And does anyone really care?  Does it even matter?  Myspace has turned into Wast o' Space* and with that being said, I haven't blogged in months.  I haven't logged on in days and I haven't even thought about stalking ex girlfriends on here.  I uniquely leave that for Facebook and Facebook only...
  So, I guess I shall give you some sort of update, right?  I mean, I'm on here already, I've logged in after so many attempts at trying to remember my password to this fucking site that I might as well update my personal quests and tribulations.  Is anyone even reading this thing? Hello?  Internet echo, echo, echo...
  Besides being on tour with The Sixers and having a blast whilst doing it, I am currently mixing an album that should be out at the end of this year or the beginning of the next.  This summer I went into the studio and recorded some tracks, some hits, some fucking monster ballads with out the "sloooow", that is going to blow your mind.  This is actually foe confidence.  I'm really not sure how it is all going to turn out.  I just hope you get to hear it and after hearing it, maybe you want to listen to it again, so you buy it.  That's my goal/business model.  Can ya dig that?  I got an idea; just give me your credit card number right now.  It's ok, you can trust me.  Just leave me the number and security code if need be down at the comment section below this blog and I'll take care of everything.  EVERYTHING.  You don't want to have to deal with those sheister middlemen like iTunes or Amazon.  Just give me the money and I'll make it ok baby...  OK, fine, just think about it...
  Anyway, more updates to come after this tour subsides and I hope to hear from ya'll soon.  Until then, take care, brush your hair and don't eat lead before you go to bed.  Pencils have lead and you should save your pencils for school instead...

byyyye!!

boots

*HAHAHAHAHAHAHA;)

Hi there,

  So, I realize it's been a while since I've blogged on this thing and albeit I realize it is good to keep in touch via this particular form of communication, lately I just haven't been motivated to "blog".  Not motivated until now that is...
  This subject has been stewing in my brain for quite some time.  I haven't talked to anyone about it, mainly because well, on the surface and mainly through many layers it's probably not all that important or interesting...  But then I thought, in words this subject matter might actually look good.
  OK - so we've been having a lot of time off recently and with lack of things to do this stationary time has forced me to do something I've been holding out on for nearly two years; get cable.  I finally took the plunge and while I can't say that it's worth the extra overhead, I definitely can say that I've been listening to a lot less talk radio and staring at my ceiling less, watching cracks grow less, etc.
  Upon my first day of having TV, I stumbled onto a show called The Drs on CBS.  It is a tailor made for morning t.v. show, complete with a fabulously handsome young doctor and two of his colleagues who aren't as good looking, probably to make aforementioned doctor look better...  Anyway, they bring up a variety of topics from sex tips to body posture to whatever...  This one particular show that I was lucky enough to catch was on the topic of what today's teenagers are doing as far as new drugs and ways to ingest them are concerned.  I thought if I was ever out of touch with kids nowadays, this would be the way to get to know them better; through a morning television show, with hosts that could remind one of Jerry Springer dressed in doctor's scrubs...
  Cut to the chase, their first red flag warning was that teens are now snorting alcohol.  Cut to the footage of a young female teen at a party snorting vodka out of an Absolute bottle cap.  It did seem a little odd, but I vividly remember having a party my senior of high school.  In walked this guy whom I vaguely recognized from gym class who must have been a friend of a friend and a year or three older than me.  Word around my parent's house was that he could snort alcohol.  I watched him snort Jager up his nose in my parents kitchen.  So yeah, what else do you have for me Doc?  I've been seeing that shit since 1997...
  But then this is what startled me.  This is what cut to the core.  Female teens (I hope only female teens) are taking their tampons, soaking them in hard alcohol and putting them up their vahoo hoos...  Yeah.  Apparently there are blood vessels and - I hope you catch what I'm throwing here.  To give a visual, the daper young doctor whipped out a box of tampons, dipped one into some Absolute (the liquor of choice, apparently) and demonstrated on a member of the audience.  That's all true, except for the latter action...
  Next new way to party in the 21st century.  The other/ugly doctor pulled out a funnel from under their desk.  No!  You don't say!!  Kids today are funneling beers down a large plastic tube??  Get out...  Well, they do more than that.  The newest thing to do is take that plastic tube and shove it up your ass while pouring alcohol down it.  Apparently there are blood ves- you got the idea...
  These kids today.  They truly know how to party and although I might not participate in these activities next time I crash a high school rager, I will damn well respect their innovation.

