honest

it's pretty typical of anyone who keeps a blog and goes on a lengthy break from contributing to/writing on it to begin their next post with an apology and/or a reason for being absent. so let's skip that part...also rather than detailing everything we've been up to since we last posted, let us just dive into what are future looks like.
we are currently very excited because we have a series of great opportunities ahead of us.

we have been writing songs over the past year while touring, rehearsing, etc that we really want to record. thankfully we will be entering the studio for the next couple of weeks and next month. it is very exciting to be back into the recording process. it is such a different aspect of being a musician, and since we lack the funds to build our own studio (right now) we don't get to do it quite as often as we would prefer.
the world around us is changing, and because of the type of writers we are even meeting new people and having experiences on the road...or even books that we've read over the past few months, we have so much that inspires us. because of all these influences, new/different gear, I can promise you...the reader/friend/fan/listener that our new songs and recordings are going to be different.
bands promise people all the time that they are taking a fresh approach to either recording or writing...and to say it even seems like a stale and overused description of what our vision for the future of The Modern Society is/will be. however, even speaking personally...there will be changes, there will be a different approach to recording...it is what helps keep things fresh, new, entertaining, etc.
For the most part we have dug into records deeper than we ever have before...making mental notes and really thinking about how to appropriately create and represent our songs in a recording...we will be (for the most part) taking this endeavor on ourselves, which we have (up to this point) never really done (besides tape demos we do in Tyler's loft) and that too is very exciting.
all in all this is your update. I write it in hopes that you will be as excited as we are.

much love turtle dove,

woody

New Footage/New Merchandise

We are very excited to announce the debut of some footage shot recently as part of the on going/up coming documentary being filmed about us this year...details regarding the doc will be up soon, but the long and short of it is that we will have a page on www.cinsay.com that you can not only purchase brand new Merch, but also view exclusive videos (music vids, live footage and behind the scenes).
Please take a look at the 1st episode here:
http://www.cinsay.com/#episodefs000080000i4e69ie4g000000

There are a few merchandise items available now, but more should be coming within the next week or so.

We love you all.

.: w :.

exploding tires

Often times we get inquiries about "what it's like to be in a touring band". We answer quickly with all the fun stories including all the near misses and funny encounters.

Maybe it's a story about Thomas sleep walking in our New York hotel and waking up in the elevator, Chris getting lost and disappearing for hours in nearly every city while talking on his cell phone in the wee hours of the morning, Tyler and Woody fighting in the parking lot of a pre-festival party...

This weekend however, we had one of those "DEAR GOD, WHAT JUST HAPPENED...I THINK WE ALMOST DIED" moments, TWICE.

We were in route to Charleston, South Carolina when our rear right tire decided to blow out. Here is what it looked like.

As you can see, it was pretty gnarly...but it wasn't that bad...it just sounded rough...
so we slowly drove to the next exit (it was only about a quarter mile) and began to change the tire. Now for those of you readers up in the northern half of the US or located elsewhere...South Carolina in the summer gets pretty sticky and HOT!
So there we are in the middle of a truck stop, changing a tire...and having serious troubles with our stupid jack. Finally we got it changed (with a little help from a super cool truck driver, who by the way "used to tour with Black Oak Arkansas" or something like that) and we headed back on the road...thanking God for our safety.

We started watching the rest of the episode of Arrested Development that we were watching...driving pretty smoothly for the next hour or so...we were running late but decided we'd call the venue when our load in time came and gone and we would gage how far we were from the venue.

Then out of nowhere "KABOOM"...I began to lose control of the van (which was located in the "fast lane" of the interstate and going about 85). I tried to apply the brakes...nothing...
I got us safely to the shoulder somehow (guardian angels) and there it was on the right side, waiting for me as we exited the van. That's Chris's hand in the way, but you get the idea...no more spare tire.
Long story short, we had to cancel the Charleston show b/c it took almost 2 hours for the tow truck to come and when we got to the next town (coincidentally Columbia, SC where are next night's show was) it was too late to get to Charleston.

We came out of it safe and alive and for that we were so thankful, and ended up having an incredible show in Columbia and met a bunch of new friends.
We will be back in Charleston and Columbia on July 9th and July 11th...can't wait...we just hope these new tires hold up :)
So boys and girls and everyone that wonders what it's like to be a rock n' roll band on tour before the days of stadiums and buses...please read this blog and spread the word...sometimes it's just down right dangerous, of course none of us would change it for a second.

