Hey east coast knew fans- 

Dear Steve,

As we were leaving Reno, we forgot that we were going to lose an hour on our way to Salt Lake City for our show on Friday night. We drove as fast as the van and Utah Highway Patrol would let us, but needless to say we showed up to the venue a little late. After the friendly staff at Burt's Tiki Lounge made some adjustments to the schedule, we played a shorter set and still managed to meet some great people and new fans.



We woke up Saturday morning and headed for Las Vegas as soon as our tired eyes would let us, as we knew that sunshine, swimming pools, and card games were but mere miles away. We showed up at 5pm, hit the pool for an hour, washed up and went to the Hard Rock Cafe Casino, where we quickly realized we were out of place. After a quick trip down to Terrible's Casino down Paradise Ave, The Knew managed to again gamble profitably.



Our set was at 11 and much to our surprise a handful of Tim's friends from Reno and LA made the trip to see The Knew one last time. This was collectively probably our favorite set of the entire tour, due mainly to the venue, crowd, and overall push we gave our one last show.



At the end of our 11 hour drive home, we realized why we don't go skiing much anymore...Vail to Denver on I-70 is super farty.

Hope this post-blizzard 70-degree week here in Denver finds you well.

Til next time,

TKDEN

Greetings from I-80 Chris F.

Unfortunately, we just had to drive right by the City of Fernleys’ $40 million investment in arsenic removal; it sure looked nice from the freeway, nice job on that. I know you had high hopes for the four of us crawling out of our awesome family van with beer cans and women spilling out before and after us… but alas we weren’t able to leave Reno in time, nor do we know any women foolish enough to enter our van, aka the Bonerzone.

Last night in Reno was a blast – it was great to be back in this one and only city. We played a tiny art bar that was filled much beyond legal capacity largely with great old friends. The stage was like a plywood pyramid and Pat’s head was about 3 inches below the ceiling and my head was almost directly beneath his snare. It scared the piss out of me numerous times, to the dismay of my slacks. Aside from detuning my E string on a strangers face mid-song, things went well.
Then, of course, games of chance beckoned to the Knew.



After crushing the world’s best burger (Awful Awful) on a full stomach, we shuffled into Harrah’s fine establishment. The BJ dealer Janet dealt well and cleaned out Ty and Larry, although Jake escaped up 2.5 meals, or $17.50. Pat somehow made $50 on the craps table in approximately 13 seconds and we blew out of there, making more money than our gig did in about 3 minutes. Oh the easy money. We discussed pawning our guitars and dropping some double or nothings. Seemed like a good idea from a fiscal perspective.

By the infamous arch we met our new best friend Yac – Jake got his number so they’ll be hanging out a lot I’m sure. Yac took these pictures and definitely wanted to join the road with us. We managed to avoid going to the shoe shows and although Mike had one scheduled this morning, he insisted it was a real shoe show, but we had our doubts. Mike, Mandy and Larry set us up real nice and we had a much needed night’s rest on the world’s most comfortable couches. Reno was kind to us this time, likely just luring us back.



We enjoyed some sights on the drive up from Oakland. It was so pleasurable to drive down the road without getting hammered by a runaway invisible freight train like the night before, so we had that going for us. We had some time to stop by some favorite spots around Lake Tahoe. I apparently lost a forgotten bet with myself a long time ago, because I had to go swimming in the 50 degree water. It felt tremendous and seemed like I was on Day 1 again. It is the world’s best bathtub – and four times larger than San Francisco.








Now we are cruising pretty “hard” through bustling metropolis’ like Lovelock and Winnemucca across Nevada about 2 hours late to our show in Salt Lake City. Luckily there isn’t too much to tempt us out here, just the endless rolling sagebrush and occasional salt flats. Tonight we have nowhere to stay, which I think will end up interesting. Stay posted and thanks for dropping so many notes along the way amigo. Send our love to Louie Thursday, Sarah and the rest of the gang.

Dear Jonas-

Last night we played the Stork Club in Oakland, CA. It was cool to find out that Oaktown pioneers Green Day (were you thinking MC Hammer? Me too) were playing a secret show 3 blocks down the road, so the place was a-buzz…although, I think a few more people in town went to that show than ours. The night went well, and it was nice of all of our Nor-Cal friends to make it out. We sincerely thank all of them for their hospitality and friendship.

