Friday, October 12, 2007

packtures





sorry guys!

hey, we're still alive, things have just been really crazy and it's been hard to get internet. suppose there's a lot to update but i figure we'll just do it with photos instead.
baton rouge was fucking crazy fun and thanks go to the hollywood blues for taking us around and just being great pals and a great band. everything's been awesome. camped out under the stars on the shore of the gulf of mexico and ate smores in our new tent last night.
i stepped into the mississippi river, drunk, by accident. sang louie louie with the boys. sat on the shores of the mississippi river at three in the morning.
here's some of our favorite photos so far.
sorry, but there is one of my butt.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

slackers

i know the posts are coming slower, it's just cos we haven't had internet.
i'll get photos and shit up soon i swear. just cancelled the show in memphis last night because of hella shitty promotion but at least got to see my friend lindsay. hopefully, today in alabama will be better.
couldn't be much worse.

annnnnnnnnnd, i promised some of you photos of that band we played with in KC which will definitley knock your socks off.

Love Garden/The Jackpot (Lawrence, KS) Oct. 6

o.k.
so it's going to be hard to write about the whole lawrence experience we had yesterday. i'm afraid that either: a> i'll get way to gushy and sentimental or b>i won't be able to accurately describe how honestly encouraging it was.

to be honest, when i first heard that we were going to do the record store show i didn't know what to think. we'd crawled up ethan's friend adam's ass about trying to get a show and even though nothing was available he went out of the way to set it up. still, i was worried that without locals we'd never get a draw in lawrence.

upon showing up and meeting everyone in the store i honestly couldn't give a flying fuck what happened that night. some of the most wonderful people i've met in a long time live in lawrence, KS and they tend to all hover somewhere near love garden records. adam was a total sweetheart but not in the ass-kisser kind of way which is impressive. i immediately felt at ease and they were straight up hyping everyone that came in the store about the show. they even made cheeseburger flyers (custom colored by amanda) and brad bought us some beer and made sure the P.A. was working during the show. they were like a little record store family, it was just great.

even aside from the great vibes, the store was incredible. if you are ever in lawrence and don't go to love garden you are missing a chromosome. great 45s and reasonable prices, great set-up, and it's meticulously organized to boot. i spent a little more of my fun money than anticipated.

before we knew it, it was time to play and we had quite a neat little crowd of people to play to. if there's one thing that you notice right away in lawrence, it's that there are pretty people pretty much everywhere. so it was nice. people even knew the clean song was a cover. intense.
we played a pretty o.k. set but were a little looser than normal and it went off pretty well with some kids shaking it off up front and lots of smiles around. we were stoked afterward and really happy to have played but it wasn't until we were done that things really got fun. even pfanzler and sara were there and it just made things even better.

some girls offered to have us play at their house for a party and we were totally into the idea, turns out we couldn't do it but that set the guerilla wheels in motion. before we knew it, adam and brad were trying to get us into the clubs in the area to play a free show for some kids after the shows other billed shows were over. we got an answer that there was a 50/50 chance we'd be able to hook it up.

brad, adam, and us decided to drink the rest of the beer, listen to 'over the edge' and play some super kixx (which is bubble soccer, and it fucking rules, congratulations adam for kicking all of our asses) up in the record store and wait for word. eventually, we headed down to the corner bar, replay, and got even more beer and hung out with everyone. finally, we had word. we were going to go on at the jackpot after saves the day finished their acoustic set at one. nice.

it seemed like the second that we found out, adam and amanda were hyping again and this time we were lucky enough to have the people from the instore earlier hyping too. it was weird. i was meeting people who were like: "oh yeah, you're in mannequin men, we're coming to your show later". i can't tell you enough how nice it was for these kids to go out of their way for no reason other than to help out and have a good time. that for me was the kicker: they just wanted to have fun too, it wasn't so they could get something, it was just cos they're into smiling and having a riot.

jackpot was incredible. while we were waiting to load in a crowd starting gathering. made up of kids that were at the show earlier and kids who had gone because some hot girl/guy who worked at the record store told them to go. it was fucking great. it was how things are supposed to work, and for once it worked.

we set up on the floor to save time and in close to five minutes had a pretty large crowd and most of the gear checked. i was fucking plowed and the thing i remember most about the night is frantically trying to get enough water in me to play the set. we opened with 'lil' red riding hood' and the place went absolutely nuts. people dancing, people yelling, people spilling beers on us, breaking glass, and there was even some crowd hugging during the first few verses.
we tore through a decent twenty five minute set, and to be honest, the euphoria of playing for kids who actually wanted to hear music blurred most of what happened out of my memory.
all i know is that there are fantastic kids in that city and i will be back.

sure, we went to a party afterward (thanks, megan) but we'll keep that to ourselves.

in fact, i feel like i shouldn't even post this.

last night was like a really good secret.

told you i would get all fucking sentimental.

