pinecone 4

film school

2008-05-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

Click here to see pictures and a video of Film School ending their show with a lot of noise, fog and guest guitar noise by Chris from Airiel.
Sure it was cold out, raining, and crappy but that seems to be typical shoegaze weather. It took forever to get my gear set up thanks to Schubas taking forever to set up tables in the music room. Once that was settled and a couple of Jim Beams+Coke (which were on sale for $3), I was set up. Some band opened, then we did a good show. Greg Corner said it was the best he's seen me with airiel, but I think I've done better. Film School Greg was cool enough to let me use his projector and they set up a giant screen that covered the whole back wall at Schubas. That ruled. I was a fan of Film School before and I'm now a bigger fan. Fucking great live show and I can't wait till they come back this summer. Next show: darkroom on the 29th.

sugar crystals

2008-05-10T21:37:00.001-07:00

Found footage music video I put together for the boys and Ulrich Schnauss. Nothing more than just cool eye candy and colorful images and slow motion awesomeness with real film grain. Somehow it makes sense to me.

Coming soon to this blog, pictures and thoughts on the show with Film School (it ruled).

a new morning

2008-03-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

I stole the title of this blog entry from the Suede album. Anyway, Airiel has welcomed 2 new members to replace Cory and John. Mikey and Andrew have fit in perfectly and after the 3 shows we've done so far, I foresee nothing less than awesome coming our way. Our first show together was at darkroom for a PANIC! spinoff night I put together called Supersonic on February 2nd. Apteka and Airiel played with DJ Skid, Johnny Kesh, and me DJ'ing. It was a huge crowd and everybody loved the new guys and we the DJs kept the dance party going till the end.

February 17th was a sold out show at Schubas with A Place to Bury Strangers and Holy Fuck. We had a big crowd see us and it was awesome to see APTBS again. This past Wednesday, March 5th, we played Metro. It went really well and I had the big screen and the projections looked fantastic. There's been press in the Chicago Sun Times and New City naming Airiel one of Chicago's top 10 bands to check out, which is pretty exciting. Other than that, I can't wait for more shows and to finish the "Sugar Crystals" video I'm working on. More later...

it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

2007-11-18T16:40:00.000-08:00

The Empty Bottle show with Adam Franklin had 2 highlights for me: the meal next door and having the best screen set up with the best help ever from the staff at the Bottle. Other news is rather delicate at the moment but we must keep a sense of humor and move forward with our heads held high looking ahead into a brighter future tomorrow. I can't say any more but sometimes music can say everything that's in your heart and can inspire us all and heal our tender hearts:

kexp at darkroom

2007-10-09T21:31:00.001-07:00

Good show. I met some cool people and hung out with the boys and the KEXP sound guy who we met in Seattle. Great crowd too and a few awesome people stood right up front soaking it in. Best part of the show was when Chris turned on the fog machine (blinding John in the process. Sorry dude) and the video projected in and on it made it look like a 3-D vibrating cube was floating in the fog. It was so badass. Big ups to Arunas and Tobias for putting the screen back up. Somehow the boys always have a knack for rocking it right off. As long as it doesn't fall on John and fuck up a song, I'm down for whatever.

Next week, we play with Adam Franklin from Swervedriver at Empty Bottle. Saturday, some band from Brooklyn called A Place to Bury Strangers is at Schubas. I heard they're great. I might go see them, you know, if I'm free and shit.

triple rock panic dells attack

2007-10-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

After the boys played Beat Kitchen with Ulrich Schnauss, they all headed over to darkroom for the PANCI! after party. People got drunk, photos were taken and people went to bed at various hours. Saturday we all woke up hungover and/or sleep deprived, and hungry. The drive to Minneapolis was deleriously silly and we got to Triple Rock early. The show was alright and Ulrich was fantastic. Such a good guy, and his DJ set at PANIC! was killer.
I discovered reason #495821 to hate sports. We couldn't find a hotel in or around Minneapolis because of "the game". We had to sleep in the back parking lot of the last hotel we tried and I kept thinking they'd kick us out. After barely sleeping for 2 or 3 hours we got a killer breakfast at a truck stop and went a few hours before Chris, and god bless that kid, took us off course and straight into Wisconsin Dells. We saw a rollercoaster in the distance and after we all yelled "YES!" we found ourselves in the Dells. The rollercoaster was closed but we found Nig's bar (Have a swing at Nig's), The Haunted Mansion (awesome!), and various gaudy gift shops on the main street there. The wild west buffet looked creepy and I don't think we were in there more than 4 seconds before we made it across the street to Paul Bunyon's all you can eat fried chicken shanty. We all stuffed ourselves, took photos and I made it home by 6pm. Mind you, we hardly slept, didn't bathe, smelled like shit, and didn't brush your teef. We all went back to work at our jobs on Monday like nothing ever happened.
Thursday, we play a free show at darkroom sponsored by KEXP from Seattle. The guys played a cool set this morning at Engine Studios where they're broadcasting from and it sounded great. They did "Rainflower", "Mermaid in a Manhole" and "The Big Mashup". The DJ's seemed really happy to be in Chicago and digging the great weather. I'm glad because we had a great time in Seattle. See you Thursday!

paul bunyon

2007-10-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the after party at PANIC! September 28th, 2007

Pictures from Minneapolis gig with Ulrich Schnauss September 29th, 2007 with a detour on the way home to Wisconsin Dells.

sealand and tour photos

2007-09-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

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.

"how are things on the west coast?"

2007-08-27T08:32:00.001-07:00

I had the title of this blog in my head from hearing the new Interpol single a lot lately. Things on the west coast are just fine. They're so good, I wish I was still there. It's been a while since the last post and we've already done our east coast tour so it's about time I finished the west coast tour report.

After LA we hit San Francisco which was super cool. I love it there. We caught up and stayed with friends from Chicago who lived there and went around Haight Ashbury, had great Japanese food, and did some shopping. I couldn't play the show at the House of Shields that night because there was no back wall to the stage, which was lofted above the rest of the bar. It was a cool bar that reminded me of something we'd see in the south Loop here in Chicago.

I was okay with not playing the show, so I had no other alternative than to drink heavily and early. Some drunk texts and drunk dials later and I was walking around Market Street looking for the Del Taco the dor guy sent me to. Fish tacos never tasted so good. I came back to shoot video of the show, which was pretty good and the boys rocked out. Back at the house Ben, Roger, and I went looking for a late night pizza place that hit the spot. Walking through the fog in San Francisco and waking up to it covering the hills of the city is always so damn cool.

The next day we made our way to Portland. I was excited to see my friends Julie and Joe who moved there. This is also where we met Nick. Cock Thirsty blew a tire just outside the city and we pulled into the nearest gas station for help. We didn't have the right size wrench for the trailer, but Nick did and he even screwed the fender back on. We gave him a CD and he was totally excited and even got his kids food from Mc Donalds while we dealt with changing the tire. Thanks Nick. A song was dedicated to him that night. We made it to the venue on time and the show was fun. The Tonic Lounge is a great venue. We played with a cool dance rock band called The Slants and hung out with my friends and we crashed hard when we got to their house. The next morning we got the trailer tire replaced and were on our way to Seattle, KEXP, and a surprise visitor.

We get to KEXP and it's a little building that you'd never guess holds a world class radio staton inside. The interview went really well and the performance was awesome. Cory was looking for the bathroom and turns a corner when he literally runs into our friend Arunas. They come back to the group and shocked hugs, laughter, and smiles went all around. It was so good to see a familiar face from home. I knew about his visit and told him what time we'd be there. He had Darkroom business at KEXP, an old friend in Seattle and he wanted to see our show so we all hung out the rest of the day. The show was fun and we returned the favor to Arunas of getting us drunk at Darkroom all the time and got him wasted. The poor guy wasn't able to stand straight by the end of the night. Good times.

We woke up very early to start our nightmare drive straight home to Chicago. We blew a van tire in Cheney, Washington that set us back a couple of hours but gave us time to check out Carl Jr's. Jeremy loved the Teriyaki burger and I had a killer shake from there. I slept a lot and we ended up in some scary gas station in the middle of the night in North Dakota (I think) where there was a drawing of Death holding glitter gobs of crap with the words "Meth Kills!" or something. I took a picture of this amazing public service announcement. That reminds me, pictures will be posted very soon of both tours.

