Pinto Basin Road, CA

Cathedral Basilica-St Francis, Santa Fe

New Mexico highway

two weeks ago my sister amy and i left on a road trip adventure across the western U.S. we met many people and saw many places. i fell in love with the desert.
now it is back to huddling over this computer. i am not sure what i am doing sitting here, what i am really trying to accomplish. perhaps it would be better living naked with coyotes and rattlesnakes. this is what i am thinking now although i know it won’t last.
here are some of the best pictures i took. we stayed in a different city every night for like two weeks. it was complete travel insanity but worth every moment. shows in LA and Phoenix went really well. met some old fans and sold some CD’s.

it is really hard to pick moments to describe. i suppose i could have been keeping a journal the whole time, but i felt like being behind a camera instead of a laptop or a book was the better way to soak everything in and process all that beauty. i am still in awe of the sheer amount of natural beauty in the western states.

i suppose the two big things are the grand canyon and joshua tree so that is what i will talk about.
in the part of the grand canyon we visited there were so many people around that it was hard to separate myself from the herd psychologically for too long. but the canyon itself was mind-blowing, by far the largest thing i’ve ever seen on earth. a photograph does not do justice the immensity of it.

it is like looking so far you feel like your eyes have separated from your consciousness. my brain at first was working with my eyes to make sense of the distance, it’s just not possible. we hiked for a little while down into its mouth and on the way up i was grateful we did not have time to go any further. a hang glider would be the better route down i think. large magic eagle ride for coming up. the air is thin and people are constantly passing out from over exertion. sometimes they fall in and die.

that night we camped in kaibab national forest, which has beautiful large pine trees. we never did learn how to pronounce this word. through trial and error i learned how to take pictures of stars using long exposures. 30 seconds, f/1.8, iso at 1600. something like that. we made a fire and roasted marshmallows and wrote half of a song about the trip so far. the trees are glowing orange from the fire.

but by far the most memorable experiences were in Joshua Tree national park, which lies on the mojave and colorado desert border in California. in stark contrast to the grand canyon, at this national park we saw five or ten people (verses hundreds and hundreds). at first there was some confusion and disbelief at the sheer lack of people, signs, roads, anything. it is just desert and mountains and sky, as far as the eye can see. then the solitude, the realness of nature and all that sets in and suddenly there is a feeling of freedom and the rest of the world evaporates.
the desert is like the ocean. they share the same endlessness and magic and mystery. except you can walk the desert and be connected to the earth, lie down on it. your senses are heightened. eyelids held open wide by some invisible force, and super hearing too.
we slept under the stars. oh the stars! i have never seen stars like this and i think i’ve seen a lot of stars. there were meteors, about one every two minutes, from all over in the sky.

early venus

at the campsite

the milky way and venus

we also saw a rattlesnake and a roadrunner. climbed some little mountains. heard coyotes in the night. everything you would expect from a desert i guess only better.
being forced to pay attention to your surroundings forces you into the present moment. this is a near surefire cure for stress. in nature there is no time or need to contemplate the past or the future, since it keeps no files nor holds grudges nor eagerly anticipates paychecks. it is fully formed fully functioning at every moment always
this is what i have learned from the desert.

the park’s namesake, the Joshua Tree

unfortunately i don’t have a lot of time to describe the rest of the trip in detail but here are some places we spent a little time in

Amarillo, TX
Tulsa, OK
Santa Fe, NM
Flagstaff, AZ
Kaibab National Forest, AZ
Sedona, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Joshua Tree National Park, CA
Fallmouth, CA
Los Angles, CA
Venice, CA
Santa Monica, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Colorado Springs, CO

it was a blast!

and the rest of the pictures:

Venice Beach:

Santa Monica Pier:

Hand of Zoltar

El Matador Beach:

dressing room at The Mint:

swanky!

stopped in vegas and lost $20 on the roulette table at the Bellagio

Utah is not flat, it’s the opposite of flat.

the Colorado river in Colorado

thanks for reading! i hope you’re well

hi! how are you? sorry i have been so out of touch. i lost contact with my soul recently but i think we have been reunited. i just ate a bag of gummi bears and man were they delicious. we have had some really great shows lately. Dayton at W.O. Wrights was a blast. i felt really good about our performance. now the kind-of bad news–

we are looking for a guitarist! please help us track down the right person. I guess you know what we need already. an experienced player who can bring some new energy to July For Kings. if you are interested or know someone who might be, contact me joe hedges at joe hedges .com with a link to a sample of playing. T Miller’s last shows will be:

