Reckless, Pretty & Wild

The Poets have posted an account of the mind-blowing Roxy show for those of you who couldn’t be there. It’s on their myspace blog. This should take you to the post. Too cool!

I’m hundreds of miles away, so tell me everything! Were you at the Roxy gig last night? The Poets have thousands of fans everywhere, so I’m not the only one out here who’s dying to hear all about the Poets triumphant return to the Roxy, about the new singer, the new songs, everything!

Comment, comment, comment!!!!

Here it is: the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The Poets announcement of their new singer, complete with pics of his lovely self. Straight from the Poets newsletter:

——————————————–

HELLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SEX NINJAS!!!!!

Another day of utmost importance has arrived! Today you meet the new singer of Poets & Pornstars!

But first, a brief reprise from our last newsletter:
As most of you know we began this year in search of the one person, male or female, who could become the new voice of Poets & Pornstars. To say we found our search “challenging” would be an understatement.

During our quest we spared no expense, left no stone unturned, and left no bottle of anxiety-alleviating alcohol un-drunk. ALL of this in an effort to bring ourselves and you THE individual best suited to carry on what we had started and to help manifest our new musical vision. To that end, we feel we more than succeeded.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LOVERS AND DIEHARDS, SEX NINJAS ONE AND ALL, WE ASK THAT YOU PLEASE JOIN US IN WELCOMING… MR. JEREMY ARIC!

To suggest that Jeremy Aric was “Born to Rock” might at first seem yet another attempt at Rock n’ Roll boast and bluster. But a closer look at the singer-guitarist’s background reveals a life defined by a passion for music and an undying dream.

The child of a musician mother and audiophile father, Jeremy developed a fascination with music at an early age. He spent most of his youth perusing and plundering his parents’ music library, usually without their guidance…or awareness. “Whenever my parents would go out, I would blast the stereo with records from their collection: old 45 singles from the 50’s and their 33’s of The Beatles, Hendrix, The Mamas and The Papas, The Who, the Grease soundtrack, many others.”

With each passing year it became evident that music would play a more significant than normal role in Jeremy’s life. “I started writing songs when I was eight. I didn’t know anything about ‘making music’ then, so I would use my Mom’s typewriter and write words to the melodies I heard in my head.”

But it wasn’t until he discovered a single special song that he knew for certain he would devote his life to creating music: “Before I started playing guitar I was a really frustrated little kid. I had an awful temper, smashing video game controllers and stuff like that. But one day I heard Guns n’ Roses ‘Patience,’ and I was mesmerized. It was then that I decided I wanted to play guitar. From that moment on I knew what I wanted to do.”

As Jeremy’s skill on the guitar grew, so did the depth and breadth of his musical interests and influences. From Jane’s Addiction and Seattle’s “Grunge” scene to Bach and Debussy, Miles and Coltrane to Classic Rock and even the Wu Tang Clan, Jeremy allowed his ears to absorb every sound they would. His openness to all music would serve him well when songwriting began to matter the most.

Aric’s high school and college years, spent studying guitar privately and performing live locally, culminated in his earning a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in Classical Guitar from the University of Wisconsin. But family and musical ties were not enough to keep the Chicago native from leaving the Midwest. “A voice inside me kept telling me to move to LA. It just felt like the place for me, like that was the place where it would happen. As for the voice, it wasn’t exactly like ‘If you build it they will come.’ Just every time I thought about it, something inside me said ‘Go to LA.’ So, I listened.”

Upon his arrival in Los Angeles, Jeremy secured a job at a recording studio. But it wasn’t long before he realized: “I wanted to be on the other side of the glass, MAKING the music, FULL-TIME.”

Despite enjoying some success playing guitar and singing backup in several bands, and in fronting a band he founded, Jeremy’s career eventually stalled. “ALL I knew at that point was that I had to keep going with music.” After finishing a short tour as a sideman, Jeremy was informed by his ex-bandmate and good friend Eric that his friends Poets & Pornstars were looking for a new lead singer. Jeremy knew of Poets and had been looking for an opportunity to sing lead again in a band.

In an ironic twist that even screenwriters who draw their stories and inspiration directly from the Sunset Strip couldn’t dream up, Jeremy had already auditioned for Poets one year to the month BEFORE they would ask him to join their band.

