Thanks to all those who made it out to the "Days From Evil" CD Release Party last Friday. It really means a lot to us to see our Friends and Fans brave the strange weather. Jess informed me that the puce-colored sky was conjured up by the Dark Lord herself, and those of you coming to the show would be spared, and would not perish in a burst of purple lightning.

The party was great fun, and those who missed it...missed it. For the first time ever we had a merch table with real merch on it! (Thanks Xtna!) The hard copy of Days From Evil was there in all its long-awaited, hard-earned, shrink-wrapped glory. (Thanks Tim!) Band buttons too! (Thanks Karrie!)

Fortunately, Jagged Spiral was there too, somehow managing to mix loud music with theatre; both comic and tragic. Colin's brand-new guitar made it's first public appearance. Josh got into a fight with his own drum set, and I poured a half a pitcher of beer over myself and jumped into the boy's moshpit with my bass. (Yes, there was a girl's moshpit too.) Like I said, if you missed it, you missed it.

Josh, Colin and myself would like to publicly thank all the people who made the CD Release party a big success:

Uber-Thanks go to Josh at Club Underground (no relation to Josh from Jagged Spiral) for having us out and running the soundboard.

Thanks to SBI for taking the "sober slot" and playing first to warm up the room. Thanks for firing up the moshpit, and for the pitcher of beer, some of which I actually got in my mouth....

Thanks to Sick Machine for coming down from St Cloud to rock out with us! I picked up their new CD "Ready To Burn" and you should too, check out the single "Black Out Sunday" on their Myspace Page...

Thanks to Something To Fear for taking the fourth shift and closing out the night with some wicked, double-female-fronted metal! You did a fantastic job, and we look forward to seeing/playing with you again!

Special thanks to Xtna for putting together the merch table and sign, and to Jess for helping her keep it running through the event!

Thanks to Jeremy for acting as the human "meat shield" between the boys and girls mosh pits! Who knows what might have happened if they had mixed...? Combined with Jagged Spiral's music, it's probably better that we didn't find out, at least until we can look over our liability insurance contract...

Finally, thanks to all the people who came to the show: Nancy, Sarah, Jess, Xtna, Jim, Reid, Denise, Karrie, Teresa, Boog, Tara, Dan, Tim, Jeremy, Lisa, and many more who came out to support the Spiral! You people get the Jagged Spiral Seal of Approval!

-Zero

Labels: Concert, Days From Evil, Jagged Live

The CDs have been placed on order, and three years of hard work are about to pay off. We are excited to announce that Jagged Spiral's debut masterwork, "Days From Evil" will be available in CD form on 11 July 2008!

"Days From Evil" is a concept album which tells the story of a hero confronting monsters only he can see. The music covers a wide range of genres, including Gothic Hard Rock, Acoustic Ballads, and Majestic Epic Metal. Much of the music on "Days From Evil" was also used by Jagged Spiral in the movie score for the local vampire movie "Pray For Daylight" from Stone Soup Films.

Ha, and my guidance councilor said I'd never accomplish anything! Now he owes me five bucks! Not surprisingly, that's the same price as admission to the upcoming Days From Evil CD Release Party! For the price of 1.25 gallons of gas, (which won't even get you halfway up to the lake for the 4th of July,) you can experience an entire evening of devastating music, as Jagged Spiral takes the stage at Club Underground on Friday, July 11th, to celebrate the release of our new CD.

Our live show will contain some stripped-down selections from "Days From Evil", (Sorry, no acoustic guitars and no string orchestras!) and plenty of new material, all of it dark metallic rock fueled by adrenaline and Jag-Bombs. Bring earplugs.

