Kamikaze Now Streaming on MySpace

Our new song, Kamikaze, is available for streaming on our MySpace page. You can listen here. Kamikaze was recorded earlier this year at The Carriage House in Silver Lake. The song was produced by Sheldon Gomberg and mixed by Rick Parker (BRMC, Von Bondies).

FREE SHOW AT VIPER ROOM!!

Hey there friends, fans, family. KROQ Locals Only and ShowlistLA are sponsoring a free Useless Keys show at the Viper Room on November 9th with Twilight Sleep and Nightmare Air. Please email your name and your guests' names to rsvp@showlistla.com to get on the guest list while availabilty exists.

In other news, we are still diligently writing for the new album and breaking in our new drummer, Jerry Roe. Hope to begin recording very soon. See you all at the Viper Room.

Opening for Dax Riggs next Thursday and Friday

We are opening up for Dax Riggs at Spaceland next Thursday and Friday, 9/9 and 9/10. Advanced tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at www.clubspaceland.com.

Sunset Junction Party at Malo

Thanks to everyone that came out to our Silverlake Lounge show last night. We appreciate you braving the heat and humidity to soak in our heavy space rock vibe. I imagined I was on Planet Mercury most of the set, it was the only way to enjoy the sweltering environment. We have more shows coming up this weekend: Saturday our residency at Casey's Downtown continues with Twinfight on the bill as well, Sunday we play a Sunset Junction party at Malo in Silverlake (set time is 8pm) and next Monday we are heading to San Diego for a show at the Casbah with Young the Giant. The Useless Keys spaceship keeps gliding along, see you this weekend....

Silverlake Lounge with Twilight Sleep THIS MONDAY

We're playing a free show next Monday at the Silverlake Lounge for Twilight Sleep's August Residency there. Our set time is 10pm. Show is free. We'll be playing some new material. We've booked a number of shows in August including San Diego and Phoenix dates and our own residency on Saturdays in August at Casey's Bar in downtown LA. Check out our myspace page for more dates and info.



In other thoughts, I've been thinking a lot lately about how we as human beings have evolved directly from Earth. I was laying in bed, breathing the other day and as I noticed my chest rise and fall with each breath, I thought about how much our respiratory and circulatory systems and sleep patterns have in common with Earth. Ice caps melt and freeze and melt and freeze with each passing summer and winter. Waves form, crash ashore and recede back into the ocean and repeat. We breathe in and breathe out, breathe in, breathe out while our heart pumps blood through our body much the same as the currents of the ocean have a natural flow or the mantle underneath the earth's crust flows. We plan our whole lives around Earth's 24 hour rotation, adhering to a daily routine of going to sleep at a particular time in Earth's daily rotation and waking at another specific time in the rotation. I've heard arguments that we as humans may be Earth's attempt to reproduce other Earth-like planets; we are suppose to spread to Mars, build an atmosphere, colonize, build a brother/sister to Earth. Anyways, if depression is a feeling of estrangement from humanity or a feeling of disconnect from others and/or the universe, it's healthy to think about things like this, how much we are connected to Earth. We're just a very small piece in a very large process. It should make us less lonely, right? DEEEEEEP THOUGHTS....:) Silverlake Lounge, Monday, FREE.

LA Zoo Show: Friday August 6th

Be sure to come out to the LA Zoo's first "Local Scene Night" which is Friday August 6th. We are playing and our friends Voxhaul Broadcast and Happy Hollows are playing as well. See some tigers, drink wine and enjoy rock n' roll in a unique setting.

TROUBADOUR SHOW NEXT WEDNESDAY JULY 21ST

We are playing at The Troubadour next Wednesday, July 21st. We play first; our set time is 8:30 so get there early.

JULY LA SHOWS/KAMIKAZE 7"

It's mid-July and still only 70 degrees in Los Angeles; this place is awesome and worth the extra couple hundred a month on rent.

