Soooo we had our time in SoCal and it was a blast!! It was real hard to imagine lapping the country one more time, but it has to be done.

So if anyone has driven north from LA to Orangevale, you know that there is ONE road to get there - the 5 North. Well it was some bozo’s idea to close the freeway, just as we were getting started. Not only were we stuck in traffic as four lanes were reduced to one lane, but we were then foreced to find an alternate route around the closed pathway. Justin iPhoned the route, Josh GPSed it, and I carefully drove the windy canyon passage we chose to take.

About two hours later, we were back on the freeway speeding along to our destination. We were pumped, and we thought other motorists were too. Passing trucks and cars honked and pointed at us as we gained speed. We thought they were yelling “Pac Tour, Pac Tour.” Apparently they were yelling “back tire, back tire.” It turns out that we had blown, no, shredded a trailer tire somewhere along the way. And we were forced to stop.

Sadly, our additional hour and a half wait for someone to rescue us forced us to miss our acoustic show at the sunrise mall. We truly sorry!! We will be back soon, and we will rock out for everyone!

But in the meantime, pray for open roads, clear skies, and free beer at the venues!

kohl~

California here we come, right back where we started from. Three glorious shows are coming up in Anaheim, San Diego, and Hollywood. ADL is also going to be in your local malls, so make sure you come out and get some free music! But on a serious note, Josh is finally getting drum cases. What that means is that we will have a whole ‘nother bench to sit on in the van. No more babying and buckling in his Shine drums, haha. Now we need to figure out a system to choose who gets to lounge in the seat by themselves.-kohl

With our bellies full of Waffle House, a fresh tank of gas, and a bunch of dollar-store sunglasses, ADL is on the road again. Last night we rocked Dallas, TX. And in a day and a half, we will be in Tempe, AZ. So what does that leave between here and there? About 1000 miles, and a whole lot of free time.

So what’s a boy to do??
While some choose iPods or catnaps, I choose more enlightening entertainment. It is amazing how relaxing a coloring book can be!! I have one with my favorite gangster rappers in it. I already colored in Eazy E, and I think Ice T may be next. (and I’m not kidding- check the Flikr)

And of course, there is no better way to fight highway hypnosis than by saving the princess. If your name is Zelda or Peach, then be warned. I WILL save you. I have a DS and I am not afraid to use it.

But that’s all for now. Keep checking the Flikr for all the amusing things we all think you need to see.
kohl

about 4 years ago i caught a bug called ‘iTunes.’ at the time, i felt like my preferences in music genres were way too narrow so i looked to the internet and grabbed tons of different kind of music without paying for it. since i would typically listen to music while doing things or using my computer, i never really ‘listened’ hard through an album start to finish anymore. it wasn’t until about 9 months ago that i would refer songs by ‘oh, there’s that sweet part’ or ‘that song with that sick beat.’ i only gave everything a cursory glance. then around the time we started re-recording our EP and mixing it, i started to realize how bad this was. a good album should capture your attention from start to finish.

i began going through my itunes, putting an album on and devoting as much attention to it as i could. it quickly sharpened my understanding of the things i really love in the music i listen to. the strange part was, many of the artists that i thought i really enjoyed couldn’t hold my interest. i deleted them. i’m still doing this, and once i have the money for everything that survived this process, i intend on buying every one of them or (even better) going to see them live.

this is leading me to 2 things i’d like to share/spark discussion. first, i’d just like to suggest you the reader to try really, really listening to music, if you haven’t in a while. pop a cd in while taking a long drive. lay down in your bed and close your eyes. listen to it through really nice headphones and no distractions. if you’re anything like me about loving music, it will help you really hone in on your favorite artists and genres. it made me like what i like about music much, much more and i absolutely feel like it made me a stronger musician. this may some pompous to many of you who already do this kind of really active listening, but i just want to share this with those who, like i used to, were chewing through too music music with not enough depth.

the second thing i’d like to present, is i’d like to share my favorite albums of last year. after spending the last 9 months thinking/listening about this list, i’m really excited to finally commit it to an order that i can justify in my head.

without more blabbing and more revisions here it is:

1 - battles - mirrored
2 - radiohead - in rainbows
3 - burial - untrue
4 - poison the well - versions
5 - el-p - i’ll sleep when you’re dead
6 - minus the bear - planet of ice
7 - menomena - friend and foe
8 - digitalism - idealism
9 - !!! - myth takes
10 - wintersleep - welcome to the night sky
11 - studio - yearbook 1
12 - m.i.a. - kala
13 - justice - +
14 - dillinger escape plan - ire works
15 - caribou - andorra
16 - circa survive - on letting go
17 - stateless - stateless
18 - feist - the reminder
19 - busdriver - roadkillovercoat
20 - mum - go go smear the poison ivy

what do you guys think about all this? what are your favorites from last year?

