Quick press update. This makes us a little uncomfortable because it sounds like we're bragging or something. But, believe me when I tell you: We're completely humbled. And we also think it makes for interesting reading. So if you're wondering what people have to say about us, or who's saying it, check it out. Where applicable, click the quote to see the full review. Some of these you might have to buy off the rack.

DECIBEL: [9/10] "Another Day Has Passed is a rarity - a record that is aggressive, melodic, brutal, punishing, and completely at odds with anything currently popular in the metal world..."

REVOLVER: [8/10] "a tight and upbeat brand of metal that aims straight at the heart of the mainstream—and mostly hits strikes."

OUTBURN: [3/4] "Goes Cube has earned one of the great albums of the year"

ALLMUSIC GUIDE: "on their first full-length album, Another Day Has Passed, Goes Cube do an enjoyably good job of integrating the brutal and the melodic."

CHICAGO READER: "Another Day is a stunning eruption of proggy punk metal, combining the anthemic melodies and tight post­hardcore song structures of Torche with the restrained mathiness and fathoms-deep textures of Isis. Furiously aggressive yet scarily nimble, it’s the sound of skinny tech geeks savoring the sweet justice of kicking sand in the jocks’ faces, over and over—and you don’t get the feeling it’ll stop being fun for these guys when somebody loses an eye."

THE SKINNY: Another Day Has Passed showcases riff-heavy fury aimed at genuine metal fans, not hedging its bets in pursuit of knowing nods of ironic approval from fashionistas or alternative band-makers like Mike Patton.

DEAF SPARROW: [4/5] "To sum  Another Day Has Passed in one sentence; this is an excellent fucking record. Yes, don’t let their beards, boney frames and black rimmed glasses fool you. Goes Cube is a metalhead’s wet dream."

SMN NEWS: [8.5/10] "GOES CUBE is a band that the world needs more of. ..they masterfully combine rock, punk, and metal, and can still stamp it as original... It’s both punishing and a work of art. You’ll be surprised how much power these guys unleash with a ton of massive distortion, commanding chants, brilliant melody, and diverse drumming that is set to stun with whatever attack GOES CUBE decides to approach. And man alive do they have some monstrous riffs."

MOUTH FOR WAR: "Through the thundering rhythms and thick guitars emerges the band’s post-hardcore, indie rock roots with melodic elements that help set off beefier moments on the album. The overall effect creates one hell of musical experience."

REVIEWS RESIST: "The above recipe is one that the members of Goes Cube followed very closely when cooking up their debut full-length “Another Day Has Passed” (out now on The End Records). It is also one that will guarantee a spot on my “Top 10 of 2009” list. Now excuse me while I go gorge myself."

FREE TIMES (COLUMBIA, SC): "Listening to Goes Cube is exciting. In an ideal world, listening to music would always be exciting, but alas, this is not an ideal world. One must wonder, though, whether an ideal world could spawn a seething sonic cavalcade such as Goes Cube’s punk-metal mutation — and whether a world without Goes Cube could ever be ideal."

PITTSBURGH DAILY NEWS: "Easily one of the most diverse, noisy and satisfying rock records this year, "Another Day Has Passed" spills pink, metal, hardcore, sludge, post-hardcore and straight-up rock into a boiling dish that you'll give yourself a migraine trying to label. How about simply 'awesome'?"

RIVER FRONT TIMES (ST LoUIS): "After a decade filled with bloated indie rockers and copycat screamo bands, Goes Cube vocalist David Obuchowski's larynx-shredding battle cries are refreshing. They're the perfect urgent focal point for the Brooklyn band's punishing mix of post-punk and metal..."

THRASH HITS: "They might be a hipster metal wet dream, but Brooklyn-based Goes Cube are too busy taking care of business with epic fuzz-riffs to care too much about that. Vocalist/guitarist, David Obuchowski, gave us the skinny."

EXCL.. "The crunchy shredding will please those who enjoyed Kylesa's Static Tension, released earlier this year"

BLOGCRITICS: "Another Day Has Passed kicks ass with thundering double bass, diabolically low-tuned guitars, and Appell’s insane drum fills. It’s a sonic assault on all levels, making for an eardrum shattering squash of fulfillment that will leave you in a heap panting, sweating, and screaming for more. Add Obuchowski’s throat-ripping vocals on top of the mix and you’re dealing with one hell of a rock band."