In the middle of the afternoon the next day, just outside of Fargo, ND we blew the other tire on Cock Thirsty. After about an hour John's insurance sent a towing guy to come and change the tire, Jeremy and I realized we weren't going to make it to work the next day as planned and called in. We got to the nearest automotive store finally bought a wrench for the trailer and Jeremy learned how to change a tire. The people at the counter of the store had a bet that we were a band. Was it really that obvious? Yes it was. I think it was the smell and greasy hair. After driving the rest of that day and night, I got home at like 4am and slept in my own bed again.

vegas baby, vegas

2007-07-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

After Denver we had probably the worst drive of the whole tour. It was 14 hours from Denver to Vegas and we spent what seems like days going through Utah's desert. If I never do that again, I'll be happy. We had to drive slowly up hilll with the heat on to blow out the air and not let the van overheat. However, the reward for this was making our way into Vegas. After we got into the hotel and showered up, we hit the bars and casinos for a few hours. I can't wait to go back and see more of Las Vegas. The next morning we got in the van and headed for LA. Chris and I sampled the food at In n' Out Burger and it was good. We were very interested in sampling local fast food along the way and this was one of my favourites.
LA was cool. The show was great, but too short. Sold lots of merch and blew some faces off. Caught up with Chicago friends and furniture provider Scott and his wife Brandy and everybody got all sorts of drunk. Chris got sent home, Cory wandered off and made it home okay, Jeremy and I developed drunken He-Man strength loading the van and John kept it all in check. We stayed in Hollywood in a suite at the top of a hill with a magician club at the bottom. We saw Henry Winkler showing up to a red carpet event and we all made some awesome food for dinner. Unfortunately, the van couldn't handle another trip in the heat so soon so we had to cancel Tijuana. Maybe next time. A day off was really necessary anyway. I definitely want to visit again and be a tourist and see more of LA.

denver

2007-07-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

We get to Denver in the afternoon and it's a pretty town. We pull up to the venue and it's pretty cool. Kind of a mix of Delilah's and Club Foot with a live venue inside. Cool. Bartender gave us free pineapple upsideown shots and a guy who works there makes amazing hot sauce. Jeremy and I ordered some bottles of it. I wonder if he'll ever send them. Met Griff's old roommate Joe. Chris and I find a crappy motel down the street near downtown. We take naps, showers, relax then play a good show. We played with A Shoreline Dream who were pretty good and super nice as well. We get post show snacks at a Kwik-E Mart that used to be a 7-11 but is now a The Simpsons Movie promo. Leaving the next morning the guys meet a trucker who gives us cool camoflage caps and Tweaker Joe who wanted a ride somewhere. We pulled away without Tweaker Joe and saw the coolest Dodge Charger cop car in the mountains outside of Denver at the Mc Donalds with the cute russian girls behind the counter. Had my first Mc Griddle here. My stomach still hasnt' forgiven me. More later, I have to get back to work right now.

goin' out west

2007-07-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

Just like the Tom Waits song Goin' Out West, we went out west.
I started the tour blog in the same notebook I got last fall going out east and I gave up a page and a half into it. I'll still recap the whole tour. For now, here's the beginning...
7-8-07
I think it was good luck that we left for tour on 7-7-07. It was an early morning and 10 hours of driving but we made it to Cory's cousin's house near Kansans City around midnight. Highlights include finding ANOTHER Pinecone Restaurant in Brooklyn, Iowa and learning it's a chain, with another in Oregon. I hope we get to that one later in the week. Other bits of awesome include the Salisbury Slap, iPod porn starring Shy Love in Big Sausage Pizza(PG-rated link), and pulling away from Cory's in Schaumburg to the tune of Samwell's "What What (in the butt)":

Not much sucked other than the heat in Chicago and the foot dragging on Cockthirsty in Kansas, but it wasn't a big deal. Right now, it's 10:36am and we're about an hour away from Omaha and a shower and a swimming pool.
7-9-07
The Omaha show was pretty good, but not many people were there. We made friends with the bartender and drank for a few hours before the show. Turns out we out drank the band bar tab 3 times over. Good times, whiskey, and lots of laughs helped ease my nervousness before our first show on tour and all went well. Boo and Boo Too were good and noisy. I picked up their CD. Drakes Hotel were nice people and had a cool trailer. Turns out they were moving to Portland after the show. The hotel pool was closed for cleaning but looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. The water was swampy green and looked thick, sort of like the Chicago river. Chris had been wanting to try Sonic burgers and we found a delivery menu in the lobby of the hotel. He called the number and it was a delivery service run by a guy and we think his wife. She says he doesn't like to carry drinks, so they're not on the menu. We were bummed because we heard the Sonic shakes were really good. From the sound of it, you call the number , make an order, this guy goes to Sonic to get your food and takes it directly to your hotel room. Yup. The burgers and tater tots were okay. We woke up early and left at 6am for Denver. At this rate we'll get there in about 4 hours. The geography is changing already and we see more hills. More later.

summer teef...summer tour...summer whiskey please!

2007-07-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

A week from today we will be playing our first show of our 2 part Battle of Sealand summer tour. I hope people outside of Chicago can come see us. Here are the confirmed dates and venues and info:
July 8, 2007 - Saddle Creek Bar - Omaha, Nebraska
July 9, 2007 - 3 Kings Tavern - Denver, Colorado
July 11, 2007 - Club Moscow @ Boardners - LA, California
July 12, 2007 - Mofo Bar - Tijuana, Mexico
July 14, 2007 - San Francisco?????
July 15, 2007 - Tonic Lounge - Portland, Oregon
July 16, 2007 - KEXP in studio - Seattle, Washington
July 16, 2007 - High Dive - Seattle, Washington
July 31, 2007 - Jeremy's DJ Set to celebrate the Japanese release of the album - Tokyo, Japan
August 13, 2007 - AS220 - Providence, RI
August 14, 2007 - The Khyber - Philadelphia, PA
August 15, 2007 - Black Cat - Washington DC
August 17, 2007 - Metro Gallery - Baltimore, Maryland
August 29, 2007 - Empty Bottle, record release show, Chicago, IL

Swithchyard Festival

2007-06-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

The Switchyard Festival was last weekend at The Continental, one of our favourite bars and a place I've DJ'd at for the last year. Being an outdoor street fest, I couldn't do my visuals but I did shoot video that included our friend Arunas introducing Airiel with a poem as Thax Douglas has been known to do with bands for years. It went well and the boys rocked out and lots of beer was consumed. Highlights included catching up with friends in The 1900's, who played a great show as well before The Stills.
Next time I write here it will be about our first west coast tour. Plans are being finalized right now and I'm trying not to freak out as the date gets closer and I'm trying to get everything done.

the show

2007-06-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

We were all anticipating this show for months. Hell, since we first played with A Place to Bury Strangers we wanted to play Chicago with them. Last Thursday it happened. It was an awesome show, full of fog, strobe lights, guitar pedals, and faces being melted off by three killer bands. La Scala opened with a great set. Such a good band who mix Gang of Four, Bloc Party, and European influences, not to mention good taste. A song in French? Sure! Why? Because the singer fucking knows French. That's why. APTBS filled darkroom with fog, one lightbulb triggered from a drum pad and blew people away. I smiled pretty much the whole time. i think the rest of Airiel did too. We played a fun set. We had to kick out the jams and keep the energy up after APTBS and we did. The boys rocked hard. Jeremy smiled as Chris screeched the opening of "You Kids Should Know Better". I threw down the rainbow shit visual attack and almost knocked my mixer off the table. The preview camera screen i use definitely fell off the DVD Players onto the cords. I want to look into a midi drum trigger to beat that up instead of the mixer. Oh and I also found a broken drum stick that either belongs to Josh from La Scala or Jay from APTBS.
We took the after party to The Continental and to Julius and Jocelyn's place after that where everybody but me crashed for the night. Friday took us to the Cubs game, which was awesome and then to Superdawg for Chicago style hot dogs. We saw a hit and run car accident that bent the back wheel of a VW Beetle in so far it couldn't move. People suck. It was raining too. I hope the SUV that did it got into a worse accident after that. Jerk. We hung out at my house the rest of the night drinking and playing a PS2 tournament of FIFA Soccer 2001. I think John-o won. Or Jay. I'm not sure. It was late. Everybody left Saturday morning for Toronto, Chris went home, and I went to work. I'm sure I speak for everybody else when I say I can't wait for APTBS to come back to Chicago. Next stop....Tijuana!
To see the pictures I took, click here

new flyer

2007-05-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm printing these and passing them out at darkroom tonight for the Ladytron DJ gig:

best.poster.ever

2007-05-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

We've been waiting years for this poster:

may 31st 2007

2007-04-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday. May 31st. Boneshaker and Filter Magazine present Airiel. A Place to Bury Strangers. La Scala. LIVE at darkroom. 2210 W. Chicago. 9pm.

thirsty?

2007-04-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today we welcomed Cockthirsty the trailer to the Airiel family, thanks to our dear friends in Assassins. For goodluck and recreational reading we left her with the Nikki Ziering issue of Playboy from a few years ago. She'll be living with me, and the broke-ass Taurus in the garage and will be touring with us this summer. California, here we come!

easter sunday

2007-04-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

So we played Schubas last night with The Cinematics. They're from Scotland and pretty good. The boys played a new set with guest bongo player on the last song and we were done early. Here's some pictures I took with my phone:
Chris

soundcheck

Jeremy

another soundcheck picture

food hangover

2007-03-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Dear reader (as I'm sure there's only one of you), you are well aware that this is a blog about my experiences on tour and in Chicago with Airiel. Sometimes, okay quite often, myself and other members of the band hang out socially and partake in drinks, dancing, video games and other fun activities like eating. I found myself chatting last night on AIM with Chris and he expressed wanting food from Harold's Chicken Shack. I had been in a hyper and antsy mood till then because of the warm weather that Chicago was experiencing and I was very happy about it. It was after 10pm and he suggested going out and I'd be home by midnight. I accepted his offer and at that time former Airiel member Griff (pinecone 5) came online and immediately accepted to be my come-with guy for a late night food adventure. Mind you, we both live on the north side of the city and Chris and Harolds are past 100th St. and west of Western Ave. That's far from home. With good weather and a loaded iPod we started on our travels.

