wow. what a weekend. i'm sure it'll lose quite a bit in the telling…

i went up to chicago to see hey mercedes play their first show and record it for transmission3000. on the way, we're cruising up interstate 65, i'm somberly reading a book, and then bam! the brakes are on, and this semi in front of us is locking them up. this car comes flying out of the median (at first i thought it was some crazy-ass cop) general lee style. jumping across 2 lanes of interstate. it didn't hit pavement until the breakdown on the right-hand side of our lane. it hits the pavement and then flips over in this crazy barrel roll up into some thick shrubbery. this is quite a shock at 10 in the morning, as you might have guessed. we pulled over and scrambled out of the car, frantically calling 911 on the cell. we were met at the scene by some crazy trucker with a fresh tracheotomy, and we couldn't understand a damn thing he said. luckily, the lady was alright. she was just massively shaken up, and rightfully so. kids…let that be a reminder to wear your safety belts.

we ended up getting into chicago without any further carnage. things proceeded well. we ate some amazing chicago-style pizza in this deceptively nice hole-in-the-wall. got stuck in chicago-style traffic. the usual.

we got to the venue and got to set up nice and early (not like when we went up to do one of the last braid shows…), and the show went off without a hitch. i got to meet up with my friend jack from boston that i only get to see about once a year, so that was good. i also got to meet the guy from one day productions. all in all, a great show. and to document it, we have one hell of a nice recording. look out for it on transmission3000 sometime before the end of this week.

special thanks to jessye and megan for putting us up for the night on saturday. they're really great girls and it sucks that i don't get to see them more often. i did leave my pillow at their house, so maybe that'll be a good excuse to get back up there soon.

and now i'm back home again…

been a couple days since i updated (and i'm still more frequent than matt), so i thought i'd catch up on the major events around here. first off, i've actually been avoiding posting to the site for fear that i may launch into one of my trademark rants. it seems that quite a few people are interested in transmission3000, including bands that i can't stand. i've basically had moral dillemmas about the future growth of transmission3000 vs. what i really want it to be. i won't name names, but needless to say…well…whatever.

i spent last night in indianapolis. i went up there to see the casket lottery and small brown bike. it was a great show (waxwing is incredible. seriously…) until the pa blew out and we had to forget all about recording just to hack equipment together to get the show back in progress. everything worked out in the end, and everyone had a rockin' time. i'm looking forward to seeing all those guys next month at the bloomington fest. maybe we'll see you there as well.

tomorrow morning it's off to chicago to see the first hey mercedes show. i'm pretty fuckin' excited, especially since stacy let me here a promo of the new polyvinyl ep that comes out next month. good shit. really solid.

have a good weekend. i'll try to update from chicago…

today's bipolar update is dedicated to admitting it's okay to like nirvana. seriously. i've been listening to a mix cd of all of my favorite songs of their's, and nothing beats it.

adam at kempa.com has some interesting links posted today, including one weird-ass ebay auction…

something that will have me ostracized from the indie community: the new deftones record is really good. there. i said it. kill me now. they also have a pretty nice l'il website.

one more solo?

not much going on today as i sit in the hell i label "the workplace." it looks like one of the jobs i applied for wants me to come in for an interview. i'm trying to get a totally different position than what they're offering me, but i think i'll agree to take it anyway. it's still more money than i make here. i also have another job i'm working on that i just found out about today. maybe that one'll pan out, and my whole "not exactly what i wanted" thing will be moot.

looks like adam has posted some amusing work anecdotes over at kempa.com. you should check it out. i always do.

after matt's insightful article on janitorial workers yesterday, i figure i have to write how i think his whole article reminded me of the part in fight club where they laid down the law…"you do not fuck with us." i think if more janitors and people in the service industry took this stance, the world would be a better place. or maybe a tad bit more violent.

i know it's short, but i'm frickin' hungry. leave me alone already…

well…as you may have already read in matt's blog over there, our #1 search string so far this month is: 250lb women.

first off, i want to state for the record that i think this is sick. sick depraved shit. i know you're out there. i know you are coyly searching for fat chick porn and then linking over to us. well whoever you are…fucking quit it. you're driving me nuts. fuckin' sicko.

anyway…i now have an even faster computer. i spent the day installing a new processor and setting everything up correctly. shit that should have been done the first time around, but whatever. so i'm blazin' along. now all i need is that damn dsl connection…

just because i haven't mentioned it lately, kempa.com has been updated quite a few times in my absence. you know…we went with blogger so that it would be easy to update this thing on a regular basis…looks like we're still just a bunch of lazy bastards.

went and saw the national acrobat play on sunday. they played with a whole host of other bands, but after they played, i left. i was hungry and getting a headache. i guess that's the way things go. i did, however, pick up their newest cd, "the national acrobat is, for all practical purposes, dead." it's quite amazing. you should give it a shot if you haven't already.

that's about it for tonight.

first off…sorry that i haven't updated this thing in while. my best friend in the universe, guy kelly, just got back from two years abroad. needless to say, we've had some catching up to do.

the casket lottery breezed back into my town this weekend, and it's always nice to see those guys. too bad i don't get to see them often enough. we got to hang out and shoot the shit and all of that goodness. people were rocked. pictures were drawn. comics were bought. all in all, a damn good time.

since we're on the subject of friends and the distance that separates me from some of mine…i'll finally be able to see my friend jack again when i head up to chicago at the end of this month to see hey mercedes play their first show. so if you plan on being there, seek out this handsome guy, and tell him how much you love his weblog.

special note to conner: fuck you fuck you fuck you. i do too update this shit every now and then. thanks for reading, man.

