nyc and back vol. II

Ok so we went back to n.y.c. and even though i said i was going to take pictures this time...I didn't. So here goes my best attempt at recounting:

Headed up to Chapel Hill last Tuesday to play The Cave with Juanita and The Rabbit, a blues-metal two piece from San Francisco. They rocked ass with such classics as We Live in a Motherfucking Van and a cover of Motorhead's Orgasmatron. And yes, they really do live in a motherfucking van and it is quite possibly the baddest van in these United States. Thanks to all who came out to see us: Mimi from The Pneurotics, Joe from Hammer No More The Fingers (looking forward to playing with those guys, stay tuned), James the Chapel Hill photographer, and our pals from Athens' very own Pride Parade, who were also playing Chapel Hill that night. Killer show and a really cool venue.

From there it was on to Philadelphia PA to play at The Fire, a cool little joint in Fishtown/Northern Liberties of Philly. Once again we were with our new pals Juanita and The Rabbit and their killer van. Thanks to all of the staff of The Fire for letting us post up in their great little apartment and teaching us how to play dominos. They do in fact have fine cheesesteak sandies in that town and even better breakfast joints, but thats neither here nor there.

We rolled in to New York on Thursday to play a show at Manhattan's Cake Shop with two really great stoner/sludge type bands from the city: Heavy Hands and our pals Ancient Sky. Another stellar lineup and a grand show.

Friday we hung out in Manhattan and went to go see Pride Parade kill a 1 a.m. set at Arleen's Grocery. The beer flowed like wine...

Saturday we headed out to Brooklyn to play our final set of the week at the Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg. It was a great little room with a cool atmosphere. Thanks to our old homeboy Hunt a.k.a. "HDHR" for letting us post up at this brownstone Brooklyn Great Gatsby house that he may or may not have legally had access to. Either way, we played the grand piano, slept like kings, got up late, drove 16 hours to Athens and got into town about 5 a.m. Monday morning.

Along with HDHR thanks so much to all our other pals who were so hospitable to us on this recent trip. See ya.

nyc

we just got back from nyc. here's how it went down, just the facts:

on monday, june 29 we left athens and headed to chapel hill, nc to play the Nightlight Club. chapel hill is a very very cool little town that reminds me a lot of my beloved athens, ga. The Winter Sounds played a great upbeat set right before us and then The Pneurotics rocked a fun one right after us. the crowd was great and the Nightlight is the jam.

on tuesday, june 30 we drove like mad to get to our brooklyn show at Trash Bar. we made it with time to spare, despite traffic. some driving notes: the worst traffic in the entire united states is in washington d.c. there are way too many tolls in delaware. new jersey is gross once you get close to nyc and you can't pump your own gas (what the hell is that?). anyhow, the city welcomes us as one of it's own. we play a loud fun set to a good crowd and then stay up till about 6 a.m. welcome to new york!

on wednesday, july 1 we take the train from our friend's place in manhattan to prospect park in brooklyn, where our pals Kuroma are playing a show at the bandshell with MGMT. we get off the train and walk for 2 1/2 hours around the park looking for the amphitheatre. turns out it was about 10 minutes from the train station. but the walk was beautiful and that park is really nice. waterfalls and forests in the middle of brooklyn. the show is incredible and about 10 or 15,000 people show up. back in manhattan after the show we get on top of our friend's building and look around the lower east side of the city. gorgeous.

thursday, july 2 was our last day in the city, so we had to go see times square, radio city music hall, the empire state building, bryant park, and the nyc public library. after all that junk, we played a show at Piano's in manhattan with Kuroma and Acrylics. the bill was unbelievably good for this show and the crowd jammed into the bar to see it. really good music. that's about all you can say. then we drove home.

nyc by the numbers:

-total cost of parking our van: $179.48

-slices of pizza eaten: oh god

-number of times someone projectile vomited out of our van

  and onto the brooklyn sidewalk: 1

-miles walked: too damn many

-miles driven: 1,678.11 (give or take a few steps)

-times i stepped in dog crap on clinton street: 1

-times we accidently drove across the williamsburg bridge: 1

thanks to all of our friends who let us crash at their places on this trip (you know who you are). it was fun and it looks like we will be going back in august. i'll take pictures next time. see ya then.