WAY TOO LOUD: "Goes Cube have created an album with elements of metal, punk, hardcore, post-hardcore and prog rock mixed all together to form a line of songs that are loose and chaotic, but at the same time fashioned into structured harmonies and creative riffs"

NOISECREEP: "bands such as Quicksand, Helmet and Unsane have for the most part avoided the metal tag, despite being unquestionably heavy. Brooklyn's Goes Cube are poised to pick up where those bands left off with their forthcoming release 'Another Day Has Passed.' A record of considerable heft, but not really metal in the classic sense."

BLISTERING: "Goes Cube, who hail from Brooklyn, New York, have managed to create something that’ll extend beyond the hardcore/punk scene the same way that Torche on ‘Meanderthal’ shook loose from the constraints of genre."

METALSUCKS: "Goes Cube force us to discard our genre tags and recognize the rarity of the word “song” as it pertains to metal. They can write a damn fine one, complete with verses and a chorus and ye olde bridge...Another Day Has Passed feels nigh boundaryless in its warm embrace of the many forms of layin’ it down. This can only be good for heavy music."

6/5/09 @ Union Hall: It was a great show and a lot of people came out. Thanks so much, everyone, for making it such a packed room. Saw some old friends and family. What a great night. It was an added bonus to be playing with Detachment Kit again.

Looking back: It was a tiring tour. Hardly any nights off. And the ones we did have, well, I was sick for them. Also, the other one---the one I wasn't sick for---our van had just died. So while we weren't sick, we were a little stressed and tired, having to carry all our gear through tick-infested brush to a motel. But tiring is not bad. In fact, it's rather satisfying. I don't know that it would feel right to go on tour and come back well-rested. You're supposed to come back tired, hungry, homesick. That's what I think, at least.

We met a lot of new fans. It was exciting to meet people who said "I bought your record last night, and I've been really looking forward to seeing you since." We saw people from the last couple tours. It's not only great to see familiar faces, but we're lucky enough that those people are huge supporters: promoting the show, putting us up, etc.

And lastly, Matt Tyson. We asked a lot of him. He learned 14 songs in about a month, and he dropped everything to go on the road with us. When his wife was going through a difficult time (due to a death in the family), he honored his commitment to the tour when it would have been perfectly understandable if he had bailed out. And finally, his performances were wonderful. He's a natural musician, and a talented one. There will never be another Matt Frey---his style of playing is confounding, distinct, and really cool---but Matt Tyson has his own style and techniques, which add another, and good, dynamic to our band. Now that's he put in over 5,000 miles with Goes Cube (not counting the 5 weeks he did with us in 2007 as a documentarian), he's no longer the new guy. And from the way he played, whether it was the first night or any other night, no one would have ever been able to guess he was anyways.

Pittsburgh: After we loaded in, the booker came in and said "Well, this is just a cursed night." The doors weren't even open yet. So, that wasn't a good sign. It turned out bands kept canceling, and some other shit was keeping Pittsburgh folks otherwise occupied. So we expected the worse. But it was far from it. We met a cool little band called Frame To The Floor who had opened the show. They're a new band. They had a real, honest feeling to them. They only played for about eight people, and yet they didn't seem to mind. They gave it everything they had, and we not only respected that, we also related to it. They sounded like an updated Cap'n Jazz. Fun to hear that kind of stuff. Nice guys, too. We played, and we had some folks turn out for the show, and also had some folks come in from the bar area. That's the two-sidedness of being in a loud band: On the one side, you tend to drive people out of the room. On the other hand, people in completely different rooms (like a separate lounge) can hear you (even though they can't usually hear the bands in there), and they might decide they like it. Well, anyways, it was a fun show. We played an encore. We sold some merch. We met some nice folks. Incredible show? No. Cursed? Hardly.

