The Ragged End Of Nowhere

Migratory

2008-11-16T20:46:00.002-05:00

We're moving! I say "we" but I mean "I". The Royal We.
Anyway, the new home is http://raggedend.wordpress.com/
Dig it.

We're Back

2008-11-11T18:13:00.000-05:00

This is how my neighborhood celebrated the election....

North By Northwest

2008-10-23T14:57:00.000-04:00

After the Dandy's tour wrapped up in Portland, I stayed behind for an extra week of running around the NW with Malia. We had gone to see My Bloody Valentine in LA which was pretty astounding in it's sheer volume (especially during the 17 minute noise jam) and on the first day after tour we saw Sigur Ros from the front row in Portland. I normally don't like to be quite THAT close for a show but it was fucking amazing. Malia got some good pics with my phone despite her being devastated that she didn't bring her camera in.

MJ at breakfast in Portland...
Sigur Ros...

We spent a couple days in Portland before going to Seattle for a day. We spent the rainy day doing typical Seattle things...coffee & record shopping on capital hill, wandering the Experience Music Project & Space Needle... we had an amazing mexican dinner before getting on the road south.
Shooting the deserted amusement park in Seattle...

We stopped in Grant's Pass, OR to sleep and had breakfast & looking around before spending the day meandering down to Arcata. We woke up there & after breakfast cruised south thru the redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants and on out to the coast, stopping in Ft. Bragg for dinner and rolling the rest of the way to San Francisco. We had a nice couple days in SF meandering around SF & Marin. We got to witness Angel Island (an undeveloped island in SF bay) on fire which was pretty crazy to see. All in all it was a super fun way to wrap up the tour. I flew home from SF and MJ headed home to LA.

The redwoods...
Orick, CA knows what America needs...

News reporter talks about the fire...

September Mourn

2008-10-23T03:40:00.000-04:00

The fall US Dandy's tour will have to get the glossing over treatment, both because the day to day happenings aren't as interesting as in Europe, but because my memories are largely blurred together anyway. We were out for a month, starting in Minneapolis, heading east to the coast then down and back across the south to San Diego and up to Portland. We had 2 bands that supported us on virtually all of the shows. Darker My Love is from LA via SF and The Upsidedown are from Portland and on the Dandy's label. Both bands were great musically but also especially good people to have around on a daily basis. There was much love going around on this tour, culminating in a big family dinner with everybody at a long table in Aspen. If you have the chance to check out either band, do. They bring the rock.
Now...pictures:

The Summer of Love Tour US 2008 Team Photo...

I did a sight-seeing day off with Nicole in DC. We went to a modern art museum and to the Mall and the monuments and even the White House...

Tildy in Nashville (by MJ)
Seriously??

Aspen...
This is Malia shooting the Dandy's in Aspen. Between mustache guy looking over her shoulder and blurry hair-shaky lady this was quite possibly my favorite front row of the tour. Malia was doing some old-school psychedelic projection light show shit for Darker My Love. It rocked and so does she.
Tildy just got sick...
We had 2 days of between Aspen and San Diego so rather than go to Vegas or LA like most bands would, we went and stayed in Springdale, Utah at the entrance to Zion National Park. The place was as amazing as expected. It was a great place for time off. People (with healthier backs than I) rented bikes and rode into the park. My gimpy ass went with Zia & Tildy for a mellow walk in the canyons and some light exploring of the park. I didn't do as much as I wanted but it was a great day and the landscape is unreal.

Iron, Lion, Zion...

The view from my hotel balcony...

Tildy took this of Zia...
And her self-portrait...

The Ace Hotel-Portland, OR...

Summer In The City

2008-10-22T12:56:00.000-04:00

I was supposed to fly from Dublin to Newark, go home for 3 hrs, fly from JFK to LA, stay overnight there, then fly to Australia to start the Albert tour. However, the whole thing cancelled on a couple days notice so I went home and sat on my ass for about 3 weeks. I made the best of it and saw lots of movies and shows. I saw the Police play their "last show ever" at MSG, which was pretty great despite sound that seemed to indicate that there was no bass or drums in the band. Oh well, it's not like the rhythm section is vital to that band's sound or anything. I also saw Radiohead a couple of times, once at a festival in Liberty State Park and once down in Camden, NJ. Both were stellar as usual and strangely, both involved a ferry ride.

NYC from Liberty State Park...
Kerri on the ferry to Philly...

Then it was Wilco at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn which was also stellar. It had the added bonus of seeing Tim Robbins pass out (twice) and seeing Susan Sarandon try and balance her concern for him with her desire to watch the show. He's a big man and went down hard.

I was getting antsy so I booked a little California vacation. I hit LA for a few days just visiting with friends and cruising up the 1 in a convertible then flew up to SF where I saw both Radiohead & Tom Petty in the park, did some camping and some visiting before heading back home in time to jump a train up to Boston for a couple Sox games and have a few days home before heading back out on Dandy's tour. It was a fine way to close out the summer. Here's some pictures I took at Baker Beach.

This girl was doing some ballet-like dance with the waves. She was quite graceful and while it was a bit corny, looked pretty sweet silhouetted against the sunset...

Finally back!...Another Euro Summer Part 3

2008-10-22T11:49:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the extended absence people. Yes, I'm ok, still alive, etc.

While the memories are getting fuzzy at this point, I'll do my best to pick up where I left off...

We woke up in Cornwall, which is arguably the most beautiful part of England, way down in the southwest corner (and ironically the only place I've ever surfed despite 5 years living on the coast of California). The festival was a fundraiser for the Lanhydrock house which is an old estate house that's been preserved like a museum. The festival was in the fields just below the house so we got to take a tour. It was pretty amazing, mostly the 'backstage' elements like the multi-room kitchen. They didn't let us take pictures so I can't show you but you can always google it if you care. The grounds were impressive as well with all the manicured bushes and whatnot. All in all a nice place to spend the day.

The festival itself was kind of a weird, family-day sort of thing with a bizarre range of acts you've never heard of (except maybe the Hollies who looked about 70). There were some pretty impressive fireworks at the end of our set.

We packed it all in and headed back up to London for another festival and a club show. The festival (Lovebox Weekender) was in Victoria Park. Because of the layout and concern for preservation of the park, we couldn't bring the bus near the stage. The geniuses that organized the production for this thing decided that we could move our 4 tons of gear the mile to the stage with a couple golf carts. Then they couldn't even get us the golf carts until 45 minutes after we were supposed to load-in. And of course after being repeatedly told it was "physically impossible" to tow our trailer down there, someone with brains (and a tractor) came along and did just that. After that it was another clusterfucky festival day. After we finished I wandered to the main stage to watch some of the Flaming Lips set. Always a good time. It was Courtney's birthday so there was much merriment.

Behind the scene with the Lips...

We had a couple days off in London before our club show, one of which I spent running around picking up my Japanese visa and just wandering London. The other I think I spent in bed. While I was out wandering for food one day I came across this strange scene. Just after crossing this street to check out a restaurant, I turned around to see this bike just laying in the middle of the street, not 30 seconds after I had been walking there, with no owner in sight, just a handful of confused looking English folks. I took a picture and looked at another restaurant and when I looked again, it was gone without a trace. It felt like I was in some English David Lynch movie.

We did the show at Shepherd's Bush Empire and headed off to Ireland. The fun part about taking a bus from England to Ireland is the inevitable early morning ferry ride across the always-placid Irish sea. It's hard to say what element of the ferry is most appealing...the many, many options for delicious, healthy food...the wonderful people to interact with...or just the peaceful journey itself, which is in no way nausea-inducing. Nevertheless, we arrived in Galway in time to have most of a day off. I stayed put in the hotel for most of it, but I wandered thru the touristy madness to try out the "must try" fish & chips place. It was pretty good, but as expected, overrated. We closed out the tour with another festival style show, though this one only had 2 bands, us and Ash. Then it was off to Dublin to catch the 9am flight out. Another European summer touring adventure had come to an end. Overall it was one of the better ones...

Another Euro Summer Pt. 2

2008-07-18T08:22:00.000-04:00

Driving overnight from Italy, we woke up at a mountainous, lakeside resort in Klagenfurt, Austria. We had to stop for 10 hours so the bus driver could sleep (they have very strict rules here) so we killed a hot summer day at a strange but beautiful resort filled with Austrians. Austrians are an odd bunch, more German than the Germans I say. Still, it was a pleasant enough day with swimming and sunning and trying to order food without meat in German. Then it was back on the bus to Ostrava. I'd never been to the Czech Republic before, and I didn't get too much time there, but it definitely felt different than anywhere else in Europe. We did a weird festival where catering was in a castle.

Zia & Dylan at the short table, Ostrava...

Then back on the bus again. This time we did our driver stop in Nurnburg, Germany. Some of us had a nice wander through the old part of the city, which is encircled by old walls & a moat (which is now like a park, with grass and a bike path). It was a really beautiful city and a decent day off.

Nurnburg moat...

Nurnburg river...

Nurnburg statue...

We then went overnight to Liege, Belgium for another festival, followed by another overnight to Amsterdam. This bus ride featured the mother of all back lounge parties. I can't divulge the details. My mom reads this.

Of course Amsterdam was a welcome, though short-lived, stop. We did our own club show which was nice for a change and Chad & Erin happened to be in town so I got some time with them. Unfortunately we had to get on the road towards Oslo with yet another driver stop in Copenhagen. This was a more annoying day as the day room that 4 of us had to share was tiny and the weather wasn't great. Plus we had to wait until 3:30am for the bus to pick us up. On to Oslo...

This is what Danish kids play on...

Oslo was another club show. Norway is my favorite of the Scandinavian countries and this trip was another fun one. After the show we moved to a private, basement bar where we took over the DJ booth and have yet another rock and roll dance party. This band has more rock and roll dance parties than any band I've toured with. They are not afraid to have a good time.

Oslo...

I fell into bed for a few hours before having to go to the airport to fly to London, where I am now. I had a pretty relaxing day off, with a trip to the Japanese Embassy thrown in for good measure. Tonight we roll down to Cornwall for some strange family-day festival. Should be interesting...

Tildy asleep with waffle...

Another Euro Summer Pt. 1

2008-07-09T10:43:00.000-04:00

I started this Euro trip with a couple days to myself in Amsterdam. I landed in the morning off an overnight flight and made my way to the hotel. I spent the day wandering the city, napping off jet-lag and seeing a bit of Beck that night. The next day was much the same only RadioheadWesterpark in the afternoon to visit some friends on the crew and see the show. It was stellar per usual. The new, all-LED light show was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

Of course it sounded brilliant and it was great to hear the new stuff. The next day, after my third pancake of the trip, I hopped a train to Paris where I met up with team Dandys. From there we were picked up by the tour bus and were off to Bilbao, Spain for the first show of the tour.
I woke up and stumbled off the bus in Bilbao to find a field of horses overlooking the whole city. You could even see the Guggenheim (which we didn’t have time to visit) shining down in the distant valley. The festival site was great, all hilly and green. Things ran a bit…Spanish as far as the show went but it was a fun day nonetheless.

Bilbao & the horses...
The next day was another, smaller festival in Cluses, France. We pulled into town (after a LONG journey during which the bus AC was broken. This always happens somehow. We took to holding bent pieces of cardboard out the hatch in the roof, angling the fresh air into the bus) to find out the festival was in the middle of this little town nestled in the French Alps. There were towering peaks in all directions and it seemed everyone in the little town turned out for this free festival.
Of course catering was filled with glorious, stinky cheeses, fresh bread & salads. We closed out the show just as it started to rain, which only added to the surreal feel of the day, and were off to Zurich.

After a non-eventful day & club show in Zurich, we headed to Italy. The whole purpose of our trip to Italy was to spend some time with Galo, a friend of the band's and great artist, who has a country mansion built by one of Napoleon's generals outside of Torino. We arrived at our hotel around noon on Monday. It was a family run place on their farm in the Piedmont countryside.
It looked like this...
I'm pretty sure we were the only one's staying there. For meals we'd sit out on the terrace with this view...
...and eat some of whatever they made that day. It was always fresh, delicious and simple. Octopus carpaccio, caprese salad, tagliatelle w/ricotta, lasagna. Oh, and the theme of this part our trip was 'rivers of wine'. Now, I'm not a huge wine person, but it's hard to deny how good this wine was.

So, after showering up we piled into a mini-bus organized by Galo with our whole group (minus Lee), Galo, his girlfriend Sasha and Chas & Tina (Chas is another artist who works with Galo and Tina is his wife. He's English & she's Croatian. They live in Amsterdam. They are awesome). We took a 30 minute drive through the vineyards, sunflower fields and farms into a little village for lunch.
Another beautiful patio, a really nice couple who run the place and absolutely ridiculously good food (and the aforementioned rivers of wine).

Later we meandered around the village taking pictures and digesting before heading back to the hotel for a nap before Galo's party.

Fathead & Sara...

Dylan getting his shot...
People who like wine...
Matilda...
How quintessential Italian is this?
Multiple angles...Galo's house is about a mile down a country road from the hotel. As I said it's an old country mansion with gorgeous, walled in grounds and is just about the most bucolic setting you can imagine. I showed up at dusk to find tables & chairs scattered on the lawn with people gathering around the food table which had a progression of goodness churned out of the giant kitchen by some catering friends of Galo's, including this cheese that had a rind made out of the grape stuff left over from making wine. It looked absolutely disgusting but was quite possibly the best cheese in history. So we stayed there until 6am, eating, drinking and getting rocked by Zia's DJ prowess. We walked home along the dirt road and I fell into bed for a few hours before getting on the bus to go to the gig. It was definitely one of the best days/nights ever. Wish you were there.

The general who had it built...
The gig was in Cuneo, which is about as big as you'd think. It was a wall-less tin-shed with all the accoutrements you'd expect from a rural Italian gig. Italy, like Spain, is one of those places better left to time off than to working. The highlight of the day was the pizza from the concession stand (which they fed us for dinner). It was made in a wood-fired brick oven by a greasy, round man from Naples who was apparently trained by the world's best pizza master (or whatever). Regardless, it was the best pizza I've ever had and it was the concession food at a shitty venue. This says a great deal about the difference between American & European culture (or at least SOME European cultures). Everyone was so spent from the night before that there was no aftershow that night. Just sweet sleep with no checkout the next morning.

The Dandys rock Cuneo...

The next day everyone except me & "the family" (Travis, Zia & their daughter Tildy) went into Torino with Galo & crew for a day in the city. I opted for a lazy day in the country and was glad I did. Lots of time relaxing on the balcony and 2 great meals on the terrace, between which I took Tilde for a walk through the farm fields to look at ponies. Now, Tilde is 3 and a half. I've never had a kid on tour before and it definitely adds a whole other dynamic into the mix. Luckily she's about as sweet & well-behaved a kid as you could want and it's actually been really fun having her around. She's at an age where pretty much everything that she says is either hilarious or cute enough to break your heart. She was pretty disappointed that the ponies we saw didn't talk like her 'Pretty Ponies' toys, and she really thought that they liked her enough that they'd let her ride them. Still, we had fun.

