Hey everyone we are very happy to say we have been asked by the Vans Warped Tour  to play some dates! We will be doing 4 dates right now with the possibility of more but right now we will be playing Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.  Nothing is finalized of cource till we are on stage rocking but we are very positive ! We are also exploring the options of doing another mini Pacific Northwest tour in advance of the the Warp dates starting here- Santa Cruz, Eureka, Arcata and all the way back up to Seattle and Oregon before heading back down to jump on the first Sacramento date! Please stay posted and let us know if there are great ideas anyone can share with us !

RRR's was used on MTV's Nitro Circus show. Check it out!

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Happy new year all! Check out our tunes featured on the jackassworld fall 08 road trip.
johnny

So, we got invited to play the Black Summer of Doom and Fuzz Festival in Oakland, CA (at the STork Club) last weekend (July 26th, 2008) and we had a BLAST!! I know I haven't finished my Tour blog yet (and i'm wondering, is it too late to finish up the last dates??), but getting in that big white van and meeting the guys and loading up and riding down the open freeway made my heart beat a little faster. i'm itching to get back out there and play. i LOVE touring. Every day is like Saturday...and I looove Saturday's!!

We got to Oakland around 5 pm and started looking for a place to stay. Of course we didn't get all of that settled before we left because...well, i think because we're just musicians. all we think about is playing music.....and none of the logistics behind it. i think we would all agree that i'm probably the most organized on the business side, but compared to joe and john, anyone probably is..and that's not supposed to be a put down. i swear. i love those guys so much. it just means, i suck at it too. i didn't even rent the van until the day before we were supposed to leave and almost had an anxiety attack when every rental company i called was sold out.

but, we got a van, got to oakland, and eventually found a place to stay. got to the stork club at around 8 pm to load in and we made a couple over/under bets to make life a bit more interesting.

bet no. 1: how many girls (that aren't working) would be at the festival. john's number was 5. i (being the pessimist) took the under, and joe the over.

bet no. 2: how many times would we be hit up for money (if you don't know, the stork club isn't in the best part of oakland. the last time we played there, we were hit up countless times for change from all the homeless people on the street). john's number was 7. joe took the over, i took the under.

the punishment for losing? eating a hard boiled egg from the continental breakfast the next morning.

anyone else want to join in on the over/under? i'll wait to tell you the answers.

back to the show.

the bands we heard were excellent. the only bummer was not being able to play w/ greenhouse effect since they were on sunday, but we were stoked to be there and stoked to share the stage with so many good bands and really stoked to be back in the bay area. we love every one there!

we got a great review. i'm attaching it below, but if you'd like to read the whole thing, go to this link http://tencartrain.com/?p=802more-802

review from www.tencartrain.com:

A real delight was Los Angeles-based HDR. Their sound is as unique as their name—HDR stands for Hotdogs and Rice, says guitarist vocalist, Joe Mora—and their members. Reminiscent of desert-stoner rock legends Kyuss, HDR have a really fat, low-end wall of sound. Drummer John Lord describes this as a sonic boom, but unlike a normal sonic boom, which rumbles briefly and then peters out to a whimper, HDR booms through their entire set. They tread styles from Clutch-esque blues metal, to straight sludge with enough groove action to satisfy anyone looking for a little funk in their rock. The head bobbing action observed throughout the crowd is a direct result of the aggressive pounding of bassist Amy Tung. No pick for her: she sticks to the fingers and plucks without remorse. However, her skills might be rivaled by her culinary talent, as I discovered she provided an awesome recipe for fried rice in the booklet of their CD. Want the recipe? Pick up the disc next time they're in town. Music aside, the three members truly have a knack for showmanship and a great sense of humor. Take, for example, the lyrics of their punk anthem set-closer, "We Are HDR":



Time to show them all
One day it's gonna be ours alone
Power Trio swarm
Like Voltron we form.

Pure genius.

