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News:
7/24:
And finally, to conclude our Getting to Know the Band series, we've got one last guy to tell you about.
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Getting to Know the Band - Vol. 4: Daddy Long Legs
The last but certainly important part to Common Shiner is our skinny
wonderful electric guitarist Andrew. GR friends will know him
well, but Chicago friends may not have had the chance to meet him just
yet. That's because he still lives in Michigan, working on his
Masters (and PhD, possibly) in engineering at Michigan State
University, no less. He's a pretty smart guy, and if you ever
have a hankering for a conversation about cars or baseball, he's your
man.
He also likes Pearl Jam a lot, and if you've had the privilege of seeing us cover Alive, we hope your face has unmelted.
Andrew has also been in the band virtually since it's inception,
joining Morgan very shortly after the formation of the band. So
he has been through it all, and has certainly played a key role in what
Common Shiner has become.
He's hilarious and strange, so he fits in with the rest of us well. We'll let him take it from here.......
(Morgan: want to write a bio?)
Andrew: Bio? I took bio sophomore year of high
school. It was the class that broke my 4.0, because I knew
genotypes and phenotypes so well that my mathematical logic gave me
intuition to know that if you had 2 traits, one dominant over the
other, you would have an 8x8 square making 64 possibilities, and 1/4 of
those would have the non dominant trait, so the answer to the question
on the exam was 16, and i got it right. . . except I got 1 out of 10
points on it because i didn't show my work, and it gave me an A- for
the class. Frickin' Mr. Mulford. That was when I decided no more
bio science for me, I'm going to physics and chemistry instead, and
then I got to have Mr. Omar Bjarki for those classes the next two
years, and those helped inspire me to pursue engineering, which is the
root cause of me being the lost member of common shiner. However,
I should really thank Mr. Mulford for grading so dumb, because that A-
along with one in my bonehead art class kept me from having to give a
speech at graduation--we had two valedictorians with 4.0s, and the
salutatorian had 1 A-, and then there was me right behind, sitting nice
near the top of the list, but not having to bore everyone with a
pathetic speech given by an awkward skinny kid with a zitty face.
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And by the way, this probably isn't the greatest thing to announce, but
we're excited about it and we're nerds. But we have Common Shiner
stickers now! They're totally free, so when you come see us, grab
a sticker.
And remember, Common Shiner L_ _ _ _ Y _ _. Would you like to solve the puzzle?
~CS
6/19:
How's our favorite people doing?
We're doing pretty well. Mike and Morgan have discovered busking
in the subways recently, and that's been a blast. So if you're
ever taking the Red Line at the Lake stop, you may very well see us
there.
Also, we're very very excited about this coming Sunday night when we're
making our second appearance at the Elbo Room, and this time we're
joined by our old amazingly talented friend Rachel Zylstra
(www.rachelzylstra.com). Rachel will be going on at 8pm, and
we'll probably go on at 10:30pm. It's only $7 and it's sure to be
a great time. So come hang out with us!
Also, if you're one of the lucky people near South Haven, MI this
coming Saturday, you can catch a very rare solo performance by Morgan,
where he'll also be sharing the stage with his dad! If you
haven't met his dad yet, he's pretty much the coolest old man on the
planet. We love him dearly. So if you're around South
Haven, MI, head down to Foundry Hall for only $5!
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Getting to Know the Band - Vol 4: Jake "Clever Nickname" Chandler
Jake is the newest Shiner, so new that we STILL haven't come up with a
nickname for him (reply to this email with ideas!). We actually
just celebrated his one year anniversary of having joined the band the
other day, reminiscing about his first gig with us, which was opening
for the Dave Matthews Tribute band Crash at The Intersection in Grand
Rapids.
What to say about Jake. Not only is he a fantastic bass player,
but he's the only one of us who officially went to school for it.
We'll leave it up to him whether or not he wants to mention his
California adventures.
