EXCERPTED FROM SUNSET MISSIVE
Hello from yr friend Bill.

Been working a while on a tour that will span 6 weeks. Thanks to my friends Paul and Tommy and Latane for bringing “the heat” in making this happen.

I called this tour the “Hot Pink Haze tour,” in honor of Himi Jendrix. That’s Jimi’s half -brother who played keyboards with Boz Scaggs and released a solo album called “Hot Pink Haze.” That album can be found in thrift store record bins.

A few words about the groups touring:
Sunset has just finished a new double vinyl album, LOVESHINES BUT THE MOON IS SHINING TOO, and will be playing songs from that, as well as a few old favorites.

We will be selling a “greatest hits” c.d., more like an intro to the band spanning our many releases in our 2 years of existence. A few rare cuts on there. There will also be an accompanying DVD of a live performance by us at Baby Blue, shot on Pixelvision and super8 film. This is a tour-only item at this point, and should be very special. It will cost only $5 ! We will also have t-shirts I screen-printed and some new pamphlets of my fiction and non-fiction writing.

Sleep Good just released an album, “Skyclimber” and they will be touring with us for the East Coast portion to support the album. If you haven’t heard their music yet, check it out now:http://sleepgood.autobusrecs.com/

It’s really good dream pop with heavy rhythm section. Sleep Good will also have tshirts and other assorted ephemera. A great live band, not to be missed!

For the west coast portion, Sunset will be doing some dates with Jesse Woods. I played with him at this year’s ACL fest and it was surreal and fun. His songs are in the modern folk vein, which means somewhere between old folk and new weird. We (Sunset) will be backing him on some songs, so it should get interesting.

Here are the dates (with some additions and corrections to come as we approach departure):
East Coast (all dates with Sleep Good except 7/8)
July 1 – Houston, TX – The Mink
July 2 – New Orleans – Dragon’s Den – w/ The White Bitch, Bipoloroid
July 3 – Tallahassee, FL – Engine Room w/ Jane Jane Pollock, Port City
July 4 – Atlanta – house party @ 4four collective
July 5 – House Party – Chapel Hill w/ Curtains
July 6 – Baltimore – Metro Gallery
July 7 – Washington, DC – DC9 – w/ Matthew Hemerlein, True Womanhood
July 8 – Brooklyn, NY — Rooftop Film Series at BROOKLYN TECH, Roof of Brooklyn Technical High School
July 9 – Philly, PA – Philebrity show on a YACHT – details on philebrity.com
July 11 – NYC – Cake Shop – w/ Inoculist, The Due Diligence
July 12 – Boston – Butcher Shop w/ Four Eyes, Spring Totem
July 14 – Easthampton, MA – The Flywheel – w/ Matt Krefting Band, Bourgeois Heroes

Midwest:
7/15 – 7/20 – eating lots of cheese curds and trying not to get caught speeding and watching the rivers catch on fire

West Coast (all dates with Jesse Woods except Seattle):
July 21 – Los Angeles – Spaceland – w/ Superhumanoids
July 23 – Venice, CA – AC Lounge
July 25 – Big Sur, CA – Alanna’s Unicorn Palace !
July 27 – Monterey, CA – East Village Coffee House
July 28 – Santa Cruz, CA – Crepe Place
Aug 1 (day show)- San Francisco, CA – Milk Bar – w/ Mark David Ashworth
Aug 1 – Hemlock Tavern
Aug 3 – Portland, Or – Rotture w/ Tango Alpha Tango
Aug 4 – Seattle, WA – High Dive – w/ Pill Wonder
Aug 7 – Boise, ID – Neurolux
Aug 9 – Missoula, MT – The Badlander
Aug 10 – Salt Lake City, UT — Urban Lounge
Aug 11 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive – w/ Gauntlet Hair

Hope to see you for one or all of the shows! If you live somewhere along the way and can put us up or want to hang or let us play on your radio show, etc, please be in touch! We love house parties and small events and even people hopping in the van with us for a day or two.

