Rider Fail

As fans of the Fail Blog, we often times find ourselves noting fails of our own.  Such was the case the other night during an otherwise brilliant show at Denver's own Larimer Lounge.  We encountered what we dubbed a Rider Fail.  

If you are unfamiliar with what a rider is, check out The Smoking Gun's list of band's riders (I like the Chili Pepper's meditation room).  A rider can be described as a list of junk the venue/promoter provides a band to make them more comfortable on their tour.  The Spinto Band has one of these.  While it is rarely filled, when it is, we get quite excited.  We have items like a veggie tray w/hummus, a case of beer, case of water, and the all important chips and salsa.  

We sometimes receive a smattering of these items.  Denver was one of these nights, but we got a kick out of which items the promoter chose to include.  Something is noticeably absent.  Have you ever eaten salsa with apples?  It's on the same plane as having a meditation room without an area rug or aromatherapy candles.

The blurriness here represents Tom's confusion as to how we can eat the salsa:

We consider this a Rider Fail, but perhaps one could consider it a Bartender Win.  The bartender needed some salsa for his NCAA basketball party the following day so he decided to charge it to the show budget while conveniently forgetting to bring any tortilla chips.  Either way we had a good laugh about it and left the salsa, untapped, atop the counter.  We prefer it Spicy anyway.

Ocarina of Rhyme

If you haven't heard of Team Teamwork's Ocarina of Rhyme yet, I thought I would post this link here for everyone to download.

We have been rocking out to it in the van.  It's pretty fun for all of us Zelda fans.

Lost Woods - Clipse

Hyrule Market-Common

The Owl - JayZ

TOURannosaurus Rex

Southbysouthwest was funzo, but now it's doneso. The real action is just about to begin:

The SPINTO BAND North American Tour 2009!

03.23 - Tuscon, AZ - Club Congress * #
03.24 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland ^ #
03.25 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill #
03.27 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court #
03.28 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge #
03.29 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown #
03.30 - Lawrence, KS - Jackpot Saloon #
03.31 - St. Louis, MO - The Billiken Club (St Louis University) %
04.01 - Chicago, IL - Schuba's %
04.02 - Newport, KY - Southgate House (Parlour) %
04.04 - Sate College, PA - Bar Bleu
04.05 - Brooklyn, NY - The Bell House %

We're particularly excited about the dates from Salt Lake City to St. Louis as we missed those cities the on our last tour.

But that's not all. We've got a couple of local shows in celebration of our 10th (yes, 10th) anniversary of playing our first show, a high school battle of bands. We came in second that time. Let's hope we get enough votes this time around!

4.10 - West Chester, PA - The Note
4.24 - Kennett Square, PA - The Kennett Flash **

We will be sharing the stage with tons of awesome groups, noted above by the following symbols:

* = Golden Boots
^ = Light FM
# = Maps & Atlases
% = The Rural Alberta Advantage
** = The Sin City Band

Come out and see us for possibly the last time in a while!

More South by Southwest Infotainment

Not sure how many of you guys have your minds on Austin right now, but we certainly do. I mean, just look at this poster!

Some of the finest music in America will be heard in Room 710 that Saturday night, courtesy of Park the Van Records!

Also, here's a little infocard about our shows you can look at, print out, and use to write on the back when and where the Vivian Girls are playing:

The Spinto Band's Guide to FREE STUFF at SXSW.

What is SXSW? It means "South by Southwest". What is "South by Southwest"? It's Italian for a bunch of free stuff. We've been around the block enough times to give you the INSIDE scoop on where to get it.

Observe:

The Spinto Band gets Songsmithed!

A new sensation is taking over the nation. It is Microsoft Songsmith! If you're one of the few netizens not familiar with the program, you should watch this video NOW:



Basically, it's a program where you sing into it and it creates a backing music track based upon what you're singing. We decided to put some a capella Moonwink tracks into it to see what would happen. Here are the results of our first two UK Singles:

1. Summer Grof, as if done by the MIDI Eagles
2. Vivian Don't, as if done by the Casio Reggae All-Stars

Enjoy!

Songsmithed

The Walk of Fame in Rotterdam

Well, today we had some free time in the beautiful city of Rotterdam and decided to do a little exploring. We saw some [closed] museums, coffee shops, and even some bicycles. Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the day was when we stumbled upon the Rotterdam Walk of Fame, an institution we had no prior knowledge of. Keeping in similar fashion to the fame walk found in Hollywood, the Rotterdam Walk of Fame has its stars place their hands in the cement, forever marking their presence and influence within the sidewalk. There must have been hundreds of handprints. We braced ourselves and began walking.














One of the first markings that really took our breath away was this one from Ray Charles. What a graceful signature he had! We matched hands with his imprint and recounted all of the amazing music he made with it.














A few paces later we found ourselves looking at the cast of the man in black, Johnny Cash. Another hero of ours. Once again we were humbled to be looking up such hands of such a timeless icon. We collected ourselves and moved forward.














Within a few more footsteps we were greeted with the prints of one of the most influential men in American Blues, B.B King. It was quite awe-inspiring to be so close to the hands that were responsible for so much of popular music today. We took a moment of silence and then proceeded along. What legend would we stumble upon next?

OH OF COURSE!! IT'S SHREK!

After feeling a bit dismayed, we spoke with the manager at the Rotterdam Walk of Fame and were lucky enough to take a peek at the the advanced list of what legendary icons will be receiving spaces at the 2009 unveiling. Here they are:










Pikachu









Mr. Floppy from Unhappily Ever After









The Aflac Duck









Carlos Mencia









Big Mouth Billy Bass