So Many Dynamos touring/recording/all-purpose blog

Fall Foam Residency week 1

2011-10-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

From October 27, 2011

Tonight, after the Cardinals and Rangers duke out World Series Game 6 at Busch Stadium, a wonderful gathering of good natured, intelligent, socially conscious St Louis-ans are going to rally!!! No, I'm not talking about Occupy Stl. I'm talking about fans of Black Spade, and So Many Dynamos. Anyone who's had a conversation with a member of SMD in the past year has probably had to listen to us gush about the absurd talent of Veto Money. Hold on a second, Veto Money? Yup, Black Spade's legal birth name is Veto Money! And that's not even why we love him! Mostly, we love his music, and his good company. But we're also addicted to performing with him. He has the rare gift of ALWAYS making a musical situation better. It's not uncommon to see us giddy as school children when it's time for Veto's verse, or when he delivers a melody in a way none of us could ever have ever expected. Every time we play together we learn something, and this of course co-insides with the entire idea of playing a residency in St Louis. We are hungry to learn, to get better, to take some chances, and most importantly to have fun! Tonight also marks the first of a series of shows with guest Dynamo performer Joe Winters on Percussion.

We're Not Above It

2011-10-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Oh Hey Internet,

I know it has been pretty silent in the So Many Dynamos department over the last few months. We have not been touring, or releasing records, or even managing our blogs very well. Lame, and boring...we know, we know. Well, what have we been doing you ask? The short story is: We've been growing. A lot. Musically, and as people. Or is there a difference? Either way, seasons are changing for So Many Dynamos. Here in St Louis, we have beautiful leaves, a new guitar player named Travis, and lots of new songs!!!

This one is called "We're Not Above It".

Turn and Face the Strain

2011-06-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, it’s been a while. I know we moved to Tumblr but I thought this entry warranted double posting.

A lot has been going on ‘behind the scenes’ as they say. Aaron & Norm and the rest of the Secret Sound Society along with a slew of other like minded people have been working hard on organizing the SLAP conference, taking place Thursday June 16th through Sunday June 19th. The first two days are free. For the price of a few beers at the bar you could instead get tickets for Saturday and Sunday. Save yourself the hangover and click here.

Some of you may recall I spent last summer in Alaska with my girlfriend. While there she became my fiancé. This weekend we are tying the knot in a small ceremony here in St. Louis and I couldn’t be happier about it.Somehow amongst all the wedding planning I was able to nerd out with Jon Scorfina who writes the column "Last Collector Standing" for the RFT. He said his interviews normally last about 25 minutes, but we ended up talking for nearly 3 hours. When it comes to vinyl I tend to get excited and ramble on (and on and on and on...).

Where was I? Oh yes, marriage.Whenever people get married things are bound to change and my situation is no different. In August my wife-to-be will begin working towards her PhD at University of Colorado Boulder. Before we head west Dynamos are playing a show on July30th. This is going to be my last night as a member of So Many Dynamos. I’ve got a mountain of thank you’s and sentimental shout outs, but that’s a different blog entry for another day.

For now I’ll just stick with the facts. We’ll be sharing the stage with Ra Cailum and King Arthur. In an attempt to send me off in style, the fine folks in King Arthur will entertain my dreams and play a few songs from their previous band, The Lake. This is not to detract from how incredible King Arthur is. If you were at their show at the Old Rock house last month then you understand what I’m talking about. It’s more about entertaining my fan boy fantasy because I think The Lake is one of the best bands I’ve heard in the last couple of years ( I may have mentioned this somewhere before). It’s going to be a special evening to be sure. Cicero’s isn’t the biggest venue, so there’s a chance it might sell out. I would suggest getting tickets in advance. I would hate for anyone who really wants to come to be left out because they didn’t get a proper heads up. Once tickets are available we’ll be sure to let you know. Until then, be sure to get your SLAP tickets and wish me luck!

Movin' On Up

2010-12-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

Listen blogspot, we've had some great times together. You should've known we were growing apart when I didn't tell you about the tour that started today. Now, this isn't the last time we're gonna talk, but for now I need a little space form you. If you need me I'll be over on Tumblr.

What We've Been Up to

2010-11-13T22:20:00.000-08:00

So here's something from left field. "Artifacts of Sound" is featured in the new video game "Power Gig : Rise of the SixString."

Check it out:

(It's like Guitar Hero, but the controller is an actual guitar)

So let's ketchup real quick...

We had a blast playing and hanging out at LOUfest. Our set was early in the day but we had a sizable and excited crowd. We got to play a few new songs, one of which included an appearance by members of The Funky Butt Brass Band. One of the brighter highlights of the day came while watching Built to Spill form the side of the stage. At one point in their set Doug Martsch dedicated a song to his mom, who was sitting right behind us.

The week following LOUfest saw our luck take a turn for the worse. While riding his bike home one evening Nathan "dynamo'd" his knee cap into a few different pieces. The doctor and his contemporaries describe these types of wounds as "B.T.S." or "Beat to S***." It was really really bad. Three months and lots of physical therapy later Nathan is back on his feet and back and we've been getting into the full swing of things. He's been a real trooper.

The building Norm & Aaron live in also houses a studio and our current practice space. We've spent a few long days demoing a few new songs with Will, the owner of the building and Aaron & Norm's landlord. It's been lots of work but has really helped us become a better group as we continue to write for a new full length.

Last month we played the inaugural Secret Sound Festival on Cherokee Street. Our show was on the first night with Jukaboz and Ad Astra Arkestra. By the time we took the stage my mind was completely blown. The downside to playing with amazing bands is sometimes they, well I wouldn't say they made us look bad, but they set the bar pretty high and prove to be a tough act to follow.

We've got some tour dates coming up next month and a show unlike any we've ever played before coming up on black Friday. We'll post more details on all that soon.

Glad we could talk and catch up.

STL - This Saturday + Sunday!

2010-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Design by Katie Foppiano

We'll see ya'll there.

This Day in Dynamo History

2010-08-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hey friends, I know it's been a while. I had one of those reflective moments thinking about where I was a year ago today . I thought I'd share before we catch up...

We first met Harvey Danger on their "reunion tour" in 2006, an endeavor inspired by their sizable and die hard fans. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but HD fans proved themselves to be, as Stan Lee would say, true believers. They are album buyers, obscure songs requesters, completists - the kind of people who really support the artists they love. Every band should be so lucky to have even a few fans like theirs. Luckily we managed to convert a few. In fact we met one of our most ardent supporters that night at Schuba's. The tour was only 2 weeks long but it produced a lot of good times, great (fuzzy) memories, inside jokes, and embarrassing anecdotes.

After a few years of playing a scattered shows here and there they announced they were calling it a day, along with a short string of final shows. We were asked to play the only Midwest date. One of the more memorable things about the evening was Thax Douglas wrote and read poems about each group. If you've been to a well attended show in Chicago there's a good chance you've seen him before. His poem went like this

I felt it was very fitting.

This show was also Ryan's last night as a member of So Many Dynamos and/or our last show without Nathan in the band, making the evening all the more bittersweet.

So what have we been up to?

After our European tour we decided to take a little time out to catch our breath, catch up on our bills, and just take it easy. I spent the summer in Alaska and came back engaged to my girlfriend. Aaron moved in with his girlfriend and got an adorable kitty named Miso. He's been hustlin' at Mississippi Mud House. Norm moved in with his girlfriend and they took care of my cat while I was away. Soon they will have a few little furballs of joy to call their own. He did a medical study and is teaching kids to be awesome drummers at Mojo's Music in Edwardsville. Nathan made and delivered a lot of sandwiches and spent some quality time with his puppy, Tiny Lee.

We've all had time to decompress and process what's gone down over the last year and appreciated not having our lives being completely centered around the band. But now we are back in the saddle with our eyes on making another record. We've got a few new songs, one featuring my debut on keyboards. We'll be performing them at the end of this month at LouFest. We're playing the same day as Broken Social Scene and Built to Spill!

Things are looking up for us.

We'll be in touch.

UK / Euro Tour: Mar. 8th - Mar. 14th

2010-03-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

You know how you can wait and plan and prepare for something for a REALLY long time and within a blink of an eye it comes and goes? That's how I'm feeling as I write this post and upload these photos.

From the food, to the languages, to the roadways and the architecture, I know I can speak for all of us when I say our trip to Europe was surreal and filled with many moments of culture shock. However, on the other side of things, there was a moment in Paris where I felt like we could have been in San Francisco. We were outside the venue, and there were young people drinking and smoking and laughing and I had this realization that no matter where you are and how different places and people seem to be, there's comfort in knowing that everyone is working towards the same common goal - and that's enjoying life.

Gent, Belgium

Belgium Chocolate Cake with Espresso

We found this kitteh peaking over the stairs in the café.

Café Video - Gent, Belgium

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Clock Tower in Amsterdam

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

The French Countryside

Window Decal Inside of a Café - Paris, France

I was SUPER stoked to get a picture of this.

On the Way to The Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel Tower

Underneath the Tower

The Courtyard Next to the Tower

Proof That We Didn't Make Any Of This Up

I feel we learned a lot on this trip; and not just about other people and different cultures, but about ourselves. We came to many realizations during the course of the month, some that may bring forward big changes to Camp Dynamo in the near to immediate future. (Don't worry, it's nothing bad.) If anything, we're more excited and more inspired to do what we've always wanted to do, and that's making music that we love and that other people can enjoy.

I'm sure we'll be chatting soon.

USA! USA! USA!

2010-03-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

We made it back to St. Louis yesterday at 7:30pm CST. The weather is ABSOLUTELY wonderful. St. Louis looked marvelous from the airplane yesterday. Seeing the Arch and Busch Stadium made all of us ready for baseball season.

So, we're headed down to Austin tomorrow for SXSW. Here are the details on our showcase.

We'll be posting more pictures from the Euro portion of the tour within the next week or so.

We're stoked to be back home! Let's hang!

UK / Euro Tour: Feb. 22nd - Mar. 7th

2010-03-11T01:25:00.000-08:00

We've been to a lot of places over the course of eighteen days. It's weird getting in the van and driving somewhere and then waking up the next day and being in another country. Back home, it takes eight hours to drive from St. Louis to Atlanta; while in that amount of time over here, you can drive through about three different countries. Most of the pictures below were taken during The UK portion of our journey.

China Town, London.

The British Museum.

Ceiling Inside the British Museum.

London Eye.

We've tried to make food as much as possible. We've made Dal twice now.

We made some new friends who let us stay at their seven-bedroom house out in the English countryside for four nights. They had chickens in their backyard. Nathan is vegan. This is funny.

Tour Manager, Daniel Pooley.

New Friends.

In The UK, instead of a bunch of cattle along the side of the road, they have sheep.

The Dover Cliffs, southeast coast of The UK.

I still have never seen Titanic, but I imagine it would look something like this...

This was aboard the ferry from Dover to Calais, France.

Photo by Dan Pooley.

Today, we're leaving Amsterdam. I'm writing this from the bar in the hotel where we played/stayed last night. We only have three shows left of this tour and then the long journey back home will take place. We'll be getting back to St. Louis on Monday evening and on Wednesday morning, we'll be making the thirteen hour drive down to Austin, TX for SXSW. We'll post pictures of the Euro portion of the trip soon.

Waffles, Beer, and Chocolate.

2010-03-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

BELGIUM RULES. We've only been here for less than a day and the fair city of Brugge has already been too kind. I'm writing this from a hostel in said city. We're sharing a room with a Spanish couple. At least I think they're Spanish. I overheard them talking to one another and that was the assessment that I made. I wonder how the two of them felt when they thought they had the room to themselves, and then five un-showered doods came strolling in. Sorry to ruin the moment guys. I can't think of anything less romantic than sharing a room with us.

Tomorrow begins the first day of our European portion of the tour. I know I can speak for everyone when I say that I wish we could have planned more shows over here and played less in The UK, but now we know what to do for next time.

Oh, I'm not sure if we've mentioned, but we're playing SXSW this year. We're playing at Emo's Jr. on Thursday, March 18th with our VERY BEST BUDS, Maps and Atlases. A lot of other really great bands are playing, too. If you plan on being in Austin that week, you should come out. T'will be a hoot.

And like I said before, UK photo blog coming soon. I just have to change out the batteries in Alison's camera - the one she was gracious enough to let me borrow for this trip - before I can upload anything.

Peace Out, UK

2010-03-07T04:36:00.000-08:00

Roughly two hours from now, we'll be taking a Ferry from Dover, UK to Calais, FR.

Euro tour starts tomorrow in Belgium.

UK photo blog coming soon!

So Far, Soooo Good

2010-03-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

So...it's been a few days. We've been a bit preoccupied; basking in the lap of luxury. For the past three days we've been making curries, sleeping in individual beds, showering frequently, baking cookies, retrieving eggs from actual chickens, and watching classic Harrison Ford films projected onto our new friend (or shall I say, mate) Brent's wall. Brent lives in the most Dickensesque village we have seen so far, a part of Kent county. He's been to several of the shows, and with this crucial stay, has single-handedly boosted band moral tenfold. Thank you Brent.

