hi there. woah, kind of a time warp since we've posted last. the album is coming along pretty quickly which is why i've been in my basement doing overdubs instead of posting info on it... after recording all of the basic tracks, we are working on finishing a first seven songs. we should have rough mixes done for those by about new years. those seven songs equate to about 36 minutes of music so per usual we have too many ideas to work with, five more songs to deal with.  we are all taking a few days off traveling for the holidays, although i am working on a few overdubs on my laptop late at night, at the airport, on the plane etc...  the new album is different, it is far less washy, more open with less overdubs, but more bizarre and complex in each of the songs' initial ideals. greg and everyone in electrical did an amazing job on getting great sounds so we are trying not to muck that up too much and relying on what each song originally meant, but adding not only our ideas but our friends'. my favorite instruments for the album thus far have been 1. 1962 fender jazzmaster 2. marshall 70's


halfstack 3. nord lead 2x 4. original big muff 5. maxi korg 6. 1973 gibson sg w/ bigsby tremelo 7. maracas.

hey. just done with rehearsal. demo'ing tracks to record basic tracks in electrical audio for our second album is the focus. we go in the studio in two and a half weeks but we will all be out of town at different time before, so we only have a few rehearsals left. looks like it will be about 14 songs, many of which are quite long, so that means way more material than what we could include on an album without driving ourselves and you off of a cliff. so not sure what we will do with the extra tracks, but really excited about everything we have written so far. can't wait for you to hear it.

otherwise, the january european tour is sounding great. hope to see you there. take care.

many folks do not realize you can listen to many entire albums for free on myspace. you can listen to our debut in its entirety here as many times as you wish. enjoy.

if you like the following:

- american apparel shirts w/ art by eric and tony of sterling, bloodiest, and follows
- high quality mp3s of our album

go HERE and buy all of the above for $14

Finally finishing up this tour blog… We got into Pittsburgh and immediately picked up my anti-biotic prescription at a supermarket called Giant Eagle. With so many close friends from or living in Pittsburgh I love the accent there. I joked to the pharmacy clerk that I was from out of town but knew enough to call the store “Gint Iggle.” He did not appreciate that like I thought he would.

We dropped our bags off at Patrick’s sisters house and went to the show. We met up with Enon and Knot Feeder who were also playing. All of our friends came out early also, so it was gearing up for a super fun night. Before the show I was still feeling a bit ill so I geared my drinks towards medicinal purposes. I made a drink consisting of vodka, soda, and Airborne. John from Enon coined it the “Teacher’s Secret.” We all had a great show and hung out until the early morning. Enon and my bandmates went to Jerry’s Records because they are really into vinyl collecting. Me, not so much so I went out to brunch with many friends. I met up with everyone at Jerry’s and finally saw what all of the talk was about. This store was ridiculous but I decided to avoid any purchases despite my wanting to buy as many hip-hop twelve-inches as I could afford.

We headed out to Columbus, Ohio for our last show with us the least sick of the tour but exhausted from the tour’s exploits. We showed up with school being out of session, and really early, so we had to entertain ourselves by doing what we were doing best on this trip, inventing drinks. We created the “Last Day of Tour” which is made up of vodka, soda, two Airbornes, and one Five Hour Energy. NOTE: not recommended for public consumption this cocktail is potentially hazardous. After hanging out with the bar staff for a while, our friends Hot Cha Cha from Cleveland arrived. We had not seen them in a long while so it was super rad to catch up. They played and were amazing, two local bands were really great too. We hung out until really late soaking in the last day of tour. We finally got a hotel room and prepared for the trip home.

The next day we drove to Chicago. It was Memorial Day weekend so we constantly discussed avoiding speeding tickets. I was driving that day, most of which was on a four-lane highway going through central Ohio and Indiana and was extra cautious. Toward the end of the drive I was exhausted and dying to get back to Chicago. I hit 78 mph’s on this highway where the limit was 60. I topped a hill to see the entrance to the Skyway Toll Pike just outside of Chicago and a cop with a radar pointed at me. She was not impressed by polite frankness, admitting that I had blatantly ignored the law and lost the registration to the rental van. $242 dollars later I was off.

A few days later we played an in store at Reckless Records that I consider a part of the tour, it was a blast. We recounted our tour next door with our friends who were bartending at Rodan. Our friends Hot Cha Cha showed up b/c they were playing Chicago that night. Our friends Holy Fuck showed up too, they were playing that night too. I went out to the kinda weird but entertaining house party Hot Cha Cha played that night and then took them to the Holy Fuck show afterwards.  It was nice for us to lodge a couple of bands to karmically repay everyone who had been so generous to us on tour.

OK, that’s it. Since tour we have been writing a lot of songs and playing quite a bit locally. A European tour is currently being booked with as many weekend shows in the US as we can put together with the rest of our commitments. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.

Justin



brunch with elliot in pittsburgh



jovana and mandy from hot cha cha in columbus

Hi. A quick note that we will be at Pitchfork Festival this weekend with File 13 Records selling LP's and CD's. Our table is between Matador and Kemado. Please come by our table for a visit. Hope to see you.