After a backed up Dan Ryan expressway, a long trip down Chicago's south side along Ashland ave, we arrived to Harold's where we found Chris waiting for our food. A dark suburban drive back to his house led us to the bar in his basement. Here's where the insane laughter started due to the absurdity and awesomeness of our 1am fried chicken feast that was documented with the following photos. Griff and I exited Lake Shore Drive at exactly 2am and had sleepy days at work today that were well worth it.

And now the photos:

Arturo with his drink of choice

Chris and Griff

Chris approves

Strawberry flavoured

The greasy bag: a true sign of good food

Happy campers

Griff

The good part of this is that spring and warm weather are only just beginning!

germany, japan, mexico, schaumburg, da southside, and john!

2007-03-02T19:14:00.000-08:00

I hear mixing is going well on the album and David Golitko is doing an amazing job. I can't wait to hear it! My deepest apologies to John for not posting this dashing cell phone picture of him at the studio. I thought I sent all the pictures from the phone to my T-Mobile online album, then I found this one. Sorry dude. Isn't he handsome?

mermaid in a manhole

2007-02-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures from the recording sessions for the new Airiel album. I hear mixing is going well and we're all really excited about the new album and upcoming shows we're booking.......and dare I say summer west coast tour??

chris and arturo before playing the empty bottle, january 07

chris at the studio

jeremy gets a snack at engine studios

ahh pedals, glorious pedals

my camera phone has a long shutter speed

zapatogaze

2007-02-04T15:16:00.000-08:00

I should really update this more often. It's Superbowl Sunday today and about a month after the new album was recorded. The title of this blog comes from the genre of music created by me and Julis (Highwheel Records label man and Walking Bicycles guitarist). Zapatogaze will be the Mexican shoegaze band I'm going to start after I run away to Mexico. It's going to be awesome. For now, here's what's been going on.....

The album sounds badass. I was there for a whole day and stopped by after work another day to hear the progress. Everybody seems to have given each other a cold, ate some good food, played a lot of Halo, and apparently there was an incident with a fish that plays lap steel guitar. I miss all the good stuff. There's some special guests on the album from some very cool Chicago bands who David and Balthazar did a great job with. I can't wait for everybody to hear this!

We played the Empty Bottle for a Highwheel Records showcase gig on January 22nd. It was nice playing a gig with bands we know and we're all friends with. Walking Bicycles and Arks were great and so different from last I saw both bands. We got a lot of press from Spin magazine, Timeout, Chicagoist.com, The Reader, and a ton of support from myspace and friends and hopefully a lot of new fans. There were 350 people on a cold Monday night who stayed till the end. Airiel sold some CD's and a few records too. We all really wanted to win over that fanbase and get in well with the Bottle. I think we did. Mission accomplished. Mat (Arks), Julius (Walking Bicycles) and I DJ'd the after party at The Continental and got to hang out with everybody and the people that came out after the show.

Next up are some local shows in the works, hopefully some travel, and I'll post pictures from the studio very soon...

a very cold day

2006-12-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

Airiel played Debonair Social Club on Dec. 7th. I left work an hour early, fell on some ice in front of a big line of cars walking next to a gas station. It was cold as fuck too. I mean, really damn cold. I didn't have my car back from the shop yet and I needed a ride. Mark Gertz picked me up, and while the band set up, to make a long story short, I was told I couldn't play and tore down my gear. I had to watch the boys play the show without me, and play well they did. Scary Lady Sarah bought me and Gertz a kamikaze shot and damn was it good. I'll have to have another one soon. They're so refreshing. I wish I was able to play this show, but I guess I'll have to wait till next year at the Empty Bottle.

Chris started an Airiel blog here.

i've been looking so long at these pictures of you

2006-11-22T21:04:00.000-08:00

NYC, Labor Day weekend, September 2006

Arturo and some chickens in Brooklyn.
chickens
Chris laughing at a gas station
Cory and Lisa in the van
guitar pedals
home of the world's best sandwich
a door in Brooklyn
John drumming
George from the band Dirty on Purpose
John playing guitar
Hermano & Deli Grocery
Holland Tunnel
Holland Tunnel - animated
Jeremy, Lisa, Cory, Chris in Brooklyn
Jeremy, Oliver, Chris, John
Jeremy in the main room
The Saddest Shoegazer EVER!
John in Brooklyn
Chicago expat and dear friend of airiel, Kerry with Arturo
Chris in the camera flash
Oliver and Jeremy
I asked for pate' . I suffered. I asked for pate'
the big picture
rooftop view
robot vs. total sonic annilhilation
touring van
water tower drawing
Welcome to West Orange NJ
Chris on wheels
Williamsburgh Bridge

Minneapolis. October 27-28 2006
Chris texting or checking the Bears score
Cory driving
Wisconsin
Jeremy and Yuka at the Kitty Kat Club
the pinecone keeps us safe
wipe your feet at the door, you're home!
the van
Wisconsin from the back seat
outside the disappointing restaurant next to the winter wonderland
show flyer

PANIC! at Smartbar, December 2004
Cory and Arturo

crashing in a fit of laughter

2006-11-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

When we drove to NYC in September, I kept a written account of part of the trip. I wish I had written more but you know how it goes. So here's the story....

September 2, 2006. 7:50am
We've been driving since 7:30pm when we left Schaumburg last night. Right now we are in PA somewhere and it's raining. What better time to start the PC4 blog, I say. John's driving, I'm writing. Each of us has maybe 2 hours sleep that we got in the back seats of the van while Cory and Lisa drive late last night. Chris is currently balled up sleeping after an insane fit of laughter that I think expelled the last bit of whatever the fuck is in those energy drinks he overdosed on through the night. Jeremy's awake I thin. Hold on, I'll turn around. Yep, he's asleep. His crash wasn't as explosive as Chris'. Damn.
I haven't driven yet and won't till we drive home because i haven't had a full night's sleep in like 3 weeks. That's another story for another blog. PA is really one of my favorite states to drive through. It's really pretty with lots of trees and mountains. I expect we're all going to arrive in NYC in a few hours much like much like I was at the Mc Donalds 30 minutes ago: wet, trembling, cold, and awake on the verge of insanity, laughter, tears, and needing a shot of whiskey. Now if only it would stop raining.

September 4, 2006. 3:02pm
I'm sending text messages to pass the time. We're currently driving back to Chicago through PA and expect to be there late tonight. I can't wait really despite my early morning wake up for work and how tired we'll be. It was a fun weekend and again I'm so glad to be a part of airiel.
We arrived to Oliver's compound/Death By Audio/A Place To Bury Strangers/Hammer's Secret Underground World Domination Headquarters around 2:30 on Saturday. It rained all day and night but we were so pumped to be there we didn't sleep and got to hanging out.

---------
That was all I was got. I drove through Ohio at sunset and had the sun in my eyes for at least an hour. That sucked. Ohio is very boring to drive through so there wasn't much to block the sun or to look at either. Oh well. Next update: Pictures!

assault system and marshall amps

2006-11-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

Hello. It's been a very eventfall fall around here. So much so I haven't been able to update this blog. I've been working long hours and dealing with family health problems, and trying not to go insane while not sleeping enough. There's been a break in the action so here's a quick update on shows with pictures coming soon...

2 NYC shows over Labor Day September 06: so good to see and play with A Place to Bury Strangers again. So great to hang out with them and see the city. Saw our dear friend Kerry and other NYC friends and met some cool people. I had to share a bed with John and we got hit by bed bugs. My arms were itchy for 2 weeks. We at the world's best sandwiches at a deli near APTBS' place had a great view from their roof. Our good friend Rex Nexus came out and rocked with us at Sine-e, and we played Europa Night Club, a Polish nightclub with the world's sexiest bartenders and wait staff on Sunday. Awesome. We hung out in Brooklyn at some cool bars and had some NYC pizza in Manhattan. Kerry took us around Brooklyn and John and I did some sight seeing, even if it was just walking up and down the street. I love going there and I'm never in NYC long enough.

September 06: Subterranean with Snowden. They were fantastic. I was upfront with the airiel boys rocking out to their set and I think we played one of my favorite sets ever. I rocked hard on the video mixer (yes, it's possible) and did one of my best sets ever. Good times.
Darkroom with Butterfly Child and DJ's Brock and Tobias: Butterfly Child played acoustic and it was killer. I'm a big fan. Tobias made this his going away party because him and his girlfriend were moving to Portland. Everybody was so sad to see him go. Yuka, Jeremy's new wife just moved from Tokyo the night before so they were in a great mood together. Nice to see him so happy. Darkroom is seriously my second living room and it's always fun to play with airiel there.

October 21 06: Our first show at Metro. We were super excited for this one and it went extremely well. We played with Office who were pretty good and airiel sounded great and i had this amazing big screen and a borrowed projector from our dear friends in Assassins, one of Chicago's best bands. Yuka and I were the only ones on the Metro floor while the boys sound checked and it was seriously like standing in front of a shoegazing jet engine...with John's drums filling the venue and surrounding me. Intense. I had goosebumps hearing them play the last song from the live set that sounds like BRMC and The Warlocks having a fight in Ride's old tour bus....or something.

