MATT'S SXSW 07 BLOG


Sunday, March 18, 2007


SXSW Blog 6

Friday....

You're not going to believe this, but we're in Arkansas. Doug, Nick, Justin & I. I'm writing this blog on my laptop because there is no wireless internet to be found. Oh yeah, and we're in a van. In motion. Somewhere on I-35 making our way east.

This morning, I woke up pretty early after passing out with a horrible headache. Went downstairs and grabbed some breakfast. Started to feel better. Turned the TV on waiting for Nick & Justin to wake up. Then my phone beeped.

Here's what the text message said:

Yo. Every flight this weekend to nyc is cancelled.

From: David L.

11:47 am 3/16/07

Our plane was supposed to leave at 4:50 p.m. We all needed to get back to New York. What the hell was going on?

I turned the news on, and there it was. A huge winter storm in the Northeast. Rain, sleet, hail, winds and snow. JetBlue cancelled 263 flights alone today. And, of course, we were flying JetBlue.

Before you roll your eyes, we bought our tickets for this trip before their whole 11-hours-on-the-tarmac fiasco.

We called JetBlue and explained our situation to them. They told us our flight was cancelled and the earliest one we could get on back to New York was leaving Tuesday morning. It's Friday.

No way.

Our customer service agent was extremely sorry, and we weren't about to take it out on her. Not like she controls the weather, right? Then she overheard us talking about our gear and asked if we were in a band. We told her we were, and she got very excited. Asked about us, our name, who we sound like, etc.

Her name's Tammy. She lives in Utah. What is it with all of these female fans in Utah that get so into us? I absolutely love it. I think some of our biggest fans must live in Utah.

Note to self: band must play Utah soon. Must be sure to bring our own beer for the trip.

Back to the clusterf*ck...

We got refunds on our plane fares. And we jumped online. Only one airline was flying from Austin to New York, and a one-way ticket was going for $923.

Trains? Best bet was Amtrak, which would stop in Chicago for a six-hour layover. And we weren't sure they would let us bring all of our equipment on to the train.

At that point, we all looked at each other and knew. We silently just sorta nodded.

We were gonna have to drive back to New York. Find a place that would rent us a van for a one-way trip (which most places don't do) and just tough it out.

26 hours and 50 minutes.

1,744.69 miles.

We've just hit Arkansas.

We're never flying anywhere again unless we have to cross an ocean.

Wish us luck.

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Saturday/Sunday

Texas. Arkansas. Tennessee. North Carolina. Virginia. West Virginia. Maryland. Pennsylvania. New Jersey. New York.

And we didn't even have time to stop at Graceland. Damnit.

Met up with an old friend for a quick lunch outside Nashville. Other than that, it was basically full speed ahead back home. We decided to crash for a few hours at a hotel outside Memphis early Saturday morning. That put us way too behind.

As I'm writing this, the sun is coming up in New York City on Sunday morning. We are finally home, roughly 36 hours later and with a day's worth of growth on our faces more than we planned.

A few things I learned during this trip:

1) If you want to get somewhere fast, let Nick drive.

2) There are absolutely no tolls in the South.

3) Staten Island is impossible to find when you're tired.

4) The radio plays that new Red Hot Chili Peppers song way too much.

Love,

Matt



SXSW Blog 5

Thursday....

Woke up with a bit of a hangover today. Good thing about our hotel is they serve breakfast every morning starting at 6 a.m.

We all woke up around the same time, but split up. Zach, Nick, Justin & I headed to the Planetary Group party at Maggie Mae's to check out our friends Locksley and Robbers On High Street. So funny, we come all the way to Austin and see so many New York bands. Again, free food, free beers and margaritas. You might remember me mentioning Maggie Mae's from one of the previous posts. It was definitely my favorite place to hang out in during SXSW.

Ate a lot of food, and by this point I'm pretty much done with potato salad. I think if I never see a spoonful of potato salad ever again in my life it will be too soon.

I met up with my friend David from New York who was doing some work for IFC (Independent Film Channel). He asked if I could help him do some man-on-the-street style interviews, asking people questions about SXSW. I was happy to help.

One thing I learned today: there are bands all over Austin this week, but if you're a guy holding an official looking microphone with a cameraman next to you, everyone wants to talk to you.

And they did. I saw gaggles of women shrug off every band trying to hand out a flyer or a CD or some other promotional artifact just to tell me their names, where they were from and why they came all the way to Austin.

