Sacramento and San Fransisco, CA

Whats Up, Sacramento was a pretty laid back show we played a pizza place which was cool we had fun we met the dudes from Ganglians who put us up so we had a few beers and listened to The Replacements, but it wasn't the best or the worst show kind of the middle. we headed out to San Fransisco which didn't take long and went to the Haight Ashbury and hung out looked at some records I bought Jackie De Shannon which got my pretty excited. we planned on trading our guitars in for new ones but then thought again. Once we got to the venue it was evident there would be problems as Patrick From Titus Andronicus (A wise and calm Crass Loving Beard Weilding Uber Dude) was freaking out at the problems with sound as nobody was letting anybody turn anything up it was the lamest sound we had hit so far and we are a loud band luckily we got through without any major issues but it was such a downer it was hard to get into it.
We cracked open a beer downstage but they were then taken away from us because of our lack of ID so we just watched Seinfeld. We Played We Rocked We Left to go stay with matt and his buddies (one of whom looked very much like Rikki Lake) who treated us very well with Pabst Blue Ribbon, Beds and Breakfast which was exceptionally nice of them.
Next Show SEATTLE HOME OF GRUNGE
-Let's Wrestle

Visalia, CA

Howdy, Visalia was a weird show not bad but weird we were playing in what effectivly was a Resteraunt, they gave us a wild selection of beers though and some food which came exceptionally late i waited 2 hours for a sandwich. Before we Played I taped my face up in a homage to Patrick Andronicus's Beard and ended up tripping up onstage with this ridiculous gaffa tape mask on and really bust up my leg, So We Played and it wasent the best ever but still it was allright. I got in a conversation outside with this woman and I was telling her about these T-Shirts in England we couldnt bring over because it was a ciggarette packet with Fags: Let's Wrestle Kill People written on it as in the warning on ciggarette boxes and she kindly explained that they wouldve been fine to take over because though "Gay People are Fine Fags are just Wrong". I am Endlessly amazed by these people (by that I do not mean Americans I mean the right wing) they are insane! Paul the promoter and genuinly lovely guy put us and Titus up for the night and it was good to hang out with those dudes we all watched some cult german pornography together it was some fantastic bonding!
anyway the next post will be Sacramento!

San Luis Obispo etc.

I'm going to try and write the blog today, me being Mike Lightning.

So, we left LA happy chaps because we hated it, if we can give any advice to you it would be don't go to LA, but after LA we had a really nice drive. We stopped at one point at a beach for an hour or so, it was like a Beach Boys cover, very awesome. Wes and I washed some rocks and pretended we were the red car and the blue car from the milky way advert. After the beach we strolled up to the venue and hung out on a river, both me and Wes and me and Louis had heart to hearts, it was nice. The gig went well, despite that fact that there were very few people, the crowd went mental. We got introduced to this drink called Four Loco, it caused Wes to get pretty drunk. But we went to this party with these guys we'd just met, it was insane. When I say party, it was really just us, Titus Andronicus and a few other dudes and chicks. But it rocked. We hung out it a sauna and I ended up having a fight with Patrick Andronicus about who's better, the Beatles or the Velvet Underground. I represented the Beatles and the winning side. Wes fell passed out in the garden and, during the fight between me and Patrick, he was just muttering 'I hate Mike' under his breath. He doesn't hate me, don't worry we're not going to split up just yet.

We then had some cool sandwiches and then left, I've done a bad job describing it, but it was totally awesome.

I'll post something up later on dudes.