The shows have been prettay, prettay, prettay, prettay, prettay, prettay...good. We played a nice early evening in-store in Kingston the other day. We were a bit concerned that we would be playing only to cynical record store clerks and large posters promoting the new Alkaline Trio record (advertised as "sounding like the old records"), but there was actually a line of people interested in hearing us play. Heartening indeed. The night before we played with our new BBFs (Best Band Friends) Tubelord and Tall Ships in Leeds, a show that we had been looking forward to for the entirety of the trip. These are two bands worth checking out (I would link their name but I'm in a hurry, so you'll just have to do the Google work yourselves). Putting on an amazing show for us was enough, but the hospitality made us feel like King Henry VIII himself. Homemade chilli, tea and biscuits, pizzas, beers, a bottle of scotch, and a floor to sleep on....thank you Leeds.

All in all, the shows have been good, but the stays have been better. The U.K. is frigid, its beers are watery, its djs are ubiquitous, and its chips and salsa aren't free at its Mexican restaurants, but its people are fantastic.

Mr. Pooley

2010-02-24T06:08:00.001-08:00

We are spending our first day off in London, eats in China Town and a trip to the British museum (a very free way to spend our afternoon). Right now, we are getting our shower on at our tour manager Dan's friend's flat (note: this blogger is not actually in the shower whilst blogging, as this is potentially dangerous). Speaking of Dan Dan the tour managing man, I'd like to share an anecdote about him, who himself is the King of anecdotes.

The venue which was the sight of our first London show provided a lift (British for elevator) for the bands, thus, simplifying the process of loading. Loading into the show was a breeze, this was no coincidence, thanks to Dan Dan the tour managing man. In fact, Dan has been such a tour-managing force on this trip that it has prompted a running joke between us (bear with me here, I realize that "band on tour inside jokes" can be painfully boring to anyone outside of the van) that Dan "tour manages the shit" out of situations. It's really a play on the absurdity of having a tour manager, which is still such a new concept to us. For instance, last night, Dan "tour managed the shit" out of finding us delicious Kebab and Falafel, a few nights before he "tour managed the shit" out of pulling a lodged earplug out of Clayton's ear with pliers, etc.

Anyway, loading out was a bit of a different story. Dan was too busy "tour managing the shit" out of something more important, and wasn't able to "tour manage the shit" out of loading our gear back into the lift. Feeling confident as men in our mid-twenties, we decided to take it upon ourselves to load the lift. Doing ANYTHING without Dan proved to be a mistake. When we reached the top floor, we were unable to open the accordion style door. We had thrown our gear into the lift willy-nilly and were paying the price, the door was jammed, and we were trapped in the elevator! Just then, Dan delivered this classic line: "You guys really have So Many Dynamoed the shit out of this situation". Eventually, with Dan's aid of course, we shifted some gear around and escaped from the lift.

To borrow a line from the PBS ad campaign: Dan, we need you now more than ever.

UK / Euro Tour: Feb. 18th - Feb. 20

2010-02-20T21:04:00.001-08:00

We arrived at London Gatwick Airport around 7am GMT on Wednesday. After getting about an hour of sleep on our 7 and a half hour flight, we were met and greeted by our new pal/tour manager/all-around-sweet-dude, Dan. His van, The Great Red Shark, is our means of transportation for this tour. It's been kind of different getting used to riding shotgun on the left side of the vehicle. We've definitely all made the mistake of trying to get in the van on the wrong side.

Once we left the airport, we embarked on what would be one of the longest days of our lives. We've been told that trying to power through jet-lag is the best thing you can do, and I'm glad we did. However, lack of food and lack of sleep made the whole day feel like a dream.

We spent the day running errands and picking up the amps and drums we've borrowed from Vagrant for the next month. You wouldn't believe the keyboard stand I was given to use. It seriously looks like it was developed by NASA. It's HUGE, COMPLETELY impractical, and looks like something that once belonged to Rick Wakeman. Luckily, at our first show in Glasgow - more on that in a bit - the sound guy, Dougie, sold me his old two-tier keyboard stand for a mere £15.

I'll give you one guess as to who has the worst luck in the world with vehicles...

Answer: We do.

After finishing our errands the first day, we embarked on a four hour drive to Leeds, UK, where we would stay with friends and promoters, Matty and James. On the way there, in the middle of the highway, the clutch on the Shark went out, and we were left stranded in the middle lane with cars whizzing by and no chance of getting over to the shoulder. Within four minutes of us blocking the lane and slowing traffic, a miracle occurred and man in a van pulled in front of us, hopped out, opened his back door, pulled out a tow-rope, hooked our front end to his back end, came rushing to the window and asked if our brakes still worked, and pulled us off to the shoulder. Honestly, it happened so fast, none of us could believe it.

Once we were off on the shoulder, we tried to come up with ways to express our gratitude, but nothing other than "Thank you soooo much," could be muttered in our shocked state. The man stayed only long enough to tell us that he had broken down in nearly the same spot a week before and that another motorist had plowed into him from behind. I still have NO idea what we would have done without his help.

Luckily, Dan has the UK equivalent of AAA, and after standing on the shoulder in the cold for approximately 35 minutes, we were joined by a repair van. In cases where the repair is easy, it's these guys' job to actually fix it on the side of the road. Unfortunately, that was not the case for us, and we had to be towed to a garage for the night.

Now, normally in cases where we've been towed to a garage in The States, we've had to wait until the next morning to have anyone even look at the van. But, because everyone is overly-friendly and everything is incredibly convenient in The UK, we had the van in the garage and repaired in under a half hour. It was 11:30pm.

The first show of tour was what every first show of tour usually is: rough around the edges. While setting up for sound check, we had a scare with some blown fuses and blown power adapters. Luckily, Dougie - the most helpful sound guy we've EVER had the pleasure of working with - came to the rescue again and sent Dan on his way to pick up a magical box that would provide us with the correct voltage we needed to run our American plugs into the UK outlets. (The next day we dropped £40 and purchased our own magical box.)

After the show, we drove to Sterling, Scotland and The Miniature Dinosaurs treated us with some real hospitality. Upon or arrival, we were greeted with drinks and snacks and Musical Trivial Pursuit: 90's - Present. I answered a couple of questions correctly and disappeared upstairs to catch up on LOST, while Griffin, Nathan, and Clayton stayed downstairs to hang tough.

The next morning, we awoke and stepped outside, and realized a giant castle was looming in the distance on top of a huge hill. The general consensus was, "Well, we have GOT to go see what that looks like up-close."

The view was absolutely breathtaking, and honestly, the pictures don't do it justice.

It's Saturday now and I can't believe we've only been here for four days.

Back in Charlotte

2010-02-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

Right now we are taking a breather in the Charlotte Airport (CLT), enjoying our three hour layover. If you're interested you can see where our plane is as we pass over the Atlantic by clicking here. I should also note that the novelty of drinking a beer while 30,000 feet in the air is overshadowed by the principle that a can of Budweiser is not worth $7 anywhere ever. After we check in it won't be long before I am completely consumed by my craving for buffalo chicken strips.

UK / Euro Tour Starts Thursday!

2010-02-15T10:08:00.000-08:00

So, we'll be flying out of Lambert International Airport in St. Louis tomorrow afternoon at 12:55pm, where we'll grab a connecting flight in South Carolina that will then take us to London, UK by 7:10am GMT.

Today is being spent scrambling around and making sure we have everything we need.

It's hard to believe the time has finally come.

We're going to make the biggest effort, ever to keep this here blog updated with pictures, video, stories and the like.

Here's a list of all of the shows we'll be playing while over there.

This Friday...

2010-02-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

We'll be debuting a new song at this show!

Also, this is our first time playing at The Old Rockhouse - located on 7th Street in Historic Soulard - and we're just as excited that there is yet another place to see great ALL AGES shows in St. Louis. If you haven't been there yet, this is your chance!

This will also be our last hometown show for a while, as we'll be taking time off after our UK / European tour to work on a new record.

Join us in the celebration!

UK / EUROPEAN TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED!

2010-01-08T11:12:00.000-08:00

We'll be traveling across the pond in February and March for a string of dates.

We look forward to making new friends!

Feb 18 2010

8:00P

Captain’s Rest

Glasgow

Feb 19 2010

8:00P

Uncle Albert’s

Middlesbrough

Feb 20 2010

8:00P

Stealth vs Rescued

Nottingham

Feb 21 2010

8:00P

Firebug

Leicester

Feb 22 2010

8:00P

The Flapper

Birmingham

Feb 23 2010

8:00P

Buffalo Bar

London

Feb 25 2010

8:00P

Jam

Brighton

Feb 26 2010

8:00P

Bullingdon

Oxford

Feb 27 2010

8:00P

Unit

Southampton

Feb 28 2010

8:00P

Brudenell Social Club

Leeds

Mar 4 2010

8:00P

Blå

Oslo

Mar 5 2010

8:00P

Blæst

Trondheim

Mar 8 2010

8:00P

Café Video

Gent

Mar 9 2010

8:00P

Hafenklang

Hamburg

Mar 11 2010

8:00P

Rotown

Rotterdam

Mar 12 2010

8:00P

TBA

Esch-Sur-Alzette

Mar 13 2010

8:00P

Flèche d’Or

Paris

Hey, St. Louis!

2009-12-23T22:18:00.000-08:00

Spend the day after X-mas with us and our friends, The Natural Selection and The Makeshift Gentlemen.

The Firebird
Saturday, December 26th
Doors @ 7:30
Show@ 8:30
$8 (21+) $10 (-21)

We'll be playing some songs we haven't played in a while and some that we've never played live before.

For more information, go here.

We hope to see you there!

Coming soon to a music blog near you

2009-11-30T19:26:00.001-08:00

Our buddy James complied some of Fugazi's best stage banter into a collection he entitled "Having Fun on Stage with Fugazi." As he explains it "Many people cite the scene when Guy calls a particularly macho audience member an "Ice Cream Eating Motherfucker" as a highlight of Instrument... I knew that there would potentially be very many Ice Cream Eating Motherfuckers out there to have been admonished by the band. Also, I found that the band had natural aplomb for jokes and storytelling."

I can't help but feel icredibly vindicated hearing Guy and Ian calling out douche bag moshers for not knowing a good dance move if it floor punched them in the face. If only we had this while touring with hardcore bands...

On an unrelated note, how are your Best of 2009 lists coming along?
Let's share after Christmas, ok?

Well, I guess we're gonna have to take control.

2009-11-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

Hey, everyone. We apologize for the lack of updating recently. It's been a long couple of months for all of us. We've all been working diligently to keep up the momentum of SMD, while at the same time, teaching and having to learn old songs for a new member. And on top of that, we've still been trying to find ways for the four of us to make money personally, so we can keep affording to do what we've always wanted to do. It's been a test of will at times, but I can honestly say that having Nathan around has been such a breath of fresh air. He's a positive attribute to this group, and I can't imagine it being any other way.

ANYWAY...Things are going REALLY well around here. With this year coming to a close, some exciting things are in store for us next year. Most notably, we've recently been picked up by The CODA Agency, in the UK, and our first trip overseas will be taking place in February/March. We can't even begin to describe how stoked and ready we are to finally be making this journey.

The other great piece of news is that "The Loud Wars" will finally be released on vinyl, via Hello Sir Records, just in time for that UK/European tour.

With the exception of a couple shows here and there, we'll be hibernating over the winter and working on new songs so we can record a new album by next year. We're all looking forward to what the four of us can create, while having an appropriate amount of time to take an objective look at what our strengths and weaknesses have been over the past seven years of us being a band. A lot of things have happened and a lot has changed in that time, and hopefully we can harness all of those feelings and turn it into something that we can all be proud of.

Speaking of shows, we're got several of them coming up. Check them out.

We'll try to keep up with this here blog, alright?

Alright.

and I'm so disconnected....I'm never gonna check back in

2009-10-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

I can recall looking down and realizing last night as our last song was ending that it wasn't my butt on the drum throne; it was my feet. Maybe things got a little out of hand. eh..maybe not. Its been one hectic week.

Since we last talked, we've had some of our best shows in Boston and Troy, NY, we've made tons of new friends and we played a show in a bowling alley where they have tiny balls and mini pins. We also got paid 7 more dollars at CMJ '09 than we made @ CMJ '08!...maybe that should read: We made 7 dollars @ CMJ '09. (Sin)emechanica also served us pretty hard yesterday in an EPIC drive-by mooning. Flawless execution...

Oops, almost forgot.... our van's front end got destroyed last night by a car in front of the venue. Everyone is ok. Griffin was behind the wheel and Aaron saw the whole thing so I'll let them give you more details. After realizing G was ok I became a private dick taking lots of candid photos of the other driver removing several scandalous items from his vehicle's steering column and trunk before and after the cops arrived.

Luckily after abandoning gear and eating a moral boosting Denny's meal, I was able to sleep last night in Double Chinemechanica's spaceship outside the motel where the other 8 guys crammed into one room. We're currently figuring out our van's situation. We're fortunate enough to have insurance and to be in the best of company, so we will not be cancelling any shows on this tour! All trouble aside, this has been one of my favorite trips in a very long time. See you tonight Columbia, SC.

p.s. to the owner of the red, white, and blue "free spirit" bicycle parked outside of the NYU radio station, I feel terrible and am sincerely sorry for backing our van into your ironically bitching ride. I'm sure someday I'll either pay for my crime or make it up to you.

Clayton

Chili in Beantown

2009-10-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

Like most tours, ours was preceded by many last minute errands. Before hitting the road I had to register our van in Missouri and get new license plates. On my way back to my car I picked up a life-affirming pork steak (for only $4!) from a stand operated by a father/son team on the corner of Market & Tucker. I took this as a good omen.