We got on the bus at 1am to head towards Ostrava in the Czech Republic, leaving behind the Italian goodness...

Westerly

2008-07-03T05:51:00.000-04:00

After a day at home in Manhattan, I had to fly off to Portland, OR to start rehearsals with my newest employers, the Dandy Warhols. Because of the ridiculous price of flights these days, I got stuck flying JetBlue. Most people I know like JetBlue, and for short stuff I don’t mind so much, but I’m not generally a fan. The one thing I was excited about was that, since they have DirectTv on board, I could watch the Celtics/Lakers game on the plane. Can someone help me understand how they have a channel called “Big 10” which shows reruns of Ohio State basketball games from the 80s, but they don’t have ABC? They have every network EXCEPT ABC. After being delayed 3hrs on the runway, we were off, arriving in PDX at around 2:30am. I picked up a car and drove to the too-hip-for-it’s-own-good Jupiter hotel; my home for the next 8 nights. I could go off on a rant about this hotel, but I’ll just say that they have wireless internet, but not that reaches the rooms. Oh and they thought it a good idea to hold a lesbian rave in the courtyard outside my room. The Djs only went until 2:30am though, so that was thoughtful of them. Oh, and they did it 2 nights in a row.

At least there was a view...

Hotel annoyances aside, being in Portland was pretty sweet. The weather was stellar the whole time and I got to spend some quality time with some old friends. The Dandys folks are all really cool and they have an amazing headquarters/rehearsal space/recording studio/clubhouse (dubbed The Odditorium). I can’t really begin to describe the place, and somehow I didn’t take any pictures, but it was a great place to work all week. They’re very conscious of aesthetics and every room & nook had it’s own vibe. The week culminated with an amazing dinner, prepared by a couple chef friends in their semi-pro kitchen, with about 15 of us around a big wooden table. Suffice to say, I like their style.

After rehearsals we had the weekend off which I spent hiking around out in the Columbia River Gorge, one day with Amy, one day by myself. It was a bit crowded as it was the weekend and beautiful weather, but it was beautiful anyway. We climbed up, around and under various waterfalls, basking in their misty goodness and trying to remember why I would want to live in a place where the only wildlife gives you the shivers when it darts across your path and into a pile of trash bags.

Horsetail Falls...
Top of Horsetail falls...

The Footbridge...

Standing On The Edge....

The next day I got in a van with Travis & Nicole for the drive/ferry to Victoria. It was a pleasant enough drive, complete with the best strawberry milkshake ever (thanks Mrs. Beesley!) and the ferry ride was great. It was sunset and the water was as smooth as any ferry ride I’ve ever been on (certainly no Irish sea in winter!).

Our little warm-up mini-tour took us to Victoria, Vancouver & Seattle, all nice places to be in summer. Things went well and the shows were fun. All in all I feel pretty good about running around with these guys for a few months. I had a couple days off in Portland on the tail end (made a day longer when JetBlue cancelled my flight home) which was nice. Then it was off to NYC for about 5 days at home before a 7-week stint that has me doing a month in Europe with the Dandys, then straight to Australia & Japan with team Albert Hammond, Jr. In fact, I write this 35,000 feet above the Atlantic en route to Amsterdam where I’ll have a couple days to myself and a Radiohead show to see before I jump down to Paris to meet up with the Dandys and head to Spain for our first Euro show. Forget about the ball team from Harlem, we are the true Globetrotters. Good times ahead...

Staring At The Sea

2008-06-30T19:46:00.001-04:00

After a couple post-Euro weeks in NYC, I headed up to Maine to spend a week at my dad’s cottage in Ocean Point. It’s rare that I get to spend time there in the summer as I’m usually working, so I made sure to take advantage of the opportunity. I ended up spending 5 nights there by myself, mostly focused on gorging on local delicacies, watching Red Sox games and enjoying the lack of city noise. I spent a good bit of time advancing my first tour as a production manager. I won’t bore you with what that means, suffice to say it involves lots of emails and excel spreadsheets. It also involves getting paid more, which I like. It was one of the most relaxing weeks I’ve had in ages. The tourist season hadn’t really arrived and the solitude felt particularly good after life in Alphabet City. I got 2 lobsters one day for lunch and got so much meat out of them that I had a big pile of lobster meat to use the next day for breakfast. Nothing wrong with a lobster, avocado & Grafton 4-year cheddar scramble to start your day. In keeping with the theme of overdoing local eats, I made a tasty dinner one night of broiled haddock (the best whitefish there is) and fiddleheads. I also consumed approximately 2 gallons of chowder over the course of the week. If you’ve never had seafood in Maine, you don’t know shit about seafood. And with that, I’ll leave you with pictures of food.

Cloistered

2008-06-29T00:58:00.000-04:00

In an effort to actually leave my neighborhood and see some more of the city, I set out one day to check out the Cloisters. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the website told me it was the medieval wing of the Metropolitan. It also told me that it's way the hell uptown. I took the 'A' train (cue Duke Ellington) to 190th st and made the 10 minute walk north through a very hilly Fort Tryon park. It was a pretty stellar day, a bit too hot in the sun but nice in the shade.
I followed the signs and found myself high on a ridge overlooking the Westside highway, Hudson river and the vast forests of North Jersey. The Cloisters is a museum where the building itself is part of the exhibit. There were all sorts of arches, doorways and well...cloisters built into the larger building (the link explains it better and more thoroughly). The building and gardens were smaller than I expected, but it was pretty amazing. If it wasn't for the sound of the highway, you could pretend you were in 15th century France. Well, I could anyway. Medieval art has never been something I knew or cared too much about, but the stuff they had was pretty awe inspiring. It was mostly religious artifacts with a lot of super ornate bowls & goblets. It's all pretty pointless to try and describe and most of it didn't photograph well, but I highly recommend it as a New York activity.

Euroween

2008-05-21T09:04:00.000-04:00

After returning to NYC from New England, I had a couple weeks off before heading across the pond for some Ween shows. I filled it with a nice combination of keeping busy and being lazy. I ran back up to Boston for some more baseball, went to Brooklyn for culture twice in a week! (once for a Paul Simon tribute thing, then for a Samuel Beckett play with John Turturro), saw a Godot film with Bridgett Bardot at the Film Forum, and saw a friend's band (Film School) rock the ass out of the Mercury Lounge. Then it was time. Packing. Taxi. Airport. Plane. Airport. Taxi. Hotel. London.

I had decided to fly into London early which worked out perfectly as Lucas was in town (and at the same hotel) with his latest rock-n-roll combo, Death Cab For Cutie. In order to avoid paying for a night of hotel out of my pocket I crashed the first night with Lucas. I flew overnight and arrived at the hotel in the morning. After a lovely wander around the shit-hole that is Shepherd's Bush looking for that elusive, edible English meal, I promptly passed out while Lucas went to load-in. After sleeping all day I got up and found my way over to Camden, which is one of the "cool" parts of London, to take in a perfectly acceptable rock show. The DCFC folks seemed like a fine bunch of folks to spend months at a time traversing the globe with. We had some hotel room drinks and laughs and I was off to bed while they were off to Boston.

The Doc brightens up a rock-hole...

The next day Beana rolled into town so I made my way thru Hyde Park over to Waterloo Station where she was taking pictures at the Cans festival, which was basically a long, abandoned tunnel under the station that had been turned into a giant canvas for some really cool street artists. It wasn't typical graffiti-style stuff, more like Banksy-type stuff. I took a couple pictures but you should really check out Beana's.
Here's a small taste...

The Queen's gardens...

Hyde Park...

We then headed back to West London and Hammersmith Apollo where we were lucky enough to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. It was a stellar show. I've gone off enough about Nick Cave here already so I'll just leave it.

Now it was work time. We played the first show at Shepherd's Bush Empire, which is a fine little gig for London. Then it was on to Camber Sands, on the south coast of England. I should point out here that the weather was perfect the entire tour with the exception of some rain in the morning before we flew out of Amsterdam and in Dublin the morning we flew home. This was particularly amazing in Camber, given that it's an English beach resort, which usually means you'll be cold and damp. The gig was the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, which is sort of the English king of small, indie-hipster festivals. The lineup was full of all the bands you see mentioned on Pitchfork constantly but no one you know has ever heard. The festival was held at an old 'holiday camp' which is basically a cheap, family resort that was popular before it became so cheap and easy for the Brits to go to places that are actually nice for their holidays. It hasn't been remodeled since then either. All the bands stayed in "chalet's" which were basically shitty little motel apartments. Well, all the bands except Ween. They stayed in a nice hotel next door while they stuck their crew sharing the 'chalet'. Overall it wasn't a bad couple days. I spent some time on the beach, which was pretty empty the first day but absolutely packed with what looked to be the cast of a movie about the attack of the pillsbury dough people. I've never seen so many bloated, pasty and/or pink ugly people frolicking in the sun in my life.

I thought about swimming until I saw how much nasty was floating on the edge of the surf...
They had the lamest Go-Kart track in the world...

Housekeeping waiting for us to vacate our 'chalet'...

They should've been working on the bathroom window in the dressing room...

The show was the flattest of the tour as the hipster crowd wasn't really built for a 3hr Ween set. I didn't really see any other bands except Sebadoh for a bit. They were good. Everyone said Redd Kross was amazing. I couldn't bring myself to care. Afterwards, while I was sleeping off the jetlag, Mickey was partying with the Meat Puppets and, in an effort to avoid walking way out of the way to get to his hotel, jumped a fence (as one will). Instead of climbing down the other side of this 12ft. high gate, he jumped. Two words suddenly defined our tour: Man Down.
A broken heel and the other foot not much better. A big ol' cast and some crutches. It looked like we were going home at first but Mick's a trooper and muscled through. He played the rest of the shows sitting down with his cast up on a stool. He hates being in England/Europe already. This didn't help his morale.

Hospital Use Only...

Soundcheck...

Getting searched...

His mellow has been harshed...

Even his luggage was special...

And so we were off to Paris. After spending the afternoon at the festival/beach waiting for word from the hospital where Mickey & poor Dan Mapp (our illustrious tour manager who bears the brunt of every inconvenience) were getting the foot looked at, we hopped a train through the Chunnel and got to Paris in the early evening. Beana had made her way from London and we found a nice place for dinner and walked down to the Seine and Norte Dame. It was a gorgeous Saturday night and the river was lined with people sitting on blankets with bottles of wine and picnic baskets full of no-doubt delicious food. I could totally live in Paris if I could find a way to get these people to stop treating me like a leper. The Paris show happened, I can't offer much more than that, which is true of all the shows there except Zurich was really good and Dublin was pure madness. After soundcheck in Paris Chip asked me "have you seen the electric chaircut?". I had not. The venue was attached to an avant-garde type arts space and there was a cafe full of people facing a stage. On this stage was a guy with an amp on his back and all sorts of effects pedals strapped to him. These were hooked up to a set of electric clippers and some scissors (which must have had little microphones on them). He then gave audience members 'haircuts'. First, of course, he had to tape them to the chair with electrical tape, also taping over their eyes and mouth (surely symbolizing how society binds us and blinds us and forces us to conform to its idea of style, or some such pretentious bullshit). As he trimmed & snipped, noises came out of the amp, all twisted by the effects. The clippers made droney sounds and the scissors made percussive sounds. It was all very original and surreal, but also not really very good and seemed pointless. All I could picture was being at Art School and having to sit thru everyone's final presentation and all the talentless kids trying so hard to do something original. At least it was something I hadn't seen before. I wish I could've got video but all I have is this shitty phone pic...

We continued on thru Koln, Zurich, Amsterdam and ended in Dublin. Koln was forgettable. Zurich was like an entire city of the Upper East Side, so rich and uptight. The show was good though. Amsterdam was comforting as usual but way too short. Dublin isn't nearly the romantic place it pretends to be. It's mostly wall-to-wall drunk English assholes or posse's of English girls on 'hen-weekends', all dressed alike and embarrassing themselves one last time before getting married to one of the previously mentioned drunk English assholes. The show was great though. It was a tiny venue and the kids were packed in and going nuts the whole time. Fists in the air, beer flying...as it should be. Here's a video clip of the end of Blarney Stone, complete with Mickey's "tour diary" verse...

I didn't take many pictures of the shows but here's a couple from the Paradiso in Amsterdam. If you want to see some good EuroWeen shots, again, check out Beana's.

The tour ended in perfect fashion as we sat in the hotel lobby, preparing for our 6:30am lobby call to fly home by drinking pints of Guinness (which really are way better in Ireland). The previously mentioned drunk English assholes were represented in the hotel bar by about 5, 20-something, wasted (or 'pished') douchebags who proceeded to talk to the wife of a 50-something, drunk, hard-assed Irish guy. First there was yelling, mostly in an Irish accent, followed by some punching and lots of rolling on the ground and tearing of shirts. Security had all they could do to restrain the Irish guy, who wanted nothing more than to "tear out you throat you wee fuckin' prick!".
The police came and we thought this guy was going to jail, but this is Ireland and the nationalism runs deep. No Irish cop is arresting an Irish guy twice his age for beating up some sally English pricks. Ah, the bonds of country. Speaking of which, I'm back in mine, which is my favorite, even if it is in the shits.

Roots

2008-05-21T08:23:00.000-04:00

I spent a couple weeks after my grandmother's funeral bouncing around New England in what seemed like one long episode of "This Is Your Life". I visited a steady stream of family, friends and places, many of which I hadn't seen in years. After a few days with family I headed to Portland to visit with Ben & Paula. Ben & I went for a drive up thru Cumberland (where I grew up) and Freeport, where we did some walking along a nice point at low tide. It felt good to get back to the places that feel most like home to me, even though I haven't lived there since I was 12. Back in Portland, we had a nice dinner at what I call "Takahachi North", a small sushi spot that Ben & Paula have made their own. The next day Ben & I headed NW to VT to visit with Jimmy & Anna. Jimmy's house in Mud City is where Jim, Ben & I lived together for a while. It was great to be together in that place again. There was still a ton of snow up there so we did some hiking/snowshoeing and just sucked in lungfulls of air bereft of exhaust and urine.
After dropping Ben back in Portland I went and stayed at my dad's, who now lives in Newmarket, NH which is where I had my first apartment ever in college. I stayed there on & off (more on than off) for about a week or so, venturing out to visit various friends in the area and see a couple Red Sox games and an amazing Bruins playoff game (both things I haven't done since I was in high school). While at my dad's, I had to go through about 12 boxes of stuff that have been languishing in various attics & basements over the years. This was where the 'memory lane' theme of this whole trip culminated. I spent hours looking thru box after box of mementos from all phases of my life, from early childhood to high school, college, dead tour, phish tour, and a hundred other tours I've done since. It felt good to be so immersed in the past for a couple weeks. If nothing else it really hit home how much of your life you forget.

The house I grew up in...

A real country fairground...
Ben loves the Maine coast...

