Mr. Blue Sky!

Happy summer everyone!

We have been quiet the past few weeks, but it’s only because we’ve been doing some behind the scenes work getting ready for a bunch of regional dates in August, September, and beyond. Beyond that, we’re still working hard demoing for the new record, but I’m getting ahead of myself . . .

First of all, if you didn’t notice yet, we’re playing tomorrow, July 10th, at the Cabooze for the Harley Davidson Tour featuring The Crave. We have free tickets for anyone who wants to come have a fantastic time, so call us, write us, bump into us outside the venue – whatever works! Every ticket we give away counts as cash in our pockets, so please help us out! Also, we’ll be on KSTP (the local Minneapolis ABC affiliate) tomorrow at 3 p.m. for Twin Cities Live – be sure to watch it and tell everyone you know!

Secondly, as far as big news goes, we’re playing Basilica Block Party this Saturday, opening the main stage for Gavin Rossdale and Missy Higgins! It’s going to be an amazing time and the crowd will be wild, so come be a part of it.

If that’s not enough for you, we’re also being featured on NYC’s Fearless Network Television, which is broadcast all over the U.S. on various stations. A complete list follows the blog, so find your hometown and check it out! It usually airs very, very early Sunday morning (so late Saturday night, more or less). You can check it out the next day on www.fearless.tv, so check it out there sometime on Sunday!

Also, a big reminder to you all for our July 18th show at the Varsity Theater w/ The Effects (Minneapolis CD Release Party), Solid Gold, and Pictures of Then. It’s an 18+ show, doors at 8, music at 9 . . . be there! It’s going to be a fantastic show, and if you haven’t gotten to see any of the other bands play yet, you’re really missing out. It will be a stellar party and a great celebration of the halfway point of summer, not to mention the Effects’ new CD, so come have a ball.

Lastly, I thought this was quite touching. It’s a pretty amazing story so if you have some free time look into it a bit!



Alright, that does it for now. Hope to see everyone out and about at these next few shows, and keep checking the MySpace dates for more and more new regional dates that should be rolling in weekly! We’ll talk soon . . . .

- Joe

Fearless TV Affiliates:

New York, NY WNYW FOX Saturday Night 12:30am
Los Angeles, CA KHIZ Saturday Night 3:00am
Detroit, MI WJBK FOX (Starting Sept. ’08) Sunday Night 1am
Duluth, MN WDIO-ABC Saturday Night 1am
Portland, OR KPDX Saturday Night 11:30pm
Cincinnati, OH WOTH Saturday Night 11:30pm
Grand Rapids, WOOD MI NBC Saturday Night 1am
Norfolk, VA WSKY Friday Night 3am
Las Vegas, NV KVMY MNTV Sunday Night 12am
Jacksonville, FL WTLV NBC Saturday Night 2:30am
Albany, NY WNYA Saturday Night 1am
Mobile, AL WPMI NBC Saturday Night 1am
Honolulu, HI KHON FOX Saturday Night 3:30am
Springfield, MO KYTV NBC Saturday Night 2am
Jackson, MS WDBD WB Saturday Night 1am
Davenport, IA WBQD MNTV Saturday Night 12am
Baton Rouge, LA WGMB FOX Saturday Night 11:30pm
El Paso, TX KVIA Saturday Night 1:30am
Fort Wayne, IN WFFT FOX Saturday Night 4am
Tyler-Longview KFXK – FOX 51 Saturday Night 1am
Longview, TX KFXK FOX Sunday Night 12am
Peoria, IL WAOE Saturday Night 11pm
Fargo, ND KVLY NBC Saturday Night 3:30am
Boise, ID KIVI ABC Saturday Night 10:35pm
Eau Claire, WI WEAU NBC Saturday Night 1am
Atlantic City, NJ WMGM NBC Sunday Night 1:00am
La Crosse-Eau Claire WEAU-NBC Saturday Night 1am
Rockford, IL WTVO-ABC Saturday Night 1am
Columbia, MO KZOU MNTV Sunday Night 11pm
Anchorage, AK KTUU NBC Saturday Night 12:30am
Binghamton, NY WBPN MNTV Saturday Night 1am
Yuma, AZ KECY FOX (also running on ABC DT) Saturday Night 1:30am
Jackson, TN WBBJ ABC Friday Night 1:30am
Meridian, MS WMDN CBS Friday Night 1:30am, Sat. 1am
Charlottesville, VA WAHU FOX Saturday Night 11pm
Morgan City, LA KWBJ Saturday Night 10:30pm, Thurs. 11p
Twin Falls, ID KSAW ABC Saturday Night 10:35pm
Fairbanks, AK KFXF FOX Saturday Night 12:30am
Juneau, AK KATH NBC Saturday Night 12:30pm, Sun. 3:00pm
Omaha, NE WOWT-DT Saturday Night 1am
South Bend, IN WSBT-DT Sunday Night 5:30pm
Youngstown, OH WYTV –DT MNTV Saturday Night 2:30am
Panama City, FL WJHG-DT MNTV Saturday Night 11:30pm
Flint – Saginaw-Bay City WNEM-DT MNTV Saturday Night 1am
Washington DC Local Point TV WJLA Short Form Programming
(The Episode runs every 3 hours)

America One Television Affiliates
(Over-the-Air Broadcast)
FMTV Will Air Tuesdays and Friday Nights at 1am



Memphis,TN WBXP
Southampton, NY WVVH
State College, PA WHVL
Johnstown, PA WHVL
Fresno, CA KJEO
Milwaukee, WI WMKE
Jackson, MS WBXK
Baton Rouge, LA KPBN
West Warwick, RI Cox Sports New England
Plano, IL WSPY
Hammonton, NJ WPSJ
Des Moines, IA KDMI DT
St. Augustine, FL WQXT
Gallup, NM KIAZ
Albuquerque, NM KIAZ
Savannah, GA WXSX
Montgomery, AL WBXM
San Luis Obispo, CA KKJ
North Charleston, SC WJNI
Charleston, SC WJNI
Des Moines, IA WBXF
Omaha, NE KKAZ
Athens, AL WTZT
Boise, ID WBEK
El Paso, TX KDBC DT
Bucyrus, OH WBKA
Muskegon, MI WMKG
Bakersfield, CA KBBV
Portland, OR KORK
Kingsport, TN WKPT DT
Flint, MI WHNE
Clarksville, TN WCKV
Findlay, OH WFND
Boone, NC WLNN
Stillwater, OK KWEM
Victorville, CA Odyssey TV
Canton, OH WIVM
Sioux City, IA KPTH DT
Augusta, GA WBEK
Salem, OR KWVT
East Bernstadt, KY WOBZ
Orlando, FL WRCF
New Orleans, LA WSTY
Martin, KY W32CX
Charleston, VA W32CX
Shreveport, TX K20HL
Huntsville, AL WBCF
Bristol, VA WKPT
Union City, TN WOBT
Paducah, KY WUWT
Denver, CO KUPN
Perry, FL WSFD
Grove, OK KELF
Lewiston, ID KIDQ
Spokane, WA KIDQ
Traverse City, MI
Shreveport, LA KTEV
Bend, OR K48BL
Jasper, IN WJTS
Phoenix, AZ KCFG
Erie, PA Image Channel
Joplin, MO KGCS
Pahrump, NV WHMP
Logan, UT KUTA
Coeur d Alene, ID KTYJ
Spokane, WA KTYJ
Twin Falls, ID KBAX
San Francisco, CA K33CH
Liberal, KS KLKT
Martinsville, IN WREP
Hornell, NY PEISH TV
Phoenix, AZ KXAX
Ponca City, OK KGBN
Elizabeth City, NC W18BB
Yuma, AZ K23BJ
Marshalltown, IA KDAO
Wichita, KS KLKT
Lake Havasu City, AZ K23BJ
Rockford, IL WMKB
Eureka, CA KEAZ
Denver, CO KCXP
Aspen, CO KCXP
Rockford, IL WCRD
Cleveland, MS WHCQ
Shreveport, LA NSU 22
Denver, CO KENY
Clarksdale, MS WPRQ
Rockford, IL WRDH
Denver, CO K27FA
Bainbridge, GA WMGR
Harrogate, TN LMU TV
Nashville, TN CPWS
Rockford, IL WBKM
Greenville, TX GEUS
Phoenix, AZ KVSW
Winslow, AZ KVSW
Webb, MS WEBU
Denver, CO K48BK
Billings, MT KQHD
Phoenix, AZ KNJO
Terre Haute, IN WHFE
Albany, NY Princetown Cable
Jackson, MS Trust Cable
Terre Haute, IN WVGO
Lubbock, TX NTS Comm

There's a Starman . . .