Kudos.

boots

Ah, technology. Only now can we see and or hear your favorite song in its earliest stages. We don't have to wait for the boxed set or the documentary 30 years later...
I love this song, it's one of my favorites on the new Ryan Adams and The Cards album and even the puppets are charming. Obviously it's more about the second half of the clip though, but really what this song does, is reiterate that RA never seems to fail in writing songs that I feel were written exactly for me.

boots

www.myspace.com/fronttoback

This is something through Myspace and for the first time I think they've beaten Facebook at something cool.

I grew up on Ben Folds Five and long before I discovered Levon Helm, Darren Jesse was the drummer who made me believe I can sing in a band. These guys were and are awesome and when I hear them it reminds me of high school... the few good memories of high school.

I had chills watching this I hope you do too...

boots

Hi,

I haven't written one of these things in a while. I've been too busy making imovies on my Mac that I forgot what it was like to do this. Where is the letter J? Oh, there it is, I was right...
So, the tour has been fun. Real fun. It's been long too, but that just means prolonged fun. But it is wonderful to be home. I can count how many days I've slept in my bed in the past two months and I know you can as well. You take the 60 days from the last two months and subtract the one or two nights you spent with that dude or that chick you met at the bar, where the next morning you had to strut the walk of shame and you've got X amount of nights... If you have less than 50, you're a whore! If you've got 59 or 60, you're a loser! I'm kidding... really... People on the road like to whine about how they haven't spent a night in their own bed... It's a little meladramatic. I mean, the beds we sleep on in hotels are much nicer and in much better shape than my current bed. I believe I bought my mattress in the year 2000. I remember moving and strapping said mattress on top of my car in the pouring rain somewhere in Massachusetts. It's got black stains from me dragging it up a driveway. It's not in that great of shape.
And oh my god, I've totally realized something else. There are a fuck load of people in this country. Like man, the amount of people is staggering. Every where you go there are crowds of people. There's always traffic. You wouldn't think there would be traffic 40 miles outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, but there is. You wouldn't think you'd have to wait in line for 10 minutes for a cup of coffee at a rest stop in the middle of the Colorado Rockies, but you do... I don't get it. I've heard of the Baby Boom from 60 years ago, but it looks like there was one or two more in betwixed now and then.
But between the beds in hotels and the craaaazy amounts of people I've been encountering on the road, there is only one thing that comforts me. And that is playing BrickBreaker on my Blackberry Curve. I don't know if it's just on the Curve or maybe its a game that comes on other Blackberry phones, but JESUS, I cannot stop playing this fucking game. I was eating dinner at my Grandma's with my family, whom I haven't seen in weeks and during desert I caught myself trying to beat my high score (level 18 score: 11060). It's like a friend that's always there when you need that friend. BTW, am I any good? Does anyone have a better score than me? Fuck you if you do...
So, I feel real good about this blog. I got a lot out of it. Call it cathartic, call it self-serving, but know this. I will beat your ass at BrickBreaker and if you think you're better than me, go fuck yourself!

Booya (love,),

boots

What are your feelings about the advent of the Spork? It is a genius invention; the combination of two utensils. You have the deep bend of the spoon, therefore having the ability to slurp soup, scoop ice cream, etc. But then you have the pointed spears that made the fork so popular; the god given ability to pick up heavy pieces of meat and transport the food directly into your mouth with very little dropping to the floor or table, which is clearly impossible when using the eastern philosophical nightmare we call chopsticks. My question, my very serious inquiry is why the Spork has not penetrated society the way its ingenuity should? You'll never see it in a place setting at any star restaurant. You'll see it in transient places with low expectations for table manners. And when you finally do find it, it'll seem cheap; a white plastic object wrapped in cellophane, waiting at your nearest rest stop, with its inevitable use to be projected towards the consummation of fast food like chili sold at Wendy's…

