…

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything in here. 9 months to be exact. oops! A lof of exciting things have happened since my last post. Hillary is moving from Cincinnati to Denton! I did another tour with The Famine last fall. We went out with Underoath, Saosin, and The Devil Wears Prada. It was a lot of fun and the crowds were HUGE! 2500+ every night, with the biggest show around 6000 people! After that, I had a few months off and did a tour in Japan with WHY?. This was definitely one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. Even though it was really short, I loved every minute of it. Japan is definitely one of my favorite places in the world. SXSW was after that and a lot of work! I mixed all of the shows for Yoni (of WHY?), Themselves, and the Anticon showcase. I met some really interesting people and fell in love with the band Anathallo (SOOOOOO GOOD!). Since then, there have been some other really big and exciting projects come up, which I have to keep under wraps for the time being. Hillary is moving to Denton soon which is really exciting for both of us!

That about brings us up to about now. Tour preparation begins today with some well needed cleaning and maintenance to all my gear. I leave for Europe with WHY? in about 2 weeks! I’m so excited to get back out on the road again. This has been the longest I’ve had off tour in the past 3 years. Needless to say, I’ve been itching to get back to work.

Here are the dates we’ll be in Europe:
6/29 – Fly to Berlin
6/30 – OFF – Berlin, GER
7/01 – Dziedziniec Pod Pretekstem – Poznan, PL
7/02 – Festsaal Kreuzberg – Berlin, GER
7/03 – Bremenale – Bremen, GER
7/04 – Uebel Und Gefaehrlich – Hamburg, GER
7/05 – Tivoli – Utrecht, NL
7/06 – Garage – London, UK
7/07 – Audio – Brighton, UK
7/08 – Nouveau Casino – Paris, FR
7/09 – Les Ardentes – Liege, BE
7/10 – Waldbuhne – Northeim, GER
7/11 – ZMF Festival – Freidburg, GER
7/12 – Delta Park – Essen, GER
7/13 – OFF – Berlin, GER
7/14 – OFF – Fly to Tel Aviv, IL
7/15 – Barby Club – Tel Aviv, IL
7/16 – OFF – Fly to Berlin, GER
7/17 – Fly back to US

The tour looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun! What I’m not-so-secretly excited about the most is getting to go eat at Minh Quang in Berlin. They have the best tom kha tofu soup I’ve ever had. I’ll try and be more persistant with updating this while I’m in the EU.

 

FUCK YOU IKE!

Here I am again. Blogging. Who knew? Phil is playing again, with his massive clouds of smoke filling the room. Asheville, NC. I like it here, but for some reason there’s a really weird mood happening with all of us. We’ve had a few issues with merch shipping, getting everyone on the same page with travel, etc… but nothing too big. It’s just a weird vibe tonight. Maybe a few brews and some cigarettes will do the trick.

Florida was hot and filled with stupid drunks in Miami, shitty PA in Pensacola, and bad weather on the way to North Carolina.

Tonight we have a hellacious drive to Philadelphia from Asheville, NC. 10 HOURS! We were planning on leaving tonight, but due to a misfortune with a shipment of merchandise, we have to get up at 7am and pick up an order at Fed Ex and haul ass for 10 hours to Philly. We’ll see if we make it in time.

I’m looking forward to New York. I’ve always heard good things about the Bowery Ballroom, so it should prove fun to mix there. It’s already sold out, and apparently there are supposed to be some pretty important people there, MTV, Pitchfork, iheartcomix, Brooklyn Vegan, etc….

Only 2 more nights with Mt. Eerie after tonight. He’s been helping out a bunch on this tour getting some extra heads in the door and providing as an easy opener, technically speaking.

I’m a bit frazzled right now, so it’s time for some beers and some smokes, and see if I can shake this odd feeling.

 

Video Shoot Pictures

So my photography skills are beginning to shape up. Well, a little bit at least. Here’s some photos from the video shoot in LA.

 

Hurricane Season

Tour has been amazing so far. Only a few hiccups along the way, but nothing too major. Here’s a recap from when I left off.