Hello friends, family, and fans --

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who came out to our show on Saturday night w/ Mercurial Rage, The Mood Swings, and the Alarmists. We love to support our friends, and in this case we were very happy and excited to help our Merc Rage buddies get their fantastic new record out in a grand celebration. If you have any awesome pictures from the show, feel free to send them our way or post them in the “fan picture section” of our Facebook page.

Secondly, we just got written up by NPR and they were more than complimentary about us! Read the article HERE and let us know what you think! You can also download Charlatan from the same page, so feel free to do so and tell everyone you know . . .

July is going to be a fun month for us as well – we’ve added dates for Summerfest, the Harley Davidson Rally, Basillica Block Party, and a very special show in town at the Varsity with our good buddies The Effects! We’re going to be doing some heavy promotion for the Varsity show, so if you’d like to help at all get in touch with us and we’ll help you on your way.

There are going to be comp tickets for the Harley show, too, and we’ll be holding a couple events so that people who actually want the tickets can come get them from us personally. The plans are in the works right now and we’ll update you on dates and times as we come up with them.

Oh, and we’re finally going to put in the time and try to get a new song done for the Varsity date with the Effects, and this time we actually mean it. We’ve been rehearsing so it should be ready in time . . . after all, with the 15 some new songs we have in the works, we should be able to share at least one, right?

Lastly, in my new blog tradition, here’s a little goodie I found the other day whilst browsing. If anyone makes it out to Germany or hears of anything like this waterslide here in America, let us know because I want to ride one ASAP. It looks, well, amazing.



Until next time, cheers!

Never Gonna Give You Up, Never Gonna Let You Down . . .

Hey everyone!

So, it’s been an exciting week! We’ve got some secret news about an exciting opportunity that we can’t just share with you yet, but in the next coming months we might get to be part of a really moving event . . . stay attentive!

OK, so after that big teaser, here’s some more concrete information:

First of all, please tell everyone you know in Minneapolis/St. Paul and the surrounding area about our show at the Fineline this Saturday, June 7th, for Mercurial Rage’s CD release party w/ the Alarmists and the Mood Swings. The show starts about 9:15, so any of you worried about not being able to make it due to the Chris Koza CD Release and This World Fair farewell show will have enough time to scoot on down to the Fineline for a full night of Minneapolis music!

Secondly, be sure to vote for us to play Lollapalooza at Sonicbids and encourage everyone you know to do the same! Click HERE to cast your vote!

Lastly, in WLR news, here’s our newest video blog detailing our latest trip to NYC and Philadelphia, featuring Daniel trying to do some trick pool shots.




Oh, and for a couple goodies, check out this LINK detailing a scientist’s new theory about optical illusions. He claims our brains anticipate the future when it comes to stationary images that imply motion and adjust the image accordingly . . . very cool and interesting when one considers all the tricks our eyes can play on us.

And check out this crazy video of a kid doing some "contact juggling" . . . I’ve never seen anything quite like it and it’s about as near a legitimate “magic” trick as I think I’ve seen . . . maybe it’s totally fake but I’d like to be a believer!



Until next time, remember to vote at Sonicbids and talk up the Fineline show!!!

All the best!

- Joe

Tiny Hats: Now Open Late!

Salamé!

Well, we’ve recently returned from the East coast and are finally healed and rested from four straight days of 4 a.m. bar close and two 24 hour drives. As such, we’ve got some stories to report and a few treats to share with you all.

First off, though, a bit of news is in order before we hit the stories, as tour recaps get long and in the current age it’s hard to hold someone’s attention for more than about 2 minutes, so if you want the story, continue ahead. Otherwise, here goes some info:

First off, we’re going to be playing Mercurial Rage’s big CD Release Party June 7th at the Fineline in Minneapolis. It’s going to be a fantastic show and you all should be there (if you’re over 18).

Secondly, we just recorded eight new demos (in addition to the first six we’ve already done), so we’ve got some new tunes in the grinder. Don’t expect to hear anything too soon; just know they’re in the works and we’ve got some great new ideas going. Personally I’m very excited about all the songs, and I think the next album’s sound is starting to congeal a bit. It’s a bit darker, more ambient, more experimental, more varied – everything a good sophomore album should be. But perhaps I speak too soon . . .

As far as video blogs go, we should have a new one up by Sunday, so be on the look out for that. There is some amazing footage from NYC – consider yourselves warned.

Lastly, we’re really going to be hitting the net hard with promo as well as scrapping a Midwest tour together, so anything anyone can do to help with some promo would be great. Join the street team, tell your friends, etc. And keep watching for more dates!

Oh, we’ve got Dan’s Philly History Tour up – watch it here:



Before I start, I’d like to bring to your attention something interesting I learned today: If you’ve ever driven on Chicago’s Skyway Tollway or Indiana’s entire toll system, it turns out you’re actually paying Spanish and Japanese investors who’ve leased the roads for some 99 years, not the state governments. I found this to be obnoxious, especially considering the current economic situation, as it seems very unwise to be handing money overseas like that. If that wasn’t enough, here’s a video that outlines an interesting trans-North American highway system . . . again to be owned and controlled by overseas investors. Watch and be amazed:



Alright, on to the tour recap:

I suppose I should preface all of this by saying that, once again, our great friend RyAnhorn joined us on the trip, as well as my little brother Jimmy who you can thank for the Out of Sight and Charlatan videos. We ostensibly chauffeured him out to NYC so he could hitch a ride out to Western MA to work on an organic farm all summer . . . crazy kid. Oh, and there’s a bit of repeat in the middle as Mike already relayed the Cold War Kids story, but the rest is fresh.

Anyhow, we began the daylong trip at about 6:15 p.m. on Friday night. We gathered some supplies, hit the bank, and got on our way. We hadn’t planned on I-394 (our gateway to I-94 and thus East) being closed down, so we had to take a sketchy alternate route that put us about an hour behind schedule. We grabbed Ryan about 7:30 from St. Paul and were finally on our way. Once we hit Wisconsin we realized it was well past dinnertime so we hit up the old standby – Subway. It was not so glorious.

We continued on through Wisconsin watching Seinfeld DVDs (of note: We finally realized we can hook our laptops up to a power converter to keep them charged and then run a 1/8” jack to cassette adapter into the stereo system for a cinema experience that is very adequate. Why we didn’t come up with this sooner I couldn’t tell you, but it makes the slow times more tolerable. Sadly, the VHS kick might be on its way out). Dan and I traded about 1 a.m. and he took the nasty middle of the night shift we all dread.

After a little snack stop for overpriced beef jerky, we continued on through Chicago and Indiana, paying crazy tolls to foreign investors, and enjoying Gary, Indiana’s odor (well, most of us slept, but I’m sure Dan took that scent in deep). Some Tim and Eric Awesome Show! Great Job was a nice treat before bed as Ryan brought the Season 1 DVD, and over the course of the next five days we probably watched each episode about 13 times. That number is not an exaggeration.

Mark took over in the morning times and the rest of us continued to get some restless sleep. About 2:30 we hit up some lunch on one of Ohio’s many scenic tollway stops, and before we knew it, we were in the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside. Pennsylvania is hands down one of the prettiest states to drive through come spring, with western Massachusetts being its only real rival so far. Maybe one day we’ll remember a camera and take some pictures.

We got to Philadelphia about 5:30, loaded in, wandered, and watched Dan expertly park Betty and the Bullet into quite a tight space. Ryan admitted he’d never really been east of Illinois before, so he checked off his third new state of the day. We played a fun set at Dr. Watson’s and took in some pool and Jukebox action (which hilariously came over the main stage PA while the band after us was playing . . . awkward but it all worked out in the end) afterward with our friends Theresa and Heather who were also nice enough to let us party at their place until all hours of the morning. We drove into Jersey for that, so Ryan got state four, and between Bacardi, Guitar Hero, and some bizarre existential discussion, a great night was had. Cheers you two for the place!

Next day we had some greasy breakfast at Cracker Barrell, said good-bye to our Jersey friends, and headed up to NYC. Check off Ryan’s fifth state and our easiest entrance into Manhattan ever (some 35 minutes compared to the 95 last time), and we were in our favorite city. Faced with a free day on Monday and a 4 a.m. bar close, we knew Sunday night would be fantastic.

