"The Black Flag touring model is long, long dead"

Tuesday night i unpacked my CDs and began to arrange them in the apartment i now share with Liz (as opposed to my original idea of stashing them in the basement since most of them are on my computer anyway). I'm glad i didn't hide them away, because the process of going through my CDs always stirs years of half-remembered memories of bands that otherwise would be long forgotten. There's a disc on the top row called Juvenile Anthems by a band called Anger; i remember them as a run-of-the-mill punk band that i found entertaining at the time but i might not be as into today, 14 years later. Thanks to their show at the Concert Cafe in Green Bay, i've got the Black Halos' The Violent Years, which i'm positive i only listened to once. Digging around in my car i located a CD i picked up at the Borg Ward by a rad weirdo-punk band called Beings; did they open for Torche? I can't remember, but i remember liking them and hating that my aging disc drive refused to rip the songs onto my Mac Mini. Red Planet's Let's Degenerate? Another more power-pop reminder of my Concert Cafe years.

It's a good thing i have these CDs; otherwise, there's a very good chance that i'd have forgotten about every last one of these bands, good and bad. It reminded me of something i wrote on our tour blog, something that i thought about a lot during our road trip:

As i stood around at the Caledonia Lounge on Tuesday night watching everyone drink, chat, and completely ignore our merch table (save the bartender and Chris Dragon's friend Sarah, who accounted for our first CDs sold in four days), i thought about the hundreds--thousands?--of touring bands i've seen over the years from the Concert Cafe in Green Bay to the Cactus Club in Milwaukee, and i'm sure that many of the ones i've forgotten were damn fine. Do any of the attendees at the Longbranch in Knoxville even remember the name "IfIHadAHiFi?" Or are they more likely to say "oh, man, that band...I Wish I Had A HiFi? They were great," their memories of the bands they saw on a random Monday night in August 2011 already fading into a jumbled mash of beer and feedback? As in love with our self-constructed image of the band too crazy to ignore as i am, i realistically get the feeling that by tomorrow it'll be "those bands with the crazy drummer" and "yeah, that night our pals played with some touring bands" by September, if not Friday.

I count twenty-one CD copies of our new EP remaining out of 50 we started tour with. That's twenty-nine copies out there along the East Coast. Assuming they don't get dumped at a CDMax in a few months, that's hopefully twenty-nine people who will, at the very least, have that same "oh YEAH!" moment i just had while eying my Anger CD for the first time in years. As i said elsewhere in that paragraph, this tour was a pretty inefficient way to encourage memorization of our band name, but for us, the biggest reason to play shows is to visit our friends and play music for them.

Unfortunately, that's not the most fair attitude to have when we have an awesome dude at Latest Flame Records mortgaging his future to promote bands he loves. If we want to move product (if we don't, it sort of makes us assholes, really), conventional wisdom would normally dictate that we have to tour more often than the middling two weeks per year we generally embark on. However, it's 2011, and certain truths have taken hold in our post-Napster age: people are buying less and less physical music, and the number of touring bands competing for that ever-shrinking fan dollar is higher than ever. Also dwindling rapidly is the number of people who value music, period, as evidenced by the basement show we played in Bloomington, Indiana that earned us a cool $13 in donations from about three of the twenty-some kids in attendance. "Hey, man, cool show! Your band is really good!" "Hey, thanks! Did you donate anything for the show at all?" "Aw, dude, i have like no money. *drinks BYO beer #5* So when ya coming back to Bloomington?"

It's obvious that young people don't put a price on music the same way that those of us who grew up with vinyl, cassettes and CDs did, and hell, many of them don't seem to value live performance over the beer they're drinking that night (though i doubt that's a recent development). Yes, money isn't the main reason that anyone should play in a band, but without it, producing recorded music--even the digital kind--becomes less and less appealing of an idea. Look, we can all talk until we're blue in the face about how we make music for ourselves, and how none of us are looking to do this for a living, and that may even be true, but let's be honest--validation is pretty damn sweet too.

So, assuming that there are still people who care about physical music products, and people who still care about seeing new or more underground live bands, what's the best way to reach through the sea of apathetic bodies and connect with those more "active" (for lack of a less douchey, less marketing-sounding term) listeners? I have some thoughts on this, but would love to read some in the comments too:

1) Quality over Quantity. Being able to tour three months out of the year would be awesome, but it's also unrealistic for dudes in their 30s with day jobs, and a lot of those shows would be of the Bloomington basement show sort anyway. But there are ways to tour smarter instead of tour harder. Coordinating with the label to see where the record's getting played; more aggressive regional touring (we could probably stand to hit Minneapolis more than once every two years, honestly); and working those bigger shows wherever possible. That one Archers show was probably more effective than a week of touring as far as getting the name out and about.