If you hang out with us much, you may know that Jake tends to be the
butt of a lot of our jokes, but make no mistake about it, we love him
to death, and we especially love his unique outlook on life, such as:
- not realizing that he would need to use a bag of screws when installing a chin up bar in his doorway
- driving a car for an entire Chicago winter with no heat
- and our personal favorite, being mistaken for a homeless person while standing at a bus stop
But we often talk for him, so we should let him talk for himself now.
Well hello everyone, I hope my story warrants your interest. It
all starts in West Philadelphia, I was born and raised, on the
playground is where I spent most of my days, chillin', maxin', relaxin'
all cool shootin' some b-ball outside the school.....just kidding.
I grew up in Aurora, IL, with Vijay actually, and a few other awesome
friends I still have to this day. After graduating high school I
went to Musicians Institute in California(I recommend that school for
any aspiring musician) for about 2 years where I spent most of my
nights sleeping on the floor and most of my days sitting in
traffic. And yes, I have stories aplenty, if you'd like to hear
some just ask me in person cause they're usually too long to type
here(and possibly inappropriate).
After returning to Aurora from Cali., my friend Elliot and I tried to
start a band(as we did in California, with no success) but things
didn't really work out. And one year later I received a call from
Vijay asking if I wanted to fill in at a couple shows for Common
Shiner, and things just clicked and I've been with the band ever since.
For my personal interests, ummm.....I'll just make some very short
lists for you. Music: Project 86, Forever the Sickest Kids,
Underoath, Hush Sound, Paper Route, Ingrid Michaelson......Movies:
Superbad, Batman(the new ones), High Fidelity, The Rocketeer, 28 Days
Later, Elf, Bad Boys 2......T.V.: Heroes, The O.C.(RIP), Boy Meets
World(RIP), It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.......Comedians: Mitch
Hedberg(RIP), Daniel Tosh, Russell Peters, Maria Bamford........
And there are many other things that make up the mysterious Jake
Chandler(yes I am referring to myself in 3rd person), and if you would
like to know anything else feel free to just ask. Or we could go
out for dinner and a movie*****. Thank you and goodnight my
friends.
Jake Chandler
*****dinner and movie applies to females only. no purchase necessary.
copyright Jake Chandler
6/4:
Hello all!
Well we've had a great albeit exhausting couple weekends going back and
forth between Chicago and Grand Rapids. Thank you so much to our
Grand Rapids friends who came out. It was so good to see you
all! We miss you a ton.
Also, it was a blast to play with Bless You Boys two weekends in a
row. If you all don't know about them yet, keep your eye
out. If you're anything like us, then after seeing them you'll
wish they had a couple songs on Guitar Hero. Bless You Boys, we
love you guys.
We've got a couple cool gigs coming up to tell you about, but first.....
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Getting to Know the Band - Vol 3: The Professor
For the third installment of the Getting to Know the Band series, we
move to that guy who's always in the back bobbing his head along to the
very beats he's laying down, Vijay Bangalore, AKA the Professor.
Vijay met Morgan through a church praise team, and we believe the
question posed to him was "so, you wanna be in a band?" to which he
responded in very Vijay fashion "no worries" following that up with his
other favorite phrase that sums up his attitude on life: "Good times."
However, some things you may not know about him. He's half Indian
and half Irish, meaning he sells liquor to himself; he's known to do
ridiculous things when up too late, or just whenever really; and he was
a huge fan of Carmen (for those of you not in the early 90s Christian
rock movement, be glad you don't get this reference). But we'll
let him do something he never gets to do at shows..... speak for
himself.
Word. I actually tried guitar first, when I was about 7.
But I kept laying the thing down so I could see my fingers on the
fret-board. Then I started learning drums when I was 10. I
got a lot of experience by playing in churches. Something I would
recommend to anyone (because most churches will let anyone play).
I was also in one of those loud, heavy, and perhaps even obnoxious
garage-bands in high school with Jake (our bassist) and a couple other
guys. Then I went off to college and the rest is history
(although I guess the stuff before that was history as well). I
would probably say my main influences would be Carter Beauford (of DMB)
and Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa's drummer).
