Deep Thoughts On a Deep Chill

Okay.

Touring is bossa nova. If you can, you should. Nate Blogsdon of Mumford's does an AWESOME job telling you how and why you should tour here. (My one addendum is: if you can, GET FOOD STAMPS. Whoa.)

And not to be a dick wagging fuck knuckle or anything, but I don't think we're too bad at it. I'm not saying we're an awesome band (HA!) or that we make tons of muns (more like nuns) - I just think we're pretty good at being on the road. We were in that van for a month and every day was pretty much funny as hell. For every moment of extreme fatigue or finical panic there was a thousand fun things to keep us warm and safe in an unsafe, uncertain world. Maybe it's because the three of us have taken road trips together for years and we've figured out how to exist in those dirty, broke as hell conditions...

WHO AM I KIDDING WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IN FUCKS NAME WE'RE DOING! HA!

We made so many amazing friends on the way, and while probably a total of zero of them will read this THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART! The kindness of strangers is pretty much the currency of the underground, DIY music world (second only to actual money). Everyone who let us crash on their couch, or play a show in their living room, or bought our CD, or shook our hand, touched us deeply. SERIOUSLY - I don't think people realize how encouraging every "good show" or "nice job" or "you didn't suck butt" actually is to bands like us (or at least this self loathing little dirt shitter...).

And if your reading this, THANK YOU for being a friend as well.

We love all of you. Every single one.

Da Road Home: Houston, Dallas, Norman!

This happened. Ya'll know bout it.

Then we went to Houston to play another show at Super Happy Fun Land. It's a cool place. This is kinda creepy though. Just saying.

An awesome band called Br'er played. They were great, as well as being great guys.

Then we dropped some beats motherfucker. We used the light rig. Which fell on my head at one point. It was a fun show though.

We stayed with our cousin again. Laura is the BEST!

On the way to her house there was broken tree in the road. Look at that shit.

Then we drove to Dallas. Texas is extra serious about elevated highways.

QUICK STORY! On the way to Dallas Dom felt an unpleasant rumbling in his belly. It grew and grew until it finally came out of his mouth, if ya catch my drift. We had to cancel a show at an art opening there. Out of the tens of thousands of shows we've played it was the first show we've ever had to cancel!

He was better the next day, and we rolled into Norman, OK to do one last throw down.

This is who we played too.

Those two dudes on the end are Universe City. They put together great things for Norman. Thanks Rhett and Steve!

Then on the way home we had our last supper at Olive Garden. Fuck YES. Fuck da haters.

THE DEEP CHILL IS OVER.

Spring is fast approaching. The time is almost upon us: soon we will all be eating massive amounts of BARBECUE from the Thug Estates Grill. I formally invite everyone in the world to our house in Fairfield every night of warm weather forever for massive BBQz forever.

In a few dayz, after all the dirt and dust of all the roads and bars and and public restrooms and wonderful strangers houses has all settled into our deepest hearts, we'll post some final thoughts. We have a lot to assimilate. Good things have been learned.

Mar 15: Little Rock, AR!

Holy macular this show was...well...I'll tell you about it. Our camera ran out of batteries, so we literally got one good picture. This blog is gonna be mad wordy, BUT THIS STORY KICKS BUTT!

The show was booked by awesome dudes called Happy Fuckers Unite. They put on really amazing shows in Little Rock, and holy shit this show promised to be no exception. This is who was playing:

Videohippos. They're Baltimore/Wham City heros. Also the dude from Adventure was on tour with them doing dem keyz. Too many awesome.

Lesser Gonzolez Alvarez. Another awesome Balitmore dude. All those guys were on their way to Austin for SOUTHBYSOUTHWEST.

B L A C K I E. All caps with spaces. From Houston. Act like you know.

and Ghost Mall. From New York. These dudes. I swear.

OKAY! So here's what happened.