Details:
Friday, 11 July 2008 - Doors at 9PM, - Music at 9:30
Club Underground - 355 Monroe St, Mpls MN
21+ (Bring ID!) - Cover $5

The Days From Evil CD will be available for purchase at the show for $8. All proceeds from the sale of the CD will go towards the following:

• Josh's Red Bull addiction


• Fines from the City of Minneapolis for 'disturbing the peace'


• The massive debt we ran up during the three years it took us to get this project finished

Also, we have some very special guests joining us for the event: S.B.I., Sick Machine and Something To Fear (who just got done kicking tail at the Flight of the Valkyries festival!) so come out and celebrate with us!

-Jagged Spiral

PS: If you know anyone who likes loud guitars, please pass the message along! Share the Spiral!

PS/PS: You are receiving this message because you've been identified as a decent human being with impeccable taste in music. If that isn't the case, and you want to be taken off the Jagged Spiral mailing list, just say so! Simply reply to this message with "Your Music is an Abomination! I Demand by all that is Good and Right in the World that you Remove Me From This Accursed Jagged Spiral Mailing List!" in the subject line, or something like that...

Labels: Concert, Days From Evil, Jagged Live

I really can't feel any sense of completion or accomplishment with Days From Evil until 1) I hold the physical, shrinkwrapped CD in my hand, and 2) we celebrate the CD with an Release Party. Thankfully, those things are coming to fruition. Very soon, the order will be placed for CD copies of 'Days From Evil'. Almost three years of effort are drawing to their long-overdue conclusion.

Promotional copies of the disk are finished, (sans the insert booklet). Just seeing the physical CD with printing on it has made me quite happy. Now, I'm just working on the insert artwork, which should be done this weekend, and the order can be placed next week.

As I mentioned previously, the "Days From Evil" CD Release party has been booked at Club Underground for 11 July 2008. Three other bands will be there to help us celebrate: S.B.I., Sick Machine, and Something To Fear. Jagged Spiral has gone through a significant upgrade in gear since our last live set, and we're focusing on pulling together a nice, tight, and loud show. Bring earplugs.

I've completed the press release, about the event, which you can check out here:
http://www.jaggedspiral.com/forms/dfe1.pdf and I've distributed it (with a copy of the CD) to all the usual suspects. With any luck, we can expect some honest and objective reviews of "Days From Evil". If we're really lucky, we might even get an interview offer, or other press coverage.

Even if we don't move a single copy of the CD, even if the critics slaughter it, even if no one comes to the release party, we will finally have payback for three years of hard work.

-Z

Labels: Concert, Days From Evil, Jagged Live, Press Release

For Immediate Release:

Minneapolis 'Northern Rock' band Jagged Spiral celebrate the release of their debut album, "Days From Evil" (Miku Darkly Productions).

The "Days From Evil" CD Release Party will be held at Club Underground on Friday, July 11th, 2008. Joining them will be local bands S.B.I., Sick Machine, and Something to Fear.

Music starts at 9PM, the show is 21+, cover is $5.

More details as we get them...

-Z

Labels: Concert, Days From Evil, Jagged Live, Press Release

First, I have to apologize for the poor quality audio/video even for youtube, this is pretty rough. The video camera we brought to the show got left on, and the battery was completely drained. Fortunately, we also brought a digital camera that can shoot video, but as you can see, that isn't it's primary function.

Secondly, this will not be the final version of the song. The lyrics (which were derived from this blog post) will change, and the subject of Diablo Cody will most likely be changed as well. The song has become cursed, and all kinds of bad things have started happening in the studio when her name gets mentioned. Bad mojo, baby. So we will smudge the studio, and change the song.

Thirdly, we truly do love Diablo Cody, and we truly did not sleep with her, and we hope she enjoys the song. No offense intended.

L8R,
-Zero

Labels: Concert, Jagged Live

The "Battle" as it were, went swimmingly. Aside from lugging our gear up and down the street in the most Bitter Cold I can imagine, the setup and teardown went well. While my own playing was some of the sloppiest to date, [Note to Self: Playing sober doesn't really help my accuracy...] as a band we did quite well.

