Hot Chelle Rae on Fearless Music TV

Hey Firestarters. We(Hot Chelle Rae) are going to be performing "I Like To Dance" on Fearless Music(fearlessmusic.com) this Saturday night. In NYC it will air at 12:30am, on WNYW FOX 5. Anyone in any area, we NEED your votes. The same show will air in almost any other major city on Friday.

Go to http://www.fearlessmusic.com/channels/ to find out which station will be airing it near you. To vote, go to www.fearlessmusic.com before and after the show. The band that receives the highest amount of votes will be featured again on next weeks episode. Thank you all so much. We love you and can't wait to see you all on tour this year!

-HCR

Nirvana and mixing

When I use to think of the band Nirvana, I thought of grungy, trashy, garage rock. Not in a bad way, but they basically started the whole rugged grunge scene. Somehow I had a perception that because it was grunge, it was sonically shabby. In the last 6 months or so, while listening to them, no matter what song, I'm realizing that the mix, eq, and engineering of their records are some of the best in the rock world. It goes right along with my "template" of how to mix. Get the drums blaring, and in your face. Just like you're listening to the drummer in front of you in a room. Then bring up the lows of the bass to fill up every bit that It can without sounding stupid. Mix in some grind to it. Then tuck the vocals right under the drums so that every word is audible, but still not in front of the
Mix(this makes the listener turn the volume up, bringing up the drums and bass... Therefore they "feel" the song more). Last, the guitar. I like it sitting farthest back. I turn it up till it starts fighting the vocals. Then back it down, and maybe carve out some eq. Acoustic(if there is any, I like sitting low enough that I can hear the string and pick noise, but not the actually full chords. Also I almost always double any rhythm guitars. Anyway, listening to nirvana inspired me to drop some hints to any aspiring producers or mixers that may read this.
Later!


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Sacrifice

So, I've always felt this, but it has really come to the forefront of my mind today. I believe that sacrifice almost always brings you good. Whether it's a feeling inside, or something physically manifested. Today, I got to the airport to fly a non-stop from Nashville to LA. The usual "if anyone will give up their seat, they'll recieve a $200 travel voucher". I ALMOST didn't, but I ended up volunteering, and not only did I get a voucher... I didn't realize it was an additional $200 on top of the price I'd paid for my ticket. I was more than happy to have a lay over for a few hours in Austin. Then on the plane, I was in an aisle seat, and offered to move back so that a woman and her kid could sit together. The flight attendant bought me a drink for doing so! So basically, I've been blessed all day. Hopefully the rest will follow suit. Never forget to put others first.


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Katy Perry "hot n cold" by Hot Chelle Rae @ Angels and Kings in NYC

http://www.theendofirony.net/2009/12/omg-hot-chelle-rae-cover-katy-perry-w.html
We hit up Angels and Kings for an acoustic set last Wednesday night. It was a lot of fun to break down our songs and do them a bit differently. Kind of energizing in a way, and I'm sure being in the most magical city in the most magical time of year doesn't hurt one bit!

London

Recently I was made jealous of Taylor Swift. She tweeted something about going to London. If i would have known then that I'd also be going to London, I would've been a lot less irritated. Now I'm calm, and have had my fill of London. Onward we drive, to the next town... in the U.S.

P.S. I have NO idea what state this was in. haha

shiny LED lit bottles sell more

Until this gas station of brilliance, I have never seen beverages so shiny! Jamie pointed out that it was the LED's lighting them that makes the difference. Well, I say that everyone business selling any product in bottles should take a page out of this book!

BMI awards in nashville

I love going to award shows. I'm guilty. This is my table at the BMI awards in Nashville. It's great to be able to go hang with talented, amazing people. This year was in honor of Kris Kristofferson, who is an absolute legend. If you don't know about him, go to wikipedia, do some research and listen to any of the numerous songs he's written. Whether they're performed by Kris, or any other artist. Also, he had a featured article in Rolling Stone this last year. Find it!

During the awards, Vince Gill, Patty Griffin, and Willy Nelson all performed together. I have been fortunate enough to see each of them perform before, but nothing was as magical as this acoustic set. I've always loved Patty Griffin, but that night she sent continuous chills up my spine. I think I'm love.

After the whole post awards dessert/open bar, Matt Erickson and I(Matt played many of the synth and keyboard parts on "Lovesick Electric") went around to some after-afterparties, and ended up sitting around at my house, talking music until daylight. Literally. We looked outside at one point and couldn't believe it was almost 7am. So we made the obvious move. Walk across the street to Bread & Co for breakfast. If you haven't been there, and you find yourself nearby... get as much of their fruit tea as you can fit in your fridge! It's THE best. Anyway, Matt and I ended the "day" by trying to go get my car via the public transport bus. We got cut short by my friend(who doesn't even live in TN) driving by at almost 8am offering us a ride to my car. He hadn't slept either. One day I'm sure it'll all catch up.

Santa Monica is amazing

These are some pics from my recent trip out to Santa Monica. I love LA, but this was just beautiful.

This car was so sick, I had to show you all.

This car was also, interestingly cool.

YES, there's ice skating in CA

Farmers Market, I think.

The cop car is there, because years ago, some guy drove through the market!

The biggest flea market I've ever seen.

