It’s alt night at the joynt. Featuring Peter Wolf Crier, S.Carey, and Meridene.

Last month, for Valentine’s Day, we released a solo-piano version of our latest record, Something Like Blood.  We call it: Something Like Wedding Music, and you can download it for FREE by clicking here!

Love you.

We recorded a Daytrotter session while on tour this past August.  We tracked four songs.  One from Something Like Blood, the single, “Gone, Baby Gone,” two re-worked tracks off of our first full-length, You’re Not Pretty, You’re Worse, and a new unreleased track called “Awful Mouth!”  Listen and download here.  Enjoy!

Dearest friends,

As most of you know, most of us in Meridene are pretty big fans of TV. I would have to say that I am most guilty of this particular sin. I watch pretty much anything and everything on television. Be it sports, hard edged dramas or straight up teen soaps, I love them all! It is this affliction that has led me to writing this letter to you.

A few years ago, a fellow named Kyle Flater showed me a British drama called Skins. After watching one episode, I was hooked. Hooked bad! Caught in the gills, swallowed the hook kinda hooked! The first season was comprised of nice episodes, and I watched them all in one night. These were hour long episodes! Like I said, I have a problem.

Now for your part…

I have followed the show for every year that it’s been on, and now I will follow it across the pond and into our homes over here in the US. MTV has created what is being called Skins US by most of us who loved the original, and I want to try and get our music on the show. Call it selfish, or self serving, but I really want to get on this thing. But I can’t do it without the help of you guys. The only way we have a chance at getting a song on the show is if you all sign up and vote for us. I know how this sounds; I, myself hate it when bands do this, and I wouldn’t write this up and ask if it didn’t mean a lot to me. I really love the show.

So, if you’re bored, our friends, or just really super-duper kind, please pop over to this webpage; it will take you to the Meridene page.  From there, you can click on the ‘Currently competing in SKINS Oct/Nov 2010’ thingy. Like I said, dream come true kind of stuff.

Well, that’s my plea. We would love your help. If we get on the show, everyone who voted for us will get a free toy. Maybe a beanie baby, I’m pretty sure you can get those on the cheap now.

Thank You Kindly,

T. Carl Ives

Meridene presents Muffin Time, with drummer Dave Power.

Meridene is proud to present Britta’s Corner, a new segment in which our bass player talks about her life.

MERIDENE TOUR BLOG (10.15.10 - 10.23.10)

10.15.10 - Tour Kickoff Show - The Mousetrap (Eau Claire)

On the Friday before we left for tour, we played a show in Eau Claire to send us off on our way. A bunch of people came out to support us, and we had a great overall night. We ended at 1:00am and spent the next hour and a half hanging out with some friends at the bar, trying to remember the name of Fatal Attraction, watching Air Force One, eating popcorn, and drinking whisky and cokes. Great way to play a show in EC before we left.

10.16.10 - Cheapo In-Store, Acadia Cafe - Minneapolis, MN

We left for the twin cities at 11:00 in the morning on Saturday. We arrived at Cheapo to do an in-store performance. We played a 45-minute set, and had a slow-talking, cool, laid-back sound guy named Dan. Surprisingly the sound was very good due to the fact that we were on a carpeted stage with carpeted walls in one corner of the store. Another Dan, who seemed to be a regular, hung around the sound guy and played air guitar, danced and sang the entirety of our cover of Dreams by Fleetwood Mac in front of the stage. We all signed a girl’s copy of our album (which was cool to see in the Cheapo listening display) during the middle of our set, and then perused the records after we finished. We drove to a park after that, and had a makeshift picnic. I had an apple and a summer sausage/pepperjack cheese sandwich, no bread. After playing football in the parking lot, we played a really fun set at Acadia Cafe; a bunch of our friends came out to support us, and we stayed over at our friend, Brian’s house. We recorded the first installment of T Carl Ives’ Quick Hitters.   

- “Jamestown is closed for business.”

10.17.10 - The House of Bricks - Des Moines, IA

We got on the road at around 10:30am after having a delicious breakfast of Asiago Cheese bagels with Garlic Herb cream cheese. Tastiness. We arrived in Des Moines, loaded our gear into The House of Bricks, checked into our hotel, and then walked and/or ran up the stairs to the Des Moines Capitol Building, golden roof and all. We watched the first group (Stellar Road) play at about 5:45. They were from Chicago, and sounded a bit like a mixture of Incubus and Dave Matthews Band. After them, a local girl (Mackenzie Rothfus), played a solo set. She covered The Only Exception by Paramore. In 4/4. It was really good. She had some pipes on her. That’s for sure. After that, we played at around 7:45 (It was an all-ages show on a Sunday). We got back to our hotel at around 9:30. We recorded the first installment of Britta’s Corner. Paul and I stayed up until 3:45 in the morning, drinking kool-aid and lighting off fireworks. Mom and Dad slept. 