Baltimore: Sometimes you tell yourself (and anyone who listens), "Don't get your hopes up." Or, "keep your expectations in check." With the exception of Iowa City, those were very important credos this tour. Chicago has become such an immensely great place for us to play, that it's easy to think about the next show there and figure it will kick ass. That's what we were thinking this tour, and Chicago was just OK. I thought Denver was going to be like the last time if not better. It wasn't. "Keep those expectations in check." But come on, how can you keep your expectations in check when you know at the end of the tour you'll be playing the Talking Head Club (have always wanted to play there) with Rosetta, and a bunch of other bands who, from quick visits to their MySpace pages, seem to be pretty rad? This was one of those shows where we let ourselves give in and say, "Man, I think that show is going to rule." Did it rule? No. Did Rosetta rule? Yeah. Actually, all the bands did. But the crowd just didn't seem to dig us all that much. I think it was a case of us being a little too straight up rock/punk, and not enough giant walls of ambient noise, or extended cacaphonous passages. I don't know. It was fun. But I should have kept my expectations in check.

Asbury: We played Asbury Lanes. Love that place. It's Goes Cube's second time playing. We definitely want to play there again, but next time we don't want to play first, and we want to actually work with the venue on the date. In this case, we emailed them because we didn't want a night off, and they said sure we can put you first on punk night. It was a fun show, we played well, and some folks really liked us, actually. My wife was there (which was my favorite part), and so was Kenny's girlfriend (sadly, Matt's wife was out of town due to a loss in the family, though she had planned on being there, too). Seeing as how it was our first time seeing the ladies in nearly a month, we thought it would be best to get home rather than hang out at Asbury Lanes. We explained this to the bands upfront, before we played so they didn't think we were blowing them off. They were cool about it. Hope they had great shows.

Connecticut: So I wake up home for the first time in three weeks only to get right back in the van to play a show with Suicide Dolls in New London, CT. After enduring the worst traffic of the tour, we finally go up there. The Oasis is a very cool room with a very weird stage. The Suicide Dolls played a spirited set, which clearly pleased their fans (and they have a lot). They've got a very 90s alternative sound with a heavy dose of Sonic Youth to them (yes, I know SY were part of the 90s alternative scene, but they also were earlier than that). They are great people, too. Always working hard to set up a good show. We played after them, and I think it was a fairly good show. Good crowd, good set, decent sound. It was a nice strong finish to our out of town shows. But we were all eager to get back home. And we were excited for our homecoming show the next night at Union Hall in Brooklyn...

that's coming up next.

On the way to Oshkosh, our van died. We had it towed to Madison and we had to cancel our show for the evening. That's only the second show we've ever had to cancel, and this is our third year of touring. The next day---a Saturday, mind you---the van was repaired at an incredibly reasonable price by the fine folks at Zimbrick Honda. These guys were talented mechanics, and really good people. They let us get right under the hood and the car with them when they were fixing Betsy so we could see what was happening. They had us on our way by 3:00pm, and we made our show in Chicago.

Chicago: We played the Underground Lounge with King Sparrow, a band with an old college friend. They brought out a good crowd, played a very tight and high energy set, and were really helpful when it came to loading our gear in and out. Thanks, guys! The soundguy kind of soured the night for not only us but every member of every band we talked to, and also most of the audience members. I'm not going to waste my time or yours going into a whole long thing about it. But, suffice it to say, before I even had my amplifiers on (no exaggeration), he was telling me to turn them down. I pointed out that my Roland was set to 1. That would be 1 out of 10. He responded "Well then, let's go ahead and get this Ampeg out of here." Again, the amplifiers weren't even on yet. I said, "Look, our volume is going to be lower than it is in our eight-by-eight practice space. Seeing as how this a 100-person capacity club, that ought to be quiet enough." He answered, "Well, it's your show." Then throughout the show, my mic wouldn't work most of the time. How odd! And for some reason, the bass guitar was being pumped through the monitors instead of the vocals. And then, six songs into our set, the soundguy told us we had 10 minutes left in our set. I said "Ten? How long have we been playing?" He answered, "Twenty." That's a bunch of horseshit, folks. During those six songs, we only stopped once between them (we stopped between the third and fourth song). The first song, third song, and sixth song were each under two minutes. The rest are under three and a half minutes. If we had played for 15 minutes, I'd eat my hat. So the guy seemed to have some sort of vendetta. And he treated everyone like shit. When strangers who are audience members come up to you to apologize for the soundguy, you know it's bad.

Redford, MI: We came back to the Double OO Pub right outside of Detroit, which is a great little divebar. Rich over there really took care of us, and he's already planning a great show for us for the next time around. Our friend and de facto booking agent, David Gros, met us out there, too. We played a fun set, the sound was great, the people were nice to us and bought merch.

