4/14/08 - News, hmmmm. Well, the summer is shaping up to be quite busy for HTT. And the highlight of this summer will surely be the Country USA festival in Oshkosh where we are fortunate to be sharing the stage with Ray Price, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and George Jones! Pretty cool for us small town boys. The May date with Brown Derby in Madison has been rescheduled to a July date in Middleton, please see our schedule page for details. The 'Brothers' film premiere last month was great, after being postponed in February due to one of those awful, terrible, hideous snowstorms that were the norm last winter here in Wisconsin. The Twister guitar playin' brothers did a bang-up job again of movie music magic. Additionally, a talented fellow named Blake Thomas performed songs for the movie soundtrack. The End.

2/2/08 - Groundhog Day. Makes us think of Bill Murray. We had a fantastic turnout at Horseshoe Lounge last Saturday night, including our good friend Mark Twang all the way from Sobieski. We debuted about a half dozen new original songs which seemed to be received quite well. The premiere of the short film "Brothers" will be on February 17. We contributed music to this film and always enjoy working with Troy and Frances Perkins. For more info please check out the Brothers website. We will be joining our good friends Brown Derby for a show in Madison this May. We love those guys (and gal)! Rejoice! Spring is just around the corner! Unfortunately at this time, the corner is still buried in some snow bank somewhere in this godforsaken state. Jeez.

12/1/07 - Crap. Winter. Crap. There will be another Honky Tonk Party DVD Release Live CD Celebration Show featuring live performances by the Honky Tonk Party Stars of the Honky Tonk Party Live DVD thing. This show will be held in Madison on December 22 at the Crystal Corner Bar. The show will be live, not recorded. The DVD is not live, but is a recording of live. Which is nice for all those rich folks that can afford to purchase one of those fancy DVD machines. Chicken or egg, this show should be another good one. Work is progressing on the soundtrack for "Brothers", the next independent short film by UW-Oshkosh professors Troy and Frances Perkins and crew. Yah!

7/24/07 - Crap. Summer is flying by again. But this fall will bring new and exciting adventures for HTT. We have been asked to contribute to the soundtrack of another short film project. Troy and Frances Perkins of Tractor For Sale fame are working on a new project titled Brothers. This time we will be sharing soundtrack duties with our friends of the band Blueheels. And on November 3rd we will be a part of what should prove to be one of the more raucous events in the area this fall, the party to celebrate the release of the digital video disc (D-V-D) of the Oshkosh Sawdust Days Honky Tonk Party held last July 6. These "DVD's", I am told, are capable of providing moving pictures with sound on the television screen in your own home. Amazing. I can only pray that the concert video is also available on beta tape. The "DVD" release party will include live performances by Jim James and his Damn Shames, Andy's Automatics, Blueheels, and HTT. This one is a guaranteed blast, details to follow. On a sad note, we regret to report that our endorsement deal with the ELEGANZA clothing line never materialized (see 10/5/06 news). An un-named Madison Avenue market study group found that the United States fashion sense has not advanced to the levels anticipated. What's really ironic is that this stuff is selling like mad in Czechoslovakia. Crap.

5/11/07 - Well, it's finally in the oven. The new CD is entitled "Jukebox Therapy", and there's a chance that it will be fully baked by the time we play our next show at Horseshoe Lounge on May 19 (some dorks birthday too). The artwork for the CD came out very nice, considering there's a picture of the band members on the inside of the front cover. Layout and design duties for the CD were handled wonderfully by Greg Waters at Vector Media. And here's one of the coolest shows of the summer: Oshkosh Sawdust Days HONKY TONK PARTY with headliners Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash. Check out the flyer here. Blueheels: cool band, Andy's Automatics: always cool, Jim James & The Damn Shames: gotta be cool, Bastard Sons: how can they not be cool with a name like that, Honky Tonk Twisters: cool in an old fart kind of way. See ya.