In the Spring of 2007, Jeremy’s friend and then current bandmate, the aforementioned Eric, married Poets super-fan, Alex. At the reception, Alex requested an impromptu performance from Jeremy. Only too happy to grant the wedding-day wish of his good friend’s new bride, Jeremy obliged.

What Jeremy DIDN’T KNOW was that the Poets were in attendance at the very same wedding. And his performance was not lost on them. Dave recalls: “I remember watching this guy stroll confidently to the front of the party, pick up an acoustic guitar, and proceed to knock everyone dead with rousing renditions of The Beatles ‘Oh, Darling’ and a second song he had composed himself. And I remember asking myself ‘Who IS this guy?!’”

Needless to say, when it came time to choose a new singer, none of the Poets had any problem recollecting the day Jeremy played “Wedding Singer” and blew everyone away. They still requested and received a formal audition, but when they had found out originally that Jeremy was available, it was already a done deal.

WE WILL SEE YOU AT THE ROXY ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 8TH!

All our Love,

Poets

Since this is a long-awaited, long over-due Bulletin from the Poets, I thought I’d quote it in full. Written by Dave, full of that Poets energy—which will be on full display on stage Aug. 8th! (And if you missed my earlier post today check out the other juicy tidbits!)

HELLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SEX NINJAS!!!!!

THE day has arrived.
The moment you’ve been waiting for is at last here:
We, your beloved Poets & Pornstars are BACK! And we will be hitting the stage again VERY soon.
More on that in a moment; but FIRST, an update:

As most of you know we began this year in search of the one person, male or
female, who could become the new voice of Poets & Pornstars. To say we found our search “challenging” would be an understatement.

WARNING! Do not attempt to find a lead vocalist, much less start a band, on your own-leave that to PROFESSIONAL musicians who are well-trained in the arts of suffering and delayed gratification.

During our quest we spared no expense, left no stone unturned, and left no bottle of anxiety-alleviating alcohol un-drunk. ALL of this in an effort to bring ourselves and you THE individual best suited to carry on what we had started and to help manifest our new musical vision. To that end, we feel we more than succeeded.

But to find out just who we chose and what their story is, you will have to remain finely tuned to this station in the coming days. Because now it’s back to the business of the PRESENT, and the very-near future.

WE ONLY WISH through the modern miracles of teleportation and multi-location (similar to the way Jesus appeared on the day he rose from the dead) that we could perform for all of you at once. But alas, modern science is still working out the last few kinks in those technologies. So, we’ll have to settle for one stage, one location. For now.

And THAT would be:

THE ROXY, in West Hollywood, California

The Date:

Friday, August 8th, 2008

The Time:

10 PM

That is THE place, day, and time where we get to once again join together
in Rock n’ Roll jubilation. Get ready to get rowdy and scream along to old favorites while welcoming new ones to the fold.
AGAIN, that’s

THE ROXY
9009 Sunset Blvd.

West Hollywood, California 90069
http://theroxyonsunset. com

Friday, August 8th, 2008
10 PM
(We will post more details on the show as they become available.
)

We expect this to be the first of many more appearances by the Poets Rock n’
Roll circus.
If you can’t be in LA on August 8th, fret not; we hope to be out
your way very soon.
For those who DO plan to be in LA on August 8th, feel free to stroke our now-emaciated egos by letting us know here on MySpace
that you plan to attend.

Until the next installment of this newsletter, we wish your Summer to be full of wild nights, hot and crazy days.

THANK YOU for your continuing Love and Support.

POETS

www. myspace. com/poetspornstars
www. poetsandpornstars. com

I got a heads-up from the band that lots o’ Poets goodness is in the works. And it’s all happening real soon. Here’s the scoop: they’ll be playing a show in a few weeks. (I’m not supposed to give details, but I’m expecting them to announce it any minute now.) They’ve got a new singer who is “fantastic” and they’ll be announcing who he is within the next few days as well. They’ve been rehearsing like mad lately which is why we haven’t heard much from them. They’ve got six new songs—-and—(this is an exact quote) “we’re working on releasing an e.p. in the coming months” !!!!

How cool is that???!!!!!

I’ll post the show details and the singer details here after they all officially announced. Look for more site posts—and general site updates—in the near future as the Poets re-launch into the universe.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! (I’m not excited, who me?, nah……LOL)

Poets and Pornstars have posted a blog and bulletin on myspace with the title “Poets and Pornstars Returning To Stage”. But when you click it all it says is “Details soon”. I think we can safely surmise that they have settled on a new lead singer, if they are announcing a return to the stage. The band have been holding their cards very close to the vest during the audition process. If this teaser announcement is meant to get us all excited about the new band member, new music, and upcoming gigs, it worked!!!!!!!

