Sunday, September 20, 2009

Rabbit Rabbit. We make the earth tremble

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I most certainly apologize for my gross negligence of this here blog/forum for all of you wonderful listeners around the world.. I've been trying to regain a grip on my own consciousness as well as digest and comprehend whats been going on in our world of RX... And from what I can tell, its been pretty fucking awesome. When I'm on the road, my level of articulate-cognizance kind of goes out the window and the repetition of touring makes writing anything worth reading in this here blog just plain difficult. That said, just so I can ease myself into this whole mass-communication thing again, I shall be brief and just say this: While I find it to be very true that the more I travel and experience the less I know, there are other things which remain consistent enough, true enough, evolutionary enough, loving enough, and supportive enough to provide an anchor for me to continue to roam and indulge my own existentialism. Thank you music, creative brothers, family, friends, audience/fans, assholes, cops, and delicious tasting food, for providing me with enough concrete sensation, good or bad, to keep me here and now in the moment. Questions will always be multiplying for me, causing my experiences to drown in my curious nature.. but now I know when to say when, and make things as real as I want them to be. Here's what the hell we've been up to:




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Part mobile home, part submarine


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everday


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You can shout stuff.. but we have a loose plan already


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I can play 'Chopsticks'(even though Lucie calls me one)


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Thanks for your comments, they will be noted and considered..Siiiiiiiiiike


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Venues have shows. We're just one among thousands


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Brothers


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anyone with the balls got a chance to jump up on the drums, this was Roger's night. Even drumming a little during our last set wrecked my hands and arms because I got no chops


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"yea bro, I just saved money on my car insurance..."


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Havin a chat with our brothers in Zechs Marquis at soundcheck before I jammage with 'em


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my bday on Lake Shasta. Do you pontoon boat?


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So utterly bromantic its not even funny.


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You guys probably don't know about grown-man-slumber-party either.


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This is what GUNTHER does


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Some of the most chill and fun times on the road, hangin outside with the family, in good weather right before bus-call

Friday, July 17, 2009

We were made for eachother.

You know who we are. You know we aren't the band who will have massive amounts of money from a faceless label to put into marketing and advertising our new record. You won't see us buy our way on the front page of myspace, or on a tour sponsored by rockstar caca-drinks. This is not 'holier than thou'... This is the story of a real band, with real guys just trying to survive solely off of playing music without selling too much of themselves. We enjoy the luxury of being musicians and musicians only. We are lucky enough to not have jobs on the side so that we can devote ourselves fully to writing, and practicing music so we can continue producing the best and most honest tunage performed at the top of our abilities. We still get excited selling out shows; something we hope for, not expect. This is the path of our band, and by no means are we alone on it. As participants in the musical world I hope you know where you stand in this equation, because you are a good majority of it. Determining whether or not we as musicians are weekend hobbyists, or life-long committed artists. We cannot clear-cut our musical landscape that is available to us in these modern times, using up a bands musical offerings and tossing the wrapper out of the window of the hype car (even if a lot of it is garbage.) Crappy bands with hype deserve a chance at making it the right way as well, touring and improving while earning their fans one by one through impressing them, not by marketed persuasion.

Many of you have our new record already from a leak that went up a few weeks ago. Flattering indeed that people would want it so bad, but it doesn't help us pay rent. Our new album is currently available for download on amazon.com for $2.99, and every download, just like every head out our shows, matters and counts for a lot. We must continue to feed into what we enjoy and take from, and if you're someone who will always get albums for free, only go to shows you can get on the list for, and talk all kinds of righteous bullshit on various music message boards about bands ethics then you need to know you are not helping. The days of dudes walking into an office, signing on the dotted line and getting a check are dead... this can be a wonderful thing, cutting out the corporate middle man, but only with your participation. If you care to, please go buy our album. For crazy-cheap right now on amazon, or for not-crazy-cheap later or at a show.. it doesn't matter. If you don't want to buy our record, at least help support the bands you love by buying their album. Everyone's story is different, and everyone has different situations.. if you can't afford to support, this does not make you less or inadequate. We just all need to know that bands like us survive because of you the audience, and now more than ever if you want to see bands like us stick around, we are completely in this together.

Monday, June 15, 2009

So you've heard the new song?

.. Its our adorable little Frankenstein of a song. It was actually the last song written during our final rehearsal/writing sessions in San Pedro. Like many of our songs, it has another title to us which refers to the feeling and pace at which the verse guitar-lines move with each other but you know it as "Hope is a Butterfly, No net its Captor (Virus of Silence)". Believe it or not, the piece in many ways wrote itself with the 4 of us performing a sort of song-smithing on both ends, sweaty and tired, pounding away to contain and compliment the song's natural form. We can't contrive the material our songs are made of, but we can bend and form the ideas which we are lucky enough to have come to us. Remember: the Notes, the tones, the sounds and the rhythms are no different than any material anyone uses to create anything with; they are omnipotent and all around us at all times of the day.

music is the space between the notes.


S. Choi RXB

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I remember when Safeway Select sodas were 25 cents

Its been a while since I've last written something, or at least something worthwhile which I haven't ended up scrapping. There have been many things I had wished to address but that is also missing the point of why I write a '(b word I hate)'. I somehow have put a lot of pressure on myself lately to write something creative, engaging, entertaining, witty, and all the other things I wish to be perceived as, but I realize that's foolish and came randomly from some sort of insecure place. I don't do this for the attention or praise of my actions and thoughts, but to create a community for people whom we feel are like-minded in consciousness and the mutual appreciation for music and creativity. Sometimes I need to remind myself of these things.


