Merit

Sunday @ The Westcott

2008-09-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

The Westcott
524 Westcott Street
Syracuse, NY 13210

Doors at 3pm. Merit will be on around 5:30 pm.

From The New York State Fair

2008-09-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

Catch some video of the NY State Fair show here:

http://www.syracuse.com/have-you-heard/index.ssf/2008/09/the_new_york_state_fair.html

NADA Recording Studio

2008-07-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

So if you've been following our plan, the idea was to go down to New Windsor, NY and record 6 new tracks to release as an EP this year - which technically would put us at ONE record and THREE EPs for our 6 years as Merit (not counting demos and such)...

Anyway, working with John Naclerio (Brand New, MCR, Matchbook Romance, Just Surrender, Polar Bear Club) was like a dream come true - he's just what we needed to produce the best work of our careers - and he convinced us that we have to finish this project as a whole album.

So the bad news is that you won't be getting new Merit tunes as soon as we thought; we're going back to NADA in August to cut the remaining four songs as quick as we can. The good news is that you'll have an entire record of Merity goodness when we're through - ok?

Brenna took some cool pics and some funny movies of our shenanigans at NADA last week, so look for those soon. In the mean time, keep your eyes and ears peeled at myspace.com/nadarecording for a sneek peek(?) of "Mo(u)rning Dove"!! And we'll see you all at HARRY's INN on Saturday, July 19th - my mom better not be the only one dancing either!!!

we loves yous,
.wil.

The countdown

2008-06-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. We're all counting down the days until we get back in the studio to record our new EP!!! While the working title used to be, "Arson is for Lovers," that's recently changed to "Static and Satellites." Anyone who has been to a show recently knows that those are both names of songs we perform. Both songs will be on the record.

It'll be the first time we've been in an actual "recording studio" since about 2004. Dang. Our last release was self produced with the help of our good friend Dave Rockower (sp). I think it'll be nice to sit back and just kick out the music, as opposed to worrying about where the mics are placed and if the EQ is right.

So at the end of the month we're going to go do it. Our producer for the record is John Naclerio, who has done a whole bunch of sick bands you have come to know and love. I can already feel it's going to be a great environment to work in. We'll try to keep you posted from the studio. After that, we'll be looking forward to spreading the music around.

that's all for now,
jeff

Magic City Owns

2008-05-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

It's safe to say everyone in Merit is still on a high from the EVE 6 show at Magic City. What a great night. Thanks to all who made the drive out. Special thanks to our friends who dropped by to surprise us (christy, bray, steph, colleen, khasi, etc...). And a special SPECIAL thanks to all the new friends we made. We hope to see you all at a show soon!

Things I learned the night of the EVE 6 show.

1. Forgetting your cymbals at home bites (thanks to ben and jimmy for the last minute hook up!)

2. Wheatus works out. Some of the guys were exercising preshow with a medicine ball. I appreciate their wholistic and healthy approach to rocking the f' out. By the way, Wheatus had a great set. They're terrific people and they know how to shred.

3. The Spot in Binghamton has good egg, ham, and cheese sandwiches, but fails to deliver on french fries. Plus, the restroom there is lined with mirrors that freak you out at 2:30 AM.

All in all, it was a terrific night. The kind of experience that validates the work we've put into this band over the past six (gulp) years. i'm going to try and post a video from the show below...

Merit and EVE6

2008-04-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hey all -
It's been awhile since our last post. We are very excited that spring is here and summer shows are looking good. On Friday May 9th we'll be at Magic City Music Hall with Wheatus and EVE6! It's an early show and we'll be kicking it off at 8pm.
Look forward to seeing you all there.

---We have new buttons and Stickers too!----

Later-
brenna

Idle Hands...

2008-02-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

Create silly videos. THis weekend ULf came over and took a whole bunch of new photos. I used them and my geekness to create a new video, and yesterday I wrote the song to go with it. Check it out :)

We are still hard at work writing some of the best stuff yet and we'll post some new demos soon.

Merit At Mac's

2008-02-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

This is from last weekend at Mac's bad art bar - in snowycuse.

