Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 5:54 PM Posted by:
Mark
Never Say Decaf Tour Coffee Blog!
JT Woodruff - Day 2:
Stayed at Mark Rose's parents house last night and saw a bunch of Spitalfield memorabilia from 2002...brought back some great memories when music seem to matter more. Local shows for 3 bucks at churches and rental halls. What happened to that generation? It's gone, and it's not coming back. So push forward and get some coffee.
Round One- Dunkin Donuts in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. I saw the orange D from 500 yards away and knew that heaven was beaming down. Large Iced blueberry hit the spot so hard after a bummer day yesterday. I knew that today was already more fruitful.
Just a quick 4 hour drive to Grand Rapids and we were ready for round 2. We got a quick lunch at an awesome Mediterranean place called Parsley...3 dollar falafel wraps. We asked the employees where to get the best cup, because there were 2 coffee places acrossed the street, and the man said hands down MADCAP coffee. Off we go...MADCAP coffee. Love the band, but the coffee was pretty ok too. It was kinda fancy and french pressed, so I expected the world...but actually just got a pretty good cup of coffee. Way better than yesterday, so I knew the show would be way better too.
and...I was right.
Awesome show at Mixtape. Love that place...I am a believer.
til tomorrow... Love JT, and hate snow.
Mark McMillon - Day 2:
Dunkin Donuts was the stop for the first cup of the day. I get my Dunkin with cream, sugar, and a shot of cinnamon and this like most trips to the DD was delicious. I tend to avoid a lot of the coffee chains and go local when I can, but DD is always good to me and they are always consistent in taste.
After a pretty easy drive in, we had a great lunch in Grand Rapids at a local Mediterranean place called Parsley. It was amazing and cheap. I can't reccomend it enough! We washed it down at a local coffee shop across the street called Madcap. I had a house blend with cream and sugar. It was decent.
We haven't been up to Grand Rapids in a while and I was really looking forward to seeing friends. We love playing the Mixtape Cafe. JR, Jess, Tony, Ross and everyone involved with the club always treat us amazing. The show was great and I really enjoyed the local acts set as well.
TSC setlist for the night: Move Forward, New Ground, Buried in Me, Don't Fall, Needle, Constellation.
Mark McMillon - Day 1:
We got hammered pretty hard with snow and it made getting loaded and out of town a little more or a battle than the typical first day of tour. My first cup of the day was some bagged Caffeine Dreams Brazil blend that I cooked up at home for the drive. We picked up JT in Vandalia and hit the road for the first night of the Never Say Decaf tour in Dekalb, IL.
The shotty weather definitely put a damper on the show, but rock music and good vibes prevailed. I enjoyed both JT and Mark Rose's set.
We wound down the night at Mark Rose's place and got some rest after a long day of driving through the snow.
12:40 PM Posted by:
Mark
Hey friends!
We're two days into the Never Day Decaf tour and having a blast on the road with our friends JT Woodruff of Hawthorne Heights and Mark Rose of Spitalfield. In addition to playing fun rock shows everyday, we're attempting to try as many cool coffee shops along the way. We're doing a coffee blog daily documenting it all.
Here's JT's post from day one.
JT Woodruff NSD DAY ONE:
First of all, snow isn't going to hold me back. Not for one mile. Not for one minute. I am fueled on coffee and music. Sometimes good versions of both, sometimes bad and cheap. I met The Story Changes at Panera Bread to leave for Dekalb, Illinois on a snowy, icy, groggy day. I decided to choose an old favorite for my first cup...Panera Hazelnut with a shot of dark roast. Normally, this would be an adequate cup with a fine flavor, but on this frigid day I got a cup of dark watered down liquid. So, you guessed it...I'm pissed. Where is my savior? Where is Dunkin Donuts? But, like I said...nothing can hold me back on a day like today. Mark was nice enough to drive and drive through the wind and ice. We arrived at the House Cafe full of hope to be hanging with kindred spirits at a java joint. The staff was a pretty clueless group of individuals, especially when it came to show details, and could not offer us a complimentary cup after a long nerve racking trek. Shoulda went to Dunkin...consistent and friendly. I chose to drink no coffee, but Poppy had a cup that he said tasted like anti freeze...no thanks. Mark had a peppermint mocha that came in a fancy shiny mug. He said that it was AOK...I should have went to DUNKIN'. Maybe I will win tomorrow. Snow slowed the show, but the show didn't slow us... And we drive on.
