Hollah!!!

That's right, bitches. I'm back in action. Got a brand new laptop, am recently unemployed, and find myself with quite a bit of free time on my hands. Why not blog?

When we last left our heroine (that would be me), she had just attended So Raw Fest in Miami and had the time of her life, yo. A week of bands, beers, and other things I am not at liberty to talk about.

Since June, I have hit up both coasts and the south. In July, I visited my darling friend Rachel in NYC. We partied it up and I even made my Party Blog debut!




While in Brooklyn, I got to hang out with my buddies from Denton, TX, Fergus & Geronimo. You may remember them from such blogs as this one. They played a bunch of awesome shows around town. That band gets better every time I see them.

Also in Brooklyn, I met and partied with my current favorite band (and some of my favorite people), Coconut Coolouts. They were on tour with Personal & the Pizzas (another one of my favorites, I never get tired of songs about pizza!) and Tyvek.

During August I stayed in the Midwest. I went to Chicago a couple times and even to Lafayette, IN, once, but in general I stayed close to home. Here's a sexy pic from the Lafayette Nobunnz (as I affectionately call him) show. Shortly after this picture was taken (by my beautiful sidekick Lauren) I totally unhooked Justin's bra because I just couldn't help myself.


After my break from extensive traveling, I headed down to Memphis for Gonerfest. I had the best time ever and got to see so many friends from all over the place. Band highlights include Davila 666 (best live band of the year, if you get the chance to see them DO IT DO IT DO IT and bring them drugs and pretty girls because they're also the best PARTIERS of the year and the best guys you will ever meet), Sonic Chicken 4, Box Elders, Shitty Beach Boys, Magic Kids, and Hunx & His Punx. Overall, the whole fest was fucking awesome and was probably the best time I've had all year (so far!).

Once Gonerfest was over, it wasn't long before it was time for Budget Rock in San Francisco! I spent most of my time outside of the shows in Oakland, which was our home base for the weekend. I fell in love with the Bay Area immediately. I got there the Tuesday before the fest started, and my first night in town saw my buddies Thomas Function and Yussuf Jerusalem (both great), and Nodzzz (honestly, kind of disappointing live but I love the record). The next night I met up with the Davila 666 guys once again to catch them with the Spits and the Pets, which was one of the best shows I had seen in a long time. None of those bands have EVER disappointed me.

Even though all of the Budget Rock shows (at least of the ones I could get into; thanks, stupid Parkside doorguy) were really great, the Saturday night show at Bottom of the Hill was probably the best show of my life. You know how when you're, like, 15 or 16, you think up dream lineups in your head? Like, "Wouldn't it be great if Nirvana played with the Rolling Stones and the Beatles?" Well, when I was 16 I was thinking things more like, "Wouldn't it be great if the Brentwoods played with the Mummies and Donny Denim and the Fevers?" Yeah, it's all downhill from this one, folks. Photo of the Mummies below by Icki because I was too in awe to take any myself.


Aside from the bands, one of the highlights of my trip to the Bay Area was the FOOD. Andy (of Inhuman Eating Machine fame) took me out eating almost every day I was there. I tried banh mi, papusas, churros rellenos, tortas, and a bunch of other awesome food we don't get much of in the Midwest. Andy is a food EXPERT and I was honored to get a real tour of the restaurants of Oakland. Here he is with Lauren at the banh mi place, photo taken with Lauren's camera by our lovely hostess for the weekend, Missy:


In summary, best summer, best fall. I saw tons of great bands, fell in and out of love more than once, and drank a thousand times my weight in beer. Hopefully this winter will rule just as much.

I'm alive. My computer isn't.

So, after being a busy bee for several weeks working and then basking in the Miami sun (actually, more like sleeping all day and drinking a lot at night), I planned to sit down and blog again. I really did.

Then, the morning of the 4th of July, I sat down to check my email only to find that my laptop had passed away.

R.I.P. Lil' Buddy.