Jimmy met up with his friends after we settled into Mike’s friend Veda’s place in Brooklyn, so us 21+ers sipped some Carlo Rossi and hit the city. We found a great little blues bar somewhere in the East Village after taking Ryan to Times Square and Central Park (tourists), and watched some tunes and drank some PBR (why people in NYC think PBR is kitschy and awesome is beyond us all). I headed to the next-door bar for some $3 rail deals and discovered what might be the only bar in Manhattan that encourages beer pong playing. Go figure. We made some friends, drank til their 3 a.m. close, and headed back next door for some sketchy dancing and more PBR. I obliviously began dancing with some girl who was there with her boyfriend, but I’ll just say it all worked out in the end. Again, we stayed til the regular 4 a.m. close, and somehow found our way back to the subway to Brooklyn. It was the second of the 5 a.m. bedtime nights, but it didn’t quite take the cake.

Next day we got going (slowly) and called our buddy Ari Herstand who was staying somewhere in Manhattan. Before meeting him we hit up an “all you can eat all you can drink for $30” sushi place, and the night began (this was after we finished up that jug of Carlo. Absolutely delicious . . . right . . .). After some three and a half hours we finally got booted (it was apparently only supposed to last for two hours), and we started handing out fliers and CDs to everyone who walked by to promote our show the next day. We visited our friend Michael to see some GTA4 action then met up with Ari and his friends. Thankfully, the video camera was brought out, Tim and Eric quotes flew and swarmed from our mouths, and everyone else was thoroughly confused. We wandered a few blocks to a Karaoke bar and commandeered the place, singing Minnesota hits like Semisonic’s “Closing Time,” Mark tried to sing the Strokes (he was maybe a little toasty by this point . . . video is coming), and we sang our hearts out for a few hours. After trying to find another bar (like it was necessary) and getting booted from some late night eatery, we miraculously got home again and were ready for some sleep.

Tuesday afternoon was fairly quiet. We got up in time to get ready, watch some Seinfeld, and make the surprisingly long drive from Brooklyn to the Annex in Manhattan. We got some skanky Cantonese food, hung out with our publicist Dayna and the band Mayfield from Australia (super nice guys with very decent tunes to boot), and got ready to rock. The show was a blast and we met some new folks, and though the club was cool it was a bit out of our price range. As such, we headed to a club our friend Zach told us about that served free Newcastle. Naturally, we headed in that direction as free is our price range.

After a bizarre encounter with Kirstin Dunst (our friend Michael lit her cigarette and we all failed to realize it was her until we’d walked a distance too awkward to retrace), we got the last of the Newcastles. The club was a bit trendy/crowded for us, so we headed to Rebel Rebel at Lit Lounge to party with our old pal Joey Nova. Between more drinks, go-go dancers, and some more new friends, we had a great time at Rebel Rebel. The rest of the boys headed back early for some White Castle and High Life, but I stayed out into the wee hours. After making some friends from Taipei in the subway station and getting my head caught in the subway doors, I managed to get back to Brooklyn, only to realize I’d gotten off at the wrong station. I knew where I was, and it wasn’t exactly near my final destination. I had no money and no more rides on my Metro Card, so it was a nice long walk home in Brooklyn at 5 a.m. At some point it turned into an early morning jog (I got impatient), so at least I got some exercise out of the ordeal. Go figure.

Wednesday (our last day) was all about more recovery, more Tim and Eric, and an arduous journey into midtown Manhattan carrying our guitars/pedal boards/and Mark’s cymbals (we carried them all through the subway system and down many blocks . . . it gets tiring lugging all that gear around . . . but again, it was good exercise . . .?). We played a four song set for Fearless TV which should air in the next few months (we’ll let you know where and when for each city later on), met some nice folks, and headed home. The journey home was basically the same as the way out there, but in reverse. The only plus was a stop at our favorite Illinois oasis, Belvidere, and some delicious Taco Bell.

I’ve got to start doing these blogs as they occur so they don’t get so long. Cheers and congratulations if you made it through the whole thing – more power to you!

Until later,

Joe

New York, Philadelphia and How Cold War Kids Unknowingly Ruined A Set

What's up friends-

We are coming to you direct from lovely Brooklyn, NY and holy shit are we having a good time. It's always so good to be back in New York, and everytime we leave with a bit more knowledge of the city than we previously had! We got here yesterday after a long night of partying in Philly and a greasy Cracker Barrell breakfast (not a great mix), but we still made it out on the town last night. We brought our friend Ryan with us, because he's never been out here before so we had to show him Times Square, Central Park, and the other usual tourist attractions, but then we headed to the Lower East Side for a few drinks, which was great, especially when the sun is coming up when you finally make your way home!

Anyway, getting to the Cold War Kids story, we had just played in Philadelphia at Dr. Watson's Pub, which was really fun, and we made some great new friends and fans! We wanted to unwind a bit after our set so we headed into the adjoining pool room and racked up a game. We wanted some familiar tunes to wake us up so I threw some Cold War Kids on the jukebox. Little did I know that the music was also being pumped through the PA in the other room, while the band after was playing!! No wonder we started hearing people yelling in the other room when I started the music. I, of course, slipped into the shadows to avoid detection and luckily I did. But now it's public, so to the Danny Lynch band, I apologize as I'm sure the quiet harmonies you were singing would have sounded better without Hang Me Up To Dry pumping through the same speakers!!

Well, we are off to go promote around SoHo for our show tomorrow at The Annex, which we are really excited to play. We'll catch up with you soon and let you know how everything goes! Until then, it would be fantastic if you could help us out by clicking on the pic below and voting for us!!

Cheers,
Mike

Ringtones and Videos!

Hey everyone!

We've got a little love we'd like to send your way in the form of free stuff. Here's what you gotta' do to get yours. Chug on over to http://www.zude.com/whitelightriot and click on our Fanbase badge to sign up for Zude.

Now you're wondering why we want you to join Zude, eh? Well, once you have a registered account you'll be able to click on the RINGTONES button on our home page and start downloading FREE White Light Riot mobile ringtones! That's it, pretty simple.

If you already registered for a FREE Zude account, sweet! You're one step ahead of the game. For those of you who haven't, get your butts over to http://www.zude.com/whitelightriot.

By the way, once you're there, and you've registered for an account, you can also check out the SXSW videos we recorded by clicking on Live at SXSW Music and check out the AMAZING time we had!

Oh yeah, want to hear something else pretty cool? Well, Myxer.com has selected one of our tunes as the Pick of the Day and it's going to be available on Tuesday, May 13th on the HOMEPAGE! Yep, that's right, if you want the special Ringtone, then head on over to Myxer.com on Tuesday and download it to your mobile phone.

Also, check out this new vid we made for our Charlatan video! Enjoy.

The Warmth of the Spring Sun Brings Us Northeners Out of Hibernation...

Hello friends-
Finally, we no longer fear the winter walks from our houses to our icebox cars. Spring has arrived. And with it, we have been inspired to write a bunch of new tunes that we are working very hard on! Although we haven't gotten much of a chance to really tour our current full length, Atomism, we want to get a head start on the next one. We are going to continue touring this summer and fall as much as we possibly can to get the word out on White Light Riot, and we can still use all of your continued support to do so. But, as we tour, we will slowly work new songs into our sets here and there to show fans the direction we are heading in, and I must say, we are really liking it. We are going to be heading out East for a week soon, starting with a show in Chicago at Subterranean on May 14th, and we would love to see all of our Chicago friends and fans there! We will then be heading to Philadelpia for a night at Doc Watson's, and then back to New York on May 20th, our favorite of places that we've toured thus far. While in New York, we are going to film a live performance for Fearless TV as well as for Yahoo.com, which should both be a blast. We are really excited to get out and play this summer, and if you know or are in bands around the country, we would love to play with you in your neck of the woods. Until then, check out our latest video blog. Cheers!

Mike

Out of Sight and the 80's Style Cougar Workout Video

I don't know why we didn't post this on here before, but if you still haven't seen it, here it is in all it's glory! Hopefully you will find it as funny as we do. If you do, please pass it around to your friends or DIGG it!! Just click on the read more option to view it!

read more | digg story

South By Southwest 2008: Or, All Like It Hot!

Greetings everyone,

So, we’ve recently returned (relatively unscathed) from South by Southwest 2008. We’d heard from most people before we headed out that it will quite possibly be one of the best times of our lives, and, in all honesty, I think it exceed everyone’s expectations.

Day 1 (3.08.08): We headed out on Saturday, March 8th, at about 7:30 p.m. amidst regular old Minneapolis winter weather (a cold, windy, snowy, and icy night), picking up our buddy Ryan Anhorn (our “tour manager,” though he’s really just a great friend and fantastic traveling companion) and heading to the space to load up. Dan took the first driving shift, expertly navigating the icy roads amidst a modest a snow per his usual cool-headed driving demeanor, and took us down I-35 to a destination some 80 miles south of Des Moines, IA. We decided then that it was a good time to stop and catch some sleep, and after comparing three different hotels we settled on a Days Inn. Obviously we’re high rollers.