Stay tuned for more cups.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 - 5:47 PM Posted by:
poppy
hey hey. its been awhile. we are now back out on tour officially. we are out with JT Woodruff (Hawthorne Heights) and Mark Rose (ex Spitalfield) on the Never Say Decaf tour. Tonight we are at the House Veune in Dekalb IL. Arrived safe after driving through a pretty rough at times snowstorm. Fingers crossed for safe travels for the next 12 days. We will be heading out to The Mixtape in Grand Rapids MI tomorrow. Stoked to see JR and his wife, and have some delicious coffee and veggie food. Ok well its almost time to clock in and get to work. Stay Tuned!!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - 2:20 PM Posted by:
poppy
well hello again TJ. we are in dallas texas hanging out in the hotel. most of the dudes are out and about getting food, but me and craig are holding down the room to make sure it's still standing. actually the nightbeast, and JT just walked in. we are playing at the house of blues tonight and for me personally that's a pretty big deal. looking forward to it. actually looking forward to the next three houston shows. love playing in texas. played in new mexico on sunday night at the launchpad and things got crazy. those kids had been saving up their energy for quite some time i think. went off. then we had a nice 11 hour drive to dallas. our tour manager craig did the entire drive. the whole fucking thing. a machine. ok. time to veg out and do nothing but wait to head to the venue.
Sunday, December 13, 2009 - 5:12 PM Posted by:
poppy
friday nov 27th. reggies chicago woke up way to early and met up with hawthorne to start the tour off in chicago. got into town a bit early, loaded in and walked 10 blocks or so to a dunkin donuts for some pre show joe. met the other bands and crew and got things set up. played a great first show. had a super rad time. left the city and got a hotel room for the night.
saturday nov 28th. triple rock. minneapolis mn. got into town really early so we went to the triple rock for breakfast. delicious food. love eating there. loaded in and hung out for a few hours. got the rock and roll show on the road. had a great time playing. hung out after the show and ate the triple rock again. this time dinner. mock duck po boy for me please and thank you. so delicious. stayed with a few friends in town and had a great time.
sunday nov 29th house of bricks des moines iowa arrived early to the venue and loaded in. had to change some drum heads and get things all set up. everyone arrived with the gear. got set up and sound checked. hung out with max, eric, dave and kelly. good times. great friends. had a great show despite low pre sales. like a super awesome show. went out for some late night jimmy johns and headed off to our hotel for a few days.
monday nov 30th. day off lounged around the hotel. had some lunch with hawthorne heights. mark, jt and myself went downtown for some coffee and shopping. ran more errands and got more coffee. went out later on and went christmas shopping for my little boy. spent the night in the hotel with a bunch of dudes watching movies and cracking wise.
tuesday dec 1st. lacrosse wisconsin @ the warehouse had a chill and pretty drive up to wisconsin. arrived a bit early so we checked out the veune. 3rd floor venue. lots of stairs. thank god they had some staff to help out. got all of our gear in and soundchecked. went down the street to a local record store. picked up 10 cd's for 1.00. actually 1.07. crazy talk. went to the local coffee shop and started getting lifted. delicious coffee. homewrecker hot barista. the show got under way and we played our hearts out. great sound. great club. support the shit out of that place. had more coffee from the coffee shop. the venue got super hot and sweaty and smelled like, and I quote some kid at the show "it smells like puberty in here", or "it smells like teenage sex in here" sold some merch. flirted with the girlys. got some more coffee for the road. drove back to des moines to another hotel for the night.
wednesday dec 2nd. sokol underground omaha nebraska had a short drive in to omaha. got to the venue early so i decided to get a work out in. first really cold day of tour as well. hung out at the club until doors opened. got some coffee from caffeine dreams. a lot actually. pounds worth. thanks becky. got to see some awesome kids at the show. met a ton of awesome kids. met some creepers too. ha. had a great time playing. good show all around. there was a mean game of monopoly going on in the green room. went back to caffeine dreams for some late night coffee and food to get ready for our drive to the hotel en route to denver co.
thursday dec 3rd. hi dive denver colorado. got on the road early and started off for denver. watched the temp drop all day long. was a balmy 9 degrees when we pulled in to down. super. the venue was not much warmer either. I hung out in the club while everyone else went out for food. super small stage but it was perfect for mark and myself. played super awesome and had a pretty boss time. got to hang out with jacqueline and katie parks. rad kids. watched just surrender get super drunk and rowdy from the merch table. did my thing. selling cd's, being awesome. talking smack. headed out to jacqueline's house for the night. got to play the new super mario brothers for the wii. fun stuff. day off the next day so I got to sleep in. kinda. not really.
friday dec 4th. day off. drive to utah. woke up and had some lunch on the way to see mark's new nieces. two little girls. so cute. and their doggies who protect them. hit the road for the 10+ hour drive to salt lake city. got into town about 8 pm. checked into our "baller ass" (as quoted by JT Woodruff) downtown. went out to dinner with eron and while we were there waiting on our food the nightbeast, matt and jt from hawthorne showed up and sat at a table behind us. great dinner. got super stuffed. got all hopped up on coffee. read comics and went to bed.
saturday dec 5th murray theater salt lake city utah woke up and hung out in the hotel. well went for coffee first. lounged around and watched some football. our manager/tour manager/merch guy/all around guy running shit flew into SLC in the morning. got to hang out with him until we took off for the show. got loaded in, and got ready for soundcheck. got all set up and took off for some coffee. sassed some kids waiting in line cause they were only wearing t shirts and it was about 12 degrees outside. crazy kids. my being a father kicks in when i see that. wear coats when its cold out kids. had a pretty good show. huge stage. different drum kit than I had been playing. huge crowd. 770 or so they said. super full venue. met a ton of awesome people. sold some merch and hung out. basically being awesome. went back to the hotel for the night. low key night.
