Jimmie's Chicken Shack doesn't like Phish?! + a BIG announcement

Shane and I went to go see Jimmie's Chicken Shack play in April of this year.  Remember that band?  They had one pretty rockin' single in the 90's called "Do Right," ...everyone thinks it's called "What Do I Do Right?" ...come to think of it there's a bunch of songs that people have mistaken the names for based on the chorus, like "Baba O'Riley" (not "Teenage Wasteland") by the Who....

Anyway, I digress.  Back on track:

So we went to their show at the Pour House in Raleigh after our gig.  We were curious to check them out live because Shane had loved their album growing up, and we had worked with Steven Haigler on our last album, who had also produced an album with Jimmie's Chicken Shack.  In short, they ROCKED.  We laughed, we cried, we shouted the F Bomb at the tops of our lungs when he demanded it, and generally got silly with the band after their show.

Here's the good part, the twist, the heat, if you will...
I had been recording earlier parts of their hit "Do Right" and when he kept singing this "We Are the Champions" part, I had to film it, that's when they ended it and he gave us his real opinion on Phish and the Grateful Dead.  Check out the video to see what he had to say about Phish:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG5tTPa3BZw)
Personally I'm sad Jimmie doesn't seem to like Phish as much as I do, but personally everyone is personally entitled to their personal opinion, and that's what makes someone personally a person.  What?  But seriously...I do happen to dig Phish as a band, and I do my best not to even participate in the Grateful Dead vs. Phish debate, because they're fundamentally incredibly different bands. I plan to elaborate on this in a future post...

In other news, this week we have confirmed our next big full band show in Raleigh, NC.
August 30th, 2013
The Pour House Music Hall
...get excited, more details coming soon......facebook event too.

This week in WindsorLand:
TONIGHT! Thursday, May 30 - World of Beer (North Hills) - 9pm
Friday, May 31 - The POUR HOUSE After Work Series (totally unplugged) - 5-7pm (early!)
Saturday, June 1 - The Hibernian Pub in North Raleigh* - 10pm

Check our site to see where you can come see us play some acoustic stuff all around Raleigh in the next few weeks.

*Yes, that's right, they have built a brand new Hibernian and it's up in North Raleigh at 8021 Falls of Neuse Rd. They just started having live music there, and this will be a first time for us too, so come up with us and see what it's all about.

ta ta for now,
Brandon

Windsor Oaks on the Radio Today at 5pm + Crazy Chance at 120mph

Happy Thursday,
Brandon here. Windsor Oaks Band.  Gonna make this one brief because I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off preparing for today's Windsor events...

#1:
Big day on the Windsor front.  We're going LIVE on the radio in just a few hours, on NC State's esteemed radio station 88.1 WKNC.  The cool thing is you can stream it live wherever you are, whether you're near Raleigh's radars or not.

We get interviewed and play on the radio TODAY at 5pm Eastern Time.

iPhone and Droid free app is called TuneIn radio.
And this works too:    http://tunein.com/radio/WKNC-FM-881-s30302/

AND if you're in Raleigh...tonight we go to Tir na Nog, for their famous "LOCAL BEER - LOCAL BAND" series!  We've waited a long time for this, and we finally get to rock the Nog!  And we're going to play full band-- drums, electric guitars, and our good friend MIKE SEDITO on BASS!! Tonight.  Sarah Shook and the Devil goes on first!

#2:
Earlier today I went for a ride with my friend in his Camaro.  Since I've always felt our song "Crazy Chance" makes me think of driving fast and motorcycles and jet airplanes and Top Gun, we took it out and we hit 120mph!!!***  It was amazing.  Such an exhilarating rush.

***Mom, I knew you were going to freak out when you read that so, DISCLAIMER: Professional driver on a closed course. Don't try this at home.

