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Select Category   SelectBand Blogz   Sub-category   SelectDebbie GabrioneAndrew FosterMark RoseTim KeenanGreg NashBill Ketzer     Debbie - July 23 - first chair !!!! So yesterday's show in Stamford, CT was a blast. Tons of people and perfect weather. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was killer. (In case you don't know, they're a swing band. They have a full horn section and a dude playing the stand up bass.) You know....not many people know this about me...but I played alto sax all throughout middle and high school. I was actually pretty good. I even took private lessons. I sat first chair...not only in my high school...but also in All County, and I sat second chair in All State. I also played clarinet and french horn. I was totally a band geek : ) Whatever. Things turned out OK : ) Anyway...I really enjoyed watching BBVD. They were killer. Thanks so much to everyone we met in Stamford. Everyone was very kind to us. We hope to be back soon !!!!!!!!!!   Debbie: July 21 - soundtrack to life So as though this month hasn't kicked ass enough...we just got new that our song "Pleasures" will be featured on tonight's episode of MTV's the Real World; New Orleans. We're completely psyched about it. It's always neat to have our tunes used for TV shows or commercials or video clip sort of things....cause it's cool to see what sort of scenes the director thinks our music should be playing over. We had our tune Rockstar used in on a hockey award ceremony when this athlete received his award - I think that was a good fit. We had our tune Another Try used for a highlite reel for a NASCAR race event. We've had a few other songs used, and each time, it's just so neat to see what our song will be the soundtrack for. Sometimes I wish I had music playing in the background while I go through my life. It would make life so much more intense and emotional. Regarldess, I can only imagine what scene "Pleasures" will be played over tonight. I mean...it's a sexual song and I'm sure they'll use it in a sexual context. It'll just be funny to watch 2 people make out (or something) to our song !!!   Debbie 7-12-2010: Mushroom Ravioli So I guess everyone wants to know how the Bon Jovi show was.......?.........It went GREAT !!! We got there around 2pm and loaded in. We had a solid sound/line check around 5pm. From 2 to 5 we hung out in our dressing room and got to enjoy the amazing buffet they had. I didn't try it, but Andy said the mushroom ravioli was to die for. We're not quite at the point where we have buffet dinners provided for us regularly....but we usually get dinner provided for us at most the venues we play. This was def one of the best catering we've ever had. I guess Bon Jovi gets nothing but the best. Anyway, so after sound check we did interviews with 3 TV news programs and a live radio broadcast wtih 99.5 the River. (We'd done a live broadcast with PYX106 3 days early as a promotion for the concert). Then, before we knew it, it was our time to take the stage. We played a 20 minute set (from 8 to 8:20) and kicked some serious ass. We not only had a blast, but the crowd seemed to enjoy us. You can't imagine how exciting it is to be on the SPAC stage and play through speakers that stack taller then most houses. The results have been amazing. We've gotten tons of e mails (our e mail addresses are on our contact page), and more then 200 friend requets on our 2 facebook pages. The only negative was that we didn't get to meet Bon Jovi. He spent the day on his tour bus. He had hurt his leg 2 nights earlier, so he spent the day on Sunday recovering on his tour bus. We were bummed we didn't get to meet him...but desite his hurt leg, he too kicked some ass....with his good leg of course. All in all, a great experience. Now...on to the next one.   Debbie 7-8-2010: BIG shows !!! WOW are we having a GREAT summer !!! We just opened for the Gin Blossoms, had a great show and sold a ton of CD's. This Sunday we'll be opening for BON JOVI at the 20,000 seater Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The Bon Jovi people had a contest to find a band to open for him. There were more then 80 bands who entered...all of whom were INCREDIBLE. I checked out each band and I was BLOWN AWAY with how talented each band was. 10 finalists were chosen based on fan votes, and the winner was then chosen by judges. I can't even believe we won. After Bon Jovi...we still have a packed summer with some great gigs. We're with Big Bad VooDoo Daddy next week, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Everclear at the end of the summer. We even have a concert announcement that we're not ready to make just yet. I guess our hard work is starting to really pay off. We're so excited about our summer schedule. Thanks so much to all our friends/fans who voted for us to open for Bon Jovi. You are everything to us.   Debbie: June 22 Beware the sun !!! I laid out this past Saturday at the hotel before our show for only 2 hours and I got FRIED !!! I feel like when I was a kid, I'd play at the beach for hours and hours and never get burnt. Why is it that now if I'm out for only 2 HOURS I get burnt ? Is it the sun...or is it me ? Amen for Aloe.   Debbie: June 2 - You know....Mark is always hollarin at the rest of us cause we never update our blog. Just for the record...I don't see Mark writing too often. Have you seen our summer schedule yet !!! We are PACKED. We have 7 all ages shows, and we even have a few days that we play 2 shows in 1 day !!! We're booked with a few nationals; Gin Blossoms, Big Bad VooDoo Daddy, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Everclear. We have a few more in the works...so stay posted. We'll also be playing the biggest motorcycle event in the Northeast...Americade. There will be a camera crew filming that show in high def. We'll be doing a few Hot Topic shows this summer as well...so check out our tour schedule to see what that'll be. We also got a call from WEQX 102.7 FM who wants to give a full hour of time to feature Ten Year Vamp. (We played EQX's big show last summer with Company of Theives and Moby...and I just hosted a battle of the bands at SPAC with their DJ Jason Irwin). On the 4th of July, from 7 to 8pm, you can find out everything you want to know about us by setting your dial to 102.7; our beginnings, where our name came from, how we get along, what our songs are about, who writes the songs, which one of us is a vegan, and LOTS more. They'll also be playing the tunes from our new album...so if you haven't heard it yet, check our the broadcast on July 4th. Lots more going on...some things we can't even talk about yet (legally : ) So be sure to check back soon.   Debbie May 12 - Zzzzzzzzzz............. I'll get you later Mark !!!! Have you ever been SOOO tired you just can’t shake it ? We’ve been SOO busy with traveling and shows that I haven’t caught up on my sleep yet. I feel like it started in early April. We had a bunch of BIG shows all …all of which involved a lot of traveling. We played Boston for the first round of the Hard Rock Café Ambassadors of Rock…then off to Plattsburgh, NY…then Colonie, NY…then over to Manchester, New Hampshire…then we played a College gig at The Albany School of Pharmacy….then downstate NY closer to the Connecticut…then back to Boston’s Hard Rock for the FINALS of the Ambassadors of Rock…then 6 hours of driving to Mexico, NY….then down to NYC’s famous Arlene’s Grocery !!!! I guess we’ve just been going a lot of driving. We don’t plan our tour too well do we : ) Most bands just shoot up the coast, and hit all the cities along the way. Not us…oh no. Our tour makes no sense. I guess that’s a big factor as to why I’m tired. Not a lot of sleep, lots of driving, lots of performing and staying up late, etc.. I guess that’s why most bands don’t tour year round. But again….not us. We like it rough : ) We have off next Friday night (May 21st) cause I’m a judge at the SPAC Battle of the Bands. In case you don’t know, SPAC is a 30,000 capacity arena in Saratoga Springs, NY. We played there last summer with a few national acts. If you’re bored and you wanna see some great bands compete, stop by SPAC.   5-10-2010: Mark... Last Laugh Debbie thinks she's funny with her blog below... and usually at shows she DOES get the last laugh because she's much wittier than I am. But on the web... she can't reach me... and so if I happen to slip-up and post a few desktop wallpapers that she didn't want released to our Downloads page, I just might finally get the last laugh. (They're in the bottom section with the other Joe Putrock wallpapers). :)   Debbie: May 7 I wasn't alive for all that stuff Mark talked about it his blog...so I guess I don't know what I'm missing. It sounds like "Rock and Roll" isn't actually around anymore. BUT!!!!...personally...I DO think many of the artists currently producing rock music are pretty f-n cool and sexy as hell. It's true they're nothing like what Mark described in his blog...but they do it for me : ) Maybe it's cause I'm younger, or cause I'm a girl...but there are plenty of them that I think are pretty cool. I guess I'm just a product of the times. I missed out on experiencing what it used to be like. Lucky for me Mark makes me listen to his ipod the WHOLE ride to and from our shows and tells me everything you could ever want to know about every song/artist that comes on. Even luckier for me I've developed a talent to blocking it all out, or else I'd have thrown myself out the car window years ago : )   4-28-2010 Mark: Can We PLEASE Go Back To Rock And Roll being Cool?!? I’ve had enough! It’s Wednesday night and I’m watching another horrible band on some late night talk show. Absolutely horrible… and I just can’t deal with it after a large gin & tonic. Night after night, I sit here and watch these completely crappy bands take the spotlight on the late night talk shows. These bands have the worst songs… nothing catchy or interesting about them. Most of the singers can’t keep on pitch to save their lives. Yes, a few of the musicians seem to have some talent, but most of them seem like they learned to play their instrument the day before! And their look? WTF?!?!?! The music industry seems to have completely forgotten that since 1981 and MTV, rock stars need to look cool and attractive. What happened to that?!? If this were the 80s, ALL of these new bands would be laughed out of any record exec’s office in less than 10 seconds. No one would give these bands the time of day. Not that the 80s didn’t have its disasters, but at least all the 80s rockstars looked like they could get laid any time they wanted… that made them cool… and they were cool. I remember when Bon Jovi and Poison first hit the radio. “She Don’t Know Me” is ringing in my head… I hated them because of all the make-up and the hair spray, but deep down, I still knew they were cooler than I was, and they could get any girl they wanted. That was when rock and roll. And that’s just not the case anymore. Kids these days don’t have any rockstars to look up to in an exciting sort of way. Most of today’s new rockstars look like they could program the hell out of a website and be the first round draft pick at Tuesday Night Team Trivia, but they’re not cool at all, they’re not larger than life. I want to live vicariously through my favorite rockstars, not ask them how to block spam email. When was the last time you read about a modern “rockstar” being arrested for being drunk and disorderly and throwing a TV out the 12 story hotel window!?! And the band on Saturday Night Live last week? There’s another one. I’m sincerely happy for them that they’re successful and doing their thing, but WTF?!?!?! I don’t get it. They were putting on a live show on national TV and the entire band just stood there and didn’t move while the singer whined for 3 minutes.. That’s not rock and roll. They all looked like that guy that sits by himself in the back of the movie theater. And their songs we’re just a lot of whining – who wants to listen to that? I’m not a fan of rap music at all, but at least rappers have the rock star attitude. When was the last time you heard a rap star whining about something in a song? There is no whining in rock and roll. There is no standing-in-one-place in rock and roll. And unless you’re Elvis Costello, there are no glasses in rock and roll. The only glasses allowed are either empty or shattered, and smell of vodka. And if the band doesn’t leave the stage a sweaty mess, they aren’t rock and roll. Can we PLEASE go back to rock and roll being cool? Is that too much to ask? Long hair, unbuttoned shirts, “I don’t give a fuck” attitudes, biting the heads off live poultry and flying mammals, catching on fire because you’re standing too close to the pyro, back stage passes that mean something, stories in the Enquirer that are TRUE, live shows with absolutely no rehearsal, guitar solos… that’s worth saying again… guitar solos??? live tracks that start off “This next song, is the first song, off our new album”, amps that go to 11, albums with just cleavage on the cover that get banned at Walmart, extended remixes, double live albums with gatefold sleeves, live concerts that last 3 hours, holding up a lighter at a concert instead of a cell phone? Can we PLEASE go back to rock and roll being cool?!?!   Mark 4-7-2010: I'm too late... Well I was going to write something about the Hard Rock Cafe battle of the bands, but Debbie beat me to it by just a few hours. I'm excited too... we don't generally play battle of the bands for many reasons, but when the big national contests give us a chance to perform, we're all in. Last time we played a battle of the bands was over 2 years ago... I don't care if we win or not - it'll just be nice to play this show with our current line-up and play the songs from our album. I have no doubt that we're going to blow the other bands off the stage (or just make them give-up without even playing). Did anyone catch our "April Fool's" acoustic show?!?! We had so much fun. For those of you who missed it, We played a live, online acoustic show, but since it was April Fool's Day, we hired actors to come in as if they were guys off the street and disrupt the whole thing. We had a good plan and we were ready to ad-lib most of it, with these guys eventually kidnapping us and robbing the place. We had everything all planned out and the Colonie Police even stopped by before the show to make sure whatever was going to happen was actually fake. Well once things started to kick in, Debbie and I couldn't stop laughing. It wasn't that we couldn't act, because we can. We just wanted this thing to be extremely serious so people would believe it was real (and yes, we had friends call us during the show to see if we needed help). BUT our actors were so funny at times we couldn't keep a straight face. I've got this fantastic memory of Debbie turning her face away from the camera because she's smiling and trying not to laugh, and Jim (the same actor who plays the jukebox in our Never Know video) says something about finding out why he never liked Joan Jett, and Debbie burst out in a laugh, spraying my face with spit. Nice. Anyway, keep your eyes on our website for a future video episode so you can re-live the entire experience!   Debbie: April 6, 2010- Hard Rock So tomorrow, we're competing in a Battle of the Bands at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston. I'm pretty excited about it. Usually, these things are judged by fans...which ultimately means the band that brings the most people will win. In those cases, it doesn't matter if you're great or if you suck ass balls and only play out once a year. All that matters is who brings the most people. This has both helped us and hurt us in the past. For this competition, JUDGES are going to decide which band wins. So...I'm excited about being part of a competition based only on judges votes. It'll be great to see bands who have made it this far based on their music and their talent, rather then who got the most people to vote for them. I'm sure we'll get to compete against some GREAT bands. If we win...VERY cool, but if not, I'm sure it'll be a blast. Regardless, if you or any of your friends live in the Boston area, have em come out and check out our 20 minute set. We'll be at the Hard Rock in Boston, and we go on at 9pm sharp. While we don't NEED fan votes to advance, we certainly play better when we have an amped up crowd. Plus, the Hard Rock Cafe kicks ass !!!   