Richmond, Philly & NYC

March 25th: DC:
I'm in the midst of a brief run of acoustic, solo shows this week. I played Richmond on Tuesday night at a venue I have been to now a handful of times called The Camel. Its a great venue and the staff is excellent there and treat the musicians real well. I ended up grabbing a bite there as well, their veggie-hummus wrap which was not so bad. They have a good menu and I may have choked with this order. I've been on a mild-vegetarian run of food the past few months, nearly a year I guess. By mild, I mean that I have an internal debate with myself about ordering a vegetarian meal about 50% of the time I eat. The full exceptions are if I am hungover, when its not even close to a debate. I want a burger, bacon, whatever. Steak-house, I don't consider it. But a steak-house visit is few and far between now that I no longer roll in my white collar world. So, basically if you are reading this you can chalk me up as being still in the "discovery" period of vegetarianism. I've been in that stage for a while though. I also caved and ordered a few PRB cans as well. I think the idea of the PBR can was pretty cool back in 2004. But basically, I see it everywhere now and its like beyond the point of hipster. Its basically now full blown mainstream yuppy. Its like drinking Rolling Rock in the 80s. Well, Im not positive of that as I didn't drink in the 80s. I was still just a prodigy child of course, concerned with my studies of nuclear fision and building blocks. But those people I saw drinking Rolling Rock in the 80's seemed to be the same people drinking PBR now . . .so, I guess this is what I mean.

As I was the only solo artist on the bill, I opened up the night for two other bands, Bay of Pigs and ROMA. I played 8 songs, 6 of which are real new and 5 of which I performed for the first time. The tunes aren't totally complete and I am still making edits to them, but I think they came across well and they fit within the framework of the new album I am working on. I ended up playing Underwater Stone and Dear James from Like A Lion and scraped my plan to play Headed For from the titled-track EP. Full set-list posted below. After I played my 8 song acoustic set, I was treated to Bay of Pigs which was full-blown Prog Metal. Yeah, you may be asking yourself . . how did that sound back-to-back? Well, I dont know. All I know, is the crowd there to see Bay of Pigs, before I knew what Bay of Pigs sound was, seemed to enjoy my set and was real responsive. Can't ask for more than that.

The drive down to Richmond was a total nightmare. For those who live in the DC area, you know all about the horror which is the "Mixing Bowl" . . . well it appears to me that the nightmare of traffic in DC extends essentially all the way to just inside Fredricksburg. As Rand at the Camel said, probably be better to fly to Richmond. All jokes aside, what a fucking mess it was. 2 hours, according to Google Maps, which as we all know is more like 1 hour 30 min to 1 hour 45 min, took 3 hours 15 minutes. Thank god I left early enough. I was planning on eating some food, chilling out . . yeah. Not so much.

Anyway, headed to Philly tonight to play The Fire in Fishtown (i think its in Fishtown . .at least that is what I heard . . I have no idea what Fishtown is) . . than up to NYC to play The Living Room again, a great acoustic place for a solo show. I've been to Philly twice in my life. I am in love with the idea of the city, but I really don't know it all too well. I'll keep you all posted. Its a crowded line-up tonight for sure.

The Camel: Tom McBride (solo)
March 23, 2010

Opulent Viewpoints (2nd performance)
Underwater Stone
A Brief Head Spin (1st performance)
Table for Two
Oh! The Wandering Troubadour (1st performance)
Dear James
Into the Arms of the Wild Eyed Young (1st performance)
Underneath the Sheltering Sky (1st performance)

New songs / Plans for new record / Producer on board

Like A Lion was released this past fall, and since then I have been aiming to start a new record this spring with the goal of a Fall 2010 release. My goal this go round for the new record, was to enter into the studio with a larger arsenal of material than last time, which would be around 14-18 complete songs that have been vetted out, so to speak, in various forms of pre-production. For Like A Lion, I ended up scrapping three tunes during the weeks leading up to our original tracking. One track, preliminarily titled "More" actually was a solid tune but just did not fit the vibe of the album.
Since the release of Like A Lion I have been writing an extensive amount of new material but as always I have a hard time discerning the good songs from the average ones. I usually can tell pretty quickly if something is total shit and certainly before I go to bed. The ideas that bring me in, that stay with me, are usually the ones I end-up beating to death for a few days. As it stands here in early March, I have a working list of 22-24 tunes that are in production stages. This is a good thing. So, I am now starting to set my eyes on a recording/tracking stage for this April-May. I'm allowing some time for delays, but I am without a doubt, releasing a new album this fall/winter and in 2010. At this point, I also have not listened back to my own songs 1000 times and still enjoy hearing the rough demos and can honestly say I'm excited to record. So . .
Other good news to pass along is that I have hired a producer to work with me on this next album. His name is Sean Greenhalgh. Sean is an excellent musician, has a great ear, and most importantly has been a good friend of mine since high-school. Its actually pretty cool to have him involved as music has been a bond between us since we were 13 or so. Sean lives up in NYC and we are still working on figuring out where we will cut the new songs and at what studio. We have been trading around ideas that include DC/LA/NY or even Texas. I hope to get this part resolved here before the end of the month and will pass that info along later.

Tom McBride: March Shows in VA/MD/DC/PA/NYC; New Web-Site; Last.fm .

This e-mail below was sent out today to our mailing list.

Tom
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Hello again. While we transition our mailing list to a more user-friendly system over at ReverbNation (you may have received an e-mail confirming this) I wanted to let you all know about a few upcoming shows here in the DC area as well as in Richmond, Philly & NYC, including our headlining show at IOTA Club & Cafe in Arlington on Friday, March 19th, as well as some other news. Check it. . .

Upcoming Tour Schedule:

Friday, March 12th: Rustique, Bethesda, MD. We are playing as part of a blow-up 80's/Spring Break Party. I'm not sure what this means for the guys in the band, and if we are supposed to go on a booze-cruise in the morning, get an absurd sun-burn, and come dressed like Andrew McCarthy . . BUT . . . Its an open-bar, all you-can-drink party with a set cover that should be epic. More details here (80's Spring Break w./ Tom McBride & the Whig Party) If you cant access the site feel free to e-mail us directly for more info.

Wednesday, March 17th: Erin Go Bragh. Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Come celebrate @ Aslyum in Adams Morgan. Info on Asylum @ www.asylumdc.com/ We will be playing a few Irish standards mixed between our set so come-out and tip back a few pints with us.

Friday, March 19th: Headlining IOTA Club & Cafe. We are excited to be headlining IOTA again on Friday the 19th and will be performing some new material along with some special guests to join us on stage. This will be the best $10.00 you spend all month (or maybe a close 2nd after that 2 AM Ben's Chili Bowl run). Spread the word!

. . or come out and see Tom for a solo show at one of the following venues the following week:

Tuesday, March 23: The Camel, Richmond VA (Tom acoustic show)
Thursday, March 25: The Fire, Philadelphia, PA (Tom acoustic show)
Friday, March 26: The Living Room, New York (Tom acoustic show)

New Web-Site:

We finally posted a Tom McBride & the Whig Party "Home-Page" where you can get links to all our band info, blog, multi-media, pictures, videos etc. . . We will continue to make updates to the site and add more content, but it is up-and-running now and excited to share this news with you. The site is www.tcmcbride.com


Last.fm:

For those Last.fm users out there, we aslo uploaded both "Like A Lion" and the "Headed For" - EP onto the site. We love getting feedback and if you happen to hear our songs in rotation make sure to post a comment, and/or e-mail us to let us know.

ok. that is it for now. Hope to see you out at a show.

Tom

www.tcmcbride.com
tcmcbride@gmail.com