March 17
I wake up at 7am. Total hours of sleep: three. The circles under the eyes aren't looking so good. We shower, get directions, drive over to the college, get new directions, and load in to the KVRX studio. The kids running the station are extremely nice and totally professional.
We thank the kids and haul ass to the metal club in the strip mall that is miles away from downtown Austin. We are playing the Skyscraper Magazine party with lots of our friends. We are told that this venue is known mostly for its plentiful monitors.
When we pull up, Modey Lemon are hanging in the parking lot by their van with members of Grand Buffet, a brilliant,
The club is huge, dark, and empty -- just the way I like it.
Grand Buffet blow me away. They are awesome. Dave shows up. Yay! Modey play. Jason's amp craps out so he jumps off stage and climbs onto Erick's back. They run around the club and bump into the 6 people in the audience.
Apes play. It's awkward.
After the show, we all go eat at the Taqueria across the street and then head back to the city. We quickly learn that we can't get into any event without badges (we elected to get paid this year, rather than have access to the events). However, we still manage to run into tons of band friends on the street.
All of our buds are standing around the parking lot drinking and it's packed. Kids are everywhere. Most of them are drinking from bottles housed in paper bags. I'm drinking nothing. I do take one sip of whiskey provided by my buddy, Lars, the keyboard play for Gris Gris.
The Gris Gris start to set up.
After some time, we get back in the van to find house party number 2. The rumor is that Kid Congo is going to DJ at this party. Yeah right. Jeff wants to get dropped off at our host's house. I encourage Paul to go back as he is clearly fading. He just keeps crying for donuts. And he wants some Kleiny medicine. I won't provide. I drive around. Can't find Adam's place. I find the airport instead. Eventually we make it back to Adam's and drop off Jeff. Paul refuses to go in. He is so tired…
We go to the house party. There is a bonfire out front and little girls dressed in very little frolicking about. I am wearing a parka. The band is playing in the kitchen. Damn! I can't eat their food now! Double damn.
I sit on a couch and feel sorry for myself. Everyone is drunk and partying but me. Boo Hoo! I go sulk in the van. And I miss the only excitement. Apparently Oscar was clapping loudly and one of the dudes from The Warlocks got pissed and almost started a fight. Paul was about to kick some ass and then it got broken up. The dudes come back to the van and I drive Dave back to his hotel. In true super high energy fashion, Dave asks if we want to get one more drink. We can't say no to Dave. Instead, we visit the bakery next to his hotel. He and Paul get cookies, sausage rolls, and croissants -- all the best drunk foods. I get a raspberry herbal tea and tell Erick that I'm in hell. He says: Congratulations. You have reached Nirvana, the place that only few even dream of reaching.
Sweet.
We go up to Dave's hotel room and a few minutes later, Paul is snoring on the bed. Erick and I chat with Dave till about 4am. We tearfully say farewell to Dave as we have to leave for an 11 hour drive to Memphis early the next morning.
When we get back to Adam's house, there are two guys standing outside on his stoop. One guy is giving the other guy a hair cut.
Once inside, I ask Adam how his day was. He says it was the best day of his life. He was at a party and looked down and discovered that some unlucky young chap had dropped a bag of a very prized possession. Instead of going to sleep, one of my band members went into the bedroom of the host and shared this prized possession till sun up.
 "KVRX representing")
With the equipment all set up, we go get food. Erick and I go to Little Cities, our favorite coffee place. We get salads and iced coffee. It's a little warmer today. We rush back to the station, play some songs, and I do a very intelligent interview using a vocal effect called "Goat". I proceed to explain some features of Baba's Mountain, our about-to-be-released album on Birdman Records. I get hung up talking about the wet exercise crabs that molt in the hot tub and the pursuits of the complicated squirrels. I think language must be negatively impacted by sleep deprivation and the accumulation of unpassed feces.
infamous Pittsburgh info-hip-hop duo. Some people are drinking Dr. Pepper, some people are just drinking. It's 2 pm.
Eventually, we pile back in the van and head out to go to Sound On Sound Records where the Gris Gris are playing an in-store show.
Lars and Oscar hide a few beers behind there amps for after the show. Someone from my band finds the beers immediately and I watch him consume them rapidly. Dave arrives and out comes the beer bong. After the show, we load into the van and I drive us to house party number one. Bands are playing. There is no furniture. Alcohol and drugs are consumed in mass quanitities. I take a little diet pill. Kleinman must have a little fun. Eventually, Dave and I opt to hang out in the yard along with 300 other drunk young people. A friend calls me and wants to know where I am. I tell her to look for the pile of concrete that people keep falling over in the dark. I'm behind that.
