…..i write to you, dear internet, from san antonio, tx and the alamo is lit up a like a carnival and the ghosts of santa anna breath down my neck.  or perhaps it’s the a/c.

….. I am, by nature, a restless sleeper.  The problem is compounded with forgeign beds and strange cities.   The hotel window looks out on a thousand people.  How many people look back?   This story is for the souls in hotels:

The Narcoleptic Boy and the Insomniac Girl
The girl can’t sleep.  Her parents tuck her in and close the door, but she is immediately up and about, pretending her blankets are ball gowns and drawing horses.  Meanwhile, on the other side of their small town, the boy falls asleep everywhere: during the pledge of allegiance, in centerfield, into his mashed potatoes and peas.  Their parents make a play date for the boy and the girl. They become life long friends.   Now they always get the proper amount of sleep.
 

….. I can’t even begin to tell you the happening that have happened since last i blogged.  Really, I can’t.  I don’t remember.  

….. Ok.  One thing I know is that the Serious Business– the studio, the label home, the knobs and bottles –have disappeared from Brooklyn like the stereo in an unlocked car (digression: i once parked my station wagon– since sold and serving in afghanistan (ferrying heroin perhaps?)– on State Street in Boerum Hill.  In back was our busted vacuum cleaner which we received as a gift.  This was no ordinary vacuum for two reasons: 1) it looked mighty futuristic, like it had some AI or, at least, could play music or pickup Z100 and 2) because it required some crazy experise to fix when it broke.  We had just brought it the magic vacuum man and left it in the car overnight.  When I woke in the morning, the backwindow was smashed and the broken futuristic vacuum was vamoosh! along with our tape of Robin Williams Live at Carnegie Hall, 1981)  and appeared again in downtown Manhattan, where dreams are made and dashed and a square foot will cost you your right leg.  But it’s nice.  The knobs will be turned and bottles will be emptied with skylights and lovely views, in close proximity to stores that sell food and liquor.  This is good.

….. We also released our digital only EP Five Believers. It contains, you guessed it, five tunes of undeniable belief, two covers from our pals and labelmates Man in Gray, and three outtakes from our own LP In Defense of Fort Useless.  Buy it here or here.

….. We like to play the rock music.  Next show is on February 17, a Mardi Gras event to benefit charities supporting the victims of Hurricane Katrina and our own governments bumbling response. 

….. I’m fatigued already.  I need to start slow with this blogging thing.  Baby stepping to regular posts.  So far now, adieu mon amies. 

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….. A big thank y’all to everyone who came out to the Crackers United / Friction show at Sin-e last Thursday.  The Hearts, between us all, must have downed a case of that horrible, yet wonderfully intoxicating liquid called Sparks.  To me, it tasted like a liquid Flintstones vitamins, carbonated and distilled to a hearty 6% alcohol.  With our hearts beating fast and our livers doing the downstroker, we played the rock n roll, fast and drunkenly.   The Hardtogettes were in fine form, and I even managed to pinch some of there choreography.  I am sure it must have been visually stunning.  I can foresee a future when I might even lipsink a few tunes so I can really hit the marks on my dance steps.  I also broke the drum.  Dave broke a glass.  Thank you a good night.

….. For good or ill, the night was well documented with photographic record. Birthday girl, wordsmith and and DZUSA (east coast franchise) member, Mary has pics here.  The fine Friction flock has pics here.  Also, read some nice words about the show from Earfarm here.  

….. D, our very own Hardtogette (worry not ethical minded reader, she addresses the conflict of interests), wrote some fine things about the Hearts, specifically about our tune “Somewhere Deep in NYC” on her blog / music swapmeet Soft Communication.  We were touched when we read it; she is a damn good putter together of words about music, possesses a fine ear which is often to the ground, a shoulder to the grindstone, and a knifelike perception which cuts to the heart of the matter.  Gracias D. 

….. Go checkout the baddest Tuesday night party in town, this Thursday at Club Midway!  It’s Beg Yr Pardon #3 and features our pals and Serious Business labelmates Dracula Zombie USA (east cost franchise) and the electrifying Man in Gray, plus the Heart Foundation of DJdom– DJ Travis Gravitas and DJ… um… D…  on the ones and twos. 

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….. R.I.P. Desmond Dekker who took the last bus to Babylon yesterday. 

….. Vote or Die!, or just suffer minor guilt pains for not supporting your pals, The Unsacred Haerts.  Go to The Deli to vote for the Hearts for Band of the Month.  It’s quite a see-saw battle but we are falling behind.  Help us vast public.  You’re our only hope.

….. There have been several nice blogger folks in the wide world of interwebness who have said kind words clearly aimed at us humble rockers and our new album In Defense of Fort Useless (buy here).  Please read their words: The PhiLL(er); Smother; Your Standard Life; Indie-Eye (in Italian!).

