AUAAAAAAAAAA Until next time!  The Januariez

January News: A TRip to SXSW and Little Rock

Happy late New Year! We want to give a special thanks and hello to all our new fans! Thanks for the love! It's snowing, and we've been practicing, recording, and making big plans for 2012! The fun begins January 28th at Darrell's Tavern in Shoreline for J-kNee's birthday party show! We are playing with our friend and killer musician, Reji Lefluer, and another secret special guest! You have to come to the show to find out who it is! We start around 9 or 9:30, and there is a small cover to help pay the musicians. Hope to see you there! Now, for those of you in the South, we will be headed your way in March! Yes! You heard us right!  We have been asked to attend the Critical Sun Showcase in Austin during SXSW. We're really excited about this opportunity! The insanity begins March 8th when we play the SXSW send off show at The Sunset Tavern.Then we carry the madness across the sound to our friends in Bremerton at the Hi-Fidelity Lounge on March 9th. Then we hit the road!  The Jackalope will be at its mercy with the Critical Sun Showcase on March 14th! We will be playing with Furniture Girls, Sightseer, In Cahoots, and Rob Marcus. Now mark your calendars for Saturday March 17th!  We'll be headed to J-kNee's hometown of Little Rock, AR to play Downtown Music Hallwith our friends Glittercore and The Many Persian Z's. For those of you who grew up in Little Rock,Glittercore features Paul Bowling from Trusty and Shayne Grey of Techno Squid Eats Parliament. The Many Persian Z's features none other than J-kNee's oldest friend, Jonathan Teague. It should be a night of complete old school shenanigans. Now the hard part. We're geting ready to lauch a kickstarter page to help us raise money for our trip. We are poor musicians, and we have everything covered except our flights (it is much cheaper to fly than rent a van) .We have never done this before, but we are asking for donations to help us cover the cost of our flights. We need about $1000. Thanks to everyone who has donated already! Everyone else, please consider donating! We really want to play for everyone! Every bit helps!   In return for your support we can/will do the following:   $25 donation gets you a signed CD and on the guest list to one of our shows.  $50 donation gets you all of the above and a copy of our upcoming CD.  $100 donation gets you all of the above and you can get on stage and sing with us.  $250 donation gets you all of the above, plus J-kNee will come to your house and cook you dinner. $500 donation gets you all of the above, and we will play a party for you.    Aside from playng Austin and Little Rock, We are also working on other possible dates in other nearby towns. We'll announce those dates as they are confirmed. We also intend to play other regions in the US, so if you live on the East Coast or the Mid West or wherever, we will make sure you get your return!     Click the link to donate!   https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9LGWAYC433SC8 Finally, we told y'all about us recording with Critical Sun. We are moving along as planned, working on guitar and vocals. The plan is to have the new album ready to go in March before we hit the road! Thanks so much, and we look forward to rocking your socks whether they are on or off!  Until next time! xo, The Januariez

Where the Hell Have We Been? Let Me Tell You!

I really didn't realize until today that I had not blogged in almost 2 months, and that we are going into the studio to record an album's worth of material tomorrow. What the hell happened? I only closed my eyes for a second. It's Halloween weekend, and we're recording, which is way cool! Yet it's bittersweet that I won't be out to socialize.

A lot has happened in the last few months. Obviously, we settled on recording time, and we're working out the logistics with our new label Critical Sun. We're very excited to be working with them. I feel like I can speak on behalf of everyone in The Januariez here, but I cannot fully express here how much I enjoy everyone I've met and have had the pleasure to work/perform with. Everything is happening so fast. Even the recording. It's kinda scary, but I am of the mind that the more it scares me, the more I should do it! The gloves are off!

But aside from all that, other things have come into play. Although these things are personal, I cannot attempt to separate them from my life as a musician. So much of what I experience on a personal level informs the very music of The Januariez, especially the lyrical content. And I'm sure that seems pretty transparent, but I gotta keep the record straight, even for myself.

September and October have been a wild ride for all of us. Reno and Gorilla J went on a 2 week tour with their stoner rock band, A Sic End. (And do they have stories to go with that!) During which time, my grandfather died. Right after their return, we jumped back into practice. A week or so later, I was in a collision on my bicycle. A man ran a red light, and I attempted to avert his van and failed. I'm okay. I'm recovering. But since the accident, I've been sandwiched in existential reverie.

Needless to say I've been thinking a lot. I had to fly to Arkansas a few weeks ago for the memorial. It was held in Gavleston, TX, but my sister, who is unable to care for herself, lives outside of Little Rock and had no way of getting to Texas on her own. My friend, Jon, and I fetched her for the event and made the 10 hour haul. (It was like a Fellini movie, but that's another story altogether.) My sister was very close to him. He pretty much raised us, but I'd left home a long time ago, and our grandparents were the only real constant in her life.

The reason I share all this is because I know it will shape some music and lyrics to come. It has already begun. The stuff we're recording right now has nothing to do with what has just happened. It has to do with things that have a happened a few years ago. It's so weird to record music that deals with things long gone. As I know that when we get around to recording the music born from the present, which will most likely be another couple of years, I will look at it much the same way. God it feels like time travel.

Well enough of that… I will end up writing lyrics in this blog if I don't stop now!

On a lighter, brighter, and more grounded note, after this weekend of tracking, we have shows coming up! And we're in the process of booking a mini Mid South tour for March! All you Southern lovelies will finally get to see us! We'll keep everyone posted on the details! Until then, we have shows in West Seattle, Bremerton, Shoreline, and we're working on Tacoma and Bellingham. If you are nearby, join us! Our next show is with our label mate, Reji Lefluer!

Thanks again for all your love and support! We love you!
xo
J-kNee