ilovecde.com

The Start of EP2

Concours d’Elegance — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:17:00 +0000

We will be dropping out of the live circuit for a bit while we record a new EP.

Joshua will once again be at the helm recording and mixing using whatever spaces and equipment he can get his hands on.

We are looking to have things completed around mid October if our lives don’t interfere too much. While it may be quiet on live show front our twitter will be constantly updated with photos and videos during the process.

We look forward to releasing some new tunes and getting back to performing them live.

love,
CdE

Crocodile Debut 7/29! Recording New EP.

Concours d’Elegance — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:20:00 +0000

I am absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to play at the Crocodile this Thursday. When Joe and I started CdE we had a goal to play some great shows in Seattle. Thanks to some hard work and some great fans and friends it really feels like we have been accomplishing our goal.

I am also looking forward to this show because a while back I wrote some music for Lisa Dank. I am interested to hear it over the system and see what she does with it live. For those of you haven’t heard it check out the track Cookies Lisa Dank is definitely someone that will make you feel something. What that is…I guess you will have to find out for yourself.

The big news and probably most exciting for me is that we plan to record our next EP in August. We are planning to record 4 songs that we have been playing live and will be playing this Thursday.

Tracklist:
We Tried Hard
What I Need To Do
Move With Shadows
Turn The Light Out

Playing with the new lineup has been great. It feels like a band that can figure things out together. I am looking forward to performing with everyone and starting the recording/changing/mixing/nerding sessions on our next EP!

If we don’t see you Thursday well then I guess we will see you at the other end of the recording process!

Live well,
Josh
CdE

New Lineup performs this Saturday @ Georgetown Music Fest

Concours d’Elegance — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:16:00 +0000

CdE has been in full sprint mode for the last 3 weeks getting our new members in shape. So much that I might have pulled a musical hammy in fact.

Oh you aren’t aware of the lineup changes?

Ok…lets get you up to speed then.

So Jessica moved to Philly to teach and Ryan is gearing up to be a dad. Joe and I decided we weren’t done making jams for CdE so we called upon some friends. Just to replace the pistol that Jessica was and still is we asked our friends Michael and Taylor from the great band Ladyfriend to join up. Michael for the first time in CdE history will be adding live bass to the mix and also adding guitar, vocals, and percussion (not all at once). Taylor will be taking over the extra synth lines, harmonies, and added percussion. For drums we are pleased to add Jonathan. He will supply the backbone of our cool rock jams.

We are really excited for our Free show this Saturday at the Georgetown Music Fest. We play at 8:30 pm on the Rainier stage. We feel we have one of the best time slots of the day and are very thankful for it. There will be a whole day of free music, arts, drinks, and food vendors. Also Ladyfriend will perform at 2pm on Saturday at the Mt. Harney stage so make it out for that as well!

We have a warm-up show tonight to cool the nerves of the new line up and hopefully tighten things up for our performance this coming Saturday. If you check our twitter or facebook you should be able to figure it out.

Come out and jam with us in the Sun* on Saturday! Say hello to our new members. They are kind of nice people.

*we can only hope.

Last Dance

Concours d’Elegance — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:23:00 +0000

On March 28th, 2008, a rag tag group of carefree young twenty-somethings decided to go karaoke at Sunset Bowl (R.I.P.) (Yes, there was karaoke at Sunset. Little known fact.). My new friends Joe and Josh asked me about this other friend of ours, wanting to know if this other dude would be down to play in this new band of theirs. This other dude happened to be in two other bands at the time so I told them it’d be doubtful but went ahead asked them what they were looking for. They said they just needed someone who could play keyboards (to which I responded, “Um, HELLO!”) and someone who could sing some BGVs (again, “HELLO?!”). I could tell they were a bit skeptical — I mean they hardly knew me then — but when the karaoke machine finally got fired up and my turn got called, I busted out a flawless rendition of Jay-Z’s classic 99 Problems and the rest (as they say) is history…

Karaokeing at Sunset on that fateful day. Joe was my opening act. Josh doesn’t know what’s coming.

Countless basement jams, several sketchy practice spaces, a few dumb band names and so many super sweaty shows later and now I can hardly believe it’s been over two years since I first got invited into the wild and wacky world of Concours d’Elegance. This band came to me at a time in my life when I was so over the weirdness of the music scene and I was seriously about thiiiis close to giving up performing altogether. Playing this amazing music with these amazing dudes for all of you amazing people — cheesy as it sounds — it really restored my faith in music. Being in this band has been without question one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life and though it absolutely kills me to say this, for me this chapter is quickly coming to a close. (I’m crying like a big dork right now as I type this. And in a public coffee shop, no less. Gah. I’m totes that girl.)

Basement Jams Just like the old days.

Some of you have heard already, but in just about a month I’ll be leaving my hometown of Seattle and moving to the dirty streets of Philadelphia, PA. I got accepted into a program called Teach for America and come this Fall, I’ll most likely be teaching a high school English class somewhere in Philly. While I feel totally confident that this is exactly where I need to be and exactly what I need to be doing, it absolutely crushes my heart that I have to leave this city, my family, my friends and this band behind. Not gonna lie, I tried to convince the dudes to move to Philly with me but they weren’t into it. Sad for me but fantastic for you! CdE will go on without me and I’ll go on without CdE (somehow) but fret not, my babies — we’ve still got some time left.