The drive from Albuquerque to LA to Santa Barbara back to LA was horrific. All I had was FM radio to listen to the whole time. 1000 miles of nothing but bad country and James Taylor. I actually acquired quite a taste for James Taylor on that drive. Sssshhhhhhh… guilty pleasure. Anyway, the drive was long and boring, but I eventually made it to where I needed to be to pick up Austin. After I got him, we went to see Centro-matic at Spaceland in LA. They were fucking fantastic! They always play well, and always amaze me in the sounds they get from the instruments. Such a great band. I saw some old Denton friends at the show, which was nice. Austin and I ended up staying with my friends Jace and John at their apartment in N. Hollywood. We ended up drinking on their rooftop until the sun began to come up.

The next day we met back up with the other guys to exchange vans and get to the video shoot. The video shoot ended up being really interesting and way different from the last shoot I was on. The stuff we got to see looked really great. I’m excited to see the finished product. After the shoot I went back to Jace’s place, had some drinks, reminisced on some old times, and got some long needed sleep.

This brings us to Thursday, the day of the show. We decided to go to Vegan Express before we load-in at the venue, and wow, was it great! I ate some of the best tofu scramble I’ve ever had. After we eat, we run some errands and end up at the venue on time. The Echoplex turned out to be a great venue with a great PA and great staff. The only part about the show that wasn’t so great, was their monitor guy letting some feedback slip into the system and the terribly loud drum & bass dance party that ensued afterwards. GROSS. After the show we went to a bar, had some drinks, and stayed at a friend’s house. Good night all around.

Friday is Tempe. Not a terrible drive. 6 hours. The Clubhouse is one of my least favorite mid-sized venues in the country. Their staff is terrible (minus their house engineer and one of their security guards), the PA is way way way way under powered, and the venue is just dirty… everywhere. The show ended up being not too bad with attendance being 309. The smallest yet, but still fun.

Saturday we go to this cool art gallery place in Tucson and have a great show! The venue sold out, their staff was excellent. PA was AWESOME for the size room. Austin and Yoni had a small spat about some CDs almost being crushed, but everything is good now. I really enjoyed Tucson.

Sunday is the LONG LONG LONG drive to Austin. It took about 12 hours (14 with time change) to get there. Nothing exciting to write about this day.

Monday! We stay at my sister’s apartment in Austin. Josiah, Yoni, and I ran a bunch of errands and got things very organized with spreadsheets, merch binders, etc…. Everything is a lot easier now. My good friend Beth met us at Mother’s there to have lunch. It was good to see her in Austin. Once we got to the venue, I was a little worried at first. The PA was very under powered for an outdoor stage, but the house guy was extremely helpful and definitely helped us all out. The show ended up being pretty big with around 680 paid through the door. Not bad for a Monday night. The show went off without a hitch and we all ended up being a little inebriated by the end of the set. We went to another bar afterwards and continued the debauchery. I ran a bunch of people around and played tour manager for the evening and made sure everyone got to where they needed to be.

Tuesday we wake up, grab some awesome sandwiches at Whole Foods and pick up everyone around town. The drive to Dallas was quick and painless. We arrive at the Granada to what could possibly be an IATSE union crew sitting outside of the venue, ready to help us get everything taken care of. The Granada was really great. Could possibly be one of the best venues so far. The show was slightly under attended with only 360 people paid. 400 with guest list and all. It was still a bunch of fun. I got to see a ton of friends from home and my parents even came out to the show! Needless to say they got wasted and garnered the attention from all of my friends for the entire night. We had some good banter between front of house and the stage throughout the show, with a shout out to my parents half way through. The show was a whole lot of fun. After we finished we drove back to my house and had a few beers. I cannot express enough how awesome it was to sleep in my own bed! I slept soooooooo great.

The next morning we woke up, ate at Spiral Diner in Dallas, and begin out drive towards Pensacola. We stop in Mobile at 4AM and that’s where we are now. Bright eyed and ready for today and the show tonight! It’s at Sluggo’s in Pensacola. I’ll keep you guys updated and let you know how everything turns out.

I’ll post some pictures I’ve been taking along the way in the next day or two.

 

Dual Hawks

One show down, 25 left to go…. until the next tour starts.

