Australia 3

All finished; going home in 18 hours. It's nearly impossible to reflect on such relentless sensory stimulation (even in the quiet at the end) without some distance from the events. I don't think I'll understand what happened here for a while.

In a tangible plane, this has been a very successful tour. Every show has had higher attendance and sales than we normally expect in the U.S., and four of them had higher sales than any show we've ever played in our own country. That being said, it's going to take a lot longer to evaluate the emotional and spiritual impact of the trip. In reaching so many people in such a short time, I can't tell who's giving and who's receiving, or to what degree it's an exchange. I'm stretched thin and exhausted, but vaguely satisfied, for the moment.

Australia 2

I'm in Adelaide now. I don't know what to say.

Australia

Byron Bay, Australia, at sunrise on 6/20 (on a long drive from Brisbane to Newcastle). I should add that I'm having a wonderful time, both internally and externally.

Southern Hemisphere

I'm in Australia!

Ugly men in vans

Engineer / Giant / Rosetta, 5/23-6/1

Since a lot of you have been asking, I'll be in Australia from 6/15 to 7/1. I have no idea what to expect. If it's half as fun as the Engineer/Giant tour, I'll be happy.

I'm getting old

I never used to complain about weird hours, no sleep, or long drives. I don't know if it's because I got married or because my inner crusty old guy is starting to become my normal outer self.

I also find myself becoming tired of travel in general, mostly because the more I think about it the more selfish it seems. This is less true of touring (where you're supposedly "giving" people something wherever you go, creating value, etc.) than normal post-college travel, but still applies. As I begin to accept my limitations and realize that I will not go everywhere in the world before I die, I also begin to see more clearly the consumptive nature of travel. Of what value is all this "experience capital" anyway, especially to anyone other than myself? Am I really going to bring home some wonderful knowledge from far away that will improve my local community? That's a pretty Platonic idea and one which is all but obsolete in contemporary globalism.

It's more likely that by traveling I'm only spreading the gospel of consumptive late capitalism. It forces a weighing of the potential benefits (to me) of worldly experience, versus the potential benefits (to my community) of staying and investing in a real home. Some might claim that their enlightened transience allows them to be "citizens of the world" and have a community that spans the globe, but I contend that most of those people simply have no real community at all, and are stretched too thin to be much more than cultural leeches to the localities they come in contact with. Their "doctrine of placelessness" is also often accompanied by virulent delusions of their own importance.

I suspect many of these people are trying to escape what they perceive to be a kind of determinism in placefulness --- whereby your homeplace becomes inextricable from your identity, and therefore limits how much of your self you can intentionally construct. Having a local connection is a block to the long-held elite-white-people value of culturelessness (unless the "local" connection is New York or London, which are just nodes in the Space of Flows). I think that's actually a good thing. If that makes me "provincial" or a "yokel," I don't really care.

+ Weirdometer

This is funny (probably only to me). Huge pictures, no real content. The whole idea of music journalism is starting to annoy me: what's the point? So someone else can tell you what you should like? Big record labels aren't the only thing that file-sharing has made obsolete. Now that we hear about new material via the Internet, there's no role left for "journalistic" music publications except to set themselves up as arbiters of taste. In this field, it's really only a continuum between the snarky elitism of Pitchfork and the poor grammar, design, and paper stock of Kerrang.

And for the record, I'm really sorry that OiNK was shut down.

The tower

This is the tallest man-made structure in the world. It is in Blanchard, North Dakota. I visited it while staying in Fargo on tour with Battlefields. I waited a long time to do this -- a site which is the pinnacle of a personal mythology, a dream-object, like my own personal Mount Olympus. It is no skyscraper, it is the anti-monument.

Tour one

This is from Detroit, at the 4th of July party that we played at. I forgot to bring anything to shave with, so it looks like this will be the Summer of the Beard. This picture does not in any way capture the true level of filth and facial hair that is happening right now. I haven't showered or shaved in a week, as of tomorrow morning.

The 4th was fun, even being away from home. We played an epic game of ultimate frisbee with Giant and rocked a tiny basement, ate vegan food, set off fireworks, and generally were a nuisance.

