New York and Philly

Yo Folks we hit New york at about 5pm after dinner at Hooters and what did we do well Darkus went for a shit and then me and mike talked to this really annoying australian hippy douche bag telling us about his band signing to warners but nobody really wanted to do it with him anymore tough luck, Wanker! so then we hung out where we were staying at Hoppie's friend Laurens apartment in greenwich village and then walked the dog, then walked ourselves and came back for a sweet 40's and then had a debate as to what was better pop music or classical. Mike was on the classical side I off course was all about the pop questions like whos better Wagner or Elliott Smith which couldnt ever be resolved because they are completely different and then we went to sleep. The next day we got up and went to do an interview with John Norris AKA ex MTV news dude which was cool just basicly had a beer and awnswered questions. We were then supposed to meet Barack Obama (We heard he was eating at Katz's Diner) but we missed him by 10 minutes then off we trotted to the Bowery Ballroom where we were playing we soundchecked and then went for some dinner at some whole foods supermarket, had some wild pasta and ran into Katy and Ali from the Vivian Girls so we waved and talked about how they were moving to LA so we said goodbye and went back to the Bowery and played, hung out and watched Quasi then met some people from the show outside and chatted to them with some weird dude from Peru.

This is all i really remember I had a few beers and got all angry and ended up having to be taken home.

The next day I read The Elephant Man which was good fun I have a lot of time for John Merrick and then we headed off to Philly, we listened to On The Road by Jack Kerouac on audiobook in the car and got into town it was a pretty snazzy looking venue It was Sam Quasi's birthday too so we hung out and diddnt really do much Janet Quasi wrote our set list and we went on and it was a fun show we then watched quasi and came on to sing happy birthday to Sam with Quasi

We stayed with Janet's friend Ryan from a band called Man Man we stayed up for a few beers then hit the hay

the next morning we went to get Philly Cheese Steaks (which you had to order just saying wiz wit) and some Ice water then hit the road Onwards to DC!

Back in the USA!!!

So we're back in the USA... we left Canada after eating some naked breakfast and after I had been to the toilet several times, we were on the road to state side! When we got to the border we had little problem crossing, the man seemed friendly enough. We stopped in Vermont to change our money back and met this little lady in a bank called Laura Bean who we were half flirting with half bullying. She gave us lots of $2 notes or bills and sent us on our way. I can't really remember the drive down to Boston as I was asleep for a good part but from what I hear it was nothing special. For the brief moments when I was awake I seem to remember it being very woody and there were 'Moose Crossing' signs posted every few miles.

Driving through Boston pretty uneventful... We were very late to the show due to our hangovers and entertained ourselves by thinking of excuses to tell to Quasi, my favourite was 'Wes' balls were stuck in the seat belt so we had to get the fire brigade'. When we arrived at the show we were instantly reminded about the ridiculously high drinking age which pissed us off. We ate some horrible Turkish food that made me feel sick. Darkus, Wes and Hoppie's were fine looking but mine was like a soft block of clay covered in petit filous yoghurt, it was sickening and, to add insult to injury, the waitress was very rude. The gig was really good and people seemed to be diggin' on it. We were all very tired so packed up and went off to where we were staying pretty quick. This chick had offered us a place to stay with an indeterminable number of room mates or rooms.

In the Morning we started our leisurely drive down the coast and into New York city.

CANADA

first off Toronto. We got into customs expecting a huge deal but this was not the case we sat in a room and talked about the queen for half an hour so off we trotted to Toronto we enjoyed the signs very much they had wonderful crowns on them. We stopped off in London, Ontario which was awesome the Englishness which we have yearned for was quenched (not fully because it still isn't the land of hope and glory) we went and got Fish and Chips and Bangers and Mash and the waitress gave us free HP Sauce which is completely vacant in the states some food we could just about find like Marmite for example but its small differences like the Baked Beans taste sweet like full of sugar Yuck right?! so we had a Pint and our beloved English food then set off for Toronto we drove and we drove and we drove until we were there, Toronto is a wonderful place a very good looking town and had a few more things we hadn't seen in a while such as H and M and French Connection. we sound checked said hey to Quasi and went into Chinatown for a Big Flat Noodle but we managed to go the one bad Chinese place in Chinatown it made me ILL, but we watched this chick eat noodles in a bizarre way and even started filming her as it was so interesting Mike got a lob on about it but it was pretty Gross. so we got back and started partying hard and then playing our show which people seemed to really dig which was cool then we saw our friend Jonah from the band Fucked up and hung out and had some fun with him the rest is kind of a blur but I know we met up with Josh from FU too and had a beer with him and stayed at his place which rocked gotta love those dudes

