A Flurry of News!

It’s been a while since the last update, but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been moving right along. This spring will see the release of Chris’s new album, Summer in the Sun, which will be followed shortly by the summer release of the EP Arrival at a Black Lodge. The EP was recorded live at the end of the 2010 tour, with Ed Rose engineering the session at Black Lodge Recording in Eudora, KS. Plans for the 2011 tour in support of this year’s releases are currently being put together, and signs seem to be pointing toward August.

To try and give an idea of what the EP has in store, we’ve got some raw dumps of White Lady and a new one, Church of the Poison Mind. These haven’t properly been mixed and mastered yet, but they still sound pretty good (thanks, Ed!) Right click and select “Save As” to download:

White Lady

Church of the Poisoned Mind

The lineup for these two recordings features…
Chris Shcutz – Vocals, Guitar
Eric Hoyer – Guitar
Ryan Ashmore – Bass
Ron DiSilvestro – Drums
Leslie Sanazaro – Vocals, Rhodes

Add commentMarch 16th, 2011

Sneak Peek: Bright Side, Video News

Bright Side will be the first single off Chris’s forthcoming album, entitled Summer in the Sun. We’ve been given a peek at it, and it’s great! Fortunately, we’ve been given permission to share this tune with the internet for a limited time. Right click here and select “Save As” to check it out while it’s still available.

Shooting for the Bright Side video will take place on October 2 in Philadelphia. Stay tuned for news and pictures from the video shoot! And of course, as soon as it is finished we’ll let you know.

Add commentSeptember 13th, 2010

At Long Last: Summer Tour Pictures

Not a lot to say about it, but after the jump we have a small selection of pictures from the tour courtesy Ryan, Leslie, and Leslie’s husband Alexis. Check them out!

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Add commentAugust 10th, 2010

Tour Complete!

The Tourists summer tour officially wrapped up last week. Reports indicate that new friends were made, old friends were visited, venues were rocked, roofs were raised, and nine hot tracks were given the business at Black Lodge Recording in beautiful downtown Eudora, Kansas, with the assistance of Ed Rose. The band would like to thank everyone who came out in support, and particularly those who helped make it all possible through Kickstarter. Also, major thanks must go to Steve for coming through with a van on short notice, after the rental place called Chris at 5:00 the evening before the tour started to inform him that despite the fact that he had reserved one, they didn’t actually have any vans for him to pick up in the morning.

Pictures, audio, and video from the tour are coming in the near future. Until then, if you haven’t seen the video for White Lady yet, here’s your chance!

Add commentAugust 2nd, 2010

***Summer Tour is Right Around the Corner***

A whole lot has been happening in the past month or so- we’ve been hard at work in the studio puts the gloss and touches on our next full-length record, tentatively titled ,”Summer in the Sun”.  It will feature 11 or so brand new songs by yours truly with an assortment of instruments and great performances by the Tourists.  We’re back in the studio with Cheek Andrews and are looking towards a Fall release date- in the meantime, I’ll be leaking some of the advance tracks here and on my Facebook page so check back often.

Our other big news is that we are teaming up with the folks at Kickstarter.com to raise funds for our summer tour and upcoming live record- We’ll be heading out west for a couple of weeks this summer, joined by new Tourists Leslie Sanazaro (keys and vox) and Ryan Ashmore (bass, guitar and vox) at the end of our show dates, we’ll be heading in to the famous Black Lodge Recording Studio in Eudora, KS. to document the live set from the previous weeks’ shows.  As I’m sure you know, an undertaking like this takes money to do; to pay the musicians, for gasoline, food and accomodations and to pay for the studio time and engineer’s fees to produce the record.  Please take a second to help us realize this project- the minimum bid is just $1 and is taken care of through the secure and gauranteed folks at Amazon.com. There are also all sorts of cool premiums we’re offering for those who pledge as our way of saying thank you for your support- you can read all about it here-

Kickstarter!

Add commentMay 9th, 2010

ALTERNATIVE ADDICTION SPOTLIGHT

I’m totally stoked to be featured this week as a spotlight artist on www.alternativeaddiction.com.  My music is a lot better than my blog posts, so I hope any new visitors will check out these:

White Lady

Spinning Wheel

Tripping the Bit

[There are even more songs on my music page, and more than that on the album.  Buy it from CD Baby.]

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Can’t get enough?  Check out the band’s MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/touristsmusic or become a fan on Facebook.

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Add commentOctober 28th, 2009

Under the influence…

The Tourists concept was born to blend genres and orchestrate unconventional pairings among musicians.  I’m fortunate to know some great artists, and many have contributed to Gemini.  The sound is fed by an incredible spectrum of influence.  Not too sentimental, not too obscure, not too political, not too effusive, not too plain…

It’s always a challenge to describe my own work, but I’m fascinated to hear what fans and reviewers have to say.  Usually they rely on comparative definitions.  Some of my favorites have been Bob Dylan, Rufus Wainwright, Roy Orbison and Barry White.  (Okay, I made up the Barry White one.)  These connections range from obvious to obscure to oblivious, but I always find them interesting. So today, I’m channeling Bob Barker.

