notes from the road...day twentyfour to thirtyone: NYC

Nobody wants to write this right now.
So everyone is just going to shout out what happened. It's going to be a discombobulated account of our time spent in New York City. So here goes...
We drove to New York from York, PA with Sean (myself) in the driver's seat. I knew it was going to be a really bad drive just because when you put me in a car in a big city I lose my shit. I can't handle all the hustle and bustle. So we got stuck in traffic, people honked and swerved and generally behaved as New York City drivers do: assholes! So we got turned around, ended up in the Jewish district and eventually made it to Passout Records where we had our first show, or so we thought. We arrived to be greeted by Dan and Alex in the window and the wall via The Willowz record. After some chit chat with the locals we found out the show had been moved up a week. I was still upset from driving, so I went to sleep. So ends Sean story for now. Lee skated around town by his lonesome while Dan and Alex explored the mean streets of the Big Apple looking for a slice of pizza to no avail. They did find Kevin Bishop though, a New York local via Anaheim who would be accommodating us for our first few nights. Kevin led everyone to a "50 cents too much" pizza shop that was OK. Afterwards, I was scooped out of the van and we walked down to Grand Park where we were treated to a splendid view of the city. We pondered playing a set there, but there were no electrical outputs so that squashed that idea. So I was the only one who didn't eat pizza and my tummy was hankering for some food, so I asked Kevin how the sandwiches were at this deli on the corner. He said they were pretty good, so I took a peek inside and nixed the sandwich idea, instead opting for chips and a banana. I think I offended Kevin when he saw me sandwichless. "You didn't get a sandwich?" He said to me with a look. Then we went back to Kevin's tiny bushwick apartment whom he shared with 3 other people. Lee and I slept when we got there and Dan, Brian and Alex found dollar tall cans and wandered the streets for a few hours. Towards the end of the night we watched King of the Hill and Family Guy on a static-ridden television. So ends our first night in New York.
We woke up at the crack of 10am the next day. Alex says it's very difficult to go to tinkle town on the streets of New York because the houses are so close together. So we all climbed into the van and hightailed it to the MET (some art museum). While parking across the street, we noticed it was closed this current day. We then decided we were going to visit the Museum of Natural History(also known as the natural history museum to us). On the way there, we walked (by the way, Mapquest sucks when you're not using a car but instead are using your feetsies) against traffic and through large, stinky tunnels. People were hungry so before we entered the museum street-vendor hotdogs were purchased. Everyone agrees that they were delicious! So we made our way into the museum with the knowledge that it was a suggested donation. We be broke. Lines were waited in, and eight bucks donated for five tickets. Once again, we be broke. The first exhibit viewed was the Asian Cultures. Dan enjoyed much of the artwork, trying to take pictures everywhere he went but the damn flash was being a jerk I guess (Dan is asleep in the van and this is Alex trying to remember). Next was the Dinosaurs! I (alex) was sent into the most happiest moment on tour. HUGE, GIANT DUCK DINOSAURS!!! Freaking insane, I'm telling you. Also, the sloths that were larger than bears were pretty dang kooky. Lee wants to let you all know he went poop in the museum washroom and purposely did not wash his hands. Maybe he didnt and was making fun of this whole thing...Either way we think it's funny and is staying in here. "Leave my bowel movements out." Sorry Lee, but I cannot. A few of us got lost fer a bit and then two of the smokers smoked cigarettes and then we ate hotdogs again. More museum stuffs and whatnot followed. It's also very difficult to sneak into an IMAX theater when there are like seven guys standing around, doing nothing ready to take yer tickets. After the museum was a fantastic stroll through Central Park. Lee Jumped onto a large rock formation and everyone followed not knowing why being on some rocks sounded so fun. The closer we came to the van, people started talking about tickets. Guess what we found when we got to our ride! One ticket for parking in a taxi zone/no standing area. $170.00! I was amazed how calm Lee was. Supposedly, Lee thinks parking tickets ain't no thang. We sat around trying to think of something to do, for we were in NY and should be having a blast. We went back to Kevins and sulked. He got off work and we then met up with an old pal, Allie for drinks at some bar which Dan cannot remember the interior of. For most, the dollar tall-cans became a major part of the greatness that was a week in NY. Oh yeah! Brian, our little kitty, went back for his jacket (a few of us stood outside drinking cheap beer instead of paying mucho monies inside) and was dragged by his collar and thrown out! Pretty damn funny. The bouncer, a 6'5" 350 lbs. black man, got down on his knees and pleaded for Brian to throw a punch. "Hit me! Hit me!!" He says. So Brian the Brave threw two punches and knocked him the hell out. Just kidding, that guy was crazy huge. We headed home, taking the subways and went to beddie-by. New York was looking like it was gonna be super fun.
