go to fairtax.org

even if you don't pay taxes yet...go check this shit out...it will blow your mind. know where your money goes. especially when you have the kind of gov't that will bail out people who fucked up hard and still foot the bill to you.

hello...i'm selling some of my guitars that are taking up room in my closet and i'd like to get some software and new guits for the road...i will be putting up on ebay in a few weeks but i wanted to see if anyone wanted first crack at them...pics will be sent if you want...i will post the rest soon.

Edit: pics and prices and brief detail

All prices are what i would post as Buy It Now on Ebay. Hardshell Case included with all.

The Gibson S1 Marauder. $600. Used on a lot of the last record and a couple tours


The Gibson Marauder '75 $500. Used extensively on post-Chroma tours


The Gibson Les Paul Vintage Original Spec Goldtop with p-90's: $2000. a lot of money but a truly killer guitar that you can't find for this price anywhere. at least 500-1000 more on ebay. a real player's guitar.


The Washburn Semi-Hollowbody $250. Had this for 6 or 7 years. used on a lot of demos and jamming at home.



leave a comment or send me a message if you're interested. i'll post on ebay in a week when we get home if no one has laid claim. if i have a lot of offers it might only be fair to post on ebay and let you guys go for it.

ok so here it is folks. i am re-dedicating myself to our fans because i believe 100% that ya'll are the reason why i can do what i do for a living and i can't thank you enough. i think that although i've always felt this way about our fans sometimes all the hoopla associated with running a band as a business distracts me from my sole purpose for creating music which is to communicate with my audience. a lot of bands will "talk the talk" of appreciating their fans but never really follow through on that relationship. i feel like before the madness happened (being brought up to the majors) we controlled every aspect of our relationship with our fans. we didn't have stupid fan clubs that you had to pay for. we didn't have "special releases" of really no added value.....so on and so forth. i think our awe and amazement at being on a new level that we'd always dreamt of allowed us to take our eye off of you guys and i'm really sorry for that. i know we haven't neglected you but i think certain things have been done that we wouldn't have done if we were running it ourselves. with that being said....from now on i'll be attending to the band's myspace as much as possible...please understand that we have 200,000+ friends and it's really hard and time consuming to respond to every message and comment. we probably won't comment you back because you asked not for the reason that we don't like you....we just don't have the ability to do that for everybody. all of us are going to be rocking the myspace a lot more to attend to our own business....i won't really be checking this page anymore. i never really liked myspace as a friend community page but it is fun to come and look at people's pictures and be able to keep up with them without weekly phone calls. besides....all the people i communicate with on a regular basis i either see or talk to every day so there's really no need. anyway...sorry....got off on a tangent. please feel free to leave your comments because i'll check back for those but as far as messages are concerned please leave them with cartel with the subject to me...i'll look out for those especially. i hope all is well with you all and i look forward to seeing all of you on the road next year and to meeting all of you who have waited on us in the uk, japan, and australia....we'll see you in a couple months....get ready....we're gonna have a good old fashioned throw down.

one love

what's up. i know a lot of the people on the myspace here are friends through the band and what not so that's what this will pertain to.

i'm stoked. the band has come leaps and bounds. hard to put all the things running through my mind down right now. i know i'm not going to but i'll try. listening to silverchair. love that. saw morrissey last night in chicago. cool as hell. currently still in chi-town but rolling home in a second but i thought i'd throw this down.

i love all you guys and gals. we're so lucky to be able to do what we love for a living and that is in large part because of you. radio is picking up. video is picking up. we're finally doing a headlining tour in a few months....not before we write some new jams though.....YES! over this year we've all been through a lot. had some shit said about us. said some shit about others. i just want you all to know that underneath all the marketing and radio push and all the other things that get you labeled a sellout (still baffles me) that we are normal dudes. we came from normal people. a normal town. a normal life. in fact. we're a lot more like you than you might think. maybe more like yourself than you....go on and marinade on that for a while. haha. anyway. the next year for us is going to be great. headlining tour. overseas jams. new record. yes sir. the new stuff is great. i'm so excited. can't wait for you guys to hear some stuff. some teaser stuff. overall i'm just happy and i wanted all of you to know. gonna play some golf. gonna write some jams. gonna sing my ass off for all of you in feb/march.

love you guys.
be good to each other.
it just might change the world.

