notes from the road...day twenty

A lil puppy-love after our unloved show
On tour with Lee, always a blast


Number of Alex posts today: 2
Yesterday was easily the most weird day of tour for me. That or it was the most alcohol I have consumed in one day on tour. Either way, it's a good possibilty that we should not get into town too many hours before we're gonna play. It's like that saying "idle hands are the devils tool." cept, replace hands with alexs. It seems that throwing large sticks at a beehive located above our van is not a good idea to anyone but me. Whoda thunk
Packed with Noahmade sammiches, we went for a drive to Charolette NC. After finding the club we were to play that night, we decided that it would be a better to leave that area asap and head for record/thrift stores all day. We visted five or six shops with only minimal amounts of finds.I'm prolly not gonna list em all but, Dan: An Archies record a Tommy Roe one - Sean: a Reunion 7" - Brian: A beatles 7" with a nice cover - Lee: A NRBQ record at LunchBox records aka home of the Jerks - Me: a few 7"s, 1910 Fruitgum Co. an Ottis Redding one and a Dwight Twilley record. Also, Brian has bought another coat. Everyone shook their heads and sighed when he came out with it. Funny little jacket-wearing kitty. Also, I can honestly say, I've never smelt anything worse on Dan than the jacket he got yesterday. Dan also pointed out that you can't haggle down a couple bucks at thrift stores in north carolina for phrases like the following pop outta peoples mouths- "Priced in the back" "We NEVER do that" "I'm a big jerk" The last one I just assume they say often.
Peoples were pretty hungry after the long haul that is thrifting so we went to a burger joint. Dan and I made pb&j sammiches while the others ordered to go. Next we drove around looking for a liquor store, for we decided to sit on some nice grassy lot located next to the club for the following two hours. Alcohol found/Area located/Old-broken down bus marked on. We guys sat around talking, laughing, eating and drining for a bit. Good times, good times.

(lee!) ..and i really had to ''go'' & the gas station attendent wouldnt lemme go,so i pushed the door open with the signs..he sed sir .sir...no no...awww...so i held it fer a while..the mile stone finally opened its doors to me with smiling faces and i, t.c.b.! okiedokie,so wowza! since '69 this lil dive has showcased a whole lotta bands( ie..r.e.m,bad brains,violent femmes,murder junkies,melvins,makeoutparty! etc)...a couple tourin bands ie "gaylord" came and played and did their thang...uhh,if thats what ya call it...umm...as soon as the local boys hooked me up did i knowwe had a mutual luv for hasil adkins,minutemen..fyp..,modernlovers,mc5 etc...cool cats..they even had a pit .pup..too cute it was..they nite finally ended..settled up ..and the local 's made me make a rebel yelp err..rebel war cry..er sumpin like that...ive got the hillbilly blood so, ihappily obliged into the nite.
sean then soon drove us all thru the appalachian blue ridge mtns. to our pal selina's home..nitenite.