Mussels at low tide...

Jimmy & Anna...

Shoes...

Ben loves Beaver Meadow...

Local fare...

Manny at Fenway...

Bye Nana

2008-03-27T20:41:00.000-04:00

My Nana died today. This is the last time I saw her, at my Dad's wedding last September. She liked to dance. Love you Nana.

Hawaii

2008-03-17T23:01:00.000-04:00

Usually after being out of the country for a while I'm pretty psyched to get back to the states, if only for familiarity's sake (and the abundance of ice & napkins). Coming from New Zealand & Australia I was less eager to return. I could've easily spent the rest of their summer down there, returning north in mid May or so. Of course, the fact that we were going to Hawaii on the way home made leaving that much easier. I'd never been to Hawaii and was looking forward to a few days in paradise. I hadn't figured on Waikiki. Now, I know it may seem utterly ridiculous to most people to bitch about being 'stuck' in Waikiki, and I certainly enjoyed it as much as I could. But this place is like Orlando, Vegas and downtown LA all puked in a pile on an island. The absolute epitome of a tourist trap. Shitty, cheesy hotels and chain restaurants in all directions. Busloads of the kinds of tourists that thrive in these ready-made, one-stop vacation hell holes. I spent the first day on the beach getting a sunburn and swimming, drinking beer at a resort bar and fighting the newest wave of jetlag. When you fly from Australia to Hawaii you cross the date line, so we left Sydney at 8:00pm on Sunday and landed in Honolulu, 10 hours later, at 9am on Sunday. On top of that you're going from summer to winter, which in Hawaii doesn't affect you so much temperature-wise, but length of daylight-wise it's a bit of a headfuck. I crawled into bed early, cursing how strong the sun has become and sticky with aloe lotion.

This is what you want to see when you get off an 11 hour flight...

Kapiolani Beach Park, Waikiki...

Not a bad place to battle the jetlag...
Hotel Balconies, Waikiki...
Sunset in Waikiki...
The next day was show day. Mine started as every day in paradise should...with drilling and hammering across the hall at 9am. We were supposed to be staying at the Sheraton on the beach but the promoter-cheap, slimy bastards that they are-switched us at the last minute to the 'Renew' hotel, a couple blocks off the beach and completely under renovation. I could go off on a profanity-laced tirade about this hotel, but that'll be no fun for anyone.

ANYWAY, the show was at a club called the Pipeline, which actually wasn't too bad of a room. I was stuck right onstage next to Mickey again. Like Perth, it was an amazing place to be for the show, but far too visible for my tastes. Still, I settled in for the last show of the tour and watched the band proceed to play for almost 4 hours (3:45 to be exact). It was probably the best show I've seen them do. The encore alone will go down in Ween history. It was definitely a fitting way to end this run. I even got Mickey to do 'Goin Gets Tough' for me. They finally wound it down with LMLYP and the usual stage full of dancing girls. I don't think most of these girls understand how long they'll be up there when they jump on stage. They usually get to the point where they don't know what to do with themselves. Rock and roll ain't what it used to be.

Pipeline, 2 minutes to showtime...

Does this happen at your work?...
The club had these crazy jets that would come on for like 20 seconds and cool the place down by blasting the crowd with CO2. They looked amazing...
Gabe changes the 1000th string of the tour...
I had basically 2 more days there after the show. The first day was spent sleeping in and hanging out in the beach front park, using the palm trees to hide from the sun. The next day Chip & I rented a Mustang convertible (as you do) and drove up the coast to the North Shore. This was much nicer than Waikiki and much more like paradise. Still, you get the impression that Oahu isn't the nicest of the islands. The waves up north were unreal. We met a local on the beach who, after hearing we were not, in fact, from Hawaii but NYC, hugged us both and called us 'Brother Chip & Brother Jamie'. I couldn't help but laugh to think of how a more 'typical' New Yorker might have reacted to this overture. Me? I just gave him a squeeze and said 'mahalo'...

The east coast of Oahu...

I hate zoos and even more I hate seeing birds in cages. Especially big ones like this guy...

A sure sign that you're in some shitty tourist trap is if you see a guy spray-painted silver being really still. You know, like a robot. This robot is apparently a big Mighty Ducks fan as well...

It's funny how in one day you can go from this (North Shore of Oahu)...
To this (Newark, NJ)...

Last Days In Oz

2008-03-17T19:47:00.000-04:00

Ween's tour of Australia ended with 2 shows in Melbourne at the Forum and a slot at the Golden Plains festival in Meredith, which is a couple hours outside of Melbourne. The Forum is an old elaborate theater that's actually been split into 2 venues. We played the main room with all sorts of statues and whatnot looking all grandiose and yet rundown and haggard. The balcony is walled off into it's own all-seated theater which seemed to be used as a movie theater. There's all kinds of passageways and dark, closed off places, giving the place better than average character. Both shows here were top-notch and well-received. The last night ended with the whole band playing Claude's drum kit.

The Forum, pre crowd...

Mickey, pre-show...

The backstage at the Forum hasn't been so much as painted since it opened. There were all kinds of cool, old signs painted in the dank basement halls & stairwells. I like that kind of shit so I took some pictures...

A more typical vantage point for my world than Perth...
Chip works the smoke...

Johnny On the Spot...

Debating the encore...

The drum jam...

The day of the 2nd show I walked around Melbourne a bit and checked out the Nick Cave exhibit. Mickey couldn't get his head around the idea of an exhibit for a guy that's still alive and making records, but I think this made it more interesting as Cave was involved with choosing what went in and wrote and recorded stories about various items. It was a lot of photos and typical memorabilia type stuff but there was a bunch of really cool stuff that belongs to him that gave a different sort of insight into the man's creative process than a normal museum exhibit would. Pictures were tough to get but I got a couple.

A couple random Melbourne shots...
The Nick Cave Exhibit...

The last day we made the hour & a half drive out into nothingness for the festival. It was one of the most remote festivals I've done and one of the smaller ones too. It was a bit lacking in amenities but they made up for it with good vibes and an accommodating attitude. Saw Iron & Wine play which was good but I prefer the solo acoustic setup to the full band. The gig itself went well once it got going but the 30mins before were a nightmare getting ready. Typical festival. On the ride back into Melbourne you could see more stars than I've seen in years. No ozone to get in the way I guess. After one last night in a "serviced apartment", it was back to the airport and off to Hawaii.

The road to Golden Plains...

Hospitality...
The Pink Flamingo...
Chip is a city boy who was shy about the cows at first...

But we had him up to speed soon enough...
The Front Row...
Festival crowd...

Chip & Gener wait...
And back to America. There's no place like home...

Perth>Melbourne

2008-03-05T19:24:00.001-05:00

Perth. They say Perth is the most remote western city in the world. It's on the west coast of Australia, a million miles from everywhere. I've never had any time off here, so I've never ventured out of the city center, but apparently the beaches are amazing and never get crowded. I wish they could say the same about the rock venues. Our show was at smallish nightclub that was more set up for disco nights than rock shows. The stage was so tiny that I literally had to set up ON stage. Like I could put my feet up on Mickey's amp if I wanted. It was actually an amazing spot to sit except for feeling like a completely conspicuous douche up there where everyone could see me. The whole day was a nightmare trying to get everything happening. Plus there's a smaller club that's attached where some shitty scream-o bands were playing, so we were battling their noise all day. The gig itself was packed & sweaty. The band played a great set, marred again by gear troubles for Mickey. Poor Mickey, between playing in Ween and being a Philly sports fan, I now know what he means when he tells me "welcome to the losing team". Still, he knows how to dig his heels in and overcome. Here's a bunch of shots from the show. I was so drowned in the lights that most of them came out bad, but you get the idea.

To give you an idea how close I was, these were taken with no zoom...

I had to lean way back for this one...
Mickey playing inside the sun...
Dave rocks it...

The Mollusk...

The end of You Fucked Up...

Good night Perth...

Yesterday we flew to Melbourne where we had a night off. A bunch of us went to an Italian place called Pelligrini's that was one of the coolest restaurants I've been to. It's a hole-in-the-wall family style place. You walk in and there's a long bar on each side running the length of the place. It was full when we arrived so they sat us at a long table that was literally IN the kitchen. They don't really have a menu, they just ask you what they want and make it for you. They offer you seconds or to try different stuff and you just agree on what to pay (we paid $20 each). The food was good but not amazing (the pasta's pre-cooked so it wasn't as al dente as I'd like). It reminded me of Papa Frank's back in Vermont. The experience was great though. The owner & staff/family basically hang out and talk & serve you. It's more like being in someone's home than a restaurant. We ended up sharing our table with some nice folks and the whole thing was just a great experience.

We're in Melbourne for 3 more nights which is a nice break from all the flying. We have 2 shows in town and then a festival a couple hours away. I'm going to try and see the Nick Cave exhibit in town, which will likely lead to me gushing about how cool that guy is.

Adelaide

2008-03-03T08:35:00.001-05:00

Another early morning flight today. This time to Adelaide, which is a lot like southern Arizona. Which is to say "hot as fuck". Oh, but it's a dry heat. Never mind that there's no ozone and the sun feels like an evil laser beam. The show was at one of those clubs that is a total nightmare to make a show happen in, but the band love playing. To be fair, these types of places usually have the best gigs, but it's no fun getting it there. Tonight was one of those gigs. The band played a really long set with a lot of stuff that doesn't get played very often. That's always a good sign with Ween. The whole thing ended with Never Squeal On The Pusher with the usual drum solo. This somehow devolved into Claude moving from drums to bass, Dave moving from bass to guitar and Mickey moving from guitar to drums. The ensuing madness made for good theater.
I also managed to take some random pictures today. Travelling definitely resurrects the inspiration on that front. Show in Perth tomorrow. Only a 3 1/2 hour flight in the morning then. On we go....

Claude Coleman...

Aaron Freeman...

G-Blaster...

Kirk & Chip...

A Slanty Building...

The thing that sucks about Adelaide is that "the MAN" is always trying to keep you from drinking the toilet water...

Sydney

2008-03-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Before I get into the last couple days in Sydney, there's a few random things I feel like pointing out about Australia. In no particular order....

I hate Qantas. I just do.

For some reason the hotels here (and in New Zealand) feel as though the going rate for this new fangled internet thing is slightly less than the cost of a high-end sushi meal. They charge like $35 a day when you can get a 24-hour plan. Half the time it's some hourly shit that costs even more if you actually use it. Then on top of this, they cap your usage. So if you download any large-ish files, you'll reach your cap and they'll shut it off on you. I call bullshit on Australian internet robbery.

It's like Asia here now. There are so many Asian people living and visiting down here that it literally feels like you could be in Japan, except you can read the signs. I have no issue with this, in fact I quite enjoy there being Asian food on every block, but it just seems weird.

So anyway, yesterday was a 7:30am departure from the hotel in Brisbane to fly to Sydney. The thing about touring here is that you have to fly everywhere, which wouldn't be so bad except you end up flying on show days, which means you're up early and always jet-laggy and exhausted. Plus it's always on Qantas and you know how I feel about that shit. The gig in Sydney was a good one. Ween hasn't played down here in 11 years and Australia is the only place in the world that they had a top 10 hit. The crowd was way into it and, despite being plagued with gear issues all night, the band rocked it out. As you do.

Today was a day off. I was up fairly early to switch rooms to one with a balcony. Since it was a rainy morning I lazed around bed and took advantage of some internet time which is rare down here. Around noon I ventured out for a roam around Sydney. This is one of my favorite cities to visit and I always love having a day off here. The sun burned off the clouds and it ended up being a perfect hot sunny day. I walked thru the botanical gardens, checking out the bats that sleep in the trees along the way. They call them 'flying foxes' cause that's what they look like. They're huge with really big, sinister looking wings. It's really cool to see them up close. After looping around the bay taking in the views of the opera house and harbor bridge I took a ferry to Darling harbor and walked up the hill to the hotel. After an hour of sitting on the balcony soaking up some melanoma, I joined everyone except Aaron & Mickey for a dinner that the promoter treated us to. We went to this amazing high-endy Thai fusion place called Long Grain. They just started bringing us food, all of it amazing. One course after another, mostly seafood. We were there for 2 1/2 hours stuffing ourselves with all kinds of crazy food. A solid end the day. Tomorrow it's off to Adelaide, which is a half hour time difference from here. What's up with that? Anyway, here's some photos....

Tree tunnel...

Sydney Opera House from the ferry...

The bats...

Looking down on Kent St...

The Enmore Theater, Sydney...

The blue balloons...

The sex doll reaches the stage...

Dave rocks the doll...

Gener holds the doll aloft...

The end of Buenas Tardes...

Goodnight Sydney!...

She's not as hot when the lights come on...

Brisbane

2008-03-02T07:09:00.000-05:00

After the good times that were New Zealand, it was time for team Ween to board the first of all-too-many Qantas flights and head to Australia. Brisbane to be precise. We got to the hotel, which was actually 'serviced apartments' to find one of the best hotel rooms I've ever had in my life. Considering that in 2005 I spent more nights at the Cumberland hotel in London than I did my own bed, I feel I have some authority to speak on hotel rooms. This hotel wasn't really even all that nice. It was fine, but a little cheap. But the room had this great balcony with an amazing view of some bridge and up the river a bit downtown Brisbane. On top of that the room had not only a kitchen but laundry machines. You people who don't tour can't possibly grasp the true gravity of this. I promptly went out to the supermarket for some supplies and spent the next 6 hours doing laundry, reading and eating on the patio. A fine way to land.
The Brisbane show was....actually I have no recollection of the show. I seem to remember it not being as good as the NZ shows but that might have just been because it was a bigger venue. Regardless, Ween played. I'm pretty sure of that.

Gener smokes where Gener wants...

How do you return it after you've used it?...

My view of Brisbane...

The Aussies really lionize AC/DC...

Kia Ora

2008-02-27T05:45:00.000-05:00

I left SF to take the dreaded 14 hour flight to Auckland. I was more panicked than usual since I didn't have a seat pre-assigned. There's no way in hell I'm sitting in a middle seat in coach for more than half a day. Luckily my soon-to-be-history elite flier status scored me an exit row seat with legroom for days. Plus they had a ton of great movies on demand. I watched The Darjeeling Limited, Control (the Anton Corbijn movie about Ian Curtis & Joy Division) and some of Casablanca. It ended up being a smooth flight and I touched down in Auckland feeling pretty human. I hit the hotel and slept until about 3. I figured this would keep me relatively safe from jetlag since New Zealand is really only 3 hours behind the west coast, but a day ahead. So time-wise it's not such a big change. I left on a 7pm flight went to sleep and woke up in Auckland at about 5am. Sleep until 3 and I'm pretty much on track. It worked ok at first but got progressively worse as the other elements of jetlag took hold and the circadian rhythyms start to fall apart. After waking up I connected with the rest of the team (minus Kirk & Dan) and took a ferry to Waiheke Island where Claude's wife Ila's family (she's a Kiwi) treated us to an amazing Kiwi barbecue with tons of great, fresh, local food & wine. Huge green-lipped mussels, whitebait fritters (apparently a Kiwi delicacy) and so much more. They live on 5 acres of macadamia trees and it made for a beautiful, relaxing setting. As the sun set, Ila's neice sang a beautiful traditional Maori song from the balcony before we had to head off to catch the last ferry back to Auckland. It was a perfect way to land in New Zealand.

