Happy new year. Glad we all made it here together. Now what the hell is going on?

Well, it's 2012. And you know what that means: the end of the world. Etc. All good. 

Regardless 2011 was a hell of a year. We performed across the country, did east coast tours with some great people, met thousands of new friends, and crashed out in some good places with cool folks. 

As always thank you for your support. In the past couple months you may have noticed that we took a little time off to get prepared for the new year. Jason learned how to rollerskate, and got fitted for a tuxedo. Max rested his ears and did some folk-rock drumming with Rebeccah Pulley as well as some work with Will Quinlan's Diviners. Shawn wrote a bunch of songs and started the bands the Laurel Canyon with Max and also Florida Kilos with Pryscila and Ryan Blood. 

So January has come, and it's indeed a new year and we are all alive and feeling well. We have a host of new shows for January - Febuary around Florida, at FSU at the flipping Salvador DALI museum back to the legendary Bardot in miami and also a couple awseome brew pub gigs and a opening spot for Thomas Wynn & the Beliver's Album Release Party. Yeah, that Thomas Wynn & Family. Mammoths of southern indie rock is what they are. 

Then upcoming is SXSW... and well... that's going to be interesting... 

As always please Like Us On Facebook  tell us what's going on, what you want, what you need and we will do our best to have a good time along with you. 

Thanks Savannah Georgia & Bill De Young of Connect Savannah

It always feels good to get nice things said about you. Especially when you send out press to everyone before going on tour, and get a particularly nice word. 

There are lots of reasons to recommend this incendiary, ‘70s-inspired rock ‘n' roll band from Florida, from the blinding, Heartbreakers-esque blending of chiming electric 12-string and bat-out-of-hell lead guitar, to singer/songwriter Shawn Kyle's passionate lead vocalizing, to the songs themselves, which manage to be smart and literate while retaining all sorts of memorable hooks. This is a band that leaves fans satisfied and exhausted.

At the 2009 SXSW in Austin Texas, the Beauvilles' showcase went way over capacity, and the local fire marshall was called to bar the doors.

Then, of course, there's the video for the Beauvilles song "Snow," which is beautifully shot and captures the desperate nature of Kyle's lyrics to perfection. The clip, which plays out like a Cold War short film, won Best Music Video 2009 at the Sunscreen Film Festival. It's attached to this story on connectsavannah.com. See thebeauvilles.net.

Right on Bill De Young. Good to see that music journalism isn't dead. 

R.E.M. just broke up... and we are sitting in Athens, Ga thinking about it.

Shawn:

 Yes, I know I am about 14 days behind on tour videos, but I wanted to take a second and write a short obit for the band R.E.M., as I am sitting in Athens Georgia in a good friend's home who works with the Drive By Truckers, and we just recorded at a studio over the weekend, Chase Park Transduction that has worked with R.E.M. (we were in awe of the Mellotron that they have there that belongs to REM and also was formerly BigStar's...) so this seems sort of poignant to me personally, that I am sitting here in the town the group started in, a group that influenced me when I first started thinking about rock and roll. But with so many of the previous legendary rock acts calling it quits, it gives me pause. 

Click to read more ...

TOUR JOURNAL: DAY 6 OF TOUR w/Dirty Names @ the Metropolitan ANNAPOLIS MARYLAND

After waking up on a mountain top in Virginia, and discovering that they had inadverdently slept with New Kids on the Block, an impromptu bluegrass wakeup jam ensues. We drive down the mountain ponder wild animals and falling asleep at the wheel, and then come across someone that did. In Annapolis, Maryland we meet our buddies the Dirty Names again, and foolishness ensues. For a Tuesday night, the Metropolitan Lounge is packed, and an art show is a success, and people get turned on to tequila, the Beauvilles drink their first Natty Bo (National Bohemian) meet Eric the Artful Doger ("the Mayor") Jimi Haha (nee Davies) a ton of new friends, and enthrall the joys of sweaty rock and roll music, play ping pong with twins, in a basement and awake to find that most of it was not a dream at all. 

TOUR JOURNAL: DAY 5 OF TOUR VIRGINIA BEACH to CHARLOTTESVILLE

True pain can often be described as the knowledge of exactly how bad things are going to hurt, and then watching it happen. That's alot like sleeping in the van. You know it's not going to be good, and you have no choice but to do it anyhow. Preferably at the beach, with a nice sea breeze, in a spot where you won't get ticketed, robbed or hassled by the law. 

But there are few things that Rock and Roll can't remedy, and soon the boys in the van find themselves in Charlottesville, with panhandling war veterans aside panhandling teenage runaways, tea houses, theaters, strange antique stores and lots and lots of rain. 

So welcome to the Box in Charlottesville. It's a nice place, and all is good. The Dirty Names rock it, and the Beauvilles do as well. Everyone makes news friends, and both bands drive up into the mountains, away from cellphone service, gps and into Bear Country, where things get weird pretty fast, in a wood shed, with accordions, mandolins and banjos.