Once again, my fret markers completely disappeared in the dim stage lighting, and several songs suffered because of it. This will need to be addressed before the next live show.

The stage at the Dinkytowner was pretty small, but aparently not small enough, so someone thoughtfully hung a giant stage monitor about 4 feet off the ground, so inattentive bass players would hit their heads on it. It doubled as protective cover from gunfire and audience line-of-sight. The stage also had notches in the front for what looked like monitors, but were actually cleverly disguised traps, so that if inattentive lead singers tried to look cool and put their foot up on the monitor, they would certainly tumble to an un-cool pile on the dance floor. Since we only had three people, there was plenty of room for us to move around, oh, about five or six inches in any direction. The other bands with more people (all of them except The Blood Shot, in fact) had band members performing on the dance floor, because there wasn't room on the stage for all of them.

I announced that this was our third live public performance, more as bragging rights than anything else. Initially, I thought the contest wasn't very fair because there were other bands that had been playing out for some time now, and already had a fan base. But after watching some other bands that had been together for a while and still weren't very polished, I decided we at least have a shot at winning.

Few bands did "Thank You"s to the Dinkytowner and Jam Solid Produtions, and I was told after the show that doing so made us sound very professional. To be honest, I scripted the thank-yous into the set list so I wouldn't forget them.

What really made the show was the audience response. One thing we certainly aren't used to is having the entire house explode in applause at the end of every song. (Especially "God Hates Emo" which historically has gotten more quizzical looks than applause.)

Thanks to everyone who bought their tix in advance (Extra-Special thanks to those who bought tickets to support us even though they couldn't make the show!) Thanks to James for taking some killer pix, (which will be posted here soon...) and to Tyler for videotaping the event. Thanks to all of you who came out in the bitter cold to support us and local music!

-Zero

Labels: Concert, Jagged Live

[NEWS UPDATE: MINNEAPOLIS]
In an astonishing and completely unexpected career move, local "Northern Rock" band, Jagged Spiral (www.jaggedspiral.com) will be competing in Jam Productions 'Battle of the Bands' Competition at the Dinkytowner Cafe. This Sunday Feb 10th, between 4 and 10PM. Eight bands are on the ballot, and a panel of experts will vote on the winner. Factors affecting the voting include:

• professionalism


• pre-concert ticket sales


• vocal and instrumental performance


• audience response


• the ability to appear to answer questions without really answering them

The winning band will move on to the finals, to compete for a grand prize promotional package including studio recording time, CD duplication, T-Shirts, Posters, etc...

The Minneapolis music scene is in shock, many of them outraged at this underdog joining the race so late in the game. While the other candidates scramble to defend their platforms, Jagged Spiral...doesn't seem to have one. Guitarist Colin Mallon and Percussionist Josh Kattelman could not be reached for comment. Bass Player and Vocalist, Conrad Zero, only responded using sign language indicating disapproval.

The only significant communication from the band has come from Jagged Spiral's manager, a mysterious female voice on the phone going by the name 'Sugar'. We were able to get this statement from her:

"The People have had enough. Enough of Emo. Enough of DJs. Enough Gangsa Rap. Enough Bad Music. Jagged Spiral aren't here to upset the apple cart of the Minneapolis music scene, they're here to burn it, and use the ashes as warpaint when they go onstage."

Jagged Spiral has already caused waves in 2007 when they released the first chapter of their manifesto: a concept album called "Days From Evil". All the songs from the album are free to download from their website, with a link for accepting donations, basically allowing fans to set the price for themselves. Other bands, notably Radiohead and Atmosphere have since followed suit, much to the chagrin of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

A member of one competing band (who wished to remain anonymous) said, "Jagged Spiral? They can't possibly win, so why are they even on the ballot? They're no threat to us."

Concerned citizens who wish to influence the course of Minneapolis Music History should plan to attend the event and make their opinions heard. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased by contacting conradzero@gmail.com or calling 612-216-8602.

