We are excited to return home to Knoxville! Along with The Decemberists and Delta Spirit, we’ll be headlining Rhythm N’ Blooms! Make your plans to join us in our hometown April 10th -12th!
We’re pumped to get down to sunny Fort Lauderdale and play Tortuga 2015 with Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band, and many more!
Check out our acoustic cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police”! Let us know what songs you’d like us to do in the future!
– TDG
the last few days i’ve possessed a feeling of chill that’s so chill, that i can’t do anything else but chill…the chill that follows something victorious…this feeling stems from our recent back to back hometown rock shows…nothing excites us more than playing our hometown, so we decided to do a two night rock and roll binge in our wondrous ecosystem, knoxville, tn…we haven’t played the motherland in a while, so we greatly anticipated our return…the pressure was heavy on us to put together a rockin weekend for our knoxville family, so we bounced around a lot of questions/ideas for each show…what covers should we learn?? how should we construct our encores each night?? who should we ask to open for us?? what about special guests?? what should we wear?? we wanted the party to be just right, so we started hashing through ideas to create a weekend of great jubilation…
friday:
i woke up friday morning feeling easy…i got up and took a walkabout around the neighborhood to calm my already calm brain…the weather was beautiful and i ran into a couple of deer, who are now my friends…one i named reginald veljohnson and the other is named carl winslow…unfortunately, i didn’t have any good leaves or carrots on me to give to them so i had to continue on my journey…i finished my walk and it was time to meet up with the rest of the guvs…we arrived at the venue to be surprised by an amazing light rig that was set up by michael brammer of SES…immediately, we started getting excited…we were back home and it felt buttery…we had an incredible horn section (chuck mulligan, tyler “the gold” bullion, and kyle bothof) for one of our musical surprises…we ran through the tunes and it sounded magnificent, the ground was fertile…in addition to the horn section we also had chris doody and mitch stewart join us for some perfectly seasoned bee gee vee’s (background vocals)…chris and mitch, who are former members of the guvs, played a huge role in propelling us to where we are today…it was a special moment to have them with us, and we are grateful they are on this earth…as game time approached, our focus sharpened on what we came to do that evening…we walked down to watch elenowen play a flawless set…the crowd, as well as us, loved their music and they’re all super chill…we hope to collaborate with them at some point in the future…the guvs seemed calm, granted we had a super intense cram session the two days preceding the show…the lights went down, and we walked out on stage…the crowd made a joyful noise and we began our set…songs were tight, vocals were potent, and the rippers were rippin…everyone knows that we’re huge fans of “the band” so we decided to work up some fresh encore covers to capture the essence of one of our favorite concerts, “the last waltz.” we played “it makes no difference” by the band, which ended with dual guitar rippers over the foundation of a beefy horn section, that climbed to the apex of a sonic mountain of righteousness…following that was “caravan” by van morrison (of course we did the last waltz version)…james administered 9 ninja kicks and a knee slide on the back half of the song when the horn hits came in…ol kev sang a couple of verses that sounded like rod “the bod” stewart himself was up in there, onesie leotard and all…it was so hype…we were connected with the audience from the first note…freedom and fellowship were present and near in that blessed space…it was really difficult to fall asleep that night so i ended up watching napoleon dynamite from start to finish
saturday:
the morning sun rays came busting through my window telling me that i needed to eat some brunch because i’m kinda brunchy these days…i can’t help it, sometimes your body just evolves and there’s nothing you can do about it…my body has evolved into a machine that crushes brunches all across the nation…it was me, an ol dayve, and a bettianne that embarked towards the bistro, land of poachers, gravies, tatoes, and big meaties…i wanted to get as full as possible because i knew i had a big day ahead of me…after i crushed, i came back home to figure out my outfit for the evening…the outfit came together quickly so i decided to check my chi levels…they were reading at 100%…i arrived for soundcheck number two and our musical guests were already there tuning up…we decided to do something we have never done before, bring in a string section…the string section was headed up by my boy “neon” gideon klein who composed all the arrangements and recruited all the jedi’s…the strings included (gideon klein and matt nelson on cello, douglas temples on viola, carlos hdz, yu-ting huang, caroline farmer, and lora doherty on the violins)…vocalists tomi robb (free agent) and tyler anthony (cereus bright) were also in attendance to push the set to the next level…the soundcheck was unreal, it was like we had 30 people up there with us…we rehearsed the tunes a couple of times with the strings to get everything dialed in…it was over the top…knoxville band, william wild, opened for us that