2) Teamwork, online and in the meat world. Videos. Twitterz. Podcasts. Facesbooks. Blogs. ENTERTAINING CONTENT. Yeah, establishing a solid base of followers on the internet is a long commitment, but at least you can do it from your living room. During a conversation with James from Police Teeth, he said he was pretty sure PT has sold more records online than via shows. "The Black Flag touring model is long, long dead," he said, and i think he's right.

So how do we coordinate that stuff? Like i said, it's got to be entertaining, and then shared like crazy amongst like-minded folk. The Latest Flame bands have been walking around saying "less of a label, more of a street gang" ever since NAP JUSTICE; maybe we should start acting like an online street gang? Heck, i wear the shirts of other Latest Flame bands at nearly every show i attend these days, and i wore Waxeater's shirt on stage at the Archers show. I dunno how much love that gets the other guys, but there's a mentality involved that puts me in the frame of mind to hype my pals every chance i can get. I was wearing the Waxeater shirt when we arrived in Philly on tour, too; when some of the other bands showed up, they reacted. "Oh hey! Waxeater! All right!" Familiarity compounds on itself and breeds more familiarity.

Any other thoughts? I'd love to hear 'em.

Tour 2011 Eve

Tomorrow, IfIHadAHiFi and Zebras depart for a 16-day trek through the Southeast and Eastern United States. It's the eighth tour of at least a week that the HiFi have gone on in our 11-year history and the first tour that i'm doing with Zebras. We're not exactly road warriors (although we've gone out enough times to convince people that we are), but it's the best we can do as a bunch of folks with day jobs (ostensibly).

Preparations of the most unglamorous sort are underway: acquiring fresh-from-the-plant Nada Surf +3 CDs, stocking up on toiletries, packing, buying Triple-A coverage online. It's the van stuff that, of course, is the biggest pain in the ass and the most stressful. Dealing with my own car's issues is my least favorite stressor as it is; being the guy in the band that has his name on the title (which is the way it's been since we bought our first van in 2002, ugh) is a whole extra level of bullshit. Insurance, oil change, cleaning the sucker out before we leave...all of the fun gruntwork that people who have never been on a tour tend to not think about. Oh, how romantic! Piling into a van with your bandmates and hitting the road, bringing the message of your rock and rolls musics to the awaiting throng! Uh, yeah. If only you could see with my eyes when we're loading out after a show at a Brooklyn bar while the booker explains "well, sorry, you can see here on the tally sheet that no one came to see you, so you don't get any of the door money," spurring Yale to beg $20 off the owner because thank god that he at least liked us and feels bad. (Since we're playing with friends in Brooklyn this time, that shouldn't happen. But it has.)

This time out we'll be relying more on the kindness of strange bar patrons than ever, as our band fund was exhausted on Monday by an adventure involving unpaid parking tickets and the City of Milwaukee tow lot. Our registration sticker was stolen from the van back in June; two months, four tickets, and plenty of scatterbrainedness later, Yale was driving me to the tow lot on Monday to get our precious tour van out of hock. $105 tow plus $20/day storage just because we spaced on paying parking tickets. If this were a political post, i could say plenty about how many of our governmental institutions exist to keep poor people down by piling bullshit fee on top of bullshit fee, but let's not get into that right now. What's pertinent is that our little van adventure on Monday drained the rest of the band fund that we had, along with $50 of my own money in a tow out of the lot (the passenger side front tire was gashed, which the city tow truck guy swears happened before he got there, and his report says the same...whatever) and a friendly mounting (heh) of the spare tire by a helpful mechanic. IfIHadAHiFi would like to extend their sincere thanks to the Bottom Lounge in Chicago for financing our vehicular incompetence.

Amusingly, a friend on Facebook joked that it was time for us to try a Kickstarter campaign to offset this minor disaster, but i think he knew that my response would be "i was just joking to myself that we should do a 'pay for our tour!' Kickstarter campaign, except that we find the idea of 'pay for our tour!' Kickstarter campaigns totally fucking gross." It'd be especially gross in this situation--"hey, we fucked up and had to blow our whole band fund on City of Milwaukee BS; give us money to go on tour!" It may sound like dick-wagging braggadocio, but i really feel that adversity like this is what makes my band strong. It has always bonded us on the road in an us-vs-the-world way. Our shows on tour are blistering and urgent because, well, there's a real urgency to our being on stage. I feel that would be lost if we used something like Kickstarter to give ourselves a cushion. Fuck that. We're flying without a net big time on this tour, and really, i wouldn't have it any other way. The tour stories are better that way.

