3rd Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Show at Club Cafe

People of the world, we invite you to attend our

Third Annual School of Athens Ugly Christmas Sweater Show this Saturday, December 15th at Club Cafe. Doors open at 7:30 and we'll be partying all night. Josh Verbanets starts the night off at 8pm with an acoustic set and Triggers will more than warm things up for us before we take the stage. We hope it will be another sold out show crowded with the ugliest sweaters imaginable. If you haven't already picked up your sweater, go to Goodwill or your Grandmothers attic and get ready for a great time.

In other news, School of Athens was awarded two wonderful plaques by the City Paper last night, winning 2nd place for "Best Rock Band" and 3rd place for "Best Underground Band".. Thank you to everyone who voted for us. Losing to the Clarks in Pittsburgh is like losing to Tom Hanks in Hollywood, so we're very honored to be awarded for the second year in a row. You can pick up the new issue of the City Paper to see the complete list of winners. Congratulations to our friend Becky for winning best bartender at St. James Place Tavern, which happens to be our favorite five-star dive bar.

After our Club Cafe show, our last show of the year will be an all ages show at Southminster Church in Mt. Lebanon with Matt Capan and Sweet Earth The Day After at 8pm. We won't be playing in Pittsburgh till Feb or March since we'll be busy recording again early next year.

Thanks again for voting for us again this year and we hope to see you this Saturday.

Neal, Mike, Johnny and Drew

School of Athens

 

Big Weekend, Voter Fraud

This is a huge weekend for us. We're going on a tour throughout Pittsburgh. Tonight we'll be at Market Square with Big Green Tanks, tomorrow we'll be at Station Square with Good Brother Earl and Saturday we'll be playing at a park in Kennedy Township. True rock stars.

Speaking of rock stars... it's time to vote for the best of the best in Pittsburgh's City Paper again. Last year we were blessed with title of Best Indie Rock Band and this year we're campaigning for Best Pop/Rock band. I know it's lame to ask you to vote for us, but hey! VOTE FOR US HERE!

Below is my list of people you have to vote for to be my friend:

Best solo artist: Paul Luc
Best radio personality: Gab Bonesso
Best bartender: Becky Sauers
At the end of the survey is a write in space... add your name there for "Neal's best friend"

There are so many good bands in Pittsburgh we're going to have to kill so we're voted best rock band again. We need to poison Triggers, Kill The Drama and Persona Grata to have any chance...

Did you get the new Horse The Band CD yet?

We have the honor to play with one of my favorite bands, Division Day at Club Cafe on October 10th. You have to come to this show or they'll kick me in the kids. I think Barack Obama is opening.

Listen to me. The weather is changing and it's about time to buy a nice warm $12 shirt with our name and logo on it. Would you rather it be a hoodie with our faces on it? How about this... you vote for whose face should be on the shirt. Just one of us. Really big. (Mom, please vote for me)

All upcoming shows:

08/30/2007 06:00 PM - Market Square Pittsburgh
Market Square, Downtown PGH, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - free happy hour show with Big Green Tanks

08/31/2007 07:30 PM - Station Square Street Jam
100 West Station Square Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219
free outdoor show with Good Brother Earl

09/01/2007 12:00 PM - Fairhaven Park - Kennedy Township
Picnic for Darren Charles Morton

09/15/2007 09:30 PM - St. James Place
153 S 18th St, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15203

10/10/2007 08:00 PM - Club Cafe w/ Division Day
56 S 12th St, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15203
Call Club Cafe @ (412) 431-4950

10/20/2007 10:00 PM - Brillobox
Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
with Luc

Neal wrote this, Drew, Mike and Johnny were here in heart.

If you can't read this email the way I intended it to be (intriguing and mystical) then go here to see it online.

Email 8-16-07

Greetings from my lunch break at work. Someday I'll be writing "Greetings from the road" but until then I'll just steal company time to tell you, to beg and plead to you to come see us tomorrow at Peter's Pub in Oakland with the band 28 North at 10pm. It's going to be one of those shows where we try to out-drink Steve the homeless guy who sits outside of 7-11. Speaking of the homeless, or the home-challenged, I almost got into a fight with a homeless guy the other day outside of PNC Park. Does that make me look bad? I can't help the fact I needed some beer... er.. bus money.

A recent poll shows that people like our new shirts, stickers and pins. They're selling like iPhones, but at half the price. That's right, our shirts are only $280... but you can get them right now online for $12 or at our upcoming shows. Click this link to buy a shirt.