sunday dec 6th boise idaho at the venue woke up to snow. lots of snow i guess. got on the road and thank goodness it cleared up pretty fast which made the drive a lot easier. pretty mellow boring drive. got into town early once again so we stopped at guitar center so i could buy some new in ears. got that all set up and met up with jt for some lunch and then took off for some coffee. back to the veune and got all loaded in. lots of down time before doors. ate dinner. well actually i ate cookies and rolls pretty much. small crowd but it was a really good time. got some lovespell hand sanitizer. pretty stoked. stayed at a hotel in town that night. had a super early van call.
monday dec 7th. portland oregon at the hawthorne theater woke up and had breakfast with a bunch of dudes on the tour. took over the hotel lobby. got on the road with snow on the ground and within 15 mins or so on the freeway we hit traffic. seems that there was a pretty bad wreck in front of us. 1.5 hours later we got moving. so by this point we know that we are going to be late for our load in once we get to portland. then about two hours out of the city we get a phone call saying that the band carrying all of the gear could not make it cause they needed to get new tires for their trailer. so here we are almost all of the way to portland with no amps or drums. we start making phone calls, calling everyone we know in a band, or anyone with connections to bands trying to round up any gear to make the show happen. we finally found a guy who supplied us with everything we needed. thank you so much. I forget your name at the moment. i'll remember later. so the show ended up only being the nightbeast, us and hawthorne. dayton reppin in portland. got to see some old friends that night too. was pretty rad. we found out that the weather in reno was going to be really bad so instead of driving overnight through the mountains in bad weather we decided to cancel the reno show and stay in portland. sorry reno kids. we'll come back soon. so most of us decided to go out and paint portland red. and paint it we did!
tuesday dec 8th. drive to sacramento california woke up late and took our time getting on the road. drove to the southern part of oregon and got a room for the night. went out for pizza with all of the guys. had a really nice dinner with everyone. hung out in the hotel and relaxed. sleep.
wednesday dec 9th the boardwalk sacramento california got up and got on the road really early. like super duper early. wanted to go out to the shine drums offices to meet everyone there and see what they are working on currently. stopped at in n out burger for lunch and then made our way to shine. hung out with robbie while he showed me around the place. met sean and rusty on our way out. thought we were gonna be late but we were the first band there. once again. ha. the sound guy at the boardwalk is a trip. i think his name is claude. dude is a character. told me i had the snare drum of god. thanks. i'll take that! we had a great soundcheck and a even better sounding set. i however was super tired and not really on my A game for the merch sales at the end of the night. got in the van and drove a few hours towards los angeles california. got in to the room pretty late. had a super early van call once again. no sleep in cali.
thurday dec 10th chain reaction anaheim california got up super early to hit the road again. more places to go and people to meet. this time it was wayne at paiste cymbals. got to look around and try out some cymbals. wanted to get some new ones, but i just got brand new ones this summer so i did not need any. did pick up a new hard case for them which is pretty amazing. got some clothes and stickers. random things. it was micah from hawthorne's birthday so we needed to get him a gift before the show. got that taken care of along with a few other errands. we ended up being a bit late for load in, but we made it work. got in and set up. then sound checked. our buddy kevin knight came out to hang out. so good to see him. he ended up taking some photos of us while we played. thank you dude. he is amazing. go check his stuff out. shutterclick is his "handle" i do believe. my friend jenny torpedo came out as well. great to see her. played a really good show. had a great time. watched some of just surrender get drunk and act a fool. just one of them actually. got a cupcake from micah's birthday and hit the road. late night drive which i passed out on. super sleepy boy i was. got to the hotel and i slept in the van.
friday dec 11th tucson arizona at the rock woke up to sunny skies in california. had some breakfast and headed towards tucson for the show. stopped for lunch and some press coffee. chatted up the locals. hit the road. made it to the venue a few mins late. nothing crazy. got set up and sound checked. took off into town for some coffee and checked out the street fair that was going on. made it back to the veune. overall i think one of the best shows of the tour. great response from the crowd. for everyone. met a kid who i think was jacked up on speed. super hyper kid going nuts. never stopped talking or moving. nice boy though. had a great night all around. the kids were super nice and talkative. craig and myself covered hawthorne's van in palm tree branches while they played. was definitely a hit with everyone on the tour. we totally covered that sucker. was too dark to get any good photos or video though. the promoters assistant ran to in n out for us while the show was going on. great dinner for me. was stoked. got all packed up and drove up to tempe to stay with our friends amber and squire for the night.
