TSH on stage, on Myspace...

Dearest Historians,

A reminder to those in New York, that The Secret History makes its return to the stage THIS FRIDAY October 19th! It is a special Never Mind The CMJ week blow-out at the fantastic Mondo dance party at Don Hills! No CMJ badge is needed, and admission is free with the printed out homepage from the Mondo website www.mondo-nyc.com
Otherwise it is just $5! More details at the bottom of this message...

This show will feature us debuting new songs about Sicilian misanthropes, and perplexing references to Marlene Deitrich. Lights will flash, guitars will buzz, and afterwards all will dance till' the wee hours of morn to the best indie, twee, post-punk and such. Tracks you will not hear at other nights with names one cannot say in front of one's mum.

As for the rest of the globe, we are finishing up our debut e.p, tentatively titled 'The End of Music' or 'Ghost Town Armory' or 'Grey Glitter' (perhaps we could take a vote?) whose release is still shrouded in mystery. We've put up another song from it on our dreaded myspace site...

www.myspace.com/friendsofthesecrethistory

and a third track, "The Ballad of The Haunted Hearts," will be added in about a week or so. The single itself, you will have to wait a bit longer for. But I promise you, it could be worth it. A video with japanese subtitles is also in the works.

Please add yourself to the myspace site if you haven't, as for now, that is the best way to keep up with current events. We miss all our friends of the West Coast, Sweden, The UK, and elsewhere...and hope to see you all in 08'

Love and foliage,
Mick Grace

TSH LIVE!
10/19/2007 11:30 PM - Don Hills (as part of the Mondo party)
511 Greenwich St. at Spring St.
New York City, New York
US
Cost:$5 (Free with printed out homepage from the mondo site)
www.mondo-nyc.com
www.myspace.com/friendsofthesecrethistory
www.myspace.com/mondonyc
www.myspace.com/donhills
www.donhills.com

Ophelia's Union Pool

Dearest Augustines,

A reminderfor those NYC-ers that The Secret History will be playing our first headlining show, beneathe a ragged chadelier in a small ballroom behind an excellent bar in Wiliamsburg this upcoming THURSDAY evening August 23rd. All these spaces are part of what's commonly known as Union Pool. www.myspace.com/unionpool
We are joined by the french pop via brooklyn avante-garde lovies...La laque (www.myspace.com/lalaque) & indiepop purists The Besties... (www.myspace.com/thebesties)

Lord help me if I have to type the word 'myspace' again!

Oh...yeah and you should all visit the new Secret History myspace site if you haven't already and hear a mix of a song called 'Our Lady of Pompeii,' and add yourself as a friend if you take part in that sort of thing. www.myspace.com/friendsofthesecrethistory

Alas we will be taking the stage round 11-ish, but the whole evenings entertainment is fab, plus outdoor drinking, b & w photobooths, a whole plethora of pleasure. The cover is $7.
Show number four promises to be the best yet, as the mope/glam rock opera we are paper mache-ing out of scraps of love letters and half hearted suicide notes begins to take shape. A shape which just happens to resemble (metaphorically speaking) a heart broken Montgomery Clift leaving Elizabeth Taylor's place for the last time.

So join us...surrounded as we are by ghosts, saints, runaways, death mods, and nightmares...as we figure out how to save our lives.

--M--

Oh Rupert!

As Mr. Murdoch stands on the verge of purchasing The Wall Street Journal, he has already suceeded in leveraging a something a bit more precious...my mortal soul!

Oh ok...I'm being melodramatic...I finally went live with a Myspace page for the rapidly emerging Secret History

www.myspace.com/friendsofthesecrethistory

I'll be spending the new week (or twelve) trying to invite friends and punters alike, but why not beat me to it and add us as a friend. Its quicker...

We're previewing an mix of a track called 'Our Lady of Pompeii'...which actually takes place in Iraq, telling the tale of a member of The Haunted Hearts who finds himself drowing his sorrows in blood. These are complicated times.