It didn't last though, since we had to drive 550 miles through the night to a 2pm show today in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Of course, the show actually started at 4pm and it's 11pm now and we still haven't played.

grumble grumble

Revised itinerary

Jul 2 M Dayton, Ohio
Jul 3 T Parma Heights, Ohio
Jul 4 W Detroit, Michigan
Jul 5 R Steven’s Point, Wisconsin
Jul 6 F Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jul 7 S Des Moines, Iowa

Jul 8 S Fargo, North Dakota
Jul 9 M Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Jul 10 T Lawrence, Kansas
Jul 11 W Denver, Colorado
Jul 12 R (day off)
Jul 13 F Salt Lake City, Utah
Jul 14 S Hollywood, California

Jul 15 S (day off)
Jul 16 M Tempe, Arizona
Jul 17 T Tucson, Arizona
Jul 18 W Albuquerque, New Mexico
Jul 19 R Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Jul 20 F Columbia, Missouri
Jul 21 S Lafayette, Indiana

Jul 22 S Cookeville, Tennessee
Jul 23 M Athens, Georgia
Jul 24 T Lawrenceville, Georgia
Jul 25 W (day off to drive back to Phila)
Jul 26 R (day off at home)
Jul 27 F Woburn, Massachusetts
Jul 28 S Virginia Beach, Virginia

Jul 29 S Levittown, New York
Jul 30 M Manhattan, New York
Jul 31 T Levittown, New York (home to Phila after show)
Aug 1 W Doylestown, Pennsylvania (at home)
Aug 2 R Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (at home)
Aug 3 F tba (not at home)
Aug 4 S tba (not at home)

Aug 5 S Manchester, New Hampshire
Aug 6 M Manhattan, New York
Aug 7 T Brooklyn, New York
Aug 8 W Buffalo, New York
Aug 9 R Columbus, Ohio
Aug 10 F Johnson City, Tennessee (home through night after show)

Aug 12 S Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (end of tour show)

Tour

Remember this?

TIME TO DO IT AGAIN

With the Minor Times:
Jun 22 Water Street Lounge, Brooklyn, New York
Jun 23 242 Main, Burlington, Vermont
Jun 24 The Bike Barn, Falmouth, Maine
Jun 25 The Lit Lounge, Manhattan, New York

With Battlefields:
Jul 2 The night owl , Dayton, Ohio
Jul 3 The Davenport, Parma Heights, Ohio
Jul 4 (Chicago? Can you give us a place to stay?)
Jul 5 Skipps Ballroom, Stevens point, Wisconsin
Jul 6 Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jul 7 The first Cup Cafe, Des Moines, Iowa
Jul 8 The Aquarium , Fargo, North Dakota
Jul 9 Nutty's, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Jul 10 Jackpot lounge, Lawrence, Kansas
Jul 11 Monkey Mania, Denver, Colorado
Jul 13 The Broken Record, Salt Lake City, Utah
Jul 14 Relax Bar, Hollywood, California
Jul 15 (LA?)
Jul 16 The Space, Tempe, Arizona
Jul 17 Skrappy's, Tucson, Arizona
Jul 18 Space Maybe, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Jul 19 The Conservatory, Oklahoma city, Oklahoma
Jul 20 The No Coast, Columbia, Missouri
Jul 21 Downtown Records, Lafayette, Indiana
Jul 22 Campus of Tenn Tech Univ, Cookeville, Tennessee
Jul 23 Repent, Athens, Georgia
Jul 24 The Treehouse, Lawrenceville, Georgia

(weekend with The Minor Times)

With Irepress:
Jul 30 Lit Lounge, Manhattan, New York
Jul 31 The Vintage Lounge, Levittown, New York
Aug 1 Siren Records, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Aug 2 Mill Creek Tavern, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

(weekend with The Minor Times)

With Zoroaster:
Aug 6 The Knitting Factory, New York, New York
Aug 7 Europa Night Club, Brooklyn, New York
Aug 9 The Ravari Room, Columbus, Ohio
Aug 10 The Hideaway, Johnson City, Tennessee

Aug 12 First Unitarian Church (Home from tour show), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


This is obviously not a complete list, some dates are yet to be filled in. If you can provide some shelter for us on this trip, please call me or email. I'll give you my number if you don't have it.

My only complaint: entirely too much time spent in New York (ugh). Five times!

Rosetta junk

Here's the new Rosetta shirt design for this summer's tour. We're getting a lot of them so there won't be any more of the "sorry we don't have that size" crap going on.

