Home and gone again

We came to Pensacola, and it is home. To chad because he lived here and grew up here, for me because this was the place that i first lived on my own, the only place i've lived on my own. And it was a great 5 years, but that's a whole other blog.

On the way we played in Panama city at this brand new record store called TEk records, it's owned by this really awesome young guy. More details on this later:

for now just check it out!

this venue gets an A in my book.

Tek Records

We played with a hand selected cast... 2 of my favorite artists from the Panhandle:

Cody Copeland (not a mac spokesmodel, but i love this picture)

And Taylor... my friend from way back in the first years of living in Pensacola.

His project name is Exploding into Sleep

yea... thats taylor alright... which I'm proud to say is the latest artist to get signed to my record label... ZombiesandLizards (which is just starting up...) and was established so i could help out my favorite musicians/friends with putting out their records and booking tours. I dont have money to offer these artist... but i have experience... and a high speed duplicator... so... its pretty cool

While we were home we played at the end of Palafox on the Pier:

We played a "last" bobe street show too... i mean it this time. From now on, all Bobe Street shows will be reunions.

but this is what home looks like:

End of the Line Cafe

(no not starbucks... thats Melody!)

Davy Hooligan!

Freddy Fudd Pucker! this guy was amazing... from New Zealand

And what night is complete in Pensacola with out the dick.... Sir Richards that is, how did this darkest of dark bar become our bar. Its not hard to feel at home here.

Thanks guys, all my p-cola friends.

(this really happened... i had to hit the bullseye 8 times to win... bam)

Here are some portraits:

now we're off to New Orleans... i wonder what we'll find there... or what will find us.

my first Zine!!!

Its called

We thought it up on our way to Hattiesburg, while we meandered the western parts of 98. I have been brainstorming another zine I want to put out about recipes we make on the road with our cookstove, like a guide to resourceful traveling to give to the largest community we are a part of... traveling, poor artists. We all seem to have this bug that bites us at an early age and drives us to travel to far off places. To do that on a musicians/artist budget, you have to be smart, so I wanted to put out a zine about that.

So when we saw a bait shop we started to joke about making Minnows and Rice for supper. It all descended into madness from there... hilarious madness that make me happy the whole night, just smiling. You know those jokes that are so stupid they make you laugh over and over hours later while you are sitting in a public... like school, or work.

I started right away on "Minnows and Rice"

It has all kinds of wonderful recipes for minnows and rice.

And secret perfected techniques for preparing the sweet delicacy:

Exclusive interviews with some of the top names and execs in the minnow industry.

Advertisements for the latest and greatest products on the market, all the must haves for the minnow enthusiasts:

and really cute pictures of Chad with his hair-doo.

about the author:

I know these pictures are shitty, i dont have a scanner that i carry around with me. lord knows i wish i did. I had so much fun today making it. It has been a long time (relative to my head space time) since I could throw myself into an art project. Being away from my sewing machine, and constantly on tour where it's hard to find some place/time to write songs. This has been amazing. Lately I have been really down about productivity, as in, beating myself up for not accomplishing art and jumping on all the ideas that i have for promoting spider+Octopus and making our show better. I feel great now. It may be just a stupid zine, but live for this stuff.

you know, my parents have always said that my "fortune" was not to be found making music... but drawing stick figures.

thanks guys. :-)

Home.... sorta

After an amazing show at TEk Records last night (pictures later) we rolled into Pensacola down familiar roads... aaaahh, it feels so good. slept in a bed. Chad's parents has a fancy fancy (everything really) including a coffee machine that makes espresso and steams milk. ooooooh.

We have been making percolated coffee to save money, and we have... and its rewarding, but rewarding coffee sometimes has lots of grounds in it. 

So... no point to this blog really, except to reminisce about lattes and watching cartoons.

oooh, so good.

so freaking good.

Chad rides a Whale

St Simon Island

What to say about st. Simon Island. After days of percolated coffee and boiled eggs, (resourceful, delicious, homemade) we were treated to dinner at this fancy-pancy coffee/wine/bougie cafe. Burgers, Spinach salad with Seared Tuna Steak, spanicopita, lattes... we went nuts. the food was an amazing treat. we played, alright. it wasn't a place where people go to hear music. They came to drink $7 glasses of wine. we merely provided a water-colored background of sound for them. People in St Simon are either a) rich enough to live there or b) on vacation and expecting vacation thrills. So, they ignored us. no big deal, we got fed, and we got paid... aaand we got to pretend we were on vacation for a few hours walking around paradise. 

Penny Collection!

(inspired by Rancho Cocoa)

oh look honey! local color!

In closing... I am starting a new collection to join other such collections as:

public bathroom

people's pets

Chad pointing to the sky

and now...

Gas Stations across the Nation!

 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Savannah:

had the most beautiful, functional, municipal park in the south. We ate dinner under some trees. All of this cooking has inspired a zine about resourcefulness on the road. More about that later. 

we played at a place called the wormhole, kitties met us at the door. I love collecting pictures of cats. Especially after I learned that a couple of our friends cats have recently passed on, i have pictures of them too. (Somewhere in Kitty heaven Bruce from House pride is having his tummy pet... Charlie the kitty however went to dog heaven to terrorize mutts)

Bruce

Charlie

el Fuego and Flamingo from Philadelphia (and their manager)

we didn't really know what to expect from this band. when they rolled up they were all different styles... but you can't judge people based on their appearance of course. its so easy  to do though! they were all pretty hip, little younger than us. The drummer was a veteran of the road that had traveled with a punk band called the Ghouls. He was the most honest of them all, i liked him a bunch. i had to take this picture of him in the morning much to his protest. 

(the humidity makes his hair all wavy)  

They didn't seem like they were all that tight and together setting up the drum set (2 drummers to one drum set for 2 bands... it takes a village) 

plugging in to a live cable didn't make the sound guy too happy...

so... what was this band all about anyways...

1 2 3...

rock

straight up fucking Rock.

they were amazing. they were so tight. they had the moves, they had the shred, they had the skillz. the songs were catchy. they were so entertaining.

They even took us home, well, to someone's home. someone named Mr. Howard that we never actually met. But he had air conditioning and we were safe in Savannah. 

here was the resident pet... there's always a pet in the house

Baily!!

Anyways, check out El Fuego, they are amazing people. The bass players' name is Will Wrighteous! (sigh... bass players are always the cutest)

 When we go to Philly I hope to god we can open for them again. 

When we went and had a couple beers with them we managed to weasel it out that they were the original pilot class for the School of Rock. It made perfect sense, they had the discipline of band kids... but they were so rock.

now onwards to St. Simon

quick update: St Simon Island

we are on day #3 of tour.

 from asheville to savannah to st simon island.

 on day 3 everything is just slightly farther away in your vision. so tired. need a good night sleep. last night we stayed somewhere really random and weird. the other band took us home, but they live in philly, they took us to someone else's home. not sure who, never met them. we slept on the floor our on the porch where there was an ac unit. pretty nice. just a little hard. there was a shower in the morning though. and coffee (we bring a percolator everywhere) we have arrived in st simon island, back in rich people land. savannah isn't ... it has a high concentration of crack heads and flowers. magic and southern hospitality and old buildings and crack heads. 

so... back in rich people land. a beach town it is august and we are hiding in a coffee shop on a bid squishy couch. we're playing in...  4 1/2 hours? i think i'm just going to sleep here for a bit. 

i'm working on a zine!  A how too guide, a documentation of meals we've made on the road. its going to be awesome