Rise and shine! Here comes Tuesday. We woke up at Kevin's house, took showers, Alex shaved for the first time in who knows how long and we watched most of this movie Moonlight Mile. "Why?!" Asked Dan. "Because it was there," replied Alex. We moved over to Ali's house after getting in the way of Kevin's roommates and set up shop there. We took her, the vegetarian, to Paul's Burgers, the most unvegetarian cuisine we could find. Holy geez, the burgers were so good there. Lee was freaking out in anticipation for his bacon cheeseburger. Dan's egg was perfect on his Texas Burger, the yolk was everywhere. The mayo was the best around and their cherry coke was unbeatable! But enough of our carnivorous exploits. After we maxed out at Paul's, we walked to a couple record stores, found some treasures and went by the salon where Ali works. We were introduced to cucumber water there and nibbled on the free chocolates they were giving away. We took the F Train back to Ali's house after we had satisfied our cravings for their cucumber water and tried to catch Dan up on season 3 of Battlestar, but it was taking too long to download, sorry Dano! So we hung out and Ali gave us all haircuts! Alex got the most cut off, Dan and Lee took off a good chunk, while I just had a baby haircut. We collected all of our hair into separate plastic bags and we're planning on taping them to record sleeves, so look out for those limited edition collector's items coming soon! Afterwards, we all sat down in our spiffy new dos and watched half an episode of MST3K before hitting the hay.
We veged out the next day. That’s all I remember. We watched the pilot episode of The 4400. It sucked. In order to make up for that atrocity of a show, we put in American Movie and loved it. So after that there was much more veging until our show at The Cakeshop that night. There was hardly anyone there to begin with because there was a Stalkers/Nice Boys show down the street. So Derek from The Pop Machine talked to the Cakeshop people and they agreed to let us play a second set so people from the other show could make it down to see us. Our first set was lackluster, we hadn’t played in a handful of days so we were a bit rusty. But Lee went over to the other show and recruited some drunkards from the Nice Boys show to come see our second set. After everyone came back, the Pop Machine set up again and played another set. Bunch of girls with tambourines and stuffs. We then set up and played a terrific show to a good group of peeps. They cheered and cheered asking for another Birthday Suit. We obliged and played it twice. Totally fun and totally rad. With the set completed, we hopped in the van and drove back to Allie and Chris’(her spiffy boyfriend) house then fell asleep.
Thursday!! The first Power Pop show was going on tonight so everyone was pretty excited. People (ie the fevers, tina! And co, yummy beautiful girls) got into town so we called em up to see whats going on. Dan got ahold of Brian Fever so we decided to take em to Pauls fer a burger. Before we did, we met up with everyone and listened to Nikki Corvette, Tina and the Total Babes, and the Fevers practice fer a bit in some underground uptown studio. Totally rad! Onward to Pauls Burgers once again. Yum Yum! Fever B. got the Soul Burger which consisted of meat, meat, burger, and lots of ham(meat!). More Yums! Afterwards we went to Rocket Scientist Records, where Sean and Dan both bought Francoise Hardy records. We also talked to the Felt-ups, a very cute Italian group of females. Equally as yummy as the burgers. Everyone but Dan and I(alex) went back to the studio and listened to more Fevers practice. After that, they headed to SouthPaw(where the pop festival was held) and Lee ran into Mark Gonzales(some skater dood)”the best style in skateboarding history” according to Lee. He did a wall-ride then looked back fer acknowledgement. Lee asked if his name was Mark, and Mark said, “yeah. Would you like to take a picture?” Lee, not camera prepared, declined. Everyone else crossed the street. “Your friends don’t like me,” quipped Mark. He then pulled out a one dollar bill and wrote down his email address fer Lee. Me to Lee, “how was that anymore exciting than a description of our day at the museum?” “it’s the samething.” “at the time listening to you guys write about the museum, i wasn’t impressed.” Lee, you are funny and make me giggle. Back to the story, Dan and I walked Manhattan, and met up with Michelle Heterohag from seattle. She and her friends bought us some drinks at a bar then we headed out to Southpaw to meet back up with everyone. On the way, we got lost and a pretty black lady hopped on the subway with us and showed us kindness unheard of in NY. The show started with Big Fun, a rockin group of young pretty women, continued with the nice boys, who lived up to their name by reppin the party heart (thanks guys!) and ended with the band 20/20 being the most amazing band ever!! They opened with “Nuclear Boy”(Mom you totally missed out) and ended with Shake Some Action. Incredible!!
The next day the band minus myself just slept and hung out at Allies til the show started. Late the night before/early morning I had went to party-town with a group of fun lovin’ gals who decided it would be a good idear to put some lipstick on me. Kisses were placed on purses. I thought it fun thanks to my enemy Mr. Booze. Waking up at 9 after an hour of sleep in a room that had been heavily partied in, I headed home with tummy ache and only a tiny sense of my location. The hotel ended up only being about an hour’s walk from Allies, but somehow I turned it into a 5 hour parade of me in Brooklyn. Let me tell you, there are some damn cute kids in the jewish part of town I ended up in. A slice of pizza and my first soda since new years and I was back to home base. Me tired and gross so I showered, took some medicine and slept until the next morning. Thank you Brooklyn. Lee says the show was pretty boring and I didn’t miss too much anyways. During the neighborhoods set though, Lee was booing, fake-kicking a girls behind, and threw a coke can which hit the ladies head in front of him.
