July 7R4N5M15510N

07-05-08 Avast Comrades! July 5th, 2007 we decided that we should live in a bus that was converted to run off of people's wasted used veggie oil. one year and $8,043.00 later paint=$60.00 bus=$1,500.00 insurance=$300.00 brake lines=$40.00 registration=$350.00 6 new tires=$2,328.00 2 state inspections=$110.00 circuit brakers & flare kit=$40.00 brake drums, calipers & pads=$2,995.00 lights, light covers, wipers, mirrors=$320.00 People have donated wood, tools, screws, nails, the conversion kit, barrels, pressure sprayer, parking space, electricity hook up, sinks, stove, fridge, water heater, piping, distro box, cables, screen, blankets, steel, their time, money and use of vehicles/bikes to get us this far. Our bus needs a tune up before we can move forward. We need your help to see it through. Any donation that you can make is most appreciated. Our goal is to get this done in the next week so we can make it down to Boston for the 18th show. We estimate about $300 of work so it will probably be $400. Please help us out if you can by donating online We came up to N.H. to get our bus inspected and it passed with flying colours. We also came up because M@'s bro, Nate is gettin' hitched in the White Mountains Region on the 8th of July! Go Nate! We're very excited to come back to Boston on July 18th as openers for Squirrel Nut Zippers @ The Paradise; See information below. 07/18/2008 Paradise Rock Club 969 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA 02215 617-562-8800 Doors @ 8:30pm 9:00pm - 9:45 Come Early! $20/18+ 8:00pm - doors open check out the tables 9:00pm - HUMANWINE (45 Minute set) 10:00pm - Squirrel Nut Zippers Recycled Movement www.nervousrelatives.com Our goal has shifted from a "plan" (that perpetuates a system of dependency which would only enslave & hide us) to a PLAN which allows HUMANWINE to speak to as many people as possible in the most independent, clean and self-sustainable way our current technology allows. Please donate to this RECYCLED MOVEMENT if you can. To the Krew: Gordon Corless, Al The Ninja, Jake Von Slott, David Dowling, Tom Porter, Max Cassidy, Nebraska, Jill, Maus & Josh Diers, Will Weiss, Maaak and many more for donating your time, energy tools & appliances. Sheri Anderson, Angie Brown, Jennifer Murphy, Ben Parson, Nicole Keane, Charles Hein, Sarala B., John Reimers, Bill Knighton, Uwe Schaefer, Barbara Goldman, Matthew Muise, Sarah Blackmore, Guillermo Briz, reAnimation Studios, Eben Holub, Bobby Masuret, Patrick Fitzgerald, Seth Maleri, Oedipus, Ron Nordin, Jerome Brewer, Chase & Barb McNiss, Sara Poisson, Terra Fredrichs, who have donated loot to Recycled Movement. LONG LIVE ART! RAH! RAH! word. holly & m@ Dr. Todd, 9-11 cover up, Zeitgeist , DemocracyNow! IMPEACH Bush and Cheney HUMANWINE.org , MySpace , WebLog , LJ , the61 Fighting Naked and mp3s also available through CD Baby, Napster, iTunes, PayPlay, Tradebit, GroupieTunes, MusicIsHere, Inprodicon, GreatIndieMusic

