Hyannis Sound Summer 2007

Tons O' Stuff!!!

2007-08-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

First of all, big apologies for not posting the last couple of weeks. A LOT of stuff has been going on… a lot of good stuff for all of you guys. Here’s everything in a semi-organized list form.

1. We recorded our live album: Annual Bootleg Vol. 5, which should be released by final show the latest of this year. Let me tell you that we’ve heard a bunch of the tracks and it is sounding amazing. From what I hear, we didn’t have to cut any songs, so all of the fan favorites should be there (more importantly, my favorites J). We’ll be keeping you posted in the next week about official release day, so make sure to keep your ears are open!
2. We have officially released our new studio album Shirt, Tie, Khaki!!!!!!! So be sure to pick up a copy at our shows!!!! Trust, I was a fan before I was a member, and this CD is totally awesomely amazing, so check it out if you get the chance.
3. We had our alumni show. It was totally amazing. 43 out of 53 alums were able to attend and participate in the show. This year’s featured group was the 2002/2003 lineup (with Micah cause he’s been in the group that long) and I gotta tell ya, it was amazing to watch these guys sing, and an honor to be able to say that I sing with them.

The group from 2002/2003 is the group that put out Cape Standard Time, the first Hyannis Sound album I ever heard about 4 years ago. It’s the album that initially drew me to the Cape to check them out. They are the reason I ever heard of the Sound and part of what led me to being part of the group today, so to sit there and here them do their biggest hits like 1000 miles and Thriller, and to see these guys sing that I looked up to so long ago, was incredibly amazing for me. For that, I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for your inspiring music.

4. On Saturday morning we had our annual alums vs. the current group ultimate Frisbee game, and they crushed us, but it’s ok, cause Phil drilled his knee into Townsend’s temple and broke his glasses (accident?). Also, I got owned by an alum who shall remain nameless *cough* JT *cough*. As I jumped up to catch a scoring pass, he hit me from the side and I landed on my knee really weird. It kinda bent in sideways and hurt A LOT, but it’s feeling a lot better now. It’s ok JT I still love ya.

Other than that, I guess I should say we only have a few weeks left with all of you, so make sure you come see us before our summer is through. We truly will miss everyone, but enough of that for now. I’ll see you guys this week!

Update/ Red Sox

2007-07-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry for a lack of posting in the last week, it’s been incredibly busy around here. We had many, many a gig last week with two on Wednesday, both of which were incredibly fun.

On Wednesday we had a legacy gig that the group’s been doing FOREVER at DY which was a lot of fun. It was great meeting you guys! And good luck going into high school, it’s not that scary. Just cause I had no friends and got beat up and had my lunch money stolen doesn’t mean it’ll happen to you. I was a rare case. Most people are cooler than me, like you guys, so you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Anyways, later that night we performed at PCC (Project Contemporary Competitiveness), which the group has also been doing FOREVER. I now have permanent hearing damage from the audience that night, which I am extremely thankful for. Thanks so much for having us again and for being such an amazing crowd! You guys totally blew me away with your enthusiasm for us and my bike horn. It was great meeting all of you at the show; hopefully we’ll see you again later this summer!

Other than Wednesday of last week, our regular weekly schedule has been going amazingly. The crowd gets bigger and bigger each week, and its great to see the same people coming show after show. You’re support is truly priceless to us. Thank you.

If anyone hasn’t come to a show yet, or hasn’t come in a while, come see what we’ve been up to! Last week we added a few new tunes, and we’re going to start to learn a few more that I and Jeff have been working on, so be on the look out! Also, our CD is coming out very soon, so keep your ears open this week for an official release date of Shirt, Tie, Khaki!!!!

Now for the good part of the blog.

At the beginning of last week when Robbie was telling us our schedule for the rest of the week, he told us that we had a graduation brunch that we had been hired to sing at for Sunday (yesterday) morning and that we would have to be ready to leave the house by 8:30. No not PM, AM.

I woke up at 7:00 and took a shower like everyone else, and got dressed in our khaki and polo attire and slowly, but sadly walked into the living room. Everyone had the same tired expression on their faces. We all sat in the living room completely shrouded in the sadness of the fact that we all were awake this early, and that, like usual, we all stayed up too late the night before.

