Tour-pollo 13: "San Antonio, We Have a Problem"

So today marked the beginning of the URIZEN Texas Mini-Tour, and the official start of our summer of touring... and I don't think it's possible that any more shit could have gone wrong! Truly it was the Apollo 13 of tour kickoffs.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? The fun began with us making about a thousand new friends that all looked a lot like this:

Hello there.

In the time since our last excursion, the UriTrailer became less a transport unit for musical equipment and more an apartment complex for legions of wasps. They were none too happy about us trying to reclaim our property, and an epic battle ensued. Many wasps were killed, much time was wasted, and much sunburn was acquired.

But soon, the trailer was loaded and were on our way. Smooth sailing from here, right? Man... did you even read the title of this blog entry?

Once we got to Dallas, we noticed a little problem: the van was very much overheating. So we checked the coolant, and hey, it was bone dry! Throw some coolant in there and problem solved... right? *sigh* No... not right.

So after some fresh coolant, some stop leak, and a new radiator cap, we were still blazing hot, so we had to kiss our ice cold, wonderfully breezy A/C goodbye and crank up the heat to keep the engine from es'ploding.

Back on the road, heat blazin', windows wide open and loud as shit, but at least we're on our way to San Antonio at last.

Well... almost.

Oh I'm sorry, did you guys want to drive on me?

The left tire on our trailer just fuckin'... disintegrated. So we pull over, jack it up, take off the pile of scraps that was once a tire, and throw on the spare. But wait! The spare is totally flat! Hooray! So... trailer is jacked up again, wheel is removed, and half of the party is left behind to defend the crippled trailer. The rest of us take the van in search of air, but everything along the interstate is conveniently out of order. We finally find air in fuggin' Abbott, TX (birthplace of Willie Nelson!) and head back to our near-dead roadside associates.

Alright, alright... we change the tire, we hit the road, we finally put some miles behind us, and all is well. I mean, except for the fact that we're four hours outside of San Antonio, and we're set to hit the stage in four hours. Aye aye aye!

Don't be sad, Matt, we'll get there someday.

The rest of the trip actually went off without any problems, and we arrived at Clicks with about an hour to spare. Despite taking 10 full hours to complete what should have been a 4 or 5 hour trip, the day of bullshit was totally worth it! The club itself was awesome, the staff was friendly and generous, and the crowd was excited and rockin' out despite it being after midnight. We met some awesome new friends, hung out with a few old ones (Rik Buddha in da house!), and spread a great deal of CDs and shirts across the land of San Antonio.

But the best part of the entire trip so far...?

Burrotote HUGE! God I love you, El Taco Tote...

Headhunters in Austin tomorrow, let's see if we can make the trip without incident!

The "URIZEN Across the Planet" Initiative

We here at URIZEN HQ can certainly be said to possess two dominant qualities: a strong desire to share our music with the world; and an insane lack of financial smarts and business sense. When those two characteristics collide, you get things like this... the "URIZEN Across the Planet" initiative!

The goal of URIZEN Across the Planet is to get a copy of our latest musical lovechild Universe:Red into as many countries as possible. To that end, we will send you a FREE  copy of Universe:Red if you are the first person in your country to email us and ask for it! Holy shite!

8-Bit Universe: Coming to All-Con!

As some of you may remember, we released a con-exclusive CD when we journeyed to Dragon*Con in Atlanta last year.

Yeah, you know, this guy.

Well, we didn't want to give anyone the wrong impression and make it seem like we care less about our beloved All-Con, so at this year's con, we'll be releasing a new CD called 8-Bit Universe. "What's all this, then?" you're probably asking yourself (especially if you're a bobby...). Well, 8-Bit Universe is a complete chiptune remix of the entire Universe:Red album! That means that you'll be able to hear all seven of your favorite Universe:Red tracks in full-on, 8-bit, Nintendo-y glory! Holy explosive nerdgasm!

Have a sneak peak at the 8-Bit Universe label, won't you?

Click to embiggen, my child.

So if you're going to be at All-Con this weekend, swing by our table and pick up one of these limited edition badboys! And for those of you who can't make it, be on the lookout for 8-Bit Universe to make it your way soon!

See you at All-Con!

Tales from a Red Universe | Part Four of Four: Cardboard Residence

"Tales from a Red Universe" is a four-part exploration in which Thomas takes you behind the scenes of the lyrics and concepts of URIZEN's "Universe:Red." Slip on a spacesuit and join us for the ride, won't you?

(Haven't read Part Three yet? No problemo, look here!)

Boxmen

From my box I can see everything. Life and all the joy that it can bring. No I don't want to live beyond my frame. 'Cause in here the weather's always better, and life's a winning game! I find the scum outside to be a source of loneliness, but in my fear fortress the box has sown my redemption. Outside it's wet and cold... a violent sight I shan't perceive but through my filters and protection. I am a box man! What? I've never heard such ridiculous buffoonary! Why would I want to join you out there? Just look at my life compared to yours. I've got all the things a boy could ever want. Friends by the thousands, the very world at my fingertips! I'll never join you! Never! That's ludicrous... absurd! Outside again... could I resume that life? To know... I'd finally found a way I can feel safe outside....to know... to know! I'm fine to dull sensations of pain and agony, but to hide from danger I have hidden everything. An even keel... my life is plain and dull, but at last I have realized. Into the world I go! (Lyrics: Thomas Drinnen)

This song was inspired by the internet and the burgeoning internet culture that frustrates me daily, despite a clear inability on my part to simply "avoid" it. I still can't seem to escape its grasp. I would have to say that this song is a criticism of people who experience the world primarily through the filters of media, opting only for scant interaction with the "real world"... though, really, I am currently living the life of a Boxman myself... so... yeah... I should heed my own advice!

