Time to fess up -- I'm actually a terrible, inconsistent blogger.

First, the post that should have come before Europe that's been sitting in "drafts":

It's a testament to how truly amazing our US tour was that I'm only 60% psyched to leave for Sweden today - the other 40% is mourning the end of the US leg. Intense!

Once again, packing and waiting.

The last four shows of our tour - Rochester, Burlington, Boston and Portland - were incredible. Rochester was a total surprise - who knew how awesome it was? Not only is the city beautiful (a waterfall downtown?), but everyone there had this really incredible talent for making us feel completely at home. Hanging at the Bug Jar in Rochester was like hanging out with our oldest, sweetest friends in NYC. Everyone danced, the other bands - Gaybot and Science vs. Witchcraft - ruled, and we had an awesome, epic night. Thanks to everyone who helped with the show, especially Brian. The best!

Burlington was, of course, awesome. I got to live my ultimate fantsay in life by playing tambourine and singing 'Moped Rally' with the Magogs, David had (I hope?) an awesome birthday party, The Smittens ruled, we ruled... it was a really fun show. The Smittens really know how to party. But we knew that. Plus, first ever 'You Got Served'-style dance off! Thanks to Holly and the guy who totally served her!

You know what's beautiful? New England.

And.... I finally had an awesome time in Boston. Finally! Frank's entire family showed up, and his grandma danced harder than anyone during our set. Literally. We bonded pretty hard with The Sammies, who share my North Carolina pedigree and who rock really hard (even though when Marisa tried to give Gymmy a highfive during their set she was... denied!). Everyone else was so great, Ashley had the ultimate birthday party and, once again (and of course most importantly) I finally had fun in Boston. Can we just play birthday parties from now on? Yes? Thanks.

We were all really emotional about the last show of tour... which creates a weird sort of pressure. This past month has been so unbelievable - we're better friends, and a better band, and I very literally don't ever want to go home. Portland, though, helped us through our tour-ending drama. The best city. We all want to move. I think partly (at least for me) it has to do with identifying with a seaside town (like the island where Marisa and I lived) but experiencing it in this completely different way -- instead of palm trees and seat turtles there are lighthouses and fog and rocky shores. So the smells and the sounds are sort of the same... I don't know if that makes any sense. But we really loved it there.

We spent the night before our show at the drive in - the 2nd oldest still-running drive in in the country, according to the sign. Best double feature ever - Ratatouille and Harry Potter!

The show we played at Sound Post in Portland was the perfect end to the US tour. The 500's and The Rattlesnakes were both incredible, and everyone at the show was unbelievably sweet and supportive. We had a really great time playing, and - somehow- the amazing crowd and perfect city made our last show not nearly as sad as we would have predicted. Thanks so much to Nick and Karina for letting us stay in the most amazing (like if Wes Anderson created a giant dollhouse on the sea...) house ever and being incredibly gracious hosts. We love Portland.

This month was so amazing. Thanks so much to everyone who helped us and showed us around the country - we have so many awesome new friends. We loved every single town we played and can't wait to see you guys again.

*So, techinically we're in Sweden now and I should be posting about Sweden. I will soon! And since I don't have my laptop there won't be any photos until we get back.

Midbest

We’ve been listening to the same good-time-oldies radio station for 2 hours, driving through Ohio – soon it will be Pennsylvania, then New York.

The last four days or so have been so great that I haven’t had time to post anything, due in no small part to the INCREDIBLE band Poison Control Center, who we played with in Grand Rapids, Ypsilanti and Dayton. We’re all so in love with them – both as a band and as awesome dudes – that the prospect of finishing up the next week without them is daunting. We’ll learn to cope, I guess.

First, Chicago. South Union Arts is, in theory, a really amazing and interesting venue – an old Baptist church converted (only slightly) into a performance space. There’s a giant neon Jesus above the pulpit/stage, a Baptismal pool, pews. We loved playing in Chicago, and were really excited to see all of our friends who came out, but the show was a little weird – the stage setup is such that we were all really far apart, and since there are pews, people tend to sit rather than stand. Regardless, we had an awesome time, thanks to Kate, Ashley, Kristen, Leigh, Dan, Matt, Jake, Jeremiah and everyone else there – including Tom, who amazingly came to Chicago to surprise me. The best.

The two shows in Grand Rapids ruled. We really liked being the bar band at 'Juke's' - it's sort of nice when there's not a lot of pressure and people are just hanging out listening to your set. We also saw a guy break up with his lady over the phone and then punch a wall! At the DAAC the next night we played a really fun (if sort of cranky on my end - sorry guys!) show with Poison Control Center and a Canadian band called DD/MM/YYYY. Though the shows were great, we had the most fun hanging out (and swimming!) with Shawn and Emily, the ultimate sweeties of Michigan. And meeting PCC, the ultimate dudes.