The very first CdE show (kinda).

Word on the street is we’re gonna try to record a few more tunes before I skip town so some new CdE tracks might be on its way!

My second to last show with CdE is on May 29th! We’re playing a super radical 80’s Prom to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! It’ll be us, The Royal Bear, and PNapper DJing the jams. 9pm at the Rendezvous Grotto for $10 suggested donation (feel free to be generous!).

My very last CdE show (oh geez — here come the waterworks again) will be on June 11th at Lo-Fi . We’ll be playing with our very good friends Pickwick and Special Guests! I will most likely be bawling my eyeballs out for all or part of the show so I’ll be selling commemorative snotty Kleenex to remember the evening by. I encourage you to keep them safely tucked away so that you can sell them on eBay in a few years when CdE blows up and I am a mere footnote in their VH1 Behind the Music.

“Someones gotta make this band look good!” jHong

In all seriousness, I truly can’t thank y’all enough. Call me Patrick Swayze (R.I.P.) because I’ve had the time of my life! Thank you for singing with me, laughing at my dumb jokes, singing along to impromptu Backstreet Boys songs and dancing your beautiful behinds off. I love y’all a whole lot.

love and synthesizers,
jHong

Win a free T-Shirt, Drinks, & Guest list spot this Friday!

Concours d’Elegance — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:21:00 +0000

We have a great show coming up this Friday @ Lofi and we wanted to throw a little contest for it.

We are going to give away one guest list spot, CdE It’s Obvious T-Shirt, and a free drink ticket for this Friday to the person who posts the show flyer above in the most unique way. This can be on the internets or in the real world. Maybe get a bunch of comments for the flyer on Facebook or print the flyer and paste up your entire room. Email us a link to show proof or your post at iconfess@ilovecde.com Must be 21, attending the show, and not performing that night.

Download Flyer: : LowRez HiRez

We look forward to seeing where our flyer ends up!

love,
CdE

Interview Online & Show Thursday!

Concours d’Elegance — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:19:00 +0000

Last Saturday 3/4ths of CdE spent some time with Sean Detore talking about how we started, why we like synths, and in general what we are up to. We had a great time in the studio being interviewed for Sean’s podcast The Mixtape on MyNorthwest.com. Check out the interview here and get a leg up on some CdE knowledge!

Also come check us out this Thursday at the High Dive w/ Lisa Dank. Click here for all the info.

Stay Cool,
CdE

Live Video, Shows, & T Shirts!!!

Concours d’Elegance — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:17:00 +0000

Hey everyone! So much to update so lets just get right too it.

First off we are debuting our live video of the song Where You Stayin’. We recorded this video right after the new year in our practice space. We wanted to give those who haven’t seen us live a taste of how we do things. We thought rather than do a music video to an old song..lets perform and tape a new one! Check it out and share!

Concours d’ Elegance – Live from The Space – “Where You Stayin’” from Concours d’Elegance on Vimeo.

Second, Joe made some amazing shirts with the help of our buddy Ramone. That’s right Joe made the design and screen printed these babies with his own hands. The good news is that you can get them at our upcoming shows. The bad news is that they are extremely limited.

And lastly, We have two upcoming shows for your viewing and listening pleasure. First up is our favorite venue the Ballard Mine this Friday February 12th at 9pm. We are graciously following CMYK and Guest DJ Heaters . Our next show is on Thursday the 25th at the High Dive with the always entertaining and unpredictable Lisa Dank . Both of these shows will not disappoint.

We are planning to hit this year hard with more shows, merchandise, videos, and maybe a release in there. We hope to see you at a show or on the internets.

Love,
CdE

1st Show of the Year & Live Video

Concours d’Elegance — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:06:00 +0000

We are planning out our next few months and we have some great events coming up. First is our show with CMYK & Heaters on February 12th at our favorite underground venue the Ballard Mine . Seriously, if you were at our last show you know this isn’t one to miss.

Last Wednesday night we spent some time shooting a live video of the song “Where you staying tonight?” We acquired a few nice cameras and some great help from Josh’s co-worker Mark to create a video that shows some of what practice is like and some of what seeing us live is like. We hope to release this video on February 1st.

As always our EP is still free for downloading and sharing…also look at our last post for some remix files for some our songs.

Here is a little video teaser:

Video Teaser “Jessica keeps the beat” from Concours d’Elegance on Vimeo.

Happy Holidays! Download Remix files.

Concours d’Elegance — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:16:00 +0000

Thanks to Cassey for posting some videos from our show at the Sunset where we debuted our version of the Christmas sweater. We even hooked up the Christmas tree to our setup. Check it out!

CdE is spending time with our families and friends over the Holidays and preparing for a fruitful January of writing. We have plenty of jams that we can’t wait to see completed and able to share with you.

Our gift to you this holiday season is some files for remixing. We would love to hear what you come up with. We may even share some remixes of our own. We will post the other two songs within the next week

Remix files: Lost and Lonely + It’s Obvious

Live video from The Ballard Mine!

Concours d’Elegance — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:19:00 +0000

“Where You Staying Tonight?” Ballard Mine December 5th, 2009

Thanks so much to the wonderful Taylor from LadyFriend for taking some great video at our show last Saturday.

If you have pics or video to share send us an email!

If you don’t have any come take some next weekend on the 18th at The Sunset and also on the 19th at the High Dive (early show).