pittsburgh, baltimore, philly, NEW YORK! Parissssss

holy hell what a week. We went from pittsburgh (show with Ecstatic Peace noise extravaganza Magik Markers) to baltimore (where we scared off everyone in the crowd when we played after a musical comedy act) to philly (connie’s ric rac down at the italian market area arranged by the cool dudes from DANGER DANGER) to New York (where we played last of 5 bands to 7 people, but got a shitload of drink tickets). We spent the night on the floor of a the New York based punk label Radical Records and enjoyed their bathroom collage very much while taking a crap.

We are off to Paris this evening and will have our first european show at Le Generale squat on the 1st. See you there !

Beerzooka

We drove from Chicago to Cleveland in some beautiful weather. The show at Spitfire was pretty cool and we later went with our hostess to another punk bar to see other bands who were performing that night in cleveland. The Spitfire, other then its black and white tile floors, punkrock bathrooms and hardcore jukebox, had another unique feature that really fascinated us for most of the night : The Beerzooka – a contraption designed by the owner of the bar, to slingshot empty beer bottles and break them in a transparent container. What a great idea. 

Tonights supposed to be a cool show in Pittsburgh with a noise act we only recently heard of called Magik Markers. In a few days we will reach New York City and fly out to paris,

we cant wait !

Lawrence, St. Loius, CHICAGO!

What a transition ! Lawrence was a great show and we stayed with Mark from BlackXMas. The guy had the coolest collection of horror movies at home and we watched a couple while falling asleep. There seemed to be a really good scene for music in Lawrence which made our Kansas tour something we would like to repeat again.

St. Loius was incredible. We played at a DIY space called Lemp Art Center which was in the middle of a rundown 19th century brewery area in old St. Loius. Some of the kids there were actualy experienced urban explorers that broke into deserted houses in the area and looked around.

Chicago is the first really big city we ever played in other then L.A. Mike from the venue we played in (Cal’s Liquor) took us to a real authentic mobster jazz club in an isolated part of the city and we all felt like we were in a gangster movie. The whole place remained untouched since 1930, unbeleivable. What a great city !

Heading out to Cleveland, supposedly, rock city ! woohoo !

Kansas !

We drove for 5 hours straight through Oklahoma. A flatbed land of grass and trees and rocks. The weather was beautiful and continued to be till we hit Wichita. Man what a turnout last night! Every guy and girl within radius was there (we played with the locally popular Dusty Rhodes Band who were all wonderful showmen). Our set was very aggressive and heavy and alot of fun. Avishy’s gear slowly fell apart while he was playing but he somehow managed as he always does.

We’re heading out to Lawrence, KS to play a show at the Replay Lounge with BlackXMas. See you there!

fxfy, dallas, lubbock, denton !

FXFY (fuck by fuck you) is a festival that takes place every year during sxsw in austin as an anti corporate house party with a ton of good bands. We played last but got the privilage of seeing Monotonix, Green Milk from The Planet Orange, Shellshag, Gorch Fock, Megazilla, and Snake Trap. The backyard of the house was packed with people drinking from the free kegs.

Next morning we woke up early, drove up to Dallas, and played an instore show at Good Records, which was just a strange empty show with people browsing cds and magazines while we’re playing. So we spread up in the store during the show and walked around people. Immediatly after that, we packed up our gear, and drove six hours to Lubbock. That show was stupendiously fun. We played this rented ballroom infront of people we had seen in our last Lubbock show. It was really great and we stayed with Tyler who had arranged for this show to happen.

From Lubbock we arrived last night into Denton, and played a show at JnJ’s Pizza place, which was so much drunken fun, that we now all have headaches. We’re at our friends house now in town waiting to leave to Dallas. We’re staying one more night here and its all north east from now on.

