Author Archive

Short, new album update

September 3, 2008

This past Saturday and Sunday will go down in history as Just Off Turner’s ‘Long Weekend’.  Bryan, Eric, Stephen and I sequestered ourselves in our rehearsal space to finish (as much as possible) the songs that will make up our new album (possibly titled [you heard it here first] ‘Words On Waves’).  From 10am until nearly 9pm each night we sorted through each song that we’ve been working on, detailing each part in order to hit the studio in October.  Here’s a list of the songs that we have slated for inclusion on the new record:

There’s fifteen songs right there that will probably be whittled down to twelve or so…  Obviously, many of the songs remain untitled but need to be identified somehow.  We recorded much of the two days on our handheld, Olympus LS-10 recorder (highly recommended), videotaped a couple of things and shot some pictures — All of which might find their way to you some day soon.  A teaser, of sorts…

Otherwise, we’re looking to debuting some of the songs at the next couple of gigs in Los Angeles and Phoenix – Laying low while we get in the studio and hoping for a early winter release.

We can’t wait to lay these tunes on you.

Gig wrapup – Gilroy Garlic Festival

August 4, 2008

Sorry this is a week late – We’ve been busy…  Like you wouldn’t believe.

The first set of pics are from the Festival itself – The second are driving down the Pacific Coast Highway on the way to Big Sur to drop Stephen off for a bachelor party and then back to Los Angeles.  Special thanks go to Lyndsay and Susanna (pictured) for coming down from San Francisco to see us!

Lyndsay & Susanna and the band
Lyndsay & Susanna and the band

Bryan gets artistic

Bryan gets artistic

Detour in Big Sur - Chairs in the riverDetour in Big Sur – Chairs in the river

Phil

Gig wrapup – San Francisco’s Grant & Green

July 14, 2008

Man, what a fun night.  The trip, as usual, was arduous – If you’ve ever driven I-5 from LA to SF you know that’s it’s a lot of nothing for three hundred some miles…  Lot’s of time to talk, laugh, play Cube Runner on my iPhone, ruminate, sing, laugh…  Laugh.

Some pics from inside the van:

The view from the bed

Bryan driving

The gear

Asleep

We found ourselves pulling up to Grant & Green about 7pm, double parking and unloading.  Ran the sound ourselves and only had three mics for the three vocals and drum set.  A lot of 80s-style mic sharing when Stephen and Phil harmonies came around…  Serious fun.

The crowd was very warm and receptive, the staff was cool and collected and my white shirt was see-through by the end of our set.  Such a warm stage for such a cool night…  Thanks go out to all the awesome people that moved and grooved and met us after the show.

The aftershow party brought pizza, drinks and the awesome Little Italy/Chinatown atmosphere.  I bought a melodica at a cool, little music store just around the corner from G&G and we closed a couple of bars…  All to wake up the next morning to try and find a breakfast joint that didn’t just serve bagels and coffee.  Rico’s famous burritos did the trick but, on the way, we passed some very impressive grafitti and I couldn’t resist snapping some iPhone pics:

Some pics from the top of Lombard Street:

And, on the way back to Los Angeles, our blown tire experience:

Stephen in the picnic chair

Awesome, awesome trip.  We’ll be back upstate soon…

Interesting JOT/YouTube videos (pt 1)

June 30, 2008

You gotta love the internet.  Below are some YouTube videos that have mashed up JOT songs with video – Links only ‘cuz WordPress won’t allow video embedding…

English emo boy sunset montage to ‘How Much It Hurts’

American emo boy nighttime montage to ‘How Much It Hurts’

An Uzumaki Naruto (anime) Tribute- ‘How Much It Hurts’

Days Of Our Lives montage to ‘How Much It Hurts’

House (House & Cameron) montage set to ‘How Much It Hurts’

…well, at least it’s not ‘How Much It Hurts’ again:

Lost:  Kate & Jack set to ‘The Long Walk Back’

And some cover version videos of our tunes:

Guitar and drum, rock version of ‘How Much It Hurts’

Australian Idol’s Tom Jordan’s version of ‘How Much It Hurts’ (1)

Australian Idol’s Tom Jordan’s version of ‘How Much It Hurts’ (2)

Ashlee Barerra & Chris Bun’s version of ‘How Much It Hurts’

The Knitting Factory show 5/27

May 29, 2008

Setlist - TKFWe had a great time on Tuesday night. Many thanks to Brent Harvey for setting it up and The Knitting Factory staff for being so cool (Carlos, I’m looking at you).

