Outta Time

Whenever I try to do any kind of business for the band, or even try to post on this blog I'm reminded of why we're breaking up. It's really hard to keep a band going while you're working full time. We've been getting stuff ready for the tour and the 7" while trying to juggle busy lives and some of us living out of state, so it's not as easy as it used to be. That being said, here's a little run-down on what's been going on. Hopefully later I can post about some of these things in greater detail.

Facedown Fest


Facedown Fest was a lot of fun as always, but this time was different since it was our last west coast show and it was our first time not touring out there. We all flew in to San Diego on Thursday and ate In-N-Out Burger immediately. We had really missed it. Our friend Drew happened to be in town with A Day to Remember, so we called him up and ended up hanging out at their show with 6,000 screaming tweens. It was quite an experience. The fest itself was a lot of fun and we're really going to miss going out there. Our set was great and the kids really made it worth our while.

Here's a short clip from the set where we play Empty Promises and a No Warning cover. I was stoked that so many kids knew that song:


Also, here's a video of 60 dudes in black t-shirts trying to take a picture on the beach.


And this is what it came out looking like.

Pretty cool, huh?

Validation



We just got done recording our final release, the "Validation" 7". It's finishing getting mastered right now and we're really excited about it. I think it's really going out on a high note for us and we can't wait for you to hear the new songs. Here's the tracklisting in case you're interested.

1. Exploit, Neglect, Condemn
2. Validation
3. Closer
4. To become One

We'll be posting more about that soon, including details about the pressing.

The Final Tour

We've just announced our final tour for this summer. We'll be heading out with a band we love touring with, Dead Icons, and our new friends in Dynasty. We tried to hit up places we love playing and for a two week tour it's pretty spread out. If we didn't make it to you area, we're really sorry. Here's the dates:

6/15 Fayetteville GA @ 11th Hour Venue **
6/16 Columbia SC @ Unit One Art Space
6/17 Whitesburg KY @ Letcher County Tourism
6/18 Cookeville TN @ Westside Station
6/19 Southhaven MS @ Cafe 549
6/20 Little Rock AR @ Downtown Music Hall
6/21 Tyler TX @ The Attic
6/22 Houston TX @ Cain's Ashes
6/23 McAllen TX @ VFW Hall
6/24 San Antonio TX @ The White Rabbit
6/25 Dallas TX @ The Door

6/26 Tulsa OK @ The Reverb w/ Onward To Olympus
6/27 Springfield MO @ Salad Days w/ Onward To Olympus
6/28 Springfield IL @ Black Sheep Cafe
6/29 Bushnell IL @ Cornerstone (Blood & Ink Friends Night) **
6/30 Bushnell IL @ Cornerstone **
7/01 Bushnell IL @ Cornerstone **

7/05 Evansville IN @ The Rev **
7/06 Chattanooga @ The Warehouse **

** No Dead Icons


We'll be announcing our final Florida dates very soon. Until then we're playing an awesome fest next week in Ft Lauderdale called Bringing it Back For The Kids Fest. There's a lot of awesome bands playing so you should definitely be there!



That's it for now. Check back soon!
-Harbor

California Uber Alles

I shouldn't be up this late since tomorrow will be such a long day. In a matter of hours we will be flying out to California in preparation of Facedown Fest 2011. We always love coming out to the west coast and we're especially excited about this show. Not only is it Facedown Fest, but it's our last west coast show ever, and that's a pretty big deal. We got a pretty good set planned. A lot of older ones and a few of our favorites. Get STOKED!

In other news, we're almost done writing the 7". We're going to be recording this month at Warrior in Chapel Hill, where we recorded Life Of Defiance. We're excited about these 4 songs. They're not like anything we've written before, and for our last release, why not? We're going to be announcing a title for the 7" very soon, so keep checking it out.

There's going to be a lot more posts on here from now on. We promise.

See you soon California!