2/10/07 - We have finished recording and mixing of our next CD at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. We spent five days working at Smart with engineer Justin Perkins. There will be 12 tracks on the new CD and hopefully we'll have a finished product available in a couple of months or so. To all of you folks who've been waiting for this next one, thanks for your patience.

10/17/06 - We have booked studio time and will start our next CD project at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin during the month of November. As of today, there are 11 new original songs that are planned for this CD, which is yet to be named. Actually, we should refer to this new recording as an "album". We did grow up in the era of "albums". You could sit and listen to your favorite music and watch the "album" go 'round and 'round on the "turntable". Kind of hypnotic. Our next recording could be a "concept album", or maybe even a "honky tonk opera". Nah.

10/5/06 - We are currently beginning discussions to book studio time for our next CD project. We're hoping to have our follow-up to "High Octwang" available by Spring next year. The material is coming together nicely, and in fact if you have been to our live shows the past several months you may have heard some of these new tunes. And here's some news that we are especially excited about. We are currently involved in negotiations to represent a hot new line of men's clothing. This one completely blind-sided us, but maybe it should not have - being the dapper young fellows that we are. We cannot divulge too many details at this point, however we have been authorized to issue a preview of this fantastic designer collection. We are nearly certain that this new line of menswear will become the "fashion tidal wave of the 21st century". Preliminary advertisements have been submitted to us utilizing a stand-in male model for mock-up purposes that will most likely be replaced by our own band member Bruce in the final worldwide advertisement. O.K., we cannot contain our excitement any longer. With great fanfare we are proud to announce the new men's clothing sensation ELEGANZA! Please enjoy the preliminary ad here, keeping in mind that the very pedestrian looking fellow in the ad will most likely be our own Bruce when this hits the streets! Mindblowing Baby!

9/5/06 - The Honky Tonk Twisters just returned from the Boom Bay Picnic this past weekend and we had a great time. There was a nice turnout with a lot of people who seem to really appreciate what we're doing musically. Traditionally, Labor day weekend signals the end of summer. That means that we'll soon be into cooler weather here in Wisconsin, and people will be dressing accordingly of course. Which means basically an end to the girl watching or guy watching season depending on your perspective. But maybe that's not such a bad thing. Guys and Gals, you've all seen that member of the opposite sex with a less than stellar body that is dressed in way too revealing clothing that's "not leaving much to the imagination". It's kind of like passing a car wreck on the highway - you know that you shouldn't look but you can't help it and then you have bad dreams for the next couple of nights. So if you're a little bummed out about summer coming to an end, remember that when it comes to girl or guy watching the odds are highly in favor of your imagination winning out over reality. Have a great Winter!

7/23/06 - The Honky Tonk Twisters will be embarking on our "Northern Hillbilly Weekend 2006" on July 28-30. This will include a stop in Symco, WI on Friday July 28 for the annual Thresheree playing a show with the Desperate Ottos. Saturday July 29 we will point the mighty Twister's van toward the north country and head to the UP for Motongator Joe's country music festival. Last July 8, during our performance at the Horseshoe Lounge, the film "Tractor For Sale" was shown on the club's video system during our break. We heard many positive comments about the film, and enthusiastic applause during the film credits was bordering on riot-like status. You can order your very own personal copy of the film from the Tractor For Sale website here.

5/10/06 - Our recent three night engagement at Oneida Bingo & Casino turned out to be every bit as enjoyable as anticipated. We opened for The Hoyle Brothers and our two bands were like a match made in honky tonk heaven. The Hoyle Brothers are an extremely polished group and genuinely nice people. If you ever have the chance to catch one of their shows you will not be dissapointed. We sure hope that we meet up with them again sometime. Thanks to all of the folks that came out for the shows, and special thanks to Phil, Kenny, and Todd at Oneida Casino.

