The Power of Collaboration and Community

This past weekend Kevin and I hit up PJ20 at Alpine Valley. The festival was fantastic. It was so great to see a band that has accomplished so much celebrate their 20th Birthday with dedicated fans and close friends. If you listened and watched closely you could tell that the backstage was a scene.

Taken from Eddie's Ukulele Tour -

There wasn’t one set I caught that didn’t involve some other band member getting on stage and sharing music of another bands catalogue. Members of Pearl Jam make appearances throughout the day in other bands sets and throughout both nights Pearl Jam had guests up and down all night. Witnessing Eddie sing with Glen Hansard again was amazing. My favorite part was seeing dozens of performers join Pearl Jam for “Rockin In the Free World” at the end of the night. The energy was so positive and it is a night I will never forget.

The experience was a very pleasant reminder about the power of collaboration and community within different scenes. It was great to feel it on such a big level and witness some bands I had already been a fan of get to experience such a special night with a much bigger and more accomplished band like Pearl Jam. If seeing Pearl Jam play for 3 hours two nights consecutively wasn’t enough, they sure made it a special occasion! As much as it was about them, it was about sharing music and doing what they love and being grateful for that.


Naturally it got me thinking about all of the friends we have made over the years since we started performing. Some of the best friends I have made in my life have been from the sharing music and putting on shows together.

Seeing 30 musicians jumping around on stage together reminded me so much of the Chicago Noise Machine and how much fun we used to have making appearances on stage with each other. Looking back at that now I am very happy we all took the time to work together and invite each other on stage. Thankfully a lot of those friendships and collaborations/guest appearances have extended past that organization and even after most of those bands dissolved and even more than that.. the I AM Fest continues as a staple for Chicago Independent music as well and so it goes...

I AM Fest 2009 - Chicago Noise Machine and Friends

I guess what I am trying to say is that I am very grateful today that I have been able to play music and meet so many great people in the process. I just wanted to take a minute and honour that.

This weekend Vincent and I will be performing acoustic (sans Kevin) at the Double Door with one of those great people from our friends in a Bullet Called Life. Last week when I was asked if we would like to do an acoustic show and knew Kevin couldn't perform I thought I should ask Aaron if he wanted to join us. Aaron will be playing some guitar and singing with us. He is just a lovely human and he is a hell of a musician... one of those many great people.



Thanks for reading.

Stephen Francis

A Quick Glance Back, Then Full Steam Ahead!!!

Ahhhh! 2010 has arrived. I cannot believe that 2009 is over. It was such a long year. A few months back we did a year in review and I would have never imagined (since most of it was unplanned and we planned on stopping) that things would have changed so much between September and December. New Rule - Never under any circumstances in your career say the word LAST. No LAST shows of 2009, no LAST line up changes.

Although unplanned, the show at the Metro with our friends Lucid Ground and Minus the Girl was a great night! Opening for Our Lady Peace with Tom and Aaron's band Bullet Called Life = really memorable evening. Growing up listening to those guys and being able to share a stage and taste their crowd was really awesome! Not a week later the Elbo Room asked us to play New Years Eve - It was the perfect way to end the year, and start the year - PLAYING MUSIC.

A LOOK AHEAD
Model Stranger has so much already lined up for 2010. With a new record (which we are tracking in the next few weeks) and a Spring tour being booked, I personally am looking forward to hitting the ground running . A majority of our shows this year will be on the road. Chicago is one of our favorite places to play but after putting in 28 days on the road last year, Model Stranger has a new addiction. We make so many fans and learn so much every time we hit the road. Why stay home for long?

In addition to the new record we will be releasing a whole bunch of new merch including some interesting tracks like early demos and outtakes from Reverieland and first renditions of new material being released on the new record. The record is scheduled to be released April 24th.

Thanks for reading! Photos from our show and some other important Model Stranger information below.

`Stephen Francis

PHOTOS FROM SOLD OUT CUBBY BEAR SHOW WITH OUR LADY PEACE
If you are on Facebook or MySpace click HERE to view them.
These photos were shot by the wonderfully talented Mike Hari and Christie LaMountain. Their names link to their websites. Check them out. Hire them.




