rb

Describing Infrastructure as "the opposite of Vampire Weekend"

2009-12-10T09:17:00.001-05:00

is probably the nicest thing you could say to us.

Austin: This is the plan...

2009-12-06T04:58:00.003-05:00

...unless someone tells me otherwise.

Yes, it is Sunday at 4:50-something a.m. Disastrous chest cold continues.

Twelve Shots from Day Two of Deep South 09

2009-12-05T19:11:00.003-05:00

When it comes to photography, the B-roll is more important than you might think. They might not be the best shots, but B-roll photos are the journal--my journal--of my endless travels throughout North America. Here are some shots from Deep South 09, Day 2 of 12, that are important to me. Seeing these images jogs my memories of rolling through north Georgia and southern South Carolina; once jogged, my mind will deliver the minutest memories.

Full set on Flickr.

Next, I think I will post the photos (some A-list) from the Brothers' trip to Austin in May 08, in preparation for ABBQII next weekend.

ABBQII (Austin BBQ 09) is less than a week away.

2009-12-04T23:33:00.002-05:00

Here's what I have so far:

View A.B.B.Q. II in a larger map

Here's my suggested itin:

FRI AFTN: Record-setting crew of 6 arrives, lunch in town (Iron Works?)
FRI EVE: off to the Hill Country town of BRADY, which has 3 BBQ joints and is known for cabrito (goat). Possible stops at either Cooper's location, as well as the Burnet holiday display.
FRI NIGHT: Music! TBA!

SAT MORNING: Out to Lexington to hit Snow's before the brisket runs out.
SAT DAY: Cruise anywhere east of Austin. Plenty of choices on the map.
SAT NIGHT: Dale Watson @ The Broken Spoke
SAT LATE NIGHT: Sam's BBQ? Open til 2.

SUN MORNING: Sleep
SUN AFTN: Breakfast at Opie's or The Salt Lick
SUN EVE: Comatose state
SUN NIGHT: Heybale w/Redd Volkaert @ The Continental Club.

MONDAY: Chill until flights out.

Jetblue had AUS on sale for $99 each way from NY and BOS this week. Let me know if this sounds like fun, and we'll get a bigger van.

I went to central Illinois, and this is all I saw.

2009-12-03T22:01:00.001-05:00

In a hallway at the U of I physics department, where I stopped in to use the restroom.

RANDOM FRIVOLOUS GUITAR PURCHASE

2009-12-03T18:29:00.001-05:00

I now own this:

Handmade in Quebec, being shipped in from rural Ohio. It will be onstage at Church 12/18.

INFRADELPHIA HIGHLIGHT REEL

2009-12-01T11:31:00.001-05:00

Created last night. Filmed by Dan, edited by Rob.

Boston Gray

2009-11-30T12:17:00.001-05:00

Stifling, suffocating entrapment, or aesthetically pleasing backdrop to the right music, depending on how your life is going when the rain rolls in.

INFRADELPHIA!

2009-11-30T00:27:00.003-05:00

Just finished watching the video of our show at Tritone Friday night--what a fun set! A lot of people asked about the meanings behind the songs. Here's the set we played:

Hatred: A tricky, instrumental blues that we usually open with.
$ (pronounced "cash"): A southern rock tune about the miserable northeast.
Moorpark: A country-punk-Beatles song mostly about downward social comparison.
Climber: The first Infrastructure song, Climber is about how people do things they think they should want to do but don't actually want to do, in order to get ahead, from pre-school to the workplace.
Republic: A folk-funk homage to a mostly abandoned mining town Meade and I visited on UP08.
Danny U-Haul: Tribute to our documentarian roadie...Dan Meade.
Misery: The closest we come to a song about feelings.
Cul-de-Sac: entirely about entitlement in America.
Teardown Kings: New tune about people who actively try to derail you.
The Old World: Essentially a song about 116th Street in College Point, Queens. Everybody loves this tune.