I've kind of disappeared lately, which is due to the fact that I've been sleeping very little and spending most of my time mixing the new Rosetta full-length. It's on tight deadlines and will be mastered by Colin Marston of Dysrhythmia next week. I'm not posting sound samples because at this point we're paranoid about leaks, especially leaks of unmastered material (like what happened with Galilean Satellites). No one has heard this material outside the band except for Drew at Translation Loss, and he likes it. Supposedly there is a blurb in the new Decibel magazine that comes out this weekend about the record, and an apocryphal quote from me saying something about Pink Floyd, Mogwai, and Coalesce on a space station.

Here is the track listing for the new record, which is titled "Wake/Lift":

1. Red in Tooth and Claw
2. Lift (part 1)
3. Lift (part 2)
4. Lift (part 3)
5. Wake
6. (Temet Nosce)
7. Monument

It is only one disc this time. As to whether there will be "easter eggs" like last time, I won't say anything. The only thing I'm authorized to talk about is the supposed existence of an alleged "Interpol cover song" which is definitely not on the album.

The artwork is being done by Paul Romano, who is a brilliant painter and has done all of the Mastodon covers. We're really excited that he is doing this for us.

Long-awaited amp post

Gear nerds, at long last: AMPS.


This is the live setup I've been using since about early 2005. The only change in all that time is that I now use a Marshall TSL-100 for a master head, instead of an AVT150H. The AVT150 + 1960B was what I used recording TGS and Project Mercury. The TSL wasn't a huge improvement right out of the box, but afforded MUCH more opportunity for tinkering, so it is currently being used with the same old 1960B to record the new Rosetta full-length, "Wake/Lift" (which will be out 9/28/07 on Translation Loss).

The pedal setup was posted before. I use no distortion pedals, everything on the board front-ends the amp, and all the drive comes from the master amp. Each guitar head drives a single 4x12, and the bass head drives a 4x10. The bass head is useful because our tuning (Bb F Bb Eb G C) is low enough that a guitar cabinet can't reproduce the fundamental frequency of the lowest string. Having the low end reinforcement means the 4x12s don't have to be driven as hard.

Nearly every component listed has been modified in some way (though the old AVT head was completely stock, no modifications). All of my guitars are also electrically modified, so the "Rosetta sound" or whatever you want to call it is not really created by any one piece of equipment. It's more the result of a laborious process of matching different components to each other, and when it doesn't fly, breaking out the soldering iron and making it work better.

TSL-100:
- JJ EL-34L + ECC83s hi-gain tubes from Eurotubes (noticeable improvement, + more headroom)
- 1 390pF cap in V3 and 2 47pF caps on volume pots for treble roll-off on Lead/Crunch channels, per this thread (huge improvement)
- FRED rectifiers to replace stock 1N4007 diodes [some info here] (jury's still out)
- 10H Choke from Mercury Magnetics (noticeable improvement)

3210 MOSFET:
- Stock Hitachi MOSFETs burned out, replaced with Magnatec BUZ900/905, +25W power gain

Hartke HA3500:
- JJ ECC83s tube swap

1960B:
Replaced two stock G12Ts with Vintage 30s. Now has 2 G12s and 2 V30s. We mic the V30s for recording.

Homebrew cab:
Was once a Crate 80W 4x12 (?). Now 300W with 4 G12Ts like a stock Marshall, but with its larger size, sound resembles a Sunn0))) 4x12. Rewired with switching jacks for selectable 4/16 ohm impedance (like a Marshall).

--- ---

Eventually I'm going to put up a permanent page on here for amp/guitar mod stuff that I do, with as many of the associated hard-to-find links as I can dig up. I have also been working extensively on two Valve Junior heads lately which have been doing stereo duty with my Frankenstein-like Telecaster and a delay pedal in Temet Nosce. This setup will also make a brief appearance on the new Rosetta.

News

My online persona is for all intents and purposes dying... there's just no time to spare for the Interweb.

The above was taken last weekend while Rosetta was recording drum tracks for our next full length. All the other parts we're recording later in-house at Janedoll, but drums were engineered by Colin Marston from Dysrhythmia and Behold... The Arctopus, at his new-ish studio in Queens. This was our first ever recording to analog tape.

Project Mercury got a 9 out of 10 in Decibel Magazine! Ha. Splits are still cool. This is from the new issue with Neurosis on the cover.

