Mannequin Man in a Van

Tour Schedule!!!!

2009-04-01T09:23:00.001-07:00

Apr 8 2009 8:00P
The Frequency w/ THE DRONES Madison, Wisconsin

May 2 2009 8:00P
7th Street Entry w/ GAY WITCH ABORTION, and DOUBLE BIRD MInneapolis, Minnesota

May 8 2009 8:00P
Union Hall NYC, New York

May 9 2009 8:00P
Cake Shop NYC, New York

May 30 2009 8:00P
The Blind Pig, for BANG! party Ann Arbor, Michigan

Jun 20 2009 8:00P
The Melody Inn Indianapolis, Indiana

Jul 10 2009 8:00P
Metro LOSE YOUR ILLUSION, TOO Release Party w/ Thomas Function, Davila 666, and Stranger Waves Chicago, Illinois

Jul 11 2009 8:00P
Beachland Ballroom w/ Davila 666 Cleveland, Ohio

Jul 12 2009 8:00P
Bug Jar w/ Davila 666 Rochester, New York

Jul 13 2009 8:00P
The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern w/ Davila 666 Toronto

Jul 14 2009 8:00P
Il Motore w/ Davila 666 Montreal

Jul 15 2009 8:00P
The Church w/ Davila 666 Boston, Massachusetts

Jul 16 2009 8:00P
Johnny Brenda’s w/ Davila 666 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jul 17 2009 8:00P
Southpaw w/ Davila 666 Brooklyn, New York

Jul 18 2009 8:00P
Café Nine w/ Davila 666 New Haven, Connecticut

Jul 19 2009 8:00P
Maxwell’s w/ Davila 666 Hoboken, New Jersey

Jul 21 2009 8:00P
Talking Head Club w/ Davila 666 Baltimore, Maryland

Jul 22 2009 8:00P
TBA New York City, New York

Jul 23 2009 8:00P
Backstage @ the Black Cat w/ Davila 666 Washington DC, Washington DC

Jul 24 2009 8:00P
31st Street Pub w/ Davila 666 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Jul 24 2009 8:00P
The Comet w/ Davila 666 Cincinnati, Ohio

Jul 26 2009 8:00P
Ravari Room w/ Davila 666 Columbus, Ohio

WEST COAST TOUR DATES TO FOLLOW

New Sturdy shots

2009-01-27T07:18:00.001-08:00

This Week in Mannequin Men

2009-01-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, so a bit has been happening with us.
First of all, we're happy to announce that Chicago's Biz3 will be doing publicity for the new record, we couldn't be happier to work with such a respected firm of guys and gals.

Also, we booked some more Mannequin Men shows since the record might take a while to come out.

We'll be playing with the New Bomb Turks (yeah, that New Bomb Turks) at the Cobra Lounge on Saturday, February 21st and will be playing with Michael Yonkers/Plastic Crimewave, Cave, and a bunch of other bands in March at the Million Tongues Festival @ the Empty Bottle

We'll also be heading out to Minneapolis to play on the 7th at Stasiu's which should be interesting if not a rager. We can't wait to see all you Minnesotans again.

Also, we just got back from Madison from a show with our pals, Dials. Twas fun and all and we treated ourselves to a calm night of dining and swimming, here's a review:

http://madison.decider.com/articles/tim-and-eric-at-barrymore-theatre-the-dials-and-ma,23056/

Finally, we'll be travelling down to SXSW in March like every other bloodthirsty lunatic. Playing Champaign with Living Blue on the way down as well as Lawrence and Omaha with the Black Lips. Come see us, we'll be posting the dates soon.

guess that's all,

kev

2007-10-06T16:32:00.001-07:00

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

packtures

2007-10-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

leavin' town

2008-06-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Smoking Popes/Tour! F-Yeah Fest too!

so this week'll be a busy one.
we're doing the record release show for the smoking popes newest album at Metro on saturday this week. (we're even d.j.ing the night before at everyone's favorite meatmarket The Continental)
should be a great time.
show starts around 9 and we play second out of three.
tickets are 20 bucks and are going relatively fast, so might be something you wanna jump on now.

then wednesday it's back to the Ravari Room where we can relive the glory of opening for the Turks by playing a set with Guinea Worms who are fucking fantastic.
we'll be heading through a lot of cities so check the calendar.
we'll also be hooking up with the now famous/infamous F-Yeah Festival Tour featuring Dan Deacon, Matt & Kim, Monotonix, The Death Set, Team Robspierre and us.
That show is going down at the Black Cat in Washington D.C. but we'll also be doing a show with them back here in Chicago on July 3rd at the Stan Mansion place that just opened up.

come on out.

also, this tour will probably be the last of the Criminal I.Q. 45s that we have left so if you haven't picked one up yet, you might want to jump on the chance as i don't think that they'll be repressed.

see you soon?
we'll do our best to keep updating from the road so check back once we take off.

kevin
mm!

