Party on It

It’s been almost four months to the day since my last dispatch. During that time, we’ve been home for about three weeks, been chased by firehawks, detained by border authorities, spent the night with mongrels and woke up on the beach, made it to where the beer flows like wine and the women instinctively flock like the swallows of Capistrano, and managed to make it back relatively intact. In short, there’s alot to catch up on. To wit:

On July 27th, our album was officially released to worldwide acclaim. Some of the more notable press:

Baltimore City Paper’s Bret McCabe seems like he wants to hate us because of our “Southern… Piano-driven…. Unabashed sing-along pop…. [and] utter lack of irony” – all loathsome things, to be sure – but kind of…sort of…doesn’t. Which is good because he has a really great take on Brave Man’s Death. We all found out who Raymond Carver was because of this. (Maybe that was the point.)

Alternative Press is my Mom’s favorite. (Come to think of it, she might have written it.)

Jeff Norstedt over at Jersey Beat gives maybe the best one-sentence summation of the record that we could hope for: “J. Roddy Walston and the Business is an album that a Brooklyn hipster with ironic facial hair can put on while hanging out drinking irony-free cheap beer with his alcoholic Uncle at the family reunion in Missouri.” ‘Nuff said.

The good folks over at Buzzgrinder review the album solely through audience commentary, proving why Louisville will always be close to our Heart.

The tale of the tape:

Black Crows comparisons: 5
Allman Brothers comparisons: 3
Black Oak Arkansas comparisons: 1 (this number needs to go wayyyyy up)

Beyond the legions of kind folks who gave our record the once-over, we had some sweet feature press. Spin Magazine featured us in their August issue (Soundgarden on the cover), and our page ended right next to the thick American Spirit coupon, which acted as a neat natural bookmark. Rod wrecked his ankle jumping around in boots for the photo shoot, and a picture of him writhing around in agony in the grass made the table of contents.

In the run up to the album’s release, we were featured in the Sun proper by our old friend – and new A&E editor – Sam Sessa. This picture accompanied the article. Billy will never live it down. I wish we could have filmed a short documentary about that photo shoot, because the directions from the photographer were priceless. “All of you try to look like you’re imagining the applause when you play that song that’s your favorite!”

In June, we got a few seconds of notice in New York, on account of our attempt to play 29 pianos in a single day – as part of an art installation entitled “Play Me I’m Yours.” We even had a two-second cameo on the ABC and CBS Nightly News (no links, unfortunately). In the end, we came pretty close. There were three highlights of this day in particular: the first was arriving in Central Park and being hailed by a bunch of New Yawk construction guys holding copies of that day’s Daily News shouting “Hey! It’s you guys from the paper!”; the second was this; and the third was sitting on the subway the next day and noticing the guy next to me watching a replay of the ABC segment on his phone. I stared just long enough to see our two seconds.

In the middle of our most recent tour, we did an interview with Neon American before our show at the 8×10 in late-September. It’s here and here, in all it’s unedited glory. Listen to Logan tell the story of how he ended up in bed with Colin Hanks. Apparently, it is a love perfectly willing to speak it’s name in interviews.

But of all the press we’ve received, none is as well-deserved as our dear, dirty Diaper’s star turn in the New York Times last month. She was a bit ragged from three straight months of touring, but she pulled it together for the cameras. (No hiding that smell, apparently.) She’s currently enjoying the brief quiet of the driveway before she’s pressed back into duty, where she’s making her own rackety brand of music these days: wobbling tires lending a steady bass, while thinning belts rasp out a melody over top. But even after 214,000 miles, her wandering days aren’t yet over. (This story also got picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle, and somehow made their front page, making The Dipe a bi-coastal star.)

In early-September, we filmed a “video” for Don’t Break the Needle that made it onto AOL Music. It was a meta joke that Billy, Logan and I weren’t in on, but you can see what we went through and then what turned out. (Start with the documentary.)

