Tour Photos! Finally

Check it!!

We also have a ton of video's, but that'll have to wait till next year.

You can also check out the main flickr site, here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark2b2001/sets/72157611432948365/

Video's....but not ours!

Check it....

Here are a few video's that have pop'ed up on the web that we're in at some point. I'm sure there is more to come!






Calumet-Hecla @ Goiânia Noise Festival from Urbanaque on Vimeo

back in the states again....

Yes....

We're all back safe and sound in the states. Man, what an adjustment going from the lovely late spring/early summer in Brazil to December in Massachusetts...nice. Anyways, we have ton of pictures and a bit of video from the tour. I'm currently trying to get it all sorted out and then uploaded onto the web. The pictures will make it before the video, I'm afraid, as I'm trying to learn final cut pro.

Either way, please stay tuned for a bunch of good stuff!!!

Cheers,
-Jason

(Fini)to

Wow, its Sunday and we are leaving tonight.  We can't believe its over.  We'll post a longer sum up of the trip once we get back, but just a few things about our last few days here.

I can't remember what happened on what days but, since Jethros, we had our gig in Campinas, playing at Bar do Ze. We played with the Venus Volts, who kicked some serious ass and are nice as hell to boot.  It was a great show, there was one dude up front really freaking out and getting down.  Sergio told us, sound and performance together, it was our best show so far of the trip.  At that point, we were definitely getting into the zone of playing every night, and we were sounding tight.  We sold some more CDs, hung with Vanessa, Anita, Pele and others, and headed back to Sao Paulo.

At some point we went to Chico Burger, which was the shit.  The best burgers we had in Sao Paulo.  When you order, you order a 'cheese bacon'.  Holy crap, best Acai I've had here in Brasil as well.  Man I'm really going to miss that stuff, it is truly incredible.

OK, we had a day off, bummed around and rested.  We had planned to go to the beach, but Sergio casualy mentioned to us that he had to sell his car today (???) so we had to take care of that first.  Just an impulse.  So we decided to head to the beach Thursday night, stay at a hotel and spend the next day at the beach, then head straight to our next gig.

We went to the closest beach to SP city, Garuja.  We checked in, and headed down to a bar on the beach.  We proceeded to down 5 caipirinhas each and a whole lot of seafood.  At this point, really, anything was possible.  We decided to go swimming in our underwear.  I think at some point I gave Dan a sideways body block in the ocean.  It was hilarious, all the bar staff were watching us from the window (we closed the place) and were laughing their asses off.  We were a hot mess.  We stumbled back to our rooms and some of us had rougher nights than others.

We spent the next day on the beach, the waves were some super gnarly 10 footers, but they were a ways out and the lifeguards wouldn't let me swim out there, tho I tried.  But the water was the perfect temperature, the weather was perfect, super intense sun.  The hangover made it a little difficult, but once I got in the ocean it was all good.  We sat there all day and drank fruity drinks, did some handstands, played some futbol.  It was perfect.  Unfortunately Dan, Jason and Anne got absolutely cripsy fried sunburns.  Jason and Anne especially looked completely cooked.

Funny story.  On the way down there, we were getting pretty low on gas and we kept mentioning it to Sergio, but he kept on saying 'no no we're fine'.  Well, the next day, heading out of Garuja, we basically rode around the block and ran out of gas.  We were in front of this place, Sergio bargains with some guy and he lets him borrow a purple girls bike and a litre bottle of water.  So off goes the tour manager on his purple bike to go find a gas station and fill the water bottle up with Alcool (ehtanol).  Dan went and had a drinking contest with the dude while we waited.  It was pretty hilarious but we made it to a gas station once he got back.

We were starving once we got back into SP so we went out for all you can eat sushi, which was some incredible shit.  I ate more sushi than I ever have in my life I think.

We headed to our gig in Sao Caentano do Sul.  We were pretty ragged from the beach and weren't feeling so hot collectively.  There were 4 bands, and again we were going on last which meant another 4AM start time, which did not sound too promising to us in our state.  When the first band started at 12pm, there might have been 10 people there.  By the time they were done the place was empty, besides the bartender. booker and the bands.  And the booker split soon after.  We all took naps at different locations around the bar or in the van.  We did get to see Gigante Animal, an Amplitude band and friends of Sergio and Gabriella.  They were really cool and had a unique sound that reminded me of peanuts for some reason.  Well, anyway, at 4AM, there was no one there and we felt like shit so we called it a night and said screw it to playing.  Sergio felt pretty bad about it so even though we treid to tell him to chill cuz hes already done so much for us, he promised to make it up to us.

We were supposed to play another gig Saturday night, but Gabby and Serg told us that there was some other parties going on the same night and there was a good chance of a repeat of the previous night, like, no one going to be there.  So we decided to have a going away party at Sergios, and we would play up in his studio with Gigante Animal and Holger.