Must sleep. I'm excited about more roadshows!

CPCCPCIV Postponed.

2009-11-25T14:48:00.004-05:00

Note to all Manic-CPCCPC (College Point Class Conflict Pub Crawl) participants: we need to postpone this year's event. INFRASTRUCTURE (Chris, Erich, and myself, plus Micah the drummer) is playing a 9:30pm set at Tritone in Philly on ~~Saturday~~ Friday night (details here), and Rob Gestone's band, Postcard Secrets, is playing at The Bitter End in Manhattan on Saturday night (details here).

We'll try to bring back the CPC over Christmas, even though INFRASTRUCTURE is making its New York debut on 12/26. Stay tuned.

And, oh yeah, Austin in TWO WEEKS. Manic to the max!

Piece of pizza?

2009-11-24T19:07:00.001-05:00

No. It's a fucking slice. You want to sound like you belong in New York? Call a slice a slice.

Toronto Streetcar 1 (DH09)

2009-11-24T11:06:00.001-05:00

Lots more to come from this place. Travel safely today and tomorrow.

SWAMPVENTURE (DS09)

2009-11-20T09:23:00.001-05:00

Three weeks from today, this crew plus one will be in the air for ABBQII. Here we are, deep in the Okefenokee swamp, waiting for Dan to crash the boat into the trees...

Landing Back in New York

2009-11-16T10:29:00.001-05:00

There are leaves on the trees! And the Shuttle pilots are insane--a hybrid of Masshole and Manhattan cabbies of the sky.

Mega-Manic Fall

2009-11-15T15:37:00.003-05:00

It's 3:33 p.m., and the sun has already clocked out here in Boston. In dark times, you have to make your own weather. This is what I'm working on:

11/16-19 NY for work
11/19-21 Boston for life and rehearsal.
11/22-23 Toronto for work (looking forward to this, as I've never been to the city before).
11/24-29 NY and Philly for Thanksgiving.
11/27: INFRASTRUCTURE AT TRITONE in Philly

And then:
12/11-12/14: ABBQII in Austin! With a crew of at least 5!
12/18 INFRASTRUCTURE at Church in Boston
12/26 INFRASTRUCTURE at National Underground in Manhattan.

Doing stuff is awesome.

INFRASTRUCTURE: All Asia Highlight Reel

2009-11-13T00:14:00.002-05:00

From Saturday's show:

Shot by Meade, edited by yours truly.

As for the band, we should have a Philly show during Thanksgiving confirmed within the next few days and are working on a NY show for Christmas weekend. Next Boston gig is Dec. 18 @ Church in the Fenway.

INFRABUSINESS CARDS!

2009-11-12T17:01:00.001-05:00

Jut came in the mail, printed by moo.com. The quality is disturbingly high.

Archie Phillips, Taxidermist, Birmingham, Ala. (DS09)

2009-11-12T12:55:00.001-05:00

Oh, yeah, I have 4,000 images from the South that I haven't posted yet.

AND AUSTIN BBQ '09 IS LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY!

The Spicy Zucchini Sandwich!!!

2009-11-11T12:43:00.004-05:00

I would like to write about the awesome INFRASTRUCTURE show that happened this past weekend, but I want to write about this awesome sandwich more badly. I cook like I write (parts of) songs: separate ideas suddenly slam together in my head, and then I have to create. It happens when it happens. Such was the case with Baked Buffalo Parmigiana, and such was the case with the Spicy Zucchini Sandwich.

The S.Z.S. is a twist on a sandwich the lovely landlady makes. It's got thin zucchini breaded in a seltzer-flour batter, pan-fried in olive oil and sprinkled with oregano and red chile pepper. Put together the bottom half on a slice of wheat bread, throw some cheese on (feta worked better than grated white cheddar), melt that shizz in the toaster oven, then throw on a slice of roasted red pepper.

It's good.