Now we are on day 3 of our 13 day tour with Cinemechanica and we already need an oil change.Last night we drove all night from Cleveland to Boston, stopping only for gas and a complementary breakfast at a Holiday Inn Express. We are now taking it easy in Matt & Kristina's apartment. They got married over the summer and we are currently enjoying the wonder of one of the wedding gifts,a kettle corn maker. While I stuff my face, there is a vegetarian chili cooking party going on in the kitchen. Normally I would scoff at the thought of putting cauliflower in chili (AND NO MEAT!) in chili, but it smells too good.

One of most noticeable changes of having Nathan with us is how it is affects our eating habits, since he's vegan. In an effort to accommodate his diet, spend less money, and eat healthier we've been stopping at grocery stores instead of fast food joints. So far it is working out pretty well. I'm eating lots of spinach, but it's only a matter of time before my meat-loving instincts take over and I reach for the biggest rarest cheeseburger(s) I can find.

While refueling in middle-of-nowhere Ohio we actually saw a Truckers Chapel, not unlike the one in Relgulous.

With two shows under our belt it is apparent that following Cinemechanica is one of the biggest challenges we've ever been faced with as a band. For the last two nights they've got on stage and just annihilated. While we can hold our own, they set the bar pretty high. Nathan is holding things down on his side of the stage and has received resounding stamps of approval from people who have been come to our shows for years. He's taken so quickly to our dynamic on and off stage that it's weird to think tonight will only be his seventh show with us.Tomorrow will be his first visit to New York City.

Staying Busy

2009-10-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

I want to pour one out for some of our homies. 2009 is not the easiest time to be in an independent touring rock band so you can't blame anyone when they realize they want to move on to other things. In June, our friends We Vs. the Shark played their last show. They are all still friends with us and each other, so we still get to hang out with them when we are in Athens, which despite the many things that make Athens great, that's what really gives it that home-away-from-home feeling. In August we were honored and fortunate enough to play once more with Harvey Danger in Chicago on their final run of shows. Well done gentlemen, and best of luck adjusting to the real world.

And then of course Ryan quit the band. At first I didn't think that we could exist with out him, since he's been at the center of a lot of what we have done as a band. Then Nathan's name came up when discussing people to replace him and it seemed too perfect. Now that we have four shows with him under our belt things are coming together. Our first tour with him is coming up, as is the Cardinal's post season. There's lots to look forward to in our camp.

Despite his departure from Dynamos, Ryan will still be pulling duty as 2^nd lead guitar in our triumphant instra-metal side project, Thor Axe. We're playing our first show in months tomorrow night at a new venue in town,

Antarctica (5226 Gravois, St. Louis, MO) w/ The Bronzed Chorus.

It's $5 and they've got an impressive beer list, ranging from PBR light and Lonestar(!) for those feeling the recession, to imports and micros. Did I mention the Bronzed Chorus is playing?

Hello

2009-09-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

My band Target Market and So Many Dynamos have been BBFs (best band friends) since the beginning. We've played countless shows together, spent endless hours around kitchen tables and front porches doing the things that you do in your early twenties, literally growing, together. Now, I find myself faced with the somewhat daunting but ultimately thrilling task of filling the quite large shoes of Ryan Wasoba.
Initially, I felt conflicted, being that Ryan and I are such good friends and have been for a long time. I knew how much he loved this band, and just how principal of a member he was. It felt odd to me, trying to "replace" what I knew was irreplaceable (afterall, you can't find another Ryan in a minute). But that's just it. I'm not another Ryan, and I'm not trying to be. I know this band well, and we see clearly just where it is we need to go. More importantly (after talks with Ryan), I know now that this is what's best for him.
So with that, So Many Dynamos are drawn onward into new era (sorry, couldn't help that one). and all parties involved are completely happy with this changing of gaurd. Hopefully everyone else will be equally satisfied. In many ways, it's the same ol' band: same ethic, the same sense that rock shows should be FUN, and the same merch (T-Shirts just $15!); there will just be a different person standing stage left with a guitar in his hands and humility in his heart.

Ryan the Guitarist Explains His Departure

2009-08-25T14:39:00.001-07:00

This is going to be a pretty intense post, so I'll offer a short version and a long version.

Short version: I am no longer a member of So Many Dynamos.

Long version: A few months ago I was hit with the unfortunate realization that I no longer wanted to be in a touring rock band. I had been bummed out for a while, but there always seemed to be a hill up ahead that I could blame it on and once I climbed over it there would be sunshine. First I thought I was sad because Dynamos took so long to make our record, then because we didn't have a label yet, then because our release date kept getting further away, and then because I was stressed out over my upcoming wedding. But after I was a married man with an album out on a real record label, I was more depressed than I've ever been in my life.

I tried to keep my feelings to myself and push through, but it became harder every day. The smallest things on tour sent waves of anxiety through me; little problems like not knowing where to eat or being late for load-in became unbearable. I started taking things out on the other three guys in the band without meaning to and eventually found it impossible to hide my panic attacks from them.

At a hotel in Salt Lake City on our July tour I told the other guys that I think I need to quit the band, but no conclusions were made that evening. We never talked about it again, even though we were in a van together for three more weeks afterwards. We've never had less fun on tour.

I spent the last days of the tour trying to figure out how to make things work, to see if there was a way that I could stay home and So Many Dynamos could go out with a replacement touring guitarist. A few days after we got home, I sent an email to the guys telling them I needed some time off.

About a week later, we met at a Denny's for coffee and we all agreed that the best thing to do would be to make a clean break, have me completely out and bring in somebody else to be a full time member. They asked how I felt about Nathan Bernaix from Target Market replacing me, and I said, "I feel great about that."

I am incredibly proud of the work So Many Dynamos has done in the time I've been in the band; I still can't believe that I helped create "Search Party," "Let's Move Mountains" and "The Formula." Aaron, Griffin, and Norm are and will always be my three best dude friends, and if it weren't for them I wouldn't have been able to stay in the band this long. I am honored to have played with the bands we've played with, to befriend amazing bands like Maps and Atlases, Cinemechanica, and We Versus the Shark, and to have worked with Chris Walla, Alex Newport, and Jason Caddell. I still love making music and intend to do so for the rest of my life.

And I can't be more thrilled that Nathan Bernaix is taking my spot. He's one of my favorite people, songwriters and musicians. Nathan has been a part of So Many Dynamos since day one. In fact, we met when he came to one of our first practices where we were rehearsing "Airtight" and "This Can Be Useful in Rocketry" for our first show. I can't imagine anybody else doing justice to the job like Nathan.

An infinite number of thank yous are due to everybody who has ever seen, listened to, or cared about So Many Dynamos thus far. I am ecstatic to join the rest of the world in loving this band and being excited about its future. We've always said that our goal was to make So Many Dynamos sort of a science project, creating the band that would be our favorite if we weren't in it. Now that I am not in the band, I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that I love So Many Dynamos more than any other band on the planet.

It's been fun,
Ryan Wasoba

It's A Sin To Live So Well...

2009-08-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

Phew.....So we made it home without any more serious misfortunes. We even made a stop by Daytrotter on our way home from the last show in Chicago. Now that we've had a chance to take it easy for a few weeks it's back to Chicago for two shows with Harvery Danger!
HD is on it's last run of shows EVER and it is a huge honor to be asked to play with them again, on this momentous occasion. Our tour with them in Ocotober of 2006 still stands out as one of the best tours (if not the best) we've ever done.

Here are the details for both shows:
Saturday August 15th
Schuba's
3159 Southport North, Chicago, IL 60657

EARLY SHOW 18+ 7pm
$14 - as of right now it is NOT sold out

LATE(r) SHOW 21+ 9pm
SOLD OUT
The only way to get into this show now is if
-you buy a ticket from someone outside Schuba's
-you bride us with fistfuls of cash to get on our guest li$t.

Our own Blythe Archive

2009-07-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

We're in Blythe, California, which is where you end up when your van breaks down between Los Angeles and Phoenix. This not the first time we've spent a night at the Budget Host motel in Blythe, having been there before with our pal Chad Matheny, who had been in Blythe before we had for the exact same reason. So I'm at Starbucks with my broken laptop and broken glasses stealing internet from a Best Western while the other guys are hanging out at the mechanic a few blocks away. It's 114 degrees here. I'm not exaggerating and Weather.com isn't either.

Blythe is weird in an engaging way. Our afformentioned buddy Chad is obsessed with this town and is about to release the third volume of his 4 part record series "The Blythe Archives" that you can hear by clicking on his name above. Our van was towed to an auto part store where the tow truck driver's friend met us and looked at our van for 35 dollars to tell us that our spark plug blew out and we have to get our gasket head re-threaded. I know what some of those words mean. We heard Beck, Feist and Friendly Fires at the Hispanic grocery store, and the Starbucks was playing Wilco when I came in, which isn't quite as weird.

We had to cancel Phoenix which is a bummer because it looked like the most promising show we've had booked there. If the van gets repaired within the hour then we have 22 hours to make it to Austin in time for load-in. Mapquest gives that drive 16 hours and 30 minutes, and that doesn't include the two hours that the time zones will rob from us.

This makes things feel a little better, and so does this. I'm finding little comfort in the thoughts that people have it worse than meMy mood will improve greatly after a visit to Lenscrafters in Austin, but for now super glue will have to do.

2009-07-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

We're doing an in studio for KEXP at noon. You can listen to it here if you're into that sort of thing.

2009-07-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

This was down the street from Record Bar in KC...

WE ARE ON TOUR

2009-07-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a map with our tour route, complete with venue info, other bands, etc.
Check it out!

Deal With This

2009-07-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Our one-time booking agent and good friend, Alina, posted this via Facebook.

TOO CUTE.

Write A Haiku, Get a Poster

2009-06-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

from The Firebird Twitter:

The 10 best So Many Dynamos' Haikus win a ltd edition poster by John Vogl.
Bring on your best 5 7 5's about St. Louis' fav palindrome band.

Come to the cd release show tonight!
Don't be late!

Ouch

2009-06-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

First this and then this. Today sucks so far. Let's hope the Vintage Vinyl show raises morale. I need something above a 5.5 today.

When it rains, it pours

2009-06-24T11:55:00.001-07:00

Usually we return from tours and relax, but not this time. We're caught up in CD Release madness with 2 shows this week - the freebie exclusive show at Vintage Vinyl for folks who have already bought the CD and the official release show at the Firebird on Saturday. Plus interviews and press stuff and cramming in a practice or two, we've got a pretty busy week.

These are things:

-some of us will be doing an interview at 4:30 at St. Louis radio station KWUR today

-some (or all) of us will be participating in an interactive chat thing on Absolute Punk.net tonight at 9 EST. We've never done anything like this before, and it could be a crazy fun time or it could be the four of us sitting in a chat room talking to each other. Shall be interesting either way.

We had our first rehearsal in the cool, concrete basement wiith surprisingly decent acoustics that will function as our new practice space. My Fender Jazzmaster, which I purchased to be my "adult guitar" that I respect and treat well, took a spill and now its lower bout has a nasty ding. So I'm off to buy Strap Locks today. Wish me luck.

Come see us for free

2009-06-22T11:01:00.001-07:00

Holy @#$%! The release show for
"The Loud Wars"
is this Saturday at The Firebird!

John Vogl designed and printed up a limited run of posters ------------->
which will be available on Saturday.

If you want, you can pre-order tickets here.

You can win a copy of the new cd,
New Bones 7", and a ticket to the show here.
Winners will be contacted shortly. Thanks for all who shared their stories.

For everyone else you can get a free ticket to the show of your choice when you pick up "The Loud Wars" from the Vagrant website. Check it out.

Oh yeah, don't forget about this:

Baltimore

2009-06-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

Things the sound guy and/or his underage cronies did tonight that have NEVER been done to us before:
1)Threw a beer can at Ryan's face (points for accuracy)
2) Took a swing at Clayton (zero points for accuracy)
3) Told us we will never play at that club again

Despite the above, tonight was our best show in Baltimore to date. Thanks to the level headed lady in charge of the show and the kids who drove from Philadelphia.

Finally! Finally! Finally!

2009-06-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

Today is June 9th, which means our record officially has no more road blocks or delays, it is out!

Check it out!

2009-06-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

The Loud Wars is now streaming online over at Buzzgrinder!

Internet Win!

2009-05-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Messages like these prove the internet rulz:

From :*********
TTo: so many dynamos
Date: May 28, 2009 4:14 PM
Subject:

Love your music! I will be traveling from Russia to the US and I will visit your gig with Maps and Atlases in Philly in June! Hope to meet u in person! and have a beer

Also, this is really cool.

Is legalizing So Many Dynamos bad for Small Businesses?

2009-05-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

For this exclusive in-store we'll be playing out entire album from front to back!

If you want to get e-mail updates about us you can go to our myspace page and sign up for our mailing list. We promise not to flood you inbox with a bunch of malarky.

I still can't get over what a dick Michael Steele is. I mean, come on.

ATTN:Tor

2009-05-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

You can now pre-order The Loud Wars and get a free 7"!

We also succumbed to the pressures of technology and got a Twitter and Facebook.

I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. I am leaning towards 'pro,' but with great caution.
Still, if they don't work out well I've got a back up plan.

We've Moved!

2009-05-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

After nearly three and a half years of living together in a house Edwardsville we have finally moved out.