*****

we'll be playing Bender's Bar in San Francisco's Mission District Aug. 30th if anyone is around!

thanks so much.
Amy

I probably should read back on what I wrote before so I can remember where I left off, but I'm not going to. It's been such a whirlwind of fun shit, I don't care if I recap or not! Sorry for taking so long to write. The few times we stayed in hotel rooms that had free internet access, the computer was so slow...or I was so drunk...it was pointless to try. :)

But....

We got a new van. Woohoo. To be honest, I think we were all on the fence about a how we felt about a new van. Our old van was the epitome of comfort w/ DVD and four leather captains chairs, but the unknown (i.e. when the hell are we going to break down next) was too much for us to take. So, apparently reliability trumps comfort.

luckily for us, we didn't have to give up either.

Tuesday, May 27th -

i woke up at the ass crack of dawn to pick up our new van. we had played our jazz set the night before at La Cita (every monday @ 9:30 incase anyone is interested) and I got home around 2 am so I had very little sleep, but i was really excited about leaving town and touring that it didn't really matter much. i got up at 7:30 am, got to the van rental place by 8 am and left piloting our 15 pass van (w/ the three back seats taken out) by 8:45 am. hit a little traffic on the way to joe's parents' house, but arrived there around 9:30 where joe and john were already up and ready to load.

the van, despite being really large, was still a pain in the ass to load. it always takes a couple loads before you figure out the best pack so that was fine. joe opted not to take his "bed in a bag." thank god. that thing was so large, the bag itself could probably fit all three of us zipped up. john showed up w/only a couple suitcases, which was really unbelievable considering his need for clean apparel. he admitted how difficult it was for him to pack and that he would have to do laundry somewhere along the way. no problem.

we got on the road around 10 am and drove straight to SF. it was a lot faster than i had anticipated and actually more comfortable. we turned the bench seat in the back into a bed w/ a couple pillows and sleeping bags and it turned out to be a savior the whole trip.

we ran into a little bit of rain along the way, but w/ one pit stop in little panoche, where we loaded up on an assortment of strange snacks....dried fruit, dried vegetable chips, wasabi peas, unsalted pistachio nuts (unsalted?!?!?), and our favorite....hand picked by john himself, the best bag of beef jerky we've ever had. plus, that damn bag lasted us til portland where it was finished off by a good friend of ours, kevin who kept putting the meat snacks in his pocket and eating it from there...but that's later on..needless to say, joe was excited at that pit stop.

we made it to thee parkside in SF around 4 pm. a little divey punk rock bar w/ a large back patio and small stage. the bartender was cool and served us some delicious cold beers. they offered $2 taco's after 5 pm and $2 Pabst all night long. yuuuum...

since we were playing first, we set up our gear on stage to avoid having to do it later and left to eat dinner. our plan was to not hang in the bar for two reasons. one, we were about to spend the next 4 - 5 hours hanging out there and two, we're all drunks and would get too wasted to play.

thee parkside is kinda in the middle of nowhere and not wanting to drive, we walked to this cafe a couple blocks away. the axis cafe, suggested by thee parkside bartender, turned out to be an oasis in an industrial desert. this place was super cozy, the food was amazing, and we got to sit on sofas and big cushioned seats in front of a fire place. i even ordered a chardonnay...i am a girl after all...

the gig was fun. not too many people, but there was a girl (devil horns for her!) that had seen us play the House of Blues Anaheim when we opened for Bad Religion that had come to support. it was nice seeing a friendly face. AND, the owner, John, of Benders, another SF bar we had played earlier in may (and will play again Aug. 30th w/ house of broken promises) had showed up too.

we finished the gig and jetted off to our friend Billy's house (one of John Lord's Raiders buddies). ok. so, when you go on tour, you're supposed to stay in flea bag houses w/ crazy people right? but not us, this guy Billy's house is immaculate, enormous, on top of a huge hill, views of the bay bridge and the bay and all of SF, a HUGE pool table, and more. After staying at Jewels' house, I didn't think it could be any better, but it was. only this time, joe didn't have to stay in a pink girls room.