Day 2 (3.09.08): After a successful night of sleeping, I took over driving duties from Dan and we began a long day of driving at about 11:30 a.m. (which was really 10:30 a.m. thanks to day light savings time . . . a reality we quite forgot and were rudely reminded of by the hotel staff). Twenty minutes into the drive, Mike realized he forgot his favorite pillow, but thankfully we had Ryan’s iPod (affectionately referred to as the RyPod) which has some choice selections (Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” and some killer Steve Miller . . . alright the Astley is a bit of a joke but we started every new leg of the journey with it and danced appropriately – see the impending video blog) to distract him. Between the RyPod and Mark’s and my iPods, we had some two months of music at our disposal, and we rocked accordingly.

We stopped for lunch somewhere in Missouri, and after cruising through Kansas City and Topeka, we couldn’t help but notice that with each successive stop the weather was getting significantly warmer (well, compared to the single digit temperatures in Minneapolis). Once we’d successfully traversed the Kansas Tollway I traded driving with Mark and we continued on into Oklahoma and, ultimately, Texas. We got a lot of reading done and forewent our extensive VHS collection (save “American Beauty;” we just couldn’t avoid Spacey any longer) in favor of some Happy Apple, Steve Miller, Beatles, Caribou, Working for a Nuclear Free City, and some Dostoevsky, Vonnegut, and the perennial band favorite, Harry Potter. Mark got tired at about one a.m.-ish, so we stopped just outside Waco, had our first Whataburgers (pretty awesome, I must say), and caught some Tim and Eric Awesome Show, a quick shower for one or two of us, and some sleep before heading on to Austin.

Day 3 (3.10.08): We got going about 11 a.m. on our third day of travel with Mike taking the last little leg of the journey (something like two hours) to Austin. We’d been set up with a free condo courtesy of a client of Mark and Mike’s father, and she graciously offered to find us a free place to park, as well. The condo was magnificent: clean, orderly, and vaguely modern. To be honest, we were pretty floored, though we knew deep within our hearts that in a day or two the clean and orderly part might not be so true. It was rainy and a bit chilly out, so we decided to camp out inside for a while, settle in, check the Internet, and watch some television. At about 5 p.m. the sun started poking through the clouds so we decided to explore. The condo was at 13th and Guadalupe, a mere eight or nine blocks from the thick of the action, so we hit the road and walked down to 6th street (where the bulk of everything SXSW happens). Things were fairly quiet as the festival was in the midst of its “interactive” phase as opposed to the all out rock-fest that begins on Wednesday, but there were still plenty of folks out and about.

We met a few characters on our walk and, within about an hour, were acclimated to our new surroundings. As such, in traditional WLR fashion, it was time to get some booze. Mike and Ryan went on a liquor run for a couple handles of Captain Morgan for the week. They ran into our A &R man Drew Pearson and Internet/video/techno guru extraordinaire Nate Maydole from 50 Records on the way, which was our first taste of home down in Austin (there would be many more). After a quick drink, we headed out to Dirty Martin’s, a burger joint recommended to us, which was a bit of a hike (maybe 15 or 20 blocks away from SXSW and closer to the University). After two straight days of Taco Bell, Whattaburger, and Ramen Noodles, Dirty Martin’s wasn’t much of a relief from the grease and fat, but in their defense the burgers were pretty tasty, and in our defense we knew we’d be walking a lot throughout the week. We had our first Lone Stars, which we ultimately decided were chameleons taste-wise (one day they’d be like our own Grain Belt Premiums, then they’d resemble a Miller High Life, and a different keg would be more akin to PBR . . . go figure), and Ryan snapped a few of what would become lots of WLR SXSW photos (these will be posted on our MySpace soon). We headed back, full of grease and chameleon beer, and the 48 hours of bad eating finally caught up to us in the form of supreme lethargy.

After reaching home at about 8 p.m. we noticed we had about two and a half hours to kill before rocking the PureVolume party kick-off. We checked our television options, noticed Anthony Bourdain was on, and b-lined it to the Travel Channel. Food is definitely a WLR pastime, as well as cooking and cooking shows (our visit to the Schwandt cabin last year was basically a music writing, drinking, and cooking marathon, with a lot of Top Chef thrown in). Mark and I fondly recalled meeting Bourdain back in November (it’s a pretty damn good story – ask us sometime), and watched as he tried to keep up as a line chef at his old restaurant. We probably all had another drink or two, and then headed down to 4th and Trinity to the PureVolume party.

The party wasn’t really kicking yet, but picked up a bit right before our 11 p.m. slot. Drew and Nate came down to hang out and rock with us, and we met a few new friends (shout out to the Lindsays) and fans over the course of the night. There weren’t a ton of people at the show, but the audience was receptive and, despite the questionable back-line (we had some technical issues), we had a great time. We knew we had Tuesday off (from playing, anyway), so we definitely took advantage of the free beer and vodka all night (PureVolume rocked until 4 a.m. the first couple of nights). All in all it was a fantastic first day in Austin.

Day 4 (3.11.08): Our “day off” of the week, but we had no intentions of letting the day go without a grand old time. We decompressed a bit during the day, made some Ramen noodles, watched more Tim and Eric Awesome Show, and played some guitar, but what really started the festivities was a fun and excellent dinner with Drew, Nate, and Deb Insted, founder and benefactor of 50 Records. Deb is a really sweet lady and generously offered to take care of dinner at Maiko Sushi, and we had what was definitely the highlight meal of the trip. Between Kobe Beef, Sake, and some of the greatest spicy sushi rolls we’ve experienced, the meal was absolutely delicious, a fact highlighted by great company. Unfortunately, Drew was developing the flu that didn’t really let up for him until about Friday, but he was a trooper and did a lot of great work all week.

After walking home amongst all the crazy Grackles (those crazy and obnoxious birds that flock Hitchcock-style throughout Austin every evening), we made some more rum and cokes and headed out for the night. We decided to just head back to the PureVolume party (we’re poor), and had our most star-studded night of the trip. It was the night of the Digg interactive party (something I was all about as an active Digg user), and Kevin Rose and crew were partying there all night. I snuck my way into the VIP room to hang out with Kevin and some other Digg staffers, asking them about the latest news trends and playing some Guitar Hero. Mark, Ryan, and Mike did some choreographed dancing, and, at about 2 a.m., Moby mysteriously appeared in the VIP section. As a big fan, Mike and I were pretty floored (he’d managed to sneak in after me), and I tried to talk him into playing Guitar Hero with me. He respectfully declined, but we chatted for a while and tried to talk him into coming to our show the next day. Late into the night, after more dancing and drinking, Mark noticed Mark Cuban had wandered into the party and bluntly told him that he disagreed with his decisions regarding the Mavericks over the past season. Since Cuban is known as a bit of an unsavory human being, it was pretty funny to see Mark take him on. Four a.m. rolled around again, so we headed back home.

Day 5 (3.12.08): For some reason, we’d mistakenly thought we had press to do at 10:30 a.m., so after six hours of sleep we woke up to a cacophony of cell phone alarms, but after a quick e-mail check realized that Thursday was our early press day – we didn’t have to be anywhere until about 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, so thankfully we got to head back to bed.

After some showers and a few Propels, we hit the Levi’s Fader party to do some Rock the Vote PSA’s and a couple Internet videos. It was in a building that was a bit of a maze, but after taking care of business we found the concert venue in the back, replete with free Bass Ale, SoCo, and Sparks (Alright, so the Sparks wasn’t of much interest to us). We watched The Kills, The Ruby Suns, and our favorites of the day, Does It Offend You, Yeah? We made some new friends who were awesome and came to the rest of our shows (shout out to Jen and Karleigh), had some Taco Shack burritos, and prepared to rock the Dizzy Rooster (fans of the Real World might remember that name). Our buddies in The Effects arrived, as did our label mates Elevation, and it was pretty sweet to see them all again. We played after Elevation at midnight and had a blast playing for new faces and old, and after loading out we hit Coyote Ugly with the boys in The Effects. We tried to get them into the PureVolume party, but they were without passes and the line to get in was pretty intense, so we opted for an earlier night. After a pizza stop we started heading home and recognized Phantom Planet wandering the streets. We talked to them for a bit, asked about their new record, and headed on our way. We got back to the condo around 2:30 a.m. We did have an early morning so it was all for the best.

