Just damn!

Been doing tour press all day
Email afterEmail afterEmail afterEmail after.......

Mike = Mike

Get Your Cyborg Name

Jeff Clarke Loves Us!

Just got a little bit of ink on Stomp and Stammer's Support Our Troops section.
It may seem to be a middle of the road kind of review but trust me, this is about as nice as it gets from Jeff.

Pistolero continue to establish themselves as one of Atlanta’s most unpredictable groups with Warface. The full-length CD weaves together strummy prairie-sundown laments, spazzy power-pop, Muswell Hillbillies-era Kinks reverence, dorky love songs, dorkier drug songs, psyche-rock indulgences and more. The primary problem with bands zipping all over the place stylistically is that they never reveal a sound of their own. I can’t say Pistolero transcend such trappings, but they manage to hit more than miss on this one.

Yeah for us!
mike

Tweet Me

You can now follow our actions in real time
via Twitter
Yes we have changed as a society.

As the World Turns

So what have we been doing?

Well let's see...

The other day Corey and John worked on a fence for John's house/dogs.

And this dog can't wait for it to be done. That's Rosie and she's a mighty hell stallion.

We have been getting a lot of recording done. Hey, the records been out for a month, might as well start on the next one right. Me doing my vocals for "Waterheads"...

Corey's reaction to my sweet and soulful vocal stylings...

Tom's been at the shop every Sunday for the past month or so writing and recording and this is what John looks like when in motion.

The North american Pallon in it's native habitat.

Please let's all remember that the Turbo Town Wizard Elections are coming, so remember to cast your ballots early.

Yours in Christ,

Mike

Who you Wit?

We're with them now.
Let's see how this works.

Banned at the Taj Mahal

So my neighbor, Huck, went to India the other week. I give him a few copies of the new record and tell him to "give them to some folks and get a few shots of the record in strange and beautiful places". When in India...Go to The Taj Mahal.
Such was the plan...Get a pic of the record by the Taj Mahal and then give the record to a local.
Turns out you're not allowed to take music inside the Taj Mahal grounds. Huck had his I Pod confiscated and when they saw the plastic sealed record they took that as well. He tried to explain that he just wanted to take a picture of the record with the Taj in the background, they did notsee any reason for this or even find it the slightest bit humorous.
Needless to say, the record was detained while Huck and his lady toured the Taj and then upon leaving the record and I Pod were returned. So no Taj Mahal shot....Just this one, right outside the guard station...In India.





Thanks Huck

Warface Reviews

We got 2 great reviews over the weekend .....
Link #1 - Atlanta Music Blog This one is so good it's a little embarrassing.
Link #2 - The Sunday Paper This one is good but not to the point of blushing.
Thanks to both Al Kaufman and Hal Horowitz for the love.

Favorite line...."And, yes, there's a psychedelic instrumental hidden track at the end, just in case you weren't sure these guys were as good as they are." - Al Kaufman

Proudly,
Mike

Tour Pics

So we're back. Not long gone, but it sure did feel like it.
So instead of a long winded text on our trip...We'll do it with pictures.


This is a shot of Greg. He played slide for North Elementary Thursday night. It brought a real ambiance to their tunes and when he solo...he smoked.


After the Chapel Hill show Tom and I were sent out to get more booze for the after party. After walking what seemed like miles to get to the Harris Teeter, we met these folks in line and they agreed to give us a ride home. This picture is a pretty accurate memory of what they looked like to me.


The crowd at Snug Harbor. Where we were accused of calling a girl a 'poser' because she wanted us to play covers. No member of Pistolero has any memory of insulting this girl and we think it was a plot against us. Daylon and his staff were awesome and we'll be making our way back there.


View from the stage at Criminal records in Atlanta.
Strangest crowd ever...
Tom's wife, kids and mother were there. Cold Nub brought his mom. Andrew Carter (played our 1st CD release show ever) wandered in per chance and over to the right of the pic you can see 3 'frat' guys who set up in that aisle before we started, rocked out the whole show, then left before we could identify them. I was also told of a black guy who stood to the side (out of pic) and sang along with every song.
Who are you people?


View from the stage at The Star Bar.


