Guggenheim Grotto

The Guggenheim Grotto Fantasy Football League

kevin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:50:28 +0000

In a week or so the English Premiership Football League begins again and this means the start of another Fantasy Football season. Myself and Mick discovered it last year and found that managing a team was a great way of killing time during the long drives we undertake on tour. This year we decided to share the fun and so we have created a league for friends of The Guggenheim Grotto, which we’ve titled "The Spiegel League". Now you can pit your managerial skills against ours and challenge us to the title of team of the season. The prize for ending up top of the The Spiegel League after all 38 gameweeks is a Guggenheim Grotto t-shirt. Okay, a signed Guggenheim Grotto t-shirt.

To enter you must first create your own team. Go here to do so: http://fantasy.premierleague.com

Once you’ve created your team then use this code to join our league: 309964-195060

May the best team win (and apologies to the bulk of our American fans who we imagine have absolutely no clue about, or interest in, any of this).

Kevin

East Coast and Midwest tour in August

admin — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:16:40 +0000

Hello all,

We’re currently on the road again heading to the East Coast and Midwest for a series of dates throughout August. Check out the gig listing below to see where we’ll be playing.

We also want to extend a huge thank you to all of you who came out and spent your evening with us during our residencies in LA, San Diego and Ventura during the month of July. It was, how do you say… awesome

Here’s a link to a new blog we’ve posted on our website: Bethlehem, Here We Come.

Hope to see you soon.

Kevin

TOUR
Sunday, August 8 - Bethlehem Musikfest, Bethlehem, PA
Wednesday, August 11 - Jammin’ Java, Vienna, VA
Thursday, August 12 - Club Cafe Live, Pittsburgh, PA
Saturday, August 14 - Turning Point Cafe, Piermont, NY
Sunday, August 15 - Venue Music Bar, Portland, ME
Tuesday, August 17 - House of Blues Foundation Room, Boston, MA
Thursday, August 19 - The Ninth Ward, Buffalo, NY
Friday, August 20 - Concerts @ Karen’s Place, Leonard, MI
Sunday, August 22 - Irish Fest, Milwaukee, WI
Monday, August 23 - Saugatuck Center for the Arts, Saugatuck, MI
Thursday, August 26 - Lincoln Hall supporting VIENNA TENG & ALEX WONG, Chicago, IL
Saturday, September 4 - Kansas City Irish Fest, Kansas City, MO
Sunday, September 5 - Kansas City Irish Fest, Kansas City, MO

Bethlehem, Here We Come

kevin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:58:15 +0000

"It’s like we’re driving through a painters canvas" - Mick

We spent the last month living on the West Coast in Long Beach and playing residencies in LA, San Diego and Ventura. The gigs were really great and we want to thank all of you for coming out to share your evening with us. Special mention goes to Zoeys in Ventura, which was sold out each week and where we had a whole lot of fun singing into pianos and what have you. A huge thank you to Polly and Steve at Zoeys for making it such a great experience for us. Every night after the gig when everyone went home we’d sit down with Polly and Steve for a chat and they’d feed us coffee and a secret recipe fancy custard fit for the Gods.

In our time on the West Coast I also managed to fit in a tandem skydive (cue thumbs in the air skydive photo).

So once again we find ourselves making the journey from coast to coast. Most people who ever take on the task of driving clear across America in less than one week will do it once and leave it at that. This will be our fourth time doing it. It’s ridiculous really, madness… but it works out more economical for us in the long run as we get to have our own car on either coast for when we tour. For our previous three jaunts across this vast nation we took the southern route through Arizona, New Mexico, the Texas Pan Handle, Oklahoma and so on. This time to mix it up a bit we decided to take the route through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska…

This latter route goes over the Rockies so it’s far more testing on the driver and the car… but it has so much more to offer. Our first night we stopped in Vegas and stayed in a giant pyramid (not our choice, blame William Shatner and priceline - it did the trick though). The next day we put in a 600 plus miles journey so we could arrive in beautiful Glenwood Springs that night. Come Sunset we’re driving through Utah and we’re the only car on the highway. It was if the entire world was ours. It was magnificent - colours, clouds, rock formations,mountains, shadows and skies like I’ve never seen.

This morning in Glenwood Springs we both got a massage at this great place called Splendor Mountain Spa (www.splendormtndayspa.com). The knots and nodules have been worked out and we are ready for some more hardcore driving. Next Sunday we play Bethlehem, PA. Best get going then.