We all depressingly stared at the MTV Music Videos channel (Cooper had the remote) in utter silence until call time (8:30 AM). We then stood up and Coop began to warm up our voices. Then Robbie stopped him and said, “Ok, we have two options. We can either go to this gig sad and tired, or we could just skip it and go to the Red Sox game today.” It took us a second cause we all thought he was joking. Then we all realized at the same time, that he wasn’t. YAHTZEE!

Talk about a mood swing. We went from utter depression to complete joy and happiness in a split second. Phil jumped into Robbie’s arms like a newly wed bride being carried across the threshold and everything.

We got to gate E at Fenway and waited in line for tickets for a couple hours. We were able to get some standing room in the grandstands, which was complete AWESOMENESS! It was a perfect day. Perfect weather, Manny hit a three run homer in the first inning, I bought a $4 hotdog and a Coke for $4.25, and the Red Sox closed out the game against the White Sox with a double play. Perfect.

I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to spend a summer day. (That almost sounds poetic) Thank you Robbie/ Dad for making us so sad, cause it made feeling happy feel WICKED HAPPY! Yesterday ruled.

Rob rules, the end.

P.S. Be sure to check out the pics of our day by clicking the link on the top left of this page.

Brazilian BBQ

2007-07-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

I have found Heaven on Earth and it is in the form of meat on swords.

On Friday we all went to the Brazilian BBQ. What this means is that you eat until you explode. How it works is these guys with these big skewers of different kinds of meats walk around and ask if you’d like some. There are soooo many different kinds of meats, it’s amazing. Before you get served anything, you’re given a ticket that’s green on one side and red on the other. As long as you have the green side up, they will continuously bring you food until you’ve flipped it over. AMAZING!

So for our Friday weekly show in Hyannis, we were creating some interesting smells as we sang. I apologize for any audience members who may have caught wind, but everyone needs to go this place (well if you eat meat that is) it is an amazing amount of food that all tastes amazing. Go eat and come tell me what you thought.

MASC

2007-07-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

We made our annual MASC appearance last night. What an awesome time!

We started the evening by trying to sneak in because we were a surprise. After we James Bonded our way into the building we waited as the assembly began and were heard the deafening cheers from everyone in the auditorium. I instantly got goose bumps. All the older guys kept telling me, wait until this gig. The crowd is so awesome, the make you feel like one of the Beetles. And you guys at MASC did just that. Thank you for screaming your head off for us and being so, so appreciative of us. You made us all feel amazing. Oh and thanks for the T-Shirts! They’re awesome! We’ll see you guys next year!

Ugly Doll

2007-07-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Last night was an interesting concert in Chatham. Micah, during one of his talk abouts, brought out these three toy dolls that he had with him. One was a bear in a pilgrim outfit, one was a leprechaun, and the other was a tattered little 6 year old boy doll wearing a red shirt and no pants. This last one was actually quite creepy looking.

Anyways, so he holds them up and he says, “I bought these today cause they reminded me of people in the group.” He then held up the bear and said it reminded him of Robbie cause he’s a big historical teddy bear. Then he held up the leprechaun and gave it to Phil cause, well, he looks like a creepy green Irish person from time to time. And then he only had the creepy little boy that was left.

He held it up high and said, “And I got this one cause it reminds me of Brian” and everyone laughed. Very funny. I’m glad that everyone I know agrees that I look like a dirty 6 year old who can’t find his pants.

I guess I missed the joke for these very obvious reasons:
A. I wear pants
B. I don’t have elastics holding my hips together
C. One time a woman who checked my ID told me I look 12, not 6
D. My head can NOT spin 360 degrees.

So I hope I’ve made it clear what I’m not. Micah, be on the lookout, I just may buy a toy for you. MWA HA HA HA!

Snappers

2007-07-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

So, today Tim went for a run and when he came home, he was yelling, “Brian, Brian, bring your camera!” I kept yelling, “what what!” He said, “come outside, I’ll show you!”

When I went outside, right across the street was a snapping turtle. A HUGE snapping turtle. Andy was all excited cause apparently his dad showed him how to pick them up as you can see from the pictures on our smugmug page. We put a stick near it’s mouth and it totally demolished it! It was nuts!