Now we were SUPPOSED to play with two other bands. One of them had to cancel for some reason or the other. That's fine. Maybe their van died. Not for me to judge. The other band, BAT ON FIRE (from Detroit), actually showed up. They started unloading their gear, and one of the guys said to Kenny, "Hey congrats on your championship beard!" We hadn't met these guys. We didn't know them. And the guy's making a smart ass remark about Kenny's appearance. Which is not only obnoxious, but it's nervy considering the guy had a bleach blonde faux-hawk.

So they load in their gear, and they go up to Rich and start asking for money already. Rich says well we usually give the lion's share of the money to the touring band, but if you guys need money, I'll see what I can do. Rich asked us, and we said do what you need to do to make everyone happy. If possible, it would be nice to get gas money. But unless there was something pre-arranged, we don't ever ask for money before we play. So anyways, Rich goes back to the guys in BAT ON FIRE and he says I can maybe get you 40 or 50 bucks. They say, "No, we want a 100 dollar guarantee, or we don't play." Rich says, "We didn't give you a guarantee. Those are arranged as part of the booking. Not when you show up." The guy says, "We have a 250-person draw!" At this point, it was after nine, and they had three fans show up. So Rich said "I'm not guaranteeing you 100 dollars. And I don't see 250 people." So the guy says fine, we're not playing then. And then he says, "It's probably all for the best because in all the time we've played, there's only been about two bands who were good enough to share a stage with us."



Bat On Fire: The Band Who Will Not Play Without A Hundred Dollar Guarantee. They Will Also Not Ask For It Until Thirty Minutes Before Their Set. Also, They Are So Good (Or Have Played With Bands Who Are So Shitty) That There Have Only Been Two Bands In The Whole Wide World Good Enough To Share The Stage With Them.

When we heard about this (after they left, sadly), we were disappointed because we wanted to take our gas money and put it on the bar and let the people decide. Winner takes all.

Seriously, Goes Cube is hardly the benchmark of what a good band is, or the model for good business, but I have to tell you: We don't even ask for money unless we've obviously brought a crowd. And that's not until AFTER we play. And we're a band whose tours go from NY to the west coast, or NY to Denver, or NY to Texas, or NY to Canada.

BAT ON FIRE is a local band who drew THREE PEOPLE and who were playing a local show. They didn't have a van that died. Or a cross-country tour.Or gear that breaks with no time or money to fix it. And this wasn't even a big venue. It was the diviest of dive bars. A punk rock club with cheap draft beer.

I don't know. You make up your mind about them.

So then after we played, the four of us headed for a motel and food. The first stop was the food. We went to a Meijer, and we got some sandwich supplies. Then we went to a Super 8, where we encountered problems. This unfortunately is very common. Rather than write about this everyday, I'll write about it now, but just know that it tends to happen at least half or three quarters of the time: Anyways, so we go in and we ask for a non-smoking room with two beds. We say "four adults" because we're honest people, and we're not looking to rip anybody off. It's about 1:30am at this point. I ask him if he'll give us a discount for AAA, and he has some excuse why he won't. So then he says to me "You sure you only have four people? If you have more, it's ten dollars extra per person." I said, "Come on, man, I'm asking for a room with two beds and telling you we have four people. I'm not trying to rip you off. If I was, I'd have said it was just two people. I figured you were going to charge us an extra fee for the two extra people anyways." So then, I ask him what time checkout is, and he tells me 11am. I ask him, like we've asked two hundred times before, "Is there anyway we can get an extra hour? We've been driving all day, and it's late. We could really use that extra hour." He gives me a sharp, "NO!"

So then in the middle of the night, the fucking alarm starts going off at 5am. We can't get the goddamn thing to turn off. So finally, I have to unplug the damn thing. So now we're all awake, and now we all have no clock. Finally, I get back to sleep and awake at what time? I have no idea. I get up, check my phone, and discover it's a few minutes past ten. The others are still sleeping. So I go downstairs to the lobby, and see that the same guy is still working. This time, he's got a woman with him. Here's how the conversation goes:

Me: Hi there. Are you sure there's no way we can't get that extra hour? The alarm clock was going off at five in the morning, and we finally had to unplug it to get it to turn off. We hardly got any sleep, and we could really just use that little bit of extra time.

Woman: Sure, what's your room number?

Me: THANK YOU! It's 211.