Along with moving out, we've been pretty busy with non-dynamo related things.
Ryan and his longtime girlfriend Megan got married and took a honeymoon in Canada. They live just down the street from our old house with their 2 cats and our friend Chad. My girlfriend and I moved to Soulard with our cat George. Clayton went camping and is learning to play drums and keyboard simultaneously. Aaron played a show with Target Market to celebrate the digital release of their new record and is getting our van's cracked windshield replaced.

On a completely different note

About a month ago we had a show in our basement with Target Market. At some point during the night someone thought it would be a good idea to steal our RFT award from our bathroom. A few weeks later I found this on our back steps:

Mr. Whiskers

2009-04-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to The Bronzed Chorus and everyone who came to the show Saturday.
I just realized it was Ryan's last show as a 'bachelor' because he is getting married this weekend. Craaaazy.

Some people outside St. Louis have asked us about getting the New Bones 7".
It looks like Vagrant is going to be sending them along with pre-ordered copies of The Loud Wars.

The next few days should be pretty hectic in our camp, but once things settle down we should have all the details ironed out for our cd release show in June. Once we know you will too.

THEY HAVE ARRIVED.

2009-04-16T14:37:00.001-07:00

Yesterday while we were all at home practicing, we were greeted with a package of 100 copies of our new 7'! With that being said, we're pretty excited for both of these events:

Record Store Day is AWESOME! If you live in St. Louis, make sure to stop by Vintage Vinyl, APOP, and Euclid Records. All three stores are having events and sales throughout the day.

And then after wards, come to our 7" Release Show! It's free and we only have about 100 copies of the record for sale. Plus, this is going to be the only time it's available until "The Loud Wars" is released in June.

OMFG!!!!

2009-04-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

I found this on the internet today. I think this may be the most "note"oriety my drumming has ever received.

Operation Condor - Caw!!!

2009-04-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a video interview/ live footage of everybody on the Pattern is So Many Maps Tour! Thanks to the wonderful people at This is Fake DIY for documenting just how gay we are for each others bands. Anyway, we've got lots of exciting news coming up in Dynamo land. In no particular order next month we're moving out of our house, releasing a New Bones/New Bones RAC Remix 7", playing a secret show in our basement, and this guy is getting married! Over and Out - Caw!!!

When I say "Sophista", you say "Funk"

2009-03-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

Oops!

2009-03-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

5 days into this tour and we still haven't morphed into Passion Pit. People in Rochester are apparently pretty pissed about that.

Olive Garden, then Syracuse. Let's do this.

Catsized

2009-03-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

The travel plaza on I-90 by Buffallo, New York has a walkway that is built over the interstate and the entire place smells like clothes that have soiled from soaking in the washer too long before drying. We pulled over here to urinate and get coffee and swap out drivers, and this tour's rotation puts me in shotgun and Aaron in the driver's seat. Griffin has taken over my most recent spot in the far back bench seat of the van right in front of our personal belongings and the wooden wall that separates us from our gear. This is the most comfortable seat to nap in, and one obtains this coveted position in the van as a reward for finishing a driving shift.

We woke up this morning in Ann Arbor, Michigan in a giant, almost Victorian house that was probably home to a fraternity in the recent past. A fellow named Sean had invited us to stay over before our set was even finished. The conversation went like this:

Me: Thanks a lot for watching us, we have CD's and shirts and records in the back. Oh, and we need a place to stay tonight.
Him: You can stay at my place!
Me: Oh yeah?
Him: Yeah, I live in a mansion!

We're on tour with Ra Ra Riot and our new friends Cut Off Your Hands. COYH is from New Zealand, and they prove that being a sweet dude is a universal concept. The show last evening in Ann Arbor was decent. It was at a dive bar called The Blind Pig whose claim to fame is that Nirvana and Tad played there together once. The show actually sold out, but we couldn't seem to crack the audience. I did the math and if everybody who came to the show put a dime into a bucket and donated it to us, we would have made more money than what we made on merch last night. Oh well, what can you do?

Douchiest Cut Off Your Hands fan moment at the merch table last night: A woman asked their drummer Brent, "Where's Murray, your band manager?" After Brent made it apparent that he had no idea what she was talking about she continued, "oh, come on. You're from New Zealand. You HAAAAVE to love Flight of the Conchords!"

Why this is lame: Yes, she was just trying to be affable, and she just mentioned Flight of the Conchords because they're a band and they're from New Zealand and that's all she knows about bands and New Zealand. But it would be the equivalant of somebody assuming that she likes Meg White's drumming style because she's a chunky woman from the Detroit area.

Douchiest Ra Ra Riot fan moment at the merch table last night: A dude leaned all the way over all of our merch while Alexandra and Rebecca from RRR stood at the other end of the table yelling "Kayla!!! Kayla!!! Kayla!!!" After about 20 seconds of this he turned to look at me and COYH's merch girl Sarah and asked "Is that chick's name Kayla?" without specifying which girl he was referring to, to which we replied "No" to which he asked "Then what's her name?" to which we replied "Well, it's not Kayla" to which he replied "Oh man, if I don't get her name then I'll NEVER have a chance" and moped away from the table.

Why this is lame: Say, hypothetically, that he had gotten Rebecca's name right (sorry Rebecca) and leaned over to scream "REBECCA!!!" while she was busy selling merch to the giant line of people that had surrounded the table. Was he expecting her to turn towards him and lock eyes and stop what she's doing because she's just fallen madly in love? Was he thinking that maybe, just maybe, the ladies in Ra Ra Riot have just been waiting for the right intoxicated bro in a backwards baseball cap to sweep them off of their feet by yelling their name the loudest? He'll never know though, because he blew it by randomly pulling "Kayla" out of his ass. Sorry, bro.

Don't just stand there...

2009-03-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Gas stations are a huge part of our daily routine on tour. These daily stops provide us with much needed fuel, coffee, and snacks, but also serve as a great source of entertainment. I always seem to come home and find the only photos I took are of ridiculous things at gas stations and incredible sandwiches I ate. Aside from being funny in and of themselves, I think the absurd trinkets available at a lot of gas stations speak volumes about America. I mean, where else would someone think this stuff up and go the trouble of mass producing it. More importantly, who do they think would (unironically) buy it?
Either way, I hope you think these are as funny as I do.

Seriously, who buys these things?

For a brief ironic moment we contemplated using band money for these things.

This is the newest shirt I have seen in a line of Christian parody shirts available at gas stations. I guess they must be selling well because I've begun to see them more frequently, yet I've never actually seen someone (outside a gas station) that was wearing one.

Nobody wants your stupid Cub's merchandise.

hahahaha

Tonight we are in Bloomington,IN (for the first time!) for the first of 5 shows with Ra Ra Riot. Tomorrow we get to see our pal Dawn at Musica in Akron,OH. Hopefully I will get some decent photos of her cute kittens, assuming I do not get sidetracked being cute overloaded.

There were marigolds.

2009-03-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Well....

It's the second day of the third month of the year and it's my first post on the blog in 2009. I guess I've been neglectful. A few months ago I kind of looked ahead at what was coming, at how intense things are going to get after our album is released, and that part of me that desires an identity outside of "dude-in-a-band" started taking over.

But now I'm sitting in our friend Liz's apartment in Brooklyn with a belly full of eggs, pancakes, and coffee half-watching Lord of the Rings. We drove all night to New York from Boston, where there was a prediction of 14 inches of snow. At about 4 AM we had to pull over at a rest area because the snow was creating that sort of low budget sci-fi movie "time warp" effect where it seemed like we weren't even moving. Then there was a total white-out and we couldn't even see the road.

We're currently out on tour with Maps and Atlases and Pattern is Movement. When I heard rumors about this tour, I kind of thought "yeah right" because it's just sort of too good to be true. But it happened, and every show has been fantastic and we get to see two of the greatest bands in the universe every night.

It's also a feel-good tour because Maps and Pattern are such kindred spirits. Both bands have a similar position as us of genre-less, sub-culture-less bands with minimal buzz. The whole package has a sort of grassroots feel, and I can't help but think that the people in attendance are true believers. There's been a lot of air-drumming.

Tonight is Manhattan, tomorrow is Brooklyn, then it's DC, then it's Hoboken, then it's Holiday Inn express continental breakfast in Indianapolis, then it's home.

Hold onto your butts

2009-02-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

"The Loud Wars" will be officially released April 28th on Vagrant Records!!!! Here is the track listing and the cover art shot by Ryan Russell.

Track listing:

01) Artifacts of Sound
02) Glaciers
03) The Novelty of Haunting
04) New Bones
05) If You Didn't Want to Know
06) Oh, the Devastation
07) Keep It Simple
08) Friendarmy
09) It's Gonna Rain
10) The Formula

Also, we're leaving Wednesday for a little quickie tour with two of our very favorite bands Maps & Atlases and Pattern is Movement. Here are the dates!

Feb 25 – Lansing, MI @ Mac’s Bar #
Feb 26 – Akron, OH @ Musica #
Feb 27 – Buffalo, NY @ Broadway Joe’s #
Feb 28 – Troy, NY @ Ground Zero *
Mar 1 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs # *
Mar 2 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge # *
Mar 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ Southpaw # *
Mar 4 – Washington, DC @ DC9 # *
Mar 5 – Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell’s # *
# - with Maps and Atlases
* - with Pattern is Movement

The Internet is Insane.

2009-01-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

Here, Girl. Hold My Jacket.

2009-01-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

ORDER OUR T-SHIRTS AND HELP US PAY OUR RENT.

Also, we've got a show this Friday.

The Midwest Music Pit
Friday, January 23rd
8:oo pm
All Ages $8
w/ Nine Life Fire and more

And finally, BLACK PRESIDENT!
BOOYAH.

Do Work, Son.

2009-01-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

Hey, friends.

Clayton and I are playing a show tomorrow night with Target Market.

Cicero's
Friday, January 16th (TOMORROW)
8:oo pm
Target Market, Say Panther, Jovian Chorus

Their new record rules prettay hard and was recorded by Ryan. Clayton's playing double drums and I'm playing all of the extra keyboard and percussion stuffz.

Besides that, SMD is playing a basement show this Satuday, January 17th in St. Louis.

Basement Show
w/ Hunter Gatherer.
Saturday, January 17th
7729 Weston Place
Richmond Heights, MO 63117
7:30 pm
$3.oo

We have a lot of other local shows coming up, including more performances that are NOT SMD.

Check It.

Here's to Another Goddamn New Year.

2008-12-26T23:36:00.000-08:00

hey, ya'll. we hope you had a good holiday.

things are kind of slow right now. we've all been taking some time off after finishing our tour with Ra Ra Riot and Princeton, so we can hang with family, friends and girlfriends.

clayton and i have been practicing and rehearsing with our best bros. we're actually playing a show with them on Friday, January 16th at Cicero's in St. Louis. it should most definitely be off tha chayne. guitarmonies and double drumz. what more could you ask for, right?

oh, and this is pretty cool.

we're not going to be touring very much until SXSW in the spring. so, what that kind of means is that we're going to be pretty broke as individuals for the next two or three months. so, if you feel like throwing a party and need a band to play, just holler! and believe me, it's not limited to just SMD. we have Thor Axe and In the Garage: a Tribute to Weezer. oh, and there have been talks of the possibility of a New Order cover band. i know, right? it WOULD be rad.

Clap, clap, spirit fingers.

2008-12-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

Athens, like always, was rad. The hookah bar in Nashville was too, more specifically the jasmine shisha and the honey berry. So was the photo shoot with Ryan Russell in Louisville and the giant Louisville slugger. Dawnie from London is awesome, so is Ra Ra Riot's tour manager Elise and 3 of the 4 members of Princeton (you're just going to have to guess which three). The corn chowder that Christin and Ross in Atlanta made was delicious, as were the egg sandwhiches Norm made yesterday morning and the crucial 2:30 AM Papa John's. Now we're going to go eat a 3 PM breakfast with Dawnie and some of the Shark emechanicas and then play in Asheville, North Carolina with RRR and Princeton at a venue that has a kitchen that serves alligator balls. All is right in the universe.

"Dude, we just recorded an album in space"

2008-12-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

I had a dream last night that we recorded an album in space. There was this kind of community of orbiting space buildings like some space city, and some sort of ship that was floating around the atmosphere that had a studio built in. Norm and Aaron were in the studio ship while Griffin and I were in some vessel that seemed to be built for the purpose of just hanging out. The hangout vessel got struck by a meteor or something and Griffin and I got sent back to earth. When we were on earth, we listened to the CD (it was actually songs from The Loud Wars) and realized we wanted to redo some guitar parts. Then we had to figure out if we have to get sent back up into space to record or not.

In reality, I'm sitting on the floor at a house in Cincinatti. Norm and house resident Brian are sharing music on the couch, currently listening to an amazing song by The Bronzed Chorus that's called something about waking up under an overpass. It's harder to figure out song titles when the band is instrumental.

Hanging out at home for three days was nice, not because we were on tour for that long (it was only five days) but because our drives were so hellishly long. Now we're on what seems to be the feelgood part of the tour. All the drives are short and we'll be in the magical kingdom of Athens, GA in a few days. Our show in Newport, KY right across the river from Cincinatti was fantastic.

So far, every place we've stayed has been excellent. We realized a while ago that we really really like the people that like our band. Like, we seem to appeal to people we enjoy hanging out with. It's an awesome feeling. And on the Ra Ra Riot shows where we don't really know many people, we've been having good luck finding nice folks to stay with. I know I keep comparing this tour to the ones we've done with hardcore bands, but I've enjoyed the vibe of this tour so much more. Maybe it's because there's less intrinsic negativity floating around the venues. Or maybe it's just nice to be on tour with a band that's not completely racist.

