This is our last show for a while, so if you’re on the fence about coming out, take the plunge and come hang out with us for a night in Brooklyn!! We’ll tell jokes and drink beer and forget each others names.

The last two NY shows sold out. We recommend getting advance tickets.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/The-Damnwells-tickets/artist/855108

Love,

The Damnwells

Sometimes when a helicopter flies overhead on its way to the University of Iowa Hospital down the road, it reminds me of living in Los Angeles. For a while we lived in West Hollywood, right by the 101, where the news and police copters wore the sky out during rush hour. Sometimes at night their searchlights would cut through our bedroom windows. In LA they hunt criminals from above like owls hunt mice. I can’t say I miss the birds of prey that come with Southern California living. But I do miss. I miss my coastal cities. They answer only to the oceans.

In two weeks I will return to Los Angeles to play a show at the Hotel Café—one of the last songwriter haunts where important things happen if it gets late enough. I’ve never returned to Los Angeles. What I mean is, I’ve never gone back to that home. And for three years it was my home. I learned the freeways, side streets, shortcuts through Beverly Hills. I scaled Laurel Canyon on the backs of a thousand single-occupancy vehicles and cursed the bastards who cut me off. I have lived there, though I didn’t realize it until I was gone. There are people in LA I miss dearly and places whose doorframes I would like to touch. It will be nice to go back to Los Angeles. Falling in love with that place was the hardest and most rewarding thing I have ever done, ghetto birds and all.

See you at the Hotel Café for our West Coast record release party. Sunday, March 15, 9:30P.

www.hotelcafe.com

Here they are:

ONE LAST CENTURY

(Credits)

Charlie “Chopper” Anderson played bass on almost all of these songs.
Jay Barclay played guitar on Bastard of Midnight.
Gilad Benamram arranged the strings for WWXII.
David Chernis played guitar on 55 Pictures.
Angela Dezen sang backing vocals on Like It Is, Dandelion, Closer Than We Are, and Bastard Of Midnight, but she should have sang on them all.
Michael Flynn played keyboards and other things on Down with the Ship.
David Gilmore played pedal steel on Dandelion.
Ted Hudson played bass on 55 Pictures.
Josh Kaler played drums on Down with the Ship.
Shane Keister played keyboards on almost all of these songs.
Andrew Ratcliffe played drums on almost all of these songs.
Steven Terry played drums on 55 Pictures.
Lamon Washington played drums on Jesus Could Be Right.
Freddy Wall played lap steel and guitar on almost all of these songs.

All of these songs were written by Alex Dezen, except 55 Pictures. That songs was written by David Chernis, Alex Dezen, Ted Hudson, and Steven Terry.

This record was produced by Freddy Wall.
All the tracks on this recorded were recorded by Andrew Ratcliffe at Tweed Recording Studio in Oxford, MS, except 55 Pictures. That was recorded by Andy Gerber at Million Yen Studios in Chicago, IL.
The songs on this record were mixed by Freddy Wall and Andrew Ratcliffe at The Okra Shack in Leipers Fork, TN.
This record was mastered by Dave McNair at Scott Hull Mastering in NYC.

Thanks.

It hasn’t even been a week and already thousands of people have downloaded One Last Century from Paste’s website. What can I say?  To everyone out there helping to spread the word: Thank you. You are all directly responsible for getting this music to people’s ears.

A few people have asked about the liner notes, who played on what, etc. We putting it together now. It’s kind of backwards, I know. We’re still trying to find our way through this new territory. What I can tell you is the song “55 Pictures” was written and performed by the original members—me, Steven Terry, David Chernis, and Ted Hudson—with producer Freddy Wall contributing his slide expertise. This song was a last minute addition. I’m glad it’s on there. It started in Ted’s apartment in Brooklyn a few years ago. We were just hanging out. Beers were going around. Dave was making jokes and everyone was laughing, wishing they were half as funny. Steve was off in a corner playing some chords and humming a melody. “Is that for your solo record?” someone asked. “Alex,” Steve said. “Write some lyrics for it.” I took the parts home that night, added some chord changes to the verse and chorus, and penned the lyrics. At first I didn’t know what to write about. When I put the pen to paper, it came in a flood. I couldn’t get the words down fast enough. Paper, breath, bone—all of it was just in the way. I sang it for the band the next day. Dave and Ted made some more changes to the music and wrote the bridge. After practice Steve took me aside. “Thanks,” he said. “Thanks for making my song ours.” That was my one of my favorite moments with those guys.

I’m getting antsy. This new record steps out into the world in less than two days. It’s been three years, maybe a little more, since I’ve released a record, and I can’t even believe it. What the hell have I been doing? Everything else, I guess.

As you can imagine, the success of this record will rely on a word of mouth / grassroots campaign. We’re giving it away, yes, but every one of you can help spread the word. This is all I ask in return. All I want is for people to hear this music. Send out a bulletin, write it in a blog, make a copy for your boss, play it on your radio station or in your bar, make a million copies and drop them from helicopters over your town. Tell everyone you know. And then tell them again.

The Damnwells. One Last Century. February 10, 2009. www.pastemagazine.com/thedamnwells

I started working on a new song yesterday, and then I finished it. A new song in an hour, like when I was 22 or 23. I guess creation begets inspiration. The song is called “Death Defier,” and I borrowed the title from the short story by Tom Bissell of the same name.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Lives-St-Petersburg-Stories/dp/0375422641

I’ll go down into the think tank / frigid basement and see if I can craft a recording of it for you to hear.

The snow has been melting for two days in the unseasonably warm whether, and the streets are running with water as if from a storm, though the sky is bright and clear. We’re enjoying the respite. It will be below 30 again on Tuesday when the record comes out. Just in time.

Everything has a date. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Christmas. Ramadan. And when that date lingers in the forefront of your conscious mind, it starts to take on the proportions of a giant, plodding through all the days before it, never coming quickly enough. This new record is coming out February 10, 2009, but I can’t really say anything about it just yet, but I can’t say anything at all. I’m too excited. Really. I’m spooked with anticipation. It is a specter in my house, a stentorian hush.

What I can tell you is that we have a winner from the cover art “contest.” Beth Laderberg of Columbia, South Carolina is responsible for the firecracker image that has made its way into the background of our website and Myspace. Thank you to Beth, a fantastic artists, for lending her singular vision to this project. Please check out some of her other work at her website, www.bethberg.etsy.com. I would also like to give special thanks to all the people who submitted material. Everything I saw was really incredible. Really. Truly. Thank you all so much. Fuckin’ A.

Please check back here in a day. As of 12 am, February 3, 2009, the cat is out of the bag. How and where you can get this new record will be announced. It’s gonna be awesome.

By the way, Angela, my dear wife, will be turning 30 on February 3, 2009 (she gave me permission to divulge her age), so please wish her a happy birthday. She’s in the band, dude.

Oh.  And we’ve posted a few more shows for this summer.  Peep it.

The amazing band Slow Runner will be opening and backing us up at the Mercury Lounge on April 4.  That’s gonna be a great one.  Just saying.  http://www.slowrunnermusic.com/

Finally, today is groundhog day, and if you watch the movie starring Bill Murray, my wife plays the girl who gets kicked out of the piano lesson.  Legend has it, Bill Murray was standing behind the door making fun of Harold Ramis’ homuncular nose before every take.