night…again, another amazing group that we had the pleasure to collaborate with…their soundcheck was great and their set was even greater…super cool dudes, im hoping we cross paths again soonly…the time had come once again and we felt good…we kicked off night two smooth and creamy…halfway through the set, tyler anthony came out and sang (alongside james) a stripped down version of song for my beloved…their voices sounded like angels with wings of solid gold…the full band took the stage once again to bring the energy back up…a few songs later, we brought out tomi robb who hit some high notes that would shatter all the windows in your sun room and maybe make you wet your pants…the crowd was feelin it in their bones…we finished the regular set on a high note leaving the crowd chanting for the encore…it was time to unveil the ultimate surprise…the strings took the stage and opened up the encore with an emotionally absorbing version of canyons…they added many flavorful layers to our cake of sadness (canyons is a sad song)…from there, we took a creative turn and played an arrangement by radiohead called “karma police”…the song climbed to an explosive ending full of total rock and roll carnage…i believe that this was our first time ever attempting a radiohead song and it felt liberating…on the last note of karma police, the string section droned for a few seconds and then it began…cruel intentions, ut football jumbotron video montage in the early 2000’s, seattle seahawks still use it for their entrance music, the one and only, bittersweet symphony…the strings played it perfectly and peoples heads were exploding from excitement…me, kev, james, justin, tyler, and jenks were all lined up laterally across the front of the stage just rockin our faces off of our skulls…this was our best hometown weekend yet and we are extremely thankful for everyone of you that made it happen for us…please, help spread the word about the guvs, cuz we’re not plannin on slowin down anytime soon…
make the dangle easy,
cozmo
For the next two weeks we’ve partnered up with Noisetrade to give away our latest release “Hearts on Fire” for FREE as a thank you to our amazing fans. Head over to their website to check it out!
Download Hearts on Fire– The Guvs
Our Fall Tour Dates have been announced! Go to our Tour page to view the dates and purchase tickets!
the 2014 spring equinox has been mighty kind to us dirties as we embarked on a crusade to promote our new album “hearts on fire”…we released this album back in march, the 11th to be exact, and we’re really proud of the way it turned out…its a solid, dynamic album with some high guvs, low guvs, happy guvs, sad guvs, fast guvs and slow guvs…wanting to share it with the rest of the world, we mounted up on our mule and set out like eagles of freedom…soaring through the night sky…looking for fat worms to feed their crying young…
we decided it would be a grand idea to start off in the southeast because we love it so much …little did we know, this was gonna be the best tour yet…the cities included in the spring tour of happiness were charlotte, chapel hill, charleston, chattanooga, birmingham, louisville, nashville, atlanta, auburn, knoxville, athens, and wofford college…each of our markets had grown exponentially including sold out shows in birmingham, atlanta, nashville, and athens…in addition to the bigger crowds, our fans were also familiar with our new music…this made us excited, so sometimes we would chug some brewskis and eat mountains of doritos after the shows because we like to party…
in order to make our show fresh and awesome, we decided to dress differently and add lights to our production…the wardrobe change was a great idea cuz normally we just look like a bunch of dudes that like to eat frozen yogurt all day…we aimed for consistency with our new look so the decision was made to go with black suits…so far we have had a great response and we never have to worry about what to wear at the next show…it also makes it easier to pack, leaving more room in your bag for cheez its and capri suns…next, we brought on dave “the wave” schultz of special event services to direct our lighting for the tour…the wave is awesome and full of passion about what he does…we would like to thank SES for providing us with “the wave” and some amazing lights to help enhance the visual experience of our rock and roll…Lastly, we asked an incredible band, cereus bright, to come out on the road with us…every one of them is super cool and extremely talented, and they’re from knoxville so the chill was so chill…as the tour progressed our friendships with the brights grew stronger…they have a really cool sound, great songs, and they’re very easy to work with so that was a strong chi booster for the tour…for the last song of the encore, they would join us on stage for a friendly sing along version of “i shall be released”…it was so rockin by the end, that people were pouring beers on their heads and making out with strangers because they couldn’t handle it…
of course, with every tour there are some highlights and shenanigans involved, so im just gonna touch on a few here…i’ll try to keep it short so you all don’t get mad and call me a big ol douche…
Charlotte: beers on their heads, beers down their pants…awesome rowdy crowd, great energy…one guy tried to jump on stage at the beginning of new salvation, then fell right off…not sure what he was trying to accomplish but we love his fire and passion anyway…maybe he was gonna give a toast to the nations, but we’ll never know…til next time young man…i wish you great prosperity