It started heading for the street and we didn’t know what to do, so Andy and some of the other guys put it in this big bucket that we have so it wouldn’t get hit by a car, because, well… we’re good guys.

Then, Andy said, “Can we keep it?” but the rest of the guys didn’t think it was such a good idea. Then Cooper said, “Dude, if we bring it to a restaurant we could totally get like $40 for it!” but we didn’t like that idea either. So, being the good guys we are, we brought it to the nearest pond and set it free.

So, the moral is: Save the Whales… and snapping turtles.

EXTRAVAGANZA!

2007-07-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last night we had our 4th of July EXTRAVAGANZA show in Chatham. Talk about the best show of my life/ this summer so far. It was incredibly amazingly sweet.

Our day started off by going around town, trying to find the best and most ridiculous patriotic objects to wear at the show. After spending a while searching we went home and all got dressed in the most red white and blue Vineyard Vines stuff we could find. By this time I was PUMPED for the show, and excited for how big a crowd we might have.

It was amazing when we pulled up and there was already a line forming an hour before show time. By the time doors opened there was a huge line going all the way down the sidewalk! I couldn’t believe it! There were so many people, that we sold out and had to turn people away, but because we had so many amazing dedicated fans who wanted to come to our EXTRAVAGANZA we decided to have a second show after our regular one to show our thanks to our persistent fans.

Our concert consisted of our regular set with a bunch of patriotic tunes mixed in like The National Anthem, and America the Beautiful, which are a lot of fun to sing, especially for such an appreciative audience. We ended the show with John Phillip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever which was amazing because of the help of our friendly ticket takers, Chuck, Barb, and Tess who brought a projector and projected the American flag and fireworks during our big finale! It was incredible. Our second show was just as special, but in a different way. We did a lot of old songs from ’05 and ’06 and even took requests! All in all it was an incredible night.

Thank you so much to our amazing fans that came and helped make our EXTRAVAGANZA such a huge success! And a very special thank you to the people who came to our second show, you guys are awesome. Oh yeah, and thanks for the cup cakes! Happy 4th!

Business

2007-06-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven’t blogged in a few days, so I thought I’d keep everyone updated on what we’ve been up to.

We’ve been keeping really busy lately with our rising number of gigs as the summer progresses. We’ve also been really hard at work learning some special patriotic tunes for our 4th of July EXTRAVAGANZA show which you all will hopefully be able to make. It’s going to be an incredible show! Who knows there might even be fireworks… in the church? Maybe not such a good idea, but I can promise you, the show will be quite explosive!

Other than our rehearsing for the 4th, we’ve been trying to arrange and learn new songs for our regular weekly shows, so be on the lookout for new stuff in the coming weeks. Also prepare ye selves for our new CD, Shirt Tie Khaki, it should be out in a few weeks (crossing our fingers) so be listening for details on that stuff. Well, that’s all for now, see you at weeklies.

My First Home Show

2007-06-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

My first home show. This one meant a lot to me, because the first time I ever saw the Hyannis Sound was in the summer of 2004 on Main St., Hyannis. The only shows of the Hyannis Sound that I’ve ever seen were always on Main St. Hyannis whether it be the First Baptist, or our current Federated venue. Whenever I would day dream about being in the Hyannis Sound I always pictured it being in Hyannis, so to actually be able to get up there and sing with the group after wishing for it for so long was incredibly surreal.

To make things better, my brother Pat was there which means a lot because I know he’s proud of me. Thanks for coming Pat! Also, Paul Toms and Joey Aykl, two alumni of the Hyannis Sound, came which was really awesome. It feels good when the alums tell us that we sound good, even for noobs.

Also, the audience was great. Thanks to everyone who came to our first home game. It means a lot! Thanks for sticking around and talking to us after, especially to the regulars! You guys rule. Thanks, too, to the Millers for helping us out at the door. You guys rule as well.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll see you guys next Friday!

