Recap: Jackson

JACKSON MS RULES!

First, check out this rad story the local paper did on us:

The show at Sneaky Beans was GREAT!  Lots of kids came.  We met awesome people.  Sold some stuff.  Drank a lot of free beer.  Woo!  

Here's James and Jeremy of Kid Acrobat (great musicians and wonderful and kind people):

We stayed with their friends Lewis and Chelle who just about outdid themselves with their amazing hospitality.

They had a bunch of really cool acquariums!  Here's a giant lung fish they were growing. (I'm referring to it as if it were a Chia Pet.  I don't know why.)

whoa nelly

Recap: Little Rock

Next up was our show in Little Rock!

It kind of barely happened because the other bands pretty much bailed.

But Super Happy Fun Land seems to be a really promising place for shows:

Casey (the man of the house) left this note outside of the venue while we were playing!

Andy also met his twin in Little Rock:

COME ON GUYS!!! RIGHT?!?!?!  Man, that is a good photo.  They were none the wiser.  I'm so sly.  I'm like Lavender Panther.

Recap: Tulsa

Tulsa!

We played; we conquered.

We hung out with our great bud Nikolas Kite who is also in Kite Flying Robot (indie dance).  And met a new friend Michael who plays a BUNCH of different kinds of music.  One of his bands is called Forever Blowing Bubbles. (He also is a white rapper, and a vegan crusader, and all around cool guy.)

This dude opened the show.  Here he is.  You be the judge!

The Fort Worth files

So we've heard Ft. Worth is not really the place for experimental music, but we gave it a shot anyway!

*ahem I'll have you know that we played at the very place where Afroman was going to play later in the month!!! For you youngins out there, he came up with the hit: WHEN I GOT HIGH.

Although the show was kind of lame, we met amazing people and played with great bands!!!  Our new friends Slumberbuzz (who also had members of Webbed) and the Spiral Sound played.  They were just great.

spiral sound

We then stayed with Katy and Sean from Slumberbuzz and Webbed.  Their house is wonderful and they even had a LOVESAC.  (http://www.lovesac.com/catalog/product/gallery/id/3978/image/6250/)

this is a crappy photo.  but i'm always takin photos so i'm never in them.  i had to include this one.

Those guys (Katy, Sean, Aaron) from Ft. Worth showed us so much hospitality and love.  Definitely the start of a long term friendship.

Charlottesville

We're in Charlottesville, VA!  The end of our romp in the South.

Fun facts:
1. Pate is called Liver Mush. And comes in dense bricks.  Like butter steeped in mud.
2. Scrapple is apparently snout and hooves and a bunch of whatnot made with a bunch of grease.
3. In New Orleans, the medians are called "neutral ground."  A remnant of a sort of antagonistic past with the French creoles and new Americans.

SOOOOOO.... while driving through New Mexico we had our first scare with thunderstorms!

In this video, it was all fun and games.  A lot of laughter and joking around ... UNTIL WE WERE DRIVING THROUGH THE STORMS!

Oh yeah.  We shat some proverbial bricks.

After passing through New Mexico, we stayed one night at a roach motel in Van Horn, TX.  Then it was straight to Austin!!!

Austin was a FANTASTIC time.  We stayed with Kristen

and Jennifer (Jennifer is in an awesome band called Yellow Fever).  They have a wonderful and weird house complete with an outdoor shower:

And we stayed in our own little trailer in their backyard!

They also had a bad ass cat who came in through the house from the roof!  Alighting softly on the fridge.  Such acrobatics!  Check out Simone (and Jennifer):

We played at Club 1808, which pretty much was the best and most fun show we've had all tour.  Our buds came (Kristen and Jennifer as well as Lauren from Agent Ribbons and our internet friend, who is now our REAL friend, Michael).

Our friend Ethan and his band Spiked Punch! They were rad.  Sort of a reggae rock.

Here's a pick of another band that Ethan is in called Reverse X Rays:

And finally ROO played and they were killer!  Definitely like minded and fun.  Very nice guys:

Coming up next: the Fort Worth files......

NOLA: part II of blogging from a land of fully functional internet

Here are some other photos of Tucson:

There are a lot of "hippie" sort of things on the main strip (4th ave or st.  I already forgot.)

this place had spray painted signatures of jimi hendrix et al.
as if, hendrix and bob dylan had taken a can of spray
paint to the actual building.

the trash cans are made of bikes, people.

that's a weird face.

We also hung out with Seth from Boreas.  We waited for a goodly amount of time for the freakin monsoons to happen.  Alas, no monsoon.  Instead, wonderful company and some beers.

Seth!

After leaving Tucson, we drove outta AZ, through NM, and into TX.

Everyone with me?

New Mexico was nuts though!  see next post

NOLA: neutral ground

Hi millions of fans!

We have finally reached a land of fully functional internet.  And so we come to you from New Orleans.

Just to recap the last few days:

Frank's backyard

After our wonderful show in Tucson, we hung out with Frank and Autumn who basically RULE.  Frank's backyard is filled with wonders such as dozens of functional and non-functional bikes, a chicken coop! (see below)  And a sauna.  (see andy in his wu wear chillin' in the 'na.  Can 'na be short for sauna?  Probably not.

OH.  I also got bit on the eyelid by mini-mosquitoes.  Andy got a good laugh out of it.  So much so that he inSISted on taking a photo...  (insert racist joke about asians having slitted eyes HERE. "which eye got bitten?!"  "ok, but what happened to the OTHER eye?")

