notes from the road...day fourteen

Back by poopular demand... it's dan!
Making yesterday sound funny will be quite a chore. My personal experience was much like this; sleep, wake up grumpy, sleep, wake up tired, sleep, eat garbage in strange place, sleep, get to my brother mikes and sleep. See? Not funny. The engineer Dave gave us a copy of a Mitch hedburg cd he had. that was funny, but not so funny to tell. alex stole a pillow from our overly generous hosts. it was an accident and we took it back. the young man working the counter at the truck-stop denny's in Iowa had THUG tatooed on his pasty white knuckles. he was telling the old man in front of me how "it's hard, cuz, ever cop'n'judge in town no hoo ma stepdaddy is". but it was more sad than funny. i wasn't ready for it. Fever B gave us all presents, mine being cds of crowds booing bob dylan fer going electric and generally playing the most beautiful music ever. pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa Pa Pa PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PPPPSSSSSHHHHH!!!!! that wasn't funny until alex booed at the end of one a song, putting it all in perspective (people are dumb). the mcdonald's in kansas had a dollar menu that sucked, and enough creepy little summer camp kids to perfectly compliment my flavor laced soda enhanced fear and loathing. it was raining they tell me, but im not sure either way. anyhoo, my brother mike was just lovely as always, even though it was in the wee hours and he had work at 6. we talked about nothing fer a while and wished we had more time before we went to bed. today we woke up and left. we are expected to act when we get to south by southwest. seriously. theres gonna be a fake band member named jerry and everything. and, as you have surely sorted out by now, im just not my usual lovable charming self today. im pretty sure this blog started out stupid and then fell down the stairs so i'm gonna go ahead and keep spacing out to syd barrett.

notes from the road...day thirteen

Travis and Georgia's band - Blue Bird


Wherefore art thou Sean? I’m right here!
We woke up bright and early and prepared for a day of chores. Crystal would be our tour guide for the day. She took us to breakfast first and paid for it, what a gal! Thanks Crystal! She then directed us to a Jiffy Lube where we got an oil change for our precious van. My shoe dripped oil all over their floor. It was leaking out of my shoe. Not sure how, so don’t ask. We then went looking for a drive through car wash. We found one a couple of miles down the road (no thanks to the Jiffy Lube guy) and got to sit in the van as all sorts of colorful soaps were sprayed over us. It was fun! Lee was very proud of how nice our van looked afterwards. He kept circling her saying, “She looks great!”
Record shopping was next on our agenda, Brian had been buying all the good records while we were recording, so fuck that sleepy little cat. But we managed to find a couple keepers. I got Blue Angel (Cyndi Lauper’s first band, been looking for it for awhile) and I also found records by Bobbie Bubbles, who covers The Archies and other hits of the day (like some Puf’n’stuff songs) and an album by The California Poppy Pickers who also cover hits of the day (including a rendition of 1910 Fruitgum Company’s Special Delivery from their Indian Giver album, sweet!). Lee bough Dan the Turtles’ Battle of the Bands LP (Great!) and he bought Crystal Tommy James’ Cellophane Symphany album (I haven’t heard it yet, but someday I’ll find it for a dollar).
After records we attempted to go practice at the It’s a Secret studio where we recorded. It did not go to well. No, not well at all. Dan was very sleepy. I was pissed off. Lee was annoyed. Alex was the same happy-go-lucky guy he always is. So we ditched practice after awhile and headed back home. Alex, Lee and I watched the rest of “The Dead Talk Back” episode of MST3K, then a little Kinks DVD and finally finished the night with an episode of Fawlty Towers. Around 8:30 we headed to our show at The Hexagon Bar. We said “Hi” to The Pop Machine and then Georgia and Travis pointed us in the direction of a bowling alley that served burgers, so we walked down a block and ate some food. Lee was charged $12 for his meal, to which he said “Twelve dollars?!” Shouldn’t have gotten that bacon, soda and onion rings friend! While we were eating, they were having a Guitar Hero 2 competition. We kept yelling “Play Surrender!” But all they wanted to play along with was Kansas and Wolf Mother, blech.
So we walked back to the show and saw The Pop Machine play, we’ll be playing with them for four or so more times. Thanks to them for helping us out with some shows!
Then Dan woke up, we played and it went much better than our shitty practice. People danced, fun was had, couldn’t ask for more. So we sold a bunch of stuff, which was nice, and made a chunk of change. Cha-ching! We also met some of the dudes from Boys Club, they’re playing the Power Pop Fest in New York too. We like them. Bluebird played too, which featured Travis and Georgia, as well as the bass player from the Hypsteryz. Lee loved him. “What’d you think about that guy?” Asked Sean from his seat in shotgun.
“He was amazing. Fuckin’, living legend. True American original. Die hard rock 'n' roller with a white bandana, handlebar mustache and steady as a rock. He never blinked once!” Replied Lee from the driver’s seat.
So once the night was over we said our goodbyes to everyone (whom we’ll be seeing again once we get to New York), climbed in the van and headed back for our last night in the apartment. Did we mention that the White Stripes, Nikki Corvette, Tina, The Fevers and many more people we love stayed in that apartment too? We shared the same shower.
So we listened to records for a little bit before we went to bed. I fell asleep while everyone was still hanging out so I’m not sure how long everyone stayed up. Everyone is sleeping in the back of the van right now so I’m assuming it was another late night. See you tomorrow.

notes from the road...day twelve

Dave and the gang
recordings all done! thanks everyone!!