But these last 120 days have been marked primarily with touring. Touring and touring and touring some more. Tours ontop of tours with tours thrown in on the side. Since July, we’ve traveled 25,000 miles going coast-to-coast four times; we’ve burned through a set of brake calipers, a coolant line, an AC fan, a belt, an alternator and multiple blown tires and seen the inside of nearly every Motel 6 or Super 8 between here and Carlsbad. We were gone so long – Rod, Logan and Zalamia weren’t home from August 8th through November 11th – that between “Faithfully” and “Lights,” with that “City by the Bay” stuff and that “There were mornings out on the road without you” bit in the bridge that every time Journey came on the radio and I was sitting in the same underwear for the fifth straight day, I just turned the channel. But it was amazing on every level – every night had a story, every tour had it’s own personality, and it all deserves loads of pictures and retellings, which it will get…soon. I feel like I need to work through this like PTSD to figure out what really happened. It’ll be cathartic.

But just to illustrate, here it is in long form:

7/25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
7/26 – NYC @ Brooklyn Bowl
7/27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Khyber
7/28 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern
7/29 – Richmond, VA @ Canal Club
7/30 – Raleigh, NC @ Slim’s Downtown
7/31 – Baltimore, MD @ The Ottobar
8/8 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
8/9 – Kansas City, MO @ Beaumont Club*
8/11 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
8/12 – Aspen, CO – Belly Up*
8/13 – Salt Lake City, UT – Avalon Theatre
8/15 – Portland, OR – Dante’s
8/16 – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
8/18 – Sacramento, CA – Harlow’s
8/19 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues*
8/20 – Las Vegas, NV – Hard Rock Hotel*
8/21 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues*
9/8 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall+
9/9 – Santa Barbara, CA – Soho+
9/10 – Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar+
9/11 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy and Harriet’s^
9/12 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubador
9/13 – Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room
9/14 – Tucson, AZ – Congress Hotel^
9/17 – Dallas, TX – Gilley’s
9/18 – Austin, TX – Lambert’s
9/19 – Little Rock, AR – Juanita’s
9/22 – Chicago, IL – Double Door+
9/24 – Charlotte, NC – Visualite Theater#
9/25 – Baltimore, MD – 8×10#
9/26 – Falls Church, VA – State Theater#
9/29 – Pittsburgh, PA – Diesel#
9/30 – Lancaster, PA – Chameleon Club#
10/1 – NYC – Music Hall of Williamsburg#
10/2 – Boston, MA – Middle East Downstairs#
10/5 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom#
10/6 – DeKalb, IL – Otto’s#
10/7 – Indianapolis, IN – Vogue Theater#
10/8 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In#
10/9 – Louisville, KY – Headliner’s#
10/10 – Birmingham, AL – Zydeco?
10/12 – Houston, TX – House of Blues?
10/13 – Austin, TX – Emo’s?
10/14 – Laredo, TX – Old No. 2?
10/16 – Tempe, AZ – Sail Inn?
10/17 – La Jolla, CA – UCSD – The Loft?
10/18 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theater?
10/20 – San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom?
10/21 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom?
10/22 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret?
10/23 – Bellingham, WA – Wild Buffalo?
10/24 – Seattle, WA – Neumo’s?
10/26 – Salt Lake City, UT – Avalon Theater
10/27 – Aspen, CO – Belly Up
10/29 – Little Rock, AR – Town Pump
10/30 – Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park Ampitheater!!
11/1 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt
11/3 – Oxford, MS – The Blind Pig
11/5 – Dallas, TX – The Loft
11/6 – Austin, TX – Gypsy Picnic Foodcart Festival
11/8 – Nashville, TN – The Basement
11/10 – NYC – Music Hall of Williamsburg?

* – with Wolfmother
+ – with Dead Confederate and Alberta Cross
^ – with Cracker
# – with Shooter Jennings and Hierophant
? – with Deer Tick
!! – with Weezer

And having typed that, I’m crawling back in bed and not come out until 2011.

Over and out…

I just got home last night from a quick trip to Portland, where the temperature never rose above 75 degrees and I had to break out a hoodie for the first time since April. Two days ago I was standing on a cliff peak watching waves roll in from Japan and crash into a chill spray on the rocky beach. Now I’m back living in someone’s mouth, staggering down Greenpoint Avenue and praying to God I don’t pass out in front of the Korean take-out joint, because I’m pretty sure I’ll end up in the bulgogi. Changes in latitude, changes in…nevermind.