Chad from North E sitting John's house in Chapel Hill with the 7" that we pressed with North E doing one of our songs, "Endless Summer", and us doing one of their tunes, "Lovesday Dead Down".

Respect the Cock,
Mike

Athens and Macon

Well the first leg of our mini tour for Warface is behind us and I have to say that we all realized just how much we missed playing in front of a crowd. Over the last four months we've been rehersing at a fevered pace so there has been no let up in playing, but you just can't beat getting up in front of a group of folks and bringing them into the moment with you.
Friday night in Athens we played Tasty World and watched girls in sundresses go by, young girls. Did I mention that they were young? Seriously, everyone in Athens has to be under the age of 25 or they kick you out. TT Mahoney and the Standard Eight weere out hosts and we had a lovely time playing to the children. The crowd started out standoffish, in typical Athens fashion, but as we grew into our set they began to get more and more into it. By the time we played our last song I believe that they even liked us. BTW, Tasty World has the worst load in I've seen outside of Smiths Old Bar here in Atlanta. 3 flights of stairs...blech!
Saturday was Macon at The Hummingbird and after years of playing shows I'd have to say that these guys (and girls) were in the top 3 nicest bar staff we've ever played for. Band beer was Old Milwaukee...check. Sound man STILL played music...check. The posters we sent down were actually hung up in the club...check. The guy who booked the show was there and wanted to talk to us...WOW!
We had a few sound issues, we play real trebly and in that room it was slicing scalps off the show goers, but other than that everything went off right as it should.
Death on Two Wheels headlined the show and they were awesome and nice to boot.
All in all loads of fun and we're itching to get back out there Wednesday.
Some Pics...
Outside of Tasty World 10 minutes before the set Friday. What a line to get in the door!


Out front of the Hummingbird.
From the stage in Macon. These 2 girls were dancing up a storm and we thought it'd be nice to take their picture.

Sorry there are not more pics of us playing, but alas we couldn't play and document at the same time.

Expect My Emails,
Mike

Live in the Lobby

Last night we drove up to Athens to be the band for WUOG's Live in the Lobby radio.
Everyone there was extremely nice, albeit young; I made several jokes that were totally missed because we didn't watch the same Saturday morning cartoons. We arrived a bit behind schedule but that was made up for by there being at least 47 people there to help set up gear. They even helped us lug our gear from the trailer, up 3 flights of stairs, and into the studio. Big thanks to Jessica, Charlie, Nathan, William and everyone else who helped out with the show and making us feel so welcome.
We we're so busy that we didn't even take any pics while we we're playing. Just this one as we were leaving.


But we did get most of the show recorded on video and here is a tune that we hope you'll like.

Check it Here

Expect my Emails,
Mike

Pistoelro in Crib Notes

We got a little love in Crib Notes, Creative Loafing's music blog. Yours truly did a 10 question interview called Roll Call. Check it out. I like that all of us are in the picture that accompanies the interview so it still remains a mystery as to who I really am. Bass players of the world unite.

Respectfully Yours,
Mike

PISTOLERO DOES MACON

Hi folks, we just recently traveled the grueling 1 hour drive to Macon GA to do some promotion for the "Warface" album and our upcoming show there on April 18th @ the "Hummingbird stage and tap room" We were on their local CBS news television station (13 WMAZ) performing our song "Monster Cable". Our contact there (Mallie) wrote a really nice article about us so here is a link to that and a video of our performance. Enjoy and come out to see us in Macon this Saturday. Smile. 13WMAZ.com | Macon, GA | Scene 13: Nice Guys Rock It Loud!

Corey/Pistolero


Adendum-
More press from Rebecca Ledford at Macon .com.
"While their sound can be schizophrenic with their genre-mixing antics, it can also be the purity of rock."

Those were the days!

