we are a "Band to Watch" in 2010/party time

indierockcafe.com names Gift Horse one of 5 "Bands to Watch" for in 2010.

when you come back to school this fall, put the futon in the dorm and then come on down to the 40 Watt on Friday, August 27th. we're throwing you a little "back to school" party in your honor. entertainment and hunch punch in a cooler provided by Gift Horse and Modern Skirts. it'll be just like that party at the end of PCU except George Clinton won't be there and nobody will charge you to take a shit.

download our ATHFEST 2010 show from the 40 Watt

thanks to Sloan Simpson and his site Southern Shelter, you can download a recording of our ATHFEST 2010 show from the 40 Watt. or just listen to it courtesy of the little player.

also, new show up over there ----->.

bye

Magnet Magazine's mp3 at 3pm

Magnet Magazine has chosen our songs Plastic People and Missionaries as their mp3 at 3pm today. dig it.

also, we've got some new shows coming up at the end of this month/beginning of next month. this includes our ATHFEST show Saturday, June 26th at the 40 Watt. gonna be the jam, get your wristbands now! shows are listed over there----->.

Aquarium Drunkard diversion

check out our diversion on Aquarium Drunkard. A.D. is an incredible blog out of Los Angeles that is extremely supportive of the Athens music scene and good music in general. the "diversions" feature is a recurring interview they run with their favorite bands about subjects other than playing live music and recording. the Gift Horse diversion is about the state of the Athens music scene from our perspective and how we are glad to be a part of it. check it out!

thanks/award

thanks to everybody who was so good to us on tour. thanks for coming to see us play and letting us sleep at your house. thanks for the books, fly fishing movies and dim sum. thanks to Father Bill of the St. Francis Mission in Philly for the delicious coffee cake. thanks to Michael for the live camel at University of Maryland. thanks to Twin Tigers for everything. thanks to Blaze for killing it on the drums for both Gift Horse and Twin Tigers back to back most nights. thanks to Bambara for letting us borrow him. our friends in Athens and everyone we meet on the road collectively make it possible for us to do what we do. so thank you thank you.

we're proud to be nominated for a Flagpole Music Award again this year. we are up for best rock band and are humbled to be in a category beside The Whigs, Twin Tigers, Bambara, and Pride Parade. pretty rad. please go vote!

thanks

latest...

sorry for the hiatus! we've been really busy, but here's some news:

-Mountain of Youth is officially out in most formats now and a trip to our myspace page will reveal a whole host of ways to purchase it. all of the appropriate links are at the very top of the page.

-check out our feature article in this week's Flagpole. although the cd release show has already come and gone, it's still a good read...

-speaking of that release show, thanks so much to everyone who came out to the Caledonia on Friday night. hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did!

-notice the new dates over there-->. we're pumped to be doing some of these with our good buddies Twin Tigers. they're hot shit. heads up east coast.

-it's slightly old news, but SxSW was tons o' fun. multiple peeps say that the 40 Watt's day party at Sidebar was one of the best shows of the entire festival despite the strangely cold weather. Austin has got to be one of the greatest cities on the planet. Athens was very well represented.

alright that's enough for now, i'll think of some more stuff to tell you about later.

new album "Mountain of Youth" now available...off to SxSW

hi folks, pleased to announce that our new album Mountain of Youth is now available for your listening pleasure. that's the album's cover up there at the top of the blog.

download it through our site at bandcamp.com for only $8.

also please check the schedule on the right for upcoming shows. we're leaving for SxSW today so if we come near you, come see us. thanks!

who should play NPR's SXSW party in 2010?

we should right? don't you think? us too. well, seeing as how we both agree you should follow this link and tell NPR that Gift Horse should play their SXSW party. just comment. i mean, we'll be there anyway playing other shows, doesn't it just make sense? i know, it does. man, thanks for agreeing. and thanks a lot for clicking the link and commenting. that's very cool of you. you always were cool.

final shows of 2009

we leave today to play our final shows of 2009. it's been a fine year for us and 2010 is looking to be so so much better with our record coming out soon and a bunch of touring ahead. you can catch us this week with two really cool bands: Hammer No More the Fingers from Durham, NC and Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun from Atlanta, GA.