Asshole from night before: NO! If you want an extra hour, it will be ten dollars extra. Ten dollars per hour.

Me: Ten dollars? I'm not giving you ten dollars.

Asshole from night before: Yes, ten dollars. Last night, you asked for the extra time. Now you are asking again. So why are you blaming it on the alarm clock if you already asked last night?

Me: Because now I'm even more tired, and so are my friends because the alarm clock woke me up!

Asshole from night before: But why should I give you a free hour because of the alarm clock?

Me: Listen, I'm asking you for a favor! I was asking last night, and now I'm asking you again. I'm asking you as a person to just do us a favor and give us 60 minutes. I'm not giving you ten extra dollars. If you can't give us an hour without charging us the ten bucks, then forget it, we'll leave at eleven.

Asshole from night before: Just because the alarm clock goes off does not mean I give you free hour.

Me: Forget the goddamn alarm clock, and forget the extra hour then. What a guy you are. Real good. How about this free coffee? Is that ten extra dollars, too?

Asshole from night before: Fine, take the extra hour then.

Me: Don't do me any big favors.

As I type this, I'm in the motel room. As I post it, I'll be somewhere else because the Wi-Fi that comes with the room doesn't work. I assume it would be ten extra dollars for that.

MATT FREY UPDATE: Matt Frey, our founding member recently retired to pursue some of his other goals (at the top of the list is running) is wasting no time doing amazing things: He ran the New York Half-Marathon and placed 89th out of nearly 12,000 people. His average mile was ran in 6 minutes 14 seconds. Kenny and I figured out that he was in the 99.25 percentile. He automatically qualifies for the New York Marathon, and will be running it and evidently probably beating the hell out of most of the other runners, in November. Congrats, Matt!

   

Denver was amazing because we got to see family. I saw my parents- and brother-in-law. Kenny saw his brother. My folks-in-law put us up for what was our last night off of the tour (we only had two). Roasted chicken, comfortable beds, plus non-PBR beer and non-well gin... does it get any better than that when it comes to a night off on tour? Not really.

Lincoln, NE was probably the low point of the tour. The band who was supposed to play after us forgot they were booked. That was sad because they were really nice guys, and from talking to them, it seemed like their band was probably going to be really awesome. But alas, they showed up without any gear and way too late. We offered our amps and drums (excluding cymbals), but they coudln't track down what they needed. The venue itself was really awesome, too. Great sound. Only problem: it was big. 400-person capacity. There were about eight people there. But we played well, people bought stuff, and that band was very apologetic about the screw up, so I'm not going to make a federal case out of it.

Iowa City, IA rivaled Columbia, SC for how great it was. There was a good crowd, and a lot of the people were not only excited to see us, but they knew almost all our songs and were singing and dancing along. I can't begin to describe the feeling one gets when the crowd is energized and enthusiastic. The last time we played Iowa City, we met this really great guy named the Reverend Cooper (aka "Coop") who told us when we returned to Iowa City, we needed to get in touch with him because he wanted his band to play with us, and because he wanted to tattoo us. Well, Matt and I skipped on the tattoo, but Kenny got an original Reverend Cooper souvenir piece. It's a corn cob. Very Iowa! His band, Snow Demon, finished out the night loud and thick and heavy. Very good stuff.

So now we're on our way to Osh Kosh, Wisconsin. After Osh Kosh, it's Chicago! We're excited about this home stretch of shows, which also includes a date with Rosetta in Baltimore.

New Feature for the tour blog (and this is appropriate before we begin): Rather than describe the bands that we play with (unless there is something very particular I want to say), I think what we're going to do is post a song or two by them. One of the most interesting things about being on tour without a booking agent (or, as was our case for a year, being on tour with a booking agent who doesn't do anything) you play with a lot of different bands. Some are amazing. Some are absolutely awful. Some are arrogant and inconsiderate. Some are the most kind and generous people you'll ever meet. Some of them, like Rocket Cottage, leave right in the middle of your set even though you watched them and you and your fans were their only audience.

When it comes to how good their music is, though, that's not for me to determine and tell people. That's for you and you and you and you and you (that's how many fans we have) to determine. So we're going to post songs from the bands. Some of them I think are great. Others I think are terrible. Us posting them is neither an endorsement nor a condemnation. We just want you to have an idea of how different the bands are.

