8/3 Chico

YMD slept on the bus in SF again, while GFE slept in John's apartment. We were awakened a 7am (after going to bed only a few hours earlier) by a pounding on the bus. We were groggy and startled and it took us a while to find out where it was coming from. Finally, I realized that there was a cop pounding on the bus driver's window telling me we had to move the bus as we were parked illegally. Now, I don't know about you, but I wasn't that excited about finding my glasses, and driving a school bus in San Francisco for the very first time. I tried calling the GFE dudes, but they were all crashed out hard. So, I started the bus and began to drive. It was actually quite and exhilarating and besides the fact that it was nearly impossible to find parking I did.

We got packed up after a few more hours of sleep and headed for Chico...
Chico was much like we thought it would be; hot, small townish, and a little weird. Jesse from Cafe Coda showed up early and let us into the nice air conditioned room. The show ended up being pretty good for a Tuesday night. We'd like to give a big thanks to Dan, he is the man. There was some drama bullshit with one of the other bands that pissed us off and it not cool or kosher. Tour Karma...

We went to score some late night veggie oil. There were tons of freaks hanging out in that part of town. Mike and Brian saw some ladies get in a serious fight, including hair pulling from a moving car. We also ran into Kyle Nelson. Dude had flames tattooed on his face. Check the tour video if you want to see him waving at Steve.

All we could do was head to WalMart and crash in the parking lot with a little Johnny Walker Red. It was a long day and we badly needed a good night sleep...

8/2

Mike is still working on writing the blog for August 1st, so until then I will update you on San Francisco... Me, Mike, and Brian slept on the bus near a park in SF and Nate had to come move it at 8 am. It took us a while to find a place to park the bus and the best we could come up with was a two hour parking spot. The four of us went to a coffee shop, got some brew, and plugged into the internet. The rest of the crew was hanging out at John Reiss' house. We feel honored to have met John, he is a super cool guy and a great host.

We also had the pleasure of hooking back up with an old Seattle friend, Heinous Haines. We all went to the Haight/Ashbury district and grabbed some food and did some people watching. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing at John's house and having a good time. Heather invited us over to her place for dinner and we had our first home cooked meal of tour. It was delicious and good to not be eating greasy/fast food.

I think we ended up having 13 people cruise on the bus to the show. The Retox was located pretty near the Giants Stadium and there was not many people hanging around. The Retox is a bar that has a show space downstairs, it kind of felt like a basement show, but it has part of an airplane fuselage and some airplane seats. We had a number of old friends at the show, which was awesome!

Heinous was slinging merch for us and we played pretty well. Gifts tore it up, as they always do and Not to Reason Why was amazing! We can't wait to play with them again, I think they are our favorite new band, plus the nicest people around.

We ended the night on the bus yet again.

8/1

Sup ya'll! This is Mike holdin' it down in the Bay, bitches! I would like to personally welcome myself to this blog and your 21st century lives. This is a groundbreaking moment for you, as well as myself.

Anyway, here's the scoop:

August 1st = day off! So basically we have an estimated 6.5 hour drive to Sanfran on a bus that just won't quit. We spent the entire day harvesting vegetable oil with or without permission from small asian restaurants. Oh dear, did we get a shitload! ....hmmm. What else happened yesterday....I'm forgetting something...

ATTACK OF THE HIPPY HOBBIT!!!!

Seriously, dude looked like a fucking baked potato.

We were parked in Santa Barbara, filling the bus with oil when we were approached by a shirtless man-imal sporting a miner's flashlight on his head. It seemed as though it was another harmless, yet irritating and insignificant road bump: small talk over the bus, traveling, musical instruments (....some fictional)...and then things got weird...

We were given some applications for music confidentiality and given a much too detailed lesson over covering our artistic asses. Every few moments this burnt-out crazy would mutter some horror-movie-esque dialogue that seemed to foreshadow a grim end to the day, and our existence. Some examples: "I'm gonna go get my axe..", "You guys aren't goin' anywhere today.."

On a sidenote, the ogre donated a bag of weed and an envelope of salvia, in which he commented: "1000x, to keep the demons away."

After a second trip back into his hobbit hole apartment, it was time to leave. We entered the bus, and prepared to take off, when suddenly, Mr. Mole came scurrying out of his door pointing and yelling, eventually halting the bus.  The man ranted and accused us of stealing his "strat"....and then his "schecter diamond series" guitar.  And for some odd reason, he specifically accused myself of the evil deed (which would have been pretty sweet to do, anyhow).  After standing in front of the bus (which is now perpendicular to and blocking the street) and a yelling match, Nate from Gifts decides to attempt some sort of reasoning with the crazy fucker.  This, fortunately, allowed Judd, also from Gifts, to maneuver the bus around and follow through with the escape. 

