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ok. i'm listening to the new SPARKLEHORSE record. i'm not blue anymore.

ok. so it went well.

we met the crew and dave and paul and all that jazz. i almost tripped over danny devito and i wanted a duct tape guitar strap. watch letterman this friday night and you'll see what i mean. after the taping, we went to some bar with a ton of our friends and just got giddy with spirits and celebrated til the bill was too high.

flew to houston and met up with the tour. we've done two more shows since we lat talked and they have been my favorite shows by far. HOUSTON and DALLAS are places we have not played very often. the crowds were so amazing that you just had to blush. which we did. our backstage in houston looked like the warehouse in the joy division video 'love will tear us apart" (a song that has been really hitting me lately and coming in and out of my life in bizarrely perfect moments). except not as nice. we had our own little world back there where we were able to kinda hang out with each other. that sounds weird, but you're so busy running around all the time, it's nice to actually party just with each other. DALLAS was the last night with DEAD MEADOW. we will miss them. we had a little goodbye type party with them and the wolfies in wolfmother's backstage room. again with the spirits, but no bill this time.

now. we're stuck in this little town in texas called quanah (named after the last chief of the commanches who refused to give up polygamy). there's a fucking blizzard and we're trapped. worse off, it's a dry county. we need to be in portland soon. we're going to try and haul ass over there but our van is slipping all over the road and we've watched a couple of trucks spin off the road right in front of us. our man mcrae is a white knucle master. we really hope we make it. we do not wanna cancel another show.

speaking of that. yes, we are truly sorry to you in ST. LOUIS. it is totally lame that we were not able to play that show. we're totally bummed about it and sorry that we have let some of you down. it totally blows. i'm really working on a way to get us out there soon. we wanna meet you. sorry. bad band.

ok. blizzards, no st louis, love will tear us apart. now i'm really blue.

you?

love brian

i have not been able to contact you for a bit. my access to this web type thing has been limited, due to lame hotels and a hectic schedule. but now, here we are. a couple of silver spoons (have i used that line already? probably. i never read these things).

now, you all know that since we last talked we played a few shows at CMJ (north six in brooklyn being my personal favorite). we played shows in NEWPORT BEACH (thank you), SAN DIEGO (the BELLY UP is a fantastic venue), and MINNEAPOLIS (thank you, we really love you... brrr....). and we did what i call a 'corporate campfire' show for SPIN magazine (which was really fucking cool).

but that's not what you want to hear about, is it?

WOLFMOTHER.

we met up with them in philadelphia. everyone was a bit shy at first. peeking into each others dressing rooms and what not. yes yes, we have dressing rooms. but we're slowly breaking those barriers down. the wolfmother boys and every one of their crew are super nice. which is nice. right? DEAD MEADOW has been playing with us on the first leg of this tour. we have met them before and it's always good to see familliar faces. they make us happy. oh, and their sound man, brian, was hit by a car the day before the tour. nice. right? wrong sicko. he's alright. he's getting the feeling back to his limbs. he needs them.

we've only done a couple of shows with them (philly, nyc, detroit, and chicago) and it's just been great. after doing a couple of headlining tours right before this one, it feels so good to be playing for new people in great rooms. i mean, great fucking rooms. a highlight for me was detroit. i've never been to that city and i just had the best time hanging out with the crowd, watching the show. DEAD MEADOW and WOLFMOTHER just kill it every night. the crowds are so excited when the bands are playing. it's really been a refreshing experience. i love meeting new faces, but it has been hard for me to actually get out of the backstage hooplah and hang out with the crowd. i'm working on it.
in chicago, our tour guru Mcrae took us to his friends bar, THE HANDLEBAR, in wicker park. free drinks and shit talking and stuff makes the road more friendly. for me anyways.

i am very sad that we had to cancel our show in ST. LOUIS. i was looking forward to being in that city for the first time. the reason for it brings me to where i am now.