Memorial Day Weekend has been a little rough on us. St. Louis was especially bad. The venue, the Firebird, is a cool place. It's big, but the sound is damn good, and the staff is great. We played with a band called Three Fortys. We only played for about six people that night, three of whom were in Three Fortys. Seeing as how there's only three of us, they played for the same amount of people.

Highlight of the night: KING OF THE HILL SANDWICHES FROM SCHNUCKS! (By the way, that's also the highlight of my four years of college.)

The next night we drove out to Larry (sorry, Lawrence,) Kansas where we met up with a dude named Ryan who came through with the show for us. He had come through last minute and we'd never met him before. The End Records put us in touch with him, and he just went ahead and got us a show, and did even more including getting us guitar strings, a PA system, and buying us some beer. We played at a place called Duffy's, which is a bar in an Econo Lodge. Actually a really interesting spot for a show. It would have been better if there were more people. But actually, there were some people there. Not many. But more than in St Louis. And actually, since we were the only band, the other folks weren't just people from the other band. In fact, one of the guys who was there had driven an hour and half from KCMO. He'd been at our Kansas City show a few months ago, and wanted to come out and support. We were a bit overwhelmed by how generous and nice everyone was. I mean, you've got one guy who doesn't know us at all, running around hooking shows up and getting gear, and then you've got another dude who drives an hour and a half to see us, and he brings along his son, who's a fledgling guitar player. The set was fun, and it was quick. We were on the road by 10:30. We headed to Salina, KS where we got a motel. We (and I especially) wanted to make some headway on our drive to the Denver area, as my parents-in-law live out there, and we'd like to see them and have a nice hot meal with them tonight (our last night off of the tour).

Highlight of the night: Meeting Ryan (we took him bowling before the show), and seeing Matt and his son from KCMO.

OK, so now that you've waded through this update, it's time to hear some of the bands we've played with:

THREE FORTYS [played with them in St Louis 5/23]:
"Feelings For You"
"Don't Leave Your Dreams"

THE UNAWARES [played with them in Columbia, SC 5/20]:
"Neurotic Inventions"
"Try's Tryin'"

enjoy.

Charlotte: We played the Milestone, which is the CBGB of North Carolina according to about everyone who knows anything about it. Not nearly as big a crowd as Columbia (we were pretty spoiled by Columbia). Add to that, I was sick. So this wasn't my favorite show by a long shot. But the venue was great, and we really want a do-over.

Hermitage, TN: We had a night off so we went bowling and we got some rotisserie chickens from a Wal Mart. And we rested.

When we were bowling, we got to hear all the songs that are currently popular. It all sucks worse than I could ever begin to say. It actually made us angry. The rock music is soulless and embarrassing and trite. And every single R&B song seems to be someone singing with so much auto-tune that they sound like a robot, and the lyrics for every single song can be summarized by the following:

-I see you at the club.
-You look good.
-I am rich and drive a nice car. I will buy you a drink.
-We will have sex.
-I will cheat on you.
-Don't accuse me of cheating on you.

Here's every rock song:

-Remember back in the day.
-You are pretty.
-You hurt my feelings.

I don't understand what happened to popular music. I mean, it's too easy to simply say "oh, we're getting old." There's ALWAYS good music being made. And there are bands---contemporary ones---who are making good music right now. And I don't just mean obscure ones who we know. I mean, there are bands on major labels who are making some good music. But these still aren't the artists who are being played in the bowling alleys and Wal-Marts and restaurants and music stores across America.

But here's where I get tripped up. Back when I was younger, let's say the 90s, there was music being played everywhere that I enjoyed. And while my parents were by no means fans of heavy guitars and screaming, there were still things they enjoyed. My old man listened to REM's Automatic For The People all the time, for example.

I know that what I am saying is either sadly obvious, or sadly misguided. I know I'm too old, and my music tastes are too "alternative" for me to be a fair judge of contemporary music and all that. And I know that there are so many people who would hear me say this and say, "Uh...and you just realized this?"

But all I can tell you is that it was literally a bewildering experience. We bowled for a solid two hours and heard music that was staggeringly terrible, that Kenny finally asked them to change the station. They did, and the first song that came on the new radio station was Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me." That song was a huge hit at one time, right? Well, it's good. Even scary, tattooed, death metal loving Kenny, digs the song. So what happened?