We did a few more interviews at the FADER Fort, but my head really started to bother me. We caught one song by The Pipettes (almost met the brunette, sigh) and watched Foreign Islands' set. Very good band. Lots of energy on stage. Good tunes. My friend Matthew plays bass with them now, which I had forgotten, so that was a nice little bonus. Unfortunately, by the end of their set, my headache had grown from small and annoying to massive and dizzying.

I'm back at the hotel and the sun hasn't even begun to set yet. But I just can't move.

Hopefully, I'll get someone else in the band to tell you what they will inevitably wind up doing until the wee hours of the morning in a separate blog. Tomorrow afternoon, we fly back to New York City.

In the meantime, goodnight moon.

Love,

Matt



SXSW Blog 4

Wednesday Recap...

Okay. Today was the day. The day. Everything went right, everything fell into the place. Drinks. Food. Fans. Bands.

Today was the first day of the music portion of SXSW, and it was the closest I've ever felt to being reborn.

The day started off simply enough - we took the No. 15 bus downtown from our hotel to catch our good friends and fellow New Yorkers, Dirty On Purpose, play the GenArt showcase. It was a pretty cool venue, semi-outdoors under a tent, with food and free drinks (some vodka concoction - I honestly didn't want to know what was in it after my third one) to get us into a real Austin state of mind.

It was great to see the DOP guys again (they used to rehearse right next door to us) and share some laughs with them.

Doug and I were interviewed by Fox News. Basic questions about what SXSW means to us, what we're doing there, what bands we're excited to see, etc. Not a bad start to your Wednesday.

And then, John Norris showed up. John fricking-MTV Norris.

After a few games of paper-rock-scissors and a drink or two, we all decided that Nick should be the one to go up to him, give him one of our album samplers and plug the band. Nick wound up having a real decent conversation with John. Apparently, their musical tastes coincide – never a bad thing.

Oh, and Dirty On Purpose were awesome. Incredibly awesome. If you don't know them, check them out. Their video for "No Radio" is hilarious.

We left the show after saying hello to some of our friends from Headgear Studios, where we recorded our album. (It's coming out soon – I promise!) Our dear friend and beloved blogger Nora (irockiroll.blogspot.com) let us know that we were indeed on the list to go see The Pipettes and The Rapture that night. I'd seen The Rapture a few times before and always thought they put on a good show, but I never understood why everyone (especially Erik and our manager Zach) was making such a big deal out of The Pipettes. I found out later.

But before that...

We headed to the FADER Fort to hang out with a bunch of music journalists and see a couple of decent bands. One band in particular reminded me much of the Black Crowes, in a very good way. There was also a huge promotion going on at the FADER Fort for Southern Comfort. They had SoCo glasses, a pre-made punch with fresh lime juice, and (not joking) a five-foot tall inflatable Southern Comfort bottle. It took Nora and I about a half-hour to blow the thing up all the way, but we were pretty proud of ourselves once we finally got it. I'm sure there are pictures of it on the internet somewhere, and I'll post them up here as soon as we get 'em.

After nearly passing out from oxygen deprivation, Nora and I collected ourselves and headed over to The Pipettes/Rapture show with the rest of the band and Zach. This was, by far, the best party of the day, in my opinion. We were now also hanging with Rachael, who runs Underrated Magazine in New York. She also has a blog (underrated.typepad.com/blog) and she and Nora run a radio show together called, you guessed it, The Blog Show.

Doors to the stage area opened. The Pipettes came on. I had never seen them before. I was blown away. The music and vocals are very reminiscent of 60s' era wall-of-sound girl groups. The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Shirelles, groups like that. They even have coordinated dances worked out for each song.

And they are absolutely fucking gorgeous! Zach and I want to run away with them and be their groupies. I called dibs on the brunette.

The Rapture were great as always and played a good mix of songs off of their newest and previous album. Of course, the crowd went nuts for "House Of Jealous Lovers" and I thought their song with the lyric "my Mustang Ford" was the most genius idea for a licensing deal ever.

We saw a few more bands throughout the night. Stand-outs were Reeve Carney & The Revolving Band (who have a real cool rockabilly thing happening / Johnny Cash amplified, not to mention the cutest keyboard player/backing vocalist you've ever seen singing oohs and ahhs), Liam & Me (who we didn't actually see, but who are good friends so there ya go) and Mohair, who reminded me a lot of Muse, The Darkness and The Coral.

