Same Day Service

2003-04-19T01:43:00.000-05:00

*this is really Maggie's post, I just can't remember my username so I'm using Lisa's*

I was talking to Dustin from The Riddlin Kids the other day and he mentioned that his band recently played a show in OKC. He said that there was a group of girls there all wearing SDS tshirts! So, whoever you girls are, I just wanted to say thanks for representing. It really makes us feel good to know that you support us.

Also, we played a show last week at a Georgetown backyard party. Besides getting caught in rushhour traffic and getting slightly lost and being almost an hour late, we had a great time. It's so cool how sometimes playing in a kid's backyard for 20 people can be so much more fun than playing in a bar. It's so much more relaxed and everyone pays attention and has a good time. This was our first "house" show since we've been in Austin (besides the co-op), and I hope we're asked to play more.

2003-04-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

last night we played a show in san antonio at a club called "rox". there was no one there. you can never underestimate the power of advertising, or having a local band on the bill. but! it was actually a lot of fun for us, and we can always use the practice on a big stage with good sound and a nice PA.

we renewed our commitment to eating at diners while on the road by getting dinner at a place called EZ's which had a cool neon sign. turned out it wasn't a diner at all, it just had diner decor. disappointing, yet i swear some guys from the mob were eating there. you know, the san antonio mafia... ha.

in between songs in our set sarah said "you guys want to hear a cover?" to the 7 people that were there (5 of them were in the other band- called divide) and no one responded. so i said " is anyone paying attention?" and still no response. so we played it anyway and it was fun for us. then we finished playing, loaded out and left. the end.

2003-04-06T19:15:00.000-05:00

wow. so much for updating soon. sorry about that.
the last few weeks have been spent waiting, which is starting to be the story of our lives. ironic (or not) since we are naming the new album "waiting for tomorrow" since its seems like that is what we are always doing. we are expecting the final mastered copy of the album any time now; i think we're done making changes. we've also done a photo shoot for pictures for the album, which i have yet to see, and we have some shows coming up as well - one in san antonio and one in round rock - we're branching out! - so check the shows page for updates and info.
we spent a lot of time wearing cheerleader costumes during sxsw, and while it seemed to help attract attention while passing out flyers on 6th street, i don't really think it added anything to our live show, except maybe some discomfort on our part. we'll have to see if we can dig up a picture of it for entertainment. we had a really fun show at mugshots, and we played the chiken wire ranch to a small, but very loyal crowd. we also played a day show at the ritz which turned out to be pretty cool.
that's brief i know, but its all i have time for at the moment. here are some bands from sxsw that i thought were cool:
redneck manifesto instrumental stuff from ireland, so tight and amazing! i saw them 4 times...
olympic lifts i was one of 10 people at their showcase, which is sad. they were really cool. more irish guys, sort of electronic hip hop - it was rad.
greyson manor we met these guys and they were nice. i have to let the band site just speak for itself.

i feel like there is something i'm forgetting, i'm sure it will come to me soon...

2003-03-22T14:28:00.000-06:00

south by southwest was wild. so many people here and good bands! it was a lot of fun.
i think i'm going to write about some of the bands i saw and give some links, but no time right now. soon!

2003-03-12T12:36:00.000-06:00

its going to be a crazy week here - we have 4 shows this weekend and so many sxsw shows to see. check the shows page for details. and yes, we're playing two on friday - one at 7pm and one at midnight so don't be all confused.
today is my birthday and i'm feeling old. its probably just because i'm feeling sensitive to it, but i keep hearing songs about living for the moment, and how growing up isn't so bad. i guess all those other rockers are feeling old too.

2003-03-05T17:30:00.000-06:00

well, a week at home and i'm ready to go on tour again. if the weather here was better maybe it would be better, but its been like living in seattle the past week!
we have some shows coming up during the week of sxsw, check out the shows page on our website for details.
i have been listening to an explosions in the sky album all day at work today and i think its really awesome. music in the vein of mogwai (but not so loud!) and godspeed - i think its really good. check them out.

2003-02-28T19:05:00.000-06:00

we're finally home.
last night we played at the ritz with slum city and split christie and it was great. so many people came out and it was so good to see everyone. i'm at work again whcih sucks, but my bed felt so good last night!

2003-02-26T17:25:00.000-06:00

the bad weather has finally caused us some problems and we are stuck here in norman for another day. not all bad i guess, but we all have stuff to do at home that is now put off for another day. i changed the face of the blog so all the archives are handy. when we get back we're just going to make the blog the news page on our website so we can all update it. moving up in the world!