We played Slim's Downtown in Raleigh the night before last. Matt Tyson had a real nice group of old friends come out. In addition, some kids from our Chapel Hill show made the drive so they could get a second helping.

It was a really cool room. One of my favorites so far, actually. Long, narrow, low stage, good acoustics (for us).

On the first song, Kenny destroyed his snare head. The drum stick went through it, and the bottom head. It's pretty cool that he can do such a thing. But changing a drum head is not an ideal way to build momentum. So we paused while he changed his head. I told dumb jokes, and then Matt and I quizzed the crowd with some rock and roll trivia.

We started playing again and all was going well until I broke a string. Luckily, I had my backup ready to go. But still, it was just one of those sets. I think we sounded pretty good, I think we played pretty well, the crowd was definitely great. But I kind of feel like we failed to truly build up great momentum.

But it was by no means a bad show. In fact, all in all, it really was a good show. And the crowd made us feel like we'd never played better.

After the show, we got a nice personalized tour of the Raleigh Times, a really cool bar/restaurant. Then there were some Belgian Beer, and then there was some more of it. And, really, how great is that?

We rolled out of Raleigh and headed down to Columbia feeling good about the previous night's show, and hopeful for what was in store for us at The Whig.

When we were booking this tour and had figured out that we could go down to South Carolina, we knew what we had to do: Get in touch with The Unawares. We had played with them at a house party in Atlanta. They were really great back then, and super nice guys. So we got in touch with them about this tour, and they came back with a confirmed show within about five minutes.

On the drive down there, I get a call from Rhett (their drummer) asking us what kind of food we want, because he was going grocery shopping for us. He told us we could stay at his place. What we didn't know was that his place was a nice big luxurious house. A luxurious house stocked with freshly bought food.

We rolled over to the club first where The Unawares guys were waiting for us. They helped us unload our gear. Me and Matt had some work to do, so we needed a place to plug in our laptops and get online. The bassist James told us to hop in his car, and that he'd take care of it. He did. He took us over to a place called Goatfeathers, where he works. We got a nice big table near an outlet and signed on to their free wireless and got to work. Meanwhile James bought us some beers. Not that I was drinking beer while I was working. I was working between sips.

Actually, before I started working, I checked my e-mail and Matt and I were astonished by what was waiting for us. Tons of awesome press. First, there was a live review of our show in DC. Then there was this review from Exclaim. Then there was an interview published on Thrasher Hits. Then there was a write up in the Free Times (a Columbia weekly). AND THEN, a truly big piece: DECIBEL! They reviewed our record, highlighted it, and gave it a 9 out of 10! They also gave us some mentions elsewhere in the mag, including a track review and a couple jokes in the Reviews By The Numbers section. We're going to head to a bookstore today and see if we can't pick up some copies. This comes after Revolver Magazine featured Goes Cube in its Bootleg Series along with an exclusive non-album cut, "Loose Ends."

So then I started working, though it was tough, because we were pretty excited.

Anyways, so we go back to The Whig and got some food. They took care of us and fed us with some really delicious food. And because we were playing, the beer was free. I actually had to do a few more hours of work, though, so I really couldn't fully enjoy hanging out at this place. But when it neared showtime, I clocked out and looked around only to see a completely packed house. The Unawares started playing, and they were better than ever. Their whole set was great, but there were a few songs which really knocked us out. When it was our turn to play, we were pleased to see that the crowd hadn't thinned one bit. In fact, they were really eager to hear more music. The venue was packed to capacity, and it seemed like every single person was rocking the hell out. We met some great folks after the show and moved a good amount of t-shirts and records. Then this dude who guys by the name SilDag did a performance of some of his poems. One of which is about beer. Matt got video of it.

We headed back to Rhett's house had some food and got to spend some quality time with The Unawares. I actually couldn't hang out too much because I had to work more. I grabbed a solid three and a half hours of sleep, woke up and worked some more. While I was doing that, Rhett was running out buying us a whole bunch of Bojangles.

So in short, The Unawares booked us an amazing and completely packed show which is going to be hard to top, and they took care of us like family. Yeah, Columbia was pretty damn good, I'd say.

By the way, Matt---who is a better writer, and who's not nearly as verbose---is keeping a tour journal on one of his 83 websites. It's called Tysonius. It's got videos of some of our performances and other fun stuff.

