Hey everybody, we're done with mastering! Check out a few of the cuts from the new record, There Are No More Gentlemen, in the player below. We're also giving you a free download of "A Novel Approach", because we love you. Here it is (right-click or ctrl-click to save): A Novel Approach. Enjoy!



Thanks to Carl Saff for putting up with our indecisive ways and busting out the excellent mastering job. The artwork in the player is fake. We made it up. It's crap. Our buddy Mike Renaud is working on some good artwork for the album. He did the art for the 7" before, and we trust the new stuff will be equally as awesome. We're still working on figuring out when this album is going to come out, and on what imprint. We'll give you the scoop as soon as we know, but for now we're hoping for sometime in September. Anyone wanna put out a record?

Also, don't forget: Show tomorrow at Ronny's!. See you there!

Hey kiddos, we've got a big show coming up at The Hideout, and it promises to be a sweaty fun-packed night. Mix cheap PBR with balls-out rock from The Laureates and Mark Mallman, add some booty-shakin' mixes from DJs Bald Eagle and Mother Hubbard and how could it not be a good time? Here's the deal though...these Life During Wartime parties tend to sell out pretty quickly, so go get your tickets now!

In album news, we're going to be placing it in the very capable hands of Carl Saff for mastering at the end of April. Stay tuned, because once it's done we'll probably post some of the finished cuts here.

We just finished up mixing at Phantom Manor last night and thought we'd post a few of the new jammies on our MySpace page for you guys to check out. These are unmastered, but about as close to done as they can get. Release date for the record is still up in the air, but stay tuned here and at MySpace and we'll keep you posted.

Nothing's Perfect, Your Filthy Eastern Ways, and A Novel Approach are all from the Manor sessions.

Dig!

Last session at the Manor we finished up tracking for the full-length, adding acoustic guitar, horns, piano, vox organ, and a few more percussion elements. We're going back in this weekend to mix the record, which means it should be finished really soon!

Possible album titles:
Fold Your Ghost
Hands On Craze
There Are No More Gentlemen
Hey Stripper! (A Gentlemanly Kind of Blues)

Our show at The Pike Room in Pontiac was canceled today. News is that The Valentinos broke up, so the whole show was canceled. Unfortunately, we can't justify the cost to drive to MI for just one show, so we're dropping off the bill at Paycheck's in Hamtramck as well. Our apologies to anyone who was planning on coming out to the shows. We'll try to get up there soon.

Last night's session was all vocals again: I Want to Miss You, Furniture Moves, Make You, and we finished up some extra stuff on There Are No More Gentlemen and Witching Boots. Crawfie sang too! Awesome!

So that pretty much wraps up the vocals. We've got all the singin' we can handle at the moment on all 13 tracks, which makes next sesh a keys/percussion/noise session.

Don't forget Dekalb next Friday (the 15th). We're playing at Otto's with Seaworthy.

Ok, a little late now, but here's the deal: Last Friday we did a short "sesh" at the Manor and layed down vocals for Witching Boots and Nothing's Perfect. Ooos and aaahs abound. We're heading back in this Thursday night to belt out some more.

Some shows coming up too. Dekalb next weekend, Michigan a the end of the month. Check it.

"Oh man". We spent the past weekend back at the Manor, working on guitar and bass tracks, vocals, and percussion. We're getting pretty close on some of the songs, but 13 tunes with vocals and horns and organs and pianos and shakers and tambos can take some time, so keep your pants on. In-between takes, we watched cartoons and Guns 'N Roses videos and wrote a new song called "Hot 'n Ready", inspired by Little Ceasar's Pizza. Nobody tried to steal our beer but we ran out too fast. No, we don't have any money for your art supplies. We're spending it all on gold records. C'mon.

Got vox and geets and percs on these guys:

Her Fiction, Your Filthy Eastern Ways, Coronation Now!, It's Shattering, My Association, There Are No More Gentlemen, Tomorrow Today, A Novel Approach

We'll be back in the studio shortly to keep tracking. Stay close.

A couple of top ten and best of lists to note here at the end of the year...

Evan "Funk" Davies of WFMU has The Laureates EP sitting pretty at #5 in his "Top Singles/EPs" of 2007. Take a look at the whole list here.

Also, The Unblinking Ear has "Witching Boots" in The 2007 Playlist and sporting the title for the obscure category of Song I heard on Evan "Funk" Davies show on WFMU and immediately thought "I must have this". Check the whole 2007 in Review story here.

Thanks to Evan and Paul for the shouts. In recording news, we're heading back to the Manor to work on the album again in mid-January. We'll let you know how it's going. Happy New Year!!

We had a great time with the brilliant Mr. Lust at Phantom Manor last weekend. We watched some DVDs, played some video games, had some laughs at Lust's interpretation of dirty south hip-hop and his sensitive MC alter-ego, tried to avoid the man-child who almost stole our beer, and played a lot of air drums in the control room. But aside from all that, we recorded basic tracks for 13 songs. Here are those songs:

Your Filthy Eastern Ways
Tomorrow Today
It's Shattering
A Novel Approach
Nothing's Perfect
My Association
I Want to Miss You
Make You
Her Fiction
There Are No More Gentlemen
Furniture Moves
Coronation Now!
Witching Boots

We're not sure at all yet about the tracklisting or even what songs will make the final product, but those are the ones that we have basics for. We'll be heading back in to the Manor in January to put down some more guitars, vocals, horns, organ, percussion, etc. We'll post some photos from last weekend here when we get them.

