Discover: The Rungs, and listen to their debut EP

We’re so happy with this review of our music on the Backseat Mafia website. See what they have to say about us! There are a lot of other great bands to discover on here too. Check it out:

 Discover: The Rungs, and listen to their debut EP.

via Discover: The Rungs, and listen to their debut EP.

Backseat Mafia
Backseat Mafia

These guys are on facebook too: https://www.facebook.com/BackseatMafia

A Musical Marathon

The benefit was a success! We raised over $1000 for women’s and children education programs in Nepal, and attendance at the door was just over 100.

Diwas rode the bus in from New York City late Friday night arriving only a few hours before setting up for the 4-8pm Saturday evening benefit. After not seeing each other for a couple of weeks, it felt so good to play our songs together on stage! Much of our set is dependent on bouncing spontaneous ideas off of each other, so it’s a little different each time.  Sometimes being a little less rehearsed makes for a fun energy on stage and after being under the weather for practically all of January, it felt good to just let the songs take me away.

Mandy & Diwas @ Rock for Himalayas
photo by Local Shakes

 

Gabe Tavares and Sisu PTM followed The Rungs opening set. It is usually just Gabe Tavares and Powder the Moon, but Diwas played drums with them for the first time, hence the addition of ‘Sisu’ in the name. I loved the sound of the trio!

Gabriel Tavares & Sisu Powder the Moon
photo by Local Shakes

 

 

Following their set, Diwas joined the drummer from his old band Ayurveda to play some popular Nepali songs. Those two can really rock together and I enjoyed jumping up to play bass on a couple of songs with them.

Mike the bad-ass drummer!
photo by Local Shakes

 

Closing the evening was one of our favorite Ithaca bands, Boy With a Fish. We were so happy they agreed to volunteer their time for our event, it was really very special! The crowd just lit up when Boy with a Fish began to play, everyone danced and cut loose to the music.

Boy With a Fish
photo by Local Shakes

 

After breaking everything down we had to hustle over to another venue, the Haunt, where the Sutras were opening up for the Fly Rod’s CD release. I’ve been singing with the Sutras since July and I just love it! I feel so lucky to be a part of this band.

The Sutras!

 

The Fly Rods are good old rock ‘n roll and they capped the night with just that. My sister and I got our groove on the dance floor while they rocked on stage. Overall I’d say they had a successful CD release, but I do wonder what’s going to happen to CDs as the Internet continues to influence music. The amount that people are willing to pay for music seems to decrease. I know these guys put a lot of hard work into putting their album together and it sounds fantastic. Definitely a staple in my car cd collection (since long drives are when I really enjoy my cd collection!)

fly rods haunt local shakes jan 2014
Fly Rods CD Release
photo by Local Shakes

Lots of pictures and videos were taken at the events by local music promotion team, Local Shakes. Artists can just be the worst at promoting themselves and local shakes is doing something really important for local musicians, promoting and spreading the word about music and events. If you are in the Finger Lakes region, get in touch with these guys!! All (but one) of the pictures in this entry are by them and more videos are available on their facebook page.

I just wish every Saturday was filled with back-to-back shows like this!!!

A busy weekend ahead!

image

 

Getting ready for a busy weekend ahead! Saturday is going to be a long day. First, The Rungs will play a benefit for the non-profit organization, Educate the Children, at Lot 10 4-8pm. Then, I will head over to sing with the Sutras, who are opening for The Fly Rods CD release party! This should be fun. Lots of music. I just hope I am over this never-ending cold by then!

I wish this is how every week felt, with a busy weekend of shows ahead.  More shows please!

Through My Headphones

through my headphones

Months ago when I thought we would record and release our songs, I shared a demo recording with the writer of the music blog ‘Through My Headphones’ to inquire about a review. He gave me the most encouraging response, and when we didn’t finish our songs until 4 months later, he was still readily willing to review our tracks.

I love the thoughtfulness he put into describing our music and the effort he has made to help us get it out there. Thank youuuuu!!!! The pic he chose to share is also one of my favorites of Diwas and Me. It was taken on the beach in Florida, in my hometown, and I feel a little warmer just looking it.

Check out Through My Headphones here: http://www.throughmyheadphones.com/#axzz2qncXd7TQ

If you have twitter and facebook, do like and share the review. For both of us, the band and the blog. You get a whole bundle of sharing with just one click!

