notes from the road...day fortytwo

tucsoooooooon! alexxxxxxxx! hungieeeee! almost home and almost to in-n-outttttt!!!
before heading out of town, we ate at cheap and yummy mexican resuraunt. they had a salsa bar with grilled onions and chile peppers. lee and i were sure we were in heaven. dan and i ate chirizo burritos and lee ordered a lousy burrito that he did not finish. also, we drove by an old church lee wanted to check out. i told him it was only a year or two old and my dad helped build it, which made him mad in a comical way. pushing buttons is fun sometimes. the drive from nm to tuscon wasnt too bad. on the way, i remember trying to make out objects in the clouds cuz the day was so pretty, but not much more than that. boring. sorry.
we arrived in an extremely windy tuscon around one in the afternoon. guess what our first stop was? a record store! yay!! sean bought a resonars record and lee and dan both bought dollar tapes. mc5 and christian death fer a buck! double yay!! of course pizza was next. the place we ate at offers a discount if its a fullmoon that night. it wasnt. spring has unsheathed all them pretty womens from their winter coats. this means lots of poking to my side from lee and lots of drool from us all. if anyone says they weren't don't listen to 'em, they are lying.
after foods, sean started downloading the new lost episode. it was gonna be a half hour or so, so dan and i walked the tucson strip fer a bit. it was too windy even with my new haircut. imma shave it all when i get home and show the wind whats up. Dan noticed a few USA/WPA writings in the sidewalks which he says were made when theodore roosevelt instituted the "the new deal." im looking it up now. "...state and national reform legislation introduced in the Progressive era." so there is more out there than records with music on 'em huh? history!
We came back, watched a good episode of lost, then headed over to the club. it was closed and everyone was hungie again. we proceeded to wander the area looking fer somethin to eat and could only find a subway. bah. after a sammich and some suprisingly delicious chocolate chip/m&m cookies, we walked back to the club. still closed! we met some other band and a bum who ended up being terribly angry at the world for not giving him a hambuger. the club eventually opened and we loaded in. i called my mum and let her know i would prolly not be able to come that night for we would be playing so late and nobody wanted to drive six hours afterwards. sorry mom : (
the okmoniks and sharkpants peeps showed up and we greeted whilst pulp fiction was on the tube. that movie was so entertaining to watch without sound. me likey.
we played a pretty swell last show. people cheered at the sound of a 1910 song and wanted us to play indian giver. we didnt. umm afterwards i jumped in the van, changed and called the prettiest little thing on the tellie. from what i hear there was a lot of hatred directed towards the band that played last. a white girl and and guy from florida who "rapped" about "feelings" and "drugs" or something. everyone looked like they had been socked in the face when i asked 'em about the band. but seriously, watch pulp fiction without sound and the subtitles on. i was laughing a bunch.

so that pretty much ends our tour of love. we woke up this morning, showered, played super smash bros., and said goodbye to the okmoniks who let us sleep over. its been amazing, kooky, and amazingly kooky. thanks to everyone who helped us out with houses to sleep at, shows booked, underwear thrown on stage (i wish), drinks purchased, laughs, giggles, directions, and fun times. we appreciate everything and love you all. see you at disneyland!
xoxoxoxoxoxo thee makeout party!!!!

notes from the road...day fortyone

all the way from the back o' the van - alex!
i'm confused and dan's last post isnt helping. he tried, but lee has pounded my tiny brain into oblivion with blog mixups. so we drove from denvy to new mexico-y. i remember it being pretty dang long. lee says, "it was beautiful too." he is right. the mountains in denver, when covered with some snow, are quite a site to be seen. unlike those others sites which should be heard...i dont like that previous sentence i wrote. bah. umm. anyways! the new mexico sky was amazing at night, its like one of those light-brites or whatever. tons of stars that make little ole me feel even smaller. like one of those tiny ants or whatever. if i were on stage telling this stuff, im pretty sure i would have tomatoes in my hair.
well, as soon as we were a mile or so away, we became lost. im not sure why it happens so much, but it does. we stopped at a gas station and i jumped outta the seat to get directions and/or an address. while waiting for the man moppiing to come my way (i was told not to go on the wet floor that night) a trailer-park-trash-scaring -me-weirdo asked me, "are you in the movies??" "hey! are you in the movies!?" so i replied, "nope." he then asked if i was a skateboarder or something. To many, i suppose, i look a lot like the guys from dogtown. ironically, i cannot skate for jack. so i gots the address, we mapquested some more and eventually found our way after many u-turns and finger pointing the correct way. So we located "the Farm" which was a great yet completely trashy house owned by a bunch of kids. they had foosball table and dan was extra excited. We loaded in, played, and ten or so kids started dancing and havin a merry time. Oh yeah, for some reason, tons of nm kids love batman and seans batman shirt.
im not sure i like jack lee's solo record too much. its kinda boring. but, prolly better than anything i've ever done, so whatcha gonna do? allll right. so before we loaded out, and before i could put a dry shirt on, dan wanted to get his foosball skills in everyones face. turns out, the two kids that were hanging around the table are insanely good and made dan and myself look like...well, look like a bunch of shitty foosball players. SUPPOSEDLY, dan won a game later on, but its hard to imagine, those guys were kickin' ass. I felt like being home and not in some gross, smokey nm house, so i played one more game of foosball (against dan, which i lost) then jumped in the van for a stinky sleep. i need more showers on tour everyone. Dan says after we went to bed and the ladies left home, the talk turned to perversion. im not gonna go into detail cuz you all know what happens when a bunch of 18 year old boys talk about girls. and that was about it i believe. see you tomorrow, pals.

