We’ve now got a full month of this new life in the Five By Two family - still lots going on, but we’re feeling a little more comfortable with our flow. And now, for the second month, I am going to try to wrap up all of the craziness that has happened under our roof.

OK, so here we go, this will be off-the-cuff as the old people say, so I may forget a few things:

Number 1: Geskle

Holy smokes did this kid deliver. We told you last month we were excited just days into his release when we started to see the trend his songs were taking on the streaming services. Fueled by a really strong presence on TikTok, Jesse was able to parlay that audience into some numbers, some B-I-G numbers, the likes of which our little label has never seen.

Across all streaming platforms, his EP is north of 150k streams, IN JUST ONE MONTH!

Number 2: Circus Trees - Delusions

Circus Trees released their first full album, Delusions, mid-way through the month and already made a huge splash in the press and in people’s hearts. CVLT Nation premiered their music video for the single ‘Wasted Air’ and garnered well over 4,000 views in a day. They got some amazing write-ups and podcast chatter about the album, and they ended the month with a sweet 11k+ streams on Spotify, and a grand total of 42k+ streams lifetime on that platform. You can check out all the wonderful things said about the album on their artist page.

Not a bad Spotify showing for a post-rock audience of mainly men in their 30s and 40s

Number 3: Circus Trees finds friends in high places

There was a lot of chatter about the new release, of course, but nothing was quite as cool as seeing a post from the drummer of the band Thrice praising their album.

Riley was kind enough not only to post about the album, but also to give a nod to his booking agent, and after some wonderful discussions we signed the girls on to work with them, and that’s reflected in all of their social media now. What will change? Well, with COVID and no touring, not much in the short-term, but signing with this agency means that opportunities can be explored that are far greater than what we can find in our little label land, such as….

Number 4: Delusions vinyl pressing

With the help of connections from their booking agent, we are now embarking on the long process of getting the Delusions album packaged and ready for vinyl. We truly hope it will be ready for Christmas (fingers crossed) and we believe we’ve figured out a way to efficiently get it pressed and deliverable not only for the US, but also for the band’s ever-growing fanbase in Germany and other European countries. Stay tuned for more information, but if you’d like to jump on the pre-order bandwagon now, feel free to shoot us a message!

Number 5: Who is in studio?

The Light Inside Me Is Dead is in studio producing their next single that will come out in a couple of months and it is a BANGER. Eoghan has been hard at work not only mastering this song, but also building out a portfolio of songs that will likely result in an EP release in early 2021.

Not to be outdone by his brother in Studio B, over in Studio A Aaron, better known as Pillbook PLBK, is literally tearing the walls of the house down with his epic recording of his next album. Yes, album. This work will be released in a few short weeks, and if it doesn’t fold you up like a lawnchair you’re listening to it wrong. IT IS SO GOOD!

We also welcomed in to the studio Evil Felipe, a really incredible young trio of surf-punk rockers who shredded for a week with Aaron. We cannot wait to show you the results and…who knows…maybe we’ll have an announcement soon about this band! Stay tuned!

Number 6: We ran a second livestream session

We told you we were going to keep doing this, and we did. This session featured the bands Take One, Louzy, and Sunday Morning. All of them ripped their sets, the techs all crushed it with a perfect visual and audio experience, and we continued to get amazingly good feedback from the viewers. We’ve got more bands to showcase, and we’ve got some exciting things to announce soon with these sessions. Please keep supporting us here - we’re going to keep doing it until we find whatever the new normal is for the local music scene!

Number 7: We added a shopping cart

There isn’t much there yet that you can’t find on bandcamp, but our humble little shopping cart is up and ready to go, and soon enough you’re going to see a bevy of items, especially t-shirts, as we’ve started pressing our own for a few of the bands. We hope this will help defray costs a bit and keep us more nimble with small, boutique and made-to-order requests for merch from all the bands.

Ok, I think that’s enough for one month.

Peace to you all, and remember: Five By Two Is Family.

Robert

Monthly Wrap-up for August 2020