i'm in another hotel room in NYC, yet again, and we're a couple of hours away from performing on THE LATE SHOW, with DAVID LETTERMAN. i know i know. if you think it's weird, try being us for a second. we flew in last night first class (it's almost wrong how much better you're treated up there. you can't even feel turbulence. they remove it for first class only) and soundchecked at the ol' ed sullivan theater this morning. we whipped out our 3:30 second version of lazy eye a couple of times for the camera guys and sound guys and all the other kinda guys hanging around. we were a little nervous about it, but their whole crew (like wolfmother's) are totally great, the sound was superb (even though it'll probably sound all jinky on tv), and everyone there was real excited that we were there. which made us feel welcome. which is nice, right? you got it. except one guy introduced us as silverspun pickups. but he was sad about it later. i gave him shit. yep. i'm mean. and Biff said we were good. and yes, it's cold.

ok, so i never try to get personal on these things. i have a defense mechanism that strips my journal entries of certain aspects of the road. so i don't mean to sound all jolly and fundamental all the time, and i don't mean to just give you boring cliffnotes of the facts of what happened. i just feel a little douchy when i bring up sentimental moments. but for all of you on all the tours we have done, who have come up to me with your woes and your heartbreaks and your horror stories and then telling me that our music has really helped, i say thank you. i know what you mean and you are not bothering me at all. you help me. you really do. i understand more than you know, and i appreciate you letting me in on your personal grief and am stunned and truly humbled that our music has helped. it helps me. i'm blue too. but it's ok to be. that's how we work. right? right.

sniff.

ok. i'll let you know how dave goes. you can watch it on friday dec 1st. after tonight we fly to houston and jump back on the road with the boys. oh, and if you're in LA, the second night at the troubadour is selling pretty quickly, so get your tickets now. we want you all there.

and on we go.

love brian

happy thanksgiving, kids. hope you ate a lot of turkey and wore elastic pants.

~xoxopher

the final entry please....

-----------------------

the end.
and what a way to go.
just like kevin said, it couldn't have been more
grand.

this tour was crazy. it started out with such insanity
and instead of winding down, it just got crazier.

here we go.

BOISE ID

we arrived at NEUROLUX just in time for a heavily
bearded man to greet us, tell us we made it through
mormonville (assuming he meant utah), and skidded away
on his bicycle giggling to himself about the rights
and wrongs in the human condition. nice. we've never
been to boise and i still feel like i haven't. we had
to leave immediately after the show so we could do
some radio stuff in seattle. lame. i really wanted to
hang out for a bit in the town. the show was so much
fun. people were dancing all over the place. i also
think they were heavily drinking well before any of us
got there. nice. did some shots with the lovely
bartender ("NOT A DROP") and headed for an overnight
drive (thanks todd) to...

SEATTLE WA

well well well. yikes. didn't quite expect it. dang.
crazy. played a set on KEXP (where was cheryl? hmmm.)
and then i had to seriously rush to THE END so i could
do an acoustic song for them. all great people. met
the lovely gibson kids who threw down for a new case
for me. and now, ladies and gentlemen, THE CROCODILE.
i'm gonna have to bring back the HIGHLIGHTS portion of
my blog to sum this deal up.
HIGHLIGHTS: getting two japanese kids into the show
who came from japan to see us, anita and kevin VOCE
coming up and playing LAZY EYE with us, while we were
playing i would look over to the side of the stage and
see the mayhem that was happening in our backstage
room spill out onto the stage, gavin KINGDOM coming up
and accepting his MVP award for the tour, gavin then
stage diving into the audience, the audience picking
gavin back up and setting him back on the stage ever
so gently, gavin leaving us a present in our van,
gavin, record listening games/ jewlery making/ black
out jam sessions in our man dave dupuis' basement, and
a partridge in a pear tree. we love seattle.