RIP Bo Diddley

"Commitment"

2008-09-22T08:32:00.001-07:00

we've been listening to a lot of bobby darin during breaks and it's been especially helpful when we're getting things going in the weekend mornings at the manor. i feel strangely like a group of hyenas. there's a pretty tight bond between the six of us right now as we roll through the finish line here and start mixing and i'm interested to see what comes from this. Surely, we've been in a situation where we felt on the same page with people before and have definitely been charged up together, but with mike and jesse there's a definite sense of a more human understanding.
the manor is kinda like being in exile.
it is hard to imagine having to go back to dealing with real life every time we leave there.
all of our jokes are then rendered non-sensical and when people ask how the studio is, it's hard to relate any sort of memory of the events that transpired. i mean, fuck, none of them really make sense to me.

overdubs are finished on nearly every song now and we'll be ready to mix once we lay down the party vocal on '(us and) all our friends are so messed up' we should be ready to hole up and mix the fucker. things are turning out great, but it's still a little strange. tried a bunch of t-rex percussion stuff on 'helpful' and did some overdubs on vocals for 'wtf lol' (thanks, sar) the thing that really sticks out for me is the adds on percussion for 'judy' which sound incredible. ethan has really really nailed the little lead-in licks that he hears on his head in nearly every song and his guitar playing, while managing to stay articulate, is out of this world.

we'll see.
finishing up tonight on most stuff.
know i promised a song, but you might have to wait til tomorrow.
~k

"They painted a dog and when it got on stage it kinda just barked and ran away."

2008-09-18T07:04:00.000-07:00

Heard some pretty great stories about ZZ top on the Tejas tour yesterday. Including one that ended like that, because when Billy Gibbons was asked what he wanted the stage to look like, he responded that he hoped it would re-create the album cover.
"So you want cattle?"
"Yeah, and every night i want a wolf to come out and howl and we'll start the show"
"Well, Billy, a wolf is a wild animal..."

yesterday was by far the most productive of the days in there and i am really really starting to become involved in this record as i think everyone who is working on it is. 'alice golden' was nearly forgotten since it hadn't been played in so long but we dropped a great version of it yesterday and it is close to my fav so far. some unexpected gems.

got done with all the guitar and bass fixes yesterday as well so we'll start overdubbing parts onto the record tonight when we meet up.

it's strange.
i know the record is going to diappoint a lot of kids as it's so much more pop than anything we've ever tried before. i am starting to abandon the strangeness of that now though. it really is kinda an odd record but in my favorite ways. it's weird to think about how when the replacements did 'let it be' they recorded 'androgynous' and 'gary's got a boner' in the same session. not that i'm comparing our record to a masterpiece like that, but i feel that there is a similar idea there.
hopefully, the rock songs (and there are some faster ones on it) will sate that need for people to bang their head.
patrick just made a good point in saying: "i don't sit around and listen to rock records" and it's a really good point.

anyhow.

more tomorrow and maybe a song or something.
just don't tell lust or the label.

Jeff's House

2008-09-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

another day done, didn't get a whole lot accomplished besides naming our imaginary ska band (Don Skaballero or Animal Skallective) and getting some bro-ing done, but we did manage to pull off a really nice "neon lights" by doing something we've never tried and splicing the two parts together. sounds real great and will definitely be one of the corners of the record as far as i'm concerned. had a listening party to check out what we had gotten done and now it's time to listen to some stuff and get ideas/decisions on which takes and what to use.

just started downloading the .zip file of it off rapidshare and i don't know if you guys have this problem but rapidshare can fucking blow me. it's just a pain in the ass. regardless, it was nice of jesse to throw that up there so we could all just download what we have. i'll try and post something later in the week when we get some more things decided upon. Despite thinking that we were being total slackers by drinking so much beer and telling jokes the whole time, we're actually getting a lot done.

tonight, we go in to do 'massage' again and then i think we're going to try and blaze through some of the more boring shit, like guitar punches and bass fixes. got quite a bit of stuff already.

do both

2008-09-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

so, we went into the studio with lust at phantom manor saturday afternoon.
things got rolling kinda slow and the rain didn't really motivate anyone to change that so we lost a couple hours to the bloody marys at the bottle. rolled in to get set up and the studio looks great. nice room to sit around and hang out in, great control room and a pretty incredible live room.
everyone got a little lit up for the first session and we didn't end up getting much in the way of takes saturday night. i think we kept three: 'cream rises', 'never living', and 'judy'. lust is hilarious to work with and i'm pretty sure i've never had as many inside jokes with someone i had practically just met than him. he kinda knows when to break up the tension and when to just let it roll, it feels great to work with someone who is so good at his job, and is willing to put a WWF microphone sound FX machine into the talk-back mic when the song sounds like shit.
sunday we got quite a bit more done which may or may not have been because we weren't totally wrecked off our asses all day. miles' upper grass helped a lot and there was more budweiser. finally got lusty to drink some of those after a short protest that was supposed to last the entire session and didn't last more than three hours. let's face it. it's the king of beers.
got going quickly, laid down miles' new one which is still untitled, 'massage', 'i don't care', a great nearly perfect version of 'rat hole', a couple versions of 'WTF LOL', laid a base track for the pagans cover, and also worked a lot on ideas for the new one we are writing in the studio called 'kinda babes'. things are sounding pretty great and the sounds we're getting are pretty right on the money. likely we'll go in and throw some prettier stuff on the tracked songs tonight and try our hand at 'neon lights' which kinda sounded like garbage yesterday.
maybe we'll take it a little easier tonight, too. i can say for sure that this weekend has done some pretty intense damage to my liver and has aged me a little bit, but it was pretty fun. i can totally see now how bands end up fighting the shit out each other in the studio. when you're getting fucked up and sitting in a room together talking about what you wanna do and someone dissents it's almost always taken as a personal attack. doesn't help when the people getting fucked up and arguing are musicians and have pretty substantial egos to go with them. there was a little bickering in front of sara and caitlin yesterday and i got kinda bent out about. decided we needed to chill and did. got some pretty decent stuff recorded after that as well and got, what i think is, a keeper for 'WTF' right after.
excited to see what happens in the next stage.
til' then.
-k