I have been MIA because I just finished shooting/editing/web-porting a large documentary media project for one of the departments I work for at Penn. If you care, you can look at it here. It's not exactly high art, but my people skills have certainly improved.

Pedals

It occurred to me that a few of you who read this might be interested in some more mundane tech stuff. People ask about pedals more than they ask about amps and guitars. This is the effects setup I use touring with Rosetta. I just rebuilt it to accommodate some new components.



This is completely nerdy but I like talking about gear. Usually when we tour with other bands, one of the early friendly connections is gear talk. It's like shop talk, or book talk, or hey-you-like-Twin-Peaks-too talk.

Another weekend tour

This time, with Tides, Giant, and Balboa. I am currently having a fabulous time. These pictures are all from Norfolk, VA on 12/15, and taken by Dave Pacifico, whom I have missed very much these last few months.

I feel like lately Rosetta has started sounding "trashier" (not in a bad way) and less refined. I'm not sure if that's because the fall has been more stress and less practice than usual. In Norfolk we had to play without Armine and it was pretty weird (but again, not all bad; it was challenging).

More from CMJ weekend

Green = Portland, Maine 11.05.06
Red = CMJ 11.03.06
Thanks to Linshuang for shooting.

CMJ weekend / initial reactions

+ Feeling it again
+ Maine kids
+ All ages
+ Having everything I love all together
+ New van
+ Being on the road again, though briefly
+ Zack Bates
+ The Nonesvch collective
+ Audience participation
+ Remembering roots
+ The ocean
+ Sunsets
+ Impromptu dates

- New York
- Greedy/condescending club owners
- "Door polling"
- Hipster makeovers (even sludge metal is now a fashion show)
- Intoxication

Lots more pictures later...

Van

Rosetta got a new van. This was completely unexpected, and largely the result of others' misfortunes and a lot of help from BJ's mom. I'm so used to a cramped, hot mess that this new thing seems far too luxurious and a little excessive, almost "bourgeois." But it does solve a lot of potential problems on several fronts: having too much gear, not being able to take people with us, engine overheating, not being able to pull a trailer, not being able to sleep in the van, etc.

Still, I'm ambivalent. I find myself missing the old white junker, and feeling bad that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. It was a home away from home (albeit an uncomfortable one) for many years, the only van I've ever toured in, a tiny space in which countless memories were made. This past summer we drove it 13,181.4 miles (half the circumference of the earth) in 46 days without a single problem. And it got great gas mileage too. Most people get rid of their car and don't think much about it, but then again, most people don't go long periods where they spend more time in their car than they do in houses. I miss that thing, because it wasn't really a van, it was a tiny little house that traveled. I could be in the middle of nowhere, sleeping on the roof under the stars, and still feel like I was in a familiar place, just because I was on top of the van, and it held everything I had.

A stupid sentiment perhaps, nostalgia wasted on a 1994 Ram 150. But I've probably spent more time in that van than most of my friends have spent in their college apartments.

Post-tour listmaking

(7/31 in SLC, thanks to Conor)

Gratitude:
landscape
kindness of strangers (& being put to shame by it)
'spacious place' (cf. Ps. 18)
manna
variety in creation
common grace
developing empathy & compassion
the scattered community
recognizing faces from the internet in real life
coming out of the shell
Ecclesiastes
learning to live together in hardship
mountains / oceans / deserts / forests
finding out how little I actually need

Curses:
meaninglessness / 'vanity'
people as commodities (especially women)
'dishonest gain'
alcohol
postmodern conception of travel
social anesthetics
experiences as currency
greed

Tour 10

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure."
-Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7, verse 4

What grieves the wise?

"The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?"
-Chapter 6, verse 11

The tour is being cut short. I will be coming home on August 7th, and would like to sit with you, my Philadelphia friend, and tell some stories. Some are good and some are bad. The summation of this journey is that there is much more destruction and brokenness in this nation than I could ever have imagined, but that God is more faithful, just, and good than I can possibly express or understand. This is the first time in my life that I have ever prayed with a truly excited gratitude and surprise over a meal served to me --- understanding that it literally came from heaven. There is no entitlement anymore, only abandon.

Receiving such daily bread, I grow continually more disgusted with privilege and its requisite opiate hedonism [the house of pleasure]:
"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep."

