Day 6 : Milwaukee, I hardly know he

Milwaukee...by some accounts a buster. Though we definitely met some nice folks. We had kind of a hard time booking Milwaukee (our first time there) and we don't really know anybody there yet, so we were shooting in the dark a little bit. Things got thrown together at the last minute, but sincere and huge thanks to Wendy and the folks at the Powerplant, 1956, and Kings Horses for hosting us and being kind to us on our first trip.


Bryant and I had to hit a bank and an AT&T store before we could get going for the day. Things were relaxed, so we did some window shopping along the way. Here's Bryant checking out some expensive artworks.

 
We also made a quick stop for some curry and crab Rangoon. We both agreed that these were probably the best rangoons we'd ever had. We also agreed that they made us long for some of that Rangoon pizza we had in Des Moines with Metavari. 

A quick aside here...there's a chunk of our day missing because for whatver reason I didn't get any photos at Logan Hardware. Probably because we were caught up in the excitement of the place! What a fantastic little record/video/stereo/game/novelty shop! Our buddy Jim Zespy showed us around and we spent about an hour in there with him checking out his new arcade, buying records, and talking shop. Great dude, great shop. Check it out if you can. Logan Hardware on Fullerton.

 
One unexpected consequence of this fall tour is that I have really grown to HATE fake cobweb Halloween decorations. They look stupid and they stick to everything, especially my head. Here's Zac enjoying some, though.


Most of the money we got from the door tonight went to Bryant's Galaga addiction. If it's not that, it's Tim's horse race gambling, or Zac trying to get his Nerds fix. We really can't win for losing.


Bryant felt the colors of his beer at Honeypie needed to be documented. Good dinner! After this we got in the van and munched on a few handfuls of fish jerky. I'll try to have a picture of that tomorrow. It's just cat scraps.

Day 5 : drive drive drive and the princess bride

There isn't too much to say about yesterday because we literally spent most of it in the car. We had to pull some tricky maneuvers in order to make the switch from Burke to Zac, and we also had to swing by the Strutt one more time because we forgot some important gear there two nights ago. In all, we spent about 7 hours of solid driving time in the van. Not fun.


Burke's drums, like Burke, are tight and cute. Zac's drums are HUGE. We're talking floor Tom in a kick drum bag huge. Tagging Zac in for Burke was a real brain buster. We pulled everything out of the van and into a parking lot in Ft Fun before Tim finally figured out a system that worked. Everything fits now, though, so we're on our way.


Van-cram detail.


One of the simple pleasures for me on the road is trying out food from all variety of interesting and unusual places. Here's a picture of Zac trying a veggie burger at the Muskie Tusk Diner in Chicago. 


Thankfully, Corey made it to the show. Corey has been in a lot of the towns we've played in over the years and it's always a real nice time to see and hang out with him. He is presently in the midst of a sleep study which requires him to wear two spy cams at all times and watch 12 hours of movies in a row. It's a living...


Jen is another dear old friend and welcome presence on tour. She graciously offered us some comfortable space to lay our heads and a VCR to watch the Princess Bride with (my first time). That movie is good!

Day 4: hands are busy working overtime

After our recharge in Kalamazoo we headed for Ypsilanti to meet up with some more dear old friends. Namely, Quillen and Joel from Lone Wolf and Cub and Julien from Javelins. As usual, we had a great time seeing them, telling jokes, eating food and listening to records. 


The Crow's Nest is your best bet for unique delicious breakfast in Kzoo. We've sorta made a tradition of it.


We finally made it to Jackass 3D! It was pretty funny, but also a little depressing. Why go late? The movies are cheaper during the day.


The show in Ypsi was at this strange/great little puppet theater downtown full of old church pews. Backstage was also full of mysterious little living marionette creatures. We were threatened at first, but Bryant wasted no time befriending their leader and getting on his good side.


I had a knack for making these little creeps laugh, so I was dubbed hilarious human comedy ambassador to the puppets. Believe it or not, they were mostly into bathroom humor so my job was easy. 


We played with the super nice and talented Ghost Lady. Check them out, especially if you're into Tammar, YLT, or Low.


The night of Burke's last stand also happened to be the night that Tim heard "Happiness is a warm gun" for the first time. I'm glad we all got to be a part of it.

Day 3: Johnson Blower Ball Hat

Kalamazoo, Michigan is a great place for us. We've had the lucky fortune of making some lasting friendships there from a few different circles, so there is always a lot to talk about and plenty of catching up to do. Check out the Glowfriends if you get a chance.

 
Before we left Lansing, Burke wanted to stop and grab some nuts. What else is new?


We tried to see Jackass 3D, but they were charging too dang much, so instead we played some airhockey and chilled out on these couches watching movie trailers. 


Bryant's favorite movie is Crossroads.


We found this crazy flier at the grocery store. It was made from several pieces of notebook paper painstakingly taped together and drawn in pencil, colored and otherwise. Someone was really trying to get rid of some stuff.


Detail of crazy flier


The Strutt is one of our favorite places to play on tour. The staff is great, the the venue and sound are great, and people like hanging out there. This go round we had a very comfortable green room/loft to relax in and they fed us some delicious pizza. You can't go wrong with pineapple on pizza.


Michele Browneye is absolutely one of our favorite things about Kalamazoo. She and Tina have played host to us on a few occasions now and we really look forward to seeing them and killing some time hanging and giggling in their living room. MB is a bigwig at WIDR.org and she's very enthusiastic and in love with her town and her radio station and art and music. One of a kind. She's also got a copy of 12 monkeys on VHS.


Bryno and Tina have a special circumstance.

Day 2: Bad Omens

After catching some Zs at Burke's place we grabbed some coffee at Payne's and headed for Detroit by way of Lansing to rendesvous with our boy John. John runs Lower Peninsula Records and he's co-releasing the vinyl version of Proud Flesh with XRA.


Killing time in Lansing waiting for our apple cider to arrive. Burke is dancing.


John's studio, listening to the Proud Flesh reference laquer. This LP is going to sound great! (especially on the bottom)


Sunday nights on tour can be a hard row to hoe. This show was fun, but sparsely attended. Had a good looking floor, though.


Things took a turn for the worse after we got back to Lansing. After a brief altercation with an officer of the law our host was carted off to jail. A few hours in the clink, and a few hundred bucks later, we got our buddy back home and got life back to normal. Everything's cool now, but it was a strange couple of hours, for real! Did you know that when someone calls you from jail it costs you ten clams to answer it!?! Who's the real victim, can you answer that?  

Day 1

Our first ever Autumn tour has gotten off to an incredible start. The record release show in Bloomington was probably the most thrilling concert experience husband&wife has had. Even considering the bittersweet nature of the evening, what with Will leaving and all, the night was a gigantic celebration. Memory Map was on point as usual. Doug Burr was great, and Monahans made a great impression in their first Bloomington showing.

Last night was spent with our friends at the Village Green record shop in Muncie. Travis and Co. Really know how to bring the party, not to mention all the old time heroes and friends that were along for the ride. I'll shut up here and let you see for yourself...

 
Monahans. Easily one of my new favorite bands.


Doug Burr. Just right.


Laura K Balke. Dear old friend.


Living the dream.


Muncie, Indiana 2010 reminded me of 1998, only better.

Oh Hai!

we're back. Regular updates to follow!