6/21 Show/ June 7R4N5M15510N

06-16-08

Avast Comrades! The Solstice show this weekend will be our last show in Boston, as residents. We will be celebrating the arrival of summer! We set sail at the end of June. Where will we go? everywhere. But First we're off to N.H. to get the bus inspected for another year. M@'s bro, Nate is gettin' hitched way up north on the 8th of July and we'll be bouncing around New England playing shows in VT, NH and ME, working to finish the interior and exterior of the bus for our departure from "the nest" in late summer. If by chance we do have another show in Boston after June, it will be as guests. An open letter to Boston Boston, You are everything we hoped you would be. We found gold here, none of the players have been natives but you have been a meeting place. We stayed for 3 years, that's longer than we've stayed anywhere. Though your media has misunderstood us a bit and confused us a bunch as "the next big thing" and filled your columns briefly with fluff stories that served as a distraction from what is real, all and all you've come around. We think you have a good idea of what we are, how we work and why we even make muzik in the first place. You have figured out that HUMANWINE is not an entertainer and what we make is not manufactured for easy or passive consumption. You have seen that we use muzik as a soapbox from which we will never shout, "Buy our Crap! Stare at our glamorous photos and feed our vanity! Create a Frenzy for us! Give our lives meaning!" Rather, We are active, conscious members of the human race who also write songs. The cause and the message would be cheapened and would go down simultaneously if were to take an active or passive role in the music machine of today. We say this because so often we hear the words..."When you make it big" or "I'll say I knew you when". Only time can prove how very much we mean it when we say that we have no intention, ever, at all, of "making it big" and please don't hope to find yourself saying, "I knew them when" let it be that you will still know us because we are all working for the same goals. Exposing the Bush crime family, The Rothschilds and Rockefellers and other coups against humanity for the sake of the wealthy elite, supporting investigations into the 9-11 cover up, celebrating documentaries such as Zeitgeist, seeking out REAL NEWS like DemocracyNow! with REAL JOURNALISTS like Amy Goodman, supporting bills in the House (Kucinich: D- Ohio) to IMPEACH Bush and Cheney which work to TRY THEM AND THEIR CABINET IN A COURT OF LAW FOR WAR CRIMES IN THIS ILLEGAL WAR, supporting the abolition of Human Trafficking, TORTURE and the END of the U.S. occupation in Iraq. Supporting, researching and utilizing renewable resources, reusing AND recycling what we bring into our lives, taking care of ourselves and our friends, making more friends, slowing down, slowing down and thinking clearly about our environment, the new buzz words "Extreme Weather", flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes and our impact on our Earth as a result of a greedy, FABULOUS, false, cheap, "just throw it out" after it's not fashionable consumer lifestyle. The music business doesn't have room in it for thinking clearly, not enough room for us anyhow. We strongly discourage you from spending your money in Sprawl+Mart. We thank you for your constant support and hope that you continue to look closely at what you are eating, drinking, listening to, looking at and supporting because you are taking it all in aren't you, you are a global citizen with everything at your fingertips. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. We all are. YOUR STORY is interesting. YOU matter. Fight the urge to live through other peoples lives because you think they are more interesting than you, they aren't, they're selling you something. You don't have buy it. ARE THEY USING THEIR BAND TO SELL REVOLUTION? ARE THEY USING REVOLUTION TO SELL THEIR BAND? Keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the floor, it's a fantastic time to be alive. Oh and... Apparently there are now only 5 nations on the world left without a Rothschild controlled central bank: Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan and Cuba. Not too long ago there were 7 nations on the list...Can you guess which 2 they were? Afghanistan and Iraq. Who do you think the U.S. Government will target next? word. HUMANWINE 06/21/2008 - Cafe 939 Berklee College 939 Boylston St. (next to Cactus Club) Boston, MA 02215 SOLSTICE! Doors @ 7:30pm 8:00pm - 11:ish Capacity=200 people Come Early! $15 General Public - $10 students 7:00pm - Be there EARLY to ensure a spot! 7:30pm - doors open, check out our tables 8:00pm - Julia Easterlin singer/songwriter and jazz vocalist 8:45pm - Luminescent Orchestrii Romanian gypsy melodies, punk frenzy, salty tangos, hard-rocking klezmer, haunting Balkan harmony, hip-hop beats and Appalachian fiddle, all eaten and spit out by two violins, resophonic guitar, bullhorn harmonica and bass. 10:15pm - HUMANWINE Socio-political lyrics from a band who lives what they sing about. Family. Struggle. Peace. On the tables: Recycled Movement www.nervousrelatives.com To sum up our goal has shifted