Aside from music I really love economics. It's what I studied in
college. I particularly dig institutionalism, game theory and
research in general. I'm reading "Gang Leader For a Day" and it's
pretty good (although more sociology than economics). I
have a cat named Mia and she's great. I LOVE John Cusack
movies. And maybe Morgan sometimes hassles me for my affinity for
romantic--comedies. . .maybe. . .
I canvass for Save the Children to pay the bills. I'm the guy
standing on the sidewalk in the loop yelling, "Hi, you have a minute
for Save the Children," and then goes on to try to get you to sponsor a
child at $28 a month (come on, that really isn't too much to ask for,
is it?) It's a pretty good job, although that rough days really
do suck. And you can only take so many guys in big sunglasses
tell you that they eat babies and then laugh with their trophy
girlfriend as they walk away. Good times indeed. But I do
work with really great people, and they keep me coming back for more :)
Aside from this stuff. . . I am the kind of person that would have no
qualms about going into personal stuff like family, relationships,
etc. But I honestly have no idea who subscribes to this thing and
I wouldn't want to be uncouth. Feel free to give me a ring if you
want to learn more about me or have a good heart to heart.
5/21:
Friends and lovers,
Welcome to the third edition of the new and improved Common Shiner
newsletter, and possibly the last time we will mention what edition
we're on. Things in Chicago are beautiful. The sun is out;
the lake is still cold, but pretty to look at; the trees are starting
to look green, the flowers are blooming, and the bums and crazy people
are almost in full bloom on the public transportation.
So we're in a good mood, and we hope you are too.
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Getting to Know the Band - Vol 2: Dr. Bones
For this second installment of "Getting to Know the Band" series, we
move to the guy who's always next to Morgan on stage, Mr. Michael James
Brooks. Most people just call him "Mike," but in a pretentious move he
elongated his stage name in hopes that he could pursue a career as an
author as well. Just kidding about the author thing (but
not the pretentious part). Sometimes people call him by his initials now. Yeah, he's a dork.
So, MJB joined CS in early 2006, when the band was clearly floundering
artistically and needed the help of a genius piano prodigy to infuse
some ivory flare into their lacking sound. It failed miserably.
Instead, the band started goofing off too much during practice, with
Morgan and Mike constantly cycling through annoying impressions of
indie rock singers. But it all changed when Mike got some life-changing
news that would affect his career with the band: he was pregnant.
...With lies. Okay, so it's Mike writing this and the real truth is I
met Morgan through theatre at Calvin College (where we both were
theatre majors). A bit after Morgan had graduated, he came back to be a
guest alumni actor in a show I was also in and incidentally did the
sound design for. After Morgan heard some of the music I had written
for the show, he asked me if I'd be interested in jamming with his band
some Saturday. I had always found within myself a struggle between my
passion for music and my love for theatre, so it was quite comforting
to see Morgan living his passions for both. I played with them one day
and they asked me to join.
I play piano mostly by ear and--despite years of lessons--didn't get
very good at reading until studying music theory in college. I've spent
some of my life near the shores of New Hampshire, some of it in the
greatest underdog city of the east--Pittsburgh, PA. I often drive
in my car with no destination just to be alone with my thoughts, though
that habit is quickly dying with the spike(s) of gas prices. I miss
theatre, I love people, and my mood changes with the seasons (I
basically despise winter). I like Jones Soda and junk food, and most
people would only need to know me for a week to know I'm borderline
obsessive-compulsive, very meticulous, and largely a creature of habit.
Though I definitely have exhilerating moments of impulsiveness as well.
(!%&*##**bbbrrlsi4oe)
As far as my day job goes, I'm proudly pretty non-traditional. I do
minor promotions for other bands, as well as some freelance video,
writing, and theatre work when I can get it. I'm also often the liason
between Common Shiner and the world--I do booking and promotion and
most of the other stuff that's not musical.
