we woke up and went to the record store everyone told us was the greatest, jerry's, and it was. they had so much stuff. there were shelves of every style. it's extremely hard to type and listen to weird al at the same time, did you know that? so we swooped up all the good stuff before top ten got there and basically ruined richies day by findin the rubettes record. sorry! i got an andy kim record still sealed, ally got a dwight twilley record or two and lee, lucky bastard, got a bunch of tina's picks. ally and i were hungry so we went an got pizza. i think the girl there felt sorry for us cuz she gave us 2 extra pieces. walkin back to the van we saw a guy smokin a blunt. "smells good dont it" he said. it did sort of. so then we went to athens, georgia where scott, of blackout booking fame, was kind enough to get us a show. did anything interesting happen on the way there guys? nope. you know, i like weird al as much as the next guy, unless the next guy is sean or alex. its so loud! so we got to the union and said hi to scott and went to do some laundry for an hour or two. we busted out the record player and put on ohio express and next thing you know, it was a ragin bubble party. we danced with all the girls who'd ever been in laundry commercials, they kept popping out of the washers, which of course were overflowing with bubbles. i took a ride around the dryclean rack and alex played in the spin dryers til he got dizzy. it was really alot of fun. after that we were all clean and ready to rock so we went back. it was still too early so scott gave us some money fer food and warned us not to eat the burritos, which would surely be too heavy for rockin. so we ate way too much pizza instead. it wasn't great but we were hungry. like always. after a great set of covers by a side band of scott's the exceptionals played their exceptional take on rock an roll silliness. up next were the tired, fat and braindead makeout party. the show was fantastic. the kids loved it and danced, but fer some reason we couldn't keep it together. i snapped a string right before the solo on wreckless and alex tells me i couldnt sing that night. it was very smoky in there. of course it didn't matter, everyone had a good ol time. up next was paper machetes who were fun and catchy angular weird-punk. the kids liked them too. so we went to the paper machetes house, thinking it was gonna be a chill night of byrds records and sleep, but when we got there it was college party nightmare time. backwards hats, white kids rappin along with wu tang, drunk and desperate girls, the whole nine yards. so we went to sleep in the van and next door. where it was quiet but COLD. it was snowing all day that day, but since it didn't really stick the locals call it a flurry. all in all a good time, except that lee threw the leftover pizza away. what is wrong with him anyway?
Ps. alex here. just wanted to let you all know i was very excited to get to bed before we loaded out and ran up some stairs, with my hands in my coat pockets, then fell right on my face. luckily dan was the only one who saw me cry like a baby at the sight of blood comin outta my mouth. it was just a busted lip though, me teefs are still in place.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
notes from the road...day thirtythree
we woke up in our hotel and sat around jivin with the aforementioned machine fer a bit then it was back on the road. today's drive was a short one but longer than we expected fer some reason. i hate it when that happens. our destination was a BBQ in pittsburgh, maybe thats why it felt like it took so long. we were so hungry! when we got into town lee was totally losin his shit. there WERE psychedelic dinosaurs around, but it wasn't that big a deal. also you dont need to mentally undress every girl you see walking down the street. its just wrong. so after lee's wild ride through insanitown, we arrived at paul from modey lemon's house. the BBQ was heatin up and we would have to wait. but not too long! the burgers were delicious and i smothered mine with honey dijon mustard which i now love. we sat and chatted with Tina and Erin from Top Ten and ate and ate. there was steak and chicken and fer the veggies there was squash and zuchini and other stuff i cant remember but it was all good. the highlight of our eating experience had to be the charbroiled pineapple. yes, pineapple. they put jus a lil bit o cayenne pepper on it and throw it on there and then booyah! candy! we ate and ran outta stuff to talk about so tina and erin got bored and went inside to play some records and generally get the party started. there were chocolate covered strawberries in there! we ate those up and then kept on dipping whatever was handy. i chatted up richie and cole from top ten and they were just as friendly as they look. thank you for the ciggarrettes. we found out later that richie is big time. he played in winona ryders and drew the cover to green day's dookie! whooda thunk? then it was time fer the show. we played ok to a bunch a people who at best thought we were ok. top ten was rulin as always but they said it wasn't their best show. next we were to meet michael from the cynics. he definately thought we were more than ok. not me so much, me he called a whore cuz i gots the face aids, but sean alex and lee were hot stuff! seans the cute one is now the official party slogan. i hung out at the bar and got free drinks from a guy who was chattin erin up and my cheeseburger never came. meanwhile lee got dry humped and fondled all over the bar. it was as if a gay lee from the future came back to treat himself the way he would like to treat others. our appetites are never quieted however so we went to track down the most mysterious of sandwiches. we dont know what the place was called but it's open all night and they got cole slaw and french fries inside the sammy. i got the spicy sausage that paul said was his favorite and owlx got roast beef so we split'em up. the hot sausage was definately better but they both were pretty good. owlx remained unimpressed. how was your sandwich sean? it was a ham sandwich that was good. the cole slaw made an interesting addition. after eating i think it started to rain a little and we went back to paul's. alex and i slept in the van and lee and sean went inside. i guess a couple people still were chillin but it wasn't anything to write about (although i just did). i love falling asleep to the sound of rain inside a car.