from a "plan" (that perpetuates a system of dependency which would only enslave & hide us) to a PLAN which allows HUMANWINE to speak to as many people as possible in the most independent, clean and self-sustainable way our current technology allows. Please donate to this RECYCLED MOVEMENT if you can. Tunes & Tees: All of the bands will have merchandise at this show. Donate Scraps to Recycled Movement What we still need: + Galvanized Steel air duct + Steel Bed frames + 6" and 8" 5/8 - 3/4 bolts + 2 pieces of 5/8 - 3/4 Plywood + 4 screen doors or 8 window screens If you have these materials or can direct us to them... Please write to: donate@HUMANWINE.org June 2008 Cover Story By T. Blake Littwin Photos By Dave Kimelberg FREE COPIES If you live in CT, MA, ME, NH, RT, or VT then email web@performermag.com for a list of locations where you can pick up a free copy. There is a celluloid element throughout much of HUMANWINE's music, an audible spinning of dusty movie reels. The stories in their songs unfold in a fictional place called Vinland, a surreal space full of characters good and bad. This strange new world highlights an important artistic truth that perhaps best explains HUMANWINE; creation is control. The authorial power that comes with defining a new world is all encompassing and unlimited in scope and range. Writers place readers into scenes and breathe words in to their characters, while painters grace their subjects with light and weight and let viewers take it all in. Good musicians string together melodies and rhythms, mapping out a specific listening experience full of peaks and troughs. When in that space � in their world � we're subject to their creation. The regular rules no longer apply. At the core of HUMANWINE are M@ (Matt) McNiss and Holly Brewer. While living in New Hampshire they spun in the same musical circles for half a decade before working together. Once the connection was made, the duo began producing music at a prodigious rate. Eventually moving to Boston in 2005, the accolades soon followed as HUMANWINE won the WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll and the "Best New Local Act" at the Boston Music Awards in 2006. The following year, their album Fighting Naked won "Best Album of 2007" by WBZ TV. The band has enjoyed recognition but is still hard to pin down in terms of their overall sound. "I wouldn't describe us as anything," says M@. "Muzik: that's what we play." "...If anyone listens to HUMANWINE without a visual representation of what we mean, I feel like they're getting half the story." explains Holly. In HUMANWINE's visual world, Vinland is a diverse realm. There are YerYer, Enjoyeurs, Hordes, and Abrogated Munificents. There are conflicts, struggles, and men overboard. There are mindless cogs who never question their place in the machine. Vinland may be a well-constructed fantasy but the issues HUMANWINE address through the individuals and institutions contained within are modern and familiar. What should listeners take away from their episodic visits to this world? "If they feel uncomfortable that they're not alone," says Holly. "If they think that it isn't right to have a cubicle and a rat-like job and to be unhappy all the time. It's not normal for humans. If you feel uncomfortable about it, it's fine: you're totally on the right track." For M@, the idea of acceptance extends beyond the issue of corporate employment. "One of the most major questions ever that we ask is 'What are you consuming'?" he says. "What are you taking in? What are you believing? What are you taking for granted? What are you putting into yourself?" Modern consumption comes in many forms and perhaps one of the most insidious and ubiquitous mainlines goes unnoticed on billboards and buses. "A lot of what we talk about is advertising because you're just bombarded with it," says Holly. "I don't want to become desensitized to it.� The band draws on personal experiences and observations but tries to avoid the confessional, first-person approach that plagues many acts. "It's not to say we don't sing about ourselves, says M@. "We try to include greater numbers than just ourselves when we're writing a song. We put our own thoughts and emotions into this but we try to make a bigger thing. The world is way bigger than just the two of us." Although HUMANWINE's music is an amalgamation of genres and styles (there are dirges and waltzes and metal riffing) their lyrics have a decidedly punk edge to them. This designation is a complicated tag though. Holly recounts several instances of people approaching the band after shows saying, "Your music is not punk but your lyrics are punk, but I guess that's really punk!" M@ explains that HUMANWINE, "is not 'punk rock' but punk is a mindset so anything that goes through that filter has that attribute." Holly continues, "Before punk turned into, 'let's drink beer and throw beer bottles at squirrels in the park,' it was actually kids like us being so rip-shit about the classism in England that they would focus more on class rights and women's rights and they truly felt it was 'cool' to be political. It was cool to give a shit, and it's not like that anymore � especially here. Punk to me has always