i keep puting off posting to bipolar, acting like i have nothing to post about, which is actually fairly untrue. i think i'm just turning into a matt. scary, huh?

i spent the long holiday weekend doing a variety of different things. friday night i went out and caught mogwai with parlour over at headliners. it was a pretty good show (thanks for the beer, connor), but i swear mogwai must be scottish for "slint." the highlight of their set was at the end (pre-encore) when tony from parlour (and a million different other bands, over the years) got up and played drums. then they came back out and just made a bunch of noise. very clever.

note: when playing in louisville, remember that we have seen all of your noise and we generally thumb our nose at it.

anyway…i didn't stick around to ask anyone from mogwai what ever happened to that track that they recorded with chino from deftones. oh well.

saturday afternoon was spent hanging with matt and paul. we went out to catch insomnia. once again, the summer movie season fails to disappoint. it's going to be a good year for film. after the movie we went back to their place and ordered pizza and watched iron chef. much speculation was made about when the secret ingredient was going to end up being kittens or small children. it's only a matter of time…

sunday was kickball in the park. this is really just an excuse to have a cookout and get drunk in the middle of a field. oh yeah…and to annihilate the other team in the opening innings. we were up 17-4, at one point. it was pretty pathetic. our run production slowed down pretty dramatically as we got more drunk and started to argue with the other team more. regardless, we won. stick that in your pipe and smoke it. bragging rights for a whole week, suckas.

other random details are pretty much a blur. scott and i sat around being bored for most of monday night, realizing that we were all but partied out. oh well…there's always next weekend…

song you should be listening to, right now:
metroschifter – whatever's wrong with me is here to stay
from the "for the love of basic cable" 7", 1995

back to the road (and complete non-relevance, at this point)…

5/3 akron, oh @ lime spider
after our relaxing day off in new york, we hit the road bright and early the next morning, headed for the rubber capital of the world (har), akron, oh. apparently this is the home of goodyear, the blimp, and all that other scary business. we were informed that they used to have a condom factory in town, as well, but it went out of business.

anyhowways…we got to the club and pretty much loaded straight in. we were supposedly opening for two glam bands (who booked this tour? a retarded 10 year-old?), which was nice because they proved to be the butt of our jokes for the rest of our time spent in ohio. we set up on the stage and set levels with each other (in lieu of an actual "sound check"), and then bellied up to the bar to get some drink on. we ended up trying to watch a ramones documentary on one of the overhead tvs, but we couldn't hear any sound. that left us cracking really bad jokes with the bartender girl and eating some skunky pizza made for us by the owner of the place. it was pretty funny because he came up and asked how everything was…

owner: how is everything?
chris: mmmf….good…who made it?
owner: i did!
chris: oh? man…this shit is fucking great!
owner: thanks! glad you like it.
[owner walks off]
chris (to me): this is some seriously nasty shit…
me: yep. totally.

the show went really well with little to no technical snafus, and we stuck around to catch the glam bands, which were both pretty fucking horrible. there were apparently some end of semester "riots" going on down the street, so i went out to check that scene with a friend from the area. the "riots" ended up being a bunch of drunk frat guys hitting on nasty, drunk sorority chicks in the streets while the cops stood there and yawned. i decided to ask the cops what, exactly, was supposed to be going on…

me: so what's happenin' in akron, ohio tonight?
cop: akron? shit…i thought this was cleveland. hey, guys…we need to get out of here!
me: shoot for detroit next time, smart guy…

then we went back to the frend's house in kent to crash. the most disconcerting part of the whole akron trip was waking up in kent on may 4th. we ate at some breakfast place with a giant, shitty looking x-wing fighter out front, and then got the fuck out of ohio. yeah. that sums it up pretty well.

