Reports from Texas

There is word afoot that a new album will soon be in the light of day. Recorded in Texas, this new album is sure to set the world on fire, or douse it if the world is already burning. Shows will be planned, played, and talked about.

We never did thank Tenlon's Fort and Wilson for touring with us. We shared shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Flagstaff, before the two headed back to Texas, and we moved north. It was great to watch Jack change from night to night and keep getting better. Can't wait for the new album.

A New Way Forward

resolved: we shall post about every show, dammit.

Wednesday at Ash Street was entirely too much fun. King Hen put together a fine set, starting up with Shatterville, then us, then them, then a last minute addition, Call Sign Cobra from Colorado. Had a good crowd of friends and strangers, and probably the best sound we've ever had. Heather knows her shit, I daresay, and a new bell mic for the clarinet went down real easy. King Hen in particular was a treat with good sound equipment. God bless rock bands with trombones; I want a rock band with a french horn, personally, but trombone is a damn fine substitute. Call Sign Cobra is, what, eight kids from Colorado, including guitars, bass, drums, sax, trumpet, and two girls doing backup vocals and what the heterosexually inclined amongst us dubbed very hot dancing. I imagine that is a wicked awesome tour for all involved.

I need Burgerville.

There is only one clarinet player that I fantasize about.

Skipper "Don't call me Skipper" Wes

reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

I think that's a misquote.

at any rate, since we announced on the blog that I was in fact leaving, I feel we should announce on the blog that I am not, in fact, leaving, so Skipper needs to stop fantasizing about this new clarinet player he found who's way better than me and knows stuff about Middle Eastern music and gypsy jazz and all this cool shit. You hear me? calm it down there, Skipper. I ain't goin' nowhere.

-j

All junk food, all the time.

So, we played with Minus 5 and Cabinessence in Eugene on Friday the 22nd. We did the dinner hour on the patio at Sam Bonds. The sound setup wasn't ideal, and therefore we felt like we didn't play that well, but people were excited, clapping and whatnot. We sold a handful of CD's after the show, which is always a positive sign. Then we drank beer and whiskey all night, mostly for free. Cabinessence was a great band with great harmonies and good rhoads piano. Minus 5 had members of The Young Fresh Fellows, The Bottle Rockets, and REM. Geof chatted up Peter Buck from REM at the end of the night and slipped him a CD. The next morning Peter Buck looked in the van and called it luxurious. We don't think he was kidding.

W

happy birthday amber!

thanks for the tequila, sunshine, and tamales.

congratulations on winning the poker tourney - if only jack were there, perhaps we might've had a struggle of epic proportions. i hear he's good.

happy birthday amber!

Another Late Tour entry

There are many thanks due to people who were incredibly kind and giving of our road grime soaked skins. In Denver, the McDonald family (of Aaron fame) treated three of us well. Aaron's dad looked at the van, which had run into problems telling us how fast we were going down the road. I don't know what went down, but it got us back to Portland, and for that we are all thankful. Jill and Phil showed two of us Denver and gave of their showers and apartments and food. Zoe entertained at the Thin Man with good conversation over good beer. Jill drove us to the meet up point at 6:30am.

Liz in Ogden let us jump on her trampoline and sleep in her back yard. Then let us get up and moving at our own pace and met us out for breakfast. Darcy played good host, and Emily flew to SLC to see our show. WOW!!! If not for that, and Emily's and Darcy's friends, we would have played to an empty room, literally.

Thanks to all my sociology friends who came out for our show at Sam Bonds as well. We are returning soon and hope to see them all again.

