urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane Victory Lane Victory Lane 2007-03-08T02:15:32Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:18526 2007-03-08T02:15:32Z 2007-03-08T02:15:32Z Victory Lane Hey we are in the studio recording. <br />It is awesome!<br />We are in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia recording at Big Sky Audio with Play/Work Productions. <br />So far we have finished drums with Pat Dee laying down some phat drum beats, me (Jimi) playing the bass guitar, and the rhythm guitars being finished by JRom and Ben. Jason is currently working on the lead guitars. He and Ben have gotten some vocals done.<br />We just watched Borat in the lounge room. It was my first time seeing it. Pat is Mr. Borat fan. We have been eating a lot of WaWa food. More than is healthy I am pretty sure. Stay classy and stay tuned for new updates on our myspace page.<br /><br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:18227 2007-02-19T03:35:26Z 2007-02-19T03:35:26Z Bayside Why?<br />Why did we not write in our journal for so long?<br />Suspense.<br />We knew it'd either kill you first or kill us. Well you almost one but we gave in. Here you go!<br /><br />We have been playing a few shows around the Western PA area.<br />We are now demoing 13 new songs.<br />We recorded them acoustically and now have to narrow them down to 5 songs.<br />We start preproduction this week.<br />Victory Lane then will head to the studio in the first 2 weeks of March. We are going to Big Sky Audio in Philadelphia, PA. It is an awesome studio. www.bigskyaudio.com<br />LaBouche and Semisonic plus a ton of other awesome artists have recorded there. I liked LaBouche. It made me want to dance.<br /><br />We have a few Pittsburgh shows coming up this week. We would love to see you if you are from the Pittsburgh area.<br />Victory Lane is also inviting you to a little party get together this Saturday the 24th at our crib in Sewickley! If you want to come send us a message letting us know. It is 18+ to get in and $6 gets you some good times with VL!!!<br /><br />See you soon.<br /><br /><br />Jimi & Vic Tor Ee Lane urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:18015 2006-11-12T19:57:45Z 2006-11-12T19:57:45Z The Wallflowers Hello.<br />Jimi here.<br />We are still writing and will be until the end of the month.<br />We have started demoing the new songs too.<br />Be excited.<br />We are.<br />More very, very soon. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:17694 2006-10-22T21:13:30Z 2006-10-22T21:13:30Z Cartel So last night we met up with our long time friends Punchline in Altoona, PA. Victory Lane has never played in Altoona. It was fun. People in Altoona are nice. I saw a lot of people smiling. I also saw a girl who couldn't be older than 7, hitting and attacking people all day. I wouldn't want to be her neighbor when she gets older. <br />We have been playing mostly new songs in our set. I enjoy it. I think my new favorite song to play live is Persistence. Jason announced on the mic, that the next song we would be playing rhymed with Bersistence and started with a P. According to our set list, Persistence was next. All of a sudden there is a change of plans and we start playing Decisions without me knowing. I messed up the first note. But I do like playing Persistence a lot.<br />Altoona is the home of Sheetz. We stopped at a Sheetz on the way home. Steve Timko aka The Man ordered food without cheese because he hates cheese. They gave him cheese. Cmon Sheetz! He put on his brass knuckles and got it straightened out. I purchased a strawberry milk. I hadn't had milk in weeks till then.<br /><br />We will catch you on the flipside.<br /><br />Jimi & (Victory Lane) urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:17567 2006-10-16T13:15:11Z 2006-10-16T13:15:11Z So VL had 2 shows this past weekend. One in Smithfield, PA, next to the Maryland/WV border and the other in our hometown of Pittsburgh at Mr Smalls Theater. <br /><br />This was the third year in a row we performed at Fright Farm in Smithfield. It is always a good time. It is usually very cold too. This year was an exception. It was extremely cold. I personally couldn't hold onto my guitar pick during the first 3 songs. My hand was numb so it kept falling out and our boy Steve Timko saved me by picking it up and placing it in my hand. The show was fun though and once we kind of warmed up, we were rolling. We took the haunted mansion tour afterwards. J Rom got scared. He pissed his pants. Nah, just kidding. Victory Lane ain't scared of no ghosts.