So, hey! East coast! Please come see us sometime in the next 16 days. We promise that we will play violently loud, abrasive and thrilling music in an oft-times dangerous manner, and i personally promise that you will bear witness to a mind-fucking drumming endurance contest for the ages. For the next two weeks, Martian Dance Invasion! and IfIHadAHiFi's website will be cross-posting tour reports whenever we can. Also, be sure to follow the Twitter accounts of IfIHadAHiFi and me, as they'll have plenty to offer as well. See you out there!

FRI 8/12: Chicago, IL @ Quenchers with The Cell Phones
SAT 8/13: Bloomington, IN @ Gay Dudes Annex (Rob's House) w/Bad Creeps
SUN 8/14: Nashville, TN @ Springwater Supper Club w/Gnarwhal and maybe Deluxin
MON 8/15: Knoxville, TN @ The Longbranch Saloon w/TBA
TUE 8/16: Athens, GA @ Caledonia Lounge w/Easter Island, NEVER
WED 8/17: Wilmington, NC @ Reggie’s 42nd Street Tavern. W/ BLACKS
THUR 8/18: Durham, NC @ The Pinhook w/Maple Stave
FRI 8/19: Washington, DC @ Everlasting Life w/Cephalopods, Night & the City
SAT 8/20: Philadelphia, PA @ Danger Danger Gallery w/a bunch of bands
SUN 8/21: Brooklyn, NY @ Don Pedros w/We Ride, Bombshell
MON 8/22: New Brunswick, NJ @ house show w/The Silent Way - message us for details
TUE 8/23: Pittsburgh, PA @ Gooski’s Bar w/Dwarf Fortress, Lightweight
WED 8/24: Cincinnati, OH @ Southgate House w/Swear Jar
THUR 8/25: Detroit, MI @ Small’s, in Hamtramck w/Telecollision & Damn Near Killed ‘Em
FRI 8/26: Lansing, MI @ Mac’s w/Fun Ender & Dr. Device
SAT 8/27: Ft. Wayne, IN @ the Brass Rail w/TBD
SUN 8/28 DRIVE HOME

After the Last Laugh - IfIHadAHiFi opens for Archers of Loaf in Chicago

HiFi blasts through our Mission of Burma cover--photo by g33kgrrl K

July 9, 2011

Archers of Loaf have just finished their set on night #2 of a two-night stand at Chicago's Bottom Lounge, and have walked offstage to a flurry of high-fives and hugs, many of them from the members of my band. As the audience screams and chants "Let's go Loaf!" in the hopes of an (obviously impending) encore, HiFi utility infielder Rev.Ever jokes, "hey guys! Let's play another song and bum them out!"

Archers bassist and all-around crucial dude Matt Gentling cracks up. "That would be hilarious!" I look at him and say, "you want us to just run on stage and do a lap and fake everyone out?"

Matt has a twinkle in his eye, but he goes to pow-wow with his Archers bandmates on what the encore is going to be. When he returns to the stage steps, he says, "ok, go, run out there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Do it!"

And so 700 people waiting to erupt in applause when Archers of Loaf return for their encore explode upon seeing four bodies run onto the stage, only to double-take when they realize it's the opening band. "WHOOO--HUH? Um, uh, ok, whatever, WHOOOOOO!"

We run off stage, doubled over and sides split, as Archers take the stage and launch into "Audiowhore," the opening track of one of the greatest EPs in 1990s indie rock, Vs. The Greatest of All Time.

But i should back up, right? I mean, i just blew my load on this post, opening it with the highest point of a day full of nothing but high points. For the record, yes--my band, IfIHadAHiFi, opened for the Archers of Loaf at the Bottom Lounge on Saturday, one of several reunion shows that the Archers are playing in this, the thirteenth year since they broke up in 1998. In 1998, Yale Delay, Mr. "The Fucking Wizard" Alarm and i formed The Pop Machine--a precursor to the HiFi--with our friend Mandy. Had you told me the day we heard about the breakup of my fourth-favorite band of all time (sorry, Archers, you were just edged out of the top spot by Brainiac, Faith No More, and Poster Children, but you did sneak in just ahead of Superchunk!), "hey, don't worry, DJ--in 13 years they'll not only reunite, but you'll be playing one of the reunion shows," i likely would have slapped you for mean-spirited sarcastic taunting.

For the last 13 years, as several heroes of mine either reunited or reconvened to play shows again (Mission of Burma, Man...or Astroman?, Killdozer, and the aforementioned Faith No More, Superchunk and Poster Children), the one reunion that i ached for was Archers of Loaf. All four band members were still around; they were all still friends; and there seemed to be a lot of interest for a reunion out there on the Internet, so what was the holdup? RRRRGH!