We stopped by the PureVolume party for afterhours, but there was a bit of confusion at the door. Nick & Zach didn't get in when Doug, Erik, Justin & I did. Always one to maintain the strict bond within the rhythm section, Justin doubled back for Nick and the three of them decided to call it a night. Doug, Erik & I stayed out a bit longer, checking out the new Wii game system that they had on display. By 3 a.m., I was ready to go home. Thankfully, so was Doug. Met a few interesting people on the street and had a hell of a time getting a cab, but we finally made it back to the hotel.

Love,

Matt



Wednesday, March 14, 2007


SXSW Blog 3

What can I say about a party where there is free food and free drinks until 1 a.m.?

I love this town.

Love,

Matt

P.S. Details to follow shortly -- for now, sleep is a necessity.




Tuesday, March 13, 2007


SXSW Blog 2

Tuesday, March 12th, 1:00 p.m. Austin Time

Wow. That was a night.

So the band woke up around noon-ish on Monday after our hellish flight into Austin and we all got ready to go. I had re-strung my guitars the night before (you're supposed to take your strings off, or loosen them tremendously, before ever taking them on a plane -- this is something we weren't absolutely sure of at first, but now it makes sense) but my Epiphone was acting funny. The E and B strings just weren't making any noise but a low buzz. Turns out, in transit to Texas, the action had gotten much higher, forcing the strings to rest immediately on the fretboard. This would have made playing When I'm Gone especially difficult.

Luckily, Erik knew how to fix it. Without a screwdriver. I love Erik.

I threw my laundry in for a quick spin and headed out with the guys to IHOP. We have one right next door to our hotel, and it is staffed with some of the sweetest waitresses you have ever met in your life.

Highlight quote from the meal, from one of our waitresses, Gail...

'Just move your juice and I'll slide this right in.'

For some reason, that kept us laughing for a good ten minutes. I was even thinking about saying it onstage, but I didn't.

Which brings us to the show...

Nick, Justin & I took the gear to Brush Square Park via cab. The rain that threatened to turn our show into a much more somber event was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was a beautiful day, sunny, temperatures in the 70s, quite the departure from New York City living. We found the park with no problems and the tent was already set up, our backline resting beautifully on the stage. They had provided us with all the amps we needed as well as a 5-piece drum kit for Justin to go all Animal-like on. We were thrilled!

Add to this free catering, as much beer as you could imagine, and, yes, a frozen margarita machine!

I'll say that again: our gig had a frozen margarita machine.

We did a quick soundcheck after meeting a few of the Mozilla Firefox people (again, amazing people, and very attractive as well - no wonder they're in marketing) but had to stop a little short because people were starting to come into the park. By the time we got off stage, the line for the food was ridiculously long, so we just got a bunch of margaritas and beers. The Mozilla people introduced us with very glowing words. And with that, we got on stage and played our first 45-minute set.

First Set

All Together Now
Twin Six
Way Too Quiet
Not Enough
Down Street
Battle Lines
True Faith
Next In Line

The sound system might have been a bit dodgy during the first few songs, I couldn't hear anything but drums and vocals during the set with a little of my and Erik's guitar, but the crowd seemed really into it. Lots of people with big, huge cameras up in the front.

I asked someone for a beer on stage. Three women and our manager brought me two each. It's safe to say I love Austin now.

We got offstage to take a break in between the sets and talk with some new fans. All of the food had been eaten. Seriously, all of it. I never thought that so much food could go so quickly. Don't let anyone fool you - Mozilla people can eat. Like, seriously eat.

So, of course, we just had to keep drinking. Until we were called back on for our next set.

Second Set

Another Day
Wandering Away
C'mon
The Way Of The World
Common Ground
When I'm Gone
Moonlight

This show was an interesting one. As I'm looking at the setlists now, I'm remembering how long it's been since we played some of these songs.

We recognized a few friendly faces from New York (Vince, John, David - thanks for being there!) and made a lot of new friends here in Austin. We posed for pictures, signed some drumsticks and setlists, and had a great time.

Zach, our manager, bartered with the tent next to us to get us all tacos in exchange for some of our frozen margarita supply since we didn't get to eat. The tacos were amazing.

Doug & Erik headed back to the hotel to load the gear out. Zach, Nick, Justin & I decided we were going out.

First place we stopped in was called Friends, which is located on 6th Street. How can I describe 6th Street? It's like Macdougal Street in New York, Bourbon Street in New Orleans, or Main Highway in Coconut Grove, Miami. It's just one long strip of bars and restaurants, music shimmering out of every open window, and a whole bunch of college-age people mingling with the older, blues-driven crowd in the sidewalks and streets.

