Dublin, y'all

To wake to the sounds of Jared and Will's lips smacking at 5 in the morning as they plotted their own day of sightseeing was not a good way to start day two, but we prevailed. Tim, Jim "Walking on Sunshine" Crook (as seen above), and myself (Rob), saw a lot of the city. Still looking for that Phil Lynott statue though.

European Vacation: Day 1

We made it to Dublin. So far here, we've endured the misfortune of arriving at the precise moment that Dublin's cab drivers have elected to go on strike. Imagine that - flying into an international city and being greeted at the cab stand with "Taxi? There are no taxis." So we did the only possible thing we could, which was to take a bus into the city, and then walk an almost-comically grueling mile with our gear to our hotel. And then we did the only thing you're told to do when in Ireland, which is commece the steady, incessant consumption of Guiness. Which, of course, had the side effect of hastening our descent into an 18-hour slumber. Jetlag, y'know. Right now it's 3 pm here, and I'm doing this to bide my time until the sun goes down. Just wanna make it to sunset, and then I'll sleep. It's kinda silly flying into a city like this and not having it in you to do anything other than lie in bed... zzzzzzzzzz......

UPDATE: Didn't make it to sunset. But we all somehow simultaneously woke up around 9 pm and unanimously agreed we should adjourn to the pub across the street for, y'know, a few more pints, before resuming sleep.

tour pics!

That tour we went on ended a few weeks ago. It was lots of fun. See?

The view from atop that tower.  You can see 6 states from there.  And also this.

Jared and Jerry

Minneapolis


Here's Tim, going to work.

Cleveland

These Arms Are Snakes at The Polish Club in Poughkeepsie

Steve from These Arms Are Snakes, still performing.

Pat's sure welcomed us.

Featuring members of All The Saints, Darker My Love, Fool's Gold, and Marnie Stern (dog included)

Drove back from Philly to LA in 55 hours. Vicksburg, Mississippi: one of two stops we made...

... and this is the other one.

photos by W.P. Canzoneri

EUROPE

So the story - the long version - goes like this: A while back, we dropped our name in one of those enter-to-win free-European-vacation sweepstakes boxes at Ralph's, and craziest thing - like, what are the odds, y'know? - we won! So all we had to do was figure out when to go, and that was when we noticed that A Place To Bury Strangers was touring Europe the first 2 weeks of April. Coincidence? Perhaps. So we decided to follow 'em around - after all, it's spring break for us, and Widespread Panic's not touring this year. But the kicker is that That Very Place To Bury Strangers actually took note of our travel plans, and asked us to play with them! Weird, wild stuff.


The short version is that we're finally going/coming to Europe, supporting A Place To Bury Strangers, and Dead Confederate will even be there too for some of it. Here:

Tue 3.31 Tue. Dublin, Ireland. Whelan's
Wed 4.1. Glasgow, UK. Stereo
Thur 4.2. Manchester, UK. Ruby Lounge
Fri 4.3. Leeds, UK. Cockpit
Sun 4.5. Birmingham, UK. Barfly
Mon 4.6. London, UK. Kings College
Tue 4.7. Paris, France. Mecanique Ondulatoire
Sat 4.11. Cologne, Germany. Werkstatt
Sun 4.12. Stuttgart, Germany. Universum
Mon 4.13. Zurich, Switzerland. Abart
Tue 4.14. Munich, Germany. 59:1
Wed 4.15. Berlin, Germany. Knaack Klub

Needless to say, we couldn't be more excited. This is something we've looked forward to from the day we started recording 2. Also, keep an eye on that gap in the middle... more shows to be announced!

I can see Oklahoma from here

There are 2 days off on this tour. This past Monday was one of them, and it was capped off with an on-a-whim, totally happenstance stop at the roadside Tower Museum in Genoa, Colorado, like whoa. This place was built in 1879 as a tourist trap on the then-young Lawrence & Pike's Peak Stagecoach Line (now Interstate 70), and still stands, an über-folksy grandmom-and-grandpop catacomb-like antique shop, with this century-plus-old rickety wooden tower - the main attraction - lined with a perilous staircase/ladder, that advertises that you, after paying a dollar admission, can see 6 states, and, once you reach the top, sways in the prairie wind. Below, there's a unisex outhouse. Jerry Chubbuck and his wife have been there 42 years, and still seem captivated by the whole thing. They were excited to have us, as he spent most of the time pulling out oddity after oddity and asking us if we knew what it was, all of which he seemed to have a punchline for. This place ain't heated or anything, and we musta been their first visitors of the season, falling on a beautiful, mild day. We done lucked out. Visual documentation below.



Jerry, with polack potato peeler

Having a blast!

See?



file under: Hotelevision, 4 a.m.

Five days on the road...

... and we just left behind in Lawrence (Kansas) a finished game of indoor hotel putt-putt. There was no winner, but there was one loser: Tim Presley.

So far there's been much mild-weathered enjoyment; so much, in fact, we haven't had quite the opportunity to sink much TLC into this little blogspot. Not headlining this time around has meant an extra few free hours a day, which lends itself to good times (although not of the pictured variety, which, yes, is a real place).

This time Vegas was night #1, before even the first show, and we whiled it away at the toxic, miserable, yet somehow embraceable Riviera, up at the top of the strip, across from Circus Circus and Slots-O-Fun. Is it a new low when you get cheated out of 5 bucks by a disgruntled 75-year-old dealer at 4 a.m. at the lowest-minimum roulette table on the strip? I dunno. But the pit boss wouldn't check the tapes, and now our sound guy (Doctor) is out 5 bucks.

On the way out of Vegas, in a Starbucks parking lot, this guy suddenly appeared at the driver-side window, hand on brow, peering into the van - proof that this van/space shuttle still attracts a lotta unwelcome/welcome attention, especially when it's still clean. He fell off a mountain, and has a wooden leg. He also makes rooster noises. Nice guy.

Also, thus far, we:
• Played with the highly enjoyable Goblin Cock in SLC
• Went out of our way to get a closer look at about 10 unsupervised rural Utah children jumping off a trampoline onto low-hanging branches
• Ran into the Henry Clay People at a gas station in Wyoming
• Ate (as always) at Denver's venerable Breakfast King, like so:

Opportunities are available in all walks of life in Australia

Hey Australia! Good news: our record 2 will be released there April 4th, 2009. So if you try really hard and beg your radio stations to play it........................... maybe they'll pay for us to go down under.

oh p.s.

southern california should note that we've back-to-back goings-on coming up real soon.
san diego on sunday, if you want that free party steez (it's the beauty bar's 3rd anniversary shindig)
and/or
long beach on monday, if you want that whole über-intimate thing
! ! !

kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet (part deux)

Hey, check it, we're on this hot tour, just to heat your frosted, brittle bones. Thought it'd be wise to exclusively seek out the coldest parts of These Re-United States. A fine band from Seattle called These Arms Are Snakes, who are on everybody's favorite baseball-themed record label, the esteemed Suicide Squeeze, have been gracious enough to bring us along, and All The Saints are coming along too. One very exciting thing for all involved is that most of these shows are all ages, more or less, so those who have been so unfairly excluded the last many times we've been in town can finally come hang with us, in our van, which locks from the inside, in the poorly-lit alley behind the club, which is in a less-than-desirable part of town. All that info's on our MySpace, natch.

In the meantime, here's a picture of Tim and Jared on TV, from the last tour.