notes from the road...day forty

actually it shouldn't cuz we drove to denver after that. it was rainy and gloomy in the morning but after an hour or three of driving it cleared up. we drove 6 hours or so and went to record stores in denver. jerry's should be called jerks. there was a nice awol one tag in the bathroom. wax trax should be called jerk's (but suckers). they had 7"s like crazy. all between fifty cents an a dollar. i got the remains, leaves, shangri-la's, t rex and there's a rumbly in my tumbly by winnie the pooh for alex. sean found a power pop box, i guess, and got the monitors. nick lowe, the flatbackers, spies and joe cool and the killer dogs or somethin like that. they thought it had a scratch so it was cheap, but it plays fine on our lil portable. neither store would knock off nothin. i wished i was a better thief. also we had nerds bubble gum which is delicious. we then scoured the streets for food because, although delicious, nerds bubble gum does not a satisfied stomach create. the chinese place had a sign out front that said$1.25 a scoop. it was one of those things you ignore because it makes no sense. then we went inside and asked for a menu. "a dollar twenty-five a scoop" they said. then it all clicked. i'm really not telling this right but it provided a strange insight into the workings of the human mind for me. i saw the sign out front. i chose to ignore it because it's content was foreign, even though the idea itself is very appealing. a dollar twenty five a scoop in a chinese place! why wouldn't i have jumped for joy upon reading the sign? was i afraid that it was too good to be true? was i denying myself conviction in my assumptions because their validity underscored my own fragile heart/ego? what was i hoping for in this mystery menu, that would trump helpings of whatever tickled my eyes, all equal to my fragile wallet? how can i stay open to new ways of selling chinese food while still holding on to my own perceptions of what and how chinese food is? why must there be set ways of packaging and purchasing these things at all? i went back an forth for an hour. and the scoops were like two huge scoops and a little more! lee went overboard immediately and then, after mocking lee's gluttony, i did the same. the food was just fine and the ambiance impeccable. for the first time in a long time, we were the least bummy people in the place. what were they talking about next to us guys? they talked about people, whined and said superman is dead. i heard them say "win or lose" and sean thinks they were talking about horse racing and people losing their bets. i enjoyed it. then we went to somewhere i dont remember, what'd we do after that sean? oh, we went to wax trax (jerks (but suckers)) AFTER dinner. then we went to the club sean? yes. i'm too embarrassed to ask sean what the club was so imma check our myspace, hold on... shoot! you can't see the old shows! ummmm...denver. good ol' denver. high altitude up there, you know. airs thinner... oh yeah! i hated that night! we played with the worst fucking band i'd ever seen! i fantasized about fighting the singer the whole time they played and i never do that anymore. i'm getting mad right now, retyping inadequately my immense hatred for them. i just might write them a letter. greenfoot, was that it sean? yeah, fucking greenfoot. the bass player looked like the guy who gets his head blown off in the beginning of history of violence. you know that creep that you hate? well this one didn't even have the decency to get his head blown off. he just played bass like every other creep in a shiny button up club shirt and baggy jeans. the singer was like an all smiles frat boy date rapist (i guess that's redundant) tom cruise who magically transformed into a creed like rock idiot with an attitude and pain in his heart. he was tryin to be tuff but he was just stiff. i kept imagining how bad his sex must be.i think i was beginning to lose it. ally always teases me fer sticking up for "crappy bands with their hearts in the right place" and this was surely not that, but still, i think i'm on the warpath now. no more more the merrier, everybody get out of the pool. completely contradicting that appraoch: our host for the night's band was just fine, thank you. they improvised bluesy slide stuff with a cheesy rock beat and had a good time doin it just like they do every tuesday. they introduced themselves as the makeout party. and introduced a cover saying they wrote it forty years ago. just like us! ryan was extremely hospitable, cooking us tuna steak and noodles with rooster sauce. i ate like a piggy and rudely went to bed straight after. somehow, after he'd gone to sleep, a guitar fell on lee's face and ryan was right there sayin "you alright, man? ya bleedin? wanna look at it?" it weirded lee out a lil bit. i'd really like to know what really happened.