2003-02-26T01:04:00.000-06:00

just home from playing the show at OU.
i'm going to speak for all three of us here and say that we were really impressed with the band we played with tonight - mostly dead. really great emo-ish stuff, a lot like alkaline trio mixed with saves the day. the singer has a great voice i think. maggie embarassed their bass player during our set by talking about how she remembers when he was 10 years old. check them out, its good.
something weird happened while we were playing - wait, let me preface this by saying that we were running our own sound tonight, bad news! - and when i tried to yell on bobby no morals a horribly strange noise came out of my microphone and i was too scared to go near it again. sarah said later that she thought it sounded like a monster and she though i was just putting some extra oomph into it. much laughter about that.

tomorrow we leave for austin. we've been told there was a big ice storm there and everyone is freaking out. so much for leaving cold weather behind! still, i'll be happy to get back to my shampoo (which i forgot) and my bedroom slippers (which i miss).

2003-02-25T16:28:00.000-06:00

after 12 hours of sleep i'm feeling much better. we're hanging out in the OU student union right now playing on the computers.
as you have probably guessed, we are done recording. its mixed and we have a rough copy of it on cd that we have to liten to (as if we're not sick of hearing it by now!) and make sure its all okay. then its going to be mastered and off to the pressing plant! tonight we're going to play a few of the new songs from it that we haven't played before. the last couple nights in denver we stayed in the studio which made us all feel pretty weird. maggie created a pallet on the floor out of uhaul moving blankets. no windows at all in there, so we had no idea what time it was or what the weather was like. turned out it was snowing a lot. the drive yesterday started out pretty crappy but the weather cleared itself up and we made it home pretty fast.
we even got to stop yesterday in Corn, Oklahoma and visit my sister and her 4 kids. i was super excited about that because i haven't seen them in a long time. we went to their school basketball game and saw my niece (meredith) and nephew (buddy) play. it was rad! my sister hadn't told them we were coming- the looks on their faces were totally worth it! then we went to their ranch and had chili and played with the kids. we played them a song from the cd and lane, who is 5, danced and played air giutar.
today we went to our favorite thrift store in norman and i got some sweet coveralls for 80 cents that might make an appearance at one of our shows...
i wish i could think of funny stuff but i think i waited too long to write and i've forgotten it all.
we've all been feeling generally under the weather, maybe when we cross that texas border we'll miraculously recover.

2003-02-25T00:49:00.000-06:00

haven't had access to a computer (or shower) for a couple of days. we're back in norman now and we play here tomorrow in the OU student union at 8pm. tired now. sleep.

2003-02-21T23:58:00.000-06:00

in the 11 days we have been here we have spent so much time working that we haven't really had much time to hang out; we've been pretty much comatose after 8 and 9 hour days of recording. the guys at the studio took us out last night since it was their friend andrew's birthday. where did we go, you ask? well, we went to charlie's - denver's favorite gay cowboy bar and dance club. it was so great. no one hit on us (except the birthday boy andrew, who probably doesn't even rememeber it) and it was awesome to see a bunch of men line dancing and two-stepping on the dance floor. after that we went to another bar called the lounge which maggie said made her feel like she was in a game of "clue". my commentary on the bar was this:

chris: this bar is pretty cool!
lisa: yeah, the carpet is super soft! (bounce bounce)

it was a pretty posh place. as we were getting out of the van to enter this bar some kids walked by us and were checking out our van. so i stopped and waved at them. then they came to the bar and asked us if we were a band and it ended up one of them is the singer for a band called one dying wish. turned out that they knew some of the guys we were with as well. such a small world in the music scene.

today we were back in the studio at 11:30am finishing vocals. maggie was amazing, kicking out harmonies on the spot. its so cool how she can just hear that stuff in her head and sing it. then i sang a few things which were just enough to leave me dubbed "lisa the choir boy".
today we learned:
1. if we all gather around a microphone together to sing we laugh hysterically and we all have to close our eyes to accomplish anything.
2. a whoopie cushion provides many minutes of hilarious entertainment.
3. none of us like tambourines.
4. we're really good at synchronized clapping.
5. sarah has a good evil hobbit voice.

also, chris, the engineer, tried to write a keyboard part for one of our songs and ended up accidentally writing the titanic song that celine dion sang (can't remember what its called). it fits perfectly in our song! you'll have to buy the cd to see if we used it...

2003-02-20T00:31:00.000-06:00

also! i just remembered this...
we have met virgil from suburban home records here, i think i mentioned him already. (he is to be thanked for tom's home cooking)
suburban home has some really great bands on it which i have never heard until now, including the adventures of jet and the band stereotyperider, whom we have known for awhile. check out this label and these bands - it will be worth your while.