<br /><br />On the way to the show we were low on gas and thought we would stop at this gas station that is always on the way to the venue. It was closed down. So on the way back, we thought we could make it to the next exit and get gas. We were wrong! As we were driving over a bridge on the interstate, all of a sudden we felt the Champion (our van) start to cough a bit and then lose power and it was done. We ran out of gas! We had to call AAA and wait about an hour as we froze in the van. Some of the guys built a fire alongside the interstate.<br /><br />Mr. Smalls Theater was a good time. We played with some awesome friends, including Time and Distance who we haven't seen in almost a year. We should be updating you very soon. <br /><br />One love.<br /><br />Jimi and the VL's urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:17393 2006-10-08T17:07:39Z 2006-10-08T17:07:39Z Oasis - Champagne Supernova October is the month for lovers. Well that's what a homeless guy once told me. I also know that is the month we come back to the beloved Mr Smalls Theater in our hometown of Pittsburgh. That's right all of you sexy people. We will be playing there on Saturday October 14th. We have not played Pittsburgh since Warped Tour. I can't believe it has been that long. We will be playing with some awesome bands and friends. Our special guests include Isadora, Time and Distance (amazing acoustic rock from Charleston, WV), Three Sided Circle (Antoon from Thought Deposit's new band), and our hometown pals The University. If you live in the Pittsburgh area, you should come out.<br />Something else you should do is buy a copy of Listen and Believe off of www.smartpunk.com.<br />Once you do that you should go listen to Oasis and House of Fools. <br /><br />One Love.<br /><br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:17140 2006-07-02T14:18:28Z 2006-07-02T14:18:28Z Paramore So last night we opened for The Violent Femmes. I really didn't know much about them except they have had 2 of the biggest rock hits ever. Last night was freakin awesome. It was the biggest stage we have ever played on. There were jumbotron TVs showing us playing so you could see us from all the way in the back. It was just an incredible experience. Thanks to all those who attended! <br />We have recently added a cover of Semi Charmed Life to our set. I have always really enjoyed Third Eye Blind's CD that made them big. There are so many good songs on that CD. <br />We should have an update on the release of our CD as well as tourdates for August and September up soon. Until then please keep up the support, because each day this keeps getting better.<br /><br />~Jimi~ urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:16871 2006-06-16T12:10:26Z 2006-06-16T12:10:26Z Dave Melillo Just want to say thanks (pun intended) for all of the support we have been receiving. We truly appreciate it. We released the last song (Persistence) that we will be releasing online until our new CD is available. We are very excited for what the future holds. We do have a name for the new CD which we should be making public in about 2 weeks. For now, just please keep telling your friends about Victory Lane. Chat with you soon.<br /><br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:16439 2006-05-28T23:20:56Z 2006-05-28T23:20:56Z It is here and alive<br /><br />Listen to "If You Want To" at www.myspace.com/victorylane or www.purevolume.com/victorylane<br /><br /><br />Let us know what you think!<br /><br /><br />P.S. "Decisions" will be released this Thursday at 11:59 PM urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:16157 2006-05-22T23:12:54Z 2006-05-22T23:12:54Z www.myspace.com/victorylane<br />www.purevolume.com/victorylane<br />On those 2 very websites at midnight this Thursday we will be releasing If You Want To. Hold on to your hardhats. Tell some friends. And of course let us know what you think. We are so excited to finally let you hear our new songs.<br /><br /><br />Love,<br /><br />Victory Lane urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:15879 2006-05-13T16:10:43Z 2006-05-13T16:10:43Z Our first single "If You Want To" will be available at PureVolume and Myspace on Thursday May 25 @ midnight!!! Please tell all your friends. Repost this to as many people as you can. We truly appreciate your help and cannot wait for you to hear our new songs!