Merrill: News

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To everyone that attended a show on the inaugural Portland:Stripped Tour. It was such a pleasure to meet so many new friends and to see our other friends and family. A few highlights:
 
I brought along copies of our yet to be released new album, "A Beautiful Disaster" for the tour. For all of you that bought a copy, thank you so much! For those of you that didn't, the album will be available in stores and online via iTunes on September 22nd.
 
In Kamloops B.C., Russ, Jonny and I preformed on the B100 morning radio show. The show's host Steve Ayres was awesome. While we were off the air he told us about how he got dragged to a backstreet boys concert for the station and that was why he had a signed picture on the wall. This led to Jonny and I singing the "classic" backstreet boys hit, "I Want It That Way". Steve recorded it. We're trying to get a copy! We then posed for a few pictures with Steve and made our way over to the E! News affiliate and performed live on their mid-day show. Special thanks to Tracy Pellizzari for having us on the show. I did have a minor mishap. I was performing our song "The One Thing" and broke a string during the intro and had to play the rest of the song with my guitar slightly out of tune. Luckily Jonny and Russ were there to save me. I then giggled when Jonny announced we would be playing in Regina (pronounced like the female part). I know, very mature!
 
In Calgary, we got to share the stage with a really great band out of Victoria B.C. and met so many wonderful people. We even went out to a local country bar after the show and had some drinks with our new friends.
 
And after a 14 hour drive from Regina, Saskatchewan, we arrived in Idaho Falls to play our final show of the tour at Vino Rosso. We were all exhausted and a bit road weary. But luckily for us, we were playing at a wine bar. So Russ and I went to work on some red wine. I then got a bottle and started drinking directly from said bottle. I got drunk. So in true rock fashion I started playing my guitar while standing on a chair, all the while managing to keep my balance. I've been known to fall off a chair or two after drinking:) Again, we met some amazing people and had a great night!
 
In all, we traveled a little over 4000 miles, sold about 200 cd's, our entire allotment of Portland:Stripped t-shirts and tank tops, and melted the hearts and faces of some kick ass people. When I got home last night, it felt like a dream. I couldn't believe it was already over. I miss everyone already...
 
I'll be writing a bit more about the trip in the days to come. You can check it out on our website www.merrillmusic.com and our myspace page www.myspace.com/merrillmusicofficial  
We'd also like to announce that KINK FM in Portland, Oregon will be playing a song off our new album tomorrow night. You can listen locally at 101.9 FM or online at www.kink.fm and check out our page on their website at http://www.kink.fm/Merrill/4036390  
Oh, and have I mentioned that we were approached by Fox Sports Ohio about using our song "Back 4 More" for this season's Cleveland Cavalier games? That's right, Merrill + LBJ+Shaq = primetime! We have some legalities to work out but it's pretty much a done deal. They want to put together a marketing campaign around the song i.e., "2009-2010 Cleveland Cavalier's: Back 4 More". No big deal:)

Hola, buenos dias mi amigos! If my spanish speaking confuses you...well it confuses me too. But anyhow, how are you? I missed you all so much. We've just been enjoying the time off the last 3 weeks after a very busy August. But now we're ready to get back on stage to rock you silly! We're doing our annual "let's feel good about ourself's by doing a charity gig" on Saturday for Boys and girls Aid. If you're not familiar with them, they work with kids on anything from adoption to getting them clothes, school supplies, and making sure they they try to have happy and healthy life. Pretty effin cool...

And if that wasn't enough (and you know it's not), we will be celebrating the release of our first album "Evolutions" on Saturday the 27th. It will be held at the new Star Theatre on 6th and West Burnside in downtown Portland. Hope you can all come out and celebrate with us. For those of you living outside the area, we are planning a US tour for winter so stay tuned on how you can see Merrill in your hometown!

One more quick bit, we will be playing at the White River Amphitheatre in beautiful Auburn, Washington on Sunday at 6pm. We cannot mention who we are opening for due to legalities, but if you're resourceful I'm sure you could figure it out! I will be writing a blog entry for ourstage.com after the show and I will post it on myspace and our website so stay tuned for that...

Thanks so much for all your love and support. It means the world to us!

-Chris

Hey folks...we here at merrillmusic.com have spent countless hours updating the site for your enjoyment. We hope you like the new song clips, photos, and such. If you get a chance, let us know what you think!