Here's crappy picture of it with feta:

Back to work.

Rise of Infrastructure!

2009-11-05T17:39:00.001-05:00

The band is in the 10pm slot at All Asia in Central Square Saturday night! We just scored a show at Church in Boston on Fri, Dec 18. Plus, I'm working on a show in Philly over Thanksgiving. Stay tuned! We're doing exactly what we promised we'd do, and we're very grateful for your support.

Escape to San Diego, 2008, Part II: The Desert

2009-11-04T23:08:00.001-05:00

There are a few things you need to know about San Diego. It's huge: over a million people. It used to be in Mexico, and now it's practically in Mexico. The weather attracts young adults and bums from pretty much all of the southwest, and the bums can get away with shaking down tourists in the Gaslamp because no one actually lives there. If you are a student, going to class and running one errand requires you to own a car and drive at least 30 miles. The weather is nearly perfect, yet you can throw a rock and hit a tanning salon. There is a special unspoken derision of obesity; you will see a disproportionately small number of fat people at the beaches. Strip malls grow like stultifying weeds between houses. You can find anything you want if you're willing to find it, except for Tibetan food, which I couldn't find. Did I mention the perfect weather?

Don't get me wrong. I like San Diego, mostly because of its bizarre quirks, which include the unmatched seediness of the bars and rock clubs near the airport. Not to mention that San Diegans seem far less miserable than people in the Northeast.

Speaking of easterners, a lot of them seem to think that San Diego is superficial. Maybe that's because the city is, literally and geologically, a thin layer of stuff that sits atop a vast nothing. If you resist the temptation to go to the beach, to head north to OC or LA, or head south to TJ or Ensenada, well, then, you have to head back east. That means traversing a vast desert where no one seems to live anymore.

Here are some vignettes from the interior:

Ex-home in Jacumba.

This is the Mexican border fence under construction. T. and I had massive burritos for lunch at the hotel in town. The locals dining there complained that the fence would only keep them from hunting, fishing, and hiking on the Mexican side. They said the only thing that ever came across from Mexico was the occasional wayward cow.

Houses like these are sitting right on the main drags of the ghost towns in the desert, just about an hour from San Diego.

El Centro is a tiny agricultural city in the Imperial Valley. It sits fifty feet below sea level, as this tank advertises. On satellite imagery, El Centro is a splotch of green in a sea of brown. In person, both desert and farm are the color of dust.

Irrigating.

Dogs in Jacumba.

Stone Hearth, Jacumba, Calif.

2009-11-04T10:53:00.001-05:00

F--- Amtrak.

2009-11-03T10:09:00.004-05:00

Normally I'm on the side of our national passenger rail network, but their Thanksgiving pricing practices are unconscionable. Two days before or after the holiday, what's normally a $70 BOS-NYP ticket on a Regional train costs $151. Acela tickets, usually between $89 and $120, cost $155.

It's been this way since August. I've been checking.

Thanksgiving is one of the few wholesome holidays we have left. Amtrak's outright fleecing of customers who are trying to get home to enjoy time with their families pisses me off.

Blue Shirt Cafe: The kid in the TUFTS shirt is saying things like:

2009-11-02T18:29:00.003-05:00

"Cleveland is white trash. It's not, like, country white trash, though. It's, like, urban. It's depressing. It's a whole different culture."

Now he's trying to convince the girl he's with that he's not rich.

I want to throw a table through this kid's head. I have studio headphones on, and I can still hear him.

Some Infrastructure Videos

2009-11-01T16:35:00.005-05:00

Howdy. Here's the band at Harper's Ferry a few weeks ago. We have show coming up this Saturday, 11/7, at All Asia in Central Square, Cambridge. We're working hard to make it a great one! Hope to see you there.

Here, we debut our Steely Dan meets Beatles meats country punk tune, "Moorpark."

Here, we tear through the breakdown on "Old World."

This is the first time I've had video on the blog.