We headed off the next day ready to rock Montreal nothing much happened on the drive we went to canadian burger joint Harveys which has possible the worst burger logo ever and then we had some poutine (chips/fries with gravy and cheese curd) then picked up some music stuff then boom outta nowhere we turn up in Montreal ready to ROCK we sound checked and then went for a curry (another thing we have missed) then got back and hit the stage and rocked out heavy style after the show Hoppie was trying to chat up the bar maid and we ended up going out for a beer with them they were called Trashy and Dara and we ended up staying at Trashy's place which is possibly the best place I've ever seen she had everything it was where i imagine John Waters would live some amazing new kids on the block bed sheets a huge novelty sunglasses collection and then the best of all was her costumes for dressing her Cat she had a bumblebee costume, a wizard costume, a lobster costume and one to just dress her cat up as some normal dude in a polo shirt and a baseball cap it was wild so we stayed up drinking playing with the cat and then i cant remember much else the last thing we did in montreal the next day on trashy's recomendation was Naked Breakfast which was just a shit cafe with naked chicks serving the food it was pretty cool but the chicks looked like retired strippers kinda old and worn and not very healthy but it was fucking awesome anyways.

We love Canada (photos coming soon)

Madison and Detroit with Quasi.

Hey Hey, since our last blog update things have been going pretty similarly, we left Minnesota and went to Madison WI, the land of cheese. It was good, we played at this venue called the Annex which had some hot bar maids who made us some sweet sandwiches. The gig went super well except for the fact that Wes broke a string, but that didn't hinder Let's Wrestle. Not in the slightest we kept on rockin'. We stayed at this dude's house who lived near by, he had a room devoted to his records and a big dog that Wesley enjoyed sleeping next to very much. I had a pretty bad nights sleep on the floor so was pretty grouchy the next day that was short lived though. Wesley and I have been having random, daily fights that are always friendly, instead of tearing us apart they bring us closer, sweet really.

This was the day that we were driving up to Detroit. I got pretty excited about lake Michigan that we were driving past, it's the biggest fresh water lake in the world. Wes and Darkus said that I was going on and on and on about lakes which annoyed them slightly, but I was happy in my own little world thinking about lakes. Darkus keeps saying that he 'likes what I say, but doesn't understand any of it' I guess that's a nice thing?

Anywho, we rolled up to the venue in Detroit which was pretty cool, there was a bowling alley and, as a general rule venues that double up as cool recreational things are good by us. We said hi to our new tour buds Quasi and helped them unload their stuff, then whilst they were busy soundchecking we were eating pizza. Hoppie bet me I couldn't eat the whole thing, I did and won a dollar. It was totally awesome.

The gig was really good, we met the people from Firery Furnaces and Jason Lowenstein from Sebadoh (or Sebadude as we were calling him). Hoppie and Louis had a mean bet that I wouldn't talk to these hot chicks before Louis. He won $3 from Hoppie. I did talk to them eventually but I don't really think that the bet was fair. Firstly as soon as they made the bet he ran off to talk them like a Linford Christy and secondly they were butters. Almost enough to make me spew.

So, we all got pretty drunk and went off to this girl's house who lived just outside of Detroit. In the Morning we set off to the most English place we'd been in a month... Canada.

(The internet here isn't too good so we can't upload any pictures... sorry)

Minneapolis with Quasi

I, Mike Lightning, am writing today's blog.

We've just got off a two week break in North Carolina where we got drunk, played ping pong, rode around in our tour manager's pick-up truck and celebrated my birthday. We had a good time but were keen to get back 'on the road'. We left NC early in the morning and rode with all of our stuff to the airport in our truck we arrived in Chicago, picked up the car and took a leisurely drive up to the twin cities. We stopped in this amazing place on the way called the Wisconsin Dells, it was a plastic wonderland with rollercoasters and trees with faces in them. We had a good dinner, Darkus had a salad. After our dinner it got dark and started to rain so we just listened to Ram on repeat, Wesley and I decided it was our favourite record of all time. Ram on forever.