All upcoming shows:

08/17/2007 09:00 PM - Peter's Pub
116 Oakland Ave, Oakland, Pennsylvania 15213 - $3

08/30/2007 06:00 PM - Market Square Pittsburgh
Market Square, Downtown PGH, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - free happy hour show with Big Green Tanks

08/31/2007 07:30 PM - Station Square Street Jam
100 West Station Square Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219 - free outdoor show

09/01/2007 12:00 PM - Fairhaven Park - Kennedy Township
Fairhaven Park - Kennedy Township, Kennedy Township, Pennsylvania
Picnic for Darren Charles Morton

10/06/2007 06:00 PM - Diesel
1601 E Carson St, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15203

10/20/2007 10:00 PM - Brillobox
Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
with Luc

Okay, I'll leave you with a bit of advice. Thanks for not unsubscribing from our list.

A wise man told me don't argue with fools
Cause people from a distance can't tell who is who

~ Jay Z circa 2001

Neal Johnny Drew and Mike make up School of Athens

If you can't read this email the way I intended it to be (pretty) then go here to see it online.

Email 7 -18 -07

How cute! You know we're friends in real life, too? When we're not playing music or working on our reality show (tentatively titled "The New Friends") you can find us playing a round of golf at Oakmont, shopping the streets of Beverly Hills or even having slumber parities at Andy Dick's house.

Fun fact of the week: Mike's favorite color is periwinkle pink (its a hybrid color he actually developed himself!) and his favorite Starbucks drink is a mocha latte frap with whipped cream and sprinkles (he smuggles in the sprinkles himself.. shh!)

Ok, enough fun. We've got some news for you's.

We've got some new merch on the way, so get ready for some new shirts, pins and stickers. Here's what the shirts will look like. Be sure to go to our website and order one at the end of the month. That's 12 days from now.

We've been busy booking shows around town, so come see us soon. We're playing this Friday at Southminster Church in Mt. Lebanon. It's an all ages show so be sure to watch out for John Mark Karr lurking in the crowd.

Here's the complete list:

07/20/2007 07:30 PM - Southminster Mt. Lebanon
799 Washington Rd, Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania 15228 - free - with Dakota, Crossings Crew and Ben Prisbylla

08/03/2007 01:00 PM - Mt. Lebanon Street Festival
tba, Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania - free

08/17/2007 09:00 PM - Peter's Pub
116 Oakland Ave, Oakland, Pennsylvania 15213 - $3

08/30/2007 06:00 PM - Market Square Pittsburgh
Market Square, Downtown PGH, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - free happy hour show with Big Green Tanks

08/31/2007 07:30 PM - Station Square Street Jam
100 West Station Square Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219 - free outdoor show

I hope you're planning on coming to all of these shows... even you Federica!

Also, please check out our Virb music account. It's kind of like myspace, but without all the dirty needles. We're hoping the site catches on.

If you can't see the email correctly, call Ched's Computer Repairs in Imperial PA or simply click on this link to see the website version.

Thanks for the gift of literacy.

Neal, Mike, Johnny and the singer guy in the band too.

Tracy Morgan

Met Tracy Morgan last night... most hilarious dude ever...

South Side Project Show

Vote Luke!

We had to pleasure of meeting Mayor Luke Ravenstahl at the Maniac Magazine launch party. Awesome guy.

Modest Mouse

The new modest mouse CD is amazing.
That's all.

Buy a CD!

We would like to thank everyone who came to our CD release party at Diesel last weekend... we had a great time! Thanks to everyone who bought a CD. This scammy little email is actually a ploy to have you buy a CD, too. You can buy an actual copy of the CD at the buy now link below, or you can buy a digital download here.
The CD is $7 online (free shipping).

Also, the CD was just reviewed by the Pittsburgh City Paper and you can read the write-up
here. We'd love to know what you think of the review, so leave a comment on the City Paper's site at the bottom of the page.

We have a few shows coming up, including tonight at PD's Pub in Squirrel Hill. Get directions here. we're playing at 10 and there's some good drink specials.
We're also playing at RPM's in Bridgeville on March 30th, but we'll bug you about that later.

Thanks for reading this far.

Neal, Johnny, Mike and Drew

The Dark Alley of the Internet

Myspace is the needle-ridden homeless infested dark alley of the internet. It's the internet's largest home of everything from side-project-side-project bands to dateline nbc's favorite topic of every show in the past 8 months? I thought the idea of myspace was a great one, and I still do, but somewhere along the line, the bright lights of myspace started to dim and out came the 55 year old basement dwellers signing up as 17 year old high school students.

Luckily, a new uber social networking site has come along called Virb. We're on it and we hope all you honest people join up. But, we'll still be on the dirty dirty myspace, too.

Neal

What chu do... fall dahn?

Drew took a hilarious nose-dive last night at Lava Lounge while jumping on his piano. If anyone has any pics or stories, please comment... He's not dead and didn't break anything somehow...

Neal