Jagged Spiral Presents – Days From Evil CD Release

CDs are on order, and three years of hard work are about to pay off. We are excited to announce that Jagged Spiral’s debut masterwork, “Days From Evil” will be available in CD form on 11 July 2008!

“Days From Evil” is a concept album which tells the story of a hero confronting monsters only he can see. The music covers a wide range of genres, including Gothic Hard Rock, Acoustic Ballads, and Majestic Epic Metal. Much of the music on “Days From Evil” was also used by Jagged Spiral in the movie score for the local vampire movie “Pray For Daylight” from Stone Soup Films.

Ha, and my guidance councilor said I’d never accomplish anything! Now he owes me five bucks! Not surprisingly, that’s the same price as admission to the upcoming Days From Evil CD Release Party! For the price of 1.25 gallons of gas, (which won’t even get you halfway up to the lake for the 4th of July,) you can experience an entire evening of devastating music, as Jagged Spiral takes the stage at Club Underground on Friday, July 11th, to celebrate the release of our new CD.

Our live show will contain some stripped-down selections from “Days From Evil”, (Sorry, no acoustic guitars and no string orchestras!) and plenty of new material, all of it dark metallic rock fueled by adrenaline and Jag-Bombs. Bring earplugs.

Details:
Friday, 11 July 2008 – Doors at 9PM, – Music at 9:30
Club Underground – 355 Monroe St, Mpls MN
21+ (Bring ID!) – Cover $5

The Days From Evil CD will be available for purchase at the show for $8. All proceeds from the sale of the CD will go towards the following:

  • Josh’s Red Bull addiction
  • Fines from the City of Minneapolis for ‘disturbing the peace’
  • The massive debt we ran up during the three years it took us to get this project finished

Also, we have some very special guests joining us for the event: S.B.I., Sick Machine and Something To Fear (who just got done kicking tail at the Flight of the Valkyries festival!) so come out and celebrate with us!

-Jagged Spiral

PS: If you know anyone who likes loud guitars, please pass the message along! Share the Spiral!

Days From Evil Press Release has been… Released

We’ve been working on Days From Evil for years now, but I won’t feel a sense of completion until

  1. I hold the physical, shrinkwrapped CD in my hand
  2. We celebrate the CD with an Release Party.

Thankfully, those things are coming to fruition. Very soon, the order will be placed for CD copies of ‘Days From Evil’. Almost three years of effort are drawing to their long-overdue conclusion.

Promotional copies of the disk are finished, (sans the insert booklet). Just seeing the physical CD with printing on it has made me quite happy. Now, I’m just working on the insert artwork, which should be done this weekend, and the order can be placed next week.

As I mentioned previously, the “Days From Evil” CD Release party has been booked at Club Underground for 11 July 2008. Three other bands will be there to help us celebrate: S.B.I., Sick Machine, and Something To Fear. Jagged Spiral has gone through a significant upgrade in gear since our last live set, and we’re focusing on pulling together a nice, tight, and loud show. Bring earplugs.

I’ve completed the press release about the event which you can check out here: https://jaggedspiral.com/forms/dfe1.pdf and I’ve distributed it (with a copy of the CD) to all the usual suspects. With any luck we can expect some honest and objective reviews of “Days From Evil”.

Even if we don’t move a single copy of the CD, even if the critics slaughter it, even if no one comes to the release party, we will finally have payback for three years of hard work, and I’ll have a sense of completion that will let me (mentally at least) move on to other things… like the next album!

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Jagged Spiral CD Release Party – Club Underground 11 July 2008

Minneapolis ‘Northern Rock’ band Jagged Spiral celebrate the release of their debut album, “Days From Evil” (Miku Darkly Productions).

The “Days From Evil” CD Release Party will be held at Club Underground on Friday, July 11th, 2008. Doors at 9PM, the show is 21+ only, cover is $5.

Joining them will be local bands S.B.I., Sick Machine, and Something to Fear.

More details as we get them…

Sugar

The Reunion Tour (or Lack Thereof)

The Jagged Spiral Marketing and Promotional Headquarters has been overwhelmed with requests to verify rumors of a Jagged Spiral Reunion Tour. We can neither confirm nor deny these allegations [Authors Note: Actually, Sugar told us that we’re best not to even talk about it. But she didn’t say not to blog about it.]

I can say that a Reunion Tour for Jagged Spiral would be difficult, if not impossible, for the simple fact that we haven’t broken up. At least, if we *had* broken up, I’m sure the guys would have told me about it. Pretty sure.

For further details about the rumored tour, I’ve been told to defer all questions to our new Public Relations Manager; Tom Waits, who held a press conference to clarify and/or obfuscate all the details of the Very Likely Only A Rumor And Not An Official Jagged Spiral Reunion Tour, which has been code-named “Operation: Glitter and Doom”, (which is not to be confused with the Tom Waits album of the same name):

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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No, I Never Slept With Diablo Cody – Live!