notes from the road...day thirtynine

...drove a lil while to a motel and chilled out w/ sum schlitz beer and ate pizza...yummers! doodyrs watched satr trk and i spun records during commercials ! funfunfun...slept sum and drove 550 miles to las cruces er mehilla an 'ol town that used to home billy the kid and the like...lee is now done writing the blog. like he said we drove to a motel and spent the day doin nothin. everything else should be on tomorrow's.

notes from the road...day thirtyeight

our 11 hour drive began with 2 hours in the wrong direction. it was frustrating to say the least. but no worries, we we're on our way to kirby's beer store where, as everyone knows, good times are to be had by all. anything interesting happen on the drive out there?... nope. so kirby's is a closet in wichita where they somehow managed to fit a whole bar inside. we sat in the van and prayed someone would show up. while we waited a harmless crackhead stood too close to our van prompting lee to do his "GIT outta there!" routine. it's one of my faves. so we went in and there was a group of pinks sitting at the table next to the stage. we bought a beer (full price!) and messed around with the brain teasers until the smarmy pink took them from us, in order to show his superior toy playing skills. i hated that smug bastard. so some kid got up and sang us songs on his acoustic guitar about how hard and sad it is being a moron. he liked tom waits. alot. we kept our faces straight for the most part, but it made me wonder about tom waits. you think the first time his roomate heard him sing he laughed? i think i would've. they were all songs about love and death and how love and hate are the same thing. i'm sorry. i hated it but did not love it. then we played for the smarmy pinks who told us "better be good or we'll leave". that's no threat, pinky's! so we hated them all and played our little songs as fast as we could. afterwards they gave us a pitcher and we played cindi lauper on the jukebox over and over until everyone left. time after time, time after time! they cut the power after a few times, but i screamed about having paid good money and they put it back on. i like all through the night better and it also works as a pun if you play it over and over on a jukebox, but they did not have it. just try to pretend you don't wish you'd thought of this already. cindi lauper aural terrorism, with a punchline! then we stayed at the weirdest house of the tour. the couple had told us they were brother and sister and it was weird. there was a trailer in the driveway that they had converted into a weird bed thing. they played us their band and it was weird. the weird dreadlocked guy talked about making us a weird breakfast. it was so weird! when they woke me in the van the next morning sean and lee were weirdly serious about getting outta there quickly. he was making the wierd breakfast and it was time to go! at like 8!