LA

yo back again to tell you about LA. the drive on the way in was great we saw the big T-Rex from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.We got in very excited and listening to I Love LA by Randy Newman and California by Phantom Planet. we got to Silverlake where we were playing and set up. Mike and Patrick From Titus did a lovely Phantom Planet Piano Duet and we went off to the hotel we were staying in to check in we were rocking off on the fact that it was on Hollywood Boulevard and you could see the Hollywood sign from our hotel. We went back to the venue with Hoppie's friend John who is a coach in teaching guys how to chat up girls (he looks like Rod Stewart) and our friend Matthew was at the venue it was very nice to see an Englishman. So we played which was good fun rocked out pretty hard. we got a bunch of beers and went back to the hotel we planned on going and seeing all the sights but we just drank some and passed out. The next morning we woke up and went out and did what we planned on doing the night before. first we saw the walk of fame (star pavement) my fame my favourite was Crosby Stills and Nash! Then saw the chinese theatre and the Capitol Records Building and finally to Ameoba (Record Store) to pick up some sides and I ended up having a mini breakdown because mike told me to hurry up. we went back to change in some trunks to go to Long Beach and got on the train it took like a week to get there! FACT: Long Beach SUCKS Let's Wrestle have no time for it whatsoever. We went back to change as we were going out to party in Hollywood with sexpert John. We got to his Hollywood Pad and did some confidence building chants and hit the road this party was like something out of the OC everybody looked like Axl Rose or somebody who had slept with Axl Rose the band playing were an amalgamation of Motley Crue and Soft Cell with naked girls with helmets on. I ended up leaving as it was too much for me I felt very out of place but from what i gather Mike felt up a Valley Girl and there were big cocaine parties in the toilet. The Next day we were ready to bid farewell to LA. roll on San Louis Obispo

Arizona

we woke up in El Paso o go get some Breakfast. We had some Fruity Loops which sucked so i just had a Boiled Egg and Cream Cheese bagel. I went up to sleep some more but Mike and Darkus went to Wal Mart to buy some swimming trunks and play with some shot guns. Then they went swimming, I had a shower and said it was the same thing but we all knew that was not the case. We hit the road for another epic journey to Arizona via New Mexico, we went and got some breakfast for our tour manager Hoppie at burger time, he had a burrito and mike had a medium coke. It was the suckiest drive thru i have ever seen. We drove through the desert for hours and theres not much to say about that apart from mike went pretty wild about some big Arse mountains and the Union Pacific "the most famous train in the world" (Has he not heard of the Hogwarts express). Once in Arizona all we could see was cactai and we were nutting ourselves off on them. We did our first touristy thing and went to see Texas Canyon, Ive Never heard of it, no offence canyon, no biggy. We stopped off again at a gift shop full off ratlesnake belts and Bison heads they also had a pocahauntis action figure. We then saw the biggest cactus ever it was bigger than all of our mums standing on each other's shoulders. Once We Got to the show it was in a weird american indian themed shopping complex which had a british pub so we went in and told them what was wrong with their establishment and had an awful cup of tea where mike and the barmaid got a little heated about the state of her tea making skills. we played the show and it seemed to go allright so we stuck around and watched Titus and went over to the house of Keith and Co. some very nice guys who had offered us a floor to sleep on so we drank some beers and rocked off on sleep dust.

Yo whats up we have been having some wild fun today 10 hour drive to El Paso from Austin I woke up hungover as Me, Darkus and Rita (our good friend and new member of the Let's Wrestle road crew as head Merchandise sales woman) spent the night hanging out with our old tour buddies Fucked Up watching Andrew WK, Real Estate, The Bitters and of course Fucked up, so we got up at 8 and hit the road sleeping the first few hours off then had Corn Dogs for breakfast, we went through a drive threw ATM, a town called London and a Sonics drive in burger joint (Mike told us they would be on roller skates but they werent it sucked hard) after 10 hours we finnally got to our hotel and watched A Minute To Win It which rocks its a show where people have to lift sweets into there mouth using a pencil attached to string that gets pulled up by the ears like a pulley to win some big hard cash.

we had some spaghetti at the show and had a chat with Titus and then got to rocking we played well but sxsw had blown my voice and mike had a cold so it wasent as good as it could be so we left early to rest up so went home. off to Arizona today.

texas desert rock:

Thirteen - Big Star

The Accidental Texas Who - Robert Pollard

Fire Engine - 13th Floor Elevators

Sweet Loaf - Butthole Surfers

Story Of An Artist - Daniel Johnston

Texas Chainsaw Masacre - Ramones

Shred Durst and other Favourites

American Wrestle

Sup,

we are going to the states Mike has just got on a plane Darkus and I are going tomorrow

The records coming out on Merge on March 23rd when we will be in LA with Titus Andronicus

here are some photos of our previous yank trips:

Yank Rock

Darkus as Dead John Lennon outside the Dakota Building

My Empire State Of Mind

Rock On!

our 2nd attempt at a blog!

We are Back