-Chapter 5, verses 8-12

Tour 9

We drove through the night out of Albuquerque and detoured on our way to Phoenix so we could go see the Grand Canyon. By all accounts it was really worth it. The weird thing is that because it's so high up, we were really cold on the way there (I was wearing a sweatshirt for the first time on this whole tour). Both the coldest and hottest temperatures we've hit were in Arizona. I have really enjoyed the diversity of the landscape down here, and the dry clean air.

The bizarre thing about the Grand Canyon is that it has been so extensively photographed and documented that it really cannot be experienced in a primal, non-simulated way. To compound the issue, when you actually get there and look at it, it literally looks fake. The distances are so huge that the eye loses all sense of depth, and the landscape seems like a Hollywood matte painting. It's iconic, and can't be experienced apart from its place in the popular consciousness. Any picture taken at that site has been taken before, and the continuous proliferation of these copies reinforces the simulation. We remember the look of the place and are familiar with it even before we ever go there, so our experience of it is always mediated by the model (photograph) preceding its instantiation (the experience of being there). So the two might be indistinguishable, if it weren't for the $25 entry fee.

I'm in California right now, for the first time ever. We're staying in Irvine, south of L.A., with one of Brett's friends. Our Tijuana show was cancelled because the venue was shut down, so we have today off and a show in South Gate tomorrow.

I was curious to see what L.A. was really like in person --- and to be honest, it is already stressing me out. It's a sprawling beast: a filthy, gridlocked, tangled web of strip malls and air-conditioned boxes for the middle class. A consuming amoeba which is engineered for excess --- impossible to walk anywhere, millions of people seeking shelter from the smog in sealed cars on clogged freeways. It's like New Jersey on speed, and with unlimited money and no clouds.

Tour 8

Change of pace --- there aren't really words to describe this place, so I won't try. We drove 14 hours from Corpus Christi, TX to Las Cruces, NM (starting at 2am central time), and it was one of the most sublime experiences of my life. It was cool and dry and beautiful and I saw the sunrise in the desert. I chose not to photograph it.

Tour 7

1: Brothers and Sisters opening the show at Cave9 in Birmingham, Alabama. A brand new band with a ton of potential. Also a great venue.

2: Fleur de Live, the venue in Monroe, Louisiana. It is extremely hot and humid here. We slept in this venue and I'm now stealing wireless from a neighboring building in order to post this.

The heat is making everyone lethargic and somewhat irritable. I feel like my brain is melting and I've somehow become 93802347 times stupider in the last three days --- I can't think or summon any motivation to do anything. We are headed to Dallas today, where it is supposed to be 104 degrees by 3pm.

Tour 6

It is really hot down here. I took a shower in this "outdoor fixture" this morning after sleeping in a barn in some sort of anarchist/hippie commune (Gainesville, FL). There was a dog shut in the loft with us, and it turned out she had fleas. Bummer. This shower consists of a pipe pumping groundwater, but it was better than stewing in body juices from the preceding night, and required to check for fleas.

I'm in Tampa right now. I've noticed an increasing lethargy as we've moved south, it seems like I can't get anything done and I just want to sit around all day. It's probably the heat. I've lost 6 pounds since our two days off in Philly last week, but most likely my body is just adapting and becoming more efficient.

The skate shots (you can see me reflected in the glass on the first picture) were taken in Myrtle Beach, SC on 7/11, one of the most brutally hot days so far. We got to the venue at 10:30am, so it made sense to just go soak in the ocean for a couple hours... but even that wasn't really beating the heat, so we went to a local mall and saw Superman Returns at a matinee before the show.

Tour 5

This was another glimpse of the sublime, an experience completely at odds with what one would expect from a tour of America's seediest venues. Since we had the day off, staying outside Washington DC, our friend took us to a swimming hole nearby. We had to walk over a mile through mud and scrub brush to get there, but what a beautiful place... swimming in clean river water, no cell phone service, no traffic noise, perfect weather.

Today the all-encompassing surreality didn't matter. It was like that dream that you don't want to wake up from when your alarm goes off in the bone-chilling cold of January and you want to skip work. It was a small taste of paradise --- not in the hyper-real TV culture sense, where it's all about tropical beaches, booze, and self-pampering --- this was a small taste of perfect unity, perfect comfort which is not insular, a particle of time where everything is balanced and right and at peace. It inspired a playful and childlike wonder.

