July 2009 Tour...

I think its worth mentioning the on the morning of our departure on July the 6th we had some very surprising guests show up at 5 in the morning. You'll never guess who. It was a joyful reunion and a sad goodbye, all within a very short amount of hours, but we did get to enjoy some apple pie and ice cream before we part ways.

July 7- Arlington, VA (basically DC)

Today our album officially came out and we couldnt be more thrilled. We were happy to show up to the IOTA to a warm crowd who, surprisingly, were mostly over the age of 40. Either way, they definitely showed us a lot of love and we had a great time performing our set. We also had first time attendences of 2 sets of important people... The gentleman and lady who brought our dear Sherrif Lin into the world, and the gentleman and lady who brought our dear friend Teddy Gage (My accomplice on the making of the RED LIGHT LOVE video!). We were very honored to have them and also honored to have the Washington post give us a great preview/review of the show. (view here)
July 8th-
Day off we spent in travel and practicing with our Producer Jeff Curtin, and friend Adam Schatz who played a lot of the keys and sax on our album. We stayed with our friends Ian, Julian, and Alex... and had a night of fun before we delved into our back to back album release shows.


(Julian, pictured above)


July 9- Nyc Mercury Lounge Album Release show with Heavy Trash
walked around green pointe a bit, wandered down into Willy-burg.

Made it to a park for a bit.

(Kelley and Nikki thought I was taking a picture of them, but if you'll see this zoomed up version, i was really trying to capture the huge vagina that tree had)

The show that night was so packed, and we actually got some people to DANCE AT THE MERCURY LOUNGE!! Nikki tried to do a bit of crowd surfing but this guy just held on to her and wouldnt let her go anywhere haha. thats not how it works, guys.
Heavy Trash was so much fun, and they are really such great folks. We sang a bit on there next album that hasnt come out yet, you should check it out when it does!!
Also, my favorite part of the night was meeting the bass player for Heavy Trash, Simon. One of the best musicians Ive ever met, and in a real league of his own just in general. He has a great band called "Simon and the Bar Sinisters." Check em out... buy some albums.

July 10- NYC Southpaw Brooklyn- Album Release Party with So So Glos and We are Country Mice.

Had a video interview for Nylon Magazine's website, and this girl who was taping us was so funny in her yellow headphones I had to take a picture. Plus I loved her fringe c.c.c.p. tshirt.
Adam and Jeff played the show with us that night, with adam on keys and jeff on aux percussion. Adam and his friend even played sax on a couple songs. We were happy to have to guys play with us, after all the hard work we had put into the album. Cant believe we ever actually finished it...
Thanks to all in New York who came out and supported us, we had a blast and cant wait to come back. I believe I have fallen in love with the big city lights.

July 11- Philadelphia
We went to bed at 8:30 am, because of course we had to booze it up with our NY crew in celebration, so needless to say when we left at 11 am we weren't in the best shape. But thats part of the job description.

It was hard to make it through that show, but we toughed it out. Afterwards we went to a party, I fell asleep on the couch. After I took a picture of their paintings.


July 12- Philadelphia
Ah, a day off to catch up on our sleep. I slept till 1 pm, and while the others went off to go swim in a pool shaped like an airplane, Lin and I walked around Philly and checked it out. We also went to a really amazing Latin Restaurant, which I cant remember the name of.

On the way back from the pool the girls, byron, and our friends cici and louisa got into a car wreck!!! but dont worry, no one was injured. some idiot just drove right into the back of louisa, who was slowing down for traffic.
Later that evening, Kelley and Nikki went to a dance party and Byron, Lin, and I went to go see bruno. we laughed.
I think I fell asleep at 9 pm. Still catchin up from New York I guess.

July 13- Pittsburg
9 am and feelin great!! Finally back to normal.
Ate some great Thai food and wandered around the area that The Club Cafe is in, there's some cool stuff down there. Had a bunch of radio Id's to record so had to get back to the venue and knock that stuff out.
It was a monday night and only about 40 people showed up, but we were ready for a party. SOME of them were, but not everybody. Problem is that place always puts these tables out for people to sit at, but then it makes it like a theatre dinner or some bullshit... and we tried to get them to move them but they claimed they would lose money because no one would buy food. Someone needs to explain to them that nobody eats dinner at 10 o'clock while a rock n roll band is playing. and if they do they should be caught and tortured.
Later that night I fell asleep to a show about the "Dangers of Marijuana!" and awoke alarmingly early to an very angry Indian woman bitching that it was past check-out repeatedly. But I will say it was the most comfortable bed I had slept on in quite a while.

July 14- Cleveland
After we shut that old lady up we went to the Andy Warhol Museum. We didnt really have time or money for the actual museum so we just went to the gift shop. I would show you some pictures of it but I got in trouble for trying to take some. The coolest thing I saw was a print he did with powdered diamonds mixed in black paint. SHINYYYYYY.
It was a short drive to Cleveland, and we had a little time to spare once we reached out destination, so we stopped at Whiskey Island. Obviously!


I never really though of Cleveland as having a beach, but what do ya know, there it was. It was pretty damn "Cleveland" too.

