Happy Birthday

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, I'll be the first to say it.

We're 2!

Happy Birthday These Gentlemen!  Gifts will be accepted in the form of cash or gift cards.

So I'd like to take a little of your time to reflect on what These Gentlemen has meant over these past 24 months.

We began as an idea in the brain of Jason Heat to gather some of his intelligent friends together and write some thoughtful essays on life in the hopes of creating discussions and gathering a community around a polite yet erstwhile discourse.  With John Ozkirbas on drums, Damien Nichols on bass, Adam Winer on lead guitar, Max Nova on the solemn head nod, Dan Strauss and his back-up dancers, Jason Heat on vocals, and me collecting 15%, we had ourselves a blog.

In our beginning, free-wheeling days, posts ranged from frequent to sporadic, of topics ranging from abusive relationships to beard grooming.  Those carefree days gave rise to an eclectic blend of personal stories, social commentary, reviews of music, movies, and games, and some purely informational fare.  Each member of the band more or less did their own thing, but every so often we'd release a collaborative effort, The Roundtable, leadership of which has switched hands occasionally.  Over time we brought in new acts, working with bands like Stevie B and the Sharpshooters, Matt Lindeboom's Jersey Devils,  and The Brett Abelman Project.  We also enjoyed great success with girl rocker B. Graham, country starlet ali d., and had a brief flirtation with the show tunes of Alex Keiper.  Our business was making posts, and business was good.

Through the last two years, we enjoyed great success in working together.  Our monthly meetings were the high point, where we'd get together and just jam, letting whatever ideas we had come and seeing if they went anywhere.  That's where we came up with hits like Guest Gentleman, GentleMonth, and our newest single, Gentleman in Residence. Also, there would often be food, and sometimes Damien would even show up.  Dan could unfortunately not attend, as he was on tour.

All good things don't necessarily come to an end, contrary to what you might be told by people trying to console you after the latest celebrity death.  Some of them just change, and with time, These Gentlemen succumbed to changes like everything else must.  The evidence is in the posts; as our collection of voices grew, the songs began to change.  Sometimes not everything we tried worked out, others met with relatively smashing success.  Regardless, over time other gigs came along, as they do, and after an extended period without producing anything, the band decided to go their separate ways.

But then . . .

A reunion tour began.

So that brings us to now.  I don't know if we're everything Jason Heat envisioned we would be - his silence on posting sort of speaks for itself on that matter.  Regardless, the Gentlemen continue to work, write, and collaborate, all in the name of making a more perfect blog for all of you.  We want, as always, to hear from you, to find out your input on the things we do, and, more importantly, the things we don't do; the topics you want to see us cover.  The subjects you want to see more than a post on - an essay, a conversation, a discussion.  We are here to make you think, and to broaden your horizons, and we do hope you'll do the same for us.  Singers are cool, and bands are pretty great, but what we're going for is more of a choir - or an orchestra.

There's something for everybody here at These Gentlemen, and we welcome you to take part in it.

For the last two years and for many more to come, we are but Gentlemen, and we are here to entertain you.