The Beginning of the End

It's been a long time since we've updated this thing and a lot has changed since then. Last year was a turbulent year for this band. On the positive side we put out a new record, we went to Europe for the first time and stayed on the road for most of the year. The negative was that we got into debt, debt that we couldn't seem to get ahead of no matter how many tours we did and half the band had to stop touring, leaving us a band full of fill ins. That leads us to where we are today, a band that has started to feel weary, tired and factioned. That's why we've decided to hang it up and this year will be our final year as a band. Here's the official statement:

After eight years, three full-lengths and countless tours all over, Call to Preserve is calling it quits. For the past year or so we’ve done our best to keep functioning as a band despite losing members and having remaining members cut back their involvement. Now all of us are being pulled in different directions and our aspirations for our future have expanded much further than being on tour all the time. With some of us moving away, going back to school or starting careers, we just can’t sacrifice our time to this band like we used to. It would be a disservice to ourselves to do CTP half heartedly, so instead we want to go out on a high note and enjoy our last few months as a band.

We want to do our best to make sure those who want to can come see us for the last time. This April we’ll be playing our last west coast show at Facedown Fest 2011 and in the coming months we’ll be announcing our last tour dates, which will include a stop at Cornerstone Festival. Our last show will be near the end of July this summer in Melbourne, Florida. More details will be announced soon.

In these final months we’ll also be working on a few new songs that will be on a 7” coming out this summer on Facedown Records. We’ve wanted to put out vinyl for years and felt we had a few more things to say before we go, so this seemed like the perfect time and place to put out a 7”.

We never thought that this band would get as far as it did. We never thought we’d have the chance to travel so much and tour with some of our favorite bands and make such amazing friends from all over the world. We are eternally grateful for the chance we were given to play music and actually have people listen. We want to thank Jason Dunn and Facedown Records for standing behind us for the past five years, being some of the easiest people to work with and for just being great friends. We want to thank all the bands we’ve met and toured with who have become some of our best friends and we will miss the shows and the hangouts dearly. Finally we want to thank everyone who has supported us by coming to a show, buying a shirt, letting us sleep on your floor or feeding us. We are more thankful than you’ll ever know.

Thanks for listening and see you soon. – CALL TO PRESERVE

Knowing that the end is so close this blog suddenly feels important again, a feeling that felt lost when we were on the road with only two original members and we seemed to still be playing to the same small crowds when we first started. There's this feeling now that we need to document our history while it's still here and fresh in our minds, so that's what we'll do. In the next few months we'll do our best to look at what's going to be happening in these final months, and also look back on the eight years of CTP's existence.

It's going to be a fun next 6 months. Let's go out with a bang!

Updates!!!

Hey kids! so there's a lot to cover, so I'll be brief. Here it goes:

We got back from Europe about 2 weeks ago and it was a blast! It was seriously one of the best experiences of our lives and we're stoked we were able to go. We did have a pretty awful situation trying to get back home (and it didn't have anything to do with a volcano) you can read about that here on Harbor's blog. Nonetheless it was amazing and can't wait to go back. Here's a few shots from Europe:








Next order of business:



We were stoked to be heading out with our good friends Take it Back! on the "Breaking All The Brules Tour!" It's going to be a blast so make sure you go. We'll also have some additional summer dates posted shortly.

and finally...


Our new album "Life of Defiance" will be out June 8th and you can now pre-order from Facedown, and all pre-orders will be eligible to win a one-of-a-kind CTP skateboard deck! You can do that here. We recently posted a new song from the album called "Functionary." You can check that out here.

That's it for now. See everyone on the road!

The Rain in Spain.

