LINKS { Musings, Happenings, and Considerations }

Spring Tour 2010 Details

2010-03-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

We've decided to take on the West Coast (plus some other places) in full force this spring!

Joining us on the road are our good friends from Brighton, UK, Doll and the Kicks. We met them when they were touring the US with Morrissey in December. We instantly fell in love with Doll, Matt, Olivier and Chris, and we're sure you will too.

We'll also be playing with some of the finest indie musical talent in the US, including Imagine Dragons, The Silent Comedy, Music For Animals, Mata Leon, Hair Envelope, Chasing Kings, Stereofix and more...

The full schedule is:

3.25 - Lake Forest, CA - Gypsy Lounge http://bit.ly/cbl7nm

3.31 - Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theater http://bit.ly/b7sq82

4.01 - Las Vegas, NV - The Bunkhouse http://bit.ly/a0DfjK

4.02 - San Diego, CA - The Casbah http://bit.ly/aXXqKR

4.04 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop http://bit.ly/daS6np

4.05 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater http://bit.ly/9IPk7P

4.06 - Seattle, WA - High Dive http://bit.ly/cTjtuU

4.09 - Provo, UT - Velour

CD Release, TV Appearance, Mini Tour

2009-12-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone for making us feel welcome at our Silverlake Lounge residency. Packing bodies into a little club is the best way to beat the cold.

We'll be hitting the ground of 2010 running, and to kick it off, our CD release show for "Echo Dogs" will be on January 7th at the Echo. We're playing with our good friends Rumspringa, Mississippi Man, and The Silent Comedy. Proceeds from the sales of our new CD will be donated to the Humane Society to help all the little echo doggies of the world.

The morning before, January 6th, we'll be waking up early to play on the KTLA (channel 5) morning show at 8:50 am.

To top the month off, we'll also be hooking up with our good friends Imagine Dragons to play in Las Vegas, NV and Provo, UT. Lots to do.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the new year.

Eric

Night Two at the Lounge: The Recap

2009-12-15T23:14:00.000-08:00

Words cannot say how much fun we had at Silverlake Lounge last night. We had cocktails and conversation with the bands at our place beforehand, and then scooted down the block to the show. First up was Imagine Dragons, our buddies from Vegas who tore it up with their synth-soaked anthems. After them, the acclaimed Eastern Conference Champions showed why they are one of the most respected acts in LA. After we played, Vanaprasta closed out the night with some good old fashioned Silverlake dirt. Goodness. I drank too much Whiskey. And Tequila. And PBR. And my head doesn't thank me for it. But we're doing it all again next week, so bring yourself down.

Say word, son.

E

First Night at the Lounge

2009-12-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks, everyone, for rolling out last night and making our first night a special one. Everything went off without a hitch, including our inflatable snowman/doorman and our billions of x-mas lights on stage. We had a great pre-party with our friends Mata Leon, who drove all the way down from San Francisco to share the stage. Thanks for bringing the Tecate and Salsa. Yummmmmm. Thanks also to Repeater and Giant State, who gave thrilling performances that shook my soul to the very foundations. Serious.

On another note, there's been a scheduling change for the 21st, and we're excited to say that the first band on will now be Parade of Lights. These are great guys with great music. Here's the updated flyer:

Stay warm. See you on... a Monday?

Eric

New Song "Canopy" Posted

2009-11-18T20:26:00.001-08:00

Boys, Girls,

The day is here. Our new EP, "Echo Dogs," is finished and the music is sitting here on my desk. Sounds great. We'll be slowly releasing tracks for public consumption until the full EP is available in a month-ish. The first track we're putting up is track one on the record: "Canopy." Go listen to it on our Myspace.

You can also check out our beautiful new making of video, produced by John C. Bradbury. The colors are perrty.

December Residency at Silverlake Lounge

2009-11-12T16:17:00.000-08:00

It's now set in stone: the Links boys and their best pals will be playing Mondays in December at Silverlake Lounge. Every show is FREE to the public. We handpicked every band on these bills, and each night promises musical beauty that has never been seen before. Ever. Here's a peek at the lineup:

Dec 7th:
Mata Leon
Repeater
Giant State

Dec 14th:
Imagine Dragons
Eastern Conference Champions
Vanaprasta

Dec 21st:
Chasing Kings
Samuel Stewart
Red Tide

Check out our video blog and official flyer.

Tracking at The Lodge

2009-11-08T15:41:00.000-08:00

Hey townspeople,

We're moving closer to being done tracking the record. I finished up guitars last night, bass and drums are done, and Robbie only has one song left to do vocals on. Some back-up vocals and a little more piano, and we'll be set like salamanders.

