The Shrinking Islands

10/4/06

We've scored a spot in this year's North East Sticks Together Festival, playing at O'Brien's with our friends Pants Yell and Reports. Also on the bill will be Rose Melberg from The Softies - should be a fun show!

The next week, we'll be back at good ol' P.A.'s Lounge with some friends of friends to play a good ol' rocking P.A.'s set. I'm going to try and boost my immune system so that I can actually drink the P.A.'s house brew, which is all I can get with my drink tickets at the show.

And in November, we have a Guided by Voices tribute concert! Here is our song list, as it stands now:

1. Little Whirl (Alien Lanes)
2. My Son Cool (Alien Lanes)
3. To Remake the Young Flyer (Under the Bushes, Under the Stars)
4. Evil Speakers (Alien Lanes)
5. Deathtrot and Warlock Riding a Rooster (King Shit and the Golden Boys)
6. Weve Got Airplanes (King Shit and the Golden Boys)
7. Tractor Rape Chain (Bee Thousand)
8. Non-Absorbing (Vampire on Titus)

Lots of other great bands will be covering songs from throughout the catalog - it's going to be an amazing night!

--Kyle

9/1/06

Ben Sisto has made a poster for the Sort of Records residency at the Abbey Lounge. This series of events will conclude on September 26 with our record release show.

Playing with us at the record release will be three other Sort Of bands: Pairdown, David Bernabo, and the Instances.

Also on the schedule in the far future is a Guided by Voices tribute show at PA's in November. We'll keep you posted!

--Kyle

8/8/06

From the desk of Andy Tefft:

Shrinking Islands are cooling down for a few weeks, show-wise. But big things are happening...Andy is going to India, Kyle is getting hitched! Our Sort Of Records release is in the can and will be officially released in lavish packaging at the Sort Of Residency this September at the venerable Abbey Lounge. Also look for our song "Blood Rays" on a forthcoming Sort Of Compilation. When you see the list of contributing bands you will say "whoah, SICK man, all of my favorites in one place!" Really, you will. New recordings of some live staples are also in the works.

So see you in September...and allow us to indulge in a little Summer Top Ten:

Andy:

1. Rush - Fly By Night LP and hoodie
2. Carlisle Sound- at Charlie's Kitchen
3. Pants Yell!- Recent Drama CD, live, and everything
4. Indian Style - live and beer cozy
5. Sic Alps 12" and tapes

Kyle:

1. Masters of Old-time Country Autoharp
2. The Reivers - Pop Beloved
3. Marvin Gaye - I Want You (Outtakes)
4. Indian Style raffle prize: Spawn drawing by Abe Scott
5. Kyle+Tara's Wedding Mix (TM)

7/3/06

NEW REVIEW! The mp3blog Shake Your Fist has written a glowing review of our forthcoming CD. From the article:

So what do The Shrinking Islands sound like? To borrow a line from "State Fair": "green miles on parade," or feathery guitar arpeggios, rolling, melodic basslines, thwacking beats, yearning, vulnerable vocals, slippery lyrics that seem to evaporate in the sun. The first two verses of "State Fair" are diffident, close-to-the-chest feints before the band punches out the walls, opening the song in an expansive, extended instrumental of blue skies, brown, snaking roads and hills that march to infinity.

We'll continue our "march to infinity" this Thursday at Zuzu's with a free show. We'll play last after Tisso Lake and New Grenada. I hear some old Microphones and Smog in the former - check out The Night Wind from TL's myspace page. New Grenada are more rocking, and they get an emphatic recommendation from Andrew of Pants Yell! "We played with them in Detroit a couple of years ago and it was like watching the Who." The show starts at 10pm!

6/17/06

Thank you to everyone who came out to TT's to support us and B for Brontosaurus! We had a wonderful and successful night because of you.

Our friends Indian Style now have a website, complete with some mp3's. They have a couple of good shows coming up, and are worth checking out if you're the kind of person who likes to sing around the campfire. Kudos to Stefan for finding this page.

Our next stop is the Abbey Lounge next month, and hopefully an album release later in the summer. We will keep you posted!

6/7/06

We have a VERY IMPORTANT SHOW coming up:

The Shrinking Islands
B for Brontosaurus CD release
The Can't See
The Snow Leopards
Thursday June 15
TT the Bear's, 9pm sharp

We're going to be playing our newly revised version of Blood Rays, as well as a couple other songs you may not have heard before, like Bat Wings. We go on exactly at 9pm, so be ready!!

B for Brontosaurus are going to have copies of their new album, titled A Thousand Times Yes, which was recorded by Ramsey Tantawi and I at an old ballet school in Union Square. The mixes are turning out to be fantastic; I think we were able to capture some of the energy and earnestness of this band during the recording sessions.