If i don't write something substantial soon...I'll at least post some pix.

Chat again soon!
---M---

Kill your idols

So I had the odd experience of having tickets to see two of my favorite (but slightly over-ripe) songwriters on back to back evenings this weekend, an experience made all the more unusual by the fact that I don't often go to concerts. This can be partially blamed on the fact that I'm trying to extend my remaining time on earth with hearing (oh why didn't I wear earplugs when I played all those Minor Threat covers in highschool) and partially blamed on the fact that I just don't seem to be able to have a good time all that often when I go out. That's not entirely true, I enjoyed the Camera Obscura show I saw in Spring...and I enjoyed some Swedish indie band I saw in the basement of Cakeshop one night. Anyway I digress...

Bob Dylan at the open air Jones Beach theatre on my home sandbar of Long Island. I had not seen a show there since New Order with P.I.L. and The Sugarcubes...early on in Highschool...which still makes me feel ancient to think about. I remember that I spent half the New Order set consoling some mopey girl whose name escapes me in the back of the theatre. And I don't mean 'consoling' in some cheeky lad-y way. I mean literally listening to hear moan and cry whilst missing 'Love Vigilanties.'

I do remember when I got back to my seat, it had been stolen by some bearded degenerate...who told me to fuck off. So I did. This was in my early teens of brooch wearing, Smiths listening sheepishness. Had this been in my early twenties of misguided Twiggy collages and skinhead-ism...I would have of course told him to fuck off himself...and then probably been tied into a sailors knot in 20 seconds flat. I was the only skinhead/suedehead in lower Lake Ronkonkama who only used his stanely knife for the aforementioned Twiggy collages. I do remember leaning against the back wall of the theatre and hearing N.O. play "1963" while it drizzled and feeling cooler and sadder than fuck. I digress again....

Friday Night: This was my second time seeing Dylan this year...and both were strangely sad, shadowy versions of the songs and singer who taught me so much in some not so obvious ways. His voice seems to have been ravaged by age and cigarettes, and its sort of now a monotone growl which consumes the songs alive. Still admist the disinterested crowd, getting high and texting each other, there were some moments which became strangely as beautiful as the 60s, albeit in a completely new context. His world-weary nostalgia in 'Pictures of Johanna' was like seeing something flickering under 45 years worth of smoke and darkness. His band played a lovely twinkling arrangement, and a strange yellow moon lurked over the inlet. It made me believe that something young remains in everyone, just as something old is born in us all. I kept looking and listening for moments like that all throughout the slightly repetively bluesy set, feeling a bit like a prospecter sifting through mud for bits of gold. It was a pretty bad concert, that I wouldn't have missed for the world. F.Y.I., Dylan's "Modern Times" record from this year is better than pretty much any record a 20 or 30 something put out. Though I would think that it helps if one also likes David Lynch...

Saturday Night: I was off to see Morrissey with my best friend, a younger lass whose been reading Mark Simpson's "Saint Morrissey," to try to understand why me, my brother and most of my dearest friends have trouble getting through an evening without a Smiths/Morrissey reference. It's a disease...I warn her...and she should steer clear. I think its too late...she's humming 'Now My Heart is Full" in the kitchen when I awake...she's one of us now....

We get to Madison Square Garden, and we see a bunch of Salford lads sadly clutching xeroxes, and we knew it wasn't good. "Tonights Morrissey concert is cancelled!" bellowed the administrator of disappointment, "The artist is ill. It hopefully will be be rescheduled soon."

I chuckled to myself that somehow Dylan at 67 years of age manages to perform, and even do something resembling a jig at one point. Oh well, Moz looked unwell the eve before on Letterman, and if I was playing my biggest solo show in America since his first one...some 15 years ago...I'd probably want to be at my best too.

