The Long Weekend
CANADA TOUR BLOG

Dear devils, dove petals and derelicts,

Mine eyelids are turning against me and my brain is soon to follow, but my fingers had an itch in them. I try to get on this strange machine each night to empty my mind of my memories before the become broken things and thus jagged and dangerous and hard to follow. These for me are strange times and trying times and very sad times for many reasons and I have had trouble with smiles lately, only appearing to do so while on stage singing songs and looking over to Amy who promptly flips me off no matter what may be happening. My face bends to smiling then. Grey clouds shadow my eyeballs. It has been hard days, some nights easier than others, but thankfully I'm surrounded by friends and fellow soldiers, my band mates. Do you know them? They are Aaron, Kaylan, Amy and Ryan at the moment, though Saul and Joe are continuously in my heart. They lift me in their warrior arms and carry me through deep waters, sometimes with a simple glance of knowing. I love them and owe them each my life, though they will read this and consider me drunk on wine or on whiskies, though dreams of curly locks cannot be drunk from bottles.

North Carolina. We woke up on the beach this morning outside of Wilmington and there were deer everywhere, Buddha summoned them before our very eyes before the sun rose. They had eyes that see things I cannot, though I would be willing to try. There is a lot of water in the ocean. We played Hey Garland for only the second time in our lives last night and also As Dry As Bone. It was great fun and my heart was in every note and syllable, every goat and tin cymbal. I wish you could have seen it.

Chapel Hill tomorrow. Meeting the Red Eye folksies and touring the factory where This Cursed House was fashioned. I picture vast cauldrons of molten metals, converging into a garden of white peonies and soon the petals drop from their thin frames all that is left is a shining disc of sounds me and my friends made. Its silly, I know, but I like how it fits.

I am looking foward to NYC and the farm house. I'm going to sleep now.

Nighty nighty.

S

We are in Athens, GA. Our first show without Joe and Saul in Atlanta, GA went surprisingly well. It was, in fact, entirely surreal. We played at this festival called Corndogorama, where basically the really push these $5 corndogs. We were supposed to be there at 5pm and on stage at 7pm....we pulled into the parking lot at 7:03pm and literally ran into the building and right onto stage and almost immediately started playing. We played Hooray For Shipwreck, The Farthest Shore, Look To The Trees and finally Hexenhaus and the crowd was totally amazing. They were very much into what we were doing. It was a great and mighty release of worry and nervousness and stress and tension. Now we are in Athens and have the fuel for the coming days ahead. We are playing at the old 40 Watt Club tomorrow, where my lovelies R.E.M. got their start....things couldn't be going better. Well, they could, but then things wouldn't be as they are, and things as they are are quite fine.

We went to this 24 hour diner tonight once we were in town for beers and vegetarian fare (our bodies need the vitamins) and I slipped some whiskey into my coca-cola when no one was looking and soon felt great. The neon signs were singing to me, the air vents above were humming their melodies and for at least 45 minutes it felt great to be in a touring band from Michigan.

Somewhere in the future I am remembering today. I'll bet you I'm remembering how I walked into the park at five thirty, my favorite time of day, and how I found two cold pitchers of just poured beer, sitting there on the bench. I am remembering how my friend Chip showed up with a catcher's mask hanging from his belt and how I said "Great to see you, sit down, have a beer, how are you?" and how he turned to me with the sunset reflecting off his contacts and said, "Wonderful, how are you?"

S

Wooden Glockenspiel Mallets Broken: 2
Rubber Glockenspiel Mallets Broken: 2
Tambourines Broken: 1
Times Hand Has Been Cut and Bleeding By Tambourine: 3
Groupies Hearts Broken: 0
CDs Purchased: 50 (!!!)

At long last, in my own bedroom for a few days. Sam is amazing. My clothes were so worn and dirty I threw them into the street and lit them afire. Leaving on Thursday for the East Coast. Dreams mean my brains on break. SLEEP IN A BED! BRILLIANT! Later.

S

"Well the smart moneys on Harlow
and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you're east of east St. Louis
and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause..."

Oh St. Louis, St. Louis. We just returned from one of the best show we have played since embarking on this strange and lengthy voyage. Oh St. Louis how we love you....we played here once before with Page France and Margot & The Nuclear So and Sos at Blueberry Hill, and that show was great....but this show, there are no words. Thank you everyone who came out and lifted up our spirits and swayed with us in the sweaty golden lights of Off Broadway.

Bands you need to know about who helped make the night so magickal....

Gentleman Auction House

Jumbling Towers

Both amazing and nice and both worth your time. Please befriend them and listen.

Its strange knowing that after tomorrow the first leg of our tour will be at it's end. It seems entirely surreal to me that soon we'll be back in Ferndale with California, all those mountains and that terrible desert behind us. But then comes the East Coast and more shows and more people and more sights and sounds and songs. And floors, those unforgiving floors. And then Ann Arbor and a new album. Then icy winter will cloak our streets and we'll gather in Phrendz Sentral to watch dark movies while drinking blood red port under wool blankets together. And then there is what comes next.

St. Louis, you shall be missed.

S

I don't even know what to write about anymore. So many horrifically magical events and occurances have taken place since I thought about writing last...we are in Austin which is in Texas which is vast and sandy and where the air is water and the land is cruel and I think we just played at Emos and we were under water and now there is Hercules the Squid. Death in the desert, fire in the flask, ribbon in the wing, fissures in the skulls, Arizona turned my skin a deep burnt sienna my bones are baked a Payne's grey. Even saltwater pools in breezy backyards barely eased the murderous figs, though the trees are so beautiful I cried and I cry. Tucson, no no. Puh Puh Saul ass naked watering his frame in Phoenix time. Oh god I miss him and love him so. Going backwards, Houston, yes. Abilene we miss your streets and your knitted skins, the drinks and the smokes and you were all so nice, Oh Abilene Abilene, the endpoint of the Chisholm Trail, you were all incredibly kind and incredibly beautiful and your beds are the softest to me. Listenlisten put their lips on my heart and we spent the night with its Ben and his Lisa in Houston they were so kind and true. Driving through the desert non-stop through the night the landscape does not move but sits still and semi-trucks float alongside you and the sky is as if a Peach. I think I pissed my pants. I definitely pissed my pants.

I hear people talking a lot but I hear near to nothing. My eyes no longer see colors or shapes but instead I taste nothing but chicken noodle soup. I don't miss the sound of pianos but I miss the sound of Chicken? No chicken. Puh Puh. But listen, I am distracted. We, meaning Joe and Aaron, drove Saul to the airport at 4:30am last night and I won't see him again for a bit. We performed our first show minus our Puh Puh and it was scary and sad but sounded better than we thought it would and we now have the reserve of confidence and hope to get us through the next phase I can't believe we still have until the end of July until this madness comes to its final end I forgot what its like there though we'll be there and we have new songs and the songs are called Fuck The Origami Children and The Dreaming Sweaters and This Road Is So Old That Our Scars Have Grown Cold and I can't wait for you to hear them though let me tell you I do not ever want to eat Mexican food again and I never want to hear the words Mexican Food together again because of things I can't repeat that have happened though really I just want a salad and an ENORMOUS glass of iced water and a shower and my Sam.

We are going to Denton tomorrow which is in Texas which is vast and sandy and where the air is water and the land is cruel. The shows have been deeeeeply nefarious in the best possible way if you can think of things being that kind of way. My eyes hurt because I cry all day long from how happy and beautiful I feel. My light which is inside my bones and my skin and my veins it like vibrates more now than it ever has and all I want is to keep doing this forever and to go home and see the things I know and love.

S