In January, Archers of Loaf played an unannounced surprise reunion gig at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC. This happened the same night that the Green Bay Packers delivered a surprising ass-waxing to the #1 seeded Atlanta Falcons in the NFC playoffs. I was in the middle of a show i was playing with Zebras and freaking out at the realization that the Packers were a legit Super Bowl threat when my friend Jim sent me the text: "Holy shit, i have been informed that Archers of Loaf are playing a secret reunion gig in North Carolina AS I TYPE THIS." What the fuck, Jim? How can you send me this text when my brain is still humming from the Packer game? A Super Bowl run is imminent and NOW you text me that ARCHERS OF LOAF ARE PLAYING A SHOW? Do you realize that synaptic shutdown is imminent, dick?

I provide this exposition to fully convey the weight of the situation as i typed the following message to Matt Gentling via the Electrical Audio Forum shortly after the Chicago shows were announced in April:

Hi Matt,

I'm sure that A) this is a long shot, B) you probably have friends' bands in mind, and C) you don't need random strangers bugging you about this stuff, but i figured it can't hurt to ask:

My band, ifIHadAHiFi, would loooove to be considered for an opening slot on either of the Bottom Lounge shows. We've played there before with our friends Poster Children, and went over very well. Our tunes are all here:

ifihadahifi.bandcamp.com

Again, i'm sure you have other bands in mind, so don't feel bad saying, "yeah, thanks but no thanks," but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

That he responded with an enthusiastic "hey man, yeah, i'll see what i can do!" instead of a "you're not the ones who'll let us down, but thanks for offering," was above-and-beyond in and of itself. That he managed to put us on the bill for Saturday's show just because i asked nicely on a whim and sent some mp3s was nothing short of heroic.

But as most fans of the band have always known, that's just par for the course for a band so self-effacing, humble, and averse to typical Rock Star Behavior that the reason they gave for breaking up was "we were afraid we might start to really suck." That self-deprecating humor was in full display while we wandered backstage after arriving at the Bottom Lounge on Saturday and were greeted by Matt Gentling and Eric Johnson. After a story involving a band whose name i can't remember (a name Matt said was horrible, "not that we should talk"), we launched into a volley of tour travel stories about mouses running across faces, competing with band members for the warmth of the dog living at the house where they're staying, and our favorite--making sandwiches with Weezer's catering. ("They had the same set list and EXACT SAME BANTER every night, so we could time it and make huge Dagwood sandwiches in their dressing room and then leave before their set was done.") We talked about mutual friends the Poster Children and how amazing they are, Elliott and his recovery from the onstage shock in Austin, and random other items of note until the Archers were summoned to the stage for soundcheck.

My friends always react in disbelief when they hear me say this, but to this day, i get very nervous before playing big shows. As familiar face after familiar face arrived and asked me how excited i was for the show to start, i quite literally felt faint once or twice during the runup between doors and the start of our set. I've seen too much weird shit happen during HiFi sets over the years to be confident that things would go off without a hitch. When we opened for The Jesus Lizard in 2009 i cramped up so hard during the first two or three songs that i knew it was hampering our sound. Fortunately i planned ahead and ate a banana during the afternoon. Tarim bless potassium and its magical anti-cramping powers. On top of everything else, the night before saw our friends Blank Banker deal with a rack tom spilling to the floor and severing Jeff's bass cable during their first song. Was there an opening band curse we would need to deal with? All it takes is one trigger to completely derail a HiFi set and send a bass guitar flying into my face or a PA speaker onto Yale's head. Great myth-making hijinks, but not the sort of thing that wins over 700 people prepared to sit on their hands awaiting their heroes while the opening act fucks around.

So yeah. Nervous. Fortunately i had my bandmates in back to calm my nerves a bit, as well as the Archers guys saying "have a great show!"

We walked out on stage to--thank god--familiar heckling from friends in the front row. Our peeps know how to put us at ease: by talking shit. The Wizard declared that he was "essentially playing for about five people right here," as i announced the name of the band, the first song, and counted off "We Fiddle, You Burn." We were off and, much to my relief, we were sounding great. I purposely dialed back my usually overexcited drumming and focused on deep breathing between wacky drummer faces (mind you, my "scaling back" is most drummers' idea of "kicking it into overdrive," on a scale of "Charlie Watts" to "Animal").

