Rabbits Full of Magic

Billy finally found a charger for his laptop, so I retrieved and have UPLOADED the missing 3 days of photos from the Back Pockets summer 2010 tour. It's from NYC, CT, MA, and RI.

Labels: back pockets tour

We lost the charger to the laptop during the tour, hence the halted continuous tour blogging. I'll write here what i can remember from where I previously left off, which I believe was somewhere in Ann Arbor...



After Michigan we drove up to Athens, Ohio, which is a big college town in a nice, hilly city. As soon as we arrived we saw a thrift store and pulled over, delighted to see that only seconds earlier the other car had arrived at the same thrift store! These kind of synchronized events happened quite often on this trip. Two cars driving for 6 hours or so arriving at the same spontaneous destination within seconds of each other!



Athens was great; they had a late-night hot dog stand and a coffee shop filled with board games and beautiful college babes. We played our first show of the tour at a bar (Casa Cantina) and it was a huge success! By now I was feeling partied out so spent most of the time reading Cosmic Trigger Vol. 1 by Robert Anton Wilson, which I had found in Chicago for 50 cents. He discusses the Sirius star system and investigates whether or not the highest occult secrets have to do with ancient knowledge of being visited by beings from the system in mankind's earliest days. He points to the famous example of the Dogon tribe, Egyptian astrological and animist symbolism, Crowleyan magick ceremonies, and psychedelic deities. At one point he says that Mr. Spock of TV's Star Trek is actually a pop incarnation of the peyote trickster god described by Carlos Castaneda in The Teachings of Don Juan.



Back to reality, we drove the next day to Philadelphia and played at Castle Gay, which is a house lived in by Hermit Thrushes, a band that played a house show in Atlanta set up by us a few months ago. The Carnivores were in town so they stopped by to see us and party, and play me their wonderful new forthcoming CD. Andrew WK was DJing down the street and Butch Walker was playing elsewhere. They knew someone in the band so we ended up hanging out with that crew which was great fun (until the morning came!). Luckily the next day's show was in NYC so we drove in and immediately found some greasy, delicious pizza to get us feeling good again!



In between arriving and playing at The Party Expo we walked around Brooklyn and I found a giant keyboard being thrown away, so I took it. It ended up being inoperative so I gave it to Henry, who promptly smashed it during our chaotic show-closing performance of "Leave Me Alone". Everyone was in their underwear and we were all painted with body paint. We got to see the Carnivores play as well! It was really so great to be back in NYC, every time I go I have a terrific time! The next day we made the beautiful drive out to New Haven, Connecticut to play a fun fun fun show at Cafe 9 and then the day after that made the beautiful drive back to NYC to play at Glasslands. Unfortunately that show was early (we went on at 8.30) so it was only seen by a handful of people and we were completely stiffed out of any and all money. The good news was that everyone got to spend another day in NYC, so we ended up laying around in the park on a beautiful early summer afternoon, having Bloody Mary's, partying with my old roommate Alex, checking out his rad, trippy art, watching Three Stooges at 3am with a room full of silly people and a cat named Mister. If it weren't so damn expensive I would live in NYC.



...to be continued...

as always, check out the growing Back Pockets Tour 2k10 flickr photo album

Labels: back pockets tour

On TOOOOOUUUUURRRRR

Labels: back pockets tour

Almost the entire Back Pockets tour crew circa Chicago


Outside the Chicago Theater, where Martin Lawrence was performing. We saw Vince Vaughn walking around!

There is another deluge of photos from the Back Pockets 2010 tour on my flickr site. We played at the Ottoman Empire in Chicago and it was a wonderful show at an awesome place hosted by the awesome Christine and Aaron (and everyone else who lives there who im sorry i can't remember your names!!). The next day we took it easy and GRL PRTY played a great set with some phat fucking beats and smooth harmonies at Roxaboxen gallery, where we also slept on the floor. We woke up at 5am to drive six hours to the next place!


GRL PRTY in Roxaboxen

Then in Detroit we went to the Detroit Folk Festival, which was held in this gorgeous giant Victorian mansion called TRUMBULL PLEX with the most wonderful 60s wallpapers I have ever seen, and tons of Detroit-area hippies, hipsters, garden freaks, folk artists, and all around BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. There were little kids drawing pictures of banjos and selling them to us. They had a piano so we performed a special version of "My Demise" with me on piano instead of bass. We may do that in the future...


