It's Been A While

Terrence here.

I know its been quite some time since we posted on here. I can speak for myself and say I've been quite busy collecting myself. This has been a really growing year but next year shall be quite more exciting. We have some song idea's that I believe everyone will really love.

Columbia last night was glorious. It's crazy how strong the love is down there. We are definitely going to try and make it down there more often next year.

I've been hesitant to write about a-lot of things in my life. I don't know how long I will be but you'll know when I start writing. I'll post a little bit of the verse's from the new songs and idea's.

We have a few cool show's coming up in December as-well so keep checking the myspace!

Hug the ones you love.

Adios.

Hey guys,

I just did my first on site wedding cake yesterday. It turned out great! I've made quite a few in store, but the program was "canceled" before I took over all of the orders!



Love and peace,
-Colin

Check this out:

margopage.wordpress.com

I know, I know, shameless, shameless plug.

oh, Eli = Rad

3 Shows in 5 Days

We've returned home after 5 days out and 3 days of shows, and I'm already to go out again for another week and half. This past Thursday we hit the road early and drove to NYC to watch our good friends Harvard play with Glassjaw. That was an experience in itself, mostly because it was a SECRET Glassjaw show. Besides, it's always fun to have time off in New York just to explore whenever you can. Didn't get to do too much that day, but we stayed with our Ol' Buddy Ross from Enjoy the Ride Records. Always nice enough to help us out.
The next night, the 10th, we were to play in Manhattan at Arlene's Grocery. It went pretty well minus the mix up with equipment, and getting it all suck in a room the size of my kitchen, crammed with people drinking and schmoozing. We ended up leaving a lot of it in the room because, as always in New York, you're going to have a hell of a time finding a place to park, (try it with a van and a trailer, I dare you). We played with All Grown Up, who I really enjoyed, they reminded me of Polar Bear Club. Oh, and we saw Jessica Alba and Moby that night, would have been more notable if I had gotten then to come watch us...but I didn't.
The next day we had off, and we just got to walk around, and Colin and I were stranded somehow...again, and we walked around Manhattan and Brooklyn until 8am that morning, and ended up waking up a friend of mine just to sleep on her floor for about 2 hours. (It's ok though, I got my doughnuts.) We then headed to Brooklyn for our show at The Charleston. After walking the the rain for two hours, and the left over doughnuts I bought for other people were ruined, we grabbed some food at this place, Bliss. GO THERE. Super nice lady (Don't know if I ever got her real name, so I'll call her "super nice lady ) made us all delicious vegan food. She knew we weren't from around there, only because we "said thank you like 80 times already". I ended up getting a free cup of tea, and she gave us all a free muffin.
The show was a fun one. This place is supposedly an awesome underground (literally, it's the basement of a bar) punk venue, which if you know me, you know I'm totally into. We ended up playing for the other bands. Lady Cops killed it. Although we only got to see there acoustic performance, we all fell in love. The harmonies of this band were fantastic, and the guitars complemented each other so well. Also, Hotel of the Laughing Tree played, and they were great too.
After staying up all night again to drive to DC, we got some real sleep at another Ross' house from Solar Power Sun Destroyer. He was nice enough to let us stay there even though we had never met. We woke up, went to get Falafel, and hung out at a bar across he street from the venue. We opened to show that night at the Velvet Lounge. We played with The Lights Resolve, and NASA Wives. NASA Wives was really great, even though he was a solo act, and, because Harvard and the other local ended up dropping the show, ended up headlining.
After another Falafel stop, we drove home.
I lost a dear friend and co-worker while gone. David Siekkinen passed away on the 9th after a short battle with cancer. Philip and Terrence both knew him as well. All three shows were dedicated to him. Our hearts go out to his family and friends. He will be greatly missed.
Also to Monica (Lee's wife), we hope you are feeling better.
As always, thanks so much to everyone who has ever helped us out, given us a place to stay, or pushed drunks out of the way to help get equipment out of a bar and into the van.
We'll be seeing NC and SC in the next few days!

Dying Rhythm's lyrics

Woken up from all the tree limbs
making believe their finger tips.
Off tempo scratching.
Sounds like their laughing at me.
And now it gets harder to sleep.

There's pages and place that I'll never know
all seem to fly through me as I'm staring at these walls.
There's Paris, her bedroom, London, and Rome.
I dont find much comfort in the silence of a room.
Then you tap on my window
tell me its fine, grab a girl and a gun
and take care of her life.