Chapel Hill: another great crowd and an amazing venue…our friends from high point never let us down…great to be in chapel hill again…much love
Charleston: loved this show as well cuz we started syncing up on the new material in a live setting…the comfort level started to rise…packed house and an amazing crowd…there was a few dudes in the front that kept yelling “show me your penis” to the cereus brighters but i think they were just doctors so it’s cool…
Chattanooga: always love playing track 29 in the “noog”…best crowd we’ve ever played to there…saw a lot of new faces that seemed to like what was going on…thank you all so much for supporting us and letting us play in your beautiful town…
Birmingham: sold out!!! by far the best show that we have played in that city…rowdy crowds complete with fist pumps and sing alongs…tasty times were had in the ham
Louisville: we had a great day…we were invited to play their live lunch series at 91.9 wfpk to a packed house…they had fresh krispy kremers sittin out in the lobby and i ate like 7 of em…then, that evening we played at headliners for the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to there…it was a full and bountiful day for us
Nashville: sold out biiiig baaaabay!!! this was a special show for me cuz all my best friends were there for the vestallion’s bachelor-ette party…the vibes were pure, the night was beautiful, and the crowd was feelin it…the evening was ripe for us…
Atlanta: sold out again and again!!! our best atlanta show hands down…the sixthman crew was strong up in it…shoutout to the pizzle, christina maria, mize tavern, and brad broadrick for making an appearance…nothin like old friends
Auburn: we opened for alan jackson so that was awesome…got to hang and listen to an amazing set executed by our good friends from the drake white band…there was a rodeo going on about 50 yards away…motthew scurphy (scott murphy) broke his knee bone in route to catch a football…that sucked really bad, but he did catch the ball so touchdown…in your face
Knoxville: opened for fitz and the tantrums at thompson boling arena for volapalooza…they killed it…also, got to see amazing performances from crab apple lane and the delta saints…apples, saints, and tantrums…doesn’t get any better than that folks…horn of plenty
Athens: sold out the georgia theatre, our home away from home…the crowd was wondrous…the venue and all of the humans that work there are heavenly…one day i would like to live in the georgia theatre…just for like a year…
Wofford College: first time at the woff…we were asked to play their spring concert and very glad that we were able to take part in that event…beautiful campus, great stage, rockin crowd…we hope to be invited back sometime soon…earlier that day, miguel le jenkerstein (michael jenkins) and josten hogskins (justin hoskins) got in an argument about which one of them was more american…it escalated to the point where we had to settle the score…the only true way to determine how american you are is to take the actual u.s. citizenship test…we looked it up on googler dot com and administered the test in an actual classroom on the campus…hogskins made a 100%, le jenkerstein made an 85% …the test didn’t stop there though, there was a second phase…the artistic interpretation…in this phase, each participant was required to hand draw a map of the united states of america, to scale, with all the borders…hogskin’s map was pretty close to the real thing…u could look at it and tell that it was a map of the united states…le jenkerstein’s map, not so much…it looked like he taped the pen to his left elbow and drew it with his eyes closed…the finished product kinda looked like a pile of vomit…maybe he was going for the abstract vibe…
anyway, the spring tour was the best tour we’ve played in this life…we’d like to thank each and every one of you for your continue’d support and believing in our music…
That’s right, our brand new record debuted at the top spot on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart! If you haven’t grabbed your copy of Hearts on Fire yet, get it here: http://bit.ly/guvsalbum
Much Love,
TDG
Hearts on Fire is now available to download or purchase! Tears were shed and relationships were stretched during the year of writing and recording it took to make Hearts on Fire, but if we’re honest we’ve been working on it for our entire life. Being in a band and writing songs isn’t just about trial and error with chords and melodies. It’s a place of exploration, for pouring your heart and soul into your work, into your bandmates, and into the honest places that hurt, tear, and break you. In the end, it’s the hard work in those honest places that refines us all and produces the most beautiful results.
Much Love,
James, Justin, Aaron, Kevin, Cozmo, and Michael
New Album HEARTS ON FIRE Available Now! Click Here To Download
I spend way too much time comparing myself to other people. Insecurity and jealousy that I didn’t even know existed seeps from the corners of my heart and drives me deep into a canyon where the only thing that I know how to do is surf the internet, watch TV, build up walls, and silently or verbally compete with other people who are going through the exact same struggles that I am. That’s not exactly how I want to live the rest of my life.
7 days until the release of HEARTS ON FIRE. Glad to have yall on this journey with us.
James