FAQ

When is your next show?
There isn't one.

Hey guys whats up??? You guys down to play ____ on ____??
Probably not. But can't hurt to ask.

Will you dudes ever play again?
Time will tell.

Are you guys still together?
No, but we're not not together either.

Come to ____!
If the price is right, okay.

Will you ever do a European Tour?
We did two, plus a couple UK ones. So, already did.

How come I can't find tour dates anywhere?!
Because there aren't any.

Give me new music!
It doesn't work like that.

Where can i find the lyrics of your songs?
They're out there. There used to be a downloadable Word doc of the 2 lyrics on our old label's website, which must be floating around somewhere. If you want the Alive As You Are lyrics, buy a physical copy.

Jared please call me.
No.

Where's the best place to buy 2 on vinyl?
The 2 LP sounds like shit. Buy the CD, and just get the vinyl for the bonus track.

Where are you guys??
California. We all do stuff. You might particularly like White Fence.

Please don't say you've broken up.
Okay.

All questions derived from real questions asked by real people, over the last few years. Sorry we didn't answer sooner.

this week in rock shows

TONIGHT ! PITTSBURGH . BRILLOBOX
WEDNESDAY . COVINGTON, KY (Cincinnati) . MAD HATTER
THURSDAY . ASHEVILLE . GREY EAGLE
FRIDAY . NASHVILLE . MERCY LOUNGE
SATURDAY . CHICAGO . METRO

In other news, we did a session last month at the Village Recorder (whose control room is the very control room pictured on the back of Countdown To Ecstasy and in VH1 Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value, and where we've played before) with Nic Harcourt for livebuzz.com, and it looks like this:





Go to livebuzz.com to see the rest (which is "Backseat," "Dear Author," and the hot new "Rain Down South," as well as an interview)

NYC+

WEBSTER HALL TONIGHT / 8 pm
TOMORROW: SHOPPING
THURSDAY: FOOD
FRIDAY: BOSTON / PARADISE ROCK CLUB
SATURDAY: PAWTUCKET / THE MET

all with Delta Spirit and The Fling, except for Tomorrow and Thursday, which are with J. Crew and Rob's mom & dad, respectively.

TBAnnouncement

Those TBA's on the Delta Spirit tour you were jockeying for? Well, now we can tell you. The previously-alluded-to winners are:

Nov 26. Boston. Paradise Rock Club
Dec 7. SF. The Fillmore
Dec 8. LA. The Music Box @ Henry Fonda Theatre

TOUR

Time for our big annual fall tour! With Delta Spirit. We play, and then they play. It's a damn good bill.

Nov 15. Lawrence, KS. Jackpot Saloon
Nov 16. Columbia, MO. Mojo's
Nov 17. Rock Island, IL. Speakeasy
Nov 18. Madison, WI. High Noon Saloon
Nov 19. Milwaukee. Turner Hall
Nov 20. South Bend, IN. Legends of Notre Dame
Nov 22. Buffalo. Tralf Music Hall
Nov 23. NYC. Webster Hall
[HAPPY THANKSGIVING]
Nov 26. TBA
Nov 27. Pawtucket, RI. The Met
Nov 29. Baltimore. Ottobar
Nov 30. Pittsburgh. Brillobox
Dec 1. Covington, KY. The Mad Hatter
Dec 2. Asheville, NC. Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall
Dec 3. Nashville. Mercy Lounge
Dec 4. Chicago. Metro
Dec 7. TBA
Dec 8. TBA
Dec 9. Santa Barbara. Soho
Dec 10. San Diego. House of Blues

Highlights to include winter-home shopping in Milwaukee, visiting Rudy's grave, Thanksgiving dinner at Rob's folks' house and then going to Foxwoods (it's the world's largest casino), driving thru the Tim Hortons by Foxwoods, playing in a college town over Thanksgiving Break (hint hint), finding the brothel whose services Mayor Jerry Springer paid for with a personal check and then eating at the chili parlour next door, and playing (ahem) The Elite Club. Oh, and driving.

British Isles Summer Fun!

Provided a giant plume of volcanic ash doesn't obstruct our flight path, we're spending our June soaking up the cosmic rays (or, rather, building a vitamin D deficiency):

6.02. Glasgow. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
6.04. Dublin. Tripod (w/ Band of Horses)
6.05. Belfast. Auntie Annie's
6.06. Middlesbrough Music Live
6.07. Cambridge. The Junction (w/ Band of Horses) [SOLD OUT]
6.08. Manchester. Ritz (w/Band of Horses) [SOLD OUT]
6.09. London. Roundhouse (w/ Band of Horses) [SOLD OUT]
6.10. London. Boston Music Rooms (w/ Serena-Maneesh)
6.11. Oxford. O2 Academy (w/ Band of Horses) [SOLD OUT]
6.12. Southampton. Lennons
6.13. Leeds. Nation of Shopkeepers
6.14. Wolverhampton. Wulfrun Hall (w/ Band of Horses)
6.15. London. Scala (w/ Ariel Pink)
6.17. London. The Lexington

Including:
6 shows with Band of Horses!
5 headlining shows and/or club nights!
2 ferries!
1 show with Serena-Maneesh!
1 show with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti!
1 festival!