OUR MUSIC FEATURED:
So a few months ago, some students from Flashpoint Academy contacted our manager Coate wanting to do a piece on him and Model Stranger for a TV Production class they were in. Coate obliged and brought the students up to our practice space to meet us one night. Impressed by their work and professionalism he later asked if they might be interested in doing some video work for him which eventually led to them wanting to be involved in filming us playing a live set. As it turned out, we had just picked up our December Metro and Cubby Bear shows (those link to photo albums of the shows by the way) so the students came out to film both sets for us in glorious HD. We haven't seen the footage yet, but we're quite excited.

Separately, a man named Tim Jahn reached out to Coate via Twitter to inquire about using our song "Sound The Sirens" as background music for a video he was doing for his website, Beyond The Pedway. On the site, Tim seeks to learn about the people behind Chicago's creative companies, what they do, and why they do it in Chicago. A song from a local Chicago band is featured in each video.

Tim sent us an email the other day letting us know he had just posted the video with our song, and much to our pleasant surprise, the company he profiled was none other than Flashpoint Academy!  You should watch the piece (we've posted it below...or for those of you reading on Facebook or MySpace HERE), not just because our music is featured, but because Flashpoint is a pretty fantastic establishment!



Please Help us Broaden Our Reach!!!

If everything (or anything) that you read above excites you, we want you to know that you play a large role in Model Stranger getting further down this path. For it is only through the constant support of families, friends, and fans that we have been able to accomplish what we have - and only with the continued support from you can we reach the goals we've set before us. You have all been WONDERFUL in offering all sorts support such as kinds words, attending our shows and just being there in general. As of now we have a few very specific ways you can help us out using the fantastic resources the Internet provides. Sound good? Okay!

Here's what we need:

FACEBOOK
Invite your own family, friends and coworkers to become a fan of us on Facebook. Follow up! Let them know why you like us and why you think they should know all about us as well. Listen to our tunes on the "MyBand" tab on our fan page or our personal profiles. This is important in helping us gain exposure on the site that we'll explain next!

REVERBNATION
This site might be the most useful tool out there for artists like ourselves! It has TONS of tools that allow us to not only create a cool profile but to help us promote. Of those tools are these nifty little thing called "widgets". We have a few of them on THIS SITE along the side bar (the music player, show schedule and fan collector, etc) and our current music player on our MySpace page is a ReverbNation widget. How these work is that they provide cool ways to share information about us very easily. For all of you with blogs it's incredibly easy to add them and ReverbNation tracks our reach. The more widgets we have posted in more places viewed by more unique people - the better for us (both in general and in the rankings on the site)! Below we've placed a very easy tool that you can take these widgets from and post them on your MySpace pages, blogs, websites, etc! If you're viewing this on Facebook or MySpace CLICK HERE to see the original post and what we're talking about.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THURSDAY'S CUBBY BEAR SHOW!!!!

Hey Everyone!

So if you didn't know, we're playing The Cubby Bear Thursday, opening for Our Lady Peace with our good friends Bullet Called Life (Facebook Event HERE)!

It's The Q101 Twisted Christmas After Party Show and tickets are just $10 unless you actually went to Twisted Christmas, in which case they're just $5.

The Cubby Bear told us this week that tickets are already close to 70% sold, which means this one looks like it's going to be a sellout!!

That said, GET YOUR TICKETS NOW SO YOU DON'T MISS OUT. It's going to be a huge show for us and we'd love to have you there!

Our set starts at 10:45pm. We were originally scheduled for 10-10:15pm but found out today that all of the sets have been pushed back. Make note of this is you were already planning on coming!

Afterwards, our good friends over at the Elbo Room are throwing us an "After After Party" as Tracy Jordan would say on 30 Rock.

Here's the Deal:
Free Admission and Drink Token (for 1 Bud Lt Draft) at Elbo Room with Cubby Bear Ticket Stub/Stamp on the 17th.

It’s in the neighborhood and will be a lot of fun, so join us for that as well!