Look for us back on the stage in September.

In the meantime, you can still order copies of Look Up for all of your friends that can't wait until then.

         Thank you for all that you are.  See you in Autumn.

As for our tour, there are some videos that need some work (unless you want to see a 16-min clip of our 4-min radio performance of "Childhood" in Washington D.C....didn't think so).  But we'll get a few snippets up here soon.  For now, I'll take you on a quick visual summary of our journey...

Alle drove for the first time in 10 years.  Literally.  Here's her smiling at how terrified I am in the front seat.  

We were in this parking spot for 3 minutes deciding if this was a good idea.

We eventually made it to Philly, and then D.C. where we were invited to be interviewed on the George Washington University radio station.  As mentioned before we also played "Childhood", and had a sudden diva-pose session in the studio:

Diva Brian

Diva Mally

and Diva Alle

After we got over ourselves, we moved on to Baltimore and almost missed our gig while getting caught up in how each of us would organize our Catan settlements, cities, and roads.  Alle chose a speech bubble:

(what do you think, is the developement card a Knight, or is she hiding a Victory Point under there?...)

Then on to North Carolina.  Charlotte and then my hometown of Asheville.

In Asheville, something special happened I would like to share with you.  I had a lot of Uncle-time with my new niece Evelyn Joan Tavener, and in this very appropriate video clip featuring three different generations of my family (that's my Mama!) the&co finishes up singing "Childhood" to Evie...

Just in case you didn't get enough Cute today, there's this:

After some much-needed family time, we pushed on to Decatur, GA for the Eddie's Attic Open Mic Challenge.  I am sorry to say that I don't have photos of us playing CLUE: THE VHS MYSTERY GAME in our Super 8 Motel room, but I am happy to offer this taste of the game.  It truly is an amazing hour and a half.

On down the road (or up rather) we ran into some old friends in Raleigh, NC for our biggest show of the tour:

I was fortunate enough to sit in with my old pals The Dogwood Deddy, now consisting of Leon Godwin (Double LG Photos) and his wife, Brianne, slaying the drumkit.  Above is the original line-up, including a surprise visit from Joe Kwon, the cello-extraordinaire of The Avett Brothers.

So now we are back.  And ready for a new season.  We hope all of you are well, and we will hopefully see you at a show soon.  Cheers!

love, Tav

Other cities include:
Washington, DC on Tues July 26 - DC9
Baltimore, MD on Weds July 27 - Joe Squared
Charlotte, NC on Thurs July 28 - The Evening Muse
Asheville, NC on Fri July 29 - House Concert
Decatur, GA on Mon Aug 1 - Eddie's Attic Open Mic Challenge
Raleigh, NC on Thurs Aug 4 - The Pour House
NYC, NY on Sat Aug 6 - House Concert

(click so where for more details)

Its been nearly two years since our last tour... can't wait to see what the road has in store for us this time.

Hope to see you down south!

Maybe it's that we have our monthly show coming up [Thursday 6/9, Life Alive Cafe, Central Square, 8pm].

...or the outstanding beer I had at a Kenmore Square watering hole while listening to the wonderful tunes they were playing and re-reading a chapter of a neo-classic novel [Grand Teton "Pursuit of Hoppiness", The Lower Depths, Sunny Day Real Estate, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows].

...or because Mally and I finally got around to watching The Social Network [still don't know what I think, can't get past the Hollywood dramatization of Harvard partying and the asshole nature of EVERY character]

...no, it's probably all the car horns.  I've been hearing an increase in horn-blowing.  People.............................................come on, people........................take it easy.........................................we don't need any more noise in our lives.

We. Are. All. Humans.  Positive + Negative energy.

Without getting into too much of a HDA (Hypocritical Danger Area), I just wish there was more thoughtfulness, more respect out there.  I understand people upset people.  That will always happen.  But when someone gets upset at you, would you rather them explain themselves calmly and completely and then hear your side out, or call you a "fuckface" and give you their middle digit?  I would take the first option, so I try to always give the first option.  Besides, who's going to listen when you're blaring your horn in a real emergency, about to hit a pedestrian [because you were on your phone].

I understand that Apple [grovel, grovel], rather than introducing the much-anticipated new Iphone today, has introduced the Icloud...more convenience for a culture constructed by it.

The "cloud" isn't really there [unless it's cumulonimbus--hopefully not funnel-forming, but you never know these days].

The person you're walking into while plugged into the cloud [and then blaming them for getting in your way] is really there.

It's time we all get a little outside of our distraction-filled lives and remember that everyone is human.  No one is entitled to any more or any less, despite what society seems to prescribe to.