But news happens even when you’re communing with Gaia, and while I was gone, we announced the biggest run of shows we’ve ever done. Starting on August 9th, we’re playing a handful of dates with Wolfmother across the Great West, from Missouri to California, with our own headlining shows sprinkled in among them. The route looks like:

8/9 – Kansas City, MO @ Beaumont Club*
8/11 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
8/12 – Aspen, CO @ Belly Up Aspen*
8/13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Avalon Theatre
8/16 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
8/19 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues*
8/20 – Las Vegas, NV @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino*
8/21 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues*

(* – with Wolfmother)

As I said in an earlier post, this will be The Diaper’s first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, and hopefully she keeps herself together and doesn’t force us to put a cinderblock on the accelerator and send her over a cliff with Neil Young’s “Long May You Run” blaring over the speakers.

I’m particularly excited for both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, and I only wish they were on back-to-back night so we could experience some major cultural whiplash.

After the 21st, we’ll be home for a few weeks, then right back out to the West Coast in early-September. Then we’ve got some other stuff happening in October. And then big plans for Halloween. More news soon!

It’s been a little over a week since we got home from our tour with Will Hoge and American Bang, and we’ve all been enjoying some hardcore decompression (read: staying alive in this Hellish climate) and gearing up for the release of our album at the end of the month (more on that below). I need to do a serious recounting of the adventures we’ve had in New York in recent weeks, partying with Rachael Ray, and dashing through the city on a mad thirteen hour tour that landed us on news outlets from the Wall Street Journal to the NBC Nightly News. And only two of us had to set ourselves on fire to get that much press.

But speaking of New York, there’s more pressing news afoot: This Saturday (July 10th) we’re playing a free show with Lucero at The Beach at Governor’s Island, plop in Buttermilk Channel midway between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Doors are at 6pm and we play around 8pm, and the only cost is a $5 roundtrip ferry ride.

With our album release less than three weeks away, you can preorder a CD via the Vagrant website and get a free copy of the “Don’t Break the Needle b/w Brave Man’s Death” 7″ that we’ve been selling on the road (with sweet artwork by Rod). To accompany the release, we just announced a short run of tour dates at the end of the month:

7/25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
7/26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
7/27 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Khyber
7/28 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern
7/29 – Richmond, VA @ The Canal Club
7/30 – Raleigh, NC @ Slim’s Downtown
7/31 – Baltimore, MD @ The Ottobar (w/ Tommy Tucker and the Supernaturals and Beard)

There will be a ticket giveaway to the Ottobar date – and possibly several others – and I’ll post info as details sort themselves out.

There are plans in the works for August and September that may be made official within the week, and they “may” include our first West Coast shows ever. I’ve already lit a St. Jude candle and we’ve begun saying the rosary that our beloved van – The Diaper – will carry us out that far. We love her dearly, but the image of Meg White sitting outside the club in Detroit watching Rod and Will Hoge crawl through the muck trying to find out what the hell The Dipe’ was hemorrhaging is still a galling one. She’s getting up there – 187,000 miles – and her hot flashes and brittle bones are showing more and more with each passing tour. But if we do end up trading her in and getting a younger, lower-maintenance model, the church decals that have acted as such fabulous talismans against both cops and robbers will certainly come with. Or something along those lines.

I just realized that I’ve ridden in that van for almost 100,000 miles. If you average it out that each mile was covered at 60mph, that’s 1,667 hours of driving or 69 full days spent inside that thing. I’ve spent two entire months of my life in a Ford 350 passenger van.

Weird.

Greetings from Fort Wayne, Indiana! This is Day Four of the Will Hoge-American Bang tour, and you’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little delusional from Van Sickness. We’ve spent 30 hours in this rolling crate since leaving Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon, and we still have 300 miles of Indiana flatland between us and Louisville for tonight’s show. If this were a space shuttle, we would literally be halfway to the Moon by now. But, making it all bearable is that the folks on this tour are as nice as can be, especially the American Bang fellas, who, for a bunch of a long-haired, pinko Commie Nashville inbreds, all have remarkably good manners (and teeth). They’re real Charmers (and a great band to boot).