The show was booked at a house, but the Happy Fuckers invited the bands to play under a bridge, which sounded cooler than cool so we was like FUCKIN OKAY.

(except for the first band, Ghost Mall, who turned that house into a freakin fire house of holyshit. We're gonna drag their booties to Iowa. Watch your shit.)

We all rolled down to the bridge to live out our deepest RHCP fantasies, and it was just as kick ass as we wanted to be. We all unloaded and got ready, and then B L A C K I E began his assault.

B L A C K I E was quiet in real life, but when he played he was an absolute monster. The only picture we got that night was of him.

The under the bridge-ness of this show was AMAZING. With B L A C K I E's crazy sound and all the kick ass Little Rock kids going bonk, it was feeling real futuristic. Real William Gibson. Real Cyber Punk. I've been waiting for that future since high school, and let me tell you, it's baller.

BUT THEN! And this is where it goes down. DA FUZZ. A neighbor wasn't having our slanted punk utopia and decided the authorities needed to get involved. So the rest of the bands packed up as B L A C K I E was 'rapping' it up (holla), thinking to go back to the house and finish off the amazing night.

But then the cops showed up. They parked us all in and went around checking all the locals for outstanding warrants. It seemed like it was gonna be all shill and rill, but alas. After a long while the main promoter dude was escorted away in handcuffs. We later found out why, which was is so badass it's deserves it's own paragraph, and only made the William Gibson-ness of the evening even more profound.

Hacking. He was arrested for hacking. Holy fucking shit is there anything more baller? No, I agree, there is not.

Anyways. When we got back to the house we found out more things had gone awry. Turns out the van with the PA in it had been impounded. So the amazing night came to an unfortunate and grinding halt and we we're left with a sensation not disimilar to blue...well.

THAT BEING SAID! Not all was lost. It was still a great night of friend making and (a little) music.

The kidz in Little Rock rule the school. Nuf. Said.

Mar 13: Birmingham, AL and beyond!

In Birmingham Alabama we stayed with our new homie Beau who let us crash on his couch. We found him on couchsurfing.org and he was nice enough to say yes to us bums crashing his beautiful white leather couch machines!

When we got to Birmingham he was practicing with his band. Beau is the one in the middle slappin the mother effin shi out dat bass.

SO we didn't have a show booked in Birmingham, but these dude's had a party that night and were nice enough to let us play a show in their practice space. Sweethearts!

It was overall a very interesting night. These dudes have a very different approach to music than we we're use to...let's talk about it when we get home.

Also we didn't get any pics. OH WELL! But we did get a picture of this the next day.

And then we went to Tupelo Mississippi, where Elvis was born. Ice!

That's the face he was making coming out of the womb. I'm sure of it.

This is the house he was born in. So small.

Also, little known fact bout the Elvinator: he was frozen in carbonite when he was thirteen. Who we think of as Elvis is but a sham. Dom held his hand sadly.

This was a pretty uneventful blog! Don't hate!

We love you!

Mar 9: Savannah, GA!

We went to Savannah! This happened!

Here's our badd ass shit.

We taped our little PA to a chair. I love stuff like this.

Then we played some songs to a few people.

After words we crashed at a dudes house.

HERE COMES A RANT!!

It's important that you imagine the following being spoken from a Dom who is making the face below (see picture). You see, there needs to be a sweetening to the bitter memories.

We are a band that rolls deep, but we choose to roll deep in deepness of our choosing, and, on occasion, sometimes we stumble into a deepness in which to roll that we are not partial to. Sometimes the sweet escape of sleep will not come, and I get FUCKING PISSED! Sometimes one encounters a person who... has seemingly given up on living for the sake of living. Sometimes that person retreats into an abyss of drunk and high that they never emerge from, letting their wrists atrophy and their heart and soul crumble and fade. We found one and I cannot be sure if he even remembers that he met us, or that we slept on his couches.