Sean here.
Lessee, we missed a day so gimmie a minute to let my mind reach back a couple days and pull out a few memories.
...hmmm...
Ok, we woke up and ate at the Neighborhood Cafe. The food's still good. Then we started on our last day of recording! Everyone was nervous because we had so much to do and so little time. Dan did all of his piano stuff during the day and it sounded great! While he did that Alex and I watched the new episode of Battlestar Galactica. T'was another great episode and it featured Mark Sheppard who played Badger on Firefly, nerd connection!
When Dave showed up around 6pm we ate some pizza. It was OK, not my thing; too "adult" for me, as Lee put it. So what if I don't like spinach on my pizza?
We finished up the vocals that night. Skipper came in and they recorded some vocals for the "ooh la las" on 2EZ2LVU, sounded great! It was the last thing we recorded. So we're done! Our record is left in the hands of Travis and Dave who we're hoping will do a bang up job mixing it and make us sound great! They better...or else! We'll get a rough copy in New York. We're planning for a July release. So our fingers are crossed. After we were done recording we went out to the Hexagon bar and hung out with Brian and Crystal from Skipper, fun times! I played pinball, but I suck.
So we went home, hung out a bit more and watched a little MST3K before we hit the hay.
So I suppose that's it for recording. We really hope it sounds good in the end. Please make it sound good Travis!
P.S. No harmonica thing on Birthday Suit!

notes from the road...day eleven

..hey! it's me,lee! soo..we're puttin' finishing touches on our debut lp ,helmed by the fevers! as if ya didnt already know!
umm,we've been fuelin' the fire with lot's of CANDY! and any and all kinds of food!!..bagels/creamecheese,soup,bbq,sandwiches,pizza,hashbrowns,even chicago style hotdogs that the kind owner of joey d's hooked us up with FREE! cheese balls..mmmm..deef fried goodness. yes,uh huh...
..we all laid down sum vocals and sum wacky stuffs to huff!puff!...it's insane! seriously..be prepared to have yer mind blown!
after a long day at the studio which we were late to,due to umm..whatschama call it?..tyme change...spring forward!! ayyee..
my personal fav. ultimate godhead moment of tour has to been when we received an intimate concert from our good pals, SKIPPER (fever B,Crystal,& Brianna!!!) after recording...simply beautiful. their the reason we got on the powder poop fest in nyc cus of a typo.."skipper&themakeoutparty"..well we were flattered beyond belief...umm,hello?! fevers,pointed sticks,20/20 ,nikki corvette ,josie cotton,MILKnCOOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!etc..
ps...sean was tired and actin like an ol' crank..so,i kicked him in the shin's and sent him to bed..it didnt help matters much..but i sure found it funny..heheheehehheheheheeehehehehehehheheheheheeehheheeeeeeehhehehhehehehhhahhahahhahaaaawwww!

notes from the road...day ten

Alex Again. Agree. Angst. Arm. Artichoke. Spelling!
So it has been a few hours since I have seen this screen. There is some Make-Out Party musics going on in the background and Travis is recording some tambourine (or Tambo as I have come to call it). "Yesterday?" You ask...Well we recorded of course!
My day started off with Lee in the shower and me needing to urinate. Though it would have been neat to spell my name in the snow, I felt it was much too cold. Anyways! We headed to the studio and I was a bit saddened to hear that there was not going to be a diner-breakfast. Travis bought some bagels and two types of cream cheese. If this blog seems like it's taking forever, which it shouldn't, it's because I keep having to record percussion stuffs. One Egg-Shaker and some fancy glass work by Dan recorded! Where was I? Oh yes, the two types were regular and salmon. The latter, I didn't care for too much, but it tickled everyone else’s fancy. Afterwards Dan received some tea I believe and got down to some vocals. As he was doing that, we were to be extremely quiet. Which, of course, we weren't. Five 'o clock came round and it was time for an amazing dinner at Travis' girlfriend Georgia's mom's house. Got that? It was incredible. Soup with like twenty-nine things in it, some pizza-ish pizza, salad, and a Beach Boys dvd. Perfection one might say. After dinner we talked fer a bit. A lot of weird stories and jokes. Somethin 'bout Georgia's mother going to a dance at an insane asylum. Then Lee started having, what I thought, was an extremely odd, yet spiffy, conversation with Georgia about ghosts. Seems that there had been two in the basement where we are staying. No worries everyone, they left awhile back. We then headed back to the studio so Dan could finish up some vocal left over from earlier.
Again with the “must be quiet” routine. I think Dave, our engineer, was calling us jackasses, for we were being extra silly after our dinner. Maybe he was joking, but I really couldn't hear him over our gigglefest. “Fingle doesn’t dopple?” had made another hilarious return. Thank you MST. Dan recorded the greatest 1st take of his life when he sang on our cover of mickey dolenz's song – Huff Puff. Lee has just pointed out that Georgia’s mother is named Anne. Sorry me forgety. We stopped at eleven and headed home. Also an interesting little factoid - We found out that Minnesota does not really sell beer on Sunday. With a lil help from Brain Fever, we tracked some down. Home/conversations/drinky/mst3k episode/sleep. And let us not forget Lee’s great phone call to Ron of Henderson aka Lord Dragon. Everyone cross their fingers now and hope that he will be able to paint our record cover. Okie dokie, me done. I’ll be back another day. Love and kisses!
ps. hiya mom