<br /><br />Victory Lane<br /><br /><br />www.myspace.com/victorylane<br />www.purevolume.com/victorylane urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:15779 2006-05-04T15:24:08Z 2006-05-04T15:24:08Z Punchline, VL Only a few more weeks of limbo. We are still busy as hell but it is a lot of inside band stuff. Such as scheduling photoshoots, advertising, putting together a true street team, planning out what songs to release in which order, etc. Believe it or not, this takes a lot of time. If you are part of our street team, you will be contacted very soon about what's going on. If you aren't part of our street team and want to join... email victorylanebooking@yahoo.com with your name, address, school (if you attend), cell phone, AIM SN, birthday, and myspace link. I cannot wait to release "If You Want To". Talk to you soon. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:15432 2006-05-01T12:18:40Z 2006-05-01T12:18:40Z If You Want To Well hello there, didn't expect to see you so soon. Jimi here. When I say "Jimi here" that is kind of misleading. I am not in the livejournal. I really should say "Hey it is Jimi here in Pittsburgh, PA typing on a computer." Anyways thanks to everyone who came out to this weekend's past two shows. Sewickley is a fun time. I enjoyed this show very much so. I was very happy with how we performed 3 of our new songs. It takes a few shows to get new songs under your belt with a certain level of tightness and I believe we finally achieved that level playing Saturday's show. We have been waiting and waiting and waiting and being patient with our new songs and what we are going to do with our CD. Mastering is finally done. We should have the final copy of our songs in our hands within the next few days. We will be posting our first single "If You Want To" on Purevolume and Myspace. Many more details coming up. Just please stay tuned with us!!! We need your help for the next few months big time!!! <br /><br />Love,<br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:15161 2006-04-24T00:02:44Z 2006-04-24T00:02:44Z If You Want To So we just got done playing a college weekend tour with the Distorted Penguins. The Gym Class Heroes, The Interns, and Loko Phylum also joined us in the festivities. We were excited to play some of our new songs...If You Want To, Decisions, and The Heights. We will be having some awesome announcements soon in regards to the release of If You Want To. So please stay tuned for that. <br /><br /><br />PS Make sure to come see us in our hometown of Sewickley @ The Henning House this Saturday April 29th! urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:14880 2006-04-17T18:39:58Z 2006-04-17T18:39:58Z HEY<br />Spring is in the air.<br />It's funny how weather like this makes EVERYONE happy.<br />You might have those people that try so hard to be different and say they don't like this weather but...<br />You know they're lying. Who likes the fucking cold? No one.<br />If the cold were a person he wouldn't have any friends. Poor guy.<br />Enough nonsense...<br /><br />We played a show this weekend with our boys in Socratic. They rock the house down piano style. I also saw Dave Melillo for the first time. His songs are incredible and he's a rad dude in my book. I hung out with the guys of all guys in The SpacePimps too. It's been a long time since we've had some quality hanging out with them but we're definitely bros for life.<br /><br />We've been busting out some new songs at the shows recently. Not too many because no one likes too many songs they don't know right? But anyway, if you're not planning on coming to the Gym Class Heroes show (This Friday) then re-think your planning because we'll probably bust out some of the best of the best. You'll see. That's about all I have to say today. CHYEAH!<br /><br />Pat<br /><br />Go fly a kite. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:14651 2006-04-12T18:13:57Z 2006-04-12T18:13:57Z Yo guys.