Have you ever looked at a person's face and a. thought you could see what this mug may look like when he or she is 20 or 30 years older? Contrary, b. Have you ever looked at an older person in his or her 50's or 60's and thought you could see behind the wrinkly lines of that person's face and see youth? What that person looked like having his or her first beer, first kiss, first realization that they will get old and ultimately look like the way they do now? That's why we need to abandon the invention of the mirror, so we will never see this for ourselves... We must destroy the mirror. Gather and eliminate every grain of sand that creates whatever it is that a mirror exists as (something between magic and space aged technology…) and make it impossible to assemble another mirror. There will be a proclamation that all existing mirrors shall be destroyed with out fear of seven year's bad luck. The only catch is the mirrors must be smashed with bare feet. The good news is that the feet will be those of criminals (excluding all prisoners convicted of drugs without the intent to sell…). Making license plates in jail will cease and therefore the Department of Motor Vehicles will create more jobs for innocent hard working Americans outside of jail… Recession solved.

I for one am under the notion that time travelers exist in our world and we just don't know it. I may have talked about this in a previous post, but I don't think you get it. They are all around us. Which brings me to my next question. Out of these time travelers that exist around us, what percentage of them do you think are robots? I mean, consider that one particularly busy time traveler is from the future and wants to see what the political climate was like three months before Obama was elected president of the United States? It is clearly an important event, but let's say this same time traveler also wants to see the birth of Jesus Christ. He's torn and doesn't have enough time to see both events, but they have robots, so he sends out his robot that looks just like him and has an HD camera attached to both of his eyes and is able to record this robot's journey through three months of the year 2008. Wouldn't that be something? Next time you're talking to someone and think "Man, this guy is clearly zoning out on my conversation…", think to yourself that this person could possibly be a time traveling robot…

What the hell happened to Kevin Costner? I mean, J.F.K. and Bull Durham are two of my favorite movies, definitely in my top 20 at least… And it's like, there he goes again doing another shit movie with a shit plot about a shit shitty shit shit. This guy picks bad movie scripts like it's his job. Literally, his job. And he gets paid well for it. Although, now, he has to be producer of his movies because no one wants to lay out their money to finance a film that is going to flop. So all the money he made with Dances With Wolves is being spent on fucking Swing Vote. Fuck. Where have you gone Kevin Costner?

Hello there,

Well, I just checked the iTunes alternative charts and for the first day being available, the Trevor Jackson album debuted at 92. We beat out Snow Patrol and The Killers. Not bad for a couple of guys who a year ago used to text each other once in a while with a cock jokes...
I know I write funny (I guess), witty (sometimes...) road journals for The Sixers and whacked out blogs for Trevor Jackson, but I tend to be a little introspective on the Boots one and this should not be an exception. The only weird/ironic point is that I'm going to be introspective on something that by all accounts isn't very serious at all; Trevor Jackson.
With the last ep i released on iTunes, I gave a little glimpse to each song, saying what color and sex each song reminded me of (please see aformentioned blog...). I think I want to break down "Kyle Riabko and Boots Factor Are..." by how I remembered the birth of each song and eventual recording... If you don't care at this point and want to stop reading, thanks for stopping by and go fucking buy this album and then come back and continue reading... OK, here ya go...

Not Down With That - One of the first "serious" songs Kyle and I wrote together. Before this, we were writing songs about rabbits or drunken Jamaican cats on sailboats. One night, we decided to each write a verse to a catchy melody we had, thus the inception of NDWT. It was the first song we recorded in the studio and got it on the 2nd take. Kit stopped by and added keys to bring the song to life. Thanks Goosey...

Bus Song - We wrote this one morning right before Kyle left for one of his many acting/Broadway auditions... I wanted to write a Jackson Browne style song about the road, like something off "Running On Empty" and we ended up with this. I love this song because of its humor, but yet trueness to how we felt on that tourbus... In the studio, I played the drums first - that's why you hear me say "Hey that guy kinda sounds like me..." duh.

I've Got A Dollar - I don't think I need to explain. Window to our stupid fucking sense of humor.