saturday dec 12th teakwoods phoenix arizona we had a day off from the HH tour so we picked up a "last minute" show with our friends in source victoria. we hopped on their show rather. we spent the afternoon hanging out with our "family" in tempe. rob (night taco) amber, squire, chris (franklin badparty) and the tsc crew went out to green for some delicious eats. hung out and hit up the dunkin donuts for coffee. craig and myself took lucky out to give him a bath and clean him out. was definitely time for that. came back to pick up mark and headed to phoenix to see jamie woolford and andrea's new house and have dinner with them. delicious dinner. thanks to them. headed over to the venue to check out the situation and see what kind of gear we were playing on. got set up and checked. found out that we were playing first and not second like we had thought. bummer. went on later than that may have wanted the music to start. went pretty good though regardless i think. hung out at the bar and ate peanuts all night and played video games. played some area 51 with craig and killed the crap out of some zombies. got super far. played galaga and got my highest score ever and the highest level I had ever gotten to. pretty into that. got out of the bar around 1:30 and back to amber and squire's house at 2:00 and knew we had to be on the road by 7am. woah. no sleep till NM!!
sunday dec 13th the launchpad albuquerque new mexico woke up at 6:30 to hit the road to new mexico. when i started driving it was warm and sunny as we left phoenix. then 2 hours later in flagstaff there was a bunch of snow and it was raining/sleeting. then after hitting I 40 E I ran into the worst winds i've driven through in years. dust storms too. so how can one state have the warmest temp. the most snow and the strongest winds?? well arizona you had it all. still en route to the launchpad........ update: at the hotel in new mexico. hanging out watching football, ok im listening to football. waiting to head out to the venue.
Monday, November 30, 2009 - 4:19 PM Posted by:
poppy
Success!! Let's rock!! Ok. We are back out on tour once again, our fourth one since June. This time we are on the never sleep again 09 tour with Hawthorne heights, Monty are I, just surrender and the wonderful nightbeast. It's day three, no four actually and we have a day off today. Hanging out in DES moines Iowa today. The first day we met up with HH and drove up to Chicago for the first show at reggies. Got loaded in and took off to find some coffee, which is going to be the theme for tour. Met the other bands as they arrived and got set up and sound checked. Then comes the waiting part of tour. You load in, set up then wait for doors. Lots of waiting sometimes. But hey that's ok. Not a bad problem to have. great first day of tour. had a few technical problems but no big deal.
...... been trying to update for some time now, but we are hanging out drinking coffee and having a great time hanging out with mark and JT. good times. i'll get back to you later blogger.....
10:50 AM Posted by:
poppy
Tour journal check.
Saturday, November 28, 2009 - 1:42 PM Posted by:
Mark
We started our first day of the Never Sleep Again 09 tour with Hawthorne Heights, Just Surrender, Monty are I, and Nightbeast yesterday. After being home for a couple of weeks, it's good to be back out. This is a pretty big tour for us and we're extremely grateful to Hawthorne for the invite. Top notch guys all around!
Chicago rarely disappoints us and last night was no exception. We had a great first night on the tour. Thanks to everyone that caught our set and got rowdy with us.
We made a little road after the show and stayed in Madison. We're on our way to Minneapolis. Tonight's show is at the Triple Rock, one of our favorite venues. Mock Duck Po' Boy Sandwich, stoked!
Monday, October 19, 2009 - 12:49 PM Posted by:
poppy
good morning tour journal. its been awhile. currently we are staying with our friend tim who runs the timshowpodcast.com we are somewhere in michigan, that's all I know for sure. this is day 5 of the party down, party loud! tour with our friends I was totally destroying it from chapel hill, NC. Day off today. lots of downtime. Think it's going to be a movie day. Paranormal Activity perhaps??
anyways, we kicked things off in gambier ohio @ kenyon college. we always seem to play there during parents weekend. got some free breakfast from the school, got to see our buddy andy and his wife amy. pretty rad times. then headed down to athens ohio and played a post football game after party type thing. super super fun. young kids are so rad. they just rock out without regard to looking cool. jaded "cool" hipster kids, take note its rock and roll its supposed to be fun. made the drive up to howell michigan. played at the PAC in heartland. our buddy nate from fusion shows took us out for some delicious hot cider and doughnuts before the show. great pre show snack. had a really good show. hit up the ihop afterwards and got down on some coffee and pancakes. rad times. love nate, teresa, and ron. thanks. relaxing day heading up to grand rapids and the mixtape. JR and his wife Jess were not there that night, but tony was and he's a pretty rad dude. love that venue. tsc and iwtdi went record shopping before the show and I think everyone got some good shit. picked up the new baroness, every time I die, polar bear club records. along with some NWA, justin timberlake and jay z. nice mix of things. had a great show and some super awesome hangs with joe, john, rachel, curt, hep, and tim at ihop. (that's the place) today is "not do shit today" day. up for two hours and im not even out of my sleeping bag. sweet. hope we dont get too bored though. fingers crossed.
alright se you later. xoxo poppy
Wednesday, August 05, 2009 - 4:53 PM Posted by:
Mark
High fives party people! We've been on the road for what seems like forever this Summer and I've been having a blast. I've been posting a lot more updates on my twitter: www.twitter.com/thestorychanges
I'll post some pics and more updates when we get some more downtime. Look for dates for an October tour with I Was Totally Destroying It to be posted soon. Get stoked!