If you’ve found this site by following the Alternative Addiction link, “Come on down!”

You’ve heard me and now I want to hear you.  The first 25 people to email touristsmusic@gmail.com with an insightful comment after listening to the three songs linked to the AA post will receive a free mp3 of any song from Gemini.  My favorite response will be rewarded with an autographed copy of the cd.  All thoughtful entries will receive a personal reply with my sincerest thanks.

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Add commentOctober 28th, 2009

STEP INTO THE FALL…..

TRAVELING WENT OFF WITHOUT  HITCH- A BIG THANKS TO SCOTT IN CHICAGO FOR HIS HOSPITALITY AND TO LAKESHORE SRIVE FOR SHOWING ME HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVE- THE ROAD WAS VERY KIND TO US THIS TIME AROUND… WE GOT TO PLAY SOME GREAT SHOWS WITH OUR PALS FROM KC, THE THREES- LOOK FOR THEIR NEW ALBUM TO DROP LMODERN JAD=ATER THIS FALL.  WE ALSO HAVE A FEW PHILLY SHOWS THIS FALL- LOOKING FORWARD COMING BACK TO THE TRIUMPH  IN OLDE CITY ON THE 23RD AND THE NEW AND IMPROVED BLINKIN LINCOLN ON 11-20 FOR ANOTHER FULL BAND SHOW WITH ALL THE TOURISTS ON BOARD.

SPEAKING OF THE TOURISTS, WE HAVE BEEN BACK IN THE STUDIO WORKING ON SOME NEW TRACKS- THREE ARE IN THE PIPELINE, MY SONG ABOUT AN EX THAT LEFT IN THE NIGHT, “ARIZONA”, MY SONGS ABOUT MEETINGS OF ONE STRIPE OR ANOTHER, “6:45″, AND OUR LATEST MODERN SONG OF REDEMTION, “TIL WE RISE”. IT’S BEEN MUCH FUN WORKING WITH CHEEK ANDREWS AT HIS SPOT IN UPPER DARBY, PA- I’M TRING TO KEEP IT KIND OF STRIPPED BACK- HERE’S THE PERSONNEL

ERIC HOYER- ELECTRIC GUITAR

STEPH HAYES- GUIATR AND VOCALS

RON DISILVESTRO- DRUMS AND PERCUSSION

JUSTIN DIFEBBO- HAMMOND ORGAN AND RHODES

LOOK FOR SOME YOUTUBE CLIPS AND OTHER VIDS ON HERE OF THE NEW TUNES-

CHRIS

Add commentSeptember 6th, 2009

****Summer Tour is Here****

The time has come again for me to hit the road and take the highways and biways of America- this time, we’ll be on the road as a proper full band- Eric “Grizzly” Hoyer on electric guitar, Steph Hayes on bass and vocals and Ron Disilvestro on them drums.  Lots of stuff has been happening in the last few months- we finished the latest record, “Gemini”- you can give a listen and pick up a copy here;

cdbaby.com/cd/cstourists

I’m working on pre-production of some new songs with my pal Cheek Andrews here in Philly- I’ll be posting the rough mixes as soon as they come available-  I signed a publishing deal in March with Konsonant Music out of LA and am super excited to see where it leads- I’ve been working on some instrumentals and some new tracks for a possible country/ gospel/ rock record- think Mahalia Jackson meets Rocky Horror-

We may be coming to a town near you- here are the dates- check the shows page for specific show times and other info- cheers!

-chris-

August 4th   -Chicago, IL   (Big Chick’s)

August  5th  -Ames, IA       (Ames Progressive)

August  7th – Des Moines, IA (The Ritual Cafe)

August 8th – Kansas City, MO (Davey’s Uptown Rambler)

August 10th- Minneapolis, MN (The Red Sea Club)

August 11th- Madison, WI      (The Frequency)

Add commentJuly 9th, 2009

Snowed in – Philadelphia…… In like a Lion……

There’s a cold wind blowing up against the side of my little house upon the hill- I have to say that I am somewhat sad to see that it’s tapering off.  I think I’ll spend the day in and work on some new songs; I have a new new one in the pipeline called “Astral Plane”- I may post a Flip vid of it later on today.

Thanks to everyone that made it out to the Triumph show last week- we had an impromptu reunion of Steph’s band, The Good Problems (www.myspace.com/thegoodproblems)- and I got a bad case of tennis elbow from my furious tambourine playing… we’ll be back at the Triumph coming up on April 29th. Thanks also to my good friend Jay Horvath for playing the drums on these last few months’ shows- he’s moved on to another project but I’m sure we’ll end up playing together again sometime in the future- here are some pics from the night-

Add commentMarch 2nd, 2009