I don't really know what to say about Ypsilanti. Incredible? Yes. Bizarre? Indeed. Awful? Sometimes. The show itself was intense and great - my favorite of tour, for sure. We got a little crazy during PCC's set, and were really psyched to find that we had met our match in the 'gettin crazy' (and naked) department. Again, the best.

Then things got a little weird? I won't say too much, only that there were some intense smells and that we were suddenly kicked out at 7:30am (after a long, long night of the aforementioned craziness). We love our Ypsilanti show.... but didn't really love Ypsilanti.

Did I mention that we went to Detroit and it blew our collective mind? Even knowing - sort of - what to expect, it was still devastating to see a city so broken. The abandoned skyscrapers and ruinous Ford factory... for whatever reason we didn't take many pictures.

Dayton! We enjoyed awesome hospitality (and more swimming) from our new friend Zach, who set up the show, and once again partied really hard with PCC. It was so great. Though we were really sad to leave them... the rest of tour we'll have less bruises, for sure.

Tonight we play Rochester... only four more shows. So sad.

Catch up!

I think this post will have to be mostly pictures, but quickly:

We had the 4th of July of our lives in St. Louis. Cyndi Lauper under the arch! So, so amazing! Matt and Sarah were so incredibly hospitable - our love affair with St. Louis is well under way.
The show at CBGB was so great, and the bar was awesome. We had a great time - I only lament that we wore ourselves out going to the St. Louis zoo prior to the show and couldn't physically party as hard as we wanted to. Hence the new tour policy - no zoos before shows. Like bros before hos.

The drive from St. Louis to Chicago today took way longer than it should have, mostly due to our side excursion to Lincoln's tomb. I'm currently wearing my new "Land of Lincoln" shirt and Rikky and Frank are wearing sparkling new civil war hats.

Do you see the puppy experience I'm having in the photo above?

We're about to play in Chicago!

I miss everyone. And I also don't ever want tour to end.

Freedom 90 (I won't let you down, so please don't give me up)

I'm sitting in Matt from Bunnygrunt's kitchen, anticipating all of the awesome stuff that will happen today: BBQ, bottle rockets, finally eating the tomatoes we bought in Kentucky, partying with our new St. Louis friends, seeing Cyndi Lauper under the arch (!!), fireworks.

We fell hard for Lexington, KY. The show was incredible - free ice cream, Kentucky bourban, the best venue ever (The Icehouse, an old icehouse that's like the KY version of 79 Lorimer - only exponentially better). We met some great people who we felt like we'd known forever (Ross, Matt, Brandon, Bailey, everyone!). Marisa and I also played with 7 four week old boxer puppies - an experience which was life-altering. I know everyone's sick of hearing us talk about these puppies, but they were SO UNBELIEVABLY CUTE. I'll post the pictures tomorrow, along with more on our St. Louis EXPERIENCE. Last night's show ruled hard, and I expect today to follow suit. But right now I've got some serious partying to do.

Freedom!

Tennessee, Punks & Ice Cream

Saturday, 6:00pm - finally taking advantage of some Wi-fi (or, as we now refer to it, wee-fee - thanks to Rikky, Marisa and Michael's French roommate Antoine) on a street that's very similar to Tennesee Street in Tallahassee - college town gone to sleep for the summer.

Florida is finally a distant memory, after a show in Pensacola (where we played at Sluggo's and ate delicious free burritos, lusted after yachts and stayed in yet another Red Roof Inn) and an amazing 2nd show in Tallahassee where we played alongside our friends Ben, Spike and their respective bands. Before the show we hiked through the Florida woods, picking blackberries and stopping to watch sleepy armadillos emerging from their holes before taking an amazing swim with our friends in the 'Sisters' sink hole. So, so incredible. The 60 degree water was so clear that I could see the goosebumps on my toes. Afterwards we felt reborn.

Last night we played in Birmingham - Alabama is awesome, and Cave 9 (where we played) is especially awesome. Our show was sort of under-attended thanks to a last-minute Jello Biafra performance down the street. Highlights: Meeting a bunch of amazing Bama hardcore kids, cooking rice and tomatoes at the venue, selling a CD to the ice cream man who was selling treats outside the club, staying with our friend Robert's INCREDIBLE sister Rebecca, who has a lovely apartment and woke us up with the sizzle of honey wheat pancakes. Alabama is beautiful.

The drives are getting better - we're learning to be more efficient, stopping less and seeing more. Today we stopped at a cheese farm - bought cheese, ice cream, and pecan honey jelly. I wanted to go somewhere called 'Lost Sea,' an underground lake, but we didn't have time. We also were excited to listen to an episode of 'This American Life' entitled 'Road Trips,' but it was the most BORING EPISODE EVER.

Tonight we play Knoxville, and with any luck some of my family will be able to come.