Wes

i am the ugly,

of two daughters and tomorrow i must celebrate the 'getting older' that we all suffer, the dust of
everything settles upon the same,
wand that makes us move, the string that other people pull, plush pulse keeping us all alive
-
fall over. the fun never ends.
wren.
fall over.

that smile (from here) looks like the clothes held up by an unhappy bird
living a blanket across the sky

-

latetourentry

Tuesday, June 28th

Rolling north out of Santa Fe. We played Burt’s Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque last night, and I think the consensus is that it went well. Toma was there and videotaped most of it. Maybe someone’ll figure out how to get clips of that online someday; watch this space, I’m sure. That show was the climax of three days in New Mexico…. I (Tony) took the shift driving from Flagstaff to Albuquerque. Well, that’s not strictly true. I drove all but the last 20 miles of the way to Albuquerque, and then pulled onto the shoulder because of the tire that had just exploded….

Outside of Albuquerque on the shoulder with a blowout,
Shoulder with a blowout, shoulder with a blowout,
It slow us down a little but that ain’t the way we go out,
We got a show to play.

It was two days before we had a show to play, and at that point, the revolution made like tumbleweeds and scattered across the high desert: Jana’s family were in town, so when Toma showed up, there on the I-40, to rescue me, we went ahead and gave Jana a ride to her brother’s place in the city. Aaron, Wes and Geof stayed with the van until Triple-A arrived (we had just used the spare that morning to replace a leaky and all-the-way-flat other tire) and towed them to a Discount Tire store managed by an old high school friend of Wes’. Aaron the next day did his runnin’ off, up to Santa Fe to visit his friend Liberty. Meanwhile, I was alternately up on a mesa outside of Villanueva and in Santa Fe with Toma, resting from the touring we been doing. Wes and Geof stayed at Mrs. Shirley’s place (I assume she’s called Mrs. Shirley) (it's Sleeper, Wes) recuperating and eating good home cooking, which we all got to sample when we reunited before the show last night, happy to be back in action after 48 hours of visiting family and exes. God bless family and exes, right, but it is nice to be back on the road.

As for the actual gig, we played what felt like a shortish set (about an hour?), which was well received. We sold at least five Cds, and hung out while a local group called Rakes of Mallow played a follow-up set. They were good fun, and had a guitar virtuoso from Transylvania named Zartan or Zoltan or something. They also had this super-stylish Japanese hipster boy, and D-cup chickie in a sequined tube top dancing through most of their set, and I’m real into the idea of getting a couple of those for our shows in the future.

signing off at mile marker 340 on I-25 north,
Tony

I need a proper cup of coffee
from a proper copper pot.
tea, that’s for chumpzilla.
his minions and him use half-eaten bananas to give their ball sweat a fruity scent.
I watched some porn on the computer,
and it made me completely re-think these van rides.
aaron

The unofficial tour song has become the little ghost song by The White Stripes. We all get real excited when it comes on. thanks matt.

I sorry, must brag

Playing Sam Bond's on Friday July 22nd. 6-8 (dinner hour), followed by:

Minus 5.

I.e. Wilco, minus their experimental guitarist, doing an anniversary show.

(geeking out in the corner here)

Nice try Jana, but in reality, Minus 5 is Scott McCaughey from the Young Fresh Fellows, an influential Seattle band. He has had people from Wilco play with him before, but we are doubtful that any Wilco members will show up at Sam Bonds for the show. But none the less, we are extremely pleased to be on the same night as Minus 5, (which may also include Peter Buck from REM).

a brief shout out

to Gabe, Tony's friend as what took some fine pictures of us on tour. Sampling above. For more, I'd suggest wandering on over to his weblog: Fiat Lux

now we're back. now what?

We returned safely and soundly from the road. Hours of naps and rug burns, nights sleeping in the loft of the hot van. Finished up playing in Eugene with a weird combination of music. Patrick Hayden did an amazing show of pretty songs and fingerpicked guitar. We put on one of the best shows we've done. We've got the 45 minute set down pat. Dan Jones and the Squids played, followed by the weirdness of Touch Force. All in all a good night. Trying to play there again in a couple of weeks for a super good show that I can only talk about in the bug-free privacy of the tour van. It's good to be back, but it'll be good to be on the road again.