We will not be playing in Austin again until our album is released in the fall. Which means it will have been like a 7-month break. More, maybe. But it will be worth the wait. It will be a very special event… more details to come.

Yrs,
Bill Baird

Thats all he wrote, but for those of you not in Austin, be sure to check out their new live show, which is INCREDIBLE!!!

From a sold out screening of over 500 attendees at the Crowley Theater, to a live Teepee Cast from El Cosmico to the Talking Pictures Festival in Chicago, we just want to express our extreme thanks to Robin Lambaria, Ralph McKay, Rob Crowley, David Beebe, Kathy Berger, Ines Sommer, Brian Grabiner, Miguel Rangel, Lulu, Tootie, all of the other amazing members of Marfa Film Fest, the Talking Pictures Fest, our publicists Heather West and Lily Pollak, and the Marfa, TX community.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
“Clear-eyed, Atmospherically Rich- a documentary true to its place and time” – Michael Phillips

The ONION’s A.V. CLUB
“the film glided along weightlessly, a timely valentine with purpose.”

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.com
“Will Captivate Starving Artists Everywhere” 4.5 out of 5 Stars

SPIN EARTH
Movies about Music to look forward to in 2010

THE DALLAS OBSERVER
“Go See it. It’s beautifully shot. It’s loud. It’s terrific.” – Robert Wilonsky, lead critic at the Dallas Observer for 20 years, Host of The Ultimate Trailer Show & guest critic on Ebert & Roeper At The Movies

You can read more at EchotoneFilm.com in our Press section. Stay tuned for updates on our Fall release plans, have some very special things in the works!

Free TV : Ustream

Feel free to tweet in and add your two cents as we will be monitoring this feed from Marfa!

The result of this documentation resulted in an 88 minute exploration of the present cultural zeitgeist, living, breathing, sleeping in the gulleys of 10th st. and the alleyways of Red River.

It brings us great pleasure to announce that Echotone will World Premiere at the cultural epicenter of Marfa Texas on Friday, May 7th 2010 at 4:30 PM at the legendary Crowley Theater and Premiere in Chicago the following evening, May 8th, 9:00 PM, at the Next Theatre as a part of the Talking Pictures Festival.

Our producers and Director Nathan Christ, cast members Bill Baird, Black Joe Lewis, and Cari Palazzolo  will all be on site to celebrate in Marfa TX and be a part of the Q&A following the screening on Friday at the Crowley.

We will also be streaming Nathan’s Q&A for the Chicago Premiere of Echotone live from Marfa, TX, direct to the Talking Pictures Festival audience via the world wide web. You can check it out right here – Saturday, May 8 at 10:30 PM CST.

Get Tickets to the World Premiere of Echotone, May 7th, 4:30 PM at the Crowley Theater, Marfa Film Festival 2010, Marfa TX.

Get Tickets to the Chicago Premiere of Echotone, May 8th, 9:00 PM at the Next Theatre, Talking Pictures Festival 2010, Chicago, IL.

Much love to Producer Daniel Perlaky for designing a poster that represents an idea hard enough to describe in words let alone in one single image.    Feel free to download it, post it, repost it and share with a friend.

They’ve got me more excited than any event happening during the official SXSW stretch. They are ATX Emerge, tonight at the Mohawk, and Art Disaster, tomorrow night at Beauty Bar.

Without hyping the exciting bands, I’ll speak as a documentary filmmaker. These events and the people behind them (including Emerge’s sister Fall event ATX Converge) were the petrie dishes for Echotone.

It was at ATX Converge that we first filmed Black Joe Lewis (the same month he and the Honeybears signed to Lost Highway/Universal Records). The Mohawk was quick to become the epicenter for the world of the story. Not only do our 3 central bands (Sunset, Black Joe, and Belaire) all play within the Mohawk’s walls on-camera, the Mohawk also directly plays into one of the downtown development stories in Echotone. The flats across the street have caused some interesting hurdles to spring up for the folks at the Mohawk.