So by now you may have noticed we have some new song clips available for your listening pleasure. These are the unmastered versions of the six songs that will be on our upcoming EP "Evolutions". Hope you like them!

-Chris

Hey guys,

I know we haven't updated the site for a few months, but rest assured that we will be working the next few days to get things current. In band news, we are hard at work on our debut album "Evolutions". We've completed 5 of the songs we plan to release and intend to add a few more before we're done. We will be releasing our first single "Little Miss Pretentious" sometime in early April. We have a tentative release date for the album in mid May. Stay tuned for more updates and samples of the new recordings in the coming weeks.

Thanks to all of you that have been so supportive of the band the last couple of years. We've come along way thanks in no small part to all of you coming to our shows and buying our music. We love you all and promise that 2008 will be our breakout year!

Much love,

-Chris

So we wanted to give you a heads up; our myspace page is down right now, but we are working with the folks at mysoace to get it up and running as soon as possible. Please be patient while we work this thing out. In other news, the band is a finalist for a slot to play Bumbershoot in Seattle! Please help us by going to ourstage.com and voting for our song Intervention. Thanks so much guys...

Much love,

-Chris

So that's what I'm thinking of naming our album...I have some art work that was designed by Melissa Greene that will fit that title perfectly. And you figure that this album will showcase my songwriting from the early stuff to the new stuff...let me know what you think!

So last night Russell and I were recording one of my new songs and it's sounding great! Well I don't like the vocals but as Russ kept reminding me, it was only a scratch track. So Russ was drinking his wine(Russell likes his wine) and I was sipping scotch (because I can) and for what ever reason we were just clicking on all cylinders. I'm really excited for you guys to hear this song...It's called Intervention. It's about overcoming things that are not condusive to having a full life. I'll let you know when it's done enough to post on the website.

So I've been working really hard to start booking shows on the west coast in anticipation of a mini-tour later this year. If you want us to come to your town, let us know so we can try to work something out.

Well, I should get going, but I will leave you with this parting thought...In the words of Jerry Springer, take care of yourself, and each other...

I'm out son!

-Chris

So I wanted to thank everyone that came to the show last night. It was a great night. I performed brilliantly, as did my Aussie friend Russell Stafford. There was plenty of good music, drinks, and friends. If you missed it, well, that sucks...

Next up will be a repeat performance at the Dub on April 19th. Russell and I will be joined by the talented and lovely Miss Amber Sparks (www.myspace.com/ambersparkslive). Now if you haven't been to a show at the Dub you really should. Basically it's a really kick ass party. And it's free! So come on down and check us out…you know you want to!

I will be in the studio on the 21st recording my song "Back 4 More". If you haven't heard it, it's a little edgier than most of my songs, but it absolutely rocks. I will post it on the website as soon as we finish it. I will be joined in the studio by Dwight Stroh and Dimitri Trichos, both of whom I played with last year. We'll be at Opal Studio (www.opal-studio.com) which is run by Kevin Hahn of the band Castella. If you live in the Portland area and are looking to record, I would highly suggest you give him a call.

Well, I hope everyone has a safe and happy Easter weekend. You are all a very important part of my life and I thank you for all the support and well wishes I receive daily. I could not ask for better friends and fans…

Happy Friday!

-Chris

What up friends, family, and acquaintances!

So things have been relatively quiet on the CMB front lately. But that's all gonna change here very soon. We will be auditioning some a couple of talented drummers in the coming week. And I hear we're pretty close to finding a bass player as well. The album is coming along nicely. I will have some additional tracks for you to listen to very shortly.

So in unrelated news, Russ (www.myspace.com/russellstafford) and Andrew Stafford and I went and saw TriPolar over the weekend. That was a kick ass show. If you haven't seen them, you gotta check them out. The lead singer is Craig Montoya, the former bass player of Everclear.

I want to introduce someone to you all. Her name is Melissa Greene. She will be doing artwork for the band. She listed in our top friends under Zaftig. If you get a chance, swing by her page and say hi and welcome her to our dysfunctional family!

Hope everyone is doing well and has a great week...

-Chris

We are proud to announce CMB is currently ranked #19 on the Oregon Pop charts. They are also ranked #24 on the acoustic charts(go figure!) and #62 on the rock charts. Thanks to all our friends and fans for helping us achieve this success. Please know that you are all apart of everything we do.


Thanks again for the support!

-CMB