Auckland from the ferry...

Gabe gave a photo shoot on the ferry. Oh that hair!
Glen soaks up the sun...

Ila's auntie's house on Waiheke island...

Gener getting his mussel on...
The next day was show day. We played some weird 80s dance club outside of town a bit. It was a good show and the band played over 3 hours which they haven't done in a while. The crowd deserved it though. It's been like 10 years since Ween played down here, and the kids were psyched.

Mickey in Auckland...

The next day we had a late morning flight to Wellington and a show at a club with the absolutely most ridiculous name ever: The San Francisco Bath House. I mean, I have no problem with the existence of bath house culture in SF or anywhere else, but come on. Who names a rock club after that shit? Ween paid homage, playing Homo Rainbow in the encore. It was a tiny place and a pain in the ass to set up the gig, but the band loves those places and tore it up. The crowd gave it right back and with that we had brought the Ween to New Zealand.

Here's Chip on the patio of the SF Bath House...

High over New Zealand...
Now it's Wednesday and we had a day off in Wellington. The weather was stellar and I set off in a rental car with Claude, Chip and Kirk for some 'splorin. We drove up the coast to Waikanae Beach where we did some wading and had a drink at a cafe where the chef gave us directions to a "bushwalk". After some trial and error we found the trail head and headed off. It was a great trail that criss-crossed a rocky creek a bunch of times before heading straight up the side of a small mountain. It was more exertion than I've experienced in a while and it felt good to be sweating and get the blood pumping. We got pretty far up and found an amazing vista where we sat awhile before turning back. The landscape was unreal. Not unlike California's coast but with all kinds of crazy plants and the incessant sound of cicadas or some such animal. The air here is so clean and fresh it's like I can't suck enough of it in. On our way back to the car Kirk & I detoured for some blackberry picking. A perfect end to a healthy dose of nature. I'm really wishing I was able to come down here early and do some real exploring but I guess there's always next time. It's only the other side of the world. Tomorrow we're off early to fly to Brisbane. Wish me luck.

Waikanae Beach...

Me & Kapiti Island...

Knee deep in the Tasman Sea...

Chip digs the sights...

We worked hard for this view...

Blackberries...

The thing they don't tell you about New Zealand is how cheap the pony poo is...

Port of Departure

2008-02-27T05:13:00.000-05:00

Since the idea of flying all the way from NYC to Auckland in one shot seemed like utter madness, I decided to break up the journey with a few days in SF. This was one of my smarter decisions of late. I stayed with Val and borrowed Lucas' car, both of which were key. I got in Tuesday evening, on Wednesday I met Lexi to get the car key at Crepes on Cole, where I had my favorite french toast. Then I cruised up to Marin and did some walking around on Bolinas Ridge. I looped down through Stinson and back over to Mill Valley for lunch at Joe's Taco's, always a destination when I'm back in the area. On my way back to Val's I stopped at Baker Beach. The day topped off with drinks & sushi at Tsunami with Chad & Erin. Not too bad for a layover.

Foggy on the Ridge...

Me at Baker Beach. Note the naked man jogging in the background...
The next day Val & I went to the SFMoMA (after some always-delicious Zazie brunch). There was an exhibit by Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic artist that does all kinds of crazy interactive stuff with light and whatnot. It was pretty sweet. We also saw a bunch of photography and stuff before getting tired and sick of the children and bailed.

The Kaliedescope Tunnel catwalk from 5 stories down...

Oooohh!!....

Val in the Room For All Colours...

That night we met up with Chad & Erin again to see the new "final" cut of Blade Runner at the Castro. It was pretty amazing, especially there. I love that theater so much.
On Friday I didn't have to leave for the airport until 3 so I drove out to the beach for a walk before jumping on the Muni...and the Bart...and then the airport.

Cleared For Takeoff

2008-02-11T18:27:00.000-05:00

The days are starting to slip by faster and faster as the day of departure approaches. Everyone keeps telling me how awesome this upcoming trip sounds, and I guess on paper it does. New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii... all great places to visit, especially in February/March. Of course the reality is that I'll mainly see these places' airports, hotels and venues. Oh and the insides of many, many planes for more hours in 3 weeks than most people spend in their lives. I'm doing my best to adjust my attitude and maximize my chances of enjoying myself, but it's a daunting prospect. Maybe I'll feel better on the other side of a 15 hour coach flight. On the plus side I'll get to spend a few days in SF on my way there. Not only does this serve to break up the journey (I couldn't bear the thought of the 24 hour travel day that is NY>Auckland) but it gives me some time in one of my many hometowns. I've already got my first 5 meals there planned.

In the meantime I've been lazing around NYC. Mom came to visit and we went to the Metropolitan museum. I've now been to 2 art museums in the last couple months. Of course these are the only times I've ever been to a museum in NY. I don't always take advantage of the places I live. The Met was amazing though.
Now it's crunch time. Less than 48hrs until liftoff. Laundry, packing...
The slow season is over.

"So goodbye, so long, the road calls me dear
And your tears cannot bind me anymore,
And farewell to the girl with the sun in her eyes
Can I kiss you, and then I'll be gone."
-Tom Waits

Did You See Me??

2008-02-05T12:46:00.001-05:00

OK! After spending 2 days trying to remember my password to update this thing, I have succeeded and am ready to start this shit rolling again. I'm not sure what it was about the last few months but everytime I sat down to write for this thing I just bored myself thinking about it. Maybe my life's been too boring over the winter. After the joy of watching the Red Sox win another world series (which, for the second time felt anti-climactic after the absolute ecstasy of watching them beat the Yankees in the ALCS) I settled in for a long winter's nap. Or series of naps. I did another short tour of the northeast with Ween which was fun but apparently not worth mentioning here. I headed north to Vermont for Xmas which was nice. I definitely miss that sort of lifestyle and the solitude it affords. I took a nice long solo walk around Sodom Pond which is next to my sister's house. The fresh air, exercise and solitude went a long way.

Here's me contemplating it all...

And the abandoned truck I sat on to do so...

I just returned home from the last of the US Ween for a while. We did a little swing thru the southeast, ending with 3 shows in Florida. I couldn't help thinking as we drove across from St. Pete to Ft. Lauderdale that the whole place will be underwater in my lifetime. I count that as no great loss. Ween tour (and to a lesser degree, tour in general) is similar to how I've heard war described. Long periods of boredom punctuated with short bursts of terror (or in our case, rock). There's way too much downtime spent in places that have zero cultural offerings (and I'm not looking for museums and avant-garde film here, just a restaurant that isn't Nascar themed). So I spent a lot of time napping, reading, and watching Arrested Development DVDs.
I flew home just in time to watch the Patriots embarrass themselves and all of New England with a joke of a performance in the Superbowl. I could shrug that loss off so much easier if it weren't for the fact that a) the Giants are my second most hated team (after the Cowboys) and b) I live in NYC and have to be subjected to the douchebaggery that is NY sports fans. Whatever, the Yankees still choked far worse and the Giants don't even play in NY. They're from fucking Jersey for christ's sake. So now I'm enjoying the next couple weeks off before I head down under for a 'pacific rim' tour with Ween. We're doing New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii, which I know sounds great, and I'm sure it will be in its way. However, you can't imagine how much time I'll be spending on airplanes during that 3 weeks. I get sick just thinking about it. And on that note, I'll leave you with some (mostly) Ween pics.

This was the view from my hotel in St. Pete. It's where the Yankees do spring training. I couldn't help but daydream about sitting in that room and sniping Joba Chamberlain from the comfort of my desk chair...

Mickey digging in...

Dave sings Ace of Spades...

Rock 101: The big ending...

And take a bow...

The kids can't get enough...

Qweens

2007-10-24T18:23:00.000-04:00

Well, after much neglect it seems time to bump golf & porno from the top spot. A lot has been going on which, after looking I realize, I didn't do much photographing. The biggest news is I'm moving (yes, again). This time just a few blocks away to live w/friends as opposed to randoms. Matt, Sean & I will be living in a sweet duplex on Ave C. It was described in one of the ads as "the ultimate pleasuredome". I guess we should host some sweet gay 80s disco parties or something. Anyway, in the midst of all that I was doing a few shows with Queens of the Stone Age. Holy shit balls do they rock. It was a treat to be involved if only for a minute. I would've liked to have stayed on but other rock commitments meant it wasn't to be so. I went from there to the start of another run with Ween. This one in the midwest. I'll be missing their next run on the west coast (which Mickey gives me constant shit about) to do some work in the studio with Albert for his next record. I'll be back with the Weens for an east coast run in November and hopefully running around the world with them next year. They truly are one of the baddest things happening in rock right now. Their new record "La Cucaracha" is an instant classic. Go buy that shit. The shows have been solid to amazing and I honestly think that "My Own Bare Hands" live is the most perfect chunk of man-rock I've ever witnessed. And I just came from 3 shows with Josh Homme & Co. The only downside of this run has been consistantly shitty weather and hotels. If I met Mr. Holiday Inn tomorrow I'd...well, I'd offer him a stern dressing down. In my mind (no need to be rude).
On the upside I have been able to watch some of the Red Sox games, including game 7 of the LCS and tonights blowout game 1 of the World Series. Good shit.
Anyway, now I'm in Cleveland. House of Blues tomorrow. Here's some pics...

Aragon Ballroom, Chicago...

View of the El tracks from inside the Aragon...

The sun shines on the Aragon...

Gener shoots the light...

Just before doors...

Ween go big...

Queens Heart Weens...

Mickey, Claude & Dave jam in the basement of a tattoo parlor in Columbus...

Golf & Porno

2007-10-12T01:34:00.001-04:00

Record company executives today, she said, "want clones ... They don't love music. They love golf and porno." -Joni Mitchell

The Best Laid Plans...

2007-10-05T17:05:00.000-04:00

I'm back in NYC after a week in California. I was supposed to stay longer but I've always been one for changing plans. I landed in SF and spent the first couple nights in the city. As usual when in SF, great meals were on the books, the first being dinner & sake at Tsunami w/Val & LM. The next day I had lunch with Marjorie at the Slanted Door. This is one of those overly popular, overly hyped spots that I'm usually skeptical of, but we had an amazing meal and everything the people around us ordered looked equally great. It's in a gorgeous spot in the Ferry Building with views of the Bay Bridge. The next day I started at my old favorite neighborhood breakfast spot, Crepes On Cole, where they make the greatest god-damned french toast in the known universe. Mmmmm....

After a couple days I set off in Jimmy's camper van to Hendy Woods, a campground & redwood grove in the Anderson Valley area of Mendocino County. This is one of my favorite places and Chad & Erin came up for the weekend. I stayed another night after they went home and had a very relaxing bit of solitude in the big trees. I was going to keep heading north for a few more days but the trusty vanagon's clutch dissolved and I instead had to limp it back to Fairfax w/very limited shifting abilities. Luckily Lucas was in town with some time off and he came and got me and I ended up staying with him and Lexi for a few days. We had some good times, heading to Limantour beach and eating & drinking various goodies. I spent a day hungover from Sake on their couch watching baseball (Go Sawks!) and just generally taking up space. I didn't intend to encroach on them for 3 days, but hey, that's what friends are for right? Oh, aye. I had planned on staying in Oakland at Marjorie's for the weekend and seeing some music in the park, but home beckoned and the promise of some short-notice work with Queens of the Stonge Age made me decide to go home early, and so I was off. It's like summer in NY. Highs in the upper 80s and humid. Global warming indeed.

I saw this woman brushing her teeth on Market St...

Me in a big tree...

Lucas doing Tai-Chi on the bluff...

Chad at the Anderson Valley Brewing Company...

I loves me a good campfire...

L & L testing the waters...

Tempus Fugit

2007-09-25T18:38:00.000-04:00

It still feels mostly like summer in NYC. Today it was 85 and humid but we've had a nice run of weather with cooler (70s) sunny days for most of the last couple weeks. I've been passing time in the most relaxed ways possible. Reading, doing crosswords, wandering the city and watching lots of baseball and other TV goodness. If you haven't seen Californication on Showtime (I know, the name sucks) I can't recommend it enough. Well not to everyone, but most of you. Saxondale is a genius English comedy from Steve Coogan about a retired roadie with anger management issues. Then there's Still Game, a Glaswegian comedy about pensioners in Craiglang. The accents are a bit thick for some but it's amazing and you can always watch it with the subtitles if you can't understand them. Of course you can't get either Saxondale or Still Game here yet, but they're out there to be downloaded. ANYWAYS...

I ventured over to Long Island City in Queens to visit an old friend. It's an old industrial spot just below the 59th St bridge and right across the east river from Manhattan. It's one of those 'future star' areas that are being remade with countless luxury condo highrises under construction and the slow creep of hip bars and restaurants.

The 59th St Bridge & East River...

The LIC...

While the whole lots-of-space-for-less-money aspect of living in places like this is tempting, I can't bring myself to want to leave my hipster enclave in Manhattan. Time Out New York just voted my neighborhood (Alphabet City) the best neighborhood (or 'hood', as they call it) in the city. Therefore I am cool. See? You get what you pay for.

Last night Sean & I went to MSG to see Bjork. The show was great and I fell for her all over again. There's something strange about the fact that Dispatch, who virtually no one has heard of and aren't even a band anymore, can sell almost 60,000 tickets in 3 days for the Garden and Bjork, who is a well-known favorite of critics and music fans alike can't even sell 3/4 of the place for one night. Nothing against Dispatch but how does this happen? Regardless, it was schweet.

Tomorrow it's off to SF for some west coast lazing and communing with the giant trees and whatnot. All praises to St. Hubbins. May he grant me 1 business-class upgrade (well 2 really...I have to get home too). Amen.

Up To Boston

2007-09-19T01:53:00.000-04:00

On Sunday I rented a car and drove up to Boston to see the Red Sox play the Yankees. I hadn't been to Fenway in years (high school maybe) so I've been wanting to go for ages. I've been much more actively following baseball this season so it seemed like time to go. I paid way too much for tickets on Ebay and took my Dad for his wedding present. The weather was perfect and crisp. I wandered around Fenway taking pictures and soaking up the history. We ended up switching seats with some guy who wanted to sit near his kids which put us in the 2nd row of the fancy pavillion seats. They were up high but had a great view of the whole field. Plus the seats were roomy and comfortable, a far cry from the cramped, ancient wooden seats in the grandstand. Plus, there was waitress service. I took special enjoyment having delicious, hot clam chowder brought to my seat on a cool night. Small pleasures. The game was great with the exception of the Red Sox losing. It was a great pitching duel for most of the game between Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling. Schilling stayed in 1 pitch too long and with one swing that prick Jeter broke the tie with a 3 run home run. The Sox made a good run of it in the ninth though and got within 1 run with the bases loaded and David Ortiz up. He ended up flying out to end the game but at least it got exciting at the end. Of course the Sox are trying to find new ways to implode at the end of the season and are down to a 2 1/2 game lead for the division. Oh the pain of it all.