notes from the road...day nineteen

Papa and Sonson



attack of the killer alex posts!
Everyone is in the record stores shopping right now and me out of record monies so me blog. boy, new country music is hellish. one means two, and two means three. boo i say.
soooo the departure from Mr. Bush's house was it? Well, I woke up from a dream which was very enjoyable for me. In the dream, I was At Gordon's house sitting 'round when a bat flew through a window. I then shot it with a crossbow and the bat started to scream. Very high pitched and lengthy. Night came and outta nowhere all animals from the forest started attacking the house. Large deer, beavers, birds, wild pigs, a moose, and even a squid towards the end when the house became flooded for some unkown reason. Also, when they stopped attacking, I flew on a birds back, with the band, to a Guitar Center which we raided. Then we made our way back and suddenly I was awakened by Lee getting out of bed. After laughing to myself, I put on some pants, walked down stairs to see Dan lying on the floor for some odd reason, said my good mornings, then hung about watching Gordon make, what was to be a great breakfast. The yum-yums consisted of creamed-eggs, toast, waffles, and homemade jelly. The eggs on toast has been in the Bush family fer awhile now. Yum, yum, yum. We next finished up laundy, and got everthing ready fer the ride to Charleston, Sc. After hugs and handshakes we left. I can't recall the drive too much, but I'm sure you fellas didn't miss out on anything kerrazy.
South Carolina had its fun and comical moments like any other town. We rolled into town kinda early and found the record store that we were to play at when five 'o clock came. Twas spacious and had free coffee and some beers that the guy had purchased for us. We set up, drank some (I dropped a glass bottle on the ground and cleaned it up), got hungie so Brian and myself strolled a few shops down to a chinese food resturant. It took Brain several minutes to order some ordinary rice and then he bought me a bowl of chicken-rice. Lee came in and ordered after seeing how much foods we got for so little monies. Dan and Sean soon followed. I believe Sean was a lil bit disappointed, but the rest of us liked it. Also, a black kid came in through the doors, glanced at us, then headed to the counter muttering somethin like "Ching-chong, chong."
The show itself wasn't the greatest. A couple people walked in and out throughout the set. A little girl bought a record and a really nice guy named Noah watched the second half of the set. We jokingly hit him up about a place to sleep and he accepted. Sean and I have been wanting to see 300 for awhile now so we decided it was movie time after we loaded out. Noah hung around then offered us spaghetti at his place, Nice guy. Before we left for the movies, a homeless looking man with hooks for arms told us 'bout a movie he had just made. He ran around the corner got a poster and showed it to us. I didn't really hear his spiel, but I'm sure it was an interesting story. We all shook a hook then headed out.
The movie! I loved it. Sean/Brian/Lee all disliked it. And Dan, he leaned towards enjoyment. I'm going to stick with my "It looked like a comic book but on film, so you should love it just for that reason" opinion. Frank Miller is someone I would buy a drink for when I can afford it. We got lost heading to Noah's afterwards, called him, and found we could not park across his street for the neighbors mamma parks there. Noah invited us in, showed us a spiffy salt-water fish tank, offered us drinks, then went on and made us dindin. Delicious. I ended up drinking a glass of scotch and a few beers then headed to bed cuz me tired like that. I'll get another guy to tell you what happened that night when they are available. (Dan) ok, after babypie alex went to get his beauty sleep, the real party started. and by party i mean movie. it was about rabbits and it was a cartoon and the intro was really cool looking. i cant remember what it was called and by the time it was over i was asleep. noah's roomate came home with a girl, then his other roomate came home with an attitude. he walked in without a word and started throwing cans away. it was the most aggressive recycling i've seen. noah was extremely kind. also his dad played guitar in the nightcrawlers who's sole hit little black egg is known round the world to spiffy dudes like us. wait til you here what were gonna do in 2 days!!!! it involves sleek aggressive killing machines!! Onto the next days post.

My head currently: Less itchy when I use Seans 2in1 shampoo.