Sound is ummmm interesting? But you'll get the idea. Thanks to Steph and Colleen for coming out and bringing the troops.

Red House Live Stufff

2008-02-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hey all-

I have been in front of my computer for what seems like months....editing various videos.

Here a few new ones to watch.

-brenna

From the vault...

2008-01-01T18:08:00.000-08:00

First off, happy New Year.

Second, enjoy this clip of us playing at the taste of Syracuse. The song's "Blue Bedroom." To be honest, I didn't even know this existed. I stumbled on it while messing around on Google. Yay, google. Enjoy

We are who we are...

2007-11-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

"We are who we are." Chorus lyrics for one of our latest songs (if I'm hearing correctly during practice). Even if I'm wrong on the words, it's ok. I can't get the hook melody out of my head. I guess that's a good thing.

Brenna and I took a trip to NYC yesterday. On the agenda, go get drinks and listen to kick ass music. We hit the Luna Lounge, now located in Brooklyn.

I have to say, New York is always an awesome time. The bands were terrific.
We checked out MC Lars. If you like Zebrahead, you'll love this group.

The headliner was Wheatus. Remember Wheatus? They had that hit, "Teenage Dirtbag" a few years back. Well, the band is pro, and they put on an awesome set. High energy, terrific musicianship. Wheatus rocked it.

I'd go into more detail about the night, but honestly, we just got back a few hours ago... and got no sleep. I'm logging off to crash.

As for a band (our band, Merit :) ) update, we're plugging away with more songs and will probably have some sort of recording schedule figured out in the next month or so. We'll tell you all more later.

Bedtime,
jeff

Damn the man, save the Empire!

2007-11-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

I hope whoever reads this appreciates the reference to the best movie of all time.

I'm still trying to recover from our show at Empire Brewery last night. Thanks to everyone who came out. We had a blast playing for you. I had a blast drinking beer (go, blueberry wheat, go). The thing about bar gigs is you have to play all the songs you know. And that's what we did. We played all the songs we know. All of them. That includes the new stuff we've been working on, and in my estimation, those tunes rocked. If anyone has any pics or video from the show, feel free to send it our way.

The following item is being "blogged" about at the behest of our manager, Ulf.
WE ARE ON FACEBOOK.
So take a sec and log on. Search us out and add us as a friend. We appreciate it.

The Morning After

2007-11-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

Wow. A whirlwind day is finally over. I spent most of this week preparing for the Artists as Artists show by going thru all my college artwork to find appropriate 2D and 3D pieces to show -- and then learning to matte and doing a crappy job of it (hope you didn't look too closely last night)... Not to mention the band stress from changing rehearsal space and not practicing as a four-piece in almost a month.

But it all went off without a hitch, and we had a great time playing for y'all last night. Hopefully we'll have the video edited and posted asap - I think Brenna is going to lend a hand or two with that, and Hal will be working with Ulf on the audio.

Ulf and I set up the show from 3-4.30 yesterday and had to tear down at 11 last night in the rain - which sucked - but the opportunity to show some visual work with our audio art was well worth it.

.w.

ps- big ups to Mr. B as the lone Corcoran rep.

Artists as Artists

2007-11-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hey all, Just wanted to remind everyone that they better come out on Friday to the Red House! In addition to MERIT and ABQ rocking out awesome sets at an awesome venue, you'll get to see a sampling of my visual artwork from college. I'll be showing some ceramic work (sculptural as well as functional), some lithograph prints, and some small paintings.

I'll be there at 8:00 with Ulf to talk about the work, then Mike will go on at 9:00 with us afterward. We're filming the set on 3 HD cameras and may release some of the live tracks if they come out well -- which is where you come in: The more bodies in the house, the more noise, and the more rock from us. We'll be playing LOTS of new stuff that you've only heard 2 or 3 recordings of, so don't miss it!

The Red House is at the corner of West St and Fayette St near Armory Square - see you Friday!

.wil.

In the meantime

2007-11-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

So we're plugging away at the next record. My hope is we'll be recording some time in early 2008 (if we're lucky). The last month or so have been spent preproducing some of the new tunes. They're not too shabby, in my opinion.

