harris teeter is number 1

So, after an incredible night of 80's hardcore, horseback riding, and late night snacks, we've made our way from Ry's estate in Chapel Hill to Raleigh. It seems pretty cool here. We all took a trip to the local Harris Teeter (Supermarket) and made ourselves salads. It was Maguires idea, and boy was it a good one. The show should tonight should be a good time, and then it's off to Maryland tommorow. Then we hit DE, South Jersey and then maybe we'll head home to do laundry, eat, vote, sleep and then head out back on the road to finish up this tour. yes.

my new favorite night ever...

the following things happened after 2am last night...

1. i had a run in with a beverage bearing the likeness of a pre-revolution imperialist russian gentleman named vladimir
2. me and kelly covered ensign songs in ry's trailer
3. we rode a horse
4. we pet a cow
5. we played with chickens

i'm sure there was more but thats all i can remember right now. oh wait...
6. a horse farted on us


yeah i think thats it then. heading north soon. trying to find a way to acquire my halloween costume from home before we get to new brunswick. come on people, lets make this happen.

text messaging is the new internet.

everybody vote.

turkey and cheese

I have learned much lately: 1. Giving homeless convicts drug money is part of God's plan. 2. I don't actually know Greg's guitar parts. 3. We have more tuna in the van than I had thought. 4. Ry makes a killer sandwich and in turn, that sandwich makes a killer breakfast.

So, otherwise things are going just swell. We've been filling holes left and right, and I don't mean that in a perverted sense in the least. I've been more thrifty than ever lately, which is good since I have a few bills to pay when we get home. Today is the first day off, and it seems like their won't be too many more, but for a few which fall conveniently in New Jersey. Also today, we all attempted to procure halloween costumes, but only Greg was successful. PJ entertained the idea of wearing a flesh colored body suit, but seriously, naked would be so much cheaper and have the same effect. And finally, Greg has come over to my side in the underwear world, and I sure hope he isn't disappointed.

more shows totally not last minute right?

i can't even believe any of my friends were awake at 3am yesterday yet alone sending me a flurry of text messages. frightening coincidence. but i outdid them all by having a killer metallica jam session with peej at 5am in ry's trailer. ry pretended he was having fun, but come on dude.

okay, anyway. two new shows have been confirmed, oct 28 at montgmery college in maryland, real close to dc i think... and nov 3 at x-dreams skate park in rochester ny. the final info will be up on the website in a day or two so please keep checking and come hang out. yes!

and i get more psyched for halloween everyday. ahhh the always ridiculous city of new brunswick.

yes.

seriously

yo,
people in the south love god. i don't mean that in a negative way, but watch 'saved,' with mandy moore and you'll get a feel for what i mean.

anyway, last night's show was great to play on a day off, and a terrible show. all of greg's equipment fell apart multiple times while we played. i felt so bad for him because he'd just have to stand and sing while his guitar sat silently. poor guy. pulled it off wonderfully though.

everyone was really friendly though, which is always great. right now we're enjoying our one day off in the barnes and noble in durham, nc. we're staying with our good buddy ry, from alli with an i, in his trailor. it's a long and weird story, but it's a fun place to be and ry is an amazing guy to spend the time off with.

so that's all from me. hope to see you all soon!
pj

Sparticus...

So we're in the middle of Spartanburg SC, sitting in a club called Groundzero, which seems like a pretty cool venue. As I'm sitting here a bunch of kids are piling in, and it looks like it's going to be a good show. I'm really stoked because we were supposed to have the day off today, but some last minute emails got us on this bill. I've gotta say, this tour is shaping up to be really cool. Last night was especially amazing... Somehow we managed to bring out a whole handful of kids who stood right up front and sang along to every word... all in the middle of Charleston, SC. I've gotta say, it's experiences like that which make me so incredibly stoked to be in this band. Eight hour drives and the unending can of baked beans can take it's toll on your morale, but it's experiences like last night, that pull you right back up again.

hi guys

hmm...so i suppose a bit more information would make this post a little better. ok.

so, today we're in charleston, sc, and we're supposed to have two days off. that's normally a bonesaw, but as it turns out, our wonderful buddy ry, of alli with an i fame, will be welcoming us into his trailor in north carolina, just a few miles away from our next show. so, we can live for free for the next few days, therefore making the days off much less annoying.