Thanks to everybody who came out to the free Monday show at the Empty Bottle. That was a hell of a fun time. If you took any pictures send 'em to us. We're gonna take a break from the shows for the holidays, but we'll be back in 2008.

Tomorrow we head over to the Manor to start tracking the full-length, armed with horns, maracas, sleigh bells, and a boat-load of chili. The organ is still in the shop, so we're gonna have to wait to put the keys down. We'll keep you posted with photos and updates about what we're recording as we go.

We made a Christmas jingle at the practice space last night. We'll post it here or on our MySpace when Chad gets it mixed.

There's a nice little review of the 7" EP over at the Seven Inches Every Day blog. Check it out, it's a pretty cool blog.

We start recording at Phantom Manor this weekend. We're all pretty psyched to get these tunes down on some tape.

See you at the Empty Bottle tonight!!

"Witching Boots" was played on Liz Berg's radio show today on WFMU in New York. Check out the archive stream of the show here: Liz Berg on WFMU - November 12, 2007. Check out the whole show, she plays a lotta good tunes. "Witching Boots" comes in at about 2:32:45.

We're getting a Farfisa tomorrow. Sweeeeeeeeeeet.

Thanks to everybody who came out to the two shows last week. Our friend Joe Kirschling from Quinn Scharber and the... took some awesome photos at the Silvie's show that you can see in the images section.

We're gonna take a slight break from all the shows and concentrate on getting ready to record in December. We're bidding on organs on eBay (snipers be damned), writing and learning horn parts, re-arranging some songs, and buying up all the 2" tape on the planet. Sessions at the Manor start December 8th, and we'll be in and out of there recording and mixing and listening to those mixes on our stereos, your car stereo, and your mother's iPod.

We love you. We'll be back with more songs.

We've got two great shows coming up next week for you. First, we'll be playing at Silvie's Lounge in Chicago on Thursday, November 1st with our friends Bird Ate My Donut and Milwaukee's Quinn Scharber.

Just added today is a Chicago/Iowa City mashup with the fantastic Death Ships and Paul Cary. That one happens on Sunday, November 4th at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago.

Keep an eye on the site for more shows coming up and news about recording. See you next week!

Woah, it's been a little whiles. Thanks to everybody who came out to the shows at the Underground Lounge and Ronny's. Last Friday at Ronny's was the most fun we've had like, ever. The Gay Baby sing-along was awesome as always, and The Gunshy sounded even better with the full band in tow. Go check those guys out while they're on this tour if you get a chance.

We just added a show with our friends Bird Ate My Donut at Silvie's Lounge in Chicago. That one will happen on November 1st. It's a Thursday, which is the first day of the weekend. In case you didn't know. We're working on booking more shows as well, so keep checking back.

The most exciting news is that we're going to be paying a visit to Mr. Mike Lust at Phantom Manor Recording in December, where we'll start spinning tape for what will hopefully become The Laureates' first full-length album. We're going to spend some time on it, so no release date is scheduled yet, but we're gunning for sometime next year for it to hit your hands.

You can now pick up the Laureates S/T 7" at three of the best record shops here in Chicago. Permanent Records, Laurie's Planet of Sound, and Reckless Records are all stocking the record.

We have a couple shows in the works too. Keep an eye out on the shows page for more details soon!

Thanks to everybody for coming out to the show at the Empty Bottle the other night. Our friend Greg Dizzia snapped a few photos for us. Check them out on the images page.

Thanks also to Apteka and Flying Over Iceland for being great guys and great bands. It was an awesome show and fun time all around.

See you soon.

The Laureates' new website is finally in action! Thanks to Michael Renaud for helping out with the fonts and for the brilliant design of our first 7", on which this website layout is based. Shouts also go out to Joseph Mohan for taking the awesome live photos that you'll find on the images page.

We have a show at The Empty Bottle on Sunday July 8th. We'll be playing second in a three-band lineup including Flying Over Iceland and our good friends Apteka. We'll bring the back-beat and Apteka will provide the eye-gouger soundtrack.

We'll also have our new 7" complete with fresh hand-screened covers ready to go at this show. If you can't make it to the show or if you got ants in your pants, you can write us and we'll let you know how you can get one. OR if you like the ol' MP3 deal, you can head on over to the music page where you can download all the jams for FREE! No joking, just make sure you tell your friends and neighbors.

If you want to know when we have shows, release stuff, what we had for lunch, or where we're going for drinks, join the mailing list. We'll let you know when there's a happening.

Finally, we're working hard to get some new tunes written and to play some shows around the Midwest. We'll debut one of the new songs at our Empty Bottle show next Sunday. If you book shows in or around the Midwest and want us to rock the old(ish) and the new in your city, please let us know. We'd love to come see you.

Enjoy Yourselves,
The Laureates