Date: 9-30-04
Climate: last days of summer
xbox: crimson skies
Reading: wraparound (photo magazine)
Watching: FUSE
Listening to: Catherine wheel; CRANK. Pink floyd echoes. Prosaics, the streets; dry your eyes,radiohead; blackstar
Eating: panda express
Drinking: Slivovitz
HOME FROM TOUR and realizing that I haven’t posted in more than 3 weeks. A thousand apologies. As predicted, we’ve been hermits in garret’s basement.. no sun or air, working on new material. Occasionally surfacing as we did for our good friend mat skagg’s traditional Serbian wedding (where we all scored points with the bride’s father by drinking obscene amounts of his face-melting homemade plum brandy moonshine)
We emerged again a few days later to play a massive homecoming show at metro.. It sold out far in advance so we were stoked.. felt great to be back on the same stage where we played some of our first shows so many years ago. –we dredged up some ancient KH tracks, like ‘agent orange skies’ and debuted a new one; “black poison blood”.
The following night we joined billy corgan and rick nielson on stage for a benefit performing ‘Heaven Tonight’ by Cheap Trick.. a brilliant, tripped-out song.
Then we left for our short 6-show trip to the northeast.
Sometimes tour can be very humbling. In Philly we arrived early to discover that the small theatre where we were set to play that night also doubles as a local $2 movie house.
“Hey jonny, guess who’s playing here next Wednesday?”
“I don’t know… Franz Ferdinand?”
“Nope. Ghostbusters.”
I got bummed out imagining the conversation between our booking agent and the venue: “Hmmm.. The Kill Hannahs, huh? I think we can squeeze them in on Friday between Krull and Howard the Duck.“
-Turns out the show was out of control. –a small but gorgeous room, dilapidated, antiquated, Victorian, cabaret, peeling lead paint, red curtain, pillars…and the kids got mental.. even stopped the show to allow a fan to make a wedding proposal.
-played cool shows in NYC and Brooklyn after which we spent time with some good friends. Our last stop was with ultragrrrl at a bar called HiFi which was a little surreal because within a radius of 10ft stood talking ryan adams, Melissa aufdemar, james iha, the strokes, idlewild and others.. a Spin magazine spread come to life. A brawl may have gotten us some publicity, but the thought was only entertained for a second.
Afterwards genius lead singer decided to sleep in the bus in the parking lot of the hotel. Last thing I remember it was 6am and I was trying unsuccessfully to kick my boots off, next thing I know its high noon, sweating through my clothes, direct sunlight is toasting my forehead and the van smells like a Turkish street market.
Our DJ set at the MisShapes party in Greenwich village was a blast.. it went something like: personal jesus, the streets, new order; regret, ned’s; grey cell green, the smiths ASK, mr. brightside, the cure; a Forest, fisherspooner; the 15th remix, enjoy the silence, dancing with myself, the faint; I disappear.
After a cool show in Boston, we endured major sleep deprivation to get to Pittsburgh on time… -driving after the show til 4am then starting again at 8. but it was worth it… a solid line of fans when we arrived for load in, and a very cool show to mark the end of the mini-tour.
The weather here in Chicago is getting colder, which has me confilicted. I have a view of the harbor where hundreds of ships are moored. I read something once that described how white masts at night appear to “sway back and forth pointing randomly at the stars.” and I always get depressed when they’re taken out of the lake. But at the same time, it means we can start layering our clothes again,..
Was Alf afraid of cats or did he eat cats? Either way that rules.
My television is dead, so this morning I finally got around to reading 2 poems recommended by my friend Stephen Chbosky; “The Drunken Boat” by Rimbaud and “Howl” by Ginsberg. -very different stylistically, but both vivid and passionate. –probably written under the influence of strong narcotics, they share themes of madness and intense apreciation for beauty in the world, and seem to convey the message that an artistic life is worth the suffering. Good fodder as we disappear back into the cellar to work on the next batch of songs.
Ps:
I went to the gym for exercise last night because I believe that every man should be able to either fight well, or run fast as hell, and at this point I can do neither. I started on the treadmill and immediately regretted the decision. Within 3 minutes I think I had a small stroke, so I decided to go out for a drink. There’s a place I can go where my drinks are complimentary. The only problem is that once you accept the first free drink, then it’s very impolite to turn one down ever again. -Doesn’t sound like much of an issue, right? but I happen to be friends with one of the worst bartenders in the nation, so now I’m obliged to ingest whateverthefuck she designs, whenever. This last shot looked cloudy and pink and tasted surprisingly bearable at first, -like bitter, mealy, suntan lotion. –but that was before I exhaled:
“This is disgusting. How could you have possibly combined the elements you have behind that bar to create a shot that tastes like… like… blue cheese?”
“Screw you, Mat. It’s free. How can you be so ungrateful?”
“Ungrateful? Your shots taste like coconuts and cheese. I should’ve stayed at the gym”