Wed., May 28th

We slept in as much as we could and met up w/ Billy for some lunch at his local Mexican restaurant...which has this goregous view of a stream and waterfalls and enormous vegetation....beautiful. drank margharita's and beer....yummmm....then drove off into oakland to find the Stork Club.

Got to the place early in the afternoon and dropped off our equipment so we could go to Telegraph to shop and meet up w/ my friend Anthony. Got to Telegraph around 4 pm, walked up and down the street trying on shoes and clothes. bought a couple things and found the local music stores and spent the rest of our afternoon there. Met up w/ Anthony and drank some beers at Raleighs on Telegraph and got to the gig around 8 pm.

now, let me just say, when we met up w/ anthony, he was dead sober. he had just gotten off work and met up w/ us for a couple beers before the gig. at raleighs, we only drank 2 pitchers between the 3 of us (john has his own beers) so when we got to the stork club, we were all still pretty sober.

it was empty in the stork club when we got there. not much was going on. supergiant had started to set up and we walked around the place to check it out. it's actually a lot larger than i had initially thought. there's a large back room w/ two pool tables and a bunch of pin ball machines. joe threw a couple quarters in what turned out to be the BEST pin ball machine any of us have ever played. SouthPark! it was a multi ball extravaganza, if any of you play pin ball. so much so, our fingers got exhausted and we had to trade off. and to top it all off, there was a toilet bowl in the game that you had to get your ball into. sooo fun.

our gig was fun. john's friend Rhino showed up and we played to a small, yet excited crowd. got some good props from the bartender and sound guy after we played and got me a glass of cold jamieson as a reward to finishing the set. we had taken all of our stuff down and were breaking it all apart when i got a nudge from joe saying, "hey, anthony wants jeremy (from supergiant, a super nice, gentle guy) to punch him." oh no. i turn around and see anthony completely wasted, swaying back and forth like a metronome, his eyes half opened, trying to egg jeremy into punching him. i don't quite understand why he does this, but all i know is that it's bad news for all of us.

i grabbed anthony and pulled him away, but he was hard to handle. he kept going back to the supergiant guys to instigate some sort of strange fist fight and it was getting really hard for me to control him when rhino, the saint, came in.

now, before any of this had happened, john had always said rhino was the man. he's the guy that'll jump in at the last minute and save you. but, when you look at him, he's just a sweet guy, not too tall, but not short, stocky, friendly face, great smile. when he talks to you he's got this really nice quiet voice, so, not to say I didn't believe john, but it was hard to see friendly rhino turn into body guard....but, i was really really wrong.

as anthony was going back to the supergiant guys, rhino stepped in and took over the situation. i couldn't hear what he was saying, but all i know is that anthony stopped and somehow rhino got him to sit down and relax. after he spoke to anthony, i asked him how he did it, he said, "i'm the drunk whisperer." hee.

but, the night was not over. we loaded all of our stuff on the dark streets of oakland and were about to leave when the door girl came up to me and said, your friend is on the floor. i found anthony had slid out of his seat and was awkwardly and uncomfortably laying on the floor w/ his limbs going in directions i didn't think was possible at all. he was a dead weight and there was nothing i could do.

again, rhino stepped in and picked him up. w/ one arm on rhino and one arm on john, the two dragged the guy out and leaned him up against the van, where he proceeded to try to pee on our van. at that point, we had a meeting. what the hell do you do w/ a totally drunk friend in oakland. we couldn't leave him on the streets of oakland, we couldn't take him home cuz he was too drunk to tell us where his home was and we couldn't call his wife cuz we didn't want to cause havoc, so, we took him with us. we threw him in the back seat of the van and made joe take care of him for the 45 min. drive back to billy's while john and i contemplated what we were going to do w/ him once we got there.

