took a nice long break from this particular blogosphere…. wanted to throw some updates your way…

Boise has been treating us very very very well. we’ve been loving it here and the music scene we walked in to has been very welcoming and is particularly vibrant right now… which has been exciting.

back in February we took part in a really cool event that featured 26 Boise bands over two nights at the Visual Arts Collective for ROTATING TONGUES 2 — a local festival and live compilation recording. each band played one warm up song and then two brand new songs they’d never recorded or performed live before. it was an amazing event to witness and be a part of. the fruit from that endeavor is being harvest this coming weekend as the double disc compilation is being officially released on Saturday April 18th — National Independent Record Store Day. our new song The Collider kicks off disc 2. you can get a sneakpeak of that tune on our myspace site as well as some brief back story on the song on our myspace blog… for more info on the record as a whole go to www.rotatingtongues.com. very excited to hear the whole thing because all the bands really rose to the occasion.

that event really got the ball rolling for what’s been a spring very focused on new material as we prepare to record a new album in May… we’ve been starting to air out some of the new songs at recent shows including this past weekend in Oregon… great shows in Pendleton and Ashland and capped off with the Tender Loving Empire / Boy Gorilla Showcase at the IKE Box in Salem for the Cherry City Music Festival. what a fantastic weekend. we had a blast and want to thank everyone that came out and rocked out. and thanks for all the feedback on the new material! there will probably be some photos posted from CCMF on the TLE blog soon…

been playing a bunch of fun local and regional shows this spring… including 3 days with LOW RED LAND just over a week ago, a sweet St. Patrick’s Day show in Boise with IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN and MICROBABIES, a wild set at Tubapalooza up in McCall in a snowstorm — i had snowdrifts on my keyboards!! — it was amazing. also a fun benefit back in March for a really cool and crafty crew doing some rad things for the Boise community called THE MEND PROJECT. also a couple of great trips back up to our old stomping grounds of Hailey for shows at Fresshies and the Sun Valley Brewery and an epic bithday party for our friend Tibby in her sister’s living room… and lots of great stuff at the coolest venue in the NW — Visual Arts Collective — located in Garden City, which just happens to be in the middle of Boise… weird, i know, but true. and awesome

and that was all during our “break”… in two weeks we leave for a 2 week NW tour and as soon as we get back from that we go in to the studio to track the new record (slated to be released in September on Tender Loving Empire!!) followed immediately with two shows with Built To Spill then a show with Mike Watt & The Missingmen then our big Ranch Fest party out near Fairfield on the Bouiss ranch for Cam’s birthday featuring a bunch of our band friends (Tartufi + Low Red Land + Test Audiences + Le Fleur + Hillfolk Noir + Milo Duke + Piers Lamb)… all in the 2 weeks right after tour… so yeah, May is going to be pretty crazy. all very very very exciting stuff though… we won’t be doing any major US touring again until the fall when the record comes out, but we’ll be playing locally and regionally a decent amount this spring and summer as well as enjoying Idaho while we’re here… definitely need to get outside in the mountains!! our most up-to-date show schedule is at www.myspace.com/finnriggins. lots and lots of stuff on the horizon… more info on the new album to come to light soon soon soon….

oh yeah, another new track will be released in about a month on the new Tender Loving Empire compilation that will be released on May 16th. our tune MAHONEY is on disc 2. this year’s TLE comp is bigger and badder than ever. one full disc of only Portland acts and one disc for non-Portlanders. some names you might recognize on this year’s comp: Starfucker, Jared Mees & The Grown Children, Tune-Yards, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Kickball, World’s Greatest Ghosts, Super XX Man, Dirty Mittens, Typhoon, Low Red Land, Halloween Swim Team, The Dont’s, Geographer, Small Sur and on and on and on. sooooo exciting. for more info go to www.tenderlovingempire.com

anyways, that’s a quick run through of what’s been happening and what’s going to happen. will try and keep this a little more up-to-date as we move forward…

thanks for listening.
on behalf of all of us here at camp finn riggins…
>>>>>gilbert<<<<<<<