Debbie: not even a bat...(3/25/10) So...Andy and his blog got me thinking about my hair. You know when you color your hair with one of those take home kits..?...and they give you that GREAT conditioner to use after you're done with the coloring process...?...well why can't you by that sh*t seperate ?!?!? It's like the worlds greatest conditioner. You could have a bat fly into your hair, but if you used the post coloring conditioner, that bat will slide right out without causing a single knot or split end. I just don't get why don't they sell that stuff by the gallon. I'd buy stock in it.   Cat poop (Debbie: March 23, 2010) It's been a long time since I posted anything. I'm not much of an "updater". I don't have a myspace, facebook or twitter page of my own...and I find it difficult to post updates on what I have going on. Whatever. I guess I just need to get with it. Anyway....lots of stuff going on...with the band and with me. I moved...yeah !!! Only here's the thing. The people who owned the house before me had a cat who would go poopie in the basement where ever it wanted (apparently). It made a litter box of the crawl space in my basement and the yucky smell comes up through the vents. Trying to figure out how to get rid of the tons of poop still there and the smell. YUCK. I've gone through so many scented candles and Fabreeze !!!! 10YV is CRAZY busy. We've been talking to a bunch of management agencies and booking agents. Got a few new dates on the calendar. Two bus trips coming up in the next 2 months...we'll put details up soon. Come see us !!!! We play with Antigone Rising tomorrow night. Check our tour page for details.   Confessions Of A Heterosexual Andy 3/23/10 I’m a changed man. An accident in the shower lead me to discover that using a separate shampoo and conditioner makes my hair silky smooth. What I’m saying is it’s like mink. I’ve been a 2 in 1 man for so long I forgot the basic rules of hair care. If you are not satisfied with the “feel” of your hair I dare you to make the switch. That’s all. Goodbye!   3-16-2010 Mark: Finally So I finally finished the new website... I guess there's still some more to tweak but I've had enough. It's nice to finally have something online that matches our new album, but when I told Debbie I was going to work on the new website, I forgot how much work was involved. It's about 2:15am and I'm totally spent - after about 4, 14 hour days. I think that tomorrow I'm not going to do anything that has to do with Ten Year Vamp. Um... shit. We've got practice. :( And speaking of being brain-fried, what's up with Andy's blog below? He said it was the brilliant lyrics from some 80s hair band. I think we've got him working too hard. I think we need a weekend vacation. When are we back in Plattsburgh?   Bite Down Hard Andy 4/8/10 Shot from my gun Baby take me higher Shot from my gun Don't call me a liar   Mark 2-22-2010: Updates So Andy tells me I'm slacking and haven't posted anything here in a while. We've been busy... more busy than ever. I've got nothing personal to talk about so I guess I can tell you what I've been working on. I've spent the last 3 weeks working on a 30 minute live video from us. Each song takes a good 8 hours or more of editing, and it's not easy to find a way to make each song interesting and "different" from the song before it. I'm also working on new website ideas... nothing special... it's just the last thing we have to update since the release of the album. And finally, we've got plans for "evolving" our video episodes and we'll need your help. Watch out mailing list or What's New page for details. Ok, back to work.   Andy 1/26/2010; Naughty Naughty I know, I know I haven’t written here in a while... I’ve been working my ass off. The band has locked me in the studio so I can finish up some projects that will be released in early spring. It‘s not all work though, sometimes Debbie will let me out to play in the yard for a bit. Besides that, I’m really looking forward to the bus trip on Saturday. Your life is not complete until you've been on a 10YV bus trip... so do it! OK, OK I’ll get back to work now...   Debbie: 2010 Happy new Year !!! Hope everyone had a fun and safe new years eve. We got to have this new years eve off. it was GREAT !!! not that i don't love playing NY's Eve...but it's sure nice to just get to enjoy it. Mark should be sending out an "end of the year wrap up" real soon to everyone on our mailing list. I got to read it first and MAN...we had a BUSY 2009 !!! I didn't realize all the things we did. I thought quitting caffeinated coffee was my biggest accomplishment in 09...turns out it wasn't !! : ) 2010 is gonna be even BIGGER !!!   Debbie: 12/17/09 - Raise your voices !!! So tonight we have back up singer auditions. Billy, who has been our back up singer, not only has a beautiful new born son, but also got a job promotion. So...he's put in his "two weeks notice" and that's why we're looking for the back up singer. Billy will always have a home on stage with Ten Year Vamp whenever he wants to....but, we need someone who can be with us more regularly. So...tonight we look for a voice. We've gotten a LOT of interest in the position, and we decided to have 2 'rounds'. The first will be an informal interview, where we get to know the person and they get to know us. If they're still interested in auditioning...and if we think they'll be a good fit for 10YV...then the 2nd 'round' will be the actual audition. We're only going to audition the people who are a great fit for 10YV. If someone doesn't get called back, it doesn't mean they weren't an amazing person...it just means there was someone else who was more ideal for what we need. I think our biggest issues is going to be availability. No one realizes how time consuming being in a working band is. We have absolutely no lives. We can't go out with our friends and we barely ever see our family. When my best friend of 10 year bought her first house and was having a house warming party...I couldn't go. When my sister was getting married (and I was the maid of honor), I couldn't go dress shopping with her, I couldn't go to the bachelorette party or any other event besides the wedding. When my grandmother had her 80th birthday party, I was the only one not there. If we get sick...we can't call in sick for work...we just bring the "puke bucket" on stage with us. For the holidays (Thanksgiving, etc)...we always have a show the night before, so we're all so tired we can't enjoy the holiday. Or for those days that everyone loves to party...halloween, St Patricks day, New Year eve....we work. I'm not complaining cause I've gotten used to it (and so has my friends and family). I'm just saying I think the hard part of finding a back up singer is finding someone who is OK giving up all these things. Also... if it's a girl we add (and I think it will be, because we're looking for a higher voice), then her boyfriend or husband or partner will need to be OK with her "being a rockstar". I can imagine that it's not easy dating someone in a band. We're never around, we're always at bars and clubs, all eyes are on us, we stay in hotels and are gone for days at a time, etc.. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that we find someone who is up for all this.   Mark 12-9-2009 I was bumming Monday morning… we weren’t selected as one of Microsoft’s top 7 in the contest that ended Monday at 11am. It really sucks when these cool and important contests come along and we need to ask people to vote for us in order to win. We can only ask people to vote so many times before people are sick of it and don’t bother. My take is that the bands that work hard all the time, and enter these contests to try and better themselves, are at a disadvantage because they’ve already asked their fans to vote a bunch of times. The winners certainly don’t end up being the best or most popular bands as these contests hope. And from looking at the winners, this contest was no different. By Monday evening, I was feeling much better because we had a great time at FLY92’s Jingle Jam… we sold out of every CD we had with us! Thanks to FLY92 for inviting us again. It was great to see so many people! The excitement was short lived though, as we found out that our live broadcast was really poor quality due to the low bandwidth of Jillian’s wi-fi. We had over 28,000 unique viewers of the show, but the quality was so bad it’s not likely we’ll turn many of them into fans. That’s depressing. You know, we always talk about all the cool things going for us, and the Bio/Press page on our website lists a lot of them… And we’re extremely grateful for all the cool things we’ve got going on. But it’s difficult to ever feel very good for long. Just like Monday… for every 1 great thing that happens for us, there are always several rejections, losses, or whatever to bring us down again. It’s a rough business.   Debbie 11-25-2009: How bout dem Giants. So it's Thanksgiving already. Tonight is our 500th show. Man...that's crazy. This is like the roughest night ever for me. I always go down to my mom's for Thanksgiving (down in NYC)... and the festivities always start at 10am. That means I have to leave Albany around 8am. So...given the fact that it takes me a good hour to get ready in the morning, I have to be up by 7am. That SUCKS...because I won't even be home from tonight's show until around 4am...so we're talking like 3 hours sleep. But...none the less...I'm looking forward to it. I hope everyone joins me in putting any thoughts of diets out the window, and just eating until your little hearts are content tomorrow. Any Giants fans out there ? Hopefully we'll squeeze out another win this week. Also....for anyone who likes to tan (in the Albany area)....there's a GREAT tanning salon over in Troy called Rosie's Tanzmania. I'm not into tanning because of the whole cancer thing and the fact that it gives you wrinkles....BUT...they just got this great spray tan thing. I was totally not into spray tanning and I thought it would make me look orange... BUT!!!...to my suprise I got perfect color. It looks like I just got back from vacation. It was easy, my tan looks great, and you'd never know it was a spray tan. Anyone interested in getting a tan (without exposing themselves to the tanning rays) should DEFINETLEY check out Tanzmania over in Troy. Also, if you bring in a few cans, they'll give you $15 off your tanning purchase (Cans for Tans).   D 11-20-09: Goodbye Sweet Sweets.... So we've already begun talks of our next music video. We were talking to Platform 1 Entertainment and they're interested in helping us with promotions for it. (Check out Platform 1's artist roster here.... http://platform-1.com/mm_artist_roster.php ). Killer roster!! Needless to say, we're psyched about it. BUT!!!... the song we're using for the video is "Pleasures (that I Call Mine)". If you haven't heard it...it's about female sexuality. (go here to download it... http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/pleasures-that-i-call-mine/id334147222?i=334147344 ). Needless to say, this video is gonna be SEXY as hell. What that means for me is say goodbye to the sweets and fatty foods and time to tone up. So...from now until video production (which probably won't be for another 2 months or so), I'm watching what I eat and putting my treadmill to good use. This video is gonna be HOT.   D - 11/4/09 - the cold dark nites are upon us.... So Halloween was fun. Our good friends Muffy and Mamie managed to disappear AGAIN this year. They drive down to see us from Plattsburgh every Halloween...and every Halloween I look up halfway through our first set and they're both no where to be seen. This year, they got kicked out. Nice job ladies : ) Next year, we're gonna stick you at a table and you're not allowed to move. Lol. So...lots of great announcements coming up. A Blood Lust Ball (on Friday the 13th of Nov) to kick off the New Moon Premiere. There will be a private screening on the Thursday it opens at Midnight. The first 92 people at our show will get tickets to the premiere screening. The Blood Lust ball will be at Envy in Albany. Vampire costumes are encouraged. Also...another major concert announcement coming your way soon which will include 10YV. Listen to FLY 92.3 for the announcement over the next few days.   Wake Up Dead 10/25/09 12:30 am Andy What a phenomenal weekend. "Big Sexy" Greg Nash and I drove to Plattsburgh whilst listening to the Megadeth catalog in chronological order. You should have seen the looks on the other drivers faces watching us play air guitar and "rock out" all while swerving in and out of lanes. Dangerous I know but well worth the risk. Plattsburgh is always a good time and they really treat us well there. I slept about 4hrs this weekend and I think I'm coming down with something so I'm off to sleep!   10-18-2009 Mark: Sunday Night Spent the afternoon with Jeff Knight out in the cold. Jeff directed our Never Know video and he asked me to play a role in this short film he's working on. It's been almost 20 years since I did anything like that... the rest of the guys on the set were very patient with me remembering my lines and keep them straight while trying not to shiver at the same time. It should be prety cool by the time they're done.   10-7-2009: Mark 8:55pm Wednesday night. I'm sitting on the couch watching the Science Channel and going over my lines for this short film I'm going to be in. We start shooting soon and I get to play the main bad guy! I just finished editing the latest video Episode. Episode 38... all I can say is that it's a classic. I hope everyone can appreciate it as much as Andy and I do. :)   You Can Tunafish But You Can't Tunabus Andy 9/28/09 I'm on the emotional roller coaster of a lifetime. First, I was going to the Times Union Center to see WWE RAW and now I can't go. Then I could go and now I can't. Being a responsible adult is overrated. Thankfully I will be in a confined space with Mark for several hours tomorrow on our pilgrimage to VuDu Studios for another round of abuse. Thanks to everyone on the bus trip this weekend it was like two 12 cut pizzas.   D - monday sept 28 So MEANYfest was this past Sat and it went GREAT. The bus down to NYC was a blast. We got down there and got to watch 3 other bands compete before we took the stage. Our fans were the loudest and the best. We had about 60 people come out to support us, and they were so loud it felt like there were 300 of them !!! We had a great show and even got to do an encore. The announcer said that in MEANYfest history, they've never "let" a band do an encore...but because people wouldn't stop chanting "TEN YEAR VAMP", they let us come back on to play an encore. It went really well. I also got to chat with a rep from Island / Def Jam, who said he was very impressed with our show, our fans AND our "Album Project". The night really couldn't have gone any better. We're DEF gonna do another bus trip to NYC real soon.   