i don't remember much from the drive, but i did take some video. as soon as i get it off my computer, i'll try to attach it to this blog somehow. unfortunately, my memory maxed out mid video so you only get the beginning of it. but, i do remember the look on joe's face each time i would look back, anthony saying, "you just punched me." and joe replying, "no dude, i didn't punch you, you head butted me." and joe's saying over and over again, "oh buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy." it was a mess.

we got to billy's house and john and i decided anthony had to stay in the van. there was no way he could go into Billy's gorgeous house in this state. we talked him into staying in the van and we all went inside. i got my sleeping bag and was setting it up on the living room sofa when we heard heavy footsteps pounding it's way up the front deck. i froze in horror hoping it would just go away, but when anthony banged on the front door, joe and i got scared. i said, "you go." joe said, "no way, you go." we both went cuz he kept banging, but then we couldn't figure out how to unlatch the door. so after 5 minutes of messing with the door (and by this time, it's 3 - 4 am and billy has to work at 6 am), we get the door open, i somehow get anthony back down the stairs and in the van. i convinced him that we needed him to sleep in the van so he could protect the gear and left him there to sleep off the alcohol.

The next morning, I was afraid to look outside. i had all these fears running through my head. what if he vomited in the van, or pee'd in the van, or got pissed and broke all the windows. plus, i didn't leave any windows open, what if it got to stuffy in the van. why i would care if it got too stuffy, i don't know, but i did and that made me go downstairs and open some windows for him. about half an hour later, john and i saw him w/ his bicycle getting ready to leave for work (he had to work at 10 am) and stopped him from leaving. he didn't realize we were south of san mateo, a good distance from berkeley. he didn't remember anything from the night before and we got him to work only 30 minutes late.

not bad.

looking back on that whole night, i think we'd have to thank rhino, the drunk whisperer, the most. we were supposed to go to his daughter's softball game (which they won) but w/ everything we had to do, were unable to make it. next time though, we've all decided we're going to the game. maybe we'll bring our instruments and play the star spangled banner for them!

a

So, it's Monday, Memorial Day. Obviously we made it back from Phoenix in one piece, but the van is gone. As much trouble as that van has given us (a flat tire in vegas, dying on us on the way home from Anaheim's House of Blue's gig, having to jump start one battery to the other battery every time we started the car in san francisco with house of broken promises and two more miscellaneous flat tires), it has been a lot of fun too. The seats are unbelievably comfortable, the back seat converts into a bed (I never had the opportunity to check out that bed...), the DVD player w/ wireless headphones, a good sound system (when the CD player/tape player was working), room to fit all of our gear, great AC, and the best pull down window shades that can keep the sun out and whatever activity we may be doing (illegal or not) in. But, we're renting a new van. A 15 pass van w/ tinted windows. They're taking out the back seats so loading in and out will be no problem. We'll have one bench seat to sleep on and hopefully, it won't break down. If it does, then we'll know that it's really us with the bad luck and not the van.

But, back to Phoenix (Thur., May 22). We went to Goodyear to fix our flat and found out it wasn't the tire after all. Our rim had leaks. Three leaks actually, and there was nothing we could do but put on our small spare tire and hope it doesn't blow. But, I have to say, the guys from Goodyear were so unbelievably helpful, we were all shocked. They were nice, hardworking, funny, and just overall great. They didn't charge us for their time and they all worked with a smiles on their faces. We gave them a grip of CD's. I hope they like'em.

So, we leave Phoenix at 2:30, a good two hours later than planned, w/ one clunking tranny and one small spare tire and if that wasn't enough, we got totally stuck in Phoenix traffic. I was really hoping that once I got out of Los Angeles, I could leave the traffic behind, but that was not the case.

On top of the traffic, there was a thunderstorm in Phoenix too! I love thunderstorms. Maybe because we never have them in LA. But, apparently they don't have them in Phoenix either. This one was their second one of the year. At least it wasn't 105 degrees outside. I think that would've been worse.

We made it to Safari Sam's with barely any time to spare. Our set time was 10:30 pm, and we made it to the club by 9:30. After a few phone calls with Sam explaining our situation, he was nice enough to hold the first band a good 20 minutes to accommodate us. Thanks Sam!