PS if you haven’t already found us on facebook… we’re right here

///above is the view from the top of Whitebird Hill just North of Riggins, ID… after all the miles and epic drives we’ve travelled all around this country, we were present once again to how incredible the north-south drive through Idaho is… what we like to call the spine of idaho… 6 hours of diverse and glorious country, most of which following either the Payette or Salmon Rivers… if you’ve never been, it comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED… and from some folks that have driven a whole helluva lot of roads in the lower 48.

last weekend we drove that drive north for shows in Moscow, ID and Clarkston, WA with our friend and labelmate Scott Garred aka Super XX Man. and then back down the same gorgeous way for Boise Community Radio Benefit at the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City on Saturday night… Super XX Man played that as well.

thursday’s show was a bit of an experiment as we set Super XX Man up at the One World Cafe with local Bart Budwig for an all ages and free early show, then when that was done we started the show right down the street at John’s Alley with Yarn Owl from Pullman, WA… they were rad. played with Ted and Javier before when they were in Ether Hour, really like this new project of theirs… mostly focused on Javier’s songs. very cool. after them we closed the place down with a couple of long sets. the Alley was rowdy as usual and led to a late late night… thanks Simba for the late night Kenyan food!!

and thanks once again to the McMurtry’s for hosting a pre-show dinner at their place with us and Scott. chicken & dumplins! oh my!

friday’s show was really special because Scott grew up in Clarkston and hadn’t played there in several years. we got to meet his mom Jean and she was very nice to open up her house to us and to cook us a good ‘ol American breakfast in the morning! show was really fun that night. really cool crowd came out to see Super XX Man and he slayed them with a bunch of songs about growing up in Clarkston and around the Clearwater River and whatnot. heartwarming to say the least. we were excited to be back at Hogan’s in general as we love the place, but this was a great added bonus. thanks again to Tony and Skate and Bailey and Sam and the rest of the Hogan’s staff… they took great care of us and rocked out with us until closing time… Scott took some great pictures from here and from the whole weekend and posted them on his photo blog for the Willamette Week’s Local Cut… check it out here (his camera is much nicer than mine) http://localcut.wweek.com/2008/12/08/super-xx-man-pea-and-lentil-tour-wa-and-boise-id/

a huge honor travelling and playing these shows with Scott and fun to get his insight on things. he’s put out 12 albums now as Super XX Man! so cool. and he currently works as a music therapist at a mental institute in Oregon and it’s obvious that he’s great at this job. his 12th album “There Will Be Diamonds” just came out on Tender Loving Empire last month and it has some amazing tunes on it… definitely recommend picking it up if you haven’t already…

last show of our little mini-tour was a Boise tour homecoming show for us and a benefit for Boise Community Radio, which we are really excited to support, especially as we’re moving to Boise… finally the Treasure Valley has independent radio!! not fully on air yet, but well on its way once the fundage is raised. all very exciting. so thanks to Gavin + Jeff + Art Hodge + everyone else involved with helping get BCR off the ground!

show that night was at our new favorite venue — the Visual Arts Collective or VAC. and our new friends The Very Most from Boise were nice enough to play with us… great to finally see them! Jeremy writes fantastic tunes and i have a hunch we’ll be seeing a lot of them, and probably playing a bunch more together… and we’ll be sharing a practice space with them come the beginning of the year!! glory glory! Scott played after them to a really really appreciative crowd. nice long set and at the end Lisa and I jumped up and sang the backup vocals on “Medication” — a song that i absolutely love. it was really fun.

thanks to everyone that came out for the cause and to welcome us home! and for sticking around, it was a really fun show and it was great to see all your smiling faces! thanks to Jeremy Martin for donating his time behind the soundboard, and to Julia Green for donating her time and effort on the beautiful poster she did and to Sam and Anneliessa and the VAC for hosting and for being awesome.

here are some more photos from the weekend (make sure and check out Scott’s photo blog!!! link above):

super spicy pad thai before the boise show…kind of got us all a little freaky…

///gilbert