Photo by Joe Putorck   9-23-2009: Mark So Larkfest was last weekend. We had such a great time… the weather was beautiful and we finally had a chance to play for a ton of people who have never heard us. I’d like to consider our show successful because we sold over 100 CDs within 45 minutes of the end of our set. Later that night, we played at the Washington Armory during the Roller Derby games. It was fantastic playing on such a huge stage (if any band was made to play huge, stadium sized stages, it’s us!) So Larkfest went pretty smoothly… excluding Andy and Greg almost getting towed from their “Artist Parking” spots, Billy’s wife and newborn getting shoved from in front of the stage, and Debbie’s guitar not making a sound for her solo intro of Say That You Made Love To Me. But it was nothing we couldn’t handle, and overall, it was a great day. I finally got to see the Erotics play… and to see them cover Pat Benetar and Scandal was priceless! They were awesome! It was great to see so many special people in the crowd wearing 10YV shirts - I wish we could play Larkfest every year, but it will probably be some time before we get to go back. Thanks Lark Street and thanks WEQX! Watch our website for photos and videos from the show.   COME N GITYA SUM-O-THIS 09/16/09 Andy Jesus this has taken me forever to write. Mark mentioned to me the idea of writing up some of my musical influences and it turned into a research paper. I felt like I needed to type up every single major musical event I could recall but realized that would be incredibly dull. But something really cool came out of this. I thought long and hard about music and what it's done for me. I have so many great memories attached to this list……..it reads like the story of my life. I could spend forever talking about all of this great music so here is the short list Beastie Boys-Licensed To Ill Black Flag- Damaged Boston Boysetsfire-After The Eulogy Candiria-300 Percent Density Cannibal Corpse-Vile Cave In-Beyond Hypothermia Charlie Parker Converge-When Forever Comes Crashing Corrosion Of Conformity-Blind Crowbar-Time Heals Nothing Death-Human Def Leppard-Hysetria The Dillinger Escape Plan-Calculating Infinity Down-Nola Dr. Dre Earth Crisis-Destroy The Machines Earth Wind & Fire Eric Johnson-Ah Via Musician Exodus-Force Of Habit Extreme-3 Sides To Every Story Fight-War Of Words Fireside-Do Not Tailgate George Duke Godflesh-Songs Of Love And Hate Gravediggaz-6 Feet Deep Guns N’ Roses-Appetite For Destruction Hatebreed-Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire Helmet-Betty Herbie Hancock-Man Child In Flames-Colony James Brown Jeff Beck-Blow By Blow Jimi Hendrix-Band Of Gypsy Joe Satriani-Surfing With The Alien John Coltrane-Blue Train John Scofield-Pick Hits Judas Priest Life Of Agony-River Runs Red Living Colour-Stain Mahavishnu Orchestra-Birds Of Fire The Mars Volta Megadeth-Peace Sells But Who’s Buying Mattias la Eklundh-Freak Guitar Meshuggah-Destroy Erase Improve Metallica-Master Of Puppets Miles Davis Mos Def-The New Danger Motley Crue-Girls, Girls, Girls Nailbomb-Point Blank NeurosisThrough Silver In Blood Obituary-World Demise Overkill-Horrorscope Ozzy Ornette Coleman-The Shape Of Jazz To Come Pantera-Vulgar Display Of Power Poison-Look What The Cat Dragged In The Police Primus-Sailing The Seas Of Cheese Prince-Purple Rain Pro Pain-The Truth Hurts Prong-Cleansing Public Enemy-It Takes A Nation Quicksand-Slip Refused-The Shape Of Punk To Come Rollins Band -Weight The Roots Run DMC-Rasing Hell RZA Sepultura-Arise Sick Of It All-Scratch The Surface Slayer-Live Undead Sly & The Family Stone Snapcase-Progression Through Unlearning Suffication-Pierced From Within Testament-The New Order Tool-Opiate Toto-Toto IV The Used Van Halen Vison Of Disorder Wes Montgomery-Full House Winger Wu-Tang Clan-36 Chambers     Greg 9-16-09: 'I'm going to do this..at loud volumes..in public..until I die..no matter what" My Name is Gregory Nash,I reside in upstate New York. Over the years I've played in a very wide variety of bands, each with different styles and influences. This experience has led to a unique approach to the drumkit and to playing music in general. Among the artists I've recorded and toured with are Jeanne French(CBS), Soul Session, and Sirsy. I am currently the full time drummer for Ten Year Vamp, a popular female fronted modern rock band that tours the East Coast and Northeast constantly. We just released our debut CD and I'm incredibly proud of it. Playing with such talented musicians has also given me the opportunity to share the stage with such acts as Cheap Trick, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Paramore, Blues Traveler, Collective Soul, Junior Walker, Susan Tedesci, John Waite and many others. I am also set to release an E.P for my original band THE PAIN, featuring Leo Curley of Biohazard on guitar and Bob Horvath on bass. It took me years of playing many different styles and "driving the bus" for bands that span the genre spectrum. I am a hard rock drummer and always have been, this was solidified on my 8th birthday when I received the spectacularly packaged 'KISS Alive 2'. From the moment I heard the roar of the crowd and the opening chords of 'Detroit Rock City' it was clear what I needed to do with my life. I have worked a plethora of odd jobs; kitchen, painting, janitorial, ect all to fuel my true passion, playing and creating music. I would play with any band, anytime, anywhere. I've played in soul, jazz, metal, funk, reggae, alternative, folk, pop, blues, thrash, country, and of course rock bands, and I believe every drummer should try to experience playing as many styles as they can. That gives you the chance to apply these aspects to your own playing and help make your drumming more unique, thus making it truly YOUR OWN style. Eventually I landed in a spot in which I can utilize all of my experience and concentrate it to my true niche and love; hard rock.I've been playing for 17 years and I've never been playing better, I have more passion than ever before. I've passed up incredible employment opportunities and financial advancements in order to stay loyal to my dreams of being a successful musician, I'm more driven than ever before because as I age I get to apply all the things I've learned over the years, and I'm surrounded by incredible and respectful musicians. I cannot stress how important it is to play with the RIGHT people, both musically and socially. If you are in a negative or limiting situation, with stagnant, dead-weight players, run, don't walk to a more positive situation. To fill up my empty calendar dates I put together and play with tributes, to honor and recognize how much these bands influenced my life and career. I'm the drummer for tributes to Aerosmith, Kiss,Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin. Over the summer of '08 I performed a series of dates on Van's Warped Tour with Blase Debris(Altercation records) which resulted in a full endorsement from Shine Custom drums and Stagg cymbals, (these cymbals are incredible, check em out) I also teach and can be found hosting the weekly open-mic night in my hometown of Colonie New York, when I'm not on the road with TEN YEAR VAMP or THE PAIN. The main point I'm trying to convey is that if you love what you do and you have passion for playing music, don't let anyone or anything stand in your way, whether I'm rich or poor I will always have my music and creativity, the drumset provides an endless world of possibilities and can be an incredible source of comfort and inspiration. The only place I truly feel at home is behind the kit, and I would't give it up for anything in the world. As Nikka Costa, one of my favorite artists simply puts it "KEEP ON PUSHIN'" "Gregory Nash's track record speaks for itself... endlessly versatile, contagiously dynamic, his unorthodox technical approach gives a mesmerizing weight to the staggering chops that have become his calling card. Watching Nash go to work on a 4-piece kit is like watching a decon foreman testing his equipment in preparation for the destruction of a sports arena. Gloriously inglorious." -Bill Ketzer, Metroland   D - Sept 16 Not sure if any of you read our "what's new page", but Ten Year Vamp entered the Australian Indie charts at #16, and we're now ranked #3. That's freaking great !!!! The CD has been selling amazingly, and everyone seems to love it. If you don't have a copy of our CD yet...go to www.dontactlikeyouknowme.com and buy it. If you don't have plans for THIS SATURDAY (Sept 19th), come see us at Larkfest. We'll be opening for MOBY. We go on around 1pm, on the Madison Ave stage. AND...if you really want to TRY and keep up with us, we have a second show the same day, 3 blocks down...at the Armory. I'm THRILLED to play the Armory. I saw 2 of my favorite bands there....Paramore and Jimmy Eat World. So it's gonna be cool to play the same venue : ) There's still a few more seats on the bus to NYC for next weekend. In case you don't know, we're a "Special Guest" at this year's MEANYfest in NYC(Musicians and Emerging Artists in NY). A few years ago the "Special Guest" was Halestorm...and now they're signed to Atlantic. So come see us kick some NYC ass !!!   "Meet me in the ladies room"   8-19-2009 Greg: INFLUENZA The first song I can recall ever hearing (besides lullabyes n such) is Frank Sinatra's "Let Me Try Again" blasting out of my parents room while I bounced around in the crib. I can still hear the strings clearly and my mom singing along with 'the voice' at the top of her lungs. Sinatra was always present in the house but what really influenced me at a young age is the music blairing from my 3 older brothers' rooms... this is the 70s, Ladies and Gentlemen,(dating myself), for this was a world where KISS roamed the earth as horror comic book heroes, Alice Cooper outdid the foursome all on his own with the spectacular 'Welcome to my Nightmare' touring stage show, the true master of theater and rock n roll......... Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were still on smack, and still writing great songs with no outside help (I really wish they'd relapse), Led Zeppelin were absolutely destroying every venue Peter Grant could book (and every hotel room as well), Mick and Keith were lamenting Taylors departure and breaking in 'the new boy' Ronnie Wood (he's still called 'the new boy' today, 33 years later). Stevie Wonder was making the greatest recordings of his career (in my opinion, of all time). E.L.P., Yes, and King Crimson were releasing masterpieces each vying for the progressive crown, the latter appropriately taking it IMHO. Judas Priest were finding their image and Black Sabbath were losing control of their batty frontman while RUSH were giving the finest performances of their career. The ladies were kicking ass as well, Carly, Joni, Carole, Aretha, Nina, Chaka, all making major impacts on female artists who would still influence me immensely today. This is just a small example of the vibrant and exciting music scene that was the 70s and still my favorite period in popular music. The 80s were like kryptonite to artists like Stevie Wonder, Alice Cooper, and many more. I have to say I didn't enjoy any of the new MTV stuff and synthesiser music, I missed real drums and keys, and felt very little emotion or inspiration from any of the new age bands. I was barely pubescant and I knew I would always prefer 'the old stuff'. The main saving grace for me was the growing metal and thrash scene, bands like Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, Kreator, Overkill,and many more made up for the horrible failure that was MTV and gave us a break from pastel colors and brought it back to black. The 90s are known for grunge and modern alternative rock and I must admit it took a while for me to break the 'I only listen to old stuff' routine. I have a big appreciation for bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and although not a Nirvana fan at all, I really like the Foo Fighters. I developed a huge taste for female singers in this period (playing drums for Jeanne French didnt hurt). I am a huge fan of Tori Amos (over 1000 tori songs on my ipod) and I also rather enjoy Fiona Apple, Heather Nova, Nikka Costa, Concrete Blonde and many more. The more I age the wider my influences range and I appreciate being in a band with so many diverse influences. I think that all adds to the finished product. I also appreciate the respect I'm shown by Deb and Mark to make my own musical decisions be it tracking or live. I've never had that kind of mutual respect in a band. I'm usually handed a list of 'do nots' before a gig or recording session which ultimately hurts the performance. The case with Ten Year Vamp is the opposite and the result is the best drums Ive ever played and the best tracks I've ever layed. Here are some of my favorite albums off the top of my lid. Kiss-Alive The Rolling Stones-Exile on Main Street Stevie Wonder-Songs in the Key of Life Alice Cooper-Love it to Death Frank Sinatra-Watertown Tori Amos-Boys For Pele Slayer-Reign in Blood Megadeth-Peace Sells E.L.P.-Tarkus King Crimson-Red Chick Corea Ackoustik Band-Alive Return to Forever-Romantic Warrior Iron Maiden-Killers Judas Priest-Unleashed in the East Yes-Tales From Topographic Oceans Temptations-Ball of Confusion Steely Dan-Aja Sheryl Crow-The Globe Sessions Jeff Buckley-Grace Nikka Costa-Pebble to a Pearl Prince-Musicology Mick Jagger-Wandering Spirit Black Sabbath-Sabotage Stormtroopers of Death-Speak English or Die Miles Davis-Bitches Brew Mother Love Bone Sacred Reich-Ignorance Witchfynder General-Death Penalty Aerosmith-Rock in a Hard Place Ace Frehley-Ace Frehley 1978 Motley Crue-Too Fast For Love The Police-Synchronicity Jeff Beck-Wired Barry Manilow-Live 197 Anthrax-Spreading The Disease James Brown-Live at The Apollo 1968 Fastway-We Become One Concrete Blonde-Walking in London Dirty Rotten Imbeciles-Dealing With It Led Zeppelin-Presence Deep Purple-Machinehead Camelot-soundtrack with Richard Harris RUSH-Carress of Steel Madonna-Like a Prayer Styx-Pieces of Eight Bill Withers-Live at Carnegie Hall Bee Gees-Best of Billy Joel-The Stranger Elton John-Madman Across the Water Wasp-Wasp VoiVod-Dimension Hatross Veruca Salt-American Thighs Cheap Trick-Live at Budakon Venom-Welcome to Hell Triumph-Allied Forces There's a few anyway,I also like classical, lotsa jazz and even a lil opera. My lil Marianne is also a huge influence and inspiration, not to mention her mama Monica.   