Day 6 (3.13.08): Our first early morning; after a 9 a.m. wake up and showers all around, we headed down to the Hilton to do some interviews. We did a quick interview with Clay from Roxwel.com and then headed over to Room 710 for the Voltage Fashion Day Show, and, despite lacking in audience attendance, it was good to see our buddies in The Alarmists and The Melismatics as well as MC/VL, Ouija Radio, The Birthday Suits. The breakfast burritos were solid, along with the chips and guacamole they set out for everyone. Our friends Stacy Schwartz and Andrea Myers were there, and it was good to see more Minneapolis folks down in Austin. We loaded out and headed over to Nuno’s downstairs for a Red Gorilla/Zude day party with Autovaughn and The Effects, and it was a glorious reunion show for WLR and The Effects. It was a hot, sweaty set for both, and attendance was solid (as was the free Lone Star), so we decided to reward ourselves with a grand night of partying.

Our manager Mike Kempton got into town in time for the Nuno’s show, so after the show we went back to the condo, made some drinks, and talked business. We showed him Tim and Eric Awesome Show, which he thought was amazing, and we made plans to meet with our lawyer, Jeff Beiderman, for some Shiner Bock and business talk. Once we had some food in our bellies we headed to the Library for some foosball rematches and beer drinking with The Effects. Jeff met us there a little while later, along with Darin Back, photographer extraordinaire, who was shooting for City Pages (there are some great shots on the City Pages website), The Melismatics, and The Alarmists. We shared Shiner Bocks, stories, and toasts, and then headed over to the Chuggin’ Monkey. After some more debauchery we jogged over to the PureVolume party, which, much to our dismay, ended around 2 a.m. this particular night. We met up with our old friend Zach Pentel from the high school days and his friend MaryBeth. Zach came back to the condo, along with Darin and some others, for a late night after bar that ended at 6 a.m. after a few bottles of wine and even more rum and cokes. We discovered that mixing amaretto with Diet coke tastes like a Maraschino cherry, and filed it away under a mix we’d avoid in the future (because, really, who wants to drink that?). Friday promised more early interviews, but we were at SXSW so we justified the late night party as such.

Day 7 (3.14.08): Our last “official work day” at SXSW began with more cell phone alarms and a surprisingly chipper Darin making sure we were all up and ready to go in the morning. Darin accompanied us to our interviews and took some shots, after which we headed to Fuze to set up and get ready for the 50 Records/Zude Day Party. For whatever ridiculous reason the club didn’t offer free waters that were obviously in high demand after the shenanigans of the night before, so we all had to wander about in search of that precious substance. Ryan, Mike, and Dan found some free BBQ, Mark napped, and I enjoyed the air conditioning. Darin had left to shoot another band, and Ryan and I kind of wandered around, watching People in Planes and chatting with The Melismatics and The Effects, all of whom put on awesome shows before we finally took the stage. It was a staggering 90 degrees outside, so the air conditioning was a welcome relief. After another sweaty and high energy show (Darin got some killer shots of it), we stuck around and chatted with all the folks at Zude and 50, along with a bunch of our new friends, before heading over to do another interview at the Hilton. Poor Ryan had to watch our equipment out on the sidewalk because the interview ran a bit late and we ended up missing both Elevation and load out, but luckily he was a responsible guy and took care of it all for us (his first real foray into having to do some actual “tour manager” duties).

We got our equipment home, mixed a few more drinks, and decided to hit the town for a Friday hoorah. Another stop at the Library with The Effects and some 50 Interns proved to be fun, and then we headed to the Driscoll to meet up with Jeff and Mike before they left for the week. The Melismatics were there at a balcony party, so we joined them, along with more 50 people, Elevation, The Effects, and many others, and we found our PureVolume alternative (free booze until 4 in the morning, but high quality stuff and even higher quality people). Darin, Mike, Dan, and Mark headed back to the condo at about 4:15 a.m., but Ryan and I stayed out with Zach and MaryBeth, and we went to the house that they had rented with some other friends and stayed up until 7 a.m. telling stories, playing Jenga, and passing around some Jack Daniels. Fantastic night.

Day 8 (3.15.08): Ryan and I woke up on the floor and couch respectively (although he’d made quite the bed out of some couch cushions) and began our long walk home (like 35 blocks). We got fifteen blocks, ate some Jimmy John’s, and realized that we’d left a couple things at Zach’s place (Three and a half hours of sleep wasn’t really helping our memories). We walked back and pleaded with Dan to come pick us up, so he and Darin showed up a bit later and we headed back out for the day. Darin, Mike and I went to see Tapes ‘N Tapes at the Austin City Limits, and Ryan, Dan, and Mark went to the Black and Tan to see Working For a Nuclear Free City. It was tough to decide between the two, but one really can’t go wrong between those two bands. Since we had the full day off we all kind of went our separate ways, with Darin going off to shoot a lot of bands, Mike heading out to try and get into the Fader party for 2 Live Crew, seeing it was packed, and catching another MC/VL show instead, and Ryan, Dan, Mark and I being treated to another dinner courtesy of Deb. Mark and I ran into Erik Appelwick for the second time that day at the Iron Cactus where we were eating and it was good to get to chat with him and the other Tapes guys for a while. We got to chat with our friend Gabe Douglas at dinner, along with Gary Clark and other 50 folks, which was fun considering all the stories we regaled each other with about the week.

After dinner we caught a bit of Elevation’s set, another Effects set, and then headed down to the Driscoll party again. The Elevation dudes showed up, along with the Effects, and all our 50 friends. For the second night in a row the balcony party was awesome. Ryan, Dan and I did an a capella version of “You Can Call Me Al” that was, admittedly, pretty awesome despite a few people wondering why in the world we were singing that song from the “Chevy Chase music video.” Afterward, we al headed our separate ways. Ryan and Dan went back to the condo, Mark and I headed out with Elevation for a post-party bottle of wine (sadly, their van had been booted and was going to be towed . . . we haven’t heard the aftermath of that situation, but we were all pretty angry about the situation), and Mike went out to a party in the suburbs. It was a late night again, but Mark and I were home by 6 a.m. and Mike showed up sometime soon thereafter, and we joined Darin watching the end of Planet of the Apes. It was a bit of a surreal ending to the week, but an awesome one nonetheless.

Day 9 (3.16.08): We woke up around noon thirty, cleaned up the condo, and hit the road for our long trek home. Darin had already taken off, but left a sweet note thanking us for letting him stay with us. The decision was made to drive straight from Austin to Minneapolis, so once we left at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday we knew we had a long drive ahead of us. It was a tough drive, fueled by the RyPod, movies (Boiler Room -- pretty awesome, and Point Break . . . yeah, we know . . . at least it wasn’t Surf Ninjas), bad gas station food, and lots of recollections about the week.

To be fair, this blog is quite abridged and it’s still over five pages long single spaced in Microsoft Word, so if anyone really wants to hear the nitty gritty, you’ll have to come ask us in person. Overall, it was one of the most incredible experiences of all of our lives, and I encourage anyone who loves music and a fantastic party to be at South by next year. I know we will be, rocking out and having a blast, and I think you all should join us. As the immortal Tigger says, “TTFN! Ta ta for now!”

What Is and What Should Never Be

Hello to both of our blog readers,

Just a quick update on what we've been doing lately and how we feel about it (after all, that's what a blog is all about, right?).

We're in the midst of a brief stopover at home (about a night and a day) between playing a few dates with our new best buds in The Effects and catching up again with VAST for a few more dates. We're gonna start the drive out to Cleveland in a couple of hours in the hopes that we can get out there by our 3 PM load time tomorrow . . . It's a bit of a drive from Minneapolis, but we have plenty of movies to pass the time. This will be our first show in Cleveland (Drew Carey?), which is sweet considering the location of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as our first time stopping near Detroit and Indianapolis. It'll be nice to have more cities under our belt, especially ones so near us here in the Midwest.

Speaking of which, we had a blast down in Kansas City (and visiting Bloomington, Indiana as well as seeing everyone in Chicago again). We honestly had too much fun with The Effects and found our party animal soul-mates in them. Four wild nights in a row and it all went by so quickly we had to make tentative plans to do about a month together sometime in the future (summer maybe?). Shout outs to the Jerry's Bait Shop crews, all the folks who put us up for the night, and to the Stolen Winnebagos -- honestly, the coolest cover band we've ever seen in our lives -- check them out if you're ever around Kansas City on a Sunday or Monday. They are NOT to be missed.

Since we're a bit low on money these days, we've really been roughing it -- eating crackers, peanuts, and maybe a PB & J for a meal, not showering for days on end, and we even slept in the van for the first time this past trip! It wasn't actually that bad, and it saves us $60 a night, so here's to some hardcore touring. I think it might be good for the soul; if we tough it out now, the nice hotel rooms and sold out shows down the line will be all the sweeter.