been synonymous with being a politically active member of your community." While HUMANWINE has carried on punk's philosophical torch, they have eschewed the more aggressive front that is associated with the movement. The decision to address social and societal woes in a less grating manner is a deliberate one. "Nobody likes that or learns from just being yelled at or forced into something," says M@ of punk rock's confrontational tactics. "People learn much quicker and much better and actually evolve at a greater rate, I think, if you just present them with the pieces and let them put it together. And people do. You have a serious thing to portray to others but it's generally done angry, people are screaming and yelling." Although listeners are brought fully into the world of HUMANWINE, there is no a soapbox to be seen. They may pass through the looking glass but aren't berated with a manifesto. "We're not yelling at people. We're being creative and singing about it in a way to allow people to enjoy the music. If they want to take that other step and look a little bit deeper they start to see what we're really talking about. It all goes back to allowing the people who listen to our music to be creative with it in their own right because we're not necessarily spelling every single thing out." Sharing their world is second nature for HUMANWINE. Orbiting the band is an ever-changing lineup of musicians who are pulled in for a show (or a series of shows) and then set loose. Seeing the band perform one night can be an entirely different experience a month down the road. The musicians work with M@ and Holly separately from one another and often meet for the first time on stage. It's all part of the expansive but porous world that the band has created. "We hand pick our top-notch favorite players out of every band in the area," explains Holly. "That violin player, that cello player, that upright bass player. We're not a band wrecker because everyone goes back to their band afterwards. It's serious but it's not monogamous. It's like you're a mistress band" The broad talent pool that HUMANWINE draws on also means that there are very few dates they can't play. "It never stops the show from happening," says Holly. "That's a great benefit." While M@ and Holly are still the creative force behind the HUMANWINE universe, they appreciate the multitude of benefits that come from playing with other people. "We do write all our own material," says M@. "But at the same time, because we're picking these top-notch people, we feel very safe at having the input of these other musicians. It makes it a whole new thing and it enables us to re-look at the song, to say as we're teaching, 'Hey maybe you play this instrument. Let's make this sort of different, actually, [and] try this thing.'" The band also attempts to deconstruct the rigid line that often divides the audience and the band. "A huge part of it is getting people...who wouldn't normally do something in public like play an instrument or bang on something or run around with a painting," says M@. "It's a way to evolve what we do." As unique a system as it is, HUMANWINE wants to expand this idea of a musical collective to embrace a larger body of people. "Our dream," says Holly, "is to collect other bands who are like-minded and have a community with them; a circus-y vibe with actual collaboration. If we could get five to six bands that all have buses, that all have circus acts, that have Bread and Puppet based themes with puppetry and a political message, all the lines blur and you're one monster." To that end, HUMANWINE has taken careful steps to retain control of the creative world around them. They were signed to a label but now release and promote music through their own label called Nervous Relative Records. They handle their own artwork and graphics. They are also in the process of converting a bus into a mobile home and tour vehicle. "We're control freaks," laughs Holly. "We have to be in control of everything because our names are on it at the end of the day." M@ agrees with that punk ethos but acknowledges that it's not an exclusionary or narrow view. "DIY or die," he says. "A lot of what we do we see it, hear it, smell it, feel it, taste it, so to have somebody else do it would be more work in the end. We need to be involved with absolutely everything but we love working with other people. We love having new energy." In the same way that HUMANWINE constructed the ethereal Vinland, they have managed to create their own world within the conventional sense of reality and the rules have been written. The traditional ways of addressing issues in songs and playing shows have been supplanted by a new methodology. The old ways have been cast aside in favor of widespread collaboration, stylistic crossbreeding, audience involvement, and an undying commitment to controlling what they put out and let in. Once you cross that threshold and are under the big top, enjoy the show. View story on-line LONG LIVE ART! RAH! RAH! word. holly & m@ HUMANWINE.org , RupertSpace , WebLog , LJ , the61 Fighting Naked and mp3s also available through Napster, iTunes, PayPlay, Tradebit, GroupieTunes, MusicIsHere, Inprodicon, GreatIndieMusic