Sorry about the length of time without an update. We've been busy covering the entire continent of Europe. You know, no big deal. After a week or two in Eastern Europe, we moved into the warmer and more civilized counties like France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. It's been rad. The other day we got to hang out in Badalona, Spain, a vibrant little city on the Mediterranean outside of Barcelona. We hung out on the beach and then got lost in the city. That's what we've been best at. Wandering away from the venue every day and getting lost. Today we were in Lyon, France. We got lost and then ended up at this park with all these gardens and atriums that were built around the turn of the century. There were deer just walking around and a lot of people on razor scooters for some reason. It was wild!

A couple days before that we were in Lisboa, Portugal a huge city on the coast. It's an old city with tons of statues, cathedrals and narrow streets that wind up and down the hills and makes no sense. The venue we played that night was on a street too narrow for the tour bus, so we unloaded the trailer at a hotel across town and had to load everything into the promoter's van. It took about 3 trips to get everyone and every thing there. The ride to the venue was like a death race dodging traffic and old trollies through the streets. The venue was at the bottom of a hill and the road going up the hill actually went over the venue, but it was just an overpass, there was a city block built on top of the venue. WILD.


Shows have been lots of fun and we've been having a blast with Agnostic Front and This is Hell hanging out on the bus. We couldn't ask for better bands to see Europe for the first time with. Here's a a few pictures from my phone, with the exception of the live shots. Some better ones coming soon


Bydgeszcz, Poland


Leipzig, Germany


Hamburg, Germany




Switzerland


Badalona, Spain






Lisbon, Portugal




Lyon, France


A video blog we'll be up soon, and hopefully if this volcano in Iceland chills out soon, they can resume European air travel and we'll be home in just over a week. If not we might be stuck here for a while. We'll see. That's it for now. More updates soon!

Greetings from Eastern Europe!

We have been on our European tour With Agnostic Front for about a week now and it's been pretty rad. We've been chillin' on the bus, hanging out with skin heads, storming castles, things like that. It's been a lot of fun.
The tour started out in Kassel, Germany. We flew in the day before and hung out with our German friend Tim from Today Forever, who was nice enough to order all our food for us since we don't speak German. The next we played the first show to over 500 people. The place was packed! When Agnostic Front came on the place went insane, and that's how it's been every night.

After Kassel we headed to Wroclaw, Poland, our crossover into eastern Europe where the effects of the iron curtain are still visible. In Kassel the crowd was about 50/50 hardcore kids to skinheads. In Eastern Europe there's about 80 skinheads for every 20 hardcore kids. Skinhead culture is alive and well in Eastern Europe. This might explain our mediocre merch sales. Don't get me wrong. People are getting into it and we're having a lot of fun, but none of our merch has iron crosses on it, so they're not interested.
The other day we played Bratislava, Slovakia, a beautiful modern city with an old world feel. It was a fun show and we got to check out the city before the show, including Bratislava Castle. The next day we played in Kocise which is close to Slovakia's border with Ukraine. It was quite the contrast to Bratislava: grey, dreary and depressing. Exactly what you would think former communist city would look like. What's strange though is how much people love ska and dancehall out here. In the most depressing city so far, the back stage had Specials and Aggrolites posters everywhere and the walls were painted with checkerboards and Jamaican colors. Ska is alive and well in Slovakia.

Today we're in Leipzig, Germany at a place called Conne Island and it's supposed to be awesome. They already made us some tasty sandwiches, so I got a good feeling.

The week before we left for this tour we were finishing up our new record "Life of Defiance." so here's our video blog from making the record. We had a pretty good time. Check it out:



That's it for now. There will be a bunch more updates about tour and the new album soon!

We're in Europe!

A lot is happening right now. I will go into detail about happenings in the next couple days, but for now here is the rundown.

- Our new album "Life of Defiance" is now mixed and mastered. The recording went pretty great and we're happy with the way everything came out, and I'm in the process of editing the video from making the record. "Life of Defiance" will be out June 8th and will be having several cd release shows planned that week, as well as some June tour dates. We're also working on some dates for May, so be on the look out for those.