Although The Can't See include members of 764-HERO, they have a more rustic and comfortable sound that will fit in well for the show. You can hear a live set of theirs on KEXP if you're curious.

We hope to see you there - this is probably our biggest and best show of the summer!

--Kyle

5/21/06

A review of the Jonathan Richman tribute show has been posted here at Too Much Rock. It's what you would call... mixed. He is right on about The Specific Heats, though - they were on fire that night!

As part of Ben Sisto's End of Honeypump festivities, we will be playing a TOTALLY RANDOM BILL Great Scott on June 4. Seriously, Ben wrote a python script (probably something like this, but doesn't it look better in perl?) to pick 4 bands randomly out of a list of applicants. We came up first. Python loves The Shrinking Islands!

5/9/06

From the desk of Andy Tefft:

Shrinking Islands are happy to be busting into Spring with some shows. Thanks to Indian Style and Spoilsport for a fun show at PA's the other night. Lots of new jams in the set. Also joined forces with I-Style to cover "Help Me Rhonda" and grabbed some other friends out of the crowd to do J.Richman's "Dignified and Old." Then after things had apparently cooled down, there was a cover of "Driver 8" performed outside PA's. It was like Lightning Bolt, but melancholy. And the infinite sadness.

We have another PA's show coming up with Hockey Night (on tour) and Township (featuring people from favorites Runner & the Thermo-Dynamics and Cancer Conspiracy). Should be tight and rocking from start to finish. Details over yonder --->

3/14/06

Some pictures from the show on Friday have been posted here and here.

Andy and I are going to try and finish up our mini-album (which includes the 6 songs on this site) by the end of the month - we have to wrap up tracking on one last song.

--Kyle

3/8/06

We've just had our final rehearsal for the Jonathan Richman tribute show this Friday. All the songs seem to be falling into place quite well. Joining Andy and I for the performance will be Ernie Kim, who also plays in such groups as Tristan De Cunha and Harry and The Potters. He'll be playing bass on all the songs and singing lead on Van Gogh.

Many other wonderful bands will be playing as the night goes on, including our friends The Specific Heats and B for Brontosaurus. The highlight of the show for me will definitely be Tony the Bookie - if you've been to PA's Lounge, he's probably taken your money at the door. This will be, to my knowledge, his first performance in Boston.

Also, our song Bad Company has come out on a compilation from Sort Of Records - we'll have copies of this at the show.

Also, our song State Fair appears on Recast, a skateboarding DVD filmed and produced by Andy's brother Sheldon. Interested parties should contact us for copies of this.

--Kyle

2/26/06

The Jonathan Richman tribute show is fast approaching - here is a web-poster for the event! I may try to put together a mini-chorus to help us out on "New England."

1/25/06

Now that I've finished with the Harm tour, Andy and I are getting down to business with new Shrinking Islands material. We were just in the studio recording a song called "Back in the Native Light" with Ramsey Tantawi. He's posted a review of the microphone preamp he used for the session, although this is probably only of interest to Tape Op subscribers and huge nerds.

Our friends Ryan Lee and the rest of the Sort Of roster will be playing the Sort Of Records label launch show at Great Scott on February 19, so pencil that in folks!

We've signed on for a Jonathan Richman tribute show at PA's in March. All the big hits will be covered at some point during the night. Here's our song list for the occasion:

1. Dignified and Old
2. New England
3. Lonely Financial Zone
4. Abdul and Cleopatra
5. Vincent Van Gogh

--Kyle

12/13/05

The 2Songs blog has posted a nice review of our music. From the post: "The latter song [Swallowed in Grace] sounds like it just got here via a time traveling bus from Chronic Town..."

12/7/05

Our upcoming show has brought a couple of things to my attention that I wish to share. They mostly involve our fellow performer Emily Arken.

First of all, there's the Bazaar Bizarre happening on Sunday. Not only is the list of DJ's impressive, but the gift-buying opportunities are enormous! Not only that, I will be running sound for the event. I hope I don't mess it up.

Second, Emily is the co-owner of Magpie in Davis Square. Third, she's involved with this rehearsal space that's right next door to where the guys and I have Soldering Team meetings every month. Fourth, she's played in an Amps cover band.

Also, in news that has nothing to do with Emily Arkin, my old casio band Harm will be playing some shows in January. Go to casiopop.com for details and updates.

--Kyle

11/21/05

A sold out show a the Lizard Lounge! Thank you to everyone who made this night a success.

Andy and I have one more show left for the year - it's brought to you again by Stacie and her Critique of Pure Reason concert series.

10/25/05

I thought I should say a few words to commemorate the end of our 5-month, 5-show pseudo-residency at P.A.'s Lounge. Our last show of the series was a blast.

The two girls of Indian Style made my night by playing the most honest, wholesome set I'd seen in a long time. Jerry said that they'd sing "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain," and he was dead on!