notes from the road...day thirtytwo
so can you tell we're over it? i'm gonna have to ask where we even were. Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love came through on the name for us. we arrived way too early cuz widdo babies no wikey new york. we got to the empty club around 2 and told the bartender we were the band. he figured we were gonna say that. we asked fer a good place to get a philly cheese sammich and he obliged. the sammich was good and they also had the largest pizza slices i'd ever seen.sean and lee slept in the van while ally and i did what we always do, wander. philadelphia is a strange city. there's alot of old buildings there that i wish i knew how to describe. they got staues on top of some and you get a strange feeling when you look up at em. i dunno. also they had a park like area with giant sorry and monopoly pieces everywhere. is milton bradley from there or something? ally an i couldn't figure it out. so we wandered back after getting some apple juice, which i learned is gross lukewarm. only 8 more hours to show time! we sat in the van and listened to sundae girl and other hits on our portable record player. a cop ate in the pizza place next to us for like 2 hours. it was crazy, he kept eating and eating. like he was a pig or something it weirded us out. 4 more hours to show time! i took off my shoes and socks and let my natsy natsy feet air out a bit. also i rubbed them for like an hour or so cuz new york messes yer feet up bad, son. after that my hands were very smelly so i washed them. they had watered down dish soap in the bathroom to wash your hands with. 3 more hours to show time! eventually, our buddies the pop machine came into town and called us so we went and hung out a bit. i actually just sat in the van and slept a little. there was no one at the show except a local or two and a few friends of the aforementioned machine but the bar still fed us delicious huge hamburgers, salads, a deep fried candy bar with ice cream and booze. each drink ticket got you a beer and a shot. how's that fer brotherly love? so we played to the one person in the audience and it was pretty fun. i was feelin sick and sad, so we played a bunch of downer stuff that night. i love bringin' em down. after we played, the bar kinda turned into a party of sorts and we hung out fer an hour or so. when the non drinkers had enough of that crap we went off in search of a motel that the aforementioned friends of the aforementioned machine were kind enough to pay for ("it's really cheap" they said "only 88 dollars!"). so we watched an old episode of lost and went to sleep. also i covered my face aids (non communicable impintigo dammit!) while i talked that night, prompting lee to taunt me bout copying fever b. if only i could, lee, if only i could.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
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...
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...