Thursday, July 30, 2009 - 8:05 AM Posted by:
poppy
What the crap tour journal. You may have thought that I've forgotten you. I have not. We are still out on the road. We are in San Antonio tonight staying with zach (I hope that's right) who manages a great band called July. Check them out. This part of the tour dubbed as part two started off in indiana. Then off to Iowa, Omaha and then Denver and Colorado springs. All awesome shows. Thanks to all of our friends there. Had a day off to get down to las cruces nm so we stopped in Albuquerque for the night. Lots of del taco was had. Headed to las cruces and rocked the party. Then it was off to Tempe for the AZ cd release show for our new record Analogies. That is a split cd with let go. Go check it all out. Had a great great show in Tempe and then an awesome after party. Got up and had lunch with the crew and headed over to Yuma AZ. Cool venue. All ages and no funny business. It was the first time we had to leave before the show ended in I don't know how long. Sorry. We had a 12 hour drive to roswell nm. Finally made it to Roswell and that night we really rocked the party. Like an amazing show. Thanks to those kids for being awesome and hanging out. Did our nerd out and headed back to las cruces for another show. I was told that we played really great. Who am I to tell them any different. Ha. Had a great time there again. Thanks to Jazmine and Mae for helping us out with the show. Today was a horribly long drive to San Antonio for the show. Made it on time though. Had a great time tonight. Rad show. Thanks to all of you who were not creeped out by me. To those that I creeped out, sorry. Ok it's late. I'm tired. Poppy
Sunday, July 19, 2009 - 1:28 PM Posted by:
Mark
Hot damn! I'm having so much fun on tour. We're only two days into the second leg of the High Fives Across America Tour, but it's looking to be a great tour. We're throwing some new songs into ANALOGIES into the set every night. Check out www.BrosFromDiffMos.com for info on the new album or better yet, pick it up at www.FDRshop.com.
Time to get up and get on the road to Omaha.
Saturday, July 18, 2009 - 3:11 PM Posted by:
poppy
Hey tour. How I've missed you. Taking a break in the drive from Indy to ottuwma Iowa to grab some lunch. Played in Indiana last night. Fun show. Little coffee shop that smelled wonderful. Tonight is the Flipside. Looking forward to it. Hold for swank will be there as well. Stoked. We will be updating as much as possible. Stay tuned. Let's have an awesome summer. Poppy
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 - 11:04 AM Posted by:
poppy
good morning. its our last day of the high fives across america tour part 1. we covered ohio, west virginia, kentucky, tennessee, georgia, south carolina, north carolina, virginia, maryland, pennsylvania, indiana, and michigan on this run. twelve states isnt a bad start. hope to hit about 30 total on the entire tour, but Im not sure because I havent looked at the dates yet.
well i would just like to say a big thanks to the following people, bands and clubs: Mark first and foremost for everything. pete and his wife at the snuggly mug coffee house in bay city michigan. paper mache for being a wonderful band and a breath of fresh air. J.R. and jess at the mixtape cafe in grand rapids michigan for being great hosts and hooking us up with food and cold drinks on a hot night. tim and the timshowpodcast.com for playing, dinner and putting us up for the night. and the company. shane and all of the staff at the factory in rochester michigan. no, really and our last go for making the last night of the tour a great time. and to jon from no, really for housing us last night.
I've been having a good time. Blowing minds (freaking out the norms if you will...) being awesome (fucking awesome actually) and giving high fives that hurt sometimes.
Picked up the new spinal tap cd/dvd and the new iron maiden flight 666 dvd the other day. just started getting into those. oh and lost in translation. rad movie.
Think its time to do some work then start the drive home. later skater poppy
Saturday, June 20, 2009 - 2:42 PM Posted by:
poppy
Shit yea!! Let's get loose shall we. Back out on the road again after a few days off. A very big shout out, high five and hugs to our boys in a voice like rhetoric. Go check them out they are wonderful. Hope to be back out with them soon. Played in northern Indiana last night. Super hot and sticky awesome show. Thanks to Seth hooker for having us and being awesome all around. Thanks to with honors and I scream for ice cream as well. Fun kids. Heading to bay city Michigan tonight. Coffee shop show I hear. Think it's getting close to lunch time and time for me to do a bit of driving. Call your dad tomorrow and say happy fathers day.