[END OF MESSAGE]

-Z

Labels: As the Jagged Spirals, Concert, Jagged Live

One of us was tired, the other two were drunk, or at least *sounded* drunk. Those who were there probably wouldn't be able to tell which was which.

The show started around 9:30. "The Blood Shot" opened up, and the crowd was still a little scarce. My experience is that the first act of the show is like that. Play and they will come. People filtered in as the night progressed, dropping a $5-er to get a look.

32nd Day was in the middle slot, starting around 10:30, and pulled off a great show. They've been playing out a lot more than Jagged Spiral, and it showed. A large group of fans came down to hear them play...

...and a handful left around 11:30, as soon as Jagged Spiral started up. Not surprising, since we are quite different than 32nd day. I like to think we're quite different from everyone, and I don't take offense to anyone leaving. I give bands a '3-song rule' myslef, because I think it takes that long for a band to warm up. By the middle of the third song, you know if you like them or not.

My one-word review of Jagged Spiral's performance is "Ruff". Not Rough, but Ruff like a dog barking.

For those who want to have the audio experience of the event: the bootleg of the show is here, courtesy of Reid Rejsa.

The visual experience is here:

The emotional experience would be like getting your hand caught in a blender, then realizing it wasn't as bad as you imagined it would be. I could feel every screwup echoing out across Minneapolis, and making even people in Golden Valley shudder.

Listening to the audio, it sounds Nowhere Near as bad as it sounded on stage.

We got off to a bad start when I hit the wrong note starting into Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave". Ick. My only excuse was that I really couldn't see my fret markers onstage. Once the song got going, it pulled together nicely.

During "Horrorcloud" Colin and I both got lost and stopped at the exact same point in the song. Had either one of us known which way to go, we could have recovered fine, but we both completely stopped. Then we both tried to recover at the same time, each of us playing something different. Not good. I decided to wait and let Colin get the car back on the road, and I caught up with him eventually, although I was completely lost for a while afterward, and stopped singing because I wasn't sure what part to sing.

Although there's been a few explanations/excuses for that micro-disaster, the root cause was that the song was changed too many times in the past month, and wasn't practiced enough to be played out of habit. I don't know if it's this way for other people, but if my hands 'know' the song, then my mind is free to focus on other things; the upcoming change, moving around on stage, the lesbians making out on the dance floor, did I leave the hair-straightener on at home... But for Horrorcloud, I still have to focus 100% on the playing, my hands simply don't know it yet. The song is WICKED hard to play; strange, stuttering timing shifts that defy the laws of Physics, yet Colin makes them look quite simple, and if *he* got it mixed up, I didn't stand a chance.

What kept the boat from sinking was Josh. He kept playing throughout, like an oarman on a viking longship, he kept rowing right through the chaos, and pulled us through to the other side. My philosophy is that screwing up the song isn't quite as bad as stopping altogether, so kudos to J-Man for pulling us out of the maelstrom.

The rest of the set was better. Even through I couldn't really hear my vocals during the Sisters of Mercy cover, "Temple of Love" it sounded OK on the recording.

Thanks to Reid for coming out and shooting some pix, and getting the bootleg of the show. The guys in The Blood Shot got some video of the event, and if they send some my way, I'll be sure to post it.

Labels: Concert, Jagged Live

Come see Jagged Spiral perform LIVE tonight at Club Underground! Doors open at 9PM and music starts at 9:30. Opening acts are The Blood Shot and 32nd Day.

We also have an important announcement to make regarding the upcoming presidental election that you certainly won't want to miss!

-Zero

Labels: Concert, Jagged Live

For those of you who didn't get the e-mail, here is the official notice for the upcoming Jagged Spiral gig at Club Underground. We are headlining this show, with opening acts The Blood Shot and 32nd Day.



