Haha. I'm sorry for all of the goofy posts. I'm considering making a separate section for the site that can be random blog entries, and then this so-called news page will contain mostly news that actually pertains to our band. We'll see.

I'm posting!!!!!!!!!!! Girls aren't dumb!!!!!! Girls, do Mark and Whitney so I don't have to listen to their shit all night... hahaha... Sorry I ate all the pizza Whitney.. I thought it would go to waste.... Looks like I owe my man a pizza.

So, yeah, it's 3:47 am and Whitney, Cody and I are sitting around playing Mariocart. We walked around for a while, and there were a lot of drunk people. We went to the practice space and made an attempt to play something, but because we were pretty far gone ourselves, and because we only had one guitar, it was pretty pointless.

They're making a pizza, which I can't eat because I'm vegan and that sucks because I'm hungry. Oh well.

There isn't much of a point to this... and I will probably delete it in the morning. I'm trying to convince other people that it would be cool if they posted here, though.

Argh. I'm going now. Girls are dumb and I'm tired. hehe.

Someone e-mail Whitney and tell him to start posting here.

Someone here at work just said "supposably". Earlier this morning, I heard someone say "preforations". They must have left their thinking caps at home today.

Summerfest makes life around Milwaukee pretty hectic - especially if you live downtown. There were all sorts of (drunk) people walking around all night. I was really surprised at the number of people who were walking around with baby strollers. I guess it makes sense to take your young children out to see the fireworks, but it still seemed sort of weird.

Tour booking is coming along pretty well, but just as another reminder, you should click on the link in the left-hand frame and check out the dates if you think you might be able to help us find a show. We've had a good deal of people offering their help, which is completely amazing. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. It's going to take a lot of work for us to book such a long tour.

Well, I suppose that's all. Have a great weekend, whoever you are.

Feel like aiding in a pathetic money raising scheme? Well, then go play our mp3s. Just click on lo-fi or hi-fi play all. A little side note is that you don't have to let the whole song play for it to count. You can just start it and skip to the next one. Feel free to do it as often as you like, but it only counts once a day.

I know this is a lame post, but we have a LOT of merch to buy for tour coming up, and we can use any help we can get.

We have something probably worth mentioning, but I'll have to wait a few days... so sit tight.

I got a new chair at work, and I also get to leave at 4 now as opposed to 4:30. This is a great week so far! Now my back doesn't hurt at the end of the day, which now comes 30 minutes sooner than it used to.

If anyone is interested in taking a trip out to Washington DC for the national Animal Rights conference, and you can leave this Friday and return next Friday, e-mail Kris at kkaiser@uwm.edu. She's got a few spots open, and then only thing you'd have to pay for is your own food. The rest is being covered by UW-M. I know it's short notice, but they had a few cancelations. Obviously, you'd probably have to be coming from Milwaukee, but maybe if you are somewhere else and can make it to DC or you are on the way between Milwaukee and DC, you could at least meet up with her and get a ticket to get in, which normally costs $140, I think.You would have a place to stay (also paid for by UW-M), if needed.

For more information on the conference, visit:

www.farmusa.org

or

www.animalrights2000.org

I'm glad we don't have to play any shows for a while. After seeing Fugazi in Chicago last night, it would hard to be happy with any of our shows! I'm just kidding, but seriously, they are amazing. I hadn't seen them since 1995, and it was definitely a treat. If only the people packed in the Congress Theater would have been able to read the signs that clearly stated that smoking was not allowed in the theater. It's been a while since I've been a show that smokey.

It's also been a while since I've seen a band that one encore, let alone two! haha.

Back to work...