Andy and I played the rocking-est set we had in us, and afterwards it was pointed out to us how much one of our songs sounds like "Departure" by REM. Hmmm...

I was excited to hear "Born on a Mountain" and "High on Music" by Headband - if you haven't listened to those songs on their MySpace page, I suggest you do.

One more thing that made the night special was the presence of our ex-bandmate Ben Macri. Also, many thanks go out to Tony and Jerry and Ryan Lee for taking care of us so well!

--Kyle

8/31/05

Stacie's Critique of Pure Reason site has an excellent web-poster for our show on friday:

Hope to see you there!

8/29/05

I thought I should mention that Andy has been working overtime on our band profile over at MySpace. We have 121 buddies thanks to his hard work! Anyway, feel free to say hi if you see us there.

I spent a night in the studio last week with B for Brontosaurus to record a four song demo. We mixed one of the songs that night - it was one of their softer songs, recorded with all three band members standing around a single microphone. We're finishing the other mixes this week - hopefully they'll be available soon!

Also, the first album from Nethers was officially finished last night at about 3am - the band should be sending it out to the manufacturing plant this week, which means that it could hit the streets as soon as late September or early October.

--Kyle

8/18/05

There are going to be a lot of bands playing tonight at PA's. Jaymay, Drew O'Doherty, Ryan Lee, The Silent Service - the list is almost endless! I think we're on third, probably around 10:30 or 11pm.

I posted three new songs today. They are the second part of our character's journey, which began in "Big Nature Comes Back." The songs "Native Light" and "They Don't Watch Me" actually bookend and complete this story, in case you were interested. We have not recorded those ones yet. Anyway, hope you enjoy these new songs!

I'm off this weekend and the next to play organ with Nethers - we'll be passing through New York, Phlly, DC, and Charlottesville.

--Kyle

7/18/05

From the desk of Andy Tefft:

The Summer of Fun is well underway and Shrinking Islands have been taking it easy. We've got some shows at PA's Lounge coming up and have been working on some new songs and finishing up new recordings. Kyle has been fuggin' giggin' with Nethers all over the Mid-Atlantic and has accumlated some serious Frequent Fung-Wah miles. If you haven't already, go to the Nethers site and get some nice soundfiles. Kyle also got a cool new organ that might be put to use with Shrinking Islands.

Other Summer Enhancers:

1. Crane's Beach, Walden Pond, Tinker's Island, Assateague National Seashore
2. Stereolab - Oscillations From the Anti-Sun 3CD+DVD
3. Pants Yell's new guitarist and drummer Carly's amazing cymbal sound
4. Carlisle Sound/Reports 45s on Paper Cities
5. WMBR, now with archived programs!!
6. the Mastermix Archive
7. Flaherty and Corsano's new record Steel Sleet, recorded by Kyle and Ramsey Tantawi

5/22/05

I've been invited to play organ with Nethers on their East Coast mini-tour next week. Nethers are from Washington, DC and used to be known as The Carlsonics. They have changed their sound to be more hippied-out, but not like the Dead; more like Fairport Convention or something. Anyways, here are the "tour" dates:

Thursday, May 26 in Philadelphia at the World Cafe, 10pm

Friday, May 27 in Asbury Park NJ at The NJ Big Art Show

Saturday, May 28 in NYC at The Knitting Factory, 7pm

And, of course, we'll conclude the festivities in Boston at P.A.'s Lounge on Sunday May 29th! Andy and I will be playing two brand new songs that night - one will be fast and happy, and the other will be sad, but will speed up at the end.

Opening the show at P.A.'s is Alto Reform School, a 9-piece SOUL band. I recorded their demo about a month ago at WMBR, and I can only say that this performance is going to be fun! They have horns. They have background singers. They have an organ player. I can't wait.

--Kyle

4/26/05

This Saturday night at the Skybar, I'll be playing as part of a pick-up band organized by Jeff Breeze. Ben Macri of Carlisle Sound and fellow Pipeline engineer Ramsey Tantawi will also be joining in the fun.

This event arose because Jeff's other band, Meathawk and the Meathawks, could not make the gig. We're going try to make up for their absence by droning as much as possible. I will be playing kick drum and cymbal with mallets.

--Kyle

4/15/05

First of all, a big thank you goes out to everyone who came to the Kirkland Cafe last night. Andy and I had a great time - we hope all of you did, too!

The trumpeter who followed our performance at the Kirkland was named Forbes Graham. He also plays in the band Kayo Dot, and will be performing a solo set at Zuzu on May 5, if I remember correctly.

4/13/05

Sadly, Phantom Buffalo have had to cancel their appearance tomorrow night at the Kirkland. Andy and I will still be there in full effect, however.

In other news, Ramsey Tantawi has started a nice blog for the Pipeline! radio show on WMBR, in which I participate. If you are in a band in New England, you should send in a CD.