Our setlist:
We Fiddle, You Burn / Paradise By the Paulding Light / Your Head on a Ratings Spike / (The HiFi Vs.) Potential Energy / Imperial Walker / Black Holes Resonate (in B-Flat), Baby / Arson, You Let Me Down / Doubting Thomas Telescope / No More Music / That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate

We played an all-pop songs set that garnered more and more applause as the set wore on. Yale did his usual fucking with the crowd thang, snuggling up to dudes in the front row, taking their beers and drinking them, etc. The Wizard and Rev.Ever thrashed away on stage right and even got the crowd to laugh at some random Temple of the Dog joke that the Wizard made. I introduced "Imperial Walker" as our song "for anyone here who's a state union employee in Wisconsin" to applause and cheers. I introduced "Doubting Thomas Telescope" as "this song we wrote about a guy who lives outside of Baraboo and makes sculptures out of scrap metal" and in response heard calls of "yeah! Dr. Evermor!" Woah, the audience is getting my references and applauding them. This is crazy! I told Elliott's tale and pimped his benefit show at Quenchers on Saturday.

And every so often i was able to take the time to look out into the audience and see familiar faces everywhere. I saw a head about a third of the way back in the crowd, bobbing maniacally. I focused on it to see that it was our man John Hastie of Nonagon. All i had to do was glance slightly to my right to see Liz dancing her ass off up front, surrounded by loads of Milwaukee and Chicago pals. It really just put things over the top for me--we were killing it in front of 700 people and our friends saw us doing it. "Mommy! Daddy! I'm riding my bike without training wheels! Do you see? Do you see? Lookit!"

We left the stage after our Burma cover to a roaring ovation and i was greeted off-stage by a Matt Gentling hug. "HOLY SHIT! You guys are FACE-PEELING! That was AMAZING!" Mark Price, P.I: "Dude, i can't even imagine trying to sing and drum at the same time."

Rev.Ever broke a guitar string during the set, right before "Black Holes." Matt volunteered to change the string for him during the song. After our set he laughed about it: "so there i am, trying to change Michael's guitar string, and Matt (Archers roadie/tech) grabs it from me and says, 'give me that, you fucking amateur.'"

Back by the merch table, our pal Faiz recounted standing next to Matt during the set. "Matt was leaning over and saying, 'these guys are GREAT!' and i was all, 'uh, yeah! They do this in small clubs too, you know. It gets dangerous.'" The Wizard then popped over to inform us that Bob Weston (the Archers' soundman for the night) walked past him and said, "nice cover." Having completely forgotten that he's the tape loop guy in Mission of Burma now, that cracked me up more than a little.

I grabbed Liz as we heard the cheers of impending AoL-ness and dragged her backstage to watch the set from the side of the stage with me. There was no way i was going to be able to rock out up front after the exhausting set we had just played, so i remained content with exclaiming "HOLY SHIT!" as the Archers opened with "Strangled By the Stereo Wire," the blistering opener to All the Nation's Airports and the first Archers song my friend Nicole, at that point in the front row with the rest of our crew, had ever heard (i know this because i played it for her). Big chunks of the set were spent by Liz and me watching the faces of our friends flipping out in the front row, and loving every minute of it. This was us the night before, losing our goddamn minds because holy fuck the Archers of Loaf are finally playing music in front of me again. Thank you Raptor Jesus.

After the third song, Matt pops up to the mic to deliver this one: "Thanks to IfIHadAHiFi, who, judging by the numbers when they played and the numbers now, most of you saw...fortunately...because they kicked fucking ass. Those pricks. Total assholes too, playing like that, sheesh..." You know, because the Best Night Of My Musical Existence still had more Awesome Sauce to drizzle on top.

Things went nuclear for the Rev. when Eric Bachmann's amp broke on him mid-set. Yale ran over to Roadie Matt and let him know what kinds of amps we had. Bachmann opts for Rev.Ever's Sunn amp with Marshall-style half-stack, and between Matt, Yale, and Rev., they have that amp on stage and plugged in with a quickness. "Hey, check it out, IfIHadAHiFi helping us out," says Eric into the mic. Rev.Ever runs off stage and i catch him with a "dude, Eric Bachmann's playing through your shit. Process that," at which point he shakes his head in disbelief and runs out to the crowd to be with his girlfriend Kim. "Dude, he played FIVE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS EVER through my amp," he would add later.

Somewhere in here, deep into my third post-performance tallboy, i turned to Liz and expressed a sentiment in no way influenced by the cheap pilsners tumbling down my throat: "I am so glad you're here to share this with me." She was equally glad, getting to spend an evening watching her boy, with his boys, doing their boys in bands thing, and doing it to an unprecedented degree. But i found it imperative that i let her know exactly how important this aspect of the weekend was:

I had just played a kickass show--a solid, tightly-wound defense of our central noise-rock thesis in front of 700 critics waiting for their heroes--and not only won over the crowd, but earned the praise of one of my favorite bands of all time. And i got to share it with a lot of my favorite people in the world--most importantly, her. And as a bonus, all our friends in the audience couldn't respond with a "yeah, ok guys" when recounting our Big Rock Victory to them weeks later! Score!