notes from the road...day eighteen

Fake outhouse awesomeness
Mr Bushs abode


Or as many will come to call it: "Day of Marinated Greatness"
This is only a few seconds after Dan pressed publish so it both him and myself having fun with the internets. We had a pretty good day to look foward to as we drove outta Ms. Sipy's town. Dan's father, Gordon, and his wife, Denise, were expecting us for a day and uh half. We just had a minute talk about commas after that sentence. Aren't we just a crazy bunch? Sean started out driving and about half way to Georgia we stopped for a potty break at some gorgeous rest stop. After stretching our legs and other appendages, Sean spoke with Dan 'bout Lee being in a bad mood when asked to finish the drive. So, Dan thinking it would be a great gesture of friendliness, jumped in the drivers seat which caused, what I thought, was one of the most comical arguements between Lee and Dan yet. It involved lots of yelling from the two about eachothers driving. More so of Lee's from Dan's point of view. I'm quite sure what happened next is what set me off in my own paradise of uncalled for happiness. The ordeal ended with Lee giving Dan the most awkwardly mean and unxpected hug from behind I've ever seen in my life. It might have even been the only one I've ever seen actually. Very intense but odd for it was a hug. Maybe he was trying to sufficate him with love I dunno. You crazy Lee.
The drive itself was fine. There was a bumpy moment or two, but it was Dan's first driving moment and windy so anything Lee said was basically out of hate and not truth. Terribly, terribly funny for me however. "Oh! Everything's falling apart now." - Lee after a sharp turn had made a box fall over. Dan's reply: "It was the first turn I have ever taken in this van." Also take note people, the men and women driving the highways of Georgia are a bunch of jerks. With their constant swirving in and out of lanes. Tsk tsk.
The closer we were getting to Mr. Bush's house, the more excited everyone was getting. We took some wrong turns and I listened to a funny call between father and son about what highway goes east/west and not south/north. Soon, we were driving small roads winding 'round what Dan has labeled "waterin' holes" and lookin at houses surrounded by little forests. We arrived at Gordon's self-built cabin of love. I had expected something I built with lincoln logs when I was a kid, but to my amazement it is a truely lovely house, almost jaw dropping. Next, the greetings and the makings of home. Lee was outta the van and into the bathroom before i had tied my shoes. Dinner was a knock-out. Sean's mother, Patty, has a contender it seems. Marinated chicken, char-swiss or swiss-char dan says (it was like a mellower spinach) with bellpeppers and onions, a rice like jasmin but more aromatic, and our choice of red stripe beer or sweet tea. The ignorant ones chose the beer. We chatted a bit then headed out on a path through the Bush's land for a pleasant hike. The Bush family, it seems, own quite a bit of land out there. "A couple acres," Dan says unsurely. I had wanted to walk til I could no longer, but I heard a bunch of cries from a bunch of babies about it getting dark so we turned around and headed back. On the way back I opted for the paths that were not cleared so I ended up with thorns from a briar patch (prolly black berry bushes) all over my pants. Those buggers hurt I tells ya. We chatted and loaded in and out laundry throughout the night. Towards the end of it all, a few of us had a three hour ping-pong session. Sean and Mr. Bush ended up destroying Team Danlex (the defending champions). Afterwards came sleep time for most. Big and little Bush talked and looked over old pictures for some time before hitting the hay. It was a great day for all. Also, Brian tried out his snoring strips unsuccessfully. Too bad for those light sleepers. Til tomorrow kiddos!
luv, alex
ps. hi dad.

notes from the road...day seventeen

say goodbye to mickey, dan
Sleepy kitty. Aka - Brian


Wull hullo thur! It's dan here wif mah brudder al, an we gonna tell yuh a lil bit bout whut we ben up to. yeehaw (gunshots)! so when is brian gonna write a blog? oh whenever you ask, says brian. ok how bout today's? sure. brian is asleep. the drive to jackson mississippi was long fer me. i was cranky i think. ya herd bout the gum'n'whatnot so thats pretty much that. two rednecks wouldn't stop staring at us forever at the gas station. at first i was all "what!?" but they won, i got nervous. we got greedy in traffic after our gum success, and got ourselves an empty can off another stranger. the drive sucked. we arrived in jackson and it was dead and ugly and there was trash everywhere like blanchard after a bad party. we made our way to w.c. dons and the owner terry told us since no one (NO ONE) was there he'd rather we didn't play. instead it was hot dog time! alex was bummed so he went wandering around the town. i was bummed so i ate a hot dog. the streets have like, real fire gaslamps for lights, alex said. and terry's hot dogs are fantastic. he thinks he's paying tribute to nathan's in new york but his are far superior in everyway. I hate you louis! you phony new york jackass! anyhoo, we ate and drank a beer and hoped people would show up or the bar next door would let us play or the people inside would take us with them to the drag show or ANYTHING! but no, it was not to be. we heard about terry's hot dog cooking techniques and tastes. he's eaten hot dog's for two years now and he's not sick of 'em. jus a lil yellow mustard and sometimes some onions but thats it. the weasely dirtbag soundguy, who introduced himself as the black sheep of the peavey family, got my new mickey mouse sweater off of me! sometimes i have problems saying no. the rest of the band is sure im an idiot. after he asked for it and i said yes, i realized how retarded i was being. i even asked for it back and he said yes, but then when he asked again, poof, big baby jesus comes out an gives it right back again! there is something wrong with me. i hated that guy an he was treating me like i was some rich kid with sweaters to burn. peavey sucks and their tweak addict nephew is even worse. so lee and alex swooped up the prime van real estate and sean, brian and i slept in the stinky bar. brian says there were like families hanging out at 2 in the morning. weird. sean and lee had some half assed adventure at the bar next door but screw it. we still gotta write another one for yesterday.
listening to the burrito bros and trex

Notes from the road...day sixteen

Conservatory show in OKC. Carol Bui
Esteban(Chavey or Chevey). maybe.