3/28/05

We've scheduled our next show on the night before tax day, so please get to work on those taxes early!

We'll be playing at the Kirkland Cafe, near Harvard Square, with our personal heroes Phantom Buffalo from Portland, Maine. Back in 2003, these guys put out a record on the Time-Lag label under the name The Ponys. However, they were eventually overshadowed by another band named The Ponys from the midwest, so they changed their name.

To be honest, I wasn't so hot on the name Phantom Buffalo at first, but they have a song about how they changed the name, and that kind of won me over after I heard it. Anyway, they have loads of new material, some of which I had the chance to hear on a recent Pipeline! set at WMBR. They still sound to me like early Olivia Tremor Control or Elf Power, but I'll leave it to you to make the final call.

--Kyle

2/1/05

Thank you to everyone who came out and saw us last night! While we were at the show, our friend Darryl showed us a poster that he designed to advertise the event. Quite impressive - hopefully, we'll be able to post a larger version soon.

1/28/05

Andy and I are very excited about playing Charlie's Kitchen on Monday. It's the location of the first and only gig of Andy's second Boston band. In any case, they have cheap burgers and lobster rolls there, and we intend to take full advantage of this on the night of our show. We play first, I believe, around 9pm.

One of the other bands lined up for Monday, The Westward Trail, have recently polished off their website - it's worth a look if you haven't seen it yet.

Steve Gisselbrecht has posted a review of our show with Pants Yell! at O'Brien's. Yes, it's true, I do need to start warming up before I sing. Also, you'll need to know the definition of harridian to read this article.

--Kyle

1/6/05

Happy new year!

In cooperation with Pants Yell, we are planning a treat for January 17th. If all goes according to plan, both our bands will team up to cover some Cass McCombs songs between our sets. It should be loose and fun - I can't wait to hear Andy and Carly drumming together. Hope to see you there!

12/6/04

I posted a movie from our show at TT's. You can find it in the photo section. Thanks to Tara Bledsoe for the recording. The format is AVI, straight from Tara's camera. I did a conversion to MPEG-1, but the quality seemed to suffer. If you have any problems viewing the movie, please let us know!

We added a new show with Pants Yell! on January 17. They're playing for free this Thursday at Zuzu if you'd like to check them out. Really, you should.

12/3/04

We'll be coming down to Jamaica Plain for a show on the 15th of December. As usual, we'll try to have at least one new song ready.

Harm, my old casio-pop band from Pittsburgh, is back together! I was in the studio last night to master a Harm EP with Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering. I had a great time at the session, and Jeff did a wonderful job of making the music sound as good as possible. The EP will be out sometime in the spring of 2005.

--Kyle

11/22/04

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show at TT's last night! If you picked up a t-shirt from us, please put it in the dryer for about 10 minutes before you wash it - we didn't do this beforehand, and it will make the ink stick to the shirt more. Even better - use a hot dry iron for 3-4 minutes with a piece of paper as a buffer.

11/15/04

We've scheduled a new show on the 21st at TT the Bear's Place in Cambridge! Now, we realize that it's on a Sunday night and the bill is all local bands. With that in mind, we're offering a coupon (image, pdf) for a FREE T-SHIRT. The first 25 people to arrive with coupons get 'em, so be ready to head out the door immediately after the Simpsons is over!

Our radio performance at WTBU has been rescheduled for Friday the 19th. Unless you're standing beside a Boston University dorm and touching it with the antenna of your radio, you'll need to listen to it over the web. WTBU offers both high quality and low quality live mp3 streams.

10/26/04

Our October 22 radio appearance on WTBU's Left of the Dial was cancelled at the last minute due to a sports event. Our apologies to anyone who is not interested in sports and listened to the BU game unnecessarily. This will be re-scheduled in the near future.

A few weeks ago, I went to Queens to play guitar in Glenn Branca's Symphony #13. A total of 79 other guitarists, 20 bassists, and one drummer were there as well. Also playing in this ensemble were Ben Macri from the Carlisle Sound, ex-Autumn Rhythm drummer Martin, and Metric Mile guitarist Jeff. (Jeff and the Metric Mile play Zuzu on Thursday, October 28th.) I have some pictures from these sessions, kindly sent by my stand partner Oliver.

On the New York trip, I also met up with the Carlsonics and played shaker on their song Senator Trudge and the Clap Division. Our name hails from one of drummer Mike Scutari's solo albums.

Our song "State Fair" has been posted on indieworkshop.com. Of course, you can just download it from here anyway.

Lastly, a big thanks to Stacie, Vetiver, Viking Moses, and everyone who came out to the Zeitgeist to see us! The show was a great success for everybody involved.

--Kyle

9/21/04

Thanks to Music for Robots for a nice review!