The Guggenheim Grotto begins west coast residencies

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:39:05 +0000

The Guggenheim Grotto’s June NYC and Philadelphia residencies were a great success and a good chance for Kevin and Mick to connect with fans old and new. This month, TGG is performing weekly residencies in Los Angeles, San Diego and Ventura on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, respectfully. See the schedule here.

While in Philadelphia, The Guggenheim Grotto performed their song “Wisdom” on NBC Philadelphia’s The 10! Show. You can watch the live performance here.

Official release of “The Universe Is Laughing”

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:48:00 +0000

Hello Folks,

Today the 15th of June is the official worldwide release of our new album The Universe Is Laughing. You can purchase both the CD and MP3 albums with a free download of “The Universe Is Laughing” through Amazon and our own store. It is also available to buy digitally through iTunes and physically from select independent music stores throughout America.

We’re currently touring on the East Coast of the States to promote the release of The Universe Is Laughing with residencies in both New York and Philadelphia. In July we’ll be touring on the West Coast. We hope you can come out and join us. Check out our gigs page on our website for more details of where we’ll be playing.

Thanks for all your support,

Kevin

Drummer and Bass Player Join us for June Residencies

kevin — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:02:40 +0000

Myself and Mick are very excited about the June residencies in New York and Philly. The exciting news is we will be performing with a band for these dates.
This is the first time we have toured with a rhythm section in the states so it’s a real milestone for us.
With new additions Michael Thurber on Bass and Michael Davis on Drums, it will now be a band of three Micks and one Kevin.
Our more rockier songs like Sunshine Makes Me High, Portmarnock Beach Boy Blue and Girl With The Cards will now come back into the set and songs like Vertigo and Just Not Just will be even funkier than before.
We hope to see you at our shows. They are going to be magnificent.

Check out our June gigs in Philly and New York here

Introducing “The Universe Is Laughing,” the new album from The Guggenheim Grotto

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:10:03 +0000

The Universe Is Laughing special offer available now directly from The Guggenheim Grotto store (till May 28th).

Largely written and recorded in hotels and living rooms while crossing this wide country on tour, The Universe Is Laughing is an ode to lovers and madmen as much as a shout out to carnival hucksters and easy mystics. It celebrates the joy of falling in love and then forgetting what all the fuss was about. It preaches sticking to your guns, fighting the good fight and standing with your hands hung loosely by your side. It’s about marching, chopping wood, highways, girls wearing pretty dresses, sinking churches, ghost towns, chasing answers, getting drunk, rabbits and weasels, tiny white lies, the sun, the moon and the whole damn universe. It’s about dancing in the grey.

“Perhaps what is different this time round is that those ideas are less visible at first glance,” said primary songwriter Kevin May. “But listen to the title track ‘The Universe Is Laughing,’ a paean to the mystery of the passage of time and our brief but beautiful existence. Or hear Mick’s powerful vocal on ‘Concentrate.’ He starts out a wounded lover but in the second verse he’s transfigured and sounds like a prophet, one who should be listened to.”

Ten new tracks:
1. Trust Me I’m A Thief
2. Map Of The Human Heart
3. Wings And Feathers
4. Never Before
5. Concentrate
6. Wisdom
7. Ruby Heart
8. The Spiegel Song
9. The Universe Is Laughing
10. Diamond.

Also available till May 28th a limited edition t-shirt by designer Kelly Dyson www.dontwakemeup.com

I want you in my pocket (and so does Mick)

kevin — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:50:54 +0000

It is time for us to make new business cards but rather than design them myself I have been inspired with a much better idea by a great friend of mine (and a great photographer) canvasbeauty.net. She had business cards made where each card displayed a different one of her photos.

So here’s the idea: you create our business cards.

Take a photo, paint a picture, create something special, send it to us. We put it on the card.

Your creativity becomes an ambassador for The Grotto and we get to carry a mobile art gallery in our pocket. It’s a beautiful idea.