I LOVE driving through LA. Though I'm sure I'd get a ticket if a cop saw me taking pics while driving.

This is all around 3rd st. Ahh the scenery.

twitter/twitwit

Ok, so everyone is one twitter these days. There are a lot of things you can do with it that aren't so self explanatory. For instance, it took me forever to figure out what "RT" meant. Retweet. Things like that are pretty easy to learn just by asking your friends... OR... drum roll... tweeting the question. Want to see some funny tweets? Just follow "Shit my dad says", or JohnCMayer". This book is completely unnecessary, and should never have been published. I hope for cultures sake that it was on sale because it had sold 0 copies to date. How can someone write a book that's the length of a bajillion tweets... about twitter. Come on author person. The whole point is to be brief! Keep it simple.

window shopping

I passed this crazy store in CA. Every single thing in the window was just about photo worthy.

Check out that brain.

I'd like to inform everyone that if an establishment accepts your type of credit card, it is illegal for them to set a minimum. This is really common in NYC, but just mention that it's against the law... maybe offer to go ask an officer, and they'll change their tune. THIS place however, may have gotten around it with their 98% off "sale" for cash users.

I don't know what this means, but ok.

Live by this, and see what happens. I'm not saying whether I think it'd turn out good or bad. I just wanna see it happen!

get this PAWTY started

Pawty, as far as I knew, was a term(or spelling) coined, or at least used(a lot) by a friend of mine. I wasn't aware that anyone else really thought to use it until I got in an elevator in Santa Monica, and saw this. Maybe I'm just ignorant, and everyone and their mom knows this is the new awesome way to spell party. Either way, I thought it was funny.

Cure for the swine flu... or not

The Swine Flu has been one of the biggest issues/topics of the year. If you do any research it's no more deadly or dangerous than the regular flu. It's possibly far less dangerous. People have a tendency to freak out way too easily. R.K. got the swine flu... he's fine. Over and done with. I MAY have had it. I got some kind of sick, but didn't bother going to get checked out. I just rested and tried to pump vitamin C. I was fine within a few days. I'm pretty convinced that getting vaccinated could potentially cause more harm than good. I mean check out this sign in the window. It's hard to see, but it reads "FLU SHOT". I can't imagine seeing that sign, then trusting this place with your life. Scary.

LV

Louis Vuitton store in Beverly Hills. I love these lights more than christmas lights... definitely.

i suck at parking

I honestly cannot remember the reason that I parked like a drunk 4 year old who had stolen his dad's car in order to go buy illegal moonshine in the ghetto... but I was probably a combination of tired, and lazy. Either way, I got out, saw how terrible/hilarious it was, and had to share it.

seafood?

Crawdads, crawfish, whatever you call them, they're awesome. R.K. was brave enough to suck the heads in order to get all the "spice" out. It's true, but why do the heads have spice. I can't tell you. I'm pretty sure Ian was the only one of us not to try their best to demolish this plate!

how's my mixing?

This road case belonged to one of the crew working on the Third Eye Blind dates. It provided us with a nice little moment of laughter and entertainment.

tethering for the iphone

iPhones have changed the world of cell phones. No argument there. The entire has them, and it's a staple of life on the road. If it could do only one thing... I'm sure HCR would all agree that it would need to be the ability to tether. For all of you who have the 3GS, stop reading, you can't tether. For all of you who have upgraded past 3.0.1, you would have to downgrade in order to do this... but it's so very worth it. Right now I'm blogging by tethering. I'm using my phones 3G network as a wireless modem for my laptop. This is not "suppose" to be done, but whatever. There are way too many hotels with intermittent internet, or just riding in the van itself makes the feature valuable. I have been into an AT&T store and had the salesperson tell me that they can tell when someone tethers and will charge them enormous fees. I'm gonna call that bluff. The one amazing thing about AT&T is that they love their customers. I have NEVER had, or heard of an altercation with the company where they didn't bend over backwards to make a problem right. So if they put a charge for tethering on my bill, I will simply say "Nope, I won't pay it. You can't prove that it wasn't just me surfing the web from my phone." They could technically prove it, but they'll end up saying "Oh, you're right. So sorry to hassle you. Thank you for your business." It's for other reasons before. SO, I saw this add, or poster, or whatever it is(can't even remember now)... and had to share it with you. It's my own "stick it to AT&T for having iPhones exclusively, and having terrible service!" dedication.

Dream on.

menwomen

Everyone knows you're going to get some kind of crazy literary work thrown your way just by walking into a gas station/truckstop bathroom. Sharpies gone wild. I can't figure out who has the presence of mind, much less the hatred necessary to remember to bring a permanent marker into the bathroom every time they go! This was one of the best though. No graffiti, no vandalism, just a printed label on the outside, to state that THIS bathroom is for "Menwomen" only.

cafe coco

Cafe Coco is a 24 hour cafe in our home town of Nashville. If you come through town, go there. Other than the appeal of being open always... the food is actually very good. They stop serving the full menu at a certain time... but if you just ask for the regular menu, they'll let you order from it. Insider tip!

So sweet of them to decorate my hot "coco".

caution signs

Usually caution signs are fairly easy to ignore, as we disregard them and endanger our lives daily. Don't worry, I still fully endorse that lifestyle. THIS however, is a very good argument(in sign form) as to why one should heed the warning. OUCH!