The Instrumental Song

We just received the master from our first recording last night. We drove up to meet Jacob at the Toys R Us parking lot after a hurried practice. It was raining, and since we had to lock up the house, Ben and I were a little late. It had been raining when we recorded the demo too, but any auspiciousness was relieved by the grin of Geoffrey the Giraffe watching us from above like we were middle school drug dealers.

Ben, Gonxo, and I came back to mine and Heather's apartment, and we spent some time just sitting around listening to the new cut. We talked about weak points in the recording, but all in all, we were just happy to finally have some concrete evidence of the work we'd put into this band over the past six months. Ben and I ended up staying awake until five in the morning working with our new songs on a tape recorder. We're all excited, and through the gloom of a rainy Friday evening, the progress we've achieved has never seemed more corporeal.

Here's the link to the Instrumental Song. Listen to it. Download it. Put it in your ipod. Put it in your panties. And enjoy it-- it's free.

See you soon.

The Daily Texan - 'Danger Will Robinson, Danger'

Ben Bazzrea moved to Austin with the dream of starting a band. While working at Starbucks with UT computer sciences senior Mike McNeil, the two made that dream a reality.

“After meeting Mike, I was all too eager to get something off the ground,” Bazzrea said. “I’d never really contacted anyone that I wasn’t friends with already about starting a band, so I was a bit forward.”

McNeil agreed as he laughed and described Bazzrea’s enthusiasm as a little creepy.

“Ben was extremely excited about getting a musical collaboration going, a little too excited,” McNeil said. “I mean, right off the bat, he was discussing record labels and such … kind of like talking about marriage on the first date.”

Eventually, additional members were added, including Bazzrea’s roommate, bassist Fernando “Gonxo” Marin and drummer Grey Ritchie, who answered a Craigslist ad posted by Bazzrea.

“I was looking to get into a band as a drummer, and it just kind of fell together,” Ritchie said. “Best first date ever.”

McNeil, lead vocalist and guitarist, describes the band’s sound as “a ‘60s musical milk shake.”

“We don’t stay in any one genre for longer than is necessary,” Bazzrea said.

Will Robinson and the Danger has played shows locally around Austin, including various open mics and at bars like The Parlor and Headhunters.

“I really didn’t like the open mics, but during the Parlor show, I felt that we really broke out of our shells and had a lot fun,” Marin said.

The band will perform in a battle-of-the-bands competition this Sunday at Momo’s.

“The winner goes on to do another competition in August for a $20,000 record deal with their studio,” Bazzrea said.

The band hopes to win the competition for exposure more than anything else.

“We’re all at the point where we’re all tired of our projects going nowhere,” Marin said. “We’ve all had our share of defeats, musically, and we want to get past the initial hill that you need to get a band going.”

Will Robinson and the Danger is recording an album, which it hopes to finish by the beginning of next year.

“We actually recorded a demo at the Recording Conservatory of Austin not too long ago, and we’re still waiting on the master,” Bazzrea said. “It’s only one song, so I guess you could say it’s a single, but it’s just the start of an album we are hoping to put together.”

Even though the band is just getting its start, as McNeil put it, “You can’t start a fire without a spark.”

Friday 7, 10, 2009

Today we got together for practice and it was not the best one. Ben disagrees. Spell check is the bomb.

Almost a professional

Well, several days after our show at Headhunter's with Isle of White (which went very well by the way) we are prepping for our show July 12th at Momo's Battle of the Bands hosted by Gorilla Productions. As of right now it appears that we've sold the most tickets out of all the bands but I won't know until Sunday of course. I hope to see all of your shimmering faces at the show and if I don't I'll send a Samurai to your house. Really, with a party pizza and queso.

Much love from Doug (Ben, not Doug at all)

Another point of interest: We might be playing with the lovely fellows from Isle of White again in August. I'm excited for this, like when I found out Kraft made Velveeta Macaroni and Cheese. I feel one should have a proper conduit for anger and frustration, and that's mine.

Update

Hey everyone. I just got our domain up and running and threw
this site together today. We're playing a free show on Tuesday,
July 7th, and a Battle of the Bands on Sunday, July 12th. For
times and more info, visit our myspace.

We're still waiting to hear back from Jacob on the recording,
but with any luck, we'll all be going to the studio to work on
the mastering of The Instrumental Song. You'll be the first
to hear it.