The first show couldn’t have gone better! Over sold show at the Great American Music Hall. Great staff, great crowd (except for Becky’s set, fuck those assholes), great food, great sound, etc, etc, etc…

The K2 that I was mixing on felt a little bit like a toy, but I managed to get some good sounds out of it. All of my new equipment worked perfectly, and all of the delays turned out to be quite fun!

I’ll post some pictures of the venue once I get a chance. It’s one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever been to. I’d compare it to a slightly smaller version of the Trocadero in Philly.

After the show we didn’t hang out too late, and just went back to Yoni’s place to sleep. It was much needed after my shitty shitty shitty flight on the way to Oakland. A 6 hour delay while you’re on the runway isn’t the best way to spend a night. Anyway, the next night proved to be a lot of fun! We went to a party for one of Yoni, Josiah, and Doug’s friends from high school that was moving away. I managed to get sufficiently inebriated and meet a bunch of really great people.

Monday ended up being pretty low key. Yoni and I went to see the biopic about The Germs. The name escapes me right now, and I’m too tired to look it up on IMDB. It was TERRIBLE. The only part about the movie that was enjoyable at all was seeing The Bronx portray Black Flag for all of 30 seconds. Eh. After the movie we went to a birthday party for a friend of Josiah. We drank a few cucumber margaritas and decided to go get some food. Falafel sounded tasty to us, so we went across the street to a great place and filled our bellies. From there we met up with some friends at a tiki bar to have some drinks. After that we decided to go to the grocery store and get some food and some booze and take it back to Doug’s brother’s place and just chill for the rest of the night. After some good talks and some good fun, we all retire to our respective domiciles for the time being. I got up extremely early today to catch a flight to Albuquerque to see some family and pick up a van to drive to LA tomorrow.

I’m very excited to get to see Centro-matic and South San Gabriel tomorrow in LA. It’ll be good to see some friends playing in a venue outside of Texas. I’m not so looking forward to the excruciatingly long drive I’ve got to go through tomorrow. UGH. Oh well, time to catch a few hours of sleep before I hit the road. No rest for the wicked!

 

AGAIN!

Well, it’s that time again! I’ve got the last two tours of the year (at least for now) starting in a few days. Needless to say, I’ve very excited to get back out on the road and mix at some great venues again. It’s been a great year of touring, and hopefully, next year is even better!

I’ll be doing front of house for WHY? for the first 5 weeks of this jaunt, and then front of house and tour managing for THE FAMINE for the next 6 or so after that (dates pending).

Here’s a show list for WHY?
^ w/Mount Eerie
* w/Restiform Bodies
@ w/Alias
# w/Tussle & Lets
08-29 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall #
09-04 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echoplex
09-05 – Tempe, AZ – The Clubhouse
09-06 – Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
09-08 – Austin, TX – Mohawk^
09-09 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater^
09-11 – Pensacola, FL – Sluggo’s^
09-12 – Gainesville, FL – Common Grounds^
09-13 – Miami, FL – The White Room^
09-14 – Orlando, FL – The Social^
09-16 – Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle^
09-17 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church^
09-18 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom^
09-19 – Boston, MA – Museum Of Fine Arts
09-20 – Portland, ME – Space Gallery @
09-21 – Providence, RI – Club Hell
09-22 – Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa
09-25 – Cincinnati, OH – 5th 3rd bank blackbox Theatre for Midpoint Music Festival
09-26 – Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
09-27 – Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock
09-29 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive*
09-30 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court*
09-30 – Salt Lake City, UT – Uraban Lounge (later show)
10-02 – Vancouver, BC – Richard’s On Richard*
10-03 – Seattle, WA – Vera Project*
10-04 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom*

Here’s confirmed dates for The Famine, with more coming soon!
All dates w/ Underoath, Saosin, and The Devil Wears Prada
11-10 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
11-11 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre
11-13 – San Francisco, CA – The Grand Ballroom
11-15 – Irvine, CA – Bren Events Center
11-16 – San Diego, CA – Soma
11-18 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
11-19 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theatre
11-20 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theatre
11-23 – Houston, TX – Verizon Wireless Theatre

We’re hitting some pretty big venues this go-round. Should prove to be a great experience.
I’m really looking forward to the shows at The Granada in Dallas, Bowery Ballroom in NYC, Triple Rock in Minneapolis, and then of course the House of Blues, and Verizon Theatre type venues are always a pleasure to mix.