PS
Because I'm in a pretty good mood about all this (endorphins still swirling in the insane in the membrane), I want to give you that opportunity too.  So go ahead and download "Crazy Chance" for FREE (for the next 3 days only! and Alex is going to shoot me), blast it on whatever device you're working with, and get on the highway and drive as fast as is legally allowed in your area.  You'll see what I mean about the exhilaration.  Windsor Oaks Band.  Take a Chance.

--------------
This week in WindsorLand:
Tonight- Tir na Nog for LBLB - 10pm - downtown Raleigh

Friday, May 10- Fox and Hound - 10pm - North Hills

Saturday, May 11- Luxury Box - 10pm - North Raleigh

Sunday, May 12- Napper Tandy's - 6pm - downtown Raleigh

Wednesday, May 15- LIVE on the internet for BreakTime 1X15 - 5:15pm

Shane Smith playing, singing...yearning for Dave Grohl?

Ladies and Gentlemen, feast your eyes, and your ears, on the Windsor man with the thickest beard, Mr. Shane Smith. Here he is laying down some sweet sweet phatty greasy guitar parts for the Windsor Oaks Band album TAKE A CHANCE.

You may ask, "What's up with the Gimme that Dave Grohl?!"  Are those the real lyrics to our song "Running Out of Time."?? No. 'Twas simply a small bit of communication between Alex and Shane while we were recording the drum parts.  Our producer, Steven Haigler, had a very interesting studio vocabulary and used people's names to indicate bigger, louder, more cymbals and stuff at that part.  Sooooo it worked its way into the scratch track, and will surely become part of our studio lingo forever. AANNNDD, We learned recently that Shane shares a birthday with Dave Grohl too, and that's kinda strange since he's like Shane's freaking idol.
CHECK SHANE OUT: http://youtu.be/CTvX12-Y2As

[Ummm. And just for kicks, for those of you who don't know...Dave Grohl = lead singer of Foo Fighters / drummer of Nirvana.]

Double kicks?  See Dave Grohl in "FRESH POTS," but only if you like coffee: http://youtu.be/fhdCslFcKFU

Hit Shane up on twitter, @imShaneDavid, and say "Gimme that Dave Grohl!" and stay tuned for next time for a bunch of big announcements.

Talk soon, maybe live on the internet sometime,
Brandon and your friendly Windsor Oaks Band

Have you ever seen this many freaking apples?!

Hi there,
At VuDu Studios we worked 6 days a week from 10am-8pm recording our Take A Chance album.  We had 1 day off per week.  So we had a day every week to go roam around new York City and try not to get into too much trouble. This was an apple store we randomly walked by on 30th Ave in Queens, NY. It smelled so good in there.  This place was called Apple House, I believe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfTeyVf_oBA  

Ryan (bassist) and I went to Ithaca College, and we had awesome upstate apples and Apple Fest in Ithaca and stuff.  Oh how I miss the greatly sweet and amazingly inexpensive Rome, Empire, and Macintosh Apples of Upstate New York!  For some reason or another, Ryan wasn't with us at that particular moment in NYC, so Shane, Alex, and I got to munch those apples and make Ryan drool like all week long.  I ended up buying like 5 pounds of apples and eating apples every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until they were gone.

Turns out me and Shane like eating things whilst walking down the street...check out this Disney Turkey Leg and I dare your mouth not to water: http://youtu.be/jbHE-BLU2lc

In the next issue, we'll get back to business in the studio and I'll show you some electic guitars and things...

ta-ta,
Brandon and the Windsor Oaks Band

PS:
what's your favorite kind of apple?

Ryan Smith on the bass, ladies and gentlemen.

This dude.

Our bass player, Ryan Smith is a big part of our sound, and our ideas, and band morale and stuff.  He's coming back down to Raleigh very soon, and have no fear ladies and gentlemen, he will be back well in time for our CD Release at the Pour House on March 1. If you'd like to tweet or text him and gently wish him a safe and hasty return back down to Raleigh, that would be sweet.  Tweet him at @RGKush, or reply back to this email and I'll give you a number you can reach him at.

