Blog Archives

We are in ohio now. getting ready for the show tonight in covington at the madison theater. guess what? Xavier won last night. If they win against Duke this weekend, that’ll put us on the Xavier campus playing a show at soupies the night before the final four game. it would be our own rock and roll pep rally. i really hope that happens. go musketeers!

Here are some photos of the show yesterday:

Thanks so much to Q, Katie, and Ris for these. they rock. Also thanks to Dave Stevens for running lights and making the stage so colorful and cool.

T and i got up at 9:something to get ready for the Stage TV with Chris Line.

we co-hosting a retrospective episode and talked a little about our plans for this year and Golden Eye 007. Chris is a goof. and an old friend of ours. in addition to hosting the stage, he is a DJ for WZZO, and played a DJ in Jack Black’s School of Rock. i usually feel tired around him. am i in slo motion or is he fast forwarding? probably both. we love him.

we went back to the hotel to pick up the guys, then drove to bethlehem for a tour of a new studio, Angel Mountain. it was very nice, although rather stark. they have one of the new SSL consoles (i think it’s K Series). i am told there are only ten or so in the whole world. Ben Grosse also has one, out in L.A. at the Mix Room where we recorded much of our album.

after angel mountain our manager greg took us to wegmans (ritzy grocery) to get sandwhiches.


and drinks.

we are still jiggling the battery cable to get the van to start. i am jiggling, trav is turning the key. the cable connections are loose, and the battery is really weak anyway. probably because of the ten things that are constantly hooked up to the cigarette lighter jack. here is an illustration:

obviously this is not the best example of my artistic abilities. but i really wanted to get this drawn out, for posterity. i’m not making any of that up. the front of our van is a tangled mass of cords and cables and little green and red lights. sometimes the AC adaptor gets angry and lets out a “squeeee” sound to let you know it’s giving up.

anyway we hit the road late, and the drive home was a long one. first sun

then rain

and rax. i didn’t know they still exist, but i guess they do in some remote parts of northeastern oh. on the rax reserves. in other areas they are exstinct, mainly due to natural predators like the McDonalds.

that’s all for now. maybe we’ll see you tonight!
joe

hey you. here’s a ten minute slice of our trip today:

this is dan, with amos showing off some snickers pop-ables. Dan describes them as “popalactic”. Amos claims they’re helping him get over his cold. they are pretty awesome. T’s trying not to sit on his food.

amos really has to go.

T on the phone, by the women customers only entrance.
he got a new hat.

here’s travis and his muscles in a muscle shirt.

gas station bathrooms are yucky. gross and yucky. really not much else you can say about them.

my eyes really are red. sometimes the camera turns them hazel. my face also glows white in the dark. amos has hid a present somewhere in this photo.

sadly, this was about the most interesting ten minutes of the day.. i’ll write tomorrow when there’s a story.
see ‘ya!

joe

another day, another problem with the van. we forgot to turn the light in the trailer off last night, so there was no juice left in the battery today. we talked two lawn care guys at the hotel into giving us a jump. (thanks lawn care guys! hope to see you at the show this weekend.) so that wasn’t really so bad. just set us back a couple hours, and for a day off, being late for something you’re not really “scheduled” to do is no big deal. as a side note–for the last month or so, starting the van has been a two-person operation. one guy has to jiggle the battery cable, while the other guy turns the key. you can’t do it yourself. impossible. unless you had 8 foot long arms. the cable is loose and dirty, and we just haven’t had the motivation or equipment (the right sized wrench) to fix it. we suck. on top of that, the antennae doesn’t like to go up or down anymore. it just makes a loud, deep, scratchy sound for thirty seconds whenever someone attempts to turn on the van. at first, it was startling. now, it’s almost cute.

as i sort of said yesterday, there are always more important things to worry about. or at least, more things to worry about.

so during our day off, Travis, Aaron and i went to NYC to walk around for a while and catch up with some old friends. it was SO cool to be in new york again. if i wasn’t in this band, i would be making art in a 5×5 foot roach-infested studio apartment somewhere in soho. we didn’t really do much today. mainly just walked around looking at crazy people and weird things, feeling like grown-up’s, talking about nothings and somethings.

meanwhile, T and Sam were at Dave’s house to eating his food and play his kids’ video games. they ate meatloaf. i don’t know what they played. Dave is the owner of the Sterling. He rocks. Dave makes our world go round. at least, while we’re in the eastern U.S. i can’t wait to play the Sterling this weekend. but first, tomorrow is CBGB’s! i hope we play well.

maybe we’ll see you in new york. and if not, don’t forget about the webcast at www.cbgb.com. we need your moral support.

everyone is asleep but me. just finished some peanut butter and crackers and a banana. i am smoking a cigarette, glowing from the laptop, listening to breathing from the beds, in and out, in and out, getting very sleepy…

sweet dreams

joe