Southampton to Brighton.

Driving to shows recently has meant driving in the dark on the way and driving in the dark and the cold on the way home. When we were heading towards Southampton last week to play with the Riot Before, I find myself riding shotgun, slowly nodding off to the sound of the fan and the mumering of voices in the back. Everyone is asleep or falling asleep except PJ, eyes on the road. It felt like we were driving home from a show, rather than driving there and I could have happily got in bed once we arrived. We parked up outside the venue and someone told me it was minus 2 degrees outside and so loading in was done quickly and efficiently. I planned on squeezing in a skate before the show, but my feet felt like blocks and no amount of warming up would ever warm me up enough to use my muscles. I felt like playing in my hat and jumper, but everytime I have tried to do that my hats slipped over my eyes and my jumper gets tangled up with my guitar strap. I have resolved to only play shows in a t shirt, Function over fashion, whatever the weather. The show was an odd one - the stage layout meant I had to play on the other side and I just can't ever get my head round that. People stayed and watched and sang a long and so even though I felt strange playing stage left, it felt fun. Thanks to Ricky for putting us on. Last night was similar. A cold drive, a quick load in. A cold start to the show. A constant of Brighton shows is that they always feature at least one drunk rambling guy who either dances all night in his own unique style or tries to somehow sabotage the show by grabbing the mic or yelling at the bands, you can predict it before even getting to the venue and setting up. This show had a crew of dancing people who wanted us to "big up" something or other. I had no idea what was going on and i don't think they did either. I wondered if they paid in.

Our tour with Crazy Arm is in 10 days and we won't play a show between now and then and I wish that wasn't the case.

Photos from The Old Blue Last

The Old Blue Last show was awesome fun. The venue has a great stage and sound and the show had been promoted well enough that despite the clash with the Kingston show that had Above Them, Calvinball and Our Time Down Here on the bill, it was still rammed. Loading out of the venue is a ballache - you have to carry gear through the downstairs bar which is always completely full of people that don't seem to want to get out of your way. We had to park about 100 metres down the street from the venue too. Thank god I was drunk or it would be been a nightmare. Thanks Aisha for putting us on. The Menzingers were completely amazing at this show. I think there is a video somewhere of them at this show. Oh, it's here.

 PJ was white hot for this performance. Honestly.

These owls are for sale dead soon.

Dan

x

The ups and downs of this morning.

I quite often wake up right before my morning alarm goes off, like something in me doesn’t want to be woken by a machine, that it wants to wake on its own, in its own time. So this morning I find myself, exactly a minute before my alarm is supposed to go off, grabbing my phone. My eyes blurry from sleep guide my thumb to hit the “snooze” button and go to drop it and fall back asleep for 9 more minutes, as if those 9 minutes will make any difference to how rested I feel and how terrible it will feel to get out of bed into the cold and take a shower. 

Just as I go to drop my phone though, I see that I have two e-mails and I cannot resist checking them, despite knowing they are likely to be inconsequential timewasters. Another minute lost deleting useless binary from my life. Viagra spam. Delete. Twitter “friend add”. Delete. Wait. What? Did that say what I think it did? I try to recover the deleted e-mail but it’s gone and I have to wait until I get to work to check what the message said. I feel excited, like the most awesome thing has happened and I have to wait an hour to check it. I can’t help feeling that this could be the day that everything becomes amazing. I am totally stoked. I log in to my work computer and can’t find it and eventually give up in frustration. Maybe I imagined it. It wasn't meant to be. Suddenly, I check my other accounts and finally I find the e-mail.

There it is.

A friend request on twitter from Kanye West.

Kanye West.

This is the greatest thing that has ever happened.

Then my heart sinks.

It’s not Kanye West. It’s “Kanyewestnews”.  A fan-based street-team for the voice of our generation.

What a shitty morning.

Our new owls.

Ema has made us some ceramic owls for our merch box and did a step by step on how you turn a chunk of wet clay into something that is awesome. The owls are available at shows and online really soon. The ideal christmas present for someone you love!

Dan

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to make owls, by Ema Smith.

Step 1: I wedged the clay to get rid of any air bubbles and dry it out a little. This really hurts my arms. Will soon be resembling a body builder. Sort of.

Step 2: Next I rolled the clay using wooden guides to make sure all the owls were as fat as each other.

Step 3: I had to leave the clay slabs to dry out a bit and then cut out 100 owls. Next, I tidied up all the edges, put a hole in each one and then left them to dry for a few days.

Step 4: I loaded the kiln and bisque fired them to 1100 c in my lovely kiln in our living room. Safe to say it was pretty warm in our house that day.

Step 5/6: I enlisted the help of Dan and Josh against their will (please note Josh's scowl) to help glaze the owls whilst we watched the apprentice.

Step 7: I loaded them into the kiln and fired to 1017c. 12 hours later... I removed them from the kiln and applied the ceramic decals I had made to the glazed surface (whilst making 50% of calvinball a roast - that's what you call multi-tasking).

 Step 8: Loaded the Owls back into the kiln AGAIN but this time I fire to 800c to fix the owl decals. 

 Step 9: Gatta 'helps' thread ribbons through the owls.

Step 10: We wrap and pack them!

emiloumakes.co.uk

Punknews reviewed us.

Our show with The Menzingers in Manchester got reviewed by Punknews the other day.

Check it out here! www.punknews.org/review/9750

5 stars.

!

Dan

Saturday, in London, for one night only.

