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This news page is where I archive most of my old updates. I have edited and deleted a few things to save space. I keep this page here simply for my own research, if anything else, open curiousity.
If you want to see the newest information (assuming you perhaps stumbled in here from an old link on Google or something) then click on the home page and get the latest info on the updates page. Thanks. 1/27/07 It has been a trying few weeks. I have delt with people who are chronic liars, people who were bitter and angry at everyone else for their own problems, people who refuse to do anything for themselves and then complain later about their current situation, and people who have no idea how to keep contact with other people, especially when it involves important shit. So, by isolating myself from the rest of the world for a bit, I have worked on nothing but bass, all weekend long. Bass for Jason Kluss, bass for John Michaels, and bass for NatureDevil. I have more recording this week, and hopefully, the bass and distorted guitars will all be completed by mid February. Rich worked on his house, Andy worked on his basslines, Jay narrowly avoided death in a car accident and I am still ugly. Next week, we debut at two new venues; Tiger O'Stylie's in Berwyn and the Corner Bar in Kalamazoo, Michigan! Yup. Our first out of state gig for the year. With the summer house up there, and Super Bowl Sunday the next day, next weekend promises to be one of the more enjoyable weekends in a long time. I need it. 1/20/07
  John Michaels opened up the show and I joined in on bass for a few songs. After that, Jay took the stage and Mike took the drumming to a whole new level. Can't remember the last time I had this much fun at a show.   Uh, yeah... Elvis was at the show. I love Pete. NatureDevil played, we had people join us on stage, and we overall had a great night of noise and rock. I was surprised at how well it went. But let's not allow this to go to our heads now! I have a lot of work ahead in the studio. I go back Monday to lay down more tracks. We are also going to be printing up some nicer artwork for posters to hang around the city for more upcoming gigs. Busy, busy, busy. I need to get some sleep, it is too early for me to be doing this shit. The pictures are uploaded on the pictures page, so go check them out. Take care... 1/13/07
  Andy is fitting in nicley as the NatureDevil understudy bass player. As we continue our search for a new bassist (wait till the auditions start...) we seem to be moving at a comfortable pace. Soraya and Cecilia are becoming much more prominent at NatureDevil shows too; I'll have to give them each a profile...
  That would start us with Stage 83 last night. Baby and Hyde are the weirdest band we have played with to date, but they forth a good, solid show. They even came up and sang Nirvana with us in the middle of our set. The Promise Takers also put on an excellent performance, and they were having a fucking blast on stage. It was a great night, and Stage 83 always has a great stage to play on. It has been a great week. NatureDevil was mentioned on Q101 again. I am also a lot less stressed then I was a month ago. I even bought a few new video games to play with and relax. Next week we have Rascal's, then Bar Vertigo, then Tiger O'Stylies and we go for a weekend of fun at Andy's summer house on the lake while we thrash the hell of the Corner Bar in Kalamazoo, MI. Can't fucking wait for that. Until then, I have work to do and I should get back to it.
1/7/07
  Both shows went well. Martyr's was boring because nobody comes to shows on a Wednesday, and Memories was exciting because everyone needs an excuse to get drunk and make noise on a Saturday. Soraya and John both put on great performances to open up the night Saturday.
  Mike drummed his ass off during Jay's set and Andy filled in for bass due to the deportation of Arno from the band (oh yeah, Arno is not in NatureDevil anymore) after learning the basslines to our entire set 3 hours before stagetime!! Thanks Andy.
  Then of course, there was the Velvet Cadillacs closing out the night. It was great night of friends hanging out, with no stress or agitation. I returned to the studio over the weekend to re record some basslines as Arno will no longer be affiliated with NatureDevil. We are looking for a bassist as I type this, and we have Andy covering for a while, but I have already had offers, so it shouldn't go on too long. In the meantime, the album will go as scheduled and we will keep plowing forward as we always do. What, you thought some little bullshit would slow me down?? 1/1/07 It is only the start of the year and we already broke some new ground. Our photo debuted in the Illinois Entertainer this month for our show at Stage 83. It was so cool to see a photo of NatureDevil in the IE, a Chicago music zine I have been reading for over a decade. We have had our name in it a lot last year, but this was the first time our photo graced the pages of it. This is the year the NatureDevil album comes out. Maybe even a few music videos, of higher quality and better direction than our last effort. Can we do more than 42 shows? I am aiming for close to 50, which is roughly a show per weekend. I also plan on getting played on Q101 again, somehow. Not quite sure how I'll pull that off yet. I also want to get a gig at the Metro. Then there are the basics... I want to get on more radio stations, I want to do more recording and learn new songs, I want many of those booked shows to be at places new to us, including some more out of state gigs, and I want to have more things to give away such as posters, stickers and other forms of NatureDevil thingies. Of course, all of it requires your help, you being the person who comes to our shows, who cheers us on, who votes for us in the online poles, and who sends me the occassional e-mail telling me something that will make me smile or feel better. All of this takes a lot of work, and it really can single handedly kill a human being with the incredible weight is brings with it. But it is still worth it to me, and I hope it is to you. Let's make this year kick ass. 12/24/06 "Holy shit." I think that is about all I can say for this year regarding NatureDevil. We have met and surpassed almost every goal I had set for this year. On almost every playing field a band can be on, we accomplished more than I could have ever imagined. First, we have our live shows. This year, NatureDevil performed 42. That is almost a show per week. We also learned a great deal of covers, wrote some new material and increased our maximum stage time to over 3 straight hours. We met over a dozen great bands, put on some great shows and debuted at 23 new venues. This year we performed our first paying gigs and performed our first out of state gig. Rebel Radio picked us up in rotation, and we performed live and were interviewed on FearlessRadio.com and WLUW 88.7 FM. Oh, and then there was that Q101 thing where Fook played "We're Big In Europe!" on a Monday afternoon for all of Chicago to hear. We lost Brandon and gained Rich for a drummer. We also gained vocal assistance from vixens Soraya and Cecilia. Production on both records is at full blast. An official demo was released, "Through the Red," which got great reviews. Jay released his solo debut record "No Fear In Me" in January at the begining of 2006. We produced official press kits that were sent all over the city of Chicago. The webpage has expanded, and we finally developed a MySpace account, which has helped us to grow beyond the people at the bar at the Mutiny and will hit the one thousand mark by years end. We've won competitions, spread ourselves all over the Internet, and introduced Chicago women to over a thousand ballgags. Being a very loud, heavy sounding band, we spread out of our circle and performed our first ever acoustic show. We also have a YouTube account where you can see a terribly made, but still entertaining video for "We're Big In Europe!" as well as almost dozen videos from our live performances throughout the year. Then there is Q101. First, we were nominated for the Friday night local band showdown with Sherman, then we were played by Fook on the Alternate Universe on a Monday afternoon, and now we are listed on the Q101 website with a profile that you can vote on what you think of us. *sigh* This year has, however, done one terribly horrible thing to NatureDevil that I have no idea of how we will recover... how the hell can we top all of this in 2007??? ...I'll figure out something... 12/17/06
  We played at Good Times last night with an acoustic Velvet Cadillacs and Under the Sun (if we could clash any more) even though my throat hurt like hell. We kinda celebrated Rich's birthday, and overall had a great night, playing our last show of the year (and our 42nd as well, what a great number...). The sound was incredible, and the crowd had a blast. Wow, we did 42 shows this year. I remember when doing 5 shows a year was a big deal. Not only will we surpass that in 2007, but we have a few records that need to be released, dammit. Some videos are on the way, and maybe a bit more out of state traveling as well. Thanks to all those who came out last night. You know where to go to see pictures from the show; oh oh oh!!! The pictures page is organized now in chronological order, so you can actually find the gallery you are looking for!! Took long enough. Enjoy. 12/11/06 The NatureDevil live album will be recorded Thursday, February 22nd by Michael Charles, courtesy of Sammary Studios and Moonlight Label, at The 46 Zone in Bolingbrook, IL. The release of the recording may not be till much later in the year, but if you want to secure yoru screaming on the recording, then you need to be there and you need to be LOUD!!! Oh, we also won out that online Battle of the Bands thing at the Steamroller Online E-Zine which you can check out by clicking here. They have an article about us, and I think we will be entered in another contest for the next week, which means head on over and vote for us! I need a break. We got signed on for our first gig ever at Martyr's, which is also our first gig of 2007 (so far). The new year is shaping up to be pretty busy. 12/04/06
  Piano Reeves and Lost Dog both gave excellent performances, as was expected. Playing up on the north side on a Sunday turned out to be better than one would think, considering the blistering cold we got hit with. Now, we can relax, with only one more show this month to think about. By the way, NatureDevil is involved in an online Battle of the Bands of sorts with a online zine called Steamroller. Steamroller is the brainchild of Worn Records, and we'd really love it if you voted for us by clicking here to check us out. You'll see the voting box in the top right corner. As I mentioned last week, there will be three NatureDevil records to be released in 2007; the full length album (which is looking to be between 12 and 16 tracks), the five song LP, and a live CD. We will be recording the live record sometime in early 2007, and we will need as many of our fans as possible to be there to cheer for us and make some noise! Yes, if you yell at us at appropriate times, you may hear yourself on a NatureDevil record. Of course, you'll have to wait for more on that next week when the information is confirmed. 11/26/06
  Eh. Lots of work was involved, people whined, attitudes flared, and the overall experience could have been duplicated by me simply dousing myself in gasoline and igniting my head with a match. But, we marched on and put forth a damn solid show, with Cecilia who came with us and sang her heart out, even if is was only for a few songs at the end of our short set. Our touring schedule was at one point loaded with 16 gigs. Now we are down to a small handful as I have slowed the booking to allow time for the studio. You'll be seeing more reports here of the studio work as more is completed. All I can say, is it looks like there will be a total of three NatureDevil records coming out next year. More on this next week....