Durng the day, Sergios whole family came over for a holiday party.  It was fully catered, with a dude making fresh, unbelievably tasty crepes.  We ate our fill and hung out with his family all day, it was cool, had fun discussing politics and culture and whatnot.  Then everyone left and the party started.  It was nuts, there were probably 70-80 people that came to the party.  We crammed all these people into Sergios tiny little 222 studio and played our last gig in Brasil.  We couldn't have scripted it any better.

Gigante Animal played, which was straight flavor, and then Holger played an acoustic set with everyone singing along.  We said our goodbyes to alot of people, then we headed back out to chicoburger for one last cheese bacon and probably my last acai in brasil.  And so it ended.

Like I said, we'll probably post some more stuff once we get back.  This has been one of the most amazing experiences of our lives and we have to give all love and respect to Sergio, Gabby, Eduardo and Amplitude/Tronco for making it happen.  Its been a wild ride.  Brazil is not for beginners.  But it all happened, one way or another.  Sempre tem jeito.

Quickie

So just a quick note about last night.  Jethros bar was a cool place, the opening band was the shit.  Unfortunately, the power in the place blew halfway through our second song so we had to call it a night.  It was bound to happen at least once on the tour.  Gotta say, Jethro was the man, he made us the best fries we've had since we've been here.  We drank lots of pinga with honey.  This place had more of a towny bar feel.  They were playing our cd over the PA all night.  All in all we had a fun time but it was a bummer not to play.

Today was a day off for us so we kept it really low key.  I had steak for breakfast, the best steak I've had here yet actually.  We went out with Sergio, Gabby, Eduardo and Bernardo (and Boris, the dog).  We had hoped to play soccer in the park today but it rained all freakin day so we stayed in.  We sepnt a while talking to Sergios mom for a while tonight, who is an amazing person.  She designed the house we're staying at right now, which I think we've mentioned is out of this world.  She's also an amazing painter.

SO!  We're actually going to go to bed before 2AM tonight!  Chocante!  Tomrrow we play campinas which is apparently going to be off the hinges.  Apparently its the gay capital of Sao  Paulo.  Campinas.  

is this thing on?

***If the tour manager is not happy, no one is happy***

(Give the man some, Fini)

So Mike has been doing an excellent job of keeping the blog updated. I'm going to post a massive update once I get back to the states, probally in a video format...but in the meantime, I'm just curious who's out there reading this thing. So if your out there checking this out, post a comment and let us know!

And now for your viewing pleasure, a couple of pix(we will post a ton to flicker once we get back)

Cheers,

-Jason

First dud

We'll pick it up in Limeira.

The show was at a club called Kingston. It was an all concrete dive kind of place, which we really dug, reminded Jason of some places in NY. We met the owner, Gamba, unloaded our gear and hung out for a while. It was a beautiful night, really warm with a cool breeze, the place was up on a hillside overlooking the city and they had an outdoor patio we were chilling on. Very serene. Lots of awesome grafiti there as well, and before the show we met the artist and learned he was going to be finishing a piece there while we were playing. We ate some burgers yet found ourselves still waiting for a good one. After a while, people started to show up and we realized we were by far the oldest people there. The place was full of teenagers, and we were playing an all ages show!! (we weren't aware of this beforehand), which everyone knows how we feel about that. The two opening bands were all kids, a screamo band and a grindcore band. We got up and did our thing, we played more of our harder songs as that seemed to be the general feel of the night. Sergio got up and joined us on drums for a song(PS sos), then proceeded to trip over the power strip powering the whole stage so the power went out. Jay kept playing, and Anne got everyone clapping and singing along. Dan and I started playing metal riffs to Jays beat, altho of course there was no sound. But when they reconnected the power, boom, the amps came on, everyone was clapping and singing, we went into a huge crecendo and everyone went nuts. I'm realtively sure Jay broke his 3rd drum seat at some point. Jason has been destroying drum equipment left and right. After we finished, everyone was really excited to meet us. We went outside and it was autographs and pictures and hugs and awkward conversations and all that good stuff we've come to love down here. Holy shit, we found Dans long lost twin, this girl who couldn't have been more than 18 yrs old. We took pictures of them next to each other and I swear to god, we had to double check when we left and make sure we had Dan with us and not her. One girl in particular told us we were the best live band she'd ever seen, said we were a mix of the Pixies and Sonic Youth. Afterwards, we got interviewed for a documentary they are doing about that club. The kids at the show described themselves as broke ass high schol kids, however we sold more cds at this show than all the other shows combined(this is what all ages shows are about!). The enthusiam was great. The only bummer of the night was we learned that alot of the 2 song CDs we've been handing out have been duds, as in, don't play. But we'll deal with that later. All around, one of the more memorable nights of the tour.