We played Chapel Hill last night. It was our third show in Chapel Hill. It was at a place called Jack Sprat that was a really cool little new place. The crowd was by no means massive, but their enthusiasm more than made up for their size. The show got an Indy Pick in the Chapel Hill paper. And half the crowd or more said they're driving to Raleigh tonight to see our show at Slim's.

On the personal side, we stayed with Graham and Emily last night. Our third time staying with them. We met them because they're good friends with Matt Tyson. Now we're all friends. Graham and Emily have always been so generous and last night was no exception. They make sure we're fed, have beer, and have a dog to play with. Apologies to Emily if we kept you up last night by watching American Psycho and turning it up really loud every time Patrick Bateman gave a dissertation on an 80s pop act.

Lastly, we got word that REVOLVER MAGAZINE posted "Loose Ends," a song which did not make it on to our full-length. They also posted an interview. Check it out here!

The tour started on 5/14. It was our record release show, and it was also Matt Frey’s farewell show. If you’d like to read about his retirement, you can do so by reading the previous blog post. I won’t go back into it again, but I will say it was a great show, it was also emotional. A special thank you needs to be extended to the other bands who played: Red Beard, Constants, Austerity Program, and Jones Street Station.

 

We kicked off the out of town show in DC with Constants. We played at The Red and The Black, which is a really cool little venue that also has great food. I feel like half our tours start there, and it’s a good place to kick things off. But this wasn’t just a normal show in DC. This show was our first show with our new bass player, Matt Tyson.

 

Matt hasn’t actually performed live since 2003. And back then, it wasn’t a bass he was playing. It was a keyboard. And in the interest of full disclosure, Matt only started learning our songs about one month ago (he learned 14 of them for this tour). And yet if we hadn’t actually told people it was his first show with us, no one would have ever known. He got his nervous jitters out on our first song. And after that, he did phenomenally. Actually he did phenomenally on our first song, too. But he was beating himself up over a couple wrong notes. We told him a couple wrong notes are okay. He chose to use those couple wrong notes on the first song on the first night, and that’s fine. That just means he has to play perfectly for the next three weeks.

 

It was a pretty fun night. My wife and Matt’s wife were along for the ride, lending support, and taking some pictures. You can see one of those pictures, and follow Matt’s personal thoughts on the tour over here at tysonius.tumblr.com. We spent some downtime on Saturday with family, and got an early rest. We’ll need it as we have a show nearly every night for the better part of three weeks.

 

Last night, we played Nara Sushi in Richmond. We’d played there last year. What a cool spot for a show. It’s actually a sushi restaurant that turns into a punk/hardcore/metal venue when it closes. Last night it was a punk venue. And to be honest, most of the punk kids weren’t into us. No sense in lying about it or trying to spin in it. All three of us in Goes Cube have very deep punk rock roots, and I think a lot of our music is influenced by punk rock. Hell, some of our songs are mostly punk rock.  But the thing is, punk rock kids---and I’ve noticed this ever since high school—don’t really seem to be very open about liking other kinds of music. I mean, there’s obviously a good amount of exceptions. But on some broad, and albeit unfair level, I feel like punk rock kids are very strict about their music. I mean, even within the very narrow genre of punk. Pop punk, not rock’n’roll punk. Old British punk, not cow punk. Et cetera. And yet, there are tons of people who aren’t strictly punk rock kids, who love punk. It’s like the compatibility only runs in one direction.

 

So there were some guys who not in leather jackets or spiked belts who really dug us, but a lot of the kids out there with straight-out punk kids, and they weren’t into it. So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut says. Everyone who loved the show asked us to come back but suggested we play a metal night. We agreed.

 

We’re heading down to North Carolina today. We have three NC shows, and one SC show. We absolutely love North Carolina, and Matt Tyson has many friends there, as he lived there for a longtime. So we should be pretty well taken care of, and hopefully we’ll have some folks out to see the show.

 

In the meantime, we got some bowling to do. We went yesterday and had kind of a rocky start. I’ll post scores soon.

 

OK, FINALLY: I have a very important question. Please post your answer in the comments:

 

How do you pronounce the word “ancient”? Please spell it out phonetically and include as much detail as possible.

 

OK, I’ve got some work to do. My bosses are pretty amazing folks, and are letting me do some work on the road. So I have to sign off now.