All this sleep is exhausting.

Home now. Sick, too. I woke up with a sore throat in Tucson and didn't even party in Vegas after the show. However, Rachel won $800 at a roulette table right before bed just on a whim. Pretty sweet!

SXSW was a vortex of mostly wonderful things. It was my first time! I've been hearing about the festival since I was 11, and the most recent words came from people comparing it to "intentionally stepping in dog shit" (someone please tell me where that quote is from?!). I, however, had a great time. Visqueen got to play some amazing shows, including the NPR showcase at Stubb's on opening night with Spoon, Broken Bells, Sharon Jones + the Dap Kings and the Walkmen (listenable here!). I felt completely honored and spoiled, and in a place literally overflowing with bands, I am so grateful that people came out and saw one that I play in.

I spent just about all of my free time hitched to the Hounds Below (this time with a trombonist!). They played something like six shows throughout the festival (which is insane). I was there for all but one, which is maybe not how you're supposed to do SXSW, but you know what? It's rare that I get this excited about a new band, and I'll take my obsessions where I can.

Also, I got style-blogged on the day that I probably most needed a shower and a change of clothes. I honestly hadn't showered in two or three days and was in the middle of carrying Rachel's guitar across town. The crew stopped me and I thought they were joking.

Anyway, rather than attempt to do a full recap, I'm just going to unload pictures from my phone from the last couple of weeks...

Cans of High Life the size of my forearm in Lubbock, TX!

Summer Snow!

I ate barbecue under this while the people at the next table talked about the Bible. I think the deer lost an eyelash in my food, too.

This is Puck. Puck was a houseguest where Visqueen were also houseguests! Rachel's girlhood friend Janine and her family were kind enough to put us up at their epic home in Austin. They also cooked amazing dinner. Thanks, Jacobsons!

This was at the Hounds Below's house. Little packets of vodka. Good thing everyone in their band can't stand the stuff!

Ben's food at Uncorked marked the second time on this trip that I realized just how much potatoes can resemble testicles.

We've got a bit of work to do this month before we hit the road again, but it looks like I'll be spending this weekend in footie pajamas catching up with this gentleman:

Goodbye, snow... please?

The last couple of nights we played in Boise, ID and Denver, CO. Good times and epic driving. Eleven hours in the van across three state lines yesterday after four hours of sleep the night before. It's effing cold and we're turning toward Texas today. I never thought I'd be so excited to get to Texas. Here are some photos...

We usually eat healthy. Sometimes we party.

Sorry, Best Western.

Rachel's new and incredible mug. We think it might be a potato, but we're not 100% sure.

Here are the announced shows Visqueen's playing at SXSW. Please come say hi or tell your friends to!

3/17 - Levi's/Fader Fort (1:30 PM)

3/17 - Stubb's/NPR Showcase (8:00 PM w/ Spoon)

3/20 - Beauty Bar/SXSeattle Party (12 noon)

3/20 - Official Showcase Habana Calle 6 (9PM)

I'm gonna catch up with you if it's the last thing I do

I am packing... or I should be. Here is what I am listening to. You can even download some of it for free!

1 - Lightning Love November Birthday! What a great record! I kind of can't stop listening to "Wait, Wait" especially. I get about halfway through it and already know I need to listen to it again.
2 - Ted Leo + Rx Brutalist Bricks! I was streaming this for a few days before it came out after totally losing it when I first heard "Even Heroes Have to Die" a few months ago. Thanks for never letting us down, dude!
3 - The Hounds Below 7"! Free downloads currently available at the link! You know how I feel about them. See previous posts. Love love love.
4 - The Juliets (s/t)! Free downloads available until tomorrow! Go now! Gorgeous orchestration, totally inviting. I'm really starting to like Michigan.
5 - Ben Collins Ghost Stories! He made it available for download for me and hasn't changed it yet! I highly suggest a purchase. Such a great idea, delivered by probably my favorite voice in the world right now.

So now that we can all listen to beautiful music together, really, I am packing. Really. Excited to jump back in the van tonight! Boise tomorrow! (pssst, Matt, if you get this in time, will you tell the Very Most to come see Visqueen? I don't know how to contact them!)

Oh yeah, and we're NPR Song of the Day today! Free download over there, too!

...Okay, okay, I'm packing! Really, I am!

Hibernation.

Visqueen's show on Friday night at Neumo's was something of a homecoming and send-off. It sold the eff out. We could hardly believe it. Ben came over from the Hounds' show at the Showbox and we had to weave and push like very apologetic assholes to get from one side of the room to the backstage door. Sorry! We all got a "SXSW survival kit" gift bag:

...so now I never have to know what life is like without PBR lip balm ever again. Or until I run out of the stuff.

Fences, Mash Hall and Hey Marseilles played the show with us. I hadn't properly seen Fences before. I did wander into their set once when they played as a stripped-down version of themselves and I guess were having a rough night. Friday night? I totally loved them. Gorgeous, gorgeous songs.

Lori Paulson took some really beautiful pictures at the show, too! I like this one of me:

I slept for 12 hours last night. Crashed hard very early. Trying to make a dent in all the damage I have to do before we leave this week. I'm so eager to jump back in the van, but I really have a lot to do before that happens. Right now, it looks like a grenade went off in my bedroom from packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking, laundry and my recent decision to sort through everything I own and eliminate 75% of it. Post-SXSW garage sale? And then we'll talk about moving...