Funny story about the drive home, which was brutal, Anne had to talk non-stop just to keep me awake. Luckily, she had had a few and was the right woman for the job, as those of you that know her can attest. Jason rode with Sergio. It was about 2 hours back to SP from Limeira, it was 4AM by the time we got back into the city. As we were coming closer to Sergios house, I noticed him picking up the pace a bit, and you have to understand I'm driving a giant box Fiat with a 1.7 liter engine and 100Lbs of equipment in the back so she don't accelerate or corner too well. They also have gnarly speedbumps all over the city, alot of them disguised, and I can bottom the van easily if I'm not careful. So gradually, Sergio was pulling away from me, I'm trying to figure out what te hell he s doing, until eventually we went through this one chicane and he was gone, so we're thinking, Oh shit, now we are lost in downtown SP at 3AM in a giant van full of equipment. We went around the block, and realized that we were pretty close to Sergios. SP is a mess, but we figured it out somehow pretty quickly (we were only a blck away actually). But as we pull up to the end of Sergios street, we see Sergios car parked, Jason flagging us down, and Sergio haul ass sprinting up the street holding his ass. Jason tells us Sergio was 2 seconds away from shitting his pants, which is why he started to book it home. He weighed his options and shitting his pants was the worse options to us getting lost in SP. I agree. He made it just in time apparently, but the situation was critical.

Next night was Jethros bar. We've been wanting to meet Jethro for a long time cuz, how often does that happen?

More Shows

We just got back to SP last night from our mini tour through the northern part of Sao Paulo.  Very little sleep, lots of Skol, some great shows, lots of great people.  So last we wrote was after Sao Carlo, which was a wild night.  The guys we were staying with took us by the local college radio station in the morning where they all work.  It was incredible, the entire station is run on Linux with open source software and they play all genres of music, mostly local bands.  They are trying to build up the station and are a huge part of supporting local msuic, Jason and Anne had alot of fun talking with them as they were also involved with their local college radio back in Michigan.  We saw alot of people there from the show the night before, so it was a good way to refresh on names and faces.  Sao Carlo was a beautiful place.

We headed next to Araraquara to play at a place called Caibar.  We first headed over to the venue.  We had some time to kill so I juggled, Dan ran laps, Sergio smoked crack out of his phone, and Jason and Anne napped.  We found out we were the only band playing that night, met Junior who was the booker, and unloaded our stuff.  We then went and checked into one of the creepier hotels I've ever been in (they had postd signs that warned of scorpians), and we all more or less passed out for a while as we were still pretty beat up from the night before.  We woke up about 30 minutes before we were supposed to go on and when we got to the club we were sort of still asleep and kind of sour.  The stage there had big yellow X's on it where someone had fallen through it a couple nights before.  We were told to please not step there.  Lots of technical difficulties here, as has been the case mostly everywhere.  But that shit is our forte.

We played a more spacey set which matched our mood.  It was a big place, but there were only about 50-60 people there.  Apparently we were way too loud and it appeared that everyone left, but what really happened is that most people just hung out towards the back of the club in the lounge area.  We thought it might have been a dud but once again, we were approached by a bunch of people afterwards telling us how much they loved it.  We signed some cds, hung out for a while, then went to Habibs (some sort of Brazilian-Middle Eastern fast food joint) for some burgers and pizza.  Bad move, most of us felt like shit the next morning.  Also, when we woke up in the hotel the next morning most f us were covered with bugs.  We got the funk out.

OK, we headed to Ribeira Preto next, which translates to "Black Stream",  The place was grimy.  We headed to the hotel we were supposed to stay at, which looked to be worse than th one the night before so we said "Awwww hell nah".  They told us there was a nicer version of the same hotel down the street and we should check that one out.  When we got there, there was yellow police tape across the entrance, no bullshit.  So we found a much nicer hotel and checked in.

Jason tried to find the pool but found out it was some kind of practical joke for gringoes.  Thre was no pool.  We napped again, but this time it was nice.  We headed over to the venue, LIVER ROCK POWER.  The owner was the man, he appeared to be extremely drunk, but we later found out he was mostly just Irie.  There was a 14 year old gil there waiting for us.  She wasn't old enough to see the show, but she just came down to get our autographs and take pictures with us.  It was our teeniebopper moment.

We ended up going on, again, at like 2 AM.  The place was dead empty when we started (the two opening bands were ... interesting), but it filled up decently by the time we were done with our first song.  We played really well, people seemed to like it lot.  We were planning to play without Dan actually because he was too busy making out with a young Brazilian chick on a pool table upstairs and we didn't want to cblock, know what I'm sayin?  But bros before caminhoes (portugese for truck), so he came down and played.  Also, apparently some american hating jealous dude was there and tried to fight Dan before getting kicked out by the owner because he was trying to flirt with the girl as well.  We later found the guy outside waiting to jump Dan as we were leaving.  Sergio, Jason, the owner and I had to cross our arms and form a human wall as Dan snuck past us into the van with his hunny.  We dropped her off down the street, dan said goodbye with body language since she didn't speak a word of english, and we headed back to the hotel.  We ate some kickin crossaints.  I also learned that they show some pretty awful shit on cigarette packs in Brazil.  I won't mention specifics but it made me naseous.

Sooo, then off to Kingston (Limeira).  Gotta go, I'll hopefully write aboutlast night later.  It was incredible though.