Tonight is Louisville, KY, a town that we've never played in before. Wish us luck!

They don't call it the windy city for nothing

2008-12-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

The morning after the last blog post, we received a call while in line to deposit money at Bank of America. Wesley from Ra Ra Riot had lost his voice and they had to cancel the show in Swarthmore, PA. We had 3 days off afterwards, so we decided to drive from Northampton, Massachusettes to our house Edwardsville, IL. After a quick stop at the 2nd largest mall in the country at King Of Prussia, PA to meet up with the State of Mind design folks and pick up our new shirts (13 animals riding a bicycle) and an 8 AM continental breakfast at a Holiday Inn Express outside of Indianapolis, we entered our freezing house.

Now it's 11:20 AM and I'm sitting on my lady's couch, watching a live breaking news report on how Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich got arrested this morning for attempting to sell Obama's empty Senate seat to the highest bidder. When Megan and I heard, we high fived each other. He's been on my shit list ever since he decided to shut down 11 state parks and 25 historical spots in the state, including the Dana Thomas house, a beautiful mansion in Springfield, IL that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and gives free tours. Hopefully now that Blagojevich got busted and lost his cred, these places can stay open.

Anyway, we leave tomorrow to continue our tour with Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Riot and Princeton for another week. Let's hang out.

I hope the smoking man's in this one.

2008-12-05T23:33:00.000-08:00

I am sitting on a couch in Northampton, MA right now and I just overheard RJ, the dude we're staying with, say "did you guys hear about the 8 year old kid that shot himself in the face with an uzi?"

Well, anyway, you may have heard that we have signed with Vagrant Records. All of these lame super cryptic blog posts we've had to put up lately are over. High fives all around. Album comes out April 7.

We're currently on tour with Ra Ra Riot. We have made no qualms about being huge fanboys about them, so this has been pretty fantastic thus far. It's nice to play in front of people that like good music. No offense to thehardcore bands we've toured with, but I doubt I'm going to have any girls come to the merch table with a bloody nose and ask about first aid at an indie pop show. These are our people.

We have also buddied up pretty hard with Princeton, the opening band on the tour. They make me want to be on a canoe.

Aaron has recently discovered that he has the ability to sing the words "it's been" in the EXACT same tone of voice/melody combo that begins "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies, and he hasn't been shy about sharing this discovery with us. Jeff Tobias from We Versus the Shark once told us that he was going to make a Wikipedia page for "One Week" that has links to all of the pop culture references in the song, but then he found out that it already exists.

This tour is the first one in a long time where we've brought another person with us. Our pal Marshall Cox is doing tour managing/merch for us, which has been pretty fun and helpful. Our van has 4 seats, so usually everybody in the band has a sleeping surface. 5 people means that 2 dudes have to share a seat and (in Billy Bob Thornton "Slingblade" voice:) that just ain't right. LUCKILY we've figured out a way to turn the stack of sleeping bags and luggage into a makeshift bed that's about as comfortable as a bench seat, which is code for "not very".

Aaron's mom made some intensely delicious Amish friendship bread. The idea is that you make a lot of it and then give it to your buddies. We left with 8 loaves, gave one to Princeton and 2 to Ra Ra Riot*. We ate our final 2 loaves last night on our way back from a late night snack run to our van. I want more, but it takes 10 days to make.

Tomorrow we hang out with a fat guy and a lumberjack in Philadelphia, and then we play a show and drive home for a few days while RRR plays a show with Vampire Weekend.

*Here's the reason that Ra Ra Riot got 2 loaves of bread and Princeton only got one. It has nothing to do with favoritism. Last night, Alexandra from RRR told us how much she liked the bread, and Aaron asked if she wanted more. Of course, she said "no, it's okay". Meanwhile, Marshall had gone out to the van to grab another loaf to give as a gift, which, of course, Alexandra accepted once it was placed in her hand. The thing is, Aaron had no intentions of actually giving her a loaf of delicious friendship bread. He knew she would say no, because it's the polite thing to do. The important part was that he offered. Marshall screwed the whole operation up, and I have less friendship bread in my belly as a result. Thanks, Mr. Nice Guy.

Keep on Keepin' On...

2008-12-02T01:15:00.001-08:00

so, yes. it IS true. it's officially been over a month since either one of us has updated the blog. it's not that we didn't want to, it's just that we've been busy doing the not-so-exciting things that have to be done in preparation for the record to be released. this includes going over contracts, creating a bio and press release, doing interviews, having press photos taken, making final decisions on the masters and the artwork, etc. oh, and i think we managed to squeeze a show or two in between all of those activities.

i realize this is old news by now, but i do feel it's appropriate to mention the fact we elected an excellent new leader for our country. HOORAY! here's a photo i took of a painting in some art gallery in Manhattan during CMJ this past October:

and here's a photo i took at the final rally before the election, under the arch, in St. Louis, MO.

pretty epic, right?

oh, we hope you had a good Thanksgiving, too.

as far asThe Loud Wars is concerned, we're getting extremely close to where we can spill all the beans on the details. this includes the name of the label who will releasing it, the date in which that will happen, and the tour(s) that will coincide.

oh, yeah. speaking of which, we're going on a tour that starts tomorrow.

- All dates w/ Ra Ra Riot -
Dec 3 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Dec 4 – Albany, NY @ Valentine’s
Dec 5 – Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse
Dec 6 – Swarthmore, PA @ Olde Club
Dec 10 – Newport, KY @ Southgate House
Dec 11 – Louisville, KY @ 930 Listening Room
Dec 12 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
Dec 13 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt
Dec 14 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
Dec 16 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar

and finally, a song from our show as In the Garage: A Tribute to Weezer, has been posted. thanks to Ben at WUTV at Washington University in St. Louis for the video.

Foxes Mate for Life

2008-10-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

CMJ came and went before we could blink. Played one pretty good show at a dive bar on Tuesday night, a pretty dismal show at a dive bar Wednesday afternoon (after which i ripped my jeans on a fire hydrant while loading out and had to spend the next 3 days with an ever-growing slit down my right leg), did a pleasant video interview with Seattle radio station KEXP and played the fantastic Hello Sir Records showcase on Wednesday night. It was probably the most intense 26 hours of our band career.

AND we got our contract in the email for the record label we're signing to. Big announcement soon.

And there's an article on Crawdaddy.com about our first gig opening for Death Cab.

And the new "genuis" feature on iTunes is freaking me out. I know it's freaking out Norm too.

And, related to the above, is it just me or is No Age really really horrible?

Bee log.

2008-10-20T11:25:00.001-07:00

It's kind of unfair to this blog that the more busy we are and the more exciting things are, the less we post on it. So where did we leave off?

We wrapped up our tour with HORSE the band and Heavy Heavy Low Low and then played our 2 shows in one night extravaganza in Visalia. We drove 34 hours home and got a phone call in Oklahoma asking us to tour in December with Ra Ra Riot, which we said yes to. Rested for two days and then drove up to Chicago to play a secret show with Death Cab For Cutie, which was in front of the most people we had ever played to at that point in our lives. Hung out for a day in Chicago (and ate incredible egg sandwiches made by our old friend Corey Smale, who insisted that I blog about his egg sandwiches), then drove down to Champaign, IL for an intense show at the University of Illinois Assembly Hall (which looks like a spaceship from Independence Day). The show was also with Death Cab For Cutie, and is now the most people we've ever played to because there were 4 more people at this show than the first one. Drove back home, hung out for 3 days and then played a local show with We Versus the Shark and Pegasuses XL. Home for two more days (I saw Broken Social Scene, woo!), then drove to Columbus, OH and played with Shark and Pegasuses again. Now I'm in the kitchen of Logan from i Against the tower, standing while typing because all the outlets in the couch room are two-pronged instead of three, surrounded by Peanut, an adorable cat that's in heat and is making us all very very aware of it. Driving to Pittsburgh to play with our good friends One For The Team and hopefully hanging out in a cargo net underneath a bridge (again).

So that's all. What's new with you?

So Many Dynamos: 0, Missouri gas station rednecks: 1

2008-09-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Drove all night to Denver and now my tired ass is typing from a coffee shop around the corner from the house that The Photo Atlas lives in. It's apparently the only place in Denver that advertises for free wireless internet and actually has it. McDonalds, Burger King, and Starbucks in the neighborhood all lied to me.

Our shows in the Midwest recently were all much more home-y than we were expecting. Chicago was the best show of the tour (sorry Philadelphia) and possibly our best Chicago show in general. Iowa City was fun, the St. Louis show was a party, and Lawrence was actually painless unlike every other show we've ever played in Lawrence.

In the middle of Missouri yesterday, I woke up from an unsatisfying van nap and stumbled into a gas station. I bought a Laffy Taffy rope and a small package of Now and Laters, both of which were 25 cents. The guy behind the counter (stocky redneck with a bright gold cross necklace) tried to charge me over a dollar. I asked him how he got that number and showed him that it blatantly said 25 cents on the Laffy Taffy wrapper.

He looked dumbfounded and glanced at his fellow redneck employee behind the counter. "Can you believe this is only a quarter? How are we supposed to make any money anymore?" As I paid the man, he leaned to his friend and said "well, if Obama becomes president, we'll be selling everything for a quarter. We're all going to be his right hand man." I don't know what that sentence means, but it's retarded.

His friend replied "He's already Bush's right hand man!" I know what that sentence means, and it's completely retarded.

So I told the men behind the counter, "you guys are both retarded."

"Oh yeah?" they chuckled.

"Yeah," I replied. "Completely retarded."

Then I left and got into the van and realized that I left my Laffy Taffy rope on the counter. I guess they win this round.

We're going to be driving a lot in the next few days. I got the new Chuck Klosterman book and it's great. The Loud Wars is coming out in February.

more news to come.

Michigan, Ohio, and the art of pooping snot.

2008-09-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

We're all sick. I started today on a diet of Day Quil and Mucinex. I have never used Mucinex before but apparently it eliminates the mucus from your cavities and you eventually poop it out. Gross, but in a different kind of way than having to swallow my own drainage because I'm in the backseat and I can't get a window open to spit out of and even if I could get a window open I'm not very good at projecting my saliva so I'll probably end up spitting a loogie all over the inside of the door instead of the pavement and then having to clean it up and being embarassed. But I digress....

It feels good to be back in the midwest. We're in Warren, MI just outside of Detroit at a bar called The Ritz. The place is filled with old people that are taking advantage of happy hour and their privelage to smoke indoors. This is Gary, HORSE the band tour manager's last day with the tour. He's Canadian, and whenever he's at a show where smoking is allowed inside he wears one of those blue doctors' masks like he's trying to avoid SARS.

Last night was Akron, Ohio. Small place, packed with kids, no heckling retards. Watching the kids freaking out and falling over each other while singing along to HORSE songs was a blast. I was standing by the side of the stage and this kid ran past me to get on stage and dive into the crowd. When he passed me, he lightly bumped into me and he quickly apologized. It seemed weird that he felt sorry for grazing my arm on his way to jump on top of a bunch of other people. Life is funny sometimes.

Got some news on the prospect of The Loud Wars actually coming out today and we're very very very very very very excited.

Overheard in the parking lot: "I HAD to go outside during So Many Dynamos. They were so awful."

2008-09-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia was a party. Kids new our songs and they danced and we got them to do foolish things like sit on the floor and do "jazz hands". Our show at First Unitarian Church the other day was the best of the tour so far, much like how our show there years ago with Harvey Danger was the best show of that tour.

Our show in Danbury, CT last night was the polar opposite. I won't complain about the cold reaction from the crowd during our set, as we are never going to be the band that expects anything from the audienc and people were more friendly and supportive of our band than their inbetween song cheers indicated. There's nothing worse than the mosh-metal opening bands we've had yell at the crowd for not dancing. The Heirloom Arts Theater in Danbury has a bar in their balcony, which gave a prime view of the pit ninjas. This, of course, is what I'm going to complain about.

During HORSE the band, Danbury had the most stupid, reckless pit yet. Kids were running around just pointlessly pushing each other and knocking each other down, and it looked more like a drunken WWF cage match than a hardcore pit. It would be different if their movements seemed to coordinate with the music being played on stage at all, but it didn't.

I'll never understand this type of dancing. The kids swinging their arms around and kind of doing this tough-guy version of skanking. There are a few things that I find confusing and somewhat hilarious about it:

1. Some of these kids are really, really good at this dancing. That means that they HAVE to have practiced it. And the way the pits are set up, there's a big circle and people take turns going in the center and doing their "solo", kind of like Soul Train. This leads me to point two.

2. Nobody looks cool at all doing this. Nobody, one bit. It just reminds me of a 8 year old kid having a hissy fit.

3. It all comes together to be the lamest dick-measuring contest I've ever seen. When the arms are windmilling around in the pit, the mentality is that if you run into the dancer and get hurt, it's YOUR fault. It's all about territory marking. It's all primitive in a strangely metrosexual post-modern way.

The hilarious thing about it is that HORSE the band and Heavy Heavy Low Low are two bands that are simultaneously embracing and mocking traditionalist hardcore ideas, and there are tons of kids that just don't get it.

This, of course, is not how every kid acts who dances at every show. This is just how Danbury was last night, and only for about half of the time.

