Due to the response from the now infamous "CHUFFED" Tea Club ProgStock announcement video on social media (which you can watch HERE), Pat and Dan have put together another strange video for your viewing amusement.
Be like Casey.
2021-07-01 02:28:29 +0000 UTC View PostIn the summer of 2017, The Tea Club went in to Big Blue North Recording studios in Utica, NY for the first time to record demos for what would become our 5th album, If/When.
This is the demo version of “Say Yes“ from that recording session. It was recorded live with the instruments and lead vocals recorded all at once, with a few harmonies dubbed later. I remember the energy in the room being electric. It felt like we were doing something deeply meaningful.
I remember ge...
2021-06-29 19:00:55 +0000 UTC View PostWe are very excited to share this brand new Tea Club song with you all, our Beloved Patrons.
Pat had the structure of this song written on his acoustic 12 string right after our tour in late 2019. When we jammed on it with the band, it seemed to gel right away.
I took sort of a strange approach with writing my acoustic guitar part on the chorus. I wrote it on a midi keyboard, moving the notes around in Logic until it sounded cool. Then I learned how to play it on an actual guitar ...
2021-05-26 16:23:29 +0000 UTC View Post
The very first recording of "The Way You Call" is very much like it appears on the album. Mostly me singing while playing an acoustic guitar. As we were preparing to record the album, we decided to try some different approaches to the songs just to see what we could come up with.
One of the most valuable things that our producer Jeff Aderman did on our album If/When was to encourage us to push ourselves, but to also let us know when he thought that we were "overcooking" somethi...
2021-05-12 18:13:37 +0000 UTC View Post
Beloved Patrons. I apologize for the radio silence around here!
I am deeply ashamed.
I will now take this opportunity to tell you a little about my Patreon posting thought process...
"I can't believe I haven't posted on Patreon in so long. Whatever I post has to be REALLY good.
Hmm, this would be perfect, but the recording quality isn't very good.<...
Earlier this month, The Tea Club was honored to take part in the Kyle Robinson Memorial Foundation telethon. Kyle Robinson's loved ones put together the Kyle Robinson Memorial Foundation ...
2021-03-31 17:31:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Patrons!
We posted this image on the social medias recently, with only the cryptic caption "We've been busy. New music coming soon."
However, for you, our Beloved Patrons, we will give you a little bit more info about what we've been up to.
The band has not been physically in the same room for quite some time. A year on February 27th, to be exact. A lot has happened to us since then. Some of us got married. Some of us bought houses. Some of us had children. Some of us adopte...
2021-02-18 21:11:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Many of you know that I am a big fan of the Legend of Zelda video games, especially Majora's Mask for the Nintendo 64. In fact, I love it so much that I start a new file in the game every year on October 26th (the anniversary of its US release).
One of the things that draws me in the most is the game's soundtrack. It was written by the immensely talented Koji Kondo, who has crafted some of the catchiest long form melodies of the past 30 years. This song in partic...
2021-02-10 23:42:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Happy New Year, Beloved Patrons! Dan McGowan here, bringing you a special recording from the Tea Club archive.
In October of 2017, me and Pat made this demo of what would become The Tea Club song "Came At a Loss" on our album If/When. This demo just features Pat on the 12 string acoustic guitar and me singing and overdubbing harmonies. I had just written the lyrics and the harmonies, and I remember setting up in our church while no one was there to record my vo...
2021-01-01 22:52:44 +0000 UTC View PostBeloved Patrons, The Tea Club’s own Patrick McGowan wrote this special New Year’s post on Proglodytes. Give it a read!
https://proglodytes.com/2020/12/31/wait-with-hope/
Happy New Year!
2020-12-31 23:37:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello Beloved Patrons!
This is a song that was written at the time of "If/When" and was going to be included on the album, but we instead included it as a bonus track for those who preordered the album and to all of our Patrons.
This is a video of Dan McGowan from his first solo show, a year before If/When's release, playing "Different Waves" live at Circle of Hope in Pennsauken, NJ on June 2nd, 2018.
Hope you enjoy!
2020-12-14 18:59:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Patrons! In honor of "Rabbit" turning 10 years old, me and Pat got together the other night to record ourselves on my phone talking about the album! It's a totally unprepared and only slightly edited video that is over an hour long. We go through every song on Rabbit and discuss our memories, share our feelings, and reveal secrets of the songs! Hope you enjoy!
-Dan
2020-11-02 16:45:04 +0000 UTC View Post
It was a cold, rainy Saturday night in early November of 2007. I had attended a funeral earlier that day and the weather seemed an exact expression of what it feels like driving home from a graveyard. We had booked some studio time in Philadelphia and were in the middle of a multi day session recording demos of new material. The studio was in an ancient warehouse on the outskirts of Kensington. It looked and felt somewhat desolate framed by the driving autumn rain.
Here's some pictures of The Tea Club recording "Rabbit" at Big Blue Meenie Recording Studio in Jersey City waaaaaaaay back in 2010!
2020-10-28 14:10:50 +0000 UTC
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Back in 2016, as I was about to turn 30 years old, I made this video of “Royal Oil Can” and shared it on my own personal Facebook page. But I wanted to share it with you, dear Patrons, in honor of the 10 year anniversary of our album Rabbit, which this song appears on. Below is the text that I had posted along with the video back in 2016.
"So on April 8th, as a rite of passage into my 30's, I did the only thing that made any sense to me... I went into the woods ...
2020-10-28 00:52:00 +0000 UTC View Post
It's hard to believe that it's been almost four years since we went on tour with Moon Tooth and Thank You Scientist! It's even harder to believe that our album Rabbit was released TEN YEARS AGO THIS MONTH! Here's a video of us playing "Simon Magus" live at House of Independents in Asbury Park, NJ on December 18, 2016 from that tour.