=w=

geronimo

our only tour date in Atlanta until this Fall is the perfect start to our summer tour. we can't wait to play our newest songs, one of which we just wrote today...

w.

i feel summer creepin in...

beautiful weather here in the great state of Georgia...blue skies, listened to some Roger Miller and got excited about the upcoming summer.
we'll be touring a good bit in the summer, and practically constant in the Fall...just can't wait to be back out on the road.
what are we doing in the meantime?
well rehearsing of course, but we've also written a slew of new songs...a few of which we debuted at SXSW and got an incredible response. so i'm sure we'll be headed into the studio in May to lay some of them down (and perhaps lend them to your ears)
there are also some new and exciting things coming very very soon that we can't really talk about just yet, mostly because we wouldn't want to spoil the surprise...
i must say that generally i'm a fan of winter, but this year it really took a toll on me. the warm breeze today was just what i needed. 86 degrees F. felt mighty good, although i'm sure i'll be complaining about the heat and praying for fall soon enough.
off to write some more music. can't wait to see all those faces this summer/fall.
love you,
woody

Really?!? Snow?!?!

I hate cold weather...and I HATE the wind even more!!!!!!!!!!!



...God, this better be gone by tomorrow!

ty(MOSO)

Happy Birthday Thomas

WE LOVE YOU LITTLE BROTHER

Happy Birthday Chris (aka "boo boo")

WE LOVE YOU BROTHER

meanwhile far away in another part of town...

So around this time last year we were out in Los Angeles...today I battled with cold, rainy weather, things we never came across in sunny LA.
I thumbed through my journal today in a moment of nostalgia.
Here's an entry I found in between pages of song lyrics we wrote in the studio, literally in between a hand written note from Kay Hanley (yes she swiped my journal, I later found out) and lyrics to "Mona Lisa"

Dated: 03/2008 (I couldn't read the day on the date...strange ink smudge)

Today was a particularly good day. Thomas and I woke up early and walked down the block to our favorite coffee spot...ok really just the closest one to the hotel. We spotted that dude from "Thank You For Smoking", I don't remember his name but I think he's playing Two-Face in the new Batman movie. I've never been good at remembering celeb names.
We microwaved some old chocolate pastries we had laying around the hotel...not a good idea, much better fresh.
Man this iced black coffee is great!
Our rental car is amazing...Dodge Caliber, perfect gas mileage. If we get a day off I think we'll drive up to Zuma and lay in the sand for the day.
Went to Canter's Deli, well the Kibitz Room last night, met some amazing old school musicians playing some serious blues rock...amazing. The bar tenders are really cool there and the atmosphere is anti-hollywood, which is just what we're looking for.
We stayed out way too late though and my throat feels like I swallowed a cactus...maybe I did, I don't remember.
The satellite radio stations we listen to: Rolling Stones Radio, Indie Rock & Bruce Springsteen.
I need a Hite!
Off to the studio, we're running late and Stacy's already called us...we usually beat him there, ha.
-Woody-

This brought it all back in a flash...Doc Brown, where are you with your Delorean?

-woody

4 Tips for DVD survival

First: you have to be scratch resistant.
Our van floor is littered with old snack mix crumbs, magazines, drum sticks, sunflower seed shells, empty water bottles...and if you're a lonely DVD and you didn't quite make it back into your original case...chances are you're bouncing around the floor, looking for a place to sleep.

Second: if you want to be viewed...and if you're a DVD, isn't that your mission in life? you HAVE to
be funny, or at least somewhat "light".
So, other bands/people out there planning road trips across our great nation...DO NOT follow in Chris's footsteps and bring movies such as "8mm"...you will probably be thrown out the window (or into an appropriate trash receptacle...we do not condone littering!)

Third: no crazy action sequences
We do a lot of our driving at night. Extremely loud crashes, explosions and/or police sirens don't do well with people who are trying to sleep.

Lastly: you will not survive if you are a movie intended for "teens" (that is unless you were made prior to 1995)
Capturing our attention, in a van who's a/c doesn't work and heater that only warms the front can be a very difficult task...teen movie makers of our current time just can't do it.

This all may seem like a very difficult gauntlet of viewing discretion...but believe me, these viewing pleasures DO in fact exist. Be it movie, tv season, or documentary...they DO exist.
I thought about listing them, but...it would take too long, and I'm far too lazy tonight.