Man, my life sucks. Every Friday night, I am about ready to pass out at 11 pm because of work. I wouldn't mind so much if I spent the week doing something I actually enjoyed, but I spent it doing something that I strongly dislike. I waste 10 hours of my life every week sitting on a bus (or standing at a bus stop), and then 40 hours sitting at work. I probably average about 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night, after you take into consideration that I can't remember the last time I slept the entire night without waking up for significant periods of time. Now it is just past 11:30 and I've been struggling to not go to sleep. I think I'm about to give in, but I wanted to say that I'm at least excited that we basically have our whole damn record written after tonight, which is good because recording is coming up soon. We have a few minor things to work on, but the backbone is there and it's solid, and I couldn't be more excited.

We're releasing a CD/LP entitled Dismal State of the Art on Flower Violence Records, out of Germany. It's going to be a European-only release, which is cool since we've gotten quite a few e-mails from people in various parts of Europe saying that they can't find our records over there. All of the songs are previously released in the US except one, so people here aren't really missing anything. The songs are from the split 7" w/ the Assistant, the split LP with Life Detecting Coffins, the 7" on 404 Records (yeah I know those songs are also on our full length, but the 7" recordings are way better), and then one new song called Summary Treatment. It's going to be re-mastered at Mastermind Productions here in Milwaukee, and that will make it sound a lot better, so I'm excited for that.

For once, I messed something up and it didn't end up being all that bad. Our power went out (for whatever reason) at about 3 am today, and Whitney knocked on my door to tell me that I should reset my alarm. I did. However, forgot to actually set it to go off, so I woke up this morning at 7:20 (five minutes before I am supposed to catch the bus). I wasn't too happy about it, but I decided I'll just take a shower, get ready, and go and whenever I get to work is when I get here and that's all I can do about it. After I got out of the shower, I looked at my watch to see how I was doing on time and I noticed that it was about 6:35. I set the time on the alarm clock an hour fast, so when I thought I woke up at 7:20, I was actually waking up at 6:20, so I got to work just fine.

We played our "third new song" (aka Future Perfect Tense) last night, and it went well. The show was pretty okay. Playing in the big room with the lights on was sort of awkward, and the sound wasn't that great, but a lot of kids showed up for a Monday night, and it seemed like people were having fun. We're not playing any more shows until after we record

We were planning on having a new practice space, because the one next to us has been empty for a while now and is much bigger than ours. We even practiced in it Sunday night to find out how it would sound, but when Jim called the property manager to tell him we wanted that room, he was informed that someone is renting it and just not using it right now. So, I guess we were technically trespassing when we were in there. If this were Texas, it would have been legal to shoot us! Let the record show that if this were Texas, I would want someone to shoot me!

Monday's show will be held at the Mitchell Park Pavilion in Mitchell Park. The park is located at 524 S. 27th St.and the pavilion is right behind the domes. Admission is $6 and the show is at 7pm.

I think that's it for once. I don't have anything stupid to say. If you really want babble, just e-mail me or something and I can spurt out all sorts of stupid stuff.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad there are trucks in the alley outside my window emptying garbage cans at the crack of dawn, because the power went out last night and my alarm wouldn't have woken me up if I had had the luxury of actually sleeping past 5:45 on my own.

Oddly enough, despite waking up early, I still managed to miss the bus and was late to work. Oh well. That's 15 minutes that didn't get to steal from me because I'm not staying late!

I had to try to pretend I know how to run our PA when it was needed at the last minute for the Song of Zarathustra show at the Pierce House last night. I felt really bad because sometimes the vocals weren't loud enough, and sometimes there was feedback, but I have never really set it up before - Nick usually does it. I tried my best, though, and I think it worked at least as well as the PAs we have used at most house shows before.

At least it was an excuse to get out of the house for once. Except this time, instead watching TV or listening to music all night, I was planning to take a nap, since I have been waking up so early lately.

