soundcheck in san fran the first night.

and so it begins. images from the walkmen/hot hot heat tour. I will do this slowly, 1-3 pics a day. this is mainly to be a tease. suck it up, you know you love it. those are twenties. each letter cost more than $100 on average. bling.

to everyone that has come here from The Morning News: welcome. i'm not the Walkmen's manager. i'm the Tour Manager for their west coast tours. they are managed by the lovely and talented dawn barger from big hassle. i just wanted to set that straight. also, to whomever put this in the msnbc "best of blogs" links: you have good taste. as you were, soldiers.

wow. I'm finally home. I'm back at work today and I'm exhausted. 4035 miles. 14 days. 12 shows. 200+ pictures. lots of f'n rock and roll. thanks to the walkmen for having me, and for the celeste, thanks to the hot hot heat and crew for making the trip so much fun, and thanks to the thermals, detatchment kit, and all the other opening bands for being so great as well. thanks to the apes for rocking my socks off in san diego.

I will have selected pictures up by the end of the week. there are a bunch of pictures that just look bad because i was experimenting with camera settings and I won't make you wade through them. the winners should be up by wednesday or thursday. others will probably end up on the walkmen, hot hot heat, thermals, and apes web sites. I may send a few to spin or other music mags because there are a couple that are that good.

the recoys record is at the presses right now and will be in stores in a few months. future Realistic Records release schedule looks like this:

summer 2003: Colin Steel LP. Colin is one of my best friends and he's been holed up in a brooklyn loft with a guitar, bass, drum set, and a bunch of recording equipment for more than 2 years and this record will be one of the results. he played me a few songs when i was back in dc for christmas and they blew my funky mind.

fall/winter 2003: The B.O.T.S: The Robots Are Back. The B.O.T.S. is a rap group made up of some of your favorite rock and rollers, including Ham from the Walkmen, Hugh (now of French Kicks), beats and rhymes from Damon (formerly one of the Recoys' bassmen), nicole (sometimes a lil' fighter), my boy Steve Moscatello, and some other dudes. They did an album a few years ago that still circulates in in-the-know circles and may someday find re-release on Realistic Records, but this will be an all-new album. the B.O.T.S. will go into the studio at some point this year, and hopefully this record will be on your turntables and blowin' up the clubs by the end of 2k3. i will probably drop a rhyme or two on the album as well. werd.

my car smells so bad.

last: bellingham, washington. probably the most depressing place in the fucking universe. the whole place was cold and the people were sad and mean and drunk. when we left this morning i went into this diner place and there was an old woman who had to be 80 playing some bizzare lotto machine that looked like a men's room condom dispenser, frantically putting in nickels and pulling out little strips of paper that she put into piles. then she did it again. she seemed really angry and the machine got stuck two or three times during the 45 seconds i was watching her and i thought her head was going to fall off and roll along the floor. the place is like 10 miles from the canadian border and my guess is that these are the people who they won't even let into canada, which is pretty hard.

current: internet cafe in seattle. vera project tonight. then home. thank god. i think I'm going to be sick for a week recovering when i get back to LA. which is fine. I've had a great time and have a zillion pictures and have shaken the wanderlust out of my system. take me home.

next: drop the boys off at the airport and head home. 20 hours of solo driving. i might just drive off a cliff into the ocean. if anyone who reads this has a warm couch between seattle and los angeles, let me know. my cell phone number is 213-268-5685. call me.

holy shit i just looked at the pictures i've taken so far and let me just say that there are some winners. you'll see them in a week or two. word.

addition: sleazy little after party for the echo show at my boy matt's. steve from the hot hots taped up his face like he had a weird fetish. which he might. there are pictures. that's all i am legally allowed to disclose. see you in goleta, california, fuckwads.

last: san diego. great fucking show last night. there was an opening band called the apes that blew up the spot. they're from dc and they deffinitely have a svenonious vibe but in a really pleasant way. after the show i almost rumbled or had a push-up contest with the hot hot's tour manager outside the club in order to honor america. but there was fear in his eyes and we rescheduled it for bellingham, washington, when we get really bored. then we ealked out to the pier and got really drunk and talked about kool keith.

current: at home again, for one last show in LA at the echo. it hasn't really felt too much like a tour since i've been sleeping in my own bed so much. but that ends tomorrow when we start north, and we'll be at the canadian border by friday.

next: santa barbara. it should be pleasant.

personal: jinners, i get back east once or twice a year and I'd love to party down when i'm in nyc. it's weird how much i party with other bloggers, by the way. did you know when you microwave a hotel phone the message light turns on even if it's not plugged in?

last: last night back at the hotel there was a bassist vs. bassist rumble. pete from the walkmen took on dustin from the hot hot heat in a greco-roman throwdown and barely lost. this was after he defeated their drummer, paul, in a depressingly short push up contest. both bands are fighting for the honor and perceived supremacy of their home countries (HHH are canadians) and while the score is tied right now i am sure that the usa will prevail. all this went down after we microwaved a telephone.

