Hey, fans, Katie here!  Joe has written all the blog posts so far, but (as usual) I have a lot to say, so here I am.

I feel like we need a name for our followers.  Lady Gaga has Monsters, Walk Off the Earth has WOT-lings.  Joe suggests our fans should be called Squares, but I fear that may have a slightly different connotation than what he intends.  What do you suggest?

Bizarre Love Triangle is moving in another direction these days.  While we will still be true to our roots, with lots of love songs and lovely ballads and folk-pop-country acoustic songs, and you’ll still be able to find us in tasting rooms and quiet corners, we are also increasing in size and volume.  In December last year, we had the opportunity to play Hamley Steakhouse, and we really wanted to offer up fun music that people could dance to.   To get the volume we wanted for the gig, we added a snare drum for Carl and a (big) bass amp for Katie.  We beefed up our set list with up-tempo, high-energy country and rock tunes, and people danced!

Over New Year’s Eve, we visited Wildhorse Casino and danced the night away to a great band called Brickhouse (please visit them here on the web, and like their Facebook page here).  Brickhouse has high energy, lots of fun interaction with the audience, tight harmonies, talented musicians, a huge variety of tunes - all danceable - and they are awfully nice to look at, too!  We had had so much fun at Hamley Steakhouse, and so much fun dancing to Brickhouse, that we were inspired to change up what BLT can offer its fans and customers.  We will essentially have two bands you can hire - a listening band and a dance band.

We started looking for a drummer and a second guitar player, and the Universe brought us Gordon (please check out his bio).  We are having SO MUCH FUN!  Gordon has great pipes, and can sing while he plays the drums (we have no idea how he does that)!  We are still looking for another guitar player (hit us up on Facebook if you are or know one), and we are thrilled with the full sound of extra vocals and the fact that Gordon has a better sense of tempo than we do.  Adding the drums frees Carl’s hands up for the keyboard and gives him the opportunity to play the other neat-o percussion toys he has been acquiring for the past three years.  More cowbell!

We’ve got a bunch of fun new dance covers, plus several new originals.  We’re booking gigs left and right and having a ball.  Come see us, and tell your friends!  And don’t forget to like our Facebook page to get all the latest updates.  (You can do that here.)

 

Hollywood Comes To Walla Walla with AMC’s New Competition Series, “Showville”

 
Thursday, June 6th at 9pm ET/PT

 

WHAT:  Walla Walla is set to make its television debut in an episode of AMC’s new competition series, “Showville.”

This new unscripted series is a celebration of performing and a fond, funny look at the lives, workplaces and families of local talent acts and what happens to them when Hollywood comes to town.

Auditions in Walla Walla were held at the Power House Theater drawing all kinds of talent, including singers, dancers, comedians and more.  From the queue of contestant hopefuls, “Showville” mentors – actor/director Alec Mapa and choreographer Lisette Bustamante – selected four finalists, including Bizarre Love Triangle.  The acts then had two days of intense coaching before getting up on stage in front of friends, neighbors, family and coworkers to show off their skills and earn the audience’s vote. Tune in to find out who was crowned the big winner and awarded a $10,000 prize and a loving cup signifying their achievement as the town's favorite act.


MORE INFO:             Created and executive produced by Laurie Girion (“Cheerleader Nation,” “Welcome to Sweetie Pies”) and distributed by Sony Pictures Television, “Showville” consists of eight one-hour episodes and premieres on Thursday, May 23 at 9pm on AMC.  The series centers around a small town talent show featuring local acts, who get the chance of a lifetime to be in the spotlight.  Each week, a one-hour episode of “Showville” touches down in a quintessentially American small town and puts together a talent show in a mere four days.    

For more information, visit AMC’s press website: http://press.amctv.com

 

About AMC

Whether commemorating favorite films from every genre and decade or creating acclaimed original programming, AMC brings to its audience something deeper, something richer, Something More. The network reigns as the only cable network in history ever to win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row, and boasts the most-watched drama series in basic cable history with “The Walking Dead.” AMC’s original drama series include “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Walking Dead,” “The Killing” and “Hell on Wheels.” Its newest series, “Low Winter Sun,” premieres this summer.  AMC also explores authentic worlds with bold characters through its slate of unscripted original series like “Comic Book Men,” “Small Town Security,” “Talking Dead,” and “Freakshow.” AMC is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks include IFC, Sundance Channel, and WE tv. AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile. AMC: Something More.

Fame meets Main on AMC's new unscripted competition series, Showville. Created and executive produced by Laurie Girion (Cheerleader Nation,Welcome to Sweetie Pies) and distributed internationally by Sony Pictures Television, the eight-episode series centers around a small town talent show featuring local acts, who get the chance of a lifetime to be in the spotlight. Showville is a celebration of performing, and a fond, funny look at the lives, workplaces, and families of these acts and what happens to them when Hollywood comes to town.