My dad can hopefully salvage it tonight. If not, I will be getting a new one within the next month or so. But in the meantime, don't expect to hear from me much.

over&out,
Dactyl

Busy, Not Dead

I have been a busy bee the past week or so. I saw Liquor Store/Mahonies at Y Not III last Monday, then spent Tuesday in my bed recovering. Those dudes like to party. Sarim didn't stop talking until 8am and lost his voice. I could probably listen to Sarim talk forever. That guy is hilarious.

I've been working a lot lately, too, saving up for my trip to Miami for So Raw Fest in a couple of weeks. I have been looking forward to this trip for months. I am going to party with friends from all over, eat awesome Cuban food, and drink TONS AND TONS OF FREE BEER AND VODKA.

Here is the lineup:

Friday night:
The Yolks
Electric Bunnies
Fey Gods
TeePee
Hahahelp
Palm Trees
This Heart Electric

Saturday afternoon:
Fluffy Lumbers
Ghost Slums
Little Beard
Flux Forces

Saturday night:
Pink Reason
Jacuzzi Boys
Melted Sunglasses
RotShit
Brian's Dirty Business
The CouchFace
Lil Daggers

I can't wait to get out of Wisconsin and hang out on the beach for a week. My dear friend Lauren will be flying down there with me, and we're meeting up with my friend Rachel from Brooklyn. We're even getting a hotel room for the weekend which makes me feel like a real grownup or some shit like that.

Other than the anticipation of this trip, there hasn't been a lot of excitement in my life lately. Friday night I got way too drunk and woke up Saturday afternoon on a mattress in Wendy and Ryan of Plexi 3's attic on the other side of town. The last thing I remember is watching Adam (also of Plexi 3) make a beer-o-lantern.

Band to Watch: Fergus & Geronimo

When one of my favorite bands, the Wax Museums, went on hiatus earlier this year, my little heart broke. However, their drummer, Jason Kelly, softened the blow of the bad news by sending me some songs by the band he had just started with Andrew Savage of Teenage Cool Kids. At the time, they had just recorded a few songs (some of which didn't even have vocals yet) and they didn't even have a name. Soon after, they decided to call themselves Fergus & Geronimo.

The band's perfect pop songs, with obvious influences ranging from soul to 60s pop to Motown, immediately blew my fucking mind. I quickly started hyping the band to everybody and their mother. Not only did I instantly fall in love with the songs, but so did quite a few record labels. The band already has 7"s coming out both on Tic Tac Totally and Woodsist this summer and has been courted by several bigger labels that I am not at liberty to reveal. However, just trust me: this band is going to blow the fuck up.

I managed to find myself in Denton, TX, the night of Fergus & Geronimo's first show. Seeing the songs I had been obsessing over for months performed live was one of the highlights of the trip I took to Texas for SXSW this year. Though the recordings are just Jason and Andrew, they get help from a few friends for the live show. The backing band mainly consists of Andrew's bandmates from the Teenage Cool Kids.

Later this summer, Fergus & Geronimo will head out on their first tour accompanied by the Teenage Cool Kids. The dates can be found on their MySpace page.

But, seriously, keep an eye on these guys because they're definitely going places fast. And I'm pretty excited about that because for once, it's a band that actually deserves it.

Name That Blog

I'm still trying to settle on a name for this blog, so expect to see it change a bunch of times before I stick with anything. I promise I'll decide on something soon so you all can link to me and talk about how great I am. Or whatever.

over&out,
Dactyl

I Spent a Week with So Cow and All I Got Was This Massive Hangover

Today has been a day of recovery. After spending the better part of the week with the So Cow boyz from Ireland, I am finally back in Milwaukee, hanging out in my bed and not wearing pants. Basically, everything's back to normal.

My adventure started Sunday when I took the train to Chicago for Spike from The Yolks' birthday BBQ. Collin was there and all the girls thought he looked pretty in his bellbottoms. He also got into a fight with a crazy South African guy. After drinking a six-pack of Old Style tall boys and consuming approximately 10 hot dogs, we headed over to Ronnie's for the So Cow show.