Stay tuned for more...!!!

the moral of the story

things learned from SXSW:

Is it a complete waste of time, money and energy? The only way to find out is to go, then sit back and wait and see if anything that subsequently transpires is traceable back to one of your 18 free-malt-liquor/free-bloody-mary-fueled appearances. There were 1,981 registered bands this year, which means there's a 1-in-1,981 chance that somebody important was watching you play.

Whichever show you're least into and still half-asleep during is the one everybody's gonna go to.

The Hot Dog King's a real dick, and doesn't care if everybody can hear him screaming.

It takes your body 45 minutes to digest food after eating, and it takes your body 45 minutes to generate a hangover after consuming Colt 45.

Thee Oh Sees are most likely the best live band in whatever town they're playing. Also, The Black Angels' new songs are really good.

The Taco Bell/KFC in Fort Stockton, Texas, remains both the worst Taco Bell and the worst KFC in America, by a mile. After going there 3 times, to Sonic twice, and K-Bob's Steakhouse (home of the Salad Wagon) once, all that's left in Fort Stockton is Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut, and Wal-Mart. And it's the only town within like 6 hours of itself. Next time, we're just not eating.

If you choose to drive, your van will break down within the first 100 miles:

Progress

Songs they were playing when I walked in

hotel bar, Amsterdam, Day 1: "Twilight Zone," Golden Earring

bar, Luxembourg, Day 12 (Halloween): "Alone Again (Naturally)," Gilbert O'Sullivan

convenience store, Oslo, Day 17: "Super Trouper," Abba

hostel lobby, Munich, Day after the tour was cancelled: "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night (I Gotta Feeling)," Black Eyed Peas

Dunkin' Donuts outside the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, Day 26: "I Wanna Go Home," Michael Bublé

Best of Kebap, Brussels, Day 27: "California Dreamin'," Royal Gigolos (the version you can dance to)


p.s.
home.

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.

Food: Part Two

Read the prologue here.

As promised, here's part two, numbers 1-5:

1. Pappadeaux. Austin, TX. This was a blowout feast, except in this case we blew our wad here within 30 minutes of arriving in Austin for SXSW. We spent the trip there making big plans to splurge at whatever advertised 8-star steakhouse had the best pull quotes in the in-flight magazine. But this place was next to our hotel on the interstate, it was late, and we were tired and hungry. It’s probably not actually the best seafood on the planet, but for one shining moment in time, it was. Best service on this list though, by a country mile, especially considering we strolled in 5 minutes before they closed. On the other side of the Doubletree this place flanks is sister restaurant Pappacito's, where your jaded high school-aged server will simultaneously make your guacamole at your table and talk shit on everything on the menu.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2. G Michael's Bistro. Columbus, OH. Scene of our high-class Thanksgiving dinner. We only ate here after Rob, Anthony and Will concluded a 30-minute gabfest with a charismatic local vagrant on the shuttered streets of downtown Columbus by spurning his offer to make us boloney sandwiches in his car. But why would George Michael open up an Italian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio? Weird.

3. Bob Sykes Barbeque. Bessemer, AL. It was an accident. Driving out of Birmingham, we took the last exit with any sign of civilization, looking for a billboard-promised KFC. But then this inviting 50’s-era BBQ hut with a giant pig on top popped up. Turns out this is one of those places that always gets written up in all those books on roadside diners. Pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw on it, fried okra, collard greens, lemon meringue pie, sweet tea, etc.

Bob Sykes

4. Irma's Mexican Restaurant. Deming, NM. I think we went into all this under the impression that the notion that Mexican food is better the closer you are to the border is a myth. Well, turns out, it is better down there. This place and Letty’s (see previous post) prove that. Nothing really noteworthy here; this place was just good, straight up. It’s also across the street from another restaurant called Si Senor - that is, Yes Sir. So good that Jared went back for breakfast 6 months later.

Breakfast King

5. Breakfast King. Denver. We go out of our way to eat breakfast here every time we’re in Denver. It was providence that led us here the first time, after getting lost in a byzantine offramp maze trying to get to a freeway-side Denny’s and suddenly finding ourselves in the Breakfast King parking lot instead. They also have one of those 70-year-old celebrity waitresses that can carry like 18,000 plates at once, whose likeness adorns the restaurant in the form of reverential framed-and-mounted Rocky Mountain News articles.