Deep in Thought, 1990   Billy - 8/6/09 I grew up listening to the heavies. My father was a baritone and sang military marches and some of the less intense numbers from the Methodist hymnal, but for some reason he felt compelled to buy me my first Kiss album in the 3rd grade. A short time later he bought me AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock, and out the window went the law degree right there. I never even had a chance. From there it was Aerosmith, Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Sabbath, Alice Cooper… and in the 80’s it was Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica (holy crap – I saw them for 6 bucks in a Scotia bowling alley in 1984), Slayer, Raven, Saxon, Exodus, Motorhead, The Wildhearts, Accept and on and on. Despite all of this, I was lucky enough that through the years many friends, teachers and drumming heroes stressed versatility, both instrumentally and in terms of musical genres… which luckily allows me the amazing fortune to share the stage with the lads (and lady) in Ten Year Vamp. I’ve also had great experiences playing jazz, funk, Latin and LOTS of dance music. This, however, has not gotten in the way of my penchant for a bit of the old Hessian warfare, as we folks from Colonie (the second largest township in the US, incidentally) like to say. The future of the hard stuff is in great hands, with bands like Mastodon, The Sword and Lamb of God carry, under a blazing light, the tradition into the new millennium for scores of new, unwashed suburban maladroits who still enjoy a good fistfight with the old man over the last Meister Brau on the front lawn. Yet, as years go by and the joints in my hands and knees heal much more slowly after such endeavors, I started to elevate the music of my working experiences and committed to learning more about what makes some of it so good and some of it so eye-wateringly terrible. I suppose on a much more subconscious level I wanted to focus on the less corporeal attributes of heavy metal and more on the “logistics of aesthetic” (metal or not) for lack of a better term. Who the hell really knows? But, what I found was a TON of great music out there that, when deconstructed, internalized, owned… not only made me a better musician, but a better human. And, this also reaffirmed across genres what I knew all along with heavy metal. That is, for every good band – whether you like country or jazz or acid Latin disco fusion with a twist of lime – with there are about 100 really, really, really shitty bands trying to do the same thing. This is why conveniences like iTunes and in-store sampling is like manna from the heavens… you can separate the wheat from the chaff pretty damn fast. Never mind all those people who say you need to let an album grow on you. Man, we ain’t got time for that now. Not in this age of permanent accessibility, people getting pissed at you because you don’t text them back right away, egregious deadlines based on the speed of the information highway and not on human mercy. Naw… hit me hard and fast. Rip out my heart on Track One and show it to me as I slide down the wall. I’m so caffeinated right now I can’t even tell if I’m being sarcastic or not! I know, I know. By now you’re saying… “Bill. Where the hell, exactly, are you talking aboutgoing with this?” Fair enough. This is my long-winded way of saying there is just no way that I can come up with my Top 10 favorite albums of all time. Or a Top 50, or a Top 2 for that matter. When I was in high school back in 1935 my friends would come up with these lists and debate the merits over much malt liquor but I could never do it. It changed every day… I would have made a list every day. To me it was about reflecting mood, about work, about repetition and vagaries of thought and experience. It was about the daily soundtrack to the movie of my homeless life. Waking up in your own bed and fixing yourself a screwdriver on a Sunday with no one else around requires the Scorpions’ “In Trance.” Waking up behind the backstop of a West Albany ballfield on Everett Road requires Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” It’s a living, breathing thing. But what I can do is show you what I’ve been into lately, and there’s no doubt that many of these do reflect CD’s that float in and out of my Top 10 on the regular. Looking at this short list, I noticed that I have a thing for transitional albums in many cases. Recordings that marked a pivotal juncture in a band’s career, where there was really no turning back, where the band realized, “Uh-oh, how are we supposed to top THAT?” Well, there’s always law school. For your consideration. Alice Cooper – Love it to Death Aerosmith – Rocks Max Roach – Percussion Bitter Suite Black Sabbath – Volume 4 Saxon – Wheels of Steel Hank Williams III – Straight to Hell Grateful Dead – Wake of the Flood Kiss – Dressed to Kill Tito Puentes – Dance Mania! Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band – Seasons of Change Sloppy Seconds – Destroyed Clutch – Blast Tyrant The Beach Boys – Spirit of America Led Zeppelin – Presence Styx – Crystal Ball Thin Lizzy – Fighting The Beatles – Revolver Tommy Dorsey and His Clambake Seven - The Supersuckers – The Evil Powers of Rock and Roll Ramones – Rocket to Russia Pat Travers – Go for What You Know… Live! NOFX – Punk in Drublic Corrosion of Conformity – Wiseblood Pink Floyd – Mettle Scorpions – Tokyo Tapes Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake Lynyrd Skynyrd – Second Helping Jason and the Scorchers – Both Sides of the Line Motorhead – Bomber Frank Zappa – Apostrophe Black Dahlia Murder – Black Dahlia Murder Judas Priest – Sin After Sin Mulatu Astatqe – Ethiopiques, Volume 4 At the Gates – Slaughter of the Soul Black Sabbath – Sabotage AC/DC – Let There Be Rock Chick Corea – Now He Sings, Now He Sobs Bette Davis – This is It! Metallica – Kill ‘Em All The Toadies – Rubberneck Faith No More – The Real Thing Alice Donut - Mule Accept – Restless & Wild Cheap Trick – In Color Neutral Milk Hotel – In an Aeroplane Over the Sea Green Day – Dookie Prince – One Night Alone… Live! Neil Diamond – Just for You Miles Davis – Four and More Live Buddy Rich Big Band – Keep the Customer Satisfied Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Mosaic   8-3-2009 Mark: Our Influences? So I’ve been spending all my time lately working on our new materials… all the album artwork, new posters, new fliers, new promo photos, new website stuff. Every time I scratch something off the list, two or three new things get added. Today I was speaking with Laura from 15secondpitch.com. Our PR Firm has us working with Laura to help perfect our bio for all our new promo materials. Anyway, Laura asked me who the band’s influences are. We actually get that question a lot. That’s such a strange question for us - it’s very hard to answer. We all grew up as die hard music fans, but our tastes were (and still are) extremely varied. As individuals, we don’t necessarily listen to Pop Rock stuff, but when we come together, it’s what we do best. So, I’ll ask everyone in the band to list their favorite music… whether it be their favorite albums of all time, or songs… or just what they’re listening to now… or whatever else they can think of… Here’s mine… Top 10 Favorite Albums of All Time: 1. U2 - The Joshua Tree 2. Prince - Purple Rain 3. Waterboys - This Is The Sea 4. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run 5. Billy Joel - The Stranger 6. Prince - Sign of the Times 7. The Alarm - Declaration 8. BoDeans - Outside Looking In 9. Queen - Live Killers 10. Robbie Robertson - Self-Titled 11. Tom Petty - Damn The Torpedoes 12. Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms 13. Peter Gabriel - Secret World Live 14. Kid Rock - Cocky 15. The Police - Synchronicity 16. Five For Fighting - America Town 17. Counting Crows - August And Everything After 18. The Beatles - The White Album 19. Aimee Mann/Supertramp - The Magnolia Soundtrack 20. Marillion - Misplaced Childhood 21. Lifehouse - Who We Are 22. Crowded House - Woodface 23. Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend 24. World Party - Goodbye Jumbo 25. Toad The Wet Sprocket - Pale 26. Toad The Wet Sprocket - Fear 26. Styx - Caught In The Act 27. Resolve - Jack 28. Neil Diamond - The Jazz Singer 29. Rod Stewart - Absolutely Live 30. REM - Life’s Rich Pageant 31. Fleetwood Mac - Rumors   July 27, 2009 Debbie; Monday afternoon Wow. It's been a long time since I've written anything. We've had things backwards for the past month or so. Normally, we spend SOO much time gigging and traveling and being "rockstars"...and the minority of the time is spend doing band business 'stuff'. But...for the past month, it's all been band business. You guys all know by now, that we do everything ourselves and we're doing the "wave of the future" thing, by NOT signing a record contract and doing it all ourselves. So, the past few weeks/months, we've all had our "business" hats on and we've been hard at work at our game plan. Here's what it looks like; 1. write killer songs...check, 2. preproduction....check, 3. Record Killer Album....check, 4. come up with album name and album art...check, 5. get top of the line music video...check, 6. get CD mastered and send off for duplication...check. All this has taken up so much time and energy, that we've had nothing left in us to give at a show...which is why we haven't had many. Now that it's all done, we are RARING to go. This past weekend, our shows kicked ass. It's like we're a whole new band. Personally, I feel more professional now that we've done all we've done in the past few months. I feel like I’ve learned a lot…about music, about myself, about this band, about each of the guys, about our songs, etc. We spent so much time with these songs, that I feel like the songs are my best friends, and getting to play them just feels so much better then it used to. I feel like we have a whole new energy and freshness. We still have LOTS more 'business stuff' to do, but most of it can be done in our free time and won’t require us to lighten our gig load. For those of you who don't know...we're releasing the album August 21st, and then going to the next step of our evil plan to take over the world...which is get our songs on the radio and sell CD's like crazy. That in itself requires SOO many things...you have no idea. But...at least we can get back to gigging. So... take a look at our gig calendar and come out and see us. We have tons of new originals, new merch...and I even got bangs :)   Video shoot at Yankee Trails   7-19-2009 Mark: Can't Wait For The CD Release So I've spent this beautiful entire Sunday prepping our website for the CD release. It's was a long day of cropping photos and editing website code. To make things a little more interesting, I was watched a Tom Petty Soundstage, a Daily Show episode, Urban Cowboy, and a Meatloaf documentary called, Meatloaf: In Search of Paradise. The Meatloaf thing was great - watch it if you have the chance. Anyway we've got soooo many new photos to add to the website (I think we're up to over 18,000 total). Michelle's been taking photos at all the shows as usual, and Julia Zave came out to Pearl Street 2 weeks back and has got some great ones. You can check out our Tour Scrapbook page right now to see Andrew in is 4th of July Day Uncle Sam suit! The rest of the new photos won’t be up on our site for another week or so, but somehow those crazy kids at the Ten Year Vamp myspace fanclub page got a hold of some of the behind-the-scenes photos from our video shoot with director, Jeff Knight. I grabbed the photo at the left from them. Go to http://www.myspace.com/tenyearvampfanclub to see more from inside a huge Yankee Trails bus garage! And speaking of the video… Debbie and I have seen some early rough cuts and it’s looking fantastic. Watch for that coming soon too. So now that most of the photos are done, I can move on to item #4 on our list of things to do before the CD release… there are 56 things on the list.   Bring That Beat Back-Andy 07/08/09 So we just got some mixes back from The “Magic Man” Mike Watts and everything is slammin. I really do think that he has tiny elves living in his Pro Tools system. Do you think they will get co-producer credits? Had a great time this weekend in Glens Falls and Lake George. Just one question for the folks who run the festivities; no fireworks on 4th of July, WTF?!?!?!? I was saddened to think that during my usual 18 minute guitar solo there wasn’t going to be some kind of explosion or colorful light display. Sure I’m over it now but it was tough to take at first. Now that would have been a good weekend for most bands but we had to have a video shoot as well. That was something. At one point during the 19 hour shoot I mentioned to Mark that I hadn’t had a break yet and his response was “Do you want me to find some other under age boy to do what you do? Get me a drink”. Michelle was on hand, not to take pictures or video, but to follow behind me feverishly, catching all of my rock and roll ideas. Sure, she could have spent her time doing something more significant but then again I did have some great ideas. Now if everything goes according to plan I will be playing guitar in one scene and be a white tiger in the next. If that idea gets shot down, the video will still be pretty cool… I guess….   Mark - July 7, 2009 Well I’ve been crying for the past hour… watching a TIVOed Michael Jackson memorial. I missed it as it aired live. Debbie and I had one of our regular “band meetings” this afternoon at Chili’s in Clifton Park. We asked Andrew to come by and help us figure out how we’re going to improve our live show and bring the new originals to life. The TVs were on behind us… Kris Jansing from MSNBC was navigating the events of the day. I can remember back when Kris Jansing was Kris Kapistachi (sp?) here on WNYT channel 13… back when I was lying on my bedroom floor listening to my 45 single of Rock With You. I’m sure I didn’t really understand the words but the groove of that song just went through me - it still does. I can remember pulling my Thriller record out of the gatefold sleeve. The record had this plastic sleeve around it instead of the more typical paper sleeves. It really bothered me that the plastic sleeve would just never slide into the album jacket correctly. I loved that album. I can remember several of my friends gathering around the TV with my father and brother to watch the world premiere showing of the Thriller video on MTV. That was so cool… mixing movies and music together - what a crazy idea!?!?! I never would have guessed that 26 years later I’d be playing an acoustic guitar in the front room of the Bayou Café with some crazy girl who couldn’t stand still and sing at the same time :) - and that’d we’d be playing an acoustic version of Thriller. I guess there are probably very few people in the world who don’t have Michael Jackson memories. It’s just sad that it takes this to remind of all of those good times.   Debbie: June 29th, 2009 So I had to sign on and just say how excited I am about this album being done (we finished recording on Thursday of last week). I was thinking this morning, I don't think I've been this excited my whole life. I can't wait to have this CD. You know when you're going on vacation, and like you're supposed to be excited as you get closer and closer to the trip, but you're really not excited until you get to the airport and are sitting on the plane. Then it all sets in. That's how I'm feeling right now. The excitement is just starting to kick in. All the recording is done, and we're just waiting for our amazing producer to mix and produce everything. We're going down to Long Island for one last trip later this week to pick up the CD. Then we send it off to be mastered and copied....then we can get it to you guys (late August). I just can't wait to listen to it. We've only heard the songs a few times...as we're recording our parts...so even WE haven't heard the completed songs yet. What I HAVE heard has been sooooo good. I just want to get a copy so I can listen to it in my car with the windows down. My excitement is so intense. I'm sincerely counting down the minutes until we go get the CD.   6-16-09 Mark: Vocals Day One So before I start this blog entree, please scroll down and read Bill’s last entree. It’s so freaking funny. I’m still laughing like 5 hours after first reading it… Today was “day one” of recording vocals for the new album. It’s now after midnight in Freeport, Long Island and I’m sitting in the studio lounge watching the History channel. Debbie is asleep on the leather couch next to me, under 2 blankets and wearing this ugly ski hat with the flaps that cover her ears (I think Scottie gave it to her). She has her Blue Blower next to her, blasting on the highest setting to drown out the house music leaking through from “Studio A”. Yup, you all know the “Blue Blower” - that thing on stage each night that keeps her hair floating in mid-air… Well not only does it keep her hair from sticking to the sweat pouring down her face, but it also allows her to sleep in all the paper-thin walled hotel rooms we have to stay in. Anyway, we arrived at the studio this morning around 10:30am after a 3 hour drive from Albany with 30 extra minutes of lovely Long Island traffic. Our Producer, Mike Watts, was hoping to get through 3 songs, maybe 4 if we were lucky. You see, Debbie has got to sing through all the parts of each song like 4 or 5 times perfectly, so they have plenty of “good stuff” to choose from when piecing together the final vocal tracks. Well not only did Debbie get through 3 songs, but she got through 8! Yup, 8 songs. Our engineer, Rich, said that he’s never worked with anyone who’s gotten through that many songs in such a short period of time. I’ve been