We miss everyone in New York. I miss Tom especially.

Tally

Still Florida. Last night we snuck into an impossibly nice apartment complex pool to swim after the show with a few members of Voxtrot, hopping the fence, happy to get away from smoke and dusty parking lots and vast numbers of college kids. I felt terrible and spent a bit of the night lying on a lounge chair, looking at the stars and sleeping while everyone else cannonballed.

The show was as good as it could have been with our inflated expectations of PLAYING IN TALLAHASSEE (3/4 of us used to live here). Voxtrot were amazing, and watching them was sort of inspiring... We're leaving for Pensacola momentarily, playing tonight at Sluggo's with Vena Cava and then coming back to Tally on Thursday to swim in a sinkhole.

We did an in-studio performance on V89, which was truly awesome. Having not been in the studio to record anything in such a long time, it was nice to hear each other sing. We took pictures of grafitti about our friends and picked out too-big t-shirts.

1st new/invented game of tour - Shark Ball. Sadly, no pictures.

I miss New York a little.

F-L-O-R-I-D-A

By the way, in case you were wondering - Florida is incredible.
The crowd in Jacksonville blew our collective mind - even with a spotty sound system and creepily reverbed vocals, the kids at Club TSI rallied, danced, blew bubbles (!) and made us feel like total rock stars. THANK YOU JACKSONVILLE. We were sad to leave.

We've been in mama territory the past few days - first staying with road dog Michael's mom in Orlando (hi Debbie!) and then with Marisa's mom (hi Madeline!) in Bradenton. We're pretty chubby right now (biscuits and gravy, beans and rice!), like little tour bears getting ready to hibernate in the midwest, where we don't have any mamas to keep us fed.

We played Uncle Lou's in Orlando, which was a truly awesome surprise. I never thought that having our (presumed) delicate family members would have such a rockin time in one of the divey-est bars I've ever seen. Thank you to the long-haired, gap-toothed dude who alternately cheered and heckled us during our set, referring to us both as "The Go Go's" and "Lesbos." Also, Orlando kids totally know how to party. For future reference, we like it a lot when people get on other people's shoulders during our set. Also, it's ridiculous that the band we played with, our good friends For Ex Lovers Only, are not hugely famous and rich. Please make them so.

Our hometown show was mind blowing. It was like a weird dream - "Yeah, so in my dream we played this show in Bradenton, at this crazy Roadhouse-esque place with Nascar on a screen above the stage. All of our parents were there, and all of these people from high school? And our indie ex-dean at high school, Mr. Moates was there? And there was a dance party." It was surreal and great. Why did we ever leave here? Post show skinny dipping in the Gulf of Mexico and grouper sandwiches at the legendary Rod n Reel pier made us feel ridiculous for ever living anywhere besides Anna Maria Island.

Tomorrow night we play Tallahassee with Voxtrot!

Loco

Last night, as the five of us collapsed on cheap mattresses in room 335 of the Red Roof Inn in Alexandria, VA, I asked Marisa if Red Roof Inns were drastically cheaper than other just-off-the-interstate motels – she said no. I said, ‘They should be.’
It was 3:30am, and we’d been driving since 10:30pm, packing ourselves, tetris-like, into our glistening new tour van (referred to from this point on as ‘Pheobs’) after a weary, sloppy practice. Frank is still bleary-eyed from 2 weeks in China, and the rest of us are exhausted from the WAITING. We all had trouble falling asleep. There was no continental breakfast.

It’s now 4:40pm, and we’re hustling down I-85 with full bellies from ‘Locopops’ in Durham, NC. Let me tell you about Locopops – they’re the most incredible popsicles we’ve ever had. We want them to be our band sponsors. We tried: chocolate rosemary, avocado (!), cucumber chile, peanut butter banana, summer peach, rootbeer float, pomegranate blueberry, passionfruit margarita, mojito… etc. We ate a lot of popsicles. It made everything a lot better.

We want to make it to Athens sooner rather than later. Our first show isn’t until tomorrow night in Jacksonville, bur we wanted to take our time and hang in Athens for a while – at the rate we’re going, our Athens time is quickly dwindling. Thanks to pea-sized bladders and insatiable appetites, we’ve been stopping every 45 minutes. We can’t help it.

Note Marisa sipping sun tea (sweet! We’re back in the south!) purchased from a man on the side of the road (also in Durham) who was also selling incense.

La Primera Dia

It's raining and awful out. I've gone to the library to return books (unread), and my bag is half packed, with the rest of my tour things in a pile on the bed. I know that I'm bringing the wrong clothes, but I don't feel like there's any avoiding it. The wrong shoes, too.
Mostly I'm sitting and looking at the house, periodically eating Cheerios and finishing up the 'Mangodesh' ice cream in the freezer. Waiting.
Tour!