SHOWS & BAND INFO - ALBUM INFO - CONTACT INFO
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Shows & Band Info
September 6, 2008. Chicago, IL. Hideout. w/ special guest Danny Malone
Tom Schraeder - Guitar/ Lead Vocals
Matt Schuessler - Electric Bass
Dan Moulder - Rhodes, Vocal, Vocals
Adam Kaltenhauser - Drums
Henry Bianco - Electric Guitar/Vocals
with very special guests Ari Levi (Cello), Stephanie Lee (Violin), and many more special surprise guests that will be named closer to the date.
Tom will be giving away free copies of Lying Through Dinner with online ticket purchases for this release show. Be sure to get the tickets today before it sells out.
Produced by Danny Malone, Matthew Smith and Tom Schraeder, Hot Tracks!!!.
Mastered by Matthew Smith, Hot Tracks!!!.
"The Door, the Gutter, the Grave" (2007)
Recorded, produced and engineered by Tim Sandusky at Studio Ballistico, except for Track 7, which was recorded and produced by Tom Huston at Back Room Studios and finalized by Tim Sandusky at Studio Ballistico.
Mastered by Josh Shapera, Black Sheep Studios
Artists/Bands You Know Westerberg Orbison Stones Lennon Presley The Heartbeats Parsons Cooke Wilco Dylan Parsons
The Band Van Zandt Waits Beatles
Artists/Bands You Should Know
Joe Pug (Chicago), Danny Malone (Austin), David Vandervelde (NY), inchWORM (Chicago), Frank Smith (Boston/Austin), Brent Pulse (Chicago), Ben Clarke (Chicago), Walter Meego (LA), Curtis Evans (Chicago), Mike Musikantow and SleeperCar (Chicago), Graham Weber (Austin), James Bowers (LA), Brothers and Sisters (Austin), The Butchers Boy (Chicago), David Safran (Chicago), Wild Sweet Orange (Atlanta), Oucho Sparks (Chicago), Hot Melts (UK), Pretty Good Dance Moves (NY/Chicago), Till We're Blue or Destroy (Austin), Heidi Johnson (Austin), Belmondos (Chicago), Catfish Haven (Chicago), Carl Pike (Nashville), Bailiff (Chicago), Scotland Yard Gospel Choir (Chicago), Colin Swietik (Austin), Matthew Ryan (Everywhere), Michael Beauchamp (Michigan), Esther of Ashland (Chicago), Phosphorescent (NY)
Miscellaneous
Hootenannies Unprovoked Hand Claps Off Beat Foot Stomps One Marching Band Two Dogs Three Tylenol
Tom Schraeder has a way of stretching things to their limits. Missing his flight home turned a 3-day trek to SXSW 2008 into a 6-week tour of the couches, floors, and even homeless shelters of Austin. With little concern for the trappings of a comfortable life, the stories flowed freely from his fingertips and something remarkable began to take shape: the unplanned sabbatical prompted Schraeder's finest work yet. Lying Through Dinner is a stark, honest, and achingly pure follow-up to 2007's critically-lauded The Door, the Gutter, the Grave. Entirely written, arranged, recorded, mixed, and mastered over the course of the 23-year-old Chicagoan's stay in Texas, Schraeder assembled a ragtag band of local musicians to help give a beautifully messy birth to the mangy honky-tonk swagger that had beaten around his head for much of 2007.
"It's clichéd, but everything really does happen for a reason," Schraeder opines. "I couldn't tell you what pulled me to stay in Austin with two changes of clothes, a guitar, and nowhere to sleep." It may not have been a vacation, but the spontaneity of the situation kept the young tunesmith relaxed. "I'm not saying I'd choose to spend the night in a shelter again, but something about the vagabond nature of the experience made this project happen with ease. We went from demo to mastered record in three weeks."
Lying is the loosely confident reinvention of a young songwriter who's unafraid to swirl caustic stories and atmospheric melody with a precocious, hollerin' devotion to early rock 'n' roll. Part moody, harmonic folk-pop and part raw, heady, rollicking stomp 'n' roll, it's 17 minutes of barroom piano, buzzing Telecasters, marching bands, barking dogs, clinking glasses, textured profanity, and Schraeder's dramatically maturing voice. To say that he's poised to fulfill the promise of an artist dubbed "One to watch in 2008" by the Onion A.V. Club, "earnest" and "ambitious" by CMJ, and touted as combining "sophisticated melodies and arrangements and surprisingly insightful and world-weary lyrics" by the Chicago Sun-Times' notoriously tough critic Jim DeRogatis is an understatement. Full of challenging melodies, foot-stomping singalongs, and the innate warmth of the analog tape used exclusively in the recording process, Lying Through Dinner finds Tom Schraeder stretching the boundaries once again.