St. Louis on Wednesday was great fun, and with a nine-and-a-half hour drive to show the next night in Detroit, we hit the road not long after Will finished his set, and made it to Marshall, Indiana – just west of the Eastern-Central time zone change – at 3 a.m., where we found a room and at a truckstop motel and promptly crashed out. But not before noticing that the pipes underneath the bathroom sink leaked so much every time the faucet ran that management placed an ice bucket beneath it to catch the drips, which now held a lake of brownish water that was almost overrunning that. Rad. This spurred a five-minute debate about whether the bed sheets or the comforters were likely to be cleaner.

But got up early and hoofed it to Detroit on time and played what is now our favorite venue in the world – The Magic Stick. It’s part of The Majestic entertainment complex, which includes a rock club, pool hall, bistro, bowling alley, and pizza cafe with a great tiki bar deck thrown in for good measure – all of it lovingly worn-in and divey. If that had something like this in Baltimore, I would be there every night. Why don’t more places in the world exhibit this kind of gumption? Despite the sparse attendance – we could have thrown two handfuls of change into the room and not hit a paying customer – we had a blast with free bowling and freer beer. There was even a Meg White sighting in the cafe at the end of the night…right around the time we found out we had blown the coolant line in the van and were hemorrhaging fluid all over the Detroit gutter. Moment of Zen spoiled. We decided we’d rather chance it than spend the night in Detroit with a van full of gear, and we managed to limp into Ann Arbor an hour later at 35 mph, where we stayed with some recent transplants from Raleigh who had seen us at Slim’s before.

Luckily, the next day, we found a mechanic who took pity on our situation and hooked us up on the cheap – Church Van Power – and we made it to Grand Rapids on time for last night’s show. It was a little better attended, and the club’s decision to leave dinner tables set up across the front of the stage lent the evening a weird cabaret quality. I felt like we should have played “My Way.” But things became exponentially better when a) we got to take showers in the Green Room – my first since leaving Baltimore four days, 2,000 miles and three shows ago – and b) we discovered that the club had left the beer taps on in the back room where our backstage area was. Score. Several illicit IPAs later, we were primed to end the night in the Dundalk of Grand Rapids, where the night culminated in Rod stealing a framed photo documenting a Halloween 2006 in which two girls are dressed as patchwork French maids, one girl is a well-thought out cowgirl-Batgirl hybrid, one guy is wearing the leisure suit his dad was married in, and another guy is apparently My Other Brother Daryl.

And now we’re en route to Louisville. With all that said, there have been several changes to the next week’s itinerary: We’ve added two shows – one tomorrow at the Green Lantern in Lexington, KY; and a free show on Monday in Cincinnati at the Northside Tavern – and we canceled our appearance in Milwaukee with Hoge and the Bangers on Wednesday (though that show will indeed go on without us). So the updated itinerary looks like…

6/12 – Louisville, KY @ Phoenix Hill Tavern*
6/13 – Lexington, KY @ The Green Lantern
6/14 – Cincinnati, OH @ The Northside Tavern (Free show)
6/15 – Columbus, OH @ The Basement*
6/18 – Washington, D.C. @ Rock n’ Roll Hotel (w/ Eli “Paperboy” Reed and the Constellations)
6/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House for Rachael Ray and Snapple’s Feedback Block Party (w/ Justin Townes Earle and The Detroit Cobras)
6/24 – Knoxville, TN @ The Square Room*
6/25 – Asheville, NC@ The Orange Peel*
6/26 – Birmingham, AL @ Cafe Firenze*
6/27 – Chattanooga, TN @ Rhythm and Brews*

There is also a strong chance that there will be a Richmond show sometime between the 21st-23rd, and that will be getting either confirmed or disproven this Monday. And Big News for July is coming down the pike not long from now.

Over and out…

My land-lubbing legs have finally readjusted to solid ground after a night spent afloat on the East River on our Rock’s Off Concert Cruise with the Giraffes last night. It was a complete and total blast, and the rollicking waves’ ability to replicate the effects of three whiskey-and-gingers too many was all part of the fun. During load in, the wake of a passing ship almost sent our piano down to the briny deep, but I’m not entirely sure Rod wouldn’t have dove in after it…the captain going down with the vessel and all. Instead, we stowed it safely aboard, ripped through an hour’s worth of teetering rock – occasionally pitching forward and back without warning – and seeing quite a stunning side of lower Manhattan and John Roebling’s handiwork. If you live in New York and don’t already know about these cruises, you need to educate yourself post haste because they have a killer summer schedule coming up. (And Big Ups to the Giraffes, who were a ton of fun and great guys to boot. Your merch display will always win.)

