Back in the colony

Was it a long six weeks or a short six weeks? I'm not sure. Anyway, despite the weather, it's good to be back. Tomorrow I head down to Richmond to spend a couple days recording the Aghast mini-lp, which will contain such hits as "Deformed Frogs," "Chaotic City," and songs I've been playing for over a year but still know only as #1, #3, etc. We're doing it analog, which means we can push the guitar tracks into the red; and with the record mastered at 45... NOIZE ATTACK.

See y'all next week.

Close to home

I should be going to bed right now, but I thought it worthwhile to first mention that one of the women who lives in the house I'm staying at tonight (one of our roadie's friends) just informed me that she's Lebanese, that she's supposed to go to Lebananon for her brother's wedding in three weeks, and that she had a grandmother who was killed by an Israeli bomb in the 90s. And here I was all white and upset about things...

IED's along the road(map)

Well, it's that time of the month in Israel, I guess. Maybe you've followed the news closer than I have, but apparently the capture of a lone soldier DURING A FUCKING WAR has caused the Israeli government to escalate its standard practice of killing and terrorizing civilians in the Occupied Territories. There will be a rally against these actions on Tuesday in DC (details below, copied from an email I just received). And as to the attack on Lebanon, it's worth noting that Lebanon in the 80s and 90s was Israel's Vietnam. Guess they didn't learn. All goofy hyperbole aside, who does THAT remind you of? (And by the way, by Israel's logic, if registered Independents in Minnesota started launching rockets at Canada, the Canucks could use the presence of Jim Jeffords in the Senate to justify the bombing of O'Hare.)

The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) will be holding a rally for peace to protest Israeli military action in Lebanon and Gaza on Tuesday, July 18, from 5-7pm in front of the White House.

We invite you to join ADC and other organizations as we call for an immediate ceasefire and for peace in the region. This rally is open to all peace loving persons and organizations. Contact ADC to add your organization to the list of participants.

WHAT: Peaceful Rally to Protest Ongoing Israeli Violence in Gaza and Lebanon

WHEN: July 18, 2006 from 5-7pm

WHERE: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW --in front of the White House
Take Metro to McPherson Square

Boston redux

Back in Beantown. I took the bus up here from Hartford this morning and then trained it out to Rockport, a town next to Gloucester about an hour away from Boston. Due to relatives in the area, I've spent a good bit of time there over the years and really enjoy it. It's not a particularly remarkable town; touristy in the summer, but never offensively so. Small beaches, small shops, historical markers (I noticed one today that identifies the first honkey settler in what was then called Sandy Beach in 1690). The best part of going there as a kid was staying at my grandmother's house, which is located on a narrow, dead-end lane within view of the ocean. What the house lacked in cleanliness it made up for in size and character. My grandmother died on February 15, 2004, while I was in New York City marching against the impending slaughter in Iraq. Not knowing what else to do with it, my family sold the house, so it's no longer part of the Seager Empire. I walked by it today just to take a peek, and it seems to be under good management. I spent some time with an aunt I rarely see and got treated to Thai food and was whisked back to the train station just in time to catch my ride inland.

Our New London show was a bust. Big stage, good sound, and we played well, but only about 10 people besides ourselves will ever know that. Apparently Municipal Waste, a popular thrash band from RVA was playing across town, and three of the five bands on our bill cancelled. A redeeming aspect was that the friend who set up the show bothered to show up at all - his co-homeowner and partner of eight years had left him the day before. But he was there, and took us back to his place in Hartford for food, drink, and music. AND drove me to the bus station this morning (after a nauseating 15 minutes during which I couldn't find my wallet and thought I had left it at the venue an hour away). I slept in an air-conditioned room on a comfortable makeshift bed that I believe is generally referred to in tender fraternity parlance as a flip-n-fuck, but I shared my sleeping quarters with an overpowering brand of cat litter that continued to cling to my clothes for part of the morning. Sorry Boston!

NYC was a lot of fun. Good show and good times hanging out with friends afterward. Ran into a college acquaintance the next day on the Lower East Side but had little to talk about. Speaking of college acquaintances, I'll be spending my day tomorrow at a wedding up here for a good friend from Bates. I'll pocket the part of me that would prefer to call weddings 50/50 parties and just enjoy myself with friends I don't see often. Special thanks to pal Rene for flying my suit up from Virginia so it didn't have to spend six weeks in a tour van. Pics of me in said suit on Mundane Arcana? I could be bribed with bottles of Honest Tea. Until then...



POSTSCRIPT: I realized I haven't written about a significant tour experience involving a small Canadian town, our van, a ditch, and a tow truck. So here goes. While slowly making our way down to the Vermont border from Quebec, our roadie Matt started to puke (in a bag this time). Matt had spent the better part of our three days up north getting wrecked, aided and abetted by a special Canadian beverage called the Big 10: a 20 proof 40. So I'm driving the van, taking us through a small town called Granby, and am urged by my fellow travellers to pull over hastily so that Matt could empty his stomach in a more natural setting. I pulled off a narrow two-lane road onto a narrow shoulder with high grass that hid a deceptively steep ditch. We didn't tip over, but we got stuck at a disturbingly acute angle. Exhibit A:



Now, at this point, there are seven of us in the van--the band, Matt the puking roadie, other Matt from upstate NY, and a guy named Tom from Baltimore my bandmates knew who we picked up in Montreal. Part of the fun for you at home is picturing us all milling around the van in the Canadian countryside with cars driving by. Included in the group were a six-inch mohawk, multiple dread mullets, and a dude who looks like the Crow. A cop showed up presently, called us a tow truck, and 15 minutes and $57 Canadian later, we were back on our way. (The cop took a picture of us all with the Leaning Van of Granby, but it's on someone else's camera.) Apparently Granby is known for it's zoo; I'll always remember it for it's shitty shoulders.