11/18/06
  There were only two bands booked; us and a band from Philidelphia called Soraia. The Billy Idol cover saved our asses as it brought several people down from the upstairs and we had a fairly large audience by the end of our set. Soraia also came up onstage and did the Nirvana thing with us, which fucking rocked. They are a tough act to follow. You can see photos from the show on the pictures page. We have recording to finish all weekend, and then we break yet another boundary in our career when we play our first out of state show in Madison, WI on the Friday after Thanksgiving. John Michaels is joining us to open up the show, and a big local guy is headlining the event. If you are interested in joining our massive convoy to the show and to stay with us all through Saturday night, you know how to get a hold of me. I am working on a major update for the end of this year that will chronicle all the great things we have done in 2006. This year has been the most musically productive year ever. It will be a pretty big update. Take care.... 11/12/06 We have three full galleries uploaded from our WLUW 88.7 FM performance Thursday, Rascals' on Friday and Penny Road Pub on Saturday, as well as our WLUW stint in mp3 format on the music page.
  First, we need to thank Razor and Di from WLUW for inviting us into the studios to do our thing. We performed "What the Heck?," "We're Big in Europe!," and "I Think I Was Born Depressed" which all turned out pretty cool if I could just remember the damn lyrics to the songs properly. I am now understanding how Kurt Cobain felt most of the time onstage.
  Rascal's was a huge success. We played all night long, and got a great response from the crowd. Cecilia and Soraya were present and joined us for the usual splurge of covers, and we ate chocolate cake in celebration of Arno's birthday. Finally, we had Penny Road Pub the last night with Symptom and Rough Trade. What a brutal show. We played fairly well, but the overall nigth was tough just from playing for three hours the night before. I pulled it off, though. I need to give my voice a rest if I am going to do Elbo Room on Wednesday night. Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows to make them all kick ass. You people all make it fun and worth the effort. 11/4/06
  As for our debut at Wings N' Things last night., I can't say enough good things about it. Having a good PA system makes all the difference in the world. If it wasn't for the fact I felt sick before we started and I got worse as it went on, I would say it was probably one of the better shows we had done.
  The Velvet Cadillacs and John Michaels were also in top form. Both of them all agreed the PA was a huge bonus... can't wait till I get the big sucker early next year for all our gigs. You can see some great shots from the show of all three groups on the pictures page.
We will be on WLUW this Thursday around 1pm with Di (shown above) and Razor. We'll be interviewed and allowed to play a few songs live and loud, so check us out on 88.7 FM WLUW. Then, Friday we play several hours straight for a free all ages show at Rascal's in LaGrange Park around 10pm and Penny Road Pub on Saturday around the same time. Hope to see some of you guys there. Take care... 10/29/06
 First, there is our slowly growing MySpace page. I am trying to rotate in new photos all the time, as well as try to keep the information fresh, but it gets hard when you already manage a website as big as this one.  I built us a YouTube account and loaded up our video for "We're Big In Europe!" as well as a few live videos. I am going to upload several more over the course of the following week.
  There was a blood and gore and all that gooey stuff at Tonik, and there was the exact opposite at our first ever acoustic show at MoJoe's. The Dynamos and the Gornys did a great job on Friday and John Michaels was excellent as always on Saturday. You know where to look by now for the galleries to both shows; yes I managed to get them both up in one weekend. Next week... next week is Wing N' Things. I have no idea what to expect from this show, but Soraya is opening up with a small set, John Michaels is going to do his thing and the Velvet Cadillacs will close out the night. I am nervous about this show for several reason, but none of them concern you, so what have you got to worry about?? Until we meet again... 10/21/06
 First, Q101. Fook played us in his Alternate Universe on Monday afternoon. You can read the last update below to get all of my thoughts on that. I added his closing comments upon playing our song on the music page if you wish.
 Then we were invited to Fearless Radio on Thursday to hang out and talk with Rocco and Chris about everything we have been doing, including plugging our U. S. Beer Co. show on Friday night. No FCC made it very fun. We played a few songs acoustic, and did a full interview, all of which will be available for download next week on this website. You can see a few pictures from the interview on the pictures page.
  As for the U. S. Beer Co. show last night, we had a blast. I want to thank the Velvet Cadillacs, Under the Sun and the Promise Takers for doing an excellent job last night and pulling off outstanding performances. You can see the gallery on the pictures page, as always. If you dig around on the music page, you'll see a crappy linking to our music video for "We're Big In Europe!" which we finally completed. It works, it just looks goofy. I'll fix it later. I need sleep again. White Castles at 3am can be devastating to a person who hasn't had them in a while. Almost every page on this site has been updated in one form or another, so dig around and see what is new. I am going to bed, I really need some...... zzzZZZzzzZZZzzz... 10/17/06 101.1 FM in the city of Chicago is WKQX, better known as Q101 to most people. Every weekday at 3:30pm, afternoon radio host Fook hosts the Alternate Universe, where he plays ridiculous things ranging from utterly goofy songs to some of the coolest rarities you won't hear anywhere else. This week, he chose to play local bands. And holy shit, he picked NatureDevil with "We're Big In Europe!" to play. This means a lot because Fook is a professional DJ on one of the biggest radio stations in the market of Chicagoland, and he personally chose our song to let loose on the airwaves. Over the last month or so, hundreds of bands (I am sure) have sent in their songs and demos to be played, but Fook chose us, out of the five he picked for local week on the Alternate Universe. That is a huge honor for us, to know that we impressed him that much. Yes, he is getting something special in the mail from us this week. We are honored, humbled, grateful, scared, nervous and a little sticky right now. You can click on the link below to read the blog he posted about us below: http://web.mac.com/fookinator/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html Being played in the early afternoon on a Monday is a huge deal. Thanks to everyone who has supported us, we will keep moving forward!!!!! 10/15/06
  I keep it as a backup at our shows incase I break a string on the Ibinez, which I did at Brisku's last night. Muttonchop Joyce and Symptom each put on great performances, and we'll be playing with each of them again at future shows. As always, you can go to the pictures page to see the photo from last nights' show.