During HORSE's set in Orlando, there was stage diving and the kind of non-violent mosh pit that happens when you cram too many dancing folks into too small of a room. A lot of times I look at the pit ninjas and I can tell they aren't taking themselves too seriously and it honestly looks like it might have been fun when I was younger. I used to go to ska shows and skank, so I can't judge them for doing the thing they're supposed to do by tradition.

Also, this dude in Danbury peed in front of our van and there was a stream of urine that ran under the vehicle and ended in a puddle about five feet from our back left tire. I hope he got ejected.

Philadelphia put things into perspective about what we want crowds to be like, much like whenever we play Visalia, California and everybody just freaks out in their own way. Tonight we play the School of Rock in Hackensack, New Jersey, which was one of the best shows last time we went out with HORSE and HHLL. Hopefully the kids will like it, that's all we really want.

So Many Dynamos: now available extra-crispy

2008-09-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

I've never been one to say that So Many Dynamos, as an entity, is the "best" or "most" of something. I mean, we're all pretty good at Tetris or Ms. PacMan, but I wouldn't say we're the "best band at Tetris" by any means, because a. that's cocky and b. it's probably not true. However, I think I can say this in complete earnesty without feeling arrogant: I think So Many Dynamos is currently the most sunburned touring band in the country.

We went to Daytona Beach a few days ago inbetween Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida. For five dollars, you can actually park your vehicle on the beach. Granted, we got stuck twice (first time from coming it at an angle and the second time from trying to back in). A bunch of shirtless beach hunks helped push us out of the sand the first time, and they got dead bugs all over their hands from the grill of the van.

The third time was a charm on the parking front. We swam and played catch but none of us used proper protection from the ultra-violent rays of the sun. My shoulders feel crispy and my chest is burned in an awkwardly splotchy pattern that makes it look like I have a skin condition. As it heals, it gets itchy, but I can't scratch it because it's sunburned, but the sunburn is what makes it itchy. It's a viscous circle. The other guys all have it pretty bad too; Griffin's shoulders look maroon.

I'm typing from a loveseat at a very clean dudehouse in Columbia, South Carolina, which we nabbed for lodging as a result of our "we need a place to stay" sign. Show was good, I was a little worried at first because the pit ninjas were trying to dance all hxc during our set. In the past, this has resulted in some unwarranted and innapropriate shoving, but it was more calm than that. Dancing is dancing, as long as the kids are having a good time I can't complain.

Aaron did guest vocals on the recording of the song "Rotten Church/Mall/Parking Lot" by Heavy Heavy Low Low on their new album, so he's been coming up on stage almost every night during their set to sing his part. It's really funny every time and I can't really explain why.

We have a whirlpool.

2008-09-14T09:38:00.001-07:00

We had one really good and two pretty good shows in Florida, and now I'm more than happy to say goodbye to its swampy hotness. Last night in Tampa we played one of the most brutally hot shows we've ever gotten through. It was in this big theater venue with no air conditioning and blazing white lights on us the whole set. My shirt looked like it was painted on by the end.

The stage at the venue last night was homemade, and my side of the stage (some folks call it "stage left") was made from a different piece of wood than the rest of it. As a result, my part was a lot more wobbly, and before the first song was over some concerned kids in the front row pushed my microphone stand back from having shifted to the edge of the stage. Unfortunately, nobody (myself included) noticed that my Casio was slowly sliding off of its stand until it fell on the ground and broke open, exposing its innards. It looks pretty busted up. I'll reassemble it today and see...

There was a tree by our van yesterday that was dripping water consistently for a long time and it sounded like somebody was peeing by our van. I was concerned, because it wouldn't be the first time somebody was peeing by our van.

Currently at a Marriot Courtyard hotel in Charlotte, NC that we got a sweet deal on. It's WAY too fancy for us which makes it hilarious that we're staying here and so is Heavy Heavy Low Low. We drove all night from Tampa, FL and now we're spending the day in air conditioned bliss.

Are you disconnecting me? Are you?

2008-09-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

First off, the British lady that lives inside of our Garmin GPS unit is going insane. She keeps telling us to take nonexistant exits and get on highways in the wrong direction. Crikey!

I'm in the "game room" of a home in Orlando that houses 4 video game loving college students. I'm about two feet away from the drum set from "Rock Band" and all I can think about is the notorious drum fill from In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins. The 2 people that live here that invited us over from the show are both going to school for computer animation, and last night they showed me some of the stuff they do for school and for hire. This includes a video by a talking CGI copy machine for a sales DVD that explains its features and eats memory cards. It was every bit as good as Veggietales.

Today we have one of the shortest drives of the tour so we're going to hit up the beath in Jacksonville, FL before our show. We might do the Anheuser Busch brewery tour too, it depends on when we get out there.

We were THIS close to catching Lisa Loeb last night around the corner. We worked it out so that we could get in free, but it turns out she played the early show and we just plain missed her set. Bummer.

Here's a video somebody posted of one of the first shows on this tour:

2008-09-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

In Atlanta at the clean house of Harvey Danger superfan Christin with an awesome dog and awesome cat. Ate some awesome pasta and awesome Heath bar ice cream. About to have awesome slumber on awesome couch. Awesome.

Tonight we played Wiffle Ball outside of the venue, watched ridiculous videos that Heavy Heavy Low Low made on their computers, played a decent set, watched HHLL play the most punk rock set i've seen them do, listened to You'd Prefer an Astronaut by Hum on the PA between bands, watched HORSE with their intense new backdrops of "Paradise and Hell" by Bosch, loaded out, drove to Harvey Danger superfan Chrstin's place, see above.

Nathan from HORSE met a potentially homeless guy outside of the venue that he's completely convinced is himself from the future. I think his mind exploded.

This evening's set:

Search Party
Heat/Humidity
We Vibrate, We Do
New Bones
Keep it Simple
Home Is Where the Box Wine Is
In Every Direction
If You Didn't Want to Know
Progress

...or else you're leaving with a fat lip

2008-09-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

In Athens at Bryant from Cinemechanica's place. We played last night at the Go Bar, which is a tiny brick room outside of downtown that Michael Stipe has some form of ownership in. It's the only show we have this month that isn't with HORSE the band and Heavy Heavy Low Low. The only thing that's kind of a bummer about the HTB/HHLL tour is how the local opening bands for each tour have been (with one exception) bad hardcore bands, so it was definitely a relief when we found out that last night's opener was called Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel. And that's exactly what the band was: two dudes playing ambient soundscapey stuff and plugging the theremin and lap steel into their computers to run live effects on them through software. WAYYYY better than drop A- chug metal.

While Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel was playing, Jeff from We Versus the Shark leaned over to me and said "you're totally going to blog the shit out of this, aren't you?" And here I am today.

There are no red states or blue states

2008-09-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

Gas stations are a crucial part of our daily routine. Aside from the necessary fuel, bathrooms, and snacks, they also are a source of entertainment. I've been getting a kick out of the things people write and etch onto the bathroom walls, mirrors, hand driers, and any other hard surface they can scribble on.
We've been knee deep in the Bible Belt for the past few days and our rest stops have peppered the rural South so it is no surprise that this is what we would find:

This did not sit too well with me.

It's hard to read, but "WHITE POWER KKK" has been etched into the Xcelerator hand washer.
By the time we pulled out of the parking lot it looked like this

Here are a few souveniers we chose to pass on during our pit stops:

"Drinking doesn't cause hangover waking up does" and
"Jesus is the key to eternal life" hats on the same rack.
I think it's funny.

I found this gem on the wall in the Men's room at The Door in Dallas.

Here are a few pictures from our night on Bourbon Street with HORSE the Band

Thumbs up/Thumbs down

2008-09-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of the first week of tour. We've been losing a battle with having internet access, so we have to play catch up.

Bartlett, Tennessee

Thumbs up: To the Taco Johns we stopped in on the way where two guys came up to us and said "good show the other day." We didn't realize we were back in Atkins, AR where we had played a few days prior. Minutes after they left, the dude who booked the show came in and was pretty surprised that we were there. To the band Nights Like These who put us up at their apartment where they were having a birthday party with a keg and a great dog. To the kid who said "you guys are in So Many Dynamos? Once I took acid and listened to your band for 10 hours straight."

Thumbs down: To the Bible-beating moms who took offense to the lyrics of us, HORSE the Band and Heavy Heavy Low Low and tried to get the show shut down. To the Bartlett police department for being too aggressive and randomly checking ID's of kids hanging out outside the venue for warrants. To the kid at the party that stole HHLL merch guy Erol's Wendys. To my stomach for rejecting the keg beer and vomiting on the grass outside of our van.

Metairie, Louisiana

Thumbs up: To Sonic for offering tater tots instead of fries and having real strawberries in their strawberry limeade. To the High Ground for being an overall rad DIY venue and also for moving their show area to downstairs to avoid loading up the hellish staircase that leads to the upstairs. To the kid from the opening band that nerded out with me about early 2000's Vagrant Records emo bands like The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary. To the French Quarter of New Orleans and to bar that existed inside of a gift shop, where we had a drink and looked through offensive t-shirts. To the invention of the "hand grenade" girly drink that I'm not man enough for.

Thumbs down: To my right eye for being irritated all day. To Chris from Heavy Heavy Low Low for asking me if I had pink eye. To the High Ground's lack of toilet paper and generally disgusting bathroom. To HORSE the band for staying in a four star hotel while we stayed in a Motel 6 because we forgot to ask around for a place to stay after the show. To Erik from HORSE for saying "Motel 6? It's that a ONE star hotel?..." To the National Guard for trolling the streets of New Orleans and informing us, gun in hand, about their 2 AM curfew.

Anniston, Alabama

Thumbs up: To the best Pizza Hut buffet that has ever and will ever exist. To Maps and Atlases for making the You and Me and the Mountain EP. To the kids who drove from Birmingham, Alabama to see us. To Model City Records for putting little pieces of irregularly shaped foam on the walls sporadically in an adorable effort to make the room acoustically more sound (it's the thought that counts). To HORSE for making us watch Xavier: Renegade Angel. To Griffin for letting Danny from HHLL borrow his guitar and forgetting to put it in drop D first. To the first set we've played on this tour that felt like a party.

Thumbs down: To the thousands of bugs that died by way of our van's grill driving through the swampy paths that lead out of New Orleans. To Heavy Heavy Low Low's trailer for blowing an axle. To HORSE the band for eating at a nice seafood restaurant while we held ourselves over with Doritos before we could eat at Taco Bell after the show. To somebody being drunk and urinating in the middle of HORSE's mosh pit (subsequent semi-ironic thumbs up to the kids who said "fuck it" and ninja-danced in the urine to the breakdown in "Cutsman" anyway). To the girl who was vomiting in a bag in the greenroom when we were leaving.

We're in Athens right now playing our only show this month that isn't with our two heavy handed friends. Tonight we're at the Go Bar with free-jazz obsessed pop band Mouser and some touring bands that nobody has told us who they are. Thumbs up to Luke Shark for letting us into his home at 5:15 in the morning.

Now with footnotes!

2008-09-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

I'm backstage at the Marquee in Tulsa, OK while HORSE the band plays their set. This means that I'm about 8 feet away from the metal-est Nintendo band (or Nintendo-est metal band) in the universe. They're playing, i'm backstage writing on our blog and drinking Coors with 3.2% alcohol in it. How lame is that?*

The 4 hour drive from Dallas today was about as painless as it gets. Before the tour we downloaded the "200 best songs of the 1960's" according to Pitchfork Media.** We listened to 1-50. Realizations:

-The Who rule
-"Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles is the best recording of all time.
-Records sounded better 40 years ago.
-"I Want You Back" by The Jackson Five is also the best recording of all time.***
-James fucking Brown.
-I want to listen to "Pet Sounds" really badly

Griffin's old childhood friend Chuck lodged us last evening (is that proper terminology?) and made us homemade pizza. The crust didn't involve sugar, which is fascinating. Apparently it's more "Italian" that way. We hung out and listened to "Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby Stills and Nash more times than I can count. So good.

Tonight in Tulsa, I could totally tell which kids were here to see us. This is actually a common phenomenon on this tour. Kid with the Devil Wears Prada shirt and headband? Here for HORSE and Heavy Heavy Low Low. Guy with gigantic Dan Deacon glasses and a jew-fro, here for us.

Chad Matheny (aka. Emperor X [aka. complete genius]) caught me on Gmail chat today and sent me a link to a pulsar recording of the big bang. I don't even know what that means, but after HORSE plays "Cutsman" and this crazy mess chills out, i will. Oh yes, I will.

*very

**out of fear of appearing "lame", i feel obligated to mention that I downloaded this folder after randomly finding it in somebody's Soulseek folder. Saying that I didn't compile the tracks myself or search it out myself seems necessary to me for some reason, I guess as to not appear like a Pitchfork fetishist. However, I do respect the individual that did assemble these tracks, and the Pitchfork writers to compiled the list. They all made our day better.

***calling this a realization of the day is unfair. This is something that has been fact for quite some time.

ALSO:

One of the first times we played with HORSE the band, inbetween songs, their frontman Nathan said "are there any Native Americans here? You guys have some pretty sweet pottery."

We've fashioned moon boots now.

2008-09-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning with a bad case of what we call "rock neck": neck pain caused by non-ideal sleeping situations and physial stress from strapping on a guitar daily. I can roll my shoulders and the sound of my sore muscles rubbing against each other is loud enough to create an echo if I were to be in a large, cavernous room or an actual cavern. It's offical, we're on tour.