Check him out fulfilling his destiny and recording bass stuff in the studio: http://youtu.be/JgbZk92Jzy0

He was done playing bass like 7 days into our 28 day stay, so he basically sat around commenting on things, poking things, laughing at things, and generally being good old Smiley Ryan Smith.  I thought he was going to lose it for a while there...check him out struggling through something called the Moron Test in "Ryan is Not a Moron" at: http://youtu.be/Zgqb_w-9s1Q

And you gotta see Shane's impression of him, and you gotta hear his response to Shane's request to shred the bass guitar: http://youtu.be/KRjH5k_mkAQ

Next week we'll switch gears a little bit and show you what we found in our excursions in New York City...you're gonna love this Apple Store store we found!

Until Next Time,
Brandon and the Windsor Oaks Band

PS:
We're playing in Wilmington, NC tomorrow night, Thursday the 31st....so if you know anyone in or around that area, would you let them know? Here's a facebook event you can share: www.facebook.com/events/469231773140695/

PPS:
And join us on friday at 1;15pm for Break time 1X15.

HOLY VIDEOS BATMAN! Have you seen these yet?

Greetings, Happy Monday....yeah, Monday....Brandon here, from the Windsor Oaks Band.

So I pretty much documented almost every step of make the TAKE A CHANCE record.  Through the holidays and stuff, I sat around on the couch a lot and, while it looked like I was "texting," I was actually editing all of the videos from the studio, among others.  So I finally got a good chunk of them uploaded, and have made a dent in putting clever descriptions and things.  I made a lot of them live already at my YouTube channel @ youtube.com/brandonscottmcleanTV.  And over the next 6 weeks leading up to our March 1st Album Release, we will send you some videos that should show you a little bit about why we are so very excited about this next album.

First, we do drums...so check out Alex laying down some beats: http://youtu.be/4LWmiMXKzaM

You can meet our producer, Steven Haigler here: http://youtu.be/raHLnNuYn90

We lived and worked in their studio, VuDu Studios, in Port Jefferson, NY for 4 weeks.  In the next few days we'll send you some clips of Ryan Smith playing the bass and how we kept him busy in between him playing his dirty bass lines. You're gonna laugh your butt off.

Peace and Love,
Brandon and the Windsor Oaks Band

Dick Hodgin at Osceola Studios in Raleigh, NC

I want to take a minute and introduce you to Dick Hodgin, a dude we worked with on 2 songs for my last solo project, "I Won't Fall Down" and "I'm Alive" - the two lead-off tracks for the album.

The ncscene.com has a really cool interview with Dick, and it starts off with calling him "Raleigh’s most well known recording engineers & producers in the scene."  

Dick Hodgin from Osceola Studios has been in the music business for 30 years as a producer and manager. He relocated to the triangle in 1982 from South Carolina and has been a part of the NC music scene in someway since then. Dick has a reputation for sharp, HONEST, no punches pulled advice and counsel which has earned him “Dream Assassin” nickname.  Over the years, he’s worked as a manager, producer, engineer, booking agent, publicist, promoter, tour manager, sound man, travel agent, baby sitter, transmission repairman, radio promoter....the list goes on.

Dick’s portfolio of artists that he has worked with include:  Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hootie and The Blowfish, Corrosion Of Conformity, Confessor, Clay Aiken and many, many more....and now, Brandon Scott McLean.

here's me and Shane with Dick in the studio

It's kinda cool having the guy who produced Hootie and the Blowfish's Cracked Rear View demos work on some of my stuff.  It was truly an amazing experience. If you're in the Raleigh area and trying to record some music, hit up Osceola Studios.  It's definitely some of the best work in the whole state of NC.  

If we could have afforded it, we would have had him do more than just the 2 tracks...but I had enough difficulty raising the loot as it was, so I hope to work with him more in depth some time in the future.  

If you like randomly amusing tweets, follow Dick on Twitter: @dickhodgin.

Eff Yeah!*
Cut it in half, and then double it*.
because nobody but you cares anyway*,
Brandon 

* just a few of Dick Hodgin's silly studio catch phrases