We're playing a show next Monday. Come out to see if you can. It's in Milwaukee at Mitchell Park, which is by the domes on 27th Street. It's not hard to find. It's with the Locust, Durga and Blow Up, and it's part of a series of benefit shows to raise money for a non rock club venue in Milwaukee. Don't tell anyone I said this, but we're actually quite fond of most rock clubs! *ssshhh*

Things are going great here. I lost my check card so I'm worried that someone probably bought a bunch of shit with it, but I'm waiting to find out what's going on from my bank. I woke up extra early and went to get some bus tickets this morning, but both stores I went to hadn't opened their customer service desks yet. I wanted to go to the post office while I was out to see why I got one of those yellow slips that says they're holding some mail for me, but it wasn't open yet, which just made me realize how damn early I have to get up -- I beat the post office.

The dumpsters in the alley outside my window seem to get emptied every day at about... oh... 4 am. And I swear, when you look out there, you see maybe 4 or 5, but when you're listening to them being lifted up into trucks, with the contents smashing all over the place, you'd swear there were about a million. It was loud enough this morning that I couldn't hear my alarm over the noise.

I was playing Mariocart and watching 7th Heaven at the same time on two TVs that are right next to each other yesterday and realized that I have no life and that I might as well get a second job because all I did yesterday between the time I got home from work and went to bed so I could get up on time for work was watch really shitty television shows and play video games.

Oh yeah, and it was raining really hard this morning while I was out running around. Change my name at the bottom to Mr. "I Don't Need an Umbrella".

*Sigh*. Okay, I got that all out. Sorry!

For anyone possibly interested in buying one of our shirts, No Karma is going to have them in their catalog pretty soon. We gave a few of them to Michael at our show on Friday.

We're going to Europe from December 6th through January 20th, give or take a few days. We're also working on plans for a European release that will probably come out on vinyl and CD and contain mainly songs that are already released here. Most, if not all, of them will be out of print by the time that release comes out. If you want to get the songs from our split records on CD format, move to Europe!

I think I'm obsessed with the new Noodles & Company restaurant that opened in Milwaukee recently. I'm pretty sure Whitney is, too. We went there a few times this weekend. I want to go again but he works until 10, so I can't. haha. Want to go with me? Just kidding. It's not as though it's the best restaurant ever or anything, but Milwaukee definitely needs more restaurants that aren't "sit-down" restaurants that also happen to have good food.

The show at the Cactus Club went pretty well. As we expected, the turnout was pretty weak due to the fact that most people that would come to see us in Milwaukee are under 21. We actually almost didn't get in ourselves. When we first got there, we got in just fine. However, Whitney lost some parts for his bass drum and we all drove back to the practice space before the show started. When we returned, they were already carding at the door, and when we tried to tell the doorman that we were in a band, he respond with "I'm going to have to see some ID". They made a big stink out of it and told us that we have to stay in the back the whole time and leave as soon as the show was over. Then they didn't even check our IDs anyway. We told them Whitney and Nick were both 19, but we could all be 17 for all they knew. Oh well. It was a fun time nonetheless.

Here's a new topic for the guestbook: where's the strangest place you've never made love?

We're playing tonight in Milwaukee at the Cactus Club. Come out if you can. Note that the show is 21+ and that we're not happy about that, but it's beyond our control. Also note that I am well aware that our shows are listed on the shows page, but I am also aware of the fact that many people visit our site but never actually leave this main page. How do I know this? Oh, I have my ways.

Originally, we had every intention of playing three new songs tonight instead of the two that we've played at the last few shows, but unfortunately we didn't get enough chance to practice the song we had in mind, so it'll just have to wait. Perhaps at the show on the 18th....

No interesting bus stories today. Well, unless you want to hear about how weird the bus driver on route 54 is. At practically every stop, he gets out and adjusts mirrors or washes the windows. He's got a bottle of windex right next to him. I don't know if he just takes his job very seriously, or if he's schizophrenic, but it's definitely quite mind boggling.

Lucky me, I get to work at 8 am tomorrow. I'm sure our show tonight will go rather late. Oh well. I guess that's another thing I can complain about. I'll add it to the list. At least they're ordering pizza for everyone... which will be interesting. I don't really feel like explaining to the people who work here why it is I don't eat pizza. Maybe I'll tell them I'm lactose intolerant.