Trumbull Plex folk festival in Detroit

In Ann Arbor, we stayed at a nice apartment just walking distance from a park, a garden, and a river! This day the Back Pockets tour felt like it had just the right energy balance between "TOURING DIY ROCK BAND CRAZINESS" and "CHILL FUCKING AMERICAN EARLY SUMMER VACATION".



Anyways, again my flickr page has lots of photos from everything so far...

Download the Back Pockets "Blissters N Basements"

COMING SHOWS
May 17 2010 CASA CANTINA w. samantha cain/rattletrap/the fed athens, oh
May 19 2010 CASTLE GAY PHILLY, Pennsylvan, US
May 20 2010 PARTY EXPO w sunglasses/carnivores brooklyn, New York
May 21 2010 Cafe 9 New Haven, Connecticu, US
May 23 2010 ALL ASIA BAR w. Bunny’s A Swine CAMBRIDGE, Massachuse, US
May 24 2010 Radio Bean Burlington, VT
May 25 2010 RACONTEUR BOOKS METUCHEN, NJ
May 26 2010 NIGHT LIGHT w. Tunnels Under the Citadel CHAPEL HILL, NC

Labels: back pockets tour

The Back Pockets east coast tour is off to a pretty good start! The first day we played a punk house in Lexington, Kentucky, hosted by some really nice kids that live there. A few other acts played. Em accidentally locked the keys in the car so our set was delayed but when we started playing it turned out to be worth the wait! Everyone was dancing in circles. The show was in the attic of this place called Crucial Fun House, and the windows were closed and it got soooo hot, i felt like i was in a sauna! Someone found out that Man Man was playing 5 minutes walking distance away so they went and found Ryan and he came by to watch our show before they played. Unfortunately he missed us but he was nice enough to put the entire crew on the Man Man guestlist so all 13 of us got to go to the show for free! It was pretty wonderful..

A bunch of people got the idea to drive straight to Chicago so we could spend a little more time, so we ended up getting in around 7am. When we got to Indiana we pulled over the car to switch drivers and you could see a zillion stars, it was beautiful! So on day two we walked around Wicker Park and I found a thrift store where i picked up some books for 50 cents a piece! Something really cool looking by Robert Anton Wilson and the autobiography of Timothy Leary! Anyways we stayed at this place called Roxaboxen -- which is where Girl Party is playing tonight -- and went to this house called Ottoman Empire, where our friends Aaron and Christine live.

They are fucking rad kids. We met them last year when they stayed in Atlanta for a week or so. Aaron has The Point DVD (and now we're watching Freaks and Geeks, which I've never seen before and its AMAZING) and a copy of the original The Point LP soundtrack that comes with full color psychedelic comic book. AMAZING! Oh when we got here we had tons of cardboard laying around so we created by hand original set pieces so our show was populated with wild crazy creatures. A whole lot of people showed up, and it was a great time! I'll be honest, I was skeptical of doing a tour with mostly house shows, but people that host house shows are generous, friendly, badass, wonderful people that take care of us and tend to give us great places to stay and use of their kitchens to cook a whole ton of food. Not only is that a healthy way to tour but it's alot cheaper.

Anyways, my flickr page has lots of photos that I will try and keep updating every so often so feel free to check it out and keep up with us!

Download the Back Pockets "Blissters N Basements"

COMING SHOWS
May 15 2010 ROXABOXEN MINI CASTLE *GRL PRTY show! CHICAGO, Illinois
May 16 2010 TRUMBULL PLEX DETROIT, Michigan , US
May 17 2010 CASA CANTINA w. samantha cain/rattletrap/the fed athens, oh
May 19 2010 CASTLE GAY PHILLY, Pennsylvan, US
May 20 2010 PARTY EXPO w sunglasses/carnivores brooklyn, New York
May 21 2010 Cafe 9 New Haven, Connecticu, US
May 23 2010 ALL ASIA BAR w. Bunny’s A Swine CAMBRIDGE, Massachuse, US
May 24 2010 Radio Bean Burlington, VT
May 25 2010 RACONTEUR BOOKS METUCHEN, NJ
May 26 2010 NIGHT LIGHT w. Tunnels Under the Citadel CHAPEL HILL, NC

Labels: back pockets tour