PORTLAND OR

now here's where i got the shakes from all the
unhealthy tour like things one does on tour. i played
an in store acoustically and i thought i was going to
throw up the whole time. my body was telling me that
the tour was done. "but body, just one more, please?".
"OK bri, but you owe me". this show was just all
class. i love the doug fir. it's just so band
friendly. saw a ton of our old friends who hung out
with us all night. shared a hug or two with our new
fiends from the tour. everyone played great. the crowd
was beautiful. it was just a top notch end to a
whirlwind of a tour. oh yeah, and i learned that
spiderman and the statue of liberty like to make out
(halloween, you got me again).

wrap it up sir.
ok.

so now i'm at home here in LA at my desk, gearing up
for CMJ and the wolfmother tour. it's hard to really
reflect on what has happened because it just becomes
your life. this tour and our previous tour just
consumed us and it became what we are. we were a
family with these bands and those people who came to
multiple shows. it's hard for me to look at it all
with a clear head. it just was. i'm in the
decompression part of the whole coming home scenario.
let's just say this, when you're out on the road with
two bands for a month, and you watch them every night,
it's a good sign that when you're done with it all and
you're safe and sound in your comfortable home, you
immediately want to listen to their records. which is
what i'm doing.
charles, jenna, evan, zach, gavin, kevin, anita,
chris, kim, dave, todd, joe, christopher, and nikki.
thank you.

and thank YOU for coming out and making this tour the
best and craziest thing we've ever done thus far.

love brian

part 5...

---------------

look at this. i'm keeping up.

we are all drinking wine in some odd shaped freezing
hotel somewhere in utah. todd, who just joined us on
loan from sea level records, in formed me that we are
in SALINA. done and done.

we arrived in DENVER yesterday to pick up our before
mentioned friend, TODD, at his folks place. we then
gorged on that weird honey dipped crust casserole
style thing they call a pizza around here. this
might've been where my eye got attacked. now... MANIA
TV, zach from the KINGDOM's excessive humping,
wonderful show at the HIGH DIVE, or a DRESSY BESSY
dance party could not help my poor eye. it just got in
the way. it itches, hurts and makes me want to peel
something. it's fiery red and has a disctinct sulfur
like odor. this last part is untrue. but you know who
did smell like sulfur...

we met up with our goodfriends IRVING somewhere
between DENVER and ???, up in the snowy mountains,
drinking beer, and throwing balls of whats its today.
they just got back from visiting a hot springs. so
they stunk a bit. sulfur all over. but we were happ to
see 'em. after we sent them off, we drove through a
whole lotta different looking, tasting, smelling
snowstorms. pretty. scary. and now we're here.

i'm gonna try an make the other sspu's write something
right now.
trust me...
now would be a good time.

love brian

part four... ahem.

-------------------

land so on.

i'm sitting in a wee hotel 3 hours east of denver.
and i wanna continue.

but first, check out
href="http://www.diealloverme.com" target="_blank">THE
KINGDOM . they've been touring all over this rig
with us. they ist rad.

shall we...

ROCHESTER NY

a very hungover trip to a cool club called THE BUG
JAR. part of the fun this night was seeing how quick
we could get all the three bands on and off stage with
full sets and what not, before the dance club
happened. we work quick it seems. that second sentence
might've been a classic exaple of what my 4th grade
teacher reffered to as, 'the run on". chris from the
voce camp taught me a ton of riddles. which i'm sure
i'll be using on you.

TORONTO

what a treat. i love toronto. everytime we've been
there we've met the best people. the border was a
breeze for once. the rain was a drag, the interviews
were cute, but the show was great. tossed a few with
the MAPLE NATIONWIDE folks before the show. almost got
run over by a bicyclist or two. holly got rammed yet
again. boo. the next day, we dropped by niagra falls
for a bit of the tourist fix, christopher got a bit
evil on a stick, spent a little time on a treasure
hunt for dave (success), and off to...

AKRON OH

the LIME SPIDER is a fantastic venue. lucky for AKRON,
because it seems to be the only one. home cooked meal
with all the what nots was not a bad way to start.
learned about "poonvision" and how far one can shoot a
"doody ball". met a girl who met a guy who partied
with ashton. saw THE BLACK KEYS out of my
peripheral(?) while we played. missed THE KINGDOM
though, who you know now from checking out the link
above...