Fri Aug 1st 2008
Froggy Blues
Monroe, OH

Sat Aug 2nd 2008
The Lodge Bar
Columbus, OH

Fri Aug 8th 2008
HiFi
Lakewood, OH

Fri Aug 15th 2008
The Mad Frog
Cincinnati, OH

pleeease consider coming out to one of them. i am sure T would really appreciate a warm send-off. he is leaving for personal reasons. that’s what i’m calling it. that means the obvious thing–work, school, family etc. naturally we are sad to see him go, but it’s just time for him to move on and i support him completely.

last night i played at the southgate house with my sister Amy.
friday we will stop by the open mic downtown cincinnati at fountain square for two songs around 9pm. together we are The Majo. www.myspace.com/themajomusic. we don’t have music up on the page yet, but we are playing about ten songs out. four or five are recorded, they just need to be mixed. we are talking about releasing an EP this fall, although we may just put a few songs on myspace and wait to release music until we have a full length. that has taken up a lot of my time lately. on saturday Amy and i are leaveing for a two week trip across the country, making two stops in phoenix and los angeles to do shows. we also plan on sleeping at the grand canyon, seeing the ocean, possibly going to joshua tree or the sequoias. we thought this would be a good thing to do for inspiration for the record. we need some happier songs so we must create happier experiences. although we have little budget so we will play accordian and guitar at rest stops for gas money. as always you can support our insanity at http://joehedges.com/help. eventually i will change this website to reflect more of my projects more equally, july for kings, my solo stuff, and now the majo, as well as webdesign, art, photography, et cetera. maybe i am unfocused. i prefer manic.

so the next month is going to be pretty much non-stop. i hope to see you on the road!
peace

since 2002 we have been hauling around an enormous trailer for our gear, affectionately referred to by our fans as “the horse trailer” although it never did move horses and is not properly equipped for horse transport. but it does look like a horse trailer and traveled with us for long distances to faraway places. on friday, we retired it, taking out two bench seats in the van and cramming all our gear packed floor to ceiling in the back of the van. gas prices have made it almost impossible to tour, so we’ve been cutting corners wherever we can. we are traveling with a lot less guitars, half of the bass amp stack, etc just to fit it in the van. (as always if you want to do something really nice you can help us out with travel expenses at www.joehedges.com/help)
i am not sure what other bands are doing but it must be getting hard on everyone, even nationals

here we are on friday saying goodbye to the trailer, loading into the van

“hmmm i don’t know if this is all going to fit”

okay i’ll lift this heavy stuff and you just stand there and take pictures

cb coil cable

friday we drove a few hours to kent ohio to play a show at fat jimmy’s. weirdly, we have never played in kent.

unfortunately my photos are no longer coinciding with a written narrative of our adventures, this is my weak attempt at making it work as i am beginning to regret not typing more in blogs.

so much loading and unloading.

into Fat Jimmy’s at ken state
i did not meet anyone named jimmy nor were there any fat people hanging around who possibly may have been jimmy, unless he has lost weight which could happen

after load-in we went and ate dinner at a mexican restaurant. in the parking lot, T did this

we don’t know what it means and cannot remember the context

the food was delicious. mexican food is my favorite “ethnic” food. t bought a pitcher of margaritas and shared with everyone, which may or may not have been a good idea before the show.

after dinner we went back to the hotel where for a while we allowed ourselves to be transfixed by meaningless rabble and cheap sexual images on the TV. watching tv is like watching someone die. i know it’s wrong but i can’t stop looking.

the show went well. we had a decent turnout of fans and old friends from the cleveland area, as well as some people who drove all the way up from georgia for both shows over the weekend. crazy. we have been playing a good cross section of swim, nostalgia, and curvature, as well as “say it now” and sometimes another song or two from the new album. the set is basically the “best of” which is a good way to do a set i think. i guess it would be dumb to play all your worst songs.

the next morning we found some of these guys in the parking lot and played with them for a while. what are they called? they are caterpillars but they have another name that is more affectionate, like army worm but not. anyway t and i pet him and kissed him and grossed out dan and brian, who have a lower tolerance for crawling things.

these are from load-in at the newport in columbus

the venue bathroom shot slow shutter speed

after load-in we went to the wexly and saw some art, then hung out at the Quad for a while where we were repeatedly attacked by a little dog.
there are no photos though, it all happened so quick

i am still not sure what was up with the white shirts.

i love playing on that stage. always sounds great up there. and whoever was running lights did a nice job too. that was last weekend.

