#phourist

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

undefined

Poorcastle 2k17: part 2

If you were at Poorcastle or saw the first video I posted, you know the band at least made it through one full song -- their opener, Floated Along the Milky Way -- before a fast-approaching storm forced them offstage. Second on their setlist was supposed to be a debut song from a forthcoming, still unnamed album. It’s way too early to talk details on all that, but can we take a moment to appreciate that the first time the audience heard the lyrics “well, the wind picked up and it carried me away” was right after a gale-force wind swept a tent into the air and sent it sailing over them?

While watching me write this blog post, Nick accepted a request for a comment. “We were hoping our count would actually go UP this year,” he remarked offhandedly while playing Skyrim on the couch. “Last year, we played four songs because I forgot my power cord for my keyboard. So that’s on me. But next year, if we end up playing Poorcastle again, we’ll be lucky to get through a third of one,” he joked while attempting to buy property in the town of Solitude.

Despite his in-game hermetic tendencies (“you would try to buy a house in a place called Solitude!”), Nick-in-real-life is adept at rolling with the punches. The band took it all in stride, and is offering a make up show (read: inviting real live humans to watch them perform) at TNT studios.

Details can be found here (and more TBA) but the gist is:

“PHOURIST & THE PHOTONS Poorcastle Set Re-do”

JULY 28 @ 8pm

TNT Productions - 6303 Fern Valley Pass, Louisville KY 40228

Cost: FREE if you present Poorcastle wristband. Otherwise, $5 advance tickets will be available soon.

Seating is limited, so the band has asked those attending to please RSVP on Facebook.

[stuartwicke]

undefined

If you’re in the Louisville KY area, mark your calendars! Friday, February 2 at 9pm, we’re (Stuart Wicke Band) celebrating the release of our new album “Run for Help,” supported by our close friends Phourist & the Photons, and Aby Laby Land.  Here I am recording the closing song on the album, “Light On.” Click here to RSVP and follow the bands’ pages!

[rubylionprfirm]

Check Out Waterfront Wednesdays!!! Live Music, Food & Drinks...What More Could You Ask For? @rubylionprfirm #rubylionprfirm #wednesday #wcw #waterfront #louisville #Repost @downtownlouisville (@get_repost) ・・・ Waterfront Wednesday is back! See you Downtown on the last Wednesday of every month through September! The first of the season happened last night and it was a gorgeous event! Check out these awesome photos by local photographers and follow #waterfrontwednesday for more! Waterfront Wednesday info: April 25: Lissie, The Weeks, Phourist and the Photons May 30: J Roddy Walston and the Business, Sunflower Bean, Parker Millsap June 27: Bettye Lavette, Company of Thieves,  Dr. Dundiff w/ Otis Junior July 25: TBA August 29: TBA September 26: TBA Are there any new attractions for 2018? Yes!  Look for the new kids activity area led by Jecorey Arthur, 90.5 WUOL’s Music Education Manager. Classical Corner will offer activities where children can play, explore, and learn the world of classical music. It’s free and all ages when you sign up at our information booth or have a Cultural Pass, but parents must accompany any children under age 7. Activities begin when the lawn opens at 5 p.m. (April’s event will also feature The SkyStar Observation Wheel, providing rides on the Big Four Lawn from March 29-May 7.) Featured photo and video credits: @lindseytm28 @troy_lee_photography @dustintucker502 @snapshotdove @luke_chochola24 @questoutdoors @graceface_2000 @lilmccready82 @jen_nw @maggiemenderski (at Louisville, Kentucky)

[under-the-autumn-tree]

Sound

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

Me, uploading this video: “Wait, it’s floated -- in the past tense? Not ‘floating’?”

Nick, about to vacuum the apartment like a responsible adult: “No. That would be psychedelic and stupid.”

#themoreyouknow

Happy Phriday, everyone! 

It’s been a minute, but the band has finally surfaced: catch them tonight at the Hard Rock Cafe @ 7pm. A source close to the blogger (...that’d be Nick himself) reports that listeners can expect to hear some Phourist deep cuts. And, you know, hopefully this one -- just be sure to request it by name.

If this show’s out of reach, here’s what’s floating around in the future tense:

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

undefined

Pourcastle 2k17: part 1

So, mother nature (that mother f*cker!) put a bit of a damper on this year’s festivities. In Nick’s own words: “if you were there, you know what happened.” If you weren’t there, well, check out this video...

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

tfw Ben Sollee nods along to your music on live TV...

Tomorrow, people! 7pm Phourist & the Photons, 8pm Curio Key Club perform at Ben & Hal’s Bike-In!