October 28th - Minneapolis, at the Kitty Kat Club. Small room. Nice place. Cool hangout and the food looked good. The small crowd sat to watch us but seemed to be really into it, especially the guys in the V for Vendetta masks, and our new friends in the band So it Goes, who were the best hosts and super nice people. We didn't get to see much of the city or my other friends and family there but it's always nice to be in Minneapolis. I've done great VJ gigs there at The Quest, a bigass nightclub and airiel has done well there. On our way back and one of the biggest reasons for taking this gig was that we took Yuka and Chris to the PINE CONE RESTAURANT. Chris was baptized in gravy in a secret airiel ceremony only witnessed by one other person, Pinecone Patty....or Mrs. Griff Baron, and Yuka ate a plate of food bigger than her. We all had these giant Flintstone sized steaks and ate like kings (and one queen). Life was good that day. I got a bumper sticker that says "DRIVER......IS NOT WEARING PANTS!" in the shop next door and Chris was eyeing this owl dressed as a wizard statue. Dude, you should have gotten it!!

So that's it. Good times. Good music. Good food. Lots and lots of booze. Oh and thanks to Jeremy for posting his show comments on the airiel web site. This helped me write this post and remember the dates and stuff.

the superbowl shuffle

2006-07-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted anything in a while but there hasn't been much to post about. Airiel played on July 3rd with Echonine, Autobot from Flosstradamus, and DJ sets between acts by me and Johnny Kesh, a.k.a. Arunas from Darkroom. Echonine was so good and loud and Tony's acoustic drums were just the right touch and better than the electronic drum kit. Go figure, I would have thought that an electronic band like that wouldn't benefit from an acoustic kit. Airiel played well and they were so loud, we think they loosened the miles of gaffers tape I had on the wall holding up the screen. Pogo says that tape is meant to hold up alot and it still fell down. People seemed to enjoy the set, shots of Jamesons were had and the boys played very well. Autobot was fantastic playing mashups, hip hop, rock, and ended his set with The Superbowl Shuffle by the 1986 Chicago Bears. This guy is a genius. After Darkroom closed, Arunas and I DJ'd about an hour and a half at The Continental. We brought the rock and I got to bed at 5am. Good times.

On the 4th of July, I woke up early to get to Jeremy's place to carpool to Joliet. We showed up to a place we didn't belong, with some people who probably didn't care, and did something we shouldn't have and spent the whole day doing it. We did have some fried chicken for lunch, and Chris joined Jeremy and I for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. They had good mashed potatoes. It was worth the drive out to Joliet for the meal because we were treated to fireworks shows from all the surrounding suburbs on the way back to the city. We also got to see the random neighborhood and downtown fireworks in the city too. I really do love hanging out with Chris and Jeremy, and eating good food is a big plus too! .......and that's how I spent my 4th of July.

On Friday the 7th we played with Rich's old band and Helen Stellar who came back to Chicago and asked that we play with them again. They were great, as usual and I can't wait to see them and play with them again. Again, this night ended at the Continental with drunk people, friends, and good vibes. Oh yeah, Chris K. from Metro is now Airiel's un/official new girlfriend. I'm using my pinecone status here to bestow upon her the status of Airiel girlfriend. The pinecone prophesy books held by the pinecone elders, under the watchful eye of pinecone Patty, state that there can be more than one Airiel girlfriend at any given time according to any member of the band holding pinecone status. This title does not come easily and is earned by being awesome and loved by Airiel, as she is. Chris K. got my backstage pass and an "airiel loves me" button because she'd never yell at me or harrass me about not knowing when there's an Airiel show. Besides, she knows about shows in advance and she's super cool.

That's about all the news I got to report from Airiel. The new song is fantastic and the song they've been closing the set with blows me away every time. I'm so happy and proud to be a part of this band and everything involved with it. I can't wait for the next show. I'm tired and going to bed. Goodnight.

Peoria video on youtube

2006-06-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

dance dance revolution

2006-06-04T15:06:00.001-07:00

So Airiel played in Schaumburg at Gameworks on Friday. We were the only band which was kind of weird. Also, we didn't get to play any games, which I was a bit disappointed about, but at least the fish and chips weren't bad. One guy who looked like he was on the Sopranos really dug it and watched Jeremy play when he stepped off stage and stood next to the guy. He was really getting into it. One couple requested "In Your Room" which was super cool and we did 2 sets. The video was cool for the first set, but I wasn't feeling it for the second. The screen fell a couple of times due to the tape and the surface of the wall and pillar but who cares. It was an arcade on a Friday night in the burbs. Luckily one guy who worked there was super helpful and helped nail and tape the screen after it fell for me while the band played. Nobody does that at regular venues. Most of all, we had fun and rocked out. People liked it, especially Cory's co-workers who were really cool. Here's a few pictures. I wish I took more but you know how it goes:

arturo
chris
jeremy
john
rich and andre

digital cameras

2006-04-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from the record release party. Photo gallery generated by Photoshop, so if it sucks, blame Adobe. So here you go..... Pictures!

time out!

2006-04-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Time Out Chicago had this to say in this week's issue (page 104) about the upcoming show on Wednesday:

Celebrating the release of High Wheel Records' Welcome to the Future comp is a great lineup of locals. We're fans of headliners Airiel, who specialize in lush shoegaze. Arks use heavy bass lines with ethereal, howling vocals for their own brand of abstract rock, and the female-fronted post-punks of Walking Bicycles have just self-released Disconnected, their first LP (see Thu. 13 for their release party). Come early for the mostly instrumental troublemakers in Rhineland Bastards, who combine the jet-engine roar of My Bloody Valentine with the sweaty video projection-assisted freak-outs of the Butthole Surfers.

new song: Peoria

2006-03-26T12:11:00.000-08:00

two helicopters hovering over a poppy field

2006-03-26T11:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a week since the show at Double Door. Essenza asked us to be on the bill and we found out why. I think they owe us one. We had fun, they were great and they're such nice people that we can't wait to do another show together. Airiel played very well and we got a good crowd out to support. It was over way too soon, as always. I showed some new video and we all got rip roaring drunk downstairs with our dear friends Kill Hannah, Chris G., and others who came out. We talked trash with KH about kicking their ass in Halo, which was later settled this past Thursday. I ended up after Double Door at Neo with Chris G. and others dancing very drunkenly to Comasoft, Skinny Puppy, and whatever else. I got a burrito on the way home and another show down the tubes. The title of this entry comes from a myspace comment left for Airiel from our friend Dave about the show. Thanks dude.

About settling the Halo score with Kill Hannah. All of Airiel, except Cory, went to Greg's house on Thursday and got our asses handed to us. KH are Halo ninjas. I guess if you spend months on tour with nothing to do but play XBOX on a tour bus, you're going to be good at it. It was a flurry of grenades and rockets. Good job guys, but I still want a rematch. Halo2? Star Wars Battlefront 1 or 2? Bring it. Yes we're geeks.

Next show: Highwheel Records compilation release with Walking Bicycles, Arks, and Rhineland Bastards at Double Door on April 19th. This is going to be a great show. You can hear the new Airiel song called "Peoria" on myspace and the record will be available at the show.

ribs

2006-03-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

who's up for ribs after the show?

pedal boards

2006-03-02T00:06:00.000-08:00

This is long overdue. The show at Subterranean on the 13th of February ruled. Chris' guitar was extra loud and killer. It was a big wall-of-fuck-you-sound coming from the left side of the stage. Jeremy and Cory hit hard from the other side and John down the middle. Shock and awe. They might have had some issues with the show, but not me. I was on, it was loud and spacey and droney and I hit all my beats and tweaked out some eyeballs. I hope. Well, i tweaked out my own eyeballs at least.

Apparently, the jar of earplugs we were giving away was empty at the end of the set. I've started to carry around a set at all times after watching "It's All Gone Pete Tong", a movie about a superstar DJ who goes deaf because of his profession. Sure it's a cute way to tell people we're loud but it's also a good safety precaution. Essenza, the band who invited us out was great and I'd love to see them again.

Other news: I'm currently working on an EPK video that will be posted here very soon, as well as still working on the Cinnamon video. Good things take time. The 7" that was recorded at Engine Studios sounds great and there will be a record release show this spring. Oh and one more thing, Kill Hannah will get their asses kicked in Halo. Hang 'em High? We will. Pistols vs Pistols. May the best shoegazers win!

zombies and microphones

2006-02-12T22:11:00.000-08:00

We spent 12 hours in the studio yesterday with David from Assassins, who has produced a lot of Airiel releases. The new song is amazing and will be released on a split 7" single. Zombies were a running theme because I had a hangover and 4 hours of sleep and felt like a zombie, and I know one other member of the band felt the same, as well as the zombie movies on the Sci-Fi Channel. Tomorrow, we play at Subterranean and it will be amazing. Three new custom made guitar pedals will be used and I'll have new video and hopefully I'll be feeling better from the cold I seem to have caught because the studio was so cold and I've been running myself ragged this past week.

Also, the boys went in to Q101 for a live interview tonight. Listen to it here

the changing of the seasons

2006-02-12T22:08:00.001-08:00

Since the last update, there's been a new video in the works for Cinnamon. You'll see a new take on the changing of the seasons involving spring flowers, Christmas lights, the beach, the autumn leaves, and some serious shoegazing. Half of it is shot and a shot of Jeremy singing in a blizzard of rain and giant snowflakes is being rendered right now in After Effects.

meat candy

2005-12-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

Good show at Double Door on Saturday. Everybody rocked. Hard. I think the boys rocked so hard on stage that the screen fell. In front of say at least 100 people, the damn screen fell down. I mean, the fucking screen FELL DOWN. It was 2 screens taped together at the top and and held up by the pulley system they have at Double Door. This rules by the way. I wish they were farther apart though. I guess the tape got loose when the screen was taken down for the first band or something. I don't know. It was embarassing but I pulled it off as best I could. People gave me compliments and really seemed to like the show.