Despite Bryan’s finger’s run-in with a ferocious hammer a couple of weeks ago, he played through the pain – You wouldn’t have known it was an issue if he hadn’t brandished it about like a revered war-wound just before ‘Save Me’. Being an all-ages show we got to meet some people that can’t normally get into our shows around LA as well as seeing some familiar faces… A really great crowd for a Tuesday night.

You’ll find our setlist to the right – For the sake of time and courtesy to the other bands we cut out ‘Holiday’.

Photographers Erik Thureson and Amber Rose tried not to collide with one another while taking some pics. Below are some from Mr. Lightbox 57 himself:

Updates from Phil

May 13, 2008

I swear to goodness that I’ll get some of the other guys to post on here soon. Until then, you’ll just have to read about the JOT world through Phil-colored glasses [which ain't all that bad, right?].

Here’s some behind-the-scenes happenings to keep you titillated:

  • The band is in talks with another film/television music licensing company to get more JOT-flavored aural goodness in the world… ‘Guiding Light’, here we come!
  • Concentration, this summer, will be on writing and recording – Not so much on the gigging and touring (…that almost rhymes). So far, we’ve got songs like “The One In 7/8″, “The Country One”, “The New One”, “The Foo Fighters One”, “Phil’s One In Eb”, “The Other Country One”, “The One In B” and “The One That Goes Like [insert singing here]“. Mind you: These descriptions are simply how we identify the new tunes to one another – Not necessarily what they’ll end up sounding like.
  • We’re challenging ourselves and each other musically and thematically – Bryan is really stretching out on guitar, Stephen and Eric are working very closely to develop airtight grooves and I’m learning to sit back a bit and let the other guys take the spotlight [*wink*]. I’m also making it my personal mission to make the electric piano cool again.
  • The plan is to release an EP of four to six songs this summer to digital outlets and finish more songs to round out an album by the end of the year… We’ll see if we can pull that off.
  • We’re holding off on releasing some new photos taken with the awe-inducing Erik Thureson. Just trust me when I tell you that they’re pretty effing amazing.
  • We’re also waiting on some new media that we’d like to share with you – Some new, live studio recordings done for Brave New Radio and, perhaps, some footage from our trip to Spartanburg, SC last month.

All of this and a few other things that we’re going to keep under wraps for now… Until then…

Bryan & Stephen - Spartanburg (photo by Erik Thureson)

Search strings for justoffturner.com

April 30, 2008

I thought I might share with y’all some fun – You see, our website back door allows us to see what people searched for to end up at www.justoffturner.com.  Along with the usual “Just Off Turner MP3″, “cute keyboard players” and “fire-eating drummers” people got to our page with the search strings below:

2          0.21%  Jon Mayer which record is how much it hurts
2          0.21%  hot ass in fayetteville tn
1          0.13%  how much it hurst just off turner
1          0.12%  does john mayer sing how much it hurts
1          0.12%  who sings how much it hurts off turner or john mayer
1          0.12%  who sings john mayer’s how much it hurts
1          0.13%  i hate ritah
1          0.10%  2008 boys asia email address guestbook
1          0.10%  2008 email addresses and guestbook of rich people in europe
1          0.10%  2008 email contacts of divorces guestbook in canada
1          0.10%  Is John Singing how much it hurts
1          0.10%  ted danson official website
1          0.10%  who is paramedic in toby keith video

As you can see, there’s a couple of things that are crystal clear:  1) There’s still some confusion as to who sings ‘How Much It Hurts’ (or ‘Hurst’) and 2) we’re obviously some hot ass in Fayetteville.

Blog exclusive: Phil photos

April 25, 2008

Here’s more photos from our St. Patrick’s Day show at Tangier of me – Taken by the crazy-talented Erik Thureson. Still more to come…

Phil 1

Phil 2

Phil 3

Phil 4

Welcome to the official Just Off Turner blog

April 23, 2008

Hey everybody,

Phil here – We’ve started up Just Blog Turner to keep in touch with the friends and fans of JOT that aren’t wired into MySpace… Here we’ll post updates, musings and thoughts on all aspects of the band. Including (but not limited to) new album updates, cool links to JOT-related content, exclusive images and (perhaps) video.

Expect to see everyone here – Bryan, Eric, Stephen and Phil – at one time or another.

Peace and welcome,

-P-

JOT - trippy logo


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