saying for over 6 years that Debbie is a true “rockstar”… and today, in her most un-rockstar peronsa and attire, she proved it 150%. Yes, we all know that we (Ten Year Vamp) go a little overboard marketing ourselves using Debbie as the sexy woman lead singer with the big boobs; she takes A LOT of flak for that. And she deals with it all knowing that we have to do what we have to do in order to get noticed. But today… BUT TODAY…. Today, Debbie proved what every person who regularly comes to our shows already knows - that beyond our marketing “gimmicks,” Debbie is bursting with honest talent, and she is exceptional at what she does… period. This album will finally prove that fact, once and for all. Debbie and I have been working towards this point for almost 6 years, through over 460 shows, and I couldn’t be more proud of my “little sister” than right now… even with her snoring over Blue Blower and the flat vocals leaking from “Studio A”. I just hope this album gives us the opportunity to go further… so she can really show the world all that I know she has inside. I should sign-off now so I can get some sleep so that I’m fresh in the morning… but I already know I’m not going to be able to fall asleep for hours…     6/13/2009 - Billy: LAND SHARK! Has anybody noticed how desperately un-photogenic I am? Good lord. Most of the time at the microphone I look like a huge underwater beast with a commercial-weight fishhook in my mouth, getting pulled to the lake’s surface by some unsuspecting angler. (“Pickerel?” asked Larry, hopeful as Earl dragged the lumbering beast toward the bow. “Nope,” Earl replied with disdain. “Percussionist.”) When I was a longhair, I could at least partially obscure the fact that I bear an uncanny resemblance to, oh, Freddy Krueger. Or the guy from Midnight Oil. Or the guy from The Hills Have Eyes. But alas, these days are long gone. Good thing I can sing.     6-11-2009: Andy - I Got The Power OK I'm done. Just finished the last of the guitar tracks. Mark and I put in 7 days of at least 10 to 12 hours each of guitar playing. It's really hard to explain but the work takes alot out of you.....mentally in addition to physically. I'm miserable and unwashed and not looking forward to sitting in Long Island traffic for 4 and 1/2 hours. At least I will have Mark to keep the trip interesting. On another note the show at SPAC was outstanding. I had a great time and the folks at the show were splendid.     Debbie: Monday, June 8 So I'm standing back stage at SPAC, (after we did our set) watching Thriving Ivory getting ready to go on. I'm actually back there with my mom and my aunt (they wanted to see what it was like backstage). We're watching the guys in Thriving Ivory and the SPAC crew get set up, and we're kinda talking to each other saying "I wonder which one is the lead singer" (cause you can't tell the crew members from the band members...they're all scrambling around). Like a loser, I'm pointing to one guy that I think is the lead singer, and my mom just starts taking pictures. (Turns out he's not the singer...cause he then starts sweeping the stage floors.) As we're standing there, 2 SPAC crew guy come up to us, and are just standing there with us watching the scramble. My mom decides he might be someone in Thriving Ivory and starts taking his picture. She turns to him with excitment in her eyes and says "are you in this band". He looks at her as though he's about to crush her and says "no". Out loud she says "oh well", and goes back to taking pictures of who she thinks is Thriving Ivory... but may very well be SPAC crew members. The guy mom my had questioned walks away and his friend starts talking to me; asking me about 10YV, my tattoos, etc... He turns to walk away and he says "oh, by the way, that was Kevin Rudolph" (If you don't know....Kevin Rudolph is one of the headliners going on later in the night...he sings "Let it Rock" (with Lil' Wayne). Man did we feel stupid. His buddy got him back and we laughed about it, and took a picture together. He was a VERY nice guy. Everyone was very nice and we had a blast. We got to chat with Elliot Yamin, 30h!3, Thriving Ivory (later on in the night) and White Tie Affair.   Mark: 6/1/2008: Recording Studio Day 11 So today, Andy and I spent the the day with Mike (our producer) and Scott (our engineer). It was day 11 working in the studio on the album and day 1 working on guitars. The drums and bass guitars are finished on 15 tracks. Today we finished guitars for 1 and a half tracks. The guitars are done for Never Know... 12 separate tracks of guitars and it sounds killer! We're sitting here now in the studio (finished for the day about 2 hours ago)... It's 10:49 and we're watching The Princess Bride... "My name is Indigo Montoya...". I'm working on a few client websites and Andrew has been trying to get new strings on my Gretch bigsby for the past 30 minutes. :) hahaha... sucker.     Greg 5-22-2009: Tracking Drums When it comes to recording, I hate being the drummer because I'm the first to go, almost like we are all in an airplane getting ready to skydive and I get the tap on the shoulder saying "you're first". On the other hand, when it comes to recording, I love being the drummer because I'm the first one finished with my parts. That's correct folks, the record won't reach your anxious lil paws for months yet, and my "physical" work is already done... "the pool's in but the patio ain't dry" - Keith Richards(Little Q&A) Recording is usually an agonizing process for me, literally a time to put up or shut up, ideas are great if you can execute them, and I surprised myself more than once while recording 15 of some of the best songs I've ever had the pleasure to play on. It took along time for me to find a band I could shine with,(or rather who would "let" me shine), and that respect has instilled confidence that has produced some of my finest playing. I'll be the first guy to tell you I'm a hack and I've been faking it for years, but I literally feel I'm getting better by the day thanks to being surrounded by not only amazing players, but amazing people as well, and I believe this record will show that. The way we recorded the drum tracks was really cool. I would take one song at a time, set up a click track for the tempo of the song to record to (so that after I'm done, and the foundation is laid, everyone can listen to the click and make sure we are on the same page, tempo wise. It also comes in mighty handy for overdubbing and punching in). Then I would play the song with Andrew and Mark leading me with guitar. I would do anywhere from 4 to 8 takes of a song, all the way thru, stopping in between to welcome suggestions from Mike (our producer)... then we would pick which one felt the best... fast forward to today, Thurs. - Rich,(our engineer) and I sat in front of the computer screen all day long, picking thru different takes of all the songs,t o make one GREAT TAKE (for instance, if I liked the way I played a section, or drum fill in another take better than our "keeper' take, we could magically float that section into the final track... the end result will prove to be fantastic. We are all excited in the band and feel very positive about it all so far. I plan to go down with Tim next Wed to be a fly on the wall during his bass parts, mainly because I always love to watch that mutherfucker play the bass. I can barely keep up with that man. Thanks to him, this band has the strongest engine room around. So, I will try to keep everyone abreast of on-goings and shennanigans. Special thanks to Mike, Rich and everyone at VUDU Studios for making us feel so comfortable, and treatng us respectfully. Extra special thanks to Deb and Mark for allowing me to be a part of this project and having faith in me... I can't wait to hear the boss sing her vocal parts. I'd take a moment to thank Andy but I'm of the opinion that he's already recieved way too many accalades over the past few days..........JUST KIDDING....(other way around)I really couldn't have done it without him and he knows it. I really wanted him to be proud of me with each and every take, and it meant the world to me when he complimented a fill or accent. Of course Ketzer inspired the fuck out of me during pre-production. Having a 'real" drummer in the studio meant I had to be on my game and he was so awesome to bounce ideas off and get advice and input from. And of course a big thank you to everyone who donated to the album project. Now we build the rest of our house, then we go out and blow the doors off of yours!!!!   Debbie: May 20, 2009 So I'm sure you've deduced by our blogs, that we've found our producer. We found him a few weeks ago. His name is Mike Watts, and he owns VuDu Studios in Long Island. He's worked with TONS of great bands, and we are VERY lucky to have found him. So a few weeks ago we signed a contract with his management company (In De Goot)...www.indegoot.com...to officiate everything. He was up in Albany (at the Bayou 3 weeks ago), and we started pre production last Monday. We did the second round of pre production this past monday, and started the official recording process yesterday. We started with recording drums (greg). Then we'll prob do bass (timmy), then mark, then andy, then me. So...it has begun. Mark, Andy and Greg are down there right now as I'm typing. From what I hear, Greg is doing AMAZING. We'll keep you posted.   5-20-2009 1:28am : Mark So today we finished recording drums for 8 songs. Greg did a killer job… almost every take was perfect… and that’s tough to do if you’re a drummer playing to a click track while trying to remember all the changes we gave him 10 minutes earlier. Anyway, the songs are coming out fantastic and tomorrow we record another 7. By about 9pm everyone has left the studio (except for us and another band who are sleeping here also). Greg, Andy and I went out for some dinner. Passing the Upscale Diner, we decided Friendy’s would be our best bet for a safe, unhealthy meal. Once we sat down, we realized our nightmare of screaming kids everywhere… running around, pouring sprinkles on each other. We really just wanted to relax after working about 14 hours straight. So I’m watching this girl who couldn’t have been more than 6 years old, stand up in her booth, turn around and face me. The stared at me and slowly raised her left arm, and then proceeded to give me the finger! I was trying so hard not to laugh and encourage her behavior, but it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Anyway, it’s almost 1:30am and I’m about to crash on this small leather couch behind the big 32 channel mixing board and get some sleep for tomorrow… And I don’t think I’m even going to take off my Rolling Stones cowboy hat that Greg gave me.   Waxing A Hot One 5/12/09Andy Yesterday was our big trip to VuDu Studio in Freeport, NY to start pre-production for the upcoming cd. Waking up at 5:45am would leave that “not so fresh feeling” that would linger with me until that all important cup of joe. However, that didn’t stop me from springing to life when my IPod gave me Mr. Joe Elliot singing “Animal”. Yes, I like Def Leppard and the Union Jack. Magic Mike Watts and his crew were top notch and gave us the kind of challenge that we need to make this the best cd yet. In the end a good time was had by all and we accomplished quite a bit. We still have another week left so I will have updates a comin’.   4/26/2009: Mark So we made it through our show Friday night at the Bayou. Glad it's done. Debbie and I spent all day dealing with the Crown Plaza here in Albany just to try and pay for the room we got for our Producer who was coming up for the show. It was ridiculous because they would not let us pay for the room over the phone. We had to fax them all this stuff... it was a nightmare. First they had to email us this form to fill out which took them 4 hours. Then we had to print the form, fill it out, and then scan a driver's license (front and back) and then our credit card (from and back). Ok... so we did all that and faxed everything to the number on the form. This was about 5 hours between us (and trust me, we had much better things to do that day). And guess what, when our Producer finally arrived at the hotel, they wouldn't charge our card that we faxed them... and they wouldn't charge the card we used to reserve the room... and they made our Producer pay for the room with his credit card. Never again will we call the Crown Plaza. ps... I know a few weeks back I rambled on about no one making a good live album in te past 20 years. Well I was wrong. Last time we were in New Hampshire, Greg, Andrew, and I spent all our income from that trip on music in the local Newbury Comics. I picked up a live Live album... yes, the band called Live. I just need to say I've been listening to it for weeks and it's fantastic. :)   Debbie: 4/23/09 WOOOHOOOOO !!!! Last night was a celebration for me (and prob for all of us…especially Andy who wrote a lot of the music to many of our new tunes). I put the finishing touches on the last new 10YV original song being considered for our album. I am SOOO happy and feel such a sense of accomplishment and relief. It’s like I’ve had long term homework assignment I’ve had to work on for 7 months, and I finally handed it in last night. That’s how good it feels. I don’t HAVE TO write anymore music unless I want to or I’m feeling inspired, because we won’t need new tunes for another CD for a LOOOONG time. Every free second I’ve had for the last 7 months (and I don’t have much free time), has been spent sitting alone in front of my recording computer. Whether I was writing a song from scratch, or whether it was a song Andy and I collaborated on….every free second I had was spent there, in solitude. We wanted to write as many songs for the album as possible, so we could pick the best 10-15. We wanted some diversity…a ballad, our usual high energy songs, a heavier one, a dancey/pop one, a moody one, etc…so it eventually felt like I was doing a homework assignment. I’m not saying it was a drag to write music…because I sincerely enjoy it, it’s very therapeutic and it’s def something I feel good doing. I’m saying that there have been times when all I wanted to do was watch TV, or go out with my friends, or be outside or even sleep. And instead, I had to spend the little free time I had writing music, because we had a deadline for the album. It’s not too therapeutic to force yourself to finish a song about anger on a beautiful sunny day when all you want to do is be outside. Writing means I have to get myself in a certain mental state, and it’s not always easy (or fun) to get myself there. Anyway…it was a fun but stressful experience and I’m happy to have it behind me. I feel REALLY good about the songs we’ve written, and this album is really gonna kick ass. I think you’ll agree when you hear the most recent tunes (One Night Ticket, I Don’t Need, The Pleasures that I Call Mine, Call It What you Will) that they’re pretty damn good (if I do say so myself). We now have all the songs done that we wanted to get done, and there’s nothing else to do….except record them. We’ve found our producer and signed the contract yesterday. We start pre production next week. More info to follow, and we'll keep you posted on how it's going.     Win if you can, lose if you must, but ALWAYS cheat! Andy Well folks crunch time is here and we only have a few weeks to get about 30 songs ready for pre-production. I'm looking forward to the hard work ahead. It should be fun at the very least!! Vapor was tremendous; always a great crowd and they really take care of the band. Thanks to everyone that came out. I have one last song that I have to finish so until next time.....   