This made me realize that I truly am living a fantasy right now, doing something that literally almost no one gets to do. While part of me is still feeling the ache of homesickness, another part of me is filled with gratitude and reveling in the joyful absurdity of this entire summer. How can I possibly complain? I have enough to eat, a roof over my head more often than not, travel companions who have plenty of color if not much grace, and I am presented daily with the splendor and majesty of creation. Wherever I go, I am watched over and attended to, not just a meager portion given, but piled on and overflowing --- a real mess of delight.

This is not to "shortcircuit the vicissitudes" of essentially being homeless for two months, there are plenty of trials. But however acute that pain may be --- physical, emotional, or otherwise --- right now the most real and tangible quantity is wonder.

Little things: the DC show went really well, which was a needed confidence booster. We played TMA-1 and it sounded the best it has yet. All the bands were good, which almost never happens. I am also rediscovering Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports, which I'm listening to as I type this. It's genius (I had forgotten). Tomorrow we're driving to Murfreesboro, NC, which will take us right through Zuni, VA, the town I lived in until I was 8. Only about 50 people live there, most of whom are different from the people I remember. I'll still stop and take pictures, but I suspect that the surreality factor will only increase. Memory is volatile in these kinds of situations, and prone to excess.

waterfalls / cirrocumulus clouds / sunlight / air-drying / Music for Airports / quietness / waking dreams

Tour 4

One of the best things about tour is the amazing bathrooms. This particular shining example is in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. We played there last night, to an audience of one promoter, two bands, and a barmaid. It was a rough time. The hanging cloud of personal issues over some in our group doesn't really help. On the plus side, we stayed with a friend, whose roommate made us pancakes this morning.

We spent the afternoon record shopping and hanging out in Towson, Maryland. I bought a Boards of Canada EP, simply because it had a remix of Dayvan Cowboy on it, and it turns out the whole thing is really superb. Best use of 8 bucks in a long time... highly recommended.

Right now I'm in Washington DC, stealing wireless from a neighboring building. If we can snag a place to stay, it would be nice to spend our day off tomorrow perusing the Smithsonian museums or the National Gallery of Art (since everything in DC is free... which is ideal when you're destitute and homeless). Sometimes, "highbrow" pleasures can be somewhat comforting or relieving when you're constantly exposed to the dregs of society.

Tour 3

This is from Providence, RI on Saturday night. To see more of this nonsense (and lots of flying hair), go here.

Unprocessed:
It was nice to be back in Philadelphia for a serendipitous Sabbath. Our 7/2 show in Brooklyn fell through so we drove home through the night after the Providence show. Being at home is completely surreal, especially since I know I'll be leaving again in a couple of days. Spending the afternoon with petite-amie, grasping a fleeting presence, reminded me that I can't ever seem to be sure whether I'm coming or going. The quintessentially Philadelphia summer weather -- oppressive humidity, followed by a raging thunderstorm -- was sublime for once, because it felt like home is supposed to feel. But do I have a home? I have a Home, but for right now, I feel like a displaced person.

The problem is that nothing is real anymore. I live in a perpetual waking dream, so surrounded by constant changes that there is nothing to rest on, nothing tangible to abide in. It's not that I'm a creature of routine, craving some sort of predictability to create stability, rather it's just that constant overstimulation and scenery changes cause a sense of helplessness, resignation, and fatalism. I'm not in control of anything. This is ultimately for the best (the situation that is, not my current attitude towards it), but for a person who is overly concerned with memory and the passing of time, it is disconcerting to feel like I am always being rushed on by tides in which I have no say.

I am, however, miraculously provided for. In the state of pure dependence and loss of control, there is something beautiful and sweet in receiving from the hand of God. I was sitting in a coffee shop in Portland Maine last week, just so I could get on the Internet (too poor to afford food or drink), and a waitress came over to me with a plate of pita bread and garlic hummus and said, "This is courtesy of Katie Smith [Armine's girlfriend]." Kate, who we had stayed with the preceding night, had called her friend who worked there and told her to "find the kid with glasses and a ponytail and feed him." In that moment I became conscious of a more-than-passing similiarity to the Israelites, hungry and wandering in the desert, fed with manna from heaven.