Friday, June 12, 2009 - 12:21 AM Posted by:
poppy
Hey hey kids. Sitting at the merch table and I figured why not update the blog. We are in Raleigh NC at tir na nog. Great great club. Wonderful staff. Great sound. Having a super time. We have been hanging out with our friends in I was totally destroying it. Awesome kids. I'm hella stoked for the next three days. We will be playing with my friends in a voice like rhetoric. One of my fav bands. Can't wait. Ok. It's rock time. Later skater. Poppy
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - 10:38 AM Posted by:
poppy
well hello there. I didnt see you. good morning. we are somewhere in SC in a hotel waking up, getting ready and all of that. going to hit up an outlet mall to do some time killing/shopping. then Im getting some freaking starbucks, since I have not had any on this tour. we are playing in greensboro NC tonight with our friends I was totally destroying it. should be a pretty rad show from what Im hearing. I think we have 5 more shows and then a few days off and then we are back out for 5 more. something like that. Ive been having a really good time so far and that is the most important thing. eating a lot of pizza. spent some time at the beach/swimming in the ocean. seeing old friends. just being awesome. isnt that what this is all about anyway? being awesome. think so.
alright. SC, i'll see you again in august. NC here we come.
poppy
Monday, June 08, 2009 - 3:17 AM Posted by:
poppy
hey all. this will be pretty quick as mark is sleeping and I dont want to wake him up with my typing. we are currently on day 4 of the hands across america tour and tonight was charleston SC. played at a pizza place that has wonderful pizza. imagine that. they sell pizza. yesterday was a very long festival show but I had a great time and worked on my tan all day. didnt eat much but I drank the holy crap out of some water. side note: there are little bugs crawling all over my screen. not gross ones mind you. just little fellas who happen to live here. im just visiting. friday night was knoxville TN with our buddies in the hotshot freight train. they were amazing. sounded great. we played ok. had a short set though. thursday was huntington WV and that show as well was awesome. party or die played and sounded better than they ever have.
got to spend a few days with corndog jenkins. today we were with ed butler. and tomorrow we will spend the day with ed and his wife and little baby girl. should be wonderful. plus we get to hit the beach tomorrow afternoon!!! I love the ocean.
ok. more tomorrow. hopefully.
poppy
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 - 11:17 PM Posted by:
Mark
Oh Snap, we leave for the first round of dates for the High Fives Across America TSC Summer tour in a couple of days. I'm ready! Check out all the dates at www.myspace.com/theStoryChanges.
The last week has been filled with fun shows in Columbus, Portsmouth, Dayton, Richmond, and more. Thanks to everyone that came out and got the Summer started with us.
I'm downloading the approval files for the mastered version of the Story Changes and Let Go split album coming out soon. My download bar says 7 minutes remaining. I'm excited to hear it. The mixes before mastering sounded great.
See you on the road soon!
Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 12:15 PM Posted by:
Mark
Thanks to everyone that came out last night in Newark, OH. It felt great to play live after taking a couple of weeks off to hit the studio. Today is mothers day. Give your mom a hug.
Thursday, May 07, 2009 - 10:30 PM Posted by:
poppy
well we are home. flights went just fine. had to walk out to the 2nd plane. on and off. just a little guy.
had to go back to work today. not really fun. I like having something to do during the day, but I dont like that drama that comes with it sometimes. blah.
we got together and practiced tonight. had to refresh ourselves after being in the studio. went well. felt really good to play drums. kinda feel like going back down now to play some more.
back to our usual schedule of playing lots of shows in a few days. should make this month fly by, and then its summer tour time!!! June 3rd it begins. check the site for dates. Im ready to get in the van.
xoxo poppy
Tuesday, May 05, 2009 - 1:11 PM Posted by:
poppy
good morning arizona. to do list: quick trip iced cap. head to the studio and listen to what we have done so far and soak it all in. have some lunch. a big lunch as I bought a bit too much food. do some video updates maybe. have dinner and attempt to eat all of the food I bought. go witness the sheer power that is franklin badparty and hairforce tonight. stay out and up too late. be awesome.
I'll keep you posted on how things go...
xoxo poppy
Monday, May 04, 2009 - 5:48 PM Posted by:
Mark
Today is Officially Star Wars Day. Rep it:
We started laying down guitars, vocals, keys and other fun stuff over the weekend.
Get down with it:
We opted to fly out this time around and not bring much gear with us. I've been using Jamie's Marshall 50 watt JCM 800 for my main tracking amp along with a Matchless head and 2 x 12 cab on loan from Robin from the Gin Blossoms for the sessions.
I tend to keep my pedal setup simple both live and in the studio:
I didn't bring any SG's with me this time around. I used Jamie's Les Paul for the largest chunk of the guitars along with a 74 Fender Tele Deluxe.
Engineering a quieter "D" string and protecting it from swine flu:
We've still been getting some good hangs in with friends in the area. Squire and Amber Boone are two of our favorite people to catch up with and we can't thank them enough for letting us crash with them while in town.
Dudes:
I'm jealous that Butters and Shelby seem to have life figured out:
We've got two more days in town left to knock out the remaining vocals and an acoustic track.
I'll post more soon!