Our gig at Safari Sam's was really good. It was unbelievably fun. Virginia City Revival and Sasquatch both came out to represent. There was a fun group of kids that drove out from Oxnard that we stoked with shirts. Joe's voice was fading a little bit, I think mainly because of the stress of the tranny and tire and lack of sleep..., but he held on really well and for once, I did a bunch of talking on the microphone. Hopefully we'll keep that to a minimum.

We all got to sleep in our own beds, which was a real treat. I think we all lounged around the next day. At least, I stayed as horizontal on my sofa as long as I possibly could.

(Fri., May 23) We all left LA around 6:30 to get to the Palm Desert Red Barn gig that House of Broken Promises set up for us. Since the van was dead, HOBP let us borrow their guitar cabs and we all rode separately in. Easy drive since it was the beginning of a long weekend and everyone had already taken off. Arthur (HOBP) had set up a nice light system and brought his PA. (I have to take this time now to say Thank You to Arthur and HOBP for setting this stuff up. It's a lot of gear to lug around and it's really nice of them to do it.). We played first (10:30) and had a blast. The place was packed and had really good vibes. Johnny and I had to drive home so we left Joe to help Arthur breakdown all the equipment. I think they were there til at least 4 in the morning!

(Sat., May 24) Bakersfield. I have never been to Bakersfield so I was really excited about heading out there. Jeff, the promoter, was a joy to work with on the phone and he said they would feed us (which always makes Joe happy) so we left early for a good dinner. Again, we drove separately to accommodate all the gear we had to bring. I left later due to work, but I received a phone call from Joe while I was on my way up. He said, "Dude, the food is amazing. I've had their soup and this whole antipasto thing with salami and cheese and now I'm waiting for my Filet Mignon and it's all FREE!!! They said we could have anything on the menu!! This place is RAD!!" Needless to say, I drove about 90 all the way up.

The bar is cool. The food was unbelievable (I ordered the Filet too!). The show was really fun. Meeting Jeff was really cool. The people we met there were awesome. I can't wait to play there again.

The drive back was exhausting. Barrysmith and I tried one of those Spike energy drinks to keep us awake..something we had heard about from a friend of ours, but it didn't sit really well in our stomachs. Actually, it felt like battery acid was eating away my stomach lining. I'm not sure if I would try that again. I think the 5 hour energy drinks are more my style. Mellow...almost exactly like they're advertised...(personally, i think they need to endorse us. those drinks have saved us from total and utter exhaustion countless times on this tour so far!)

Anyway, Sunday (May 25th) was a day off. It was our friend Rick Kosick's birthday too (he had a party at the Saddle Ranch and rode the mechanical bull TWICE!!! I hope i get to see pictures!!!). It was so nice to have a day off...well, it wasn't exactly a day off, i still had to work...but, I stayed home and made potstickers for dinner. yummmmm...

So, it's Monday, May 26th, Memorial Day. I have a load of stuff to do today to get us ready to leave for the last leg of our tour. We have our Jazz gig tonight, which will be a nice break from the rock we've been playing. I'm so excited about leaving tomorrow and heading up north. I've never been to Seattle (neither has John Lord, I think) so it'll be a really fun adventure. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I'm hoping the remainder of the tour will be mechanical and electrical trouble free.

a

hi. amy here. we're on the road in phoenix, az. the second day of our 2 1/2 week tour. joe and i left LA after our jazz gig @ la cita around 1:30 am to drive out to albuquerque, nm for our gig tuesday night (may 20th @ burt's tiki lounge). joe drove the first leg, getting us to needles, ca around 5:30 am. we parked in the mcdonalds parking lot for an hour to sleep but it got too hot in the van so i crawled into the drivers seat and drove to flagstaff, az, reaching that destination around 10:30 am. it gets a bit hazy after that cuz i had only had 2 hours of sleep total up until that point so i don't remember much.