we'll be playing in raliegh on the 27th, then hopefully in DC the 28th (the show is still tentative). then it's up to delaware to see dan, and back to nj on the 30th. i better see all you south jersey kids at 11 east then, and everyone else at 193 hamilton for halloween and big hugs. prepare for something funny or creepy on our parts. still to be decided.
oh yea, and brownies are always welcomed with open arms.

after that we may or may not have a few days off, and then its up north for the second half of tour. everything has been going really well so far, so i'm super excited to keep it up.

so i guess that's all for now. i hope you are all doing wonderfully well, and i will talk to you all soon.
pj

free lunch

you always hear there is no such thing as a free lunch. maguire proved that wrong.

anyway, we're in brunswick, ga tonight, and we played in a half pipe tonight, fulfilling 2 band members' dreams. i got to make a grilled cheese tonight. that ruled.

whoa, that's a lot of 'tonights'.

anyway, tour rules. if we actually made money rather than losing lots of it, it would be even better. so, i guess i'll say hello to you all, and hope to see you all on halloween at 193 hamilton street.

love,
pj

What's up fall tour

So, here we are finally on the road again. It's been a little while, but it's great to be back playing shows and feeling like a band again. Well, not that we weren't busy recording, but it's just different.

Our friend Kristin always takes great care of us, and she prepared a big mexican feast for us all last night before we hit the road (very) early this morning. She also did some laundry for me and made a birthday cake for Greg and PJ. We haven't been home for very long, so I enjoyed getting to see a few friends before we left.

After a late night at Kristin's place, it was over to my parents place to crash for a few hours, drop off my car, and then head out on the road at 6 am. Despite getting only 3 hours of sleep, I absolutely loved driving the van today. I got us a little past DC or so, and then Maguire and I hopped in the back and PJ and Greg went up front for a "full switch". I got to catch a little rest on the bench, which was quite comfortable. I missed a little excitement when I was asleep, but certainly nothing I haven't seen before.

So, after a mild 7 hour drive, we arrived at Virginia Tech. It's more or less your typical college campus, but I personally always get a cool vibe when we play college shows. I think it was a cool way to start the tour. Not too high pressure, but very relaxed and just a good time. Afterwards, we headed to the supermarket to pick up some cheap groceries, along with some pasta for dinner. We went back to his place to fill up on food, and then watch survivor on his huge television. I had never seen that program before, so it was quite the experience. I also think i might finish a half gallon of sweet tea. I need to be stopped.

hmm...

so...
have you ever felt life brush you face? have you ever felt comfort? hopefully you have. but if you haven't, let me tell you that it is god. it is love, it is energy.

i talked to some people today that i missed with all of my heart. it hurt to miss them, but i realized that i made decisions to disappear. i also realize that maybe i wasn't and am not perfect.

pretty much everyone that i spoke to today forced me to remember how incredible life is, and how much i love it. thank you so much for that, and for calling and celebrating the day with me.

thank you to greg, brian, brian, mike, brian and minu for everything. you probably do not realize that this is something i will never forget. i also will never stop loving you.

thanks to my mom and dad, brian and chris, quise, scott and sam, kris and meem. believe it or not it was the difference between night and day, love and hate.

thanks to mark beemer. we were stoked to do the race for the cure. i feel there are few ways better to spend the day than to help someone else. thanks mark. thank you to fred feldman for sponcering us also, that was incerdible. thanks to brian mac-t for taking care of us always.

it was a wonderful day, thank you to all who made it as such. i love you all.
pj

what do i do with myself now?

so you've probably noticed a lack of posts from me on this studio journal thing.... the reason being the 15 hour days we have been putting in non stop for the past couple of weeks. honestly, i can't remember a time in my life when i've worked this damn hard. i was talking to brian mcternan this morning and he was telling me about some friends of his who did the entire warped tour in their van... when all was said and done, they said it was the best and worst time of their life. i feel like recording this record has been somewhat similar. we've all put everything we've had into this record, and we've been doing that for 3 weeks straight. it just takes so much to be so absolutely passionate about something for so long - non stop. this record also seems to be representative of so many decisions and changes in our lives. to get where we are right now we've all put everything on hold. we've sacrificed our relationships, our friendships, our lives.... and these past three weeks have been the extreme example. i think i've talked to my friends/family back home maybe once or twice since we've been here.. this record has been everything to all of us since we started. over-tired, stressed and anxious, these have been some of the best weeks of my life. now we are done with tracking, and it's time for us to give mike his space to mix the melodic clutter and chaos that is outsmarting simon. it's so bizarre to be able to sit back and not have something to do. as absurd as it sounds, relaxing might just start to stress me out. thank you to my three best friends for being a part of something so amazing as this record, and thank you to everyone who has supported us through all of this and made it possible to be where we are today. you all make me so happy to be alive...