Everywhere - An awesome Fleetwood Mac song. Although, at first listen, you might not think the original is so great because it's buried in 80's production (at least that's what i thought...). I was listening to The Best of Fleetwood Mac on the subway one day, but kept on coming back to this track. There is something very earnest and sincere about the lyrics and I just fell in love with it. We arranged the song the day before we got to the studio, recorded it live and in one take. Dave Chalfant plays such a mean banjo on the song, it kills...

More Like Me - We wrote this very, very drunk one night. We wanted to write a song about how sometimes in relationships, a person can make the other someone they are not. And when it all just becomes oh so evident, you break up and then have awesome break-up sex. It was lots of fun recording this in the studio; I got to cover my drums up with towels and blankets so I could sound like Ringo... if you think Ringo is a bad drummer, just go to hell.

Brooklyn Dreams - I had this nice rhyme and melody for the chorus and Kyle and I started writing verses to it. While writing it I kept thinking about this new town I was living in and how the way to be, or at least the way to look like is to be "the starving artist", so sure of yourself and so suffering... But as you get older you kind of realize that people walking around in the hippest clothes or most confident pissed look on their faces are all just really lost, young and looking for what they're supposed to be, not necessarily what they want to be... I dunno. In the studio, Kyle nailed his performance on the second take, and a fucking amazing performance I might add.

One Man Band (of Brothers) - We wrote this song completely trashed. I took down the HBO series on DVD, Band of Brothers in like... three days. It's like 7 discs... Yeah, I don't have t.v. or much of a life? Anyway, we had come up with the chorus on stage at Club Passim during one soundcheck for the holiday run and just built off it. There's something about WWII and the generation who fought in it that is romantic. The Greatest Generation were our grandparents and they had these moral values that have kind of gotten lost in our society for better or for worse. I always think of my grandfather when I hear this song. He was a pretty funny guy... In studio we tracked it live with me playing drums, mandolin and singing at the same time. A true one man band, damn it! Kit cleaned off his tuba and kicked its ass...

Stumbling Through The Dark - A fantastic Jayhawks song that I had wanted to show Kyle because of its harmonies. He freaked out and made us record it right then and there in my apartment, which we did and is what you hear. If you listen closely you can hear my neighbor's wind chimes...

You're Gone - I had this idea that the song would be a crescendo, starting out very small and simple with the mandolin starting it off. By the end of the song it would be this blasting, loud wall of sound with screaming guitars. I was so happy that we got EXACTLY what i had envisioned and Cookie Dough is mostly responsible for that with his hard fucking rock and roll technique... I've always wanted to be in Pearl Jam and in this track, I feel like it...

Secret Track - WHOOPS:)

So, there you go. I hope you dig this album. It means a lot to me because as you know, Kyle is going to be a huge fucking super star and I just feel privileged to have had the chance to work this closely with him and throughout process became one of my best friends. I'm so proud of us, this group of songs and they are all for you...

Take care,

boots

The best thing I've noticed about Canada was no more evident than on one of those digital signs on the front of public buses. You know, the signs that provide which destination or direction the bus is heading. At least in New York, if the bus is not running it says "Out of Service". In Canada, the sign reads the same thing, EXCEPT before "Out of Service" it reads "Sorry". So huge...

Impulse emails. Impulse messages. Impulse comments on message boards or blogs. Whatever it is, since the advent of the Internet, people leave their opinions without thinking of consequences, without empathy and with out the slightest bit of intelligence. The Internet has been responsible for more online fights between friends, harsh criticism of public figures and the undeniable trashing of art i.e. music and film. The truth is before the Internet, the only way to exercise the impulsion in a public forum, you had to be semi-important. You maybe had to have access to a publication of some sort or a huge loud speaker /megaphone on your front lawn. Today, any mindless bug can make a comment from anything like the new Indiana Jones to this very blog. We must fess up and take responsibility for our opinions... I am a self-fulfilling prophecy. Uh oh…

Reverse Vasectomy Removal. I first read this term on a highway in Las Vegas about six years ago. I thought it was a Vegas thing. Someone wins a lot of money and maybe they decide to throw it all into this procedure. Than it occurred to me that it didn't exactly seem like a pleasant procedure, unlike the breast implant or penis enlargement procedures. Well, maybe the outcome is the pleasant part, not the specific procedure. Is there even a penis enlargement procedure? Anyway, through out the six years after seeing the original billboard hovering above the freeway like an advertisement god, I began to see many other of these R.V.R. gods (and goddesses) among these American Highways. Is this procedure in such dire need of patients that Reverse Vasectomy Removal must be in eyesight of every American driver? Don't you think if someone with a vasectomy who didn't want one anymore would know first hand about the reverse procedure? Or did his doctor not educate him on second thoughts?