We booked two LA shows for July; we're playing at The Echo on July 12th at midnight and we're opening for Gram Rabbit at The Troubadour on July 21st. We're also getting our late summer/early fall schedule in line and we've already booked shows in Phoenix (8/30 at The Rhythm Room) and San Diego (8/23 at The Casbah), we're working on making another trip up the West Coast in the next couple months as well.

Last week we mastered a new track entitled "Kamikaze" which will be released in the fall on a 7" along with "White Noise". We'll notify you here of the release date as soon as we get it. Currently working on new songs for our forthcoming debut album, breaking in our new bass player, Davin Givhan, and saving our dollar bills for recording.

Thanks to everyone that came out to the APTBS show. There's some videos on youtube from the show. Below is a new song "Sea Bells" along with the UK classic "White Noise". Enjoy, take care of yourselves and we'll see you soon.














mb

*****SPACELAND SATURDAY WITH APTBS AND LIGHT POLLUTION*********

Hey there. We've been working on new music and just finished a new mix for our song "Kamikaze" which will be coming out on a 7" with "White Noise" this fall. We are currently booking tour dates up the West Coast and across the Southwest for this summer and fall. This Saturday we are opening up for A Place to Bury Strangers at Spaceland. We hit the stage at 9pm so get there early. We also have a few new dates posted on our myspace page, keep an eye out for more.

See you all Saturday. Take care.

mb

Silver Lake Jubilee THIS SUNDAY 11PM

We are headlining the indoor stage at El Cid for Silver Lake Jubilee this Sunday. Our set time is at 11pm and there are many great bands playing with us on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are cheap too; only $5. See you all there.

Recent Video Blog Interviews

Back in February, at our residency at The Echo in Los Angeles, Nathan from Smashed Chair and Danny from Rock N' Roll Super Show shot video interviews with us backstage. Check out the video interviews below.

The Useless Keys @ the echo from Smashed Chair on Vimeo.

Useless Keys Interview. from The Rock n Roll Super Show on Vimeo.

IS THE PAINTING CHANGING PHYSICAL EDITION NOW AVAILABLE

We uploaded a paypal button in the right margin so you can now purchase our debut EP "Is The Painting Changing" on a physical CD. The cd includes all 4 songs that were released digitally earlier this year and the artwork was created by David Klein from the multimedia band, Billygoat. The cost of purchase is $7 but this includes shipping to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. We hope you enjoy it.

We are currently writing new songs, working on a few new recordings from March sessions and also have a number of new shows coming up in LA, Seattle, and Portland. We play Sunday May 23rd at Silver Lake Jubilee Fest; our set time is 11pm at the El Cid stage. Come on out, embrace the rock and say hello to us after the show.

mb

********SPACELAND TOMORROW NIGHT**********

We hit the stage at 10pm. Email uselesskeys@gmail.com to get on the $5 list.

NEW SHOWS! NEW SONGS! NEW ALIEN THREATS!

Check, check, check. January, January, January. Okay, it's working...

Hey there, we have a bunch of new upcoming shows booked and we're in the process of booking more so get off your duff and come see us soon:

4/28 Silverlake, CA Silverlake Lounge
5/4 Hollywood, CA Viper Room
5/7 Lake Forest, CA Gypsy Lounge with Oh Darling
5/14 Silverlake, CA Spaceland with Delta Mirror and Full Frontal
5/23 Silverlake, CA Silver Lake Jubilee
5/27 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
6/3 Seattle, WA Comet Tavern
6/4 Portland, OR East End with Billygoat
6/12 Upland, CA The Wire


We're also playing at LA Zoo's Indie Fest on August 6th with Voxhaul Broadcast, The Happy Hollows and a number of other great local acts.

USELESS KEYS have been in the studio over the past couple months working on new songs. We are currently mixing a few of them, testing the waters, observing, processing, fine tuning, etc... Sheldon Gomberg helped produce the new tracks and Rick Parker is mixing as we speak.