COLUMBUS OH

i played at LITTLE BROTHERS with my friends' band a
couple of years ago and did not have a good time. so i
was a little weary coming back with SSPU. i was wrong.
it was one of my favorite shows. the sound was great,
THE KINGDOM returned, VIVA VOCE played one of the best
sets on the tour, the bar was completely open (yipes),
the crowd was so enthusiastic. it was charles
KINGDOM's bday. he came up and lip synched to LAZY
EYE, evan KINGDOM played tamberine during the encore,
jenna KINGDOM took some tables out with her almighty
headstands, and the corowd cheered insanely when nikki
started CREATION LAKE. it was little bit of alright.

CHICAGO IL

i love chicago. this was our second time playing this
wonderful city. it was nice to see some old friends. i
even ran into a guy who plays in a band called MAHJONG
who played a party at our house 4 years agao. the
world keeps shrinking. it really does. i hit a wall
this night. i wanted to stay up and say hi to all of
our friends and meet some of the crowd, but i could
not keep my eyes open. i eventually passed out in the
back stage and woke up the next morning in a hotel
room. no, there was no fruit thank you.

AMES IA

this was by far the worst sounding show on the tour.
the club was nice and the college was beautiful, but
the sound was just ripe. win some you lose some. the
kids were all real cool. we captured a beast in THE
KINGDOM's hotel room and we all studied his actions
and responses. fascinating. it's getting nice and cool
outside. plus, we're all happy to be heading west.
we're near home.

COLUMBIA MO

the STL CARDS were playing in the world series this
night. so crowd was a bit sparse. but they were great.
all the bands started to blled into each other
tonight. by portland, we'll just be one big
clusterfuck of a band. the next day, which would be
today, we got all responsible. oil changed and amp
fixings. we hung out in the columbia mall. .... um...
yep. we did. sigh. i think we're cracking a bit.

ok. i'll try to keep this up a little better. sorry,
we've just been such busy bees. and we hang out by
your knees.

love brian

part three if you please...

-------------------

ok ok, sorry.
busy bees and all.
i am writing from a very cold AMES, IA.
awaiting our show.

here's what happened since we last spoke...

WASHINGTON DC

after a days rest, we were back at it. met the camp at
IOTA, a really cool little venue. enjoyed the
beautiful drive into DC. met up with some old friends
from our previous DC show. that felt nice. we always
love seeing familliar faces. stayed up too late, woke
up too early.

NEW YORK

nikki and i had to catch a train early (really f'n) so
we could do our segment on mtv2's subterranean. weary
eyed and a bit blitzy, NYC was a shock to the system.
i love it there, but once you are there, it's go time.
the MTV2 heads were nice. the fake basement was fun.
the mtv radio interview lady was a joy to talk to.
menwhile, christopher, joe, and dave dupuis were
dealing with heinous traffic, pouring rain, and
traffic due to an airborn yankee. we met up at the
mercury lounge, slept in the club for 15 minutes, i
did an little acoustic in store at the great OTHER
MUSIC, met up with our cellist tanya haden for her
birthday, played the show, loved it, aand then slep in
the van because we were blocked in. nice.

the next day, after we made it to our friends place,
we moved around the city a bit here and there. arrived
at the bowery ballroom totally excited. i love seeing
shows there and felt so lucky we were able to play
there. THE KINGDOM killed again. VIVA VOCE sounded
excellent as always. we loved playing there. after
party at a bar across the way was a bit debaucherous.
i danced with some new zealanders, i served drinks, i
told the dj what to do, i was a tyrant... a fun loving
tyrant. everyone we met was wonderful. and only one of
us had to sleep in the van...