::end transmission::

good lord. i have had the shittiest past couple of days. mixed with a few spots of ecstatic joy. i'm sure it will lose something in the telling…

sunday night i witnessed the single most horrifying spectacle ever. after hearing word of a c+c music factory / tone loc show on the riverfront, we thought it would be a great cheap night out…god save my soul…i was wrong…so wrong.

upon arriving we found out they were actually charging for the show. we let out a collective "fuck that" and proceeded to hop the fence. we knew the perfect spot for it, too…we had done the same thing friday night to see vhs or beta. en route to the fence jumping spot (more like fence stepping, but whatever) we heard these strange noises coming from the stage. it sounded like the unholy union of a whipporwhill and a horny chimp. intensely scary.

when we finally got within sight of the stage, i was struck with how unlike a factory c+c music factory actually is. it was just two people walking around on this ridiculously huge stage. there was no band. at all. all the music was piped in like some sort of violently unholy muzak. they pranced around the stage and sang really shitty music. i was expecting this. but i expected to be amused, not sickened. it all made me realize why i listen to the music that i do. and then freedom began to freestyle. i really can't call it freestyling. but considering i'm still in recovery from the lobotomy that this event was, i can't invent a new word for what he did. for the sake of argument, we'll call it shit. the man couldn't get three lines into a flow before he had to stop (and i imagine him asking someone "what rhymes with back?") and think about it. he was a complete and total fucking idiot.

the only saving grace of the evening was heckling the shit out of them. when they finally said they were gonna "take it home," we screamed for them never to come back. scott and i were actually plotting to march up to the stage and take the mic from his hand and tell him to go home. unfortunately, we never got around to it.

when tone loc finally took the stage, i was quite let down that "the loc" could turn the voice off. he just sounded like some regular dick. it kinda pissed me off. i'm really not gonna get into how disgusted i was when freedom joined them onstage for another "freestyling" session. fuck all that.

and then today my muffler fell off my car.

today there will be no links for you to enjoy. and rest assured that i have found god. and i've realized he doesn't give a fuck about us. as a matter of fact…he hates our guts.

late night. sitting at kinko's. scary thing is…i work here. and i'm fucking here in my off hours. printing new transmission3000 flyers and trying to get the sticker worked out right. shit just really starts working less and less as the hours creep past 2am.

speaking of transmission3000…i'm gearing up to start doing a shit load of road trippin' and show recordin'. so maybe i'll post a list of the shows in various cities that i'll be at. maybe. then again…maybe not.

the mind is just not working right. i'm sorry.

interesting addendum to yesterday's free starbucks comment: it seems as if my little coupon should actually say "free starbucks for life." it's kinda like thor's hammer…it keeps returning to me. which is a good thing. because i wouldn't be paying that much fucking money for coffee when i could just go down the street to heine brothers and get it done cheaper and better. but i guess you can't get any cheaper than free. not that i won't continue to patronize "the heine." it's my favorite place for coffee in this crazy town. the starbucks thing just solves my whole "paying for coffee while at work" problem.

now that that is out of the way…adam at kempa.com has posted an interesting article about the relation between the smiths and guns 'n' fuckin' roses. he stretches a bit, and a lot of the things are like saying "both bands are controversial," but it's an enjoyable read, nonetheless.

i lied yesterday. sebastian did update signal drench…to say that he's on vacation and won't be updating signal drench…

maybe i'll have more to say later…

it's been a while since i've felt like i had anything of importance to say. i still don't feel like i do, but paul pointed out that it's been something like 2 weeks since i've updated, so i thought i better get on the ball.

besides…feeling like i had nothing to say has never stopped me before…

adam at kempa.com has updated a couple of times in my absence. scoot over there and check it out.

signal drench, on the other hand…well…let's just say that sebastian is…indisposed…

i'm getting free shit from hershey. i bought a pack of rolos yesterday, and only 3 of them actually had caramel in them. no shit. the rest were solid chocolate. when i called the nice people at hershey, the operator was quite shocked. "rolos are supposed to have caramel in them," she gasped. well, rest assured, they're sending me compensation for my loss.

i also got free starbucks. that story isn't interesting at all. not in the slightest. free coffee, though.

out.