Somethings coming over me, something terrible
somethings coming over me and its driving me mad!

If there was a place I'd known, wouldnt you think I'd have gone.
Instead I'm in between songs and a crowd thats all been lulled.
When I finish this song you can leave my house.
I said lord when I finish this song you can leave this house.

I heard I heard
I heard them screaming out
that rhythms taken over you!

I heard I heard
I heard them screaming out
that rhythms taken over you!

There aint a place where I dont feel like I'm selling my soul
There aint a reason for leaving but this tryings getting old.

Close quarters and dying rhythms
I said I gunna cut you off before you start to talk in my head.

Whats your uses?
I heard you were just talk.
Wheres your bruises?
Cause my is written in chalk chalk chalk
Oh when I finish this song you can leave my house
I said love when I finish this song you can leave my house

Can't call the doctor cause he wont change my notes
Can't call the doctor cause he wont change my notes
Cant call the doctor cause he wont change my notes
I heard that things went wrong
I hope that I dont end just like sons, end up just like your sons
but I cant change my notes.
I heard that things went wrong.
I heard things went wrong.

Yessir

Howdy Terrence here.

Just wanted to tell everyone we haven't disappeared. We got alot of cool shows coming up (with our buddies Dignan and Harvard!) . Go check them all out at the myspace. We also have a new tour video from Atlanta done by the great Rob B. That should be posted pretty soon.

Its crazy how time has flown. Summer is over pretty much and I can say it was a very intense one. Good luck to all the college kids who recently went back. Do your best and make your parents proud.

After our short tour we will be writing some new material and hopefully getting back in the studio. More information coming soon on that!

Lastly, add us on twitter and facebook. Type in Junior Astronomers in the search on facebook and we're @jrastronomers on twitter.

This is all.

Tyvannasaurus Getting a Checkup.

Our beloved van, Tyvannasaurus Rex just got a new bolt for the front tire!



Check out the bling!!



Be sure to come and hang out at Legitimate Business for the ORBS CD release tomorrow!!

HELP US OUT!

Hey everybody,

So, unfortunately, a few weeks (or more?) ago we played a super fun show at the Milestone Club here in NC. Somehow Philip's MIA Telecaster didn't make it home with us.

If you have any information about the whereabouts of Phil's guitar, please email us at:

junior.astronomers@gmail.com

Thanks for your help,
-Colin, JA

yummy yummy...

Hey everybody, I just wanted to post some of the ideas, and resources that are available to the aspiring vegetarian/vegan/raw foodist. Let me know what you think, and share your ideas! Hopefully I will be able to share some of my favorite recipes with you guys! Here is a letter that I sent to another member of Talkbass.com (which I frequent) about Raw foods:

====================================================================

I had the same concerns when I was first starting to look into raw foods. The first and easiest way to look at it is eating lots of vegetables, dark leafy greens (spinach, kale), fruits, and nuts and seeds. I would say the bulk of my fat intake is from nuts and seeds. It can be challenging at first to come up with interesting ways to get everything you need in a day, and it does take some work (especially getting out of the "I have to have this now" mindset, because things in the RAW world move at a much slower pace then commercial America). I also sprout my own grains and beans (like buckwheat germ, garbanzos, adzuki) and others like that, but not as often because they take longer to germinate, and then to use.

I use a lot of all kinds of nuts; brazil nuts, cashews and macadamia nuts are the most common for the use in "cheeses" and "milks," but also almonds (make great milk, and are great for snacking). Flax seeds are kind of ubiquitous and are used in most faux breads and wraps (they help bind products together, but you will probably need to get a spice grinder to get them smooth, or better yet a vita-mix ). Sunflower seeds are also used a lot for cheeses and things like that as well.

As for excluding meat. A part from the obvious environmental and moral atrocities that the modern day meat production system creates, it also take a tole on our bodies. I do not think that our bodies were meant to process meat, especially not the way we do here in America. Your body has to try a lot harder to digest meat then it does raw food. The energy that your body puts into a) figuring out what the meat is (your white blood cell count goes up when you eat meat, preparing for an invasion), and b) and then digesting the meat is better used on a RAW diet. Your body doesn't have to use excess energy to digest raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds so the energy that you get from those RAW foods goes straight into helping your body run more efficiently. I lead a very active lifestyle as well, and I was wondering about the effect my sudden drop in carbohydrates (from breads and rice) would have on my body. A couple of the books listed below (The Complete Book of Raw Food, and Skinny Bitch) go into more explicit detail about this subject.