current: this side got a mediocre review on the weblog review. check it out.

next: the glass house in pomona. a short drive. supposedly a nice club.

last: back in los angeles for the first show at the troubador. the place is pretty big, and the sound and lights are better there than the large majority of places I've seen the walkies play, but it still feels really intimate in there. we actually got up at 8 and got down to los angeles remarkably close to on time.

current: at home. i want to have a grill-out today. another troubador show tonight.

next: we've got to figure out how to get our u-haul trailer back on my car. it was a pain in the ass to get off. i hurt my hand doing it.

last: drove to san fran. club was packed and not too many people were dancing. lame-o's. saw lots of folks from high school. got drizunk.

current: sleazy rock and roll hotel in san fran. checking e-mail. just got out of the pool.

next: another show at bottom of the hill, then we've got to get up at like 8 to get on the road and make it to LA in time.

last: prepping for the tour and the record. also another friend from college has popped up in LA. and it's weird that I'm set up enough -- to a point -- that i actually have good contacts for her to find work. at least it's weird to me. also figuring out my benefits for the newly-permanant gig. how much should i withhold for my 401k?

current: isn't it about time for the 17-year cicadas to come back with a vengeance? i miss them.

next: no late nights this weekend, things to do every morning. but then a 2 week rock and roll vacation.

note: both walkmen shows @ the Troubador in LA are sold out. another LA show was just added, Sun. Feb 2nd @ the Echo in Echo Park. tickets through ticketweb.

last: god damn that water was cold, in the river at the bottom of the cliff, and i would have jumped again, but it was so, so cold. scary cold. but only in the water. in the sun it was probably 70 or 80 and i dried off and warmed up quickly and thought to myself that it was the middle of january and i drove 20 minutes from home and jumped off a cliff into a river and here i was quite comfortable in the sun wearing only athletic shorts and yeah, there's no subway here, but ACES! los angeles wins again!

current: finally got hired on at my office, after 9 months, a bit of a raise and benefits, so i can finally go in to the doctor and find out why all my toes look purple and whether they can re-attach my finger. also getting ready for the walkmen tour. i will be the "tour manager." that basically means just driving and dealing with some $ issues with the club. it's more like a well deserved rock and roll vacation.

i was home (dc) for 2 weeks over the holidays, but it wasn't a vacation. family issues made that trip rewarding and valuable, but anything but restful. in short: my grandmother had a stroke a few months ago. she is maybe half there, mentally, and her body is deteriorating. i visited her every day or every other day when i was in town (i was in NYC for nye.2k3). most of the visits were quiet, and we would talk some, about nothing important, while she ate lunch. the last visit was different. she knew that i was leaving, and that it would be a long time before she saw me again, if she ever saw me again. i sat with her while she ate lunch, and when she was done i wheeled her into her room. i told her i would miss her while i was gone. she started to cry softly. she said that she was really lonely there, and that wished that i had gotten to know my grandfather -- that he was a wonderful man. He had died of cancer while my mother was in high school. in November my "step-grandfather," her "boyfriend" of 30 or so years, had died suddenly (he slipped on the ice outside their home one night during a snowstorm and was found there the next morning). My grandmother had been disoriented on and off, confused about where she was and why she was there, since she had been in the nursing home. but on this day, 24 hours before i flew back to california, we talked for about half an hour, telling me about the good times and regrets of her life, in a way that we had never talked before. i could tell it was taking all her strength to keep her mind focused -- this was the most lucid i had seen her since her stroke. "sometimes life doesn't turn out like you thought it would, like you wanted it to." i left after an embrace, tearing if not crying, thankful that i had had those moments with my grandmother, and doubting that we would have ever communicated so purely had she never gotten sick.

next: if you're on the west coast, go here and come find me at the show when I'm in your town. I will probably be the guy slinging walkmen merchandise when they're playing. yep, 'slangin' merch,' that's the life for me. if you mention that you read me, i might be able to hook up a discount. maybe not. i need to get my car washed and tuned up, then roar up the coast. no christmas while i'm driving, indeed.

last: out drinking. keifer sutherland was behind the bar. the bartender girls were screaming, but not about him. they had been drinking all day and one had a nelly style band aid in the middle of hr forehead from when she had been dangled down a storm drain to save her cell phone. when she was pulled up she said she looked like carrie. good times.

current: writing here: mainly to indicate bizzare search term of the day: incubus smokes pot. clearly they do. but i still don't understand why they have to include me. dope is for dopes. and stoners can't get boners.

next: cliff jumping in malibu creek canyon state park. i worry that it might be a bit cold in the water, but fuck, it's january and these are the good old days and we are living and breathing so fuck it lets jump.

hot dog, we have a weiner