Thursday, December 10, 2009 @ Tir Na Nog in Raleigh, NC

Friday, December 11, 2009 @ The Star Bar in Atlanta, GA

Saturday, December 12, 2009 @ The Caledonia Lounge in Athens, GA

follow me here to RSVP to this Caledonia show on facebook

in other stuff, it always feels good to get praise from people who have perpetual good taste and tirelessly aim to find good music out there. exhibit a: Dan Goldin who runs the site explodinginsound. VISIT HIS SITE for it is good. he recently said this:

Since the very first note I ever heard Gift Horse play, I knew I was a fan for life. The Athens, Georgia quartet offers an unbelievable mix of 90’s indie rock, grunge, and shoegaze for a sound that honors its influences, but roars with originality. The band’s style can be equally attributed to a love for My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr., with wall of sound blasts of noise riding side by side with carefully constructed melodies and honest hazy vocals. With an exciting year that saw the band storming SXSW to wide-spread praise and touring with the Meat Puppets and Dead Confederate coming to an end, Gift Horse prepare for an even bigger 2010. Their debut album will be released in February, while preparing to head out on a full scale national tour shortly after.

this weeks Flagpole (December 9, 2009) has a feature about the December 12th Caledonia show on page 34, although THE DATE IS WRONG! its Saturday, December 12th, not Monday December 14th. also there is this from the Flagpole:

This isn't the first time Gift Horse has gotten a mention in this column, but I am excited as the release date for the band's new release inches closer. If you are into local act Dead Confederate, you'll find some common ground here, with reverb-drenched guitars that seem to descend from outer space and envelope the room. The vocals are much more atmospheric than DC, though, offering a deeper, darker undertone. These guys have grown by leaps and bounds over the past year, and their live show is super tight and impressive.

also be sure to pick up a copy of the December 2009 Performer magazine (it has Atlas Sound on the front) and flip to page 50. there is a cool article about the emerging psyche-rock scene in Athens and it features us and our good friends Bambara and A.Armada. its at various locations around Athens (and all over the southeast) but if you follow the link above you can read the article courtesy of our boys Bambara who took the time to blow up the PDF.

lets see...anything else? nope!

thanks to Meat Puppets, Dead Confederate

just want to personally thank the one and only Meat Puppets and Dead Confederate for having us along to play some really great shows last week. it was probably the single best week of my musical life for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the Meat Pups are an amazing band to see and hear live every night and because they are so damn cool. they were really gracious and nice to us and i came away from it feeling a lot smarter just from having talked with them. plus, the nashville show was Cris' 49th birthday so it was cool to be around for that.

this piece from abcnews can sum up why it was such a great experience to talk to these dudes:

do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing:

so thanks Curt, Cris and Shandon, it was an honor. thanks to the guys in Dead Confederate too. their crew was real good to us, just like always. and of course, thanks to anyone who came to any of the shows (the most important part).

TICKETS!!! Friday, October 23 2009 at the Masquerade with Meat Puppets, Dead Confederate, and Winston Audio

Friday, October 23, 2009 at the Masquerade (Atlanta, GA) with Meat Puppets, Dead Confederate, and Winston Audio.

The show is in HELL, and the doors are at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $10 presold through the PayPal button below, but $20 at the door (so be sure to get yours through us!)

IMPORTANT! You can pick up your tickets at The Masquerade will call on Friday, October 23. The name on your paypal account will be the name at the will call door so be sure to bring photo id!

SORRY!

THE PRE-SALE TICKET BOOTH IS NOW CLOSED.