* * * * * * * * * *







Best Taco Bell: Ontario, OR, at Highway 30 and Interstate 84. Even though it was 5 minutes before closing, everything we ordered was exactly as pictured on the menu. Flawless.
Best CFS: Breakfast King, Denver (see above). Although Cracker Barrel does have a good'n too.
Best shrimp 'n' grits: the high-end G. Michael's, Columbus, Ohio, just edging out Atlanta's Flying Biscuit (aka the Flying Beaver, as it's owned by one of the Indigo Girls or something like that)

Honorable Mention:

Fife Restaurant

Welcome Diner

Sollys Hot Tamales

At Random, Milwaukee. Ice cream cocktails in a time warp, ca. 1966.

Tria, Philadelphia. Fancy shit, like wines and what-not.

Fife Restaurant, Birmingham. Die of breakfast.

Bison Witches, Tucson. Say it fast 5 times. Buy sandwiches.

Welcome Diner. Phoenix, AZ. Painfully adorable.

Sollys Hot Tamales. Vicksburg, MS. You can get tamales in the southwest, or you can get a different brand in the Delta - cigar-thin, wax paper-wrapped sodium bombs. Started by a hobo in 1939.

Food: Part One

We’ve established by now that the sole reason we exist as a touring band is to eat at as many Taco Bells as possible. But sometimes you can’t find a Taco Bell, and you have to eat at some totally unkown local restaurant, where you can’t order with the confidence that you can at a Taco Bell. Hell, they might not even have bean burritos. But sometimes these unknowns turn out to be really good.

Thus, this, our civic duty to share this wealth of culinary knowledge we’ve amassed. This will be a two-parter, chronicling the top ten restaurants of the last year of touring. It was gonna be a 2008 year-end list, but then we did another US tour and ate more US food. So now, here it is, after driving around this great land for the last year, the dudes' top 10 restaurants in the USA.

Part one / numbers 6-10:

6. Sokolowski’s. Cleveland, OH. While Tom Jones ate Chinese at the food court back at the hotel, we split for an old Polish cafeteria/tavern on the wrong side of the Cuyahoga. We caught the end of their lunch, and they heaped upon us mounds of what was left of their pierogis

Sokolowski's

and boats of gravy, unsolicited and gratis. It’s the kinda cafeteria where the cashier eyeballs what you got and makes up an arbitrary price. We were the only ones in their dining room, but gosh, we sure filled it with moans of delight. The pierogis lived in a styrofoam box under the back seat of our van for the next 2 weeks. Also, Bill Clinton ate here in 1993.

7. Tomato Head. Knoxville, TN. Not much to say; just really good. Downtown Knoxville, near that sad little mirror-ball-on-a-stick poor-man’s-Space-Needle 1982 World’s Fair relic. Soup/sandwich/pizza/good-lookin staff/etc. Bonus fact: You know how like all of the 20th century’s great innovations were unvailed at the World’s Fair? i.e., the telephone, the hot dog, the ice cream cone, etc. Well, said Knoxville World’s Fair gave us... Cherry Coke. Marinate on that.

Tim outside Letty's

8. Letty's Casita. El Centro, CA. It’s an hour west of Yuma and 15 minutes north of Mexico, and the only thing it’s (to translate) The Center of is nowhere. But it’s at Letty’s little cottage that you’ll find the greatest machaca - which is more or less reconstituted beef jerky, which doesn’t sound good, but so is; when it’s done wrong, which it almost always is, we gringos can just call it “shredded beef.” Then there’s the mantarraya tacos Will had. That’s manta ray, aka sting ray, and everyone knows the Crocodile Hunter died eating sting ray tacos. Turns out it tastes kinda like canned tuna, which makes you wonder why you can’t ever find that in a taco. When we left here - again, 15 minutes north of the Mexican border - we drove up into the mountains and into a snow storm, thusly giving us the unique distinction of being able to say we were late to our San Diego gig because we got caught in a snow storm.

9. Kit Carson Restaurant. Chehalis, WA. If only because of two dishes, which were more just fine than anything else. One, a heaping pile of any and all morning foodstuffs called Mt. St. Helen’s Eruption.

Kit Carson

The other, unremarkable though it may be, was listed on the menu as C.F.S., which is an acronym that entered and has remained our lexicon. That is, country fried steak. It was also here we learned that steak weights and men’s shoe sizes are congruous. That is, as a rule of thumb, an 11 oz. steak is roughly equal in size to a size 11 foot. And vice-versa.


10. Famous Anthony's. Roanoke, VA. If you’re driving down Interstate 81 in Virginia on a Wednesday night, are looking for an affordable all-you-can-eat spaghetti feast, and dislike flavor, go to Famous Anthony’s. Our 16-year-old waitress had both the cutest southern accent and the cutest cold sore.



and for good measure, avoid these at all costs:
Amigos, North Platte, Nebraska
Fiesta Azteca, Nashville


Stay tuned for more...