Check out some of these books to help get you started and to bring you up to speed on the RAW lifestyle:

The Complete Book of RAW Food by Julie Rodwell

-->A great place to start. TONS of info here.

Raw Food, Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Mengailis

RAWvolution by Matt Amsden

RAW: The UNcookbook by Juliano Brotman

^^All of these authors are big chefs on the RAW scene^^

Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman

-->Not necessarily a Raw book per se, and it is definitely aimed at the female population, but it has a wealth of information about modern commercialized foods and how terrible they are for our bodies.

There is a TON of awesome RAW material on the web too:

Goneraw.com

Juicefeasting.com

--->I highly recommend looking into this site. The juice feasting period will help to purge your body of processed foods and will allow your body to kind of reboot itself.

Documentaries:

RAW on YouTube

Food INC.

-->A well balanced documentary about commercialized food here in America. Great blend of factual information and direction without getting to hippie

King Corn

-->A great documentary about how corn has taken over the diet of America. This was the film that jump-started my movement towards RAW.

I hope this helps get you pointed in the right direction...even if it was a bit long winded

Just don't be afraid to experiment and to try no foods and ideas! Good luck!

====================================================================

Phew! I know that was long, but here are some more links, to at least get you hungry:

Some great vegan books:

Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moksowitz

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Mokowitz, Terry Hope Romero, and Sara Quin

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Please Feed Me: A Punk Vegan Cookbook by Niall McGuirk

Vegan With A Vengence by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

I can't help it if Isa's books a terrific!

And here are some of my favorite Vegan Blogs:

Vegan Yum Yum

Ces't La Vegan

Post Punk Kitchen

Manifest Vegan

G Living

Happy Herbivore

The Sunny Raw Kitchen

Vegan Dad

My Vegan Cookbook

Alright so, my girlfriend and I are both chefs, and we are both foodies, so if I got a little too excited....I apologize...either way I love those sites and books!

I'm Terrible at this

...Every time I come to write on the blog, I end up deleting everything and never posting. I can never seem to get the hang of the idea that someone might actually read these words, and more so, care about them (Honestly, I've deleted 2 posts all ready). It's strange, I write all the time for myself, but I don't usually share it. Terrence keeps bugging me about doing it though, so, here goes nothing.
...See, damn it, I can't do this. I'm trying to decide if I should just put up something I've written before. I've written two separate ideas, both WAY too long for a blog entry, and too complicated for my minimal vocabulary. And now they were both just a waste of time because I've deleted them both. I've been sitting here since 3:45, and it is now 5 am.
At this point, I blame Terrence. I don't know why this is so hard for me. I guess I just brought new meaning to "Here goes Nothing".
I just keep thinking about...how I've always wanted to lean to play the cello...
There we go, 2 hours later and you have all learned something new about me...I've always wanted to lean to play the cello.
I promise to get better at this, I just need a little bit of practice and some self esteem.
-Eli

New dates!

August 6th Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn w/ Baby Baby and Hello, Echo
August 19th Greensboro, NC Legit Biz (Orbs CD Release)
September 20th Charlotte, NC Snug Harbor *
September 21st Greenville, SC Meatheads*
September 23rd Charleston, SC Tin Roof *

* w/ Dignan

It's been a while since we've posted on the blog. We've been resting for the summer trying to prepare for a busy rest of the year. We've got a-lot of things in store so I'll we be keeping you posted here. I will also update the dates here because myspace changed their whole game up and I can't deal with all those screens just to post a show. I hope to see you all soon!

New EP UP for FREE!

juniorastronomers.bandcamp.com

Thank you so much to who have already listened to it and helped promote. It's a great relief to finally be able to show what we've been working on since "I Had Plans For Us". We will hopefully be able to get on the road soon and see everyone's smiling faces.

Until then,
Terrence/Junior Astronomers

I Just Want To Make A Statement

We are about to start our first recording session since "I Had Plans For Us". It's been about a year and half. We've played a-lot more shows and experienced a-lot more together as people. I want that to show through our recordings.
We start this Thursday in Greensboro, NC. We recording with Kris Hilbert at Solo Sound Studios (www.solosoundstudio.com). We are all really excited. Once we finish the recordings then mix and master we will put the songs straight online for free download. We've felt like since it's taken so long for us to record, it would only be fair if we can get it to everyone as fast as possible!