Two mornings ago we drove to Atkins, AR to play at this warehouse-ish venue called the Godbey. When we arrived I asked where the bathroom was and the promoter pointed to this door at the top of an out-of-place looking staircase. I hiked up the stairs and the door, expecting to walk into a bathroom. Instead I entered a really nice apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom. Played a show, made some spaghetti and drove all night to the house of our pals Toto (from The Octopus Project) and Brandi.

On the drive to Atkins, we were listening to the new Target Market album, which I finished recording in our basement mere hours before we left for tour. TM used to be an angular-ish spazz-ish dance-ish band not unlike us until they got obsessed with Pavement a few years ago. We were driving and listening to this record while we passed a sign that said "New Pavement". Maybe you had to be there, but we got a hearty chuckle out of it.

Arrived at Toto/Brandi's at 9:45 AM after our GPS got us lost and angry (please reference sentences 5-7 of the third paragraph of this). Slept, made some grilled cheese and tomato soup and fruit bowls, drove to San Antonio. Accidentally drove to the promoter's house instead of the venue, then hastily figured it out. Played show, drove back to Austin and Toto/Brandi's, drank Lone Star. Lone Star is Texan for "Budweiser".

San Antonio was significant for us for a few reasons. It was our first of 30 or so shows with our buddies HORSE the band and Heavy Heavy Low Low. The other thing that makes San Antonio somewhat important is that, last time we went out with these bands, our show in San Antonio was the first one where we felt like we had done well with the crowd.

Last night's show in San Antonio was one of the rare-ish shows on this tour where we had a significant part of the draw. We made a lot of friends last time and we got to experience that sheer excitement of watching people you've never seen before sing along to our songs. Today is Dallas, where our show on this same bill last year was one of the coldest responses we received. I feel like, if we can win them over this time, we'll be on top of the opening-band world.

It's hard to be the weirdo indie rock band on the hardcore tour, but I think we've got our heads on straight about it this time. Last time, our sets were as much (if not more) about heckling as playing music. For fear of sounding like a hippie, we put out some bad vibes and got worse ones back. I can already tell this one is going to be different. Things are gonna change, I can feel it.

Oh, and we got added to two shows with this band. Booyah acheived.

I've got Ace Freely, I've got Peter Chris

2008-08-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

We just finished practicing for our performance tomorrow evening as "In The Garage: A Tribute to Weezer". Playing these songs is so intensely satisfying, it's hard to really explain; it's like we've unlocked the secrets to our favorite songs of all time. We're stoked.

Last night we played at the University of Illinois in Champaign, IL. It was what we expected, playing outdoors on a makeshift stage in the early evening to passers-by. Slightly uncomfortable but not terrible.

As we were loading out, this guy came up to us on his bike and said "Were you guys playing Search Party over here? I love that song" and started talking to us. I think he thought that we had covered it, he didn't realize it was our song until we told him that we were So Many Dynamos. I felt strangely rewarding, for somebody to know a song of ours but not attach it to us.

Today on Pitchfork Media, our buddies in Pattern Is Movement mentioned our song "New Bones" as one of the best songs of the last year in their "Guest List" feature. Thanks guys! They also mentioned the excellent "You and Me and the Mountain" by Maps and Atlases and said they were "afraid of those dudes." We second that.

Shirt related antecdote: The Scion Guy

2008-08-21T13:04:00.001-07:00

Remember a few months ago when we were wetting ourselves over the fact that we were playing a show with Ra Ra Riot? Well, the gigantic shirt order we just placed reminded me of this story:

The tour Ra Ra Riot did with The Little Ones (great pop band who made this awesome video) was sponsored by Scion. As in the car. So there was this dude that followed the tour around in a Scion and set up an information booth with promotional keychains and shit on the merch table. Well, we were a little bummed because the merch table wasn't big enough for RRR, Little Ones, Scion, and us, so we got tucked away in a dank corner of the club to sell our shirts and cds and records.

WELL, the Scion guy came up to the merch table and asked for a small T-shirt. At this time, the shirts we had ordered ran a little bit large. He unfolded the shirt and kind of gave me this suspicious, raised-eyebrow look, then checked out the label and indignantly said "THESE AREN'T AMERICAN APPAREL!" and threw the shirt down on the merch table. The dude bought a CD so I could tell he wasn't totally pissed, but it was pretty weird for a second.

So anyway, we ordered American Apparel shirts this time around, so if Scion guy is out there, we've got you covered!

I'm gonna give you every 2.54 centimeters of my love

2008-08-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Almost halfway though the last week of confinement at Gateway Medical Research, and it's getting easier to do. Today the 8 hours of laying down in a bed and having hourly blood draws zoomed by, although I was trying to listen to The Glow Pt. 2 by The Microphones and the TV 8 feet away from me was blaring a mini marathon of Charmed. It's insane how much louder commercials are than TV shows. Every once in a while a Direct TV ad would come blasting on, which made it a little difficult to concentrate during Phil Elvrum's "sensitive moments", of which there are many.

Still getting ready for our tour. Just placed a massive shirt order, which involved spending more money than we've ever dropped at one time. We had our first practice yesterday with intent on working out more song transitions and making old songs a bit cooler so we don't feel like we're digressing by playing them. We'll be playing some songs that we haven't done in at least a year at our set Saturday at The Lot party @ Schlafly Tap Room. By the way, that show is free and all ages. We play at midnight, so technically we play on Sunday...

Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" just came on my iTunes shuffle and it reminds me of Chuck Klosterman asking Robert Plant why he said "i'm gonna give you every inch of my love" when they use the metric system in the UK. This has to be the most successful song to feature 2 minutes of drum solo, guitar noise, and sporatically-panned male orgasm sounds. Ever.

It also reminds me of Alex Newport talking about Plant while he was mixing our record. I believe the quote was something like "I fucking hate Robert Plant. If Kurt Cobain sang for Led Zeppelin, they'd be the best band of all time." I can't disagree.

thank you internet

2008-08-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

I was shamelessly reading our wikipedia page earlier and came across this:
"In July 2007, So Many Dynamos began recording the follow-up to Flashlights with Christopher Walla. Sessions took place at Tiny Telephone Studio in San Francisco, Alberta Court in Portland, and the band's house in Edwardsville, Illinois. The record was mixed by Alex Newport at Metropolitan Sound, Brooklyn, NY in December 2007. The band recorded another track for the album in February 2008 at Great Western Records Recording in Champaign, IL. This track was mixed by Alex Newport in May 2008. The album is set to be called, "Chinese Democracy."

I had a dream there was a ghost here, and the ghost knew my name

2008-08-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

They guy in the bed next to me at Gateway Medical research wouldn't stop snoring last night, and there are few things more annoying than being kept awake by somebody else's snoring. It's like somebody is enjoying their sleep so much that they decide it's more important for you to be aware of their awesome slumber than participate in your own. Griffin is the snorer in our band, and although I'm getting anxious and restless about this tour we're about to do, last night was a reminded of one aspect of sharing a room with all of the other dudes that I don't miss.

Not that I could have slept well anyway; my mind was racing with ideas we're working out for our live set on this next tour, transitions and whatnot. Trying to channel a little bit of that DC no-setlist thing. We only get 30 minutes every night on this next tour, and all the time we wasted on stage banter/heckling last time we went out with HORSE and Heavy Heavy Low Low could have probably been better spent, you know, playing songs.

But for now, Norm and I are confined to the research facility until tomorrow evening while we test a medicine for the treatment of Parkinsons Disease and Restless Leg Syndrome. We're currently confined to an 8 hour stint laying down in hospital beds while the phlebotomists come around and draw our blood hourly. The strange thing is that this isn't the "boring part", but after this when we're free to move around and there's nothing to do and we've napped too much to be able to sleep and TV is boring and the internet is boring and there's nothing in the inbox and nothing new on Craigslist or Pitchfork or The Onion or the Tape Op messageboard. This time I brought a few more things with me, like a guitar and an ipod and some books, so hopefully I won't be as bored to tears as last time. That might just be wishful thinking...

Oh, and the "You and Me and the Mountain" EP by Maps and Atlases is so, so, so very good. Obtain it.

Labels, contracts, light refractions

2008-08-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

So our lawyer sent in the first official draft of a contract to the label we've been talking to (not naming names here), and then the real negotiations are about to begin. It's the closest we've been to having this record out so far and we're all pretty nervous/excited/terrified/ecstatic and with any luck, we'll be able to make some announcements soon. In the meantime, check this out:

Thanks to Yenie, our wonderful manager who also works at Youtube, for putting a link to this video on her Gmail chat away message.

Woah...

2008-08-07T10:37:00.001-07:00

It's been a pretty hectic 2 days, really. There was all the Nashville drama and then we finally announced the dates for our tour next month with HORSE the Band and Heavy Heavy Low Low.

Meanwhile, Norm and I have been at Gateway Medical Research again. Yesterday I was forced to watch 3 hours of Monk while I had "Mexican hat dance" in my head. Of course, this was before the 5 hour marathon of So You Think You Can Dance. No comment.

Oh, yeah, we finally have a title for the record. It is:

The Loud Wars

It has three meanings:

1. It's an uber-nerdy reference to the phenomenon of albums getting louder and louder but losing actual quality in the process. In the digital realm that CDs exist in, there's an actual physical threshold for how loud things can be, so in the mastering stage of album making, people have been overcompressing music in order to make it APPEAR louder. The result is a lack of dynamic range and records that are fatiguing to your ear after a while.

2. When you hear a sound and turn your head towards the sound, the reasoning behind it is that hearing something out of just one ear is disorienting so the physical reaction is to turn your head so that the sound is balanced between your left and right.

3. The almost nightly battle we experience on tour between the sound guys that want us to turn our amps down so they can have more control over our mix. 99.9999 percent of the time, this means we are going to sound terrible.

The worst night ever/the best night ever

2008-08-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

Just returned from two shows, here's how they went:

NASHVILLE, TN

NOTE: At the request of the venue, promoter, and our friend Molly who set up our show in Nashville, we've removed our post about the troubles we had at the Exit/In last Wednesday. The same miscommunication that caused us to not get paid extended into us not knowing the entire story behind the show before our post. We try to be open and honest on this blog to give an insight in the highs and lows of being in a functioning band and are sorry that our post rubbed some folks wrong. - management

ATHENS, GA
Athens always seems like the land of Oz, especially after a horrendous experience such as Nashville. Our show was part of the "Summer Camp" series of shows put on by promo company Team Clermont. We headlined again, this time to an attentive, filled out crowd, AND we got our guarantee. God bless.

The worst part: I had been joking around with Bill, the head honcho of the radio department at Team Clermont, because he's a Cubs fan (boo) and I'm a Cardinals fan (hurray). After the show, we were standing by the bar talking to the bartender (Bryant from Cinemechanica). Bill pulled out his Cubs credit card to show me, and I grabbed it and very lazily threw it behind the bar. And it completely disappeared.

I went around the bar and started looking for the card on the ground. While searching under the giant ice freezer, I cut my finger on an overturned bottle cap and it started bleeding WAY more than it should given the size of the wound. It's right on the knuckle, so it keeps getting ripped open, ESPECIALLY when i play guitar. This is kind of a problem.

Back to positivity: hung out after show w/ Bryant, slept for 45 minutes (which was 30 minutes less than Griffin slept and 45 more than Norm or Aaron), had breakfast at the Grit w/ Luke Shark, former Shark Sam, former Cinemechancic Erica, and former St. Louisan Christine, and drove back. Rolled into St. Louis just a few minutes late to catch Boyz II Men play for free under the arch. The sacrifices we make sometimes....

2008-07-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

I've woken up before the others, doing a quick post before I jump in the bath tub (don't judge me!) and get ready for this pair of shows we're about to play. We weren't planning on doing any shows right now; the process of getting this record out has engulfed our summer and, I can finally say, the finish line might be in sight. But alas, we were offered two wonderful shows in two days, one in Nashville and one in Athens, GA.

We've only played in Nashville once before. We played with a blues band and, two hours into their set, I walked up to them to see how much longer they had when they responded "oh, there's another band tonight? We didn't know."

Our obligitory we-haven't-played together-in-a-while set runthrough last evening was really comforting. It's not that we forget how to play the songs, but sometimes things like keyboard settings and pedal switches get lost on us after a few weeks of non-Dynamo related activities.

Our individualized non-Dynamo activities as of late:

-I've been working on records in our basement for these guys and this guy, as well as writing for this and this and teaching some of these.

-Norm has been driving these around and occasionally playing these in this.
-Griffin just went here with these people right after spending time
here.

-Aaron has been pushing one of these around and learning a lot of these songs on one of these.

Take Out the Trash, Gettin' Ya Cash Like 'em Fast...

2008-07-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

you know that thing in your email that's referred to as a spam folder? when checking the band email account, or the more affectionately dubbed dynamail, sometimes i think i'm the only one who ever empties it out. but, there is the occasional important message that is accidentally sent into the spam folder, so i've taken on the habit of checking out the subjects and senders before i delete them.

with that being said, i'm sure everyone is familiar with the usual "Policelink Scholarships," or "Shopping Spree Department," or "Deeds for Dollars," or even "Work from Home." but today, the sender line read !!!PANDA RESEARCH!!! (note: these exclamations were included in the line. they are not my own.) needless to say, i thought that was really funny.

oh. so, here...

