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