13 MONSTERS . The band.

 We are preparing for upcoming summer shows lately. Got a couple new songs in the works. And we had a photo shoot for 2 hours yesterday.

  Of course Jamie (who works in layout and design all day) had to do some of his signature tweaking as soon as he was handed 1 of the files:)   here’s a little preview of what you’ll be seeing on stage…

 mask and all….

Releases saturday 4-13-13

Hope you enjoy it !!

  https://soundcloud.com/13-monsters/amazingly

 CLICK IT!

 We are re-releasing a couple of remixed songs today. A newer, better version of YELLOWKINFE is on the way!!  Plus a redub of INTRODUCTION is just ahead!! Bri knocks it out of the park on these songs!

  We found a new mixing place to do all of our mastering! We’ve been searching for weeks and haven’t found that special place that feels like home….until Jamie walked into the Beacon Tap in Forest Park Illinois. The old wood floors, the bookshelves full of old books, friendly regulars who took him in, and half of a mannequin hanging from the ceiling made this place “the one”.  So if you’re in the area and we announce that we’ll be in our place of mixing nirvana, it’s here.

 In other news: on 2/28/13 an offshoot of 13-MONSTERS was hatched. It’s Jamie’s solo 1 man power station of experimental noise art rock called GOALIE .  We’ll put up a link to sounds when they are available. It’s going to be insane…

 Singer for 13-MONSTERS

 Bri Betancourt

 Welcome her with open arms!

 Hi all.  Jamie here.

 The band 13-MONSTERS has 3 children between us. Laura has 2 beautiful girls and I have a boy. The recent events that have devastated communities, families and individuals have hit both of us very hard as it has hit many parents and family members around the world.

 We want to do something. We want to help. And we feel that now that we have an audience maybe we should try. Maybe we can make a difference, as small or as large as it may be.

 We will hold back on preaching our personal viewpoints and thoughts on gun control.  But we would like to address mental health.  As you know from our songs we have an open forum in our music about issues that people have..troubles they’ve faced..the finding of answers..or the acceptance that, yeah, some aspects of life really suck.  We urge any of our listeners/readers to offer to help those around them who are having troubles in life. Please…please..do NOT treat people who are troubled, mentally challenged, or otherwise having a rough time in life as a pariah. These people can be helped. They can be loved. They can know, from you, that they are not alone.

 It’s times like this that we have to open our eyes to the very real things that are happening around us. People need help. The healthcare system ( especially mental healthcare) is horribly flawed and often times can not be counted on to entirely “fix” someone’s issues. But sometimes it’s a 10 second conversation with someone that you know is hurting.  Like our song says ” The way you walk. No one sees you’re broken.”

 There’s no shame in being broken. We are all broken somehow. Please, embrace these people. Help to show these people that you can see they are broken..and that you’d like to help them. You’ll be amazed at how something as small as giving someone a smile and asking ” How are you?” can change someone’s world.

 Lastly I’d like to offer some advice.

 There are a couple of things in this world that are undeniably cool to kids. One is guns. The others are drums and guitars.

 Please..please.. buy a child something musical. Especially if you sense they are hurting.  Believe me..I know..as someone whose parents bought him a drum set as a teenager (probably to keep me away from the negatiove influences I was surrounded by) I can tell you that music was and is a HUGE part of my mental stability and overall happiness. Neither Laura nor I could function very well if our worlds lacked music.

 Try this.

 Hold this in front of a child:

 Then put these in front of a child:

 Or hold THIS in front of a child:

 We absolutely guarantee that no matter how troubled a child is, they will take the drums or the guitar over the gun EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Try it..we promise you that they will find something in just holding a guitar that outweighs any weapon ever made.  We can line up a table full of toy guns in front of any of our children then lay 2 drum sticks on the next table. They will pick up the sticks every single time. Any child will. We promise you.

 Tell them they can do THIS.  Because they can. They can play as loud as they want..sing..scream..bash and smash..cry on stage..laugh..jump around..all of it..and it’s all acceptable. It’s the ultimate outlet. It’s why Laura and I do what we do.

   Stop by a thrift store and pick up a $20 guitar. Hand it to a child who needs a little help. Hand it to a child who you think may need an outlet.

 Someone else did that. He bought his son a thrift store guitar as an outlet. His name was Al Hendrix. His son’s name was Jimi.

 We offer this to anyone who would like to take us up on it; If you know a child who may benefit from doing what we do, contact me and bring them to our practice studio in suburban Chicago. We will GLADLY let them try out our instruments and be in 13-MONSTERS. It’s the least we can do.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Hopefully we can make someone..anyone..listen to our advice. Because the sound of an electric guitar is so much more appealing to any child than the sound of a gun.