Before you check out our first live performance of this new song, I have to get a couple disclaimers out of the way:

First, I have to apologize for the poor quality audio/video even for youtube, this is pretty rough. The video camera we brought to the show got left ON, and the battery was completely drained. Fortunately, we also brought a digital camera that can shoot video, but as you will see, that isn’t its primary function.

Secondly, this will not be the final version of the song. The lyrics (which were derived from this blog post) will change, and the subject of Diablo Cody will most likely be changed as well. The song has become cursed, and all kinds of bad things happen in the studio when her name gets mentioned. Bad mojo, baby. So we’ll smudge the studio, and change the song.

Thirdly, we truly do love Diablo Cody, and we truly did not sleep with her, and we hope she enjoys the song. No offense intended.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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The People Have Voted. The Battle of the Bands Winner Is…

Not Jagged Spiral.

The win was handed to a band called Ill-Gotten

I can’t say I’m surprised or disappointed. Although I don’t care for Ill-Gotten’s genre of Hardcore music, they were as professional, tight, talented and energetic as any other band at the event…

…but they did have more fans.

Nothing against the production company, but when all other factors are balanced out, the Battle of the Bands turns from a Talent Contest into a Popularity Contest, and that’s something Jagged Spiral simply can’t win. At least, not at this early stage of our musical career. Let’s be honest, the people who came to see us play were friends and family, not fans.

Looking on the bright side, we got one more live show notch in our bullet-belt, and we got to play out to a crowded house of people on a weekend, and Colin was in bed by a reasonable hour. Jam Solid Productions has us on their list to contact for future promotions. We got some video that we can review and use to critique our live performance. (Unfortunately, nothing useful enough to post to the web due to technical difficulties…) We also met up with a local band called S.B.I. who enjoyed hearing us and they seem like a good group for us to gig with in the near future.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Deflowered

Being in a band is, in a lot of ways, like being in your stereotypical romantic relationship. Not exactly, mind you, but there are plenty of parallels you can draw between them. For instance, there is the initial stage of flirting/courtship, and the period of ‘going steady’. There is the period of going through what likes/dislikes you have in common.

And one day there is a turning point in the relationship where you do something together that changes everything. You know of what I speak.

For a band, one of those turning points would be playing a live show at a public venue. Buried in your practice space, safe from the world, you can make all the shit-rock you want, but the minute you expose yourselves to public scrutiny, the possibility is opened that people you don’t know and who have no vested interest in your happiness can critique your work, or your performance, or both, and they have no reason to be dishonest with you.

And so it comes to pass that Jagged Spiral has taken the next step on the path, and played together live on stage, opening up their work for criticism. After the show at Staisu’s, I chatted with a handful of people, trying to get a feel for how the show went, and trying to read through the platitudes and compliments. Not that I wasn’t thankful for the praise, but I wanted someone to tell me we sucked, or at least tell me we did something wrong, something we could correct to make our future shows better. That information came, but not until the remaining handful of us were kicked out at 2AM.

I trudged out to the parking lot steeping in about 16 be-fucking-low zero, although it seemed a lot colder because I was soaked in sweat, blood and beer.

“You guys were great!”

I recognized him right away. It was the guy who went up to Colin during our set and gave him some kind of advice. Later Colin told me the guy said Colin should turn down the low end on his guitar. I think the real problem was that I didn’t have my bass amp up loud enough, but either way, the guy was drunk, and for sound problems, you complain to the guy at the sound board, not the band.

“You think so?” I responded.

“Feh,” he slurred, “Who are you fucking kidding? You guys blew those other bands away! You’re gonna be famous!”

I laughed.

“But you should stop whispering,” he said, shaking his head. “Between the songs when you were talking to the audience. It don’t matter if there’s only a couple people here, you gotta talk to them like there’s ten thousand!”

I stopped laughing. “Really?”

“Hell yeah, cus’ that’s what you’re gonna have. Ten thousand people, and you’re gonna have to speak up. You can’t whisper like that.”

“Hey, thanks for the advice.”

And so, some useful advice, and enough money to buy each band member an imported beer at the next practice, and Jagged Spiral walks away from Stasiu’s paid, sweaty, and deflowered, but still wanting more…

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Jagged Spiral’s First Concert!

Wow. Who knew three people could make so much noise? Well, a small group of people found out firsthand on Saturday during a Halloween Costume Party where Jagged Spiral made their first public appearance.

It was fun.

It was loud.

It was fast.

No, it was Really Loud and Fast.

I think the performance was as good as one of our best practices, which is to say that it was pretty damn good. There were mistakes, but we never stopped. A couple fumbles, but we quickly recovered. No technical glitches. We forgot to turn on the strobe light, but I think our music gave people siezures without any help.

The best feedback was from Saveau who said Jagged Spiral sounded like a child of Pantera and The Dead Kennedys. And my mom e-mailed me today to tell me that she still cannot hear anything. Xtina said that of all the songs to stick in her head, “God Hates Emo” topped them all.

My stomach still hurts, but my voice is coming back. Never did find my tonsils.

Pix to come….

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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