Weird!!! Johnny 5 style!!!
Discalaimer/Warning.


this entry is going to be kind of stupid long. we've been trapped in this giant piece of land most commonly known as Texas for the better part of the last week of our lives. it was only moments ago that we crossed into Louisiana, a state that until just now, we thought to be completely mythical. we'll try to keep it short, but we have a few days to account for.

we left our protaganists after their big rock show in El Paso, TX....

with fresh haircuts we mounted up the morning after El Paso and started what would soon become the longest drive of our lives. if anyone has ever done the drive from El Paso to Dallas, you know what we're talking about. as a band we have clocked in longer drives, but something about this stretch, makes it totally fucking unbearable. after many hours of driving, sleeping, VB's (if you don't know what that means, you never will.) and desert air induced psychosis we finally decided to take a break. Marty and Greg were at the controls and decided we needed to stretch our legs and take in some local scenery. we happened upon a little town called Odessa, TX. there are two things that make this town just about the worst place ever. the first being George w. bush is from here, and the 2nd and more animate claim to fame is the Odessa meteor crator. how exciting we thought, "a meteor crator", so we exited with haste and total anticipation. well to make a long story short, the crator didn't quite live up to the hype. a slight dent in the earths surface filled with bushes and dirt paths, it looked more like an abandoned archeological site then the point of impact for a falling ball of fire some thousands of years ago.


upon realization that this was 20 minutes of our lives we would never regain, we gave the crator the finger, and got back on the road.


let's talk about the show in Denton for a moment. Marty had the perfect mix in his monitor, and we had a lot of fun playing to the people that came out. thanks to Jeremy from canary beat for getting scissors tattooed on his arm in our honor, and for putting us up with a place to stay. ok, moving on...

we made our way to Austin, TX which we knew was going to be a blast. we were giddy with anticipation to play with ...trail of dead in their hometown, little did we know about what the night had in store for us.
To begin, we rolled up to Emo’s to find out there was this huge street fest going on. After several calls to the venue, and the bribing of a few street cops, we got through the road block and were able to unload. With several hours to kill before the show, we decided to take in some of the local flavor and wander around the street fair for awhile. What flavor you ask, well, that of course would be the delicious smartie like tang of the glorious malt beverage known as Sparks.



After posing for a few sparks publicity photos, we decided to head over to one of the outdoor stages to see eriks dad play in his new metal band. They were really great, and erik was so proud of his dad’s fresh moves on stage, especially in his ironic pink sunglasses. Finally, we moved on in search of one last necessity before the show. We needed some serious unicorn neck paintings. We finally settled on a “Persian” woman who was in the September of her years.

She had been a PHD in her home country before revolution tore it apart, and she fled to america where she now makes her living doing face paintings. God bless america, and our land of opportunity!!! With some fresh unicorns on our necks, we were ready to rock, so we headed back to emos to get everything ready for the big event. Again, long story short (I know, to late.) the show was amazing, and we had a ton of fun playing to a huge Austin crowd. ….trail of dead was amazing as usual, but we also played with this other great band called Cue. Check them out at www.cueaustin.com it’ll be well worth your time. We finally loaded out around 3 am because we were forced to wait insided as a gang fight erupted outside of the adjacent venue in which some people got maced and stabbed.

So right now, fatigue is setting in, so we're going to sum up the next 4 days as quickly as possible. The show in Houston was fun, and we made friends with some very cool bands. Heist At Hand from Houston and this amazing band from dallas called Ugly Colors. Amazing instrumental stuff in the vein of Tortoise and Explosions In The Sky. Check ‘em out at www.uglycolors.com. We hung out in Houston for a couple of days, watched a lot of movies, practiced at the “Heist” rehearsal room and finished a song tentatively titled “extra doom”. Marty was ganged up on by a crew of roaches, but he managed to fight them off swiftly, and quietly. Next, we made our way to Baton Rouge wear we met up with our friend Debbie who took us to New Orleans 2 times in the last two days. She’s been very kind to us. Vegan gumbo in new Orleans was delicious. 3 days off with no shows is starting to drive us insane. We head out to Birmingham tomorrow, so we’ll have plenty more to talk about in the next couple days.
Sweet dreams,
Bttv



Current statistics:



Burritos consumed: 65


Cliff bars consumed: 13


Sparks consumed: 32


VB’s: 12


Current status:

Dan: sleeping

Erik: the new ryan adams

Marty: Bartles & Jaymes

Greg: looking for phone charger




Current quote(s):

Dan: “have you read my lyrics??? They’re fuckin bullshit!!!”

Greg: “we’re from a little town called California… You might have heard of it, it’s right next to the USA.”