maybe you want to hear about the new july for kings album. well, honestly there has been little progress in the last few months. but now that i am out of school for the summer, i hoping to get the ball rolling and get it wrapped up. the bulk of the recording is finished. the big hurdle now is just getting the drums edited and getting it mixed. blumpy is going to mix it, but i am getting worried about his schedule with nine inch nails. i do have some contingency planes so we will see. mixing is very important if not the most important part of making an album a good listen. i just want it to be right. i will be doing everything i can in the coming weeks to speed this along and get some new music to you guys. we have a month with no shows, so this should be an extra good time to get it wrapped up. i’ll let you know what happens next!

photos by Shay

this show kicked ass. thank you smalltown sleeper and everyone who came. good crowd.

so i spent a week on the road in philly, dc. and new york. i am still kind of recovering from finals, the trip, and the show.

when i was in central park a little bird landed on the rock i was lying on and sang me a little song, right in my ear. then flew away. seriously. that is the best short story i have for now. okay maybe not the best but definitely the shortest. or littlest.

i just put up some photos i shot over the last few months in a new album on my myspace page www.myspace.com/joehedges

i hope your summer is going great!

i have become quite obsessed with taking pictures. sorry not a lot of time to write blogs lately. this summer i will return to my regular rambling. for now, more pictures.
trailer repairs (the side started ripping off on the way home from cleveland).
mad frog show, including panoramic crowd shot thanks to clark’s camera. i have to say, we have some of the most attractive fans out there. thanks for making this mad frog show so awesome!

blumpy is finishing working on a project for nine inch nails and i am finishing the semester. in may we will both have time to finish up this record.
more soon

“Say It Now” is available online at crocsbattleofthebands.com. You can listen to the song for free as much as you like. All we are asking is that if you listen to the song, you also cast a vote for us. If you listen to the song every day, even better! You can vote for us once a day whether you listen or not. if you think launching the song on this website is just a ploy to get you to go there and vote for us, you are absolutely right.

We were selected by the University of Cincinnati (along with two other area bands) to participate in this online competition. The winning band opens for One Republic and Fabolus at UC on April 26th and gets a mention in SPIN magazine. We could really use an opportunity like this to win over some fresh ears and jump start the new JFK album cycle.

i know from the last few years that when you guys put your mind to online voting, you pretty much kick ass. pretty much kick more ass than any other group of fans (#1 in Q102’s Cincinnati Choice Awards for best singer, a couple #1’s for JFK in the Alternative Addiction charts, etc.) i also know that nobody wants to be voting for stuff all the time and there are a ton of band contests out there. so we’ve gotta choose our battles! and i think we should win this one. what do you think?

A word about say it now–as you will hear it kind of straddles some ground between curvature and jfk. many of the songs on the record are more straightforward nostalgia-esque and many of them sound nothing like either record. this just happens to be one of our favorite songs, and the one that was mixed first. so enjoy, tell your friends, and please vote! thanks so much.

www.julyforkings.net < - new website slowly coming together
www.myspace.com/julyforkings

www.crocsbattleofthebands.com
www.nextstepcampustour.com

i am sick. i had hoped to be recording vocals for the JFK record this week. but since i cannot sing or play very well i have been burning, folding and labeling CD-R’s all day. i think i have a sharpie headache. i have decided to release a selection of my acoustic demos as a limited signed and numbered release called Lexington Demos. it is a collection of 11 songs i recorded in my apartment in 2004 and 2005 around the time i was writing for curvature. these are my favorites that were never recorded properly, and two songs that were re-recorded, Float Away (JFK’s Nostalgia) and Futureflies (Curvature).

talked about the possibility of this with some people on the message boards a while back and it’s just been stirring in my brain until today. i was going to do internet only but a few people said they would really like an actual disc. so… a limited version is a compromise. i think now is a good time to do this, while i still enjoy listening to them and they kind of fit in with the lyrical and melodic aesthetic of curvature, even though they are at the other end of the spectrum sonically–they are very low-fi/indie sounding. it is weird to be releasing this now as i’m in such a different place psychologically and with my writing, but with the amount of solo acoustic shows i’ve been doing, i think releasing some music that’s really intimate like this makes sense. and it is taking us longer than i had anticipated to finish the new july for kings record. if you’re as anxious for its completion as i am, maybe this will help tide you over. consider this the melancholy calm before the coming storm of jfk pop rock.

Joe Hedges
Lexington Demos

1. Africa
2. Float Away
3. Cemetery Sun
4. Crying Tree
5. Messenger
6. Christmas Day
7. Red Ink Letters
8. Sleeping Through
9. Futureflies
10. Wrong Day
11. Walk Carefully

a limited amount of these will be available at CDbaby.com soon, followed by itunes and other digital distributors. when the CD’s are gone they’re gone; at that point it will be an internet only release. i’ll let you know when the page at cdbaby is live!