3/20/06 - On March 11 we attended the premier of "Tractor For Sale" at the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, Wi. As you might know, this is the short film that The Honky Tonk Twisters were asked to be a part of during filming and production last year. After seeing the finished product, we're very proud to be involved with this project. The film has already garnered a Remi Award at Worldfest - Houston International Independent Film Festival. The film will also be screened at Worldfest, which puts it into a rather elite group. Congratulations to Troy and Frances Perkins and the entire crew!

2/5/06 - Our apologies to anybody that made the trip to Horseshoe Lounge last Friday night. We received word late that the club had been closed and of course our show was cancelled for that evening. However we're happy to report that this appears to be temporary. The Horseshoe Lounge will reopen on February 8. We hope to have another great turnout for our February 25 date there.

11/2/05 - After a busy October, we will have some downtime the next couple of months. We will retreat to our underground lair to work on new material, to include covers from our favorite classic artists and our own newly written songs. We are also working on freshening up the look of the website. We also have some exciting opportunities shaping up for 2006. Has anyone else seen the latest fashion craze that all the hipsters are sporting these days? I'm talking about those giant sunglasses that all the cool kids are wearing. I'm just afraid though that these huge glasses might be some kind of gang-wear that signal to other gang members "I've got your back, man". Or, maybe the people that wear these actually are not people at all, but aliens with reptilian eyeballs that they are attempting to conceal from mankind before the takeover. Or perhaps these gigantic glasses are nothing more than a mere status symbol, the Hummer of sunglasses if you will. The hipsters that wear these are probably just flaunting their social status so as to say "I don't give a damn that my glasses are large enough for cow eyeballs, now get out of my way"! What a crazy world.

10/18/05 - Wow! Just about three months since the last news posting! Must be a lot of exciting things going on! Well, we did some more work on the movie soundtrack at UW-Oshkosh about a month ago. The short film "Tractor For Sale" is looking like a quality product (see July news below). A lot of fun for us to be involved with this project. As you may have heard, a city in our area of Wisconsin recently implemented a workplace smoking ban, so that means no smoking in bars and clubs. Here's a strange observation: a club that we play at just outside of the "No Smoke Zone" actually has a machine suspended from the ceiling that injects massive quantities of smoke into the atmosphere. No joke. If the entire place was filled with Cheech and Chong clones, you'd never know it.

7/27/05 - We recently were very fortunate to be asked to take part in a short film being produced by the UW-Oshkosh Radio-TV-Film department. Troy and Frances Perkins, professors at the UWO, were in need of a honky tonk band for a few scenes of the film "Tractor For Sale" written by Troy. We were excited to be able to play the part of a honky tonk country band, which fortunately did not require a crash course in acting for us. A few of our original songs will be used in the film, which will soon be entered into several film festivals. We had a great time working with Troy and Frances and the entire film crew and can't wait to see the final product.

4/1/05 - Finally, some decent weather the last few days here in Wisconsin. It's a relief to see the snow and ice disappear. It's always a major concern with the possibility that one of our fans might fall and break a hip coming to a show during the winter. With a few weeks off we have retreated to an undisclosed basement location for rehearsal, with more original music flowing from the inner soul of the multi-talented family member. Last night following rehearsal we held an impromptu autograph signing session. Nobody showed up.

3/20/05 - Last night we had a gig that will stick in our feeble minds for quite some time. A last minute call had us opening for The Hollisters at Tom's Garage. It was great to be able to warm things up for The Hollisters crowd assembled at Tom's, and The Hollisters themselves turned out to be a great bunch of guys. Not that we had heard any rumors or anything.

3/8/05 - Our first CD is currently being duplicated at an undisclosed location. We should have them available in another week or two. All material on the CD is original. Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Rock Garden Studio in Appleton, Wisconsin. We are anticipating an overwhelming demand for these and are having them made by the 100's. Of course, supply and demand economic laws dictate that these things will probably be extremely expensive, out of the reach of common folk. But the Trump's and Gate's of the world will surely be able to afford a copy. Bastards!