-justin

soooooooooooooo, we got up after yesterday’s sold out Orlando show and partying with the Audition knowing we needed to get 14 hours away to Beaumont Texas. We got some grub and I was pumped to get Verizon Internet. It’s great…I’m sitting here typing this from our van as Scotty Danger drives. As usual we took wayyyyyyy too many pee and snack breaks and we realized we wouldn’t get to Beaumont until 4am. That’s when tour mentality kicked in… “Lets just drive all night and get to San Antonio at 9am, check into the hotel and seep until 2pm when we need to leave for our PacSun Acoustic set. So now we are in the midst of like 19 hours of driving…taking shifts at the wheel and talking to all our badass fans online Anyways just a peek into tour life… Best shit ever ~Josh

hey guys, it’s Scott. we survived another 2 show a day . . . day. the in store performance went great. Danger Radio did the in store with us and killed it, of course. We had a fun time as well and it’s always awesome to meet new fans.  The night show was even more fun. it was sold out and the crowd was awesome. we met soooooo many new people. we are at our hotel right now and are about to head out to a little party since we have a day off tomorrow. Actually, the day off is about 14 hours of driving, so wish us luck.  Justin is really sick, but he stepped it up big time tonight and rocked out hard, cause that’s what you gotta do when you’ve got a sweet tour like the one we are so lucky to be on. Take care guys.    

so it’s like 7AM on a Sunday in Florida… I think that equals like last Wednesday 2 AM in California… anyway, the shows have been ruling… both in-store and out-of -store at the venues… we’ve been having fun hanging with the the fans and bands…meeting great people…and hope it continues this way… we’ll see you peoples soon! THANKS! CHADL 

So we are a band from Southern California. It’s a nice 70 degrees almost every day. We are currently three days into the fabulous Pac Tour, and we’ve already seen the entire country (since the kickoff date was 3200 miles away in Raleigh NC).  Let me tell you how strange it was to leave the comfy SoCal climate, and roll into the dry DRY heat of Vegas, only to enter the cold vastness of Utah, then slip and slide between the 7 feet drifts of snow in Denver.  We froze our butts off through Kansas and Missouri, then we were blindsided by freezing rain in Atlanta… 

Not only does this do weird things to my voice, but it also makes it really hard to plan what to wear. One false move and I am sweating to death, or missing my gloves and scarf that I had already packed away…  Not to mention there is always the fear of being spotted in the same Audition tee as one of the ADL dudes. 

So we just finished a great show at the Fuel Coffee House in Jax, Florida. Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our acoustic set!!!

 But soon we’ll be back through the desert and then up north into the ‘who knows what’ of the American North West.  Then I figure we’ll do a victory lap through the Midwest, the East Coast, and then back to Cali. Let’s hope that the band dudes and I have enough witty teeshirts and fashionably layered hoodies to battle against anything that mother nature will throw at us. 

Much love from the road, we’ll see you tomorrow in Ft. Lauderdale~
kohl

tour has been going great! so far, we’ve met a lot of cool kids at the in-store shows and the venues at night. i definitely need to get one of those pillows that you wear around your neck because 3 hours a night isn’t cutting it.

though things are well, i wanted to get all george washington, aka ’serious’ for a minute. kohl and i have a common enemy. its not the beebop and rocksteady or even the fabled kim jong-il. its the cursed font named papyrus. if you need a visual to recognize it, check out this list i made here (shameless plug). turns out no matter where we go on tour, we can’t get away from it. check out our flickr account for pictures of all the papyrus sightings we have along our trip. some of the disgraced things we’ve seen them on are band stickers, honey packets, cooking containers, and show flyers. so if you’re reading this and do any sort of graphic design work, get some fonts and be creative. don’t succumb to papyrus as the ‘go-to’ font for anything half ancient or biblical or delicate or mysterious.

justin