During that conversation with Faiz by the merch table, i had him tell Liz about all the crazy art projects he's worked on in Chicago the last few years, and how he lives his life in constant bewilderment that he gets to surround himself with the most talented, amazing people he's ever met, and get paid to make them execute the cockamamie schemes he concocts. When he finished, i just looked at him, thinking about the day i was having, and said, "we really do lead charmed lives, don't we?" Hey, i may not have a job right now, but this just happened.

Wow.

And that realization came before the Archers let us take a curtain call before their encore.

There are way too many people to thank for this past weekend. Thanks to the Bottom Lounge for treating us so well. Thanks to our friends for being there for us.


AoL salutes! Photo by John Yingling

And thanks to Eric, Matt, Eric and Mark for giving us reason after reason to love them more and more as the day went into evening. The Greatest of All Time.


Thanks to our new fan Jenny Straub for the photo

Why We Do

I question many of the paths i've taken in life on a regular basis; i'm about as self-critical as Nyjer Morgan is delightfully batshit. That criticism has been cranked to Code Orange levels in recent weeks due to my current unemployment. Is my 1997 BS degree in radio-tv-film worth anything? What if i had studied something more marketable and not concentrated so much on rock 'n' roll? Would i be flailing about looking for writing jobs that i'm not even confident i'm qualified for? Have i failed in my attempts to balance band and job?

The grass is always greener, right? My sister and her husband have put together a steady, stable family with a house they'll have paid off in no time, awesome kids, and what i can only assume is more financial security than i have. I have, to this point, traded that in for tours and nights spent on floors in remote American cities.

And then there's the stereotype of "band guy" that i always imagine that i'm fighting against (which may be one of those self-imposed standards that this article warned me about not long ago). Whenever a friend has made a joke about old dudes in bands, as if someone over 30 who still plays music is automatically clinging to some sort of childish dream of fame and fortune, i bristle, because that's not me. On the other hand, i've spent enough hours promoting us and trying to get as many people as possible to hear us, that i can't deny that it's thrown my life out of balance on several occasions.

The response to Elliott's accident, however, has served to remind me that i'm still on the right path. In the last day and a half i've seen an emotional outpouring for him that includes friends that he's met in all corners of the country and across the pond. I defy anyone who hates on social media to dispute the impact of dozens of get-well wishes, spanning pages upon pages of a Facebook wall and an EA Forum discussion thread. If it doesn't thrill Elliott upon his awakening (and it will), it has comforted his family and friends while he sits in an induced coma in an Austin ICU.

I touched on this briefly during the NAP JUSTICE recap, but this is what this silly indie rock thing is all about: community and family. We don't tour the country playing our music in front of indifferent drunks in Denver in order to get famous. We do it because the quest to find like-minded souls is its own reward in so many ways. That Elliott has so many brothers and sisters spread across the world who love him is proof that he's on the right path as well--even if that path is what led him to his accident. If there's one positive thing i can take away from this goddamn tragedy, it's a reminder that community is everything. It doesn't matter if it's indie rock, indie wrestling, Dungeons and Dragons groups, midnight basketball clubs, or even furry conventions; whatever crew you run with, that crew will be all you have left when everything else goes away.

Much of Elliott's circle of family and friends overlaps with mine, and knowing that we all are behind him on this one gives me a lot of solace in his current situation, as well as my considerably less significant trials. I know that there are a lot of people out there who love me too, and that means more than anything record sales could ever provide.

Tomorrow, Elliott wakes and we find out what he's going to need next. I am confident that we, in some configuration, will see that he gets it.



We've got your back, brother.

The World's Biggest Heart Can't be Stopped

My plan for today was to blog about the awesome weekend IfIHadAHiFi just spent in Louisville, and maybe i'll be able to get composed enough to do that later. For now, i ask everyone i know to send positive vibes, prayers, and well-wishes to my brother in rock, Elliott Turton from Waxeater and Trophy Wives.

Elliott was on stage with Waxeater last night in Austin, TX when he received a severe electric shock and was functionally electrocuted. As i understand it, he was lying on stage with no pulse or breathing when my friend Ashlee (a nurse and wife of my friend Cody, whose new band, Bad Chapters, was playing the show last night) and a fellow nurse rushed to the stage and worked to revive him until the EMTs arrived not two minutes later.

The text message i just received from Waxeater's guitarist, Rob, said that he's in critical but stable condition, and will remain sedated for 48 hours while tests are run. There has been no problem with his heart since he was taken to the ICU, where he remains, and his parents and girlfriend are with him.