POST-POSTSCRIPT: While I'm remembering anecdotes I left out, I know a few of you will get a kick out of the fact that I *unconsciously* began humming the opening rhythm of "Firestorm" while driving through Weed, California. I swear.

POST-POST-POSTSCRIPT: The venue for our DC show fell through, and one of my bandmates has to attend a funeral that night anyway, so your only chance to see us will be at the Sidebar in Baltimore on Monday. It would be cool to see folks there, but I'll see you all in the D of C soon enough.

Last leg

Greetings from Boston--specifically from the public terminal at the Lucy Parsons Center, the local anarchist bookstore/infoshop. If you're not familiar, it's worth a trip if you're ever up this way.

We're almost done. Providence tonight, then NYC and Connecticut, then a couple days off, then Philly, Baltimore, and DC (currently in limbo...if you know of a show we can be added to, let me know). Burlington and Boston shows were really cool (Boston in particular, much better than I would have expected) with a worthless show in Albany thrown in between. After Connecticut, I'll be coming back up to Mass for a friend's wedding and then rejoining the crew in Philly. Meanwhile, they'll be returning the van, which is in pretty excellent shape, all things considered. We'll be doing the last couple days in a car, which is no big deal. On the 21st and 22nd, we'll be recording for a short LP in Richmond, and then I'll be back in the District for good.

Stateside

We're back. Another fast, uneventful crossing. I think we're all still stunned. We played Burlington tonight and are currently hanging out with folks from a sweet band called Man the Conveyors. More later.

O Canada

We're in. It was ridiculously easy. A friend of a friend in upstate New York pointed us to a small border crossing on a Mohawk reservation near Massena, south of Montreal. We were asked how many of us there were, where we were from, where we were going and for how long (recording in Montreal, ahem), what we had in the van, whether we had any alcohol, tobacco or fireworks... and then, without asking for any ID or leaving her little border officer hut, the perty young lady waved us through. Such was the culmination of hours of worrying and scheming over Justin's questionable legal status and Forrest's lack of photo identification. We made it to Ottawa in plenty of time for the show, which was at a house. I spent about an hour and a half wandering around downtown beforehand. Parliament was closed (I might try to go in again before we leave today), but I walked around the outside. It's perched above the Ottawa River, on the other side of which is Quebec, and specifically the city of Hull. I'm going to see if I can snap some photos before we hit the road for Montreal, which is only two hours away. I also need, for obvious reasons, to get a picture of the periodical purveyor I passed yesterday called Mags and Fags.

[Outro: 12XU . . . ]

A few more pics

LONG BEACH (photos courtesy of oldhcdude.com; you can view all of them here, pics of us start on page 7)













IDAHO FALLS (courtesy of Beert)

So close and yet so far away

Man, it is weird to be in Pennsylvania. Weird because I was on the west coast a week ago, and weird because I'm five hours from DC with two weeks left of tour. Very disorienting.

We're having a blast on the road. This trip has been head and shoulders over last summer's tour, and some of the best shows were in the past few days. We're already talking about doing a 10-day jaunt out to Minneapolis and back in January; the upper midwest seems to like us. Fuck Japan, we're big in Detroit!

Chicago: Laziness got the best of us, and we spent no time checking out the city, which none of us has spent any significant time in. We ended up lounging around Zack's place in Milwaukee till late afternoon, and driving into Chicago just in time for the show. Good turnout with a vibe very comparable to the Madison gig but in a (packed) living room. We had planned to stop by the Waldheim Cemetary the next morning to say whassup to Emma and all the other good folks buried there, but we slept late and lost the directions our hosts had given us the night before, so we just hit the road for Cincinnati.

Cincy: Stayed with and played with Envenomed, whom we had shared a bill with in Kentucky last year. We played in a room in a massive warehouse that's being illegally rented to tenants, including the girlfriend of one of the Envenomed dudes. There wasn't a huge turnout, but everyone had a good time, and most people came back to the house where we were staying to party.

Detroit: We'd been looking forward to this show. Kids went off for us there last year, and the venue was the same as last year, a big anarchist house/performance space/etc. called the Trumbullplex. Envenomed was playing too, so we all drove up together. Local bands Reaper and Shitfucker filled out the bill. Lots of kids showed up and rocked out for every band. Unfortunately our singer, Justin, who's a big dude, did a "combat roll" early in our set and landed wrong and probably cracked a rib. So he's in some pain. Other than that, good times.

Pittsburg: Here we are. We played the Roboto Project with our friends F.L.A.K., who play a similar style of music. It was an early show that moved pretty quickly. We missed the first couple bands, and then all of a sudden we were on and then done, and then it was 9pm, and now it's 1:30 in the morning. Kind of a strange day, what with the rather abrupt return to the East. I took a much needed shower and washed a pile of my reeking clothes.

And now: the Canada problem. Just as we had sorted out how we could most easily get ourselves across the border (Justin, who may have legal issues, walking across with a friend as a day tourist and the rest of us ditching all of our merch at a friend's place in upstate NY and driving across with just our equipment, looking positively angelic and non-terroristic). We were actually starting to feel optimistic. And then Forrest lost his wallet, which contains his only piece of photo ID. So we're in limbo, big time. We're supposed to play our first show up there on the 4th. I have no idea how things are going go, but I daresay our prospects are quite a bit darker than they were only a day ago.

I don't want to end on such a negative note. But I'm going to.