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