  We have studio time booked to complete the album, a few live radio interviews, and several really good gigs where we play three to four hours, filling up the entire night. I am purchasing all the components I want for a professional PA system, which should be completed before the end of the year. For October, we have Fearless Radio on Thursday the 19th, U.S. Beer Company Saturday the 20th, the Tonik Bar on Friday the 27th and our acoustic show on Saturday the 28th at MoJoe's. In November we play Penny Road Pub again, and we make our debut at the Elbo Room, Wings N' Things, Rascal's, our live performance and interview on 88.7 FM at WLUW Radio and our first out of state gig in Madison, Wisconsin at the Klinic. December brings us back to Champs as well as Redline Tap and Good Times (where Local H just played!!) right by my house. Hope to see you guys at our shows, and check out the new females who have been playing and singing with us, Soraya and Cecilia. They'll both be back, I promise.... 10/9/06
 There were so many pictures taken from Memories on Saturday by so many people that it look all of Sunday to go through it all. You know where to look to find them
 I wanna thank Soraya and Cecilia for being too damn beautiful on stage Saturday. They joined for a few covers and completly dominated. Soraya also gets major props for opening up the show with a few acoustic songs (including an original) and thus losing her stage performance virginity. This picture below does something for me....
 Also, we need to give out respect to Mike Sabia on the drums making his debut for Jason Kluss. Holy shit, the room was on fire for this guy. He even joined NatureDevil at the end with his snare on stage. Jay will be booking a lot more shows now that we are comfortable with a solid performing drummer like Mike.
 We have 13 gigs between now and Christmas, but the big important ones are Rascal's in November and Good Times in December. We will also being doing a live on air interview and performance on The Razor and Di Show on 88.7 FM WLUW around 1pm Thursday, November 9th. My bathroom is torn to shreds, I have a lot of work to get done by next weekend or Andy is going to kill me, and I had to put my 14 year old dog to sleep today because he is too old and in a lot of pain, so I am kind of in a blah mood to update any more right now. I promse I will focus more on the site after next weeks show at Brisku's, wherever the hell that place is. Muttonchop Joyce and Symptom will be there with us. Take care and I shall talk to you soon. 10/1/06 First, aside from our rotation on Rebel Radio, we are now on WLUW 88.7 FM in the city! Incrediblty energetic and cute radio host Di (that's her in the pics below) played us on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully we can get into a rotation and possibly even come on air to perform acoustic. I offered to make a lasagna lunch for them, I am waiting to hear back (cross your fingers).
Check out www.wluw.org and look up the Di and Razor show to find out more about them and what they do. We have ten gigs lined up between now and Christmas, with one or two more showing up in December. We return to the studio in November to start the final stages of album production. We have a few more photo sets coming your way, and a gig next Saturday at Memories with Jason Kluss and his band along with Planet Struck. The rest of this year will be busy as hell. I will still keep up with the updates, but hopefully some major growth and changes will take place here that will make things more interesting. Things like the announcement of some CD release dates. Take care.... 9/22/06 After our Q101 thing last week, motivation has been extremly high. We are currently being played in rotation on Rebel Radio, but I worked on expanding our audience by sending out press kits to the local shows on WLUP, WKQX, WXRT, WLUW, WNUR, WHPK and even Dr. Demento (he can play "We're Big In Europe!") You'll also notice we have our first out of state gig booked in Madison, WI at the Klinic in November. I have contacted many Chicago clubs we have yet to play including the Fireside, the Empty Bottle, the Metro, Subeterranean, the Beat Kitchen, the Hideout and the Dark Room as well as several others and out of state places in Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Weird Al has a new record out this coming Tuesday, and of course my loser self will be at Tower Records in the morning to grab it. That's just what I do. As for the album, all I can say is there will be a full length album as well as the 5 song LP that I have been talking about. I am very excited about releasing everything, hopefully in January. Yeah, I want a 2007 stamp on it. I'll have more info next week on everything. This week is a slow update since we have a 2 week break from shows to work on those 6 new songs. Until we meet again... 9/17/06
  Feelium opened up with a powerful set, and Under the Sun closed out the show with a crowd cheering to Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." You know where to go to see the photos from that show, as well as our Q101 open mic night tour.
  We lost the Q101 local band mailroom competition by one vote, but by that point going out and doing the open mics and making the flyers and doing the MySpace promo didn't matter. It boiled down to who could create the most e-mail accounts to register and vote with. Instead of going out every night of the week passing out leaflets and performing like we did, we probably should have stayed home and registered nonexistent voters. This incident has, however, fostered more energy in it and has brought a lot of new people to the table, as was evident by last nights' show. We had more people listening to our loss than others had listening to their victory. Last week, we grabbed over a hundred new MySpace friends, and we packed Bar Vertigo with old friends and new faces. Our loss also hardened a new growing fanabase. So our hard work did pay off, just not in the way we had hoped. Either way, we have 5 shows in October coming up, and a slew more developing for November and December, an album almost finished, and a music video which will hopefully be edited and ready by next week (Brandon has finals this week, so you know....).
  I want to thank everyone who voted for us. Your votes were honest, clean, damn well appreciated and worth more than anyone elses' votes last week. It was a slap in the face to those people who cared to vote and make a difference, ranging from Chicago to California to Bulgaria; to have them deemed useless by e-mail fraud. We won't let it be in vain, not when there is a stage and alcohol around. Check out both of the new photo galleries, and have a great week. 9/12/06
 Chicago radio station Q101 DJ Sherman has selected us for the Q101 Local Music Mailroom. What is that? Here is how Sherman describes it... "Every week, Sherman will pull four local artists out of local music mail room at Q101. Come to this page each week and listen to the new group of local artists and vote for who you like best. Friday night Sherman will play back the song from the artist that has the highest rating."
 Click here, or the above image for the link. Let the begging commence. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!! VOTE FOR US!!!! I WANNA BE PLAYED ON Q101 BEFORE I DIE!!!!!! Embarassing pleading aside, I am very honored that we got chosen to be part of this, especially when there is such a massive, diverse amount of musical talent in the city of Chicago waiting to be discovered every day. The opportunity to have "We're Big In Europe!" played on Q101 is such a thrill to me that it will probably dominate the rest of this week. And hey, after we suffer a humiliating defeat Friday night, why not come celebrate with us Saturday at Bar Vertigo?
Bar Vertigo Our first music video is in post production right now; when it is ready it will be added to the site. Two, maybe three weeks? Not only will we be taking photos from our Bar Vertigo gig, we'll be recording it. Which means, the next morning you can come here to the site not just for photo goodness but also a video or two from the show. We'll have some demos to hand out and our homemade bondage sex toys for the girls, as always. Anyway, I am tired and sick right now, so I need to get some rest. Hot tea, grape juice and some Final Fantasy should do it. It has been three weeks of break; this upcoming weekend is going to fucking rock.
