Arena Venus

news from Courtney Collins

5/1/05
Happy May! This week we're celebrating our first collective practice in... 2 months(?), I think. I wonder if we'll still know how to play our songs. We've been busy doing other things this spring, like singing Carl Perkins songs in another project (Dan), traveling all over the place (Dave), and recording in Minneapolis (me). One of the many cool things about the month of May is the beginning of outdoor concerts. Dan and I went to see Garbage last night at the Orpheum, and as good as it was, I really love the outdoor festival sort of things that start happening around this time of year. I'm thinking we should start having band practice outside, but I'm guessing that since our practice space is bordered by a church on one side and houses on the others, that we'll just see if we can get away with opening the windows just a crack. Or become an acoustic band and play quietly in the backyard? Probably not...

4/1/05
Is it April Fools Day? I wonder who decided that, and why only one day of the year, let alone in April, is designated for fools. I once got in trouble for calling my dad a "fool." I think we were on a roadtrip when I was a kid - he was taking my friend and me to a Monkees show, and we got lost on the way to Des Moines, Iowa. We were arguing over directions, and I called him a fool. He said "watch who you call fool!" For some reason, my friend and I found this hilarious and often quoted "watch who you call fool" for many years after. I'm not sure what this has to do with Arena Venus. It's just that Mr. Hicks and I are doing the news update today and it's April Fools Day. So Happy April 1st, Dad! I'm sorry I called you a fool so long ago...

We had a great time at the Slipper Club several weeks ago - the Slipper is one of our favorite places to play. It was a Valentine show, with the theme of "Blood and Chocolate." So we were supposed to do a cover so! ng, with blood or chocolate as the subject matter. We went the "blood" route with a U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday." We also want to thank Christine Holm of the Badger Herald for interviewing us for her feature on songwriting. You can read her article here. She also wrote about our Christmas CD and CD Release party a few months back - we like Christine. That's it for now. Happy Spring, Fools...

3/7/05
Hey - Happy March. Look for some random live Arena Venus tracks to be posted here soon. I'll dig around my live Venus audio archives and see if I can find that random Abba cover that pops up once in a while or maybe one of the songs that will most likely show up on the new album, but in professional studio glory, as opposed to just the feedback fueled live ver! sions I have on hand at the moment...

Our CD, Yuletide Swank, has just been announced as a final nominee for Best "Other" Album for the Madison Area Music Awards. The ceremony is at the Wisconsin Union Theatre on March 26. We're honored to be chosen. When we were recording the CD last year, we weren't sure if it was a good idea or a curious mis-step, but we were lucky. Thanks to anyone and everyone who voted for us on the MAMAs ballot!

02/01/05
Blood and Chocolate - this is going to be the theme of the February 12 show at the Slipper Club, which is a benefit for the Madison Area Music Awards. When I suggested a Valentine theme for this show, the boys in Tangy and Chemical Smile said we should add something a little more macabre (St. Valentine's Day Massacre) - thus, the blood component. So, we're going to do a tribute in the form of a blood or chocolate related cover. Are we going to cover a My Bloody Valentine song or something from Hot Chocolate (remember their! hot disco hit from 1975?)? We'll figure that out before the show... Music and chocolate and conversation hearts will be on us - you just have to show up and enjoy the festivities...

01/06/05
Happy 2005! Last year was a great year for us - thanks to everyone for coming out to shows, listening to the music, and for tolerating (even embracing!) our foray into non-power pop genres. We were lucky to have so many stores willing to stock our Christmas CD (many stores who don't even usually sell music), and lucky to have nice writers give our CD great reviews (full reviews will soon be posted on the press page). What will 2005 bring? Hopefully, a full-length cd of melodic rock songs, being recorded in late spring, possibly. Many of the tunes are already written, but January is going to be a month of hiding out in Dave's basement to tweak the new songs and write a few more. We have some shows coming up in January and February, so we hope to see you then. It finally ! snowed - time to go play before it all melts away...