Alright, I gotta shower and eat before we head out. Cheers everyone and hope to see you all soon!

- Joe
WLR

Feelin' Good Lost

Hey all,

So, it's been a couple three weeks since our last post, and, in accordance with my promise of writing more blogs, I'm going to do a little recap of January and update you all on our plans for the near future.

January has been pretty home-oriented and we haven't ventured forth too far, for the most part. It's given us some time to catch up with friends and ruminate on the "Master Plan" with all parties involved, but we're missing the road and are looking forward to February where we have plenty more dates. We started the year off by playing at MacPhail to welcome in their new building and new performance center. It was an opportunity to play in front of the high school crowd, something we don't get to do enough. High school kids are often the most devoted fans, so we definitely look forward to playing some more all ages shows in the future. The following week, we braved some bitter temperatures (-12 air temperature with a -45 windchill) and rocked up at Concordia College in Moorhead. Mike and I got yelled at by a basketball practice for apparently interrupting their practice (who knew walking by on the other end of the court during a huddle counted as interfering with the scrimmage?), which was kind of annoying, but otherwise the show was a blast. We stayed warm in our free hotel room with plenty of Captain Morgan, which seems to be the WLR booze of choice for the past six months. There's some choice footage of the night that may or may not end up in a Vlog . . . we shall see . . .

After that show we headed down to Madison to play with our buddies The Box Social at Cafe Monmarte. It was possibly the tiniest stage we've played yet, but the sound was very decent and we had a good time. Our good friend Natasha put us up for the night and we had a pretty wild party that ended at 8:00 a.m. in typical WLR fashion. Apparently we're bad at going to bed. My brother Jimmy accompanied us and shot some footage, along with our traveling buddy/"tour manager" (though he does no actual duties) Ryan Anhorn, who is always good for about a thousand laughs. After about four hours of sleep we got up, drank a bunch of water, got on the road home, ate some greasy burgers, downed more water (and vitamin waters), and finally got to St. Paul by about 5:30. We had a demo appointment with Mr. Paul Marino at Fuzzy Slippers studio, and got to work tracking about 6:30.

We whipped through six new ideas, getting drums, bass, guitars, down and even laid some piano and mellotron tracks into the mix. We might go do some vocal work in the next couple weeks, but don't get too excited because we won't be posting any of this material . . . It's just a bit of tease to let you all know we haven't gotten lazy with our time off. We have plenty more ideas to work up, and we plan to demo once every couple months for the next ten months or so before heading back to the studio to work on album 2.

Last week we had some meetings to discuss new photos and videos, and we're planning on getting to work on those soon. We've got a pretty funny Tim and Eric Awesome Show: Great Job! style one worked up for Out of Sight, and we're hoping to shoot that this weekend if possible. The other video ideas should coalesce in the coming months, so keep your eyes open for those.

This last weekend we went down to Schaumberg in Illinois to play a show with Eve 6, which was definitely an experience. They ended up being really nice, down-to-earth guys, and even got us some free pizza. The crowd was responsive, the room was packed, we had free booze and the whole experience was pretty awesome. It was great to see how humble the Eve 6 guys were, and made us all the more intent to keep our own egos in check. We headed out of town to one of our favorite Super 8's in Elgin, IL, and headed out early the next day to get to Lutsen, MN to play Papa Charlie's on the ski mountain there.

We had to play three 50 minute sets, and since our usual set is 45 minutes, we had to learn a bunch of covers and play all of our old material to cover the allotted time. We ended up doing some New Order tunes, some Clash, Beatles, Stones, Bowie, etc., and it was fun to throw some other songs into our repertoire. We got money to spend at the bar, free hotel rooms, and free lift tickets for the next day, so we were hell bent on having a great time up there. The weather was fantastic, too, which only added to our enjoyment. We managed to find a pretty kickin party and again were up until about 8 a.m., playing Catchphrase, Guitar Hero, hot-tubbing, and drinking. We dragged our asses out of bed after about four hours of sleep to avoid the check-out brigade, and to ensure that we had some snowboarding time. After some really crusty fish and chips, Mike, Mark and I hit the mountain hard, and Dan slept in the van (he doesn't have a snowboard or proper attire, so sad day for Dan). We had a great time bombing down the hills and going down runs a little past our means (Mike and I used to ride a lot back in high school, but it's been a few years). It was exhilarating and way too much fun, especially because it was free. Awesome perks!

This week, we're going to be shooting some new photos at the Kitty Cab Klub on Wednesday with Darren Back, an awesome photographer who has shot for Spin and many others, so this new batch of photos should be amazing. We're really looking forward to working with him and we'll let you know how it all goes after it happens!

Our next batch of shows will be out and about the Midwest with VAST and the Effects, so check our MySpace page for dates, times, and locations. We hope to see everyone out rocking with us!

Best,

Joe

Happy New Year 2008!!! Great job!!

Hello everyone,

It seems that the latest trend is to do a little recap/forward thinking blog about the past year and what’s to come, so here’s a little New Year’s note to kick off 2008.

This past year has been momentous and exciting, full of change and anticipation, along with the requisite disappointment, but, like most times, is best and most appropriately viewed optimistically and with a warm heart. We started the year off by finishing the mixing of “Atomism,” hearing the master come back from Bob Ludwig, and getting a few more glorious, coveted studio days to do B-sides (we honestly love nothing more than recording songs).

Fast-forward through some boring winter times, and we hit the spring, when we hear that RED is releasing our record nationally, and that we’re going to throw a huge local CD Release party. Both of these events are remembered fondly, and a special thanks to all of you who came out to the CD Release and helped make it one of the most memorable concert events of the year!

In the ensuing weeks we solidified our managerial choice (special thanks here to Mike Kempton for all of his fine, hard work), booking agent, and some tour plans, and finally started getting on the road. It’s always been a dream of ours to be out and about, and we’ve loved meeting so many fantastic new people and seeing tons of new places all over the country. We’re looking forward to seeing even more this next year, and can’t wait to visit all of our new friends.

With the New Year brings a big change for us: We just moved in with our friends, The Alarmists, at their rehearsal space. We said good-bye to our old location after three years, and it was a bittersweet parting. There are many fond memories there, from interviews to drunken jams, tons of writing and more rehearsals than we can count, but we’re also looking forward to sharing this new creative atmosphere with some of our best buddies in town. In the new Vlog there’s some footage of the new spot, and we’ll get that up ASAP for everyone.

In addition to a lot of touring, we’re trying to be better about regularly updating with more video-blogs, and we’re going to put together a few music videos, too, for your viewing pleasure. Also, for the maybe six people who’ve ever read this blog, we’re going to try to update more frequently and maybe make it a little more personal when appropriate (though we promise not to get all LiveJournal on you guys).

Now that we’re all recovered from that ridiculous beginning to the East Coast jaunt, we’ll be back out on the trail soon, so look for us and come say hi! Buy us drinks (we’re poor), tell us stories, and help us make general merriment, wherever life takes us! Is this a suitable recap? Feels vaguely nostalgic and broad enough to fit the mold . . .

OK, time to go watch some more Tim and Eric clips and waste time and digg.com . . . !!

- Joe

Worst "Tour" Ever

Hey everyone! Just thought we’d share with you the nightmare that has been the past 48 hours for us . . . It’s a pretty good story and we’re looking to get some mileage out of it. In my honest opinion, it reads something like an overwrought black comedy about the throes and consequences of journeying in blizzards with terrible luck as a near constant companion. We felt sort of postmodern, talking about how this “tour” felt like someone writing a really bad movie script, trying to think of more ways to screw up everything for the protagonists. At some point, though, the line was crossed and the script became a bit tasteless, and thus stale in its repetition and uninspired plot devices. Anyway, enough metaphysical meandering: on with the story (be mindful it was freezing cold during this whole ordeal, just to add to the general discomfort).

So, we leave for Cleveland last Friday, feeling good and looking forward to seeing the east coast. Even better, we’d just made sure our van was in top condition, paying $1400 for a thorough tune-up. As per ourselves, we’d forgotten our merch display in Madison, but John Paul from We the Living was nice enough to take care of that for us and had it waiting for us at his place mid-way through Wisconsin. Our first stop, then, was to pick up our merch display. After driving for about 2 hours and nearing JP’s house, our speedometer started freaking out. It was kind of like when folks talk about seeing a UFO and instruments start going crazy because of mysterious electromagnetic forces . . . so we got our hopes up thinking maybe we’d meet some aliens. Of course, that was irrational, and not the explanation, considering the speedometer didn’t settle back down. After about five minutes, we decided it couldn’t be aliens because we couldn’t possibly be that interesting to any extraterrestrial beings. Then, out of nowhere, it righted itself for a while. It was then that we noticed a strange sort of burning smell, so we decided to call a mechanic friend. He told us that when you have a new tail pipe installed a strange smell often accompanies, and thought maybe it was a computer error causing the problems with the speedometer. The explanation was simple enough and accounted for our van’s issues, so we figured he was right and decided to just get as far east as possible and get the van looked at in the morning.