Billy - 4/16/09 I love Facebook. Even though I subscribe to what Vonnegut said not long before his recent death (“Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. We are dancing animals.”) its just the most hilarious thing, and a magnet for the hopelessly - nay, obsessively – nostalgic. In the course of 15 minutes, I found a childhood friend of mine… she was hilarious. Together, we discovered the healing properties of vodka (I took a jigsaw and cut a hole in the back of mom’s liquor cabinet), practiced making out techniques on one another, and listened to Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” at top volume. I haven’t seen or heard from her in 20 years. Now, a lot has changed since then. I no longer drink vodka as if it were holy water, I don’t kiss and tell, and…. Well, I still secretly love Blondie. But we picked up right where we left off. What were the odds that ever would have happened without FB? Also, where else can you show the whole world that “Bill Ketzer has no bananas,” or that “Bill Ketzer became a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches?” Or Judas Priest? Or John Deere tractors? Or boobs? Let me tell you what, my son Eli is a HUGE fan of boobs, but I digress. Or do I? So, according to Facebook, I am doing a one-off Iron Maiden tribute with my man Nash tonight at the Fuller Roadhouse Grille in Colonie. I agreed to sing an hour and a half of tunes off the first four LPs, which means that I must be out of my freakin’ mind. But I’m looking forward to it. No hecklers please, and NO I am not wearing spandex trousers. Friday 10YV is at Vapor in Saratoga, which will be a killer show. I’ve finally started to feel more comfortable at the keys and the vocals seem to mesh real good with Deb’s, so if you’re reading this and feel up to visiting this fine city (birthplace of the potato chip, voted “Best Place to Kiss” by VirtualTours.com, home of the newly famous chestnut gelding Funny Cide and most importantly where death metallurgists Skinless penned the horror-movie metal classic “Tug of War Intestines”) let’s see you shake it. Then update your FB status and tell the world, “____________ shook it with 10YV at Vapor last night, and now my plantar fasciitis is acting up.” Deep!   Debbie: 4/9/09 (Thursday) I am SOOO beat. I feel like I could sleep for 3 days straight...and I tried to this weekend : ) It SUCKS staying at hotels and not getting to sleep in your own bed, and having to carry all your beauty products in a carry bag and trying to fit them all on the back of a toilet seat....but I'll tell ya, I could spend the whole day in the hotel room sleeping. After finishing a gig, even the crappiest hotel room is like paradise. Just getting to shower, and hop in bed is soooo much better then having to drive. Like Mark said, we did Worcester, Mass on Friday then drove to Manchester, NH right after the show (at 3am), and stayed in a hotel there (cause it just made more sense). He forgot to mention he got us lost for 30 minutes, so what should have been an hour trip, turned into an hour and a half trip. But when we finally got to that hotel, and got through the 20 mintues it takes for the hotel clerk to figure out how to work the computers to check us in, it was so wonderful sleeping in that hotel bed. I think I slept till like 3pm on Saturday. It was great. We've been working so hard, and just going non stop, I can't seem to shake "the tired's". We've been talking with so many people; managers, labels, producers, booking agents, clubs, blah blah. We've been writing, and practicing like crazy. We've really been cracking the whip because it's crunch time. It's been ruff. Even taking the time zones into consideration when calling people back is ruff. But...it's all for a good reason. We're very close to having a producer, and we will be making a HUGE concert announcement on Monday. (You can listen to Fly 92.3 at 7am Monday morning for more information). PS...where the hell is the nice weather ?     DO YOU UNDERSTAND!!!! Andy This weekend was great. I picked up some really great music from Newbury Comics and a cold from "Sweet" Greg Nash. Oh well back to work!   4/4/2009 Mark: Hotel in New Hampshire So it's 3:23pm on Saturday April 4th. We had a show last night in Worcester Mass, drive up here after the show, check into the hotel around 3:30am. Andrew and I were up early and found an awesome little spot for breakfast... only like 4 tables in the whole place... pan fries and killer blueberry pancakes. Timmy and Debbie slept in late. Anyway, we just finished up our usual Manchester New Hampshire tradition where Andrew, Greg and I head over to Newbury comics and spend all the money we'll make from the gigs this weekend on CDs. I found some great rare stuff by REM, John Mayer, Jeff Buckley, Sinead O'Conner, Pete Townsend, and Paul Rogers. Andrew picked up every Black Flag CD known to man... I'm not sure what Greg got. Then we stop into Daddy's Junkie Music store to walk around and look at a lot of stuff we can't afford. And while we were having fun, Debbie spent the afternoon in the hotel on her laptop doing band business stuff, trying to get some original shows booked. So I figure, I can get some work done now and then head over to the Black Brimmer with everyone around 5 to get all our stuff set up. Then back to the hotel to relax and shower before heading back to the club for dinner and the show. Actually... I changed my mind... I'm falling asleep typing this, so screw the work, I'm taking a nap. Goodnight.   Debbie: 3/25/09 Wow. It's been a while since I've written. I've had lots of stuff going on. Although I didn't have a baby like Bill... I did get a puppy. (I'll work on uploading a pic). I went on vacation to the Carribean...and it was a blast. And been working on TONS of great things with Ten Year Vamp. I can't WAIT for the summer. I'm sooo over the cold weather. I'm diggin on the fact that it's bright until 7:30...but I'll be really happy when I won't have to wear a jacket and I can keep the windows open. I even love playing spring/summer shows. Everyone's moods are different, no one is lugging around jackets, some gigs are outdoors, it's still bright on the drive there, etc.. Hopefully we'll get a bunch of outdoor festivals and events. We usually don't find out until a few weeks before...so keep an eye on our myspace page and e mail list...cause that's how we'll let you know if something's been added.   Baby Eli!   Billy (3-13-09) Well, THAT was a busy week. Can’t stay for long, but just wanted to check in and let everyone know that the missus and I were taken a bit by surprise on Monday night when our first child decided he was going to make his stunning debut a week early! Mom is doing fine, and our boy clocked in at 8 lbs 6 oz and was 21 inches long. As mark said, the kid is money ahead of me in the hair department, and his arms are almost longer than mine. This, of course, means he’s a-gonna have a real nice jab… and it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anywho) as soon as he can hold his head up on his own he’s going RIGHT behind the drum kit. Sorry I can’t be at The Bayou this eve to bring the rock (and let me tell you, I REALLY would like to talk to someone besides lactation consultants and night-shift nurses – not to mention the original tunes are sounding more and more killer every day) but hey… I’ll be back in full swing shortly. I owe a lot thanks to Andy, who took the time to explain a lot of things about fatherhood to me ahead of time so I wouldn’t be walking around with that Sika-deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression on my face. And here’s something else that Andy warned me about but I didn’t want to believe: Holy shit diapers are expensive! While I’m at it, thanks to everyone at the 10YV camp for being so supportive. Soooo… without further adieu I bring you Elijah Lynott Ketzer. His middle name is in honor of the great Philip Lynott of the seminal Irish rock band Thin Lizzy. Google ‘em and see why!   Mark (3-4-2009): My new iPod Playlist !!! So I showed up to our show last Friday at Sandy’s in Glens Falls all pumped up because of the new playlist I had on my iPod for the drive up from Albany. See, earlier that day I stumbled into a few albums on iTunes that I used to own back when I was a kid. I know most of you don’t know what a vinyl record is, but back when I was in Junior High, I used to love to lie on my bedroom floor with the lights off and listen to live records. I had this really expensive pair of headphones that sounded so good, but the soft part that sat on my ears was this black foam-like material – when I finally left my room, everyone would know I was listening to my albums because I had this black shit all over my ears. Anyway, I used to spend hours listening to those live albums – in my head, I was always the singer, running back and forth on the stage. (I’m sure Debbie is laughing so hard at me as she’s reading this one). I never wanted to play guitar… I was always the singer :) Anyway, the point I want to make is that they don’t make live albums like that anymore. Back then, you weren’t a good band unless you had a double live LP. And for those of you who think CDs are old fashioned, a double live LP, means 2 records (4 sides of music) in a large gatefold album jacket that you opened up like a book. Skipping over the fact that much more attention was paid to album artwork back then… skipping over the fact that the musicians were much more talented (for the most part) and songs were written and performed for the sake of the song and not the musician… but the biggest difference between live recorded concerts back then and what we hear today is the way the songs were produced. Listen to any of those classic live albums and you can “hear” the room it’s being recorded in, you can hear individual people clapping, you can hear drunk guys yelling, you can hear a girl cough in the 3rd row. Those albums sounded like you were actually there listening live, and the “live” doesn’t disappear during the middle of the song. Today’s live recorded music has applause at the beginning and end, but everything in-between is so processed, it sounds just like a studio track. The excitement of the live show is sucked out of today’s live recordings… all the true nuances of the live performance just don’t come across… maybe it’s because it’s the production that makes many of today’s musicians sound good and that subtle artistry and musicianship just isn’t there to shine through anyway? Sooooo, I’m really not here to criticize today’s music. I’m just excited about the music I’ve rediscovered. For a fantastic “Classic Live Double LP” playlist, here’s what I’d recommend: Eagles Live, by The Eagles (Some of the best live harmonies you’ll ever hear; Joe Walsh for President!), Wings Over America, by Wings (And for the younger kids, that means Paul McCartney’s band – he was one of the Beatles and pretty much invented most of the music you’re hearing on the radio today… So many great songs on this album… Maybe I’m Amazed, My Love, Live and Let Die…), Live Killers, by Queen (Although all Queen’s live albums are great, this is the one), Live Bullet, by Bob Seger (Before Old Time Rock and Roll… and Turn The Page is NOT a Metallica song), Pack Up The Plantation, by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Not as old as the other albums but I had it on vinyl so it still counts… So you wanna be a rock ’n’ roll star? Take a listen now, hear what I say…), Absolutely Live, by Rod Stewart (By far the loudest crowd I have ever heard, except for maybe 1 or 2 of our bus trips shows down to NYC. Rod was the King of the 70’s and wrote so many classic pop-rock tunes that are now just household melodies), Hot August Night by Neil Diamond (Yes, Neil Diamond. You gotta check out the cover of this album when he was bad ass. Bad ass with some of the greatest songs ever written, and I’m not talking about Sweet Caroline, but Holly Holy and I am… I said – now that is a song), Caught In The Act by Styx (I had this one on a cassette so I’m cheating a little, but with Mr. Roboto, Come Sail Away and Rockin’ The Paradise, how could I leave it out?), and finally… Frampton Comes Alive by Peter Frampton (How could any Live Album list be complete without this one? Baby I Love Your Way… Do You Feel Like I Do?). So that’s my list… and the extent of the live albums that prevented me from doing so many homework assignments. Somebody let me know what you think… and especially if I’m missing any albums. I think I’m missing a Neil Young album. S go download those albums… make a playlist. You’ll be walking around yelling “Cleveland!” all day.   Excuse Me! Excuse Me! Andy (2/25/09) I can't help it. I start things and don't finish them. We've got some downtime over the next couple of weeks so I intend to continue writing songs and reading a stack of books that I have read most of. Here is that list: Bernie Mac- I Ain't Scared Of You, Jazz Guitars, Jesse Ventura- Do I Stand Alone, Coltrane, Building Mental Muscle, Henry Rollins- Roomanitarian, Kind Of Blue- A Making Of A Masterpiece, Robert Evans- The Kid Stays In The Picture, Andy Summers- One Train Later, Bill Maher- New Rules, George Orwell- 1984, Curb Your Enthusiasm The Book.   Debbie: 2/19/09 So we have this weekend off. We kept the end of Feb/beginning of March light, so we could get some behind the scenes things done for the album (producers, writing, booking, etc). We figured we’d book one show a weekend. Figures, the gig gets cancelled cause the club goes bankrupt and shuts down immediately. Too bad they weren’t able to stay open a few more nights for our show. I heard a LOT of people were planning on going. They could have gone out with a bang, and…maybe they would have had discounted drink prices : ) Oh well. It’s nice to have some time off. I don’t get to see my friends and family too often, so it’s def something I’m gonna be doing this weekend. Also…it sure would be nice to just have a quiet Friday night home...order some Indian food, drink some red wine, and watch whatever crap is on TV. I’ll tell ya…nothing beats watching mindless TV…like America’s Funniest Home Videos. Couple that with a pint of Stewarts Cotton Candy Ice cream, and it’s a perfect night. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.   Billy 2-12-2009 So should I talk about Jillian’s then? Here is yet another great downtown venue under that meets the quality, borderline obsessive/compulsive standards set by Ralph Spillenger. At risk of disclosing my age (though I’ll still go you toe-to-toe in the ring or in any competitive eating challenge, thank you), it used to be that “going downtown” meant something entirely different… usually something regarding methamphetamine or black market auto parts. Bands would play 288 Lark, QE2, Bogie’s or Valentines, the latter being the only stalwart survivor of that era. North Pearl Street offered nothing but the hollow shells of 19th Century hotels like the Kenmore and whitewashed storefronts. Now, after a few investors took a gamble (Ralph may have been the first with the Bayou Café but I really have no idea) the whole expanse is like a safari with cocktails. The sociology of the place alone is enough to make my tattoos tingle. Last Thursday, Mark and I got there early to sample the vast buffet (we played a weeknight fundraiser for the American Heart Association), and as a result it was a bit of a challenge hitting the high notes to “Superhuman Strength” after inhaling five pounds of king prawn and tapenade. But it was worth it. Jillian’s has one of my favorite stages, not just because of its vast depth but because each section is like a trampoline attached to 10 other trampolines. When the whole band bounces on it in unison, it simulates a childhood memory I have of getting my ass kicked in the Moonwalk at the Altamont Fair, and I lose my place in the song for reverie’s sake. Sounds like a bad feeling, but in reality the effect is quite life-affirming. But not after king prawn. Someone at Jillian’s has the uncanny ability to build a triangular structure out of pool cues on every game table in the back banquet room to house a perfectly racked triangle of pool balls. It sounds dirtier than it looks, but I still hope to catch them in the act. Maybe this Friday? See you there?   