12/06/04
I think today might be Saint Nicholas Day - I don't know, It's been a busy December. Our CD release party at the Slipper Club last Saturday night was the highlight for us so far... The Treats joined in on the holiday theme, with their own renditions of Christmas classics by John Lennon and the White Stripes. The Melismatics threw their own version of "Like People" right back at us, an hour after we finished covering their song. Mike Cahill played some acoustic carols and lent the atmopshere the feel of a Dickensian-era pub at Christmastime. Santa showed up, and we learned that Santa's libation of choice is Bud Light. He also has a weakness for ladies in general, and he's pretty saucy for an old legend. Thanks to everyone who came out and to everyone who helped out - we hope your time was as well-spent as ours was.

Next up is the CD release party in La Crosse on Sa! turday. Speaking of La Crosse, if you get a chance to check out the Rotary Lights event at Riverside Park, you may hear Yuletide Swank as you walk or drive through. The month-long Rotary Lights event is pure fantasia for anyone who loves Christmas lights - thepark, which is right next to the Mississippi River, is decorated with over one million lights and must be seen to be believed. Our CD is one of a few in rotation, so roll down your window if you're driving through...

11/24/04
Hey, Happy Thanksgiving! Things we're thankful for:

We actually finished the Christmas CD and got it out in time
We're playing our upcoming cd release shows with bands we love
Rankin/Bass Christmas specials (the release of "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey" on dvd? Yep.)
There are some really nice people at really nice gift stores, coffee shops, music stores, and even hardware stores(!) that have been really receptive to selling our CD over the holidays
Good people like you who come to shows and listen to our tunes - thank you!

Hope to see you at the CD release parties on December 4th and 11th!

10/22/04
Our holiday CD has finally arrived. Song samples should be showing up on our "media" page within the next few days and the cd will be available at our King Club show this weekend. I've been talking about this cd on our news page for months now, so I'll stop, lest you think we've become a lounge act. We're still a power pop band, writing new songs and doing other things that power pop bands do. I'll save the more exciting news for next month. In the meantime, have a happy Halloween. Andrew and I will be spending Halloween on rollerskates, as Olivia Newton-John and Michael Beck from Xanadu (along with the hundreds of other guys dressed as Michael Beck this year). Dan and Dave will be dressing up as The Tubes...

10/1/04
I lied. It's not ready yet. The ghost of Elvis came upon us and delayed our Christmas CD by a few weeks. See, these songs aren't ours for the taking. We had to buy licenses to record most of these Christmas songs (which is good - musicians' livelihoods depend on this sort of thing, and well, being songwriters ourselves, we support this). But just as I was putting the last little license into my virtual shopping cart, I was alerted to the fact that the "store" could only supply me with 50% of the rights to Mr. Presley's Christmas classic, Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me. "Dan! Help!" I cried. And so Dan did. By tracking down the publishing company that could provide the other 50% of the song and post mailing (the travesty!) contracts back and forth, our trusty Dan saved Christmas. Yuletide Swank should reach us in mid-October, faster than you can say "trick or treat."

On a non-Christmas note, we're looking forward to our upcoming Mad! ison and Chicago shows. We'll do some new songs at the Slipper Club show this weekend, and you can check out Andrew's hot new look for fall (I cut his hair and he's prettier than ever). Peruse the "shows" page for details on those events, and we also have a new photo on the Stills page featuring our colorful girly tees...

9/1/04
It's almost done - I think. A few songs to be remixed and remastered, and then it's off to the figurative assembly line. Minneapolis was busy, but fun, and I highly recommend David Fong's Chinese restaurant for food and cocktails, if you happen to be in the area. It's become something of a hangout for me when we record with our Minneapolis maestros. The Singapore Slings went well with the kind of music we were recording...