<br /><br />Pat here. The past few weeks since being back from Kansas has been a lot of waiting, which is okay. We've been going through some new mixes of the songs and they keep sounding better and better. Once we get the final mixes we'll be sending them off to NYC as Jimi said before. THHHHEEENNN... after that whole process you guys will be hearing these tunes of ours. I don't know if this sounds too over zealous or not but I had two people tell me that the songs gave them goosebumps...I was blown away when I heard that. Goosebumps haven't been as cool ever since R.L Stein stopped writing those books that I used to get in 2nd grade just to have, not read. I'd be redundant if I were to say I can't wait for you guys to hear these songs because I have so many times by now. Maybe you'll get goosebumps. Maybe not. Hope everyone is well. The weather is nice. Girls aren't. PEACE<br /><br />-Pat urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:14356 2006-04-04T23:12:06Z 2006-04-04T23:12:06Z If You Want To Hello everyone, James here aka Jimi. Right now our new CD is being mixed and then is going to be sent off to NYC for mastering the following week. We are looking for all of the music to be completed in 2 weeks. We are just using the next 2 weeks to do a lot of planning for Victory Lane for the future. We should have a lot of exciting things coming up very soon, ie shows, new songs posted, new contests, etc. Just wanted to say hello to everyone out there. We are truly excited for YOU to hear our new songs. Also make sure to mark your calendar and buy Punchline's new CD 37 Everywhere on Tuesday April 11th. <br /><br />Peace, love, & rock n roll<br /><br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:14277 2006-03-26T17:09:34Z 2006-03-26T17:09:34Z Im currently sitting in the comfort of my own home. After 5 days and many new friends made and many experiences had, we've finished the EP. Writing music is such like having a kid. I'm pretty sure I've heard that comparison so many times before but it couldn't be more true. We spent so much time with these songs and being in Kansas was finally the birth of these songs and pretty soon we have to send our little babies out in to the world. Very emotional and deep haha. We have a few shows coming up with more on the way. Be on the lookout. Here are some pics from Kansas.<br /><br /><img src="http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b224/victorylane1/JimiPatLT.jpg"><br />Jimi and I being computer geeks.<br /><br /><img src="http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b224/victorylane1/JRomBenHotel.jpg"><br />Jason and Ben in the hotel.<br /><br /><img src="http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b224/victorylane1/DavidBoard2.jpg"><br />The man. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:14037 2006-03-22T00:47:24Z 2006-03-22T00:47:24Z Jimi here. I am currently sitting in the studio. I am going to be typing about some random VL stuff today. Pat just asked Jason for $5. I just said if this was an investment, it'd be a very risky one. Pat is notorious for not paying back the money he is "borrowing." True story. I love Pat though. We sleep in the same bed in the hotel. Except for the second night in the hotel, he took all the covers and I froze my ass off. Today we finished guitars and have been working on vocals. We are happy. Kansas is a pretty happy place. Ben keeps singing Decisions and singing the word "window". Jason was tired this morning and slept in the loft in the studio. It has a lot of pillows. Victory Lane is going to need a lot of your support and help. If you have not purchased our Victory Lane cd, please help us out and do so. If you have it, we know all your friends don't have it, you can ask them to get one or get a new VL t shirt. We are broke asses after the illness of our van. Thanks again for your love. Keep it comin'!!!!<br /><br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:13687 2006-03-21T04:27:02Z 2006-03-21T04:27:02Z The Get Up Kids - I'll Catch You Hello from Kansas!!! Today has been Day 3 and you are with the bassist of the rock band Victory Lane, Jimi. <br /><br />Let me break down what happened today in a short piece that I would like to call..."Day 3: It's Victory Lane time baby!"<br />Today we had a nice continental breakfast. I had my first gravy and biscuits. Pat and Jason also joined me in the eating of this tasty food. We arrived at the studio at about 10 o' clock and started on the guitars right away. Jason and Ben went back and forth playing guitar all day long. Pat and I just sat in the control room and listened and put our 3 cents in. I would call this day a success. Ryan Pope, the owner of the studio was in today. He was the drummer of The Get Up Kids, one of my favorite bands of all time. He is a very nice guy. Today, our engineer David told us that we have a guitar part in the bridge of The Heights that reminds him of something in Duck Tales. He thinks if you like Duck Tales, then you will like this song. I hope he's right. Maybe Scrooge McDuck will like the song as well. We are currently in our hotel room watching Almost Famous. Good movie. Well tommorrow Ben finishes guitars and then we start into the vocals. Wish us luck and we will be talking to you tommorrow. Thanks for your support thus far and please keep it up. We love you.