Sunday, March 25, 2007
notes from the road...day twentythree
space mutiny!well this one isn't really from the road cuz we only sat around at rob's house yesterday doin nothin. but i guess it is because i am on the road right now. we goin to new york! yesterday we maybe had a show in MASS but they never got back to us and their website had a bunch o hardcore bands on the bill. so yeah, screw that 6 hour drive to nowhere. we woke up when we damn well pleased and waited for the delicious breakfast we could already smell. have i told you bout rob? well his hospitality is unmatched. we ate eggs and toast and bacon and sausage and pancakes and cinnamon rolls and mushrooms with orange juice and milk to drink. definately num stat ONE. this day was for slackin, and thats just what we did. we watched a mst3k, Head (the monkees' movie which was a lot better than i expected) the best episode of lost in like forever and al and sean watched battlestar galactica, which i am refraining from until i can catch up proper. its just too important to do wrong. also we played the nintendo somethin or other with the wandy things. we bowled and played tennis and darts and wario ware, they were all pretty cool. i felt really stupid until the dart game, which i could actually play. after that i wrote a song about my good girl at home. it went well i think. i have to listen to some of fever b's songs to make sure i'm not rippin them off too hard. what else happenned yesterday guys? they told me the stuff i already told you. it was a slack day. for dinner we had burritos of course and they were nummers all over again. Rob busted out some more fancy homemade hotsauce that made lee go for the milk. i dont know if you realize what a big deal that is but it is. i have seen lee eat the peppers that made homer go crazy with tapatio on top. ive seen him cut his tongue open with a razor, shove in habaneros and stitch it shut again, only to complain that the blood was diluting the precious flavor. i went against my better judgement and tried some. it was good and then it got hot and then the hotness started and after that it got really hot in the room. then the salsa kicked in and my mouth scared all the dragons out of PA. seriously i woke up at two in the morning and it had moved a foot down to my poor heart which was MAD at me. everyone tried to watch hot fuzz somethin er other but i fell asleep. its by the friends who made spaced and sean of the dead. spaced is a lovely sitcom that you've never seen. it's really good. man someone needs to punch this thing up a bit. i'm gonna turn this over to ally and see if he can make it funny, but don't get your hopes up. i think everyones grouchy! sssshhhh! (alex) if anyone is grouchy its cuz the mapquest directions be crazy. motha trucka be all like go this and that uh way. and i be like sean, yo, just drive your heart out. plus the 78 E. IS past allentown. thats all i can add. as dan stated before, we didnt do too much yesterday. and that is a great thing. thanks rob! we all love you.
notes from the road...day twentytwo
Reminiscent - Lord Dragon 
pre show/post garage clean-up
Helpin' out with the partyso it's been two days since the last post and alex is all "gotta write'em both dude" so i will try. we went to pennsylvania to visit our friend rob (from PA) and play in his garage. first on the agenda was to visit his burrito shop and eat. we hadn't eaten all day so we were ready. luckily for us so was rob, he had made us some chicken and potato quesadillas with all the fixins to eat while we waited for our (free!) order. rob and tyler's hospitality is unbelievable. i got robs favorite the trinity which has chicken pork and potatoes, along with black beans salsa guacamole and rice. it was delicious, and should you ever be in york PA craving some mexican food, roburrito's is as good as it gets. secret hot sauces and everything. so we went to rob's house and while i talked on the phone to my sweetie the band and rob cleaned the garage and got it all ready for us. i then hung out with a couple o local teenagers, it's a long story. anyhoo, rob had balloons and a really good psych light machine. after we got those all set up he busted out the bubble machine and we all started drooling. it used a 9 volt but all we had was a 12, so we were cranking out bubbles like machine gun fire. after a beer or two we played and everything was just lovely. people danced and goofed around and cheered for the particularly fancy guitar parts i am known worldwide for, which makes me HAPPY. also they cheered for many of alex's crazy ass fills and sean's delightful rendition of our current top ten hit, birthday suit. they wanted to hear that one again. fer sure one of the best shows we've played. afterwards, we converted the garage once again, this time into a makeshift movie theatre complete with a projector, a huge ass screen and couch seating. rob is a man of mystery and magic. our film for the night was the modern piece de resistance entitled "snakes on a plane". there was more than one person dressed in the appropriate plane attire. so i fell asleep during that piece o crap and when i woke up i did what i usually do, go back to sleep. the party was bangin. we even got an impromptu james brown impersonation, which was spot on and all about how good our band was. i complimented the young man the next day and he had no idea what i was talking about. it seems he also hit his head very hard twice that night and puked in robs car on the way home. they were checking out the hole his head had left in the drywall downstairs the next morning. like i said the party was bangin. a million thanks to rob and tyler for doin what they always do.
alex watched: kind hearts and coronets (a darn good flick)
Friday, March 23, 2007
notes from the road...day twentyone
Lee and Nakita
us rock'n out. ba dum ch!