We were driving home from the venue at about 1:15am to our friend Justin’s house in Oakland Hills. It was my turn to DD, and I had been drinking ice water for hours. We were in the 2nd-to-right lane of the 4-lane highway, going about 60mph on I-580, and all of a sudden it sounded, and felt, like a bomb went off in the van’s caboose. Somehow, to our continued amazement still this morning, we had been rear-ended while making forward progress at proper speed on the interstate. Judging by the impact, if we were going 60, this person had to be going 85-90mph minimum. It took about 15 seconds for us to realize what just went down, and by the time we gathered ourselves, pulled the van over to the shoulder, got out and looked around, we realized there was not a soul in sight. Somehow this person had drilled us and either sped off into the night, or fallen off a cliff on the side of the road for all we know. We have NO IDEA what happened to this car that hit us, and now 12 hours later are still baffled by the entire sequence of events. We remember seeing a white Yukon go past us after the impact, and after playing Nancy Drew for the rest of the night we have figured it was that Yukon. Jake and I, from our countless hours of property damage assessment at Enterprise, have noticed some white paint transfer on the back of the van at the proper height of a full-size SUV ass-plower, so that’s our final conclusion. We never called the police, as we didn’t have anything to really tell them. It was, and still is, a nearly unbelievable mystery.

Amazingly the van, although a bit roughed up in back, is fine. We have pretty large dents in the two rear doors, and the bumper took a big blow, but the doors still latch, the locks work, and nothing happened to the whip from that point forward (like tires rubbing on fenders, etc.). In addition, all of our equipment in back escaped unscathed…except for the merch box; it was leaning up against the rear door, and therefore got plastered. Unfortunately our beloved Upper Peninsula Beauty Supply suitcase will be retired as soon as we can find a decent receptacle (or box) to put all of our CDs and t-shirts in. Also, the big plywood divider we have between our chairs and the equipment in back probably saved some injuries, as otherwise we would have had flying drums and guitars taking off heads. Who knows, maybe our amps won’t work when we plug them in tonight, but for now Jake’s phenomenal packing job after the show came in clutch-cargo.

Most importantly however, we are all fine. Stuff like that can get pretty scary when you reminisce, and for the exception of having no justice and being angry that we can’t get our van paid for (we only have liability insurance), we experienced probably the best possible outcome.

This entire trip we have said at least twice a day, “Man, I wish Jonas was here…he would have loved it.” Now we’re glad you weren’t, otherwise you would have been posted up without a seatbelt, staring at one of us by the coolers in our traveling living room, and probably ended up being plastered against the windshield as a result. Now, we’re all just glad you can stare at us when we get home.

Your dog-nanny,
-Pat

Dear Kip Otteson-

Have you ever been to Sacramento? City of Trees? Man, I think you'd really like it. It's a little humid and thick with green trees lining all of its tranquil streets.

How's everything in Bailey? You starting to get ready for your move to Thailand?

Our show at the Press Club in Sacto the other night was the best of the tour. We had a great Monday turn out and everybody got jiggy with it:

This chick got a little too jiggy with it:


Pat was also pretty pumped to see his friends from CU up in Sacramento, Brian and Pete (Pete is PCHS Class of '98).

Yesterday was our day off and we spent it with our buddies Justin and Jake Poehls (photographer of our CD - Holladay http://www.jacobpoehls.com/).

We wandered the streets of SF and drank in biker beer gardens, rising and falling down the hills of this town the only way Danny Tanner knows how.





We are now in Oakland waiting for our show at the Stork Club. It's an old punk venue - maybe we will hear some MDC there.

Well, I hope PCHS enjoyed its Spring Break. We gotta get together before you guys take off.

Take care,
The Knew Doods

George,

Right about now you are landing somewhere in Columbia. Show those mafiosos who is boss. When you get back your hard earned island acreage, TKDEN hopes you’ll ask us to play the celebration. We are pulling for you amigo – thanks for sharing your laughs and insight with us last night.

I hope your heart swells with pride when you think of your daughter Elisa and her hubby Sergio. They have done so well with what they were given and they never hesitate to share love, food and life with everyone, even the Knew. People don’t get any better.

Thanks for coming out to see the show at Alex’s Bar. It was just one of those venues that TKDEN had to play before we can call ourselves a rock band. But mostly, we had to hear the Fling again since we can’t get enough of their perfect harmonies and melodies and we don’t have a recording of the gem “Wandering Foot” on board with us. Cancelling the rest of the tour to hang out in awesome Long Beach was considered more than we care to discuss. Although we’d quickly get beat up by some bad ass dads since Jake keeps drawing pictures like this in the sand:



Long Beach to Sacramento via the endless Interstate 5 - pissing on thirsty fallowed farmland. The alternating pleasure and pain of the scent of orange blossoms followed by cow dung. Inhaling is risky business out here.



We are falling more and more deeply in love with our middle class van; so many thanks to Eli, Bryan and Elaine of the Hot IQs for sharing this little piece of automotive magic with us, it seeps love, adventure and creepy class. Those who haven’t travelled around the US in a conversion van listening to Tenacious D and Bruce Springsteen are living tough.