*** 

Yes, I was reminded about the power of blogging by the still-unevaluated The Social Network.  Yes, I've already entered a huge HDA just by critiquing the "cloud" while I record my thoughts in/on it.  And no, I would not have written this in the winter.  It's only because it was sunny out, I had the day off filled with delicious beer and great conversations with people I do and do not know, and I'm having a rare day during which I feel like my thoughts are somewhat concrete.

But after typing that, I could be wrong about all this.  After all, I'm only human.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!

(L)                                                                                                (VE)

-tav

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsFQxUbMRxE

 



"NYE" is track 5 off of "Look Up," available on January 16, 2011 at The Burren in Somerville, MA.

"you show up late for your symphony date, for every no you’ll someday cave. break even with your struggling sides, half of you is so lucid, the other half tied down in this paralyzing fight. break even, you know all the noise, you’ve got the right level ever oh forever: you’re just thinking trapezoids. break even, you know where you are, the literal chalkboard, chalk and no eraser: it’s not even metaphor. forget the fall. the scrape on your knee. forget the lost purse. broken ocular cavity. things that you’ve lost, things that you’ve found, a subtraction you’ve made, you’re not sad, you’re not proud. the valley told you that the peak is the place and now you’ve got proof you can land with some grace."

Happy 2011 everybody.

  So turns out that you won't have to wait until the CD release party (Jan. 16th, 2011 @ The Burren) for The And Company live.  

We'll be playing THE LIZARD LOUNGE in Cambridge, MA on THURSDAY DEC. 23rd.  If you're around for the holidays and want some "company" (rolling on the floor laughing, right?), come on out.

And I am pleased to announce that we will be joined by the one and only TOM SMITH!  Here's a selection from Tom's blog, "The Kitchen Musician."

More info at the "So Where" page.  At this show, the new album by The And Company, "Look Up", will be available for pre-order, as well as some other merchandise for last minute stocking stuffers.

Happy Holidays, and we'll hopefully see you one more time in 2010!

-Tav

For our cabin recording session, we allotted an entire night to begin our bar soundscape by creating a Bottle Orchestra.  Intended to be a communal event, Tom Smith graciously joined our ensemble.  We had everything ready...bottles from the trip thus far, people to blow into them, and a killer take of Alle playing and singing the song.  Now all we had to do was, well, come up with all the parts.  And, not to mention, "tune" all the bottles.  Here, you can witness the deflation of what was once a productive session, all at the hand of creativity.

Some time during that video Mally went to bed.  Alle soon followed.  Tom tried to stick it out (as you can see in the video) but his boredom soon got the best of him (understandably so) and he left.  I finally admitted defeat for the night, but it turned out that all our time was worth something--we at least got the notes we needed for a great orchestra.  At the beginning of the following day's session, I whizzed through the bottle recording, sampling each note with clarity, only to use the samples to build the Bottle Orchestra onto the track later in the production process (gotta love ProTools).  After adding all the other components (pounds, clinks, bar noise), this is what "Sad Little Bar Customers" will sound like on the record.  Cheers.

 Another funny thing about creativity is that you never know what path it will lead you down.  We had emptied quite a few bottles that night, so with everyone else passed out Engineer Tom and I ended up staying up for sunrise while completing a very unique take of another song on the record, "Childhood."  Without the flawed bottle session, "Childhood" would never have existed as it does now, gravel dancing and all.

-Tav

After a few cancelled shows, caught up in a depression of our own, Mally and I ceased to play music during this time as well.  It was then when I first realized, I'm not a musician right now, I'm only a member of The And Company.  It's all of us or nothing.  Questions upon more questions arose about the future of the band.  Were we going to record this album we had planned to start in August?  Were we going to be able to play live again?  And most importantly, was Alle going to be able to play the piano like she used to.

Then an email was in my inbox one morning.  "Slow Down".  It was a new song by Alle, that she had written, in spite of her injury, only using her right hand to play the music.  It was the beginning of a renewed energy to get this album done.  Here are some videos from our studio-cabin in New Hampshire from the making of "Slow Down"...

a botched take

engineer Tom Bianchi works with Mally to fix the accordion-case-bass-drum while Tav and Alle discuss parts

 Tom and Tav discuss accordion mic placement...but we eventually end up recording the accordion in the same room as everything else.

Here is the album version of "Slow Down", the "simple heartbeat" of the forthcoming album "Look Up".

 Listening to this song now, in it's fully recorded form, I realize that it was Alle's will to move forward...to "look up" past her misfortunes to a future of possibility...that has inspired The And Company to continue to make this record.  As I now battle tendonitis issues in my wrists, I'll be sure to learn a thing or two from her example.

-Tav