Inside Friends, this blues trio just nailed us to the wall. They were called Pride And Joy and their guitar player was insane. During one of their songs, their drummer pulled a four minute drum solo, and was later accompanied by the guitar player on cowbell. Then, both of them picked up a set of sticks each and just started wailing on the toms. It was the sickest thing I've seen in years.

They had the crowd singing along, clapping, so much energy. Seventh chords shimmering through my ears, pentatonics, quick slides, octaves and octaves and octaves of bluesy goodness.

We went to meet up with Doug & Erik at a place called Casino de Camino (?) to hang out with our good friend, John Carlucci. He's gonna be directing our next music video, and he filmed our SXSW showcase also. I spent most of the time telling John's sister Christine how much she looks like Bryce Howard. A few pints of Guinness, Blue Moon and Shiner Bock later, we were back on the street.

We headed up to one bar called The Library, but decided it reminded us too much of a frat bar, so we left before getting a drink. Headed back to Friends, but a different blues trio was on. Not bad, but not nearly as good as Pride and Joy.

Then, Zach remembered he had friends playing at a bar called Momo's. So we started walking west in that direction (or was it east?), joking the entire time. Doug & Nick had an interesting game of soccer with some plastic hubcap-looking thing, at one point I definitely tackled Doug and tried to throw him in a fountain, and we were all in just a great mood, still riding high from our show and the general excitement of this town on a week like this one.

Met some great people at Momo's, including this girl Elise Evans who just released her own CD. She used to live in New York, right around the corner from where I live now actually in the Lower East Side. We talked for a bit about Pianos, La Pere Pinard and what became of Luna Lounge before it was time for us to head back to the hotel.

Nick, Justin & I split a cab back to the hotel and decided we needed IHOP one more time. I know, twice in one day, but it's next door and it's open 24 hours. We all ordered breakfast, which took like a half hour, but the manager was very apologetic and accomodating, so it wasn't such a shaft after all.

Came back to the room. Watched Three Amigos for a bit until we passed out.

And that was our first night at SXSW.

Today, we slept in a bit. Doug & Erik are at the SXSW trade show; Nick & Justin are downstairs in the gym at the hotel, training for the Pushup Competition. And I have to go run an errand somewhere on West 35th Street in Austin. I have no idea how to get there, so it should be somewhat exciting.

Bus schedules make no sense to me.

Love,
Matt



Monday, March 12, 2007


SXSW Blog 1

Sunday, March 11th - 6:52 p.m.

So Justin, Nick, Doug & I are sitting in the food court at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Our flight to Austin leaves in two hours. Erik left earlier today on American Airlines. He says it's raining in Austin and he isn't happy that he can't go out. We're flying JetBlue, but we're not that nervous about it. And we get 36 channels of DirectTV at our seats!

Right out of the van ride to the airport from our lovely Brooklyn rehearsal space, things ran pretty smoothly. The people at the front desk were pretty cool with us checking all of our instruments (they're even letting me 'gate check' my Fender, so that it's handled with a little extra care) and smiled at us a lot.

The security guards ran two tests on my flask (which I apparently didn't hide well enough) to make sure there wasn't anything corrosive or too illicit in it. A few drops of bourbon fell out, but all was acceptable. They did make Justin go back and check his carry-on though, because he had shampoo in it. He's always so hygienic.

Right now, I am off to go find someplace where I can possibly have a cigarette before I get on the plane without going outside. Justin is talking about some movie where someone gets his insides ripped open. No one is finding either of these things appetizing.

Lots of really gorgeous women seem to hang out at airports. In the food court. Very near our band. This is a good thing.

I just heard the words "Freddie Kreuger" so I'm pretty sure the conversation has deteriorated. More to come soon!

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Update as of 8:15 p.m.

Our flight was delayed an hour and thirty-five minutes. We're each getting $25 vouchers because of the new JetBlue Passenger's Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, we cannot use these to purchase alcohol on the plane. This is a travesty.

So Nick, Justin & I are at a bar drinking ridiculously overpriced pints of domestic lager. Doug is browsing through magazines. All the bartenders are staring at us. And we just got a free lesson in wireless internet connections from a guy drinking a martini. Ah, the wonders of JFK Airport.

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Update as of 4:24 a.m. Yes, that's right. 4:24 a.m. We just got to the hotel. So so tired. Goodnight.

Love,
Matt