we were pulled over as soon as we pulled onto the freeway after flagstaff. the cop gave us a warning, but in the process, separated us and interrogated us...slyly actually. i didn't even realize i was getting interrogated until after joe was allowed back in the van.

we stopped to eat at a restaurant called Chieftain. a dirty little diner off the side of the 40. our entire lunch cost us $12. that was nice.

but, we finally made it into albuquerque by 5:30 pm (4:30 pst). chilled in the hotel room for a bit and played a rock show...

beyond that, a lot of wierd things have happened already. on the way to phoenix, our transmission started to clunk when shifting into second gear so we stopped at a transmission place off the 77...teeny little town, one street long and the mechanic said we needed a rebuilt transmission, that he could do it for us and it would cost us only $1800. nope. we drove on to phoenix, w/ no problems...albiet slowly.

we're staying at this awesome home in gilbert. this girl Jewels is friends of supergiant and myspaced us to invite us to stay. she's been an unbelievable host, giving us loads of food to eat and beer to drink and a room for each of us to sleep in. joe got to sleep in a hot pink girls room w/ posters of pokemon everywhere. i tried to take pictures, but i don't think they really show the full extent of the room. but, we'll try to post it.

played the gig last night at chashers, which was fun. the guys from krank amps came and told me about their new bass cabinet prototype. it's a 4x10 and 2x12. they invited me to come and try it out at their warehouse. we woke up early this morning so we'd have the time to head out to krank and leave for LA by 1 pm, but we got a flat tire. again. the van has 4 new tires from just tires and it's had three flats already! luckily, it's still under warrenty, but it's such a pain in the ass. the wierd thing is, most of the flats are just dumb luck. 2 have been from nails.

anyway. it's 12:30. we're still in gilbert, az waiting for AAA to come and switch our tire so we can drive to the tire place and have them either fix or replace our flat one. i don't think we're going to make KRANK. that's too bad tho. i was really looking forward to trying out their new cabinet. i'll keep my fingers crossed that some miracle will happen and time will be on our side.....but it's not looking too hot.

my only main goal, though, is really to get our asses back to LA so we can play at Safari Sam's tonight, fix the van (or we might even rent one for the rest of the tour....), and have a problem free remainder...

that's it. anyone w/ money donations for gas or the fix the van fund...please send to...

p.o. box 1984
venice, CA 90294

thanks!!

amy

Click here to see Joe Mora
Dickies Clothing Ad

This is Kimo, one of John Lord’s buddies and let me tell you something he’s one of a kind! John decided to bring him down to the House of Blues show in Anaheim where hdr was opening for Bad Religion. Listen to what Kimo had to say about the show.

Kimo reviews hdr show at the House Of Blues in Anaheim 4-5-08
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Click here to visit L.A. Record website this link


'Hard rock' and 'Los Angeles' are synonymous to me. My early love of rock didn't come from an older sibling's record collection, but from cable TV. And L.A. rock was ruling MTV in the mid-late '80s. Somehow alternative—or modern rock or grunge or whatever—ruined some of the mindless fun and eventually turned thoughtful posing into the new headbanging. Not to mention the subtext of misogyny and immaturity rampant in hard rock… but shit, now it's 2008. We'll have a black or female president soon and hard rock has been reclaimed as a good time. Jessie Deluxe and HDR belong to a reborn L.A. rock scene that just ROCKS. I personally believe the ineffable female touch in each forced the evolution. Jessie's drinking anthems and speedy love songs have technical virtuosity and sing-along likeability that you'd have to be vegetative not to move to. HDR, on the other hand, bring an almost easy, breezy sound to just how tractor-trailer-heavy their songs are. Their flowing (and cranked through Sunns) guitar solos and chunky double-riff rhythms have to be heard loud. In fact, perhaps today, the toughest thing for hard rock to deal with is that a good portion of musical exposure comes out of miniature speakers. Drop your pretenses, go to a live show, and hear these bands properly cranked!

— Richard Seymour