Just Blog Turner

Just Off Turner – Clouds [acoustic version] from Just Off Turner on Vimeo.

Yes, yes, yes… Things have been quiet in the JOT camp lately. However, here’s a few things of note to keep you guys in the loop:

-We’re still talking about a Brazilian tour – It’s just taking a bit longer to get all of our ducks in a row.

-We’re playing a bunch in California this Spring/Early Summer – Check out our tour dates for details.  Of particular note is our show at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood – Where we’ll be debuting a couple of new songs.

-Speaking of new songs – Here’s a couple of our ‘descriptive’ titles to some songs in the works:

• ‘Didn’t Anybody Tell You That The War Is Over?’
• ‘The Painter’
• ‘E-AM9-C#m-B’
• ’7/8 – 4/4′
• ‘Sing-A-Long’
• ‘The Billy Joel Song’
• ‘Bm – A Delay Song’

This is all in addition to the songs that didn’t make it on ‘WOW’ are in the running for the next album we hope to get in your ears by Christmas 2009.

- We’re also revamping our live shows to include some reworking of songs and inclusions of some interesting instruments and textures. If you haven’t seen us lately, you might be in for a treat when you do.

- Me? I’m listening to a bootleg of Elvis Costello’s 1989 tour rehearsal, pining for the new Nord Electro 3 and looking forward to the release of the iPhone 3GS. Yes, I’m a nerd.

Well, it’s been a month since the new album was released. Reviews and feedback are generally positive – Though a consensus of minds might think that it’s a bit eclectic; ‘Reckless’, ‘Lines’ and ‘Wasted’ all being on the same album… We’re still working in the next one already with two new tunes in addition to the four (five) that didn’t make the last one.

Earlier this month we flew to South Carolina for a great show in Spartanburg and I’m actually typing this up on the plane back from Detroit where we played The Magic Bag for a bunch of personal friends, family on fans. We also celebrated my birthday on Friday – Unanimously, all of us had an amazing time.

Personally, it was both gratifying and humbling to have the astounding turnout that we did have in Michigan. For anyone reading this that attended the 4/24 show, I apologize if we didn’t get a chance to chat but the insanity that followed was completely unexpected.

‘So what’s next’ you ask?

The official CD release show is at The Mint in May and our return to Gilroy in July for the Garlic Festival. Otherwise, it seems like we’re concentrating our energies to trying to make Brazil happen.

After the last few months of recording & producing ‘WoW’, planning a didn’t-happen tour and making sure the two tour dates that we did keep went off without a hitch I’m taking a back seat for a few weeks and letting other people work the black seam for a while. I’m [contentedly] pooped.

See you on the other side.

With Missy & Karen at The Magic Bag

The University of South Carolina Upstate is having us back on Thursday for a show for their Spring Fest festival (seems redundant to type that). We’re flying out on Wednesday and flying back on Friday – Not a whole lot of time to spend in the fine city of Spartanburg but we’re plenty busy and need to get back to LA by the weekend.

These one-off shows are great and all but the entire band would like to be out on the road for a more extended period of time…  Y’know, like a [whaddayacallit?] ‘tour’.

Interestingly enough, we’ve been talking with some concert promoters in Switzerland, Italy and Brazil – Making headway in some shows in their respective countries and could be touring abroad as early as August.

Neat, huh?

We’ll be taking some photos and video while we’re on the east coast this week – I hope to have a little round-up sometime next week.

Until then, keep up with JOT on Twitter:twitter.com/justoffturner