- We left yesterday for our Euro tour with Agnostic Front and This is Hell and we couldn't be more stoked. We got into Amsterdam this afternoon, where our buddy Tim from Today Forever picked us up and took us to his hometown Kassel, Germany where we kick off the tour tomorrow. We haven't done a whole lot yet, but we got a chance to walk around Kassel today and take it all in. It's a beautiful city and is almost postcard like. Later on Tim took us to our first German disco, which is a lot like any club in the states, except no one seems desperate. Just something I picked up on. Also Tim insisted we try a type of soda called malt beer, which he said was like root beer, but as it turns out its not. My conclusion was that it tasted like a barely sweet beans and rice flavored soda. Not so good.
So there's going to be a lot going on and I'm going to try and update this as much as possible. Keep checking back!
-Harbor

We're shuttin' Down The Studio

We've been at Warrior Sound recording "Life of Defiance" for the past four days, and I'm sitting here listening to John lay down the first vocal tracks. Given our our limited number of days before we leave for tour we've spent all day here everyday. I have to say I think everything is coming even better than we hoped it would. It's already sounding pretty killer and and its only been four days.

This recording experience has been quite different than recording From Isolation. Last time around we were in Boston and had two weeks of 6 hour days. This time we're in a rural town outside of Chapel Hill, NC and we're doing 6 10 hour days. Last time we were a 5 peice and brought 2 of our friends with us. This time we're a 4 peice, we didn't bring any friends with us and mike had to leave after he finished tracking drums. We've spent a lot more time recording and less time goofing around and yelling at girls with umbrellas. I personally have spent much more time playing on this album than last time, which means I've been able to document the process less. This makes for a good record, but not for hilarious video blogs. Don't worry there will be some, but I can't promise they'll be as funny as last time.

It hasn't been all work and no play though. The other night the dudes from Advent came by and hung out with us, and mike from For Today showed up out of nowhere. It ruled. Tonight they're coming by to help us with some gang vocals and I'm sure some serious partying will ensue. I'm sure you can infer who's doing some guest vocals on this record.

Here's a few shots from this week:









We leave for our European tour with Agnostic Front and This is Hell in one week. Get stoked!

It's Crunch Time, Kids!

With everything we have to get ready for I shouldn't be blogging right now, so I'll make this short.

We played two shows last month with Take it Back!, Ambush!, and Continuance. It was a lot of fun, as it almost always is with those guys. The first show was in Melbourne and it was pretty much just our friends there, which was alright, but it would've been nice to have some other people there so they could hear our new songs. The Tampa show was a lot of fun, but it was quite different. john had a naga tournament in south florida he had to be at, so he had to miss the show. Chase Moore of Seventh Star fame filled in on bass and I did vocals. I had a blast and kids responded well. Thanks to everyone for putting up with me.

Now its March 10 and we're just a week away from going to record our next album. We'll be recording at Warrior Sound in Chapel hill, North Carolina. Advent recorded their new album there and it sounds pretty amazing so we're stoked. And the title of the album:

"Life of Defiance"

Deal with it.
After that we'll be home for about 3 days before we jump on a plane for Europe and start our tour with Agnostic Front and This is Hell. This is going to be unreal. I still don't think it's hit that in the next month and half I will have been to about 10 different countries I've never been to before. WILD.

Just like last time, we're going to record all the studio hijinks and put it up on the world wide web. We will do the same for Europe. Be on the look out. We're about to be crazy busy.
-Harbor

A new video with old footage.

I finally got around to putting together a video blog. This one is footage the past year that we never got to do anything with. Mostly because I ran out of space on my computer. And also because I'm lazy. I'm calling this "The Lost Tapes" and there will be a part two of this segment along shortly. Enjoy!


Also don't forget about these shows this week. We'll be playing some new songs so come out to 'em!

