Its tough trying to make it in NYC

Alright, we’re back with another update.  We have all been very busy with our last West Coast jaunt at the end of May with Voxtrot, and Mitch and I’s tour to Washington DC and New York City to play the last of Voxtrot’s shows on their Goodbye Cruel World tour just this last week.  It was a bitter sweet ending, melancholy but fun.  I feel very select and fortunate and lucky to have been apart of Voxtrot’s tours and doings for these last many years, and it was an appropriate ending for something that I have such fond memories of.

Here’s one of a number of photos shot by our friend, David Greenwald, of Rawkblog.net, during our show at the Echo in May. I really like this photo of Mitch.  You don’t always get to see guitar players gesticulating with their hands onstage, since they are busy with their instrument, so I thought this photo amongst the rest was pretty unique.

Here’s another that I just thought looked really pleasant.

Sometimes I sing, too:

If you want to see the rest, visit here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33175855@N08/page2/

Also!  Our dear friend and perpetual 5th member, George Morrow, AKA George the Man, has amassed tons of videos and photos chronicling our travels last month from Austin to the West Coast and back.  Please check back very shortly, because he and Mitch will have them up soon and he did a fantastic job as usual of documenting everything that happens in and out of the van, the shows, the floors we slept on, etc etc etc.

Ryan

Ené Alantchi Alnorem (I Can’t Live Without You) – Mulatu Astatke

About 3/4 of the way up to Emory Peak (7,825 ft):

still going

At the top my body started to give.  I got a visual migraine and all of my muscles cramped up.  It was pretty high up!  Matt and Allen weren’t really phased.

aaaaiinnt no mountain high enough

A few days later we went to Balmorhea for a swim.

The Marfa crew at Balmorhea:

I developed a few one time use cameras at Walgreens today, and rediscovered a bunch of photos I had taken, Kathleen had taken, or Mitch had taken, in the past four or five months.  Because I am kind of a fan of ephemera, and definitely a fan of the totally weird ”fidelity” of disposable (ie. ephemera) cameras, I wanted to share them with anyone who wanted to see them.

I think part of the charm of being in a band with a group of people that are my friends, means experiencing the music with people that I am not just necessarily in a band with, but rather, people whom their personal company is just as important, if not more to me, than the band.

Anyway, that should explain why we chose to have this site be so multimedia heavy.  We didn’t want to be guys in a band.  We wanted to be friends in a band.   And we wanted to illustrate it.

Sorry to be so sappy, that’s just the way I feel:

Mitchell at Mohawk.  Feb. 2010.  We opened for Cowabunga Babes and Ringo Deathstarr.  If you took this guy home to your parents, he’d make ‘em laugh.  He’s a funny guy.  Can’t you tell?

Ryan and Marcus.  Same show.

Mitch and Alex.  Doing something.  The Parlor, I think?

When this guy isn’t pounding skins, he’s pounding you for your lunch money.  Don’t forget this face.  This is John Marcus Haddon.

I really like this photo a lot.  It reminds me of two things.  General boy camaraderie, and the fact that no one can really genuinely pull off a real “Mitchism.” This is just one of them.

My beautiful, lovely girlfriend Kathleen.  Fantastic gal, all around.

Ryan at Plush during SXSWSNLDKDJF 2010.  And feeling quite plush, indeed.

John Hartman.  When he isn’t being a slave to both gravity and beer, he’s generally an all around amazing individual, cooking, building, engineering, constructing, designing, and knowing pretty much everything.  (Note.  In the right hand side of this photo, two custom made maracas, in Kathleen and my likeness, courtesy Kathleen, Christmas 2009.  Score.)

George Morrow (boy genius), Allen Sanders (just a great boy,  Good stories,  Knows more than you/me/us/everyone), and Alex Gehring (nope, not a boy,  She’s a girl,  A splendid one, as well)

International Waters at Chain Drive, March 2010.  SXSW stuff.

“Peace,”  as the kids say.  Later.

Here’s a photo from Adrian Landon Brooks’ art show last night, at the Birdhouse on East Cesar Chavez.  Adrian’s art was fantastic, colorful and abstract, and Mitch played a few International Waters songs by himself outside.