Category SXSW Tour

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, SXSW Tour On April 9, 2008 Comments: No comments

We stopped at the Czech Stop in West on the way to Austin.  Ron and Suke had never been there and wanted to make sure we stopped there again on the way back so they could stock up on kolaches (Czech pastries).  I wrote a song about that place once and gave them a recording of it.  The town has a big festival and Myron Floren and Brave Combo have played there along with many other accordion players.

brave combo on the simpsons

It’s a great town.

SXSW registration was overwhelming. Ron and I went to register while Suke and Dave looked for a place to park the van.  At one point we were going up the escalator and Ron said, “Do you feel a knot in your stomach?”  “Yeah, I do.”  I’ve never seen such a concentrated cool contest as I did there.  Not that everyone was trying but enough were to ma...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, SXSW Tour On April 3, 2008 Comments: No comments

We drove to Dallas from Athens. We stayed at my old roommates’ (Corbett and Becky) house where they were watching Cat Soup. Beth made ravioli lasagna for us. She’s real sweet.

We’d been craving Shiner Bock since the tour was planned and Corbett and Becky had it. Corbett was in an art rock band with Dave and me called The Dooms UK. His moniker was DJ Geeky C. He had good samples. He also has an awesome dog named The Baron. I love that dogs don’t worry about being over excited. What a joy. I had a dog in high school that pissed everytime she saw me come in the door. That’s a lot of excitement.

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, SXSW Tour On April 2, 2008 Comments: 2 comments

On the way to Athens, we stopped to get gas in Harlem, GA. It’s the birthplace of Oliver Hardy. Subsequently, there is a museum dedicated to Laurel and Hardy. It was closed. I’m sure it's excellent.

closed. coño. photo by suke

Lori, the owner of 283 bar, is a sweet sweet lady. We arrived in Athens and she immediately gave us drinks and let us hang out a bit before loading in. During the load-in she made note of the coin-slot disco ball by the jukebox. She would deactivate the monetary switch in order to give us carte blanche with the ball along with the smoke machine.

photo by suke

We wandered the downtown with cd’s trying to put some on consignment. They are good with the local music but understandably not willing to burden themselves with unsigned touring bands. Except Wuxt...

Posted in SXSW Tour On April 1, 2008 Comments: No comments

We checked into the Budget hotel.  They had a Coke machine that dated before Coke Classic.  I have a theory that New Coke was introduced as a smokescreen in order to replace sugar with corn syrup with Coke Classic.  Theories are fun.  I also had a theory that if you looped the electromagnetic spectrum you could reverse time.  Here’s some digression to magical realism:  If you put a radio at the end of a rope and spinned that rope at a 5-foot diameter from yourself during a nuclear explosion, then you could go back in time to a date that you really enjoyed and cut the time line into the form of a Wheel-O. Problem solved.

We were early so we hung out in the room and watched Randy Jackson’s Dance show.  A dance crew dressed as vampires were my favorite.  They were beat by Fish and Chicks.  T...

Posted in SXSW Tour On March 28, 2008 Comments: No comments

Ron and Dave drove to Jersey to pick up the van and met us back at the rehearsal studio.  Our gear was a tight fit.  It started raining. All the way from NYC through Richmond the rain was torrential.  But we hauled ass because we were supposed to load in at 8pm.  We had a gps system and tried to keep the arrival time before 8.  After Richmond we hit a couple of rubberneck hold ups due to wrecks.

I’d played Greenville in the past with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus.  It was a great time.  This time was a little stressful getting to the venue. 

They have Galaga there.  I love that game even though I usually die before the second challenging stage.

 photo by suke

Jeff, the co-owner, was really nice. “We’re about to order wings if you guys want some.”  I did because wings are so good.  But I...

Posted in SXSW Tour On March 24, 2008 Comments: No comments

Jim Shearer at IFC reviewed our set.