Our Weekend in Seven Pictures

This past weekend we traveled to Burlington and Macomb. The highlight of the weekend for us had to be the acoustic set we played on Saturday night. The debut of two new songs and the opportunity to show a different side of ourselves was rewarding and the crowd was digging on it. Every trip out to these town seems more and more worth it because every time keeps getting better and better! Every time we leave, we leave humbled. Thank you so much to for the continued support!

Here are some pictures from random times throughout the weekend.



Model Stranger debuting their first two tracks that showcase keys instead of guitars.



Macomb fan comes excited to the show with "Strangelove" painted on her nails.

KQ92 Has been playing Model Stranger so much on the radio we gifted them!

 

Capitol Music added us to the Local Bands rack. 




Vincent fell asleep on 67 with his leg out the window.




In case of emergency.. Always shoot Pepto




In the morning we found this on our windshield... a Thank You card from a fan.


Hitting the road this week for a couple shows in Kentucky and Terre Haute. Heading back to Chicago on Saturday to perform as Nirvana for a Halloween show at the Elbo Room.

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

New Music?!? Live at the Double Door EP.

It has been quite a long time. Over two months since our last blog! There is new music! Just not ready for release yet. In the  meantime we have a live bootleg of some select tracks from our May Double Door performance in Chicago.

Our recent efforts have been focused internally as we experiment with new material and continue touring around the Midwest, selling records and meeting so many lovely people.  The most exciting things along the way have made their way to this blog or to our webpage but everything else is just silly stories and videos that will end up on You Tube sooner than later.

In the last year, over 125 shows, we ended up with a good collection of solid recordings of some of these many live performances. Some live videos have made their way to our You Tube Page while the rest of them have been collecting digital dust in a desolate file folder.


Our initial effort to share some of these recordings with you was sidetracked by a remixing of Dreams & Bones for some TV licensing opportunities so it wasn’t until very recently that we had an opportunity to rummage through these videos/audio files.  


Using our Twitter page we asked Strangeloves what songs of live performances they would love to get their hands. Thankfully we were able to fill all of the requests and were able to put together a short live EP. 


We printed 100 custom and limited copies of this record and released them to our Strangeloves in Chicago this past Saturday’s show at Martyr’s. Today anyone can download them in a pay what you want format by visiting our Bandcamp page. That package includes different audio options as well as 4 Hi Resolution Photos from the actual show, and the album artwork. If you don’t want to donate, or even enter 0 (it's pay what you want.. you can pay 0..) but if you are just lazy and don't want to leave this page and just want the audio files you can click here but this one doesn't include all of the fancy stuff mentioned above. Just sayin!

Preview of the Artwork - Ooh la la! I guess you could technically get the artwork here too.. Hmmm.

For a limited time you can grab a remaining hard copy at any Live Model Stranger show.

Discussions of a new record are still in the process as we decide exactly what it is and how it is that we want to record this next group of songs. A lack of new material is actually not an issue; in fact it is the opposite as we are sitting on over a dozen potential song choices and even more song snippets.  Discussions with numerous producers, studios and discussions amongst us have ended with a big hmmmm and altered our usual concise decision making process. What to do… Should we do an acoustic record? How about we release all of those ambient dancey numbers we have been working on? Should we release another Rock and Roll record? 

It is more than likely we will be releasing an EP of some sort over a full length. We will have more news to come regarding our next effort over the next few months.  In the meantime we will be trying some of this new material live and seeing what sticks.


What would you like to see Model Stranger do next?


Thanks for reading.


Stephen Francis - Aka Stevie Frankie.

Unofficial She Don't Music Video... from Germany?

It isn't everyday you wake up and a music video is completed for your band.


This becomes especially true if it were to happen without your knowing. A month ago a fan posted a music video for "She Don't" on our Facebook wall.

I saw it and I said.. “We didn’t make a music video for this song? Suhweet!”

Curious by the image of the girl on the thumbnail, I pressed play, sat back and tried to deduct how this came to be. The quote under the video says "Ooooh Miri don't care everything! D". "You and her both Miri!," I blurted aggressively towards my computer monitor. Then I asked myself, who is this girl? Where is she from? Do I know a Miri? So... there I sat with my confusion quickly being outweighed by this flattery. Sure.. WE didn't do this video.. WE didn’t approve this… BUT… Who gives a shit?

I decided that I should reach out to her and thank her for making this video. So I did just that. Miri replied the next day and explained that she found Model Stranger on the Steam Engine Blog. She shared her excitement for our record and told me how her and her friends listen to it all the time. It took me a second to comprehend that a teenager from Germany and her friends were listening to something we recorded in Chicago.

I mean sure, we have fans but they are fans that we have made mostly from touring.. and we have never toured Germany. This video installment made by a sweet German teenager made my day.. and then I forgot about it... and then I remembered it.. forgot about it again and now I am blogging about it... because its awesome how the internet continues connecting us to new fans. It is awesome to live in a world where people can interpret your music on their You Tube Pages. A simple mention from Reverbnation on Twitter and a feature on The Steam Engine Blog... and suddenly we have fans from around the world.

Very special thanks to Miri for sharing our music on her You Tube page and a million thanks to the Steam Engine Blogspot for continuing to support us and spread the word. Also to Reverbnation for showcasing our FB page last week. So appreciative!

Without people sharing content on the internet this would be a completely different story now wouldn't it?