So, we made the mistake of waiting too long since our last post, and the past two weeks have marked a pretty intense chapter in the life of The Dirty Hearts. This will be a long post for sure...
About two weeks ago, an old friend of Frankie's from New Mexico named Keith Herrera flew out from Albuquerque to play drums for our CD release party at
Emo's. Keith's a pretty interesting guy. He's toured with bands like
The Detonations and
The Drags, opening for the likes of
Fugazi and
Rocket From the Crypt. He also owned Resin Records, putting out a record by
The Shins back when they were still The Flakes. On top of all that, the dude's a great drummer. He flew in on Tuesday, rehearsed with us a few times, and had our thirteen song set ready by Saturday night.
The CD release party at Emo's (August 23rd) went off without a hitch. A ton of people showed up, bought
Pigs and some t-shirts, and rocked the joint. Keith Herrera performed like a champ, and we all had a great time. In addition to the festivities, we were blessed with a love letter from an ex. Crazy as it sounds, it's a little flattering when you know someone you've parted with is still obsessed with you, don't you think?
Five days later, after much tension and frustration with U-Haul, truck jacks, and Calida's vehicle, we departed for our show at the
Cincinnati Bar in El Paso. It took ten hours to get there, and the show was a bit surreal. The whole atmosphere was chaotic to say the least, and the stage was about the size of a mid-sized bathroom. Our improvisational skills were put to the test when someone working for the club informed us that we needed to stretch our forty-minute set into an hour. Unsatisfied with the fact that we came in just under an hour, they knocked $40 off of our guarantee. Punks. But we still rocked and had a great time.
The next day, we headed to Albuquerque to play at
Atomic Cantina. The show was basically a homecoming for Frankie, so we considered it a second CD release party. The other members of The Dirty Hearts met a truckload of good people there for the first time, including Leonard, owner of
Socyermom Records and Atomic Cantina. Great turnout, great show, hell of a time.
Late Saturday afternoon, we said goodbye to Keith, Leonard, and Frankie's family, and headed east, arriving in Austin early Sunday evening. Later that night, we received a call from Keith Herrera's family telling us that he'd been hospitalized for internal bleeding, and was in critical condition. It turns out that he has a ulcer in his small intestines, complicating his liver and kidney functioning. It was sudden, unexpected, and terrifying news. Keith's a young guy. None of us were ready for this to happen, especially after having spent so much time in close quarters with him over the past two weeks. It's all too strange. As of right now, Keith's still fighting through it under heavy sedation.
Live performance on KLBJ August 9th we performed a couple of songs for the Local Licks segment on KLBJ. Loris was a great hostess, as always. For those of you who weren't able to tune in, you missed out on some pretty lurid conversations regarding raw meat, sexy demonic possession, and freaky CD covers.
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