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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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.