Tales from a Red Universe | Part Three of Four: Human Revelations

"Tales from a Red Universe" is a four-part exploration in which Thomas takes you behind the scenes of the lyrics and concepts of URIZEN's "Universe:Red." Slip on a spacesuit and join us for the ride, won't you?

(Haven't read Part Two yet? C'mon man, view it here!)

A New Revelation

(staccato 8-bit notes represent the universe speaking to humanity by way of science and technology) Oh yes, of course. Please allow me to translate. He says: Of the universe, it should be noted that yours is but one of many. That due to things like uncertainty... and probability... the landscape of your future is truly a matter of limitless potential, and that's good. I failed to grasp emotion, or suffer with disease. "Cold" and "loneliness" astound me. I tried to find a better "self" to be. I had hoped that beyond the stars, I would find a way. I had dreamed that behind the mind, I would find the answers. I had hoped, that through it all, there'd be much more to see. I had hoped that I'd finally find a "me"! And to summarize, existence is constantly splitting and branching off into new and wondrous paths. And each new moment holds with it any number of an unfathomable amount of possibilities. So for those moments giving rise to pain, it is to be hoped that elsewhere, along a concurrent path, an inverse moment is giving rise... to joy! (Lyrics: Thomas Drinnen)

"A New Revelation" marks the universe's (and the album's) transition of perspective from the totality of the vast without to the conscious within. During the song there are two sections where the synth line seems to be "speaking" to an unidentified human who is then translating the findings to the listener. This is meant as the universe revealing itself to humanity, thus creating this mutual duality where the universe and the human intellect are nearly one in the same, yet, nevertheless,  forever divided by their respective distinctions of perspective.... or are they?

Tales from a Red Universe | Part Two of Four: Universal Conscience

"Tales from a Red Universe" is a four-part exploration in which Thomas takes you behind the scenes of the lyrics and concepts of URIZEN's "Universe:Red." Slip on a spacesuit and join us for the ride, won't you?

(Haven't read Part One yet? Foolish human, view it here!)

A Budding Consciousness

I will not tolerate this boundary, I find it troublesome indeed. I will not yield to limitation.. in fact I'll never yield again. I'll find a way to save my blissful state and backwards facing dream. The simple "I" that became, will not be made to live as "we". Ah, every moment it worsens... this, thickening awareness. Cluttering and corrupting my peace. Wretched questions with seemingly no end! I can see it in the distance... my doom! The cursed "why?!" I find this state of mine to be a harsh eventuality. And I shall not fear nor oppose. I'll find what it means to "know". I'll find the substance of my glee. I'll take it back to when "I" was the answer to most everything. I'll find the surface of my glee and suffer fate no more. I want to make this whole world go away. (Lyrics: Thomas Drinnen)

Here's where things start to go wrong for poor old Mr. (Or Ms... or Mrs... or Dr.) Universe. Having burst onto the scene with a great deal of pomp, we find the universe in an awkward and unforeseen predicament: it is growing a multiplicitous consciousness by way of universal laws, the developing order of the settling universe, and, of course, humanity's ever growing awareness of the universe from within (or, as Carl Sagan put it, humanity is: "a way for the universe to know itself").

Tales from a Red Universe | Part One of Four: The Big Bang

"Tales from a Red Universe" is a four-part exploration in which Thomas takes you behind the scenes of the lyrics and concepts of URIZEN's "Universe:Red." Slip on a spacesuit and join us for the ride, won't you?

In The Beginning
The tale of Universe:Red begins many moons ago... like, a whole lot of moons. It traces its origins back to 2007's Universe EP, and even contains a track (Nothing is Epic) that was recorded a few months before the completion of URIZEN's 2005 debut: autocratopolis!

The Universe EP was something of an embarrassment to me, I must admit. I marked it as my first big failure in the Uri-realm. Initially, It was a CD brimming with potential, but that potential was never fully realized in its first incarnation. Essentially, we had given ourselves a deadline as a band to have an album finished and, in an effort to solidify this deadline as absolute, we went ahead and booked a "CD Release" concert which would mark the day that we needed to have the CDs back from replication. Unfortunately, the results were... less than favorable.

At the time of Universe's birth as an embarrassingly underproduced CD, I was working full time during the week and, as a result, the final moments of Universe's completion came down to two very sleepless weekends in a row. During this time, we made sweeping last minute changes to the music, fought terribly with the vocal melodies in "A Budding Consciousness," and left ourselves without enough time to mix or master the album properly. Then, for some reason, we released it anyway. Oops! At some point, I do plan on going into much more detail about the creation of the original Universe; the turmoil I personally suffered at its disappointing hands, and the decision to re-record, re-mix and re-master it, but that's a story for another day. The subject of this blog will be the lyrics of Universe:Red and the overall concept that they attempt to convey.