- “Orange you glad that I brought that?” “Watermelon yes.”

10.18.10 - Travel Day - Fort Wayne, IN

On Monday, we drove for nearly eight hours from Des Moines, IA to Fort Wayne, IN. We got to our hotel at around 10:00pm or so. Trevor, Paul, and I drove to Kroger’s, which is a grocery store, to get some groceries for our cooler. We got eggs and mayonnaise packets, among other things. Oh, we got frozen pizza. That’s important to know for this entry. When we got back to our hotel, we took one of the frozen pizzas out of the wrapper, only to realize that our “oven” only had burners and no actual oven. We proceeded to put a frying pan on the larger burner, placing the pizza (which was larger than the pan) on top of the frying pan rim, hoping that the heat would rise from the frying pan bottom, in turn, heating our pizza to at least an acceptable temperature. For some odd reason, we only succeeded in burning the middle of the bottom, and melting some of the outer cheese. We broke the pizza in fourths, and put each piece in the microwave. It did not turn out as bad as you would think. It wasn’t very good though. I recorded the first installment of our [ … ] Time series, Moustache Time! 
- “Trevor’s getting Brett Favre’d tonight.”

10.19.10 - Travel Day - Scranton, PA

We decided to leave our remaining two pizzas in the hotel room freezer, with a note on top that read: “If anyone is able to enjoy these pizzas, please visit www.meridene.net.” We traveled for about the same amount of time as the day before, making our way from Fort Wayne to Scranton. A few hours before getting to Scranton, we stopped at a rest stop for a small picnic and a little bit of catch with our team, I mean, band football. A car got to the rest stop at the same time as us, and out piled four mid-twenties guys. One of them finished his beer, throwing it in a large plastic bag full of about thirty or so empty beer cans. We pulled up to our EconoLodge in Scranton, which was situated behind an abandoned gas station, an old Indian restaurant/bar, and a semi-truck distribution center. There was an older man at the front desk who I think was in a Hitchcock movie. He was very helpful and directed Paul and I to the nearest beer distribution center. Trevor put it well when he said that, to him, “Scranton is a shady EconoLodge run by an old geriatric vampire.” Funny, but only slightly true. The man was at the least not geriatric, he was nice. 
- (Sung in the tune of “Do Re Mi”): “Do, the stuff, I buy beer with, Re, the guy I buy beer from, Mi, the guy, who drinks the beer, Fa, I don’t remember Fa, So, I think I’ll have a beer, La, La La La La La La, Tea, no thanks I’ll have a beer, and it brings us back to Do!”

10.20.10 - The Space - Hamden, CT

We left Scranton and went to a Chili’s about 15 minutes away. We wanted to go to Chili’s hoping that it was the one referenced in The Office. It’s not in Scranton. I don’t think it’s the one. I don’t think Scranton has a Chili’s. The Office lies. We drove all the way to Hamden, CT for our show at The Space which is a really cool all-ages venue. Before loading in, we played football in the parking lot. After a bit of catch, Trevor and I played against each other with Paul playing all-time quarterback. We tied, 14-14. We loaded in our stuff to the basement where the music takes place. It’s a really cool place. There are records on the ceiling, lights everywhere, and a bar that sells sandwiches, tea, coffee and other food and beverage items. We set up our merch table and watched the first two bands play, one original band, and one cover  band. The second band was around high school age. We played our 45 minute set and then watched the last two bands play. At most, there were probably about 20 people there, but a lot of them came up to us saying that they really enjoyed our music; people bought CDs and we sold a T-shirt too. Before we left, we specifically looked up hotels in Meriden, CT and found one. The hotel was amazing, and the room was really nice. That night, Meridene stayed in Meriden, CT.
- “Please don’t dump your house on my car.”