Psalm 18 / Be Little With Me / redeeming the basement couch / gifts / Micah 6:8 / the ocean / holy rain / daily bread / presence / tactility / tangled bodies / tears

Tour 2

Thanks to Hernease for the above (6/23 Philly kickoff).

Portland was pretty amazing. Both in terms of the show/response and in terms of the general atmosphere of the place. I'm in Boston right now, at some strange person's apartment, stealing internet access from her downstairs neighbor. I can't sleep. Tomorrow is a day off, which is irritating, but we played less than the best tonight, so maybe we could use it. I get to spend a few nights in Philly July 2nd-5th, since the shows around that time are nearby, and there are two days off.

Tour 1

Allegany, NY, 6/24
Indoor skatepark/venue

This is proving to be much harder than I expected. It's only three days in right now, but the overwhelming amount of time to kill has made me restless and homesick. I still enjoy playing, but that's about it. It's overwhelming to think that there are almost seven weeks of this ahead. I'd rather just go home right now.

TMA-1 / General bummed-ness

"Intention alone is sufficient to give noise the value of signal."
-Umberto Eco, The Poetics of Open Work

Here is a really terrible-sounding rough mix of the more experimental new Rosetta track, which will appear in a much better sounding state on the upcoming split with Balboa.

I leave for tour in three days, which is completely surreal. The unifying theme of the last two months has been piling total environmental changes one on top of the other, until the continuous transitioning becomes its own sort of stasis. I'm a little sick of it really. The road may actually provide a semblance of settled routine, which would be a novelty. I will post here as regularly as I can while we're out.

Plan B

Taken by Karl Kuchs, Friday night 5/19 at the Plan B House in Philly. Jim and Steve are pretty swell dudes.

This past weekend's tour was interesting. The bass now does not suck anymore, and we (read: I) blew the circuit breaker twice at the Brooklyn show, and then after one song we had to kill the volume because the neighbors complained. Now that's metal.

MACRoCk

I'm about to leave to go play the Godwin Metal Showcase @ MACRoCk with Municipal Waste.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Pictures Sunday...

If you happen to be at MACRoCk (i.e. right now), come see us and we will hook you up with one of our new DVDs, which I am burning right this second. They have a 5.1-channel surround mix of both CDs of The Galilean Satellites together (disc 1 on the front speakers, disc 2 on the rear), and three live videos too. We will be hand-painting discs and cases for these things and selling them on tour this summer, but you can get one this weekend for free (without the packaging) if you happen to be in the right place.

Japan/US relations just improved significantly

This was probably the best weekend of my senior year. Despite the hassles of traveling with a 13-man entourage, doing the whole multi-national metal circus thing was truly a sublime experience. Nitromegaprayer is incredible live, and is also made up of amazingly kind and generous people.

According to my new Japanese friends, I am apparently "very dangerous."

Sunday in Syracuse with Engineer was also a great time, though a little sad, since Balboa and Nitromegaprayer had to go to Rhode Island.

Getting home was not so much fun, since the Great Lakes decided to dump two inches of snow on Syracuse WHILE we were playing (pictures soon). Who pays the price for this? My mid-review, along with Dave's final exam this morning. We made it home in one piece, though.

Outrageous

Nitromegaprayer was awesome tonight. They came all the way from Japan just to do a week of touring. Just in case you didn't know, Japanese is just a synonym for cool. We're playing with them again tomorrow in Connecticut (+ Balboa & Sea of Bones). If you missed all the outrageous cross-cultural love, I'm terribly sorry.

Also-
THESIS SHOW DATES:
April 14th-17th, 5pm-9pm daily
@ Penn Cinema (formerly Cinemagic)
3925 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Opening is Friday, April 14th @ 5pm sharp
I will be on-site during all open hours for all four days, so please come and look
This show is as yet untitled

Video documentation will run in the FRES gallery in the Left Bank from April 29th - May 15th.

Poster

New tour poster (incomplete):



School is nuts. I'm nuts.

Shirt designs

New Rosetta shirt design, silver ink on black fabric:


This will probably be modified into a zip-up sweatshirt shortly, with only images on the front and a larger body of text on the back.

I'm also starting a new series of five t-shirt designs, with one for each different star system from disc 2 of The Galilean Satellites: Deneb, Capella, Beta Aquilae, Ross 128, and Sol (the Sun). Each design will be limited to 36 shirts.