2003-02-20T00:24:00.000-06:00

first, let me say something that i feel is a bit embarassing, but i must admit. we have spent some time listening to jimmy fallon's new comedy CD and it is so hilarious. it's funniness just keeps resurfacing. i would never in my life buy a comedy cd, but if you get the chance, you should hear this one. it is really funny.

onward! sarah has completed the bulk of her vocal tracks now. maggie starts tomorrow, then me, and then we add some minor stuff and ta-da! off to be mastered and we're done! sarah was amazingly patient while laying her tracks. everytime chris said " you can do it better - again!" i thought i would scream, but she just said "okay." (not enthusiastically, but still!)

today we went and had an awesome "home cooked" meal at tom's home cooking. if you're ever in denver i would highly recommend it. sweet tea that beats even bojangles. yes, really. we finished today by 7pm and are now taking it easy at maggie and sarah's aunt suzy and uncle kevin's house. they have been so awesome to us. if you're ever in denver i would also recommend staying here, its the bomb. (think: electric blankets)

i did mention how there are lots of kooky people in denver and drunk old men, right? well, in addition to that weirdness, we seem to have stumbled into some time warp where we are destined to get in a fight. it is getting closer and closer... for some reason when people are mean to us here (like the stupid lady in the einstein bagels parking lot today who stole our parking space) we have lost all self-control. seeing maggie scream nasty things out the window of the van at this lady who seriously scrambled out of her car and ran inside the store was the highlight of my day.

i'd better get back to relaxing.

2003-02-17T23:05:00.000-06:00

such a long day for me today. we were at the studio by 11am but then some technical difficulties and blah blah and i didn't get all my bass done today as hoped. 3 more songs to finish tomorrow. right now we are at university of colorado seeing the band the rise play. they are also from austin and its cool to see them here. i'm utilizing the student union's computers.
it was a really nice day out here today but since i was in the studio cave all day i missed it.
maybe tomorrow.

2003-02-17T00:57:00.000-06:00

we're having an early night tonight which we are all really grateful for. productive day in the studio, sarah's guitar is done and sounding "hot" as matt likes to say.
today i saw a black squirrel which i thought was amazingly cool. no one else was very impressed, but they didn't see it. soon they are going to think i'm making this stuff up. in austin we have an albino squirrel, which i have also seen. i really feel very lucky to have seen such a wide variety of colored squirrels.
in case anyone was wondering (mom) my spleen has been hurting like crazy. it must not like colorado. i think it misses sunlight, warmth and exercise.
off to bed now, the electric blanket is calling me.

2003-02-16T10:56:00.000-06:00

ahhh, another snowy colorado day.
off to breakfast in a bit and then to the studio late today. we played a show last night at "cricket on the hill" that we picked up at the last minute. everyone at the bar was super nice, we got free pizza and sodas and you know that makes us happy. we were tired after a 9 hour day of recording but it turned out to be a really fun show. the band we played with on tuesday night, bastard squad helped us get the show but then two of their members were in a car accident and they didn't even play! it was too bad because i really like their singer's voice a lot - i wanted to see them again. we played a really tight set, maybe from all of the recording practice, and it rocked. the crowd was good and a guy wearing a hockey jersey and a cowboy hat made sarah wear his hat through the whole last song.

sarah is about halfway through laying her guitar tracks (then finally it will be my turn!) and we expect to finish them today. things are sounding so great, we are all feeling really excited about how the album will come out. we've also met a bunch of cool people here, virgil from suburban home, our friend anthony from stereotyperider happens to be here in town, and everyone at the studio is rad. we went to the anti-valentines day show the other night and saw bands covering journey, sabbath and g'n'r - it was so cool! chris gamit makes an awesome ozzy. sarah's favorite was journey and it was pretty great. all the hits and everyone singing along. a lot of kooks live in denver and we have met our fair share, especially at that show. drunk guys trying to hug us and creepy old men who want to fight or talk close to our faces - blech. its all just been really funny.

still sore from snowboarding. maybe i should learn to not fall as much.

2003-02-14T20:38:00.000-06:00

just back from snowboarding and it rocked! we lucked out with fresh powder. the only bad thing was the drive home through crazy snow.

yesterday maggie kicked ass in the studio and recorded all of her drum tracks. she has to redo a bit tomorrow but it will be minimal. sarah was a trooper, she had to record scratch guitar all day with maggie and she was super tired by the end. i pretty much sat in the control room and spouted off my opinion about everything.sometimes chris and matt let me press buttons on the board.

not much else to report. we've eaten a lot of candy and i'm living on a diet of funyuns.

