sealand and tour photos

CLICK HERE FOR EAST COAST TOUR PICTURES

CLICK HERE FOR WEST COAST TOUR PICTURES

We were all granted the honour of being Lords by the Royal Family of The Principality of Sealand. I have paper work that includes a Registration Deed of Individual Noble Title declaring me Lord Valle of Sealand. What is Sealand you ask? Click HERE.
The title of the new Airiel album is of course, The Battle of Sealand.

Philadelphia, DC, and the band sandwich!

We got into Philly and found The Khyber pretty easy. It's in cool old part of town with a lot of landmarks and old buildings. Cool bar and venue as well. Jay von Strudel Mr. Space, as he was named by Chris and drummer of APTBS, is from Philadelphia and sent us to Jim's on South and 4th for real Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches. They were fantastic. On the drive after the show, before or after pizza, the passenger seat of our van was christened "pudding cannon". This is the seat where Chris launched the most successful offensive towards the APTBS tour van. He opened a pudding cup, added water, and resealed it with a ligher and launched it at the door of the van. It splattered pudding in at least 5 different parts that when dried the next day looked lilke shit. Literally. Jeremy was driviing and almost lost his shit, it was so funny. After circling Fish Town looking for the house we were to stay at, we got there and went to bed pretty soon. The next day I confirmed a DJ gig at Sonotheque for a Tony Wilson Tribute night and we drove to DC.

The Black Cat treated us (and John the next day) very well. We were fed, given a back stage area, and pretty much anything we wanted. Great show and met some people who knew Pogo and crashed at Kyle Storms place after a small party at somebody else's house. The next day we had off and after a very late start to the day, we got to visit the National Air and Space Museum. It was pretty awesome and we all got some cool pictures in there. DC has super cool train stations that Pogo said looked like Epcot Center or something. He's definitely right. We headed back to the Black Cat for drinks and shenanigans later and enjoyed yet another piece of giant east coast pizza. Good times.

Baltimore was cool. We didn't see John Waters or the Ace of Cakes crew but we all fell in love with the bartender next door and had a surprise visit from our good friend EJ who drove in from Lancaaster, PA. The show was okay and we ended with Airiel and APTBS doing a song together with EJ. Four guitars, 2 bass, 2 drums and Cory on vocals. It was supposed to be The Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" but turned into a 15 minute noise jam after a couple of minutes.

We drove to EJ's house in Lancaster and hung out for a bit before bed. He's awesome and it was great to hang out with our friend again. The next morning before leaving, his girlfriend Erin joined us all for breakfast at a great diner and we started our long drive home. Like the last tours, I ended up back home at like 4am and didn't get to sleep till 5:30. Big ups to everybody for a great tour and a great time. I can't wait to tour with A Place to Bury Strangers again. We all made good friends with each other and brought the noise and tweaked some eyeballs this summer.

A Place to Bury Airiel


A Place to Bury Strangers - To Fix the Gash in Your Head

NYC and Providence

Our east coast tour went as follows: We drove all day to arrive in Brooklyn late Friday night August 10th. Oliver and his girlfriend Suzanne took us to a bar called Capones that gives out free pizza. That ruled. Saturday we hung out all day, had Polish food and played Club Europa for possibly the last time. I don't know. A Place to Bury Strangers, our tour mates, did a short set so we could play at all. After having some talks, we went to a nearby bar with some former Chicago friends and called it a night. Sunday was a relaxed day full of sleep and hanging out and played a great show at The Delancy in Manhattan for a small but nice group of people. The bar staff was awesome, especially the one Polish guy who ordered Jeremy to "Shut up and drink your wine!" . I played a game of pictionary using mixing straws with the bartender and sound guy who were both super cool and I heard good tunes on the iPod they had going. Chris and I sampled NYC Papaya Dogs from next door and I wasn't too impressed. the knish and meat pattie were cool and different I guess but the hot dogs with their ketchup and sauerkraut left a lot to be desired. They still hit the spot (3-4 times) after a night of whiskey, wine, and beer.
Monday we set off for Providence. We played at AS220 with The Brother Kite. They were great and I bought a CD. APTBS had Spencer rocking the 16mm visuals and we all played a good show. Earlier that day, we hid a bag of bananas under the seat of the APTBS tour van aside from teasing them with what we said was a bottle of whiskey but gave them a bottle of mixed crap, snacks, V-8, and more crap. We were loading up or vans when all of a sudden we hear a loud THUD on the side of the van. Turns out Jay found it earlier and decided to get us back. There was a big splatter of banana guts that somehow flew around Jeremy and hit the open door. Jeremy was left untouched. Creepy. Chris threw it back and left a splat of banana on the front fender of their van and the rest of the bag and rotten banana guts was left behind on the street. We found a great NYC style pizza place and headed back to Brooklyn to sleep before Philadelphia the next day.