Each week, a one-hour episode of Showville touches down in a quintessentially American small town and puts together a talent show in a mere four days. On Day One, the series' talent coaches, actor/directorAlec Mapa and choreographer Lisette Bustamante, host open auditions. Any and every kind of performer is welcome to show their stuff and tell their story; at the end of the day, Mapa and Bustamante select the four acts they feel will put on the best show for the town. The coaches have the next 48 hours to mentor each finalist in preparation for the “big show” and the performers must also juggle their real jobs, their families and their nerves. Day Four brings the final competition, presented at a well-known town venue for a live, local audience.  Then it's up to the performers' fellow citizens -- including friends, family, co-workers and neighbors -- to choose the victor, who is awarded $10,000 and a loving cup that signifying their achievement as their town's favorite act.

Showville premieres Thu., May 23 at 9/8c on AMC.

Katie playing the piano played by Gary Hemenway | Music for Kate Morrison, then played by Michael Kaeshammer! This piano was brought over from Seattle, where it had been played for Lyle Lovett, BB King, and Natalie Cole, among others. Le sigh. — with Katie Dilworth Christianson and Joe Cooke at Power House Theatre.

Breaking news - just booked in at Barnard Griffin Winery in Richland, WA on Friday, April 19th from 7-9 pm, no cover, food and wine available, great music, a cool place to hang out on a Friday night for some sexy-eclectic-acoustic-electric jazz pop country blues!  Click here for a map to the venue - 878 Tulip Ln, Richland, WA 99352.

We had a great marketing meeting today, and after as we walked around town riding high, we remarked once again how much we love and appreciate the 'bricks and mortar' stores we frequent, and how much we love the fact that we don't carry any overhead in our business.  We love being hired to play places like the Power House Theater, Alderbrook Resort, tasting rooms, weddings, outdoor venues, and all the other wonderful places we get to set up and play.  We work out of our home (and our home away from home, Maple Counter, owned by fellow musician Korey Nagler and his wife, Rachel) and we get to see all those great places, many of them breath-taking.  Here's a clip I snuck the other night at closed rehearsal - how many other bands rehearse in their dining room, I wonder?  I'll bet a lot do.  Or in the bus on the way to gigs.  We practice in the mini-van a lot.

BIG thanks to Jeremy Gonzalez of Spark Creative for helping us with the nuts and bolts of marketing, and to Abby Kerr of Abby Kerr, Ink. for helping us find and stay on track with our voice.  We love our music!

For those of you who haven't heard (where have you been?) - we were finalists on AMC's unscripted television talent series "Showville" airing in May or June.  They're wrapping up filming this month (Feb '13) and we should know in a few weeks when the Walla Walla episode will air.  Meanwhile, we're busy booking up our summer and fall, and talking seriously about our next album and a concept music video.  Looks to be a great year for Bizarre Love!  Stay tuned!

Behind the music...in a NPR interview with Glen Hansard, he talked about how we (songwriters) can work and work and work on a song, trying to make it perfect, but that sometimes the best songs just come, as gifts (I'm paraphrasing, obviously).  When we wrote "Wrong", we had this riff, and some vague notion of what we were trying to express (see  http://www.blove3.com/1/post/2012/07/old-scripts-mocking-and-creativity.html) but the song came to us almost fully formed, like a wave.  I recently wrote a song, from a fragment of an idea, on a Saturday, and it's now one of our favorites (it will be on the next CD - it's called "Maybe the Day").  "Why" was a bit like that, born of frustration, me sitting in my living room running a chord progression, just singing about a busted relationship, failed expectations (I know, I know, an expectation is just a premeditated resentment - but it did give me a song...) a broken heart.  Came out in a song.  When I met Katie, I played it for her, told her the harmony I heard in my head, and she added bass, Carl added percussion and we had a song.  I think maybe all the work we do on the songs we're writing (we listen to popular songs on the iPod or YouTube and say, we spend waaaaay too much time on our lyrics.  And music.), pays off not in the songs we're working on, but in the gifts we get for doing the work.  Twice in a Lifetime came that way, and Why, and Maybe the Day, and Wrong.  Inspiration comes in its own unique way.  Our job is to listen.  And write.  And sing.

C'est tout.  For now.

Ah, the joys of owning a tube amp!  When it works, it's the best sound in the world - sweet and crunchy and tons of sexy.  AND, I get to learn all about electronics.  It's sitting on the dining room table right now, disassembled, again, as I test tubes and setting, trying to get rid of an annoying snare drum fizz on certain notes, maybe due to the fact that the speakers rattle the tubes until they weep.

It's a love/hate relationship.  Perfect for the kind of music we play.  Two nights ago, at our CD release party, I had it turned up to almost 3!  It behaved well and loudly.  I should probably just stop messing with it, but might as well face it...

I'm addicted to tubes.