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

Holly Brewer nominated for Local Female Vocalist Vote until 4/4

Avast Comrades!
I was included in the nominees for this years FNX Best Music Poll with some very talented and wonderful strong female voices from Boston. I’m honored that they thought to include lil me in it. I’ve never won an award as a vocalist in my life I don’t assume this will be the first but it’s fun to try!
Below is a quick message of WHO and HOW. Thanks you for your unending support of HUMANWINE and what it is that we are working to accomplish!

Go to www.bestmusicpoll.com to begin voting. Voting Ends April 4th. While you’re there, check out the other music categories and vote for your local favorites if you don’t see HUMANWINE in there and you think we should be, give up a "Write in" and we’ll be like the green party. ( A good idea just not a popular one)


Below is what you will find @ the site...
Look they even spelled our name right!
(bonus points for FNX)

Vote for your favorite! You have 6 options to choose from. If you don’t like those, show us what’s really good by writing in your own. Once you’ve made a choice, remember to click SUBMIT and then move on to the next category.
Boston’s Best Female Vocalist


* Sarah Borges
* Holly Brewer (HUMANWINE)
* Casey Desmond
* Casey Dienel
* Antje Duvekot
* Marissa Nadler

Change is the only constant for Itchy Fish

Malleable HUMANWINE embraces fluid lineup

photo by Max Cassidy beat to hell by Abrogated Munificents

The Boston Herald
By Barry Thompson
Saturday, February 16, 2008

To stand out in the ultracompetitive Boston music scene, a band must bring something extraordinary to the table or have a good gimmick. At a glance, HUMANWINE is an act that manages both. But scratch the surface and the gimmick reveals itself as a philosophy that encompasses music, art, politics and life itself.

Soon HUMANWINE won't be a Boston band: Plans call for a summer departure to, well, everywhere.

"Our goal is to keep moving and not stop, like a fish," said vocalist and co-songwriter Holly Brewer, sitting in a Jamaica Plain pub.

"We've been (in Boston) three years," Brewer said. "It wouldn't matter if it was France or Mozambique. I would still be itchy."

Having purchased a school bus, HUMANWINE, which plays tonight at the Middle East, is in the process of converting the engine to run on vegetable grease, the electrical systems to run on solar power and turning the interior into living quarters for two to seven people.

"We end up taking people with us," said Brewer. "If someone's like, 'I'm good at what I do, and I want to go to Oregon,' they tour with us to Oregon. We drop them off, and pick up somebody else. We're like a Greyhound, except you play music."

Naturally, a liquid roster necessitates liquid songs.

"Sometimes you can't get somebody who plays upright bass," said multi-instrumentalist M@ (as in Matt) McNiss. "So we're like, 'We don't have a bass player, so we'll have the piano supplement it.' Then it's, 'Well, that changes the orchestration of what we're doing.' "

HUMANWINE formed in New Hampshire in 2001. The group matches parabolic lyrics set in the metaphorical realm of Vinland with haunting, neo-classical-anarcho-math-punk. Band mates, rightfully, cringe at comparisons to the Dresden Dolls, not that they hold a grudge. Brian Viglione of the Dolls played drums on HUMANWINE's "Fighting Naked." To the band, labeling itself anything would be self-defeating.

"That's what art is, the connection with life in your medium," McNiss said. "If you're guarding it, saying, 'We're a blah blah band,' you're shorting yourself."

Odds are any band dedicated to artistic freedom won't last on a label, which explains why HUMANWINE split from Cordless Recordings last year. Aside from an anti-corporate, self-reliant ethic, HUMANWINE does without boundaries.

"We like the sentence 'Change is the only constant,' " Brewer said. "Vinland changes, too. With the quilt of Vinland, every song is a patch. If you hold it a different way, each song shines differently."

barrythompson84@gmail.com

Pictures from 2/9 @ The Knitting Factory [NYC] by Lauren Goldberg

Lauren Goldberg captured some great moments at The Knit. You can check them our HERE.

More Pictures of the bus are on their way. We're editing Part I of the Documentary now. It's bringing back the memories of JUST HOW COLD it was working outside all day and into the night in early February. Soon all this will be over and we can chase the sun until our skin falls off.

LONG LIVE ART! RAH! RAH!
-HUMANWINE

We got a bus!

Avast Comrades. In late July 2007 we came up with the idea of HUMANWINE staying out on the road for a Perpetual Tour. Now it seems that we have taken the first step of our journey. The remaining steps of converting the engine to run off of waste vegetable oil, outfit it with enough solar panels and batteries to run the band, and fill the interior with home.


If all goes well, the bus will make it's first appearance at
this show.
We are so happy to announce that we will be overhauling the brake lines + tries next week. SAFETY FIRST! Here's is to the future!

LONG LIVE ART RAH! RAH!
holly & m@

The Phoenix catches a glimps of HUMANWINE