I can definitely say that everyone in the band dreams big, and I'm no
exception at all. There once was an excursion to Cincinnati to play a
festival, and Vijay and I may or may not have stolen a "Quality Award"
trophy from a hotel where no one came to the front desk for an hour.
That trophy may or may not be in a glass case on the mantle of our
apartment's faux-fireplace, and I may or may not hope into the freaking
clouds that that trophy foreshadows some other sort of trophy down the
line for our music.. Except we don't want to steal that one.
Oh, and last thing: when I was a kid I wanted to be a magician. No lie.
If I had continued in that field, I probably would only be using it now
to make a recording studio and tour bus magically appear...
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Common Shiner loves you!
~CS
5/5:
Hey everyone,
Happy Spring! Since we were able to wear shorts for two
consecutive days, I think that officially classifies as spring in
Chicago, right? Well we think so.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Underground Lounge. It was a
smaller crowd, but you all were fierce. So cheers to you!
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Getting to Know the Band - Vol 1: Papa Shiner
We figured it would only be appropriate to start our Getting to Know
the Band series with the guy who started it all. Morgan Foster
has been the heart and soul of Common Shiner since the beginning,
starting the band with college roommate Tim Haig. There have been
many forms over the short history of the band, but Morgan has been the
lead singer and acoustic guitarist of all of those.
What you may not know about Morgan, though, is that this is not the
first band he's ever been in. Before Common Shiner he was in the
borderline cheesy band Just One Second (some of you may still have
relics from this), and even earlier than that, he was in the hip hop
group "Mega Impact." He was 10 years old at the time. Their
hit songs include "Kick the Bass," "Stretch the Bass," and the
ever-popular "Butts in the Room." Morgan is the only person who
still holds relics from this era, but we'll see if any of those tracks
make their way onto a hidden track on a CS cd.
He graduated from Calvin College with degrees in Theatre and Computer
Science, and he now works for Agathon Group (www.agathongroup.com), a
webhosting and design company, doing technical support, so of all the
Shiners, he probably has the best day job.
We'll let him speak for himself from here.
Hi. You probably can tell from the handwriting that Morgan is now
writing this. Looking back over the brief but oddly eventful
history of Common Shiner, I realize that there were loads of times when
it made perfect sense to quit. Why I never gave up on the band, I
don't really know, it just never even crossed my mind. I wish I
could say it was because of utter conviction to a dream, but honestly I
think it just didn't make sense to me to do anything else. The
only real dream I've ever had is singing the 7th inning stretch at
Wrigley Field (still crossing my fingers for this one). So I
stuck with it, knowing that if it was meant to be it would happen.
But I wax philosophical. What many people don't know is where on
Earth the name Common Shiner came from. Well I can tell you. A
friend of mine and I took a spring break trip to Chicago my freshman
year in college because we didn't really have much else to do.
Problem was we didn't have much money, so we wandered around trying to
figure out what to do with little money. What we eventually
settled on was heading to Shedd's Aquarium and paying the $3 to get
into the little first section, and sneaking into the big section.
We didn't have to swim or anything, just go through a door that with an
Exit sign that happened to lead directly into the main section.
But, while we were in the first section, there were some fish in a
tank, and the sign next to the tank identified them as "Common Shiner,"
to which I remarked "that would be a good band name." And thus,
was the band name born.
However, after having thought about that band name, I went back home
and looked up info on Common Shiner, only to discover that it is an
amazingly un-exotic fish, mundane and plentiful in streams and rivers
throughout the midwest. Not that I'm plentiful in rivers, but I
thought about how often I feel very un-exotic and mundane. It's
usually in those times that I write music, my way of expressing how I'm
so painfully human.
If you ever asked us "Shiner like as in black eye?" then forget everything you just read.
So I could tell many more stories, but I'll tell those later (or you
can always chat with me after a show. Those of you who know me
well know that I'm a talker :-)).
Check us out on iRadio LA
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