Mark 2-11-2009 Wow... Maybe Billy should write all of our blogs.   Billy 2-9-2009: Trippin' Hopped in the green beast with my man Nash and pointed the thing toward Hartford, CT. Home of the late, great Jeff Porcaro! We listen to old Kiss albums (which men from Colonie do as a matter of standard protocol when placed in small areas with questionable ventilation and miles to make) and share stories about our previous gigging experiences in one of the US’s oldest cities. Me, I once played in an abandoned storefront in the North Meadows. I was on tour with a ska/punk band at the time and the only memory I really have is stealing block cheese from a convenience store and realizing that, after a thorough search of the U-Haul, I left my entire hardware case at home in a garden-variety alcoholic blackout. Ah, memories. Anyway, I tend to forget that many of these New England cities shut down the bars much earlier than in New York, so by the time we arrive at 8:30 PM a hearty and well-dressed crowd has already mushed themselves into the sizeable Black Bear. The club’s soundmen arrived shortly thereafter with enough wattage to power the Wacken Open Air Festival, or perhaps even a small third-world country south of the equator. Police presence is borderline antagonistic, but that’s pretty much how I remember it in all Connecticut cities, including Enfield, New Haven and various other incorporated political subdivisions. And here, a very aggressive company has scripted an agreement with the city to not only run the municipal parking lots in the downtown area, but also has dibs on every meter within a 2-mile radius of the business district after 6 PM. So… you pay the city to park by day and a faceless corporation by night. As Chuck Klosterman once said, “I see no difference between winning and losing.” BUT. I sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. I love this stuff. It sure as hell beats watching The Bachelor and eating ramen on a Friday night. The band is white-hot, the room is loud, the food is fat, and the place is awash in that heartbreakingly reassuring haze of ambiguous camaraderie in the name of good live music that just makes life better. There’s absolution in sweat equity that makes other people sweat like they’re doing it in front of a bathroom mirror with no one else around. And sure, the police block all exit routes save one come closing time, creating a rush-hour traffic situation at 2 AM, but who cares? We got Ten Year Vamp. And Me & Nash, we got Triumph’s “Allied Forces” on the iPod, heading back up I-91, the Subaru’s dying muffler making the beast sound like a single-engine Cessna, clear for take-off. We got it made. -- Billy   It's Over!!!! Andy 2/3/09 Mark and I finally got down to the studio yesterday to finish guitar tracks for the producer demos. Debbie came in after us and finished up the vocal tracks. Got some new new new songs. Everything sounds great. I'm sure they will be uploaded to the Album Project Page very soon. Sign up so you can check them out!     2-1-09 Gregory 50 random things 25.I was once trapped under ice as a boy.(Matt Sullivan pulled me out,saved me life) 24.I prefer a 'fist pump' to a handshake(advice from terry bozzio)people get overzealous with their grip,I need my hands. 23.my earliest musical memory is 'Let Me Try Again' by Sinatra blasting from my Mom's bedroom as I lay in a crib. 22.I once held Elvin Jones' cigarette while he posed and signed with Charlie Watts at The Blue Note. 21.My best friend is a meth head,we don't speak anymore. 20.I am a full-fledged member of the GWAR Total Slavery Fan Club 19.I've met and chatted with Emerson and Palmer....still no Lake. 18.My eyes change colors......most often after sex. 17.I once stood atop the World Trade Center marveling at the curvature of the Earth. 16.I'm terrified of flying but still do. 15.I have a police woman fetish and my dearest friend indulges this. 14.to encourage proper diet when I was growing up my parents would say "Keith Richards eats HIS vegetables" 13.I do at least 300 crunches every day. 12.I hate practicing drums........but will play all day long with an accompanist. 11.I've never had a drum lesson,nor can I read or write music....yet. 10.I don't like pits,pits,pits,in my juice,juice,juice 9.I stop breathing a few times each night,sleep apnea 8.I would like to learn to ride a horse again. 7.I like to wear Deb's clothes.(singer for ten year vamp) 6.The love of my life was a queen in a past life. 5.I believe in Bigfoot,Loch Ness Monster and UFOs 4.I was once put thru a big screen TV because I was thought to be half black.(spare times Lake Luzernne) 3.I'm inspired and fascinated by the love affairs of John and Abigail Adams,Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner,and David Mccollough and Rosalee. 2.I like putting doritos in a Jif Peanut Butter sandwich with chocolate milk 1.I wanted to be a priest when I was younger. bonus features 1.I wouldn't be able to play music without the support of family and friends. 2.I'm often amused by people that break it to me that I'm a bit abnormal...as if I have zero self awareness 3.I'm in the new Stones Shine a Light movie. 4.I've yet to make a recording that I'm truly proud of. 5.I almost lost my thumb in a meat slicer at age 14. 6.I'm addicted to a.m. talk radio....savage,phil henry,coast to coast ect 7.I'm obsessed with The Revolutionary War 8.Halloween is my favorite and I've started a Halloween Village this year 9.I belong in NYC....and will be there soon. 10.I will open for the Rolling Stones on their winter 2010 tour 11.I find all pro sports boring as hell. 12.I can do many things left handed(Dave Weckl thinks I was born lefty and trained righty) 13.I still bawl when I try to watch Tim Burton's BIG FISH. 14.I once recorded an entire album without playing one flam,under duress 15.I have never looked into more beautiful eyes than those of my dearest friend 16.I've shaken hands with all the living Stones(except Taylor....still time) 17.I love the library and visit often 18.I turned down a musical residency in Singapore with one of the greatest female singers alive in order to stay loyal to a local band. 19.my cat Marrianne is more like her master every day and its terrifying 20.Jon Cyran turned me on to a song called 'Precious Things' in 92 and I knew it would be a life long thing 21.I replaced a 2 and a half pack of Marlboro a day habit with Ben n Jerrys PB ice cream 22.I dream of a daughter 23.I haven't eaten McDonalds in over 8 years 24.I've never broken a bone in my body(woodknocking) 25.I have no tattoos or piercings   Debbie: 1/30/09 (Friday morning) Not much new going on. Still working on some new tunes, practicing, finishing up the demo recording, new bookings, etc.. The Metroland started polling for the "readers poll 2009", so pick up a copy or vote online at www.metroland.net . We took a few categories last year, and we'd love to take a few this year as well...but we need your votes !!!!!! I can't wait until Sunday's Superbowl. I'm a Giants fan, so I'm not thrilled about the game...but I'm looking forward to eating pizza and wings, and beer. Hopefully the game won't suck.   Mark - 1-13-2009 - New Song It's 10:38pm. I just got home from a great practice. We've been working a lot on new original material, trying to get ready for when we go into the studio to record a "real" album. Andrew wrote this song that Debbie added a melody and lyrics to... it's so frackin good... I really can't say enough how good this song is. It's just the perfect pop/rock song. I can hear Brian Cody and FLY92 playing it all day long. Everything Andrew and Debbie put together is completely perfect. And I must say, now that Bill Ketzer is with us, singing and what-not, he totally completes the song when we play it live. I loved the song the first time I heard it, but by the second listen, I was sooo sold. It's killer... good job guys. It's so strange that this version of the band has only been around a few months (much less if we count Bill joining up), but we're just starting to develope what Ten Year Vamp can really be. So this weekend, Billy isn't traveling with us, but it will be the first time in Worcester and New Hampshire in well over a year that we'll have the actual band members, and be able to play some original songs. Yes, we'll play the newest song so you can let us know what you think. Next weekend, we're in Plattsburgh, but you Capital District folks can check the new songs out next Wednesday the 13th at the Fuller Roadhouse Grille. Our drummer Greg will be hosting an open mic night, and we're thinking about crashing it and doing a 30 minute guerilla show of originals (and then drinking the rest of the night away) so come on out and hang with us. Let us know what you think of the new originals. :)     Mark 1-12-2009: Come On People!!! Alright so how come no one told us we were mentioned as having the Best Capital Region CD in the Times Union? Not only did no one in the band see it, but it was several days after the fact that one of my favorite clients emailed me about it. We were lucky that she still had the paper and was kind enough to send it to me (Thanks Rachel!) Now I can believe that the rest of the band didn't see it because none of us can read, but how come none of you guys told us about it! Keeping a band going is a lot of hard work and sometimes we miss stuff... so we count on you (the people who would be reading this) to help us out and keep your eyes open for us! So let us know people!!! All kidding aside, were excited Donna Eichmeyer from Live Nation even noticed we had a CD out, let alone mentioned it as the best in the Capital Region... thanks Donna. And what we think it says the most, since it was a live CD, is that we have the best fnas/friends any band could have, and it was the people at that show that made the CD what it is.   Mark: 1/8/2009 So Debbie's adding vocals to the latest demos we've recorded. I'm super excited to hear them. In the past, I've never gone back to listen to any of the music we've done. But with these new songs - even the bad sounding demos - I listen to them all the time. Keep checking in with us (me)... I might be able to leak a few of the recordings out (just don't tell Debbie) :)   Debbie: 1/08/09 Happy 2009 !!! This is gonna be the year of the Vamp. (just wait!!) NEway....so I'm going into the studio today to put the finishing touches on our Rev Hall recording of some of our new songs (which kick ASS!!). I get to do one of my most favorite things...sing harmonies. Seriously. I love the way a song sounds when vocal harmonies are added. I always say to my friends, if I wasn't the "lead singer" of a band, I'd want to be a rhythm guitar player/backup singer. With the recording I'm doing tonight, it's gonna be a challenge because I'm so used to singing the lead vocal parts, that it's hard to remember to harmonies. I uploaded all the songs to my ipod (with the harmoines loud in the mix), and i'll bring the ipod into the booth with me, and just listen to each song before i record it. If i don't do it that way, i know i'd screw them up and completely sing the wrong thing. After today, we'll have 10 killer new songs on CD (Demo version...to book some gigs and find a producer with)!! I know in the past, some songs (demo versions) have 'leaked' out before we wanted them to. New tracks popped up on a 10YV fanclub myspace page, and before we knew it, a few of our fans had them on their pages. Well lemme tell ya...it ain't happening this time. I'm gonna guard these tracks with my life.   Debbie: 12/31/08 -New Years Eve (day) Just wanted to wish everyone a happy (and safe) new year. If you're coming down to the Bayou tonight...then I'll see ya later. Not that 08 was a bad year...but I will be SOOO happy when Jan 1 comes and goes. Between the holiday season (shopping, etc) and all that we've had going on (gigs, recording, etc)....I will be happy when life goes back to normal. (Well...as normal as life can be). 2009 is gonna be great. We have SOOO much coming up. On the agenda...find producer, make KILLER album, sell millions of CD's and take over the world with our infectious music !!!!   Mark: 12/30/2008 Hahahaha.... I'm glad you're both having lots of fun at my expense. Just remember, I do the website and if you guys keep it up, you'll find lots more photos of yourselves that look similar to the ones on the top of our Bloopers page! And just to make sure everyone can find them, go to our Photos page and scroll down to the Bloopers category. :)   Andy 12/29/08 - Thanks Mark... Debbie got off easy.... Mark, not only did you break my heart but it burns when I pee... you promised it would go away by now. I'm off to the Doctor for a shot of penicillin. Boy, I wish all I had was a runny nose. P.S. Thats the last time I share a room with you!   Debbie: 12/18/08 - Thursday Just wanted to say thanks to Mark for his extra thoughtful Christmas gift of a COLD !!!!! I love when my nose won't stop running, and I can't stop coughing. It's my FAVORITE !!! Just wanted to say thanks Mark. Just for that, I'm riding with you this weekend to and from Vermont and to and from Plattsburgh...and I'm sharing my room with you, so my coughing and nose blowing keeps you up all night. You'd better bring a BIG garbage bag for my used tissues !!!!   Mark 12-16-2008 - Rough 2 Weeks! Ok... so I thought last week was rough... Several days before our show at Northern Lights with Gavin DeGraw (last week), I came down with the Flu. I couldn't eat anything and was completely wiped out. The other guys (and gal)prepped for "plan B" to do the show without me. By the morning of the show, I felt good enough to give it a try. We made it through ok, although I had so little energy, my hands were shaking the whole set. And one of the times I spun around, I almost fell over. Did anyone catch that? Hope not. So I thought I made it through a rough week, and was looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, but no... the first day I start feeling better (Thursday), I lose power in the ice storm. The weekend comes, my house is freezing and still no power. With a show Friday night, I take a cold show to wash my hair. At least on Saturday, Timmy & Sharon were nice enough to let me get a hot shower at their place... and I got to see Duke (their HUGE Great Dane). It really sucked coming home from shows on both Friday and Saturday night to climb into a ice cold bed. It's Tuesday night and I just got back from practice. 5 days and still no power. I'm so depressed.   Debbie: 12/11/08 - Thursday 9:30am Just wanted to say what a great time we had at Fly 92.3's Jingle Jam last night...with Gavin Degraw and David Archuleta. We met TONS of great people who came out to see the show and we really had a blast. Gavin was VERY nice...and had a great voice. We got to hang out with him before the show. Probably one of the nicest national recording artists we've ever opened for. It's cool to meet a successful artist who isn't 'a diva' and is actually nice and friendly. David...on the other hand....wasn't as friendly. He was limo-ed in for a 6 mintue sound check, limo-ed out, then limo-ed back again 5 mintues before his set. When he was done, he took right off...despite the line of screaming fans. He put on a great show, and has a sincerely great voice...but it would have been WAAY cooler if he would have signed an autograph for some of the younger fans that came to see him. We met some people who drove 3 hours to be there !!!! Anyway...I'm not ripping on David...he really was a great performer...it just would have been nice if he signed a few autographs and didn't take off so quickly. BUT !!!!...we had a great time, and got to meet a ton of great people. Fly 92.3 was AMAZING. We love them. They are the nicest people and are SOOOO grateful for their support.   