Saturday, October 6, 2007




photos from omaha,
top to bottom: dominoes by the waterfront, the waterfront, in front of 'Hotel Frank'

Hotel Frank (Omaha)

wow.
funny how things can turn around in a day.
we were thinking after dekalb that maybe touring wasn't going to be so fun, but the pessimism was turned around quick last night.
total blast.
we rolled into town early again and got to hotel frank around three, set up in a horrible horrible hippie coffee shop where i wrote the last post. we decided we'd walk down to the place and see what was up with bringing our gear in and what time to show, blah...out of nowhere, we're standing in front of the giant door, and it just opens. there is standing a girl, relatively terrified that we are standing on her porch. she informs us that she is leaving but if we wanna go inside and hang out, that is an option. she knows there is a show tonight but has no idea either way what that entails.

we head to a park.

i like the fact that we're getting to spend so much of our down time outside and in parks just running around and being dorks. we got to go down by the river bank and throw the frisbee again, this time setting a new high of 34 consecutive throws and catches and then played dominoes for about three hours. sated on bro-down time we head back to the frank and see what's up.

this time we're greeted by three or so dudes hanging with their dog out on the front porch and they seem friendly enough. they have much more information and are real helpful. we load our shit in and scope the place, which looks a lot like the party room from animal house. this was an accurate foreshadow.

we go grab beers for ourselves and some whiskey even though they have a pop machine filled with beer for 75 cents a pop. this beer is rapidly consumed and before long we're on the porch with a larger amount of people re-telling richard pryor jokes and playing dominoes. this is what i wanted tour to be like. honestly having a great time with people that you've never met before and not worrying. no one in omaha ever asked me what i "listened to" or what i "was into" and it made my night.

around nine thirty or so it's pretty obvious that eth is a little overserved and seth and i are on our way. even though we were slated to play last we decide to take the openers offer of going on earlier. good idea.

there were probably fifty or sixty kids crammed into a room when we went on. it was hotter than than anything you could imagine but i could tell this was going to be intense.
the second we started playing the kids went insane, dancing, screaming, cat-calling, throwing beers, good kid shit. between verses kids were pouring bud ice forties down our throats or trying to offer a drag of a cigarette. sometimes even covering some of the vocal parts for us while we were havin a sip.
it was one of the most fun shows i have ever played in my life and i can say that with complete honesty. 'you can't' go there' and 'massage' were spazzed and perfect and the set went on without a hitch.

until....

we blew the p.a. during 'dead kids'. it turned out to be a blessing as a roomful of kids and us screaming 'DEAD KIDS!' at the top of our lungs turned out to be the coolest thing i've been a part of in a while.
what a show and what night.
just ask ethan. he remembers some of it.

after a little overcelebrating ricky took some zzz's in the van and ethan posted up in a bush....for three hours. god bless the kid. he had so much fun. and the last thing he said as he was leaving the party (with each arm around a stranger) was: "these kids are my friends".

and you know what?
they were.

special thanks to the terminals (who are fucking fantastic) and everyone at hotel frank for getting us money even though they didn't need to.
you guys are the whip.

in lawrence now and gonna play the record store in about an hour.
we know, we know...
break a leg.

Friday, October 5, 2007

otto's (DeKalb) 0ct. 4th

well.
last night fucking sucked in all but one regard.

1>hawks lose (havlat injured)
2>cubs lose
3>we played for every guy named chad and every girl name jessi in illinois last night.

good part?

-getting paid.

otto's was pretty strange, a great room and a good staff but a wickedly B-O-R-I-N-G clientle.
i'm not gonna go into detail but it was pretty intense.

got to go to woodstock before the show though and go get lunch with dee and larry (seth's parents) it was nice. stopped by seth's house and took showers and naps and played with emma and also got a little super NES time in.
slept in the van at the I-80 bridge oasis in iowa. we have some pretty funny pictures and it also kinda sucked.
we're in omaha now and looking forward to a weekend show with some cool kids.
the drive in was ridiculous (all kinds of wind blowing the van around and making it pretty uncomfortable.)
and i am pretty sure that i am sunburned.
def looking forward to this show the most this weekend. playing with the terminals here in omaha at the hotel frank.

we're actually in a pretty heinous hippie coffee/juice bar right now in omaha and there are some interesting folks here.

words to the wise:

DO NOT GO TO DEKALB!