This picture was taken in front of the ISP space space in East Atlanta. It's all of the original ISP bands...Parade, Slushco, Elevado, Tenth to the Moon, Kitty Snyder, Avaitor, Envie, Slow Motion Crash and Pistolero.
We were so full of hope and wonder then.
It was a great time.
Most of those bands have disbanded and/or moved on to other bands.
Time keeps on slipping into the future.
Judas Iscariot,
Mike

So the line up is done.
The records are here (Cd and 7").
And we've got a entirely new set to play for you crazy Canadians out there (proof of residency required).
Other than that...we've nothing else to report.
Oh Yea...Hulu.com will rot your brain (or make you watch sitcoms whilst you should be working).
Terra Cotta Manchild,
Mike

Yellow House

Yellow House by Pistolero (small) from Pistolero on Vimeo.

What does it Say to You?

Trust me...
Keep Looking at it.

How do you say that again?

Ever heard of This Winkis?
Neither have we.
But they have heard of us. Neat little blog that you should check out.
I think it's from overseas...but don't quote me on that.
Expect my Emails,
Mike

On the Road Again

Everybody that I talk to about the band lately has had the same thing to say...
"When are you guys playing again?"
Ah Ha...Our plan worked. Stay away for a little while and then the people want you even more.Well here you go. The semi official TOUR POSTER!


We've also been working very hard on a video for Yellow House. It's quite psychedelic. Should have that ready for you guys here in the next week or so.
Respectfully Yours,
Mike

FaceBook

So we've done it.
We're on Face Book.
Kudos to John for setting it all up.
Check It!

Single and Store

We've started sending this track, "Spreadsheets", out to the press and such sundry online publications as AMG. So we thought it would be a good time to give it to you.


07 Spreadsheets.mp3


Enjoy it, because this is the last freebie that we're giving off this new record.
Speaking of free stuff, our store at 3bullets.com is now up and running. John made this pic to announce the opening.


Cheeky
Expect my emails,
Mike

A Little Love in Print

Contrary to what you might have heard, Southeast Performer has not gone the way of the DoDo.
We have proof. Cause we're in this months issue...Digital and Print!
Here's a link to the article.

My favorite line...
"Yeah, we've given away so much shit...we don't mind doing it" says Ochoa.

or maybe this one...
...Perkins interjects...

Those of you who have had a conversation know that I love to interject.

Thanks to Leila (formerly of SEP now with Atlanta Music Guide) and Beth Malone who wrote the article.

Respectfully Yours,
Mike

Warface Release Show

We've got a Record...
We've got a release date...
And now we've got a venue to release said album.
April 25th we'll be playing The Star Bar with our friends North Elementary and Thee Crucials.
Should be a rocking good time for all.
Your in Loving Embrace,
Mike

Tom

Photo by Kate Eldridge

Quiet on The Front #5

Here is the latest version of Quiet on the Front. As a side note I've been pushing for a name change to "The Black Cowboy", it doesn't look promising. Corey discovered a way to use the MIDI application in Garageband to create a flute track that sounds like a mellotron. It really gives the song a refreshing, psychedelic sound; changing it up at just the right time. We also added sleigh bells to the section between the horn parts. Thanks to Hillary of No Disassemble for letting us borrow the bells. This song is now all but done; a few tweaks in mixing then off to mastering and that will be that.


QUIET ON THE FRONT 5.mp3

We're interested in hearing what you think about the new song, the process we go thru, whether we overdid it or if it still needs more. Shoot us a line and we'll discuss it over tuna fish and crackers.
Expect My Emails,
Mike

Gifts

We received a gift the other night. Some friends of ours, Matt and Snoop, brought over a stand up piano for us. That's Snoop standing next to Corey and John and our new piano.

It works great and just needs some slight tuning. Plan on hearing some non MIDI piano on some up coming songs. John is now thoroughly addicted to it, and I would venture to say that all of us are at least enamored with it. We've already taken it apart to allow for better access to the strings for recording.


Respectfully Yours,
Mike

Links and Links and Links

Liz from Deus Ex Machina PR has gotten us some good pub lately.
Thought I'd give her some love while linking you kids with all of these other blogs.

OHM Park
Atlanta Music Guide
Large Hearted Boy
Squirrel Food

Here is a picture of Alex Trebeck

Blast from the Past

The picture above was found lurking in my inbox today when I woke up. An old friend, John Reddock, sent it over as he was apparently going on a stroll down memory lane via old pics.