Q: “What’s that?”

A: “It’s like a drive in, but you bike!” 

Poster design: Elizabeth Tremain Farrar

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

2pm is the new 3pm

SUNDAY APRIL 23RD, LEXINGTON KY--

Last Sunday at 3pm, the Photons took the stage at the Lexington Convention Center for the last day of  KY Crafted: The Market.

Am I alone in thinking that 3pm is the worst time of the day? Let’s pause for a second, because I’m not even talking about the show. I just mean - in isolation, considering all possible times of the day - three o’clock is just frustrating, right? If you’re a morning person, this is about the time of day that you run out of steam. Or if you, like me, work a job that prevents you from synchronizing with the rest of the world, then 3pm marks the mental shift from “citizen just going about her day” to “employee preparing to endure the next eight hours.” If you’re somewhere in the middle, can we maybe still agree that 3pm is too late to really start anything, but too early to conceive of such rituals as Getting Ready For Bed?

Maybe it’s just me?

At any rate, the band played so well that my usual 3pm-induced anxiety went unnoticed. (3pm on a Sunday, no less! Thanks, guys! I digress). Actually, due to a misprint (2 and 3 are very close together on the keyboard), two-thirds of the band arrived and was informed that they were supposed to be going on in a few minutes... 

At 2pm. 

CUT TO: 

STUART, bass player, lollygagging en route to Lexington

Thankfully, the dapper gentlemen of Small Time Napoleon agreed to switch time slots, and the band played on. 

...Except we can’t really call it “switching,” because I think they were also under the impression that they were to play at 3pm. 

If you missed Phourist & the Photons this past Sunday, you can catch them at Walden School on May 13th in support of Hal & Ben’s Bike In. More details to come!

photo by @anthonyheiskell

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

a bloody good show...

actual photo from last night’s album release party. expect an article as soon as my hangover subsides...

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

the morning after: photons 3/25/17 album release party brings joy, hangovers

SUNDAY MARCH 26, 2017 --

Today feels like Boxing Day. 

Saturday night's album release show was Christmas...

WFPK’s “Live Lunch” was Christmas Eve... 

...and now, on the Sunday after, there's nothing left to do but relax and play with CD-shaped toys.

As tonight comes to a close, I'm feeling good. (And, if you recall, "good" is exactly how Nick intended concert-goers to feel. Mission accomplished). 

Everything is unwrapped, so to speak, and I can finally talk about the album without consequence. Until Saturday night’s show, it was my strange (and purely circumstantial) privilege to have been the only person to have heard the whole album in its final form. While We Still Have the Morning underwent some very last-minute changes -- from artwork to track listing -- and I was sworn to secrecy throughout the whole process. For about a week, my day-to-day with Nick went something like this:

Nick: hey come look at this cool thing I made

Me: wow yeah that's really cool can I preview it on the blog

Nick: no

Me: why

Nick: just wait 'till it comes out

Me: but people want to see it [grumbles indistinctly]

I make sure that nothing here is published without the band's consent. That being said, it was really hard not to share any details... and I deserve a medal for keeping quiet. 

While We Still Have the Morning began as your standard list of nine songs, but thanks to one of Nick’s epiphanies (c. Tuesday, 9AM), morphed into something weightier: a concept album of sorts, complete with an introductory track that samples pieces from elsewhere on the album and lends the work a sense of unity. Over the course of about 72 hours, the original bombastic opener was scrapped, as Nick felt that kicking off the album with "another banger" (a la Moonlight) would be too reminiscent of In Infinite Indigo. "It didn't make sense to open with something that would set up a tone that wouldn't be matched elsewhere on the album," Nick said. The band agreed, and thus the album in its final form was born. 

The setlist on Saturday night was wide-ranging: as expected, the band debuted material from Morning, but didn’t over-do it and still left much to the imagination. In addition to tracks off Indigio, some Phourist “deep cuts” (love that phrase) also surfaced: off Terrestrial Daydream, we heard the singsongy “Hello Nothing” and a jazzed up, full-band version of “Floated Along the Milky Way.” We were also lucky to hear an arrangement of “An Android Named C-17″ from The Garage Sessions. “Android,” one of my favorite tracks for its philosophical lyrics and killer melismatic vocals, is tricky to find; it’s not listed on any of the releases currently available online. 

As always, the Photons delivered. The show was rounded out with two more of my favorite local bands: the effervescent Aby Laby Land, and the prog kings of One For The Doc. 

If you missed the show (or weren’t able to snag a copy before they sold out), no worries. Digital copies are available on Bandcamp for $8. 

