July 1st 2008 Young Family Song is now avalibel at: and Also there is an album review on Looking forward to this month of music. June 12th 2008 last week we were interviewed by Christian Cunningham and Ben Van Houten, they couldn't have been friendlier.  These two are the founders of "The Bay Bridged", a blog that focuses on the music made here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  You can listen to or download that interview here. Their work is vast, so you can enjoy all the hard work they and their team have done.   May 16th 2008 Good afternoon San Franicso. Today this post is for you folks. As the heat takes over our wonderful city some helping hands have planted "Young Family Song" in some local stores. So if you'd like to pick up a copy before the CD release party next Saturday you can get it at one of these places. Tell next time take care, - nigel The Music Store Neighborhood: West Portal 66 West Portal Avenue (between Claremont Blvd & Portola Dr) San Francisco, CA 94127 (415) 664-2044 Amoeba Music Neighborhood: Haight-Ashbury 1855 Haight Street (between Shrader St & Stanyan St) San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 831-1200 Streetlight Records Neighborhood: Noe Valley 3979 24th St (between Noe St & Sanchez St) San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 282-3550 Streetlight Records Neighborhood: Castro 2350 Market Street (between 16th St & 17th St) San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 282-8000 May 8th 2008 Here is our "Spring Home Movie". Get the Flash Player to see this player. 23 MB Requires Flash the Flash 8 Player. April 23rd 2008 Things keep building up, figuratively and literally. There is much to share about all that's happened as of late.    Nathan, Nigel, and I have decided to carry on as a three piece for now. Changes in our personal lives made this a difficult decision, but one that is  necessary for our music at this time. Though we've parted ways with our good friend Jake we remain brothers in spirit and in deed as we always have and hope to.    In regards to this our next show will be doubly important as it is both our new CD release and our last performance with Jake. So please be sure to make it. Saturday May 24th @ Cafe Du Nord w/ El Capitan and TBA - 8pm - 2170 Market Street SF, CA (21+)   In other news we are excited to share some new media with everyone very soon! We have taken some videos and snapshots of our recent time in the recording studio and will hopefully have some new band photos coming soon as well. Yes, we have been recording again, pushing ourselves further in new directions and with new sounds and voices. Here's a picture of one of the new sounds in our band, Nigel's new project Besides building this beast Nigel has been extremely busy recording bands at Zilla studios, cooking for his family, and building Web sites. Nathan has been demo'ing some of his new ideas on the ol' Tascam 388 that we used to record our 1st album. maybe we'll be able to share some of those with you in the near future. And i have been busy playing and recording with my friends' bands "Marabelle Phoenix," Meridians" and lending a hand at the Paul Green school of rock.    - Bert   Vanguard Squad is proud to release Last of the Blacksmiths' second full-length album, Young Family Song. We couldn't be happier as this album is already a favorite for us and we're sure it will soon be a favorite for you.  -- Bambouche of the Vanguard Squad January 3rd 2008 Happy new year everyone!  It sure was a good year for us.  We're finished with our album "Young Family Song" and it's now being made into something we can give you.   Also we're looking forward to a few shows coming up.  Our album release show will be sometime in April.  We'll post up a few songs for you soon.  Until then we'll be going (the good kind of) nuts with ideas and sounds. September 13th 2007 We sure have been doing a bunch of recording! It's been a good process and we're looking forward to presenting you the final results in a few months. Hopefully sooner then later. At the tail end of August we had our marathon final mixing weekend with Desmond. So the songs are mixed. We're now in the mastering process, deciding a sequence, designing the cover art, figuring out where we want to celebrate... more in the near future, - nigel   April 3rd 2007 Our 7" is now officially available from Vanguard Squad. It's been wonderful working with them and we're very proud to be involved.   - more information -   Being inspired and excited about what's going on during our musical jams is just the start of what good is going on with us.  We're happily stuck in a whirlwind of new ideas and songs.  Every week we're working on our next album and are getting closer to completion.  We were out with El Capitan in Bolinas last week.  This provided the usual camaraderie and good time.  El Capitan once again brought their beautiful music.     This first week of April Matt Bauer is back in town.     So this calls for some recording, some smackdown, and a weekend of BBQ celebrating.  We'll be in Davis Saturday night with Matt Bauer and Dame Satan at the Delta of Venus. Possible because of the always giving Michael Leahy. And then again Sunday at the Rite Spot with Matt Bauer, Garrett Pierce, Judith and Holofernes, Justin Frahm, and Dame Satan.  If you've been around for these Rite Spot shows before, you know it's going to be magic.   That's all for now, take care - nigel   Decmber 28th 2006 Cold days. Late December and the rain keeps coming. It's keeping some of us indoors, next to the space heater, finishing our new full length which we are hoping to have finished by this summer. Hibernating. Most of the recording was documented thanks to master tape splicer, espresso maker, and knob turner Desmond Shea in early December. Recordings were committed to tape on Herbie Hancock's old Ampex tape deck at The Studio That Time Forgot, a wonderful inner mission studio that seems, as the name suggests, to be in some sort of time eddy, free of any advertising or polished furniture. An amazing five day stretch yielded what I think are our prettiest recordings yet. I just seem to really enjoy recording there, with Desmond. I love the songs and I think our fans will too. The holidays were great. Bert went to Texas, Nigel and Nathan visited family in the central valley, and I hung out in Fresno. It will be nice to see everyone in the new year. - Jake Decmber 1st 2006 We have recorded two new songs for release as a 45 rpm 7" on. The records have been cut, the covers have been printed and we're having a release party that all of you are cordially invited to: Friday December 8th @ Hotel Utah - Record release show w/ The Dying Californian and Winfred E. Eye. 9pm, 500 4th st @ Bryant, San Frandcisco, CA