notes from the road...day thirtyseven

Your old pal Sean is gonna try and get this here last blog done for the day.
So where are we? Milwaukee? Hmmm...yesterday, let's see if I can russle up some memories.
We woke up in Dan, Adie, Brian and Shannon's plush little pad, did the shower thing and got ready for a feast of the ages! In order to prepare for our mighty meal Dan, Shannon and I walked to Midget Mart. Everything was tiny! It was a store made for little people! We had to duck our heads to get in their little hobbit hole...just kidding. We're not sure why it was called Midget Mart, but the food we bought made for a large meal! Adie cooked us sausage, potatoes and french toast! Yum, yum yum. Yum, yum, yum. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. We listened to records for most of the morning, switching off our new gems with some stuff the housemates had. We discovered a band called The Resonars (Matt Rendon from The Knockout Pills) who were REALLY great! I gotta get all their records now! So after we filled our ears with good tunes and bellies with good food we made our way to The Lakeshore Brewery. Beer was consumed. A tour was held by a fellow named Nitro. He liked beer. A lot. Too much in fact. So he gave a tour of the brewery, sang songs, made quips, talked about hops and barley and things of that sort. T'was OK. Alex and Lee said there were girls dancing and waving their butts in the air on top of tables, but I didn't see any of that go down. Must've been good times though! So at the end of the tour we got free pint glasses from the Brewery and took a drive to a bar. We went full circle from the beer being made to the beer being served. The bar smelled funky, but they had free popcorn and they gave me a free cranberry juice, so that was cool. There was also a plaque on the wall that said we were official citizens of Kokomo, Indiana while we were in the bar. Not sure why or how, but it was nice to be included anyway. After the bar we went to the grocery store where Dan (not our Dan) bought supplies to make sushi for us! Back at the house we listened to some more records and chatted a bit in the living room. Lee rolled his first sushi thing and did a fine job on the first one (but fuuuucked up the second with the help of Dan and Alex). We also watched the new episode of Lost which was OK, but what about Locke's dad?! And Jack? Come on! Don't bring that Other back to your camp, she's obviously a plant! Stupid. Anyway, we left for the show which was to be held in someone's basement down the street, called The Vault. There were a bunch of locals there, which was nice to see. But we were unsure whether they would have any of our pop music. Chinese Telephones played first and were awesome! Banner Pilot from Minnesota played second, they were good too. Both bands were more of the punk variety so we were sure our songs about little kitties and birthday suits were going to be met with odd stares and cold shoulders. Not the case though! It was a GREAT show! P'rolly my favorite of the tour. Jen from San Pedro randomly showed up, t'was nice to see a familiar face so far from home. The people of Milwaukee danced and cheered and got naked! Well, one guy did during Birthday Suit. I guess he's known as The Naked Guy, that's his schtick. So he was completely naked up front with us while we played Birthday Suit and it was awkward and funny and he gave me a hug after the show. It was bound to happen someday I guess! So everyone enjoyed themselves, we played for 45 minutes or so and then met some really cool locals like one of the guys from The Mystery Girls and one of the dudes from Tuff Bananas and a bunch of other friendlies. Sorry, I'm bad with names so people are referred to as "guy", "dude" or "hey you!" It was a great show though, we had a blast and instead of partying with everyone else we headed back to Adie's house and chilled for a bit before going to bed. From here on out we will officially be known as The Party Poopers.

notes from the road...day thirtysix

us at the humility gallery. photo by bill


i was so looking foward to some chicago styled pizza on our way to the city. as it turns out, not too many people there eat it and i didnt really see any pie shops open. bunch uh jerks.
no one really said anything when i asked about the drive to chicago, sorry pals. "there was a lotta snow.." and a shrug was the best i could get outta 'em. we should really be doing this the following day, not awhole week later. umm, we rolled up to the place - it was an art exhibit/basement punk show venue. I remember they told us to park 'round back and there was already someone there so lee freaked out a little and wanted to keep driving around the block til they left. they did and someone came right along and parked where the other guys were. as we started to drive around, dan suggested, "who cares, just park in front of 'em." lee did after thinking about it fer a minute or two. with it being extremely chilly, the band loaded in super quicklike. i guess they were behind schedule so we had to play right away. before i could take off my snowhat and gloves sean was already starting "#1". fun fun fun. everyones hands were frozen so the set really stunk. there was a girl or two who enjoyed the set i believe. we talked with em up stairs, where a bunch of art was laying about, and sat around lights that were giving off some heat. i chatted up peoples while the other guys watched the next bands. too damn cold to be anywhere that wasnt directly under a heated light i says. the chinese telephones played a great set everyone says. fun fun fun. after they finished, Erin from Top Ten called dan and asked to borrow his twin amp, cuz they were playing a show in a bit near the downtown area. after dilly-dally'n we made our way to the show. they didnt have a guest list so sean, our three new buddies brino, addie and danny, and i waited in the bar til the lady finally let us into the concert area. i should also point out that sean, before letting the girl explain why to us that we could not enter to see top tens last four songs without paying, gave her the hand and walked away. there was a huge smile on my face and laughter exploding throughout my head. after she let us in, I jumped on a chair to see the last couple songs of theirs. Top Ten puts on a really great show, and Tina is always an exciting little package of greatness. we greeted everyone after the show. Some purty asian girls even came up to me and said hi. they member'd me from the pop festival the previous week! next were the goodbyes cuz the house we were stayin at was an hour and uh half away. Before headin outta town we decided to eat at sum mexican food joint. We called up Top Ten for another round of hellos and fun. but, my tooth cracked on a chip and one of my front teeth really hurt from fallin down the other day, so that put a stop to any enjoyment i was gonna have with yummy foods. as i type this i have to bite into an apple with the side of my mouth. yay! that was about it i think. we said our comical/seventeenth farewell and headed out to milwaukee. i slept while our truck driver sean drove. imma finish my apple and get lee to write the next one. hugs and kisses!