I fold up really small.

OH KAY. Sorry. Sometimes I think I'll be good at keeping this thing updated and then I'm not. On Wednesday my friend Eric and I impulsively flew to Las Vegas. Yesterday we missed our flight, eventually got on another one, and I headed straight to band practice and to see my friends play shows (only to get there right as they started tearing down, of course). Now I'm trying to figure out if I have a single clean article of clothing to wear to play in tonight. This is how it got here:

On Saturday, Visqueen played at the Blank Club in San Jose with the Hounds Below. For whatever reason, it's become rare for bands to introduce themselves to one another when playing shows together, but these folks were the hand-shaking kind. And then their soundcheck made my heart swell. I followed them to dinner. Rachel talked them into staying at our hotel in San Francisco. Ben (Collins) and I stayed up all night looking for food and then not eating it, discovering murals of wild animals, watching the front desk agent like a movie and then hiding from him. We played Bottom of the Hill for the Noise Pop festival together a few hours later.

Needless to say, I fell in love with the band and everyone in it. I found my new best friend. If it wasn't a total violation of camaraderie and my first tour with Visqueen, I absolutely would have jumped ship after San Francisco to live in their van for the week and sell their merch.

...But I didn't. Instead I got home on Monday from the west coast leg of the tour and asked my friends to talk me out of flying to San Diego that night to get back beside the Hounds Below. Tuesday morning, get a text from Eric saying, "I wonder where you are." I explain that I am home but that I could be in LA that night, Vegas the next day or having breakfast with him. He says that we could be having breakfast in Vegas... so we bought some plane tickets. No joke; we're just ridiculous people. Plus, I had never been to Las Vegas before. Surprise, Hounds! Don't ask me how (mostly because I probably can't remember), but I got home still unmarried. It wouldn't have been right without Rachel there as maid of honor, you know?

Anyway, Visqueen is playing at Neumo's tonight with Hey Marseilles, Fences and Mash Hall. The Hounds Below will also be in town tonight at the Showbox (Market) opening for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Maybe you want to go see them and then come see us!

Turn it around

LA made last night so incredible. I mean, people were there! I wasn't sure that happened out here. Also, someday I will have to take a photo of the eight foot difference between Ronnie, one of my VQ bass predecessors, and myself. Hilarious. A nice young fella took pictures, viewable here. He thinks we play pop punk ska songs. I might disagree.

Also, Bear Hands and Adam Bones + Ari Shine opened. Totally fun pop from opposite ends of the spectrum (my spectrum in this case ranging from traditionally accessible to, well, Brooklyn). However, and I'm not naming any names here, but for the record, it's incredibly poor etiquette to rest your sweating beverage on the other band's equipment, like an Orange amplifier, for example. It leaves a puddle. We know you did it. Liquids and amps are a risk you really ought to leave up to the people who own them. Thanks.

Anyway, we've been totally spoiled crashing with our friend Edward in Santa Monica. 

He has pretty much everything the Replacements ever did on vinyl...

Bet you've never even heard "Nowhere Is My Home." Oh, and he has that Bruce Willis record you see beneath the Replacements here. Pure poetry.

Off to San Francisco in a few short moments. Trip will likely pause for some Andersen's pea soup, but then we're playing at the Hemlock tonight and I'm hanging out with Brendan! Yay!

Nu bruises.

I tripped on my guitar stand in the middle of a song in Santa Cruz the other night and I'm still finding new bruises. This is the real reason I wear tights.

Updates that I haven't made:

A lot of incredibly scenic driving. The most gorgeous pee I've taken happened behind the fallen tree you see here:

Then we stayed at this lovely hotel. It was karaoke night. I couldn't stay upright for laughing so much.

Smiley breakfast.

But then the weather got crappy jut in time for us to go play in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz, home of the bruises. It was seriously just cold and raining. Good thing we left Seattle when it was sunny.

Yesterday we played an in-store at Amoeba in Hollywood as the toned-down trio version of Visqueen. Just Barb, Rachel and me. We'd never performed that way before, and it's a little bit nerve-wracking when you're used to being loud and bouncy.

I got all nostalgic about living in Hollywood, especially when a kid I went out with twice when I was 19 showed up, gave the smile of recognition while I was on stage and then didn't say hi. That's cool, I only introduced you to Singles AND Baraka. People, be nice and say hello, please! Justice had the courtesy of trying to play personal shopper for me when they set me loose on the store with $50 of credit. I kind of ignored him and made off with Otis Redding, Ethiopiques and Thurston Moore (and change, which will soon be used on Ladyhawke).

I know this is not new, but I squeed nonetheless:

After my shopping spree/squeefest, it was off to Alex's Bar (or, if you're ridiculous like I am, Fangtasia) to play with Steve Soto and the Twisted Hearts (who absolutely blow my mind).

I found myself on the bathroom wall:

I don't know who this artist is, but I was absolutely smitten with their work.

WHEW. A lot of catch-up. Sorry about that. I'll try to be better. We are finally spending a day not driving, which is exceptionally great as we're at a friend's place in Santa Monica and the sun's come back out. Tonight we're playing at Spaceland with Bear Hands, and I'm so excited. I hope to see some good folks there! Tomorrow we're playing a "secret" show at the Hemlock in San Francisco. Please, please, please come say hi or tell your friends to!