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday too. It was our first show in a little while, and a big NYC press junket to boot, so we were a little on edge going into it. But the crowd couldn’t have been more ready to throw-down – which is unheard of for these kind of events – and it really put us at ease and let us concentrate on making our rock faces. And the after-party at Spitzer’s (not Eliot’s) was almost as much fun…craft beers and company credit cards. Just put that on my tombstone.

Today we’re off to do a photo shoot with Glynnis McDaris for our burgeoning press kit. She’s a southern gal whose work we’re quite fond of, so we’re thrilled that she could lend her style to capturing our grizzled visages. Evidence forthcoming soon…

A batch of new dates has been confirmed for our tour with Will Hoge and American Bang that kicks off next Wednesday in St. Louis. There are a few more still waiting to be locked down, but this is our itinerary as it stands now:

6/9 – St. Louis, MO @ Old Rock House*
6/10 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick*
6/11 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection*
6/12 – Louisville, KY @ Phoenix Hill Tavern*
6/15 – Columbus, OH @ The Basement*
6/16 – Milwaukee, WI @ Shank Hall*
6/18 – Washington, D.C. @ DC 9 (w/ Eli “Paperboy” Reed and The Constellations)
6/19 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House (Snapple and Rachael Ray’s Block Party, w/ Justin Townes Earle)
6/23 – Chattanooga, TN @ Rhythm and Brews*
6/24 – Knoxville, TN @ The Tea Room*
6/25 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel*
6/26 – Birmingham, AL @ Cafe Firenze*

(* – with Will Hoge and American Bang)

In an informal poll, the city we’re most looking forward to seeing for the first time is Detroit, just to have something to compare Baltimore to. Milwaukee and the promise of endless beer cheese also ranks up there. Suggestions for places to visit along the way would be greatly appreciated!

Over and out…

Just yesterday, it was officially announced that we’re going on tour with Will Hoge and American Bang from June 9th to June 26th, playing most of the Midwest and upper South. (Will is headlining all dates, and us and American Bang are alternating main support slots, to be detailed further.) Dates are still being confirmed, but thus far we can announce:

6/2 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge (Early show – we play at 7pm!)
6/3 – New York, NY – Rock Boat River Cruise
6/9 – St. Louis, MO – Old Rock House
6/10 – Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
6/11 – Grand Rapids, MI – The Intersection
6/12 – Louisville, KY – Phoenix Hill Tavern
6/16 – Milwaukee, WI – Shank Hall
6/19 – Brooklyn, NY – Bell House

There are also dates in July that are being sorted out as we speak, so this will enlarge considerably in the coming days. That’s what she said.

As you can see, we’ve added a night at the Mercury Lounge next Wednesday, June 2nd. This is the big Media Introduction for us, as all of the New York press that’s received the record is invited out to see what all the hubbub’s about. We could use some familiar faces in the crowd that night. Doors are at 6:30pm and we play at 7pm sharp and we’re the only band on the bill. Get there early, but get down like you’re staying late. Go here to get tickets. This will sell-out, so go early!

I apologize for the lack of updates on our end, but potential plans are sensitive ones and we are verboten to speak of them until they are confirmed. It’s a sensible policy. Soon all will be revealed. But sooner, we’ll be on tour and there will be endless fodder for this run. I mean, the happenings in Grand Michigan are probably deserving of a blog of their own.

Updates as soon as we get them…

Steve

Loads of radio silence on our end, as Top Secret schemes and plans slowly inch their way toward reality (but aren’t quite ready to be unveiled just yet). When the dam finally breaks, an angry river of facts and dates and itineraries will flow forth like the mighty Patapsco, drenching all in as much news as they can handle. The early drips and drabs are already upon us, a harbinger of what will come. To wit:

The kind folks at Tripwire.com have posted an ultra-exclusive, extra-free download of “Brave Man’s Death,” from our upcoming album. This is the first (legal) download of anything from the album, so put it on your Summer mix and strut that one around. It’s Great for the dog park.