I've been fighting bursts of tears all morning. Hopefully i can pull it together to function on some level today.

Nap Justice! The Story of NAP JUSTICE

Once upon a time, my goals for playing music were fairly ambitious, and not in any way matched by the amount of work necessary to meet that goal: 1) get as many people as possible to hear my band; 2) get signed to large indie label (dream destination: Touch & Go); 3) maybe get to a point where i could make a living playing in my band. Real life and a desire to not live in abject squalor during the 4-5 months i wouldn't be on the road per year doing the necessary touring in order to achieve those goals soon forced a harsh, severe re-evaluation (not to mention the fact that our music is in no way marketable. At all). Today, when it comes to playing the rocks and rolls musics, i have modest goals: 1) write and record the best music possible; 2) get it heard by as many people as possible who would enjoy it; 3) make as many like-minded friends around the country as possible. That new #3 is a goal that i always had but didn't realize until, well, i had achieved it. Now, i understand that the most rewarding part of playing in an independent rock band is realizing that it's a fantastic excuse to meet and visit an incredible network of like-minded fools across the nation, if not the world.

Two bands that qualify as "unstoppably crucial pals" are also our labelmates on Latest Flame Records: Seattle, WA's Police Teeth and Kentuckiana's Waxeater. Along with our other LFR pals Trophy Wives, we've formed the unofficial nucleus of what we consider "less of a label and more of a street gang." That street gang's name, other than "Latest Flame Records," is NAP JUSTICE, and NAP JUSTICE laid down some amplified law on Saturday, while Police Teeth and Waxeater were in town.

After a wildly entertaining Friday night show at the Cactus Club (which included local noisemakers Absolutely, a band you should probably get on board with right now), we prepared for a basement show at the HiFi home base, the Church of Murray (a makeup for a scheduled Madison show with Zebras that was canceled due to Madison cops being lame, which is hard to say in the wake of their overall awesome behavior during the WiUnion protests), by spending the day consuming heroic levels of alcohol and meat, occasionally taking a break to walk down to the street fest on North Ave. to see Scarring Party and Call Me Lightning. By Liz's estimation, the party consumed:

1 bottle of Everclear (mixed into "doom punch")
2 bottles of cheap bourbon
2 30 packs of PBR
1 30 pack of High Life
Assorted other sixers of higher quality beer
Many, many meats

which sounds about right. Later in the afternoon, a couple Waxeaters and Police Teethers crashed into mid-afternoon nap mode to recharge for the actual show, only to be eventually stirred from their slumber by the Church of Murray's across-the-street neighbors--an Axe* of dudebros who had decided to let a hippie jam cover band set up on their porch. As we tried to enjoy the outdoors, The 311 Matthews Traveler laid down the most "mellow" of jams, harshing ours with atrocious renditions of the usual hippie nonsense - Dave, Sublime, and countless blasphemous renditions of CCR tunes.

Slowly but surely, our patience wore thin. Each rendition of a watered-down lite rocker was punctuated with a "YOU SUCK!" or a "STOP PLAYING!" from one of us (usually Yale), or a "BONNAROO!" volleyed at a wasted hippie staggering away from the dudeporch. When Bronaked Ladies dared to sully "Folsom Prison Blues" with their inoffensively offensive hemp-rock, it was decided that a retaliatory strike was needed--nay, mandatory. (EDIT: Yale has sagely reminded me that it was actually a mashup of "Folsom Prison Blues" and the "Beer Barrel Polka." Information presented without comment.)

The Wizard fetched a practice amp and Police Teeth drummer Richy (derisively referred to by his bassist Chris as "the best guitarist in our band") plugged in just in time to join Hurl Jam on a run through "Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty, easily outshredding the acoustic guitarist across the street. When the Petty waned, Richy launched immediately into the opening riff to "Paranoid," inspiring a full Church of Murray balcony singalong. NAP JUSTICE was on, and into their third tune, a gut-busting rip through the opening strains of Slayer's "Raining Blood." By this time there wasn't a dry eye or upright torso in the house, as everyone was doubled over in pain from abdominal-toning laughter.

Once Richy was done, PT guitarist James took over for some AC/DC and some other classic punk i can't remember. Waxeater's guitarist (and one of our most essential band pals) Rob Montage began to assist on snare drum as Richy dangled a grill lid for use as a cymbal/cowbell. Our friend George, who had made a trip away from the house, returned with the following report: "you can't hear anything but your guitar anywhere except directly in front of their house. It's pretty impressive."

Eventually, the band across the street cracked and responded with their take on Cee-Lo's "Fuck You," which James simply played along to. After that, they were done, and NAP JUSTICE had prevailed. Latest Flame Records: less of a label, more of a street gang.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE!