We had dinner at the awesome Papagin where we shared our dishes including Chris' sweet crispy chicken something that basically tasted like meat candy. I know what I'm getting next time I eat there. Helen Stellar was fantastic. There was an opening band too. Lots of friends came out to support. Jeremy and Chris' parents, who were all charming and sweet, made it out and it's nice to know the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Wow, I think that's the first time I've ever said that.

The night ended with Chris, myself and our friend Mat from the band Arks driving around (after the after-party at Elbo Room with Scary Lady Sarah and her Shimmer night) looking for a 5am bar. The bitter cold made us leave the line at Estelles and we headed for the 24 hour Korean restaurant on Lawrence that is now closed till summer. Damn. We ended up at Golden Apple where Mat and I had burgers and Chris , god bless him, had BBQ ribs and chili fries. Good times. I seriously can't wait for the next Airiel show. I know I say this every time, but it's true. I also can't wait for the Arks show at Darkroom on Monday....

a stellar evening

2005-11-21T15:17:00.000-08:00

autumn has been stolen by thieves and carried across the border to canada

2005-11-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

So first off, the Autumn Thieves did not play the show with us on Thursday. That sucked. Apparently Courtney, their singer has Canadian citizenship and wasn't allowed back in the US after they played their show in Toronto. Lame. Being from NYC, you'd think they would have thought about this, or would know about homeland security, or seriously, what's the big deal? She was only playing music and it was only one date on their tour and now the rest of the tour got cancelled. We were so looking forward to exposing our friends to their music and having a great night playing together with Brock and Tobias. I even offered to marry Courtney so she could get back into the US and be a citizen. Yeah, that idea didn't fly.
The boys DJ'd some great stuff. Space rock and all sorts of cool music. Here's a cut and paste of the messasge I sent out to my email list:
Hello,
On Thursday November 17th at Darkroom there will be a very special Airiel show. Sadly, I have to report that John will not be playing with Airiel. We are very sad about this but we must move onwards and upwards. We tried to replace him with robots and even one of those wind-up toy monkey drummers that James Dean was playing with at the beginning of Rebel Without a Cause. You know the kind, with the banging cymbals or maybe a marching drum. It didn’t work. Nobody could top John out rocking his drum and puncturing a hole in it at the last show before proving how badass he is and standing up and drumming at the end of Kiss Me Sadly. Come see this special Airiel show before John returns to the stage after being retrofitted with the highest grade titanium detachable drum stick hands and super human kick drum speed motors installed on his foot. The same robots that made Darth Vader are working on as I type this. He will be fitter, happier, and more productive. Till then somebody has to rock out as hard as him, and I am that person. If you come out on Thursday you will see 3 determined young men with guitars rocking their hearts out for John’s speedy recovery while I smash my video gear to pieces, shove Jeremy, spank Cory, touch Chris’ arm so gently, tear my screens down and set them on fire, all before jumping out the back window of Darkroom like the Kool-Aid man screaming “OOOH YEAAH!!”. We’re doing it for John. Airiel will rock for the absence of their sick brother. He will make his triumphant return to the stage soon and join us in plans of world domination. I promise these fucking shoegazers will look up from their feet and smile when they see you.

See you on Thursday.

Love,
-arturo
xoxo
----------
They did 2 songs in the span of 30 minutes. John's been out sick and couldn't practice so they used a drum machine. It was so cool. I got into a groove about half way through the set rocking the rainbow shit that you could see more of without a drum kit in the way. Not that it's ever in the way or anything. I love John and his drums. I love when he stands up all bad-ass during the rock out ending of Kiss Me Sadly. Airiel's sound is changing and morphing and I can't wait to hear more of it and play with them. I took my ear plugs out towards the end, so I could hear everything better. December 3rd at Double Door is going to rule. See you there.

the thieves of autumn

2005-11-11T00:16:00.000-08:00

We're all very excited about this. Won't you join us?

meat fest, tour diary #10

2005-11-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

I know I've been slow at updating and Jeremy already has his tour journal online here . Our last day off while still officially on tour was here at home in Chicago. Chris and I decided to have our first ever MEAT FEST. This happened at Bobak's over on Cicero and Archer. I've seen this place on Check Please and it looked great. It's a polish buffet restaurant with a grocery store attached to it. Awesome. You can eat 10 different types of sausage and other meat then go buy it freshly made at the grocery store to take home. You can also buy polish hip hop dvd's too. I did, and it rules. The rest of this day was spent digesting meat and relaxing before the last show of the tour on Tuesday.
The show was awesome. What a great night for music and friends. It was so nice to see everybody come out and support us and welcome us home. Only Lovers Left Alive opened the night and were great, I'm looking forward to seeing more shows and hopefully playing more shows with them. Hartfield won over so many fans and the show ended with Taka rolling around on the floor after falling over and rocking out the way only he can. Yukari ended up screaming and rocking the hardest she ever did and it was great to have them in a big venue with a big crowd who loved them. I had a great time with Airiel and the wide screen I set up that went across the entire stage and looked really good. After us, it was Arks who as always rocked hard. Cory and I were at the front of the stage singing along with "Cars on FIRE!" and lots of drinking, hugs, and kisses were had by the merch booth at the back with all our friends who missed us while we were gone. It felt good and made everything worth while.
After Arks were done and people were leaving the bands were still around and I saw the last ever Tequila Screamer that Cory did to finish Chris' initiation into the Airiel family. We got it on video. Now, we have to take Chris to the Pine Cone Restauant, with Griff, to baptise him in gravy and finally give him the status of Pinecone6.

Let's skip to October 9th and our show at Darkroom. This was our first show after the tour and the first time we've all been together since then. John and I wore our Hartfield shirts, and we didn't even talk about this before the show. Great minds do think alike after all. We missed having Hartfield around, it just didn't feel right. I think we all noticed how we've become closer and way more comfortable with each other because of the tour. Needless to say, we got drunk, John out-rocked his snare drum and tore a whole in it, Chris stepped on Jeremy's power strip and turned off his pedal board mid song, Jeremy told the audience we were all drunk, and everybody had a great time rockin' out and didn't care about how sloppy it was. I'm totally dedicated now to the idea of trashing my own gear during the end of "Kiss Me Sadly" since John and the boys have been known to throw gear, turn over drums and rock out the hardest. I want to rock too. I'm thinking, and this has to happen at Darkroom, that I'm going to run on stage and smash a VCR or DVD player and tear down screens and set them on fire before jumping through the giant window like the Kool-aid man screaming OOHH YEAH!!! . Hey, I gotta do my part and rock out too. I can't let them have all the fun and glory. Don't get me started on the video mayhem caused by the custom Big Muff pedal I'm going to have hot wired and gutted to make it a video processing pedal of doom. Oh yes. It will be done.

oasis played on the ipod, tour diary #9

2005-10-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this will be from memory since I stopped writing in the notebook at this point. This is also the last date of the tour before Chicago. After 12 hours in the car and a few missed turns and wrong turns in Cincinnati, after we finally arrived at the venue. The drive here was long but we drove through some beautiful mountains in West Virginia. There was no cell phone reception here and we got separated from Jeremy and the others but we eventually stopped at some grocery store to meet up and get food and snacks and stuff.
The Comet Bar was cool. If it was in Chicago, I would go there all the time. Chris said it was like Club Foot here in Chicago, just that Castle Grayskull was replaced by a trout on the wall. There were two rooms, the bar and the live music room. As part of our deal, we got drinks and food. They had these giant burritos that I coudn't finish but were really damn good. Saucy staff and a cool laid back crowd were hanging around all night.
Hartfield rocked, Jeremy's friend Lisa was very cool and hung out with us, then we played our set. It went well, and I rocked the Rainbow Shit over the store front windows. After the show, I think it was Chris (thanks dude!) who said the magic words "hey, why don't we just drive home tonight!" and after we all talked about it we decided that we would. Right after the show. This other band from Chicago called Lesser Birds of Paradise played too and were fucking amazing. The music reminded me of the Mermaid Avenue CD by Billy Bragg and WIlco that I have. The lyrics were fantastic, with really pretty and mellow and intricate guitar work. It didn't make much sense to follow the loud ass rock bands with this but I was glued to my chair, front and center. This never happens with me, so let that be a testament to how good these guys were. I can't wait to see them again.
We all piled in the cars and set out for the 5-6 hour drive to Chicago. At some point I drove Jeremy's Volvo and I was feeling ducky and awake, okay maybe a bit delirious from being in the van for 12 hours, then playing a show, and now driving again and Oasis was playing (we had no music in the van since NYC where John lost the face plate to the stereo), but still I was feeling ducky and Jeremy needed a nap. We switched off again soon and we made our way to Chicago as the sun was rising. I couldn't wait to take a shower in my own house and sleep in my own bed. A real bed.
We actually drove past Chicago and straight into suburbia to drop off the gear and Cory then back to my house where Chris was going to stay and sleep and John was on his way home. After we got settled, Chris slept for like 5 hours or something and I slept for 2-3. I swear, that kid can sleep through anything and anywhere. By mid afternoon we got up, and got some food at Penny's before driving him back home on the far south west side. Oak Lawn to be precise. One thing of note, is that we passed by Bobak's at Archer and Cicero. I had seen this place on Check Please and little did we know that it would become known as Meat Fest. Oh yes. Meat Fest. More on Meat Fest later. Perhaps a Meat Fest blog entry....or TWO Meat Fest blog entries! Wow, how many times did I just say Meat Fest? See, there I go again. Meat Fest!
So after dropping Chris off I got home and relaxed, my head still spinning from the past week and realized that I didn't have to do anything till Tuesday at Double Door. I'd have to get there on my own too. How weird. I will end this by saying that I woke up the next morning running straight for the window to see if they were loading up the cars, expecting to see John next to an open van door and Jeremy and Cory hauling some amps to the van and Taka taking guitar cases to the Volvo. I saw none of this and went about my morning.