European tour 2K10

We're heading to Europe this spring with the one and only AGNOSTIC FRONT as well as THIS IS HELL. We're super stoked and it's going to be an amazing tour. Check out the dates:
Mar 28 - Kassel @ Spot (Germany)
Mar 29 - Wroclaw @ Alibi (Poland)
Mar 30 - Bratislava @ Randal Club (Slovakia)
Mar 31 - Kosice @ Colloseum Club (Slovakia)
Apr 1 - Leipzig @ Conne Island (Germany)
Apr 2 - Bydgoszcz @ Estrada Bar (Poland)
Apr 3 - Rostock @ Zwischenbau (Germany)
Apr 7 - Traun @ Spinnerei (Austria)
Apr 8 - Cham @ L.A. (Germany)
Apr 9 - Castelletto Cervo (Biella) @ Koko Club (Italy)
Apr 10 - Montpellier @ Secret Place (France)
Apr 11 - Badalona @ Estraperlo Club (Spain)
Apr 12 - Madrid @ TBA (Spain)
Apr 13 - Lissabon @ Music Box (Portugal)
Apr 14 - Arrasate @ Hiru (Spain)
Apr 15 - Biarritz @ Atabal (France)
Apr 16 - Lyon @ CCO (France)
Apr 17 - Arlon @ L’Entrepôt (Belgium)
Apr 18 - Eindhoven @ Dynamo (Netherlands)
Apr 19 - Karlsruhe @ Die Stadtmitte (Germany)
Apr 20 - Montbeliard @ Atelier des Moles (France)
Apr 21 - Weinheim @ Café Central (Germany)
Apr 22 - Bochum @ Matrix (Germany)
Apr 23 - Meerhout @ Groezrock (Belgium)
Apr 24 - Berlin @ SO36 (Germany)
Also we're confirmed to record our next album in March. Keep out for all this stuff. Good Things! See you on the other side of the pond.

Waking up out of hibernation

This is our first show in a long time and it's good to be playing with some of good friends like Take it Back! We'll be playing some new songs so make sure to come check us out.
Here's what our schedule is looking like right now:
February: Florida shows
March: Recording new album
April: Europe tour
May: US tour
early summer: new album
So yea we're not dead. We're actually quite alive.

What's Up Stangers?

So there hasn't been a lot to post about lately. We got off our last tour over a month ago and we haven't played any shows since. In fact, we don't have any more tours planed for the rest of the year. So what gives?

Well first off, a few of us are taking this time to focus on school. Actually 3/4 of the band is focusing on school so that's taking up a lot of time. The other reason (and the one you're probably more interested in) is that we're taking this time to write new material for our next album. With school and having one member living on the other side of the state, it's a slow going process(Thank God for Garage Band and Ichat!) but we're working it out. I have to say I'm personally pleased with the music we've written so far. It may catch you off guard. We'll see.

The tentative plan is to record early next year. We'll be going back to Boston to work with the one and only Jim Siegal, and then the record should be out in the spring. Will we finally release something on vinyl? Maybe...

Our other order of business is finding a new bass player. For those of you who didn't catch us over the summer playing as a four peice, Kyle had to leave the band at the beginning of the summer. Nothing dramatic or anything. He's just up to his eyeballs in debt and can't afford to be in a band that doesn't make any money, so now he's got a 9-5. We still love him and wish him the best in his battle against the credit bureau.
If you're interested in trying out send us a message on the myspace. Here's a few of the requirements:

-Loves Jesus
-Straight Edge
-Able to tour full time
-Lives in Florida or willing to relocate
-Good attitude!

And these aren't required but preferred:

-Pro gear (and it has to work too)
-Good taste in music (subject to my opinion)
-Into The Office, 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Friday Night Lights
-Can quote most of Waynes World, Zoolander, and Airheads
-Ability to skate is always a plus
-You don't wear stupid shirts that are sold at truck stops. We already got one of those.
-You gotta be able to hang!
That's it for now kids. See everyone in a few months.

Roof tour 2k9.