WHILE WE STILL HAVE THE MORNING

OFFICIAL TRACKLIST: 

1. Good Day Off

2. Well This Fiction...

3. Sorry

4. You Beg The Air You Breathe

5. Caught A Glimpse of the Mirror World

6. Sound The Alarm

7. The Figure Walking Past Your Window

8. I Will Find You There

9. Day 17, Walking This Time

10. Mountaintops (You Go Where You Need To Go)

11. Childlike

12. 12

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

bourbon & ginger, hot fuss: an interview with Phourist drummer Scott Boice

FULL INTERVIEW:

Name: Scott Occupation (outside of Phourist and the Photons): Online tuxedo rental concierge Current mood: Tired. F*ck daylight savings AND working Sundays. Last Thing Eaten: Two ginger chicken tacos from El Lobo Bailando (the food truck outside of Kaiju) Favorite drink: Adult beverage? Bourbon and ginger beer. Normal? Probably Ale-8.

Now that the essentials are established, we can get to the real "meat and potatoes" of the interview. (Unless you're a vegetarian - in which case there will only be hearty potatoes to follow)...

Q: How do you feel about the words "your release show is in two weeks?" A: AAAAHHHHHHHHHH haha. Truthfully I've been stressing out about it a LOT lately, but I trust us to come through and pull it together. I'm mostly excited though. I've been itching to play a show for almost 3 months, and this signals the start of doing that again. Plus I'm ready for people to hear the tunes we've been whipping up.

Q: What do you generally do right before a show? A: Depends on where we are playing. If it's a bar, I like to have a small bite to eat, maybe a drink or two. Right before we play, I grab a (patent pending) Stage Beverage™ and set up. If it's a normal venue, I don't really do too much. Watch the other band(s) if we're not opening, find a way to dick around. Mostly I'm building internal energy. Stuart suggested that before each show we should find a place to yell.

Q: You've been playing with the Photons since 2014, but tell us a little about your Drum Quest. How long have you been playing drums? What made you pick up sticks as opposed to bass / guitar / oboe / etc. ? What else do you play? 

A: That's a lot of questions. My Drum Quest (I love that, feels like a DnD campaign) began after a viewing of the famed percussion super show STOMP. I think I was 8 years old? I was totally blown away by the sounds. My parents bought me a pair of sticks with the stomp logo on them, the first pair I ever owned. I still have one of them next to my kit. Soon after, my parents bought me my first drum set and I immediately set to work trying to play Immigrant Song. My mom swears my Quest began at age two when I pulled out all the mixing bowls and set them up in a semicircle on the linoleum and wailed on them with a wooden spoon. I remember at one point picking up a guitar right around age 9, but I couldn't figure it out so I stuck to drums, and woodwinds never made sense to me. These days, I play guitar, (poorly, I should add. Mostly just walls of sound.) and synthesizers. I've been pretty into synthesis for the last couple of years. That, and effects pedals. I couldn't have picked a more expensive hobby. I'm going to go into diorama building instead.

Q: Musically speaking, who is your biggest influence? 

A: This depends on when you ask. Right now it's probably Brian Chippendale from Lightning Bolt, which sounds nothing like Phourist. Also Greg Saunier from Deerhoof.  Five months ago it was Zach Hill. Going back a few years, it was mostly jazz drummers. Max Roach, Art Blakey... Of course when I first started it was the law offices of Bonham and Peart.

Q: Who would you love to open for? 

A: Does it have to make sense musically? Either way, The Killers. I love the Killers so much, I'm not ashamed to say it. Their drummer goes in the list above. MMJ would be fun of course, I feel like we can get a similar ambient vibe going on. Dr. Dog would be another huge one. Pretty much anyone on Anti Records (please be our label, I'll do anything. I mean anything.). I'd open for any band I want to see pretty much. Aby Laby Land.

Q: Describe yourself in three albums.

A: This one is also a matter of "when" but right now.... -Hot Fuss (the Killers) -Wonderful Rainbow (Lightning Bolt) -Best of Chuck Mangione (Chuck Mangione)

Q: In your personal opinion, what makes a good performance? When you go to see a band play live, what are you counting on seeing / hearing? 

A: I try not to count on seeing anything. The key to happiness is low expectations. I think Chuckie Finster said that. I do expect to be entertained or something. If not entertained, I want to be full of questions, I want them to provide an experience. A good performance is all about attitude. And movement, which is all about attitude. You'd be surprised how much "getting into it" can change your sound. If you're building up a song, get low, go higher physically. I saw a band recently that did a really long build to basically nothing. It felt like the same level the whole time and they were static. As a performer, you've got to get into it. There's no other way. You have to be 100% in the zone. If you're not, the audience can tell. I've seen mediocre bands that have completely blown me away with their performance. They're not mediocre in the slightest, but Daikaiju put on one of the best shows I've ever been to. Shit was on fire, drums and drummers were held above the crowd, the energy was primal. I couldn't hear right for a week but it was worth it.