one week, tour diary #8

2005-10-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

9-24-05, 6:44pm
It's been a week on the road now. We toasted our plastic Pepsi and water bottles somewhere in VA earlier today for the occasion. So far it's been great, except for the wicked blisters on my feet and insanity brought on by 3-4 hours of sleep every night.
----
Jump to today, 10-20-05. 5:46pm.
That must have been written in Kentucky. I think we were in KY at that time. More later on Cincinnati, Chicago, and our first post tour show at Darkroom.

big rock. norfolk part 2

2005-10-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that at the end of the Hartfield set, Yukari bless her rock n roll soul, threw her flying-v guitar off and stepped on the neck in a fit of rock rage. I looked over and Jeremy, Yuka, and Chris who were watching at the back by the cash registers as all of our jaws dropped as we saw this. Big rock, indeed.

i was so mad, tour diary #7

2005-10-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

We're on our way to Norfolk, driving, everybody goofy and having fun. Chris is at the driver's seat. John is sitting behind him and tries to break his concentration by waving his hands around Chris' head. It doesn't phase him. I start up with a way to phase him, and boy did he get phased. I said "okay, how about this..." and rub Chris' arm. He FREAKS OUT and starts giggling like a school girl! Maybe he's ticklish or something but wow. Cory cried from laughing so hard. The video is hysterical.
So we arrive in Norfolk, in time to get set up and have a quick bite to eat. It's a music store on the 2nd floor on apparently the yuppy strip of Norfolk. It reminded me of Lincoln Ave. here, between Fullerton and Webster. Hartfield rocked.......the second band started out promising then turned into a hippy jam band that listens to way too much Coldplay. Ugh. That tinkling piano and that guitar is so boring. Seriously. The small group of people who came out started to trickle out and Airiel played. It went well until that girl in the asian outfit with way over done pixie haircut unplugs my cable. My screen goes blue and I freak out and follow the cables to the projector and back and the barrel connector joining 2 S-video cables that I TAPED DOWN was loose. She must have been playing with it or something or kicked it or whatever the fuck because as soon as I squeezed both ends together it came back on. I was furious. NEVER has this happened to me. I've had bad shows but never have I been unplugged. She then giggles in an "oops, did I do that?" way as I walk back to my gear and finish the set. I'm furious and snappy to everybody and rage on loudly every time somebody asks me what happens.
I calmed down and we make it to Abel and Mickey-Anne's house. Okay, we finally arrive because we got really lost and they had to guide us there on the pone. Everybody was let down because of poor attendance but Hartfield sold CD's and shirts and the store bought some so at least somebody won something. So at the house, I get the first bed I've slept on since I left home a week before. It felt good but we only slept for 4 hours before we had to leave for Cincinnati at 8am the next morning. My old friends made us breakfast and were great and so nice to everybody. It's always nice to see them.
Next time, a long ass day of driving, a show, then a long ass night of driving. Also back to typing up what I wrote in the notebook. Right now, I'm finally digitizing what I recorded on mini-disc. it's going to need a lot of post work. I've never done this before....

take it in the ass for art, tour diary #6

2005-10-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

After we eventualy left New York, we were stuck on one of the bridges and we still had the 3lb bag of peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets that Chris bought. Naturally we thought it would be a great idea to throw them at Jeremy through his open car window as we were sitting there in traffic not moving. John yelled "take it in the ass for art!" and he threw a pretzel that hit Jeremy square in the head and shattered. The other pretzel bites went in his car and all over the seats. As retaliation, he caught one and threw it but i went backwards and hit the car behind him. This was funny, but was made funnier because of the driver of this car. It was some luxury sedan driven by this old woman with wrist braces on both arms and she looked like somebody's grandmother or something. Van: 1 , Volvo: -0.
I ended up driving us into Washington DC and damn, is there a lot of traffic there. Jeez. We found the venue, a small room sort of like half the size of Beat Kitchen with a cool cafe next door that's part of the same place. We hung out there for like 5 hours and almost left the venue ditching the show altogether because of frayed nerves and nobody showing up work the venue or to play with us. Finally people did show up and the other band, Alcian Blue who were very good and nice people too, played a good set. Lots of Airiel fans showed up and I had a nice big video projection going there. I recorded audio onto mini disc too, but I have yet to hear it.
Some drama after the show led us back to Kyle's place, a lovely beach house half a block away from the beach in Maryland. This was about an hour away from DC. We stood on the beach at 4am under the moonlight and it was one of those special moments that not many of us will forget anytime soon. Jeremy and I had to pee so Kyle told us to do what the fishermen did, and that was to go "over there" and pee into the water. We walked a bit away from the group, did our business and I felt close to the ocean and nature for a bit. Well it was that, but I think it was the draft and the relief I got from peeing, combined with the exhaustion and pain of my feet from the giant bilsters that were surely popped now thanks to the broken shells and the coarse sand. Whatever it was, I felt good and lucky to be with these people, at this time, and at this place.
The next morning Cory, John and I went down to the beach, where I shot more video and did something I've never done before in my 29 years. I went swimming in the ocean. Okay, Chesapeke Bay, but as far as I'm concerned it was the ocean. That was so amazing to be in the water with 2 of my good friends, and knowing why we got there and how we got there and what we went through the past few days it was really a nice moment to share and be a part of. It's so peaceful and so calming I wish I could have stayed there a week. I shot some video and took some pictures and we ended up leaving for Norfolk saying our goodbyes to Kyle with an overall mood of happiness and good vibes.
Next stop, Norfolk, me getting furiously angry, and watching the magic that happens when you touch Chris' arm...

the gravy that is New York.....tour diary part 5

2005-10-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

The next official entry in the notebook is from 9-24 on our way to Cincinatti so the rest of this will be from memory.
John made one of the best quotes ever while walking around Brooklyn: "Soak up the gravy that is New York with the biscuit that is your eye." Only a genius madman drummer can say such amazing things.
The show in NYC was great. We played after If When who were quiet albiet a bit Stereolabby. I dunno, didn't do much for me. There, I said it. I was bored, and I don't care what big shoegaze band they were in before. Hartfield then made their NYC debut which was thunderous and amazing, then Airiel came and showed the NYC people and their "half hour attention span" how we do it Chicago style. We threw down. A Place to Bury Strangers came and threw down themselves. Okay, they tore the roof off the place. I'm glad we played before them. Chris calls them a sonic assault. I do too. BRMC who? wha? ehh? I can't hear over the wall of sound from a 3 piece who sounds like the best of Jesus and Mary Chain and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club all turned up to 11. They had visuals too. This cool british dude named Spencer did some amazing 16mm film loops with 2 projectors and he'd flap cardboard or something over each projector to make a rapid fire cutting visual assault. Being 16mm the film was scratchy and gritty and amazing. The best part for me was when a frame burned in the projector with fire footage behind it from the other projector and Spencer just pulled it down one frame to burn the next one and it was such an amazing thing to see with the music fitting in so well at that very moment. Magic, I tell you. It was magic.
After the gig, we dropped off our stuff in Brooklyn and went back to some bar in Manhattan for the after party. I should mention that my dear friend Susan came out to the show and after party, and I haven't seen her in like a year. It was so great to see her again, yet a bit weird to be outside of Chicago and on her home turf which made it all the more special. She, like always looked lovely that night. Chris made a comment how one of the defining moments of the tour came when we had 13 half drunk or half stoned people in the back of the APTBS van blasting Ministry speeding over the Williamsburgh bridge with what we later found out was a flat tire. This my dear reader, well okay both of you, is ROCK AND ROLL.
The after party kinda sucked but the booze was good. Isn't it always? I guess the shoegaze night got mixed up with the metal night at this bar and there was a lot of metal, no metal heads and a handful of shoegazers, and a couple of bands. Did I mention how great it was to see Susan? A few drunk texts were sent from and to Chicago to the Panic crew who were bored and drunk themselves. I swear, whenever I'm away, my cell phone is my umbillical cord back to Chicago. We found out the van had a flat tire and Oliver in all his laid-backness was like "whatever man" and we filled it back up with air and drove our happy asses back to Brooklyn for our last night's sleep in NYC. I think Ministry was still playing on the stereo.

a picture is worth a thousand words

2005-10-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

and these are the photos I took on the tour....