<br /><br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:13290 2006-03-19T17:14:45Z 2006-03-20T01:13:25Z I'm currently sitting in the control room of Black Lodge Recording Studios thankfully and full of appreciation for everyone who helped us get here after probably the worst day of my 18 years of living. I just found out that Kurt Cobain recorded here. Nuts. Just Nuts. David, our engineer is one of the coolest/nicest/funniest guys I have ever met. Things like that REALLY make recording a ton better. Things can get tedious and if you have an engineer who doesn't care at all how things sound, the end product is going to be what you want. Just while doing drum tracks David would only settle for the best. So that's what I tried to give him haha. Ben forgot the camera adapter but once again have no fear because David is bringing us one tomorrow so expect pictures of this process. Not like My American Heart <i>the</i> Process but the Victory Lane recording process...close but not the same. I don't think that last line had any significance at all. We're all in really high spirits after finally getting here. Last night at the hotel we watched the last Lord of the Rings and talked about what if everyday life was like that...i'm pretty sure if that were the case we would not be recording an album right now and we'd probably be off saying weird words and using homosexual undertones. Joke. I'm going to go up the street and get some food from Casey's General Store, nice place. Stay classy world.<br /><br />-PJD urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:12928 2006-03-18T07:50:32Z 2006-03-18T07:51:25Z I posted this on myspace too, but I figured livejournal people need love too right?<br /><br />This story I'm about to tell you seems so common among bands now and I find myself reading about it all the time. But here it goes: As many of you know, we left for Eudora, KS today to go record our new EP. Things ran so smoothly this morning considering our usual bad time management.<br /><br />The drive from here (Pittsburgh) to Kansas is about 14 hours. We headed out about 2:00pm, we're in amazing spirits. We're about one hour in to the drive and this is where one of the worst days of my life begins to occur... Within ONE BLINK of an eye, EVERYTHING is our van with power shuts off and we sort of glided to side of the interstate. We didn't make very far off the road so everything a car would pass it would get dangerously close to the van and trailer so we all decided in order to avoid an even more tragic story, that we'd get out and stay away from the van. We eventually give up on the idea that maybe we'll start up again so we give in and call a tow truck. The truck shows up and since there is five of us on this trip; myself, Jason, & J-Mort all rode in the van while being towed. We then got to what would become our home for the day...A travel center aka super truck stop world. Now between the tours and other trips with the band I've came accross some gross truckstops, this topped them all.<br /><br />Jimi went with the tow truck hero to see if we could have the van fixed. After phone calls back and forth from Jimi and I, I finally got the call from Jimi saying the van was running again and that he was coming to get us. Jason, Ben, and I shared the biggest moment of relief and we busted out some high fives and some yeahs. We see Jimi roll up and he drives right by and us and we're thinking "Did he not see us?" what the fuck do you know!? the van started the exact same problem. We call ANOTHER tow truck and we take it to ANOTHER shop just for them to tell us they can't find the fuel filter which was the part in question throughout the problems. He tells there's nothing he can do tonight. At this point I cannot explain the low we were all at. Not to mention the financial hole we were digging ourselves with all of the towing and trips to shops.<br /><br />Finally we do what we should have done from the beginning. We call the man of all men...Jay Armstrong. Jay is Ben's dad and this keyboard im typing on can't sum up how much he supports us in everything we do. Jay gets in to action and gets one of Ben's neighbors to come up along with him in a seperate truck because we needed to tow the trailer back home. So finally about 10 after originally breaking down we made it back to where we started from.