Returning to West Herd

Greetings, sinners. Your favorite bassist, Piper, has returned to West Herd (The Epicenter of Excess!) and I've brought you a souvenir: news involving the re-release of The Influence.

Before I elaborate on that, an urgent update. Some of you wrote us after our last blog post asking if we were doing okay after the fireworks disaster at the Bombard the Beach finale. Rest assured that the boys and I have returned to top form aside from the stress of the Turtle Soup song rights battle, not a flickering remnant of shell shock to be had. The last lingering ailment afflicts dear Smoky, who misses his nighttime motorcycle drives at Costa Grande. I have reminded him that it's the exact body of water that forms our own West Herd Bay. He insists it's not the same. He may be right. I've half a mind to drive one of my classic convertibles down there myself on our next hiatus to cruise along the coastline. For hours.

Without further ado, our special announcement. Turtle Soup Records, after a lengthy argument spanning several months, has graciously given us partial rights to our own song. This is less than ideal. Nevertheless, the wiggle room we are allotted is more than enough for us to eventually put our song on Spotify for our fans all over the globe.

The track isn't quite ready for public release yet. There's always some shit to deal with when you think everything's finished, isn't there? Because of that, we have no release date other than "hopefully early next year." I suppose we'll see how that pans out.

There's no more to say this week, so I'll conclude this post with:

Mind your habits, but stay smokin'.

Our First Blog Post!

What's up, sinners? It's Vice Man Smoky Smooth live (LOL) and in the fur.

After fifteen years we're FINALLY moving off of the SandDune social network (FUCK TARGETED ADS!) and starting our own site with a weekly blog. You guys have been asking for an actual band blog for forever so we're all getting off our asses to try our hands at it. Will we be as good at blogging as we are at music? Who knows!

I'm writing this post from my private suite in the DePaul Hotel at Costa Grande. The Bombard the Beach festival this year is one of the best we've ever been to.

Some behind-the-scenes highlights of our adventures at the Big Coast:

If you've never had the pleasure of meeting Winston in person you can't keep him from two things: longass guitar solos and climbing things. First free minute we got he started asking where the highest spot in town is. Turns out it's a palm tree in a place we had to swear to keep secret. Winston says the sunsets over the ocean look better up there. I told him it would look the best from the seat of a roaring motorcycle. He didn't believe me.

When we went to dinner last night Piper was suspiciously absent. How were we supposed to know there was a three-story bookshop across the street? He swapped mealtime for browsing novels and handing out autographs. Sometimes I don't get that guy. He of course ended up getting hungry and bumming snacks (and one of my Ricky cigs) off Lucky whose room has been steadily filling with any local delicacies he can bring back home.

Ash Tapper as always is living up to his last name and checking out the local breweries every nightfall. He's got a discerning tongue for alcohol (as do Lucky and Piper) and has been indulging in beer flights along the boardwalk. We'll party with overflowing glasses of the best brew on the last night.

If you've got your own hog I personally endorse the Costa Grande coastline as one of the greatest places I've put my motorcycle to pavement. The moon looks bigger here somehow. It's real romantic. Not that I've got anyone at the moment! (LOL)

Now for some band news: Those of you who saw us early this year might remember me announcing something about a re-recorded version of our old breakout hit The Influence with new background vocals by Ash Tapper. That's still coming I promise! We're battling Turtle Soup Records over rights issues. Sucks but it's our fault for playing the game too hard in our early years.

It's about time for my afternoon Ricky break and there's not much else to say. So I'll leave you with one last piece of advice:

Stay smokin'!