9/3/06 I have no idea when we will be playing any of the new songs at shows considering some of them at this stage of their developement have compeling titles like "That New One In B Flat Minor," but I can say they will kick ass when we are fully prepared to perform them. Our break from gigging has been great for getting things done. I am returning to the studio in a few weeks to lay down some more vocal tracks for the album (remember the album?) and I am working out marketing tools for John Michaels now that we finished all of his artwork. Jason Kluss has a new drummer, former Breaking Fate drummer Mike Sabia. Due to this new arrangement, Jay will be opening up at our Memories show on Saturday, October 7th. Hopefully we can begin work on his followup album to "No Fear In Me" which so far is untitled. Oh, and I am starting a new business. It has to do with lighting and stuff, nothing band related unless you count the fact that my gear will hopefully be financed by it. So that is everything. Yeah, I am very busy. I haven't even gotten into the whole picture of my life right now, but all I can say is life is finally kicking ass, and not just mine for a change. Maybe I'll put up more info about the new songs next week. Hell, maybe by then they will all have titles. Take care... 8/25/06
  Last night at the Big Horse was okay; Thursday gigs are always kinda ho-hum. Pictures are up, of course. While adding new stuff, I am going to be removing older galleries of photos to make room for newer ones. Oh, and our music video production. Every band I asked who said they would help us pulled out. Every band. We're talking over a dozen bands who were all thrilled at the idea of helping us out vanished, so we had to improvise. It is the weirdest, shittiest thing you will ever see, but I am very proud of it. From now on, the new concepts for our videos (which we start shooting in the fall) will contain only us and as few extras as possible, because counting on people is useless. As I know being in a band, the only people I can count on are myself and my bandmates (and a few loyalists). I am looking forward to our video shoot for Abrasion in the fall. So, what will I be posting here over the next three weeks? Very little. I'll probably redesign a few things, clean out old crap, and add a few small luxuries to the site. We have work to do, and I need to get shit done. So until next update, keep in touch, we have a gig in September and a massive October to deal with... 8/18/06
  Here are some cute pics of Rich and Arno from last nights gig at Silvies. The show was okay despite us not being able to hear ourselves and having a small Thursday night crowd, plus an ex girlfriend making me extra nervous by showing up (though I am glad she came) and my nerves being overall shot about the video shoots we are doing this weekend; I am surprised I didn't explode from everything caving in on me. All of this crap going on is preventing me from going to see Snakes On A Plane this weekend. That pisses me off, but those are the sacrafices I make for my music. Sssssssss...ssss...shit..... I will update the info about our video project next week when I upload our new Big Horse photos, just like ther Silvies photos that are up now. Yeah, we open up at the Big Horse Lounge next Thursday. After that, we get a few weeks of breaktime to focus on our shit...... 8/12/06   We had the guys from Under the Sun come up and sing Nirvana with us while Jay delt with his guitar. In the end, the guitarist from Under the Sun was so unbelievable fucking cool enough to loan Jay his Gibson to finish off our set that we could not thank this guy enough. I wish I could remember his fucking name right now!! Anyways, it was a good night, and I am sure we'll be doing shows with Lost Dog and Under the Sun again in the future. After last night, we agreed on finally taking Jay's backup acoustic to get it repaired so we can have it with us more. We have our music video production next weekend as well as Silvies on Thursday. Several new shows have been added to the tour dates page including our first ever acoustic gig, and as always, you can see photos from last nights gig through the pictures page. Until we meet again... 8/6/06
  First, I need to thank First Round Failure, the Gornys, the Dead Americans, HeadRush, and the Atomic Thunderlizards (twice) for pulling out all the stops and playing good, solid shows. Being professional and kicking butt on stage are great qualities to have, and these bands all had it.
 We played Tonik on Friday and the U.S. Beer Co. on Saturday, and I was very proud of my band both nights. Brandon filled in for Rich on Saturday, and he did an excellent job as well. All the bands were invited on stage to join us in singing Nirvana's "Breed," and the crowd went nuts both nights. Fuck, if we could only do that EVERY weekend. Next week we make our debut at the PennyRoad Pub. Another show I am nervous about (I saw Local H there once, so...). We also have our music video recording taking place on Saturday, October 19th at the Mutiny. Hopefully, I have found everyone who wants to fill in the roles we need to fill. Alright, I need to get some sleep. All the photos for both shows are uploaded to the pictures page; scroll down, they are both near the bottom so go check them out. Until next time... 7/28/06 Our show this weekend at the Jefferson Tap was cancelled and is being replaced with a nightlong photoshoot and pubcrawl....which will kind of overlap as the night goes on, from what I suspect. We have four new gigs just added this week, as well as a few more on the way. On the tour dates page are the Penny Road Pub on Friday, August 11th, the Big Horse Lounge on Thursday, August 24th, Bar Vertigo on Saturday, September 16th, and Brisku's on Saturday, October 14th. I am especially looking forward to those as we have never played Pennyroad or Brisku's before. Newer dates coming up include Phyllis' Musical Inn, Subterranean, Elbo Room and the Empty Bottle. We begin filming for our first two music videos the weekend of August 19th and 20th. A casting call will go into effect when I get around to posting it early next week. So if you want to be in the video, we could really use your help. Oh, and we are on Rebel Radio now. Every night Monday through Saturday from midnight to 2am, turn to 1240 AM and you can hear our stuff. On Sundays, we'll be on 1330 AM between 4 and 8pm. I think that about covers it. Other than that, we have two kick ass shows next weekend that will be packed and will blow people away (those who come, that is). So make plans to get drunk at the Tonik Bar on Friday and the U.S. Beer Co. on Saturday. Until we meet again..... 7/20/06
 We played with 40 Lashes who was on tour from Detroit who opened the show, followed by Squeegie who is the house band, and just before us came Silas Assigned who had a really cute chick singer and drummer. There were many cute girls there last night but I was too scared to talk to any of them after we played (when you are sweaty and tired from jumping around like an idiot all night, your self esteem plumets). All three bands were excellent. We got invited to play the Penny Road Pub on August 11th, and although it is kind of short notice for a show of that caliber, I am going to rush into promotions for it. Dammit, I need to get off my ass and get the damn color posters printed; I am not sure how much longer I can get away with those stupid Kinkos printed copies. I mean, our flyers look cooler and are more interesting than most other peoples' band artwork, they are just always confined to being black and white in an eight and a half by elevin inch prison. I need to tackle that. It is too early in the morning for me to be doing this shit, I am going back to bed. Until next time... ZZZzzzZZZzzz... 7/14/06
 One of them involves the wonderful world of MySpace. Ah yes, no matter how much people say they hated high school, they can relive it everyday through MySpace. I also have a car door that suddenly decided it will not open for anyone unless you ask it nicely with a coathanger. I have also discovered that, unfortunatly, the best repair shops in the city often hijak your gear for months at a time. You know, because that one piece that Fender makes is manufactured on a mountain top in Tibet that can only be reached through several days of hiking and a few martial arts matches against Buddahist monks so you can win the fucking part to drag it back to Elmhurst and have it professionally installed by Mr. T on a Tuesday..... ugh. Point is, my Line 6 is back, finally. I want to thank Andy for the use of his Carvin tube amp over the last several months. There is a bar called Legends on Lake Street in Addison; no I can't find the address anywhere. NatureDevil will be performing tonight and Jason Kluss with his band will be playing tomorrow night (that means I get to play bass). These shows were booked (looks at clock on the wall) a few hours ago. Sorry for the late notice, but I have been wanting to play Legends for a while and the night looks promising. Enjoy the new artwork, and I'll post pictures by Thursday from tonights fiasco and Wednesdays debacle. 7/6/06 So, go look at the pictures page and check out the photos from last night show at Cal's Liquors downtown in the loop. Lemmie know what you think. Until next week..... 6/28/06 Hopefully, this will lead to an album release date being anounced sometime in the next few months. Before we get to that though, a little bit about these new dates. I love adding to our resume of clubs that we have played in the city, and we get to add a few more to that list. In July and August, we will make our debut at Cal's Liquors, Silvie's, Phyllis' Musical Inn, and the U.S. Beer Company. I am pumped about playing these places, and the opportunities to meet new people is always good. We also have gigs at Tonik Bar and the Nite Cap Lounge, and a few more are apparently on there way as well. It's going to be a very busy summer. "Weird Al" released a song in promotion for his new album coming out which I am excited about, as always. Oh, and that bitch J. K. Rowling is starting her book hype by declaring that two main characters will die in the seventh and final Harry Potter book, leaving the door wide open for the possibility that Harry himself could be one of them. Hmph. I'll buy the book anyway at midnight and read it by the next day cause I am a loser and that is what I do. Alrighty, I am off. I'll update with pictures from Cal's next week. Hope to see you guys there. 6/18/06 I met Chuck Palahniuk last wekeend when he came to a mall (shudders) in Skokie (shudders again) to promote the paperback version of his latest book, Haunted. I hit on a girl I used to know a few years ago, I got a lot of reading done while waiting for him to arrive, and evetually we met and talked for a bit.