So we walked 50 blocks to the Sunshine Theatre on the Lower East Side and saw a film called "Once," which I did not expect to like, but really did. A fact that I hope is unrelated to the fact that I paid a small fortune to see an aging folksinger play two mediocre shows over the course of 6 months....oh well...I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt.

Next Secret History show Tues July 17th at The Annex in NYC

Here are some fan video clips from our last show...
It's Not The End of World, Jonah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtBKh_mEyik
Our Lady of Stalingrad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvhsuiu2mU4
How I saved My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rL1vEOeTbY

More soon...much love...mickey grace....

Summer School Daydreams

All,

So I emerge sheepishly from much diary neglecting. The activities of this new band mingled with an exhaustive month long summer art class I'm teaching leaves me home late most evenings crashing onto my bed to read a handful of pages of De Lampedusa's "The Leopard," before falling into uneasy sleep. 8 days to go...I count down...until my work week is cut in half, and I can begin attending to half finished songs and days at the beach with my best friend and a transistor radio.

The show at the NYC Popfest was a bittersweet experience, which simultaneously reminded me of all the things I loved and didn't love so much about the old indiepop scene. In the end, the organizers cared deeply and worked really hard...and that is what matters most. But its just hard to have a kind of DIY 'anything goes' attitude when you need to charge punters $18 in order to get the shows on. I know that's the nature of doing things in this city, where a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can be $8! Its hard to secure venues, rent equipment etc...but it still created some hard to navigate contradictions.

There were probably too many bands on one level, and not enough on another. If there is one trademark of the indie ethos, its believing that anythings possible...and occasionally this means we have an Icarus moment, even when there is a song in our hearts...

I danced to Tullycraft on Friday at our Mondo Dance party, and it sounded fantastic. Pop is still what it is all about for me. But even at its most twee, the best indiepop was sort of a serious affair, filled with a reckless intensity...even if the conspirators were often in pink nail polish (me included...as I reflect). That is really evident when you visit places like Gothenburg. Most of the kids at the NYC Popfest (most of whom are no longer kids) still have that spirit...as complicated and somewhat comprimised as it is by the passing of time. The Popfest organizers bled gigham...its just the time/space continuum is a hard thing to navigate. Perhaps this first NYC Popfest in probably 10 years...had the thankless job of cleaning out at lot of old demons and dust to make way for the risorgimento. Problems aside...I know I'll be there next year (at least pogo-ing in the audience) if they are.

Here are links to a couple of clips posted on Youtube from the pop fest
Here are some fan video clips from our last show...
It's Not The End of World, Jonah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtBKh_mEyik
Our Lady of Stalingrad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvhsuiu2mU4
How I saved My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rL1vEOeTbY

Our next show is Tuesday July 17 at The Annex with the excellent Domino...

I have so much to write about, ancient viewer mail to answer and so on. I'm hoping a new high-speed Internet connection at home (I know, I know what have you been waiting for Gracie? Moon colonization?) and the previously mentioned two months of intermittent labour will lead to a lot more prose. Check back and see...

The Flowers In the Ruins of Our Youth

Children of a Lesser Mod,

The Secret History is pleased and proud too announce that our next (and second ever) performancewill take place at The Delancey discotheque and nightclub (http://www.thedelancey.com/) on the lower east side of Manhattan as part of the New York City popfest. (http://www.nycpopfest.com/) on Friday May 25th.
Full festival passes are available for all the shows on the popfest website, and I think advanced tickets for our show may be too. You may want to drop them an email for more info. I'm not so secure as to expect another sell-out ala Cakeshop, but I do know many tickets have already been sold for the whole weekend, and heck you get to see The Todbot twice, (he's apart of the excellent minimalist pop-project The Reverse with our long time chum and ex-My Favorite collaborator Tara Emelye) and that's nearly worth the price of admission in and of itself.
We are currently in the studio, working on our debut e.p, and a couple of tracks should be up on a myspace page by months end. Our website proper is also on its way. Until then you'll find updates here. Hope to see you there...party on the clubs roof to follow, a great chance to chat and catch up!