(c) 2008 Nervous Relatives Records

MAY 23: Climate Confluence Benefit in BOSTON

MUSIC for LIBERATION!

FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2008
6:00pm – 10:00pm
$7-15 sliding scale donation

The "Dojo"
1486 Dorchester Ave, Boston
RIGHT across from the Fields Corner T-Stop on the Red Line

Featuring the music and the message of:

HUMANWINE (socio-political freak folk)
EVAN GREER (of the riot-folk! collective)
THE PAPERDOLLS (acoustic gypsy punk on tour from FL)
AMATUL & NATEBOX (radical spoken word from somerville)
BAMBUU WAZA (local voice of liberation)
ADELAIDE (puppets and ukeleles. at the same time.)

Proceeds will support The Northeast Climate Confluence – a critical social/environmental justice gathering this summer to strengthen relationships within our region and organize to take care of the needs of our community and decrease our dependency on the institutions and systems that are killing the planet. More info: www.climateconfluence.org

We will also be supporting a bail fund for activists who will be protesting the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

2 hour TV Turn Off Show/ Getting on my own nerves

So HUMANWINE played a 2 and a half hour set on Saturday May 3rd. For all of you who came thank you for helping us fill Great Scott, thank you for being you, Emily, congrats on finding the World's Wisest TinyTV, Thank you for your concern over my well being (holly here) and thank you Courtenay, Ashley, Adam, Nathan & N8 for being so insane and wonderful...

pictures by Dave Green are here
http://www.adoorable.org/temp/HUMANWINE/index.html

We loaded in around 6pm.
I walked through the door and noticed a huge altar to RCN (cable company), which I though ironic considering we rented the room for the night and we did not invite RCN to be a part of the event. We did however have 2 other organizations tabling the event, one is TEN The Emancipation Network which works to abolish modern slavery and RAW! RAW! RAW!, Boston's first radical cheerleading squad (of which I am a proud member, I am also the treasurer). Back to the RCN altar. I dropped off a bunch of my equipment and approached the guy working the table and asked him what 'they' were doing there and he said it was a promotional thing but didn't say much else. I told him we needed the space for our 2 organizations and that he could moved to another section. He started to pack up the key chains, flyers and the blue tarps saying "RCN Cable Network". I left to tell everyone else the scoop. When I started to set up the tables for our guest bands, We Will Eat Rats To Survive and Drake, I noticed that the fellow was now joined by another person, she said that they were from the Phoenix (a local magazine) and that they were sent to the show as part of a promotional thing. All this seemed very strange to me since, it was after all, a Celebration of "TV Turn off week". I mean. did they know, did RCN just see "TV" on our flyers and think, that's the show we want to be at. I don't know but I found it all amusing. The girl and the guy asked me if they should pack up completely. I said,"I'm not a censor, Cable companies DO exist, we just don't have any room for them, so do whatever you want as long as you don't eat into the merch table space. They seemed satisfied and a little surprised once I told them it was a celebration for TV Turn off week.

Meanwhile...
Since April 2nd I have been feeling a very strong pinching feeling in my pelvis (left ovary region), being a veteran of ovarian cysts I figured it was another one.
Having no health Care Insurance I decided to wait it out but it never ever went away.
It only got worse.
So on the say of the show 1 month and 1 day after the pain had started it all came to a climax.
I spent most of the day crying in intense pain.
I decided that I had to play the show but that afterwards I would just check into the ER for council.

When I got to Great Scott I was met by Courtenay (cello ninja) who promptly gave me a whole bouquet of flowers!
I decided that if I should spent time in the hospital that I would already have room decorations.

The Cellist from Drake told me she was a Reiki worker and offered to spend a little time one me.
Once I could rest for a moment during the dead time when the merch tables are set, the place is decorated, the TV had been stashed for the scavenger hunt, we had sound checked and Jill was on food details, I walked over to Monica (Drake's Cellist) and said I was ready. I got up on an unused merch table near the back of the room and laid my ass out. We Will Eat Rats To Survive was sound checking, I closed my eyes with little tears streaming down my face and just zoned out. It felt like she was pressing on me but there was no contact, I could feel "static" coming from my spine into my pelvis. We had a good 25 minute session before we realized the doors had been called and people were coming in. She wrapped up and told me to lay there for a bit, asking me how I felt. I noticed that the pain had moved for the first time, from my pelvis to my lower spine and that I was relieved to feel at least a different pain for once.
She is so wonderful. I really think that gave me the strength to do the night.

We powered through every bit, I felt like fainting about 3 songs from the end but we did it. I was happy.

So we finish the set and I go over to talk with the manager about loot and he hands me loot laughing and talking about the RCN guy.
I told him my story and he laughed even harder. He said, "When you had the Scavenger Hunt for the TV and the girl (Emily) found it, HAHHA The kids with the RCN table looked so..hahaha...everyone at the bar broke into hysterics when you announced the little factoids about spending 7 years of your life watching commercials...hahaha..oh my god so check this out okay...RCN picked HUMANWINE's show to promote apparently they were shooting off Ads on FNX (Phoenix) Radio for 2 weeks saying "RCN sponsors HUMANWINE @ Great Scott" or something like that..hahaha! I guess they dug your band, THEY OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T DIG DEEP ENOUGH!! HAHAHAH!