Q: What are your feelings on drum machines? 

A: I like them. I don't want to be replaced by one, nor do I think they have the capacity to replace a live drummer. However, I have seen some people (Tony Robot, Atomo) play them live instead of as a backing track and that's always cool. I personally have the Korg Volca Beats and that thing is a blast. There's a time and place for them, which is whenever and where ever you want. It's your music.

Q: Describe the best gig you've ever had: 

A: Best or my favorite? Best phour us is usually Poorcastle. You can't beat that crowd and the album sales that follow. Headliners was also a good one because 1. we got to play that level of venue and 2. we drew a crowd. “Drew?” I guess. You know what I mean. Our first album release was also cool as hell. Something like 100 people showed up, we had never had that happen before. My favorites are a little different. Phat Bites in Nashville is definitely on that list. We were the last of four band, two of them sucked. The place was a deli during the day and a bar/venue at night. When we got up to play, everyone else just went outside. We sat through two hours of shit garbage and they just go outside. The room was empty. I think anger fueled (what I remember to be) a fantastic show. I was a little drunk. I remember yelling something about Kenny Chesney and George Strait. Nick and Stuart are probably tired of hearing me say Be Here Now, but sweet fuck I love that venue. The place has a great vibe and they put our name up on a marquee, which as it turns out, is the way to my heart.

Q: Describe the shittiest gig you've ever had: 

A: Melody Inn in Indianapolis. It was on the way home from Chicago on our tour last winter. It was maybe 12 degrees outside, ice on the roads. Immediately when we got there the door man told Stuart he had to wait outside and we were dude, no. That's not going to happen. The bartender was really cool about it though. Coincidentally, those were the only two people that saw us play, minus Phil Brown of course. The opening band sucked ass and left immediately after their set. It was horrible but at least I got to go home and sleep in my own bed afterwards. 

Q: Who do you think is your biggest fan? (Besides, like, your mom. Hi Jennifer! @jenlynmed) 

A: Oh man. Probably Annie from Talkupy. And the Flies on the Wall guys. We've got a pretty solid fan base, I'd say. They're really supportive. 

Q: Where would you love to go on tour? (The sky’s the limit with this question. France? Spain? Muncie, IN?) 

A: I'd love to tour up and down the West coast. I think it'd be cool to go play a bunch of islands that don't get outside live music too often, too. Also the ISS. 

Q: In a parallel universe, what are you doing right this second? In life, in general? 

A: I'm definitely dead. That or I have two dogs and minimoog and my life outside of that is largely the same. 

Q: #1 thought that keeps you awake at night: 

A: It doesn't make sense that animals are "alive." What the hell is that all about? That, or I become conscious of my breathing and that keeps me up for another hour. 

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 minutes? 

A: Finishing up Nightmare on Elm Street 3. And this interview. 

Q: This time [March] next year, what do you want to have accomplished? A: in my personal life, or the band? 

With the band, I'd love to be working on our next album and my solo stuff. In my life, I'd love to have my new place decked out, have some terrariums built, have all my shit together. And I want to own a Bitquest by Dr. Scientist. 

Q: “Why you dressed like ‘at?” -Nick 

A: I gotta upstage you somehow.   

Q: Parting words / closing arguments: 

A: Buy our album, come see us live and follow us on social media! Also do whatever you feel in your heart. 

“I'M NICK”

Be sure to check Terrestrial Daydreamer for more upcoming interviews – including those of a video’d nature – as well as more behind-the-scenes intel about the Photon’s upcoming album, While We Still Have the Morning.

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

#tbt window-writing tracklist: the beginnings of While We Still Have the Morning (september 2016)

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

undefined

“PHOTONIC BURST!”

Phourist & the Photons performing (the end of) “Midnight” at Headliners Music Hall in Louisville, KY. 

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

The Photons performing last April at Headliners Music Hall in Louisville, KY. Check back tomorrow for the accompanying video...

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

so fun to play, he writes truthfully but crosses it out because I made fun of him for it

[terrestrialdaydreamer-blog]

Phourist & the Photons performing at the 2016 Poorcastle Festival in Louisville, KY. 

Far left - Stuart Wicke, bass

Far right - Nick Hill, piano, vocals, guitar

[Not pictured] - Scott Boice, drums

...And for what it’s worth, the blog author is dead-center in the white shirt