Our favorite donkey, Festus
Black Cat Flyer of Loveword. after our smash breakthrough in charlotte, we drove straight to selina's in boone, n.c. i slept on the way and then arrived and slept some more. when we woke up we took much needed showers and brushed our filthy scum covered teeth. when i (dan) flossed, the junk from in between smelled like poop. its embarrassing to tell but dammit this blog business is SERIOUS. so selina made us green pancakes with just the right amount of cinnamon, but held out on her real maple syrup cuz thats for her and her alone. are you ready for this? cuz things are bout to go down! alright, keep all this on the low, but selina's got the hookup at this mountain they got out here so we went. she takes care of animals there and we were going to visit those very animals. first we went to the peak of the mountain and listened to the carter family and crossed a really high bridge and blah blah blah BEARS, bitches! we fed bears. we crossed the invisible boundaries between bears and man with a spoonful of peanut butter. they love that stuff. also peanuts, raisins and cookies. in typical lee fashion, he mixed all his together, making a super sweet bear concoction that no bear could possibly resist. there were also baby bears that we couldn't feed cuz they gotta be kept scared 'o people. one of them scared me! i was leanin in all close like and he leaned forward all fast. my eyes got real big and my heart pounded a little. it was cooler than anything you've ever done. then we visited some of our otter friends, who were chillin out, swimmin, explorin and generally bein cute. also we saw nikita and aspen, two cougars that we were about to become friends with. we walked to this weird room with cages in it and selina opened a door to the cougar area. "Nikita!" she said, and whala! a 150 pound killing machine pounced in and started pacing back and forth. we stood there waiting for her to calm down a little and when she did, i started sneakin little touches of her feet and legs. she came around and let us all pet her. she was the cuddliest little killing machine! lee started petting her chin and neck and thats when she told us that thee makeout party is her favorite band, ever. when she purred it sounded like growling. we also made friends with a charming donkey named festus. that was cool but, you know, cuddling with bears and cougars is just, well... festus we love you. oh man though, bears and cougars. thats a party and a half. if you ever get the chance (and you won't) give a bear some peanut butter and just watch him go. so we left and tried to get some BBQ but both places were closed. they act like they're all about BBQ but they're only open fer the tourist season, boo! we had crappy hamburgers with even crappier lemonade and went to the record stores while alex caught yall up. i found a walter wanderly record (which rules hard) and 10cc and liza, sean got alice cooper's first, a peter pan bubblegum music record, the buckinghams and the mirrors but lee won with his purchase (sean's find) of the spongetones cd. 2 bucks and when we opened it, it was signed by the whole band. lee is gonna switch with sean when we get home cuz thats whats right, dammit. fat cat records hooked up the deals. we then headed over to black cat burritoes for a frustrating exercise called "find the mexican food at the burrito place in north carolina". there was none. what was on yours again alex? fuckin pineapple. they fed us and gave us beer but seriously, they should have at least one burrito at any burrito place. instead they had : the dont be a jerk-chicken shrimp pineapple jicima and our own jerk sauce and satay it to me softly-chicken tofu in a spinach wrap stuffed with carrots broccoli carmelized onions thai peanut sauce peanuts and mung sprouts. whats a mung sprout? they weren't that bad, we just wanted burritos. so i scooted my chair back a little and ended up falling down some stairs. we waited and waited for everyone to leave so we could play, but oddly enough, more people came! so we rocked down the house animal style in honor of our friends back on the mountain, and sold lotsa rekkids and badges. i think i musta been a lil bit tipsy cuz im blanking between loading out and getting to bed. lee tells me it took 2 minutes to get home and nothing happened, well that explains that. now we're sitting in the van driving to york pennsylvania talking bout girls we didn't sleep with. aren't we the sweetest?
currently listening: good golly miss molly (with snore accompaniment by brian)
All new pictures posted all da way back 2 day terteen.
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