...for the second time in a week! The Menzingers, Apologies, i have none and Leagues Apart all on the same bill!

If I was Geordie, I would say "Hoots man! I canne waait for the gig, it'll be a reet laff!" or considering we have been accused of being cockney I'll just say:

"Ere, geezer! This gig will be maaaad buff".

I have lost my way with this blog posting.

Dan

x

Just Panic tour is over and I am back at my day job.

From Friday night to Monday night we drove about in a silver van and played shows up North with Just Panic who were completely awesome. All the shows were good fun and everything finished off in classic style in Manchester with an awesomely busy and fun show followed by the standard trashing of Kieran Kellys house. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who put us on, Chris, Sean and Keiran and the Just panic guys who arranged Liverpools date - you are all dudes.

Thanks to everyone who came along and everyone who helped us out with floor space. Thanks to everyone who lives at Kierans house and sorry about the mess and noise at 5am.

If you still haven't checked out Just Panic, get on it now before they become massive so you can tell your mates that you have had their record for ages and are thus way cooler than they are.

Erm...thats all for now. See you in London on Saturday night for another banging show with the Menzingers?!

Dan

Just Panic tour starts today

Heyoo! We left Joes studio in North London about an hour ago and nearly left London, before Joe realised he forgot his cymbals. We're back at the studio now for our second attempt at going on tour with Just Panic. Bolton tonight. Get down!


Dan

Sink, venues. Sink.

Do you know whats really frustrating? Venues that get funny when you ask for water. That sucks and I have written about it before, but it really sucks and is totally inexcusable. Most venues are cool about this kind of standard hospitality, but the ones that aren't well, I hope they sort it out before people stop going there. 

You know what also sucks though, and is much more common? 

Tiny sinks. 

It seems like most venues have these incredibly tiny sinks and so if I try to keep my hydration under my own control and avoid bothering or somehow offending the bar staff by asking for something as trivial as water, my plans are totally foiled.

Well, venues, I have your number. No matter how small your sink is, I can beat you. I have developed a method of almost filling any bottle no matter how ridiculously small your sink is. Through a system of folding the bottle and tipping it backwards I can drink your water in quantities previously thought impossible without a hosepipe. I have scored a victory for the bands. Your porcelain water-protection devices have fallen to my technical prowess. I have won.

You know what really sucks though? The other night when I was getting pissy trying to fill my bottle up but bragging that I had managed to do it, I realised that there was free bottles of water for the bands.

One-all.

Dan

Don’t Panic.

A while back we played with Fake Problems in Manchester and the guy running the show had us on at like 5.45pm and while driving up to Manchester I was pretty sure we would play to no-one. In reality, the room was pretty full by the time we played ad totally full by the time we finished and I was totally stoked on how it all went and the fact that anyone gave a shit about what we were doing. The rest of the night was really awesome but it was a band I had never heard before, Just Panic, that I got really into. We didn’t see them again for a while, but somehow I picked up all their recorded stuff and didn’t really listen to it much until after we played with them again in Derby this year. After that show I got the 7” and then re-listened to everything of theirs and we had it on in the van for a few weeks. They flat-out rule.

We figured that seeing as we’re playing Manchester with them next Monday; we should do a few dates together before the show. So we are.

Formally announcing the Just Panic, Apologies, I have none mega-weekender!

12.11 – Gigs, Bolton
13.11 – Caledonia - Liverpool
14.11 – 1 in 12, Bradford
15.11 – Tiger lounge, Manchester

If you are around for any of these shows it would be awesome if you came, I promise you good times and quality rhymes.

myspace.com/justpanic

Dan

Ps: If you aren’t in Bradford on the 14th, but are in Manchester, go to the Bomb The Music Industry show. That band is completely worth your entry fee.

Bomb The Music Industry - Saturday.

All I seem to do these days is post about tickets and where you can get them and for some reason that seems entirely lame despite the fact that knowledge is power and tickets guarentee you entry to shows that you might be interested in going to.

Aaaanyway. This Saturday we are playing with Bomb The Music Industry and everyone knows this band is completely rad and we are stoked to be playing with them again. Last year Jeff from BTMI came over to the UK on his own and did a sort of solo/ipod show which I'm not sure everyone totally got, but I thought it was absolute genius and I sort of fell in love with everything he is doing. It's basically a party and some shows could really do with a bit more of a party atmosphere. The show is at the Peel and tickets are available through Banquet records here.

I am so excited about this show. Cynics and Bad Ideas are playing too, both also awesome.

Dan

*Flyer designed by Banquet records, Edited by Dan Bond. In MS Paint.

The Riot Before are coming to the Uk.

The Riot Before are awesome and I have been waiting for them to come over for ages now. Last year at Fest in Gainsville I was queing outside the venue they were playing for an hour, stressing I wouldn't get in, drinking a giant can of American Beer to calm my nerves and hopping from foot to foot. We didn't get in. I admitted defeat and went to watch Broadway Calls and Strike Anywhere. I bombed out later that night and was in bed by 10pm. I blame the Riot Before for that.

Anyway, we are playing with them in Southampton soon and I recommend buying tickets to avoid stressing about not getting in and thus drinking yourself into a hole. The venue is apparently 50 capacity, which means, minus the other 10 dudes in the other bands, there will be probably 40 tickets on sale. As president of the Apologies, i have none ticket hotline, I urge you to buy tickets!

Dan
President
Apologies, i have none ticketscam inc.