The bite brought on a psychosomatic tiredness. Because my eye wouldn't open all the way, I thought I was just tired all the time.  yawwwwnnnn.  

sauna!

bitten on the eyelid.  

chicken coop! 

Austin: a safe haven

OK, so we have set up camp in Texas.  We're staying with our friend's friend (who is freakin' great!), but first thing's first.

Our Tucson show was FOR THE RECORD so cool and a dumptrunkload of fun.  We played with Female Trouble from (say it with me) Tempe (tem - pee).  They made me laugh out loud.  No joke.  Some song titles if my memory serves me right: Big Bag of Dicks, Tater Tots and Tank Tops, I'm Riding the Crimson Wave, I Want to F***, which the singer sang to the OTHER half of the restaurant as our show space was "separated" by a large open throughway partially concealed by a flimsy door.

<-- there they are.  And for all you 415 peeps, notice the OPEN door behind the set up.  Yes, this girl punk trio played with a completely open door behind them in the middle of the night.  No one minded at all.

cover of the paper

Then we played, which was amaze ballz as usual.  (We had a lot of fun, and people were very receptive. Sold a good amount of merch.  OH and...  we were in the TUCSON WEEKLY!  Check it:

"blah blah blah self described as ... "

Then our other new friends Brass Tax played.  They were so great!  Like an orchestral math metal trio complete with giant marimba and industrial drum parts.  I hope they come visit us real soon.

After our Tucson blowout, we had time to kill and hung out in Tucson where i started two new games.

1: find the most penile cactus.

2. photograph the most interesting roadkill.

So here are the first two candidates for MOST PHALLUS CACTUS:

penis cactus 1

penis cactus 2

And the first candidate for most interesting road kill:

roadkill 1

Let me know what you think.

-ammo.

Goodbye Phoenix

mutha f*in cacti yall!!!

Alright bitches, we are officially in Arizona.  Check out this sprawling cactus outside of Stephen's (from French Quarter) house!  Our show at Trunk Space was a tad jam packed (with bands).

the one and only trunk space (phx, az)

i know why the caged annie sings
stephen's house (tempe, az)

what a woman.  she brings us food, coffee,
and excellent conversation.

amazing complimentary food at the red room (tucson, az)

We ended up playing late, but Trunk Space is always an amazing time.  JRC is so supportive, and we truly respect the EFFORT he puts into this all ages diy venue.  What a guy!

We stayed the night with Stephen in Tempe.  Lesson learned: it's pronounced TEM-PEE not Tem-pay.  Also (put this in your pocket), it's BOI-SEE not Boi-zy.  Subtle differences, but I get it.  I mean, it still offends me when someone says "San Fran."  Dudes!  Don't say that.  It's San Francisco.  That's just how it is.

Now we're at Grill in Tucson (where the Red Room and our show is going to be).  We are getting FIRST CLASS service over here.  And that ain't no lie.

Check out the awesome food we were served!!!
That is what i call a feast.
I had the "BLT THE PASTA"  with beer and cheese soup.  And Andy had a chicken sub.  Whoa peeps.  whoa.
I'm ok, but I think poor Andy is in food coma land.  come back, andy...... come back.......
We're pretty excited for our Tucson show.  Brass Tax and Female Trouble are playing with us!

Officially on the road!

OH BOY!!!

After a THRILLING show at SubRosa in Santa Cruz, we hit the road and didn't look back... Tender Tour 2011 had officially began.  Seven weeks on the road!

We picked up this rideshare guy who totes helped us with gas money. (He ended up liking the music and buying a t-shirt!)

We rolled into San Diego around 8:30pm where we picked up our wonderful friend Ian.  Then it was straight to the Tin Can Ale House!

maria, dale, dylan, + other dude at the tin can

 We had a great time at the Tin Can.  Kelsey, the booker, is so awesome.  She saw us setting up our BOATLOAD of gear and instead of telling us to get it the F together, she said, "A bunch of stuff.  ... COOL!"  The bartender and door guy were also awesome.  We shared the stage with our dear old friends, The Vaginals, who have changed their line-up since we last saw them.  They played a really great set.  After we played, Boreas from AZ played and their *AHEM white rapper friend Mossferatu did a set after that.  (key lyrics: Alien hell is worse than human hell.  Especially if you're human.)  All in all a good hearty fun time!

vaginals on stage

That night we went to get a final last call drink at a nearby locale.  Ian was slightly toasted and Andy and I were playing pool.  Ian, with nothing better to do, was staring at his legs in which were AGLOW in his SHORT SHORTS and said, "How is this even fair?!?!"  MEANING: how is it EVEN fair that his legs should be such stunners while others are afflicted with lesser legs.  YES, ladies and gentlemen.  That happened.  You can judge for yourself in this next photo where we were at Ace getting a few items the next day.  Andy is of course the one NOODLING around.

ian (+ his legs) and andy hanging at ace hardware (sd, ca)

As an added bonus, we also watched some of the fireworks that go off NIGHTLY outside of Ian's apartment.  (They are from Sea World I guess.)

from ian's balcony.  NIGHTLY fireworks.

It's Thursday now, and we are headed to Phoenix where we are going to play a hell of a show with French Quarter, Sungsang, Russian Tsarlag, SHV, Secret Boyfriend, and James Fella (Gilgongo).


Prettttyyyyy exciting.


-ammo.