More proper blog entries soon....

Yours,

Michael Grace Jr.

Special FRIDAY MAY 25, 2007 NIGHT SHOW

$15 advance $18 doorshow 8pmages 21+ with ID

The Delancey, 168 Delancey Street, New York, NY
Baskervilles (NYC) Mitch Easter (NC) The Secret History (NYC) The Smittens (VT) Affair d'Coeur (NYC) The Reverse (NY)

Back On The Chain Gang

A quick thank you to all the New Yorkers (and at least one girl from Philadelphia) who came out for our debut show at The Cake Shop. It was a great evening, and more than a little emotional to be back in the sweaty glittering subterranea of indiedom with the kids who pop! with purpose. I know quite a few people got turned away at the door when the show sold out, so for you...and those geographically out of earshot...here are a couple of clips from the gig. A tad beneathe Pennebaker in terms of quality, but they capture a bit of what we are up to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6Y36QxSEc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DyQmPesmaY

Hope to announce some future performances soon, but until then we will be preparing for recording sessions and really putting the finishing touches on these songs. We are still looking for special guest performers/collaborators in New York, namely string players, and a female mezzo-soprano singer to help with harmonies (described by someone after the show as The Shangri-las meets The Velvet Underground) and various extra vocal duties. So drop a line if you fit the bill, and being part of a sprawling mope-rock opera tickles your fancy.
The fun also continues at the fantastic bi-weekly friday night indie party Mondo! www.mondo-nyc.com , where I'm likely to spin a set if the Red Stripe supplies enough dutch courage (what?!?)
Thanks again Gotham! Hope to see the rest of you in 2007...

Truly,
Michael Grace
Composer of Discrete Tragedies.
THE SECRET HISTORY

Concerning Sea Legs

Having spent the last four days trying to chip my car out of a block of ice, I decided to take a break and put a couple messages into bottles...

So our semi-secret debut show is happening Friday March 2nd at The Cake Shop (www.cake-shop.com) on Manhattan's LES. Ludlow Street I believe. I think sometime between 9 and 10pm. Its exciting and a bit nerve-wracking. There are still some kinks to work out for sure, but I feel like we are ready to give the new songs a workout. The Cake Shop is a bit small, but good for a warm up before we take on the world properly. It would be nice to see some friendly faces...


So between ice chipping and rehearsing, not much time for a proper peice of prose...but here are some photos from a frigid day trip to Amagansett with a lovely lass.

Out of the lab, and out on the slab

So for those loyal readers who keep peeking in to see if old Mickey Grace is ever going to write his blog again...here is a little update on all things musical and literary.

So I'm going to use as an excuse for not writing the fact that the new band is in feverish rehearsals for Spring studio dates, and a live debut in early March. It's quite exciting, but also stressful for a admitted neurotic like myself. The band is called The Secret History, and there will be a bit of a website to come. Aside from those New Yorkers who manage to make it to our show in March, the rest of you will probably have to wait until April for the first recordings to show up on some sort of website somewhere.

This new band features all the members of My Favorite minus Andrea Vaughn, and includes two new members...vocalist Lisa Ronson, and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Jessica Healy. The sound is certainly a bit different, with influences coming from the glam rock/art scene of the early 70s, but also continues to bring in the rainy sounds of C86, and a bit of the punk and soul from my suedehead days. It's kind of a fractured biography of my life through music and memory, and tells the loose story of the fictional band "The Haunted Hearts," but we don't use the term 'rock opera' round these parts...

Anyway, word will be getting out soon through emails and random acts of graffiti, but I wanted to chat with my loyal Anchorites first. I will be re-designing and updating this blog in the upcoming weeks, and it will be a good place to keep up with me and the group. I will be answering alot of long ignored viewer mail soon too.

So to everyone who has kept the faith...thank you very kindly...and see you soon....

Truly,
Michael Grace Jr.
The Secret History