There's plenty of other press about this event swirling about the interwebs:

Vita.mn

darktwincities.com

conradzero.com

garageband.com

myspace.com

Hope to see you there! Pix and blog posts are sure to follow, so even if you can't make it to the show, check back for the scoop!

-Zero

Labels: Concert, Jagged Live

The gig at Stasiu's went swimmingly. At first, we weren't sure when we were going on stage, only that we had to load in between 8:30 and 9:30, and were playing sometime before midnight. This did make it difficult to invite people to the show. Colin and I arrived to hear country versions of Aerosmith and AC-DC songs, I believe the band is called "AC Dixie" but don't quote me on that. Colin asked if I knew how to play "Rawhide".

Stasiu's is a cross between country and punk, which means they are pretty open-minded. The bar itself is fairly small, and the men's bathroom looks like a set from the movie Alien. In other words, it was a perfect place for us to play. We loaded in the gear, and the next band (32nd day) showed up. We chatted with them for a bit, and of course the only person who knew what the hell was going on was Christy, who wasn't there. Josh arrived, fresh from a performance exam at school, and slowly others arrived, James, Jess, Xtina, Sarah, Kerri, "The Bri", and Reid.

The bartender drew a Cock (er, sorry, I meant to say Penis) on the back of all the band member's hands, which allowed them $2 off their drinks. I thought of it this way: If someone came up to you and wanted to draw a cock on the back of your hand in black Sharpie, how much would you charge them? I don't know about the other guys, but mine was worth $10 by the end of the night. (I also pointed out repeatedly that it was larger than theirs.)

So we sat and chatted with 32nd day, nice folks, and we even talked about playing together at future shows. Rumors of the third band (Sirens of Titan) cancelling proved to be true, as a band called Aquafox arrived, quickly set up and played a short set to start the evening off. Christy informed us that Jagged Spiral would go on at 11, and 32nd Day would start at midnight.

Although I haven't played a real gig in years, I remember only getting really nervous during the equipment setup, and tonight was no different. I informed the audience that since we couldn't be better than Aquafox, we would be louder, and we launched in to "Bad Kitty".

The set list played well, as well as our better-than-average practice sessions. That is to say, there were mistakes, and outright flubs, but we quickly recovered and never stopped. Nor did I forget any words. I like to think that any lacking performance was made up for with a shitload of energy and passion.

Since time didn't seem to be such an issue, we left out the optional songs "Forced Entry" and "Hallowed Ground" since in practice sessions they sounded a little rough. (On the setlist I put questions marks near the songs which could be dumped if we were running long on time.) We knocked the cover "Temple of Love" off the set list on the fly, since it seemed we had plenty of time. I still don't know how long we actually played, none of us thought to bring a watch, and there wasn't a clock visible from the stage.

For the Stasiu's gig, Josh had changed to a new and untested configuration of the click track, and it turned out that he couldn't hear it, so that got ditched about halfway through the set. I couldn't even tell. Since that happened, we've been discussing ditching the click for live shows, but Colin and I can recall in great detail what happened at the 2007 Halloween party when we 'let the dog off the leash'. Let's put it this way - Josh Plus Beer Minus Click Equals Warp Factor Nine, if you know what I mean.

Pictures of the gig are loaded in the player on the band page, or you can poke around here.

Thanks much to those of you who braved the freezing cold on a ridiculously late Tuesday night in December to come see our first show. It was a blast, and we're looking forward to more...

-Zero

Labels: Concert

I'm putting this one out a little early, since like you, I will be at Stasiu's tonight for Jagged Spiral's first show.

Till then, enjoy "Not Enough Bullets". It's a simple song, and should easily replace "Smoke On The Water" as the first song you figure out on the guitar by yourself.

Next week, "I Am Death" will be released, followed by "The Last Song" the week after that. Artwork is nearly finished for Days From Evil, and will be available for download from the website. Come to the show tonight, and we might have some roughs printed.