Thanks to those of you that have written us saying you heard us on 107.7 The End in Seattle or 94.9 in Portland or 105.3 in Oklahoma City or 106.7 KROQ in LA. Alternative Radio has taken a liking to "White Noise". Thanks for calling in and requesting us as well, it's helping and we appreciate your support.

In another aspect of life, Stephen Hawking said this week that human beings on Earth shouldn't try to contact aliens in outer space because it may prove to be too dangerous and could put the human race at peril. Hawking stated that he assumes other advanced alien civilizations may have traveled down a similar road as we as humans have traveled here on Earth, raping our home planet of it's resources while taking advantage of the weak and defenseless. If we were to encounter an advanced alien species, they might have already exhausted the resources of their own home planet and may come to Earth to colonize and annex our resources as their own while conquering us easily with their superior technologies, much similar to how the Spaniards were able to conquer the Aztecs.

I hope advanced alien civilizations have developed technologies far enough along that they are no longer after oil or lumber or minerals. I hope we as human beings change our consuming habits and discontinue our destructive relationship with the Earth so we can state that we'd be happy to meet any civilizations that have traveled down the same path as us. Okay? Agreed? Are we all on the same page now? We're all going to stop buying plastic bottles and stop sending the poor to wars. Okay. I feel better.

Come to USELESS KEYS shows and say hello. :)

The most useless key of them all,

MB

It's 83 degrees and sunny

I just watched the Karate Kid for the first time in a long time. For some reason I found it utterly amusing seeing Daniel Luruso getting his ass kicked numerous times by the Cobra Cai. His only retaliation at the "All Valley State Championship" was his pathetic Crane Kick. What a crock. Anyways, we have been super busy and just finished a month long residency at The Echo with a lot of great bands (Warpaint, Spirit Vine, Repeater, Free Energy, We Barbarians, Box Violet, Aushua etc). We had a blast. Kat Corbett has been playing "White Noise" and we can't thank her enough for the support.

We are finishing up 3 new songs @ Carriage House studios right now with our good friend engineer/producer extraordinaire Sheldon Gomberg. Even though these recording sessions are filled with Makers Mark we have been on point and nailing take after take. On a side note never buy a bottle of wine that's brand name is "Diablo Creek", really?

We're playing a handful of LA shows in May and heading up to the Northwest the first weekend of June to play in Seattle and Portland. We're also looking into some dates in Phoenix and Tucson for late May. Check out our myspace page for show dates.

What's Good:

The Clash: Sandinista
NWA: Straight outta Compton
South Park: new season
At The Drive-In: Relationship of Command
Ella Fitzgerald: anything.

What's Bad:

Diablo Creek's Pinot Noir
Eating Fish N' Chips 15 mins before you hit the stage
Daniel Laruso's crane kick
Not Huey Lewis's 1983 album "Sports"

"It's just that......I think you'd really like us."

Last week, our debut EP "Is The Painting Changing" was released digitally on iTunes, Amazon and all other digital outlets. We just received the physical CD edition (I have 1,000 cds sitting in 3 boxes in the middle of my studio apartment) and we'll have it for sale at our upcoming residency at The Echo in Echo Park; the CD is currently for sale at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. Finally. I'm happy that we have officially released music into the universe. I feel like a farmer that worked hard cultivating a strip of land and just planted his seeds in the ground. Time to water.


It's been rainy in Los Angeles over the past two weeks. I notice a direct correlation between rainy weather and time spent reading. Hopefully it rains a little bit more before the spigot is turned off on Southern California for another 9 months and we're all encouraged to go outside and hike and enjoy our dry, sunny paradise once again. Here's a photo by Fiona Laughlin. Guylaine looks hot.





Till next time, folks. Listen to KCRW tonight with Chuck P, we're playing an acoustic set. His show starts at midnight. If you miss it, check out the podcast. Rock on and see you on Mondays at The Echo this month. Let's drink beer, listen to loud rock and roll and have fun living!