If you're looking for a book to read, go out and purchase "Three Cups of Tea". We originally received it in our rider at one of our shows* and no one else in the band seemed interested enough to read it, so I took it under my wing... This unbelievably brave man, Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber attempting to reach the peak of K2, fails and after the downhill trip he and ends up in the wrong village from where he was supposed to meet up with other climbers… Long story short, he notices the lack of education in this small impoverished village and decides to take on building a school. Word spreads through out Pakistan and before you know it he's in Afghanistan post 9/11 meeting with warlords about the education of children, mores specifically the education of women, which is very much against the grain of Muslim culture. This book points out that the only way to end poverty, fundamentalism and terrorism in the Middle East and in this world for that matter is by education. It's very moving and I suggest you read it. It's better than all of that Lord of The Rings/Chronicles of Narnia shit I see everywhere…:)**

And that's my blog bit… YEAH!

boots

*In our backstage riders we request a book… You know, because we're fucking nerds.
**Please refer to second paragraph concerning my hypocracy…

I think this video pretty much speaks for itself...

I’ll be back with more words at the week’s end.

Love,

boots

Whilst sleeping in the van through an over night drive, which started in Blacksburg VA and ended in Brooklyn, I had a dream. I always believe dreams are a window to the subconscious and if you think long enough about your dreams, you will ultimately find some truth and meaning in them, linking the dreams to how you really feel in your conscience. Well, I had a dream that I was trying out for my high school baseball team (which I never did) and was in a gym, where every baseball was like a piece of dough, like mini pieces designed for small pizzas. Every time I would try to hit these limp baseballs, I would swing and miss. Some opposing players included, but were not limited to, that old guy from Lord of The Rings, Samuel L. Jackson, the actress from that movie with Zach Braff "The Last Kiss" and astro-turf as the flooring in the gym... WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?


The Price Is Right is dead to me. I can't watch it with Drew Carey, it's like watching Different Strokes with Reuben Stutter instead of Gary Coleman; it don't jive. The Price is Right reminds me of being sick, or pretending to be sick during my elementary school to junior high school years and frankly, when I see Mr. Carey trying to fill Mr. Barker's shoes, it makes me sick... in a bad way.


We played Virginia Tech with OAR last night. As were were leaving, we wanted to find the memorial to those who lost their lives on that horrible day. The memorial was very moving, to say the least. Each person had a stone with their name on it and a blue light illuminating it. These blue lights are very important, especially in the night time. Some of the blue lights were out. Can VA Tech please hire someone who can just make sure ALL THE BULBS ARE WORKING? Just put him or her on a payroll, pay this person 40K a year, a respectable amount, JUST TO MAKE SURE THE BULBS ARE WORKING. I'd take the gig for free...


Trevor Jackson, a side project consisting of Kyle Riabko and I will officially be entering the studio at the end of this month. We are extremely excited to be working with Dave "Cookie Dough" Chalfant. We've got songs, good ones that will most likely be used in Hollywood movie soundtracks, Apple commercials, Superbowl ads and more of the like. I just realized my dream with the dough baseballs... Holy shit.


The Superbowl was amazing. I lost my voice screaming after that pass where Manning broke the sack and Tyree caught the ball with his helmet. I watch that catch and I get goose bumps, I get teary eyed... Why??? It's sports, this game in no way can help or hinder me in life. I don't get a ring, money or even a pat on the back. Reach around? Maybe, but no... Why are we so emotionally invested in sports and other than entertainment what do we get out of it? I think I know, but I like this question to be open ended.

bye.

boots