THANKS, SEE YOU TONIGHT AT THE SHOW!

a few bits of recent press

here's a review of our recent ASCAP showcase show at Smith's Olde Bar.

here's a piece that ran a little while back in the Red & Black.

notice a few new items over on the sidebar there-->.

now you can hear music, watch some videos, and join the mailing list.

there's also a link to our ReverbNation.com page, which is responsible for powering these little widgets and stuff.

oh and this too:

october shows with meat puppets and dead confederate

we are playing 3 shows in october with meat puppets and dead confederate:

Wednesday October 21, 2009 @ Bottletree Cafe (Birmingham, AL)

8 p.m. 18+. $12/$14. buy tickets.

Thursday October 22, 2009 @ Exit/In (Nashville, TN)

8 p.m. 18+. $12/$15. buy tickets.

Friday October 23, 2009 @ The Masquerade (Atlanta, GA) in HELL

8 p.m. $15. to buy tickets for this show email us at: gifthorsemanagement@gmail.com.we will get em to ya.

hell yeah!

you can also see us this thursday october 1, 2009 at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta for our ASCAP showcase ($5. 7 p.m.)

nyc and back vol. II

Ok so we went back to n.y.c. and even though i said i was going to take pictures this time...I didn't. So here goes my best attempt at recounting:

Headed up to Chapel Hill last Tuesday to play The Cave with Juanita and The Rabbit, a blues-metal two piece from San Francisco. They rocked ass with such classics as We Live in a Motherfucking Van and a cover of Motorhead's Orgasmatron. And yes, they really do live in a motherfucking van and it is quite possibly the baddest van in these United States. Thanks to all who came out to see us: Mimi from The Pneurotics, Joe from Hammer No More The Fingers (looking forward to playing with those guys, stay tuned), James the Chapel Hill photographer, and our pals from Athens' very own Pride Parade, who were also playing Chapel Hill that night. Killer show and a really cool venue.

From there it was on to Philadelphia PA to play at The Fire, a cool little joint in Fishtown/Northern Liberties of Philly. Once again we were with our new pals Juanita and The Rabbit and their killer van. Thanks to all of the staff of The Fire for letting us post up in their great little apartment and teaching us how to play dominos. They do in fact have fine cheesesteak sandies in that town and even better breakfast joints, but thats neither here nor there.

We rolled in to New York on Thursday to play a show at Manhattan's Cake Shop with two really great stoner/sludge type bands from the city: Heavy Hands and our pals Ancient Sky. Another stellar lineup and a grand show.

Friday we hung out in Manhattan and went to go see Pride Parade kill a 1 a.m. set at Arleen's Grocery. The beer flowed like wine...

Saturday we headed out to Brooklyn to play our final set of the week at the Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg. It was a great little room with a cool atmosphere. Thanks to our old homeboy Hunt a.k.a. "HDHR" for letting us post up at this brownstone Brooklyn Great Gatsby house that he may or may not have legally had access to. Either way, we played the grand piano, slept like kings, got up late, drove 16 hours to Athens and got into town about 5 a.m. Monday morning.

Along with HDHR thanks so much to all our other pals who were so hospitable to us on this recent trip. See ya.

pics from the Missionaries video shoot

as promised, here are a few pics from the Missionaries video shoot. thanks again to all of our friends who came out and worked so hard all day. all photos courtesy of Gail Bjork.

new songs from our new album, new myspace page, new shows, new video

take a look at our new myspace page to hear some of the new tracks from the new album. we're getting closer to a release date, so stay tuned. 

also we've got some new shows in the works. look over there for more about that -->.

lastly, thanks to everyone who came out and devoted their entire sunday to helping us make a cool video. it's for the song Missionaries, which you can listen to by going to our new myspace page. it's directed by Jason Miller, who is a bad ass, and stars some of our pals, who are also bad asses. i'll have pictures and stuff later, and there will be a screening/party when it's done. 