The artwork shown on the Tripwire site is from our forthcoming “Don’t Break the Needle b/w Brave Man’s Death” 7″ that will roll off the presses in early-June. There’ll also be an accompanying iTunes release that will include a demo of “Don’t Get Old” from our practice space, done in a strummier, janglier version than the “Don’t Get Old – LA Looks Edition” that made it on the actual album. There are only 500 copies being pressed, with 100 of them featuring one-of-a-kind handmade artwork from Mr. J Roddy Walston himself. (The rest will feature the image on the site.) They will only be available at shows……..and there should be a Big update about that any minute now. Keep your eyes peeled.

On that note, we playing at the behest of the lovely Mrs. Rachael Ray once again at the Snapple and Rachael Ray’s Feedback party in Brooklyn on Saturday June 19th. (A little background on the event, via the New York Post.) Also playing is Justin Townes Earle, who might have put on the best show I saw all of last year (and whose brief cameo on Treme was a neat surprise). Unfortunately, all the passes to the free event were claimed in the first 48 hours of their availability – they were gone before we even got word to announce the event – but keep checking Mrs. Ray’s site in case anything changes.

Lastly – and most importantly – our album has an official release date: Tuesday, July 27th. No word on what formats it will initially be released in beyond CD and download (though there will be vinyl eventually).

More news imminently. Lots of it.

Be well,

Steve

Among my friends and loved ones, there exists a concept known as “Colmus Time” which lies somewhere between Eastern and Central Standard, a minimum of 20 minutes behind the rest of the world. It sucks (from what I’m told). All I ask for is understanding – I was seven days late for my own birth, so I’m still trying to make up for lost time. In fact, with that mind, it’s pretty remarkable if I’m only 30 minutes late for practice.

So it’s entirely fitting that a recap of our most recent tour would finally make it’s way into the world twenty-nine days after the tour itself ended. But, belated or not, every tour deserves a proper recounting, so here’s mine.

This is by no means a comprehensive recounting because of a nasty predilection I developed towards leaving my camera in the van for days at a time. Instead, this is just a mass, a blur of images that only make sense when you take a step back and imagine what went in the blanks. Like tour itself.

Word.

Over nineteen days, we drove nearly 4,500 miles through 17 states for an average of 237 miles a day, or just under a four-hour drive. During that time, I wore nine pairs of socks, eight pairs of underwear, three pairs of jeans, and six t-shirts; took six showers, and washed my hair one additional time; ate McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Arby’s and Subway once each, but had enchiladas in five different states. We stayed in two hotels – both of which were free – and spent the rest of the nights spread across the living rooms and basements of friends old and new.

But this isn’t even half the story…

Let’s start with a sweet one. This is our near-saintly Merch Man, Chris “Big Cat” Zalamia, in the midst of a tender embrace with Rocco the Boxer, in Athens, Georgia. Rocco seems to be asking us to not pass judgement on his clumsy affections, whereas Zalamia just looks horny.

Leaving Athens, we did a mini-tour-within-a-tour of small southern towns.  First up was Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born, and where several of us went to the bathroom.

They had these painted guitars all over the three-block-long downtown area, not unlike the crab statues we have here.

That night we played in Oxford, Mississippi – home to the Ole Miss Rebels (though that mascot seems to be living out numbered days).  Oxford has one of those great courthouse squares where I imagine Matlock-ian country lawyers are still trying to “reckon” who took Mrs. Sullivan’s prize-winning sow. There are probably spittoons in here.

Beyond that, Oxford seems dedicated to twin propositions: reading and drinking (not necessarily in that order).  Their charming main square is dedicated almost solely to those two things, and if you ever have the means to open a used book store with a bar anywhere on the courthouse circle, go Big. You will soon be Mayor.

While there, we played the one-year anniversary of our friend Parrish’s bar, and above is the crowd about 15 seconds after we finished. The lady with the blonde hair and her back to the camera may or may not be Joey Lauren Adams, who materialized suddenly at the front of the crowd during our encore and then, just as quickly, vanished into the night before I could even tell her what her performance in “Mallrats” meant to me and my friends. She became the third cast member of “Dazed and Confused” we’ve bumped into during our travels, after Matthew McConaughey and the red-headed dude who paddled freshman with Ben Affleck.