Easin on down the road with your boys Dan and Lee.
Yesterday started early as all get out for me. the first thing i remember is being angry at brian for snoring, then frightened at the torrent of profanity that came pouring out of a mouth that surely couldn't be mine. Homie SNORES. so i got up before the sun, took a shower and headed down to our continental breakfast, which wasn't happening yet, as it was LIKE FOUR OR SOMETHING. so i chatted with the desk person about the crappy coffee and then with my baby about everything else. she was still up from the night before and just thinking about it makes me mad at brian all over again. so eventually i wandered back to our snore chamber and laid down to wait for everyone else to wake up. it took forever. so wake they did and we proceeded down to deb's room, which was the de facto office for the epic summer blockbuster known as the sxsw project (working title). they fed us more and we got in the van to pretend to arrive at the party. again. me likey watch movies. me no likey movies watch me. so we did our best to be our lil lovable selves (not funny) and took pictures with our filmy friends. what approach do you think the filmmakers should take in regards to our performance lee? "use us as little as possible so the seconds of character shine bright enough for our true selves to..." this is going nowhere. so we left for real and headed to the conservatory in oklahoma city, or the OKC as alex and i would call it, if we were thug livin in the real OK town. what happenned on the drive there? we used the commute-ticator to great success, lee tortured brian with an hour or two of NRBQ and generally teased and taunted him for whatever came into his head that second. it was awful (funny). we arrived at the conservatory and immediately raided the record store next door and came up wif some pretty good stuff. we got$1 mojo mags,t rex!,roxymusic's first, a 2 disc curtis mayfeild retrospective, double album cds of tommy james and the beegees first, a trojan ska box set, saucerful of secrets and i got a sorrows record. jim hooked up the fat deals and we responded with some california love. so we played to a mostly empty bar full of enthusiasm. at least until we ruined it by playing for 3 hours. seriously, we dont know when to quit. two thirds of our fanbase was wiped out early in the night by a father-related emergency, but we soldiered on. oh yeah! the williez put their sticker over our name on the poster we sent out. i wanted to keep it but some lil girl swiped it and tore off the sticker before i could explain to her what irony is. it came right off. pussy ass sticker didnt even stick. so then the weirdness started. as we loaded out and sold some swag lorrie informed us that she was going into chemo the next day and prolly wouldn't make it...um....uh...umm... . And then we went to Britney's house! you may remember britney from the williez show a few years ago, no? well her parents were pleasantly out of town so we had full run of the place, giant toilets, dogbears named beauford and all. at least until Unkle Whitey (MARK to you!) stopped in for a chat. more like snuck-in for god knows what awful thing. he seemed drunk and edgy and strolled in bestowing golden nuggets of truth and wisdom like "you need a haircut" and "you really need a haircut". he told everyone that except me, and i wasnt even having a good hair day or anything. but i guess i just got it like that. thanks unkie whitey! so after our psychological beatdown, he hit us with a blaze of zen mastery commonly known as the riddle. "if animals south of the equator weren't grateful," said he "would christmas and thanksgiving be on the same day?" (dramatic pause). he was freaking us out. i had it in my head that this was an answerless nothing designed to pummel our minds into baby food. or worse, to distract us while the cops came. he then belittled sean's hair, which definately seemed to offend his delicate hair sensibilities the most. after that they stared at eachother with a painfully awkward intensity i will not attempt to convey. believe me, it was heavy. "don't get up" he said. but sean had made no pretense of up-getting and we were confused yet again. so he left, creepily as he came. i saw britney struggling to understand whatever hints he was dropping from behind me. it was not going well. what was THAT all about?! britney explained "he used to own a fancy restaurant that (oklahoma?!) celebrities would come to, but now he sells cars for my dad." it raised more questions than it answered. but yeah, i think i hate that guy. and britney's mom totally does! so we cleaned out the tiny amounts of hooch and spaghettios she had and watched lee bring shame on humankind with his sexual lee-ness (it involved beauford). i was too scared to sleep on a 17 year old OU football hopeful's bed so i opted for the floor. it was aight. this morning we woke up and got on the road and have been stuck in traffic ever since a useless stop for a record store in Denton. we got like nine hours to go and we're not moving. lee is enjoying our van's tinted window voyeuristic capabilities and i am not really enjoying colin blunstone's solo album. "he was working in an office when the zombies looked him up and wrote an album for him" sayeth sean. "that last one was kinda funky." sayeth alex. "this songs been the best so far"typeth i. "oh waaaooow!" sayeth huell howser. we just commute-icatored our way into some gum! for those of you who've spent your life trimming dinosaur toenails in the desert, the commute-ticator is a device used to tell fellow travellers of the road just what, exactly, is on your mind. with such endlessly repeatable phrases as; get a life, nice rust and lets do lunch, you know you'll never be at a loss for words. so we thingied the nice lady, and after turning down our offer of lunch by way of her ring finger, she gave us all a pack of gum! this is the best traffic jam ever (special thanks to esteban!)! so wish us luck, we totally are not making the show on time.
...PoP! culture currently listening to brendan benson, alternative to love!