2020-10-14 14:30:34 +0000 UTC View Post
It just occurred to me that some of you wonderful Patrons may not frequent YouTube or social media (if that's the case, GOOD FOR YOU! You are wise and healthy people)! Just in case, here is the live video that we recently posted of us playing "Creature" on our tour last year!
2020-10-09 18:44:57 +0000 UTC View Post
This recording is from the Big Blue Meenie demo sessions for "General Winter's Secret Museum" back in 2006. When we went to record General Winter's, our producer Tim Gilles told us to just play him everything we had. This was an instrumental song that we would often play live. It was written entirely by Patrick. He had done a demo of this song, playing all the instruments by himself, a year or two earlier. It was not intended to be a Tea Club song, but was a...
2020-09-01 21:59:05 +0000 UTC View PostWe posted a video of this song, "The Lunar Eclipse", a few months ago, immediately after it had been written. We recently did a "proper" demo recording of the song. While it is still incomplete, we wanted to share it with you, our beloved Patrons! Here it is, with lyrics included below.
THE LUNAR ECLIPSE
Did you miss the sunset?
Did you miss the evening?
Did you miss the lunar eclipse?
Will you miss the world end?
Will you mi...
Patrons! Here is another brand new song demo, since the last one I posted, "Quicksand", was so graciously well received by you! Like "Quicksand", I recorded this one by myself. I admittedly know very little about recording, but here it is, another “behind the curtain” look at some of what we've been up to. And there's MUCH more than this going on! New songs are flowing from all of the members of The Tea Club, and we will be sharing them with you as we continue to make them! Patrons, I hop...
2020-07-30 03:10:36 +0000 UTC View PostPatrons, I present to you a demo of a brand new song that I wrote. I recorded this quickly, most of it in one or two takes. I don’t know anything about how to mix recordings, but I mixed it myself and I think it sounds good. This is an example of something still very embryonic that I’m sharing with you, and it’s actually a little nerve wracking and revealing, but this is what our Patreon is all about. You are supporting us, and we are giving you a look “behind the curtain” so to spe...
2020-06-30 23:06:09 +0000 UTC View Post
My Dad loves to tell the story about how he went to see Emerson Lake and Palmer when he was a teenager in the 70’s. He said that during a break between songs, Greg Lake out of nowhere belted out “Confusion, will be my epitaph” and sang the chorus of “Epitaph” acapella. He was greeted by cheers from my Dad and only a few other members of the audience who were “in the know” and still loved Greg’s King Crimson days.
Greg Lake, the original singer for King Crimson and ...
2020-06-30 01:25:14 +0000 UTC View PostIt was 2007. I was 21 years old, and I was madly in love. I needed something great to give my girlfriend for her birthday. She loved the acoustic songs that I had written and would often play for her. These were the songs that were floating around that I didn’t know how to fit into The Tea Club’s sound.
Should I write her a song? Of course I should. But was “just a song” enough? Of course not. This is the love of my life we’re talking about here. I decided I would write a new ...
2020-05-31 01:12:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Beloved Patrons! This is our new music video for ”If I Mean When”. We will be releasing this publicly on Saturday, but we wanted to share it a few days early with you, our faithful patrons.
It was directed by Adam Peditto, our longtime photographer and the director of our “Sinking Ship” music video. Adam is a great talent, and we love the way this one turned out!
We won’t say much more yet, but we ...
2020-05-21 19:43:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a video of us playing "Rivermen" from If/When from our tour last WInter with Bent Knee and Thank You Scientist! This is from when we played Columbia City Theatre in Seattle, WA on November 19, 2019!
The audio recording from our ZOOM recorder was unusable, so this is just the audio from the GoPro video. I just love the energy from this performance! Hope you enjoy it too.
2020-04-29 17:00:39 +0000 UTC View PostHello Patrons!
In a previous post, I said that those who already pledge $5 or more monthly will automatically go from Tier 1 to Tier 2, but apparently I was wrong! This is from Patreon's FAQ page...
Patrons are never automatically moved into new tiers when you create them as it changes their billing and benefit selections, so they need to change this on their end to...
2020-03-29 19:48:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a video of me (Dan) explaining to you how to play the acoustic guitar part for our song "If I Mean When". As part of our new Tier 2 on Patreon, we'll be posting Tea Club Song Tutorials, where we'll teach you how to play our songs and show you just what goes into making them what they are. (This first video will be available to the public, but all of the rest will be available for Tier 2 Patrons ONLY, starting tomorrow with an acoustic guitar tutorial for our song "Tumbleweeds" from our...
2020-03-27 00:42:44 +0000 UTC View PostWe’re launching our 2nd Patreon Tier for our Patrons who pay $5 or more! Here’s the exciting rewards that are included in this new tier:
$5 MONTHLY (TIER 2)
Wow! We're at 60 PATRONS on this humble Patreon of ours! THANK YOU so much, all of you! It means the world to us that you're willing to spend your money to support our band on a monthly basis.
We hope that all of you are safe and sound during this COVID-19 outbreak. Times like these can be frightening, but we want our Patrons to know that we're thinking of you, and hoping for good health and peace of mind. We'll be sure to upload some cool new Patreon-only content for you to enjoy while...
2020-03-15 00:58:52 +0000 UTC View Post
This is the newest thing that we've ever dared post here on Patreon! While still a "work-in-progress", we are so pleased with how it's turning out and how quickly it's taking form that we decided to share it with YOU, our Patreon patrons ONLY! Our bassist Jamie Wolff wrote this song on his piano at home last month, and made a quick recording of it on his phone. I got a hold of it and immediately started to come up with a melody.
Around the same time, our guitaris...
2020-02-27 21:38:41 +0000 UTC View Post