Mark
Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 8:29 PM Posted by:
poppy
More updates. Me personally I woke up very early. Earlier than I might have liked to, but what can you do. Had a nice small breakfast and some coffee and then headed off to the studio. Not before our mandatory Quick Trip run mind you. Got settled in here and Mark started tracking guitars on the last song (minus the acoustic cover song) and I grabbed a book and headed out into the wonderful hot hot tempe sun to get some reading done. Broke for lunch and now Mark is hitting some vocals. I think we'll get this song done and then call it for the day. There is talk of movie night with all of the kids out here, but Im not sure just yet.
I'm feeling hungry again so I think I'll make a sandwich and leave you with a few videos....
oh yea, I miss playing drums like a "insert curse word here" xoxo poppy
11:58 AM Posted by:
Mark
Rise and shine, Sunday morning is a go.
Saturday, May 02, 2009 - 11:19 PM Posted by:
poppy
Just got done eating a wonderful meal. Thanks andrea and jamie.
2:21 PM Posted by:
Mark
Saturday is a go. I'm ready to record some guitar and maybe a little singing today too.
1:22 PM Posted by:
poppy
hey could it be that I can now once again post to our journal?
yesterday we got (well not me so much as mark and jamie) guitar down on two songs and today I think they are going to start on some vocals and then some more guitar possibly. once we get over to the studio I'll know more.
last night we all headed over to dave's house for the weekend kickoff party. loud. lots of drinks for the dudes and ladies. lots of coffee for me. gilmore sang renditions of tsc and let go songs all night. it never really bothers me when people put my records on when im at a party or places like that. i really like my band and the way our records sound. i actually feel like rocking out more than those that play it sometimes.
we all got it in our heads last night that we were going to play a last minute house show, but today i got the word that its not going to be able to happen. bummer. house shows are fun.
today is free comic book day. go get hip with the joy of reading free books and taking advantage of your local store's sales today. im not even sure what books they are offering today. maybe i'll look that up. regardless I must hit up a shop.
showered and ready for the day. look out arizona, its going to be a gusher.
12:21 AM Posted by:
poppy
Blogger hates me.
12:04 AM Posted by:
poppy
I hope this works.
Ive been having trouble updating the blog. For some reason I can post things but they never show up. Mark has to sign in and fix things for me, and I don't want that boy to have to keep on doing it so fingers crossed.
Right now he is tracking guitar on New Ground and things are sounding really official. Think he got all of the guitars on Move Forward done today too. I was in another room watching Heroes and 30 Rock, so I can't be sure. Way to be, way to be.
Videos? Sure.
Friday, May 01, 2009 - 3:04 PM Posted by:
poppy
today is going to be a mellow day for myself. watch a movie or two. heroes and lots of coffee. mark on the other hand is ready to punch in and get started on guitar tracks. jamie is running around setting up amps, cables and making things awesome.
im pretty excited to hear things go down today.
poppy
10:39 AM Posted by:
poppy
day two of tracking is all finished up. chris came over and killed the bass parts. he did such a good job playing and we can't thank him enough. jamie took his girlfriends vegan enchilada recipe and ran with it and made us a wonderful dinner. thanks to both of them for that. we then met up with amber and squire and went to their place to set up camp for the next week, as we will be staying with them for awhile. met up with fender dave and his wife brit(t) (who just got married three weeks ago! congratulations!) and went to a local brewery for some dinner and drinks (coffee for me please)
I signed up for twitter tonight, which I had totally sworn off, but everyone out here is awesome and I really like keeping up with them so I blame you tempe kids. yes all of you :) so if you want to, then look me up @ http://twitter.com/xlittlemonsterx
watched Lost tonight. good gosh. great episode. is that the season finale? need to watch Heroes tomorrow at the studio.
speaking of which, mark is up to bat and will start tracking guitars tomorrow and might even get into some vocal action but we'll see how things progress.
Time for bed but im half temped to walk down the street to QT for a late night iced cap.....
Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 6:36 PM Posted by:
poppy
time for some video updates!!!
drums!!
bass!!
I'll definitely be filming a whole bunch more so stay tuned.
poppy
4:42 PM Posted by:
poppy
I'm not really sure what day it is. Think it's Thursday but I would have to ask. But either way we are on day two of recording and I got the drums done and jamie got them all edited this morning and I hear things are sounding great. Chris is going to be laying down the bass tracks today so hopefully that all gets finished up today as well. Actually I think that it has to time wise. Today is going to be pretty mellow. Cleaning up my computer, playing some DS and watching heroes and lost. Just ate way too much food and I feel a nap coming on.
Poppy
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - 11:51 PM Posted by:
poppy
So day one of recording is all finished. I got all of my drum tracks laid down and things are sounding great so far. My arms are freaking sore from playing so damn hard.
Side note. Safeway here is referred to as "hot girl safeway" and rightfully so. Good lord. Heaven.
Alright it's boys night out and it begins now.
Poppy
11:16 AM Posted by:
poppy
ah, 9 hours of sleep later and I'm feeling good. had a long day yesterday and by the 21st hour of being up I was in dire need of some rest. woke up a bit earlier than I might have liked to but my body still thinks its much later than it really is.