(Skip this part if you don’t care about nerdy sound stuff…)

I purchased a few goodies in the past few weeks that I’m extremely happy to get to use on these tours.

I got a TC Electronic D2, Drawmer DL241, a whole mess of adapters, and another Radial JDI. I’m running 30 channels for Why? and not much less for The Famine. My rack now consists of a TC Electronic D2 and M1, DBX 266, and the Drawmer DL241. Every night I’ll be running two different Delays (one short, one long), and two different reverbs (again, one short, one long).

 

Done!

So Europe is finished for now!

I’m home for 3 weeks until I head back out with Why? for a 5 week US tour. Even though it’s nice to have some time off the road every once in a while, I’m already itching to get back on the road. I’ve pretty much been touring since May 21st, and it’s not letting up anytime soon! I’ve got August 28th – October 8th with Why?, and then October 14th – November 25th with The Famine! Whew! Busy, busy, busy. I’ll have mixed over 200 shows by the end of the year! It’s a little crazy to think that I’ve mixed shows more than every other day. It sounds like a lot, but my career is still just a fledgling one, and I see next year being even more intense!

The weirdest part is, that I thought I would welcome this break, but I’ve gotten so used to life on the road, that I miss being in a van/airplane/hotel/venue all hours of the day. It’s an addiction. Right now, the withdrawals are just beginning to set in. Give it another week, and I’ll be having cold sweats and shaking! I feel extremely lucky to have met up with the bands I’ve been working with lately. They’re both at the top of their game, and have the highest level of professionalism. I can definitely see a large amount of success for the future of their music careers.

 

Pictures

So here are some pictures from my time over here in Europe. They’re all from my phone, so please excuse the lack of quality.

Dornstadt

Side of the road in Germany

Again, the side of the road

Brussels

Lots of people

Ukulele

Sitar

Fucking Tourists

Expensive cab ride!

Vegetarianishe

BIG MONEY!

French Riviera

Dour, Belgium

Dour Festival!

More to come!

 

FRANCE!

So, I have just returned from a working weekend in France.

It was amazing to say the least!

Here’s a recap of the weekend.

25.07.08 – FRI
We meet up around 10AM on Friday to leave for the MIDI Festival in Hyere, France. This weekend was full of hectic travel. We land in Nice, FR and get a van ride to the festival. The ride ended up being roughly 2 hours and was comprised of some of the most gorgeous scenery I’ve ever laid eyes on. Mixing sound in castle ruins on the French Riviera was incredible.

As soon as we get to the festival, we drop off our gear in our dressing room, and head straight for the wine. The set time that evening wasn’t until 9:30, so we had a fair amount of time to kill before the show. So we proceed to indulge in some tasty adult beverages and snacks from the chef, and sit and talk with Jonah from The Blow and Yacht for a while. Dinner ends up being a huge mishap, and we miss out on the good food and just end up chowing down on hors d’oeurves. Arguments with the chef happen, things get cleared up, etc, etc… The show goes really well, I’m extremely pleased with the overall sound, and at this point I’ve made a cheat sheet for myself where different types of delays and reverbs go in the songs. This helps immensely and has given me a way to add effects very consistently. After the show, we head to our hotel, which is not too far from the festival, only to have to wake up at 6AM! Keep in mind that it’s 1:30AM at this point in time. No rest for the wicked, I suppose.

26.07.08 – SAT
Saturday, we wake up at the crack of dawn, head down for breakfast, and then catch another 2 hour van ride to get on a plane in Marseilles, FR to Nantes, FR. Get on the plane, blah blah, land, and get picked up by another van, only to drive another 2 hours to the 3 Elephants Festival in Laval, FR. This is a much larger festival than the MIDI Festival. HUGE PA system, extremely professional video set up, the works! I was in heaven!

Once we arrive at the festival, we scope out the food situation, have some snacks and begin setting up equipment. The set time was at 8:30PM, so again we had some time to kill, and ended up chatting with some people and just sort of milling around for a while. The show went pretty flawlessly, and again I was extremely happy with the sound. I believe that was the best sounding show I’ve mixed since I’ve been over here. Afterwards, we head to the open bar and have a few cocktails. We all load up in the van and head back to the hotel. At this point, I’ve got a little buzz going and in the mood to get a few more drinks. Doug and Austin decide to join me, and we head back to the festival to enjoy some more complimentary adult beverages. After a few too many, we’re all in no condition to be in public and head back to the hotel.