 

nyc

we just got back from nyc. here's how it went down, just the facts:

on monday, june 29 we left athens and headed to chapel hill, nc to play the Nightlight Club. chapel hill is a very very cool little town that reminds me a lot of my beloved athens, ga. The Winter Sounds played a great upbeat set right before us and then The Pneurotics rocked a fun one right after us. the crowd was great and the Nightlight is the jam.

on tuesday, june 30 we drove like mad to get to our brooklyn show at Trash Bar. we made it with time to spare, despite traffic. some driving notes: the worst traffic in the entire united states is in washington d.c. there are way too many tolls in delaware. new jersey is gross once you get close to nyc and you can't pump your own gas (what the hell is that?). anyhow, the city welcomes us as one of it's own. we play a loud fun set to a good crowd and then stay up till about 6 a.m. welcome to new york!

on wednesday, july 1 we take the train from our friend's place in manhattan to prospect park in brooklyn, where our pals Kuroma are playing a show at the bandshell with MGMT. we get off the train and walk for 2 1/2 hours around the park looking for the amphitheatre. turns out it was about 10 minutes from the train station. but the walk was beautiful and that park is really nice. waterfalls and forests in the middle of brooklyn. the show is incredible and about 10 or 15,000 people show up. back in manhattan after the show we get on top of our friend's building and look around the lower east side of the city. gorgeous.

thursday, july 2 was our last day in the city, so we had to go see times square, radio city music hall, the empire state building, bryant park, and the nyc public library. after all that junk, we played a show at Piano's in manhattan with Kuroma and Acrylics. the bill was unbelievably good for this show and the crowd jammed into the bar to see it. really good music. that's about all you can say. then we drove home.

nyc by the numbers:

-total cost of parking our van: $179.48

-slices of pizza eaten: oh god

-number of times someone projectile vomited out of our van

  and onto the brooklyn sidewalk: 1

-miles walked: too damn many

-miles driven: 1,678.11 (give or take a few steps)

-times i stepped in dog crap on clinton street: 1

-times we accidently drove across the williamsburg bridge: 1

thanks to all of our friends who let us crash at their places on this trip (you know who you are). it was fun and it looks like we will be going back in august. i'll take pictures next time. see ya then. 

i spend a lot of time with my amp. here's a video for fender.com, created by the legendary J.J. Bower. it's a day in Athens, GA with friends from Dead Confederate and Kuroma. the song is Not the Only One from our recently completed album. more on that later. that is all.

fire destroys The Georgia Theatre (Saturday's ATHFEST show moved to The Morton Theatre)

well, this sucks.

as you probably know by now, fire destroyed the legendary Georgia Theatre yesterday. i'd like to say that the Theatre was more than an Athens venue, it was an institution around here with a storied past dating back to the 19th century. it's importance to this city and the role it played in music history can not be overstated.

unfortunately, it was also our next destination (we were scheduled to play there one week from today for Athfest). our hearts go out to Wilmot, Scott and the rest of the crew there that always treated us so well. personally, i guess i'm just glad that we got to get in there and play the place a couple of weeks ago (5.29.09) before it was destroyed. they were just as professional and good to us then as they have ever been, and the show sounded great. have a listen to a very good recording of that show from Southern Shelter. view the photo gallery of our last Georgia Theatre show on Deadly Designs.

as for our Athfest show, it looks like it is going to be moved right down Washington St. to The Morton Theatre. the Morton is also the site of the Flagpole Music Awards ceremony that kicks off Athfest every year on Thursday night. we are very happy to be attending the ceremony as nominees for the Upstart of the Year award (thanks if you voted for us!) and we are still looking forward to Athfest.

despite this huge loss for Athens music, we would love to see you at the Morton Saturday night.

here's the lineup:

Saturday, June 27

What's Our Name - 9:30 PM

Gift Horse - 10:00 PM

Kuroma - 10:45 PM

Velveteen Pink - 12:00 AM

Immuzikation - 1:00 AM

R.I.P. Georgia Theatre and thanks for everything. you will be missed. thankfully no one was hurt and the place is insured. LET THE REBUILDING BEGIN.