 The demo "Through the Red" has been making its way around the city and will soon be making its way around the local radio stations as well. New shows will be coming up soon, too. A music video is in the works for July, and Jay will soon begin work on his second album. Speaking of Jay, the two of us are playing a private gig (yes, we get paid) this week downtown for some business elites of a major club. We're excited as hell to be a part of it and hope to work with them in the future. Maybe I'll have a couple photos up on Jay's site by the weekend. While a lot of things are taking place, unfortunatly most of it is the boring kind, which involves me sitting around pretending to be patient while our demos end up in endlessly large piles of other bands' demos hoping to stand out and garner attention. Time will tell. Okay, time for me to get back to cleaning up coding... 6/11/06 Oh, go look at the pics from last nights' show. I only put up a few, but they are cool. 6/4/06
 The four track demo is our first official release, and contains the songs "We're Big In Europe," "Abrasion," "Nothing I Can Do" and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street." The artwork will be up soon. As the summer goes on, we will release another four track demo with an undetermined as of yet title, a 5 song LP titled "Doesn't Play Well With Others" where all the songs are songs we covered by friends or wrote with friends, and finally, the album, full of all originals written by NatureDevil, called "Better Living Through Denial."
 Oh, and meet Rich Petraski, the new drummer for NatureDevil. I didn't have a chance to give him a full introduction last time, so I am doing it now. Due to Brandon being overwhelmed with school, work and other music projects, we decided it was time to get someone who could devote more time to what we needed to accomplish, and Rich was our man (though Brandon drums on both demos, the LP and the album). Rich has pretty big shoes to fill as Brandon has done amazing work with us over the last 2+ years. Being a guy I worked with years ago, I know Rich's strengths and I know that as a musician he is someone we can count on and trust to pull us through the tough times we will be enduring, including new song composition, promotion, touring and traveling. Rich's bio will be up soon. This upcoming week, we Blitzkreig Chicago with our new demo..... 5/22/06  Glove the Funkman was a solo bassist who ripped up the crowd opening up the whole night. Evil Indulgence, despite being late, came through with an intense set of their own. Oh, and if you haven't heard them yet, we have new mp3 files added to the music page. Or you can hear them at MySpace.com/NatureDevil if you wish.
 Chelsea, Mellisa and Katie (I remembered) were cool enough to let me get a picture with them; sorry, the prom dresses turned me on and I need to get a photo with them. I was very happy with last night show, and our new drummer Rich, replacing the almost irreplaceable Brandon, came through and made us all proud.
We'll be releasing an official demo in the next few weeks as well as finally completing the 2 year long album we've been working on (which has Brandon on the drums), hopefully by October. Also, we'll be filming for a music video in July. Stickers, ballgags and all that other cute shit are on the way too, as soon as I figure out a way to make it happen with everything else going on. Until then, take care of yourselves and keep checking back here for all the other stuff going on. I am really tired from last night.... and I..... need to get.... some..... (thunk) zzzzzzzz..... 5/22/06 ...then 2006 happened. It is only 5 months into the year and we have a little over a dozen shows under our belt (not counting the dozen that Jay has done on his own). In past bands, shows happened semi-annually. Some bands that I have been in haven't done anything in years and yet have websites talking about their grand successes that never happened. But not NatureDevil. No, for the first time, this website serves a purpose. We first added video footage last year with some terrible Mp3's to go with them. Now, we bring you four songs (one of them is a cover) for you to listen to and hopefully understand more of who we are. It is about fucking time. Check them out on our music page. Or you can hear them at MySpace.com/NatureDevil. 5/15/06 5/6/06
 If you'll notice, we are taking a break from doing some shows for...oh, about a month. We will be reworking a few things, writing some new material, learning a few new covers and completing that damn demo. We finish up in the studio Sunday and begin artwork shortly after while the mixing process works its way through. We've already been invited to play a few shows here and there, and we'll start booking for shit in June and July, but for a few weeks we need to lay low. Time to relax, reflect and improve. In the meantime, I'll be updating things here on the site and working to make new friends and contacts. You can visit our MySpace thing at MySpace.com/NatureDevil and be our friend. Other than that, keep tuned right here to see what we have planned. Oh, and pictures from last nights' gig can be found, as always, on our pictures page. 4/30/06 When a guy like me makes a statement like "musicians suck," I want to make perfectly clear who I am talking about. I am not talking about musicians who get paid regularly to do what they do. Studio engineers, sound guys, stage managers, studio musicians and the main musicians who play festivals and tour on their own. Guys who have been in the business for years and make a living off of it, or just do it is a hobby but do it right. People who don't bullshit you or make up excuses for things; they have personal responsibility. Who I was referring to are the musicians who wish they were in that first category. People who never call you back, or keep in contact with you, or bullshit you about massive touring and headlines. People who cancel shows at the last minute, or just don't show up at all when you are expecting them. In the past, if there is ever a time when Naturedevil cannot do a show for whatever reason, Jason Kluss will take it with his band, and vise versa. I always cover my ass because I have personal responsibility. No one else should have to suffer or worry from my mishaps or mistakes. Now, I am no where near what you could call a "professional" musician, but I make a damn good effort. Owning a home, paying bills and working (I just got my fucking property taxes in) make the prospect of me owning a top grade PA system something a little out of reach for now, but I make due with what I have got and I make sure no one else suffers for it. I am not blaming anyone in particular, especially not from this last weekend, because there are always legit reasons for why things happen. It's just that these things seem to happen all the time, and with anyone who plays a fucking instrument. There is drama, issues, insecurity, and then there is laziness, forgetfulness and pure stupidity. It is really hard working with other musicians. I am very lucky to work with the guys I have. I may be one idiot with a guitar, but if it wasn't for the hard work and dedication I get from my band, we wouldn't be as entertaining, successful and progressive as we are. I'm glad I have them.
Whew. Now that I got that out of the way, on to the important info. We finish up our demo this Sunday, May 7th. We also play Bar Vertigo on Friday, May 5th with Sacrament of the Sick and the Velvet Cadillacs. Looks promising. You know where to look for the photos from last nights Memories show. Until next week.
4/21/06 This week we go through a lot of crap getting amps and cables repaired. I'll have new photos up soon from last nights show, but due to a dead battery, I had to resort to old school Kodak style to take shots. Thus, that will take days till we clean them up after we scan them after we pick them up after 3 days of waiting after I remember to drop them off in the first place.....yeah. I'll have more stuff up here for next week. Take care everyone.... 4/15/06
 I want to thank Jason Braun, the Mitch Coso Band and the Dynamos for kicking all forms of ass last night at the Tonik Bar. We heard some Queen, we heard some AC/DC and we heard a buttload of good original music from some talented-as-fuck people. If it wasn't for our technical glitches tearing us apart limb from limb, it would have been one of the best shows we've played, just cause of these guys. You can see photos from last night on the pictures page. Yeah yeah yeah, I know. We need to get Jay's amp fixed again. None of us have any idea what happened to Arno's bass amp. Fuck it, I called up my dad, he is bringing over these big tool chests of electrician gear and we are gonna fix this shit once and for all. Last night was cool in the fact that we put on one hell of a show despite the problems, and it was the first time ever the crowd started an "encore!" chant for us, which really meant a lot. Damn, I must never underestimate the power of playing "We're Big In Europe!" to room full of happy drunk people on a Friday night! Wow. We are already looking into some future shows with the Dynamos and the Mitch Coso Band this summer. I am looking forward to it.
