It's been awhile...

...since I last rapped at ya. What can I say, summer is over, autumn is here and I am pretty excited. Going to Japan in a few days for vacation, really excited about that.

I have not been able to get- Menomena and TV on the Radio off my ipod and car stereo.

Peace grease.

Hungry ?

If you are hungry and you are near Bay City, Wisconsin you should go here.

sling shot

This has to be a future Darwin award winner. Looks fun, but man...check this out.

Pitchfork Bla Bla

So the Pitchfork music festival is this weekend in Chicago and I could not be more un-interested in the lineup. I admit that I have become pretty jaded and I have a hard time paying real money for a show theses days, unless Jawbox, Afghan Whigs and Superchunk decided to play a triple bill, I would pay for that.

Sonic Youth is playing their album Daydream Nation from start to finish. Thats about the most exciting artist on the bill to me and it's not even that exciting. I would probably go see Cat Power, but just to see if she flips out and starts crying on stage. I have seen her twice, one time was amazing, one time was hilarious. She played Sasquatch a few years ago, her road crew and band looked and acted as if they never left Williamsburg. Anyway, their dipshit tour manager forgot to tell Ms. Power that she only played 4 songs and still had 30min's left of her set. She then walked back on stage and half assed a karaoke version of Smoosh's "Rad". As far as the other bands on the bill, who cares. It's gonna be fucking hot and humid and I think the last place in the world I would want to be is at the Pitchfork Festival. Well other then maybe here

4th of July

the 4th used to be my favorite. As a little kid I looked forward to it with great excitement. In my hometown, every year there was a community festival held in the park one block over from our house. They had games and rides and a band shell where teenage bands got to try their best Van Halen covers. It was awesome. Then the fireworks, I loved the fireworks. It was the perfect time for flirting with the girls. If you consider sitting on the bank of a moon lit river watching a colorful fireworks display with 10,000 other people eating cotton candy and drinking can beer, it was very romantic. It seemed that 4th of July stretched a whole week for me. As I got older that week shrunk. With baseball games and part time jobs I didn't get to participate in the "community fest" and was always rushing to get to the fireworks on time. It just wasn't the same. When I left home for college, the 4th got a new lease, because of my best friends mutual interest in the 4th. He hosted a part at his parents lake house just east of where we lived. It was amazing and so much fun. I was the boat captain cause I was the only one who could start it besides my friends Dad, it was a bit tricky. This annual party that started out with maybe a dozen close friends grew and grew in numbers, so much that I really didn't know half the people there. Driving the boat now became a job, and I didn't want it. So the 4th went back down on the list of the greatest days. Pretty much stayed that way for a few years with all the touring, the 4th just became a day you didn't get mail and most of the stores were closed. Well now I think the 4th is having it's 2nd comeback with me. We live in this little village outside of Chicago, I would not call it a suburb because that gives it the wrong connotation, nevertheless they love their 4th of July. Parades, games, rides, and teenage bands get to try out their Fall Out Boy covers ( Give me Van Halen anyday ). and of course they have Fireworks on the edge of the water. I am looking forward to it, especially the cotton candy and can beer.

Superstar

I had a homework assignment last night. I am working on a new website for my current employer's. So I took home the Paul McCartney "US" tour DVD, there is a lot of footage of our big red trucks. Anyway. I think that anyone that is/wants/dreams of being a rock-n-roll star needs to watch this. Sir Paul is truly an amazing man. The video shows his professionalism/humor/compassion it's really great. Required viewing.

Super Night

I saw Superchunk last night. Since I technically got married in 2006, this was the best night of the year so far! I was so excited, I had told Kristin that they were my favorite band, but I don’t think she knew how much I love them. When they played Animated Airplanes Over Germany and I started to sing all the words, I think she got it. I had seen them play at Metro 10 year’s prior and this time was just as great. Especially great because the show was a benefit for the Eff Cancer fund. The benefit was set up by a friend of a friend’s family because of their late brothers love of Superchunk. I didn't know Sean Silver, but I bet we would of been friends for sure. The benefit had a silent auction going, so I donated some of the cool DCFC show prints that I had collected over the past few tours. I think the posters fetched some good money.

