Music for People Who Love Pabst Blue Ribbon

My bandmates and I played a hipster house party Saturday in Philly. The venue was amazing - an old coffin hardware factory that had been converted into loft apartments.

I guess I should start by saying I'm in a band. We're called Pioneer Rock Music. It's a new incarnation of the folk/country style band I've been playing in for the past year or so. We added another member and changed our style to more of a rock/punk/country feel. Here's the lineup (thanks to Momo for the pics!):

Ian, Sam, Brian, and JJ.

I'm playing guitar on that song. But I play drums on most of the other tracks:

JJ and Ian.

The singing duties are spread around, with Sam and Ian doing most of the lead vocals. Brian sings lead on a couple of songs - and we have a few songs where we all sing hillbilly style. You know - South Philly hillbilly.

We got a keg of PBR, keeping with the Pioneer tradition of shitty beer, bags of something, and loud music. We brought an insane number of amps, and the stage was littered with instruments: 5 guitars, bass, drums, lap steel, mandolin, etc. I've suggested we get a music school intern from Temple to help haul our shit around.

Sarah missed out because of the weather, but despite the blizzard, there were maybe 50 people at the party to hear us play. Wait, I think that's the first time I've mentioned the blizzard. By the time we started playing there were several inches on the ground. Check out what it looked like this morning:

This is Rittenhouse Square, the park near my apartment.

So back to the party. We played maybe 45 minutes. All the songs were originals aside from one cover - a punk/country version of Runaway. Yeah, the run-run-run-run-runaway song. I think overall the set was well received. The feedback was entirely positive. A buddy of ours is a sound guy and he recorded most of the set for us. Hopefully I'll be able to post a song or two in the next couple of weeks.

And one final note... Because a lot of people asked me last night, I'll address this with all of you now: Yes, Ian has a girlfriend.