notes from the road...day fifteen

Dustys Party
Good, good times
Tryin' to not notice
Apache rock'n
Party at sxsw





"Yo!" As Alf would say. Hi fellas and lil q-t-pies. Hmm..missing two days from the blog it seems. I'll be taking care of this right quick. I is Alex. Our day fifteen started with late night/early morning Guiness and jelly-filled pastries at Dan's brother's house. Mike! He is totally rad and has a picture hangin on his wall of him on an old tractor. I fell asleep before everyone for I am a baby when it comes to sleep. Eight 'o clock comes round and me wantie a pillow. From what i heard the next day, Dan caught up with his brother whilst others slept. Also, I quit the band. Did I forget that? These guys are like a bunch of mayors from different comically titled towns - Jerktown. El Jerkso. Jerkington, etc. Just kidding. But really, these blogs need some spicing up. Or at least some goofy pictures. Someone wake up Brian and tell him to get with the phototakings. This guy sleeps more than anyone in the band. I had to flip for the middle seat the other day. I lost. But! Luck-i-Lee had just stopped driving and stole it from both of us.
I'm quite off track now. Thanks. So, we departed from Mike's house heading for SxSw in Austin. I spent the three hour trip on the computer getting numbers to music stores for Lee so he could purchase a speaker for the bass amp. We rolled into town after finding out the show had been switched from a club to a house party. The day started to get more interesting as we met up with the Time-Flys/Apache/Cuts and company. We found 'em at a large party-tent show sitting on the grass not really paying attention to the bands. Rightfully so. Meh is a word used much so round this time in Austin. We greeted and then continued to hang out on a hill with the cutest damn puppy I've ever seen. Guy was as big as my fist and had a patch of dark hair round one eyeball. We then headed to the house party. I can't be the only one who forgot, but as we arrived there was a flurry of film crew surronding the van. "Oh yeah! We're shooting a fake documentary today." We met a few peoples again - Jerry( Kelly on camera) the man who would become our new tambo player for the show, Estabon (Chavey) our interviewer, Joe/Deb and the rest. Then we answered some fake-ish questions, unloaded, then rested for a few minutes before being hustled into the van for another shooting of our "arrival" to the show. Competely dorky and it made me giggle. Films are oh so funny sometimes. Afterwards we set up and played. Mr. J. Beam should receive our thanks from everyone but Sean. I'm quite sure I sped everything up about double the speed of normal. Fun stuffs. After us, Apache played. Really entertaining rock & rollers from the SF/oakland area. Go see em when you can. A few of us went to a burger joint following Apaches completition. I should have found out the name of the place for the burgers were amazing. Eight then rolled round, so I headed back and waited for the band to finish so we could get our mic back and go to another house party Dusty Rhodes had set up for us. We ended up taking two mics and should apologize. It was Brians fault everyone, blame him if you must. Next was Dustys lil friends place. We unloaded to a few guys playing four-square in a backyard. Texas is crazy like that fool. We played alright. Lee was captive in a beer soaked spiral of hilarity which is always fun for me. Dusty Rhodes and the River Band went on a bit after us. "They are a GREAT live band." - says Sean. The remainder of the night had looking for the right hotel, which the video crew had set us up in. Thank you much guys! Eventually we found it and everyone went to their rooms. That be the end of the night and the end of this post. rarh.
Whats Playing Today: The Salvation Army(Befour Three 'o Clock), the Bee Gees 1st, A Trojan Ska box set, and The Kinks Face to Face
ps should have some of the party pictures in a few days.

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.