Chris and i lose our collective shit while Richy lays it down (not pictured: [B.]O.A.R.)




James and Rob take over



Grill Cymbal!

Moral: Do not mess with Latest Flame bands. Because we're fucking assholes.

After the NAP JUSTICE set, the proper basement show was on, which was totally fine, save that part where HiFi only played two songs because the Wizard stormed off the stage for some reason. Eh, whatever, at least we got that out of the way before tour.

*yes, an "Axe" is the proper collective noun for dudebros. Just ask Neil Hamburger.

It's a clean sweep/Baby, yeah

OK. Got the mail. Did my daily sweep of job postings. Cleaned the cat boxes. My mind is relatively clear. Let's do this.

This blog is a continuation of the personal journal i started on LiveJournal way back in 2002, not long after i moved to Milwaukee from the Fox Valley of Northeast Wisconsin (a journal which was also a continuation of one i started on Diaryland way back when, which, holy shit--Diaryland still exists). In the past year or so i've fallen out of a routine of personal journaling for a number of reasons: concentrating more on writing for AV Club Milwaukee and ThirdCoastDigest; a girlfriend who was insecure about showing up in my writing; general laziness and reliance on the Facebook/Twitter brevity model. This blog is my attempt to shake all that and get back into a routine of writing for myself. (It's also a bit of a naked employment search gambit as well, as i keep hearing that all the hep, with-it writer types have their own blogs that they use as a hub for their online presence and their portfolio business, so here it is. HIRE ME, FOOLS.)

Those of you who read me over on the LJ know what to expect--random personal business; political ranting (especially in these oh-so-charged turbulent times in the Homeland); gnashing of teeth about the awful musical taste that most living, breathing humans exhibit; and just about whatever else is pissing me off. No, but seriously, i'm actually quite the ray of sunshine most of the time. Promise.

So! For those of you who know me, how's about we get started with a little State of DJ Update:

The Job:
Not one to speak of, currently. I'm on the lookout for anything in the writerly world of writing, which isn't in any way competitive and should, in a white-hot hub of the creative industry such as Milwaukee, take me mere weeks to find. Right?

Right. Sending my resume and portfolio out has been quite the struggle. My last job--which i adored and miss--was content production/project management and copywriting for a virtual world gaming website aimed at kids aged 8-14. Not the easiest thing to spin into your standard copywriting gig. A friend asked me recently, "have you been writing amazing cover letters?" My response: "Um, i can confidently say that i have written cover letters."

The Bands:
Plural! IfIHadAHiFi and Zebras both exist, to the shock and consternation of many. HiFi's putting a new record out in September. You can listen to some tracks here. Both bands are touring together in August. I will die from exhaustion.

The Girl:



Are we adorable or are we?

One drawback of me not posting in my LJ anymore has been the lack of necessary gushing about Liz. We've been pals for about three years now, and started dating in, well, i guess we decided that our anniversary date is March 19 (NOTE: saving date in post to ensure future memorization). Most of the time we've known each other, she was in another long-term relationship and thus, was not a dating option, and so i directed my attention elsewhere. But one fateful day it became known that we were both single at the same time, and a switch was flipped.

The relationship has moved at a natural pace--ridiculously fast. In most of my other relationships, planning to move in together in September (a mere six months into the relationship! What in the bejesus?) would have been an unthinkable option, as that way normally lies madness. Heck, i can point to two other instances where i lived with a girlfriend: a long-term relationship where we didn't live together until we had already been dating for two and a half years; and a relationship where she moved in at the nine-month mark and broke up with me one month later. Buuuuuuuut, say it with me...this one's different. We've been friends for three years already, so we already know and get each other to a degree that most early-stage couples don't. We've confided in each other about past relationships while they were going on, so we know each other's weaknesses already. And most importantly, we don't feed into them. We've both been in unbalanced relationships where we did most of the emotional lifting and support, and now we're in one where it's on even footing, and it feels...perfect.

And of course, there are the perks: she's cute as all hell, she shares my uncontrollable love for cute animals (we're getting a baby kitty when i move in so Radar has a new friend and isn't lonely), she loves baseball and indie wrestling, and perhaps most amazingly, she gets the whole "band dude" thing, understands my relationship with it, and supports it wholeheartedly, even if our musical tastes don't exactly line up (which isn't even an issue at all). It's only been three months (wtf, really?), but it already feels like pretty much the best relationship i've had in...well, let's just say a long damn time. To say i'm jazzed would be to say that Greg Jennings was reservedly content after winning the Super Bowl.

Next post is going to be way more entertaining, i promise. Why? Two words--NAP JUSTICE.