 Even though we fucking rocked out at the Note, I really hate Emergenza. We won't be signing up again next year. Playing the Double Door last year was great, but we've moved on and grown since then and we've been offered a few opening spots for the Double Door anyways, so we don't need Emergenza. I mean, who wants to pay $10 to watch a band play for 25 minutes when they have 7 other shows that month that are all free, and they are longer sets? We sold one ticket, because we just didn't care, and the guy tries to put us on a guilt trip. Fuck, if anything I feel great for not asking our fans to spend their money when they don't have to. Anyway, we got no votes this year and hopefully they won't call us back again because they overbooked shows and don't have enough bands to fill in the slots like the usually do. I feel no guilt. We are slowing down our booking slightly to allow time for demo completion. We've met a lot of cool new bands and made some new interesting friends and that is great. I'd love to play out more with these new friends we've made this last year. Bands we started playing with a few years ago have disapeared or broken up, but we are still here and we still continue doing what we do. That is what it is all about. What time is it? Fuck, I need sleep..... 4/11/06 Jay played a badass gig this weekend at Memories with new drummer Aearl (probably spelled that wrong) along with openers Julie Jurgens and Kristen Ford. Pictures from that will be up shortly at www.JasonKluss.net so you can check those out. One of the worst things about being in a band is you have to manage way more than you ever expect. My current issue is waiting for days for other bands and musicians to get back to me with pertinent information about shows. Not only do these musicians say they would love to link our websites together and then never do it, but they disappear from existence only to reappear at the last minute with unhelpful news. Ug. I'll have news on new gigs coming up as soon as I get confirmation from everyone and anyone about what is going on. I am literally waiting on e-mails from 12 people going on 3 days. I thought this new technology was supposed to make shit faster. Can't wait till we start making money and I don't have to deal with this anymore. If you missed our new attire, we'll wear it this weekend. That, or we'll be naked. Or at least Jay will be naked. Ta ta. 4/4/06 Although there isn't much, I'll bring up some of the good stuff that has happened, We've been experimenting with different logos to make stickers out of. I have discovered a new gym as well where people actually put the weights back, and Wrestlemania was in town, which means there were wrestlers at my gym all weekend long; I met Kane, Steven Richards and Matt Striker. Other than that, I need to get some shit straightened out. We have a buttload of gigs this month, and I need to make them all go smoothly. Things are going to happen; it may suck for a bit. They always do. It always does. 3/26/06
 Oh man. Last nights show was really interesting. Damaged Justice kicked all forms of ass, as we expected they would, but us....well, I broke a string halfway through our set. My friend Andy was there in his cape and tights and he saved the day, but after that we mentally started to sink a bit. We also had sound issues and timing with each other, but we still pulled off a pretty good set. You can see some kick ass pictures on the photos page and a video clip from the music page. Even when things go bad, we can still work our ass around it and pull off a fairly decent concert. A year ago we would have died onstage. Today, we stare trouble right in the eyes and give it the finger. We know we could have done better and we learned a few things about ourselves we need to work on. Overall, I am very happy with our performance; we have come very far in our short amount of time.
From here, we go into April, a packed month of shows. More work on vocals for the demo will take place, and newer songs are being targeted. 3/23/06  Not only that, but the ad is running every hour, so the name "NatureDevil" is mentioned every hour, and it has been since the begining of the week. Holy crap. That is soooooo damn cool. Okay fine, no one else around me seems to find this as fun as I do, but I am tickled about it. So you guys have to come this weekend! Not only should the place be packed, but we want to prove to Damaged Justice that when they send us out to open up their show, we kick all forms of ass for them, and if we do good, they may invite us back to open up for them again. So we'll be at our best this weekend. Aside from that, Sacrament of the Sick has signed on to headline our gig at Bar Vertigo in May, and Julie Jurgens will be back along with Andy Stege from Breaking Fate going solo at Jay's gig at Memories on Saturday, April 8th, which will be a full band performance from the Kluss. We got a bunch of shows in April, but the one this weekend is really important to us. I hope to see you there - maybe you'll hear them mention us on 95.1 FM - and I'll upload pictures from the show later that night (maybe early Sunday morning?) from the show. Until we meet again... 3/16/06
Our next immediate gig is us opening for Damaged Justice on Saturday, Matrch 25th at the Cue-N-You way up in Grayslake, near Six Flags Great America. We are really looking forward to opening up for these guys; they are as professional as the come and put on a kick ass show. We are really turning up our game for this gig with our goal to impress and entertain. After that, we have the Redline Tap on Sunday, April 2nd; The Note on Thursday, April 13th; the Tonik Bar on Friday, April 14th; the Mutiny Thursday, April 20th; and Memories on Saturday, April 29th. Jason has a few acoustic gigs in there as well, and we have been working out deals for upcoming shows at the Double Door, Champs and Bar Vertigo. Any info we get will, as always, be updated here right away. Until then, dig around the site if you haven't been by in a while and see all the new fresh wholesome goodness that has been added in the last few weeks. Can't wait for summer to get here.... 3/9/06 Our next gig is on the 25th of this month, and we are promoting the hell out of that show. April is packed full of gigs for us, but we aren't booking anything else in March so we can focus on what we are doing, including learning more covers and finishing off the demo. We are working hard behind the scenes, and soon.....oh, very soon.....we're talking stickers, buttons, demo CD's, Rebel Radio, outdoor summer fests again (man, those outdoor gigs last year were great...) and out of state touring. Chicago will be getting a very large dose of NatureDevil. Sure, it may be a large, cold, slimy suppository....but it will be one hell of a dose nonetheless. 2/26/06
 I uploaded a video of us performing "What the Heck?" at the closing of our Nite Cap Lounge show last weekend. You can see that on the music page. Also, those of you who dig around the site and explore everything will notice the seven specific pages where there are (gasp!) advertisements. I know, I know. They are not the annoying pop up ads or flashy gifs telling you to play a game or announcing you've won some shit, they are small, quiet and discreet ads from Amazon. It is an experiment I am performing to see if I can make the site profitable, even in the slightest format. All the ads are hand picked by me personally, and I have kept them relatively small in numbers around the site. I may add more, or I may do away with them altogether. For now, I'll leave them up and see if they garner any attention. Our tour dates page has been updated to reflect our current schedule. I'll be adding more dates as they come in. We are thrilled to be opening up for Metallica tribute band Damaged Justice on March 25th up in Grayslake. More info is available on our tour dates page, and you can visit the Damage Justice site at www.damagedjustice.com so go pay them a visit. Aside from all that, I have been revamping the coding to make the site more searchable. Cleaning out old coding that takes up space and shouldn't be there, adding new coding to help with search engine optimization, overall updating so things will load faster or be easier to access. Doing the HTML on this site is my hobby; I like what I do. We have a few weeks off, so we will focus our time on learning new covers, writing a few new songs, and cleaning up our overall sound. Our current ability of playing for 2 straight hours is going to increase to just over two and a half before March is over! Not that any of you can stand listening to us for that long, but the point is we can do it. Take care. 2/19/06 We keep getting busier and busier every month. A bunch of new shows are on the way, I just need to wait for confirmation on them. Also, our demo is nearing completion. That album that we have been working on for going on year 2 now is taking way too long, so we opted to put it on a short hiatus and focus on this demo LP of sorts. Plus, with so many new places, we have been setting our goals at playing new clubs. The Nite Cap and the Big Horse have already been added to our band resume, and the Night Lite and the red Line Tap are soon to join. We are thrilled to be opening up for Metallica tribute band Damaged Justice next month. These guys rock, and they don't just do the Metallica songs you hear on the radio, they do EVERY METALLICA SONG. They are even going to play through the entire Master of Puppets record at the twenty year anniversary of the album next month. More info is available on our tour dates page, and you can visit the Damage Justice site, which we linked to on our page, at www.damagedjustice.com so go check them out. Alright, time for me to go to bed, it is almost 4:30am and I need to try to get to the gym in the morning. Arrrrgg!!!! 2/13/06
 The Big Horse went well on Saturday. We stayed up late, had a blast, then had to wake up early on Sunday to drive to the new studio in Tinley Park to record our demo, which took 7 hours and is about 70% complete. If you want to see pictures from the Big Horse, check them out on the photos page. We'd like to thank Sacrament of the Sick for inviting us out to play, as well as Oak, Seven Against Thieves and Frayed End for putting up with our bullshit of an excuse for a performance that night. We actually played fairly well under the terrible PA conditions, but all the bands were extremely heavy, hard hitting rock and metal bands. We go up and play "Spam I Am" and it's over. We're down for the count. Those kinds of shows happen more often, and they are fun. We feel weird, but hey, we do stand out. We're going to have to start covering Hatebreed or Soulfly or something. Gerry Rafferty and the cars aren't going to cut it anymore. Alright, gotta run. I'll have a new update for you guys after next weekends' gigs. Hopefully we'll actually have CD's to give to people too by the spring. Take care... 2/7/06 So I'll save it all for next week's update. 1/29/06 ....we played the Mutiny with Sacrament of the Sick on Thursday, and kicked ass. We played for 2 hours and beat the hell out of ourselves. Then, the next night, we played Jefferson Tap for about an hour because they normally have disco or something on Fridays and we sounded out of place. Breaking Fate opened that gig, and they did great. Then last night, Sacrament of the Sick had to cancel due to an emergency of some kind, so Jay and I had to open the show ourselves and NatureDevil kicked all form of ass, although I can barely move now.