After following some botched Mapquest directions we finally found JP’s place, got our merch display, and got back on the road. At this point we were close to Madison, Dan was pretty tired from driving, and it was getting late (not to mention the overdrive in our transmission turned off and the check engine light was on), so we pulled over and checked into a Super 8 (our hotel chain of choice . . . it’s cheap and has free wi-fi). Dan and I took “find a repair shop and get the damn van fixed” duty, as Mark was planning on driving the next day (Mike I have no excuse for, but it’s not like you need three people to find a repair shop). After trying to sleep for four hours, Dan and I got out of bed, sleepless, and, in the freezing cold (something weird with our heater), got dressed and went to the front lobby. We learned Evel Knievel died, ate a breakfast of toasted wonder bread and English muffins, and started calling repair shops. There was one about 200 yards away at a gas station, and since we couldn’t get them on the phone, we walked over to see when they opened. It was bitter cold (like 10 degrees maybe, with a wicked wind chill), and it was a brutal walk. After learning we were 20 minutes early (the shop opened at 7), we resigned ourselves to passing some time in the lobby, eating more free “breakfast,” and watching Sports Center. At 7, we went to the repair shop, only to learn that the shop is by appointment on Saturdays, and the mechanic had no appointments, so he wouldn’t be coming. Disappointed, we went back and confirmed an appointment at another shop, but it was a few miles away. Since we couldn’t leave the van there and walk back to the hotel, we had to get everyone going early (like 7:45) and get over to the other shop.

Once there, they told us that they weren’t sure when they’d be able to look at it, but it would be $87 an hour. This was also disappointing. It hadn’t gotten warmer, despite the recent appearance of the sun, and though we were hungry, we couldn’t bear walking a couple miles in the cold for the marginal reward of a BK breakfast (though this may be debatable). Thus, we read to pass the time, and after a reasonable wait, they got to checking our van. To sum it up, the first words out of the mechanics mouth were “Bad news, guys.” Fantastic. Apparently, when the last shop put the new tail pipe on, he didn’t quite connect the pipe to the exhaust or something, and it overheated the back half underneath the van and incinerated the speedometer sensor and a transmission sensor. It had started to snow, and there were reports of a huge storm blowing our way from the west, and with a van in need of repair, we figured we should make a decision quickly. It would be two days before this particular shop could fix us up, and expensive, so the mechanic told us it would be best to get home as quickly as possible. The snow was coming down pretty quickly by this point, but the van still worked, and we decided to go for it.

After a BK breakfast (I suppose it had to happen), we got going. However, the storm created an evil Lord of the Rings style mist around us, and we couldn’t really see more than maybe 30 feet in each direction. It was like driving through the mountain pass in the Misty Mountains, and we kept expecting an Abominable Snowman or a Yeti to come screaming out of the haze to kill us. Or a semi-truck. Needless to say, it was a somewhat terrifying experience, driving through that blizzard, and I’m amazed Mark wasn’t more fazed than he was. A hundred miles later, the transmission decided it had had enough, and that’s not the sort of thing you want to push too hard, because it is spiteful creature. The jolts were unnerving, and the exit could not have come any sooner. We got down the exit ramp, got the van far enough to coast it into a gas station, and as soon as we pulled in, the van died. This was the best luck we’d had all day. After waiting on the phone with AAA forever, they told us a tow truck was on its way to take us back to the Twin Cities. This was exciting.

Ten minutes later, AAA called back to inform us that 17 cars crashed into each other and all tow trucks would be busy “cleaning that up.” This was depressing on many levels. We found a guy to take us back the next day (Sunday), so after hanging out in the van and the gas station for a couple of hours trying to figure out what to do, we learned there was an old motel within walking distance, and the guy who was towing us was going to stop by and get our van to the motel. This might be the best thing that happened the whole trip (not having to freeze to death, that is), if that puts things perspective.

The hotel was reminiscent of the Bate’s motel, Psycho-style, and the sign out front actually read “closed” (we have footage of this, it will be in a vlog). We were scared for our lives. At any point we were ready for an axe-murdering psychopath to burst into the room and end all this, but luckily it didn’t happen. Instead, we visited the bar and found happiness for a little while (though this came at the price of trudging through snow, and a hangover for some today). We had to be up fairly early today (Sunday) to make sure we caught the tow-truck driver’s call, and because Dan’s very generous friends Jeremy and Stacey were coming to haul our trailer back home (tow truck companies don’t really take vans and trailers . . . we would have needed two and we can’t afford that). I woke up early, the others slept, so I passed the time at the bar watching Final Destination 2 (not recommended). Around 1 or so everyone showed up and we got on the road. We assumed we’d be home in a couple hours, which was exciting, and it seemed that our misadventure would soon be over. Not so.

Our tow truck driver had to stop at a weigh station, and since he was following us, we didn’t catch this and pulled up to the next exit to wait. A few minutes later we get a call, from a police officer, saying our tow truck driver had some legal issues that would take 45 minutes to resolve. We found this mildly annoying, but all things considered (and what we’d already been through), we figured we could put up with it. We explored a Wal-Mart to pass the time.

Thirty minutes later we get a call saying that our tow truck driver isn’t legally allowed to take us into Minnesota, his license is temporarily suspended (for ten hours . . . go figure), and that we should come back to the weigh station. Awesome. And ridiculous. We head back, learn that we have to find a company “legally” allowed to take us home. This proves difficult. And takes a long time. After a few hours, we find one, but it has to come from Minneapolis, and will cost us $380 or so (this is on top of the $500 we paid the first guy . . . this will all be rectified in our favor, or so we hope). At this point, we just want to go home, so we bite the bullet and get on our way.

Anyway, we’re hoping to get our truck fixed early tomorrow and get back on the road (we’ve already missed something like three shows, all of which we were looking forward to, and want to miss as few as possible in the coming week). Wish us luck, and hopefully we’ll be back out rocking soon. What’s kind of ridiculous is that we ostensibly drove to Madison to sleep in a hotel, and then got towed home, and it cost us a lot of money. And we still haven’t played a show. Thanks for reading this novel of a blog!

- Joe

No Fly Zone (Tour Journal #1)

Hey everybody,

Here's a little tour update for all two of you who might stumble upon this little blog site:

We left home last Wednesday, the 24th, at some ungodly hour (11 am) and got truckin' to Lincoln, Nebraska. The drive was fairly uneventful -- Dan was a trooper and took the whole 7/8 hours head on (even through the boringness of rural middle America). The rest of us read books ("Glamorama" for Mark, "Confederacy of Dunces" for Mike, and "American Psycho" for me), which is something of anomaly for us (we usually watch movies, VHS-style). Suffice to say, with that much drive time, we've scorched through a few books each (we're sort of on a Bret Easton Ellis binge, with the two aforementioned titles being passed around in addition to "Rules of Attraction." Unfortunately, John Kennedy Toole only wrote two books, and we're without the other title).

We played Box Awesome in Lincoln, made a few new friends, and got to stay for free w/ the Schwandt boys' great uncle Alton, who was more than hospitable. Nothing like a delicious hot breakfast to get the day started.

From there, we headed to Kearney, NE, and passed the day with some beers, busking, and promotion. It was our day off and we had two days in Kearney, so we checked into a hotel for mighty cheap. We hit some fun bars, met more fun people, etc. Little did we know what was in store . . .

We played Copperfield's Friday night in Kearney, and realized when we got there that the promoter had put us on a local, Heavy Metal Battle of the Bands bill. We'll let you fill in the blanks . . . suffice it to say not many were interested. Our favorite part of our Kearney stop was getting our oil changed and watching an edited version of "Training Day" late on USA. Yeah.

Next, we headed to Colorado for our gig Sunday at the Larimer Lounge. We spent Saturday night in Loveland, CO w/ Dan's 2nd cousin and had a beautiful mountain view, plenty of ice cold keg beer, and even a jacuzzi to relax in. Fantastic! Relaxation, cool mountain air . . . not much is better. We watched "Almost Famous" and were inspired. Colorado is awesome.

Sunday we actually showed up in Denver, and walked around looking for our record in stores, passing out fliers, and catching "Rocktober Fever." Unfortunately for us, everyone in Denver was concerned with the World Series elimination game for their hometown Rockies, so no one was much interested in music. Even so, we made a few new friends and really enjoyed ourselves. Denver is a pretty awesome city.

