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Big Texas Nights feat. The March Divide w/ The Feeble Contenders & Ottoman Turks (duo set)
November 20, 2013 @ 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Doors open at 6PM for Happy Hour ($2.50 wells and domestics) and music starts at 8pm. Get there early, beat the cover ($5 starts at 8pm), get some great drinks & enjoy live music with us!
THE MARCH DIVIDE
“In the six years since ending The Conversation and beginning The March Divide, I had written a lot of songs,” says San Antonio-based Jared Putnam about the down period that followed years on the road with his popular Emo-era touring band. “When I decided to start working on an album, I had a really difficult time just figuring out where to start.”
Eventually, Putnam issued Music for Film, the debut album by The March Divide, in February of 2013, and it was readily apparent that half a dozen years away had not taken a toll on his songwriting chops. Called “impressively hooky” by American Songwriter, Austin’s NPR affiliate KUTX simply stated, “This album kicks butt.”
The album, which showed off Putnam’s love of The Promise Ring, Cursive, and Elliott Smith, spawned the singles “Still Analog,” which popular vinyl lovers website The Vinyl District said could be its “proverbial theme song,” and “Jose Cuervo” which racked up thousands of Soundcloud streams and coverage from Under The Radar for its moving slice-of-life video. One fan plainly commented, “How this song is not more popular is beyond me.”
“Music for Film was the first album that I produced myself, and it was a pain in the ass!” Putnam jokes. Undeterred, Putnam is moving forward quickly, and has issued an EP follow-up to Music for Film, the appropriately titled “Music for Television” on July 9th, 2013 once again through Dead Letter Records.
Putnam will also continue the touring that he eased back into as interest in The March Divide grew. It’s something he approaches with caution, considering his previous life experiences with being on the road.
“All of that time on tour wrecked my personal life,” Putnam explains of his time in The Conversation. “It was coming out in the worst way when I would perform, but as I started The March Divide, the void from not playing was just too big to ignore. These days, I’m not the road warrior that I used to be, but I’m playing a lot. I love playing, and I can’t wait to build up to the schedule that I used to keep.”
Putnam is also now performing more and more with a full band. “I’m still doing solo shows and tours, but we have grown into a band,” he says. The March Divide’s live show now includes Mike Hernandez on drums who has been performing with Putnam in his various musical incarnations for more than 15 years, and Jeremy Brooks on bass, a former member of the now defunct Furthest From The Star, a popular band around Texas.
About the song selection on “Music for Television,” Putnam explains, “Every album I’d done in the past was approached with a concept, but when I began recording Music for Film, I had songs coming from all over the place. So, I sent them all to my trusted mix engineer, John Glover, and he decided how to split the tracks up between the two releases. Essentially, it’s one big piece of work, and I’m proud of it all.”
The first single from “Music for Television” is “So It Goes,” which Putnam initially intended as a sweet pop song, but drummer Hernandez had different ideas. “When I got together with Mike,” Putnam recounts, “he came in beating the shit out of his drums and I felt like I had completely misinterpreted my own song!”
Of the story behind the catchy tune, reminiscent of early-era REM and The Cure, Putnam is coy. “I’d rather not get into the specifics of what the song is about, but I’ll say that it only took one stupid decision by somebody to completely change the course of my life. But, so it goes, right?”
“Music for Television,” the follow-up EP to The March Divide’s debut album Music for Film, will be released on July 9, 2013 on Dead Letter Records. The March Divide will continue touring throughout 2013.
The March Divide on Facebook | The March Divide on Twitter | Official Website
THE FEEBLE CONTENDERS
The Feeble Contenders are a rock and roll band from Texas.
The Feeble Contenders on Facebook
OTTOMAN TURKS
Ottoman Turks is a Dallas/Bryan/College Station-based four piece that was formed at the beginning of 2010 out of the ashes of a former band. Somebody had written a few songs, so we all got together and figured them out somewhat and then we played two shows without knowing what we were doing. They went well enough, so we figured we’d continue.
Over the years we have gained and lost a couple members, but the core of the group, and the sound we hope to cultivate, have remained essentially the same. A mixture of rough and rowdy blues, fast train songs and sad country ballads, with some skewed jazz and doo wop thrown in.
We have been repeatedly praised for our energetic live shows, which is where we have our most fun. The songs we write are largely built for the stage, and we prefer to showcase them that way. We appeal to a large array of audiences, and have played shows that reflect that – from biker parties by the Brazos to a grocery store opening in a Dallas suburb (that one was a weird one).