Track Listing (no particular order)
1.Fox and the Hound
2.Settle Down
3. Dying Rhythms
4.Bad Bones

I hope you all enjoy it. You'll hear it soon!

I Haven't Been Sleeping

I'm up most nights until 5 am. Average.
I feel much calmer at night.
I miss the road. As cliche as that sounds. It's strange
finding the most comfort in the uncomfortable.

It's this time again to remind you again of all the great bands we are surrounded by and have been lucky to play with.

O'Brother (www.myspace.com/obrothermusic): These guys are amazing and if you haven't checked them out you have been missing out. On tour now right now so please check out the dates and peep them.

Harvard (www.myspace.com/harvard): Best friends for life. These guys are up-state right now. Go see these guys live. THE END

Austin Crane (www.myspace.com/austincrane) I'm jealous of these guys. They really know how to capture your attention and keep you there. I really feel connected to their newest release. I believe its on itunes.

Calculator (www.myspace.com/calculatormusic) They've lost their drummer but they will be back making sweet love to the stage.

Sleep Eye Giant (www.myspace.com/sleepyeyegiant) Check when their playing in Charleston and make a trip out of it. Charleston is amazing and so are these guys!

Who are we without our friends. I'm sorry for the delay on the new music. I'm not going to bullshit and say we are taking so much time to make it perfect. It'll be out soon. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for reading. Now I'm going to try and go to bed!

Colin is Giving Bass Lessons!

Hey everybody,

I just wanted to say that I am going to start giving bass lessons!

From beginner to Intermediate and covering most styles (rock, blues, metal, doom/sludge...polka you name it). Want to learn your favorite tunes? Want to learn JA tunes? Want to learn music theory? I'll be there (cue jackson 5).

$15 / half hour

$20 / hour

I'll even come to your house.

Just send me an email at colin.e.watts@gmail.com

...Been playing for nearly 10 years...yada yada..

Hello,

Please take two minutes out of your life to watch this documentary trailer and become a better person.

http://www.earthlings.com

(warning: graphic content)

-Colin

GO VEGAN!

AAAAHHHH!

Hey Guys Its Colin,

Just wanted to say hay to everyone and to say thanks to everyone who came out last night at Tremont and braved the blizzard to get there.

Wow...first post......awesome...hopefully you will see alot more of me on here. Muaaahahhahaha.

-Colin

GO VEGAN!

What Do I Want?

I ask myself that same question everyday. I feel it always changes. Nice clothes, Vintage clothes. Hot girl or one I get along with. Dimes or minds as my cousin called it.

Everythings going really well with the band. We've been getting along better then we have in 2 months. We have about six days with our friends from Harvard, two of which are in Charlotte. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many great bands. Recording is a slower process then I thought. We want it to be perfect for everyone because it means so much. I believe being afraid of failure also has been slowing it all down. We've wrote only 3 songs since the EP and we need to pick it up. I just want everyone to know here though that we just want it to be perfect. Every word and Every note.

We are going to start posting more pictures and when we are on the rode tour videos. Just got to figure out this html thing.

Thankyou
Terrence

Amazing Show and Recording Updates!

Drunken Unicorn
736 Ponce de Leon Ave 30306
$8 advance
$10 DOS
9 pm

w/

O'Brother (www.myspace.com/obrothermusic)
All Day The Holiday (http://www.myspace.com/allthedayholiday)
Baby Baby (http://www.myspace.com/babybabylovesyou)

This is O'Brother split vinyl release. We are really stoked to get to play with these guys again. It's been way to long. I've heard great things about both of the other bands so this should turn into a wild night. We'll be playing first so please show up at 9!

Recording Update

We just started recording our new songs. We are recording ourselves this time so we can take as much time as possible. We will be releasing them here aswell as on my other blog http://nomorerobots.tumblr.com/. It will be free but don't worry we will be pressing it as a vinyl and plan some pretty amazing art with it. We have done almost all the guitars and bass. We have to do the finishing touches on a brand new song that no one has heard and I'm stoked about the progress.

Happy MLK Day.

Love,
Terrence