10.21.10 - Day Off - Meriden, CT

We had a scheduled show at The 201 in Providence, RI for this night, but it was cancelled a few days before. The booking agent emailed me that he was really sorry about the cancelation, but it was out of his hands. Apparently, the owners of the club just informed him that he needed to cancel all future Thursday night shows (including our scheduled night) in order to start having 18+ dance parties every Thursday night. We thought about crashing the opening night of these dance parties, but we decided against it. So - we hung out in Meriden all day. Trevor and I went to Jackass 3D. It was awesome. And ridiculous. I think Johnny Knoxville will be nominated for an Academy Award. We had a freezing cold picnic later in the day, and then we went to the local juice store and bought various juices. That night, we made the second installment of “Quick Hitters With T Carl Ives” along with a few other videos that will not be published due to copyright issues among other reasons. I had a bit too much apple juice that night.
- “Smelled like my dad’s second wife.”

10.22.10 - Slainte Wine Bar - Portland, ME

We drove from Meriden, CT to Portland, ME to play a show at Slainte Wine Bar which is a really cool, small bar with good wine, beer, etc. They had couches and comfy chairs with a tiny drum riser as the “stage.” It was a cool, chill place. We got there early and decided to explore a bit of Portland. We first went to a tiny, tiny record store with records, tapes, VHS tapes, books, DVDs, CDs, etc. It was about as big as a big bedroom. I bought a record called, “Antithesis” by Keith Fullerton Whitman, who is on Kranky Records. Excited to listen to it. After that, we went to the Portland Art Museum (free on Fridays from 5 to 9). Perfect timing. We had a good time looking at paintings, photography, and sculptures. There was a painting called, “Double Black” which consisted of a large painted black square on top of a slightly smaller black square. Talk about art; you don’t know what art is. After our art expedition, we went to “Wild Burrito,” a great Mexican restaurant on the main drag which had tiny light green tables with flowers painted on them, pillows, blankets and curtains all over the place (all brightly colored), TVs which played old cartoons and The Wizard of Oz, and pink flowers painted all over the place. The guy who took our order (possibly the owner) was a slightly chubby, very nice, smiley, soft-spoken man. Great burritos; I got the quesadilla. We went back to Slainte and enjoyed watching Meghan Yates play during happy hour. Very good music, similar to a slightly more soulful Mountain Man. We played our usual set again and sold a few CDs and a shirt again. We met a couple people who had really good friends in or from Eau Claire, talked with them as well as a guy that we met in our hotel in Meriden who decided to come to our show because he was staying in the Portland area. After we played, an extremely tight, enjoyable bluegrass group called Tricky Britches played their set. We stayed in a motel about 20 minutes away, went on our computers, watched a bit of tiny TV, and went to bed. Portland by far is my favorite place we’ve been to so far.
- “It’s like being pampered by angels. Angels made of boobs.”

10.23.10 - The Starving Artist - Keene, NH

We left for Keene, New Hampshire and arrived at around 4:00pm. We decided to walk around their Main Street before loading in. I was later told that they used to hold the record for the widest Main Street in the nation. It was very wide, and they might still hold that record. We browsed through some music and movies in a used record shop and walked around Main Street before playing some more football in a nearby parking lot. We loaded our stuff in at around 5:30pm, and then decided to have a few drinks before playing. I asked the guy at the record shop what he would recommend for a good bar near Main Street, and he recommended Kilkenny’s Irish Pub. They had good beer. I had a Harpoon IPA and two Geary’s Hampshire Ales. The Hampshire Ale was very good. The band that played before us was a local college band called, Color of Mind. They were very good and very tight. We played a very energetic, pretty tight set after that and ended up talking with all of the locals for almost an hour after we played. Everyone was really enthusiastic about music, loved our live show, and were all very friendly people. I ended up talking with two of the guys from Color of Mind (Andrew and Owen) and one guy’s parents (his dad ended up taking a bunch of cool pics of us). We got talking about Brooklyn and NYC (where were headed next) and the jazz scene, and I found out that Andrew’s great Uncle played piano with Charles Mingus and arranged music for him awhile back. That was cool to hear. After the show, we packed up our stuff and went to Aaron’s house (about 25 minutes outside of Keene in the country). He is part of The Starving Artist, and it was his birthday; we went to a birthday party! We had some tasty drinks and some hamburgers and chips. The rest of the night, we talked with Aaron, Laina (our contact for the Starving Artist show), all The Starving Artist people, and their friends. We soon realized that it’s a big, musical, spiritual, friendly community of people.  We listened to 80s music the whole night, drove back at 2:00am to Laina’s apartment above the venue, and stayed the night.       

- “Everybody hated me because I accidentally hurt people.”

(words by Dave Power)

Lead singer Trevor Ives dishes out thoughts on various hot button items.  Warning: segment may contain half-hearted Adam Sandler impressions.

The Adventures of The Sad Boy, Part 1 (Morning Version)