That night we shot down to Colorado Springs to stay with Mike's friend Zach, an Olympic weightlifter, and stayed at his place for the next couple of nights (we love all of you for helping us save money on hotels . . . fantastic). We were treated to a tour of the Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs, some fantastic lasagna, and an awesome ghost expedition up into the mountains. Apparently, back in the 50's or 60's a bus load of kids was crushed when a cave collapsed on their bus in the middle of a mountain pass. These days, they say if you go in to a cave in the dark, turn off your headlights and car, and put it in neutral, the kids help your car through the cave to safety (they don't tell you that the cave is on an incline . . . but bear with me here . . .). We tried one cave to no avail, but decided, What the hell, let's do the other one, too. After all, we did have a cat (Sushi) with us to detect paranormal activity (she never seemed too worried).

In the second cave, we stopped, went through the procedure, and started rolling (incline), and didn't see any ghosts. We were quite disappointed. Then, both mysteriously and ominously, we heard what sounded like a small child sobbing, over and over, for about 30 seconds. All of us heard the same sound, at the same time, and it was creepy. Can't say we're all convinced of the existence of ghosts, but it was an awesome paranormal experience.

Next day we drove through western Kansas to Lawrence. It was windy, the view never changed, (insert more cliche middle America driving irritations), and it was definitely not exciting. There were a few pretty bluffs after the first six hours, and some pretty cool clouds, but that's once we got into the eastern half.

Once we got to Lawrence we unloaded, etc. and played a fun show at the Replay Lounge. It definitely wasn't packed, but we had a great reception and look forward to our return to Lawrence. It was a cool little town and we hope to see more of it on our next visit (not to mention stay in the haunted hotel . . . yeah we're kinda weird . . .). We're in Tulsa for Halloween, which is where I'm writing from now, and tonight seems like it'll be a fun time. Next up is Eau Claire on Friday with our buddies in So It Goes, so it's bound to be a wild and crazy time. Rock music!

- Joe

Tasty Music Video

So here's the music video I talked about on the last blog. It's a fun, crazy ass video that should not be viewed if have epilepsy. Leave us some comments about what you think!

The Leaves Are A Changin'

Well holy shit! It's been quite a while since our last blog post. Not that there's been nothing going on, we just haven't taken the time to organize our thoughts into written form. In other words, laziness and procrastination come to mind. Either way, we have been continuously filling our fall schedule with dates all over the midwest and we are extremely excited to be playing cities we've never been to before. Unfortunately, at the same time it's hard to break into new markets where no one has heard of your band, but with every swing through we are seeing more and more faces. We're taking that as a great sign of what's to come. We are going to basically be in tour mode for at least the next year to really give this CD a chance, and by then, we'll also have an enormous amount of new song ideas for the next record. As of now, we are constantly writing new material, and we are all very pleased with the direction that we're going in. We are actually planning on premiering one or two new ideas in the next month so keep your eyes and ears attentive for that. In other news, we are about post an amateur video that we made for our song Atomism just for something fun to watch. Be careful though, it may induce seizures! I'll post that on here by the end of the week. For now check out our new video blog and help us out by giving us some new VHS tapes!! (You'll understand when you view the blog)

That's what a fool believes, Loggins!

Hello avid WLR blog readers (I count 2 of you),

I'm writing from beautiful Washington Island in Door County Wisconsin, home of the (in)famous Schwandt family cabin. We're taking this week to relax, write music, grill lots of meat, and sip the occasional beverage (that might be a tad understated). Our plan is to demo up a whole slew of new songs as we continue writing the next record in our bit of downtime here. We're exploring the musical realms we didn't really touch on Atomism and are happy with the directions we're pursuing. If all goes well, we may even have a new track to premiere at the Minnesota Music Festival.

In more timely news, we've recently hired a national booking agent who is currently putting together a tour for us. The plan is to start regionally and hit the Midwest hard for a few weeks, then branch out accordingly and spiral on to the coasts. We'll take a bit of time off for Christmas, but other than that it will be hard touring all year. That means there will be plenty of opportunity for anyone who hasn't been able to catch a show due to geographical restrictions to come see us. Also, you have no further excuses. Come rock with us, please! Oh, and now that our CD is released "nationally" (as of today . . . also, nationally is mostly regional for now, except Virgin megastores everywhere), you can tell all of your friends and family in other states to grab our record! For those in the Midwest/Minnesota/Twin Cities who've had trouble getting the record (or were just too lazy to drive downtown), it's now in every Best Buy in the region, so no more excuses! Help spread the love (and help us pay the bills).

Hopefully we'll see you all soon either at the Fine Line August 30th, Eau Claire on September 1st, Madison on 9/20, or at the Minnesota Music Fest on 9/22. We have plans to have some fun out here on the island, so if anything interesting happens, we'll have some stories for you. Just ask!

Anyhow, check out Dan's new haircut and Mark's first foray into hairstyling (vlog #5).

Much love,

Joe

Holy Shit...It's already August!

Hello friends-

Well, the summer is starting to wind down a bit for us White Light Rioters, and we are taking some time to get well prepared for what hopes to be a crazy fall! The local release went splendidly and we have made a lot of new friends and fans over the last month promoting it. Thanks to all the people that have helped us get this far!! But now we are on to a much bigger task, trying to recreate the same support in other cities as we get set to release the CD nationally on August 21st. We are in the midst of organizing a fall tour to support the release and we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything works out! If you have friends or family in other towns around the region, make sure that they know about us when we come through. Other than planning the tour, we just launched our college radio campaign and have already debuted in the top 200. So if you are in other cities, call your local public radio stations and request White Light Riot!
In other news, we have been taking some time to focus on writing some new material so that we already have a head start on the next album (hopefully we're not getting ahead of ourselves). But for me personally, I have finally jumped on the band wagon and dug into the Harry Potter series. I have long criticized friends and family that have been freaking out over the books, always way too overexcited when one of them is released, and I never wanted to fall prey to its rampant popularity. However, when this last book was released, and I saw the effect it had on readers everywhere, I said, "What the hell" and picked up book one. I have now finished the first three books and it has only been three days. I no longer care what anyone thinks; this shit is bad ass.
As the dates start coming in for the fall tour, we'll stay more on top of updating our blog (as there will be more to talk about). Until then, enjoy the latest video blog, which is a couple weeks old.
Cheers,
Mike

CD Release Party

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note to thank everyone for coming out and partying with us for our CD Release last night. We had a blast playing with the Villains of Verona, and of course, our good friends The Alarmists. We look forward to July 20th for The Alarmists' CD Release at First Ave., and hopefully a jaunt down to Chicago to play with the Villains on their home turf. Thanks to everyone who purchased CDs (you support our livelihood and our ability to tour/record/keep making music) and t-shirts, etc. Also, thanks to all of the additional musicians who played with us (Ari Herstand on trumpet, Jessy Greene on violin, Andrew Schwandt on Tenor Sax, and especially Mr. Matthew Schwandt on keys, tambourine, and whatever else we could find for him to play) -- you all helped fill out the sound and re-create the record live for everyone to enjoy.

We're going to try and keep booking shows to keep up this busy schedule. Tell all of your friends about this record and help spread the word -- remember, it can be ordered online and purchased on iTunes now, so until the national release in August there are still plenty of opportunities to get your own copy of the record.

This week is a bit more relaxed, as we've only got one show this Friday at the Cabooze opening for Ike Reilly. We're also hoping to go have a grand BBQ at Brent Sigmeth's this weekend, so if that happens we'll be sure to post some pictures of the shenanigans.

- Joe

ATOMISM IN STORES TODAY

Well friends,
The day has finally arrived. Our CD is now available in stores all over Minneapolis. In particular, the Electric Fetus, CD Warehouse, Down in the Valley, Cheapo, and Treehouse records. Borders may also start carrying it as well. Unfortunately I Tunes is still not up yet but we have been promised that it will be up very shortly. Either way, we are extremely excited to finally have our full length out there, so excited that we planned a little in-store performance this evening at the Electric Fetus. It's going to be pretty stripped down from our normal sound, which could make it quite interesting actually. So if you have the time, you should stop by. If for any other reason just to pick up the new album! Check out the City Pages tomorrow, Pioneer Press on Thursday, and the Star Trib on Friday to check out some stories/reviews of our new album. We're keeping our fingers crossed that they like it!! Either way, I hope to see a lot of familiar and new faces on Saturday. We have been putting a lot of planning into this show, and we think that it will definitely be one of our most memorable, so we hope you make it down. Until then....

-Mike