borg ward (milwaukee) oct. 3

yesterday was pretty much hilarious.

we spent the entire day in parks laying around and playing frisbee in the grass. our record for most consecutive catches reached 24 at one point and all in all it was a successful day. alternating between going into the city proper to get little cesars, coffee, or pens (thanks rick) and then taking whatever we bought to a park and sitting there for an hour or so turned out to be a great time. eventually, it was a little tedious. we rolled up to the art space around six and got to meet most of the people who lived in the building got our shit loaded in and just talked shop for a little bit.

the place is fucking insane. there's about twelve or thirteen bedrooms on the second floor, a main ballroom area and a gallery in the front. they also had this honestly terrifying basement. apparently, the building used to operate as a mortuary and the only remnants of that is a giant "body cooler" in the basement. it is the creepiest thing i have seen in a while and i felt like we were playing an indian graveyard. the gallery in front had some great art and i think we're going to try and get this young lady, rachel, to maybe do some artwork for MM in the near future.

there were about forty or fifty people, all told, at the show when we went on and we had definitley primed a bit beforehand. played some gloriously drunk versions of 'massage' and 'you can't go there' and even threw in an improvised one called 'i feel o.k.' kids were into it, i think, and the ones who stuck around to see us were dancing and being kids. it was nice.

directly after playing i became hyper-aware of the fact that the cubs were playing game one and were likely in the late innings so we roped in a sober-ish driver and headed down the street to a sports bar on the corner. it must've looked like the fucking muppets walked in because we got some pretty interested looks, it was a definite wisconsin bar. i mean, here come a bunch of still sweating, drunk nerds pushing shit out of the way to get to the television.

no need to go into the details of what happened to the cubbies there.

but it is worth noting that nearly a minute after entering the bar we were approached by two girls asking: "are you british?"

british?

borg ward kids put us up for the night and were super radical, but the window outside of the room we all slept in (slumber party style, complete with sleeping bags, cheese nips, and farting) was apparently the main drag for obnoxious big rig trucks. lucky us. all in all, i feel o.k. and so does everyone else. last night was tons of fun and def the best night so far which is easy to say at this point.

we're on the way to woodstock now to shower at seth's parents before our show in dekalb later tonight. this should be a trip and we'll see how the college kids like us. maybe even find a nice dorm floor to sleep on.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Franks Power Plant (Milwaukee)

well, last night seems like it was nearly a decade ago.
we hustled up and tried to make it in to town in time to load into the "club" since we though that we might go on first.
not the case.
we rolled in around nine to find that we were the second band there and the third playing out of four which was a relief. things were already gettin a little tense from the day of chicken-head-cutoff-ness so it was nice to cradle a beer and talk to some folks.
the bands were great, first band covered an undertones tune and there was a pretty decent crowd of people hanging around for a tuesday night. the bar deal was FREE, yes FREE, beer all night which was nice. one catch, the beers were in plastic cups that were roughly the size of the cup you wash your mouth out with when you brush your teeth.
second band was the makes nice, who are great dudes and have josh from fucking champs in the band, he still plays wailing guitar and are a riot. we meet up with them again in charlottesville a few weeks from now before CMJ whereupon we play the patio outside a fucking brazilian restaurant...
i don't know.
our show was a bit weird. played good for the first few and kinda fell apart after that thanks to another broken fucking string on the SG and a radically out of tune back-up. but the cute girl that quit plexi 3 was into it so WTF. ethan wrote the set and then at the last minute i pulled the dick move of playing diff'rent shit from the stage. executive veto. but, shit, the bands that played before us we SO garage rock and shit it was intense. didn't think they wanted to hear a bunch of grunge rock gets laughing and getting drunk for forty minutes.

but, well, that's what they got

plexi 3 was fucking awesome and that girl can play her ass off. they're always fun. i just kinda think that they might think we're geeky teenage weirdos or something cos while they're a little reserved socially, we're kinda, well, geeky (mentally) teenage weirdos.

]michael from nokarma was nice enough to put up rick and seth and let us park the van in the driveway so that ethan and i could test out the new apartment (read: van). the loft is nice and functional and after a trip to target today to pick up a pillow should be even more so the next time we need to sleep in there.

now we're lost in milwaukee, full of skillets, and sitting around in a whole foods. good times.
figure out photos soon.

byeeeeeee.
k

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

TMI

well, here we are. since i'm going to miss all of you so dearly while we're gone, i figured i'd keep up with this on the road and update y'all with what is happening in mannequin land.
i'll try to keep it going and post every day or at least when i have an internet connection. i'll put a link to our flickr later in the posts once we get some photos up.