Check them out at www.reverbnation.com/merit

We'll have more posted as we keep working.

Merit at Syracuse.com

2007-10-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

The music writer for the Post Standard wrote a little about Merit and their feature over at ReverbNation on his blog today. You didn't hear about the feature? Check it out here:

http://blog.syracuse.com/listenup/2007/10/merit_on_reverbnation_set_for.html

Reformatting

2007-10-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

We've decided it's time to migrate the site to a spot that everyone in Merit can drop in and post. You might occasionally catch a post from me too. I'm going to try to move all the old pots/blogs/random thoughts over to this page. If it works, it should be up and running full-time within 24 hours. Until then, feel free to listen to a few songs.

Are you on Facebook too?

2007-10-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Well you can add our music to your page there through the ReverbNation application. This banner should take you there if you are signed in to your facebook account.

We also have a facebook group so search us out using "Merit" in the search box or try this link to join us there http://syr.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2236299990.

If you want another way to add music from us to your page you can copy the code for this widget and embed it in your myspace page, website or other site that lets you post flash. If you click share you can get the code you need to copy.

Big Old Update

2007-08-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, a lot of people have been getting at us, asking where the hell we've been. Yes, we are still a band. And yes, we are writing a ton of new material.

That's the big update guys. We're writing a bunch of killer songs... and soon, we'll be recording them for your enjoyment.

the rock continues,

jeff

Rocking Steady...Steady Rocking

2007-06-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

First off, thanks to everyone who made it out to the Taste of Syracuse. A good time was had by all. Many beers were consumed.

Second, we've started up our online street team on Reverbnation. Clicky click the tab and sign up. If you help spread the word about Merit.. Merit gives you free stuff. Not a bad deal at all.

We're writing for the next record. It's going to be a while. Everyone in the band is pretty dead set on wanting to make this the best thing we've released in our short career. Wish us luck. We'll start leaking a few tunes when we think they're sounding right.

Syracuse, Taste It

2007-06-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we just got finished playing the taste of syracuse. a whole bunch of pics are posted on our page here. if you look really closely, you can see that the shows rocked. They rocked really hard. We made a lot of new friends, and if you're one of them, thanks for coming and checking us out .

As for new Merit biznazz, we're writing for our next record... and there are plans for new merch in the works.

in the meantime... go here, and signup on our email/streetteam list.

www.reverbnation.com/merit

laters,

jeff

The Verge Conference

2007-04-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was great - Ulf and I got to Boston late Thursday night and were the last two people to register.....We got there just in time to catch the StrayLight Run and Bang Camaro - they were a riot. They had fifteen vocalists...sounds crazy and it was...a complete party on stage. That night we managed to meet Kevin Lyman (creator of Warped Tour) and the guys from Reverbnation. We also reconnected with bands that we have played with like Edison and the Receiver. It's really cool when you show up to something like this hundreds of miles from home expecting not to know anyone and then you end up bumping into all kinds of friends.
Friday the guys showed up after a terrible drive from the Cuse ----Hal's car completely lost it's back brakes....not good. We ended up having to get them fixed before we could return home....So needless to say we all had a couple beers to relax before warming up for our set. We PLayed a half hour power round at midnight and had a blast. It was a great experience - and we expect good things to come in time.
IF you ever have car trouble in the Boston area try and make to Somerville - at 91 Marshall Street you'll see a shit load of Saab's. Look for the Sign that says
ABJ Foreign Auto :) ask for Al and he'll do you right.

If any of you read this - come to NYC May 8th or Shifty's May 5th!

with high hopes and love!

=brenna

Taste of Syracuse

2007-04-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

We're playing two sets at this year's Taste of Syracuse. Last year the event drew 60,000 people from CNY!!

We play the Main Stage Friday, June 1 at 4:00 pm and the Emerging Artists Stage Saturday, June 2 at 9 pm.

Recordings of musicals and stuff

2007-03-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hal and I spent the afternoon laying down some track and drinking some of his home made brew! quite delicious. It's St. Patrick's Day and I have only had one beer....problematic. Last year I saw people puking up green beer.....i'll never drink beer that is green. Green = Gross.