It was so ironic that I am truly touched. It may have well been Revlon, Nike or Buick but who ended up taking it upon themselves to use a band's local show for more airtime...a cable corporation...during TV Turn Off Week.
Now I know why he was laughing so hard, why they all were. I am too. I think I always will. That's one for the books I said, and here it is, on the books.


We've got some shows coming up, on of which is a Benefit show to pay for upcoming lawyer fees to get folks out of jail who are planning to attend the Republican National Convention (RNC) <---oddly enough. So in preparation for the Nazi tyrants at the Convention, we are playing a Benefit to raise loot to get the good guys out of jail. That's on May 23rd.
Go to HUMANWINE.org for show details.

P.S.
I went to the ER right after we broke down and packed up.
Jill took me.
We stayed there until 8am.
The docs were great.
They took ultrasounds of my insides from the outside AND the inside. yikes!
pain, pain,pain.
No lumps or cysts detected, I was left with the possibility that I was walking around with a pinched nerve that had "A typical radiant pain" coming through my pelvis.
Jill set up an acupuncture appointment for me that following Friday.
I went, it was awesome.
I have magnets taped to me still.
It was sooooooo expensive. $250 for the first visit.
I told her that if there would be a future visit it would have to be a barter.
So I'm making her a website in trade for more care.

Ever since they stick the inside ultrasound wand up me I have felt a tiny bit better.
It's like we scared the thing into submission for a bit.
Doing okay.
Thank you for your care.

LONG LIVE ART! RAH! RAH!
-HUMANWINE

TV Turn off week /Big show May 3rd

In Honor of TV Turn off week we are having a scavenger hunt at our next show for the world's wisest TinyTV. We will be giving away a few prizes, playing a 2 hour set, sharing with you 2 of our favorite bands, We Will Eat Rats To Survive (Chicago) and Drake (Philly) and we will have 2 awesome organizations with tables at the event, The Emancipation Network and RAW! RAW! RAW! Boston's First Radical Cheerleading Squad (Holly Brewer is a proud member of both). Check out the info below. We called today to find out about tickets sales and they're going fast. We're reserving 2 for a ticket giveaway on WERS. Keep your ears peeled for that...



The "Come Over Here Series" brought to you by HUMANWINE!
We get to bring our favorite bands to Boston!

HUMANWINE will perform for you a full 2 hour set!
We also get to bring two of our favorite bands from Chicago and Philadelphia.
We want you to see these bands live!
Drake
We Will Eat Rats To Survive

***Great Scott holds only 220 people. YOU have the first opportunity to buy tickets***

Special Event:
A Scavenger Hunt for "The Wisest TinyTV in the World" In honor of "T.V. Turn Off Week (April 21-27)

TABLES:
Two very important organizations will have tables at the show on May 3rd.

The Emancipation Network (T.E.N.)helps survivors of human trafficking,
and women and girls and boys at high risk for being trafficked, by offering them
a means for self-sufficiency and an economic alternative to further exploitation.

RAW! RAW! RAW! Radical Cheerleading Squad. Educate your Mind and Exercise your Body!
Come and find out what both of these groups offer and find out how you can be a part!

