Home / Away. Fall disappears.

Japan was great, My Bloody Valentine was great, home is busy.  I leave on Thursday evening and it feels like I just got home.  All of this feels less like time at home, and more like a continuation of everything else.  The cancellation of BroFest was the ultimate letdown which I'm still bummed about.  So much goes into an event like that, and the reward for accomplishing something positive was never achieved.  Rescheduling/re-planning is imminent.

Off to the United States of America for an extended period of time.  Leaving the Fall for the South, and back again for Winter.  I'll be home for a majority of the cold this year, exciting.  In the meantime I'm just looking forward to playing live again.

TOUR DATES:

10.10 - Detroit, MI @ Filmore
10.11 - Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Room
10.12 - Minneapolis, MN @ Epic
10.14 - Denver, CO @ Ogden
10.15 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Salt Air
10.17 - Boise, ID @ Big Easy
10.18 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox SODO
10.19 - Portland, OR @ Roseland
10.21 - San Francisco, CA @ Grand
10.22 - Fresno, CA @ Rainbow Ballroom
10.23 - Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern
10.24 - San Diego, CA @ Soma
10.25 - Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
10.26 - Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee
10.28 - Tulsa, OK @ Cains
10.29 - Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
10.30 - San Antonio, TX @ Sunset Station
10.31 - New Orleans, LA @ HOB
11.01 - Tampa, FL @ Jannus Landing
11.02 - Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock
11.03 - Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
11.05 - Norfolk, VA @ Norva
11.06 - Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
11.07 - New York, NY @ Roseland
11.08 - Worcester, MA @ Palladium
11.09 - Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head
11.10 - Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
11.12 - Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
11.13 - Chicago, IL @ Riviera
11.14 - Grand Rapids, MI @ The Orbit Room
11.15 - Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy

I posted a bunch of photos from my Japan trips.

• Japan Photos (Jan. 08)
  
• Japan Photos Take 2 (Sept. 08)
  
• Hiroshima Photoblog
  

I end with a song by one of my favorite artists, Hayden.

Vending Machines & Osaka

It's 1:30am, I'm thinking about sleeping but wanted to write before I did. This is my second night in Osaka and I'm absolutely loving it here. Besides the fact that I miss home, I'm having a good time. Most of the time when I'm on the road it's for a month+, but this time is a lot shorter. I definitely find that the more time I spend in one particular city, the more I grow to love it (ex. Perth, on my trip earlier this year.. and now - Osaka). This is a great music city, and the shows here are always amazing. We made another stop at Rock Rock tonight - the smallest bar in existence with the most musical history. This is a fun place.

(some photos around Osaka at night)

Japan has such a wide selection of vending machines and they are absolutely everywhere. You name it, size it, package it - anything you can think of, the option is available! I've grown to love the BOSS brand iced-coffee from these machines. It's readily available and rather delicious. Here is a small example of what I'm talking about:

I'm really happy these days and that's a good thing. This year started off a little rough (and extremely busy), but I feel like I'm in a good place now. Off to sleep now, more shopping/walking/exploring tomorrow, and then our 2nd show in Osaka. Tour is almost over! (dreading the long flight home)

Brian Eno:Music for Airports is the perfect soundtrack right now.

I'm also loving The Dodos - Visiter album these days. 2008, great year for music.

Tokyo Times Five

(inside the Yoyogi Gymnasium, Tokyo Japan)

Five days in Tokyo, living the dream. It's been hot as balls outside every day, but at least it's sunny (and we're not getting hit with hurricane after-effects). I've been eating exceptionally well this time, despite the language barrier. The tour-catering has been superb with so many veggie options. Day off tomorrow, Tokyo Dome on Tuesday (holy shit). Next stop - Nagoya, home of Los Tacos.. the best Mexican food this side of the Pacific. Tour is flying by already, soon I'll be home and speaking of that...

Looking forward to:

My Bloody Valentine @ Kool Haus

My current favorite song, "Rapture" by DATA. The new Justice opus - "Planisphère" is unreal too. So what, I like a bunch of dance music. Picked up some new music in Japan: Gang Gang Dance, Metronomy, The Music Tapes, etc. etc. - everything seems great so far.

I have so much shit to do... back to work!

FOCUS: BroFest III / Fall tour

Zombie Attack: Japan

(tall-boy cokes, caffeine keeps me awake)

I feel like a zombie from sleep depravation and the drastic time difference.  I am, however, having an absolutely great time in Japan.  Everything has went super smooth with the shows so far, everyone has been really accommodating, and we've already seen a lot of the country.  Way to go Japan!

We got into Tokyo this afternoon and will be spending the next 5 days here.  This city rules and I already know my way around Shibuya pretty well.  On Tuesday we will be playing the massive (and legendary) Tokyo Dome - it's hard to wrap my head around how huge this will be.

I'm just stoked... here are some new photos:

25: Hamamatsu

Japan, the future.  Where does my birthday begin and end?  It's already the day after 09/09 over here in Japan.  The weather is warm and sunny - it's only 10:28am (I've been awake since 6am due to the crazy time change).  Yesterday, whenever that existed, was such a long day of traveling.  Woke up early to get ready for the flight, 13 hours in the air, 2 train rides (consisting of about 2 and a half hours), van ride to the venue for a meeting and then finally to the hotel.  So far, so good.  I've never been out of the continent for a Birthday so it's pretty exciting.

Tonight is our first show of the tour and we're playing a huge arena in Hamamatsu (about 2 hours from Tokyo).  We're doing 11 shows with Avril Lavigne - it's going to be wild.  I really don't know what to expect but I just plan on having a good time.  Time to explore the city!

planes vs. trains

Summer 2008.

Hello September.  I bought a car this summer - 2003 Toyota Echo.  It gets me from point A to point B at a decent gas mileage with a CD player.   Having a car again has made it a lot more enjoyable to be at home.  However... I've been busy as hell these past couple months.

I'm off to Japan in just about a week for 11 shows with Avril Lavigne (a strange match up for our band).  We'll be going to a bunch of new places all over the country which I've never seen before.  I'm going to keep this blog updated again with everything regarding the trip.

The kind folks at UDRUM have hooked me up with a new drum kit [pictured below] - I'll be debuting the kit this fall on our USA tour (Oct 15 - Nov 14).  We're co-headlining w. Chiodos and bringing along Escape the Fate, Alesana, Skylit Drive for our last tour of the year.

Where the hell did the summer go?  I noticed the leaves have already started changing color up here.  I'm sure when I get home, it will look like an entirely different place.  It's been great to be home, now I'm ready to leave and get back to work.

(Waterfall just outside of Burlington, Ontario)

JAPAN ITINERARY:

Sep 10, 2008 Hamamatsu, Japan @ Hamamatsu Arena
Sep 11, 2008 Niigata, Japan @ Niigata Messe
Sep 13, 2008 Tokyo, Japan @ Yoyogi Gymnasium
Sep 14, 2008 Tokyo, Japan @ Yoyogi Gymnasium
Sep 16, 2008 Tokyo, Japan @ Dome
Sep 17, 2008 Nagoya, Japan @ Gaishi Hall
Sep 18, 2008 Nagoya, Japan @ Gaishi Hall
Sep 20, 2008 Osaka, Japan @ Intex
Sep 21, 2008 Osaka, Japan @ Intex
Sep 23, 2008 Fukuoka, Japan @ Marine Messe
Sep 24, 2008 Hiroshima, Japan @ Sunplaza Hall