Pinch me and Die!

don't drinks and drives.

The Sweet Sweet South

2007-02-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

Hey all you meritorious!

Just sending you all some love from the South. The weather here is sunny and we are happy to be free of subzero temps for another day. My family is from down here so as a bonus at the Va and SC shows I got to see my mom and brother!

We just got up and are having a little coffee before hitting the road enroute to Augusta GA. We are going to snap some pictures in front of the James Brown Statue before the show.

See you back in the Cuse for Mac's.

-brenna

New Year's Resolutions

2007-01-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

So, it's a new year and we have a lot of plans. To be brief, we'll be out on the road a lot more. I think everyone in the band has collectively decided that we're ready to tour harder and longer (that sounds gross but it's true).

We're also busy writing songs for our next release. Tentatively, it will be an all-electric LP. I think we have about six or seven songs in the can for that one. You know, the music can. We're shooting for about 15-20 songs before we decide what goes on the record. So, back to the grind....

Oh, and like all new year's resolutions, we're all going to stop eating junk food and start doing pilates... or step aerobics... or something. Just kidding. We're not doing that. But to set the record straight, everyone in Merit is a firm supporter of healthy living and exercise. We just won't be taking cycling classes together, s'all.

ok, until we see you at the show,
jeff

A Very Merit Christmas

2006-12-17T10:02:00.000-08:00

From Monday until Christmas, we're giving our entire record away for download....

go to www.purevolume.com/merit

and download away!!!!
spread the word!
Happy Holidays, from Merit

Update and new pictures

2006-12-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

We've posted new pictures from Warped tour this Summer, some from our Keith and the Girl show in Cambridge and new press photos. Check 'em out! Now a word from Jeff:

Yo,

Hope everyone's having a good holiday. The next few months will be a time for everyone in Merit to reorganize. We're changing the look of our email listserv, as well as the street team messages. Time to look fresh and clean, baby. If you haven't signed up to be on the street team, you can do it in two minutes. Just go to our home page, and click on the street team link. More info to follow on new songs and new shows.

Be well,
jeff

Polishing new gems.

2006-10-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Good news all around! We have been busy writing and preproducing new songs for our upcoming release and we have some great new tunes for you all to enjoy. We'll be recording them during the next couple of weeks so you won't see us playing out as much. However, we'll be posting updates from the studio to keep you all informed. At the moment you can look forward to a double EP release, one electric and one acoustic.

All sorts of great new stuff!

2006-08-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

We've posted the few pictures from July that we could find to document our time Canada (we were rocking too hard to take pictures of ourselves!) and some great shots of us at Warped Tour in Buffalo, NY. Go check them out in our media section! Our time spent on the road has really opened up the floodgates for us and we have been writing constantly. We expect to be recording as the weather gets colder in New York and hopefully we'll have a new full-length release ready in Spring '07! Keep checking our MySpace for updates on that and maybe a few samples... We should also have some video of our Warped Tour set available soon. What are you reading this for? Go check out the media page!

Official Release Date Announced

2006-05-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Starting on May 9th you can get our new double EP entitled "Merit". It has five brand new songs and five songs recorded totally acoustic. The acoustic songs are a few of our favorites from "When We Fight" as well as a few new songs. You can check out some of the tunes on our myspace and purevolume sites.

"Merit" double EP finished!

2006-02-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Our next record slated for Spring '06 release is finally finished! It's a double EP that is half electric and half acoustic. We're very excited to have this done and it sounds better than we could have hoped for. We'll be posting the first single on our myspace and purevolume sites very soon. We also have new pictures from our latest show that was performed at the Redhouse in Syracuse, NY. Check those out in the media section. It was an awesome show that got broadcast on TK99 live. H

Official Merit Website Launched!

2005-05-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

We have finally launched our new website here at Go MeritGo.com! We'll be down in NYC and Jersey this weekend doing some shows if you want to come out and hang with us. We've also put a new song up on Pure Volume for you to check out. It's a lo-fi preproduction demo and it's still in the works but we know you want more new stuff! Enjoy it and check back often for new media, demo tunes for our upcoming album, touring info and other news.