The view from our seats...

Yawkey Way...

Batting Practice...

Me, Dad & The Green Monster...

The Rocky Coast

2007-09-11T23:32:00.000-04:00

Last weekend found me in East Boothbay, Maine. My Dad has a cottage on the ocean there and got married there on Saturday. The chapel is a nice little stone building right on the water. It was a nice, informal ceremony (I was best man) and the reception was on a sunset cruise around Boothbay Harbor. The weather was great and it was fun to see the over-50 set partying it up. I got tickets to see the Red Sox play the Yankees at Fenway next weekend for me & my dad, so that should be fun. For now I'm dodging the rain in NYC.

Inside the chapel at the rehearsal...

Sunset on the water...

My bowl full of 2 lobsters...

My grandparents cutting the rug...

Boats & stuff...

Onward Journey

2007-09-02T11:24:00.001-04:00

So I've been back in NYC for almost a week now. The jetlag is worn off, I've been watching baseball and doing crosswords and feeling pretty human again. Life is pretty open-ended right now except for a couple trips in September. One to Maine next week for my dad's wedding and one to SF for some redwood camping and general relaxing. The rest of the Eurofest tour went well. The lack of computer got old quickly and beds and decent food were few and far between, but that's just the reality of summer festivals. Every year there seems to be 1 or 2 bands that you cross paths with a lot. This year it was Sonic Youth and the Shins (not bad). We did a few festivals with each and a really cool TV show in London with SY that Nigel Godrich does. It was a treat to sit in the control room and watch him mix Albert and then SY. Overall, I'm glad my usual dose of Eurofestness was cut in half this year. It's much more enjoyable when it doesn't last for 3 months. Here's a bunch of photos from the trip...

Matt loves his wife-beaters...

People in Amsterdam love their bikes...

Steamy mist in Malmo...
Sonic Youth soundchecking in St. Malo, France...

Just some of Sonic Youth's guitars...

Vicente Garcia Gandia, our own little Spaniard...
Sleepy Vicente...

Backstage at Pukkelpop, Belgium...

Reading, the shittiest festival of them all...

Yes. Yes I would...

The Shins in Belfast...

Spoon rocks Pukkelpop...

Matt enjoying the accomodations...

Nigel Godrich mixing Albert...

And Sonic Youth...

Vicente breaks the rules...

Something about Interpol in broad daylight always seems wrong to me...

Richard gets his drink on...

The Kaiser Chiefs "secret" set at Leeds...

I can't believe they stole our computers...

Mary-Tah...

Yes, we do have luggage to check...

The Gossip at Leeds...

Proudly presents...

Touring H at the helm, Reading...

Who'd want to go up there?....

The doc, lighting up Reading...

Old Man Dunn, getting shit sorted...

Delicious, healthy food at 3am...

Just before the darkness. Aarhus, Denmark...

Amsterdam at night...

Albert acsending...

Albert sleeping in the hallway of the bus...

The Man With The Beautiful Eyes

2007-08-29T16:26:00.000-04:00

When we were kids
there was a strange house
all the shades were
always
drawn
and we never heard voices
in there
and the yard was full of
bamboo
and we liked to play in
the bamboo
pretend we were
Tarzan
( although there was no
Jane)
and there was a
fish pond
a large one
full of the
fattest goldfish
you ever saw
and they were
tame.
They came to the
surface of the water
and took pieces of
bread
from our hands.

Our parents had
told us:
" never go near that
house"
so, of course,
we went.

We wondered if anybody
lived there.
Weeks went by and we
never saw
anybody.

Then one day
we heard
a voice
from the house
" YOU GOD DAMNED
WHORE!"

It was a mans
voice.
Then the screen
door
of the house was
flung open
and the man
walked out.

He was holding a
fifth of whiskey
in his right
hand.
He was about
30.
He had a cigar
in his
mouth,
needed a
shave.
His hair was
wild and
uncombed
and he was
barefoot.
In undershirt
and pants
but his eyes
were
bright
they BLAZED
with brightness
and he said,
"hey, little
gentleman,
having a good
time, I
hope?"

Then he gave a
little laugh
and walked
back into the
house.

We left,
went back to my
parents yard
and thought
about it.

Our parents,
we decided
had wanted us
to stay away
from there
because they
never wanted us
to see a man
like
that,
a strong natural
man
with
beautiful
eyes.

Our parents
were ashamed
that they were
not
like that
man,
thats why they
wanted us to stay
away.

But
we went back
to that house
and the bamboo
and the tame
goldfish.
We went back
many times
for many
weeks
but we never
saw
or heard
the man
again.

The shades were
down
as always
and it was
quiet.

Then one day
as we came back from
school
we saw the
house.

It had burned
down,
there was nothing
left,
just a smoldering
twisted black
foundation
and we went to
the fish pond
and there was
no water
in it
and the fat
orange goldfish
were dead
there,
drying out.

We went back to
my parents yard
and talked about
it
and decided that
our parents had
burned their
house down,
had killed
them
had killed the
goldfish
because it was
all too
beautiful,
even the bamboo
forest had
burned.

They had been
afraid of
the man with the
beautiful
eyes.

And
we were afraid
then
that
all throughout our lives
things like that
would happen,
that nobody
wanted
anybody
to be
strong and
beautiful
like that,
that
others would never
allow it,
and that
many people
would have to
die.

Charles Bukowski

Normal Broadcasting To Resume Shortly

2007-08-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

It's Monday August 27th at 9:53pm EST.
I am back in NYC.
I have a new laptop.
I've salvaged my addresses & iCal stuff.
My photos are gone.
Over 7,000 pictures from 5 years of worldwide travel.
I'm trying very hard to let go of the bitterness but like Naked Eyes said...
There's always something there to remind me.

Thieving Bastards

2007-08-16T14:36:00.000-04:00

Fuck you Aarhus, Denmark. Mine was among 6 laptops stolen from our dressing room at the gig yesterday.
So email me your addresses cause I've lost them all. Also, if any of you have any pictures I've sent you please send them to me. I've lost all my photos from the last 5 years as well. I can't even begin to mention how much other shit I've lost. I'm sure a longer, more detailed rant is coming at some point after I get a new computer.
Until then, if you see a Dane, poke them in the eye.

And Yes This Is Real

2007-08-13T14:00:00.001-04:00

In Copenhagen now. It's true what they say about the women of Scandinavia. I'm just glad I don't have a particular thing for blondes or I might implode. Anyway...
We did the Way Out West festival in Goteborg, Sweden on Friday. It was a cool little festival in a park with grass and tress and such. It was overcast most of the day and pissing rain for little bits of it. Marc looked dapper in matching Way Out West poncho and frisbee.

I started the day with the Boredoms (which was luckily in the tent since it was pissing during this particular bit of the day). It was a bit on the bombastic side for so early on a rainy day, but I thought they were amazing. Eye (the mad dreadlocked leader) has all these guitar-ish things mounted on 2 stands, each tuned to a different chord. He proceeded to play these by smashing them with various length sticks, depending on how many he wanted to hit at once. Nothing if not different.

We did our set on the main stage and lucked out with a lull in the rain. It went well and there was a good sized crowd, owing to the stages being staggered instead of competing. The whole crowd more or less watched everything. After Albert I did double duty mixing the almighty Eagles of Death Metal. As usual, it was great to see them both on & off stage and despite Jessie having no voice they worked overtime for those Swedes and left them reeking of rock-love & mustache wax.

Next I saw Primal Scream who I thought were pretty good with some amazing parts mixed in. Much better than the end of their last Glastonbury set which was embarrassing.

Speaking of embarrassing, the Pogues closed the main stage and were easily the disappointment of the day. I mean, sure, Shane McGowan will be shitfaced. We know this. But watching a fat drunk guy inaudibly slur his way through a bunch of songs is shit, even if the songs are classics. After hanging in as long as I could on the Eagles bus, I hit the bunk for the trip to Oslo. It was an overcast day so I slept through most of it. The show was late and surprisingly sweaty. Lots of pretty blonde people who talk funny. Fun for the whole family.

We woke up in Copenhagen for a day off and our last hotel until we go home. The hotel was in a bit of a seedy area with sex shops and prostitutes for blocks. We headed over to the nicer bit called Nyhavn (see above) where we hung out when the Strokes played Roskilde. After a nice meal by the canal we wandered back thru town towards the hotel. Matt, Steve, Vicente & I were sidetracked by a trip to Tivoli Gardens, which is a really old amusement park in the center of Copenhagen. It's pretty sweet as amusement parks go and we went on the crazy roller-coaster (The Demon) and the high swingy things (The Himmelskibet), which is apparently the highest carousel in the world. Fun for the whole family!

Himmelskibet

Europe is so fancy!!

Now we're at the gig waiting for showtime. Matt found a new hat...

And the dressing room is on the 1/2th floor. Those crazy Danes. You never know what floor you're on!!

Costa del Sol

2007-08-09T16:16:00.000-04:00

First of all, the best news...
I sold my car. I got more than I thought I would too which was a much needed bonus. So anyway, that's done. Yippee.

So after a few quick days in NYC I was off once again to Newark to board yet another jet, this time to Lisbon. We flew overnight which always throws my sleep rhythms even further out of whack than they typically are. I hid away in the hotel and napped until the next morning when Matt & I had to venture back to the airport to pick up a rental car. We followed the festival vans the 2+ hours to the festival site, where we had a pleasant, if uneventful, day and early gig.

This frog was a mascot for the weird walk-thru, see-thru shower thing at the festival in Portugal. First I'd seen that...

First time I'd seen this too. These crazy fuckers strap you in a little car which is on a platform attached to a crane. They then proceed to raise it up and drop said car god-knows-how-many feet (or meters, or metres) where it ends up dangling from a bungee cord. Someone said that Portugal is the only country where it's legal. Shocking.

Afterwards Matt & I jumped in our little VW Polo and followed Albert, Lisa and Albert's parents for almost 6 hours down the coast of Portugal and along the sea to Sotogrande, Spain where they have a place (Albert's dad grew up near there). We stayed in a nice little hotel next door to his parents' condo. It was right on a marina with all kinds of yachts and expensive cars everywhere you look. We got right down to sleeping late, lounging on the beach and eating delicious seafood for 3 days. It was supremely pleasant and the Hammond's were not only gracious and generous but also fun.

Nothing like a thatched umbrella to set the tone...

The rock of Gibraltar in the distance...

La Cerveza en La Playa...

Sunset...

Out the front of the hotel...

It all ended way too quickly and we were off to the airport in Malaga to fly to Sweden to get back to work. So tomorrow it's back into festival/bus/club world which means tonight I stay in and watch stuff on my laptop and eat snacks. I'm pretty sure I paid $122 for a bag of Doritos and an apple. Gotta love scandinavia.

When Your Conscience Hits You Knock It Back With Pills

2007-08-01T20:50:00.000-04:00

My journey back from SF went something like this:

5:30pm PST: Drop car off at Buggy Bank (please someone buy it), walk to BART station.
6:00pm PST: BART (3 trains) to SFO.
7:00pm PST: Arrive SFO
11:05pm PST: Flight to Washington Dulles takes off.
7:20am EST: Land at Dulles
8:15am EST: Flight to LaGuardia takes off.
8:30am EST: Flight turns back to Dulles (a window in the cockpit came open).
9:15am EST: Flight to LaGuardia cancelled
9:30am EST: Horrible bitch "customer service" lady tells me the 12:30 flight to JFK is sold out and I can take the 6pm. When I say this is unacceptable she puts me on a 1pm flight out of Reagan. She sends me and some woman away with a cab voucher to take the 45minute ride to catch said flight.
9:35am EST: After calling customer service I am quickly put on the 12:30 flight that was sold out.
11:55am EST: Secure first class seat.
12:35pm EST: Flight to JFK takes off.
1:30pm EST: Flight lands at JFK
2:30pm EST: Arrive at home after dumb-ass cab driver takes Atlantic ave thru Brooklyn, stomping on the brake and gas the whole way. There is no AC in said cab.

By my count that's a tidy 24hrs from the time I dropped my car off to the time I got home.

In related news, a website called Flight Memory has informed me (after doing much laborious data entry) that I have flown 382,693 miles, spending 792 hours (or 33 days) in the air. I've gone to the moon and halfway back again. 216 flights and that's only the ones I can remember or have in my calendar which is far from all of them.

It makes me laugh when I think of the United lady the other day who, after realizing I'm a Premier Executive, said "You don't look like it. Do you fly a lot?". Yes lady. I do. That's why I look like this. I mean, even if you're thinking that- and I'm sure she wasn't even close to the first person who was surprised to see my scruffy ass in first class or in the business lounge- you're not supposed to SAY that to me. Should I put on khakis and a light blue oxford? Would that simplify things for you? Would I then "look like it"? Then you could know who to be nice to without having to look at their boarding pass first. And I'd like 2 glasses of champagne BEFORE takeoff please.

Why Do They Call It Fog City?

2007-08-01T20:35:00.001-04:00

Here's some photos from my most recent SF trip. I had a couple days where I got out exploring. It felt good.

If you click on this one you can see all kinds of folks with wind-powered recreational devices...
Here's a closer look...
The sun getting ready to sink into the fog...
Note the clouds where the ocean should be...
Hippie trash...
Trail on Bolinas Ridge...
Big Basin Redwoods State Park...
A big tree...
More fog...
Still more fog...

So there was hills & fog...
The sun sank...

A Taste of the Grind

2007-08-01T12:58:00.000-04:00

Here's Grinderman from Later with Jools Holland

Mindergran

2007-07-27T14:59:00.001-04:00

Oh my children...those of you who gather here at the ragged end of nowhere are no strangers to tales of rock and roll glory and flying to far away lands, nor to tales of stinkybus woe and misery. But Thursday...Thursday was fucking grand.

I began the day at 3:30am EST, leaving at 4 for a 6am flight out of Newark. All went smoothly except for the fact that nothing's open at the airport until 5:30, so I had to give breakfast a miss. My flight was thru O'hare which is always a fun and exciting place to be at 7am on a weekday. Again though, me and my first class self glided through the madness like the seasoned pros that we are. Even when "lady with a baby" sat next to me, which is never what you want to see, things were ok as said baby didn't cry but instead did other baby things like sleep and drool and smile at you. Got into SF and took BART into the city where I went straight to Zazie for breakfast with Val. Nothing like eggs scrambled with dungeness crab and wilted pea shoots and a side of gingerbread pancake with lemon curd and roasted pears to soften a landing. It felt good to be in the cool clean SF air after the hot, sticky, hot-garbage-and-urine air of NYC. Belly full I got back into public transport land (my experience with SF MUNI stations and their unfathomable payment system was my only true frustration thus far, but nothing a little panhandling couldn't fix). Off to Berkeley I was, to fetch my car. Goldie. Goldie Looking Car. Goldie Apparatus. I picked it up from the lot I've been trying to sell it out of and dropped it at the dealership for repair (I've since found out it'll only cost $750 to fix!! JOY!!). I picked up a rental and went to Chad & Erin's (or Cherin if you're into the whole brevity thing) where I'm staying. Not a bad day so far. Next we hooked up with their friends Krys and Marissa and headed to the Great American Music Hall for Grinderman. This, my children, is where things got epic.