notes from the road...day nine

This is Sean and Alex reporting for blogging duty!
The day started for Alex when he was awoken by Lee in his long johns. How was that Alex?
"It was very pleasent, I said 'Hi Lee!' in a cheerful manner."
Lee then put on the 'Rock n Roll High School' soundtrack to wake us all up, it worked!
Brian (from the Fevers) came down with his camera in hand and took us to a snow-filled park where we began our goofy photo shoot. We played on this four-person see-saw and Alex and I sat on these baby rockin' horse things. We were too big for them so we fell over. We took more pictures on the swings and on the slide and then Lee made out witha giant turtle. It was fake, but still weird. Then we ran through the snow like we were The Monkees or something. Fun times!
We were all pretty much tired of the snow so we headed back to the apartment where we waited for Travis to pick us up and take us to the studio. We got to the studio really early because Travis thought we were going to take pictures with him so we sat in the parking lot for an hour or so throwing snowballs at eachother. Well, mostly at Lee and Brian in the van. The day will forever be remembered as the Great Minnesota Snowball Fight of 2007. Travis, Dan and us built up a stockpile of snowballs and bombarded Lee and Brian with a hail of snowy projectiles. Even more fun times! Travis built the largest snowball of all time and heaved it onto their windshield, but we don't talk about that.
Dave (the engineer and guy who owns the studio) arrived promptly at 11:30 and we completed the rest of the basic tracks. They sound pretty good! We also ate at Capps BBQ, I had a steak ($20!) and Alex had a pork chop and chicken dinner which was delicious in a so-so way ($12.50 too much).
So we came back to the studio and Dan started his overdubs for the guitars, they sound REALLY good! A lot of baritone guitar which we just found out was used heavily on many records (like The Fevers and the Beach Boys!).
While Dan was sprucing up our songs, we went downstairs to watch one of the greatest episodes of Battlestar Galactica! Kara!? We look forward to downloading tonight's episode.
We were pretty much down for the day by the time Battlestar had ended, so we packed up and headed back to our pad where Alex ate the rest of his chicken and he cut his gum on a piece of pork chop bone. Then we watched a Little Girls DVD that Travis had (Little Girls is a band, dick. We're not pedophiles...well not all of us anyway). After Travis hit the hay we watched some more of MST3K, the episode was Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.
Fingle doesn't dopple? Woah! Slam on anteaters out of nowhere! Good stuff.
After that it was night night!
Alex went to go sleep with our snoring kitten otherwise known as Brian Flores.
P.S. Alex is complaining of dandruff problems, also known as "Tour Head."

notes from the road...day eight

This is Seaaaaan Bohrman!
Sorry for the lack of updates, we've been busy recording our debut album in Minneapolis!
Anyway, here's a rundown of what's happened...
We made it here alive, for starters. We saw many more cars flipped over on the side of the road, some with people inside! It was scary! My knuckles were white as I clenched the steering wheel on the ride here. So we finally made it and Travis showed us to the apartment we're staying at while we record. It's very nice, in the basement of Georgia's mother's house. Beds for all, shower, the works. So we all cleaned up after our 30 hour drive and went to Travis and Georgia's house for turkey time! The dinner was dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-delicious! After we filled our bellies, we mulled over ideas for the album with Travis. We also drank all their vodka, sorry! But most importantly, we washed our dirty, dirty clothes. Much needed. Then we went to this club to watch Georgia and her friend play in this club with only one mic. Unfortunately we missed her performance because she went on early. Brianna and Brian came to the show too, so we said hello and then quickly said goodbye because we were REALLY (very) tired.
The next day Travis woke us up and took us to eat at the Neighborhood Cafe. He payed, t'was good. There was also a beautiful waitress who had a thick Russian (Soviet?) accent. Nice! We went to the studio afterwards and it's huge! Alex was in awe of all of the instruments laying around. We set up the drums and all of our equpiment then we were off! We layed down some basic tracks for about 7 hours. It was nerve racking, but we had fun and got a lot done. And if anyone asks, they were all first takes.
By the end of the night we were all pretty exhausted, but not too tired to watch the new episode of Lost. Booo! Not a very good episode.
We then climbed into our sleeping bags and tried to get enough rest for day two in the studio.