….. Next show is June 22 and includes an open bar for some crazy stimulating malt liquor.  Here are the details:

FRICTION presented by Crackers United
at SIN-E
with Levy and The Big Sleep
Hearts @ 9, The Big Sleep @ 10, Levy @ 11
FREE SPARKS OPEN BAR from 8pm - 9pm
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….. First and foremost, how about this weather? The soft coo of springtime is a fine thing and makes me feel sorrow and pity for those who live in a monoclimatic areas like LA and Coral Gables.
….. The Hearts new record– In Defense of Fort Useless –is here and stacked in the vestibule of my apartment! Or is it a foyer? More importantly, it looks so lovely in its varied takes on subsuming wetness and doomed sand castles. A more apt metaphor, we could not find (in the time allotted to such hunting). What can I say about this record? There are many songs with varied themes explored for varying lengths of time at modulating volumes. The one constant is the rock n roll and whoa mama, it’s all over the thing. More specifically, we rock n roll about sin, shattered dreams, daydreams, wet dreams, redemption in the eyes of a lady, childhood remembrances of luxury jetliners, cocaine busts and blessings for safe passage through the vast land of this and that. Just click here to buy this sucker.
….. If you’ve made it this far, we are going to be celebrating the release of the aforementioned record by throwing a giant Rock n Roll Party this Saturday night at Pianos. There are a bunch of kickass band playing with us including The Victoria Lucas and Greenland and our rock compadres, Looker. And we are going to play, of course, but I have to say, I believe we will play extra special because it’s an Unsacred party damn it and we just love that kinda thing. Details are:

Saturday, April 8
PIANOS158 Ludlow St NYC
In Defense of Fort Useless CD Release Party
Hearts @ 10:30 PM. $8
With Looker (11:30), Wormburner (9:30), The Victoria Lucas (8:30) and Greenland (7:30) (9)
Buy tickets from TicketWeb

….. Man In Gray just made it back from rocking various points between here and Texas. They brought the Business (Serious Business) to locales far and wide and left a trail of whiskey bottles, strangled mic chords and fiery red chest hair in their wake. Welcome back you kooky kids!
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….. Big rock n roll at that Southpaw show, huh? Were you there? I think was I can say with a nearly fool proof display of certainy, though I was half gone and half floating like a drunken pixie I think, and half delirious with the kickassness of the event. Thursday nights might not be the same. Brookyln might not be the same. I feel…. different. There was mucho beer and green jello shots and red jello shots and scantilly clad school girls and loud boisterousness and hair spray….. and that was just backstage! Oh and the show! So good was the rock n roll, I can’t stand it. Thanks to the drunken boat load of folks who came out, there was a big bunch like the fruit of the loom x 25. And thanks to the bands with whom we rocked and made merry: DraculaZombieUSA! Americans UK! Man In Gray! We should start a commune! Or a family! Or a traveling rock/freak show!
….. I might also add that we are expecting a truck to arrive at our door in just a few weeks carrying the fresh copies of our new LP: In Defense of Fort Useless. If you want a scott free sneak peaky go listen to the “Point of Pride at our myspace spot.
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….. Harken snow angels, for the grit of the city is now dusted with white flakes and it looks so damn pretty until you step off the corner into gray sludge. Just to let you know, we’ll be going back to my homeland, deep in the heart of Brooklyn, bringing the rock to Southpaw on Thursday, February the 23rd. Also bringing rock on that night will be some of our favorite rock wielding cohorts: Man In Gray, Americans UK and a reconstituted DraculaZombieUSA (East Coast Annex). Lots of rock, so much rock, you’ll need a wheelbarrow for your ears and a shovel for your soul. So much rock, we’ll need a rock permit to be legal, but when rock without a permit is outlawed, only outlaws will rock without permits. We are outlaws (we don’t need no stinkin permits), and as Shirley Temple once said (or was it Gene Autry?): “to live outside the law you must be honest.” Honesty is a good, if not the best, policy. In the end, this post, like many other ends, ends with that, the truth. On Thursday, the rock will not lie, it will not lie down, but it will not lie.

The Unsacred Hearts
Live at Southpaw
Thursday, Feb 23
w/ Man In Gray, Americans UK, DZUSA
show at 8pm/Hearts at 9pm
$8

….. Check out our Music page, under Extra Business, for an outtake from our forthcoming album, In Defense of Fort Useless. The tune is called “But Ms. Love” and it was written after Courtney’s wild weekend in NYC awhile back. I found the whole episode to be very refreshing in these button-downed times. This one’s for you Ms. Love.
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….. A soulful R.I.P. to the Man and a Half, Wilson Pickett, who has gone up to heaven.
….. Thanks to all who came out to the Deli Magazine / Steroactive party at Asterisk the other night. Thanks to Brian and Jeremiah for asking us to play. The wind was howling and the rain was outrageous, the place was tough to find in the middle of the industrial wasteland that is eastern East Williamsburg: we expected to be playing with ourselves. But hark! There is Big Red crossing the street! Harken again there is Mary! There is Patrick! There is Donner and Blitzen! Heartwarming, truly. Andy Bean was dudded up in gentleman finery which, I thought, added a touch of class to our drunken set. A good time.
….. Next show is a week from tonight at a new bar, Fontana’s on the LES, which I’ve heard good things about. We’re playing with Hoy and some other folks I think. It should be fun, so you know what? You should come to see the show, unless you’re anti-fun. And who wants to be that?
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- Imbibe three to eight servings of your favorite alcoholic beverage
(recreational drugs can be substituted in a pinch)
- Using a left/right walking motion, or a motorized train or car if
available, get your ass to the Delancey.
- Descend steps and begin marinating yourself in the pungent rock n rollness
of Death Disco. Be sure to include the robust flavorings of Kickstart.
- By 10:30 you’ll be ready to cook. Drop yourself in the hot flames of The
Unsacred Hearts.
- Sizzle, shake, dance about. Serve hot.

Okay, enough strained food methaphors. Here’s the rock show announcement
reduction:
The Unsacred Hearts return again, for the first time.
DEATH DISCO @ The Delancey
THIS WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14
UH at 10:30 with Kickstart (9:45), Madame Robot & The Lust Brigade (9:00), The
Nightrats(11:15), Skyline Rodeo (8:15) and more!!!
168 Delancey (btwn Clinton & Attorney)
This is a free ride!