So, after finishing up at Kurt's the other day, we are now back down here at Salad Days. I think we were all excited to come back here, even though we were a bit behind schedule. This place is just so comfortable, and it seems like everyone is productive here, yet still at ease. Anyway, PJ is currently in the studio finishing up his vocals, and they sound great. If all goes well, Mike will be able to start mixing tommorow. We've all been so busy tracking, and doing other little odds and ends that we haven't had the chance to really sit back and listen to the songs. Not that it's a bad thing, but I can't wait to hear these songs from start to finish when we start mixing. I think everything will fall into place.

thank you melanie

so, apparently the ridiculousness that is outsmarting simon couldn't finish tracking the record in 15 days. so, we're going to take our first mixing day at salad days to finish tracking vocals. jeez, i hate us. the music sounds incredible. the drums and bass sound huge, and the guitars are amazing sounding. greg and kelly's vocals sound great too. mine, not so good. i blew myself out, partially because of a lack of ability to sing properly, and partially because i've some strange fasination i have with writing really high vocal parts bordering on out of my range. i'm such an asshole, and have been kicking myself for the last week. anyway, i get to rest my voice tomorrow while we drive down to DC, and then the next day i'll finish tracking up (hopefully).

on another tip, the wonderful mike poorman has been insane. we've pulled him away from his wife for verging on 3 weeks now. i feel really bad because i don't think he expected to have to put in 15 hour days just to get the bare minimum on here. there are still a ton of parts we want on this record that won't be on it due to time constraints, and i'm sure he'd hate us more if he had to put more time in. but to be completely honest, he's been such a sweetheart, and we love him to death. if you ever want a record producer who is wonderful and talented, get the mike poorman. he rules.

so, i'm going to hope that a day of rest will help me out, and hope that mike is a good enough mixer that he can actually make me sound good, and hope that when all is said and done, this record sounds good enough that we can maybe keep playing music for a bit, and not have to get real jobs. and maybe, if we're really lucky, we can do another record a few years down the road, and have the opportunity for me to take some vocal lessons between now and then, and do some better planning, and have the next record all the more ridiculous.

i love this band. i love the boys in it. i love you all so much. oh, and melanie...
i really hope that you realize how incredible someone like you makes my life. i hope that you realize that you give me hope, happiness and love. your words mean so much, but some of them scare me a bit, and i pray that you do not lose hope. life is so incredible, and while rather hard at times, sunlight will shine through and brighten your world.

thank you all, and i can't wait to see you all. please make sure you come say hi the next time we are at a show together.
the peejer

i guess you could call it a temp job...

i hope tiffany reads this cause she may be the only one who appreciates it when i say that last night i felt like i was in loco all over again.
so i walk in the studio yesterday afternoon and the mike poorman is just getting off the phone and he's like "hey, you've done merch before right?" to which i respond "yes". short version of the story, somehow i ended up being wilco's merch guy for there show at some huge theater in boston. i'm still not exactly sure how that happened but it was actually fun and they paid me a bunch of money to stand there and sell their t-shirts and what not all night. and their tour manager was this awesome british dude who was like "so i hear you're up here tracking a record". now just imagine that exact statement in a funny accent and you can imagine why i liked him so much.
weird.
so today we headed up to salem mass to begin our four days at god city studios which belongs to kurt from converge. oh sorry i just dropped something. we spent all day working on more guitar and vocal stuff. and i decided i was gonna walk to the ocean. little did i know it was like four or five miles away. but i made it. champ. the dudes are still there finishing up some vocals but i came back to the motel to sit around in mesh shorts with chris and kim and marcie and meg who came up from jersey. three more days at god city, then four more back at salad days. then we just have to wait like six months for the record to come out. i guess i've still got a thing or two to learn about rock and roll.