on two sides

2008-05-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

so, the week was rather fun. we definitely had a great time, and the shows went well. maybe we overindulged a little, but wouldn't want to disappoint the fans, right?
cleveland was nothing like we expected, and after a terrible drive we were welcomed at the beachland in royal fashion. great people there, and they made sure we were fed and drunk before we played and that when we left we had a hotel room to stay in.
Dead Meadow were great dudes as we expected and we had a great time hanging out with them and shooting the shit. good dudes to chat with about b-movies and stupid shit like x-box games.
most impressed by the sheer amount of gear that those dudes had...it was fucking crazy, it seemed like it took them around an hour to bring it all in from the u-haul and once it was finally onstage it looked like some kind of weird soundsystem from mad max at thunderdome.

it was definitely the first night that thing really really clicked with the new lineup and there were drunken hugs, on stage even.
things are a lot smoother and continued as such in cincinnati. the show there was a little light but some kids who'd seen us at the ravari room with NBT came out and were nice dudes. generally good times, and again, we were treated real well at the comet. the burritos at this place are out of fucking control and i suggest if you ever roll through the nasty nati that you go around and grab one.

the bottle show was a little strange, i suppose that it was a shitload of fun, but i was a little too fucked up and the crowd was not what we have gotten used to here in the city. i know that sounds crybaby of me, but i think it is just a testament to the fact that we need to work harder. i think we're kinda in an odd position with MM right now. i can't tell if it's oversaturation, but i've always felt that we've kinda teetered between the hipster kids who really dictate that popularity really liking and supporting us and just a complete dismissal from them. it's a strange boat to sail and it's not something that we actively address, but it really is hard to ignore the affect marketing has on us. (and i guess everyone for that matter) hopefully things continue to roll along and we can get this next record done and take some time off.

either way, it wasn't a bad turnout, just little light.

saw narrator's last show the next night and it was incredible. played everything i wanted to hear and there were smiles all over the fucking place. it's going to be strange to not play with them anymore. honestly, the best experience i've had in a band directly involved all those dudes and i feel closer to them as individuals than anyone else in the music circle that we run with. there's a certain kind of kindred existence there. anyhow, they were given a real proper send off and i couldn't be happier for them. it's just a shame we couldn't make it out to NYC to see the last show proper. fuck those dorks for doing it there. regardless, go buy 'all that to the wall' if you don't have it already.

also, if you're looking for some new shit to listen to, i suggest you go take a peek at this incredible band, blank dogs. you might have heard the stuff they put out on todd's hozac label a while back, but their best stuff is on their full length 'on two sides' which you can download for free from their blog site:

we'll see what is happening after the local h show and i'll post some more.

Updates!

2008-04-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

There's a lot to talk about i suppose.
I figured that this would be a good place to start putting new happenings and goings on up.
We've officially said 'goodbye' to our good pal and bass player Rick Berger as he has moved to New York to start a new life with his soon-to-be wife. Things ended on the best of terms and we hope that Ricky carves NY a new hole.

Miles Raymer has filled the bass hole in the band and has been working wildly to catch up to the seemingly seven thousand songs that we've written in the four years with Rick.

Coming up real soon (two days, even!) we'll be heading out to cleveland to play with one of our favorite bands, Dead Meadow, at the Beachland. Kinda nervous to play with a bunch of metalheads, but also real excited to give it a whirl. Hopefully, we'll be nice and tight and have a good time. Then, a show in Cinncinati and back home the next night to play the bottle with Tyvek.

The next months are looking to be the busiest yet and now that we're officially represented by creature booking
www.creaturebooking.com, we can look forward to even more busy.

i'll be updating this quite often, so feel free to check back and keep up with us.
we kinda miss you.
kev

sorry guys!

2007-10-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

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.

slackers

2007-10-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

Hotel Frank (Omaha)

2007-10-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

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.

otto's (DeKalb) 0ct. 4th

2007-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Franks Power Plant (Milwaukee)

2007-10-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

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

TMI

2007-09-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

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.