1 am, Thursday August 19th, 2004.

so we just left great falls, MT and a 50ís style diner with nacho cheese fries and 20 kids in the fluorescence of a thrift store basement and a set from old shoes and pants. we have a mascot. his name is Jack Trimble and he is 20 years, he is a teddy bear. contrary to what you might hear from labby or t-dogg, the name for our tour is horseshit. not “the horseshit tour” or “summer tour horseshit,” just horseshit. and you have to say it right, with a certain guttural, old man cranky sass. i keep spilling things. a lot of things. we have played two shows so far, both set up by tyson ballew. the first was last night in missoula at an art gallery called area five. victor, the absent owner who is often accused of persistent flakiness, has been letting kids have shows there often. which is kick ass. it was like a cleaner, bigger show-off gallery. with art. i would kill to have a space like that. we listened to transatlanticism today and i was reminded of cardinals tour last summer around this time and falling in love with that album and back in love with you. what a year. i mean really. sets so far:

KUGS: blue-purple failure, journal, a framing, all is sun.

MS, MT: eulogy, blue-purple failure, bow interrupted, olive, way things are here, a framing, all is sun.

GF, MT: bow (interrupted), blue-purple failure, the leash, way things are here, olive, A Framing, all is sun (edit), eulogy.

those are estimates. i begin with the improv-ing eulogy in missoula because it turned out to be a positive song about getting past past pains and plagues and it continues to have the line “and yeah colorado hurt, but so does every other place you’ll go.” it was the last song we recorded when i was down with bob in oly last week. it was a three chord riff i came up while we were sound checking and then at the end of the day we had an extra hour and i suggest we try the riff and i would improv lyrics. we wound up doing two takes and decided to keep them both. so the new album (called where tomorrow lets us breathe, currently being assembled and designed from out here on the road) ends with this song. in between the takes is 15 minutes of delay and feedback (all ambient style) created by bob…. all the seats in this van make my back hurt. we made five too many extra top ramens last night and by morning they had turned into a medusa monster of noodle glory. we are aiming to hit the twin cities by suppertime. spend the night there with my grandma, consider giving Jack back to Adria and then head out to chicago in the morning. i forgot how much driving, my four hour shift from spokane to missoula was the first driving i have done in 7 months. we are having fun. this was a great way to start the tour out.

-mattfu

travel log stardate 020041908

goldstar the journey is the destination tour [horshit]

patron saint jack tripple. fields of sunflowers. listening to friends songs driving further and further from home. driving hours through the mountains at night and seeing only one car. a wolf, deer, a giant bat, and hawks swirling the sky playing in the wind. lack of sleep. delirium. green tea and laughing so hard my stomach hurts. cory, jake, and the kids of great falls, monatana. our very own traveling radio station. Area 5 attic paradise in missoula, montana, with stenciled wall paper patterns on pink walls. the wind in the grass like waves. the dry air. ranch settlements in the valleys of the plains. sleeping in the van in a rainstorm. almost there…. minni, minn

-labbypants

on the road to the twin cities after the show tonight in great falls. the crowd was amazingly young and receptive, i had a great time. we’re listening to pedro the lion right now, and i’m kicking myself for not having brought achilles heel with me, and i’m embarrassed at how much i can’t stop talking about how great it is. last week (was that last week?) i was driving back south from northern california and listened to it a few times in addition to a new favorite that i’m digging a lot that i didn’t realize i would dig, the long winters when i pretend to fall. good shit.

the great falls officemax was a fucking gold mine, though, what with the treasures that it’s given us, including what’s enabling this post right now, a dc/ac converter that lets me plug my computer in, and also enabling the pedro the lion coming through goldie’s speakers. something was missing from the drive yesterday, and it certainly was not the prog rock rush was providing on the local eastern washington radio stations.

we traded a 7″ for a mug because matt left his in the freight elevator. old shoes was awesome tonight, and played a really rad song that once i get around to it, will show up here and i might work on a cover. that is all. over and out.

-me
2:13 a.m. thursday

i wrote this in the car yesterday: we got out of seattle this morning around 10, right now we’re in the car on i-90 on our way to montana. last night’s show was all right, i was too nervous to enjoy my rancho burrito before the radio show. after the show we had to help matt clean his room out, and we didn’t get back into kirkland until about 130, and we stayed up until 4 to get my cds finished, which look great, by the way, thanks to rick for the design and alison for all the cutting and pasting and burning work. you can buy one soon, i promise. 8 songs cheap, 5 bucks.

today, i’m sitting in the raven coffeehouse in missoula. the show last night was a lot better than the radio show, and i even got a drunk guy to compliment the songs. i didn’t sell anything, but so it goes. the place we played at had a bunch of kittens wandering around, and as soon as i get around to it, i’ll have a picture of the cute little bastards up here. old shoes was great, and some guy named scott channeled the spirit of elliott smith, too.

we’re waiting around until we go to great falls, where apparently they don’t have any fred meyers, but they do have radio shacks. i need to buy a bigger memory card for my camera (which i will pay you back for soon, owl)!

last night there was a big thunder storm passing through the area, it was amazing and loud and flashy. we slept on the floor of a house with one of the most disgusting bathrooms i’ve ever seen. but i’m not complaining.

a few more shows have been confirmed and details are slowly coming, keep checking the masa site for the dates and details.

i went to bed at about 230 last night because i took a ton of time setting up the 8-track and the mixer and everything, woke up at 8 to get started recording. replaced drum heads, but the music store around here has awful hours, so i wasted a good portion of time waiting for them to open so i could give them my money for drum heads and mic stands. got home and spent three hours or so tuning drums, and i still think they sound like crap. how the hell are you supposed to tune drums? it’s frickin’ hard.

i’m laying down tracks tomorrow, FOR SURE. i lost some bucks playing texas hold ‘em. i’m gonna get back though. here’s ALL the g.i. joe PSAs, i think. even quite a few that i’ve never seen.