First, I would like to explain just how terrible Ronnie's is. The bar area smells like shit (no, really) and is about 300 degrees, whereas the show area doesn't smell quite as bad but is about 600 degrees. When I ordered a vodka cranberry, the owner handed me a Dixie cup and said "Five dollars!" I asked, "Don't you have anything bigger?" and he held up a pint glass and said "Twenty dollars!" This is about when I decided that I must have entered hell somehow.

So Cow played a good set, but clearly were at about half energy. My friend Rachel had arranged for me to ride back to Milwaukee with them the next day, so I introduced myself to Brian (aka So Cow) and his band. I also met Matt of Tic Tac Totally fame, which is a very big deal because he's been my #1 distro guy for about a year and no one had ever actually met him. We ended up staying with his brother, who is equally as funny and bought us all breakfast the next morning.

The next day we got up and drove to Milwaukee. The show here was much better and I got even more drunk than the night before. Here is a video that Clint took:



I wish he would've gotten the part where I drunkenly hassled Brian about the fact that there was a little American flag lying on the floor and that he kept stepping on it, causing the stick it was on to snap in half. Said broken flag can be seen in the video propped up in a Pabst can on the speaker behind him. I still don't understand why Brian hates America so much. Oh, and I hear he's a cop, too.

After the show, Tony (drummer) headed to Madison with some friends, Johnny (bassist) continued drinking at the Dipping Station, and Brian and I went to my house and ate macaroni and cheese and had a Nick Lowe sing-a-long before we both passed the fuck out thanks to the magic of Colt 45.

Tuesday I stuck around in Milwaukee for the Brewers/Cardinals game while those dudes went on to Madison. I met up with them again in Chicago the next day, accompanied by my dearest darlingest Lauren. After arriving at Fag Haus we commenced drinking and I (surprise, surprise) got very drunk. By the end of the night, we had gone through a 30-pack of Pabst, a 6-pack of Old Style tall boys, and a full bottle of Absolut Pear Vodka, which Johnny described quite accurately as tasting like pear perfume.

So Cow's set was very very good, though I missed a good chunk of it because my beer started to disappear faster than I was drinking it and I had to rescue it from its no-longer-secret hiding spot.

Highlights of the evening include the acoustic Nobunny cover band Brian and I started in the living room, visiting Kevin's Hamburger Heaven more times than I care to admit, drunk dialing lots of people in other states and allowing Brian to leave them ridiculous messages, and attempting to sleep on the freezing cold basement floor with no blankets.

Thursday we all spent the better part of the day sleeping. Around 4, we finally got our asses (or perhaps I should say arses) out of Fag Haus and headed to the diner across the street from Kevin's called Dox, which was good but not nearly as good as Kevin's. Man, I love Kevin's. Then we went downtown and got coffee. Brian, Johnny, and I wandered over to Lake Shore Drive and up to Navy Pier, where we ate ice cream and rode the ferris wheel because we're all clearly 12-years old.

After gathering Tony from the coffeeshop, we headed back to Fag Haus where the boyz gathered their stuff and set off for the airport and I went to sleep. I got up this morning and caught the 10:20am train back to Milwaukee. I have pretty much been in my bed ever since, nursing the terrible hangover I can't shake after trying to keep up with the Irish and only eating cheeseburgers for two days straight.

Though it feels good to be home, I'm bummed that the boyz are gone. They're on the West Coast now, so see them if you get the chance.

over&out,
Dactyl

Oh, hello there.

While riding the train home from Chicago this morning, I decided that I should probably just start a blog already. I mean, I hear that is what you do when you have the internet and a whole lot of time on your hands. And anyone who knows me knows that I have both.

I haven't yet decided on a specific theme for this blog and I may never do so. For now, I suppose I will just talk about records I like, adventures I have, etc., and see where that leads me.

over&out,
Dactyl