After Oxford, we made our way across north Louisiana and into Texas. Here’s Billy crossing the mighty Missisip’ just outside Shreveport.  He’s so clearly moved by the experience that he looks ready to drive into a brick wall.  We crossed this bad boy again outside Memphis, Tennessee a week later. Smelled great both times.

We spent that night in Tyler, Texas, as detailed in an earlier post. Texans love their state like no other.  But don’t take my word for it – ask their waffles.

This is the only picture any of the four of us have from SXSW…but what a picture it is. Here’s Zach, apparently being touched by the hand of God during our Little Radio Austin show at the Red-Eyed Fly. He rocked so hard, three people were turned into pillars of salt during the show.

This is Zach and Zalamia, post load-out earlier on tour.  I cite this picture because it’s the only one I took with Zach wearing his winter hat, which figured prominently in maybe our best story from SXSW.  On our second night in Austin, we needed to find a new place to stay due to a mix-up, so I called our manager at 2:30 in the morning and asked if we could crash on his floor.  He said sure but that he had taken the spare key, so either we could try and open the back door via the enormous doggy door cut in it, or we could wait until he got home.  With everyone about to pass out right then and there, Zach volunteered to work the doggy door and the next thing I know he has his arm and half his upper body through it and is wrestling with the lock loud enough to wake the dead – or our manager’s friend Gideon, who was asleep on the sofa ten feet away. Gideon bolts upright to see what looks like an extra from an ADT ad coming through the doggy door, and from the sound of his voice – “Hey! Hey it’s me…Gideon?!” he couldn’t have been more terrified if he saw Jason Vorhees coming through the window.

The gap in picture-taking that began in Austin unfortunately extended to our show in Little Rock, one of the best nights of the tour. If anyone has any photos of that show or the afterparty that followed, we would love to see them, if only to know that this show did indeed happen. We might have played in Brigadoon for all we can prove.

But things picked up again once we got to Cincinnati, where we played The Southgate House in Newport, KY (just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati) with our good friends Pop Empire.

The Southgate House is easily one of the coolest-looking venues we’ve played, standing tall and upright like the older, classier brother of the Bates Motel; the one who got his M.B.A. instead of housing knife murderers.

Here’s Rod keyhole-peeking at Pop Empire while we set up.  The show, as always, was amazingly rowdy.

On the 24th, we had the distinct and completely ridiculous honor of opening up for Afroman in Lexington, KY at a new club called Cosmic Charlie’s.  (CC’s captured a shocking amount of the vibe of the dearly-missed The Dame, one of our favorite clubs of all-time. The Lexington city fathers saw fit to demolish the entire block it was on two years ago to make way for a convention hotel that never got built, and now a trashy grass field stands watch over some seriously amazing memories).  We knew it was going to be an amazing night going into it, but none of us were quite prepared for exactly how hard Afroman was going to kick our collective behind.  Man knows how to put on a show.

Look at that damn guitar.

For starters, he doesn’t even arrive at the club until a song into his own set, leaving the cohort of rappers he travels with to set up his gear and perform the first song by themselves so that the soundman can adjust the levels before he gets there.  Secondly, he demands to be paid in cash before he’ll even step foot on the stage, which is pretty damn B.A.  Thirdly, he waltzed into the back alley 15 minutes after his scheduled set time, wearing a blindingly white full-length fur coat, the arm of which looks like…

Then, he closes out his set like this (apologies for the wretched sound):

How do you follow that? Scoff all you want, but if you have any appreciation for showmanship, this was a 90-minute Master Class. He looked more comfortable on stage than off it.

After Lexington, we played The Metro in Chicago with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, which was a blur from start to finish, thanks to our 90-minute late arrival and almost instantaneous set time. I’m pretty sure the Metro is bigger than my high school, and somehow, out of the six times we’ve played Chicago, half of those have been packed out Metro shows. Pretty great ratio. Unfortunately, again – no pictures. Boo.

But the next night – the second-to-last of tour – was our aforementioned Louisville throw-down at a new club called Zanzabar. The club was awesome, the show rowdy, and afterwards, we stayed with our friend Max from the Ladybirds (who were fantastic that night, along with our old Chattanooga brethren The Bohannons). Rod and I found his motorcycle helmet sometime around 4 a.m. and proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes taking turns wearing it and beating each other over the head with a hammer, until we finally fell asleep (perhaps due to multiple concussions). Tour laughs are the weirdest kind.