Up until two days go we were on tour with one of the heaviest bands in the world. A band called Advent. We traveled across the Southern United States with them, playing in states including Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and finally ending in the great state of Florida, where we would have beach parties by day and play hardcore by night. Here's how it went.

Last July after playing the world famous Cornerstone festival we met up with Advent and did a short tour through the north and the midwest. During this time we found we really like touring with each other. And not just a little bit. Like a lot! You couldn't really ask for more from a band to tour with. They all like good music, they're always down to hang out, and they all have really cool hair (seriously, it's perfectly quaffed.) We decided we needed to do it again. Fast forward to the end of August and we were driving to Birmingham to meet up again on part two of the ADV/CTP tour.

The month we had in between tours Advent had lost their old drummer Chris and found a fill in named Jordan. Pretty much right when they got to the first show Joe from Advent pulled me aside and told me that their new drummer was a little strange and socially awkward. He told me Jordan was homeschooled and was very sheltered, so he was almost frightened to go on tour. He was even paranoid he'd be beaten up by some rouge straight edge gang. Being the Gulla Bull that I am I believed him, and it seemed right to do so because that dude WAS super weird. He introduced himself to me about three times while never making eye contact. He grumbled to himself and always looked super paranoid and uncomfortable. It was like having Rain Man around. I even asked Joe later if he was autistic, which became super awkward when I saw Jordan peaking around and staring at me from behind the corner. As it turned out Jordan is not autistic. In fact he's pretty normal guy and I had believed one of many crazy untrue stories that Advent would tell me over the next couple weeks.


The tour started in Alabama and winded its way through Nashville, where we played with the ultra gritty and ultra heavy Mankind, and on to Oklahoma where we played with our buddies in Take it Back! Further into tour we made it to Mcallen Texas, a small border town that always has sick shows. Not only was the show amazing, but we spent some time exploring the roof of the local VFW hall, much to the dismay of the bartender at the VFW. Me and Mike and three of the guys from Advent are up on the roof for about a 30 minutes with no one noticing, just being goofballs and reenacting scenes from the Matrix. When we decide to get down a guy in his 60's and a security guard walk outside looking at us like we're crazy. At the same time a mafia looking guy drives up in Cadillac giving us the same look. It's like if there were two Robert Deniros and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson looking like they were ready to rough you up. Quickly Johnny makes up a story that we were goofing around and someone's wallet got thrown onto the roof and we came up to retrieve it. The mafia guy got real concerned. "Well did you find the wallet?" We assured him we found it and he seemed relieved and we all got off the roof without getting a beating from the Mcallen VFW mob.

After a grueling 16 hour drive into Florida, we played our next show in Freeport. A little rural town on the gulf coast. It's pretty much the last place you would think to have a hardcore show. We got to the show, which ended up being in someone's backyard in the middle of nowhere, thinking this was a big mistake and we're all going to get murdered. But kids literally came out of the woodwork and the backyard was packed out. It was a fun little show in a place that could've been the site of folk festival. Or a chainsaw massacre. Or both. The next day was followed by some down time hanging out in the gulf of Mexico. Jumping off channel markers. Swimming with sharks. You know, the usual.

Wednesday we played a sold out show in Jacksonville with a little band called Have Heart and our friends we met in Canada, Cruel Hand, along with some other amazing bands like Crime in Stereo and Foundation. We got to open and the place was nuts from our set up until the last note played by Have Heart. I don't know what else to say except it was seriously one of the best shows I've ever been to. I'll leave it at that.


The tour ended Saturday night in Lake City with kids going wild pretty much the whole night, and us ending the set with a pretty horrible American Nightmare cover. Still fun none the less and it was a great way to end the tour. It's been a couple days and we miss those Advent dudes. Already. They're great guys who have their heads in the right place and are one of the heaviest hitting bands out there. By the way, go check out their new album "Naked and Cold." It will blow your mind.

That's it for now. Check back for a bunch of videos. Later!