 I added over 50 photos to our site. Check the gallery, they're there. We have hot girls, hot girls that have been ball gagged with the NatureDevil patented rubber ball gags, guys from other bands hanging out with us, people in the crowds and some onstage performance. Check them all out. I need sleep. I'll write more in a few hours. Promise. (later today) What's up? Okay, I am awake and ready to finish this update. First, I need to thank a few people. I want to thank Breaking Fate and Sacrament of the Sick for both kicking ass and doing their thing with us this weekend. Jason Kluss also gets a special thanks for opening up solo last night when SotS couldn't make it. I also want to thank Chicago professional bass player Hank Fields for being gracious enough to allow Arno the usage of his Peavey ass-kicking amp head for all three shows. It was greatly appreciated. Of course, we also want to thank the Mutiny and Jefferson Tap for letting us rip up their stages and all the fans who came out and supported us, you all know who you are. Jay sold a few copies of his solo CD, which you can find out more about at his website www.JasonKluss.net and we all met some new people and made some great new friends.
 NatureDevil is now going on a short break for two weeks while Arno travels to the east coast, I prepare for professional vocal lessons in the city and Jay gets his equipment worked on. Our next spot will be at the Big Horse, with Sacrament of the Sick and Oak, on Saturday, February 11th. Till then, take care and I'll see you around.... 1/22/06 ...first up, we have a bunch of new shows lined up on the tour dates page. Aside from the gigs at the Mutiny and the Jefferson Tap, we'll be adding some new venues to our resume that include the Big Horse, Legends, the Nite Lite and the U.S. Beer Company. Soon to be announced will be shows at the Wheaton Grand Theater, the Red Line Tap and the Nite Cap Lounge. I am just waiting to hear back from some people. Remember that girl that came and turned my world upside down last week? She's really fucking hot, she may come to one of the shows this coming weekend. I still have no clue as to how I am going to save my vocals and make them last for 3 days in a row. Lots of teas and honey, is my only thought. I have inquired about special singing lessons (cause you all know I suck) to help keep my voice strong and to keep me in pitch (helps in the studio as well). I'll have an update on that when that comes. We are going to a new studio on February 12th, just to push a demo. The album is still being worked on, but due to money and time constraints, fuck it for now. It is taking way too long where we are at. We are going to another studio to get our demo ready, and it should be finalized within a week or so of the recording. Now, we just have to decide what 4 or 5 songs to put on it. You'll also see new flyers and artwork coming at you. This site is going to take a whole new look to it before the summer gets here. We are making some serious money now as a band, and this site is going to participate in new ways. No, I don't mean pop up ads (that will never happen here) I just mean a different direction. You'll see in the next few months. I am conducting a business meeting today to decide what will happen. Okay, so I am done. I'll be sending out my usual newsletter that no one reads about this upcoming weekend, so if anyone is interested, it'll be great to see you at any of the three shows. Take care.... 1/14/06 Cowboy Ray died from Mancow's Morning Madhouse, and for some reason that is saddening me. I have a few trips I am planning out. Arno and Jay have never been to House on the Rock in Wisconsin, so I am taking them on Tuesday. As for band related stuff, we have a few gigs lined up and a studio date as well. The newest gig is our debut at the Big Horse downtown on February 11th, right by the Note and the Double Door. We'll be playing with a band we added to the links page recently called Sacrament of the Sick, who will be opening up for us at our Mutiny show. Breaking Fate will be opening up for us as well at the Jefferson Tap gig the next night. Problem? Well, both gigs Naturedevil will be playing for 2 hours, nonstop. Then, we got added for a Saturday gig the next night at the same place. I am scared to death that my voice will be gone from the Mutiny show on Thursday, the 26th and I will die onstage at the Jefferson Tap on Friday, the 27th and Saturday the 28th. Which means you bastards might actually come to a gig just to watch me suck at the Jefferson tap, huh? Well, I am going to try to pull it off anyways. We'll probably be playing the same setlist for all three gigs as well, with a possible difference just to make it interesting. Nothing too much. I gotta run. I'll have a new promo up soon I think you guys will like. 1/8/06 The show opened with Julie Jurgens, this cute chick from the city Jay ran into...somewhere, I don't know, he just gave me her e-mail and told me to invite her to play the show. I think he met her at an open mic or something. She had an excellent voice and we were glad she came...
 After Julie, Mr. Deep took the stage. Mr. Deep. or Dan, is a guy I met over a year ago doing the open mic circuit back when I used to run open mics. Occasionally joined by his brother on bass, he played solo today, covering Stone Temple Pilots and Oasis as well as his own original songs...
 Breaking Fate, with their excellent stage presence as always, came up in full force to show everybody on the north side what they are made of. A band we have known for almost 2 years, and a band Jay occasionally plays in as well on lead guitar, we were really glad they could make it...
 We also owe thanks to the Breaking Fate drummer Mike for sitting in with Jay as our original drummer is a moron and an idiot. Jay played, sounded awesome, got the cheers and sold the CD's to make the night a success. Mike delivered well above expectations, especially for a guy who barely knows the songs. That shows just how talented he is...
 Anyways, the night was victorious. As always, you can go to the pictures page to see more from the show. NatureDevil makes their debut at the Jefferson Tap in 2 weeks on Friday, January 27th along with Breaking Fate opening up the night. Thanks to everyone who made it to the show as well. We hope you had as much fun as we all did. 12/29/05
 .....Jay's CD release party on Saturday, January 7th at the Jefferson Tap in Melrose Park. Jay's long awaited album titled "No Fear In Me" is set for release at a party that includes performances by Julie Jurgens, Mr. Deep and Breaking Fate (John Michaels had to pull out to to an unforeseen obligation). The CD will be selling for $7 and yeah, it costs $5 to get in at the door, but we have complete control of the night on what goes on, the drink specials are cheap, the food is great and inexpensive and we promise top of the line entertainment till at least 1 am. Pioneer Press newspapers did an interview with Jay and myself that will be in - at least - the Elm Leaves next Wednesday, on the 4th which is just in time for the CD release party. NatureDevil was discussed a lot as well, although we kept most everything focused on Jay and his album. I am looking forward to checking it out, and I will add it to the articles section on the stuff page as soon as it comes out and I get around to scanning it in. Lutraphobia, a band we played many shows with in the past, has apparently broken up, according to Brandon's phone call yesterday. We played several shows with them in the past year including the Zion Lutheran benefit concerts and Nelly's Piper. We have two dates booked, on January 26th at the Mutiny and January 27th at Jefferson Tap. A possible show on February 4th at the Nite Cap Lounge may be officially announced in the next update.