We love Beachland Ballroom 'cause they always hook us up with great food and are very hospitable. and also it's the greatest idea to have a vintage store in the basement of a venue. Not only because drunk people buy shit, but it has a door that connects directly to the green room and the bands get a discount. yeah hell yeah.
Guess who played in the opening band (The Real Dogs)? Our friend Jason who tour manages Dan Aeurbach! Good surprise.

I pulled a "whole damn thing" that night and ate five giant pieces of pizza before I went to bed. uggggdhgggggggghh.

July 15- Pontiac, MI
on the way outta town we hit the west side market in cleveland, whoa it was good. try the walleye sandwich if you ever happen upon the place.
An oil truck blew up on an the interstate between detroit and pontiac and the overpass collapsed! but it was after we had already gotten to the show. still pretty crazy.
Our friend john from nashville came to see us for the 10th time that night!
my journal entry for this night was pretty short but I think it sums it up nicely...
"ended up in a hot tub full of boys, but not as great as it sounds. we were awakened by their DAD the next morning. But at least he played AC/DC. the blublockers we left made their lives"

Ill leave that one to your imagination.

July 16- Indianapolis

We didn't just think this giant cement basket was awesome. You gotta look in the background for the real message of this picture.
I honestly dont remember much about this show, other than it was a My Old Kentucky Blog production and we hung out with Dodge (from MOKB) for a bit. Also my cousin Brad came but was exhausted, so we hung out and yawned at each other.
Nikki got to sleem in his son's train bed that night. She was fortunately passed out enough for Lin and Byron to have a little fun.



I wish I could post the really funny pictures... haha.

July 17- Chicago with Puking Pearls and Deep Sea Diver


It was a very Nautically Theme Evening, what with the two opening bands and it being at SC(h)UBA's
Puking Pearls was definitely one of my top picks of bands that supported us on this tour.
It was a Pitchfork Festival day, but somehow we still managed a great packed room. Totally worth showing up. (just kidding. of course it was!)

July 18- Minneapolis, MN


I can't say much about this show either... I was really sick that night and I just slept the whole time except for the show. The crowd was so awesome though. Really rowdy.

July 19-20- Rock Island, Illinois


Showed up so late there was no food and we missed the show daytrotter was putting on that night. I ate the 500th fish sandwich in a row. bleh, tour food.

The next day we play a show at Rock Island Brewing Company with The Velcro Lewis Group, my other favorite band of the trip.

Rock Island is a strange place because there is seemingly never people walking around. even during weekdays. Murfreesboro looks very similiar to it, but on weekdays especially from 2-5 there are usually all kinds of people walking around the downtown, lawyers and po-pos and people going to eat and people coming from the dmv. but in ROCK ISLAND its like a ghost town. at least the 2 times we ever went. but I did notice something on the walls at the RIBCO that I think might explain it...

See I was thinking about where all the people in the above picture went. then I walked to the next one, below.

more people right? so I went to the next one...

And they are marching the wordl HELL down the road...
and then here's the last one...

Everybody's gone!!!! Hell scared them away i guess.

July 21- Omaha, Nebraska
Well, frankly omaha sucked for us. it was like playing to a brick wall. Im not sure if that reflects on the town, the people, or just the night we were there. but it definitely didnt click. no one moved an inch, everybody sat like 20 feet away from us and stared, and most people left by the time we played. and in between songs you coulda dropped a pin on the floor and heard it. we even encouraged them to at least throw something at us but alas, no reaction. whatsoever. I think we were all really needing a good nights rest pretty bad as well, so nobody took it upon themselves to really shock the shit out of them this time.
hope fully next time the crazy's will come out. i challenge you omaha. i dare you....

July 22- Des Moines, Iowa
We played with a band called the Teddy Boys. Cool guys, unfortunately all of 2 people caught their set. Ours didnt fare much better, as Gogol Bordello was playing down the street and I down think there are even enough people in des moines to go around to both of those shows. Finally some people showed up (and by that I mean maybe 10 people) but they all danced and showed us their boobies! and somebody did a write up on the show the next day. I got dubbed the "gay one" somehow. thanks, i was wondering how to tell the other band members!! ;)

July 23- KCMO!! (kansas city, missouri)
gagagagagarage bands playing with us. Capt. Byron is from KCMO so we got to meet his mama and his sister, even his grandma! when the first band went on (nicotene fits from denver) she was appalled. she said, byron are the girls gonna be this loud? and he said, yes grandma they are. she said, "byron, are they a death metal band??" hahahahaha. cute.

thats Captain, and that's captains mom.

July 24- St. Louis, missouri

miscommunication led us to be late to our instore at Vintage Vinyl. but we still got some sweet records.. I picked up:


reissue though

but only on cd. :(

We played at Off Broadway once again, one of our favorite haunts. and we saw this:

(close-up)

Though I doubt this was the case, at the time it seemed like a sign of the apocalypse.

July 25- Memphis, TN!
We went back to the vintage vinyl for another quick once over then headed toward memphis. i dont have any pictures from this show... but it was fun. we stayed with our friend ashley and had another great night in memphis.
but, of course, we were glad to head home...


(kevin)