So here in a few hours I'll be heading over to the studio to start tracking my drum parts. Only have to change a few things on my end so it should be easy breezy. Hopefully we get the heads on and tuned up, and great drum sounds quickly so I can get down to business. ready to play for sure.
took some photos yesterday so I thought I'd share. expect many more to come. maybe even some video....
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 11:19 PM Posted by:
poppy
The official word of this trip is "official" and things are definitely as such so far. We got into phoenix a bit before noon and headed over to our buddy gilmore's house to do all of the pre production stuff. Got down to business over there and trimmed the fat as they say on some songs and had a real good time. Then we headed off to the studio to get the drums set up and mic'd up and all of that. I will be laying down my drum tracks in the morning. Hoping I'll get them all finished up in one day but who knows. We are about to head out to In N' Out Burger here in a few minutes. One of my favorite places to eat out west.
Ok I'm pretty wiped out. Time to get ready to ride.
xoxo Poppy
11:03 PM Posted by:
Mark
Hey everyone,
We're currently in Tempe, AZ and will be spending the next week and a half here recording for a Summer release. We're doing a split with our good friends Let Go(Militia Group, ex the Stereo).
After a late night drive to Columbus, OH last night, we stayed with our pal Ellis and grabbed 4 hours of sleep before catching an early flight this morning.
Landing in Phoenix:
Today has been a long day of getting settled in and doing preproduction for a few hours. We ran through the songs with our producer and worked on some last minute changes.
Preproduction:
We're at the studio now setting up drums, changing drum heads and getting some mics around the kit. We'll start tracking drums first thing tomorrow.
I'm hoping for In and Out Burger for dinner tonight. I'll post more soon!
Mark
PS. This mysteriously wound up in my bag. Crazy official:
8:58 AM Posted by:
poppy
Ah Detroit. Cold and rainy. Thank goodness for hot women on the plane.
Sunday, April 26, 2009 - 4:47 PM Posted by:
poppy
Holy crap. Long weekend. At work now and I'm wiped out. Went shopping for some new drum hardware yesterday. Picked up a cymbal and snare drum stand. Just trying to get all of the odds and ends ready for my new kit. Went out to three shows yesterday. Stared off at the gift of the estate - marilyn avenue show. Really nice venue in a church basement. Then headed downtown to the Dayton dirt collective for the pledge - the kids united show. Great show. Five bands played in two hours. The kids united and the pledge were great. Heard an inside out and a civ cover. If you have never heard of those bands check em out. Hung out at the ddc until one am and then ran over to catch the human reunion set at blind bobs. Packed house and HR killed it. Their drummer ian is one of my favorite local drummers so it was win win. Got up today and bought a whole bunch of drum heads from a store that is going out of business. Quite a bummer indeed.
Got to start saving money instead of spending it. We are going to be leaving for tour in a month and I need to prepare. Crap I need to pack for Arizona still. Jeez. Get it together.
It's hot out and I love it!!!
Broken entries are the best. Work calls.
Friday, April 24, 2009 - 4:46 PM Posted by:
poppy
So we are heading out to Louisville for our show tonight and we have been sitting in traffic so I got my mobile blogger account set up for times such as this. Now we are finally moving again and just got into KY so we should make it to the show on time, hopefully. Anyways. Arizona is calling our names and we are ready to go. It's video game time.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 8:41 PM Posted by:
Mark
Happy Earth Day!
It's been rainy today in Ohio. I'm kicking it with my cats Badger and Bella.
We played an outdoors show at Wright State University last week as part of the Relay for Life Cancer Benefit. It was a really good night and I had a lot of fun. We played two new songs, "Come Clean" and "Constellation".
We're in Louisville for a good show on Friday and then we fly out to Arizona on Tuesday for a week to record a block of new songs for an upcoming split with Let Go.
We've rotated some different songs into the TSC myspace player. Check it out here.
Sunday, April 19, 2009 - 11:51 PM Posted by:
poppy
It's almost midnight, and Im about to start watching the Godfather Part II (which is the smart thing to do at midnight) but I thought I would catch up here first.
I got my first Star Wars tattoo this week. its pretty big. Luke's X Wing stuck in the swamp and the Death Star rising over the horizon in the background. Just got the outline done, but I hope I have the time/money to get the shading done before tour starts.
Hung out with my little boy quite a bit this week.
Went skateboarding with him for over 3 hours yesterday. Skated fairly well considering this was the first time I have ridden this year. Pretty sore today though.
Saw Observe and Report the other night. Good lord. Don't waste your money. Seriously that might have been one of the worst movies ever made. Along side Pineapple Express. Horrible.
Go pick up some Cherry Dr. Pepper. Its a delicious delicious soda.
I have been eating the crap out of some easter candy, and its only getting worse because all of the stores are selling the overstock for next to nothing. And since I have a love for candy I can't seem to pass up the savings.