A benefit January 25th

It seems that I am now playing double bills every show! On January 25th, The Rungs will play a benefit for Educate the Children, a not for profit organization that provides education and skill development programs to women and children in Nepal. The benefit will be held from 4-8pm at Lot 10 in Ithaca. Immediately afterwards, I will head over to another venue, The Haunt in Ithaca, to sing with my fav band, The Sutras! What are the odds of both shows happening in the same night? Lets just hope my crazy cold goes away by then!

Missed Connections Lyric Video

I’m on a roll with the lyric videos!

Seems like I’m still pretty knocked out with this cold. Nothing to do but drink hot tea and make lyric videos! Since I can’t really sing at the moment, (finally getting my voice back after losing it a few days ago), I might as well make it easier for others to sing my songs instead!

Here is Missed Connections:

My First Lyrics Video!

A change in arctic winds has brought super cold air down to the northwest.. and it is unbearable! It finally got the best of me and I’ve been knocked out with a bad cold the past few days. To help make the most of it, I made my first lyrics video while laying in bed with hot tea.

I really enjoy singing along to lyrics videos, and I always look for something basic, just the lyrics, clear and easy to read, so this is what I wanted to go for. I chose ‘Confluence of Anomalies,’ since it seems to be my favorite song off of our recent EP right now.

Not being the most skilled in video making, I started very basic, using iMovie on my MacBook. I created an image in Photoshop with our logo and the song title, and another image that was all black, to serve as the background for the lyrics. I dragged the images and the mp3 file into iMovie, and typed the lyrics in white font using the text boxes. It was easy to increase or decrease the duration of each text box so that they lined up with the song.

Here is the final video:

Now the weather is looking much warmer today, the snow is melting away, and I’m starting to feel a little better.

Emerging indie bands

A talented writer and indie music supporter at emerging indie bands music blog reviewed The Rungs EP! It brightened up our day to read such beautiful words about our music,  and we’re feeling very thankful for the indie music support that websites like this create.

Check it out the review because it is a good read! http://emergingindiebands.com/the-rungs-synth-dance/

When we started playing our first shows a little over a year ago, I wouldn’t have predicted us evolving into a ‘real band.’ I guess it all depends on what you define as a band, but now we have an EP out, a real music release! And I have stickers now. Band stickers! So based on the music release and sticker scale, I’d say we’re getting pretty close to real band material.

Boy were those first few shows rough. I made silly mistakes, forgot chords, mumbled mixed up lyrics, and the list of goofy errors goes on. Thankfully, Diwas exercised the most amazing patience with my newbie musician growing pains. Because you have to start somewhere right?

The Rungs early days

 

Okay lets be real here, I still do all of those things at our live shows, but at least less frequently!

The point is, if any closet musicians are out there reading this, then run out to your nearest open mic! Don’t be afraid of sharing your music because releasing it to the world and letting go of the hesitations is one of the most rewarding feelings! Take it from me and my new EP 🙂 And take it from folks who are supporting indie musicians, like our generous emergingindiebands.com reviewer.

 

The Debut EP!

Happy New Year everyone! We are kicking off 2014 by self-releasing our debut EP!

Thanks to all of our old and new friends, 2013 was filled with fun live shows, lots of inspiration to create new music, and most importantly, good people to share it with. These songs are for you!

https://soundcloud.com/the-rungs/sets/the-rungs-ep

If you like what you hear, help us share our songs and connect with us via our social media pages here on the left and right menus.

Bloggers – We are looking for bloggers to help review our EP. Feel free to email me at mandy@rungsrungsrungs.com and I will gladly send you song downloads and any information you’d like about the band.

Thank you and best wishes to all 🙂 

We are The Rungs :)
We are The Rungs. Thanks for supporting our music 🙂

 

Need band stickers?

We have stickers!

A great friend and highly talented artist designed the perfect visual art for us to use as a logo to represent the band.

Thanks to the good folks at 123stickers.com, that logo can now adhere itself to endless surfaces! The stickers arrived just in time for the new year and I would definitely recommend 123stickers.com to any other musicians out there in need of a sticker. I’m  very happy with the quality of the product, simple ordering process and fair prices from these guys.

If you anyone would like a sticker of our newly designed logo, message us your address and we will happily mail one to you in 2014!

-mandy

The Rungs stickers
The Rungs stickers