And honestly, everything after this incident seems completely insignificant to speak of.

Fuck it.

- Michael 

7/31

After splitting up for the night I met back up with the GFE & YMD boys at Jeff’s House from BoS for some BBQ lunch, beers, and haircuts. Mike and I both got a haircut courtesy of Mr. Brian Woods. We had a good time catching up with the BoS boys and Brian from Signal Hill. On the way back to the bus before we left for Goleta I found a Boy Scout Handbook in the bushes and found out that both Jud and Nate were Eagle Scouts just like me. CJ says he is going to use the book to learn how to tie some knots… So far, no knots...

The drive to the Santa Barbara area was cold and full of traffic. The venue held up to its name and was truly hard to find. We got a late start and we all felt like crap after yet another burrito. The Victor Ship opened the show and rocked it hard. We played second and only played 4 songs because we were running short on time. Both GFE and BoS also only played 4 songs and they both rocked hard. GFE had some dancing (yeah, that kind) during their set and got a good response. BoS headlined and rocked us hard with their new song and it also happened to be Tad’s birthday!

The night ended with the eight of us trying to find a hotel room in Goleta. After driving to two motels and calling four others we learned that there were not any rooms available in the town. We decided to drive the bus to a Costco parking lot and cram on the bus for the night. I actually think we all got some decent sleep on the bus, even though it was pretty cozy. Oh and we also learned about Scott Stapp doing a hilarious song for the Florida Marlins. Check it out on youtube and you will laugh for hours. Another day of tour gone by L

Vegas

7/30

We woke up at 5:30 yesterday morning after going to bed at 3:00am to fly to Vegas. We arrived in Vegas at 11:00 hoping that Gifts From Enola would be picking us up shortly. Due to a variety of bus problems they weren't able to pick us up until 7:30pm. We ended up meeting some English ladies, Charolette and Suzie, who were also stuck in the airport for many more hours than us. We talked about beans and toast, apple pie, and tried to explain our music (never easy). Gifts finally showed up and we piled onto the bus and headed straight for the venue. Yayo Taco was located in a strip mall and didn't scream venue, but it turned out to be a great show and tons of kids showed up. It was good to see Gifts again and Caravels was amazing! There were even kids dancing at the show (never happens in Seattle). We went over to Corey's house and got to swim in his swimming pool until 4 am. Solid dudes and good show, but sooooo hot.

7/31

Slept in a little and tried to find some veggie oil, but no luck because we were running short on time. We are going to challenge Bill to eat 12 tacos next time we go to Del Taco, as he only eats tacos by the half dozens. The drive from Vegas to LA, was hell. So hot and we over heated twice. We arrive in LA at the Pehr Space a little after we were supposed to and embraced our Sheath brethren. The guy at Pehr even bought us some slices because the microwave kept tripping the breaker when Gifts was making cup o noodles. There were a ton of people at the show and a lot of good friends and family. The show was awesome except Nate breaking the E string on his bass (what a beast!) Thanks to everyone who came out to the show!

Here are a few pics from the past two days...

Vegas

So, Gifts From Enola's bus broke down last night and this morning and we are stuck at the Vegas airport waiting for their arrival. We are so pumped to be on the road with those guys! We finally debuted a new song "Monolith" on our myspace page; if you have a spare eight minutes please go over there and check it out! We have a bunch of tour dates on the west coast over the next several days; please tell your friends to come out to the shows and support some good touring bands.

p.s. airport food and drink is way too expensive. How did Tom Hanks do it?

Keep checking back.

@ Yayo Taco tonight with Gifts From Enola and Caravels!!!

-B

NEW Record, West Coast Tour, Lots of fun!

I have been working super hard on finishing up art work for the tour this week. Tomorrow I will make the screens for the new EP, International Waters. The CD will have four songs on it and 30 minutes of music. Our friend Scott, at anyswayze studios has also been working hard to put the finishing touches on the new recordings. We think that these songs are different than anything we have done before, but you can still tell it us. After tour, we will come back to record a few more songs and then drop this thing as a full length.

We have really missed making records and touring the last few years and we are all very excited to hit the road again, especially with our boys, Gifts From Enola!

We will have new shirts, new CDs (limited to 100) and a whole new set. Please, if you are in the area of any of our upcoming shows come out and say hello. See you all in a week!!!

I will be updating this blog throughout our tour so please follow!!!

xoxo,

Brandon/YMDITD