The pic is of me (mike) and Craig Hill at Craig's 1st wedding. The memory has always stood out to me because One: it was held underneath the Hunan Village Chinese restaurant, and two: because the bride walked into "All you Need is Love" by the Beatles. As you can see I was the single male who caught the garter (which i was presently wearing on my head) and was about 12 years younger. As I remember it there was no booze at the wedding and after a respectable amount of time we all headed back to my house (read-parents house) to make merry.

Differences between the man in the pic and who I am now.
19 year old mike - Has every answer to life's burning questions, weighs about 140 pounds, acne.
32 year old mike - Knows that he knows very little, weighs about 185 pounds, no acne.
I still have the hair though and that's enough.

Thanks for the memories John,
Mike

Back Issues

As we move forward towards the release of our new record, we decided that it might be time to offer our limited pressed EPs as one easy to download file(s). Hence "The First Four". We've sold out of "There Goes the Neighborhood" (100 copies), "The Kissing Bandit" (250), "Live @ ISP" (250) and "Getting Used to Decapitation" (250) at shows and thru the Web o Sphere.
You can now buy the whole 'album' for $10 or the individaul songs for 99 cents.

You can also go to sites like I tunes, Rhapsody and Napster to get the same songs if you already have accounts there.

We're also resetting our My Space player and posting 2 songs off WARFACE there, "Monster Cable" and "Yellow House". You can also get "Yellow House' from Largehearted Boy.
Respectfuly Yours,
Mike

3 Bullets is Updated

Our 'official' website has been updated.
Gone are the lovely pages covering "Getting Used to Decapitation"...
And on comes the new site to go with the new record.
It's quite simple as it stands, mostly there for journalists and other press folks.
The plan is to keep adding to it over the next few months until, when the record comes out, it's a fully operational Death Star.
Respectfully Yours,
Mike

Quiet on the Front session #K

Pics from the session 1/14/09

Tom Pollard getting ready for work...
"Must have at least 3 smokes and 2 beers before I can properly use this instrument to it fullest potential."

Since we record in a basement, we deal with none of those pesky distractions like having the control room in, say, another room. If you want to go over your part repeatedly it's most often easier to sit right in front of the computer and start and stop your own tracks.


But when punching in and out to do pickups and use pedals, a man...manning the boards is quite useful.

In this session we laid down a slide guitar melody and Tom's lead between the horn parts. Everyone was happy with the slide parts but upon further listening we decided that the guitar lead between the horn sections was a bit too 'happy' for this tune, so we dumped them. The night was wearing on we decided to come back to it with fresh ears another day.
Coming along just fine though and we're interested to hear what you guys out there in cyberspace think of it. Listen to the link below for the latest version.


QUIET ON THE FRONT 4.mp3

Learning to Fly

This past summer myself and my lady (Karen) went hang gliding in the mountains of Tennessee. I got a call 3 days ago from the guy who took us and he informed me that the video of my flight was in the mail and would soon arrive. Overjoyed I spent the next few days waiting in rapt anticipation.

The disc arrived this morning and after 38 seconds of viewing my flight I knew that I had to post it up here so everyone I've been telling about the magic of hang gliding could get a little taste of my madness.

I could spend a lot of time explaining what we were talking about and the moves the glider made while flying but it doesn't compare to the actual flight. I will say that we jumped off the mountain side at about 6 in the pm and that the sun was just beginning to set. There is a little talk at the top of the video (scared as hell) and my reaction to the flight at the end (delirious and ecstatic), the rest of the time was all wind noise so I decided to slap an old track of Corey's on the video. It's called "Reincarnation Song", it's about 4 or 5 years old and it's never been out there for public consumption. It's beautiful though and it captures the feeling of flying for me. Maybe we ought to bring it back into the mix, what do you think? Only rub is that the song runs out about 45 seconds before the flight ends, but that just means that you get to hear the landing in all of it's glory.

The guy who I was strapped to was Clarke Harlowe and he runs TAM Sports. He is the only hang gliding operation that runs out of this launch site and a cool cat to boot.

If you're interested in having an experience that will dwell in your memory sac for years to come...go jump off a mountain strapped to a giant wing.