We got to the hotel and watched 'Lady Sings the Blues', a film made in 1972 about Billie Holiday with Diana Ross and Lando Calrissian in it, then went to bed.

In the morning we realised we were down to our last few dolars so went to eat at the 'Hard Times Cafe', which we thought would be cheap. It wasn't and you couldn't buy meat, which sucked. We hung out there for a while before heading off to a radio station in Minneapolis. When we got there they didn't have a bass amp so I was pretty TO'ed, because I love to play the bass, but then we decided that I'd play the piano which I liked, I felt like John Lennon but looked and sounded like Chris Martin.

After this we drove off to the Turf Club to sound check and meet our new tour companions, Quasi. They're the coolest guys and high up on our list of favourite Oregonians. Wesley covered his guitar in purple and silver gafa tape as an homage to Prince and his hometown. The gig went well, not much to write home about.

The low point of the day was eating at White Castle. Wesley decided that he had to go in honour of his favourite film Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. It was horrible and Louis and I got pretty grumpy, especially when Wesley insisted on sticking around to answer a questionaire and claim two free cheeseburgers. Hoppie toook us to get some fruit afterwards then we calmed down.

Good first day overall I think.

Portland

howdy the last date Portland was great fun we got in at an allright time enough time for me to go do some serious record shopping at this great store right next to the venue I bought the Grass Widow EP and my "white whale" Margo Guryan's Take A Picture LP which you should listen to Right Now! so I had to get back to the venue for an interview but was very paranoid about this record the whole time during this interview the interview was cool it was with a local dude who seemed really into what we did and seemed to be a genuine music fan (earlier in the day we had an interview in the car which was very unpleasent the journalist seemed tottally vacant and in no fit state to be writing articles) so that was good fun and then we got some jumbalaya and had a beer and played im thinking of a song (where you think of a song and everybody thinks of it too) our friends Jack and Lee came down to hang out we all got pretty merry with Titus as it was our last show with them which was a real shame their record is fantastic and they are well worth seeing live so go! So we played a good show and watched Titus, who made a lovely speech about us which mike nearly cried at and went to Ian Titus's buddies house and all got pretty wrecked and listened to La Roux and then I crashed out so cannot remember anything else

Driving and Seattle

so we had a big drive after San Fransisco through the Calafornia redwoods and Oregon we head on out over the golden gate bridge Mike was supposed to film it on Rita's camera but diddnt press the record button but we saw a lot of people pretending to jump off for photo opertunaties. we head on through the big trees of northern Calafornia which were pretty epic and we stopped to go in a drive thru Tree which was pretty cool our tour manager Hoppie got me an awesome t-shirt to remember the glorious tree. we carried on driving into Oregon and we saw some serious rain which helped Home Sickness we hung out with Paul Bunyan and his prize Ox and headed into Roseburg, Oregon to where we were meeting Hoppies parents for some dinner they were lovely people who loved mike's deep rich voice and were very suprised to find out he wasent the singer they even payed for our hotel which was wonderful of them. So we got to the Hotel and went in the hot tub which was the first time I'd ever been in one and I felt I was going to faint so we went to the normal swimming pool and then played with the fitness equipment.

we woke up the next day to head off to Seattle we spent pretty much the whole time listening to Nirvana which I suppose every band does we also listened to some Mudhoney but it was mainly Kurdt! The drive was long and tiring but we finally got in to the home of Starbucks, Microsoft and Grunge. We saw the Space Needle and then got to the venue and played video games with Titus and ate some Vegan sausages (and for a pretty exclusive meat eater i had to say they were excellent) we went onstage and i wore my coat and hat thinking that because we were in a colder part of the country it'd be fine, it wasent and compromised the first half of the show but as always it was no big deal because once i had shed the coat and hat we rocked it was like woah! yeah? We watched Titus play and then watched Mike talk to a lady and head off to our lodgings.