"Schraeder's is a down-home, down-to-earth songwriting style, the kind that encourages arm-in-arm barroom sing-alongs, even among strangers. The untrained ear may hear his happily drunk "Whiskey Song," which is set against a backdrop of clinking glasses and rowdy voices, as similar to Ryan Adams' "The Bar Is A Beautiful Place." It's far less corny, though, and its songwriting is more earnest, more adventurous." Emily Youssef (CMJ)
"Tom Schraeder and his Gram Parsons-Wilco-Paul Westerberg-Tim Booth-inspired sound, fresh off Lollapalooza, are on the brink of stardom." Noah Isackson (Chicago Magazine)
"The strength of tracks such as "The Whiskey Song," "Porcelain Doll" and "An Easy Way to Cry" from "The Door, the Gutter, the Grave" is that they recall all of Schraeder's varied influences without resorting to mere imitation, thanks to the sophisticated melodies and arrangements and the surprisingly insightful and world-weary lyrics." Jim DeRogatis (Chicago Sun-Times)
"On songs like the bitterly funny "Which Excludes You", Schraeder writes like Ryan Adams woke up one day and forgot to tell everyone how big of screw-up he is; as a result, finally got his shit together and wrote a song with the orchestral grandeur of The Beatles...This is the one ego that actually deserves to be inflated." Jonathan Graef (Minneapolis Fucking Rocks)
"Top five artists to watch...The world needs another dude with a guitar like it needs a planet-destroying asteroid, but Tom Schraeder has been perking up ears all year, which a memorable performance at Lollapalooza perpetuated. (The Sun-Times' headline: "Schraeder, LCD, Daft Punk Soar" - not bad for a dude who played at 12:30 in the afternoon on the first day.) But the booze-soaked songs on The Door, The Gutter, The Grave show that even a style that's been done to death can work when it's done well." Kyle Ryan (The Onion)
"Schraeder delivers his slightly gritty vocals with a sharp, emotive range, delving from bittersweet remorse (the lilting "Easy Way to Cry") to just plain bitter (the sing-along chorus of "Whiskey Song" Kim Jefferies (UR Magazine)
"It's of little surprise that the 23-year-old, who counts Goldie's and Hungry Brain among his favorite dives, frequents smoky bar rooms long after most of the city is deep in slumber. His self-released debut EP, "The Door, the Gutter, the Grave," is the sound of one-too-many late nights -- a musician doing his best to mask his heartbreak with the bottle. "Easy Way To Cry" finds Schraeder haunted by visions of a former lover. ("[She's] dancing like an angel in my head," he sings.) "The Whiskey Song," which sounds like it was recorded amid the clatter of a local tavern, is a boozy anthem for the downtrodden; the spartan "Porcelain Doll" is every bit as fragile as its namesake." Andy Downing (Chicago Tribune)
"Schraeder, LCD, Daft Punk soar..." Jim DeRogatis (Chicago Sun-Times Lollapalooza headline)
Delete that last one... I have been painting and the fumes have made me brain dead and completely incoherent. What I was trying to say... Next time, after all the stage sexy times, would it hurt to give up 5 minutes of conversation? Gosh, that way a gal doesnt feel used. Just kidding...it was my pleasure! You are always entertaining!
whats up man. long time no talkey. I was listening to you stuff tonight. very nice, I really enjoyed just chillin listening to some tommy take it easy bro
hey wats up? uncle bob tells me all about u & u once met my older brother jack at one of ur palooza's in chicago. plus my fav song of urs is the whiskey song
Hey, I'm glad I made it out to see you play Monday night. That was a fun show. I've been listening to the new cd. If you're ever looking for a place to drink on a Tuesday while you're in Chicago, you could come to Trace for PolyRhythmic's open mic night. We'd love it if you played a song for us. We get a hip and appreciative crowd. More info on my blog on MySpace. I mean that to be a kind invitation, and not merely shameless self-promotion.
Glad to see you are using your awesome photo on your profile. Austin as well as Vic & Sky misses ya. Dunno when we might make it to Chi but if u r gonna be in NYC in late November/early December we might be able to meet up with you then.
hey, long time no nothin! it'd be good to catch up. i host an open mic in logan square & do alot of stuff like that. it would be great to run into you again after... 4 years? or something. hope you're well.
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