Out three day stay in the Bay begins tonight. I have a feeling the show tonight in Sacramento will either be our best or our worst of the tour, and probably both. This will depend whether you are on stage or looking at the TKDEN mess spilling out all over it. (TK drinks for free all night tonight and “Mike Corrigan” will be there to ensure someone else gets punched in the face)

To all the old friends who came out to see us the past three days – we extend our deepest gratitude. Although our songs are straightforward simple, they are meant to convey all the hope and effort required to survive in this funky world – and sharing that with our dear friends means a lot to us. Especially because we bust our gassy butts to write these sonic farts. Without some joy, celebration and fraternization in this world, you can count all four of us out.

To those who couldn’t make it out, we hope you are finding times to celebrate and feel alright because this world can get thorny and complicated – we’re pulling for you and miss you.

Weeeelll that’s it. This much sentimentality is uncomfortable, but thanks for listening. End of story, for today.

TimofDoom.



Easter Sunday

Dearest Todd Roeth-

How's Prada?

Last night's show in Hollywood was the single best bill we have ever been on. Writer and The Fling (both from Southern California) and the Black Apples (LA via Fort Collins) played before us. Not only is all their music fantastic, but they are all really good shits. Man, I can't tell you how good it was to see the Black Apples again. Although the venue was in a shopping mall and the sidewalk outside of the venue was the "Walk of Fame" (the one with all the actors' stars up and down the street- I couldn't find Rob Schneider's) it was a great show. Thank you to our hostess Amanda and thank you to all of our friends from Los Angeles and elsewhere that made it out. Also, big thanks our tour guide Brian for showing us all of The Hills hot spots.

We are currently in route to Tim's brother's house to eat an Easter lunch and to watch the final round of the Masters. Rock and Roll.

Tonight we are playing at Alex's in Long Beach with The Fling and We Barbarians. We will update you with our tales from Long Beach tomorrow.

Also, we have been in the car for 30 minutes and have gone 2 miles.

Thanks for reading,
TKDEN

PS- Todd, here is a link to the District Weekly in Long Beach. Your picture looks great in print.

http://thedistrictweekly.com/2009/print/music/music-features/life-as-a-band/

Dearest Erob,

Friday, April 10th-

With two deserved overnight pit stops and too few guitar solos on top of desert rocks Tim, Ty and the van made it to Southern California, where they were met by the other half of TKDEN at San Diego International Airport, thus beginning the West Coast towaaah.

Last night’s show was comfortable, sweaty and red. We played at the Kensington Club in San Diego with Tape Deck Mountain and our new friends, Writer. Aside from some minor equipment problems, TK did well. Thank you to all that came out, especially Brendan from Audio Muffin (www.audiomuffin) and Rosy from SD Dialed in (www.sddialedin.com) for their hospitality.

Today finds us in route to Los Angeles. We just stopped for a couple purchases (Jake got a new tube for his amp and we picked up a 6 pack of Arriba Importada from Trader Joe’s- it was $3.99) and are currently marveling at these 40 lane highways that seem to have imaginary red lights every five miles.

Tonight we are playing at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. It is a bill of buds: with Writer and the Fling from California, and the Black Apples and yours truly from Colorado. We are looking forward to the show, but are mainly excited about sunning our tits in the LA sun.

Please send cookies.

-TK

Tomorrow 1/2 or TK is heading out West to start our Spring tour. The other 1/2 of TK is meeting us in San Diego to play at the Kensington Club on Friday night.

Here are the details of the tour:

Friday the 10th- San Diego - Kensington Club w/ Writer & Tape Deck Mountain

Saturday 11th - Hollywood - Knitting Factory w/ the Black Apples, Writer, and the Fling

Sunday the 12th - Long Beach - Alex’s Bar W/ the Fling, We Barbarians

Monday the 13th - Sacramento - Club Pow at the Pressclub

Wednesday the 15th - Oakland - The Stork Club w/Collisionville and Vitamin Party

Thursday the 16th - Reno - Red Rock Bar w/Dude City

Friday the 17th - Salt Lake City - Burt’s Tiki Lounge w/Utah County Swillers and The Earps

Saturday the 18th - Las Vegas - Double Down Saloon

We will be updating our Myspace with tales of the road and allergies throughout these next coupla weeks.

Hope to see you at the shows.

Pat, Jake, Tim and Tyrone
TKDEN
www.theknew.com

Knew Brews-

Our first gig since January is coming up March 7th at Bar Bar. We are playing with our buds in the Get it!, the Get Down! and the Hammer Punchers. TOTES.

We will be playing new songs at a new (to us) venue. Just giving you a heads up. I know you're in there, Fagerstrom!

After a great week of the final 'sodes of Cone Zone and meeting some of the fantastic folk at Gigbot, we are really looking forward to getting out there again.

PTD
TKDEN