New Album, Vices, Available Now!

It’s available now for FREE download!

Vices @ Bandcamp.com

Transferring to Tumblr…

Hey!  I’ve started a new blog at http://brandenmeade.tumblr.com that I really enjoy using and I’ve found it quite easy to post new content regularly and all that grand stuff.  Please give it a look-see.

Thanks!

P.S. – – I’ll still post here occasionally, but please don’t hold your breath…

Finished Recording!

Its still in the works, but the recording sessions are completed for my upcoming record, Vices. Thanks so much to Eric at Moonlight Studios and Justin Brock for photographing the process.

The New Album

As I write, I’m busily planning my next visit to the studio, which will be April 2nd and 3rd.  I’ll be setting up in the live room at Moonlight Studios with a bunch of great mics and laying down 11 tracks completely live.  No overdubs, no accompaniment.  Just my voice, a guitar and my boots.  I really can’t wait for it to be available!  I feel that I’ve outgrown my last EP in alot of ways and hope to show that with this new record.  Hang in there, it will be available veryveryvery soon, both streaming on MySpace and in all the major digital music stores.

Also, my friend Justin Brock will be in the studio with me to document the recording session with his photography.  You can see lots of his work at Etsy or on his Facebook fanpage.

Dig it.

2010: A year for realizing plans

     So, I’ve been doing my best to stay booked in 2009, but after looking back on it all, I’ve really found a need to get back into the studio and make a full-length.  Also, I’m ready to start playing cool shows at venues with bands that are there to have a good time.  My New Years’ Resolution is to have more fun onstage!  No more dreary shows, no more playing to crowds that didn’t come to hear live music, no more garbage!  This coming year, I’ll be a bit pickier about the things I’m involved in, but I believe it will be great for my music in the long run.

Look for a new Branden Meade record, Spring 2010!

Happy New Year!

-B

Those Crazy Dudes…

It all started with a text message…

I sent a message to Eric Tuffendsam, the owner of Moonlight Studio here in Cincinnati last weekend to ask about his current project.  He’s working with the guys from Dear Lovely, so he invited me out for a friendly game of poker after the day’s session with the band.  Turns out those guys suck at poker, but they’re really good dudes.  (Just kidding!)  After the game, we went out to the backyard and played touch football until 1:30am.  My team lost, but Mango was just too fast for us! 

The next day, Will Henry and I went back to the studio.  Zack and Blue were working on guitars, which was fun to be around for.  They had some great equipment at their disposal and the tonal textures that developed were really fantastic.  I’m really looking forward to hearing the finished product!

-B

P.S. – Check out Dear Lovely online at http://myspace.com/dearlovelymusic

The Winter Months

     The winter season is upon us! Where do our plans take us for the winter, you may ask? Well, I plan to hibernate and record until late January, then get busy traveling! First, I’m off to Nashville and Memphis for some shows with folkie pals from all over the country. (Sasha Colette & the Magnolias, The Iveys) Then in February, we’ll be in for a real treat playing a string of shows along our northern border from Cleveland to Syracuse, NY. It will be my first time in New York, so I’m really excited! We’re meeting up with Scott Bravo hopefully earlier in the trip and heading back toward his Syracuse home. Also, plans are in the works to play a show in Covington, KY with some folk/punk heavies, including Cory Branan. So there you have it: My winter in a nutshell!

From Charleston, With Love

     Ok, so this is no longer from Charleston or even WV by this point, but I still want to write about our weekend there.

     Shanna and I left last Friday afternoon on our way to see my photographer friend, Justin Brock and his wife, Haley. After having dinner at the Portsmouth, OH Sonic, we ventured across the river and into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Since we arrived in Huntington late, the four of us stayed in and had cervesas and laughs well into the night. After sleeping in and a spectacular breakfast, we set off for Charleston. Our plan was to get some photos of Shanna and I as a couple and Shanna in some digital shots for her website(s). It turned out very well and we all had some fun along the way too. (On an editorial note, Men Who Stare At Goats is an excellent movie, and it’s totally not gay to buy a male friend gourmet teas for his birthday, even if he made you a penis cake for yours.)

Purging Old Notebooks

I’ve kept a notebook for years now.  Several, in fact.  Some are barely holding up now, with scraps of paper hanging out all sides, deformed and watermarked from use.  These notebooks contain every lyric I’ve ever written, but what of the rest?  I intend to make this a regular part of my blog, as I purge these pages for prose and poems that never made it into a melody.

Rip-off

     These ideas I have about art.  Art as life, a beauty within one’s soul.  These words I arrange, pretensiousness inherent, believing I can change minds, behaviors, social consciousness and be the shoulders the next generation will stand upon.  My precious art… Original art.

     I wonder if I am a copy of greater men, simply writing what has gone before.  A rehash.  I’ve ripped them off and stripped the bones of some long-dead poet’s soul.  I pore over notebooks wasting ink and paper to plagiarize and capitalize on others’ labor.

     All I can do is continue writing and pray I never have to answer for being a theif  an inadvertent theif of personal thoughts.