 While we have a studio session for vocals next Tuesday at our usual studio, we are going to go to a smaller, more underground studio to do some cheap recordings to use for a demo, as we are getting sick of waiting for months and months to get songs completed at the studio we have been working in. Oh, and we are going to do a photo shoot with a newbie professional photographer looking to build a portfolio for himself. More info on that as it comes in. See? I told you there was a lot of surprisingly new stuff going on! I promise you we are never bored over here. New flyer artwork and rehearsal photos are to be added in the coming weeks as well. Until then, take care and try to enjoy the new year.... 12/22/05 Anyways, we have a few new shows that will be coming up, but I am going to play some Final Fantasy right now, so until next year, take care and don't get killed..... 12/14/05 Then you go in the studio and the truth comes out! Hehehe, I am not that bad, but the stuff I pull off at shows does not carry over well into a studio atmosphere. It is a different animal all together, and you can't sing the same way. The environment is different, the microphones are different, the motivations are different. With a little work and team effort, we pulled it off, and pulled it off extremely well. Our short term goal is to have a nice, professional demo out by early next year. So Jay has a solo album? Yeah, you have been hearing about it. The press kits are out, the interviews are set, and the flyers are moving the streets. Oh, ands the biggest news is the launch of his own website!
www.jasonkluss.net is where you can go to get more info on Jay's career. Things are going to get interesting into the new year. We have three more things to get drums down for, that much more guitars and bass, and all the final vocals we have left over. We are about 70% complete on our goal to complete a record. Until next time... 12/3/05 I need to get this off of my chest. What the fuck is up with local bands not keeping contact? This pisses me off. here is what I mean: we will play a show with several other bands. They are cool, we decide we like them and we give them our contact info, hoping to have them link us on their website while we link them on ours. They all smile, say "fuck yeah, that's awesome dude, we'd love to do that...." You know, we try to help each other out and make friends. What ends up happening is I link up 6 or 7 bands on our website, and after weeks and weeks of waiting, sending them e-mail reminders, calling numbers and asking them about linking to us, they forget to do it and fall off the planet. We still never appear on their website, although they claim they'll get right on it, and I get pissed and eventually clear them off of ours. That is why when you look at our links section of other local bands, you'll notice there are almost none there. That is because the bands we know either disappear (their websites vanish or stop working ala Breaking fate, Lutraphobia, Session Six etc etc.....) or they never link to us. Are we the only fucking band in Chicago who takes responsibility for building good contact relationships and keeps our shit operative? We run this site directly - we don't have to call a guy to ask some other guy through an e-mail if he could post a date as soon as possible which turns out to be 2 weeks later and ends up having mistakes in it anyways. This irritates me. I have reached a conclusion about these bands, and although I don't want to piss anyone off, I don't think it matters at this point. My conclusion is that these bands fit into one of two categories: they are either egomaniacs who think that they don't need to work with other musicians and that they are the next Coldplay or Disturbed and they can do their own thing and be fine, or they are just idiots. Idiots in that they are too lazy to send an e-mail, too stupid to not lose a phone number or too hungover/stoned/ignorant to remember who the fuck they talked to the night before. I was hoping that after several years of linking with other bands that our local band links section would have 30 or 40 bands listed in it. We have two. Two. And out of those two, one of them is not finished being built yet and the other one took a few weeks worth of e-mailing several accounts to get to someone who eventually returned the favor and linked back to us. I really thought we'd be cool about this and we'd make a lot of good contacts, but I guess you have to make things simpler for people to do by "friending" people on MySpace with the click of a button as opposed to using a little effort. Eh, it's okay I guess. I'll just keep linking bands for weeks at a time before I eventually delete them for not adding us to their site. You'd think bands would want to help themselves by getting their name listed in as many places as possible, but if they aren't going to give a little, they sure as hell aren't going to get. How does that line from Full Metal Jacket go? "I bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach around." Yeah, that is what comes to mind. Alright, I need to get out of here and go get a drink. Take care guys.... 11/26/05 There have been a few opportunities to grab some new shows but I am waiting on booking anything else until after Jay's CD release party. With studio work and us getting back into full time rehearsal, I want to break from doing lots of shows right now. Plus, it's cold outside. Who wants to drag their amps around in the snow? Jay's CD release party is Saturday, January 7th at the Jefferson Tap. I am ironing out the details of it this weekend (it's a holiday weekend and people are hard to get in touch with - I don't blame them) as well as putting together the press kits to send out for its promotion. A few newspapers are interested in doing some articles, and that is awesome publicity for Jay. Here is a sneak few of his album cover....
As for this site, well, I changed things everywhere. I mean everywhere. I updated the linkspage, the pictures page, added a live performance of us covering Nirvana's "Breed" on the music page, there's some new crap on the stuff page and I even tweaked the bios page a bit. Knock yourself out.... 11/19/05 Not to say that being on our own is bad, but when you come prepared for one thing and get hit with something different than expected, it knocks you off balance. Oh, and the new guy running the thing was on a power trip. He was annoying as hell to the bands, and he constantly contradicted himself in what he would say when accusing people of their levels of professionalism. We came in dead last place, not that I am surprised. I almost had the job that this guy had (they called me up and set up an interview at which point I called back and turned it down) but after hearing from the guy who ran it last year, I realized it was way too much work for too little pay and not worth the time invested to do it. So even though the newly hired dickless hack who is running it in Chicago knocked us in last place, I don't feel bad because he still works for Emergenza. After we signed up, we said to ourselves, "Do we feel like doing this again this year?" I don't think we did. I just bought a new house and moved in a few weeks ago and all my time has been on this project. Not that the band gets shoved aside, it just has to move over for a month or two till things get settled. With the studio going full steam, and this new house, playing Emergenza came out of nowhere. We had a huge fucking crowd and we met some badass bands (who will hopefully e-mail me soon and we can link our sites together - just got one from Luminary!) but we just sounded like garbage. As I said before, most of it was due to terrible sound, but a big part was on our end as well. We dropped the ball, if only a little, and it showed. As we have done in the past, when bad sound or circumstances come before us, we rise above it and make it work, no matter how negative it may seem. Last night, however, we let our guard down and our performance suffered. That should not happen. Now I know something else we need to work on. Our shows at the Mutiny have been great. The sound has been excellent, the crowds have been great and we play an awesome setlist lasting up to 2 glorious hours, as opposed to sucking on stage for 25 minutes. We will be playing their again in the new year, as well as a few new places we have never played at before; should be fun. Plus, Jay has his CD release party coming up. We didn't need to advance in Emergenza this year, we played the Double Door over the summer; we are happy. We have bigger, better things coming our way once we get this damn album finished (spring 2006?). In the meantime, I'll keep you guys posted with information about what and when we are doing stuff. Check all over the website, I updated everything. New links, videos, pictures, articles....you name it. Too big for me to list in the dysfunctional state I am currently in. I'll add some new photos from the Note show later. Too tired now. Going to sleep. Yes. Sleep. Take care.... 11/11/05
 I have big announcements involving a bar called the Jefferson Tap in Melrose Park on North Ave. NatureDevil is playing there on Saturday, December 10th with a bunch of other bands, but that isn't the big news. The big deal is the official CD release party for Jason Kluss' debut album "No Fear In Me" on Saturday, January 7th 2006 at the Jefferson Tap!!! Jason's long awaited record will finally be released to the public, and the night will include acoustic performances by Andy from Breaking Fate (with possibility of entire band appearing), John Michaels (who has his own debut album set for a release next year) and a guy who calls himself Mr. Deep. Stick to this website for more information, and we'll have the official launch of Jay's website from here as well. 11/3/05 Anyway, my reason for not updating in so long was due to me purchasing a home and moving in. The studio in the basement is in its infancy but should be ready for rehearsal in a week. We have a fireplace in the basement. All we have going on right now is the gig at the Note. More gigs are on the way, I am just really nervous about booking them until we get ourselves settled. This big move has been sucking up all my time and energy, but the Note show is still on. ....so I hope to see some of you guys at it. We'll be playing all new songs, completely new setlist from last year. 10/22/05
10/13/05
Last nights' Mutiny show was much better than we expected. We played fairly well, were fairly tight, and we drew an excellent crowd. At one point we had over 50 people packed into the room while we played "Callisto." I couldn't believe it. There was no opening band, so Jay, being the great guy that he is, went up and played for a good 45 minutes till it was about time for the ND to hit the stage. I accompanied him on bass, and he was able to make a few sales of his album as well. We played our hearts out, did some Bloodhound Gang and Radiohead, as well as our usual stew of Nirvana. I also want to thank Marcus, the sound man, for not only doing an excellent job with our sound but jumping up on stage with us and helping me sing Nirvana's "Polly" and "Breed," which was good because | ||