The two sides of Texas

Texas has two sides from what i’ve seen up to now : Cities and small towns. In the past 48 hours we’ve played on both ends of the rope – The Video Downtown in San Angelo, and Bolm Studios in Austin. San Angelo was dead quiet with nothing but kids and police cars out after 5pm. 30 or so people showed up to that one and 10 or so stayed by the time we had finished playing. An awesome space in what used to be a video store, very DIY,  just the way it should be. And as always, like all small towns we’ve played, it was a night to remember. Bolm Studios in Austin, which today (friday) was completly packed with people (the streets were shut down for traffic to allow the masses to move around town and see rock shows), like a full 180 from San Angelo’s scene (Anisa, thanks again for the hospitality, we had a blast!), felt more like a BBQ/College party. We played last, again, to some 10 people that remained, but probably had one of the best shows of our tour so far. We seem to have the best shows when no one is looking.

 We’re gonna start heading northeast on sunday towards Dallas, Denton and Wichita (with a stop at Lubbock!). So hopefuly we’ll be able to write in the next couple of days. Probably by the time we reach Denton and meet up with our friends there.

Tommorow is a big day, FXFY9 Festival is going down at 1306 E 6th St in Austin. We’ll be there and so will the awesome Monotonix, Green Milk From The Planet Orange, The Snake Trap and Lozen (!!). 

If your not there, you probably suck.

ironworks, free lone stars and highway loops

We asked Lee where we could find a good place to eat in Austin, after coming back from Houston dead tired in the rain. He said something about a BBQ place called Ironworks. We decided to try it out and boy were we not sorry. A real texan BBQ kitchen with huge grills and smokers, plastic plates and paper towels, just the way it should be, potatoe salad and beans and everything.

Our wednesday day party at the Whiskey Bar was a trainwreck, with 4 exploding songs one after the other. The performance really shook things up  and we were all very exhausted after it had ended. Maybe it was the fact that we drank free Lone Stars all afternoon, or maybe it was the rush of playing a festival abroad, but we soared pretty high during that show, and crashed very deep later, as the whole day seemed to terminate itself in greyish weather and sleepy atmosphere.

We’re still trying to figure out Austin’s motorways. Trying to get somewhere in the city sometimes takes us through endless loops and extremely long and frustrating detours. Today is San Angelo and we’re pretty excited to play a city we havent been to yet, and at a Video store to top that. 

oh Houston

We have so many friends here now in Houston. Last time we were here we were so drunk and happy and new to touring. Seeing Blades, Sinews and Tambersauro again braught back those memories of last time. Rudyard’s is a great place to play if your not playing midweek, and the food there is awesome.  Jeff (bass player for Tambersauro) has taken us into his amazing house. He has a home studio that puts many professional studios to shame. Ira has been drooling over his equipment since last night and probably still is in his sleep.

 We’re heading back to Austin today to pick up a van, get our drumset and pick up our new album which is coming out in May nationwide (but we’ll have it first to roll around in piles of it).

See you wednesday at the Whiskey Bar!

hard rain

It rained like crazy last night. we had to haul our geat into beerland through pouring rain with nothing but a smelly rug to cover it. Supposedly its supposed to rain today as we drive to Houston. Anyway enough about the weather, Last night was a good show and I dare say an even better show than the last one we played at Beerland. We also scored another show yesterday for friday which is great since we were sort of cancelled at Clementine.

Lee (See last post) shot a video of our gig last night so that should be online sometime (im not gonna say soon).  So if your in the Houston area come check us out at Rudyard’s.

Five cats, 2 dogs, 1 fat goat

We got to texas yesteday. Lee picked us up in what is going to be our tour van – a 9 seat steel blue dodge.  We’re staying at the label office since in the small attached apartment waiting for “the maddness” (sxsw) to begin. Since we got here we mostly have been keeping busy eating – we made an israeli breakfast (as they call it in coffee shops back home), egg, salad and avocado mash, for the people of the label house, and ate at a BBQ at Lee’s house (if jetlag hadnt overcome us we would have stayed for the tenderloins!).

There are now five cats, 2 dogs and 1 fat goat (ex small athletic goat) staying with us in the backyard. Soon this place will become a beehive of music activity with an expectency of thousands of visitors and hundreds of bands playing shows all day long for four days. We must have crashed our plane and gone to heaven.

Today we’re going to rehears a bit before our first show for the tour. Back to good old Beerland !