Fifteen Minutes of Fame Music Entertainment

Originally Published on November 12th, 2025

Eighteen Years Ago……

It was April 2007. I was standing in line, waiting to be let into a show at the Municipal Auditorium. My Chemical Romance with special guests, Muse. Looking across the crowd of kids in black eyeliner, sporting black nail polish, and a sea of fishnet stalkings as far as the eye could see, it was clear to my small little crew that we were the only ones there who were more jazzed to see Muse. As we were discussing this, we were overheard by this guy in front of us.

“I’m actually here to see Muse too! I’m probably not going to stay for My Chemical Romance.” (calm down, it’s not that serious) this guy was our speed, so a conversation ensued.

At the time, my band, Next Year’s Best had played our first show, then our bass player had informed us the next day that he had accepted an offer to play guitar for the up-and-coming local band, The Hollywood Kills. So, we were out a bass player.

“I actually play bass.” this guy said. I don’t know what to say, other than I got great vibes from this dude.

“Really? My name is Jeff. Would you be interested in auditioning?”

“Absolutely! My name is Sean.”

That was that. We exchanged numbers, the venue let us in, we went our separate ways, and I made a plan to call him. Which I did, a week later.

However, when I did, Sean explained that he coincidentally had been asked by a neighbor to be in his band and had decided to commit there (we did live a bit of a drive away from each other). Being a good sport, I asked him what the name of the band was so I could look them up and catch a show. He told me that they were Eastern Block.

Two Bands, One Separate Journey (Not That Journey)

Now, Next Year’s Best soon solved our bass player problem. We ended up playing a battle of the bands the very next month, which we won. Days later, we were playing at Mercy Lounge, which is a coveted venue for indie musicians. Playing in that band created quite a few core memories.

I also kept tabs with Eastern Block for a while. It’s funny, because our careers seemed to sort of parallel for about a year until Next Year’s Best broke up, then my next band, Dropshot fizzled out. But Eastern Block seemed to slowly continue to build momentum from 2007 to 2010, where they released their album Past Palace.

I was so PUMPED to buy this album on iTunes and I played the crap out of it. When I last saw activity from Eastern Block, they were toying with the idea of changing their name and they were starting a kickstarter to help fund a new album. They had been featured in local press, they had been played on local radio. Things still sounded like they could happen for these guys.

Shit Hit the Fan. It Always Hits the Fan

It was around that time that my life went to shit. I was deployed. I got home and my ex wife and I ended up divorcing. I made a complete and utter mess of my life. Naomi, my incredible wife, helped piece it back together. I started to try to figure out what I was going to do moving forward. I sold all of my gear except for an acoustic guitar. I didn’t think about music. I didn’t regularly listen to music. It was one of the last things on my mind.

From time to time, I would play music in the car on the way to or from work and an old Eastern Block song would come on. It was always a welcome surprise. I even tried to look them up to see what had happened to them. I couldn’t find anything on them though. I wondered if they ever put that album out or if they changed their name. But I couldn’t remember any details, except their new name was “Aqua something.” Eventually, I just accepted that they would remain lost in a time that was no longer my life.

Back to the Present….

I had been using Spotify as my primary streaming app for a few years until recently as more and more unethical material continued to surface about them. So, I made the switch back to Apple Music (I know, it’s not much better). I’ve been working to build my playlists and artist network up from what it was with Spotify and I have been streaming music like crazy. Every once in a while, an old song or two will pop up from when I was listening to Apple before and it’s been nice revisiting these songs I haven’t heard for some time. Including, Eastern Block.

Honestly, when Past Palace started popping up on my playlist, I switched over and just listened to the album. I instantly remembered how good and timeless this music was to me.

Where is Eastern Block???

I got it in my head that I wanted to find them again. To see if I could figure out what happened with the latest (possibly last) chapter of this band’s story.

Google searches were getting me nowhere. “Eastern Block, Nashville” I would get a couple of general mentions and then a bunch of hits on city blocks in the Nashville area. I looked up Eastern Block and Past Palace. An article I had already read popped up. This one that was published by Tony Cummings and Cross Rhythms out of the UK, which was published back in 2012. I have read it before and I knew it didn’t have any information that I could use. But I decided to click on it anyway.

Reading through it, it made me happy to be reminded of the recognition they had received. I can’t stress how deserved it is. The music is just that good.

Then I had an epiphany.

What if I tried to simply find the lead singer on social media?