PHILADELPHIA

wow. what can we say. what a surprise. we did a Y ROCK
session on XPN. it was great playing in george, my
favorite bug. johnny brendas is a great new venue.
really good looking and great sounding. dave bought a
guitar, we bought sandwiches. hmm. the crowd at the
show was so enthusiastic, we were just stunned. one of
our favorite shows. we look forward to coming back.
wooty.

BOSTON

two days in this lovely city. played for some really
nice folks at BU. while kevin voce did some hippity
hoppity (which we were bummed that we missed), we
spent most of the first eve on top of a building in
the middle of the city for a friend's oktoberfest
party. cold winds, colder beers, warm sausages, hot
shots of this that and the other, and hasselhoff. the
next morning, we strolled along the city to a once a
year art gallery opening thingy. a lot of galleries
open all together and have little parties. wine and
cheese please. zipped to the MIDDLE EAST, and played
another one of our favorite shows. it was great seeing
all of you. you know who you are. hotel party
followed. poor poor hotel. one of my personal favorite
things when we go to boston is all of our non stop
awful kennedy impressions. seriously, we can not
stop... you had to be there... and you might have
been.

oops. i gotta go. voce just sound checked and we're
up...
i'll be back.
more shit happened, i swear.
to be continued...

love brian

and now, here is part 2...

----------------

let me reflect a bit while we're sitting here in
morgantown, west virginia, taking a wee breather....

AUSTIN, TX

lovely like always. ran into our old friends SPARTA
and SOUNDTEAM, who were playing the other room in the
same club. as kevin mentioned earlier, hearing the
revamped ALICE IN CHAINS while walking around was
something, i'm not sure what that something is, but it
is something. our friend cece almost getting into a
brawl and having the security come down on her was
quite fun. and, yes yes, we will try and make it to
lubbock...

NORMAN, OK

really really cool. i loved the opolis. 3.2 beer?
c'mon. i'm not sure what that solves. some really nice
people. it was a breath of fresh air playing that
club. nicest weather we've seen on tour so far. it's
starting to feel all great pumpkin out there...

SPRINGFIELD, MO

totally great. going to the hippie bar with the
vocedom was a treat. like kevin said earlier, his
denial into the hackey sack jam caused an outbreak of
the giggles. they couldn't play elton john if all of
their champa was at stake. the randy bacon gallery was
really cool,,, and so was randy bacon. good luck at
the new spot. we've been getting some interesting
presents from people, and this show was no exception.
everyone played great, but i'm gonna say THE KINGDOM
ruled it that night. done and done.

LAWRENCE, KS

rowdy. everyone was a bit juiced up. the crowd, the
bands, the royal we. we were able to stay at our
friend's place in kansas city. home cooking and all.
it was like being on a little vacation... umm, in the
middle of our big one. the loss of sleep started to
make an appearance that night. i carried it with me
to...

CHAMPAIGN, IL

our mechanical ANITA got us lost. so we were late.
made it in barely enough time so nikki and i could run
to WPGU and do an interview and play a bit of this and
that. i knew i brought the acoustic for some reason.
ran to the hall we were playing in. recieved some more
presents. met some great people. THE KINGDOM killed it
again. i felt sorry for the sound guy. people were
jumping all over him to make it sound better when we
played. he was trying. we just didn't get a soundcheck
and there wasn't enough time. that's just how it goes
sometimes. VIVA VOCE was great as ever. champaign is a
beautiful place, and so is...

NEWPORT, KY

the southgate house. wow. had images in my head while
we were playing of flapper girls, smokey gumshoes,
rickety roullette wheels, a number of ace cards hidden
up someone's sleeve, and possibly a cold body in the
cooler between the moonshine and the red stripe. i
was, however, made an offer that i did refuse. i
think. i'm not sure what that one was about. oh, and
WOXY lives. done and done.

and now we've shut down for a night. we've got some
big things coming up in the next couple of days.
beauty rest is a must.

thatnk you all who have come to the shows so far.
you're making us feel all warm and fuzzy... um, in a
total rock and/or roll party like kinda way. yeah.

love brian