This was simply one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed, hands down. For those who don't know, Grinderman is the latest project of Nick Cave. It's a more stripped down, raw approach than his Bad Seeds stuff and the record is great. Live it was as if Nick and Co. were saying to every rock band that ever was "you are all a bunch of fucking pussies". To see such a massive slice of rock in such a small venue was almost too much to take.

After playing the whole Grinderman record they came back out and "tried" to play some Bad Seeds songs, which they proceeded to rock the ass out of. Then a "very, very, very special guest" came out to sing "The Weeping Song" and the crowd went apeshit (especially Erin). I was clueless who this obviously doped up singer was who couldn't remember half the lyrics or focus his eyesight enough to read them off of Nick's lyric sheet. Apparently he's some guy from some German industrial band that was in the Bad Seeds for a while. Apparently it was the best thing ever but to me he only embarrassed himself. Apparently I don't know shit when it comes to German industrial legends. Regardless, this will go down as an all-time favorite rock experience.

Fly Away Home

2007-07-25T22:16:00.001-04:00

In 6 hours I'll be heading to Newark for a 6am flight to SF via O'Hare. I wish it was for fun but it's mainly to deal with my car which has been the bane of my existence since I left SF in May. Here's a nice view of Midtown from my roof...

Gee Marc, maybe people won't think you're Albert so often if you stop carrying guitars with his name emblazoned on them thru major airports. Maybe?

Life in the business lounge...

Lustwaffel

2007-07-24T23:04:00.000-04:00

I did so much nothing today that I almost felt guilty. Almost. I got in from Paris last night so I used jet-lag as an excuse. The MSG Dispatch shows went really well. It was a really cool thing to be a part of. A great crew pulling off a logistical nightmare to raise a bunch of money for people who are really suffering. Having the African Children's Choir really made the thing hit home for me. Here's these kids (22 of them) probably 6-10 years old, from places like Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Places where all these fucked up statistics actually gravely impact the lives of kids just like these, and they were just the sweetest kids you can imagine.

It really put things in perspective in terms of complaining about the downsides of my life. I felt like Spinal Tap at Graceland. Too much fucking perspective. Anyway, you can go here and learn more about it and donate some money. Seriously.

The day after the last show I flew to Vienna via Frankfurt to meet up with Team Albert. It was 100 degrees in Vienna when I landed and the address of the club was only the name of a bridge and the name of a canal. So there I was, sleep-deprived standing on the sidewalk in Vienna with no phone and all my luggage in oppressive heat. Thank god I speak exactly 3 words of German. Actually, thank god everyone in Europe speaks English and I was pointed towards the filthy rock-hole of a gig where I would waste my first time in Vienna hiding in the air-conditioned dressing room. Munich wasn't much better, especially as the bus, in typical UK bus fashion, has no AC when it's not moving and smells like a toilet. The gigs were good though and we were off to Angouleme, France, where life was much more civilized (we even killed 10 hours in Dijon en route). We played a nice festival on a grassy hill. The weather was much more enjoyable and there was a sweet old French town on the hill in the distance.

We played to about 10,000 people and ate delicious food & wine all day. More evidence that it's Paris, not France in general, that is too full of assholes to be enjoyable.

Matt pauses for some rose in the French woods...

Next was Benicassim in Spain. We did this one last year with the Strokes. This year we opened the main stage and we're in the midst of slaying somewhere near 20,000 folks when all the power went out mid-song. It was frustrating as hell for me but in the end it was pretty rock. Their measly power supplies could not withstand our particular brand of rock.

Just before it went dark & quiet...

From there we went back to France. Nimes to be precise. This was one of the most amazing gigs I've ever done. It was a Roman Coliseum built in 27BC. Gladiators used to fight to the death in the exact spot where I mixed from. After we played I walked around the very top of the arena watching Arctic Monkeys and Arcade Fire play. Good times. And of course, catering was some of the best food ever. We boarded the bus for an overnight to Paris and my all-time least favorite airport (Charles de Gaulle). Now I'm back in NYC until Thursday when I fly to SF to deal with my god-damned car. My trip may include re-enacting the end of Harold & Maude by driving it off a cliff. If I do, I promise I'll video it.

Just another day at the office...

Bri gives the peace sign...

Arcade Fire gets all grandiose...

My my...

2007-06-26T13:47:00.000-04:00

...how I've let this thing go. I can't decide whether SO MUCH has happened since I last updated or whether not much at all has happened. There's been more Albert shows and more Ween shows, both being more fun than not. I've been 'home' in NYC for about 3 weeks now. It feels strange but good. Today I really felt like riding a Ducati to Marin though. I'll be here until July 16th when I'll fly to Europe to meet up with Albert & Co. to finish that tour. I'm missing most of it to do a bunch of work in NYC with Dispatch, which I'm in the midst of right now. We've been doing rehearsals and did a warm-up gig at Webster Hall last night. Today we load into the Garden (Madison Square) for 3 shows starting tomorrow. It's all a bit crazy but we've got a good crew together and it's much nicer to come home to my bed at night instead of lodging at hotel stinkybus. Hopefully Euro-tour will provide me with more blog-worthy adventures. In the meantime, here's some random pics from the last few weeks (in no particular order)...

Dusk on the Williamsburg bridge...

The lovely view from a Holiday Inn in Houston. Houston is the worst city in America...

Ween go into the light...

Why indeed...

At the Palm in Mexico City...

I wanted to steal this...

Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter in Asbury Park...

Mr. Smalls. An old church made into a rock club...

Gener holds down the vibe in Asbury...

Asbury Lanes...

Lattanzi...

View of the hotel pool in Manchester, TN. You could hear the drive-thru speaker at the KFC...

Mickey digs into Asbury Park (note the apartment dwellers in the background)...

The Palace, Albany NY...

I don't know what this bird was staring at but I swear I could've picked him up...

Dave enjoying the lap of luxury. Manchester, TN...

In the rectory house that serves as the dressing room at Mr. Smalls...

HBO was projecting this huge film on the side of a building on the LES. It looked pretty damned cool and very surreal...

The Mexican fans see us off...

An Albany sky...

Some radio thing...

One of my biggest pet-peeves is hotels that have sweet balconies with a river view that bolt them shut. Fuck you Clarion of Rochester. While your hotel is depressing enough to make someone want to throw themselves off the balcony, that doesn't mean you should make it MORE depressing by locking me away from fresh air and sunshine...

Back From The Brink

2007-05-28T11:06:00.000-04:00

So I guess it took arriving at the Phoenix airport 4 hours early to get me to do an update on this thing. Since the move-in to the NYC apt. I spent 10 days there getting settled and then headed off to do another tour. This time I'm with Albert for a couple weeks then going to Ween for a couple weeks. The Albert stuff so far has been fun. The shows have almost all been great and I'm really having fun mixing the band. We did a TV appearance on the Craig Ferguson Show (I know, nobody knows who he is). The fun part is that it's shot at CBS "Television City" which is also where The Price Is Right is shot. We got to run around and see all the games and take pictures and stuff. After the show was done we went into the empty studio and got to take pictures at contestants row and the showcase showdown. Good times I tell you. The last time I was here I was with all Brits who have no idea how goddamned special this shit is. I mean, it's Plinko for christ's sake. On our way out I missed one of my all-time greatest photo-ops ever as I simultaneously met Bob Sagat and Henry Winkler. Yes. I shook hands with the Fonz. It was sweet.

Fonzie & the boys...

PLINKO!!

I WON THE SHOWDOWN!!!!

Shrine to Bob...

I bid one dollar Bob...

The Wheel...

For all the soap fans...
Now we're getting ready to fly to Mexico City which should be fun enough. We're down one essential member as Brian Dunn lost his mother yesterday and had to fly back to Glasgow. Not such good times. I feel terrible for him and hope to have him back soon, stinking up the back lounge with 1,000 cigarettes and sleeping in dressing rooms.

And just so Richard feels a pang of longing to be with us, I ate my first cheese & chip sandwich last night. On a shitty bagel. Hope you're enjoying your Pho Richie.
This is us at 6am in Phoenix...

Of course, this was where we were only a few days ago. Serenity now...

Hi Hi NYC

2007-05-11T14:21:00.000-04:00

Flying in...

The baggage claim funhouse...
Tompkins Square Park from...
The terrace...
Greta...
The Empire State Building from my bedroom...

Bye Bye California

2007-05-11T14:10:00.000-04:00

The Bridge...

Marin...How old people kill time in Mill Valley...
The city...
One last look at the pad...
And the sun sets...

Hello Ween

2007-05-03T01:51:00.000-04:00

Moving sucks. I'm moved out of the SF apartment but still have to move into the NYC place. Writing about moving would be masochistic so I'm going to skip it. I'm in Oxford, Mississippi now in the middle of a short run with Ween. It's my first time working for them and so far it's been pretty sweet. It's a whole different scene than the one I've been working in for the last few years but they're one of my favorite bands so the shows have been particularly fun. They typically play for 3hrs with no intermission. The first show we played was in Asheville, NC. It's a typical hippie college town in the mountains of western NC. Since there was no security at the stage kids were jumping up and dancing across the stage the whole show. Now, I'm all for the kids digging the rock, but it's pretty excruciating to watch a procession of kids jump up on stage, do some lame dance and make the devil horns at the crowd and then timidly lay onto the crowd in hopes of stage diving without getting hurt. The whole thing devolved during the encore when the band played LMLYP. This is a song where the band lets girls (girls only) on stage to dance. As the band played more and more people invaded the stage. At first they stayed behind the line of monitor speakers but soon they just took over the whole stage until they surrounded the band. Welcome to Ween tour.

Safe behind the wedgeline...

The first one crosses over...

And the dam breaks...

Goodnight Asheville...

Alabama Theater, Birmingham...

Mickey & Dave bring the pain...

(.......)

2007-04-21T03:44:00.000-04:00

Ruination Day

2007-04-15T13:58:00.000-04:00

As you may or may not know, April 14th is the day that the Titanic sank as well as the day that Lincoln was shot. It may now also be the day I rented my apartment and sold my Ducati. I had an 'open house' which made me realize how much of a deal I'm getting on this apartment. Within 2 minutes of walking thru the door people were asking how they can get it. I keep thinking I should keep the lease and sublet it for more than I'm paying. Somehow it doesn't seem worth the hassle. Then I had my first showing of the Ducati. I haven't really ridden it since my accident so I took it for a quick spin to warm it up. It was enough to make me hate selling it. And of course the guy immediately wanted to buy it. I'm glad I was able to get my asking price but I was hoping it would take a week or so. I got in one last ride up through Marin and now she's gone. I've never been so depressed to get handed $7000.

State Of Flux

2007-04-14T03:39:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I've checked in here. Since then I finished the Albert tour, which included a handful of shows supporting Bloc Party, flew home to SF, secured an apartment in NYC and started the process of a cross country move condensed into 2 weeks. I'm a little nervous that I won't be able to rent my apartment, sell everything that needs selling and pack what needs packing. All the while my neck/shoulder is still giving me enough trouble to be worrying. I still need to sort out the legal end of that whole mess. Not to mention the bills associated and of course, sorting thru 8 million little crumpled up receipts for tax time. All in all things are a bit insane right now, but I feel good about making the move and look forward to a good purging. I have way too much shit. And on that note....

"Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt"

2007-04-12T02:26:00.000-04:00

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

1922 — 2007

Kurt Vonnegut died today at 84. The world really is a lesser place without him.

I Flew...

2007-03-25T03:05:00.000-04:00

From here...

To Here...

So there.

Signs Of The Apocalyse

2007-03-23T13:04:00.000-04:00

This is what listening to the radio makes me feel like...

I can't believe that this is still their logo. I mean, come on, at least pretend to give a shit about the planet that you want to dump red paint all over. "Cover the Earth" it says. Fuck you.

And what is there to do at midnight on the outskirts of Indianapolis? Walk to the Wal-Mart "supercenter" for clean socks and undies...

This is simultaniously what's great and so wrong about America...

From Music Hell To Music City

2007-03-22T22:35:00.000-04:00

Sunrise over Austin airport...

I've been kind of obsessing on older music lately, mostly the 50s Sun Records stuff. All that music- the first (and best) recordings by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a bunch of other more obscure artists- was recorded in the same room by one guy. I really wanted to visit the studio when the Strokes were in Memphis but basically slept thru my window to do so. Now, as we move from Austin to Atlanta to Nashville, it all seems like a perfect soundtrack for this part of the country. I'm also reading Cash, the autobiography of Johnny Cash, so that adds to the overall aesthetic. The book is amazing, just JC speaking plainly yet profoundly about his life & career. I had to struggle not to weep openly on the plane when I was reading about when Roy Orbison lost 2 of his sons shortly after the death of his wife. Poor Roy. Such a rough life for such a good man.

So anyway, after a few hours rest at the hotel after the Blender party, we got to the airport in Austin just in time for sunrise. I hadn't slept at all. Most everyone else had slept a couple hours, which I think was worse. I'm much better at staying up all night than getting up after a few hours sleep. We flew to Atlanta and took a van straight to the gig. The bus wasn't there yet so we went to Whole Foods for food. It's always a treat if there's a Whole Foods walking distance from the gig. It was a cool but nice day in Atlanta. The sky looked like this as the day faded...

Another show came and went and we rolled off into the night towards Nashville. Being on tour for so many years I've come to develop a strange relationship with the Great American Night. It's a whole other world going on out there while everyone else sleeps. The sights, smells, sounds and especially the people of a truck stop at 3am somewhere outside Memphis, Tennessee or Davenport, Iowa take you a long way towards understanding America. Maybe I hyper-romanticize it. I did read a lot of Kerouac when I was younger. Still, there's something about it that makes me feel at once like I belong here yet totally alienated, much like America as a whole. And so, after another night spent flying across middle America, I awoke in Nashville. Music City. Home of the Opry. Strange then that we had my least favorite show of the tour there. As complaining about venues and such can't make for interesting reading, I'll skip that part. We did the show and went to sleep at the hotel.

Downtown Nashville, just before a rain...