On a lighter note...

2008-07-14T15:59:00.001-07:00

...or at least on a note that doesn't involve talking shit, there's a new Livin' the Dream article on Crawdaddy today.

ALSO, remember Emperor X? Not that he's really gone anywhere, but he's been hiding out and working on a 4 part album called The Blythe Archives. Griffin bought the vinyl of volume one on tour and I finally got around to listening to it. It's so so so unbelieveably good. He still has that bedroom pop home recording lo-fi thing going on, but there is a lot of crazy drum experimenting stuff that he hasn't done before and a little bit of Steve Reich hidden in the mix. There are some clips on his website, as well as previews of future Blythe Archive volumes.

Blythe Archives is a pretty insane concept. First off, it's named after Blythe, California, a city where Chad (Emperor X) was in a car accident on tour once. A few months later, when we did a tour as his backing band, our van broke down just past the California/Arizona border and the only logical fix was to get towed back to Blythe. Chad went and visited the automobile graveyard where all of his gear rested while we drank Thunderbird wino wine and swam in a motel pool at 4 AM (or at least Aaron did).

The other genius thing about Blythe Archives is that, with each released volume, Chad is hiding cassette tapes of non-album bonus material in a predetermined city with clues on the album for where they could be found. Once the code is cracked and the tapes are found, the material on the cassettes is posted online. Wow.....

No's in unison.

2008-07-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

So there's this band called Simian Mobile Disco. I don't know much about them other than: A. They get a metric fuck-ton of press and B. We have the same initials. So now I'm noticing that websites are starting to abbreviate them in news stories, which means that about once a week I get excited like "what?!?! we're playing a festival in Brussels?!" for exactly one second before I realize what is really happening.

We played two shows this weekend.

Chicago was rad. Played with Russian Circles (soooooo good), barely understood the eastern European soundguy during soundcheck (I think at some point he was asking to hear the keyboard rig and I could have SWORN he was saying "manhattan"), enjoyed a large cooler of Goose Island Beers (my favorite microbrewery, except maybe New Belgium), ate well (pulled pork!), etc.

On the way up to Chicago, we listened to the new Ra Ra Riot album. As you can imagine, it's wonderful. I think I may have gotten too attached to the old recordings of some of the songs though; even though the fidelity and performances on the record are far superior to their EP, it will take me some getting used to.

Played with The Mae Shi in St. Louis last night. We played 3 dates with them about 3 years ago (gas was $1.89/gallon), and it was great seeing how much more insane they are now. It was like going to a performance art rock show in 2005 at Lemp Arts Center, except the music was great, there wasn't a creepy old guy making everybody uncomfortable, and there were girls in the crowd.

What's Bacharaching?

2008-06-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

I'm a HUGE Burt Bacharach fan. He's a guilty pleasure that I feel absolutely no guilt about. I mean, just look at him:

Amazing.

Anyway, today I typed "Burt" into my iTunes search bar and "Slow Jamz" by Kanye West and Twista showed up! This is interesting, because Burt Bacharach is one of the best songwriters of all time and "Slow Jamz" is one of the greatest hip hop songs of all time. I did some research, and that song is built from a sample of Luther Vandross (the pitch-shifted "are you gonna be, are you gonna be, are you gonna beeeeee, well well well well" is Mr. Vandross chipmunked-up by Mr. West in the studio). The Luther Vandross track that the sample came from is his version of Burt Bacharach's "A House Is Not A Home." YES!!!

ANYWAY, we just got added to a Russian Circles show in Chicago this upcoming Saturday, July 5. RS is doing 2 shows in a day, an all ages one and a 21+ one. We've been invited to play with them on the all ages bill, an early show that starts at 7 PM. We're very excited because we're overdue to play Chicago and also we get to hear Russian Circles play "Death Rides a Horse" really loudly for free. What more could you possibly want out of life?*

*(the answer to this rhetorical question is, of course, Russian Circles covering anything by Burt Bacharach. They could do a sweet stoner metal version of "What the World Needs Now Is Love". I'm sure of it)

wow......

2008-06-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure who's seen this yet, but our friend Sam Pura sent me this link today and this is pretty unbelieveable. I would recommend skipping forward to about 1 minute in, since it starts kind of slow:

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

No news is good news.

2008-06-24T11:17:00.001-07:00

Actually, that's not true. No news is completely boring.

We've been getting ready for our Weezer Tribute band/Thor Axe show this Thursday, so we haven't been doing much with our real band. We just started rehearsing for our first video. We're playing a song in a different way and trying to do it as a one-take thing, so we have to..uh...be able to play it well.

If anybody is interested, the Weezer Tribute/Thor Axe show is taking place on Thursday at the Stagger Inn in Edwardsville. It's 21+ and starts at 9 PM. There's a very small cover charge. Thor Axe is probably the loudest thing that has ever been at the Stagger Inn, and we're probably going to piss off some hippies.

In the meantime, read this thing that I wrote today when I was insanely bored.

Getting there

2008-06-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

Last night I mailed off the disc containing the files for our last (and longest) song to the mastering people. They'll get started on that later this week. When they are done the actual music that will eventually get burned onto cds and/or pressed onto vinyl will be complete, just shy of a year in the making.

This is really funny:

Clownvis Presley

2008-06-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

I guess we were a bit far away at the RFT awards ceremony last night to notice that the announcer, Clownvis Presley, is the scariest thing that has ever lived:

Wow.

Also, new Crawdaddy article is up.

Recap

2008-06-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

We didn't win anything at the Riverfront Times awards last night. It was kind of a relief at the time, the awards ceremony was pretty uncomfortable and it would have been weird to have to go up there and make a speech. We witnessed a few clumsy acceptance speeches and a few that turned into pleas to the RFT of "how about an interview?" and "we want a cover story!" from the podium. The ceremony was hosted by "Clownvis", which is a clown/Elvis impersonator. Weird...

I'm waiting, with nothing to do. I'm wai-ay-ay-aiting, just a-waiting on you.

2008-06-10T08:02:00.001-07:00

It appears that we're going through a period of time where a lot of little things are happening, but it feels like absolutely nothing is happening.

-We're playing a show later this month (June 26 to be exact) in Edwardsville, IL where we're performing a Weezer tribute set. It's been pretty fun to obsessively figure out how to play these songs, work on the vocal harmonies, and tweak our amps to make them sound as "Weezer-ish" as we can. We're only hitting the period between 1994-1998, so just Blue album, Pinkerton and a few key B-Sides. It will be a fun night, Thor Axe is opening the show.

-We're working out the ideas for our first Youtube video. The only thing I can say for sure is that it involves our dining room table.

-Tonight is the Riverfront Times Music Awards night at the Pageant in St. Louis. We're up for Best Indie Rock band and Best Live Act. I've never been able to attend the awards ceremony (Griffin and Aaron went last year I believe), so it should be fun. If we win, we'll be able to put it next to our "Best Indie Rock" award from 2006 on top of our toilet.

Things of potential interest

2008-06-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

It's the third and final study period here at Gateway Medical Research. I'm listening to music and trying to pretend that looking at the same websites from 5-9 AM is still interesting. I decided last week to start my itunes at A and just let it go. It took me a day and a half to get to the B section. I'm currently on Cursive's Domestica, which still rules. Outside of my headphone world, the steady routine of blood draws and movies is commencing. On the overhead projector screen, Jim Carrey is incapable of lying.

We played the Riverfront Times Music Showcase on Sunday. Other than the extremely difficult heat and the equipment issues (it's hard to see those little red lights on your guitar pedals when the sun is shining on them), we had a good time. At least Say Panther and Target Market were excellent.

Here are some links:
Video interview of SMD from the festival with a short live clip
Pictures from our set at the festival
Little article Chris Walla wrote about us for a British music site
Death Cab performance on Minnesota Public Radio. About 8 minutes into this, they start talking about SMD and our lab-rat tendencies. It's cute!

Gotta spend some time, love.

2008-06-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the 4 of us, along with Nicki (Griffin's lady), Annie (RFT music editor) and Clay (Target Market guitarist), went to Columbia, MO to see Death Cab For Cutie. An intense thunderstorm hit Columbia before we arrived and then started making its way east towards our van. You know when it's raining so hard that you can't see out of your windshield, your wipers can barely keep up, and the other vehicles around you just look like blurry taillights? It was one of those. In hindsight, we were actually fortunate to drive through it; the show was outside, and the most dedicated DCFC fans wound up being the most soaked.

Because of the rain, the show was delayed a few hours. Although we were one of the last few people to get through the gates (there was some drama/complication with the guestlist), we wound up getting a spot on the side of the stage right next to the crew folks. One of these crew members is Rachel Demy, who is currently tour-managing opening band Rogue Wave. Rachel lives with Chris Walla (they're, like, dating or something) and therefore lived with us for a week in July when we were making our record.

Whenever Death Cab took the stage, it was one of those "oh yeah, I really like this band" moments. I hadn't anticipated how excited we'd be when they pulled out something like "We Laugh Indoors" or "Photobooth." It brought out the 15 year old girl in all of us.

A drunk girl came up to our little corner of the crowd during the show and gave Aaron her camera and told him to take pictures of the band for her because she couldn't figure out how to use it. We were all standing next to a bit potted plant. Towards the end of the set, she was blatantly pissing on it.

We met up with Walla afterwards and got to hang out and talk some shop concerning our record. Norm drum-nerded out with Jason McGerr for a bit. They both had the same hat on. It was adorable. We had a drink with Rachel and Graham from Rogue Wave (sweet dude) at the Blue Note and then made the trek back to Edwardsville. Pulled into the driveway at 4:15 AM.

Now we're off to go play a hot, humid, sticky outside show at the Riverfront Times Music Showcase in the Delmar Loop in St. Louis. We're debuting our epic closer song and pulling out an old song we haven't played in ages. Wish us luck!

If you can dodge a wrench.....

2008-05-28T13:24:00.001-07:00

Norm and I are at Gateway Medical Research again, enduring the second part of our three period study. Each period has three days: check-in day, study day, and check-out day. Today is study day, meaning today is the day where we take the pill being studied and get our blood drawn the most. I'm typing this during our first two hour break between draws (all other draws have been hourly or half-hourly). By the time we go to bed tonight, we will have been poked 15 times.

The movies have been better today. Dodgeball and then The Longest Yard. And then, this dude puts on Ladder 49...again. WTF, bro? We watched that last week! I have no interest in re-watching a movie that could be called a "firefighter drama", nor do I respect "firefighter drama" as a legitimate genre of film. Why do they do this to us? Maybe the pill and the blood draws are just distracting us, and this is a Ladder 49 tolerance test. This is the beginning of a really bad Kubrick movie for sure.

Also, I've witnessed two extremely passive agressive phone arguments that people in our study have had with their significant others. First, at 4 AM when we were waking up and this dude's girlfriend was still out partying, I got to hear the "Why are you hanging out with that dude? I'm going to kick his ass. Why are you hanging out with that fat bitch? You don't even like her. I don't need to get your friends to vouch for you, I know they'll just lie for you" conversation, and less than an hour ago I witnessed the "So you're not going to work, you're just going to drink with Mark? Are you already drunk? I don't even want to talk to you right now, you're not being very nice" talk. Party!

Playing shows feels good, and I'm glad we have been doing it more often. A few days ago, we played with a bunch of bands we usually don't play with (Harvey, Novella, Tonight at Seven) at a great new venue in Alton, IL called illiNoise that we hope continues to do shows. They get the shows catered, so anybody over 21 gets free beer with admission until the kegs inevitably run dry. We have the RFT music showcase on Sunday in the Delmar Loop (we play at 4 PM) and we MAY be playing a party in Edwardsville on Friday? Not sure.

OH, and we're getting ideas together for videos for our Youtube channel. More info to come, but it's going to be fun.

Of whales, strippers, and number-one albums.

2008-05-23T08:01:00.001-07:00

Wow. KDHX's Midwest Mayhem show last night at the City Museum was pretty remarkable. It was definitely the first time we've had a New Orleans-style second line marching band lead folks from one area of a venue to the stage where we played (but hopefully not the last). It felt great playing New Bones in front of people who may have actually heard it, and the end of our set devolved into the type of clusterfuck that I wish could cap off every show. It was exactly what we needed in this confusing state that our band is in right now.

I have to say, I don't really get the Alley Cat Revue burlesque dance group. At least, I don't understand the apparent legitimizing factor that makes dumbed-down stripping appropriate for a community radio event. In 2004 we opened for the Suicide Girls burlesque troupe and it felt the same, except they went as far as to expose electrical tape covered boobs. If the same act was performed in a dingy club with Guns 'n Roses playing, it'd be trashy. Somehow performing it next to a giant whale-shaped obstacle course with a dude juggling at intermission is wholesome and/or liberating. I guess, in some weird way, their act made me feel degraded so they didn't have to.

So ANYWAY, concerning our album coming out, we've gotten a couple of offers from labels and are weighing our options while still trying to make sure that everybody who has expressed any form of interest gets the chance to throw their hat in before we make any decisions. Sorry about being so vague, but it would be in bad form to name names (and we don't want to jinx anything). We're aiming for a fall release, but it's mostly out of our hands.

Oh, and the guy who produced our record? This is probably already old news, but his band just got the #1 spot on the Billboard albums chart. I'm still waiting for that to sink in, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime soon. I think our album will see the light of day before my brain processes the concept of Death Cab selling 144,000 copies of an album in one week.