We've been the first band to record in our producer Christopher Thorn's brand new studio (we're calling it "The Lodge" for now), and it has been an incredible experience. The vibe is killer. It's the only studio I've been to with a fireplace. The tracking room smells of fresh cedar, and makes you feel like you're inside an acoustic guitar.

Everything still needs to be edited, mixed and mastered, so maintain your patience... To tide you over until then, we have some great shows coming up:

November 17th - West Hollywood - The Roxy Theatre w/ The Outline, Eastern Conference Champions, Voxhaul Broadcast and Nova Nuevo

November 21st - Long Beach - The Prospector w/ Repeater

We also have some big concert news for December, but I have to remain hush hush at the moment. Stay with us.

Love,
E

Halloween, Studio Update

2009-11-01T18:30:00.000-08:00

Ghosts and ghouls,

Happy H-ween! The boys and I went cheap style and made our own costumes. Check out our take on the TMNTurtles:

After sitting in mad traffic in Hollywood, we managed to get ourselves to a spooky house party in Valley Village. All was well. Thanks to Dan for being our Master Splinter.

In more important news: Our first day in the studio is tomorrow! We'll be setting up drums at around 10am with our producers Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith behind the console. Look forward to some great pictures and video from our four upcoming tracking days. It'll be colossal.

Thinking of you,
Eric

i just want to see you underwater

2009-10-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Good Morning/Early Afternoon -

After a night at the lovely Palladium listening to the sounds of Beach House and Grizzly Bear, I think a studio update from Links is in order...

We're embarking on our third week of sifting through music, making changes and cleaning up rough edges in hopes that we'll end up with five tunes to present to everyone's anxious ears. At least we all hope they are anxious, I know my ears wont stop worrying. Yesterday in the studio I made changes, again, to all the song titles and lyrics which threw off CT and Bradley. The highly intelligent producers were so lost and confused it just about took the whole session to get them back to their original minds.

As of now, the plan is to head into their Silverlake studio to record the first week in November. This is the first time we are working with producers and we couldn't be happier. The music will surely show our smiles.

look forward to sharing it with you.

lots of love.

-No Worries

Recording Blog 1: Preproduction

2009-10-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

You may already have heard, but we're heading into the studio next month to record the follow-up to our debut EP "Tip Your Jester." The guys and I plan to keep you in the loop about how the process is going.

The first step when you plan to make a recording is preproduction. This involves taking the songs that we have been crafting for months, some of which we have played live recently, and digging into the details. We pore over every lyric, every guitar solo, and every hi hat click to make sure we have it the way we want it. It also involves getting outside input.

In our case, we are lucky enough to be working with a talented team of producers. Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith formed the band Blind Melon in 1989 here in sunny California. These days, when not on tour, you can find them behind the mixing console for up and coming artists such as Under the Influence of Giants and American Minor. They'll be adding their years of expertise to the mix, chopping things up, and pissing us off sometimes. It's all for the greater good of getting sticky sweet tunes into your ears.

Here's a clip of us working out the instrumental parts for a new song, "Under the Anchor."

This is just the beginning. We have a lot of work ahead. And I can't wait.

Cheers,
Eric

Acoustic Video for Cold Water

2009-10-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

On our trip to the Biltmore hotel for a photoshoot a couple months ago, we had some down time in between setups to crack open our guitar cases and play in a really really big ballroom. Our buddy John was on hand to film...

Playing in VEGAS with CURSIVE

2009-08-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

To all a good evening,

News... we'll be traveling to beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada to play our first out-of-state show with Omaha's finest indie outfit, Cursive. Come see the show:

September 24th, 8pm
The Beauty Bar
517 Fremont St.
Las Vegas, NV 89101

Also joining us are our good friends Saint Motel. The show is being put on by rm64.com. Check em out!

Festive cheers,
The Boys

FREE AT LAST

2009-08-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Let me be blunt: we don't want to take your hard earned money. We know you earn it so very hard. That being said, our show schedule involves a lot of zero dollar things:

8.6 - Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest, CA: FREE SHOW
8.9 - Cinespace in Hollywood: FREE VODKA 9-10pm
8.18 - Viper Room in West Hollywood (taping for MTV's The Hills): FREE SHOW with RSVP to links@linksband.com
9.4 - San Jose Art Walk: FREE SHOW
9.28 - Spaceland in Silverlake w/Saint Motel: FREE SHOW

Leave your wallet at home. But maybe bring five bucks for a CD. We work hard too.

All our best,
LINKS

New Photoshoot, Video blog

2009-07-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

What up cousin,

We recently went to downtown LA and ran around the Biltmore hotel causing trouble. Luckily, photographer Cooper Gross was on hand to capture the action.