The CD will be called Yuletide Swank and will be quite loungy. Rock will still be present, not to fear, along with some old-school Brenda Lee type stylings, and you'll also find the more traditional carols rounding o! ut the disc. Early October will kick off the Christmas season for us, as far as a release date. But maybe we'll post a song or two before then...

7/21/04
It's 90 degrees in Minneapolis, the air conditioning in the studio went out, and we're recording Christmas songs. Hmmmm.... Dan and Dave are long gone, Andrew just left, and I'm in the studio with Andy, our trusty engineer/producer/friend. It's 4:45am and we're listening to some very rough mixes. Jeremy, our other trusty engineer/producer/friend, had his friend Steve stop by earlier tonight (or is that technically yesterday now?) to play vibes on our recording. They are lush and beautiful. I thought we'd have to rely on synth-produced vibes and I'm thrilled beyond belief that we have a "real" vibraphone. Other friends from Minneapolis have stopped by to lend their talents as well - more about that in the forthcoming album credits. Time for me to pack up the vintage light-up Santa and purple garland and go home. We'll be back in a few weeks to finish up, and by then it will be only 19 weeks til Christmas...

P.S. My mom used to have a perfume called Christmas In July. This summertime Christmas thing is not such a rare phenomenon after all...

5/27/2004
Well, we have just a few shows left in June before we go on a recording hiatus... We're crossing the big old Mississippi and going back to Minneapolis to hang out in the studio for a while this summer. Here's a little contest for you: our recording will involve songs by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Julie London, Eartha Kitt, Leon Redbone, the Monkees, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, and others. Now, what is a power pop band like Arena Venus doing, messing around with these greats? Well, that's where the contest part comes in. The first person to e-mail us with a fairly good idea of what we're doing will be the first person to receive a complimentary copy of the new recording and a free Arena Venus T-shirt, in the color and style of his/her choice. So think about it, and e-mail us...

4/27/2004
Spring is here, but every day has been December 25th for Arena Venus lately. More to come about that a little later - let's just say we're taking the lovely month of May off to work on some new tunes in preparation for recording this summer. What else? Look for a revamped Venus website coming soon.

3/1/2004
Happy spring! Well, almost - I tend to jump the gun on my favorite season of the year, but March is here and rock and roll is in the air. We're working on lots of new songs for our next CD, which we'll be recording this summer. Our next show will be during the week of Saint Patrick - check out the "shows" page for more details on that.

The February issue of Rick's Cafe featured photos of Arena Venus from the Rick's Cafe Anniversary Bash in January - the paper is available in stands at many fine Madison establishments...

With the warmer weather comes the shedding of layers of clothing. To celebrate, we have some new styles in our Arena Venus logo t-shirts - we added short-sleeved tees for girls and gents. Even the boys in the band got excited when I showed them the bright new threads, and that says something(!).

1/26/2004
Welcome to 2004! January's been pretty busy, so we're hiding out for about three weeks until our next show. Thanks to all of you who came out for the Rick's Cafe Anniversary Bash at Luther's Blues last week - we had a rollicking good time and we wish Rick's Cafe a very happy 1st Anniversary!

Our next show will be another party-type occasion - "Valentine's Sweethearts Night," with Saving Face and The Snaggs. Come out for pop punk and power pop, and gorge yourself on free chocolate and conversation hearts. This will happen at Luther's Blues French Quarter on Friday, February 13, at 10pm...

11/12/2003
Arena Venus is featured in two cool music newspapers this month! We were interviewed by Mike Huberty of Maximum Ink and we thank him for his kind words and articulate, insightful feature. Rick's Cafe features Courtney on the cover of its November issue, along with an article/interview and photos by Rick's Cafe's Amanda Gaze. Thanks to Amanda Gaze and everyone at Rick's! So, check out the November issues of Rick's Cafe (available in Madison and surrounding areas) and Maximum Ink (available in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota). You can also read our Maximum Ink feature online.