  Peace,

 Jamie ( speaking on behalf of 13-MONSTERS )

 So..our very first show ( as 13-MONSTERS is now, Laura & Jamie) was at Double Door, Chicago along with Brooke Bartlett, More Gorgeous and headliners Ayanami .

 Being the first band up means that you are the last ones to get your stuff on stage, do a fast sound check and GO! Play your set and get the hell off ASAP.  Ahhh..the life of a band.

 Our set-up is a mish-mosh of “stuff” that sounds ridiculous if you’re a musician but genius-mad-scientist for the listener.  The beats are recorded ( Jamie does the drums in our studio) along with an underlying deep bass beat that we run off of our MacBook. That goes into a Kenwood receiver (yes..a 250w home stereo receiver.) and is blasted out of the 2 Kenwood 250w home stereo cabinets ( the spray painted ones…yes..thos are just home speakers).  The Guitar set-up is a simple 3 pedal arrangement that goes to a Gallien Krueger 206 jazz combo amp that Jamie uses as the head to a 4 X 12 Ibanez cabinet.   Laura uses a Sennheiser e935 mic which then goes thru an extremely reverby/echoey Fender 25w combo guitar amp.

  Yeah…like I said..it sound ridiculous, but somehow kicks ass.  Blame Lightning Bolt..they taught me how to do this shit.

 So..we get our set-up on stage and all plugged in. I flip the switch on the Gallien Krueger amp and…..nothing. Nada. Zip. Not even a power light.  I’ve used this thing for 20 years with ZERO problems and all of the sudden it decides to take a shit on us right before a huge show.  And there started the mad scramble! I was freaking the fuck out up there!

 I credit the sound engineers at Double Door for jumping in and helping an obviously-flop-sweating me with figuring out that we had to quickly get the Gallien Krueger out of there, take Laura’s Fender 25w combo, disregard the entire Ibanez 4 x 12 cabinet, mic the Fender 25w combo and use THAT as the sole thing that the guitar went thru while running Laura thru the house system, mic’ing the Kenwood speakers AND running a line from the Mac to the soundboard for the house syatem as well.

   I just heard a collective gasp from all the rock musicians who read that.   I know..I know..it was madness. Yet genius a genius move by the best sound guys in the biz.  They KNEW that we were to sound like something akin to a Sleigh Bells-White Zombie-Ministry guitar/drum buzz and they were hell bent on making that happen…which they did :)  I was sweatin like a kid getting his lunch money stolen.  And, as I’m sure you can tell now that you know the story, for the first song or two I was checking everything around me to make sure I wasn’t about to kick something lose in  this new patched up set-up which we had NEVER used or played thru before.   What we heard on stage was NOTHING like what we were used to. In fact, I couldn’t hear much except my own guitar that was being blasted thru a small amp which was now right in back of me. I barely heard the drum beats at all. Thank god for our MacBook, which I used as a visual guide to where the song changes are ( we use Garage Band for each song…so the tracks are actually running while we are playing..I know..I know, again..madness.

  Laura told me a day before the show ” Whatever happens it’ll be a great story. We were asked to play at Double Door by a much bigger band for oour premier show, and only had a couple of weeks to put our set together. If we pull it off we’ll look like heroes. If it goes bad we can blame it on only having 2 weeks to get our shit together. It’s rock & roll. This is what is supposed to happen.”

 Turns out that we looked like heroes. The other bands loved us. The crowd loved us. And quite possibly the best compliment ever…the sound engineers loved us. THAT is a HUGE compliment given that these guys have seen it all and heard it all.  I think they saw this as a welcomed challenge.  I mean..seriously..I knew they were going to dig working with us as soon as I saw their huge smiles when i pulled out a Sovtek BIG MUFF guitar pedal. One of them happily said ” Ok..this all makes sense now! This is gonna be cool” . 

  And the the story was written. One that we will always be proud of. The ultimate baptism by fire done by a 2 person band and a couple of great sound techs who shook the legendary Double Door.  I’d like to give a huge thanks to our roadie-supreme, Jay Wolf. He kept me from going off the edge and was johnny-on-the-spot with everything. Everything during and after the madness went alot smoother because he was there.

  Again, thanks to everyone who was there and all who watched THIS VIDEO live as it happened !  

  Next show is at Elbo Room on 1/13/13  “A 13-MONSTERS Spectacular 13th”. We hope to see you there!  We promise we’ll have a new guitar amp by then :)

   Have a great week everyone!

 -Jamie-

 ”Everything’s gonna be ok….Everything’s gonna be ok…Everything’s gonna be ok…” -from Perfectly Imperfect by 13-MONSTERS-

http://loudcity.com/stations/40footholestudio-com-radio

 Hear our songs HERE tonight during the 8pmCST shift on 40footholestudio !!

  Thanks for listening!!! Love to all!

 Laura & Jamie