Most people don't like change... its just a fact. I myself don't like it too much in regards to things I like and enjoy, but as a whole try to embrace it in the general life-sense because I like the growth and the experience, but also because you either adapt and accept change or you get burnt and shitty. We are all familiar with this cliche I'm sure, albeit in a more articulate and less crude way then I just said it. So as many of you know we have been dealing with change ourselves here in RX camp. We recorded our latest album as a four piece, and have performed a handful of shows as such. Some of the best compliments we ever receive, is when people tell us how much they have watched us change and progress over the years, and how much they still love the music we make.. The beauty in this is that its double-sided, ultimately ending with a great compliment to that listener for being creatively open-minded as someone who we make our music for and I feel a great affection for people who respond to us in that way. Was it a conscious decision to move away from horns? Absolutely not.. to be honest that's a ridiculous notion to me, as I view any instrument as only a vessel to create different sonic textures and landscapes, and definitely not something to define us musically or in a genre. In my opinion thinking like that is creatively weak. Sometimes its creative circumstances, sometimes its life circumstances, but whatever it is, we deal with what we have to work with and keep in mind that music and creativity is paramount. Many people have also expressed their disdain for us "abandoning" certain genres, and not staying true to who they THINK we are, especially through our current instrumentation. To these people I ask: "Do you get what we're about? Will you be the parent who still treats their child like a 10 year old when they are fully grown?" An extreme analogy I know. Why would you ever love a band as much as your own child right? But its not about that...Its more about whether you want to hold onto an image or specific attribute of something or someone you love, or watch it grow to be what it naturally is meant to become, even if it falls short of what you believe to be its apex. This is the point I'm trying to make. Part of the beauty of this whole exchange between creator and appreciator is however, your right to like and/or dislike whatever you want about us, DUH right? But just know that there's no point in telling us about your favorite aspect of our past other than your own satisfaction... It won't change a thing because we have no choice to progress and change. This is not an option for us, nor is it a conscious decision... it just happens.


I hope I don't sound salty or anything because I'm not. I'm really happy. I'm so proud of our new record and I have instantly taken a liking to it like no other record we've done. Even more than 'The Resignation' (fyi which many people hated on when it first came out). I say this because I truly believe the ultimate respect you can give anyone, especially your listeners, is to be completely honest. We don't view people at our shows as patrons, but rather participants in what we're doing.. so naturally I don't respect it when people who listen to our band expect to be patronized by us. I like being a fan.. I love finding things I like enough to earn that title.

-S. Choi




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Ditched 'Groove-tech'. Our new style is 'cabbage patch kids'

Thursday, May 7, 2009

In the Studio #2.

I swear I'll write something soon.. when I get the energy and the mental clarity.

Friday, April 10, 2009

I ain't goin' out like Buddy Holly.

Currently in Long Beach, CA:
69°F
Winds: NW at 12mph
Partly Sunny
Humidity: 46%
Dew Point: 48° F
Pressure: 30.10 in

Yet another flurry.. And I find myself here and now in the few days that are the eye of the storm where it is oddly quiet and peaceful while we wait for the next revision of the mixes from Fudurich right before it goes to mastering. The recording is for the most part behind us, but now the supercharged next year or two of traveling, playing shows, talking w/ people, attempts at sleeping in multiple time zones, trying to stay in touch with homelife, and trying to find sanity await.


We did a an interview for Ryan's Rock Show a few days ago.. once again we appreciated not being asked stupid questions and got into quite the conversation with Ryan about music technology and such. I didn't know how much energy I had to talk, because the interview was at 9 and the gf and I had already had quite the long day at LA County Museum of Art and shopping for new jeans for me, seeing as all my other pairs have massive crotch holes from cycling in them so much. It reminds me of times where I believe both Matt and I have taken spills onstage while wearing no underwear repping huge holes in our pants.. Sorry to the individuals in the audience who were traumatized for life by our private parts. That was probably when we were still looking for people to put us up on tour also.. I don't know how people did it with the way our band used to smell.. well the other guys at least, ha!

I gotta do laundry.. we're flying to Wyoming on tues to play the Union Ballroom in Laramie, WY at the University of Wyoming in Wyoming wyoming wyomakjdfjhadslk. I am actually looking forward to seeing the big big skies and getting some sweet pics, as I usually do out there. The last time played the University of Wyoming, we had to take this tiny 14 seater plane to Laramie from Denver Intl and we almost died. The winds and the turbulence were so bad that even the navy seal going home for a visit next to us had the white-knuckled death grip on his arm-rest. Cgak, Matt, Sheets, and I were all trying to get to happier places while Joe was maniacally laughing for his coping steez... so this time we're driving our own damn-selves to Laramie from Denver and I'm gonna enjoy every minute of it blasting tunes headed up the 25.. maybe we'll stop at the oh so ghetto fabulous Cracker Barrel for some of their biscuits and cornbread, we don't get that middle-America stuff out in California.. I think there's a Waffle House next to the hotel we're staying at in Laramie also. More ghetto fabulous.

I'm gonna go get my Sunday afternoon on now, but all you in Denver and Salt Lake who keep telling us to stop through your zones and play get off your lazy asses and drive up to Wyoming to see us rather than writing the bands myspace to come to your cities after we just played there.. or don't.. we'll be back out on a full US tour this summer with a little something up our sleeves. I'll check back in here after we return from this show.. if we're still alive.




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Wyoming, we're coming for you.


P.s. Sooooo happy for the new Tortoise album. Tortoise.. be my friends.