Playing:
Sunn0))) - Black 1
Balboa / Nitromegaprayer split
Ion Dissonance - Solace
Byla - s/t
Stars of the Lid - Per Aspera Ad Astra

Americana

Found while passing through the great state of Connecticut:



File under "serendipities of the road."

Ocean was truly excellent this weekend in Maine. Many thanks go to Stella from Sinferno who not only gave us a place to stay, but fed us bagels and hot cider for breakfast at Arabica. Portland is a great town, and everyone is nice to the point of it even being a little weird. There are too many white people, though, so we played a little game of I-Spy-the-Minority.

To add to the surreality of the weekend, our friend (and old-school Relapse veteran) Robert Williams of Nightstick was at the show, since CWAF (a semi-related Weymouth band) opened the evening. I haven't seen him in person since we played in Boston with Dysrhythmia back in March, though he wrote me a letter over the summer. He's one of the most gratifyingly strange people I have ever met -- a genius of sorts, obviously highly educated and very articulate. Still, his cocaine use (which he most likely would not define as a "problem") makes it difficult to engage with him in an authentic way. I appreciate his comments greatly, because I think he gets what I'm trying to accomplish musically, but the space between us is huge. In some ways he makes me sad -- he seems like he reached such a point of existential self-awareness that the pain of nothingness overwhelmed him, and he just surrendered to drugs as an escape. When a mind like that misses redemption, it feels like a waste.

At least I left our conversation with two Nightstick CDs and a Siege tape.

Playing:
Ocean - Here Where Nothing Grows

Temple "Record Release" show

(Thanks Staci)

The Good: Slacks!, waffles, the kind people of 1633 Diamond, familiar faces, getting rid of Abacinate CDs.

The Bad: Getting cut short and not playing the finale, the room sound being unbalanced, lack of energy.

The Ugly: Worst PA system in the history of mankind.

Perfectionism can turn into a specter in situations like these. I have begun to question the relationship (if there is one) between the fun of playing and audience enjoyment. We can certainly perceive when the audience isn't interested, and that can sap energy dramatically, but even when they are interested, it doesn't necessarily make for a satisfying performance. They may feed off of us, but we can't feed off of them. So much for playing the crowd (could this be why many people find us alienating? Do they even matter to us?). If we could figure out what it is that we do take our energy from, perhaps we could harness it more consistently.

Tour

Keansburg, NJ: 3/5
Syracuse, NY: 4/5 (instrumental low-volume set)
Wallingford, CT: 4.8/5

East of the Wall is a really superb band, and I think when Rosetta got to play after them we were more inspired. Saturday night in Syracuse was "outrageous" as expected, once again due more to the Jersey contingent than the four of us. Every time we're out on the road and Brett is around, things get retarded. It never happens when we're by ourselves.


(The hills were aflame on Saturday)

While trying to go to sleep in the middle of Saturday's wild booze-fest, I overheard a girl arguing religion with Mike from EOTW. Earlier she had told me she was "hammered" and that it was a problem because she had to get up for church the next day. Apparently she considers herself a devout Christian, because her argument with Mike was a typically modernist Evangelical rant about the difference between faith and reason, and how God could not be contained by the latter, such that he required the former --- and certainly could never be "understood." Mike, a hardline agnostic, was nonplussed. Her argument wouldn't have been particularly noticeable (especially since arguments between drunk people rarely go anywhere), except that when Mike failed to convert and the conversation ended, she went outside and found a casual sex partner, presumably to make herself feel better.

What hurts about this situation is that this girl probably has been taught to believe that the resistance she encounters is "persecution," and is a sign that she is doing God's will. But why would people want to surrender their lives to something that produces such hypocrisy? Indeed, it would seem from this encounter that Christianity requires no such surrender at all, only the surrender of reason to an empty dogma, a pattern of speech, a mechanical mantra (is this what "faith" is?). Have we no shame?

Interview

Here's a bizarre interview with Rosetta on Indieworkshop.com, done by our friend C. Elmore, who lives in Florida. It's strange because it's pretty much an unedited chat room conversation.

Playing:
Stars of the Lid - Avec Laudenum, Maneuvering the Nocturnal Hum
LFO - Sheath
Oceansize - Everyone Into Position
Mono / Pelican Split LP
Dysrhythmia - No Interference reissue