So we left Atlanta for Charlotte NC en route to our most “controversial” show of the tour. We were opening for two speed metal bands, a local called Zeus, and headlining was Anal Blast that often features members of Slipknot. The club was excited to have us do the show but we were wondering if we would get boo’ed and/or beat up. The bands sounded pretty great online and we figured it would be an adventure at least so we did it. In the van Adam was feeling terrible from the flu and had basically completely lost his voice. The club, The Milestone was pretty sketchy looking, somewhat typical punk/metal club in the South.  I was a little nervous at this point. Within minutes though, the owner and the bartender were making us feel very at home. We sat and talked about music and they made us as many drinks as we wanted. 5 Hour Energy vials were our newfound tour companion. I had vowed to create a cocktail with one and did so for the first time at The Milestone. A drink called the “Track and Field” contains vodka, soda water, and one vial of 5 Hour Energy. Delicious and effective.   After this new discovery and how much the locals were into the soundcheck I was far more optimistic about the evening. Anal Blast had not shown up and it was getting late. We moved the show back and decided they may not make it. As the crowd arrived I asked if I could man the DJ booth. I put together a set of hip hop ranging from Stones Throw type staples to full on 80’s classics like Egyptian Lover, UTFO, Jonzun Crew and even some Dallas bass like DJ Magic Mike and Ron C.   The tough metal crowd was loving it and many started to violently grind on each other. Some definitely looked puzzled and annoyed. In fact, I think the majority of the crowd got sick of it after a while but endured. Meanwhile we received word that Anal Blast would not be appearing because the singer was in the hospital from injesting dynamite the previous night. Yes, dynamite. I hope he is OK. We played and everyone was into it. Zeus were really great. A cute girl punk girl was flirting with me all night and saying pseudo-dirty things to me which I found hilarious. That is until she saw Zeus’s guitarist play, then she gave me a dirty look and immediately left with him after the show.  Note to self: practice my guitar scales and headbanging.  We all hung out late night at the club and had a great time. I DJ’ed and the dance party got out of control. Patrick got kicked by a couple laying on top of each other on the floor. Toward the end of a blurry night the bartender brandished the biggest firearm I have ever seen.

We got a motel room recommended by the bartender. It was a little ghetto, but cheap and pretty clean. Adam got some antibiotics called in from his doctor. We had our only day off the next day so we decided to keep this room for two nights and see if Adam could get well. He slept basically for 36 hours straight. Patrick and I took a walk through the Charlotte ghetto, bought some beer, and sat on a plank supported by a couple of concrete blocks by a pool filled in with dirt and a mattress . We deemed the environment the “misunderstood pool” and sat there for several hours talking. We also discovered the motel enjoyed a very steady drug trade around back. From there Patrick and I went to a nice Italian restaurant we had spotted and enjoyed a great meal. The owner of the club put a call out on Facebook looking for something to keep us occupied that night. We found that there was a hipster dodge ball night at a warehouse / bar. We went and watched dudes throw balls at each other for a while, it was entertaining, and then went back to the room. The next day we headed toward DC. Adam was feeling considerably better thanks to the antibiotics. Patrick on the other hand was starting not to feel well. I drank as much Airborne as I possibly could praying that I was not next. Plus I had tackled Patrick onto one of the beds the previous day and I guess I had bruised one of his ribs pretty bad. Oops. I blamed it on the kick at the late night dance party, but he wasn’t buying it.

We got to the Black Cat in DC and per usual were treated extremely well. We were playing with our friend Justin Moyer’s group Edie Sedgewick who we played with at SXSW but they played on the other stage exactly when we did so I did not get to see them. They were great that night, super good to meet the other members
 

. The other band that played was super good too.  We hung out with many old and new friends, and our friend Michael from Dischord graciously let us stay at his place. We had a great time staying up and talking. He had to work the next day so we finally let him go to sleep. He let us sleep in, then we headed to Dischord at lunchtime. It was great to see everyone, they introduced to a great and ridiculously cheap Mexican place. Ian took us over to the Dischord house and showed us around. I had been there before but this was a far more extensive tour. He showed us the basement where Minor Threat rehearsed and the archive of all of the old master tapes that he was reorganizing. Super fun day but we had to hit the road toward Richmond before traffic got too terrible.

We backtracked toward Richmond to play a place called the Plaza Bowl. It was a “duck pin” bowling alley which means that the pins are short and stocky and you bowl with a smaller lighter ball. We showed up to this strip mall bowling alley and it was all retirees bowling in a tournament so we headed out to eat Chinese food. I seem to remember maybe Patrick getting some minor food poisoning on top of his rib and flu. We headed back to the Plaza Bowl and the other bands were showing up. They seemed nice but concerned that no one knew what was going on. We sat around for a ridiculously long time, I was getting super bored so duck pin bowling ensued. It was really fun actually. Hours and hours later we played at the end of the lanes with so many neon lights erupting Patrick told me in the middle of the set that he was going to have a seizure which was funny. Because of the tournament we didn’t play until 1AM. Those who stayed really enjoyed the show. We had fun too although Patrick was not feeling well. We headed out of town to get a room, although the promoter kindly offered us a place to stay. Patrick needed a room of our own… Then we had a long drive to NYC the next day.  We woke up the following day and Patrick was in rough shape complaining about “swallowing razorblades.”   I think this was the day that Patrick called his doctor started taking the same antibiotics that Adam was. I ate more vitamins and anti sickness concoctions than any human ever. I wondered if by some miracle I could somehow avoid this plague as we headed toward NYC.

OK, that’s it for now, more soon,

Justin