alright. so we were playing a show in madera, california. it's close to fresno. anyway. it was a great show....everything going awesome right. well. ryan and i were rocking out a little to hard to be so close to each other and it was a small stage so my head and ryan's bass headstock collided pretty hard. it just hurt at first....like "goddamit, gonna feel that in the morning". heh. just about that time i felt something a little thick to be sweat start to trickle down past my hairline. i lean down and see a few drops of blood fall off my hair. no worries, right? just a little cut? nope.....good thing it was near the end of the song or i might have passed out. the blood started coming pretty fast and was making a puddle on the stage. i immediately dropped the mic which happened to land in the blood, made my way to the bathroom where i "notice" that blood is all over my face....i mean wrestler/horror flick stuff here....it was crazy. i'm sitting out on the floor after trying to stop the blood. the sound dude happens to be a certified cpr/first aid guy and he said it might be a good idea to go to the ER and get it looked at. so i go. the people there were a little weird....took a long time, etc. anyway. i go to the room and she's like "we'll get this all cleaned up for you....wait a second.....you're going to need staples".......i'm like "excuse me?". she says...."yeh, it's pretty deep it turns out. you need to have them now." so i say...do i need to take a pill for the anasthetic or get a shot....she says "neither....you're getting them without anasthesia." i say again, "excuse me?". she says, "by the time i stick you with a needle four times you'll already have the staples in". i say, "ok. is it going to hurt. what's it going to feel like?" Her smart ass reply was, "well. it's going to feel like staples going into your head and yes it's going to hurt pretty bad. now i'd advise you to hold on to the chair and bite your tongue." goddamit. it hurt so bad. you don't even know. it was like getting busted in the head 4 more times. except this time it was sharp. so...now i've got 4 staples in my head. it fuckin hurts and i still have to play shows. oh....and i lost so much blood that my immune system kindof shutdown and now i'm pretty sick. awesome right. anyway. the only real good thing to come out of this is some awesome pictures that will be posted on the militia site, a good story, and knowing that after we "finished" playing the kids outside were saying, "dude, cartel is so badass....that's the best show i've ever seen" fuck the staples. this shit hurts.

so. i just signed my record deal. there's not really a lot to say about it other than it feels like 10 years of dreaming and hoping can't compare to how amazing it feels. i'm here at andy's hanging out with all of my friends....minus 2 and the band. we're just having a good time knowing that it's done. we're set. the dream begins right here. i can't believe. i just hope that everyone gets to feel this way at some point in their lives. it's awesome. i love you all. shit. i can't believe. it.....we're signed!!! oh yeh. we signed to the militia group. www.themilitiagroup.com. fuckin sweet. um. our ep will officially release on nov.16th with 7 songs. nationally promoted/distributed. you can actually walk into a record store and see the cartel cd there....fuckin hell. i can't believe it.

yeh. i've been in the studio 4 times in the last week. i feel complete. we got to record a song for free at Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta. that place is so fucking dope. Matchbox 20, Usher, Outkast, Smashing Pumpins, Zwan, and more have recorded there. it's ridiculous. so anyway. i'm sitting there laying down vocals on the song at 1 in the morning when it hits me. I'm singing into a microphone that costs more than my car running into a room that costs more than both of my parents' houses combined and i just kindof laugh and go. so this is where talent and luck take you - to a neverland for musicians. it's an awesome feeling. i wish you all could experience the same feeling. i smiled and finished the rest of the vocals. it's cool as hell. the song is going to be on our full length. don't shit yourself or anything. there are no dates or anything that we will be recording that. we'll be touring extensively before that time. we gotta take the rock to the entire country...not just florida. anyway. yeh. we're mixing the song sometime this week and we'll probably post it either on purevolume or myspace or we may be sneaky and burn 100 copies of it and throw it out at a few shows in the atl and beyond. who knows. we'll keep you on your toes...that is for sure. it sounds incredible. it was recorded at a big time studio so it sounds big time and i gotta tell you. it fits. it feels right. it's even more assurance that we're in the right place doing exactly the right thing and that i was meant to do this with my life. i love where i'm at right now. it's an amazing realization. however, one thing is for sure....life could be a little better. but that's another blog.

i was at the warped tour on wednesday and friday. cartel played on wednesday so of course that was a blast. our van was being stupid so we didn't play the st. pete date but i went anyway so i could hang out with some bands i haven't seen in a long time. about midway through my day of hanging out, helping bands, meeting bands, networking i realized that this is where i belong. this is my environmental niche if you will. i just feel like i'm in my right place. i feel complete. i feel fulfilled. now all i have to do is keep doing what i'm doing and sit back and watch as my dreams come true. it's fucking surreal.

Jesus....so glad to be done. it's almost surreal. now all i have to do is sit back and cruise until tour starts...that's when it all goes down. i can't wait. on june 10th my life changes forever. i will finally be taking my dream into my own hands to make it a reality. the tour will make me happier than ever because i will know that nothing is standing in my way. it's very liberating. gotta get the bills straight. gotta get the girls straight. gotta get our van straight. hoo wah!!

god damnit. i woke up and didn't go to school. that muther fucker is going to give me a c but you know what. i don't care. i realized last nite at 2 in the morning that i don't give a shit. all i want to do is not go to school in the fall. get my ass out on tour and live the high life being in a band making a living while everybody else does this dumbass school thing. ever feel like you don't belong? like you just want to go do what you've always wanted to do, but for some reason or another you have to sit back and wait till the time is right and roll out. i'm done with feeling like that. after this semester i'm only going to school if it means something. i don't want anything in my life to be "cuz i've got nothing better to do". whatever i'm doing best be the best thing i could be doing or it's not worth it. this is starting to become unworthy. so what if dropping school and cruizing a band might seem impractical. if it can last any amount of time feeding me and getting me out there to see the country and world instead of keeping me voluntarily trapped inside of a school campus then goddammit that's the place for me. no matter how long it lasts. 3 years of living shitty playing music for a living is better than sitting in a desk dreaming of doing the latter. fuck not doing what your heart wants to do. fuck ourselves for not realizing this sooner.