(In this picture, you can see the tear down the front of Rod’s shirt from when he was overcome by the power of the Hulkamaniacs during our set and rent his garments.)

The last night of tour was Morgantown, West Virginia and this was most definitely a Good Sign.

We played on the same night that the Mountaineers dispatched Kentucky to make it to the men’s Final Four, and Zach assumed they’d be more pumped about this then they were, at one point bellowing into the mic “YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO FINAL FOUR!” to a collective shrug so hard that I heard someone in the crowd blow out a rotator cuff. But the folks were definitely there to party, and party they hopefully did. Here’s a video of us playing a new song called “Use Your Language” that’s the closer to the upcoming record:

By the time we hit the hay that night, I felt alot like this clock. Tour had exacted it’s toll and I was too exhausted to care much about anything. We got another robust five hours of sleep and drove home to Baltimore in the morning, where I slept for an entire week. Mission Accomplished.

But any recounting would not be complete without a heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to the shows and egged us on, put us up, fed us, kept us well-hydrated, and just helped form mobs of the most beautiful folks to play for. To wit:

Raleigh (Mike Roy has clearly come to kick your ass.)

Atlanta

Athens

Cincinnati

Loo’vul

Chicago

Morgantown

And that was that.

(More show and tour news coming soon…)

We’ve been sitting on this so hard for the last two months that we’ve got a collective bed sore, but it was officially announced today that we’re going to be playing a last-minute show with the Hold Steady in New York City this Saturday, at the Bowery Ballroom. Unfortunately, it sold out before it was even announced, as there was a ticket presale earlier this week for folks who purchased tickets to a Hold Steady show happening at the Beacon Theatre in October.  (Yes, tickets for a show in October went on sale this week.) 

(Later that same night, our good buds and Baltimore natives Oranges Band – who are on tour with the Hold Steady right now – will be playing a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with THS.  Tickets for that are still available.)

In more accomodating news, we just confirmed a spot on a June 3rd Rock’s Off Concert Cruise that shoves off from the east side of Manhattan for a night cruise underneath the Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges and out past the Statue of Liberty and back, while we and The Giraffes play onboard.  Tickets are available here.  (We’re not listed on the site just yet.)  This has a chance to be one of the coolest shows we’ve ever played, so if you have any reason to be in NYC that night, come take bets on how long it takes before the Harbor Patrol boards and removes Zach on suspicion of being Cliff Burton.

Last Spring, me and some of the Egg Babies Orchestra spent 45 minutes writing a song about the Orioles called “How ‘Bout Dem O’s”.  Within a few days, the team caught wind of it on a message board and, in exchange for a couple of games’ worth of free tickets, they played it at the stadium all season long, at times slotting it between the National Anthem and player introductions.  (Hearing there on Opening Day of last year was a Moment of Zen.)  In the build up to Opening Day of last year, we had 15 Minutes of Local Celebrity, making an appearance on WJZ’s “Coffee With,” with childhood heroes Don Scott and Marty Bass (as well as a featured story on the dinnertime news, courtesy of Ron “Matzy” Matz), and then taking part in Fox 45′s morning broadcast on Opening Day from the field at Camden Yards.  We had a fun-filled couple weeks, but it couldn’t help but provoke an existential crisis: after all the touring that J Roddy had done to that point – all the floors we slept on, the meals we missed, the entire months of my life spent in the back seat of the van  - it was looking like the lead bullet on my musical resume might end up being a song about the Orioles.

But now it’s a year later and the team is going to be using the song again at the stadium again this Summer, and we just finished a new edit of the song with updated player names for this season. (So long, Aubrey Huff!)  To kick things off – as well as to help digest these two Mike Tyson-quality gut-punch losses we’ve opened the season with – early tomorrow morning we’ll be making our second annual appearance on the Fox 45 morning show, playing the song live at 6:30 a.m, and then providing musical accompaniment for the rest of the morning.  We will probably start ad-libbing our friends’ and relatives’ names into the song at some point, so watch for your’s to be called!  And if Shakey is there again this year, you will be wide awake by 6:45 a.m.  Trust me.

Tour recap photo blog coming tomorrow…