Duston Checks' In

I remember this photo being taken, but I had never seen the results. One of those classic DCFC tour moments that included, drinking, boredom, exhaustion and a digital camera. Notice my Musketeer facial hair!

Use Me

So I didn’t sell the car. Bummer. I really thought I had this one sold, but the guy backed out. I can’t blame him though. He and his wife have two kids now and she has one in the oven, thing is she might have two, they are not sure. So if she has twins the Volvo will not have enough room, so they passed. He was very nice and felt really bad for not buying it, he sent me an apology email!

I listened to the best of Bill Withers today on the drive to work. That man is amazing. I love all of it except “ Just the Two of Us” partly because Will Smith ruined that song for me.

Weather Watcher

I love watching the summer storms. There is a beauty in the midst right now. I am supposed to drive to Rockford and finally sell the white Volvo, but I heard there is flooding and power outages there. I started to watch the weather channel in hotel rooms when I was lonely and tired and didn't want to put forth the effort of actually finding a movie on pay-per-view. It was especially fun when the you could tell the excitment of the reporter when a big storm was near. Walla later introduced me to watching C-SPAN for the same hotel room enjoyment. I am telling you, being on tour with Death Cab for Cutie was a CONSTANT PARTY! CSPAN , The Weather Channel and the occasinal joint room pizza/movie party!
I would not trade it for any other.

Chop Chop

Good morning, I trust your journey on the information super highway was nice and fast, and you reached this blog without any traffic congestion, unlike my drive to the city last night. It took me 2 hrs to go 45 miles to get to the Metro. Did I mention how much I dislike Chicago Cub fans? Let me re-state that. I hate drunk, obnoxious , asshole frat boy Cubs fans.

Last night was great because I got to see my good friend Chopper and Keeley. They both are amazing and I was very happy to get to see them. I had not seen Keeley in some time and it was great catching up with him.

Chopper was the first person I have ever hired. When I was given his contact info I was a bit leery. Who is this guy, the only Chopper I knew was that Aussie dude with all the tattoos and used to like to hurt people. Well, on the phone he didn’t sound that tough and his schedule worked out so I hired him on a “see how this works out basis” . Plans were set and Chopper joined us for his first show in NY at Central Park. I remember the first time meeting him. We had flown in from Tokyo and were just a bit jet lagged. When he called from the lobby of the hotel, I went down there half asleep and that other Chopper’s image was burned in my head. A huge sigh of relief came to me when I saw him and he looked nothing like the menacing, no eared vigilante.

How can you not love a guy like this? errr. well I mean how can you not love that you know a guy like this ! Chopper Rules !

Crime Wave

Kristin and I went to see the movie Mr. Brooks last weekend. We were a bit leery because Kevin Costner was the leading man and the film appeared not to be about baseball. It was a great movie and we loved it. Even with the addition of Dane Cook who up until now I had no idea what he looked like. I had only heard that he was some sort of comedian that frat guys really liked. I thought he was ok, I really liked William Hurt as the alter ego to Kevin Costner’s perfect business/family man. I think I liked the movie so much because of Mr. Brooks attention to detail. I love symmetry and have a hard time when the little things are looked over.

When my friends and I would get bored on tour we would try to conceive the perfect plan for a bank robbery. We would have the perfect alibi, being on tour, jumping from one city to the other. We would give all the members of the band and crew titles based on their personality and sometimes physical attributes. This guy was always the mastermind, the boss, the quarterback. We had a driver, navigator, explosives, computer geek, muscle men, decoys, runners, etc…the perfect team for the perfect heist. Essentially we were imitating the scripts from a combination of good bank heist movies. It was a good time filler on long bus rides or painful airport layovers.

First Post

My first post to this blog magic. I was inspired by my friend Lucas blog. Lucas created an uproar when a certain band found his blog and his discontent regarding them. It was classic.

Anyway here I am writing, not yet sure If I will be able to keep up with the daily dose of it, but I am sure there are at least a few poor souls out there that find this stuff entertaining. I tend to think of this, much like my limited DJ experience when I would fill in or co-host the internet only radio station at UW-Madison. This was way before KEXP was what it is today and dial-up was the norm. There was actually a chart that showed how many listeners were online when you were on the air, I think my listenership peaked at 3.