Hope to see you-all at Stasiu's tonight. Don't have a time locked in yet, could be as early as 10 or as late as midnight. If you come down to see us, I promise we will play "Not Enough Bullets" for you.

-Zero

Labels: Concert, Days From Evil, Website Update

Click the picture below for the larger (readable) version.



More than this, we don't know yet. Our time is not locked down, and beyond our control, but updates will be passed along through this blog.

-Zero

Labels: Concert

Labels: Concert, Pix

This is what happened at our Seattle Concert last week:



I told J to dial it back a bit, but he wouldn't listen and unleashed the Drums of Doom.

We had a great time, and fortunately no one was hurt (Since no one was actually in the audience.) Unfortunately, we are not allowed back to Seattle and our accountant is still sorting out the damages. Our lawyers are still trying to define whether our performance can be considered an act of terrorism.

-C

Labels: Concert

The Entire Jagged Spiral Crew (And 2/3 of our fans) went to First Avenure last night for the Celtic Frost / Type O Negative show. There was an opening band, but unfortunately we got there just as they ended.

After a refreshing frisk at the doorway, we proceeded upstairs where we could get our drink on. When the sound check started for Celtic Frost, we decended to the mosh pit.

I don't know about you-all, but I learned long ago that I do not pay $22 to hide near the coat check, or hang near the womens restroom to oogle. I can go do that for free at Barnes and Noble in Maple Grove. The quality isn't nearly as good, but you get what you pay for...but I digress.

Anyway, I don't fear the mosh pit, at least not here in Minnesota. So we stood in the center of the crowd when Celtic Frost opened up, and held our ground until the end of their set.

They were Loud. They were Tight. They were ON. These guys have been playing for YEARS. Celtic Frost was popular with skaters back in the 80's fer chrissake. They were scary. They wore face paint, and they made KISS look like a bunch of pussies. I could easily imagine any of them dismembering fans and roadies alike backstage as a warmup for the show. (Especially the bass player [shiver])

The band finished, and the drummer threw his drumsticks into the mosh pit. One of the sticks bounced off at least three outstretched hands before rolling to at stop at the feet of...

Josh.

I'm telling you that stick went to him, like he was meant to have it.

He did not pick it up right away. He looked around first, as the room went silent, and the eyes of the entire crowd watched to see what he would do. Then as gracefully as King Arthur pulling Excalibre from the stone, Josh picked up the drumstick that had pounded a ringing into our ears for the last hour (My ears are still ringing.)

I did a quick check of all the available exits, and prepared myself for impending Moshpit Hogpile of Doom sure to follow, but no one made a move. Suddenly, we were saved by the house music and the video of Seth Green's show where he plays with dolls. Everyone's eyes glazed over and were pulled to the pretty lights on the big video screen, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I might always regret not thinking to track down the person with the other drumstick and seeing if they would part with it or sell it...

Type-O Negative was next, and the intro to their show was quite rude. It started with extremely loud polka music (The Chicken Dance, in fact) which was REALLY loud. That lasted forever, and just when I thought I couldn't stand any more, they lowered the music, and someone walked out on stage. The crowd started to cheer...

...and it was a fucking roadie. Then the lights came back up, and the loud polka music.

This was almost funny once, but they proceeded to repeat this joke several times. [Note to self: Never do this. It is rude to the audience. The audience is why you are on stage. If you don't care about your audience That Much, then simply don't go on tour.]

Eventually, Type-O Negative actually came out on stage, and we once again held our ground at the edge of the mosh pit. A few times we got sucked into the swirling void of flailing bodies, (and I got punched in the nose by an underaged girl, I'm assuming it was an accident) There were plenty of other attractions and distractions in the moshpit, but mostly Type-O Negative was shiny, high-goth metallic.

After the show, Josh pointed out that Type-O Negative on stage sounded Exactly like Type-O Negative on their latest album, Dead Again, and there endeth the lesson.

Mosh On,
-Zero

Labels: As the Jagged Spirals, Concert