2003-02-13T11:32:00.000-06:00

yesterday we discovered that sitting around waiting for something to happen can make you very very tired.
today we record and tomorrow we snowboard!
tomorrow night we are going to a show - our valentie's day surprise from the gamits. they are playing all black sabbath covers and 2 other bands are playing doing G'n'R covers and journey covers. should be lots of fun!

2003-02-12T15:20:00.000-06:00

lisa wrote a really long entry and the stupid internet lost it. i'm not much for writing journals but here's a list of what we did yesterday.
got up after a bad nights sleep due to being sick, hung out in boulder for a bit, ate some taquitos, then drove to denver to check out the studio
discovered the studio was not quite put together yet, lisa painted some window trim, i knitted, sarah wrote postcards
went in search of guitar center and whole foods, so we could use employee discounts, got ignored at GC and saw cute boys at WF
*as we were leaving the Guitar Center parking lot, some girls drove by us and were blantantly making fun of the skull and crossbones license plate on the front of the van. so bad ass Lisa got out of the van and went over to their car to see why they were making fun of us. the girls got scared and locked their doors. it was awesome.
found 15th Street Tavern, loaded our stuff in, realized one of the guys from The Bastard Squad stayed at our house once, got a parking ticket, and
played a great show.
the only bad part (besides the parking ticket) was me losing my voice, so I'm trying my best to speak in whispers today. it sucks.

2003-02-10T22:59:00.000-06:00

here we are, in colorado! super long drive today, 12 hours straight through. lots of snow, but none on the roads so we were cruisin'. i have a lot to say today so here we go.

at subway today i got a magic 8 ball toy. we asked it some questions and here's how it went:

Q. Will this album come out well?
8-ball: all signs point to yes.
Q: will we all have valentines?
8-ball: YES
we decided that this was too vague so we asked specifically...
Q: will lisa have a valentine?
8-ball: all signs point to yes.
Q: will maggie have a valentine?
8-ball: YES
Q: will sarah have a valentine?
8-ball: outlook is not good.

oh! we really want to trust the 8-ball on the album coming out well... but for sarah's sake we threw the 8-ball away.

on top of that we had a pretty hilarious day and i learned a lot. i made a list so i would never forget:

1. after 12 hours in a van and two days in the same shirt i smell really bad, but i can easily blame it on the something else. " eww, skunk" "man, the van stinks." etc.
2. sometimes when sarah sneezes she sounds like a horse. pfffbpffbpffb. totally cool.
3. when i feel really happy about something (like being on tour) i can't stop grinning and its creepy.
4. when i sing "subba" maggie automatically repeats "subba bubba".
5. when one cow is standing on another, they aren't just hugging. and at 70mph you have to point it out fast or no one else will see it.

it is inevitable that somone is sick on the road and this time maggie is the victim. we'll be making a medicine run today. tonight is our show at the 15th street tavern in denver - if you're in the area come out!

2003-02-09T13:44:00.000-06:00

in a correction to our shows page, the band we are playing with in Norman on February 25th is Mostly Dead, not almost dead. oops.

we woke up today to 3 inches of snow on the ground here, which i think is going to be a theme for this trip. the show last night was really fun, the rejects were good and the crowd here was so excited for them to be home. a local radio station played their whole album on the radio after the show!
i acquired a sweet riddlin' kids wristband last night which (supposedly) has magical powers and will make our album come out perfect. we'll see...

maggie is going to make a silkscreen today so we can make patches - we'll have those soon after we get back i hope!

and, you know, i can't even tell you how good it feels to be on the road again, even if we are only 6 hours from home.

2003-02-08T19:46:00.000-06:00

we're at our frst stop on our trip to denver - maggie and sarah's parents house in norman. had some awesome food and now we're heading out to see our friends the riddlin' kids and the all-american rejects in oklahoma city. we got a late start today and the weather is crappy, but we're still super excited and having fun. looking forward to more bad weather ahead.
later!

2003-02-05T14:11:00.000-06:00

today is my last day at work, and maggie and sarah are already done. SO EXCITED! we leave later this week and make it to denver by the 11th for a show there.
can't wait, can't wait!

2003-02-01T14:22:00.000-06:00

our show at flamingo went pretty well. for us, its been good to play shows to hear our new songs live and we need the practice! we had a good time seeing our friends in jinxpack again. sarah wrote a show journal on the website so for more info you can go check it out. same day service
i had a really good weekend (my weekend being wednesday and thursday) and i'm so excited to be leaving for tour/recording. i think its is what's keeping all three of us going at work! we've been practicing so much and writing new songs; when we get back from colorado you can expect a few you haven't heard at our shows before.
i just got this album of a band called bats and mice. it is members of sleepytime trio, engine down, and milemarker - all bands i love. check any of them out if you can.