[setlist*]
*note on setlist: the little stars are actually dan's depictions of assholes, making the overall presentation…disturbing.

the wilco site has posted a streaming recording of wilco's performance at all tomorrow's parties. it sounds great and is definitely worth checking out.

i wrote this earlier, in response to an article over at pitchfork (who i refuse to link) reviewing the new spider-man movie:

william,

-brian.

i can never say it enough…i sincerely hope those retards die in some suitably "indie" catastrophe.

i seem to be having a hard time forcing myself to update bipolar. but since i saw star wars: episode 2 last night, i can pretend i have something to write about.

in a nutshell: it was good. it blows episode 1 away. 100 times better. seriously. tons of action for dat ass.

i flipped out and quit my job the other day. it's not the brightest thing i've done in a while, but i just kinda snapped. i wasn't cut for working there again, anyway. i was depressed to walk in there on the first day and see a bunch of people i worked with the first time. it was ridiculous. so i got back from tour, had been back at work for 2 days and snapped. it's all good, though. i went to the store, grabbed a six pack, and came home and watched the usual suspects on dvd. splendid. that movie is still awesome, even when you know "the secret." the special edition dvd is definitely worth it.

and for the record, my former boss is the dumbest piece of shit i've ever had the displeasure to work under.

my get up kids and dj shadow reviews have been posted over at 75 or less. i liked one and hated the other. see if you can figure out which is which.

i will be getting back to that tour recap. promise…

before i cut to the continuation of thee tour diaries, i'd like to take a few moments to express how incredibly bad the new get up kids record is. it's bad. seriously bad. like "one of the worst albums i've ever heard" bad. avoid it at all costs. expect my review to go up on 75 or less before the end of the day.

oh yeah…my birthday was seriously fucked up. i started drinking at lunch and didn't stop until about 7am on the following morning. festivities included making out with hot girls and getting attacked by rufus wainwright as he tried to ram his tongue down my throat. i did score his cell number for katie, though. bitchin'.

i'll get back to the road stories later tonight…

so…in case you didn't catch on from last night's post, i'm home. i'm slowly trying to remember the finer details of the tour and whatnot, but i'm reaizing that "lasting memories" and "drunk for two weeks straight" don't really go hand in hand…

now where did i leave off?

5/1 new york, ny @ brownie's
after our radio show at mit, we loaded the van up and got the hell out of dodge (err…boston). tired as hell, i drove most of the way from beantown to nyc. we switched drivers somewhere just outside of the big city (pronounced connecticut) and promptly got stuck in traffic. this was fine and dandy until we realized that the gas gauge was looking dangerously low. things cleared up once we got out of traffic and listened to "girls" by the beastie boys. amazing how one song can change your outlook on the day.

we rolled straight into brooklyn to ben's apartment to stretch our legs and bitch about how tired we were (especially considering that ben lives on the fifth floor of a building with no elevator…i love new york). we called the club to see what time we needed to be there for load-in and soundcheck, and then promptly took showers and went out for food. we got to the club nice and early, and headed straight to the stage to set up and run through a couple of songs.

then we sat around for a little while until we played. i went down a few doors to a thrift shop and bought a new shirt. i spotted a t-shirt at another shop that says "i fucked your girlfriend" and instantly started coveting it. i went back to the club to tell ben and chris and then ben informed me that they also have ones that say "i fucked your boyfriend." it was decided that we would get one. then i went down to the stand to get one and found out that the only size they had them in at the moment was xl and they were $15. too big and too much…sorry about your luck.

then we played. talk about a lame show. it was our third set in 24 hours and we were totally beat. it showed. we played the least rockin' set of the entire tour, probably providing a pretty uninteresting show for everyone in attendance. after we played i loaded off the stage and then went back down the street to a little coffeeshop that had computers for emailing. i caught up on most of my email and had a mocha. it was relaxing, i guess. then i went back down to the club and thoroughly enjoyed q and not u's set. those guys are fucking awesome. i really dig the new shit.

then we went back to ben's for precious sleep and then a day off in new york. the next day we drove down to ground zero. it's scary how big that hole is. i haven't been in the city since all the "stuff" happened, so i was really stunned by the magnitude. we ended up heading into chinatown to eat at house of vegetarian and then back to ben's for laundry and more precious sleep.

highlights of nyc: jersey girl and the chinese ice cream place

[setlist]

the first part of a brief summation of my two weeks of tour with kilowatthours. this covers the east coast portion, which was roughly the first week…

4/26 louisville, ky @ rudyard kipling's
the home show. this was the one i was most worried about, considering i was playing my first show with the band in front of a ton of people i know. it ended up going really well and everyone seemed to be into it, which was awesome. we all went back to my house and crashed out and then left early in the morning for…