We had a day off in Nashville so I walked downtown with Bri. Downtown Nashville (or at least the 'Music Row' part) is lined with historic bars (all of which have live music ALL the time-including 4pm on Monday) and record stores and such. The Ryman is right there which is where the Grand Ole Opry was for years. We checked out Ernest Tubb's record shop which I think must be the site of the first ever 'Instore performance'. They've been doing the 'Midnight Jamboree' there since 1947 and it's still going. On Saturday nights, after the Opry ended, various folks would go across the street to Tubb's and play on the little stage in the back and it was broadcast on the radio. That little stage has seen the likes of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and countless others. It was pretty cool to see it. It's still going on every saturday on WSM 650am only now you can also listen online. Ah, progress.

Ernest Tubb's...

Across from Ernest Tubb's is Gruhn Guitars, a pretty famous guitar shop that I like to visit whenever I'm in town. I've never bought anything there but it's always fun to gawk. They have a ton of sweet, vintage guitars.

This time I was in the mood to buy something. I actually went there in hopes I'd find something I liked that I could afford. There were about 12 guitars I could've easily walked out of there with but this one spoke to me...

It's a 1955 Gibson ES-225. And it's mine. Defintely one of the best purchases I've made in ages. It sounds great without even plugging it in. It's the first guitar I've bought in 10 years which is strange given how much time I've spent drooling over them. It looks amazing with it's perfectly cracked finish and classic sunburst. It seems apt to have bought it in Nashville. And so, new baby in hand, we were off to Indianapolis. A darkness looms...

Deep In The Heart

2007-03-17T04:56:00.000-04:00

It's 4am Saturday morning. In 3 hours we leave to fly to Atlanta. I can't wait to get out of Texas. Can. Not. Wait. We flew into Dallas and did a show at the Gypsy Tea Room.

Albert loads in
It's in the 'cool' part of Dallas known as Deep Elum. While I concede that it is the 'cool' part of Dallas, it's still one of the most depressing places I've ever been. Every time I come here it makes me question my career choice. We watched some really ominous clouds blow in over the city and bring a massive thunderstorm.

We did the gig and the bus rolled to Houston. Possibly my least favorite city ever.
Richard has taken to buying stuffed animals for the bus. The teal bunny is the softest. It gives Richard solace as we close in on Houston...

The Houston venue was the worst so far. A nasty little room with crap gear in a grey, industrial section of what seemed to be Chinatown. It was pouring rain all day & night. The slideout of the bus leaked and a whole side of the front lounge got soaked.

I woke up with a lot of neck & shoulder pain and had a hard time being up & about trying to work. Then, while going to the bus for more meds, I tried to run thru the rain and tweaked something in my shoulder. I spent the next hour or so in periodic bouts of painful muscle spasms that were causing weird, involutary contortions. I took 2 percocets which got me thru the show but that basically left me high & nauseous for the show. I was glad when it was over and felt good about putting Dallas & Houston behind us.

We've spent the last 2 days in Austin for the South By Southwest music festival. While I have to say that everything went pretty smooth and that all in all it was a much better experience than I've had here previously, I still consider SXSW to be one of the darker circles of hell. It's basically this one week every year when all the underlings and minions of the music business get sent to Austin to 'network' and 'scout talent'. This basically translates to thousands of 20-something, pseudo-hip, fame-worshipping posers getting shitfaced and parading their credentials around like badges of honor while they force virtually every band in the world to come play in every kind of makeshift, shithole venue to entertain them. Interns feel important. The 47 'next-big-things' dress up in a homogenous, ridiculous emulation of the latest East Village fashions. Vapid groupie girls stumble around in absurd heels and show off the hottest in rock-skank chic. All the lamest elements of the music business are all in one place at the same time. And forget actually trying to see any music. Anything worth a shit will be at best a pain in the ass to get into and the crowds are all industry wanks so they give nothing back to the bands, who usually proceed to fake their way thru as short a set as possible so they can get the hell out of there. And now, after having finished our 2am slot at the Blender party, that's exactly what we'll do. At 7am we're off to catch a flight to Atlanta where we play a show tomorrow. Sleep is for the weak.

6th Street, Austin, SXSW

Filming an acoustic session for Yahoo

The enthusiasm was palpable

Space was so tight we had to pack Richard in the back with the gear...

Ron Gantles, Mgr.

The coveted SXSW badge...

Rocky Mountain High

2007-03-12T04:29:00.000-04:00

Colorado: Day 1
We flew in from SF in the evening and Matt & I, having decided to skip the 900 mile drive to Dallas and spend a couple nights in Boulder instead, picked up a rental car and drove to the hotel in Denver. After resting up a bit we went with Albert to dinner at one of the best Japanese restaurants I've ever been to. It was easily one of the best meals I've had and we left stuffed and sleepy. Not a bad way to land.

Colorado: Day 2
Yesterday was the first day that I was hit with a bout of tour depression. We started the day with a drive to Boulder to do a radio session in the afternoon. It went smooth but the weather was getting pretty ominous by the time we headed back to Denver for the show. By the time we got there it was pissing down rain and cold. After a frustrating sound check spent trying to make the best of a shit venue I set out to eat my first meal of the day (at 7pm). The only thing around the venue was an Irish pub and I had a rental car so I set off to find food. After driving around the most bleak industrial areas of Denver for 20 minutes, I gave up and went back to the bus where I made a sandwich of muenster cheese and potato chips. I think this is pretty much when I felt a million miles from anywhere I actually wanted to be. The fact that I'm still having serious pain in my neck and back is starting to wear on my spirits a bit too. Anyway, the gig went ok but I was glad it was done with. Matt & I had to drive to Boulder to check into our hotel there but Matt was wanting to hang out in Denver for a while to have some drinks. A friend was in town for a DJ party but that ended before we could get there so we ended up meeting them at some after hours party. We found the place in one of the previously mentioned bleak industrial areas and was in some dilapadated garage type space. When we tried to get in there was a bit of a weird vibe with the door guys and we started to get a sense that this wasn't someplace we were exactly comfortable. The friend who brought us here is Danny Masterson who, as one of these guys deftly pointed out, is "that smart-ass mutha fucka from That 70s Show". This combined with Albert being "that dude from the Strokes" managed to secure us entry without paying the cover so, in we went. It immediately became one of those "what the fuck are we doing here?" kind of things. The place looked like some sort of hip-hop squat house. The first room had a makeshift kitchen and a bunch of weird people hanging around. We were told there was a keg in the back so we went thru the next room which was a big open room with a small stage where there was some local hip hop crew spouting a bunch of bullshit to a lackluster crowd of 20 or so people. Thru there was a weird garage type place with the keg. We stood around taking in this bizarre glimpse of the Denver underground, feeling vaguely uncomfortable and drinking nasty keg beer. After a half-hour or so I managed to initiate our departure and Matt & I were off to Boulder.

Colorado: Day 3
It's been a long time since I spent any time in the mountains. I spent a couple winters living in the Rockies in Colorado, working shit jobs and snowboarding most every day. It was probably the healthiest I've ever been in my life and I loved living amidst such grandiose scenery, but work called me back east to Vermont and I haven't spent much time in the Rockies since. Today we drove up thru Estes Park and into the Rocky Mountain National Park. We stopped for breakfast along the way at some little 'family restaurant' where I had the worst restaurant experience ever. It was similar in some ways to the squat house party. A bizarre scene which I wanted out of as soon as I walked in. Some moronic teen ager was our waiter and literally got everything wrong. When I sent my breakfast burrito back because it was wrong, they gave me another one that had nothing but potatoes in a tortilla. We left an $0.11 tip.
A lot of the park was closed but we still got to do a good bit of driving on some amazing scenic roads. Saw some elk and some mountains then headed back to Boulder for another great dinner. Tomorrow we fly to Dallas for a night off there before the gig on Tuesday. We're looking at a week straight of madness, mostly in Texas. I don't want to sound negative or anything, but I fucking hate Texas. Yes, even Austin. Austin only seems cool relative to the rest of Texas, but that's not saying much.

Poor BK

2007-03-10T04:31:00.000-05:00

I did some touring with Ben Kweller a few years back. I really liked his music and he's a super nice guy. The bass player in Albert's band was BK's bass player then and he showed me BK's new video which he filmed himself. It consists solely of his 80-something year old grandmother dancing to his song in the fitness room at her condo in Florida. You can see it here. Scroll down to Ben Kweller on the list on the right. It's amazing.

While I was looking on YouTube for this video I came across this guy doing covers of 2 of BK's songs including what I think is his best song (In Other Words). If I ever had to bear witness to somebody doing to one of my songs what this kid does to Ben's, I would shed a thousand tears in mourning.

Wonder Why In LA

2007-03-09T23:23:00.000-05:00

The west coast portion of the tour has come and gone. The show in LA was the highlight so far. It was at the El Rey which is a really nice room with lots of big red velvet curtains and chandeliers. It was sold out and, as is usually the case at Strokes-type events, well-attended by celebrities of various levels. Dustin Hoffman & Borat were the only ones I really got a kick out of. Fab & Nick came down so it was a bit of a reunion. The show went really well and there was an afterparty at Cinespace which was a madhouse club scene. Nothing makes me feel old & lame like a packed dance club. I always wonder why people try so hard to get past that velvet rope just to be crammed into a dark room that's so loud you can't converse with anyone and get charged $12 for a drink. I wonder why...

The next day we did an instore at Amoeba records which, while a pain in the ass, went pretty well too. Afterwards I jumped in a cab and barely made a flight home to SF where I got to spend 2 nights at home while we did a gig at Popscene. I hate Popscene. That's all I'll say about that.

I had a bizarre experience while I was riding the 5 Fulton bus home from downtown the other day. I was listening to my iPod so I missed some of it, but basically this woman, not a crazy looking woman but a normal looking, middle-aged Asian woman, stood up at the front of the bus and asked all the people in the front to tell her whether she should "go ahead and go away or, you know, stay alive". I missed when she explained whatever it was that motivated this question so I wasn't ready to yell out "stay alive!" but some woman sort of meekly gave her this advice. Then after a minute a youngish (late 20s?) hip-looking black man went and sat next to her and talked to her for the rest of the ride. I felt glad that someone had stepped up and given this woman a little bit of humanity and couldn't help but wonder what her story was and what he was saying to her. And I couldn't help but think that that guy might've saved her life. Maybe that's a bit dramatic, but maybe not. I also found myself wondering if anyone would've reached out like that if the same scene had played out on a NYC subway. Regardless, it was a surreal bus ride, even for SF, which provides no lack of surrealistic moments.

So anyway, now I'm in Denver. After a couple days here we're looking at a week in Texas, including 2 days in Austin for the SXSW festival. If it's anything like my last experience there, I'll be venting about it here soon enough.

Bring Out The Gimp

2007-03-04T21:15:00.000-05:00

Another week and a half has passed since 'the taxi incident' and I find myself on a tour bus flying down I-5 towards LA. I'm 2 shows (Seattle & Portland) into a 5 week tour with Albert Hammond, Jr. I've worked with Albert for a few years with the Strokes and Matt 'DJ Ro-Ro' Romano is playing drums (as opposed to his usual role of drum tech/shit magnet with the Strokes) so it's good times. It's a fun band to mix and it's good to be out of the house. Actually, everyone on board on this tour is pretty agreeable to be around. Even legendary mad-bastard Brian 'Machine Gun' Dunn has been well-behaved. We'll see how long that lasts.
If was smart I probably would be at home resting and going to physical therapy and generally attending to the process of healing. Of course I'm too hardcore for all that. My injuries are making progress but slowly. I'm definitely noticing the toll being on the road is having on my body already but I'm hoping if I take it easy I can suck it up long enough to heal up properly.
Wish me luck.

One Week On...

2007-02-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

So it was a week ago today that I got mowed down by a negligent cab driver. Cut down in the prime of my life. The overall 'everything hurts' soreness has mostly subsided and I'm left with a couple of more acute injuries. The x-rays say nothings broken but my leg feels differently. It's the only thing that feels worse as time goes on. My neck is still all fucked up but is slowly easing up. I went to physical therapy today and go back next week. Hopefully that will help things along. I'm due to leave on tour a week from tomorrow. I've been having doubts about being able to go but I think I'll have to muscle through. I shall "Cowboy Up" as the rednecks say. In the meantime I've been laying low, watching movies and maintaining my pain meds schedule. I've settled into a groove of Vicodin during the day and the stronger, sleepier Percocets at night. This basically means I haven't had a sober moment since I got hit. I hear lucidity is over rated anyway.

I've also started the legal end of this ordeal. I've been contacting attorneys and witnesses and records departments and whatnot. This blog may well devolve into a series of rants about the absurdist nature of our health care/insurance and legal systems. I'll try to keep it at bay as best I can.

Fuck You Yellow Cab

2007-02-16T03:31:00.000-05:00

I got hit by a god-damned taxi today at the airport. And I mean hit. Like 'fly-upside-down-thru-the-air-15-ft-and-land-on-your-head' hit. I was in the crosswalk too. The guy didn't even slow down till he hit me. The best part was that I got to get strapped to a board for an hour and then, after being taken to the ghetto SF General Hospital, get left in a hallway full of crackheads and homeless people who were all screaming and crying and being restrained by police. There were easily as many police in this trauma ward as medical personnel. I ended up being discharged without even getting an xray. This truly is the greatest country in the world. Schools, heath-care...we really are a shining example to the rest of the world. So instead of going to NYC and looking at apts. and seeing Sonic Youth and seeing the Arcade Fire play in some sweet ass church, I'm sitting at home counting time off in four hour chunks between vicodin feedings. So fuck you Yellow Cab. I'm sure our lives will be intertwined for many moons to come. Now, anyone know a good lawyer??

Surrealistic Pillow

2007-02-12T13:56:00.000-05:00

The other day Val & I went to see David Lynch's new film, INLAND EMPIRE (title MUST be in all caps according to Lynch). I think it's safe to say that most artists, filmmakers included, are almost always trying to express something with their creations. Maybe it's not always some grandiose truism, but it's usually something. David Lynch's work is always diffiicult, if not pointless, to try and interpret in any literal way but I think I know what he's saying with his latest. He's saying "I'm David Lynch and I'm the darkest, most surreal fucker who's ever walked the earth". If 3 hours of dark surrealism sounds like your cup of tea, get thee to your local art-house cinema and dig into this shit. If Blue Velvet was a little too weird for you, better skip it. I have to say that Laura Dern gave an amazing performance that's worth witnessing, even if it means having to soak up enough fucked up imagery to give Dick Cheney nightmares.

In other Lynchian news, season 2 of Twin Peaks is FINALLY coming to DVD in April. This is a good thing.

Can You Dig?

2007-02-12T02:21:00.000-05:00

After raining pretty steadily for the last few days, the sun finally did it's thing today and made for a beautiful 'partly cloudy' day. After a lazy start and some french toast at Crepes On Cole (who, by the way, have the best french toast in the world) I headed out to the Sunset to meet Val & her friends Mitch & Chris. We walked out to Ocean Beach which was well populated with various folks soaking up the last of the day's sun. Someone had planted an old x-mas tree in the sand which made for a strange image. Mitch, in an apparent fit of Scroogian angst, was compelled to throw said tree into the ocean. And so he did.

