Featured! on “What’s Your Muse,” Live Video of “Sea of Love”

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Our dearest blog pal, Mixtape Muse, has dropped us yet another love letter through the ethernet by featuring Bard and Mustache on his video series, “What’s Your Muse?”

Filmed on Valentine’s Day at Shamrock Pub by Gabe Hernandez; interview stop-motion was a collaboration between Mustache, Scott Braun (who also took our official press photos), and Stephen McFadden (who filmed our first show at the very same spot).

“…For their “What’s Your Muse?” submission, Bortnichak and Murphy chose an old 1959 hit that’s been covered and used in movies/TV extensively — and also appears as the closer on Found. But despite its prevalence in popular culture, they make the song their own, performing it with so much earnestness, and empathy, that you’d think they’d written it autobiograpically. On Valentine’s Day, the band performed at the venue where they first met, and videographer Gabe Hernandez was there to beautifully capture the group’s performance of the song. The chemistry here is hard to miss. Yes, we’ve come full circle. Just look at, and hear, all the magic that happened last Tuesday!”

Read more and watch the video here!

“FOUND,” LIVE MUSIC VIDEO RELEASED ONLINE, ON V-DAY

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We are so incredibly tickled to have our EP, “Found,” transition from a handmade, tour-only release to becoming available to the dataphiles on the world wide web.

Bard and I have had a whirlwind musical romance, to say the least, from the day we first met, and we are so pleased to share this with those seeking something real and tangible on a day marked by consumables and cardboard sentiments.  It’s the past hurts; the mistakes buried with decorated headstones; the fears made one-dimensional by the simple act of sharing them with someone else – these things build that brick-and-mortar home for lost whims.

We also want to share the love for Mixtape Muse – this blog has been more than generous in its highlights of our development as a duo in more ways than one.  Mixtape Muse released our live music video of “Your Face” today and we are beaming beneath our eyelids to have our work featured yet again. 

Tonight, we play at Shamrock Pub in our hometown of Sarasota, FL, where we first met – Bard came through on tour to play at Shamrock with his experimental rock duo, Sparta Philharmonic, in the summer of 2010.  We bonded over DIY packaging methods and the meaning of pursuing music on a microscopic level, touring on a regular basis under the radar.  Bard had offered to add cello on recordings for my project, the Equines, and in January 2011 made the trek to Sarasota after a recording stint in Ft Lauderdale – Bard took an interest in the songs I had shelved long ago, and coaxed them into a new home with his cello work, then birthing Bard and Mustache.

We played our first show together, also at Shamrock Pub, in January 2011 after a day of practice and became proverbial Siamese twins:  since then we’ve completed three tours and released two EP’s together, and Bard made the move from PA to our little house in Sarasota, FL in June 2011.  We’ve raised three kittens, moonlighted in a burlesque troupe, and attempted to renovate two spaces into DIY venues.  We’ve performed for hundreds of college students wearing tin foil hats and for one person at a puppet theatre.  We’ve been writing a smattering of new material.  And for all of that, I know I can speak for both of us: we wouldn’t trade a second of it for anything.

Love, love love, ad infinitum

Mustache

According to Trusted Sources, We’re Getting Weirder

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Holing up sure can do a lot of good.  Bard and Mustache have recently debuted a handful of new songs, integrating loops and drum beats into our set.  And, to our delight, our audiences have reacted positively – “I really like that y’all are getting weirder.”  We see it as a progression into a whole new world of co-writing material and waving our freak flag; it’s just a hint now, but perhaps one day we’ll post it up outside the house for good.

Our home studio is almost complete, which means a deluge of productive bees buzzing in and out of the house, making jars of honey in the form of reel-to-reel viscosity for Finch House Records.

Let’s get busy, shall we?

-mustache

The End of the Universe, the Start of Something Big

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It’s the new year – Bard and I had the pleasure of ringing in 2012 with plans to record a full-length album and, in the interim, get our handful of co-written (for the first time ever!) songs to play live around the state of Florida. Coming up soon is our one-year band anniversary, and we’ll be commemorating it with a tattoo of our last, yet-unreleased EP (look for it on iTunes this February). How cute. :)

Mad love to you all, and may this new year bring you more love and productivity than the last.

-mustache

We’re back…

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…and ready for action. Two weeks on the road felt like nothing, yet yielded a proverbial geyser of little memories for us to put in safe-keeping as well as share with all of you. Our tour diary is in process, rife with roadside attractions, late-night city rambling, and ghosts – oh, just you wait.

H.O.M.E. featuring Bard and Mustache

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check it out!  We had a great time recording with Mauricio of I.G.O.R. and are so happy to have been a part of this little gem – Mauricio has such an incredibly haunting voice, it’s only fair they’ve been kicking ass on more tours than you could shake a stick at these past few months.

Click on the spaceship and find yourself some moon gold.

I.G.O.R. MNKNK LP 2011

http://igortheband.bandcamp.com/track/h-o-m-e-feat-bard-mustache

Mixtape Muse features Bard and Mustache

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Waking up to a delightfully-wrapped internet present on the morn’ after the tour kickoff show at Word of Mouth in Sarasota, FL made a bard and a mustache shiver with delight.

Another rowdy round of thanks to Mixtape Muse for featuring Bard and Mustache before they take off on their first Midwest tour!

And, also exciting, it happened to feed into our first debut on the infamous MACHINE OF HYPE.

Oh, the stories we will write about cities far and wide…
cheers, friends.

Gypsies – we trade your pledges for our wares

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Like I said, I’m in the bartering mood. My boyfriend and I, Greg Bortnichak, are embarking on a two and a half week tour through the midwest from September 22 to October 6. Originally, we were going to hit the northeast corridor again, but my uncle who, aside from stateside visits once every 5 to 10 years, has since been struck ill and is being cared for by my extended family in Minnesota. We decided that we would reroute our tour through the Midwest in order to visit him and the rest of my cousins, aunts, and uncles (to my Minnesota fam! I’ll be in town September 27 and 28 and hope to see all of you! It’s been a hot minute). :)

Because of the reroute, we are entering into uncharted territory – no booking contacts, no guaranteed places to stay, and long drives. I know that our first time ’round will be the most difficult, and subsequent tours will be much easier and fruitful once we’ve met the people we will meet on the road this fall. Because of this, we’ve started an online fundraiser, and in exchange for pledges we have a variety of worthwhile items and experiences to give you in return.

Please, if you get a minute, check out our Kickstarter fundraising site, share it with friends, and, if you can, pledge a little and we’ll give you a lil’ something as a thank you.

Love squared,
Bard and Mustache