SXSWers! Look up! Look at how much the city has changed since you were last eating our tacos! Also, don’t for a moment think that the weather is this pleasant year-round. The heat maelstrong is fast approaching. You’re in the sweet spot.

Lastly, the grassroots companies who organized the orginal Emerge 2 years ago (Reversal Films, Indierect Records, Swatch Post, Voodoo Highway) were all utterly instrumental in giving Echotone its legs.

Some of the brightest, most talented, most passionated (and many times the most preening) members of ATX’s film/music/fashion/design culture will be at Emerge tonight. And the music will blow you away.

Art Disaster, put on by Daniel Perlaky, is likewise a nonstop art orgy. The event is aptly titled and Mr. Perlaky seems to delight in the chaos of it all. DJs, MCs, psychadelia, screenprinting, poster show, a photo booth, and free booze. The makings of a beautiful mess of people coming together and sharing in the local energy.

Cutting the scenes together from what we shot of these events over the last 2 years already makes me a bit nostalgic. Not the syrupy kind. The kind that makes me want to go out and continue participating in this very inspiring time.

-Nathan

You can check out your some of your favorite Echotone artists at the ATX EMERGE 2010 going off at the Mohawk, Monday March 15 from 7:30pm – 2am during SXSW Film!

FEATURING:

BLACK JOE LEWIS AND THE HONEYBEARS (Austin)
CALIFONE (Chicago)
SUNSET (Austin)
WHITE WHITE LIGHTS (Austin)
CAPYBARA (Kansas City)
BRAZOS (Austin)
WHISKEY THIEVES (Sonoma)
FOCUS GROUP (Austin)
TREY BROWN (Austin)
MOTEL AVIV (Austin)
PELIGROSA ALL-STARS (Austin)
ECLECTIC METHOD (Brooklyn/London)

The schedule of acts can be found ATXEMERGE.com And be sure to look for special updates by following the event on twitter! @atxemerge

Here are some clips from our long night at Gigantic, the surround sound studio. The magician you see is Tom Paul and he took our film to a new experiential level.

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

The Apeshits

Belaire

We hope you enjoyed the Valentine’s goodie we sent your way! If you missed it, you can find Live versions of Dana Falconberry’s “Possum Song” in our Trailers and B sides section.

We wanted to share the first Echotone Video B side, Dana Falconberry’s live performance video of “Possum Song,” book-ended by some lyrical city moments that provide a glimpse into the film’s aesthetic. Through our experience working with Dana and Austin’s other amazingly talented musicians, their struggle raises a key question in the self proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World…what really qualifies that statement?

We would love to hear your two cents on what qualifies a live music capital, as Dana Falconberry’s struggle is universal, whether you are creating in Austin Texas or other live music hubs across the globe. What threatens a music culture and how does one thrive? Is it the size of the community that supports a scene, the amount of venues or working musicians, the degree of community support a scene receives, or perhaps policy makers that work to preserve the cultural asset that is live music?

Feel free to leave a comment here, tweet, blog or post on your facebook what you think qualifies a Live Music Capital.

If you are interested in more from Dana Falconberry…download “Possum Song” and “Baby Blue Sky”  recorded live during the production of Echotone below.

Her songwriting reminds me of Joni Mitchell and her voice recalls Joanna Newsom. Those references are limited, though, as Dana is her own unique force of nature. Just go to one of her shows and you’ll find an entire room full of people watching in rapt silence.

The fact that Dana can’t support herself off of her music should be a crime. That’ll change soon.

Expertly recorded by David Hixon and mixed by Dave Kelly, here are a few of Dana’s songs, two of which are in Echotone.

Click the play button below to stream “Possum Song,” and as an extra bonus download “Possum Song” and “Baby Blue Sky” live by clicking “Get 2 Echotone Valentine’s B sides Here.” Feel free to embed the widget on your blog, share it with fellow music lovers on your Facebook or Twitter, and be sure to stay tuned, because next week we are leaking a scene from the film featuring of one of these songs.