I asked Domo when and where “Country” came from. Here’s his reply about writing the song and recording the first demo. It’ll take you back to the Beautiful Spiral and early days before Poets and Pornstars formed.

Domo:

The real scoop on that song is … i was working in the admin dept [at the college] and they would let me bring my guitar to the office. I would take really long breaks and write songs and sing to girls and stuff. I actually wrote that song in full on my way to my car after work one day. The vocals in the original were more like Chris Isaak than what Hal eventually did with it. Many of the songs i wrote then including “Country” were part of a music project i was doing with my brother and a couple of friends.

It unfortunately never got finished but [we] ended up splitting up into two bands, “The Beautiful Spiral” and my brothers band “The Coma Structure”. Hal had heard some of the material i was doing (at the time we had a mutual friend [Ryan Sanquist] and didn’t really know each other) and really wanted to work with me and we eventually became the lineup with all the original Poets + me.

I can’t really remember what year it was, its all kinda blurry, but i do remember demoing the song in the summertime at an apartment off of Melrose and La Brea in Hollywood. It was ferociously hot and unpleasant that day and i was covered in sweat by the end of the session. But when we had finished the song, it was the best thing either one of us had done to date…

The demo of “Country” was a big favorite of many Spiral fans and still sort of lives on with them. It was a pinnacle at one time for me but was not heard by all that many people, so we decided to put it up so it could see some light of day.

The latest blog post from the Poets on myspace gives the scoop on the “new” song, “Country”.

Dearest Lovers and Diehards,
As a little “Thank-You” gift for your patience while we craft our second album, we offer you a new song: “Country.” Recorded during the same sessions that yielded our self-titled debut, “Country” reveals one more side of us you have not previously known. We hope it rocks your world in a totally new way. Feel free to let us know what you think. AND, let us know what’s new in your world.

With undying gratitude for your continuous support, we remain,

Poets

PS-BIG NEWS SOON!

Cool, huh?

PS: Please remember that you need to contact the Poets through myspace—not through this blog or contact page.  They’d love to hear from you, but everything posted here or through the contact page goes to me, not them (and nothing posted/sent here is forwarded to them, either).

Poets and Pornstars have released a track called “Country” on their myspace profile.  Yes, it is a country-fied song and it certainly sounds like Hal singing, so I’m guessing that this is one they did for fun some time back.  I’ll nose around and see what I can find out about the track, but I wanted to let you all know as soon as I knew there was a new track out there.

I, of course, ordered from Sally’s shop. The order was filled, mailed and received in just a few days. Very fast. Though most of the stuff in the shop isn’t specifically related to Poets and Pornstars, you can get signed PnP logo guitar picks there. A buck a piece. Cheap thrills. The shop definitely has a “musician” flavor to it with its offerings of guitar straps, picks and “rock wear”. A note about the picks: they are heavy gauge picks. Yes, of course I got some. I told Sally I was ordering and not to sign the ones she sent to me. I want to play with them, not enshrine them. I’ve already got plenty of PnP stuff enshrined around here!

Where can you get your own cool stuff from Sally? From the Sally Store at sallyhope.com. Transactions are handled through Paypal. Oh, yeah and you can leave ratings, comments, etc as either a buyer or friend through the store interface. So, if, like me, you’ve already bought something, pop back into the store and leave feedback!

Whether you use MyYahoo or not as your feedreader you can easily added both Reckless, Pretty & Wild and the comments rss for RP&W to a MyYahoo page. Besides copy/pasting the feed from here you can also point and click. On your MyYahoo page, click “Personalize this page”, then click “Add Modules”. Type Reckless Pretty Wild into Search and up will pop two modules, one for the blog and one for the blog’s comments. Click Add.

Or you can do it the other way by clicking Personalize, then Add RSS and pasting this: http://recklessprettywild.wordpress.com/feed/ into the field to get the blog’s feed and this: http://recklessprettywild.wordpress.com/comments/feed/ for the comments feed.

Don’t have a MyYahoo page? It doesn’t matter. You don’t need a Yahoo account to set up a MyYahoo page and use it as a feedreader. Just go to: http://cm.my.yahoo.com/ and you can still add pages just as described above. (You’ll need to allow cookies to be set.)