Feel free to post suggestions for movies we might have missed that pass the qualifications.

much love,

woody

no air conditioning, good weather, sxsw

Well, we're back home from a whirlwind trip to Austin, Tx for SXSW. I heard it said best by Cary Brothers...SXSW is, "spring break for musicians"...this is sooo true. We got to see so many of our old friends in other bands and saw the Tx sunrise more times than we'd care to admit...

We left after our show on St. Patty's in Atlanta and drove for about 3 and half hours and made it past Birmingham, Al in our beat up '89 Ford...stopped and slept for a bit then woke up and drove the whole way to Austin. 15hrs later we were much like zombies, walking around with a crazy look in our eyes and wanting nothing more than to sleep for eternity...but we're in a rock band and we stayed up until 6:00am looking over lake Austin and howlin at the moon.
We missed our sign-in time and thereby forfeited our badges/wristbands for a good "all-day sleep" which was much needed.
Got to the venue which was planted right in the middle of 6th st. Met up with some old friends, met new ones...hung out with family and tried to focus. We ended up playing an incredible show, the crowd was insane! The club was @ capacity when we went on and the crowd couldn't have been more receptive to us...we even debuted 4 new songs (not on our newest record... "The Beat Goes On" and got an amazing response.
After the show we piddled around the bar scene until last call and drove back out to Lake Austin where we were staying...again did a little howlin @ the moon.
Woke up on Friday, drove to my (woody's) parents house in College Station, TX (GIG'EM AGGIES) and hung out with even more family there...it was nuts.
At around 5:30 we decided it was time to hit that dusty trail and head on back to the ATL.
After taking shifts driving we finally made it back to the mountains (about 1hr + of Atlanta) and again the zombie feeling kicked in.
To top it all off, my window is the worst...it lets in all the sunlight and there was a beam that was both hot and bothersome that wouldn't let me go to sleep.
Finally after watching some episodes of The Office, I drifted into a coma.

So here we are, back home, ready to be back on the road again...we've recharged our engines...got 'em set back to neutral and can't wait to be away from home already!!!!

I want to thank the good Lord for the following on this trip:

-no close calls regarding arrests
-beautiful weather that didn't warrant the use of our van's air conditioning (which doesn't work)
-quick trip taquitos
-our extensive dvd collection
-bat for lashes, "daniel"
-twitter
-the iPhone, helping us not get lost
-letting us not get pulled over ONCE (this has NEVER happened...let's face it, our van looks like a drug van/illegal immigrant smuggling tool
-our amazing talent of turning anything that we do into an R&B song
-boo boo's steam shovels

I'm going to post a blog tomorrow about our dvd set list for the long trip.

much love,

woody

chicken broth & thermaflu

The evil picture that you see above is the "flu virus"...this little devil has taken quite a toll on me, and has caused us to cancel our Florida tour dates...for this I couldn't feel more horrible.
Even as my physical strength is being tested while I type this blog, I can't help but regret not being in the sunshine state...however, after failed attempts to beat this on my own with little or no medical aid... I have been unsuccessful in my quest to destroy/rid my body of this overpowering demon we call: THE FLU.
The good news is that we are currently scheduling our spring/summer tour and plan on making our way back down to Florida for SURE.
If you are so inclined to google the current flu epidemic, you will find Georgia on it's large red target area.
I would suggest the Flu shot, but I got one...so my best advice is to tell you to WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY.

with much love, an achy body & a sore throat...I bid you good night.

-woody-

Chapel Hill Burritos

Whew, it has been quite some time since we updated this blog but one of my personal resolutions this year is to be more active here...so I will begin the trend by talking about how much fun we had in Chapel Hill, NC.

First off, if you've never been there...you're missing out. We played at Jack Sprat's w/ The Tell and Jupiter One (whom I'm currently spinning constantly on my iPod...go download "countdown" right now)
Cool show, very cool venue...it's been a while since we've been fed and treated so well by a venue! Nick who books is killer and we had such an amazing time. One thing we noted was how the people of Chapel Hill were so fun to be around.
After they turned the lights on and began to shove everyone out the door (3am) we went with Grayson from The Tell to this amazing Burrito place that I cannot remember the name of, get the Veggie Deluxe (or face the possible execution by a red-head named Stacy...a music performance major at UNC)
All in all, we made some great new friends, had some great times (anyone ever heard of Sweet Tea Vodka?)
We drove all through the night and got to our next destination at about 11am this morning...I feel like a Zombie, I'm waiting for my arm to fall off or something, no seriously.

much love,

w.