<br /><br />So what do we do? As im writing this at 2:32am, Ben and Jimi are out getting a mini-van that we will be taking instead. We'll be driving through the entire night in to well of tomorrow and we start recording the second we arrive in Kansas. I can't explain the feeling I and the rest of us all have right now. EVERYTIME we have a show or something as important as this we'll go and something will be wrong with getting there. We've luckily never had something this bad happen but whether it be the van getting stuck in the mud RIGHT before we leave for a show or even the trailer key breaking and getting stuck in the lock so we're unable to open it...we have the worst luck. Why we can drive our van for two years and not have it break down until THE most important day I have no idea, but I don't like it. There is relief in knowing that in a few minutes we'll be heading out AGAIN this time in safe vehicle. This makes us all want this record to be incredible even more and we're going to do everything possible to do this. The next time you read an entry we WILL be in Kansas making this. Vans can break down. Victory Lane doesn't.<br /><br />-Pat urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:12651 2006-03-16T18:17:18Z 2006-03-16T18:17:18Z So tommorrow we leave for Kansas. I am very excited. I have never been to Kansas before. Time for a little honesty. I have a phobia of tornadoes. And Kansas just got torn up tornadoes. Let's hope we don't get blown away in one. It is going to be a 13 hour drive. That's a pretty long drive. That's more than half a day. I am pretty sure it will be Jason and I (Jimi) taking turns driving. The good news is that we got the passenger's side view mirror fixed on the Champ (our van). For the past year, for example I think it'd always be Ben, but whoever sat in the passenger's side seat had to put his head out the window and let the driver know if it was ok to get over. Pretty scary stuff. Well knock on wood but we don't have to do that anymore. A lot of my favorite bands have recorded at this studio, most recently Houston Calls' new cd was recorded there. That's definitely one of my favorite cds of the year, go get it if you have not yet. <br /><br />We will be updating through our journal constantly. Please tell your VL friends to check up on us through this. Hopefully we can get a picture of the Wizard of Oz and put it in here. Talk to you soon.<br /><br /><br />Jimi urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:12379 2006-03-07T23:37:29Z 2006-03-07T23:37:29Z Hey ya'll, Jimi here!! First off, a thank you to everyone who came out to our hometown show in Sewickley, PA this past Saturday and our show with Halifax and My American Heart last night at Mr Smalls Theater in Pittsburgh. Both were freakin' sweet! <br />So what's going on with us?<br />Well Victory Lane is going to Eudora, Kansas in March to record at Black Lodge Studios (The Get Up Kids, Motion City Soundtrack, Spitalfield). We are recording our 5 song EP, which is yet untitled. <br />We have been demoing these songs over and over again in our home studio and went through preproduction Sunday with Steve Soboslai of the band Punchline. We were very, very happy with how the songs turned out. Well this is just a quick tidbit of information on what is going on. We will be keeping you updated frequently from here on out. Please do yourself and Victory Lane a favor and tell your friends about us! Thanks from the bottom of our hearts!<br /><br />Victory Lane urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:victorylane:12079 2006-03-06T15:31:03Z 2006-03-06T15:31:03Z Hello to the world, Jimi here. I think I am going to start out all my livejournal entries with the same intro, kind of like a news broadcaster. Ok, enough of the funny business, time to tell you what is up! <br />Saturday we had an awesome hometown show in Sewickley at The Henning House. We performed with The University and Mark This Day. Good fellas. <br /><br />Yesterday (Sunday) we had preproduction all day long with Steve Soboslai of the rock band/outfit Punchline. I believe I can speak for all of us and say we are very happy with the outcome. Below is the list of 5 songs that made the final cut.<br /><br />1. The Summer I Will Never Remember<br />2. If You Want To<br />3. Decisions<br />4. Just Want To Say Thanks<br />5. Persistence<br /><br />Tonight we are playing with Halifax and My American Heart at Mr Smalls Theater in Pittsburgh. Come out and have a good time. Bye!