The Jersey Shore, and NYC, tour report #4

2005-10-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

9-23-05 3:24pm, Arturo
This notebook has been in the car since we unloaded in NJ. The show there was great. We got to Long Branch early so we headed out to the beach that was only 2 blocks away. I didn't go in but it was great to stand there on the edge of the deep green sea, as our dear friend Robert Smith would say. Hartfield and Airiel were followed by the unstoppable force that is known to the world as Mau Mau Tsunami. They were fronted by the Brighton Bar's Jacko really loved my visuals and I was honored to get such a compliment. Basically, Airiel and I rocked, then we got rocked. Some other band played between Airiel and Mau Mau Tsunami but they were very forgettable. Mau Mau Tsunami plays old school hardcore, and they do it well. Very well. Cory and I got drunk and skanked up front in our own little mosh pit. Then the screaming started. Jacko yelled a call and response of "Bullshit!!" into the mic passing it back to us one by one to respond "BULLSHIT!!!!". It was only the third date but damn did we need to get rocked like that.
We drove into NYC at like 3am, while I drunk texted people in Chicago. I'm sure I made them smile as much as they made me smile. When we got to Brooklyn, we arrived at the space of A Place To Bury Strangers. Oliver their singer, guitarist, custom pedal maker (death by audio) was our host. He was awesome, friendly, and always smiling. He promptly took us out for a beer after our arrival.
The next day we met with some new friends who we met through Yuka (Jeremy's girlfriend who is joining us the rest of the way on tour). BJ, Dave, and John were great tour guides and took us to Ground Zero, which was very impressive and intense once you get to think of what actually happened there. It looked like a big construction site now. After that we got drinks at a cute small bar in the Lower East Side. To get there, we walked through Chinatown and Little Italy which was having the San Gennaro Festival seen in the movie Mean Streeets. Chris and I wanted a snack so we went over to Ray's Pizza for a snack. NYC pizza has weird sliced sausage not the small chunks typically known as sausage. This was cut like pepperoni. Weirdos. Either way, it's hard to meet a slice of pizza I don't like. We then walked (everybody walks in NYC) to get Japanese food in St. Marks which is an awesome neighborhood and it was a really good restaurant. We then walked to another bar where my old friend Scott came to visit us. As always it was so nice to see him and we laughed about how we're seeing each other all over the country. Since March, we've hung out together in San Francisco, Chicago, and now NYC. Where next??
The next bar we went to was Lit. They had a great britpop DJ who played Airiel and Hartfield to the joy of each band's members who were there. Taka gave him a sticker and John went over to say hello and thank him. We bonded over Panic and britpop and he played my requests.
To end the night, we took a cab back to Brooklyn and Cory, Chris and I went on to 2 more with the guys from A Place To Bury Strangers. I was so tired I left my camera behind at the first bar, Iona. I recovered the bag the next day after the bartender saw it and placed it in the basement for safe keeping. At the second and final bar of the night, we met a Polish immigrant who's been here in the states for 6 years named Darius. He loves Duran Duran and music in Poland in the 80's was beautiful. It had heart and feeling. He overstayed his welcome after we folded up his chair and placed it against the wall. We were outside. He didn't even notice the obvious gesture and came back and opened the chair and sat down. One of the guys, a photographer, took his picture. Darius' lady friend asked if I was a Chicago cop because of the shirt I was wearing and I gave the best drunken, exhausted run-around comment I could. I wonder if she bought it. Maybe she thought I'd bust her for doing business. She had a cowboy hat, a body like mine in a way-too-tight dress and had a Polish immigrant on her lap on a Wednesday at a Brooklyn bar at 3:30am. They met earlier that night. I love NYC.

Woke up one morning, got yourself a gun; tour diary part 3

2005-10-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

9-19-05 7:36pm, in New Jersey
Getting from Lancaster to NJ has been tough. Lots of wrong turns and missed exits or exits we thought we missed. We're still on time, which is good. Nice sunny afternoon to be driving and exploring a new state.
7:39pm , in New Jersey
Beef Jerky is the unofficial food of this tour. Cory and I are eating so much of it. Tip: Avoid the Black Pepper Flavored Kippered Beef. It's way too strong and peppery. Unless that's your thing. Do however eat Utz crab/Old bay Seasoning Chips whilst in PA. And that's the food report from PineCone4 right now. Back to finding Long Branch, NJ.

If I hear the word 'shoegaze' one more time.....part 2

2005-09-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

9-19-05 by Arturo
We finally slept last night in Lancaster, PA. We stayed with new friends EJ and Erin. EJ is the band Highspire, and holds down the fort of the shoegaze capital of PA. I'm not sure how long we slept but it was at least 7 hours. They took great care of us by not only putting us up, but putting up with us! John cooked these wicked omelettes for everybody then we had wine while Cory and I did a video interview with EJ about shoegaze and his band and he played us some new Highspire music. It's so good, and I can't wait to hear some more.
The show in Philly yesterday was alright. Okay, it sucked. We sat around the area for too long, when we could have been out exploring the city and eating cheese steak sandwiches. The band played way too late after being set back, and this was a Sunday night. Only like 5 people were there and we were with 2 of them. For me, the one good thing was that this was the biggest screen I've ever played. It must have been 20x30 feet! Airiel and Hartfield played well, despite being asked to turn it down by the cops. This was the PopNoise Festival, which was organized by Tom from Stellarscope and was held at the University of Pennsylvania. All the other bands were good and the shoegaze t-shirts were out in full force. Cory and I decided we wanted to move to Kentucky based on seeing the cute girls who were with the KY band. After the fest we started the drive out to Lancaster with EJ. Right now, we're on the way out of PA to Long Branch, NJ. PA is totally the nicest state I've ever driven through, though I'm sure there are others. This is a huge country after all.
Key Quotes so far: Cory to Hartfield -"You say 'san', we say 'son!". and Yukari to Philly - "Let's FUN!". So cute.
EJ told us the funniest story about a band in Philly called Muscle Factory. Apparently, it's a cheesy 80's workout themed band. The singer lifts barbells with one hand and has a mic in the other. He's going to send us the link to the "The Spotter" video. I can't wait! The band's Bez is a guy who does aerobics on stage and spots audience members as they use the on-stage weight bench. I think it was a combination of no sleep for 2 days, giddyness, and red wine but Chris and I were in tears with this story. Too fucking funny.

shoegazers on the road, part 1

2005-09-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

So here's what I did: i took a black Mead Composition notebook with me on tour. It spent a lot of time tucked into the back pocket of the passenger seat of John's van. The rest of the time I wrote in it. What will follow is a transcription of that with my own added memories or things I forgot. We got home and I didn't finish the summary of all the shows so I'll do that when I get there. Anybody from Airiel or Hartfield reading this can comment and add their part. In fact, please do!
9-17-05 by John. (John wrote the first thing in the van some place in Ohio while Cory drove)
My van is full of people, musical equipment, and a steadily amassing pile of road detrius - empty soda cans, gum wrappers, and the like. I just got finished with a shift driving for 4 hours so I could sit in the back of the van and chart out Hartfield songs for my performance with them later tonight. That's right, I sitll don't know the songs. This should be fun. God, I need a drink.
9-18-05 by Arturo
We got to the practice space at 8am yesterday. I slept like 4 hours the night before after a nice send off at Lava Lounge from my fellow Mexicans. We made it to Pittsburgh by 7:15, home of Andy Warhol and "donn-tonn". It's very hilly and pretty and you gotta love a city with a section called Polish Hill. Awesome. The venue, Shadow Lounge was really cool. It wasn't a rock venue but more of a cool cafe/lounge. There are 2 rooms, one of which reminds me of Rodan. The other had couches, tables, and the stage.
The opening bands were good and we saw Hartfields's 1st US show!!!! The rhythm section was filled out by Cory and John from Airiel. They did a great job and the songs are all poppy and good. Airiel rocked out as always and it was nice to see my new beach video for the first time projected so big. Funny, that was shot 3 days before at North Ave. Beach. now it was being projected for an audience of strangers in Pittsburgh.
Right now, we're over an hour away from Philadelphia where we are going to play the PopNoise Festival. We've had lots of fun so far. John shaved his beard off in a backyard in Pittsburgh by tiki light with a wall mirror being held up by Jeremy as 3 jerks, an American expat, and 2 Japanese musicians looked on.
Last thing I'll mention before I look out the window at all the pretty mountains of PA is Chris. Chris is filling in for the tour since Griff couldn't do it because of work. Chris is now known as PineCone TempSub 1. A baptism of gravy is set to happen in the near future at the Pine Cone Restaurant so he can fully become one of us. He witnessed the last ever Tequila Screamer last night, now all that's left is a meal at the Pine Cone Restaurant.

tour dates

2005-09-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

September Tour With Hartfield (From Tokyo, Japan):

When: 17-September-2005
Where: The Shadow Lounge (5972 Baum Blvd. 412-363-8277) - Pittsburgh, PA
With: Hartfield, Sleeping Kings of Iona and Life In Bed
Details: Doors @ 9 PM. 18+

When: 18-September-2005 - The PopNoise Festival
Where: The Rotunda (University of Penn Campus, 4014 Walnut Street. 610-517-4645) - Philadelphia, PA
With: Hartfield, Ceremony (ex-skywave), Project Skyward, Kupei (from Puerto Rico), Stellarscope, The Autumn Thieves, The Color Field Theory and Shade.
Details: FREE! All ages! 12-10PM

When: 19-September-2005
Where: The Brighton Bar (121 Brighton Avenue 732-229-9676 ) - Long Branch, New Jersey
With: Hartfield and TBA
Details: 18+ TBA

When: 21-September-2005
Where: Sin-e (150 Attorney St. 212-388-0077) - New York, NY
With: Hartfield, A Place to Bury Strangers and IfWhen
Details: Doors @ 7:00 21+ $8
**After-party**: Come to Scenic (25 Ave B, New York) after the show to hang out with us and expose your (now ringing) ears to more shoegaze music. Brought to you by the fabulous people from The Loveless Music Group. It's FREE.