Check out three of our new photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125094&id=20401255773

Check out our VBlog of the photoshoot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPUTlA7uOO8

Word,
LINKS

Get on the $5 guestlist at Silverlake Lounge. June 30th!

2009-06-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey Hello ---

Email us (links@linksband.com) or holla on the ol' myspace to be on our limited guestlist for Silverlake Lounge show on June 30th.

It's only $5! Something that John the Baptist can even afford (not sure what that means...)

We play at 11pm sharp. Come, hang, have a Tuesday night drink.

We just moved down the street from the lounge, so you can park by our place. We wont charge for parking. well...nawwwww

See you there!

robbie.eric.curtis.robby- sqaured.

Live Recording Sessisons Featured on Luxury Wafers

2009-05-28T00:55:00.000-07:00

What is a Luxury Wafer? No one knows.

All we know is that the folks over there were kind enough to invite us to their studio in the valley, record us playing six of our songs, and post up mp3s and a video for all to download. It's great stuff. Check it out!

Luxury Wafers Session

They also wrote up a nice little review of the performance. Dig.

Love.

Featured on talesfromthepit.net

2009-05-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

Our new friend Justin came to one of our Knitting Factory residency nights and took some lovely videos and pictures. Check out his review of the show:

http://tinyurl.com/qptl9a

One more residency night to go! Eric's dad is gonna be there, so everyone dress nice!

Love,
Links

New Video Blog

2009-04-20T23:21:00.001-07:00

Check out some of our more poignant moments from our most recent touring adventure.

Featured on Buzzbands.la

2009-04-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

LINKS are featured today in Kevin Bronson's blog, Buzzbands.la. Here's what the good gentleman had to say:

"Links are an L.A. quartet with a Robbie and Robby (an Arnett and Barnett, go figure), and a passion for simmering, ’70s-styled blues rock, which they bring to a boil on their debut EP, “Tip Your Jester” (released in March). Singer-guitarist Arnett yowls like a higher-register (and mercifully less forced) Caleb Followill behind bassist Barnett and drummer Curtis Marrero’s sharp beats and lead guitarist Eric Frank’s tasteful licks. Good stuff from guys who, having just signed on with management, are currently writing new material."

Thanks Kev!

A cool day in April

2009-04-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

We're back from tour, but we're determined not to let the dust settle too much. We have a ton of things in the works for the future. Literally, a metric ton. Here's a little news summary for all you mother-fathers out there:

New photos up from our release show here.
Playing Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa on the 23rd.
Residency at the Knitting Factory A&R Knights showcase every Wednesday in May.
We're all moving in together next month to a house in Silverlake! Woohoo!

There's more coming, so stay tuned. Thanks again to everyone who let us crash at their pads this tour. We love you all dearly.

Cheers,
The Boys

As promised.

2009-03-24T17:11:00.001-07:00

One of the first photos from Viper. More to come.

About last night...

2009-03-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

Hey all, just want to send out a big thank you to everyone who showed up at the Viper Room and made last night an overwhelming success. Copies of "Tip Your Jester" flew off the merch table and a good time was had by all. Hope everyone enjoyed the "Lush" encore, we certainly did. We'll be posting photos from the show soon, I hear they look amazing. Nothing like a sweet fog machine.

Now it's time to bring the love to the rest of our fair state. See you soon, California.

Special note: On Thursday, the day before we leave, we will be taping a special in-studio live performance of Tip Your Jester for the LA music blog Luxury Wafers. Look forward to some great footage of us playing live soon...

Kiss your loved ones.

Eric

California Tour!

2009-03-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

Ladies/Gents,

We are pleased to announce a new California tour, kicking off March 22nd. We'll be hitting up all the finest cities (like Modesto, for example), so bring a friend. Also, bring $5 to pick up a shiny copy of Tip Your Jester. The tour poster below was crafted by our good friend, artist Zachry Horn. Check out his site, shout him a holler.

March 22 - Viper Room, West Hollywood, CA - CD RELEASE/TOUR KICK-OFF SHOW!
March 27 - Jensen's Mainstage, Santa Barbara, CA
March 28 - Monterey Live, Monterey, CA
March 29 - Streetlight Records (4pm), Santa Cruz, CA
March 30 - Queen Bean, Modesto, CA
March 31 - Johnny V's, San Jose, CA
April 1 - Grant and Green, San Francisco, CA
April 2 - Old Ironside's, Sacramento, CA
April 3 - Aragon High (noontime), San Mateo, CA
April 4 - Blake's, Berkeley, CA

Tip Your Jester on iTunes

2009-03-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm gonna leak this info... Tip Your Jester is up on iTunes (way ahead of schedule). Grab it!

