Francin' on the Ceiling

"dear Jim,
we put this awesome rain effect on Riders. you'd love it."

Jared, with the Sultan of Kebap

shit is beautiful.

Brugge Cruise (or, Cruisin' for a Bruggein')

frites

the most photographed spot in Brugge

this is where they invented beer*

* historical accuracy not guaranteed.

Holland

Dear Blog,

We are in Holland, or, the Netherlands, whatever the difference is. Conundrum: starting a month in Europe with three nights in Amsterdam, and realizing all you wanna do once you get there is sleep. Solution: get over it, lazy American.

Played in Eindhoven on Tuesday and Amsterdam on Wednesday and Rotterdam (aka Rotown) on Thursday. This whole opening-for-White-Lies thing means we're playing in front of packed theatres. Really nice ones, too. Like Paradiso in Amsterdam, an old church, ca. 1880. Stones played there, or something like that. Lots of teenagers, too, which is kinda culture shock for us. A girl on the front row asked for one of Jared's picks in Amsterdam. Hope she enjoys it.

Scenes:

impromptu wine-and-cheese picnic, Alkmaar centrum (cups by Subway)

Dan, at work in his fossil room, Haarlem (oil on canvas)

slightly racist chocolate bar

totally partied with these guys in Amsterdam. here they are reminding us we're awesome.

everything's better when wet

Culinary highlights & lowlight from Texas:

Huevos Rancheros. H&H Car Wash & Coffee Shop, El Paso

Pancakes & Co. H&H Car Wash & Coffee Shop, El Paso

Jarrod's Kolaches. Czech Stop, West, TX

Aboard the Salad Wagon. K-Bob's, Ft. Stockton

Not pictured: Cisco's Restaurant Bakery, Austin

The Big E-Z

Too-loose Street


not an illusion

it's too late to turn back now

Not much for words today. These, however, should be worth a cool thousand or so:


Tim and MJ, Chapel Hill


Turistas (or, Meet Linda)


Wintzell's Oyster House, Mobile, AL. Look for it on the next best-of list.

Shopping, Part 42

Deep in Noth Cah'lana, lured in off the highway by the promise of a Wrangler outlet and an eatery called Biscuitville, we by chance pulled our van up in front of this single-wide built into a grassy noll on the back side of a grocery store parking lot, called CD's-R-Used. Which is an odd name, because it's so matter-of-fact - I mean, sometimes CD's r new too, y'know? It took us an hour down the road to figure that maybe it's like Toys R Us - pronounced as if there was a past tense for the word us. Clever. The proprietor came bouncing out the door, promising us each a free CD if we'd just come on back now after we's done at the Biscuitville, and bounced back inside and continued bouncing off the walls. Not sure what kind of business plan the whole thing is, but hey, who are we to look a gift horse in the mouth? So we came on back, to the sight of said sole proprietor frantically emptying a spray can of air freshener in the place, blasting a John Tesh CD (after asking if that was okay with us). Dude was thrilled that we were there with him, conveyed in an incessant flow of words, and we did well on our second quasi-gratis record shopping spree in as many days. In exhange for our 2 CD's and $12, we got:

The Hondell's Greatest Hits CD
Lindsey Buckingham's Law & Order CD
Grace Jones' "Slave To the Rhythm" 45
Zapp's "Doo Wa Ditty (Blow That Thing)" b/w "Come On" 45
John Fogerty's "Centerfield" b/w "Rock and Roll Girls" 45
Loretta Lynn's You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man) LP
Loretta Lynn's Blue Eyed Kentucky Girl LP
The Best of Bread LP
Simon & Garfunkel's Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme LP
The Jesus & Mary Chain's Barbed Wire Kisses CD
3 World's Finest Chocolate bars ("they're already paid for.")
(Jared passed on a CD called Punk Rock, which may or may not be the name of a local band.)


sorry, no trades. unless you're us.

Quote of the day, from David (proprietor) to Jared, who had stepped outside: "You look so good out there with the wind in your hair, why don't you come back in here and be with us." (note: there was no wind).

So if you're in Burlington, NC, take exit 143 off I-40 and please go be with David over at CD's-R-Used, behind the Biscuitville. Because he gave us that sweet deal in exchange for us spreading the word about him. Please go see him. Please.

Drama at the Chili Parlour

Been a few days; much/not much has happened. Saturday, drove all day and all night from St. Louis to Pittsburgh, stopping only for our first taste of that famous beanless Cincinnati chili, per drummer Dan's proselytizing/hometown pride. Out of all 300+ options - according to Dan, Cincinnati has the highest chili-parlor-per-capita quotient - we chose Camp Washington Chili. It was built a long time ago, possibly by George Washington himself, but was lost to road-widening in the 90's and rebuilt, retaining absolutely no divey charm, but the exact same sweet-ass chili. Thing is, there, they serve it over spaghetti, so it's almost like a hyper-meaty bolognese pasta.


chili remnants

The most thrilling aspect of it, though, was our waitress Nikki, and I hate to say you just had to be there. She totally wins Personality of the Year, with an entire 'nother personality's worth of personality to spare. So much so that we kinda wonder if she was an actress in intense character study for an upcoming Cincinnati chili parlor movie. Killer waitress, to boot. Everybody razzes her for her rainbow steez (e.g. "rainbow brite," "gay," "Skittles-bag-kicker"), but she caps 'em back with "picklehead" and "5-gallon buckethead." And now we've got her back. If you're ever looking for a hug, go see Nikki at Camp Washington Chili at the corner of Hopple & Colerain in Cincinnati, in the heart of the historic meat-packing district. But still, you had to be there.


Tim 'n' Nikki

Anyway. Sunday was Philly, the first show with A Place To Bury Strangers and All the Saints. Monday was DC. Rocked Little Ethiopia. Last night was Chapel Hill, after a record buying spree at Plan 9 Records in Richmond, courtesy RVA Magazine and the mighty Les Enfants Terribles blog. Times are good.

And one final show announcement:
We're headlining a London show, on Nov. 16. At the Borderline. Get tickets here.

El Polio Loco