Okay, here's a new topic of discussion for the guestbook. What's the weirdest or funniest thing some random person has said to you or that you've overheard?

Today, on the bus, I overheard some old guy say "you can't live on beer alone….. Shiiit". He also went on to say that he has to pay child support for 4 of his kids still, and that he only makes $9.50 an hour. How sad.

And yesterday, when I was just getting home from work, someone else who lives in the same building was right in front of me. He got the door for me, and then sort of looked back and said "I'm not usually this drunk this early in the day.... but STAIND IS PLAYIN' AT THE RAAAAVE TONIGHT..."

Maybe you had to be there, but it was really funny at the time. He also said he was going to get there "if he could ever get up these fuckin' stairs". haha.

In actual band-related news, the full length we're working on and recording in July is going to be called Quietus. Yeah, that's a word... look it up if you don't believe me!

I came up with an idea for our guestbook. I'll bring up topics and you can comment in the guestbook if you want. For example, I was thinking about how this year is halfway over already, and that is shocking because it seems as though it was just yesterday that we were in SLC with the Assistant on New Year's Eve. That made me think of a topic (the bus ride to work is boring enough for such "brainstorms").

Here goes:

Did you make a New Year's resolution, and if so, how are you doing? I made one, and it was... uh... to put a guestbook back on our site! So it looks I'm right on track.

(if you believe that, I hope you post and tell everyone that your resolution was to be less naive).

We have a guestbook now. Sign it or else.

We saw the funniest thing in a long time last night, right outside of the window in our practice space. At a bar, right on the river, there was a lounge singer performing on a deck outside. He was a horrible lounge singer, however. Hence the humor. Some of the songs he decided he would do included: the James Bond theme, "Secret Asian Man", the theme from "The Love Boat" (???), that "Voulez-Vous Couchez Avec Moi Ce Soir" song, "Love Rollercoaster" and others. It was especially funny when he did the "Voulez-Vous...." song, because he could not hit the high notes. It reminded me of something from South Park. Yeah, I guess I just admitted that I watch that show sometimes. Add that to the list you're keeping of reasons I may or may not be immature. Anyhow, I could picture one of those kids singing like this guy was.

We decided that it would be in the best interest of us (not the lounge singer) if we stuck our PA in the window and provided some vocal accompanyment -- namely on the "Voulez-Vous...." song. We got some weird looks from people down below, and I'm sure we bursted the lounge singers already delfated ego balloon. He was performing to about 3 old people (but at least they were dancing).

It was sort of upsetitng that this guy is considered less annoying than us to the people who live in the condos -- the ones who always call the cops on us on Sunday nights. This bar is located RIGHT NEXT to their precious little condos, and this lounge singer guy never got the cops called. We were worried the cops were going to come bug us for talking out the window, though.

For my money, I don't know if it gets any better than when some lounge singer is doing a horrible lounge version of "Every Breath You Take" and Nick adds the "uh-huh yeaaaaah" parts that Biggie Smalls does on the tribute song that Puff Daddy did -- you know, the one that has a video in which Mr. Puff Daddy, to begin said video, falls from his motorcycle for no apparent reason.

Recording this weekend went pretty well. We didn't get a chance to add vocals, but we got the music finished. We're probably going to re-do one of those to get it a little tighter, as well as experiment with some other sounds, but one of them turned out awesome. We're going to hopefully finish it this weekend.

This weekend, we are recording two songs with our friend Jared at Walls Have Ears studio. The same two songs we played live last weekend. The songs we listed the lyrics for last week. So far, just the bass and drums are done, but it sounds awesome. We're really only doing it for demo purposes, but it's turning out awesome, so we'll make sure we make use of it somehow. Maybe we'll post an mp3 to our mp3.com site soon.

Well, we are about to head up to the studio again, so I should go. We stayed there until 4:30 am last night / this morning. Hopefully we can get back a little earlier tonight.