Tip Your Jester on iTunes

Sad News

2009-02-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

Robby's bass was stolen out of his car after a show at Silverlake Lounge. He had bought the bass only two months before. It was a Rickenbacker 4003 valued at about $1600 dollars. He is currently saving up for a new one, but in these tough economic times, it won't be easy. If you wish to give him a hand and get him back on stage with a shiny new Rick, the whole band will love you forever. Use the button below to donate to the cause. Thank you!

TIP YOUR JESTER

2009-02-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

The new record is done. Like done done done. Waiting to get copies, but you can listen to the new tracks at our Myspace and official site. Be excited.

Master of the universe

2009-02-16T20:39:00.001-08:00

Just uploaded the finished mixes to my server. They sound diirrrrty. Too dirty for the internet.

Our good friend Elliot Richardson is currently hard at work mastering them in Nashville, and we all can't wait to show this stuff to the world.

See you in a minute.

Mixing sound like cake batter.

2009-02-03T21:36:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and lovers,

This is where I will be spending pretty much all of my free time for the next two weeks:

If I don't return your calls and you don't see me for a while, don't take any offense.

Warm regards,

Eric

Recording with Simple Citizens, new photos

2009-02-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hey all, we just got some shots back from Anton, emcee for the Simple Citizens, and co owner of the studio we recorded our new CD "Tip Your Jester" at. These are from the drum and bass tracking days. It's a little dark, but that's because it was dark in there! We record like vampires record. If vampires recorded. Enjoy!

Studio de Simple Citizens : Day 2 - 1st day of Vocal Tracking

2009-01-25T14:00:00.000-08:00

Awww...this is the weather southern California promises, 80 degrees in January...sheesh... and they say global warming isnt real. It's day 2 of the recording session and we are tracking the vocals. We had to build a little make shift vocal booth and then buy a little gentleman and we were on our way. Here are some photos our friend Dan (Simple Citizens trumpeteer) so kindly took....

Vocal Booth (gangsta. gangsta):

Peek-A-Boo:
The heat is on:

Studio de Simple Citizens : Day 1 - Drum Tracking

2009-01-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

We arrived to the studio early in the morning to begin work on our first EP. We were lucky enough to record our demo in relatively warm weather and enjoy summer breeze, but for our first EP session it was a different story; there was a mess of fog and rain as we unloaded into the studio. When we got into the studio we met up with our friends Judd and Sam (members of The Simple Citizens...a rad band! check them out) they pretty much engineered the project because we were recording onto a tape machine, which we have never done. We will be documenting our time in the studio and keeping you up to date with our progress.

love.love.love.

Here are some photos of Curty bear setting up his kit and testing out levels:

Hello World

2009-01-22T00:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the brand new Links Official Blog. We'll be documenting the recording of our new record here, and uploading random pictures whenever we feel like it.

Here's some exclusive news (blog only): We are going on tour again in California from March 26th-April 5th. Dates to come very soon.

Peace.

Future Sounds Writeup/Showcase

2009-01-10T20:11:00.000-08:00

LINKS were recently featured in a write up over at the Future Sounds blog in their "Hottest Music From the US" column. Here's what the fine Mr. Larry Little had to say:

"Links jump into the scene by adding a new riff to the sound that bands like Kings of Leon have been developing. Listen to 'Testify' and you'll want to go on record for support. Word is that their live show is better than their recordings - could be the new Faces?"

We'll be playing the Future Sounds "Rumble" showcase with Nico Stai on January 8th.

A Note from Robbie

2008-12-18T23:05:00.000-08:00

Hello -

We closed out '08 last night with a bang over at the Silverlake Lounge in Los Angeles. Not only was the show great fun but we got to celebrate Robby's (Barnett) birthday on stage. It was a great night of music all around! Our current plans are to record an official EP in early '09 and have that out in the world as soon as possible. We will be doing local shows (LA and Orange County) in January and then plan to tour a bit come spring time. We are all very excited to come out and play for you. There will be a lot in store for the new year and we all have our resolutions set.

In the mean time, we just updated our myspace with a new layout. snazzy-jazzy. We will be finishing up final touches on songs that we hope to make the cut on the EP and we are all buying holiday gifts for the family. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday and look forward to seeing you in '09.

Thank you for the constant support! We love you.

Spread the word,

Robbie

Silverlake Lounge Show

2008-12-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

Come check LINKS out at Silverlake Lounge. Flyer by Eric.

Fall California Tour

2008-10-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

LINKS is on a California Tour! Unless you live in Eureka, you'll surely have a chance to see the boys at their finest. They'll be carrying lovely new shirts, CDs, and road stories to share with you all. Come down to your local show and introduce yourself.