Hey gang,

We are now back home. And, can you believe it, right on the brink of finishing our record. We have a name. Some great artwork. Some totally awesome songs. Now we can start playing again. All the time. Every day. Every hour. Every minute.

We are playing a couple of shows. Melbourne, we’ll be at the Northcote Social Club on the 18th of April. Come along. Sydney, we’re headlining the Essential Festival on the 25th at the OAF. It will be great. We are planning some rather extreme props. And some rather extreme fun.

We’re really excited about getting out and playing again. We haven’t been to Melbourne for way over a year. So we’re pumped to get back there. If you can, please come along and check out our new material.

In other news-

Two and a half men always has one joke in it that is funny. Thus making it bearable to watch. Unlike Everybody Loves Raymond.

Well, I can safely say that the action never stops here in sunny Austin, Texas.

A definite highlight of Day 3 here in Austin would have to be “the bum incident”. David and myself arrived (with all of our gear) at a bus stop about 4 blocks from where we were playing. In this aforementioned bus stop were two homeless dudes. After a couple of minutes it was decided that I would make a run down to the venue to check it out. Which I did. And it hurt. On my way back I noticed Dave Rennick walking towards me. Next to him was one of the homeless guys carrying all of Ned’s stuff (which honestly weighs over 50 kilograms). When I returned to the bus stop the other homeless guy was sitting there watching our stuff. It was awesome. And thanks to their help we made it to our show just in time…

Thus the Austin Tourism Board’s new slogan, “Austin. Come for the music but stay for the bums”.

We played a show that was a little sketchy. But still good fun.

Then we drank lots of beer.

And the following things happened.

All of us (including Matt from the Red Rider’s) got into the NME show by pretending to be a band playing. That was funny. Then we met some charming young ladies. One of them told me she hated my name because she had a bad break up with a guy called Alex. She saw no issues with the logic surrounding this hatred. Another girl made me sing Phil Collins to her while she danced in the middle of a packed bar. Then she kissed my Phil Collin’s t-shirt and my cheek and stated, “i’m not coming onto you. I have a boyfriend in Chicago”. Then she went back to the bar to see which dudes would buy her a drink. Lovely young lady. We also saw the Future of the Left (who seemed a little angry), Cut off Your Hands (who were great) and some other band (yep).

Anyway, this bar started to get a bit wierd. So Ned and I decided to go and see Metallica. Our label mates (the Silversun Pickups) were doing the support so we figured talking our way in may be an option. Nope. Not a chance. There was literally 2000 people standing outside Stubb’s (which is an outdoor venue) listening to them play. Some people were even head-banging. We heard Master of Puppets from the street. It was radical.

It was then off to the Radio Room to see White Denim and Cursive and some super angry English kids. They were pretty funny. Kind of like a mix between emo and Evanesence. Seemed like the sort of band who would say the Dillinger Escape Plan and Metallica are their biggest influences. Good on them. It is hard to take a post-hardcore emo band seriously when they are 21 and have English accents. Cursive sounded terrible. We did enjoy some HUGE cans of Foster’s however. And also established that Cursive didn’t start emo.

It also has to be noted that Tom Wallace from the Rider’s met Steven Spielberg at the Playboy Party last night. Apparently he went up and asked, “Me and my friend’s think you might be Steven Spielberg. Are you?”. He politely replied “yes”. Dave also met to Playboy bunnies at this party. They were twins. Stay posted for the pictures. In New Idea.

Party on.

Hey dudes,

Well, shit has gotten crazy. I am in bed in my undies, Dave is at the Playboy party, Tim is recovering from a “night on the sauce” with his friends from the Grates and his new friend from Grizzly Bear, Eddy is sleeping after a night with special guests Dinosaur Jr at a party and Allan is skyping his girlfriend. We know how to live….

This place has gotten mad. We have now played two shows and both have been totally sick. We played the Sounds Australia gig at 12.30 this morning. It is a wonderful time to be alive. We had breakfast burritos. And coffee. I’m guessing I don’t need to explain what happens to the human body when these are combined on an empty stomach. But considering some of the music we saw today, it seems a number of bands have enjoyed the process. And written songs about it.

Anyway. Wicked bands. Here we go.

Akron/Family - my fucking god. These guys were absolutely mind blowing. We were trying to work out what we think they are like on the way home. And decided they are kind of like a 60’s psych band which has been modernised. The show ended with the bass player screaming into a mike and jumping into the crowd while the guitarist soloed. It was AWESOME.

Glasvegas - Seems pretty good. The singer reminded me of Springsteen. In a good way. And they all wore jackets on a 30 degree day.

Trail of the Dead - COME ON! Awesome. I was quite surprised by how totally radical they were.

Dinosaur Jr - Radical.

Passion Pit - “cool” says Tim.

Women - nice. Really really nice…..

More tomorrow.

I hope.

Hello people of the internet - we have now been away from home for 4 days. Throughout this period we have played 2 shows and haven’t gone to bed before 5am. Yes, we are PARTYING. Look out David Hasselhoff after 40 beers. You have some competition….

The shows we have played have been rather enjoyable. And successful considering we have an entirely new set-up. This includes a computer. Which is internet accessible. If we want. Yep.

Los Angeles hasn’t changed too much. There are still lots of cars. And thick haze. And heaps of eco-friendly Toyota’s. And fast food. We treated Allan to his first In  ‘n Out Burger today. We all enjoyed a double double animal style. It was kind of delicious. I love food that instantly seeks out your heart and sticks to it like glue….

We went to a great party at our friend’s house on Friday night. It ended in a human pyramid with Al and Tom from the Red Rider’s, myself, Eddy, Allan’s brother Chris, Allan, our friend Ben and Tim. It was awesome. I should get the photo’s. It was awesome. Oh, and there was a cat on the top….

Tomorrow we make our way to Texas. I’ll blog every day and tell you what we have seen. Most of it will be confronting. But that’s the way you like it.