The best/drunkest day was next. The Fevers and the Pointed Sticks were to go on!! Dan went to a day show and saw NoBunny, who you all should check out when you get a chance. We also watched an episode of Lost, which we had mixed feelings ‘bout. Also, Sean introduced me to the American Office, which I wasn’t complaining about at all. That one dude from six feet under is on it and makes me laugh. Onto the show!! Lee says he drank a pint and a half of seagrams before the Feevs went on. When they did go on, crazy hell broke loose and the dancing started. They were amazing, fantastic, superb, etc…every time I turned ‘round there was a huge smile on the bands faces. I yelled Makeout party! And Fever B. messed up the beginning of a song, stopped and then said something like “This is for the Makeout party.” We flipped our shit. The night ended with the fabulous Pointed Sticks. “Sean, what do you have to say about the Pointed Sticks?” “They were great!” (they really were)
So Sunday…ummm did we mention that new york was crazy, Alex has finally pushed the computer into my (dan’s) lap, but me brainee no workee . Sunday was our big day, as we were finally gonna play a show fer these power pop people who you’ve heard so much about. We got to the Magnetic Fields and while lee and sean checked it out alex and I pulled off the most magnificent parallel parking job I have ever been witness to. It took both of us to pull it off, but if I’m really being honest (and I never am) I’d say ol’ ally coulda done it himself. So we waited through some bands and then skipper played the saddest happy songs you ever heard. There were a lot o people there that day. Even more than the douche master showcase! So we set up and played and I downed a beer or five (I was nervous, yo) and…everyone loved us! Sweet success! homeboy from the yumyums came cuz he’d heard all the buzz about us all week. No, seriously that’s what HE said! Everybody clapped like they were trying to bring fairies back to life. I was freaking out trying to get our stuff outta there so we could play at passout records and I still was flattered stupid by random strangers. Homeboy who runs the place was especially kind. So I wouldn’t let the pop machine use our stuff and it was awkward and then Lee tells us the show was cancelled so we end up staying for their set anyway. P.S. lee the fucking show was going off and we missed out! I really wanted to play again. Baby like attention. But it was totally cool cuz we got to the southpaw in time to see top ten who were fabulous as always. Anybody know if that hit you hard song is a cover? That one DOES it for me. The crowd was a little lackluster but they rocked it and we loved it. And we weren’t the only ones, lookin at you mr bassman o milk n cookies! Who was next guys? The electric shadows, whose bass player gave lee the willies in the best way. Alex wants you to know that he boogied with Lauren who is the beautiful drummer o the rantouls and Krystal from Skipper! I want you to know that she’s TAKEN ladies and gentlemen. Its important that her and Gavin populate the earth with adorable talented lil munchkins. After the electric shadows came the go who were purty cool. Lee’s telling me “don’t talk about EVERYthing” he’s annoying the shit outta me right now! So milk’n’cookies ruled it! All week lee was like “I want em to be good, but I’m not getting my hopes up.” So I assumed he knew something I didn’t cuz usually I’M the negative jerk. But thankfully he didn’t know nuffin bout it cuz they ruled! Justin Strauss pranced around like a 16 year old with the virgin tantrums and it was jus lovely. This was also the first time I ventured to the other side o the club. The left side. It was pretty much the same but somehow I felt more anonymous. I bet I was just drunk whatcha wanna bet? Of course I missed the big moment everyone was talking about. I think I was running my mouth downstairs or something. So what happened to the jack lee set guys? He was drugged up an fuckin up. Lee said it was car crashish. During hangin on the telephone, which I’m told was especially bad, the promoter stuck his head out and was makin the throat slash quit now thingie with his hand. What do you call that anyway? You know like “Cut!”? anyhoo I guess it was purty bad. But funny if you’re a jerk like us. Quality entertainment at others emotional expense. Just say no kids. Just. Say. No. after that more forgetting on my part and some pizza. Just say no kids. Oh yeah the car battery died before we got to our show, giving the anticipation that much more of an edge. Ummmm….. “are we done with new york?” lee just asked. Yes lee we finally are. We need to say thank you to all the people who put on the show, finagled our way onto it, allowed us to run wild all over it, and special hugs and kisses to all the recurring friendly faces everyone else in the band seems to have met. It was fun and we’ve been adding multiple pages o friend requests ever since. Much love!

Ps. If yous guys got some pictures wed be ever so happy to get em from you to post here.
STUFF WE FERGOT: brian went home. nikki and the corvettes ruled. mike tody was there (sort of) ah who cares...