Brewster

2007-06-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Brewster equals awesomeness. I can’t believe these audiences this week. The enthusiasm that they have for our weekly shows is beyond belief. This job is great because of the people that enjoy us so much, so thanks for coming to our first show. It’s good to see the faithful fans coming and making their presence known this week. We’d be lost with you guys. And thanks again to Chuck and Barb for taking care of the organizational ticket and CD stuff. You guys are great!

It’s been a pleasure meeting all you Sound Fans this week. I keep forgetting that this is only week one! We have a lot more in store for you guys, so keep coming, and I promise you will not be disappointed.

Oh yeah… one more thank you. Thanks to Sue and her family for letting me talk about how much I love your dog!

My First Weekly Show!

2007-06-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I’ve been psyched for a while now for my first weekly experience for a while now, and I have to tell you, it was everything I thought it would be and more. Not only did al of our songs go really well, but also the audience is Falmouth is FANTASTIC! You guys were amazing to perform for!

The night was great. Jeff started things off right with his opener of… well you’ll just have to come see the show. Coop talked about being pink, Robbie left the building twice. Don’t worry, he came back both times. And I, of course, did a bike horn noise. So, in short, the night was perfect. Thank you Falmouth for such an amazing first weekly experience. I can’t wait till next Monday!

As for all of our other weekly home bases, get ready for some awesome new music among other strange things that we might do like usual. Can’t wait for Chatham, Brewster, and of course, Hyannis. See you soon!

Holy Gigs Batman!

2007-05-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow!!!

We’ve been on the Cape for like, a day, and we’ve already had two gigs! Today was so much fun. My first gig ever as a member of the Hyannis Sound was at a graduation party for Lauren. It was so great to meet her, her friends and family. It feels good when you sing for people that really appreciate what you’re doing. Lauren and her family were wonderful hosts for our first gig of the season. I will always remember it as my first gig in the Hyannis Sound, for that, I thank you.

For our second gig of the day and our performing season, we sang at Bill’s birthday party. Bill is a really great friend of the group. He, and his friends taught us a bunch of Barber Shop tags, which was fun for us considering we’re all a bunch of music geeks. Also, I need to mention that when we first arrived, we were all given name tags, and mine was misspelled as Brain instead of Brian. I didn’t even notice or think anything of it because it’s such a common misspelling of my name. Leave it to the guys to start drawing tons of attention to it. It wasn’t ten minutes after I had arrived that they had everyone calling me Brain. They’ve now told me that this will be my nickname for the rest of the summer. Yay! What a cool nickname! I’ve got to admit it was pretty hilarious.

Anyways, after such a good start to my career on the Cape as a member of the Hyannis Sound, I can’t wait for the coming weeks of gigs to meet so many more great people. Thanks to everyone for such a great start to the summer!

Brace Yourselves!

2007-05-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Hyannis Sound Summer 2007 blog hosted by me, THE Brian O’Shaughnessy. This is my first year in the group and I am so excited to be here. I can’t wait to meet and get to know all the people that I’ve heard such nice things about from all of the veteran Hyannis Sound guys.

You’ll be happy to know that the second we all got to our house in Hyannis, we began rehearsing and haven’t stopped. We’ve been hard at work in our “boot camp” rehearsals where we all gather in our living room every morning in our pajamas and proceed to rehearse for about 6 hours. Because of this, we’ve quickly been learning a lot of brand new stuff that you (our amazing fans) have never heard; so get ready for a great season of weeklies!

Oh yeah! I must mention that the first thing I heard when I moved in was some of the unfinished tracks from our new CD, Shirt Tie Khaki, and it sounds incredible. Trust me, from a fan standpoint (cause I was a fan of the group for 3 years before I got in) it sounds really really good so far. There’s still a few weeks before it’s completely finished, but make sure you keep your eyes and ears peeled for details about the CD’s release date as we near our weekly schedule.

We (the four new guys) are so pumped to meet everyone, we don’t even know what to do. If you see us singing somewhere in the next few weeks, make sure to say hi, and if we don’t see you in the next few weeks, then we’ll hopefully see you June 18th, at our first weekly in Falmouth. See you soon!

P.S. Keep checking back here or on our pictures page if you want to see everything we’ve been up to. Go to www.hyannissound.smugmug.com for pics of us, or click on the link on the left of the blog page