Respectfully Yours,
Mike

Warface Release Date

Our new Album 'Warface' will be officially released April 25th.
Here's the cover!



And since we've sent out the 1st single to the press, I figure that we can share it with you as well. It's called 'Yellow House'.


04 Yellow House.mp3

Quiet on the Front Update #2

We added a few more tracks to Quiet on the Front last night at Shabbey Road. I (mike) put down a bass line for the entirety of the song, only took 12 takes. I played direct into the computer to get a warmer, rounder sound with a good low end. We've had some success with micing up the bass cabinet, but for this particular track we thought it best to go direct and avoid any signal distortion. This is what it looked like.


We laid in a cymbal 'ping' to the 1 and 3 beats, added some harpsichord strokes at the same beats and tried to lay down some shakers but they just didn't fit tight.


After listening to it several times over we've decided that all the tune needs now is for Tom to lay a lovely little lead in between the horn sections. And maybe a little single note wah pedal guitar underneath the high octave piano lead. But you never know what idea might rear it's ugly head when all of us are together. Check out the evolution of this song at the link below.
Respectfully Yours,
Mike


QUIET ON THE FRONT 3.mp3

Quiet on the Front

Hi folks, this is a new song that i've just written and I'm gonna now give you the run down on the tune. It's basically part 2 of a song that was on our first album "The Last Fiore" entitled "This Means War" in which I had the great pleasure of getting Tom Pollard to write and record a cello part for. In this new song "Quiet on the Front" our hero is still equating love with war and vice versa but now he's fuckin' sick of it and is ready to lay down his arms and give up his hard won spoils to the one he both loves and has been embattled with. The drums for this one were programmed and fed into our "garageband" program to start with. after that it was just adding the tracks I've recorded so far. First off was a classical acoustic guitar track and then I added a tremeloed out electric guitar track with my rickenbacker for some extra texture. On to the next track I hooked up the Rhodes electric piano which came out nice and then did my vocal. finally I put a Gurio track on in a couple places to add a little more drama to the song. I'm going to set up the drums after we get back from Nashville next week and add true drums to this and Mike is coming by tomorrow to lay down a bass track. After that i think this song will be pretty much in the can. What do you think? Any suggestions? Look for it's official release sometime this year. Hope you dig it. Bye.

Pallon

Quiet on the Front

IF I WENT AND WON IT ALL

I'D GIVE MOST BITS AWAY TO YOU

MOST OF IT AWAY TO YOU

MOST OF IT WOULD GO TO YOU

BUT WHEN I CALL WILL YOU ANSWER FOR ME

I'LL SUE FOR PEACE NOW IN YOUR ARMS

AND ALL THE SPOILS CAN GO TO YOU

I'LL GIVE IT ALL AWAY TO YOU

ALL OF IT AWAY TO YOU

CAUSE NO ONE WINS IN A WAR OH NO

BUT LOVE COULD BE THERE TOO

YEA LOVE COULD BE THERE TOO

YEA LOVE COULD BE THERE TOO

YEA LOVE COULD BE THERE TOO

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW THIS FEELS TO ME

I DON'T HOW IT FEELS TO YOU

BUT YOU AND ME DON'T NEED TO LOSE

WITH ALL OF THIS WE HAVE TO LOSE

CAUSE NO ONE WINS IN A WAR I KNOW

Am E Dm Am

C E Am Dm E7

Am E Dm Am

C E Am Dm E7

Am D7 Am D7 G C G C G C Am D7 Am D7 E7

Am E Dm Am

C E Am Dm Am E7 Am

QUIET ON THE FRONT 2.mp3


Free file hosting from File Den

Dysfunctional Family Portrait

Circus Night

Here's some video of the DVD Release show this past Friday night at the Star Bar.
Thee Crucials were great getting the crowd into the music and then AEW closed the night off with wild abandon. We're done with Atlanta for some time now, waiting for the new record release before we play again in town. That said we're lining up some dates to play out of town that we hope we see you at.

As a side note, we're still trying to get the audio embedded for our song project into this website. We're not the most tech savey folks and we're looking for the right ap.
Wish us luck or send your solution.
Respectfully Yours,
Mike