Honestly, I think I had tried before but for whatever reason, had no luck. I tried again. It wasn’t too difficult to find Aaron’s profile. So, I started stalking, fangirl-style, until I started getting to old band photos from around a decade ago. And there it was…

I recognized the album cover from the Kickstarter page. They changed their name to The Lower Caves.

And the album? It’s called Turquoise Blues and it released on July 1st, of 2014.

Holy Forking Shirtballs, New (to me) Eastern Block – sorry – The Lower Caves music!!!

This album has 15 songs. It has an hour and 7 minute run time. My hand almost went through the screen as I quickly tried to press play. All new music, with the exception of Cat Call Kids, which I knew from their Eastern Block releases.

Turquoise Blues has the same energy that makes Past Palace so attractive but it is better! Why wouldn’t it be? It’s the exact same lineup of musicians, just with 4 more years of experience playing together. They’re road-tested. They’re in sync. They’ve been selective with their catalog. They are the big Dino Megazord that all of the Power Rangers morph into to defeat evil at the end of every episode!

But Alas, All Things…

My discovery is a bit bittersweet though. Because on the same day I found answers to questions I had been asking for years, I found that one of the answers is the band seems to be no more. In a post that is perhaps more poetic than it was intended, The Lower Caves’ last post is from 2015 and it’s an image of a hot air balloon floating away into the blue summer sky.

As for Aaron’s profile, it looks like music is still a big part of his life. He posts about shows, he posts acoustic covers, he still rocks.

And as for Sean, here he is playing bass for Waylon Payne at The Ryman Auditorium last year. So, he seems to be doing quite well!

Though Eastern Block/The Lower Caves are no longer playing, it is incredible to see that there is still music coming from these wonderfully talented musicians.

This Isn’t Really About That

I’m not here to write a review about a 10 year old album. If that’s what you came for, then it’s simply this. It’s fucking awesome and you should really stream the shit out of it.

The real story is the story that exists within the story (it’s all about the title of the article). I bet you all didn’t know I was capable of some Tarantino-esque shit, but here we are.

The real story is that the internet is fucking sad. Seriously. I’ve been doing this for about a year and a half now and I’m lucky if 5 people read an article. 8 billion people on the planet who can access every single one of each other in an instant, yet we can’t seem to find the things that might really matter. We can watch the President try to defy court orders to try and starve people all day. We can watch the government try to stall us into a comatose state so that we are left expressionless muttering “shutdown” and “Epstein” through drooling slurs. And people falling? That’s a thing we can see.

But Jason’s post about how he wants to start a weight loss journey and he wants to connect with like-minded people to build a support group? I don’t see those anymore.

Tina’s post about opening a sound healing and health spa 5 miles from where I live? I don’t see that.

Nature walking posts, movie/music trivia, etc. Et cetera ET CETERA.

I used to see those things. I don’t anymore. And yes, I do know how algorithms work. I am officially a skeptic, a nay sayer. Because I do NOT, in fact, think we control the content that appears before us. I do not think the social media powers that be want us informed. They want us addicted. If Zuckerberg could find a way to make an app that did our chewing and swallowing, I PROMISE he would put it out there. He’d call it “Facestuff” or something (patent pending).

This isn’t nuanced. As usual, I’m late to the party. People have been saying this all along. But the problem is they keep saying it and screaming it and pleading it. It’s just getting worse.

And the Zuckerbergs? They don’t care. They’re not trying to make your lives better. They want to enslave you to your own devices. And they are getting what they want more and more, every single day.

Slowly Stepping Away From the Soap Box

The thing is, at its core, the internet is a beautiful concept with endless possibilities. And it can still be that. We just have to make one simple trade. In exchange for settling for what “they” want us to see, we can simply look for what we want to see ourselves.

Have an agenda when we use social media. Doing our best to use it less. It was really cool finding The Lower Caves music, but damn. I would really love to see them play a show. Or buy Turquoise Blurs on vinyl.

Yeah, I think it would be great if this article snowballed and Aaron, Sean, and the rest of the guys woke up to an astonishing thousands of new listeners one day. But let’s be honest, I consistently have one reader who makes it through every single FMOF article (hi Marc).

That being said. I learned something. I had a great experience on the internet. I found a band I have wanted to find for years. I enjoyed the discovery and the process. (The process being that sweet center of a sour patch kid-get it?)

I guess this is where we say “carpe diem,” or “be the change you wish to see…” or any number of the cliches we cling to to simultaneously display our independent, free spirits. Or, you could do what I like to do.

Go press play.