As with all great art there must be boundaries and rules. These are ours:

No stealing other peoples artwork. It’s gotta be yours to give.
No photographic or painted images of either myself or Mick. The last thing I want to be carrying around in my pocket is Mick’s face (and likewise I’m sure).
You must title the piece with a lyric from one of our songs. You don’t need to put the title in the image… just let us know in your email to us that this piece of art is called so and so. This way you can create something from scratch inspired by one of our lyrics but you could also apply one of our lyrics to a piece of art you’ve already created - perhaps they marry well, compliment each other, or cast a new light on one another.
The closing date for us to receive your image is Sunday the 6th of June
We can only accept the file as a JPEG or a PDF.
These are the dimensions it will need to be in pixels, millimeters or inches:

1039 x 697 pixels (300dpi)

88mm x 59mm (300dpi)
3.46" x 2.32" (300dpi)

Send your artwork to Art@GuggenheimGrotto.com

And finally, I thought you might be interested in knowing that the paper your artwork will be featured on will be:

100% recycled post consumer waste
100% recyclable & biodegradeable
FSC Certified
Smartwood Certified
Manufactured using wind power

Master Of The Universe

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:52:58 +0000

A few days ago we got our new album The Universe Is Laughing back from being mastered. For me getting the final mastered album is even more exciting than the next stage which is getting the packaging back. The mastering stage is the point in the whole process of making an album where the aural fairy dust is added. Songs open up and become more… well they just become more. We’ve been listening to it now over these past few days at any opportunity we can get. I carry my iPod around with me and a lead so I can try it our on different people’s hi-fi systems. It sounds beautiful. It even sounds great on our cars stereo which is saying something because the Town and Country we own has a truly horrible stereo system.

The reason I’m telling you all this is because while we are not yet ready to release the full album we would like to give you a wee taster of the aural joy we’ve been experiencing these past few days.

We’ve added our new song "Wisdom" to our media player.

Not only can you listen to your hearts content but should you feel you can’t wait until the official release of the full album to own a copy of Wisdom, we’ve also provided a handy link right here on this page so you can buy it now. How very thoughtful of us.

We hope you enjoy it.

-Kevin

The Chelsea Hotel in The Hotel Chelsea

kevin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:27:51 +0000

It’s reassuring to discover that despite all the miles we’ve put under our belt, despite having seen behind the curtain of the music business and through her smoke and mirrors that I still experienced that honest excitement and exhilaration of being a fan of music itself when we stayed in The Hotel Chelsea for the first time.

Okay rewind.

The night before we stayed in The Chelsea Hotel we were sleeping on the floor of an empty house in Baltimore. In fact we had spent the last three nights sleeping there as it was a perfect location (quiet and free) for finishing off the last few tracks on our album The Universe Is Laughing. We would have spent even longer sleeping on those not-as-uncomfortable-as-you’d-think floors except we needed to travel up to New York that day to perform for a very small group of Advertising Executives. The gig was in a cool creative arts private club called The Norwood (very salubrious though… so i can’t imagine too many unwashed bohemian artists frequenting it). Through a secret door and down some stairs was a little plush victorian room where a group of creatives in the advertising world were sharing ideas on culture and new media. To round up their night they had arranged for some live music from myself and Mick.

We were waiting outside in the hall for our cue to enter when the door suddenly opened and one of the executives came out making his apologies because as much as he’d like to stay he really had to go. Our hostess somehow managed to convince him that he was going to miss something very special and that these two guys (pointing at us) were just going to perform some great original music… right this minute. He hummed and hawed and came back into the room but stood at the back near the door. We bundled in after him, tuned our guitars real quick and cleared our throats. The host began introducing us and when he got to our name suddenly the guy who wanted to head home cried "No way! You guys are THE Guggenheim Grotto?! I love your music! I discovered you on my wife’s iPod. Vertigo is one of my funeral songs!"

It’s hard to say which surprised me more… that he actually had a list of songs he wanted played at his funeral or that one of our songs was on it.

We played seven songs unplugged (and we cheekily left Vertigo until last). It couldn’t have gone better. Afterwards we gobbled up their fancy finger food and chatted a while with everyone. The question came up as to where we were staying that night. I explained that we often play it by ear and as of yet we didn’t know where we were staying. The host of the event pointed out that since we were big Leonard Cohen fans wouldn’t it be cool to stay in The Hotel Chelsea? A phone call later and he had us booked in. Another phone call later and I had our good friends Alfonso and Roja jumping into a cab and making their way over to the Hotel. They brought beer, Tadhg and Mick grabbed the guitars and I set up the microphones and the video camera.

Then we sang and drank and drank and sang until the morning was peeping blue through the curtains.

And then we slept in beds.

Check out Tiger Cooke here: www.tadhgcooke.com
and Alfonso Velez here: www.myspace.com/alfonsovelez