When: 22-September-2005
Where: The Warehouse Next Door (1017 7th Street NW. 202-783-3933) - Washington D.C.
With: Hartfield and Alcian Blue
Details: Doors 8:30. Show 9:00. $7. All Ages.

When: 23-September-2005
Where: Relative Theory Records (271 Granby St. 757-962-8052) - Norfolk, VA
With: Hartfield
Details: $5 in advance. $7 at the door. All Ages. Doors at 8:00. Show at 9:00.

When: 24-September-2005
Where: Comet Bar (4579 Hamilton Ave. 513-541-8900) - Cincinnati, OH
With: Hartfield and The Lesser Birds of Paradise
Details: TBA

When: 27-September-2005
Where: Double Door (1572 N. Milwaukee Ave. 773-489-3160) - Chicago, IL
With: Hartfield, The Arks and Only Lovers Left Alive
Details: 21+ Doors 7:30pm / Show 8:30pm

beer nuggets part 2

2005-08-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

Okay so I had two paragraphs for the beer nuggets entry and it only posted one. Most of it. Weird. So here's the 2nd paragraph:
The first date of the tour in Pittsburgh will be my first show with Airiel since the Darkroom show opening for Brian Jonestown Massacre. I missed the Milwaukee gig on August 5th because my grandmother passed away and I was involved with the funeral arrangements, and hosted the post-funeral luncheon at my house. It was a surreal weekend, but I'm sure a different kind of surreal than the weekend I would have had with Airiel. The rest of my weekend was surreal because on Sunday after the wake and funeral (Friday and Saturday) I spent the morning at the comic convention and then shot an audition video for an actress friend who was up for a part in a movie, and her competition was Heather Graham

beer nuggets

2005-08-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

We had some bar food which included "beer nuggets", (which were fried bits of pizza dough) at a bar last night near the Airiel practice space. I met with the boys to load up the cars with our gear to see if we need to rent a trailer, and we won't be needing it. We covered the video and audio recording for the tour and it's going to be great. It will be very well documented with photos, video, and audio recordings. I also can't wait to meet and hear Hartfield who is coming on tour with us too.

Minneapolis pictures from July 9-10, 2005

2005-07-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

Airiel rocking The Hexagon Club with b/w kaliedascope video

leaving Minneapolis

24oz T-Bone Steak only $13.95

we have arrived

Jeremy is unimpressed by Griff and the scenic view here in Wisconsin

Griff about to select the best meal of his life

Pine Cone 5 at the wheel

the dark room

2005-07-25T12:21:00.001-07:00

I saw Brian Jonestown Massacre at Lollapalooza on Saturday and whatever apprehension I had about them was relieved. I thought "Sunday is going to be FUN!" after they were done.

Sunday was indeed fun. The day was over 100 degrees but the Darkroom was air conditioned. We showed up and the staff was awesome (as always) We got our snazzy passes...
NOTE: the address given for Darkroom is Division, NOT Chicago Ave....
got our gear set up, video was ready, band was sound checked and sounded great. We all signed a poster for Darkroom with everybody's name who was performing. BJM showed up and there was a good crowd waiting.

Thax Douglas introduced Airiel with a poem he wrote for the band. This was great because I think that when Thax writes a poem for your band, you've been blessed or something. It's sort of like when you'd get a head butt from Wesley Willis back in the day. The show was great, video looked good and I'm glad I wore ear plugs. I ran out giving ear plugs to friends, their dads, and even Sonia the lovely bartender who became Airiel's newest fan.

The BJM rocked. Anton introduced Matt Hollywood who just came on stage to say hi. He did play tambourine at Lollapalooza the day before though. This was kind of funny because back in the fall I had talked to the label that Matt Hollywood's new band The Out Crowd is on about doing a music video and now here I am opening for the BJM. Anton was totally cool during the show and hoped we all got laid after the show. They rocked out a great 15+ minute song to end their set that was really good.

After the show and people left Jeremy and I went back in to check one last time for gear we left behind and to say goodnight to the staff , Brock and Tobias who played great tunes all night, and the BJM guys if they were around. Sonia poured a bunch of shots that Jeremy and I gladly accepted and Anton stood next to me and said "Why does everybody want to argue with me? I just want to hang out and have a good time man!" I responded something like "...I dunno man, people are assholes". We had our shots, shook hands, said goodnight and got home. Good times. Links to pictiures coming...soon....maybe....

what he said

2005-07-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

I can't forget the door guy at the Hexagon calling Airiel "loud ass rainbow shit". They are loud, yes. Does that make me doing visuals the "rainbow shit"? I hope so. The Hexagon had the vibe of the Hideout but 2 rooms and a corner triangular stage that reminded me of the Empty Bottle.

Next show: Darkroom, Chicago. Lollapalooza After Party wih Brian Jonestown Massacre. July 24th, 2005.

About Airiel (from their website): Airiel is rapidly becoming one of Chicago's best kept secrets. Formed in '97 by Jeremy Wrenn, initially a solo project supported by various drum machines, Airiel is now a solid 4-piece determined to be heard. The addition of guitarist Zeeshan Abbasi, bassist/vocalist Cory Osborne, and drummer John Rungger have taken the prior format of warm-as-a-blanket guitar soundscapes and injected a post/pop-rock energy and verve that heralds the coming of a new shoegaze archetype. Many bands try to emulate the sounds of My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Verve, Slowdive and others, but Airiel build off of the foundation of their influences, seeking to push the genre forward. A strident combination of reverb, distortion and sweat, they are advancing the art of sheer sonic energy while utilizing the power of a good melody to provide a basis for the effects, never forgetting the innate human desire to shake one's ass. In short, it's loud, it's beautiful, and you can dance to it.

rock show

2005-07-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

This show was the night before ours in Minneapolis

Best. Flyer. Ever.

more minneapolis

2005-07-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

matt damon!!

other stuff I'm remembering:
John was reminded as to WHY I was referred to as "the other dumpling". Minneapolis hipsters have a gas problem. If you have to fart, please take it to the bathroom. Jeremy's car grew a meat tongue in its dashboard and I think he's going to make millions from the video game Silent Hill: Volvo. As of this writing, the meat tongue is nowhere to be found. We think it's mutating and becoming one with the car. I learned how Chewbacca dies in the comics. Airiel finished their set not with Kiss Me Sadly as they always do but according to the set list the "Pine Cone Jamboree". In Minneapolis, anybody who is remotely cool and young is known as a "hippie" and reminded to the fact by drunk losers outside country bars smoking at 7pm. On a personal note, I noticed that you can indeed paint your walls a different color other than white if your wood trim is varnished.

I'm sure more will come later...especially when I get the photos developed.

Minneapolis

2005-07-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Long story short: Cory ate 2 steaks, Griff got engaged, John had a milkshake, Jeremy almost shot food and/or drink out his nose several times, and Arturo woke up face to face with a cat. Oh and we played a show. It went very well!

Long story long: I left home at 8:45 and got to Jeremy's by 9. I knew it would be a good trip after the fun we had loading up the cars. At the family restaurant in Mauston, WI we found the meaning of life and it's called Pleasoning. being Star Wars geeks, we talked about Mud Slug, general of the Ewok army. He was the one who cut the rope that swung the logs crushing the AT-ST's.

When we got to the Hexagon Club in Minneapolis, we loaded in and saw that we missed the meat raffle at 2. Damn. After that we hung out for a while with the guy responsible for getting us there, Christian. We went to his place and learned from Griff that Daddy Likes It Here. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much. Now I know what it's like to answer a craigslist ad. We had great sandwiches for dinner, some might say they were life changing. Mine was really good. I took a flyer from a street light pole from the day before that had a picture of the A-Team van stuck in the Death Star after having obviously crashed into it and Darth Vader and Mr. T staring out at us with their bad-assness that only they possess.

The show went well, and I think my black DVD player is dying out or something. I kept losing the picture and it got all glitchy. Sucks. I'll have to test it today and get a replacement if necessary. The other bands were great and nice people. Good size crowd and Airiel sold out the ear plugs provided by the club. Non-smoking bars are cool, but part of me misses the cloud of smoke. I hope the phrase "smoky bar" will always describe a current bar, not just something that once was.

Jeremy and I spent the night with my friends Alpa and Patrick in their lovely house. It was nice to see her again and great to meet Patrick for the first time. The door of the bedroom I was in didn't close all the way and the cats snuck in to hang out with me and scare the holy shit out of me by jumping on the bed to stare at me inches from my face while I was half awake after 4 hours of sleep. After that, I was indeed awake. We left and met up with everybody else at the Triple Rock Social Club for a helluva breakfast. Tons of food on each plate and it was so good. We made our next official stop, the now infamous Pine Cone Restaurant. This is where Cory had the 24oz steak and I had a roast beef sandwich covered in gravy and mashed potatoes. Griff fell in love and got engaged. Photos were taken outside and we were on our way. Lots of annoying traffic in WI, and some in IL but we got through it.

The gear was dropped off at the practice space, and my gear was moved from Jeremy's car to mine and I was home just after 10pm. If this is anything like the tour in September, I can't wait. For now all I can say is "buh-byeee!!!" (while waving and bouncing)