4/27 greensboro, nc @ guilford college
the first out of town show ended up being at this tiny college kinda in the middle of nowhere. the exit that we got off on had the best landmark in the world: an exotic carwash. we were going to get the van washed by a bunch of topless girls, but then we found out that it cost $40 and they didn't let you stay in the car when they washed it. needless to say, we called it a giant ripoff and left.

the show ended up going really well. we finished our set in time to grab some beer and head into winston-salem to see trans am. they rocked the house with two drummers and seriously kicked our tour right in the pants.

after the show we went to stay at our new friend greg's place. as we were backing into the driveway, dan ran the van straight into the side of greg's house,, getting the van stuck until he gunned it loose, tearing off a two foot square section from the chimney. greg was standing there with his dog on a leash and a beer in his hand, assuring us that it was no big deal.

first out of town night and i got no sleep. dan was snoring, so i clapped my hands a couple of times to make him stop. this ended up screwing me because this caused greg's dog to come scrambling in from the other room to jump on me and try to eat my ear. i would have been better off in the van.

highlights of the evening: the beer igloo and "three rivers"

4/28 washington, dc @ black cat and 4/29 arlington, va @ galaxy hut
one of the worst shows of the tour, but nothing beats the dc eats. we rolled into town and headed over to trevor's house and then straight to ben's chili bowl. this place has some of the world's best vegetarian chili and an amazing veggie burger. i highly recommend it to everyone.

apparently on the way into town we just missed getting plowed by a tornado. we didn't know this until we were settled in at trevor's, watching some tv.

we headed over to the black cat and didn't get to soundcheck, yet the opening band sat in there, running through half their set. they even took the big dressing room. that's what we get for showing up for load-in on time. thanks a lot, jackasses. they didn't even stick around to watch our set.

which was for the better. the small room at the black cat is basically a painted cinderblock bunker. the bas hit the walls and rolled off and beat the shit out of us on stage. we couldn't hear anything except a deafening, muddy wail. the people that did stick arround said it sounded fine for the audience, but i'm not buying that one…

we stayed the night at trevor's and then spent the entire next day driving around dc, looking at lots of landmarks and museums and other things of historical signifigance.

then we drove a whopping 20 minutes to arlington and played in a place that is smaller than my bedroom. thanks to tiara for making it all worth the time.

then we stayed at trevor's again.

highlights of the days spent in the dc area: juliet, ben's chili bowl, and meeting james.

4/30 boston, ma @ middle east
arguably the best show of the whole tour, boston is still one of my favorite cities on the east coast. we rolled into town and went straight to the middle east for load-in and soundcheck. we got an awesome half price dinner served to us by an amazingly hot waitress who ben and i steadily hit on for the rest of the night.

the first band was laughably bad, so i won't be mentioning their name. they closed their show with a cover of the pixies song "gigantic." keep in mind we're in boston, home of the pixies. let's also not forget that the song iss about a black man's huge penis. this chunky white woman with horrible stage "moves" and her awful off-time tamborine…she had no clue why we were laughing so hard.

we hit the stage and right when we were about to start, chris blew two of his four power tubes on his amp. a minor panic ensued, which was quickly resolved by one of the guyss from the headlining band letting us borrow his amp that was pretty much exactly what chris was using anyway.

with the technical difficulty out of the way, we proceeded to blow the roof off the place, closing with dancers and acrobats and turning the end into a wailing rock orgy. chris fell down and a d box almost went straight up his ass. the rock must go on.

we stayed at the hot waitresses house, but had to leave first thing in the morning for a live performance on mit's radio station. that went well, except that chris had to play through a sansamp because we weren't able to find an open music store that early in the morning in order to buy new tubes for chris's amp. we did, however, snatch a cool wooden lighthouse from a pile of wierd debris in a back hallway of the radio station.

highlights of the evening: charlie bravo and hearing about the birth of anya

[setlist]

5/1 new york, ny @ brownie's
more on this one when i can flush my mind of how bad i felt we played.

sitting in an internet caf? in the village in nyc. like andrew wk…i, too, love new york city.

in brief: worst show of tour successfully played. mass quantities of beer successfully consumed. more thorough report tomorrow when we have a day off.