A funny story

Narrated by Holly: photos by JohnnyBurma and Johnny Arguedas
Last night m@, Jill and I loaded into Harpers Ferry at 4:30pm and met with the sound engineer , Ben and the monitor engineer, Tex. Everyone HUMANWINE besides Courtenay had filed in by 4:45 and we set up stage for our sound check. We had known we weren't going to have Courtenay for sound check but when you're playing with someone who has been with their instrument since they were 4 yrs. old the fear level is set at a non-existent hum. One really great thing about the Rumble is that all bands get a full hour sound check for their 30 minute sets! That is unheard of in the rock club world. You're lucky to get a sound check at all, usually for an hour long set. The sound check went well and gave us hope for a good sounding set. With that out of the way we all went our separate ways for food and rest and planned to reconvene for the 8:00pm doors. By 9:oo the show was begging to get underway, we got a call from Nathan Cohen (violin) saying, "Hi we're at an apartment in Allston right now and I have the strangest news..." it was really loud in the club and we couldn't quite make out what he was saying but he said that Brian King (piano), Courtenay (cello) and he would be there by 10:00pm, leaving a little down time before our 10:40 slot. Keep in mind that this is the first show Courtenay has ever played with HUMANWINE. So 10:00 rolls around and they meet us in the 'game room'. Courtenay pulls out 2 mechanic style shirts and 2 mechanic style pants. She says, "Well I knew I wanted to wear a mechanic outfit so I stopped by this garage a few hours ago and asked the guys working there if, in trade, I could play them some Bach on cello for their outfits. I played for them and they literally took off their clothes right there and gave them to me!" She now pulls a set of keys out of the pant pocket and says," I think I have the keys to the garage here, either that or the keys to someone's car they were fixing!" So Nathan and Courtenay donned the very used oil stenched clothes while laughing like kids in the back room. I couldn't stop leaning in to smell them, that true oil, anti-freeze, kitty litter, dust smell, for some reason I really like it, it reminds me of my family...
We started to load up onto the stage one after the other, first Brian King and his piano, then myself running to the front of the stage with Nebraska Dontask with the "YouBangies" and the weights that hold them stable on the front of the stage (facing the audience), They are these wooden frames with all sorts of bits and pieces of human life like can lids, can, bent spoons found on the street, paint can lids, hose parts, piping, tubes, bottle caps galore and string. The whole thing is screwed, nailed or woven together giving you a glorious array of pings, tings, tongs, bings, swishes and pops. After I set up my guitar and mic Brian was completely boxed in, then Nate Greenslit came up piece after piece of drums, cans, lids, smashy things and then it was time for Ben to begin placing the mics, while that was going on m@ was making ready his guitar set up, which is very minimal so he had time to tune my janky-ass acoustic, next up was Nathan Cohen who has a minimal effects set up and his violin then while Courtenay got her folding chair (thank you Brian) situated I offered to her that I would hold her cello while she set up. With my heart racing I did it. You have to understand something about me an violins, cellos and upright basses. When they are under my care, my blood pressure seems to change my skin gets cold and clammy all the visions of how this thing is going to smash to bits in my hands come to mind, it's exhilarating sure but it's still no bueno as we say in J.P. Ahh! Alas! Courtenay is all set up and I am relieved of my temporary duty as YerYerOwn Cello-Holder. Paul Dilley has a small amp for his upright bass he's just about finished tuning when the announcer, Robby Roadsteamer asks if we're ready to go and we give the "okay". I wish I could remember what he said but it was something like this, 'I want you to put your hands together for the hardest, heaviest metal band in all of Boston...HUMANWINE!'
(Before we began m@ got the audience to shout,"Fuck Yeah!" on the count of 3 for the band who played before us, The Shills, these kids are solid. We're looking forward to planning a show with them this summer. I was convinced they were going to take the night and was just hoping for a Wild Card* at that point) We opened with a song called "Epoch" it starts on with just me on guitar playing very very very softly and singing all pretty like. So during the first bar or so, in my best cookie monster voice called out a slow,"Mehhhhtahhhl" and we began our set. I don't really remember what happened during our set because I like to tune out the world so I can tune in our songs and really get inside the worlds in them but I do remember that during "Rivolta Silenziosa" our last song of the set, when I handed out drumsticks for the "YouBangies" to the first few rows of people facing the stage. They hopped on immediately smashing and crashing their way through the song. It was perfect. Good Job folks!

Players:
M@McNiss, Courtenay Vandiver, Nathan Greenslit, Paul Dilley, Nathan Cohen, Brian King, me and the first few rows of the audience.

* Each night's winner moves on to the semi-finals the following weekend, with two wildcard bands rounding out the top 8. The two semi-final winners are joined by one wildcard band for the final round the week after that. A special guest, usually a national touring band, headlines the finals while the judges come to their final decision.


packing up
Photo by JohnnyBurma
Harpers Ferry, Boston, M.A.
Click here to see the whole photoset from JohnnyBurma for that night.


Photo by Johnny Arguedas
Harpers Ferry, Boston, M.A.
Click here and also here to see the whole photoset from Johnny Arguedas for that night.

Boston Herald gives a "nod" to HUMANWINE twice today

Rumble Odds - This is an article by Jed Gottlieb about his opinion on who’s gonna take the tiara at the 30th Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble

WBCN’s Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble is still kicking - This is an article by Jed Gottlieb about the ghost of rumbles past. HUMANWINE is not mentioned in the article but they used our picture so we wanted to tell you about it.

Go to our "Rumble Coverage Site" to check out the dates we’re playing and find out what the hell this Rumble thing is all about and why we’re doing it.

LONG LIVE ART! RAH! RAH!

-HUMANWINE