THE PROBLEM IS: that he was very nice to us, and let us sleep on his couches. But the thing is, he was too wasted to even know what was going on. He was a person who was incapable of taking care of himself. Really I suppose it was a saddening encounter, but how can one not feel anger at the viewing of a life such wasted.

Alas, life can be a silly beast. We move in waves of sadness and happiness, failure and success, and how we let them wash over us or ride them can determine our circumstance perhaps more than we would like to admit. This night might have been hard, but we are big people, or we at least try to be. And while we may complain for the sake of venting (as vague as it may be) to friends and family, we to hold love in our hearts, because in the biggest sense, we are so very fortunate. I think this photo is telling of this.

Mar 6-8: Folrida, VisionQuestOne!

For VisionQuestOne we went real deep. I'm gonna try to keep this blog quiet to better emulate the profound silence of our Florida Meditation.

Man print.

We camped.

Dom took some sand from the Gulf beach.

Beautiful.

Mar 5: Mobile, AL!

We were in the paper in Mobile, Alabama!

We got to The Blind Mule (the super cool venue we were playing) just in time for dinner, which was half off because we're ballas (not sure how to spell that...). Hilary and Dom got sensible, sandwich type meals (blackened chicken and fish and shit), but I had to go ape shit and get this crazy mess of shrimp and sausage and grits. Shit was real.

ALAS! Even in spite of all the SIC press that we got, no one showed up for the show! Not even the other act! Which was real weird - we didn't know you could roll that way. Apparently there was some other bomb ass show just down the bloc that all the regulars where at... Fortunately the owner of the bar was an AWESOME dude and gave us $60 for our troubles and sent us on our way! Thank a billion Blind Mule dude!

So...we saw this shit.

One of the dudes at the bar (the only dude besides the bartender actually...) let us stay at his place! His name was Ryan Jettin - he was a super cool dude, and a really awesome, creative artist as well. We all got a good shot of inspiration from crashing at his house, seeing his works, and hanging and talking until the early morn. Here's just a few of the wicked shits he makes.

Watch his awesome youtubes.

In the end, Mobile was a cool place. The no-show show would have been a bummer, but we don't let that shit get us down! Especially when we get payed anyways! :)

Mar 4: New Orleans!

In New Orleans we stayed with the AWESOME girls from the AWESOME band Ixnay! We love you girls! And thanks so much for putting us up and letting us play a show with you! (I can't stop jamming their tunes on myspace...)

New Orleans was BEAUTIFUL! It's great to be on the road, and all the places we've been to have been real special (even you Joplin, MO) - but on the realz, New Orleans was the most special!

We got coffee and these fried bread things covered in powdered sugar.

Then we splurged on dinner. That's tilapia covered in shrimp. Fucking fish on fish, bish!

The show was at an awesome spot called The Circle Bar. It was a really old house in the middle of a bunch of new, swanky buildings in Uptown. It was like a old ship.

The show was SO AMAZING! People were so warm and stoked. New Orleans was a smash! (especially after the debacle of a show the night before)

This dude was there, looking like Simon Brooks on drugs.

After the show we went back to Robin's (of Ixnay) house. She had this in her backyard!

New Orleans was really a treat. Ixnay rules, the city rules, all around win.

Mar 3: Baton Rouge, LA!

This happened.

We had a really nice day in Baton Rouge! We visited the Capital of Louisiana, which was a giant, baller-ass tower.

We tried not to dump.

We dug on some Church.

It was, by all means, a really pleasent day. BUT! When we got the the bar where our show was, we quickly realized we were not at all a good fit for the bill. It was an open mic/jam band night at a sort of redneck bar...damn.

To cut the tension of what was sure to be a shit show, we chilled HARD before our set, which was at 1am. We went deep on the new Lost in the van! FUCKING JOHN LONG-COCK!

Alas, the show was nerve racking and generally bad. We chocked that shit up to experience and floated the fuck on!

All in all, Baton Rouge is a nice city and we had a nice day 4 sure. Kinda like...