27.07.08 – SUN
I wake up, grab some breakfast, and proceed to get ready to leave. At this time there are 6 total people in our group, 1 guitar, 1 bass, 1 keyboard, 1 vibraphone set, and miscellaneous pedals, cymbals, cables, etc… So needless to say, we’ve got a decent amount of stuff with us. Our transport from the hotel to the airport arrives and more or less, it’s a glorified station wagon. WAY too small for us. Obviously, we can’t all fit in here, so the festival arranges a cab to take everything that can’t fit… 2 and a half hours away to PARIS! The driver doesn’t speak a word of English, so there is a definite language barrier there. Yoni, Austin, and myself are chit-chatting the whole way there. Once we arrive at the airport the meter on the cab reads 614.80 Euros!! Almost $1000 USD! Thank god we didn’t have to pay for it! After we go into the airport, we have to get in this RIDICULOUS line that has about 200 people in it. So we wait, and wait, and wait. Finally we get to the agent, get our boarding passes, and get on the plane, that’s also late. After we land, we go to our favorite Vietnamese spot, which has the best Tom Kah Tofu soup I’ve ever had, and chow down. At this point we realize that Yoni left his fanny pack on the plane! We try calling the airport, but it’s all too late to handle that. After decided to wait until today to handle everything, we head back to Josiah and Doug’s to crash.

28.07.08 – MON
We get up today, grab a bagel, and head out for our trek to the Berlin airport. Let’s just say it takes a while to take the trains all the way out to the airport. We left at 2pm and returned at 6pm. Tonight’s plans are to eat, drink, and be merry.

I only have one week left here, and I have to say I’ll be sad to leave. Great company, great music, great city with great public transportation. Time to live it up, just a little longer!

I’ve been really slacking with this thing since I started it, really. I’m going to try and update more often. Maybe even some pictures!

 

That’s as dumb as a bag of water.

So Europe has been amazing so far!

I’ve been living in Berlin somewhat couch surfing back and forth from the flats that Why? are renting. It’s been great catching up with them again. As much touring as they do, everyone seems to be in fairly good spirits.

I’ve already mixed 5 festivals, with only 2 more to go.

Obstweisen Festival – Dornstadt, Germany
Valkhof Affaire – Netherlands
Melt Festival – Gräfenhainichen, Germany
Dour Festival – Dour, Belgium
Midi Festival – Nice, France

3 Elephants Festival – Laval, France
Lok Pop Festival – Osnabruck, Germany

We’ve pretty much just been staying in Berlin and either flying or driving out to festivals on the weekends. The scenery has been beautiful, the food has been some of the best I’ve ever had, and the people have been extremely nice. The 3 Elephants Festival is tonight and should be a good one. Why? is following a band called TUNNG that I’ve heard a bunch about.

Why? has been kind enough to ask me to continue working for them throughout the 2nd US portion of the tour, so if any of you live in these cities, let me know and we can hang out for sure.

08-29 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
09-04 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echoplex
09-05 – Tempe, AZ – The Clubhouse
09-06 – Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
09-08 – Austin, TX – Mohawk
09-09 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
09-11 – Pensacola, FL – Sluggo’s
09-12 – Gainesville, FL – Common Grounds
09-13 – Miami, FL – The White Room
09-14 – Orlando, FL – The Social
09-16 – Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle
09-17 – Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
09-18 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
09-19 – Boston, MA – Museum Of Fine Arts
09-20 – Portland, ME – Space Gallery
09-21 – Providence, RI – Club Hell
09-22 – Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa
09-25 – Cincinnati, OH – 5th 3rd bank blackbox Theatre for Midpoint Music Festival
09-26 – Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
09-27 – Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock
09-29 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
09-30 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
10-02 – Vancouver, BC – Richard’s On Richard
10-03 – Seattle, WA – Vera Project
10-04 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom

I’ll also be making another round with The Famine shortly thereafter for 6ish weeks, and many things stirring around for early next year!