Andrew: 11/23/08 Absolutely Perfect... That best describes my Saturday which I spent cleaning vomit off of my equipment. Yes folks, while we were on a set break Friday night someone came up on stage and threw up on my gear. Thanks for the memories! As many of you know, we played with two drummers Friday night. Greg and Billy played so great, it was worth not being able to hear out of my left ear until Saturday afternoon. I'm looking forward to Wednesday's gig at the Bayou. Should be a night to remember! Be sure to wear your Ten Year Vamp shirts and come out early 1) who wants to wait in a cold a$$ line all night? and 2) drink for free from our keg... while it lasts! Andy   Debbie: 11/17/08 (Tues morning) So this Thursday we take the next step in our Album Project process...we record some new songs (demo version). Songs have been written (and continue to be written), and now we're recording about 8 of them. We're going to record it live (as opposed to in a studio), because we just want to get a relativly rough mix. We're going to mic each instrument and adjust levels so everything is discernable and mix-able, but we're not going to worry about little mistakes, or isolating each instrument. I'll probably go back and record harmonies to the tracks. Then, when we have the disc relatively mixed together, we take the disc and use it to get a producer. We'll show him (or her) our song ideas, our sound, and see if he (or she) 'gets us' and thinks they can work with us to make the CD we want to make. We'll send this CD (along with some other material) to tons of producers and hope we find someone to work with us on the album. (For those of you who don't exactly know what a producer does...they kind of choreograph everything involved in the recording and decide what we need to do, to get the sounds we want and make our songs sound like the songs on the radio; like add more guitar parts, put this effect on the vocals, put a tambourine in a certain section, drop the double length chorus, add a harmony here, etc). So we need to find a producer who KNOWS the genre we're in and can make our songs sound like the songs you hear on the radio. We can't work with a producer who does hip hop or does jazz bands....because their production and effects will be VERY different then us (modern/pop rock). So....we believe this will be a tedious process, involving US interviewing producers to make sure they can do what we want and they 'get us'..... and the producers interviewing us...to get an idea as to what we're going for, and if we're a band they'd like to be associated with. So...Thursday we record. I'm sure we'll leak a new song or 2....so keep an eye on our website, our weekly e mails and our myspace page...to see if they make their way into the hands of the public. Also...if you don't own a share in our album...it's not too late. $25 gets you a piece of our album (and a share of the profits) and gets you a vote in all decisions....PRODUCER BEING ONE OF THEM. We're gonna need help picking a producer. All album owners will get a vote and will help us decide on who we choose. We've been saving all the money, and we can afford a really great producer...we just need your help to decide. So visit our Album Project page for more info, and buy a share or 2. The more shares you own, the more votes you get (and the more money you'll make when our CD drops in a few months).   Tim 11/17/08 Seriously though.... It's nice to be riding the crest again....for those who know, don't know, care, or don't care, the summer and fall months of 2007 had me quite convinced that home life on the weekends was how I'd rather live... I'm sure now that kind of thinking was largely due to a couple of "abdominal like" surgeries and the pain that followed them...... but enough of that....cuz pain goes away....and now over a year later I find myself again happily gazing at these familier (some not so) faces and ass cracks that make up TVY..... so let it be said ....and honestly from me....thanks to Mark, Deb, Pete, Scotty, Chad, Andrew, Greg, Guy, Billy, and all the faces that never change.... Deb's got some great new stuff and all shall really remain the same ........ Tim   Duke the dog having a bad day!!   Tim 11/16/08 I was driving by a church today looking for some words of wisdom from one of their nifty marquee like signs...........and it was a good one!!! Take care and we'll talk soon Tim   Debbie: 11/03/08 (Monday morning) So Halloween weekend has come and gone, and I'm left with fond memories, and a sprained ankle. Yup that's right. For the first time in 5 years of touring, I'm injured (neck and back injuries excluded : ) What a bummer. I hurt it Friday night, about 10 songs in. And what choice did I have but to keep playing on it. I spent all day Sat at the ER. Turns out it was a torn ligament. I was told to stay off it, keep it iced, and use crutches. Of course...what choice did I have...cause we had a gig Sat night. So...I played on it anyway. Happily though, I didn't seem to screw it up any worse Sat night. I did a lot of hopping on my right leg, but I don't think anyone really noticed I was 'injured'. It was just swollen and bruised...but didn't really hurt too much. It could have been WAAY more fun for me if I wasn't so worried about hurting it even more, or if I wasn't in so much pain...but honestly...i really had a blast. Everyone's costumes were amazing, and the vibe was just great. Jillians was MOBBED. Andy played some cool Wizard of Oz sound clips from his guitar amp all night to add a cute little flare to our costumes (if you weren't there....we were the Wizard of Oz cast). It was really a great time. I'm sure we'll have some pics up real soon.   Mark: 10-27-2008 So we've got the halloween show this weekend at Jillian's... I'm not super thrilled about my costume - acually I don't think any of us are. I think Deb is the only one who can do something possibily cool - I'm sure she'll look outstanding as always. We'll all look pretty funny - especailly since we're coordinated... sorry Andrew. :) I still think we should have dressed up as KISS and played KISS covers and Rock and Rolled All Nite. Maybe next year. :)   Greg 10-25-08 11:24 p.m. I just wanted to take a second from restless pacing to leave a lil note on this here forum. If you haven't met me yet I'm the new drummer for the group ,i like movies about gladiators, I've been to a turkish prison,and I've clapped along at a Styx concert.....be that as it may I can still funk. Seriously ,I'm literally having the best time of my life these days,I feel like I'm 13 yrs old,I'm playing better than I ever have in my life.It's like finding a place that you know you belong and should have already been at for years.......not that I'm old but(don't laugh!) ,with age comes wisdom and I am learning to enjoy the moment in the present,while its happening,appreciating it as it unfolds and still being able to look back at it favorably. I think this new found outlook and my ambitious playing lately has alot to do with the people I'm surrounded by,the positivity is overwhelming and infectious and I'm NEVER afraid or reluctant to take a chance or offer a suggestion.....I've found myself saying out loud a half a dozen times 'I shouldve joined this band years ago'......all I can do to remedy that is enjoy the time ahead. We are in the process of working on some really great songs that Deb has written,specifically a new sexy as fuck ditty entitled 'Say That You'll Make love To Me" We are making more and more progress as a live act and arranging team...I look forward to when we will be a constantly touring act....its already starting to feel like a well oiled machine...I appreciate my fellow bandmate's professionalism,humor,and downright muther fucking asskicking!!! p.s. come to the Halloween show at jillians....will easily be the hottest gig around,I'd go if I wasn't goin already kid. p.p.s. I am now accepting students for drumkit gregorynash79@hotmail.com   Mark 10/17/2008 - New Video Episode finally done! So last night around 8pm, I figured I was just about done with the latest video episode. I just needed to make a few edits, even out the audio, and add a few graphics... figured I'd be done and playing video games by about 10pm, right? NOPE. It took forever!!! It was about 1:45am and I thought I was almost finally done... I was reviewing it one more time and then I caught Greg and Debbie with some rated R language. We could really care less about the lnguage, but it's nice to not have to mark a video as "explicit" when we post it online... and it's funny when we drop the red X over our mouths. So anyway... I had to go back and fix those with the Red X and add some sort off truck horn sound effect. Was I done yet? NOPE. At the last review, I caught the tattoo guy swearing so back to the sound effects. It was almost 3am by the time I finished! But it's finally done, and well worth the time spent. You can find it on our video page Just please don't fault me if I'm grumpy and tired at tonight's show! :)   Debbie: 10/14/08 Thanks to all our Plattsburgh friends who came out to see us this weekend. Both shows were crazy and PACKED !!! We LOVE Plattsburgh !!! Also...we tried out a new song Friday night..."Oh So Nice and Slowly". It sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself. We still have some screws to tighten up, but it was very well received. Thanks for the apples and thanks for the portrait. We're doing our booking for 2009 now, and man our we filling up quickly. I remember when we first started playing, and I had to call bars and beg them to give us a shot. Now...we have them contacting us. It's just a nice feeling to know we've proved ourselves and now our performance speaks for itself. We're looking to get into some new clubs (outside the Albany area), so that when our CD comes out in a few months, we'll have a bunch of cities to promote sales in. So...if you have a sister, who dates a guy, whose 3rd cousin owns a bar in Phili or another big city...give em a call and tell em 10YV would LOOOOVE to play their venue ; )   Mark 10-14-2008 Alright... so I've got nothing to say so I'll tell you the new stuff I'm listening to on my iPod.... 1) Jackson Browne's Solo Acoustic album #1 and #2 2) Sister Hazel's Before the Amplifers live album 3) Marilion's latest album called Somewhere Else 4) The Alarm's latest album called Guerilla Tactics 5) Debbie's new demos :) 6) Counting Crows iTune Live from Soho 7) Gavin DeGraw's new album 8) Bruce Springsteen's Girls in their Summer Clothes 9) Lindsey Buckingham's Live At the Bass Performance Hall album ... and last but not least... 10) U2's latest release, Live In Paris from 1987!   Debbie: 10/6 (Monday morning) So it's monday morning, and tomorrow is our 'marathon practice'. We're gonna practice all day, from early morning to late at night. We're hoping to get about 5 new originals together. It should be fun. Hopefully...one day in the future...we'll be able to spend most days writing music and practicing from morning to night...instead of having to go to work. It's such a huge bummer to have to work a 9 to 5. I like my job a lot, but finding time to write music (then to practice) is a challenge. I like to write in like 5 hour blocks...so by the time I start writing, it's 6 at night, and then I'm up to midnight writing, and have to get up in 6 hours for work. On top of all that, it's hard to get in the mood to write after a long stressful day at work. Anyway...Tues will be fun, cause it'll be a day of just writing and playing. To those of you who were at Sat night's show in Glens Falls...thanks for coming out, we had a blast. It was PACKED in there !!!   Mark 10/1/2008 We had a killer practice last night working on some new originals. The songs are falling together nicely and I can't get them out of my head... oh shit... I gotta go pay the rent... see ya :)   Andy Says............. Just listened to the new recordings from last night’s 1st mega rehearsal. These new tunes kill. Can’t wait to work them into the set. To be one of the first to listen and help us decide what goes on the album become part of the TEN YEAR VAMP ALBUM PROJECT 2008!   Debbie: 9/22/08 Well we made it through the weekend. Our Fly interview went REALLY well. Uticafest was great. We had a great article in the Utica Observer Dispatch and another great article in the Uticafest publication. We def killed it. Friday night was crazy and by the end of the night, we were BEAT. Sat was a little easier to get through, but I bascially woke up and went straight to the gig and didn't get home until about midnight. All in all it was a great weekend, and we pulled off 4 great shows. AND!!...the Giants won on Sunday. So this Tuesday night, we're starting the first of our 'marathon practices'. I wrote about 8-10 new songs, and we want to really invest a good amount of time in getting them perfect. So we're having LOONG practices, 2 days a week, starting this Tuesday. Which bascially means I will have even less of a life then I currently have, cause we'll be spending our evenings cut off from the world in a tiny practice room. I'm sure we'll video tape it, so you'll get to see what goes into creating originals. Anyway... today is the first day of fall, so happy fall to all. To celebrate the start of the fall season...go to itunes.com and download Ten Year Vamp's "Fall".   Mark: 9-22-08 I don't know about the rest of the band, but I'm still sore after the back-to-back shows on Saturday with FLY92/Pearl and Jillian's.   Debbie: 9-17-08 - lots 2 say cause I haven't said NEthing in a while Don't you love the new page ?!!!! We're moving forward at the speed of light. So much going on...TONS of new stuff coming your way (and the new originals are HOT as hell !!!) But for today.... I’m sooo tired. It’s like 8:40am on Wednesday, and I’ve been up for like 3 hours. We were supposed to be on Fly 92.3 at 8am this morning, to play 3 live acoustic songs and promote our tour and CD, but they called at 7am and said they’re having mic issues, and want to reschedule for tomorrow. It’s def something we’ll do...but I’m just beat. We had a late practice last night, and by the time I got home and showered and ate dinner and got into bed, it was after midnight. And...as I’m sure you all know, morning voice isn’t the hottest. So I got up at 5:30am, to warm up my vocals and chug coffee. As you can imagine, I’m pretty tired. Tomorrow will be an even longer day. Radio interview with the Morning Rush at 8am, go to work till 4, drive to Utica and check into the hotel, then play the gig 10:30-11:30. Apparently, we’re headlining the Thursday night show at the Electric Company. We’ve never played Utica, but I guess our reputation proceeds us : ) That’s cool. The festival takes place over 3 days, with 230 bands and 20 different venues. Should be tons of fun. Friday, we have 2 shows in one night...Jillians and Pearl. We have to be at The Pearl for sound check at 3pm, so I’ll prob go straight from Utica to the Pearl. Then home for shower, nap and to eat. Then down to Jillians (at 9pm) for the gig (which starts at 10pm). In case you don’t know, we're playing Jillians 10pm to 2am, but on our set break (11:30pm-12:30am), we’re playing the Fly 92.3 gig across the street…so we technically won’t get a break on Friday night. (Which means I won’t be able to straighten my hair….yuck). Also, Tilla Tequilla bailed on the Friday night gig with us at Jillians. She got bumped to the following Friday. That blows, cause she prob attracts quite a crowd, and it would have been an packed house. Not that it won’t be a packed house when we play...but we would have been able to play for a new crowd. Then Sat we have a private party. So...that's what the next few days look like. See ya !!   Mark 9-14-2008 Working on this new website. Converting all our old photo pages to the new site layout - took 4 hours... and I'm ready to rip the hair out of my head trying to get this blog thin to work! I'm s confused... but I'm not giving up. :)