Next we came upon some crazy girls who were swimming. Mind you I was wearing a North Face jacket over my sweatshirt and was quite comfortable. Mitch had a theory that they were from some land-locked Midwestern state and had never seen the ocean before. When we walked back by them some photographer dude had taken to chasing them around in the water and then directing them to pose in various 'seductive' ways. It was a bit surreal. This is a picture of Chris taking a picture of an Asian woman who was taking a picture of the dude taking a picture of the girls.

This is said Asian woman posing with the swimming girls posing behind her.
Our last and favorite character of the day was this crazy dog who was maniacally digging holes all over the beach. There were like 12 people standing there watching this dog dig the shit out of the wet sand. Good dog.

The Dark Of The Matinee

2007-02-06T22:44:00.000-05:00

Sunday was the last day of the Noir City film festival. This is easily one of my favorite 'cultural events' in SF. I've missed it the last few years while I was working but this year I was home. It's 10 days of double feature Noir films shown at the Castro Theater. The Castro is one of the nicest theaters I've been in, and I've been in a few. It was built in the 20s and is one of the few old moviepalaces left in the country. They have a huge Wurlitzer pipe organ that a guy plays before movies and a great, huge screen. Easily my favorite place to see a movie. In all I saw 9 movies in 10 days. It's a lot of sitting in a theater but the movies were great, all dark and bleak. The ones I saw were: Raw Deal (1948), Cry Danger (1951), Framed (1947), I Love Trouble (1948), Pushover (1954), Scarlet Street (1945), Wicked Woman (1953), The Damned Don't Cry (1950) & Possessed (1947). Good times.

Viva Espana

2007-02-06T22:29:00.000-05:00

While watching my local Fox network, there was an ad for the 10 oclock news. One of those short blurb about a story they'll be covering sort of things. The kind where they'll say things like "How a certain kind of car seat may kill your baby. Find out if you should be scared shitless, at 11". Only this one was "Find out why you've been paying taxes on long distance calls to pay for the Spanish-American War". Rather than try and say something clever and disparaging here I think I'll just leave you with that.

A New Approach

2007-01-26T18:05:00.000-05:00

I put this sign on the door of my apartment today. I hope it works. I still can't find the room service menu.

The Little Things

2007-01-24T23:52:00.000-05:00

Today was a banner day. I went, wait for it...grocery shopping. I know this probably seems like a non-event to you fancy-pants "homelifers", and it must pale in comparsion to stories of life with rock stars in faraway lands, but this is something I haven't done in months. My car is still up in Healdsburg where I keep it while I'm on tour, so all I have is my motorcycle which is not-so-great for the shopping. I've gotten bits and pieces at the local markets, but I've generally had no food in my apt. since I got home on Dec. 27th. The camel's back broke last night when I had to have cheese & Triscuits for dinner. I swear I eat better on tour. Where's my dressing room rider? What time does room service go till? So anyway, Lucas has his car out of storage so we went to Whole Foods and shopped. Holy mother of god what a nightmare. I can't imagine why a store this crowded and with tiny-assed aisles don't have those little mini shopping carts. I did what I thought was a pretty decent job of getting a variety of things to make so I can eat at home, as you do. It was the first time I've ever checked out of a Whole Foods and been surprised that it cost LESS than I expected. This gave me pause. My fears were realized when I arrived home, unpacked it all and realized that, while I have any number of options for breakfast, I still had nothing to eat for dinner other than a frozen pizza. You see, these are the things that I've forgotten how to do. I used to buy food and cook it. Now I can't even remember what I used to cook, let alone how to do it. Sure, I'm pretty comfortable navigating restaurants in any number of foreign lands and I can get from my hotel to the airport and onto a plane without even waking up all the way, but I'll be damned if I can remember how to wash a dish.

Global Cooling

2007-01-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

It's gotten cold in SF. Not unusual for January but there is something strange about it being colder in California in January than it is in NY. I took advantage of the last warmish day with a ride up through Marin. It's gorgeous up there when the hills are green like they are now. It's usually brown from lack of rain but now it's more like spring.

Albert & Matt's new band played a couple shows at the Warfield opening for Incubus. Lucas, Lexi & I went down last night to check it out. They sounded great...big and tight. I was proud of my boys. We're heading to Vegas for the weekend so we'll get to catch up with them again there. It's supposed to be even colder in Vegas. All this weather madness has to be Al Gore's fault.

New Years Rockin Eve (Eve)

2007-01-02T23:53:00.000-05:00

Despite threatening to boycott new years eve this year, I ended up having the best one since the infamous Radiance NYE in 2002. It started with a practice run on the 30th with The Flaming Lips/Gnarls Barkley/Cat Power at the Bill Graham Civic. Cat Power was really disappointing. She had gotten a new band that sounded like they'd been playing together for about 7 minutes. It was also one of the worst mixed shows I've heard in ages. Gnarls was good times and the Lips were brilliant. They did a big mothership style entrance and treated us to the usual Lips confetti & dancing santas/aliens madness plus a midnight countdown and balloon drop. Top notch entertainment for sure.

For NYE I decided last minute to go see My Morning Jacket at the Fillmore. Holy good god man. These guys were amazing and did a big Donner Party themed thing and a midnight balloon drop (that's 2 in as many days). They started 2007 with absolutely brilliant cover versions of Celebrate (Kool & The Gang), All Night Long (Lionel Richie) and Careless Whisper (George Michael). They were so much better than I expected though it did get a bit relentless for my tired old ass. We left as they were halfway thru their 4th straight hour. Good for them.
All in all it was a good end to 06 and a good start to 07. Now it's time to cobble together some sort of life before I turn 35 in 5 months.

(Photo courtesy of Dumb Nostalgia)

The Golden State

2006-12-30T20:08:00.000-05:00

I'm back in SF for the first time in 7 weeks. It feels good to be here. I like it here. It's been a bit chilly but given that it's December 30th I'll take a high of 57. Takes a bit more bundling to be comfortable on the motorcycle but the days have been clear and bright. Went to Tsunami w/Lucas last night for sushi and sake. They did a toro avocado tartar that, while probably costing $4 a bite, was unreal. It's dangerous having that place as my neighborhood sushi spot. Tonight is the Flaming Lips/Gnarls Barkley/Cat Power show at the Bill Graham civic. It will almost certainly feel more like new years than tomorrow will. Wake me when it's over.

Mud Season In December

2006-12-26T01:37:00.000-05:00

My sister's house in Woodbury, VT

I'm back in Massachusettes after being in Maine and Vermont for xmas. It was nice being up north for a bit. There was no snow and it was so mild that it was more like spring mud season than winter but it was still beautiful. It felt good waking up to the wind in the trees instead of sirens and garbage trucks. I went for a walk with my nephew Ellis. He's 7 and in second grade. It's been ages since I've walked a dirt road in Vermont. Now I'm at my mom's until I fly to SF on Wednesday. Anyone wanna buy a big-ass TV?

Haven't seen these in a while...

Ellis showing me where he found the fox carcass...

Muddy...

Ellis on the move...

Escaping Metropolis

2006-12-22T21:48:00.000-05:00

7th Street, East Village NYC

On wednesday I picked up a rental car on 13th street and drove to my dad's in NH. It took an hour just to get out of Manhattan and then I sat in traffic all the way to New Haven. It was still better than flying, training, or bussing. It was nice to drive past all the quaint little new england houses all lit up and see stars when I got here. It feels good to be out of the city. We head up to Wilton, ME tomorrow to have Xmas with my grandparents and then I go to Vermont to my sister's for Xmas. It'll be good to get some northern new england time in before heading west to uproot my life.

This was on the sidewalk outside Beana's apt. I didn't see a rat so it must've sold.

This is what you want to see...

Bye bye city...

Dad's backyard...

What Is This "Normal" Life You Speak Of?

2006-12-18T20:42:00.000-05:00

I've been in NYC for quite a while now, keeping to myself more than I should and trying to get my head around making the transition to a more stationary lifestyle. I'm truly at a loss with how to approach this. I see people leading this type of life all around me. They're in perpetual motion as well but it's all centered around a fixed point, usually containing their own bed & toilet. I have wanderlust to the point of it being a disorder while at the same time all I want is for my perpetual motion to be centered around a fixed point, preferably containing my bed and a toilet. The more I read the blogs of fellow "touring professionals" the more I realize this is a common feeling. When I'm on tour all I want is to be done, home and still. As soon I'm done, all I think about is going somewhere else. I'm afraid that I'm losing the ability to live a normal life and I'm starting to suspect I never had it. Regardless, I've come to the conclusion that NY is a far more likely place for me to pull this off than SF. As much as I love it there, it doesn't offer me much outside of it's general appeal. Maybe someday I'll be able to make it work there, but for now it looks like it's 'back east' for me. The idea of moving again, let alone across country, makes me want to carve my eyes out with a rusty spoon, but it seems this is my destiny.

In other news, I grew a beard. Not sure how long it'll last so I figured I'd immortalize it here.

Strange Bedfellows

2006-12-12T20:38:00.000-05:00

I saw Jim Jarmusch eating sushi w/The RZA at Blue Ribbon tonight.
Getting a picture would've required being a complete dick so I didn't.

Back In The US & A

2006-12-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

So I'm back in NY after a quick spin around the UK. It ended up being a great trip. The weather was good and everyone got on well. The gigs were fun and not too much work. There was lots of poker played and we had a great day off in Falmouth which is in Cornwall, my favorite part of England. It was great to be back with the Futureheads and the trip seemed too short if anything. Though the bus was tiny and cramped the bunks had windows that opened. I realize that only people who've lived on a tour bus will be able to appreciate that, but it makes a huge difference to have fresh air in a hallway where 9 men sleep, sweat and take off their shoes. I didn't take many pictures but here's a few of note...

While I wish I'd gotten a better shot, this is the sushi place in London where the Russian spy was poisoned. It's completely sealed off with a police guard and was almost finished being painted with the Itsu logo and a brief statement. It said something to the effect of "An international espionage incident has transformed this Itsu into a world famous meeting place. We are shocked and saddened but our staff and customers are marvelous. Thank you for your emails of support. Please visit our other location in (wherever that is)." We all found both the tone and sentiments to be odd at best and borderline offensive. A world famous meeting place? Visit our other location? Umm...ok.

This was a window display on Oxford street (one of the busiest shopping districts in London) and a close up of the photo of Tony Blair. Good stuff.

Our day off in Falmouth we were in a nice old hotel right on the sea with a great view of the water and the castle on the hill in the distance. I did quite a bit of wandering around and enjoyed some nature time. Here's the view from my room.

And this is the entrance to the castle (which was closed both times I went). I did get to walk around the moat and get a sense of how fortified these places are. I've never been in a moat before.

I just want to point out the laughability of the Ibis hotel slogan. If you've stayed at one, you'll understand why.

More YouTube Joy

2006-11-30T10:09:00.000-05:00

A short bit of footage of Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli. Notice how Django has 2 deformed fingers and is still one of the the greatest guitarists ever.

Tom Waits on Australian TV, April 30, 1979

Tom Waits on Letterman. Amazing.

The Thunder & The Roar

2006-11-30T04:28:00.000-05:00

Tom Waits has a new 3-CD set out called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. This guy is the closest thing I have to a hero. 30+ years of unbelievable music, a string of brilliant performances in various high-qualitiy films and just basically being the coolest motherfucker alive. He was on The Daily Show the other night which is definitely worth downloading from iTunes. I do wish that Jon Stewart had asked more questions as opposed to gushing his admiration but in all honesty I can’t blame him for a second. He then performed a song called Day After Tomorrow. It brought tears to my eyes. Unbelievably they faded out before he was done but it was still as good as anything you’ll ever see on television. If you’re not familiar with this man’s music go buy some now. The new one is a good cross section of his different styles (one disc is ballads, one blues/rockish and the other the can’t-be-categorized stuff) but Closing Time, The Heart of Saturday Night, Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones are all good first bets too. He’s got 20-some albums and virtually all are worth the time and money. Go on and get some.

Inspirado

2006-11-30T04:23:00.000-05:00

“You can’t manufacture inspirado”….Tenacious D

I’ve obviously been slack on updating lately. I’d like to claim it’s because I’ve been too busy but it’s mostly been just a lack of inspiration, both to write and take pictures. I finished up with Damien Rice, spent a week off in NYC and flew to the UK for a 2 week tour with the Futureheads which is where I am now. Birmingham to be precise. It hasn’t been too bad given the time of year. The weather’s been better than it was in NY when I left and I’ve actually had 3 great meals in a row. 2 of them were Indian which is definitely your best hope of a good meal in the midlands of England. In fact, I’d wager they have the best Indian food anywhere outside of India. I had dinner at one of my absolute favorite restaurants last night in Wolverhampton of all places. It’s called Bilash and they have this award winning dish called Goan Tiger Prawn Masala. It’s ridiculously expensive given the current exchange rate but is easily one of the greatest things you could ever hope to put in your mouth. If you ever find yourself in the area, seek it out.

It’s been good to be back with the ‘Heads but I’m really losing my ability to cope with the constant touring. This is certainly not news to those who know me but it’s reaching a critical point. It’s more than a bit ironic that after all of my free-wheeling years of rejecting the wage-slave lifestyle that I’m just as locked in by money as anyone in a 9-5.
But hey, I get paid to go to Japan and Russia and meet people like Lou Reed and Dennis Hopper while I’m working. What’s a good day at your job? Exactly.

“So here’s to feeling good, and here’s to feeling bad. Here’s to feeling thankful and sorry for the pleasures that we had.”…Townes Van Zandt

In A Strange Land

2006-11-12T20:56:00.000-05:00

I've finished the first few days with Damien Rice. We're in LA doing promo stuff. First we did Jay Leno. There isn't much for me to do at TV stuff so I mostly did nothing. Borat & Martha Stewart were on too so that made for good fun. She tried to teach him how to make a bed. One of Jay Leno's "things" is that he drives a different, crazy car to work every day. The last time I was there he pulled in a weird tube thing made by Indian. This time he rolls up in a 1930-something Bentley roadster. Nothing says "Look At ME!!" more that Jay Leno's massive head sticking out of this car.

Next we did Morning Becomes Eclectic which is a great morning music show on KCRW. Again not much for me to do so I just paid attention and got my head around their music a bit. They did a few great stripped down versions of some new songs. It was pretty sweet. The next day had us in Long Beach doing an instore at cool little record shop. This was my first time really mixing them. The prep was a bit of a pain in the ass (as in stores usually are) and the gear was less than great. All in all I thought it sounded pretty good and the band was great. Damien is really talented and has surrounded himself with great musicians. Lisa Hannigan sings with him and has the most beautiful voice I've ever put through a speaker. They're all really nice people though it's always weird being the new guy coming into a tight-knit group. I'm also finding being in a hotel particularly depressing. I'm going to be kicking myself in a couple weeks when I'm on a stanky bus in the midlands of England. I suppose I should enjoy LA while I can.